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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga.
Shall Pride and Partisanship
reck the Peace Treaty?
PRESIDENT WILSON’S latest word on
the Peace Treaty is heartening to his
enemies, but It is sorely fflsappoint
ing to his friends. It kills for a year at
least, if not forever, the hope of a ser
viceable agreement on the high qu&stions
and high interests involved, and thrusts
the issue into the tangles of a partisan
campaign, just as the Treaty’s foes have
long desired. What the Bitter Enders in
the Senate have schemed for from the out
set and what steadfast believers in a League
of Nations have sought by every manner of
means to prevent, the President himself has
brought to pass. He has locked the door on
reasonable compromise, and thrown away the
key. Sad truth to tell, he has joined the
Irreconcilables.
The pity of it all is first for the humani
tarian purposes which thus are blocked—
though not crushed, let us hope. The Jour
nal shares Mr. Wilson’s idea, as far as the
deeper aims of the international covenant
are concerned, that they should be consid
ered “in the light of what it is possible to
accomplish for humanity rather than in the
light of special national interests;” for how
better can we insure our own prosperity and
peace and fruitful freedom than by doing a
great nation’s part to make justice and good
will the law of the world. Certain it is that
if ever America becomes indifferent to the
claims of humanity, she will have lost the
vision of her founders and the breath of her
true being.
But surely it is not for one man alone to
say— : to the exclusion of all other counsel,
even the friendliest—on just what terms and
by just means those claims shall be met.
Liberal minds the country over, and indeed
throughout the world, agreed that a League
of Nations should be established to fortify,
and promote the great human interests in
whose defense the war was waged. But when
it comes to framing and ordering such a
League, there is naturally a divergence of
of opinion. The covenant which President
Wilson brought back from Paris represents
what was then the most wrokable plan on
which he and the others at the peace table
could agree. But it did not represent the only
conceivable plan by which the purposes con
cerned could be accomplished. It was not
a Decalogue whose every syllable was sacred;
it was not a Revelation, to change one let
ter of which would be impious. It was a
human document, regarding which there was
bound to be a variety of views among men
who were sufficiently in earnest over it to
think for themselves. We are speaking now,
not of the Borahs and Reeds, but of earnest
supporters of the League principle—such as
President Lowell, of Harvard; former Pres
ident Taft, Herbert Hoover, most of the Demo
cratic Senators, many of the Republicans and
also the broadest thinkers in Allied coun
tries. Men like these, being more intent upon
the spirt than the letter of the League con
stitution, have stood ready to accept such
reservations as were necessary to secure a
ratifying majority in the Senate. They were
willing, it is true, to take the Treaty exactly
as the President submitted it; they consid
ered some of the proposed reservations need
less and others ill advised. But rather than
see the great compact defeated and the high
hopes of humanity cast down, rather than
see peace delayed another tyelvemonth,
while the issues on which it hung were
dargged into the scuffle and muck of a par
tisan campaign, these friends of the Treaty
put pride of opinion behind them and worked
self-forgetfully for reconciliation and results.
• The President’s most grievous error, as
we see it, lies in his having turned his back
upon these his wisest counselors and faith
ful friends. That his motives are of the high
est order, we do not question; but they are
nevertheless likely to prove fatal to the
very cause for which hitherto he has so no
bly and sagaciously striven, unless there
comes at the eleventh hour some saving
stroke of concession and adjustment. That
the President considers the Treaty the most
fortunate issue upon which the Democratic
party can wage its 1920 campaign, is evi
dent; and some observers infer that he plans
to make the fight in person, seeking a third
term nomination. But if ever there was a
political certainty it is that the Democratic
party can ill afford, as a matter either of
expediency or of principle, to go before the
country with a record of having sacrificed
peace and international stability to partisan
ship or to pride. It matters not that Repub-
Jican leadership is grealy to be censured and
that the Republican organization has proved
its utter lack of constructiveness. The fail
ures and wrongs of others, conspicuous
though they are, will not exculpate the Dem
ocrats if they also join in the procedure
which sends the Treaty to death and the
League of Nations to history’s junk heap.
The American people will hold neither party
guiltless that has a hand in such an out
come; rather they will condemn those who
were too proud to compromise along with
those who were too partisan to forget their
enmity toward the Administration.
The hour has struck for independent ac
tion by the Democrats of the Senate, action
which at least will give their party a clear
record and which may spare their country
grievous disappointment and confusion. They
should take the peace issue courageously in
to their own hands, effect an .agreement with
the Republicans who are for reservations
that will not nullify the League covenant,
and thus secure the ratification of the Treaty.
For what next may occur the President alone
will be responsible. What the Democratic
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
Senate and the Democratic party must decide
for themselves is this; shall they, or shall
thev not, save a Treaty and a League cove
nant which, while it is not all they wish,
represents a vast gain for justice and human
ity? Shall they seize the substance of a mag
nificent opportunity for serving America and
mankind, or, letting this go, pursue a shad
ow? Shadowy indeed will be the hope of rat
ifying any League covenant if the present
occasion is lost; for not unless there should
be elected, in addition to a Democratic Pres
ident, an overwhelmingly Democratic Senate
whose members would approve the Treaty
letter and for letter and comma for comma
as the President directed—not unless this
virtual impossibility came to pass, would we
be a jot nearer a settlement in March, 1921,
than we are today. The Allies have indicated
their readiness to accept such Treaty reser
vations as a majority of the Senate will sup
port, so that no complications are to be ex
pected from a foreign quarter. Plainly, then,
it is the duty of the Senate Democrats —their
party duty, their patriotic duty, their human
iarian duty—to strike boldly and unitedly
forth for ratification. If this involve a. break
ing away from Presidential leadership, the
interests at stake abundantly warrant it; for
when loyalty to a person means recreance to
a principle, thinking men need not hesitate.
Chairman Flynt's Disclaimer
Os Desire to Be Arbitrary.
THE public welcomes the statement of
Chairman Flynt, of the Georgia Dem
ocratic Executive Committee, that he
and his colleagues do not wish to be arbi
trary in making regulations for the Presi
dential primary. Their sole object, he de
clares, is to do what is best for the party
and for the principles to which it is devoted.
This, we are sure, is the sole object of the
Democratic press and people of the State in
appealing for a modification of one of the
Committee’s rules which strikes them as be
ing ill advised and as encroaching upon
important civic rights. If, then, the Commit
tee and the party’s protesting rank and file
are seeking the same end, surely they can
adjust their present differences and go fra
ternally together.
We can see the Committee’s point of view
and understand how' certain assumptions
would prompt it to order certain restric
tions in the April primary. We can but feel
however, that if the Committee will take
for a moment the voter’s point of view and
change its base of assumptions from that of
the man in the race to that of the man at
the polls, it will see the merit of the pop
ular contention. That is to say, the question
is, not what are the rights of Herbert
Hoover or of any one else proposed as a
candidate, but what are the rights of the
Democratic voters themselves? If it were
merely a matter of justice to a candidate,
the Committee’s position would have aroused
little or no discussion. But it Is a matter
of justice to the people, and therein lies the
gravity of the issue.
Democrats who have fought the party’s
battles, preached the party’s gospel, lived
the party’s principles, voted the party’s tick
et and honored the party’s name from the
day they were twenty-one are entitled as
suredly to consideration at the hands of the
Democratic Executive Committee, as Chair
man Flynt and his associates will heartily
agree, we are sure. Well, one hundred and
thirty-two Hall county Democrats, among
others, of this very character have petitioned
the Committee requesting that the name of
Herbert Hoover be put on the Presidential
primary ballot. On that petition are the sig
natures of Democrats of stanchest loyalty
and highest standing. For example:
Hon. J. B. Jones, Judge of the circuit.
J. G. Collins, Solicitor General.
W. A. Charters, ex-solicitor general.
Hammond Johnson, Mayor of Gaines
ville.
R. B. Mitchell, ex-Mayor of Gainesville.
J. B. Rudolph, ex-mayor of Gainesville.
W. A. Palmour, ex-mayor of Gainesville.
John A. Pierce, Aiderman.
C. R. Allen, ex-alderman.
R E. Andoe, Clerk of Council.
. Hon. A. C. Wheeler, Judge of City Court
of Hall County. , „ x _
W. D. Whelchel, Judge of Court of Or
dinary.
W. A. Crow, sheriff.
John L. Gaines, ex-sheriff.
J. D. Underwood, Commissioner of Educa
tion. „ , • .
R. W. Smith, Clerk Superior Court.
T. H. Robertson, President Board of Edu
cation. .
John H. Hosch, President Chamber of
Commerce. „
C. N. Davie, Chairman Democratic Exe
cutive Committee of Hall County.
J. O. Adams, former Senator from Dis
tri presidents of all the Banks, nearly every
lawyer, nearly every doctor, and the head of
every important business in Gainesville.
It is against Democrats like these—thou
sands of them throughout the State—that
the Committee’s rule as it stands would work
grievous injustice; and it is in behalf of
Democrats like these that the press of Geor
gia, with unexampled unanimity is appeal
ing.
As Chairman Flynt, speaking for him
self and his associates, says it is in no wise
the Committee’s wish to be arbitrary, so The
Journal, speaking for itself and expressing,
we feel sure, the common mind of all of its
contemporaries who are enlisted in this
cause, assures the Committee that it is in no
wise the wish of the newspapers to be dic
tatorial. It is solely an interest in popular
rights and Democratic principles that impels
them to join with the people in asking an
abrogation of a rule which violates those
rights and principles. It is earnestly to be
hoped, therefore, that the Committee will
follow up its Chairman’s welcome statement
with appropriate action.
America's Basic Industry
Centers on the Southland
AMERICA’S greatest investment is not
in manufacturing establishments
nor railways, nor mines and quar
ries, nor in all these combined. It is in
farms. Ten years ago these farms repre
sented a capital aggregate of forty-one bil
lion dollars; today they are conservatively
reckoned at more than fifty-one billions. It
is highly significant, moreover, that while
the increase in agricultural values went
steadily forward from 1860 to 1890, during
the next decade the gain was “greater than
the entire accumulation of farm property in
all the preceding years of our history.”
The phrase quoted is from a booklet by
the Guaranty Trust Company of New York,
entitled “Our Basic Industry.” Funda
mental to all commerce, all industry and all
finance, is agriculture—the staff of the
world, the stay of civilization. True though
this has been from the days when Joseph
hooverized for Egypt and from ages far
earlier, it is only within recent times that
business has come fairly to reckon its de
pendence on the plow. The example of so
great a financial institution as the Guaranty
Trust Company’s interesting itself, not mere
ly in the products and prices of the farm,
but in the very life and progress of things
agricultural, is indeed heartening—the more
so in that it is the rule rather than the ex
ception among thoughtful leaders of busi
ness the nation over. The result will be. and
indeed alre’ady is, a helpful understanding
betw.een urban and rural forces, and a co
operation that will make for the strengthen
ing of the entire‘economic structure.
It is not only in economics, however, that
the farm stands out as fundamentally im-
TWO KINDS OF AMERICANS —By Frederic J. Haskin
HABANA, Cuba, Feb. 28.—The other
night in a crowded case we witnessed a meet
ing between two family parties of Cubans
who were evidently old and dear friends long
separated. They greeted each other in the
emotional Cuban manner, everybody embrac
ing everybody else. The men embraced each
other as well as the women, laying cheek
to cheek and hammering each other on the
back with vehemence and a loud thumping
noise, after the fashion of a ring fighter de
livering a kidney punch in a clinch. There
was one fine old gentleman with white hair
and long white moustache who was espe
cially enthusiastic in his greetings, and one
could see that some of the younger members
of the party were a trifle embarrassed by his
heroic caresses, glancing around and appear
ing ill at ease.
And they had some right to feel ill at
ease, for all of the Americans in the cafe—
meaning by Americans, citizens of the Uni
ted States—regarded this exhibition of a
charming local custom as a free show. They
all stopped eating to look on, and they all
laughed openly, as though this was the
funniest thing they had seen in a long time.
The incident illustrated the fact, which is
so apparent here, that there is very little
sympathy or understanding or natural hu
man intercourse between the Latin-Ameri
can and the Anglo-American. Here in Cuba,
just ninety miles from his native land, in a
country which his own country helped to set
free, where the memory of Theodore Roose
velt is worshiped, where the government is
modelled after our own, the man from the
United States finds himself none-the-less in
an utterly foreign country. He would scarce
ly feel at home if he went to Abyssinia, or
Thibet. He has absolutely nothing in com
mon with these fellow-Americans of his, ex
cept that he belongs to the same species of
mammal. There are some ten thousand North
American residents in Habana and nearly
twice that many visitors; yet it is a rare
thing to see Cubans and Americans together
on the streets or in the cases.
And the thing which impresses you is that
these two kinds of Americans, who share the
ownership of a hemisphere, are kept apart
chiefly by such superficial differences as
those of language and social custom. No
doubt there are some fundamental differ
ences, too, but it is the superficial ones which
prevent the two from really knowing each
other. If they can speak and associate to
gether, men can thrash out and settle the
most profound differences of politics, reli
gion and point of view; but if they cannot
understand each other’s remarks or tolerate
each other’s manners, they remain eternally
foreign to each other.
Now the Cuban’s manners are very strange
to the American. The Cuban is at once more
polite and less hypocritical. He is much less
frank in telling you what he thinks, and
much more so in showing what he feels.
It is most interesting, for example, to
compare the evening promenade on the
Prado here with the similar event which
takes place every warm afternoon on Fifth
avenue in New York, or F street in Washing
ton, and in a less pretentious and formal
way in a host of other cities. In point of
fact, this promenade is one of the immemo
rial and universal customs. You find some
form or tract of it almost everywhere, and
even in villages of no more than a thousand
souls there is usually a certain hour when
the girls go for a walk and the fellows gath
er in front of the drug stores to watch them
go by.
This mutual interest of the sexes in each
other is the real motive, of course, in all
these promenades, from the least to the
greatest. But in the United States our tra
ditional Puritan hypocrisy makes it incum
bent upon us to conceal the fact that we walk
down Fifth avenue mainly to look at the
girls. If a man wants to stop and look at -a
woman on Fifth avenue, it is customary for
him to stall in front of a shop window and
pretend to look at the goods before he turns
his eyes toward the real object of his inter
est. This explains why so many men are
found absent-mindedly looking at window
displays of millinery and ladies’ footwear.
The Cuban feels under no obligation to
conceal his interest. When a young woman
HOOVER’S LEADERSHIP
(The Progressive Farmer.)
The professional politicians generally want
a thick-and-thin party man, and so are
averse to Hoover. But among the common
people there is an insistent and imperious
Hoover sentiment. Mr. Hoover voted for Wil
son and also asked the country to elect a
Democratic Congress in 1918. Nevertheless,
he is not a politician, but a servant of hu
manity, and he could doubtless poll a larger
part of the independent vote of the country,
especially the woman vote, than any other
Democratic candidate now in sight. The in
dependent vote will not unlikely decide the
election; and we may note here that by No
vember women will almost certainly be vot
ing in every state in the Union. Thirty-two
of the 48 stated of the Union have already
ratified the national woman suffrage amend
ment, and it is almost certain that the four
more necessary will be found long before
November.
Mr. Hoover’s declaration of principles has
made a strong appeal to the average Ameri
can. He wants a square deal for labor, and
a government free from control by wealthy
and powerful interests, but on the other hand,
he is fiercely critical of a “slacker” attitude
on the part of labor, and believes strongly
that the government’s place is not to own
and operate industries (with the inefficiency
which he believes goes with politician man
agement), but to so regulate and control in
dustry as to insure a square deal both for
labor and the public.
Mr. Hoover is criticized by some wheat
and hog farmers who think he should have
fixed higher wheat and hog prices during the
war; but many agricultural authorities de
clare that no other statesman has a better
understanding and appreciation of the great
national and international problems which
confront the American farmer. Like McAdoo,
he grew up as a poor farmer boy and knows
the farmer’s problems from actual Contact
with them. And certainly no American has a
better understanding of the great world prob
lems which the future, both of America and
the world, demand that our next President
shall handle with great wisdom and ability,
portant. Its social concern also bulks large
in the nation’s total interests. Consider the
fact that almost a third of our population,
or upwards of thirty million people, are
farm-dwellers, and that some twenty mil
lion more live in villages of fewer than
twenty-five hundred inhabitants. Districts
that contain nearly half of all the men,
women and children within the country’s
bounds are entitled assuredly to unstinted
service in the matter of highways, sanitation,
schools, churches and all else that goes to
enrich the common life. Moreover, to the
extent that these services are provided, the
human appeal of the farm will equal its
economic importance, and there will be a re
versal of the cityward drift, with its serious
impairment of productive sinew.
If farming is America’s basic industry,
then beyond question Georgia and her neigh
bors of the South are America’s basic com
monwealths. For it is in this region that
agriculture finds, not only its largest gains
of recent decades, but also its most liberal
promise. Here, on the soil where seed
time breaks earliest and the harvest moon
scatters late: t gold, lie the chief riches and
power of the times to be.
who pleases his eye passes him on the Prado,
he stops, turns around, crosses one foot over
the other, leans on his cane, and contem
plates her charms as long as he pleases. He
may even call over a friend and the two
discuss the lady at some length. If they are
very young, they may follow her, and with
out making any effort actually to approach
her, they may seek in a variety of ways to
amuse her and to attract her attention. For
example, one gifted young gallant was seen
to amuse his “novia” of the moment by run
ning along ahead of her and climbing up on
I some high pedestals intended for statues.
There, with the fine dramatic feeling which
every Latin possesses, he took a variety of
poses. He was alternately Diana, Venus,
Washington crossing the Delaware, and Na
poleon on St. Helena, to the great amuse
ment of all passers-by.
The Cuban senorita smiles and tolerates
all this, for she knows she is safe from any
actual affront. A Cuban gentleman seems
never to approach a Cuban lady on the
street. It simply isn’t done. The visiting
American, observant of the smiling and
complacent air with which the native beauty
endures his curiosity, very often leaps to the
hasty conclusion that he has made a con
quest. Mindful that he is far from home,
with a grand flourish of his brand-new pan
ama hat, he sails up and delivers a broad
side of amateur Spanish, hastily culled from
a vest pocket dictionary. Ten to one the
dark-eyed beauty does not resent this. She
never feels self-righteously impelled to whale
him over the head with an umbrella (she
does not carry such a thing anyway) nor to
run him through -with a hatpin, or even to
call a cop. She magnificently and complete
ly ignores him, without appearing in the
least flustered. He can’t understand it. If
she was a nice lady she ought to have ex
ploded, and if she wasn’t, she ought to have
acquiesced. Darn these geezers anyhow!
The lady from up north finds the Cuban
gentleman equally incomprehensible. He is
gallant, attentive, polished, but he does not
grasp the idea of platonic friendship, and the
long courtship of American custom is not a
thing he can appreciate. On this point the
testimony of the pretty Irish manicurist in a
leading hotel is important. She works in At
lantic City in the summer and in Habana in
the winter. She makes a lot of money and
is a thrifty, careful business woman. Inci
dentally, she goes into society and regards it
as a rare misfortune to pay fdr her own din
ner.
“But I never go out with these Cuban
guys—simply impossible! If you so much as
give one of ’em a date, he imagines you just
can’t resist him—perfectly foolish, I say.
They want a very high polish on their finger
nails, just like a woman. Not for me!”
Thus little things make big differences.
The two kinds of Americans look at each
other with interest across a gulf of differ
ing social custom and language. The customs
and points of view might possibly be adjust
ed if more North Americans would learn
Spanish, and more Latin Americans would
learn English. An international fund ought
to be established to be administered by the
Pan-American union, or some similar body
son the teaching of the languages in all Amer
ican countries. It ought to be possible to es
tablish a system of schools which would
soon become almost or quite self-supporting.
A large percentage of Americans who come
here to make a living, fail because they can
not speak Spanish. How they expect to suc
ceed is a mystery. It is hard even to get any
thing to eat in this town without a little
Spanish. Yet many young men come down
here from the states to look for jobs, who
cannot speak a word of Spanish. Such a
man should have money enough to live un
til he has thoroughly mastered Spanish. Then
he will make a living with ease. In the local
papers, for example, there are always adver
tisements for stenographers who can write
both languages, and they are offered from
$175 to S2OO to start on. Anyone who uses
both languages really well is sure of a good
job in Habana. Furthermore, such a man or
woman is an unofficial diplomat, contributing
a share to the future peace of America, by
helping the two great American races to un
derstand each other.
THE BRAY OF THE ASS
—♦“ I
By Dr. Frank Crane
At Tivoli once, just outside of Rome, I spent
a few weeks. My chamber window gave upon
the main street of the town. There all day
long, up and down, in to market, and back
home, came the peasants, with their little asses
laden heavily.
These asses were the most doleful, shaggy,
sad-faced, long-eared, solemn pictures of servi
tude imaginable. As they ambled along, with
a huge pack basket slung on each side, and a
countryman* behind beating them with a club,
they seemed to typify the world’s burden bear
ers.
When first you hear the ass bray you are
inclined to laugh. No imagination could con
ceive a sound so absurd. It is a masterpiece of
discord, a triumph of the grotesque.
Then it ceases to be funny and begins to
be irritating. You feel that nature is insulting
you. Such dreadful noise ought not to be.
Then you become incredulous. It cannot be.
You must be dreaming. As the negro said,
when he saw at a circus a camel for the first
time, “They ain’t no such anamile.”
Then you understand. You penetrate into
its meaning. You perceive that it is music.
It is the crashing motif of the world’s tragedy.
It is the wild, gargantuan, hideous, gargoyled
theme of creation’s sorrow.
In the canticle of the ass you hear the soul
utterance of ajl galley slaves, of all them that
lie in prisons, of wretched life-flames puttering
out in stinking sweat shops.
Here is the cry of them that built the
pyramids under the taskmaster’s lash, the ant
swarm that erected the Parthenon and the
cathedrals and laid out the gardens of Hadrian’s
villa; of all those sons of Ham laboring with
blistered backs in tropic fields, collecting ivory,
digging diamonds and gold; of the imbruted
multitude that shovel the coal into furnaces and
hew the wood and draw the water that their
pampered brothers may laugh and grow fat; of
that myriad who have nothing to sell but their
flesh and blood.
Always the superstructure of the earth’s
magnificance has rested upon the foundation
of misery, our silks and satins and champagne
have flowered with roots deep in human sweat
and toil.
And lest humanity should forget the hidden
agony of the many, God mut into the mouth
of the meekest of his creatures this misshapen
song, this thunderous, twisted dissonance of the
cosmic woe.
In time’s vast aratorio, listen to the music
of the ass, to which the apostle wrote the
words, “For the whole creation groaneth and is
in travail together until now.”
One tarlike soul “descended into hell;” that
is, he went among the cellar people of the
world and spoke hope; he loved them, took
their children upon his knee and blessed them.
So he eternally disturbs the world, and shall,
until at last there is justice “unto this last.”
And when the young Nasarene rode tri
umphant into Jerusalem, while the people spread
their garments before him, and strewed palms,
is it not without significance that he rode,
not on a prancing war horse, but “upon an ass,
and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.”
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.)
“I suppose the big fish got away,” sneer
ed the indolent acquaintance.
“Os course,” rejoined the true fisherman.
“They have learned to know me. Any full
grown fish around here hides as soon as 1
step into a boat.” u _
THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1920.
THE TRI-WEEKLY EDITORIAL DIGEST
A National and Non-Partisan Summary of Leading Press Opinion on Current
Questions and Events
THE MEANING OF COLBY’S APPOINT-,
MENT.
The appointment of Bainbrige Colby to suc
ceed Robert Lansing as secretary of state was
a great surprise. His name had not been
mentioned in connection with the vacancy.
People are still wondering what this unex
pected choice signifies.
Yet the BIRMINGHAM NEWS (Dem.)
finds it “not such an amazing thing after all,”
regarding it as “another revelation of the
breadth and bigness of the president in seek
ing to solidify the progressive forces of Amer
ica into a teamwork that shalh assure the
continuation of democracy in this country.”
For, as the NEW YORK TRIBUNE (Rep.)
reminds us, “Mr. Colby was a Republican up
to 1912 and a Progressive from 1912 to 1916.
In the election of 1916 he actively supported
Mr. Wilson against Mr. Hughes.” Thus “his
public career,” in the view of the SPRING
FIELD REPUBLICAN (Ind.), “has demon
strated that he possesses the power of inde
pendent judgment” and, therefore, “he will
prove exactly the kind of man the president
does not want.”
Political significance is naturally sought in
this appointment. It seems to many to be a
play for the Progressives. The MEMPHIS
COMMERCIAL APPEAL (Dem.) says, “The
men who went off with Roosevelt in 1912
are today more at home in the Democratic
party than in the Republican party under
Lodge, Knox, Penrose, Brandegee, Mondell
and Gillett.” The NASHVILLE BANNER
(Ind.) likewise thinks “it may be a good
move politically to give this recognition to
a former Progressive at the beginning of a
new political campaign,” and the JERSEY
JOURNAL (Ind„ Rep.) dooks upon it as a
“warning to the coming Republican conven
tion that mere reaction may not be sufficient
for it to carry the coming campaign.”
The WHEELING REGISTER (Dem.) on
the other hand voices the disappointment of
many papers of its party that the president
did not select an out-and-out Democrat.
“Many a capable and deserving Democrat,” it
says, “would have been more than willing to
serve. The Colby appointment is almost as
serious a mistake as the Lansing dismissal.”
Similarly the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
(Ind. Dem) believes it will be felt that “the
president has overlooked several men with
better training for the office in order to pick
this former disciple of Theodore Roosevelt.
Like other recent cabinet selections, this one
is evidently not dictated by ordinary politi
cal considerations.”
Others, such as the BRIDGEPORT POST
(Ind.), seek a motive outside of internal
politics. The POST recalls that “Lord Grey
wrote a letter very embarrassing to the pres
ident’s stand on the treaty, very comforting
to those who were breaking away from Pres
ident Wilson’s leadership,” and “now we get
a new secretary of state, who, whatever else
he may be, is decidedly cold toward Great
Britain.” He is “a twister of the lion’s tail,”
the POST adds, and “was one of the leaders
against the repeal of the Panama canal tolls,
and at that time voiced in the bitterest words
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
John McCormack, “America’s singing sol
dier,” so described for his work in war bene
fits, has received a gold medal from the
American Legion of New York county at a
benefit concert given at the Hippodrome.
General John J. Pershing attended as the
chief guest. The medal is a replica of the
American legion button, engraved with a
statement of appreciation.
Engraved certificates were presented to
Miss Mary Garden, prima donna; Coles Phil
lips, artist, and Mark A. Luescher, manager
of the Hipprodrome for Charles Dillingham.
Mr. McCormack has raised $540,000 for
various war service organizations. The others
have been giving material aid in the Ameri
can Legion membership wrive. General
Robert Alexander, formerly commander of
the Seventy-seventh division, now stationed at
Dfcidison barracks, Scakett Harbor, N. Y.,
made the presentations.
A dispatch from Paris says the war crimi
nals commission has decided to send to Ger
many the names of forty-six men for trial be
fore the German courts. This, it is an
nounced, will be a test of good faith upon
which the allies have agreed.
The list, with a covering note of consider
able length, has been drawn up and will be
sumitted to the supreme council. It is ex
pected it will be forwarded to Berlin within
the week.
The British, selected the names of seven ac
cused, mostly for submarine atrocities;
France selected twelve, Belgium fifteen and
Italy, Poland and Rumania four each.
The work of the police boat Patrol is fin
ished. For twenty-seven years the little
steamer fought river pirates, extinguished
waterfront fires and preserved order along
New York’s 597 miles of river, harbor and
ocean front, saved lives, rescued drifting
boats, guarded t ammunition x barges from
spies, welcomed troops home and performed
multitudinous other services that no one
would suspect were tasks of the police. But
now a bigger and, on paper at least, a bet
ter boat is replacing her. It was the police
boat Patrol which, with engine clanking and
clattering and shaking thin walls of her cor
roded bullet-dented hull, stood by the
stranded Princess Anne off Rockaway Point
on February 7 and took aboard the thirty
two passengers and twenty-eight members
of the crew of the Old Dominion liner
whom the brave men of the coast guard had
been powerless to save.
An attempt was made a few mornings ago
to assassinate Stephen Friedrich, former pre
mier, and minister of war in the present
Hungarian cabinet at Budapest.
Several shots were- fired afr the war min
ister’s motor car as he was crossing the
Elizabeth bridge shortly before noon. Herr
Friedrich was not injured, however.
The war minister’s asasilant escaped in
an automobile held in readiness.
Raymond Poincare, formerly president of
France, evidently does not intend to be idle.
In addition to his duties as senator, his law
practice and his work as president of the
Reparations commission—big tasks in them
selves —he has accepted a magazine “job.’’'
He is to be foreign affairs chronicler of the
Revue des Deux Mondes and general political
writer. Foreign affairs enter largely into the
scope of this fortnightly publication.
In this work M. Poincare succeeds Charles
Benoist, one of the best known French writers
on these topics, who has accepted the post of
Minister of France in the Netherlands.
A dispatch from Berne says adherence to
the League of Nations by Switzerland was
approved by the Swiss National Council the
vote standing 114 to 55.
This decision does not bind this country
to enter the League, but constitutes a recom
mendation for a plebiscite to be held during
April or May, in which the people will voice
their desires.
The National Council was asked to ap
prove Switzerland’s entrance to the League
by the government a few days ago, after it
had been decided to abandon what were
his suspicion that President Wilson (then in
his first term) was pro-British.” This view
is supported by the CHICAGO EVENING
POST (Ind.), which declares that “in those
circles disposed to regard Great Britain with
distrust, if not with enmity, Mr. Colby is
said to have friends not a few,” while the
DETROIT JOURNAL (Ind. Rep.) thinks the
president “has thrown a rich sop to William
Randolph Hearst, whose political pet and
mouthpiece Colby has been.” But the MON
TREAL STAR, looking at the matter, of
course, from a British point of view, is not
alarmed. It says;
“Mr. Colby’s association with Mr. Hearst In
one or two undertakings leads to some fear
that he is not unprejudiced against Great
Britain. This fear is not well founded, how
ever justified it might seem to be in view of
the vicious and immoral anti-British cam
paign now emanating from the Hearst press
organization, Mr. Colby’s statement that he
is in accord with all of Mr. Wilson’s policies,
including the League of Nations, shows that
he is as fair game as is the president for
the venom of Mr. Hearst.”
Naturally the manner of Mr. Lansing’s
going, and the president’s declaration that he
wanted a t secretary whose “mind would more
willingly go along” with his, have caused
many to wonder if Mr. Colby will be con
tent to be a “rubber stamp.”
“On this matter,” the SEATTLE TIMES
(Ind.) says, “there is room for. a difference
of opinion—such a difference of opinion, for
instance, as Mr. Colby displayed when he re
fused to follow Colonel Roosevelt in support
ing Hughes;” and that LOS ANGELES EX
PRESS (Ind.) thinks the appointment
“would indicate that if Mr. Wilson ever re
garded cabinet officers as merely ministerial
clerks he has corrected the philosophy of his
thoughts, for Colby is not a man to serve
as a lay figure for any one.” The EMPORIA
GAZETTE (Ind.) agrees with this estimate:
“he is not the kind of man,” it says, “to be
used by the president as an errand boy.” -The.
BALTIMORE AMERICAN (Rep.), however,
ascribes the choice to the “well-nigh ineradic
able tendency of the president to turn to those
who are personal supporters rather than party
promoters,” and the SAN FRANCISCO
CHRONICLE (Ind.) is satisfied that “Mr.
Colby qualifies as a rubber stamp, all right,”
and that “he will do as he is told without
any back talk,” which “is what the president
wants.”
Some think, as the CHRONICLE does, that
there will be opposition in the senate to the
confirmation of this appointment “on the
ground of the incompetence of the nominee.”
We are reminded by the INDIANAPOLIS
STAR (Ind. Rep.) that “his appointment to
the shipping board was confirmed only after
a bitter fight, and there is nothing to indicate
he is more popular with the senate than he
was then.” Moreover, “this new post for
which he is named is of vastly more con
cern,” according to the BUFFALO NEWS
(Rep.), “and his qualifications will be care
fully scrutinized before he passes muster, if
he passes at all.”
known as the “American clauses,” by which
Switzerland would delay action until the
United States senate had ratified the Treaty
of Versailles, a part of which is the cov
enant of the League of Nations.
Speaking in the house of commons, Ot
tawa, ' Canada, recently, W. Feockshutt,
Unionist member of Brantford and a promi
nent manufacturer, expressed the opinion
that a large part of the prevalent unrest was
attributable to the fact that peace was not
really here. He drew attention to the situa
tion in the United States, saying that our
neighbors t® the south should be told that
they had no right to involve the other nations
of the world in chaos while they fought out
their political battles.
Counterfeiting has doubled in the last six ,
months, due to circulation ot a greater num
ber of government securities, including fed
eral reserve notes, Chief W. H. Moran, of the
secret service, told the house appropriation
committee recently in asking for increased
appropriations for rounding up counterfeit
ers. Raising of federal reserve notes is one
of the most common acts of swindlers, he
said.
The Young Woman’s Christian association
is beginning to broaden out. More than $16,-
000 has been raised during a recent drive;
$43,000 is the subscription for next year’s
budget. The campaign going on now is for
funds to meet current 'expenses of the de
partments during the next year. It is to be
hoped the day will not be far In the distance
when each small town will have a Y. W.
C. A. of it’s own for the benefit of the young
women in each community.
At the request of the Oompagnle Fran
caise du Tourisme, the Bank of France has
decided to issue special travelers’ checks,
called cheques de voyage, for the conven
ience of visitors to this country.
These checks, which will be of 100, 500
and 1,000 francs, will be purchasable in '
all foreign countries at the current rate of
exchange before the traveler sets out, and
will have the value of a Bank of France note
in Paris.
The object in issuing these checks is to
avoid exchange difficulties for tourists and
the loss which frequently attend such trans
actions.
Two earthquakes occurred in the South
Pacific Ocean last Saturday, resulting in the
breaking of both South American cables,
according to information received recently
in Washington, D. C. No further details
have reached here.
An examination of the seismographic rec
ords at Georgetown university disclosed that
both shocks were recorded there, the first,
which was of considerable intensity, at 1:50
p. m. Saturday, and the second at 6:48
p. m. The first continued until 2:25 p. m.
The centres of the disturbances were es
timated at 3.800 miles from Washington.
A report on the breaking of the cables,
both of which were south of Callao, has been
made to the navy department by the cable
companies.
Royalties received by authors, artists, conjr
posers and others cannot be classed as divi
dends and subject to normal tax as well as
surtax, according to a ruling by Internal Rev
enue Commissioner Roper at Washington.
Dividends are subject to taxes paid by the
distributing' company, being a part of the
corporation’s profits, the commissioner ex
plained, while royalties, constituting an ex
pense of the paying concern, are subject to
taxes levied on those benefiting from them.
WASHINGTON, D. C.—The war depart
ment will pay all expenses connected with
the return of dead soldiers from Europe.
This includes transportation by water and
rail, and the delivery of the body to the
home of the next of kin. The Bureau of War
Risk Insurance has ben authorized to pay
funeral expenses of American soldiers up
to SIOO.