The Outlook 1916-05-03

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‘The Outlook MAY 3, 1916 Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York THE STORY OF THE WAR: RUSSIANS ON THE FRENCH LINE The most picturesque and unexpected re- cent military news has been that of the land- ing of two contingents of Russian troops at Marseilles; the first on April 20, the second on April 25. There is even a rumor that a detachment of Russian troops arrived at Marseilles previous to the first date named. If so, the landing was kept a profound secret. When the first contingent of these Russians landed from their flotilla of transports, they were received by great-crowds of the French people, who welcomed them with ringing cheers and shouts of ‘“ Vive /a Russie /’ while the French vessels in the harbor manned their yard-arms and French bands played the Rus- sian anthem. The news, cabled at once all over the world, was received with surprise, and, on the part of all friends of the Allies, with enthusiasm. The question at once arose as to the route by which these troops were brought from Russia. Naturally no statement was made on this subject; but the fact that they were landed in the Mediterranean and other reasons have len. probability to the belief that they came from Vladivostok and Dalny by way of the Suez Canal and were taken from the great concentration camps in Manchuria. Press despatches estimate that perhaps thirty thou- sand of these Russian troops have now been landed at Marseilles ; and other reports, not at: all well confirmed, assert that it is the intention, of the Allies to put 250,000 Russian troops on the western front. easier to equip the troops in France than in Russia, and that there are more troops in the. Russian military concentration camps_ than can be equipped for work on the battle-line between Russia and Germany. THE BRITISH NOTE ON THE BLOCKADE Last week was made public the joint reply of Great Britain and France to the American One underlying reason: for this movement is the fact that it is much’ protest of nearly six months-ago in regard to restrictions on neutral trade by the British sea blockade. ° The reply declares that the kind of blockade now being maintained is perfectly legitimate as a belligerent right ; that it is being conducted in the spirit ‘of international law ; and that the aim is to give as little inconvenience ‘or injury to neutral trade as is consistent with effectiveness. That a certain amount of interference with such trade is necessary is argued in the asser- tions that the old. method of search at sea is in present warfare impracticable, so that ves- sels must either be. allowed to go without search or taken -to-port; that the statistics of commerce show that, so far from neutral trade having been diminished, it has enor- mously increased—thus the exports of the United States to Holland and the three Scan- dinavian colonies rose from about ninety- seven million dollars in 1913 to two hundred and thirty-five million dollars in 1915. That this increase is due to genuine commerce with the neutral countries is scouted, and in support of this it is pointed out that such things have been proved as_ the consignment of meat products to dock laborers ; the con- signment of thousands of tons of goods to firms which do not exist in the neutral ports to which the goods are sent; the consignment of goods to a,maker of musical instruments, a baker, and the keeper of a small private hotel ; while it is also asserted that in Sweden at one time when the docks of Swedish ports were piled high with cargpes of American cotton ‘the Swedish manufacturing spinners could obtain no cotton for their own use, the inference obviously being that the cotton was intended to go through Sweden to Germany. The note again calls attention to certain prac- tices and decisions of the United States in our Civil War. [ft concludes with a refer- ence to the ‘shocking disregard by the enemy of rights of innocent persons and neutral peoples,’”’ and declares that Great Britain would welcome any action by the combined neutral nations which would pre- “1

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vent the violation of neutral rights as a whole. It seems superfluous to point out again that the questions at issue in this controversy are as fat removed from the questions involved in the difference with Germany over the submarine warfare as in private affairs a trespass on one’s land is removed from the shooting of one’s children. THE DISTURBANCE IN IRELAND The word “ revolution,” and perhaps even the word “ revolt,” is far too high-sounding to be applied to what has happened in Ire- land. Just how much connection exists between the attempt made by a ship under German commission, but disguised as a mer- chantman, to land arms on the Irish coast and the rioting in Dublin it is hard to say. It seems probable, however, that there was a real connection between the two things, and that both represent a futile outcome of the pernicious activities of a small but irrepress- ible band of Irishmen who hate England be- cause of traditional grievances rather than of present injuries, and who hold that every means of revolt, however traitorous or vio- lent, is justified. These men, now repre- sented most prominently by the association called the “‘ Sinn Fein,” are really the polit- ical heirs of the old Fenian movement. They dream of an absolutely independent republic of Ireland ; and now, as always, that dream is without basis of real hope. One might almost wish for these, misguided and unrea- sonable men the taste of German colonial government which an absolute German vic- tory might bring to Ireland. With the capture of the vessel containing the arms was captured that strange person- age, Sir Roger Casement. There is consid- erable ground for the announced belief of Sir A. Conan Doyle and others that this man is touched with insanity. Although he is from the north of Ireland and, we -believe, a Protestant, he has been an active figure in the conspiracies of the most extreme and irreconcilable Irish revolutionists. In his early career he did excellent service with the British Government, especially in connection with the exposure of the cruelties in the Congo and the Putumayo affair in Peru. As a reward he was knighted and pensioned. But when the war broke out, instead of fol- lowing the example of the Irish Nationalists under John Redmond and the Ulster anti- 2 THE OUTLOOK 3 May Nationalists under Sir Edward Carson in uniting for patriotic effort for the good of the whole country, Sir Roger escaped to Ger- many, and has been plotting there ever since to bring about an invasion of Ireland from Germany. The street fighting in Dublin was probably timed, but wrongly timed, to aid the “invasion.” At all events, the rioters seized the post-office in Dublin and some buildings near by, together with the adjacent park, cut the telephone and telegraph wires from the post-office, and resisted attack with some vigor. The report made in Parliament by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. Augustine Birrell, on April 25, states that the troops were brought from beyond Dublin, that many of the rioters have been arrested, and that the situation was at the time well in hand. Later Mr. Asquith announced that outside Dublin Ireland was tranquil and that in Dublin the situation was satisfactory. Eleven or twelve soldiers and policemen were killed and perhaps twice that number wounded. The number of killed and injured among the rioters is not known at this writing. An attack by German cruisers on the English coast town of Lowestoft may possibly have been timed to increase the im- pression of invasion; it did little harm, and on the appearance of British war-ships the German ships hastily retreated. The Outlook has always favored Home Rule and still favors it, but independence for Ireland wou'd be ruinous to the Irish, and we do not believe that it is desired by more than a fraction of them. If this is a revolt by Irish fanatics and self-seekers, uniting them with the cause of German absolutism when the sympathies of all lovers of liberty are united against German absolutism, it demonstrates the incapacity of the leaders of the revolt to organize or maintain a truly free government. The best that can be said of them is that their nationalism is a purely selfish nationalism. They have no notion of the meaning of either nationalism, brother- hood, or self-government. MILITARY MEASURES IN NEW YORK Preparedness has found its way into State legislation—notably in New York. The Legislature of New York State has ad- journed, leaving for the Governor’s approval or disapproval five military bills. Three of these have to do with the State militia. If we are as a Nation to continue to depend for

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1916 THE WEEK 3 National defense upon the organized militia of the States, these three bills will, perhaps, make it somewhat more effective. . Such bills as these, however, ought to be made entirely unnecessary by the development of a real National Guard under Federal control and based on universal military service. The other two bills relate to the physical and military training of boys and girls. One of these bills, known as the Welsh Bill, is good in that it provides for an experiment worth trying ; the other, known as the Slater Bill, is bad and ought to be vetved. The Welsh Bill provides that after the first of next September all boys and girls over eight years of age in public and private ele- mentary and secondary schools of the State shall receive physical training. This shall include not only training in physical posture and bearing, mental and physical alertness, and so on, but also training that will develop ‘self-control, disciplined initiative, sense of duty, and spirit of co-operation under leader- ship.”” The courses of instruction shall be determined by the Regents in conference with the Military Training Commission. The other bill, introduced by Mr. Slater, provides for military drill for boys. It applies not only to boys in school, but also to other boys of school age unless they are lawfully employed in an occupation for a livelihood. This bill is bad, not because it provides for such military drill, but because its provisions are so faulty and the money it provides so absurdly inadequate that it exposes the boys of the State to very real physical and moral danger. The bill bears on its face no evidence of being the product of a well- thought-out plan of military experts who are acquainted with the whole problem cf mili- tary training and service, but appears rather to be a well-intentioned attempt to provide military instruction somehow. The most dangerous feature of the bill is that which relates to the field training. This provides that the State Military ‘Training Commission (which is created by the bill itself) shall establish and maintain State military camps for the field training of boys. The location of the camps is left to the deter- mination of the Commission; but the bill provides that fair grounds held by an organi- zation receiving moneys from the State shall be subject to use for this purpose of military training. Of course fair grounds are not selected because they are good camp sites, and may be totally unfit from a sanitary point of view as well as other points of. view for the encampment of boys. Yet, as this bill provides only a hundred thousand dollars for . all expenses, it is hardly conceivable that any other sites will be obtainable. The whole scheme is amateurish to a degree. All who believe in real military training and all who have the interest of the boys of New York State at heart should urge the Governor to veto this measure. These five military bills serve to make it more than ever evident that the several States should be relieved of the problem of National defense, and that the whole question of mili- tary training and service should be left solely to the Federal Government under the direc- tion of a Council of National Defense. A NEW PLATTSBURG CAMP The ‘ Plattsburg idea”? is growing. It originated, we believe, with Major-General Leonard Wood. Its primary purpose is to train men in civil life by giving them instruc- tion in summer camps so that we should have in this country a reserve body of civilians competent to furnish officers for volunteer regiments in time of military need. It is a volunteer and civilian movement, although it has the approval and supervision of the War Department of the Federal Government. It is a successful attempt to put into practice by voluntary action the principles of military and civic training which the Swiss people have adopted as a part of their fundamental political structure. These military training camps, which are popularly known as “ Plattsburg Camps,” because of the great success last summer of the camp at Plattsburg, New York, are peculiarly American because they are at once voluntary, civil, and military. Although promoted by associations of citizens, they are directed and managed by the Federal Government, through the War Department. The function of the citizens’ associations is to distribute information, arouse public interest, and obtain the volunteers; the function of the War Department is to have control of the moral, intellectual, military, and discipli- nary education in the camp. We have already reported how the attend- ance at these camps has grown from eighteen hundred in 1913 to an estimated thirty thou- sand in 1916. As originally planned, an age limit was set for the Plattsburg camps this summer. No applicant under eighteen or over forty-five years of age was to be ac- cepted. But some of the head masters of the

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4 THE OUTLOOK prominent preparatory schools of the country believed that school-boys under _ eighteen years of age should receive the benefits pro- vided by the Plattsburg camps. Under the leadership of Dr. Drury, of St. Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire, a committee was organized some weeks ago to plan a train- ing camp for school-boys between fifteen and eighteen. The plan has been approved by General Wood and by the War Depart- ment, and such a camp will be maintained on the Government reservation at Fort Terry, on Plum Island, Long Island Sound, New York. The Fort Terry Camp is an exten- sion of the Plattsburg idea and will be man- aged on the same basis and under the same general regulations as the camps at Platts- burg. It will be held from July 6 to August 10, inclusive. All applicants must have had a grammar school training or its equivalent. It is hoped and believed that there will be a large representation from the public high schools and grammar schools of the country, as well as from the private preparatory schools. The camp will be educational, democratic, and civic in the very best sense of these words. The instructors of the camp will be officers of the regular army, and the physical condition of each attendant will be given the close personal attention of compe- tent medical authorities. The total cost to each boy, exclusive of transportation to and from the camp, will be in the neighborhood of fifty dollars. This sum will cover board, camp expenses, ammunition, uniform, and shoes. The Federal Government will pro- vide tents, blankets, cots, pillows, ordnance, etc. We can think of no better way in which an American school-boy can spend five weeks out of doors than at the Fort Terry Training Camp. Further information about this camp may be obtained by addressing The Officer- in-Charge, Fort Terry Training Camp, 475 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The Military Training Camps Association, 31 Nassau Street, New York City, wili supply full infor- mation regarding the Training Camp move- ment throughout the country, with records of its growth and success. THE SPRING ELECTION IN LOUISIANA There are sometimes interesting and ex- citing primary elections within the Democratic party in the Southern States, but it is not often that we are called upon to record a 3 May general election of importance between two parties. But the recent spring contest for the Governorship between Colonel Ruffin G. Pleasant, the regular Democratic nominee, and John M. Parker, the nominee of the Progressive party, is worthy of more atten- tion than we have seen given to it except in the New Orleans newspapers. John M. Parker is a close friend of Colonel Roose- velt’s, and was the Progressive leader in 1912 in the State of Louisiana. His total vote in the election for Governor the other day was close to 50,000, while his Democratic oppo- nent received between 75,000 and 80,000. The city of New Orleans gave Parker about 15,000, and Pleasant about 28,000. In the country districts of Louisiana Parker received about 33,000, and Pleasant about 47,000. The Third Congressional District, which now has a Progressive Congressman, as a result of the fight over the sugar duty, increased its Progressive majority over 1914, and the Progressives also made a strong entering wedge in the Seventh Congressional District, which has protective tariff inclinations and many Northern-born people. In the estimation of the New Orleans ‘* Times-Picayune ”’ several important politi- cal facts stand out, the first being that forty per cent of the biggest vote cast in Louis- iana since the Negro was deprived of the suffrage was polled by the Progressive can- didate. Inthe second place; the Progressives very greatly strengthened their previous hold upon certain portions of the State. In the third place, the vote in the city of New Orleans was very large, considering the weakness of the Parker political organization there, and it seems to presage a fight of the reform element for civic control. There is strong opposition in Louisiana to the Wilson tariff policies and strong sympathy for protection. There is also great opposition to the old Democratic ring methods in that State. It is much more difficult to set up the two-party cleavage in the South, because of the fear that the Negro may hold the balance of power, but where the elements of economy and moral protest are sufficiently strong the cleavage is nevertheless sure to come. THE NEW YORK POST-OFFICE When will the people of the United States learn to treat their public business as they treat their private business? The New York

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1916- City Post-Office furnishes just now a striking illustration of the inefficiency of the American public. The New York Post-Office is an efficient and successful institution. In the calendar year ending on December 31, 1915, it did a gross business of $30,000,000. Its operating expenses amounted to $10,000,000. These figures show a_ gross profit of $20,000,000. The executive under whom this remarkable showing has been made has been trained to the postal business from his young manhood. He began his work as a letter-carrier in the New York Post-Office, and to-day is the head of this institution, whose figures we have just quoted. The stockholders of any private manufacturing or merchandising corporation which made such a financial showing and had such an execu- tive would be literally tumbling over one another to retain his services if they possibly could. But we Americans do not handle our public business in that way. What we must have just now in the New York Post-Office is not a good postmaster but a good Democrat. The President of the United States and the senior Senator from the State of New York, realizing that what we want is primarily a good Democrat and secondarily a good post- master, are doing their level best to fulfill our wishes. Senator O’Gorman would like to have Mr. Joseph Johnson take Postmaster Morgan’s chair. Mr. Johnson was formerly a newspaper man in Atlanta, Georgia, and became Fire Commissioner of the city of New York under Mayor Gaynor. When ex-Judge McCall became Tammany’s candidate for Mayor, Mr. Johnson became Mr. McCall’s campaign manager, against Mr. Mitchel, who was elected on the Fusion ticket. He natu- rally ceased to be Fire Commissioner when Mayor Mitchel took office. So far the Presi- dent has refused to appoint Mr. Johnson, apparently because he is not the right kind of Democrat. He has asked the Hon. Robert Wagner, whom he thinks is the right kind of Democrat, to accept the postmaster- ship, but Mr. Wagner has declined. While the President and Senator O’Gorman are discussing the exact degree of Democracy which the New York Post-Office ought to have, the present Postmaster, Mr. Morgan, goes right on doing a business of nearly $100,000 a day, at a gross profit to the peo- ple of over $50,000 a day. But we are an idealistic Nation. We do not care for the almighty dollar. Revering the memory of Jefferson as we do, we must have the right THE WEEK 5 kind of Democracy in the New York Post- Office, no matter how much we have to pay for it. When Postmaster Morgan, who has served the people of the United States in the New York Post-Office efficiently and suc- cessfully for forty-three years, is supplanted by an ideal Democrat, some sordid private corporation will undoubtedly avail itself of Mr. Morgan’s great abilities as a business executive. The private corporation will not ask him whether he is a Democrat, a Repub- lican, a Progressive, or a Socialist. He will be simply asked to do the work intrusted to him, to do it well, and present his balance- sheet as the best testimony of his efficiency. But no true American wants the Post-Office conducted upon the sordid basis of a private corporation... Its great function, of course, is, not to carry letters and newspapers, but to carry elections. OUR PUBLIC BUILDING POLICY Whenever Congress appropriates money for a site for a public building the value of a possible site for such a building doubles or trebles. And when Congress appropriates a sum for the building itself, or a lump sum for both site and building, it is a familiar fact that the value of the land and the cost of the structure are quickly adapted to coincide with the appropriations. Last January, in the House of Representa- tives, Representative Clark, of Florida, Chair- man of the Committee on Public Buildings, said, as reported: In the very nature of things it is utterly im- possible for Congress to determine to the dollar what a public building for each and every city and town in the United States should cost, and therefore a measure of discretion had to be lodged in the executive department charged with their construction. In February Representative Garner, of Texas, spoke as follows, as reported : There are half a dozen places in my district where Federal buildings are being erected or have recently been constructed at a cost to the Government far in excess of the actual needs of the communities where they are located. Take Uvalde, my home town, forinstance. We are putting up a post-office down there at a cost of $60,000, when a $5,000 building would be entirely adequate for our needs. This is mighty bad business for Uncle Sam, and I'll admit it; but the other fellows in Congress have been doing it for a long time and I can’t make them quit. Now we Democrats are in

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6 charge of the House, and I'll tell you right now, every time one of these Yankees get a ham I’m going to get a hog. In providing public buildings the country is thus confronted with two problems: first, the impossibility of supposing that Congress can determine, within many thousands of dol- lars, just the sum required for a public build- ing ; and, second, the fact which Mr. Garner points out in homely but forceful language, that so long as public buildings are provided as a basis for political prestige and as a satis- faction for private greed, a system of graft must continue. As an evidence that one or both of these defects are involved we have but to glance at some examples from the latest building appropriations of Congress. We find, for instance, that the town of Vernal, Utah, with a population of 836, with postal receipts of about $6,400, and with a yearly rental for its present quarters of $836, is to have a new building costing no less than $50,000. Nor is this all. It will cost the Government $3,565 yearly fo maintain that building. This is the kind of thing which has been going on in shameless fashion for years. In his minority report to the Public Buildings Commission, appointed by Congress in 1913 to make a study of this whole question, Post- master-General Burleson stated : No standard whatever has apparently been observed in authorizing buildings or determin- ing in advance the limits of cost. As a conse- quence many expensive buildings have been authorized for places where the needs of the Government do not warrant their construction, and widely varying limits of cost have been fixed for buildings in which the needs are the same. Mr. Burleson. recommended, therefore, that no appropriations be made where the postal receipts were less than $15,000, where the population was less than five thousand, or where the annual rental was not in excess of $1,000. As to determining the size of the building, Mr. Burleson said : The definition of the public building policy must rest upon the decision of the question as to whether authorizations of buildings shall be based upon political or economic grounds. If the former, the policy depends for its justifica- tion upon the Nationalizing influence of Govern- ment architecture. . . . The true policy is one under which buildings will be authorized pri- marily for utilitarian purposes. . . . At the same time requirements of broad public policy as well as ideals of architecture may be satis- fied in a reasonable degree. THE OUTLOOK ARCHITECTURE AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS ** It would be hard to locate a_ public pronouncement which was at once so full of meat and yet which seemed to betray so great a misunderstanding of the relations of architecture to the public buildings of a great nation,”’ comments Mr. Charles Harris Whitaker, of Washington, the editor of the ‘‘ Journal of the American Institute of Archi- tects.” He adds: How is it possible that men have come to think that because a building is to be erected for utilitarian purposes it has no connection with architecture—except to satisfy the archi- tectural requirements “in a reasonable degree.” The House of Representatives betrayed the same attitude whén it applauded the reference to the “esthetic dreamers” in the supervising architect’s office. Aésthetic dreamers indeed ! What else can they be when they are handed the order to design a $50,000 building, and when the most elementary knowledge of architecture tells them that a $20,000 building would serve every purpose and permit architecture to play an honest réle?... For years they [Congressmen] have encour- aged a public building policy which ignores the first elements of architecture—that the building shall be worthy of the purpose and the purpose worthy of the building... . On every public building authorized fora community... . where the appropriation pro- vided for a building is out of all proportion to the needs of the community, every participant be- comes a party to the crime against architecture. Wherever an architect allows his love of the monumental to interfere with his duty of plan- ning and designing a building which shall give the maximum convenience, comfort, and efii- ciency with the minimum of expense . . *. an- other crime is committed in the name of archi- tecture. How may inaccuracy of estimate, elimina- tion of graft, and proper zsthetic embodi- ment be attained? Mr. Whitaker suggests the following method : The supervising architect’s work should begin with a bureau of estimates. This bureau should examine and report upon every request for a public building, and would thus provide Congress with an intelli- gent survey of the situation. In the case of a post-office, for example, the bureau would make a study of the needs of the town; its past and probable future rate of growth; the amount of postal receipts; the character of the postal service, whether concentrated or widely distributed ; the floor space required to take care of present needs and provide for —

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| CARTOONS OF THE WEEK Carter in the New York Evening Sun - Koserwyr-e CARTER A STRANGE BIRD!

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CARTOONS OF THE WEEK Quesnel in Le Péle-Méle (Paris) BEFORE THE FINAL VICTORY: HIS PLANS AFTER THE FINAL VICTORY: HIS PLANTS THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MODEST MAN Sykes in the Philadelphia Evening Ledger —~ ay Ne ores emer oat * . Set TS, : “ve wm aC ease re ome 2 ne THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT THIS LATEST SUBMARINE VICTIM MAY BE THE LAST

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THE expansion ; finally, the cost of the building which these needs would justify. In the course of a year or two, as Mr. Whitaker adds, such a buré€au would have accumulated sufficient data to enable it to deal with these problems without labor or expense. Is it too much to hope that Congress will see this opportunity and provide means whereby accurate knowledge may be obtained ‘and laid before it ? A SUBSTITUTE FOR SING SING Among the measures passed by the New York Legislature there are two which deal with a subject of National importance. These are the Sage Bill and the Towner Bill for the selection of a site for a prison to take the place of Sing Sing. There are two sites owned by the State, both in Dutchess County. Each bill provides’ a method for deciding between these two sites, but the methods differ. ‘The Legislature evaded the responsi- . bility of making a decision between these two methods by passing both bills and leav- ing it to the Governor to decide between them. The Towner Bill provides for a commis- sion, the majority of which are to be chosen by the Governor. This commission is to choose between the Wingdale and the Beek- man sites. It, however, would provide for the erection on that site of an old-fashioned prison with cell-block and other features which modern views of punishment and reform condemn. It sanctions plans that have already been drawn, authorizes the employment of the architect who drew the plans, and specifies the fee that he should receive. The Sage Bill, which was drawn up aftera personal investigation by Mr. Sage, the intro- ducer of the bill, and which has the approval of the Prison Association, provides for a commission, of which three State administra- tive officers shall be members ; and it leaves te this commission authority to decide not only between the sites but also as to the plan of the building and the character of the prison, and enables the commission to save money in the use of funds for the plans and erection of the building. Of these two bills the Sage Bill is mani- festly the’ better one. It not only provides for a new prison as a substitute for medizeval Sing Sing, as the Towner Bill does, but it also makes it possible, as the Towner Bill does not, WEEK 9 for the building of a farm prison colony where prisoners will have a chance for reform as they have not in a prison of the cell-block type. To fasten upon the State the old cell-block idea in the form of a modern building would be to hamper the whole movement for prison reform in which Thomas Mott Osborne has succeeded in interesting the entire coun- try. The right solution of New York’s prison system is a matter of National con- cern, for not only will it affect the greatest congested population in the country, but it will have much to do with the solution of the prison problem in every other State. CERVANTES AND SHAKESPEARE The date of the tercentenary anniversary of Shakespeare’s death can be said to have a double claim to fame, if we are lenient enough to disregard the’ discrepancy between the Gregorian and the Julian calendars. It was on April 23, 1616, that Cervantes died at Madrid. The life story of Cervantes could have supplied enough material for a dozen plays from the pen of Shakespeare. Indeed, the story of Cervantes reminds one in many ways of the adventurous days which attended upon so-many of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. The Spanish novelist would not have felt a stranger to the soldierly labors of Ben Jon- son, for he himself served gallantly in war. And Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Dekker, George Peele, and Thomas Kyd, each and all would have felt a sympa- thetic understanding for the Spanish writer who suffered so much both from the toils of the law and the hardships of fate. The greatest of Cervantes’s adventures is paralleled only in the romances of Defoe, and not even Defoe has imagined a more perilous experience than befell the great Spanish novelist at the hands of the Barbary pirates. It is not surprising that one who, like Cervantes, had seen war and the results of war at first hand, and who had experienced in such bitter form the disillusionment of great adventures, should have taken upon himself the task of satirizing the old romantic tradi- tion which came to his contemporaries through the imitators of Amadis de Gaula. How far the development of his satire on the current literary tradition of Spain carried him beyond his original intent is a familiar story to all those who have read the always

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10 THE OUTLOOK modern story of “ Don Quixote.” Cer- vantes’s presentation of the manners and the customs of his time belongs among the few great efforts to crystallize within the limits of a single writer’s work the follies, failures, and successes of an age. ‘The coarse humor of Boccaccio, the catholic un- derstanding of Chaucer, the vision of Shake- speare, the humanity of Cervantes—it would be an ungracious task to attempt to appor- tion to each of these its separate fund of tribute from the commonwealth of literary distinction. It is interesting to remember that, just as Cervantes in his attempt to satirize an older literature created a new medium of expression, so Fielding, in attempting to satirize (in simi- lar manner) the repellent virtues of Pamela; added to the world of English letters a broadened understanding of the function of the novel. The parallel between the devel- opment of “Don Quixote” and “ Joseph Andrews” supplies an interesting incident for literary discussion. ANOTHER HERESY HUNT In 1903 charges of heresy were brought against Professor Borden E. Bowne, of Bos- ton University, one of the keenest and most scholarly theological teachers in the Meth- odist Church. His supposed heresy con- sisted in holding what may be entitled the new theology. As soon as the case could legitimately be brought before the Court the charges were dismissed. Similar charges have now been brought by the same com- plainant against Dr. George P. Mains, though they are not brought in the same fashion. He has been the publishing agent of the Methodist Church for the last ten years. Four years ago he published a book entitled “Modern Thought and Traditional Faith,” in which he took substantially the same positions as those maintained by Dr. Bowne. One of the heresy hunters in the Church has now written ‘“ An Open Letter to the Meth- odist Public,’’ the object of which is to pre- vent the re-election of Dr. Mains as publish- ing agent. The writer of this letter frankly confesses that he takes this method to oust Dr. Mains from his position because it is impossible to secure his conviction by the Conference to which Dr. Mains belongs. It is a curious and somewhat suspicious coincidence that his charge against Dr. Mains is not brought until more than four years after the publication of his objectionable book 3 May and almost simultaneously with the announced purpose of Dr. Mains not to stand for re- election because of his years. He has passed threescore years'and ten. The character of the charge against him may be deduced by our readers from his accuser’s quotation of the following sentence from his supposedly heretical book : I have learned to accept the fact that the Bible, as other great literatures, takes into itself the elements of social development, including tradition and fable, and, however it may be shot through with the sun rays of inspiration, it is a book very human in its character, faithfully reflecting the thought processes, early and late, of the races with which it deals. We may add that in this book there is nothing out of harmony with the doctrines taught concerning the Bible and theology by many, if not by most, of the orthodox theo- logical seminaries in the United States. We suppose that the Methodist Church will recognize the right of Dr. Mains at seventy-one years of age to lay aside the onerous duties of his office, and we write this paragraph simply to advise our readers that his non-election will not indicate that the Methodist Church has gone back on its previous decision in the case of Dr. Bowne. We venture to say for that Church that, while it neither accepts nor rejects the modern view of the Bible and of theology, it will con- tinue to hold to the right of its members and its ministers to discuss all such questions freely within the Church, and it will continue to measure both members and ministers by their spiritual faith, not by their conformity to ancient tradition. THE CITY CHILD, PLAYGROUNDS AND THE POLICE A useful neighborhood conference took place the other day in a big kindergarten room of the New York Teachers College. It was called by a Mothers’ Association ~ interested in getting more play space for the children of the upper West Side—where the parks are green and ample, but also where the policeman is ever vigilant to keep rest- less young feet on the hard asphalt walks. These mothers wanted to know what lies behind the rough shout of the “ cop,” “ Hey. you kids, beat it off that grass !’”—what the police themselves think about it. So the asked the Police Commissioner to come and talk. He did not come, but he sent Sergean' Ferré, an embarrassed, upstanding officer

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1916 THE who revealed to those New York mothers and fathers an astonishing new conception of the man on the beat. ‘* What’s the attitude of the police toward the children?” Sergeant Ferré repeated, reading from a slip that had been handed him. ‘I'll tell you. We aretrying to be the Big Brothers to the children. We’re trying to overcome the children’s fear of the cop. We're trying to make the parents of the chil- dren understand that we’re the best friends the kids can have. We are going into the schools, at the assembly hour in the morning, and talking to the kids—telling them why we have to have laws and why the police have to enforce certain rules. We’re trying to make mothers and fathers, as well as the children, understand that certain regulations concern- ing the use of the parks must be enforced if the parks are to be kept for the enjoyment of all. But we are insisting that no unrea- sonable regulation shall be given us to enforce. ** The New York police want the children to get as much play as they can, in every way and in every place it is possible for them to play. ‘We are glad to see certain streets set aside for play and closed during certain hours to traffic; we’re with you in wanting every vacant lot in the city turned into a play- ground for the children. “Under Commissioner Woods, the police have a strange ambition. I'll tell you what it is,’ Sergeant Ferré paused and smiled broadly. ‘You know what people think about the cop—what they’ve always thought about him. Well, it’s got into the very nature of the cop himself. So that he’s like the little mongrel dog that grew up in the city streets. Since the first day that dog could remember some boy had tied a tin can to his tail, and in time the little dog got used to it and thought it was all right—not pleasant, but all right. Finally it got so that the little fellow would just naturally back up to every tin can he found on the street ! ‘* The ambition of the New York police— don’t faint !—is to get rid of our reputation as ogres. We are not tyrants. We are, most of us, fathers of children that we think a lot of ! We are going to see the day, if our efforts can bring it about, when the kid will think of the cop first if he wants a friend. You know what that will mean for law and order. For solving the question of play spaces for the children! Why, you take the kids and the cops and let them work together, WEEK 11 and the percentage of juvenile delinquency will be cut in half—yes, to a'third. Ten kids can find play space where five have it to-day.” In the vigorous searching for a solution of the problem of playgrounds for the city child, has a better suggestion been made than is contained in this “ Big Brother ” offer of a New York police sergeant ? GUATEMALA The Outlook on February 16 published an account, from facts stated by a correspondent in Guatemala, of the recent election—an ac- count in harmony with the views of political dominance in that country held by most observers. It told how a unanimous election was secured by mobilizing all the citizens between twenty and sixty years of age, pin- ning on them buttons announcing their vote for the re-election of the present President, and then marching them past the election urn. We now have from Mr. Roger W. Bab- son, writing from Guatemala, a protest, in which, while admitting that democracy in Centrai America is only a name, he says that the Republics are doing the best they can with the raw material at hand. Of course, however, as Mr. Babson adds, with eighty per cent of the pecple illiterate, democracy as we know it is practically impossible. Fur- thermore, Mr. Babson insists that President Cabrera ‘is a conscientious man with the best of purposes.” Other news via Mexico would indicate that Cabrera was far from commanding the entire confidence of the Guatemalans, that there has been an important defection in the army, and that another familiar Central American revolt, if not revolution, is impending. THE POPE AND THE JEWS In the name of millions of Jewish citizens of the United States, on December 30, 1915, the American Jewish Committee addressed a letter to Pope Benedict XV pleading for his intercession in alleviating the persecution to which the Jews in various lands have been subjected. The Pope’s reply, in a letter to the Com- mittee from Cardinal Gasparri, Secretary of State to his Holiness, has just been made public. After some prelude the Pope declares : As the head of the Catholic Church, which, faithful to its divine doctrine, . . . considers all men as brethren and teaches them to love one another, he will not cease to inculcate the ob- servance among individuals, as among nations,

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12 THE OUTLOOK of the principles of natural right, and to reprove every violation of them. This right should be observed and respected in relation to the chil- dren of Israel as it should be to all men, for it would not conform to justice and to religion itself to derogate therefrom solely because of a difference of religious faith. The letter then says: Moreover, in his paternal heart, pained by the spectacle of the existing horrible war, the Supreme Pontiff feels in this moment more deeply than ever before the necessity that all men shall recollect that they are brothers and that their salvation lies in the return to the law of love, which is the law of the Gospels. He also desires to interest to this end all who, especially by reason of the sacred attributes of their pastoral ministrations, are able to bring efficient aid to this important result. Finally : In the meantime his Holiness rejoices in the unity which in civil matters exists in the United States of America among the members of dif- ferent faiths and which contributes so power- fully to the peaceful prosperity of your great country. We are not surprised to find the ‘“* Amer- ican Hebrew,” under the editorship of its new editor-in-chief, Hermann Bernstein, say- ing : Among all the Papal bulls ever issued with regard to Jews, throughout the history of the Vatican, there is no statement that equals this direct, unmistakable plea for equality for the Jews, and against prejudice upon religious grounds. The bull issued by Innocent IV de- claring the Jews innocent of the charge of using Christian blood for ritual purposes, while a remarkable document, was, after all, merely a statement of fact, whereas the present statement by Pope Benedict XV isa plea against religious prejudice and persecution. THREE KINDS OF GERMAN SOCIALISTS The present is one of the most note- worthy sessions of the German Parliament. It was expected to be so because of the assertion by the reactionaries that they would support the policy of “ frightfulness.” But, though the ambiguous measure finally adopted may mean anything, it does not indicate that the Parlia- ment has gone on record definitely in that direction. Far more important and significant was the resolution offered by the Progressists and Socialists reading, as telegraphed, as follows : The Reichstag expresses the hope that in the employment of submarines everything will be 3 May avoided which could injure the justifiable in- terests of neutral states and be susceptible of bringing about an aggravation or extension of the war. ; Speaking concerning this, Deputy Haase, according to a despatch from Berlin printed in the New York “ Times,” painted both economic and military conditions in such dark and unwelcome colors as to provoke a par- liamentary storm. President Kampf was forced to close the sitting. Haase is a Socialist. He is so much es- teemed that, though adhering to the minority or radical faction, he has remained President of the Socialist caucus. The majority faction (the majority of Socialist members of Parlia- ment, but, it would appear, not a majority of the whole Socialist voting constituency) have, as Herr Bernstein says, grown nearer and nearer to the non-Socialist parties ; they are, to quote him, like men “ who, after a long time in a room with closed windows, no longer notice that the air is close.” These conservative Socialists have been standing with the Government as to war credits. Not so the radical Socialists. They have steadily increased in numbers; but have now themselves split by the withdrawal from them of the extreme radicals, eighteen mem- bers of Parliament, led by Herr Haase— the main result of his now famous speech. They believe in calling a spade a spade and in telling the whole truth, as they see it. They are now known as Die Sozialdemokratische Arbeitsgemeinschaft, or the Socialist Labor Community. Among the eighteen may be found the names of Lieb- knecht, Bernstein, Stadthagen, and Zubeil. The ‘Journal de Genéve” declares ~ that these men constitute the kernel of the Social- ists of the future. At all events, for the immediate present the German Socialists are divided into three factions. The official organ of the Social Democratic party, the well-known Berlin ‘“‘ Vorwarts,”’ says, according to press des- patches : Party unity is the outgrowth of the historic necessity of the proletarian struggle and of the indestructible force of Socialistic ideals which will again weld together with irresistible strength all elements on Social Democratic principles as soon as the errors and confusion of this maritime warfare shall have been over- come. These “errors and confusion ”’ are causing what seem to us hopeful divisions in the

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ch. ade ney Die or the ieb- eil. that cial- sent iree cial arlin des- toric 1 of leals tible ratic usion over- ising 1 the 1916 TWO MEXICAN POLICIES 13 party of progress in Germany. It is all very well for a staid old historic daily like the Berlin ‘‘ Vossische Zeitung ”’ to call the latest Socialist faction ‘‘a small band of political desperadoes.”” But it is precisely this small band which recognizes a truth not yet recog- nized by ‘* Tante Voss.” TWO MEXICAN POLICIES Believing that the writer who appears in this issue under the pen name “ McGregor” was the one who could give our readers the most sympathetic and skillful defense of, President Wilson’s Mexican policy, we requested him to prepare the article that appears on another page. We have reason to believe that this interpretation is such as the President and his Cabinet would approve. More than that we are not authorized to say. We think our readers may be confident that ‘‘ McGregor’s ” article is a strong statement of the case for the Administration. This article bears on its face evidence that it is the work of an unqualified supporter of the Democratic Administration. It classifies those who disagree with the present method and policies as ‘joyous jingoes, tempera- mental tories, partisan politicians, and com- mon commercialists.” It declares that every one “‘ whose partisanship really stops at the border’? and who knows the facts will be convinced that President Wilson’s policy is “logical, wise, and just.” On the other hand, it does not stop “at the border” in its criticism of the preceding Republican Administration, for it applies to that Admin- istration’s activities such phrases as “ dollar diplomacy tours,” ‘brutal message,” and “pure bluff.” For the Wilson policy in Mexico this article plainly evinces only un- affected admiration. This admiration is based on the belief that in using the power of the United States the President has been guided by his understand- ing of what ‘constitutes the best interest of Mexico. We- share that belief. But the powers granted to the President are not his personal property, but are the property of the American people and given to the Presi- dent in trust for the American people. The first duty of a government is to pro- tect its own citizens in their lawful rights wherever they are. It is not to pass judg- ment on their morals or their motives. The worst criminal has rights which a civilized government is bound to defend. It is cer- tainly bound to defend the lawful rights of men, women, and children lawfully exercis- ing their rights in their own lands or in for- eign lands. This is a duty of which the Government cannot divest itself. If those who are in charge of the Government are unwilling to perform that duty, they should resign and give way to those who are willing to perform it. For failure to perform this duty there is no justification in the plea of altruism and idealism. The idealism that leads to the neglect of homely duty is a false idealism. The altruism that is generous with other people’s property and rights is not only a false altruism but is morally indefensible. If a philanthropically minded trustee takes the money which has been put into his keep- ing for the support of his ward and gives it away to poor children, he is an unfit trustee. Though he be an altruist and an idealist, he should be removed, and a man with a keener sense of duty and honesty put in his place. Americans lawfully in Mexico are entitled to protection. To deny this to them because the man who is for the time being the Amer- ican President has certain honest beliefs as to “what constitutes the best interests of Mexico,” or as to what the Mexicans should be allowed to do “to work out their own problem,” or as to what is “ necessary for the welfare of Mexico,” is to substitute philan- - thropic impulses for the obligations of a trus- tee. The fundamental failure of President Wilson’s Mexican policy is failure in this sense of trusteeship. But this Government is trustee, not only for Americans, but also for Europeans in Mexico. Having, under the Monroe Doc- trine, denied European nations the full exer- cise of sovereign powers to vindicate the rights of their citizens or subjects, the United States has assumed the obligation itself to protect those Europeans. It has no right to act the part of benevolent philanthropist at the expense of this obligation. Instead, how- ever, of protecting these Europeans, the American Government has left Americans to be protected by European governments. When American war-ships were ordered away from Tampico, Americans were rescued by English and German naval officers. ‘This is but one instance of many cases where Amer- icans had to apply for protection to the rep- resentatives of European Powers. One does not need to be a partisan to hold that this

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14 THE OUTLOOK has been neither “ logical,’ ‘“ wise,” “saat.” It might have been intelligible if the Amer- ican Government had acknowledged itself too weak to protect its citizens, and therefore incapable of attempting any kind of interven- tion. But it was not intelligible for the United States Government, while declining to in- tervene for the protection of its own citi- zens, tointervene by both political and mili- tary means for the direction of the course of Mexican affairs. It is not childish but highly charitable to explain our intervention at Vera Cruz as an attempt to secure a salute for our flag. If we occupied Vera Cruz not for the sake of obtaining recogni- tion of the rights of Americans which the flag symbolizes, then our occupation was an outrageous use of the forces of the United States to carry out one individual’s theory as to what man the Mexicans ought to have or ought not to have for President. We repeat that it is charitable to assert that we went to war with Huerta to obtain a salute to the flag and failed to obtain it. That is the best construction that can be put upon the Vera Cruz incident. How is it possible to aver that the reason the Administration refused to intervene for the protection of Americans was that armed intervention ‘‘ would infallibly have meant war upon the whole Mexican people,” and “ the probable sacrifice of all the Americans re- maining in Mexico ”’ ? Twice we have resorte: to armed intervention—once ‘at Vera Cruz and once after the Columbus raid—and there has been no war upon the whole Mexican people, and no such sacrifice of American lives as there has been when we have kept to the policy of “ watchful waiting.” As a mat- ter of fact, there has never been during the past three years a moment when intervention in behalf of American life (as distinct from intervention for the pursuit of one man, such as Huerta or Villa) would not have been amply justified and entirely consistent with good will towards and service of the Mexican people. ** McGregor’”’ asks for an alternative policy. We here submit it, repeating what we have said on other occasions : 1. Refusal to recognize Huerta—not, how- ever, because of any theory as to what is best for the Mexicans, but because Huerta’s gov- ernment was neither a de jure government nor, since it did not give and could not give nor 3 May protection to Americans and Mexicans alike, a de facto government. 2. Consultation with the A B C Govern- ments—not to rescue us from a dilemma nor to decide what Mexican faction to support, but to let the A BC nations know that for our own protection and the protection of de- mocracy against the contagion of anarchy we felt compelled to act, and to give them the opportunity of verifying our good faith by participation in the intervention to secure the ends aimed at. 3. Occupation of Vera Cruz—not, how- ever, to obtain a salute or to drive from office any one individual, but to begin a policy of pacification. 4. Occupation of strategic points by small but competent forces of the regular army. 5. The organization of a Mexican con- stabulary in Mexican uniforms under the im- mediate command of Mexicans and directed by the American army officers, ror the pro- tection of all the residents in Mexico against the depredations of bandits, and for the establishment of such elements of govern- ment as are requisite for even the beginnings of democratic rule. That our army, occupying such centers of protection and influence and so employed, would have been welcomed and supported by the overwhelming majority of the Mexi- can people we have from the beginning been convinced. It was so welcomed and sup- ported by the people of Cuba’ when it was given the same task. And this conviction has been proved sound by the good will shown to the army after the first week of occupation at Vera Cruz, and by the welcome and friendliness evinced toward American soldiers (as described by Mr. Mason in The Outlook last week) under the much more diffi- cult and dangerous circumstances surrounding the pursuit of Villa. Against such a proceeding the American Government would encounter the opposition only of those self-seeking Mexi- can politicians who, like the same sort of poli- ticians in the Philippines, have been the great- est obstacle to progress and real democracy. Such a policy, quietly and firmly carried out, would have the support of ample prece- dent, would have involved little bloodshed, would have required only a small force (much smaller than is now employed in trying to catch a single elusive bandit), and would have been alike a protection to Americans iii Mexico, an effective defense of the American border against such raiders as attacked Co-

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1916 lumbus, New Mexico, and the greatest possi- ble service to the cause of liberty and civiliza- tion among the Mexicans themselves. Sooner or later the United States Govern- ment will have to undertal:e some such policy as this. It has been made much more diffi- cult by the withdrawal from Vera Cruz, the continued abandonment of Americans in Mexico, the ignoring of the claims of Euro- peans upon us, and, finally, the so-called ‘‘ punitive expedition.” Every month that the policy of pacification is put off the task will be made harder, and meantime lives will be lost, property destroyed and wasted, and suspicion in Mexico (if not in all Latin America) intensified. No such policy is to be expected from the present Administra- tion. Its whole point of view is contrary to it. Some day some Administration with a keener sense of American rights and a sounder view of real democracy will under- take it. HIT OR MISS From now until the meeting of the great party conventions this summer, and then again until next November, the voters will strive, urge, and argue over the question, Who shall be the next President? But is any one now concerned seriously with the question, Who shall be the next Vice-Presi- dent? Indeed, the Vice-Presidency has al- most become one of the National jokes. We choose our candidates for this office on the hit- or-miss plan; we expect little of them; and too often we get less than we expected. The list of Vice-Presidents who have actu- ally succeeded through the death of a Presi- dent to the Presidency (five in number) is not discreditable ; at least this may be said of it—that it is incomparably better than a list one could easily make of Vice-Presidents who might have been thrown into the Presidency by fate and, most happily in every sense, were not. We have taken too many chances in this matter of the Vice-Presidency. It is dan- gerous and weak’ to stake our political all on the life of one man. The Vice-President should always be a man of real Presidential caliber. It would be a high public service for such a man—say a man who stood second in the balloting for the Presidential candidacy— to accept a Vice- Presidential nomination, and thereby dignify and strengthen the country’s ideal of the office. SHAKESPEARE IN CHICAGO 15 SHAKESPEARE IN CHICAGO A judge of the Cook County Circuit Court has put Shakespeare in his proper place. Incidentally he has vindicated the copious claims of those who have asserted that Francis Bacon was the author, not only of the works which he was gracious enough to sign, but also of a wealth of plays with which he found it impolitic to associate his illustrious name. Judge Richard S. Tuthill is the legal luminary who has settled for all time this momentous question. In the newspaper reports of his decision it appears that the Judge gave great weight to the fact that Shakespeare “ was not an educated man,” that he also took into consideration the fact that Francis Bacon ‘*was educated not only in English, French, Latin, Greek, Italian, German, and that he had a general education the equal of or supe- rior to any man of his age.’’ Next to this momentous fact it appears that one of the Baconian ciphers also had due influence with the Court. At any rate, the evidence seems to have convinced Judge Tuthill-that he was justified in covering with the mantle of the law the clattering skeleton of the Baconian myth. We have not yet secured an official tran- script of Judge Tuthill’s decision, and so per- haps we are justified in maintaining a certain attitude of skepticism towards the epoch- . making quality of his judicial edict. Perhaps when we have secured this official transcript (if we do) we shall feel it our duty to file it (mentally at least) in silent state beside the verdict of that other Chicago Judge who found that Rostand plagiarized ‘‘ Cyrano de Ber- gerac” from the writings of a Chicago real estate agent. 7 Doubtless the public will- hear more of Judge Tuthill’s decision, for it was given in a suit brought by a moving-picture con- cern against a writer who was about to issue a book containing proofs of Bacon’s authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. ‘The moving-picture concern -felt itself aggrieved by the approaching explosion of the Shake- spearean legend, because it was praisewor- thily intending to perpetuate Shakespeare’s fame by putting his plays upon the screen. Because it sued out an improvident injunction against the champion of Francis Bacon, Judge Tuthill awarded the latter gentleman a verdict of five thousand dollars. The press agents of the moving-picture company, of course, have done their best to conceal this fact from

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16 THE OUTLOOK the public, but they have been pathetically unsuccessful. It is a curious commentary on the quality of human understanding that so many writers should have laid so much emphasis upon the fact that Shakespeare’s only “‘ education ” was secured within the walls of the Stratford grammar school. What a world of nonsense there is in the superstition that a knowledge of books means a knowledge of nature and mankind! How much more nonsense there is in the superstition that knowledge of nature and mankind cannot be secured ex- cept through the perusal of many books! Apparently, once these twin superstitions are planted in the mind, all the testimony of Shakespeare’s contemporaries from Ben Jonson down, all the experience which the world has had of the nature of genius, all the internal evidence of characte: and of mind which are displayed so divergently in the -writings of Bacon and the writings of Shakespeare, count for nothing. Any incon- sistency which may appear between the known facts of Shakespeare’s education and the products of his pen is child’s play com- pared with the preposterous fabric of crypto- grams and ciphers which has been built up to explain the theory that Shakespeare was not the author of the plays which for three centuries have borne his name. Perhaps, however, we ought to be more satisfied with the results of the investigations of the Baconian enthusiasts than we are. Without their efforts no small mass of sport and humor would be lost to the world. Of course the game which they have developed will probably never be as widely popular as chess, for it is too remote from fact and the rules of ordinary intelligence, and, with the possible exception of Judge Tuthill, we know of no umpire to whom the players of this game can turn for a controlling decision. Moreover, the game cannot be limited, like baseball, to any one playing field, or, like ‘‘ authors,” to any one century or epoch. Any cipher which is meet for Shakespeare seems to be equally meet for Gray’s “ Elegy ” or the King James Version of the Psalms: If the Baconians will only publish a set of rules for their investiga- tions which brings the results to be achieved and the facts upon which these results are based into some common relation that can be understood by the average dweller in ourthree- dimensional world, we will do our best to have their delightful game introduced into the list of sports at the next Olympic Gathering. 3 May DOMESTICATING MUSIC One of the greatest obstacles to the spread of a love of good music lies in the difficulties of making such music readily accessible. Before good music can be widely understood it must be domesticated. Orchestral music cannot be given, of course, without orchestras which are costly to maintain, and which therefore have to charge high prices of admission. ‘Thus orchestral music encounters a material obstacle which prevents it from becoming accessible to the people of small communities. On the other hand, chamber music, which does not encoun- ter just this material obstacle, encounters a mental obstacle which is almost as great. Chamber music can be given by a small number of players, but chamber music has in it fewer elements of ordinary popularity than orchestral music. It encounters the obstruction of a limited public taste. Even soloists, who are ordinarily more appre- ciated than either orchestras or chamber music organizations, appear, as a rule, in small communities only on rare occasions, and then as imported curiosities rather than as familiar features of the local life. It is said that the people do not like “ highbrow ” music. Good music, therefore, if it is orchestral, is costly, and other good music is sometimes supposed to be an accompaniment of exclusiveness and snobbery. It is for this reason that an experiment that has been carried on now for several years in a small New England city by Mr. Xx , a local musician with few resources beyond good musicianship and_ boundless love of music, promises more for the future of musical taste among us than many more ambitious, expensive, and advertised undertakings. Similar experiments should be tried as widely as possible, under divers conditions and by experimenters variously endowed. This gentleman’s original idea was simpl>, as are most good ideas. In response to requests from his friends, about ten years ago he gave a series of piano recitals in his home. In the course of time the crowd of friends attending these recitals so increased that he finally gave them in a neighbor’s studio. Then there was organized a chamber music club. The founder’s idea was to gather together the local instrumentalists—from theater, res- taurant, hotel—into a small group or club, coach them in pieces of good chamber music, and play these for the public at moderate

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1916 prices. There are few cities, even small ones, where you cannot find a few string players —violinists and ’cellists (viola players are rarer)—men usually who are more or iess un- aware of each other’s existence, and who have seldom dreamed of banding together to use their music as something more than a means of livelihood. But with only a violinist and a ’cellist you have, if you yourself play the piano, a fine musical literature of trios and sonatas open to you, and when there are also clarinetists and cornetists to be had, the possibilities become exciting. But this good idea was like others not only in being simple in conception, but also in in- volving for the execution much devoted labor and the solution of many puzzling problems. First of all, it is natural that the average theater or restaurant player knows as little of music as a newspaper man does of literature. Singular patience, tact, and contagious enthu siasm are needed to overcome this initial difficulty. How this New England enthusiast overcame it may be divined from the following interesting chapter of his experiences. He found working in one of the factories a young man who spent all his spare time playing the cornet for his own amusement. He haa a good ear and a natural love for music, but next to no acquaintance with musical literature, and naturally little sense of relative values or instinct for style. Find- ing him anxious to learn the horn, Mr. xX bought or hired for him an instru- ment. There followed much coaching, play- ing, discussion, study. In the course of a few years this young horn player was living in the house of the older man, in a pleas- ant half-filial, half-comradely relation, and participating -in pieces like Dukas’s Vil- lanelle for Horn and Brahms’s Horn Trio. Somewhat similar was the story of a clarinet player in one of the city theaters, who after a year or two of this inspiring association was taking part in Mozart’s Clarinet Quintette and in Brahms’s Clarinet Sonatas. Even Saint-Saéns’s Trumpet Septette was tried with the help of a cornet player sufficiently coached. Thus Mr. X rendered one kind of service in. stirring professional musicians accustomed to a routine of the dance and the theater into the creative activity of real interpretation. But it is another service on which we wish to lay emphasis here—the service which Mr. X rendered to the general public. Here again, of course, there were plenty ‘the founder : DOMESTICATING MUSIC 17 of difficulties and problems. It was found, for instance, that many people, even after considerable hearing of the best ensemble pieces, frankly preferred piano solos, and would say, effusively, thinking to please ‘A delightful concert, Mr. xX , but why don’t you give us more solos? We want to hear you play alone.” To which Mr. X would always long- sufferingly reply that there were certain things string instruments could do that a piano could not, and that it was these larger effects and this new literature that he had wished to make available to them. Of course this was, from one point of view, en- couraging, as showing the need of just such training ; so long as a public is more inter- ested in an individual soloist, through his per- sonality,. than it is in a co-operating group through its artistic results, it is fundamentally uneducated. Again it was found that in some neighbor- ing towns where it was proposed to introduce the concerts (which in their home town had swelled into a regular series of ten each win- ter, at a subscription price of five dollars for the series) the public inability to recognize good music for itself expressed itself, as it often does, in the wish for a label. ‘ We can get ten concerts from Mr. X ’s Club for so much,”’ ran this familiar argument, “ but, as we can only get one or two from the cele- brated Quartette of New York for the same money, the Quartette must be very much better, and therefore we will have it come for one concert rather than have a series from an organization less famous.” The fallacy here is not quite so easily recognizable as that of the preference for a soloist to a group, but is at last traceable to the same indifférence to art in and for itself. For if a public has really learned to love music for itself, it will prefer a number of concerts by local musicians, sufficiently well trained to present it intelligibly, to concerts so infrequent as hardly to keep the musical body and soul together by an organization of much greater reputation, yes, and even by one of measurably greater skill and authority. For the music is the thing, not the people that play it. That is a truth which the American public must be made to understand. Rather especially discouraging was the opposition of all the clergymen of the town in a body to the giving of any concerts what- ever on Sunday afternoons—the dreariest portion of the dreariest day in the provincial

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18 New England week. If they had banned all music equally, this might be forgiven as the grotesque survival of a Puritan super- stition. But as they must have known that they were quite powerless to silence the diabolic engines of domestic music, they were prac-- tically discouraging public meeting for the enjoyment of the music which expresses, en- nobles, and disciplines emotion in order to give people plenty of leisure to go home and turn on the phonograph. Yet in spite of all these difficulties the undertaking was a success. Public interest was enlisted in no small degree from the first, and has steadily grown. The concerts have not only a body of stanch supporters from year to year, but tempt in from time to time a number of adventurers, who often stop the. founder in the street to tell him how much they have enjoyed the music. Every fall he is asked with genuine interest about the progress of his plans for the coming season. Best of all, it is found that certain easily comprehensible classic works, such, for in- FOREIGN OPINION THE OUTLOOK ON 3 May stance, as the Schumann Piano Quintette- or the Schubert “ Forellen ” Quintette (for the versatile clarinetist is by good luck also an excellent double-bass player), wisely repeated from year to year, become loved and antici- pated favorites. It is encouraging that such complex masterpieces as Franck’s great Piano Quintette can be given at all; but it is even more encouraging that pieces like the Schumann and Schubert should be given often, and often welcomed. What this experiment proves as to the possibility of securing performers of good music, and even difficult good music, in the neighbor- hood of a small community should tempt others to try the same experiment in other communities. - But this is not the chief value of this successful chamber music club. The real fruit of it is in the audience of appreci- ative listeners who have learned to want such music and to support it. It is this group of creative listeners that gives us ground for hoping that good music may some day be- come domesticated in America. OUR LAST NOTE TO GERMANY A POLL OF r \HE outstanding feature of the recep- tion in foreign countries of President Wilson’s note of April 19 to Germany with regard to her submarine warfare on mer- chant vessels is that the note seems to have been taken most seriously by those countries which were meant to take it seriously. Some of the President’s former notes to Germany were hailed with great gravity by the press of neutral countries, and dismissed with ridi- cule and irony even verging on contempt by many German newspapers. This tone was reflected in a comment made by Count von Reventlow, commenting in anticipation of this latest note of the President’s. ‘‘ The best methods of advertisement,”’ said Reventlow, ‘“‘of which Wilson is master, wear thin in time. When the sword of Damocles re- mains too long suspended, all can see that it is only a wooden one.” But this time the press of the Fatherland is almost unani- mous in taking the President at his implica- tion that this note is a virtual ultimatum. The tone of the comment of French and THE PRESS British newspapers is equally serious, and what is practically the most satirical suggestion that the President’s note leaves a loophole for further parleying comes from neutral sources. With due allowance for inaccuracies in the translation and telegraphic transmission of excerpts from German newspapers, the con- viction remains that if the German papers reflect at all the sentiments of their sub- scribers the Presidential communication has had the sobering effect of a dash of cold water on nearly all the Teutonic people. Prac tically all German newspapers agree with the ‘Lokal Anzeiger” of Berlin that “ no sensible person even in an enemy camp can possibly) believe that the German Government or the German people wish a break with the United States. The whole history of German-Amer- ican relations speaks against such an assump- tion. Should the regrettable break prove to be unavoidable, the guilty ones can only be sought across the ocean.” But, at the same time, most German com

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1916 FOREIGN OPINION ON mentators, with the exception of a few jingoes like Count von Reventlow, agree for once with the Socialist organ “‘ Vorwaerts,”’ which says: It is to be hoped that the American Govern- ment will refrain from any over-hasty steps as long as in its opinion there is an even chance of arriving at an understanding with Germany. But this naturally presupposes at the same time that it is Germany’s duty also to leave nothing untried to prevent the threatening con- flict. The majority of the German press is agreed, however, that the entire surrender of the use of submarines against merchant vessels can- not be considered. As the Berlin “ Zeitung am Mittag ”’ says: To the last man, however, the German people are united in the firm resolve not to let the sub- marine be wrenched from our hand as a weapon. We need it because it has shown itself to be an effective weapon. We use it according to the principle of justice and humanity always in- voked in the American notes, and we will use it in the future because our right and our human consideration for our existence as a state and the future of our wives and children compel us. In short, the majority of the German news- papers stand, as they have stood all along, on the position which the semi-official “ Neue Freie Presse” of Vienna restates, namely, that ‘‘ it would be unintelligibly preposterous if the welfare and power of a great people were staked for the right of . American adventurers... and hirelings to travel about in the war zone.’ There is one striking exception to the almost unanimous assumption of the German press that Germany cannot afford to give up the use of the submarine against commerce. Maximilian Harden, editor of ‘‘ Die Zukunft,” devotes one entire issue of that publication to a long and astonishing editorial entitled “ If I Were Wilson.”” Harden is known as one of the most fearless and untrammeled, although one of the most vitriolic and erratic, journalists in the German Empire. He has twice been imprisoned for 2se-majesté, and it is very sig- nificant that he is allowed to speak at all in his latest vein. ‘The German text of his edi- torial, or even an entire translation of it, has not reached America as The Outlook goes to press, but it is reported in London that the main body of the editorial is a plea for peace. But in the course of a discussion of Germany’s present critical relations with the United States, in which Harden assumes for OUR LAST NOTE TO GERMANY 19 the moment that he is the American Presi- dent and pretends to talk through the lips of Woodrow Wilson, he presents America’s case to his countrymen as he conceives Amer- icans understand it. ** Germany accuses us of helping her ene- mies with war material,’’ says Harden in his temporary rdle, and continues : We of the United States have the right to doit. It is not our fault that Germany cannot be a client. German industry in all modern wars, notwith- standing German neutrality, has delivered to one party, and often both, weapons and muni- tions. The use of their undoubted rights by our manufacturers has brought bitter reproach from the Germans. From thiserror came forth the poisoning of many of these people with the thought that they must revenge themselves in their new home for the supposed wrong done to their Fatherland. Proofs of such criminal actions lie in our archives. For such people to bite out from our country the most tasty bits of industrial fruits, and at the first storm to turn round as spurious Germans or Irishmen—that is un- bearable. Would Germany have allowed, during the Manchurian War, Japanese agents to work in Prussian Poland and by agitations and fiery speeches and the endangering of munitions fac- tories to frighten Germany into enmity against Russia ? Is our demand, our right, not equal to that of Germany ? I demand that Germany shall publicly disso- ciate herself from every community of foolish patriots who misuse our hospitality to upset our civil peace. I demand that Germany without reserve pro- tect the life and property of American citizens and that no longer may the question of the future of two great peoples, whether they live in friendship or in enmity, depend upon the whim or the nerve of a young submarine com- mander who wishes to serve the Fatherland and to carve his name in the German oak and who only listens to his conscience when it says “ Down with everything!” . . The leaders of the Empire’s olleive know what the results of a breach would be. Our whole hemisphere, north and south, would be made the enemies of Germany, and not only in war time. Germany would lose all her ships in Amer- ican harbors and would have to reckon with a considerable increase in the enemy’s tonnage. From the day of the breach she would have to provision Belgium itself. Holland and Scan- dinavia could scarcely hope for any more sup- plies by sea, for the United States would need

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20 THE OUTLOOK ; é them herself and would be able to give nothing more to strangers. Whether at such a high price the loss of power to England through the lack of food and shipping could be bought, Germany alone must decide. That the end of the war would thén disappear into the unforeseeable distance is certain, and not less because from that moment we should have a united-front in America. The Germans, Irish, and Austro-Hungarians in our land would forget everything but that they are one under the Stars and Stripes. The tone of French and British papers in commenting on the Wilson note is almost unanimously one of unqualified praise—praise so high and so unanimous that the citation of more than a few examples would be cloying. “‘ Simple, strong words of a statesman,”’ is the characterization pronounced by that dis- tinguished French journalist and eminent patriot Georges Clemenceau, in his news- paper, “ L’Homme Libre.” “The right,” goes on M. Clemenceau, “the august, imprescriptible right, which the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower brought from Europe, their sons are bringing back to us under a shield of iron, forged by their own strong hands. ** What the Kaiser may decide to do is un- important. Withdrawal or bombast—it will all be the same in the end.” “Le Temps,” of Paris, agrees that the President’s note is a real ultimatum, and summarizes succinctly: ‘‘Germany “must either. yield or break relations. America’s: honor can no longer be satisfied by vain _ words.” In the same spirit says the London “ Daily News :” The note takes high ground worthy ofa great nation whose moral and material forces are behind the demand. There remains for Ger- many only a straight and rapid choice between submission and war. By all the signs her choice will be war, and the interval is likely to be short and quickly bridged. The “ Daily Telegraph ”’ says : It can now be said that to-day the civilized Powers of the earth are virtually as one. The people of the United States of America have spoken through their Chief Magistrate, and the voice of the Nation is clear, decisive, and firm. The unexpectedly downright, sweeping charac- ter of the note will come upon the German peo- ple with a tremendous shock. Similarly the London “ Graphic” declares that “Germany is brought to bay in the character of a criminal among nations.”’ The principal intimation that the declara- tion of the American Executive is not irrev- ocable and ultimate comes from Holland. Several of the Dutch papers seem to think that the note still leaves a way for more discussion between Germany and America. This view-point is cleverly expressed by the ‘* Handelsblad.’’ Says this paper : The President informs Germany that he is warning it for the. last time. Will there not be also a warning for the very last time and for absolutely the last time, and for irrevocably, finally, absolutely the last time? The weak- ness of America’s position to-day is due to the fact that no one takes its threats seriously and that in foreign countries, and especially in Ger- many, Mr. Wilson’s notes do not make the impression of earnestness and determination needed to give them force. But, on the whole, the neutral press is preponderantly in agreement with the press of South America, as voiced, for example, by the “Journal do Commercio;” of Rio Janeiro; ‘La Nacion,” of Buenos, Aires ; and “ El Mercurio,” of Santiago, Chile. ‘El Mercurio,” believing that a rupture between Germany and the United States is imminent, praises the American Government for realizing that ‘“‘ not only the interests of Europe are at stake, but also the universal principles of humanity and civilization, which demand that respect for them be exacted from Germany.” The ‘“ Journal do Com- mercio ” says: The United States, profoundly impressed by the responsibility it assumed in the American continent by the proclamation, adoption, and preseryation of the Monroe Doctrine, feels clearly that if Germany is victorious sooner or later she will turn against the United States the powerful weapons which will have conquered the great strength of the Allies. . . . The action of President Wilson yesterday will be a forward-march signal to the mighty American Nation. 2 And “ La Nacion”’ declares : The United States is the one great neutral Power. Consequently its voice must carry the greatest weight, not because of the Nation’s army and navy, but because of its civilization, its democracy, and its economic capacity. All American republics participate in the same sen- timents and greet with profound political sym- pathy the constant desire of President Wilson to render less grievous the effects of the war and enforce respect for neutrals. The work makes for solidarity of civilization and Christian broth- erhood. COPY Ric The leavi Mrs.

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COPYRIGHT BY HARRIS & EWING A RECENT PORTRAIT OF THE PRESIDENT The above photograph of President Wilson and Mrs. Wilson was made in Washington just as they were leaving the hall of the Daughters of the American Revolution, where the President had made an address. Mrs. Bolling, mother of Mrs. Wilson, is directly behind the President, and on his right is a Secret Service man. Colonel W. W. Harts, superintendent of buildings and grounds, is on Mrs. Wilson’s left

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N THEBN SUBMARINE WARFARE BEFORE CONGRESS, APRIL 19 dthe first blood of the Civil War having been shed in Baltimore on April 19, 1865), may be further marked as a )the brink of a rupture in its diplomatic relations with Germany

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PHOTOGRAPH BY MATHILDE WEIL LEST WE FORGET! The Outlook again publishes this inexpressibly pathetic picture of an American mother and her six children whose lives were lost on the Lusitania, an unarmed merchant ship which was sunk without warning by a German submarine on May 7,1915. For this irreparable act no atonement has been made. On the occa- sion of this anniversary, to be observed by commemorative meetings, we reprint this picture as a memorial

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AS MR. DAVENPORT FORESEES THE CAMPAIGN THE DEMOCRATIC SITUATION The Democratic party will attempt to prove, and to a considerable extent willbe able to prove, that it has been constructive upon some notable issues left over from long discussion in the past ; that it has refused to be driven into war, or even to the brink of war, until every attempt had been made to obtain National honor through peace, Preparedness without militarism, prosperity without favoritism, peace without dishonor, is to be the Democratic slogan. And the country will then determine whether on the whole the Democratic party has shown itself. fit to rule in the new and greater day of National preparation which is upon us; or whether it is likely to deal with American problems in a timid, halting, and ineffective fashion. THE REPUBLICAN SITUATION But with the Republican party the case is not so simple. As in 1912, so in 1916 the struggle is on for the soul of the Republican party. ... The future usefulness and service of that party depends upon the outcome. ... There is the same tendency as in 1912 to obscure the issue, to lay emphasis upon the tariff and full dinner-pails, “tried Republicans,” and shibboleths generally instead of ideals. . . . But this is the attitude only of a powerful fragment of the Board of Control, . . . who do not for a moment represent the attitude of the rank and file nor the best leadership of the Republicans. . . .. The Republican party is fighting within itself for its soul, for a policy and a leadership of National altruism and powerful Americanism. Upon the outcome of the struggle depends the question as to whether, as in the days of its origin, it can further aid the Nation to find its own soul. THE PRE-NOMINATION CAMPAIGN THE SOUL OF THE NATION FINDING ITSELF STAFF CORRESPONDENCE BY FREDERICK M. DAVENPORT r \HE most trenchant criticism of the present Administration at Washing- ton is that it has not succeeded very well in stilling jangling voices, in stirring pro- foundly public intelligence and feeling, in bringing out the best in the soul of the country. Every man is two men: The shrinking, inert, trouble-dreading, habit-bound, narrow- visioned, provincial qualities.of human nature exist side by side with the active, fearless, freer, broader instincts of the human spirit. These two sets of qualities are in perpetual conflict. Whether on the average in a coun- try one set of qualities or the other is reg- nant and controlling depends a great deal upon the leadership of the country. The men at the front in government and in pub- lic opinion are heavily responsible for bringing out the best, less than the best, or the worst in the majority of average men among the hundred millions of a vigorous people like the Americans. When we speak of the lack of soul in a man, it is the whole range of the higher and nobler traits ia him that we miss. Now the national soul is only a concert of individual souls.- And when foreign observers say of us, and we say of ourselves, that there is in the midst of the present world conflict and world problems no clear, definite soul of the American people, we mean that there is no sharp cleavage between the lower and higher nature of the Nation, that the two are help- lessly commingled, and that there is as yet no magnet powerful enough to separate the iron filings from the dross. No event tragic enough, no idea influential enough, no leader- ership in Government or public opinion pow- erful enough, has as yet appeared. In the present difficulties, the millstone about the neck of Democratic leadership has been the Bryan element and spirit within the Democratic party. Such an influence is fitted only for a limited agitation about domestic affairs, and not at all for a firm and wise and courageous facing of intricate and 29

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30 THE OUTLOOK perilous foreign relations which involve the higher dictates of humanity and of right. And between the need of placating the Bryan element in Congress and the failure instinctively and decisively to understand the nature of other governments and peoples, the foreign policy of the Administration has seemed to be feeling its way uncertainly along, and the soul of the Nation is not stirred nor strengthened. The National weakness of spirit shows itself in the various humiliating and purely political proposals during the present crisis in the Congress of the United States. Of these the Hay Bill to reorganize the military system of the country is the worst, not only because of its utter lack of vision, but because it is so palpably connected with stratagems and spoils. It is one more revelation that the Congress of the United States is either too ignorant or too reckless or too feeble to care for honor, efficiency, or country, but only for a Constitutional theory, a selfish vote-getting interest, or the exigencies of the support of a political machine. I am talking about the things that Con- gress is now working at. It is displaying the same narrow vision in its preparation to meet the immigration overflow -after the war. There has been a wealth of discussion as to what is going to happen when the war ceases— whether capital and labor will profitably flow into the European areas of destruction for the purpose of rebuilding, or whether there will be a rush of immigration to America to escape intolerable burdens of misery and taxation. The truth seems to be that we are not likely to get many English or French or Germans, but very likely to get an increasing multitude from southern Europe, particularly from the Balkan States, from Poland and Ga- licia and Servia. An illiteracy test would artifi- cially and mechanically restrict this flow, but we have not the slightest reason to believe that it would separate the superior from the infe- rior, nor clear up the immigration perplexity. ‘The country needs a continuous and sufficient supply of immigrant labor in the right places. An expert Federal immigration’ commission, working under a reasonable law, with powers of discrimination as to the volume and as to the sort of labor which shall be admitted at any particular period, and as to where it shall go, would seem to be indicated by the needs of the country and the drift of National prac- tice in other fields. But here again Congress gives no sign of National vision. Of course 3 May it is very important to keep the stupid and inefficient out of this country. We have enough of them. But how about keeping them out of Congress ? And so with the. craven attitude with respect to the Philippines. We thought we had that fought out in 1900. I suppose the danger of Philippine imperialism is a bogey of the past. Now the fear seems to be that we are straining democratic theory and Na- tional stamina by continuing to assume responsibility for our wards in the Pacific. And that, anyway, our wards do not reed us any more. And even if they do, it is not wise to run the risk of incurring enmities in that part of the world. But still, while we are letting them go, we will hold on to the responsibility for a season—a policy short- sighted, vacillating, compromising, dangerous. How different from the National vigor and aspiration which the country for the moment felt when the Philippines first came to us without our seeking. ‘The Government and the American people together believed then that they were members of a race which grew great in spirit through service and responsibility imposed upon us under cir- cumstances free from taint of aggression or touch of wrong. But the time would fail me to speak of the hostility of the National representatives to the continuance under public authority of the valuable examination, begun under the Taft Commission on Economy and E‘ficiency, into the lax and costly administrative methods of the Federal Government. And when it comes to Federal revenue, where is the cour- age or the insight to tax fearlessly and inte!- ligently the abundant National resources ? Altogether in this country the States gather some twenty-five millions of inheritance taxes every year from a total wealth of nearly two hundred billions. England, with” far less total wealth, collects easily two hundred mill- ions from inheritance taxes. A firm grasp of the ordinary principles of taxation, the lowering of the income minimum, the collec- tion. by the Federal Government of the entire corporation and inheritance revenues, and the handing back of the larger portion to the States—these plain, practical hints of the meni of science seem to be far from the mind or the interest of the Solons of Congress. Taxation and retrenchment at Washington are a game of politics and not of finance. But we cannot put the entire odium of the degradation of National intelligence and spirit Sal an an a Mes aso fixe nat thit of ius uns clea inte ser\ cien ples

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he on the irit 1916. THE PRE-NOMINATION CAMPAIGN 31 upon the Congress of the United States. While I am convinced that neither Congress nor political leadership in the country is as big as the soul of the American people, I am likewise convinced that many of the faults which we attribute to the Government are our own faults, the faults of the people them- selves. And in a democracy the faults of the people count heavily, especially in matters of foreign policy. Popular government has never shown itself extremely capable in foreign affairs. In for- eign affairs details of negotiation must be known only to the Government, else the negotiations would inevitably fail. They are hidden from the people. The people, if they are to be helpful, must trust their experts implicitly and at the same time follow, ap- prove, and control foreign policy in its main outlines and its final phase. American democracy neither trusts experts nor exhibits at critical moments a keen sense of National honor or of international right. And we have to take this into account, among other things, in judging President Wilson from the Lusitania to the Sussex. He has been under the burden of the home democ- racy as well as of foreign affairs. With his own conception of his Presidential mission it has seemed to him that he had to feel his way out of the darkness and move slowly and cautiously while the unprepared United States was finding its own soul. It seems to me that the history of our times in the United States might be written from the standpoint of the spirit of the American people groping its way out of prison. For a quarter of a century it has slowly been creeping towards the light in its domestic policies, casting off.the fetters of private interest and extending the bounds of the common welfare. A more difficult task appears to be the finding itself in its adjust- ment to foreign relations. Always difficult for a democracy, it is unusually difficult for the United States. A hundred years of the fixed policy of isolation has dulled the inter- national sense. And yet, when we come to think of it, we were introduced to the path f internationalism under the most favorable iuspices. The little war which we waged unselfishly with Spain revealed to the Nation clearly how its soul might find itself in the international realm—the use of power for the service of weaker peoples; the use of effi- ciency for the development of weaker peo- ples; the altruism of the great Republic exerted for a-united America, for the sympa- thetic and friendly union of trade and ideals with sister states to the south; the firm policing of the feebler and more turbulent populations of Central America for their own safety as well as ours. The brightest spot of internationalism on the face of the earth has been the Philippines and Cuba. And in making it bright, America has been finding her soul. Under the present, Administration there have been ominous signs of spiritual retreat and disaster. The proposed scuttling of the Philippines, the deliberate discussion of the payment of blackmail to Colombia, have been symptoms of the shrinking of the National soul. And the slow response of the spirit of America to the atrocious wrongs committed in Belgium, .in Armenia, upon the high seas, and even at our borders in Mexico, has been a startling indication of the subnor- mal beating of the moral impulse. And yet all the time there have been signs of life and hope. It may seem fantastic to speak of the Platt Amendment as a method of the Na- tional soul. The Platt Amendment isa tether _by which the United States allows weaker peoples, for whose conduct she feels herself responsible, the greatest measure of self- government and independence up to a cer- tain point of disorder and danger to our- selves and themselves. We have applied the full principle of it in Cuba, and the nub of it in the case’ of the police protectorate actually enforced in Haiti, in San Domingo, and now in Nicaragua where we have secured the option upon another canal route. The few American marines in the capital of Nicaragua have for more. than a year been the source of the most profound peace that the little ‘‘ Republic” ever knew. And the Na- tional sense, not of ‘‘ manifest destiny,’”’ but of duty, has grown stronger as we have observed the service which these simple police protectorates have been able to accom- plish. But the sense of National responsibility has paused and paltered at the gates of Mexico. I am not now criticising the method of the Government of the United States in dealing with Mexican affairs. I am talking about the people of the United States and why they have faltered. Mexico is a country of great area, with a large and proud popu- lation having a national ego developed out of all proportion to any human quality or advancement in civilization and self-control.

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=. THE OUTLOOK And from the standpoint of any necessary military aggression we are a feeble folk. And successive groups of native Mexicans are seeking to establish order out of chaos. Let them work at it. It is the line of least resistance, the easier way. That has been the way a large part of the country has looked at it. But already, with respect to Mexico, the soul of the Nation is finding itself, and unless the group about Carranza speedily show themselves worthy of the con- fidence of the loan markets of the world and otherwise capable of rule, the Platt Amend- ment, it seems to me, is as sure to be ap- plied to Mexico as it ever was to Cuba. That is the temper of the slowly rising conscious- ness of the American people. The soul of the Nation is finding itself. We are a great, cumbersome democracy, working at cross-purposes, busy about many matters. Many newspapers and politicians have deluded us so often that we have ceased listening to them for a long time after they begin to cry “ Wolf!” and “ Peril!” But the giant is stirring in his sleep. There is a great spiritual reserve in the country, as there was at the time of the Civil War. Then, we were a Nation under arms, and when we were first organized we had no great military captains. But we stumbled on until we created our own great captains. And as the war progressed, the army developed a soul of its own. And the time came when, if every general had suddenly been shot in battle, new leaders would have been born in an hour and the soul of that army, like John Brown’s spirit, would have gone marching on. This is what America is capable of in a crisis, whether of peace or of war. So now the Nation has taken its stand soberly and unitedly behind the President, or in front of him, in the final declaration to Germany and the world that we think of ourselves by the force of circumstances as “the responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process of being swept utterly away in the maelstrom.” The American people are slowly girding their loins for any alternative or for any great adventure. That is what this political campaign is really coming to be all about—the mobilization of the spiritual reserve of the people of the United States, the revitalization of the coun- try through the breaking up of the deeps of National consciousness by the impulse of the terrible war. Is not this the inner meaning 3. May of the war to the world? Germany divined aright the deplorable political and industrial and military weaknesses of Russia, England, and France. But Germany is beating her blind efficiency out against the rock of the spiritual reserve of Russia, England, and France. And it is the spiritual reserve which is the final test of the fitness ofa people to survive. The soul of the American people is in process of finding itself. And, if it finds itself in time, it is going to demand, even in the present campaign, the election of a govern- ment and a leadership as big as its own soul. It is a heavy task the two political parties have on hand. And they are so unfitted by tradition and practice to deal with it! It is entirely clear how the Democratic party and politicians will meet it. They must meet it on the record of the acts of the Democratic President and the Democratic Congress. And the country will determine and decide upon Democratic policy and leadership by what the party has accomplished in these critical years, and not by what it promises. Contrary to the predictions of the Republicans, the Democratic party will attempt to prove, and to a consider- able extent will be able to prove, that it has been constructive upon some notable issues left over from long discussion in the past ; that it has refused to be driven into war, or even to the brink of war, until every attempt had been made to obtain National honor through peace. Preparedness without militar- ism, prosperity without favoritism, peace with- out dishonor, is to be the Democratic slogan. And the country will then determine whether, on the whole, the Democratic party has shown itself fit to rule in the new and ~-2zater day of National preparation which is upon us; whether it gives promise of facing the fresh issue of a broad Americanism in a spirit and a fashion other than timid, halting, and inet- fective. But with the Republican party the case is not so simple. As in 1912, so in 1916 the struggle is on for the soul of the Republican party. And there is not so much certainty that the soul of the Republican party will find itself as that the soul of the Nation will find itself. But the future usefulness and service of that party depend upon the out come. On the one hand, there is the same tendency as in 1912 to obscure the issue. to lay the emphasis upon tariffs and full dinner-pails and ‘tried Republicans ’’ and shibboleths generally, instead of upon ideals.

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(Fat owe CQ EP oe oO 1916 THE PRE-NOMINATION CAMPAIGN 33 There is the same tendency to lower the standard in the midst of a great fight to suit the purpose and needs first of the commissa- riat and the camp-followers. ‘There is a dis- position to straddle and compromise, to blow hot and to blow cold about Americanism. But this is the attitude only of a powerful fragment of the board of control, of a group who have for a generation allied themselves with the interests and the purposes of the ruling political oligarchy. These men bear the same relation to the politics and patriot- ism of the United States that those Russian bureaucrats bear to the safety and progress of Russia who were recently disclosed as plotting for a separate peace with Germany on the ground that the war was advancing liberalism in Russia, and that Russian duplic- ity or defeat was preferable to the granting of liberal internal reforms. So our irrecon- cilable Bourbons would rather see their party pass on its way to extinction and their coun- try rendered ignoble in the sight of the world than yield one jot or tittle to the demands of progress or patriotism. And _ it is this ele- ment.and this attitude which, above everything else, stand in the way of the sweeping success of the Republicans, who are regarded gener- ally by the country as more able than the Democrats in the handiing particularly of measures of foreign policy. But these plotters against their party and the common weal do not for a moment repre- sent the attitude of the rank and file nor the best leadership of the Republicans. The Republican party has learned much in the last few years. It has learned. that the day is past when the working class will follow it lindly at the piping of catchwords and plati- tudes. ‘The best leaders have learned that a haughty class antagonism to measures for the social amelioration of the wage-earners of America is as fatal to party success as it is to loyalty and patriotism. ‘That was a mosi significant paragraph in the recent remark- able and unexpected tribute of the well-known Lemuel E. Quigg to Roosevelt when he said ‘There is no difference between Roosevelt and any other Republican on the fundamental principles of the party, no difference at all, except with regard to his social—call them, if you please, Socialistic—ideas. But for the moment these are in the background, and even there they have been gaining strength ail the time. Am I my brother’s keeper? From Cain to Christ, and with increasing force after every Christmas, the answer is, ‘ Yes, you are.’”’ The Republican party is fighting within itself for its soul, for a policy and a leadership of National altruism and powerful American ism. Upon the outcome of the struggle depends the question as to whether, as in the days of its origin, it can further aid the Nation to find its own soul. We have a General Staff of Military Defense, but no staff of naval or industrial defense. In view of the real issue before the country, would it not be well if we had also a general staff of spiritual defense? O for an hour of Henry Ward Beecher and Phillips Brooks, or of old Bishop Simpson and Peter Cartwright ! They were Americans through and through, and the Nation in other days listened to them gladly. Washington, April 25, 1916.

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BROTHER JONATHAN’S TRIALS BY CHARLES ALEXANDER RICHMOND PRESIDENT OF UNION COLLEGB I ° The alder buds was jes’ ready to sprout. Thinks I, I’ll git Brother Jonathan out. Mebbe we'll git a mess o’ trout, The fishin’ bein’ fine. So nex’ day I sorter sauntered roun’ With my fishin’ pole an’ my p’inter houn’ Shufflin’ along with his nose to the groun’, A-followin’ up sum sign. II I foun’ him motherin’ a new-hatched brood O’ Plymouth Rocks, a-fixin’ their food. I knowed right off it wa’n’t no good A-pesterin’ him to go. So I leant my pole ag’in the barn Es ef ’twa’n’t none o’ my consarn, Fer I didn’t give a tinker’s darn Whether he went or no. III ‘I’m passin’ thro’ a sea o’ trials. The emptyin’s 0’ the seven vials,”’ Sez ’ee. ‘‘ Compared to me, Job’s biles Wa’n’t nothin’ but a rash. I’m prosperin’, my neighbors say. Of course—‘I labor while ’tis day ;’ There’s Scripter for ’t—and yit sumway It seems like wuthless trash. IV ‘“*There’s Willyum with them devil boats A-sinkin’ everythin’ thet floats. I’ve sent him heaps an’ heaps o’ notes ’Bout the freedom o’ the seas; I’ve warned him it ’d cum ter blows. He sticks his fingers to his nose An’ keeps on firin’ them torpedoes An’ sayin’, ‘ Excuse me, please!’ V “ An’ Monsoor an’ George they wink an’ scoff, An’ the other folks are a-standin’ off An’ sayin’, ‘Ol’ Jonathan’s gittin’ sof’ ; He can’t pertect his own.’ Then that greaser—he’s a-breakin’ loose. Watchful waitin’ wa’n’t no use, An’ now I ain’t got no excuse, I'll have ter hunt him down. VI “T tell ye I ain’t had no fun Sence this here ’tarnal war begun;

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BROTHER JONATHAN’S TRIALS An’ them fellers down to Washington They skeer me wust uv all. Sum say, ‘ W’y don’t ye git prepared ?’ An’ sum, ‘ Now, Jonathan, don’ git skeercd: When this here furrin’ war’s declared It’s time enough to squall.’ VII “They say: ‘Why don’t ye show some spunk? Them battle-ships 0’ yourn is junk, Ye better run an’ pack yer trunk, It’s gittin’? wus an’ wus.’ They sets and talks about my foes An’ votes the’r ayes an’ votes the’r noes, A-hollerin’ like a lot o’ crows Aroun’ an ol’ dead _ hoss.’ VIII “Ther’s them ther’ robins a-callin’ roun’. I used to like to hear that soun’. Sumtimes I’d git my fiddle down An’ set ther’ by the spring. I know they’re singin’ jes’ as clear, But now it seems like I didn’t keer No more’n thet ol’ sawbuck theer To hear the robins sing.” IX Ye know I ain’t the preachin’ kind, Yit, sez I: “ Ye hev the double mind Thet’s tossed an’ driven with the wind. An’, Jonathan, that’s yer shame! Now ye cuss an’ shake yer fist— A roarin’ lion; then ye twist To a suckin’ dové—a paficist, Ff thet’s the critter’s name. X ““T say it ain’t American, This shufflin’ roun’; ye oughter stan’ Fer somethin’—let ’em_understan’ That ye know right from wrong. An’ ye oughter leave off bein’ smart; Quit jinglin’ coins, an’ cieanse yer heart, An’ say yer say, an’ take yer part Fer the weak ag’in the strong. XI “IT guess ye know whose ships they be Thet keeps the freedom o’ the sea An’ helps keep these here shores fer ye b Against a threat’nin’ foe.’ About that time th’ old mother hen Came cluckin’ roun’ ol’ Jonathan An’ a perky little winter wren Pipes out: “I told yer so.”

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PRESIDENT WILSON’S MEXICAN POLICY AN INTERPRETATION’ BY “McGREGOR” HOSE who believe that President Wilson has been guided by his under- standing of what constitutes the best interests of Mexico, and that his purposes are altruistic and idealistic, may gain a very fair comprehension of his Mexican policy from his public utterances. The principles which he claims have actuated him may be stated almost in his own words : We are the champions of constitutional government in America, and so cannot coun- tenance a mere military despotism originating in unjustifiable usurpation ; with our passion for liberty, we must recognize the right of a people to reform, alter, or abolish a govern- ment found inadequate or contrary to the purposes for which governments are _insti- tuted ; liberty was never handed down from above, but is attained by forces working among the people themselves ; we should not undertake to impose upon another nation an order and government of our own choosing ; we have peculiar obligations to Mexico as her nearest friend, but all of Latin America also has an interest in the welfare of a sister republic ; the liberties and permanent happi- ness of eighty per cent of the Mexican people are of more importance than the prosperity of their former exploiters or the present opportunity to American citizens to do busi- ness in Mexico ; our National self-respect and safety must be maintained at all costs, but we should not allow ourselves to be forced into war with the Mexican people if that can pos- sibly be avoided ; there must bea final reckon- ing for damages and injuries inflicted, but a great nation should exercise patience and self- restraint in dealing with a country torn by civil strife; “the United States will never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest ;”’ “ the steady pressure of moral force will break the barriers of pride and prejudice down, and we shall triumph as Mexico’s friend sooner than we could triumph as her enemies—and . . . with how much higher and finer satisfaction of conscience and honor.” Joyous jingoes, temperamental tories, par- tisan politicians, and common commercialists may quarrel with these principles, but the average American citizen accepts them. Yet “"T See editorial elsewhere in this issue—Tue Epitors. 36 the real question remains, Has President Wilson a Mexican policy of fine words only, or have his principles marked out a consistent course of conduct? This writer holds that there have been certain great decisions by the President at succeeding crises of our relations with Mexico which will enable us to determine his policy, just as a series of judicial decisions mark out point by point Constitutional limitations. To understand the full significance of these de- cisions some knowledge of Mexican history and geography is necessary, some acquaint- ance with the character and temper of the Mexican people. It is held, further, that each decision in its turn was logical, wise, and just, and was the only one possible for Wood- row Wilson to make. For those whose par- tisanship really stops at the border a study of the Mexican revolution is sufficient to con- vince them of this ; while to those who feel that whatever the President does is.wrong the consideration of the alternative to each decision is commended. 1. Refusal to recognize Huerta as President of Mexico. Mexican history really began before the 4th of March, 1913. The newly inaugurated President inherited the Mexican problem from his predecessor in office, not only unsolved, but with all the conditions of solution made more difficult by the official attitude of the Taft Administration toward Madero, the legally elected President of Mexico. Less than three months after Madero had assumed office President Taft, with only the excuse of sporadic brigandage for his action, ordered all the regular troops in the United States and the National Guard, one hundred thou- sand men in all, to be prepared for field serv- ice. The order could mean only one thing to the Mexican people—American interven- tion, the threat of which, skillfully used by Diaz, had suppressed revolution against his tyranny for decades. On March 2, 1912, Americans were warned to leave Mexico. On April 15 Acting Secretary of State Hunt- ington Wilson, with Knox away on his dollar diplomacy tours, sent a brutal message of warning to Madero, which proved to be a pure bluff but had its part in deepening the ° nt S we om Om Ci tb te oe = © ho wl hs ts a mg w x

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PRESIDENT WILSON’S impression made by Taft’s military order. Nevertheless, with the beginning of the year 1913 Madero seemed to have won his fight, despite the hostility of the American Govern- ment, when the Cientificos, grown desperate, formed a conspiracy against’ him, carried out by military officers turned traitors. On February 18, 1913, after a series of sham battles in Mexico City between Huerta, put in charge of Madero’s forces, and Felix Diaz, at the head of the conspiracy, these two worthies met and signed an agreement at the American Embassy, following the arrest of President Madero and Vice-President Suarez. The next day the President and the Vice-Presi- dent resigned under duress ; Pedro Lascurain, of the Madero Cabinet, became President for fifteen minutes and appointed Huerta to the Cabinet post next in order of succession, then resigned himself, leaving Huerta Provisional President, barring such trifling irregularities as forced resignations and their acceptance and the confirmation of successors by a ter- rorized Congress minus a quorum. Febru- ary 21, Ambassador Wilson accorded de facto recognition on behalf of the United States Government to Huerta; and on the 22d, while Wilson and Huerta were cele- brating Washington’s birthday at the Ameri- can Embassy, Madero and Suarez were assassinated. The American Ambassador cheerfully ac- cepted the “ official version ” of the murder, and rejoiced that a “ wicked despotism had fallen.”’ To have recognized Huerta, therefore, would have been to condone treachery, usur- pation, assassination, and the destruction of constitutional government not only, but to have indorsed the part played in the over- throw of the constitutional President by the American Government, acting through the State Department and the American Ambas- sador. The question was further complicated by the immediate revolt against Huerta of ten of the elected Governors of Mexican States, headed by Carranza, Governor of Coahuila, calling themselves ‘“ Constitution- alists,” and covenanting among themselves to restore constitutional government in Mexico. To have thrown the weight of influence of the American Administration into the scale against those who resisted ursurpation and despotism was also impossible for Woodrow Wilson. 2. Resistance of Appeals for Intervention. Appeals for armed intervention have come ‘rom numerous sources. Irresponsible jin- MEXICAN POLICY 37 goes have wanted the army to “go in and clean up Mexico.” Americans with Mexican investments from which they were receiving no profit have contended that the mainte- nance of order was the first duty of the United States. Banished ecclesiastics have sought American intervention as the alterna- tive to a native government hostile to the Church. The commercial press has been clam- orous for intervention, and partisan politicians have rung the changes on the lack of pro- tection to American citizens and property and the failure to avenge the outrages committed against the lives and persons of our country- men and countrywomen., But armed intervention would infallibly have meant war upon the whole Mexican people. Even an alliance with Constitution- alist leaders against Huerta would have sent the Constitutionalist armies into Huerta’s camp. We must remember that we have had one war with Mexico, at the time revolt- ing to the New England conscience, though yielding us a gratifyingly large slice of territory stretching from the lower Rio Grande ‘to the California coast, a consequence still remem- bered in Mexico. Intervention would have meant the probable sacrifice of all the Amer- icans remaining in Mexico, would have re- sulted in much shedding of blood, both of American and Mexican soldiers, and would have postponed for another generation the development of the people along the lines of self-government. The mere reading of the list af Americans killed, as published by the Secretary of State with the attendant circumstances, is enough to convince one of the impossibility of hold- ing any faction responsible for wrongs com- mitted outside its varying sphere of jurisdic- tion. Investigations have been made of every case, with proper representations to the nearest authority, damages to be assessed and collected when an orderly government is established. Many of the murderers have become themselves the victims of the revo- lution. President Wilson has consistently refused to hold a disorganized country, in the throes of civil strife, responsible for the crimes of individuals which it was unable to prevent or to punish, to the extent of making war upon Mexico. 3, The Occupation of Vera Cruz. As early as the summer of 1913 President Wilson tendered his good offices to the con- tending factions, proposing an armistice, a free election with the stipulation that Huerta °

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38 THE OUTLOOK should not be a candidate for the Presidency, the agreement of all parties to abide by the result of the election, and the support of the administration chosen by the power of the United States. The offer was rejected by Huerta. Yet so determined was President Wilson that the Mexican people should work out their own problem that not even the embargo on the exportation of arms from this country was lifted until the Constitutionalists had shown what they could accomplish by winning the whole of northern Mexico’ to their cause. Obregon and Villa defeated one Huerta army after another, while Zapata con- tinually threatened from the south. Finally, in his desperation, Huerta made his appeal to Mexican patriotism by picking a quarrel with the United States. The arrest of Ameri- can sailors in uniform, protected by the American flag flying from their boat, was the culmination of a series of insults by a respon- sible authority. Accordingly, President Wil- son backed up the demand made by Admiral Mayo for the salute to the flag, ordered the fleet to Vera Cruz, and requested authority from Congress to use the army and navy “ in such ways and to such an extent as may be necessary to obtain from General Huerta and his adherents the fullest recognition of the rights and dignity of the United States, even amid the distressing conditions now unhappily obtaining in Mexico.”” The House promptly passed the necessary resolution. While the Senate was debating the Lodge substitute, ably supported by Senator Root, the adoption of which substitute would infallibly have meant war with all Mexico, the news came of the arrival at Vera Cruz of the German merchant vessel Ypiranga, with 250 machine guns and 2,000,000 rounds of ammunition on board for our prospective enemies. The President immediately ordered the seizure of Vera Cruz, at the cost of the lives of nineteen marines and some two hundred Mexicans. But the Vera Cruz custom-house was the chief source of revenue for Huerta, and the collection of the import taxes by the American authorities was as fatal to him as would have been the march upon Mexico City. Yet the childish assertion is still occasionally heard that we went to war with Huerta to obtain a salute to the flag and failed to obtain it. 4. The A BC Mediation. And next the miracle was wrought which stopped an invasion of Mexican soil fol- lowed by the shedding of blood, without involving us in war with the Mexican people. 3 May No matter who conceived the plan, Argen- tina, Brazil, and Chile, representing Latin America, offered to mediate between the Mexican factions and the United States, and the Niagara Conference was held, with far- reaching consequences of good will and of confidence re-established between Latin America and English America. The imme- diate consequence for Mexico was the restric- tion of American occupation to Vera Cruz. But Huerta was not able to maintain himself in power, the Ypiranga was allowed to unload at Puerto Mexico too late to save him, and not long afterwards he sailed away to Europe from the same port, and Carranza entered the capital in triumph. 5. Evacuation of Vera Cruz. The revolution now began to “devour its own children.” Carranza had long been suspicious of Villa, and Villa rebellious at the exercise of any authority over him by the First Chief. He remained in his Depart- ment of the North, recruiting his army, when Carranza marched with Obregon into Mexico City. A convention was called at the capital, but it lacked representatives from the armies of Villa and Zapata, and, finding itself under the domination of Carranza, adjourned to Aguas Calientes, where it fell under the con- trol of Villa, whose representatives, with those of Zapata, formed a majority of all. The convention unconditionally accepted the resig- nation of Carranza as First Chief, made con- ditionally, elected a Provisional President, and adjourned to Mexico City, which Car- ranza had left after stripping it of its defenses. Villa entered in triumph December 6, 1914, and for the week following reveled in an orgy of lust and blood, proving himself im- possible as the head of the Government. President Wilson, with extraordinary insight and foresight, delivered Vera Cruz, with its precious revenues, to the nearest Carranza general. With Vera Cruz retained by the American army, Carranza would soon have been at the mercy of Villa, made Com- mander-in-Chief by his complacent conven- tion. But with the aid of his still loyal officers, Obregon and Pablo Gonzales, and the Vera Cruz custom-house, Carranza slowly won back the territory he had lost until Obregon defeated Villa in a decisive battle, Villa retiring to the States of the north. 6. Recognition of Carranza. With affairs apparently at a deadlock as between Villa and Carranza, with talk of the division of, Mexico into northern and south- "--_4 ow — = = — rp ra = = oe

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1916 ern nations, the advice of the Latin-American republics was again asked, and it was deter- mined that Carranza should be recognized as the de facto head of the Mexican Government. Evidently President Wilson has faith in the sifting processes of revolution by which the strongest man at last emerges. And recog- nition by the United States has proved as necessary to success as-the withholding of recognition had proved tantamount to defeat, both being important lessons for the Mexican people. Villa degenerated into a_ bandit again, with a few brigands as his followers, while Carranza has again occupied the cap- ital, with nearly all of Mexico acknowledging his authority. He has already put into effect many reforms as military decrees. 7. The Punitive Expedition. The resolve to send our troops into Mex- ico, following the Columbus raid, for the capture of Villa and the dispersion of his RAMSHACKLE COUNTY GOVERNMENT 39 forces seems to have received universal commendation. The invasion of . United States territory and the murder of soldiers and citizens on our own soil demanded swift and effective punishment, which Carranza seemed unable togive. ‘The Senate of the United States passed a resolution by unani- mous vote commending the expedition, and at the same time deprecating any idea of war with the Mexican people. Yet inter- vention may yet be necessary. With Villa eliminated, it may yet have to be decided, as between Carranza and Obregon, which is the stronger man, and civil war may start afresh. But if an American army of occupation must be sent to Mexico, it will have been proved, first, to both countries that it was necessary for the welfare of Mexico ; and, second, to both the Americas that we have gone on a mission of service and not of conquest. RAMSHACKLE COUNTY GOVERNMENT BY RICHARD S. CHILDS Mr. Childs is an original student of governmental problems and is best known in connection with the Short Ballot movement and the Commission-Manager Plan of municipal government. He is now a director of the National Short Ballot Organization. His pioneer article on the short ballot as an instrument of good government was published in The Outlook in 1909. The following article introduces unexplored territory and is his first move in a new campaign for good govern- ment. We are glad to have him select The Outlook again, as he did seven years ago, to be the medium through which he desires to get his views before the general public —TueE Epirors. HE average voter has a lively idea as to what he wants in the way of vil- lage or city government and Na- tional government. His theories as to what the State government ought to do are a little hazier ; but in county government he rarely gets any further than a general conviction that the crowd which runs his dear old party in the county is a little better than the other bunch and that all candidates bearing the label of the former crowd shall therefore be unhesi- tatingly indorsed on election day. Over all the operations of the county gov- ernment lie a great pall of silence and an utter absence of public opinion. If you should attempt to poke around in this dark- some cave with a lantern, you will find that as soon as your light illuminates something interesting, the flame is abruptly smothered. Witness the efforts of a little civic association, the Westchester County Research Bureau, in Westchester County, which lies just north of New York City. When this association began its researches several years ago, its highly interesting revelations of graft and incompetency were received with delight or ridicule, according to the partisanship of the newspapers. Before long, however, both sides learned that the Research Bureau was not intent upon furnishing political capital, but on securing the cessation of certain prac- tices which had always been a source of profit to whichever party happened to be in office. Accordingly both parties soon declared war on the Research Bureau and inaugurated a conspiracy of silence so effective that to reach the people of Westchester with its proposals of reform the Bureau now must resort to send- ing pamphlets to the voters, an exceedingly expensive way of reaching public opinion.

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40 THE OUTLOOK POLITICAL CENSORSHIP On one occasion the head of the Bureau, a prominent lawyer, issued a painfully specific statement regarding the excessive cost of certain books, ledgers, etc., which the county had purchased. ‘There were 110 big indexes worth $20 each, for example, which had been billed to the county at $81.45 ; hundreds of others worth $6 for which $36 had been paid, and so on. Apparently this statement got on the nerves of the men who were bossing the county business, so they caused a suit for libel to be brought against the lawyer and the New York “ Evening Post,” which had pub- lished his statements. The sixty-six little newspapers with which Westchester County is cursed heralded the approach of the trial with noisy satisfaction. The fair name of “our beautiful county ” was to be upheid! This slinger of mud would learn to his cost that he must not make such statements! Westchester County at last read the news that to-day this offensive citizen was to be haled into court to answer for his libel. Then abruptly there was silence Only three of the sixty-six papers in Westchester published the results of that trial, and one of them reversed the facts ! The political machines not only control the press, but the public furnishes the money with which to finance the operation. Westchester County expends each year over one hundred thousand dollars for the publication of political piffle at an exorbitant rate. If there were not so much velvet in this advertising, some of the newspapers no doubt could afford to kick over the traces and set themselves up as a real free press for the enlightenment of the public on county affairs, but it would be pretty hard for such a paper to live when the county is so liberally financing its rival. There was, in fact, one editor in ‘Westchester who received his slice of the county advertising and proceeded to render his bill for it at a fair rate. ‘The other pub- lishers heard of this with dismay and went around to reason with him. He was very stubborn. ‘ No,” he said; ‘“ that is the legal rate, and, what is more, it is exceedingly good pay.” It was explained to him patiently that the county could not very well pay him at that low rate and pay all the other papers at a higher rate; but the editor insisted on spilling the beans, so all the other papers had to suffer the cutting of their bills to the low rate also, to the great regret of all concerned except the recalcitrant editor, who for some strange 3 May reason has never received any advertising from the county since then. SUBSIDIZING THE PRESS By a little intelligent management these subsidies to the press may often be jockeyed up into quite handsome figures. In Suffolk County, for instance, out at the end of Long Island, certain sandy wastes had been marked off in building lots and sold to distant credu- lous investors as suburban property. When the swindle had run its course, these useless lands were abandoned by their owners, and in the course of time they had to be sold for taxes. A few brief notices of the sale would have described the parcels sufficiently for all legal and practical purposes, but the county politicians arranged for a separate notice for each lot, thus running up an enormous series of notices, for which the newspapers rendered bills totaling $108,000, a handsome adver- tising appropriation, considering that it was for the purpose of collecting, if possible, the sum of $34,000 of accrued taxes. Very little of this public advertising is of any value except-to the newspapers that print it. It does not advertise. How utterly useless it may be is illustrated by the fact that corporations when desiring to keep a cranky minority stockholder from making trouble at the annual stockholders’ meetings will exercise the option allowed to them by the law and, instead of mailing a letter to the stockholder, will “advertise’’ their an- nual meeting in order to conceal it from him. Such a notice is as safe from observation as the proverbial needle in the haystack. Various cities save most of such money through the publication by the city itself of a ** City Record,” into which all such notices, so far as the laws permit, are inexpensively put ; but a county gazette is far, far away. Charles E. Hughes has about as much backbone as any Governor ever had, but when it was suggested that he take steps to abolish the printing of the session laws in all the counties of the State it is reported that he smiled sadly and affirmed that there were some things which even he would not venture to tackle unless he was prepared to sacrifice his whole legislative programme. Ofttimes little papers are published solely for the purpose of getting this public adver- tising. Certainly it is an important asset to any paper. ‘The honest rural editor gets a meager living out of his little weekly, but a county politician can come along, buy the

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ney of a 3, SO Dut ; rles eas was the ities iled ome e to > his olely lver- asset gets yut a the 1916 RAMSHACKLE COUNTY GOVERNMENT 41 paper from him, and make a very much better living from it. The publisher can very well afford to make the county boss a present of a nice block of stock or to run free of charge the advertisement of the boss’s private busi- ness if he gets this public advertising. So it comes about that the first practical steps toward the reform’ of- county politics must usually take the shape of an attempt to buy the control of a newspaper and run it uncontaminated by public advertising patron- age—a highly precarious business venture. BEHIND THE CENSORSHIP Now let us lift a corner of this blanket of silence that covers county government and see what we find. The Comptroller of the State of New York has power to send exam- iners to any county to investigate and report upon its financial methods. The law was a dead letter until Mr. Glynn, afterwards Gov- ernor, became Comptroller and secured an appropriation for the salaries of a few exam- iners. They had no difficulty in finding wan- ton:use of the taxpayers’ money in nearly every county, not with criminal intent, to be _ sure, but in a spirit of simple recklessness. They found. irregularities in every. county. They have now covered fifty-seven of them, and the head of: the staff says: ‘‘In nota single county examined has there been found compliance with every provision of law.” In Broome County the county. boss . had so manipulated things that he was able to draw upon the county’s funds for his private benefit whenever he pleased, and he pleased rather often. The unexpected visit of the Comptroller’s examiners caught him with a large shortage and he committed © suicide. ‘The impression which the event made’ upon the people of Broome County was probably quite fairly expressed by his successor in office, who stood before a committee of the Constitutional Convention not long after and asserted that there was no popular unrest in Broome nor any desire to change the system ! Graft in county government is just as old- fashioned as county government itself, just as much behind the times, just as lacking in modern refinement. When you enter county politics, you step back into the days of Tweed. If you protest at things you find, you get the same answer, ‘‘ What are you going to do about it ?””?» And there isn’t much youcan do. When a committee of citizens ventured to ask the treasurer of Cook County, Illinois, to let them see whether the county was get- ting all the interest it should on his balances of $10,000,000 (little details like this net being made public), he refused. ‘They tried to find out what they could do about it, and ended up by publishing a pamphlet. When the treasurer’s term finally expired, they easily obtained signed and detailed promises of reforms from all the thirteen new candi- dates for this post. The winner, the present incumbent, was especially conciliatory. His zeal seems to have petered out, for he fought off a proposed law to make him keep his pledge by getting it amended so as not to take effect until after his term expires in 1918, and he did not let the public into his precious secret at the end of 1915. In 1910 the State examiners went through the affairs of a certain county in the Hudson River district, New York, and reported that the county treasurer was keeping certain fees that belonged to the county. When they came around again in 1914, they found that their 1910 report had not disturbed anybody sufficiently to prevent several thousand dol- lars more from going the same way. In one such case in another county the supervisors loyally voted to the incriminated officer. his. regular salary of $10,000 “ plus such sums as he may have illegally taken in the past.” Which shows. what you can do about it if you try! ANTIQUATED STANDARDS The work of the county has become expert work. In the simple days of our grand- fathers a man of common horse sense could run an almshouse or a county jail or a tax- collector’s office or build a road, and easily achieve the primitive standards of those times. Nowadays the proper care of the unfortu- nates in an almshouse, for instance, is a highly specialized and technical profession. Men and women train for such duties in special schools and make it their life-work. Even such trained social workers will find an almshouse full of unsolved human problems requiring the most elaborate study, though the honest village merchant who takes for a few years the position of superintendent of the poor would not recognize the existence of any problems at all. The untrained visitor to an almshouse sees a clean and airy building containing a varied assortment of unfortunate humanity who are being well fed and kindly treated, and he goes away with a feeling that the county administration is excellent. The

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42 THE OUTLOOK social worker, however, observes epileptics without scientific care, undetected cases of feeble-mindedness, inebriates arid drug vic- tims who are not being trained out of their habits, victims. of tuberculosis without the special system of treatment which their cases require, sufferers fromm chronic diseases, such as heart cases, rheumatism, cancer, and the more sinister ills, cripples who could be taught a trade if there were anybody avail- able who knew how to teach them, and aged poor whose relatives have never been ade- quately looked up, the system for admissions being so lax that practically the county sup- ports any one who applies. All this is not the fault of the superin- tendent of the poor; it is the reasonable result of a ramshackle system of govern- ment. ‘The superintendent is elective ; that guarantees that he will not be an expert, but a local and transient amateur. He is forbidden, to use his common sense by the Legislature, which, in its complicated poor law, provides written rules for every con- tigency, with results that may often be pathetic or ludicrous. Admissions to the almshouse are governed by the easy personal standards of a dozen to ten dozen local offi- cers scattered around the county, the jus- tices of the peace and the overseers of the poor, who have authority to commit to the almshouse. ‘The money to operate the alms- house properly must be solicited from the Board of Supervisors, who, if they choose to make offhand slashes in the requested appro- priation, take no responsibility for the results. AMATEUR PENOLOGY Or take the sheriff’s office. Did you ever hear of a sheriff who was a penoiogist? So the typical county jail isa horror, a school for crime and unnatural sexual vices where men who are innocent, or at, least not vicious, cannot possibly remain without becoming contaminated or callous to things that at the beginning of their incarceration they find re- volting. At Utica a recent scandal brought the sheriff's office into the courts, where it was learned that the jail had seen scenes of open debauchery with women prisoners, officers of the jail, and friends of the latter from outside. The sheriff is commonly compensated by fees. This still survives even in New York County, where the fees net the sheriff $60,000 a year in addition to the comfortable salary of $12,000. Efforts are made from time to time to amend the law and steer these fees 3 May into the treasury, but there is no assurance that the plan would work.. Hudson County, New Jersey, tried that, and, instead of deriv- ing a nice revenue from the sheriff’s office, the county acquired an annual deficit, for patronage multiplied and thrift declined when the fruits of economy were no longer the sheriff’s private perquisites. COUNTY BOUNDARIES Cities change their boundaries incessantly to keep in correct adjustment with shifts of population, but county boundaries remain immutable as they were a hundred years ago, except when one county is divided into two in order to make an extra set of jobs. That is the way Bronx County was erected within the boundaries of, the County of New York. Bronx set up in business separately at a new expense of $700,000 a year, but the expenses of the remaining half of the county have con- tinued undiminished. mi The most offhand study of the county map in any State will disclose many misfits. The county seat is often remote from the center of the county, perhaps down in one corner. Often it is in a little village far from the main routes of modern transportation. Sometimes the county will straddle a mountain range or will in other ways attempt to ignore topog- raphy. In numberless cases the counties are too small in size or in population to be economical and could save a large part of their annual expenses by consolidation. Yet it never seems to occur to anybody to work for a readjustment and modernization of county geography. MISFIT UNIFORMITY The same spirit of complacent stagnation permits the inflexible framework of govern- ment which took its present shape amid the simple conditions of seventy years ago to remain uniform for all kinds and shapes of counties, regardless of differing conditions. One great county has a trifling population scattered over an immense territory, another county may consist of a compact group of little villages, a third will be co-extensive -with a city government, while another is half met ropolitan and half rural, and the framework of county government is identical for all oi them, Any form of organization which attempts to be a common denominator for so many different types of counties ought to be prim itively simple, a mere skeleton, and a mode! fr Dr A Ft A DH FR Ae OR

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1916 so far as it goes. But the framework of county government as laid down in the writ- ten law is no skeleton. A diagram of it looks like a ball of yarn after the cat has got through with it. In its form of organization the typical county is ideally bad. It is almost completely disjointed. Each officer is independent of all the rest, standing on his own separate pedestal of popular election with a full right to tell all the other county officers togoto glory. It 1s like an automobile with a separate motor at every wheel, each going its own gait. Nominally the board of supervisors is at the head of the county because it holds the purse-strings ; but the power of the purse is only partial, inasmuch as a multitude of laws fastens various charges upon the county and sets the salaries of a great many of its sub- ordinate officers. Practically the board’s only power consists of an ability to hamper the other elective officials by making restricted ap- propriations. It has no other real- power to supervise them or to compel them to expend the appropriations with care and discretion. Even if they had the power, the board of supervisors is not properly organized or equipped to handle such a task. The run- ning of a county is a complex administrative problem, requiring incessant and active super- vision ; but the supervisors meet only at stated intervals, quarterly or monthly, for instance, and are in no position to keep continuous oversight over affairs. Frequently the board is too large to be anything but a debating society, anyway. PATCHWORK LEGISLATION So the State Legislature steps in, and every time one county official is impolite to some other county official somebody takes the train to the capital and a new law is passed to rectify the difficulty. In effect these inter- minable minute memoranda, called laws, lay down the office rules of county government and attempt to decree fraternal love among county officers. Witness the plea, made on . behalf of the sheriff of Rensselaer County, exhibited in the title of the following bill, which passed the New York Legislature of 1915: An Act providing for the appointment by the sheriff of Rensselaer County, of an under sheriff, jailers, watchman, matron, cooks, janitors, process servers, firemen, and court officers, and for their compensation and duties. Perhaps the supervisors had been stingy, perhaps the sheriff’s ideas were extravagant, RAMSHACKLE COUNTY GOVERNMENT 43 but the point is that when under the present system two branches of the county govern- ment disagree, this ridiculous spectacle of the State Legislature solemnly enacting a law settling the salary of the cook of a certain county jail exhibits the typical method of relief. This endless legislative tinkering, even if it were always sincerely done, serves its temporary purpose, remains unrepealed and forgotten on the statute-books, and becomes a permanent nuisance. The usual remedy, if a county officer fails to come up to these written requirements, is some kind of a man- damus proceedings or action by the district attorney against the county officer or his bondsman. A county official is lucky if he has a really clear idea of what his own duties are. The much patched and often contradictory stat- utes which are supposed to govern his ad- ministrative procedure in detail are scattered through from three to twenty different gen eral laws. As a rule he is no lawyer, and if he undertook the research ‘his term might end before he was ready for business. Ac- cordingly tradition becomes the guiding star of every county officer, for no matter how slight and innocent a variation he may make from precedent in the interests of efficiency, he is liable to find that he is violating some unheard-of statute. Many of ‘the laws are out of date, anyway, and county officials, revolting at the senseless red tape, often dis- regard them for the sake of the taxpayers. That is why every student of county govern- ment soon finds that the laws in the library give him an incorrect idea of what county officials are doing. To turn back to Westchester County again, which is quoted so often here because it is the most thoroughly explored county government in the United States: the offi- cials of the County Research Bureau, after working for six years in intimate touch with county problems, declare that their county could be run better for less than half the present cost and with half the number of men. But they freely concede that they would not care to undertake it without rad- ical revision of the laws and governmental organization. OBSCURITY AND THE LONG BALLOT No one can peer into the cobwebs of county government without developing the deepest sympathy for the many conscientious and unappreciated public servants who are

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44 THE OUTLOOK trying to operate the present antiquated mech- anism. The same obscurity which protects the crook also prevents good work from being rewarded. Theoretically the public official who does his duty will be promptly supported by public opinion, but the fact is that the people of the county know very little about his official conduct, and if he comes in conflict with some other officer, the people, who con- stitute his only court of appeal, are in no position to determine the merits of the con- troversy. There are so many office-holders to watch that public opinion is baffled and ends by keeping track of almost none of them. ‘The voter has four National officers to select, a dozen State and judicial officers, and a string of township and village or city officials, anywhere from thirty to a hundred altogether, to be elected in the course of a four-year cycle. What chance has this or that county officer to get into the spot- light where his good deeds may be appreci- ated? He is only one of from two hundred to fourteen hundred office-holders who are elective in the county. He is lost in the shuffle. The people of the county may hap- pen to be familiar with his personality—in rural counties they often are—but there still remains the impossible task for them to keep track of his oficial activities and appraise his work, which, of course, is largely technical. The county clerk in New York, for exam- ple, is elected. It is therefore presumably the duty of the people, and of no one else, to see that he performs his duty under the penal law, banking law, lien law, executive law, tax law, fish, forest, and game law, prison law, liquor tax law, domestic relations law, partnership law, public officers’ law, general business law, judiciary law, real property law, legislative law, town law, decedent estate law, and county law! VIOLATES SHORT BALLOT PRINCIPLES County officers, except the governing board, are not in any proper’ sense repre- sentative officers, and democracy gains noth- ing by keeping them in politics. There is no legitimate Republican way or Socialist way or Progressive way of being county clerk or superintendent of highways. A member of New York’s recent Constitutional Conven- tion argued that when the people elected a Republican to build the roads they thereby ordered all the jobs to be transferred to Re- publicans, making the roads all good Repub- lican roads. But he was mistaken. Political 3 May science—there is sucha thing, but no true American will respect it—teaches that no technical office should be elective ; none, in fact, except truly representative offices where the function is to interpret public opinion. Members of the Legislature, Congressmen, aldermen, and county supervisors (or what- ever you call them in your State) should be amateurs, spokesmen for the people, samples of the ignorance as well as of the enlighten- ment of the voters, and from them all the others, the experts, should take their orders. That is the pathway toward efficiency and economy. But it is also the pathway toward the bigger goal of a real democracy that will ‘‘democ.”’ Bossism is notdemocracy. Ring rule is not democracy. Government by a ruling class called “the politicians ” is not democracy. And county government is not democracy—it doesn’t “* democ.” County government, on the contrary, is ideally designed to resist popular control. One way of concealing a public officer from effective public scrutiny is to make his office so smai/ that it will inevitably fail to command public attention. A second way is to have so many elective officers that the public cannot possibly keep track of them all. A third way to baffle the public is to divide the responsibility, so that each public officer under attack can excuse him- self on the ground that the necessary co-opera- tion of some other officer was lacking. County government involves the liberal use of all three of these expedients; and so, in spite of its superficial aspect, the county is the least demo- cratic of all our political divisions. Indeed, it is a standing menace to democ- racy. Theunorganized citizenry cannot operate the present complex, rusty instrument. By always requiring a greater amount of popular participation in government than the citizens are willing to furnish, it removes itself beyond the grip of the rank-and-file voters and lapses into the hands of the political machines. If the citizens of a given county want to displace the dominant political machine, they can do so only by the expedient of building up another machine to supplant it, and the new machine, like the old one, will continue to be the real guiding force in county affairs, selecting the public officers and telling them what to do. In fact, the private political machine, simple, well unified, and efficient, but powerless to resist the intrusion of corrupt men, has often been the one element of strength to the official county government by compelling

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1916 some degree of harmony among the latter’s disorganized elements. THE PROSPECT OF PROGRESS County reform is in its infancy. There is no State in the Union which has worked out a good system. ‘The embryo County Gov- ernment Association of New York State is the only such association in the country. There is no one who is prepared to advance a plan for a model county government. A satisfactory solution of the many prob- lems can be worked out only by a steady process of evolution, under conditions that give scope for experiment, free from need- less Constitutional restrictions. The counties must be free to advance individually and not in perpetual lockstep. Let the more progres- sive counties feel their way cautiously forward, to be followed by the others when the value of a given step is clearly proved by experience. The path of progress will surely be in the general direction of unification and simplifi- cation. Some of the elective officers must be transferred to the appointive list, and those who remain elective must be built up in power, influence, and conspicuousness until they command the discriminating attention of the electorate. The ballot must not continue to be too long to remember, but must be shortened sufficiently to come within the complete oversight of the voters. Responsi- bility must be clearly located. The county must be given a definite head. The limbs and the body must be joined together and put under the easy control of a brain. Not otherwise can the people of a county secure RAMSHACKLE COUNTY GOVERNMENT 45 - an organism that will be an effective and obedient servant. California took a hopeful step three years ago by allowing its counties to draw up char- ters of their own just as the cities did. Three counties have taken advantage of the oppor- tunity, Los Angeles in particular making the notable improvement of getting thirteen offi- cers off the elective list, and making local politics notably simpler and more popularly understandable. The People’s Power League in Oregon, authors of the initiative and referendum in this country, have a scheme for mowing down their county jungle and substituting simplicity and directness by erect- ing a small elective commission which will hire a county manager, who in turn will appoint everybody else except the judge (who remains elective) and the prosecuting attorney (whom the Governor is to appoint). That line of progress is also indicated by the experience of cities in which the twin principles of the short ballot and the unification of powers have fructified in the commission- manager plan of government. There are now thirty-six cities operating under that plan, and there will be hundreds within the next five years. The plan requires modification to fit it to counties, and there are difficult constitutional obstacles, but one of these days some county will make a start. County government is the uttermost citadel of our political overlords, the one base of supplies from which they are never ousted. But its very rottenness as an institution guar antees that when it once starts to crumble it will go swiftly !

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“ We can’t go abroad this summer,” says Mrs. Twickembury (the “ Christian Register’s ” Mrs. Malaprop), “and so we have decided to take a transatlantic journey to California.” Mrs. Twickembury will have many fellow-travelers this season, whether she goes (as she might say) in a personally conductored tour or by the indi- vidual travail plan. One of the big automobile companies an- nounces that it will soon turn out one thousand automobiles a day. If these were parked in New York City, two days’ output of the factory would, allowing 6 X 14 feet space for each car, cover entirely with automobiles a vacant lot equivalent in area to the immensely long block inclosed between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Streets. No wonder the railways are congested when they have to carry away such quantities of freight from a single factory ! The lady to whom Shakespeare is supposed to have bequeathed his “ second-best bed ” is clev- erly pictured in “ Life’s ” Shakespeare Number as gazing sourly at her husband through his study door and saying, “ What! scribbling again, William ?” “ William’s ” beseeching eyes as he gazes at the sympathetic reader appeal to the universal love of a humorous situation. Many of the games of Kaffir children, as described by a traveler, are just such “ nice dirt games” as English children would like to play if only their mothers would let them. This observation gives point to a story about little Willie and John published in “ The Pathfinder.” “My mother don’t care how much I run over the kitchen floor,” said John to Willie on a rainy day when Willie’s mother had forbidden the play- mates to cross her threshold with their muddy boots. Then Willie said, enviously: “I wish I had a nice dirty mother like you’ve got, John !” A man got into a police station in New York City the other day for trying to sell, on the streets, ten-dollar bills for a dollar apiece. He had probably heard the story that New Yorkers are too skeptical to take up with an opportunity of this sort, and determined to test the theory. A friendly policeman arrestéd him for delaying traffic befpre he had succeeded in selling any of his bargains. Dean Swift’s famous sermon quoted in The Outlook April 12 is not the shortest on record, a readersays. He asserts that the palm belongs to the late Dr. Muhlenberg, who at the funeral of Mr. Robert B. Minturn read the text, ‘* What doth the Lord require of thee,” etc., and deliv- ered this sermon: “So did he.” This beats the Dean’s sermon by eight words. Apropos of the slang words to which the war has given currency, a subscriber sends these notes: The French soldiers call their small can- non “cigares,” the larger ones “ pipes” a bayo- 46 BY THE WAY net is called “cu7ze-dents” (toothpick); bullets, “ pruneaux.” Another reader writes that the word “ doche,”. concerning the derivation. of which there has been much discussion, is said to have been applied to German soldiers in 1870-1 exactly as now, and that it appears in Zola’s celebrated story of the Franco-Prussian War, “Le Débacle” (The Downfall). Brantford, Canada, feels that her title, ‘‘ The Telephone ; City,” is assailed in the tablet recently-set up in Boston reading “ Here the telephone was born, June 2, 1875,” though Dr. Aijexander Graham Bell, the telephone’s inventor, apparently sanctioned the tablet by his presence at its unveiling. The Toronto “ Globe” says: “The telephone was devised in Brantford in 1874. and made in Boston in 1875.” The instru- ment’s anterior history, our Canadian friends may discover on reflection, is suggested in the tablet’s word “born.” Why should not Brant- ford generously make a tablet of its own, in- scribed: “ The telephone: conceived in Brant- ford, born in Boston, arrived at full stature in America, and became a traveler thence all over the world ”? Eighty per cent of the best-known players are now acting before the camera instead of befere audiences, says Robert Grau in the “ Dramatic Mirror.” Most. of these are probably in Los Angeles, where it is said that there are over a hundred companies engaged in producing mov- ing-picture plays.. Tommy Atkins, according to William J. Robinson in “My Fourteen Months at the Front,” is very fond of pets, and finds room for them even in the trenches. “The Tommies,” he says, “keep canaries, rats, mice, dogs, cats, goats, and even pigs, and they will go hungry themselves rather than see the object of their affections want for anything. On the march if they get tired they may throw their equipment away, but 1 never heard of one yet who would give up his mascot.” The passion for games of chance, says Mr. Robinson, shows itself in a curious way in what the soldiers call “trench pools.” A group of ten men who expect to go into action each put ten francs (two dollars) into the hands of some one behind the lines. This money is to be divided evenly among the men who live to get back. “It was the only gamble I ever saw,” says the narrator, “ where you couldn’t lose. If you came out safely, you were bound to get your own money back, at least.” Hardly a gamble. . The American War Risk Bureau has written policies amounting to $110,000,000 for war risks on American ships and cargoes and has earned prerhiums of $2,200,000. All losses, it is stated, have been paid out of the premiums, and the $5,000,000 appropriated by Congress for that purpose remains untouched. lat we in hac Me the anc alir this fori bee Erz cap gre: hun Tre part furt ture ing Alli any we Frei both