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THE TRI WEEKLY JOURNAL
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THE TKI-WEEKLY JOUBX U.. Atlanta. Ga.
The Longworth Proposal.
THE resolution of Nicholas Longworth,
one of the influential Republican mem
bers of congress, seems to have found
a considerable following in the lower house,
although the proposition to make operative
the schedules of the permanent tariff bill im
mediately upon its introduction by the coin
/ mittee to the house, strikes the average
American citizen as one of the most ridiculous
legislative suggestions ever advanced in an
assembly of sane law makers. The house
ways and* means committee shares m Mr.
Longworth’s belief, although congress has not
yet been called on to consider what the uew
schedules shall be.
Think of it. Congress is asked to declare
that from an unknown date, unknown rates
of duty shall be collected under an unknown
law in an unknown way. A more indefinite,
fantastic proposal was never conjured in the
brain of man. Officers of the law are to be
made to enforce provisions of a law that
has not been enacted.
The history of the emergency tariff bill
serves well to illustrate the laborious proc
esses to be served before protective measures
can become laws. Introduced in the tag end
of the Wilson administration, the emergency
tariff bill has just passed and it was a bill
designed to relieve conditions of six months
ago, although the same conditions exist m
more or less acute form at 'the present time.
Chairman Fordney. of the house commit
tee, who has been holding hearings recently,
will introduce a permanent tariff measure
in due time, perhaps. It is to be debated ad
infinitum in the 'house and will be passed
with amendments, representing many com
promises between conflicting industrial inter
ests, and sent to Chairman Penrose, of the
' senate finance committee.
The senator from Pennsylvania will take
charge of the bill, which, under the consti
tution had to originate in the house; the
probabilities are that he will salvage a few
of its inoffensive provisions and open senate
committee hearings which may consume many
weeks of the long and sultry summer. Then
he will rewrite a tariff bill to suit himself
and his party and introduce it in the senate
with a speech of one hour. It will bear no
more resemblance to the house measurb than
Esau did to Jacob, and after interminable
discussion will be passed and sent to con
s erenc©.
% The permanent tariff bill will emerge from
the conference patched up, with a very good
chance' of being amended again by both
houses and sent to a second conference.
Probably it will become a law later on in
the fall.
In the meantime, the importer of merchan
dise is to be asked to pay duties which no
congressman, nor senator, can name and pro
vision for the collection of which could not
be established under law. The Longworth
argument for his measure is that as soon
as the house rates are published “a great
flood of importations will come in during the
' period of discussion of the bill.” and that the
government will suffer from a loss of revenue.
Os course, there is little probability of the
resolution’s being passed. It may not get
through the lower house, but if it does, it
has little chance of surviving in the senate
or even of getting out of the committee there,
but its introduction and consideration by the
house serves to show that some of our “best
minds” often suHer from the intolerable
heat at the eastern end of Pennsylvania
avenue.
Ready for the Long Pull
r-f-iiiERE is every sign ahead that the
month of June will mark the begin
ning of a turn for better commercial
„jd industrial conditions the whole world
jver, and that after a year of uncertainty
and disappointments, a great and growing
era of construction and prosperity will be in
augurated.
Never since the commencement of hostili
ties in 1914 have the skies been so bright
with promise, just as during the intervening
‘ years they were darkest with /the gloom of
uncertainty.
Europe seems more nearly restored to nor
mal than since the armistice. The German
reparations question has been definitely set
tled and a stipulated sum of indemnity agreed
upon by all parties at interest. Furthermore,
dispatches tell us that the Teuton republic
will be ready next week to make their first
payment in gold.
'The Silesian dispute, which for several
weeks threatened to disrupt harmony in the
x Allied councils, seems to have been s amica
bly adjusted by. the vote of confidence which
the Chamber of Deputies gave to Premier
Briand when he took a rather positive stand
against the radical element in the French
Republic which has been demanding the ab
solute annihilation of Germany. The stroke
of the Premier required considerable courage,
and his victory was heartening to the other
Allies as presaging an era of genuine effort
on the part of all the principals of the war
to heal its terrible wounds. To Lloyd George,
the great Welshman, must be given the major
credit of effecting this coup in French poli
tics.
The natural result of this easement in ten
sion abroad is to hearten American finan
ciers, industrial magnates and growers of
thos ; e commodities upon the profitable ex
portation of which the commercial welfare
of the United States depends. This feeling
of optimism in America, has been greatly'
strengthened during the past few days by the
attitude of President Harding and his cabinet
1 in conferences with great banking interests
looking toward the alignment of the re
sources and vast influence of the govern
mental machinery in helping the business
men of the nation restore confidence, turn
4
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
idle wheels and start our ships upon the seas
with American goods for all the ports of the
world.
The plan of the administration, subject,
of course, to, more or less criticism, is to ac
cept long term bonds of the Allies for their
war debt of more than ten billion dollars,
and to extend further loans where they are
needed to rehabilitate industry and commerce
in war-ravaged lands. A saving feature of
these loans will be the stipulation that the
money shall be sppent in the United States
and to purchase products of our farms, fac
tories and mines. It underwrites our agri
cultural and manufacturing prosperity for
years to come, although probably i tmay in
terfere to some extent with the plans of pri
vate banking interests to do the same thing
on a smaller scale.
The revival of the War Finance Corpora
tion, the organization of exporting compa
nies, North, South and West, each in the rel
ative degree of their imoprtance, have helped
materially, but these agencies, however ac
tive and meritorious, could never hope to
accomplish the results which are likely to
follow the action of the government.
Back of it all. however, must be a restora
tion of confidence in all nations, a belief of
man in his fellow man’s integrity, a cessa
tion of bickerings and strife, and the most re
assuring sign of all is the gradual, leaning
of nations to the paths of peace. Upon this
foundation the world begins to rebuild its
shattered fortunes, and the are just
beginning to show.
'Georgia's Vital Stake in the
“Thirty-Three Million” Fund
FROM the widest watchground of busi
ness and civic affairs Georgia is keenly
concerned in that movement of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which to
day copies to the climax of an appeal to its
members for thirty-three million dollars for
the furtherance of character-building educa
tion.
Os this sum five million two hundred
and forty thousand dollars (in the neighbor
hood of two million more than the State’s
own quota) will be devoted to the improve
ment and expansion of Georgia institutions,
such as Emory University, Wesleyan College
LaGrange, South Georgia, Andrew, Sparks,
Young Harris and Re.nhardt Colleges,
Emory Academy and others. A large part of
total will be expended for urgently need
ed buildings, thus finding its way into the
general stream of business through multi
plied payrolls and the purchase of basic com
modities. Particularly, as well as broadly,
helpful will be the special “Aid” fund by
which a host of young men and women in
every part of the Commonwealth who are
eager for college or university training, but
are without the financial means, will be free
ly assisted in realizing their aspirations.
Moreover, a substantial amount will be ap
plied to endowments, which of itself will do
much for the reinforcement and prestige of
Georgia education. As an economic invest
ment alone, we say, the money thus put to use
will pay a thousandfold. At once its quicken
ing effects will be felt; and, more, through
years and generations to come it will yield
deep-rooted harvests of prosperity, for of all
instruments that discover,'' draw forth, and
utilize earth’s treasures, no other is so surely
effective as education.
From the standpoint of tfie larger and
loftier interests of the commonweal, how
ever. the good of the “Thirty-Three Million”
fund and of Georgia’s liberal share therein
will sweep’ infinitely beyond the immediate
gain in things economic, rich though that
will be. and will find truest expression in the
illumining of human minds and the en
nobling of human spirits. Through these
means and these alone can the dark riddles
of the day be answered and worth-while
happiness assured. T n this high undertaking
for education the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, looks only to its own com
munion for subscriptions, realizing that other
churches have their own responsibilities. But
its aims are as wide as the needs of the State
and the South—as wide, in truth, as the needs
of humanity; all interests will share in the
garnering, and all are watching the great ef
fort with heartiest good will.
War and Taxes
ONE of the strange characteristics of the
human race has ever been that nations
as well as individuals from the begin
ning of time have faileu to “count the costs”
before making momentous decisions which in
volve their well being for all time. This trait
is most strikingly illustrated in the frequen
cy of wars from the commencement of so
called civilization, with history’s unbroken
record of disaster and suffering following in
the wake of each great conflict, alike for vic
tor and vanquished.
The United States is just now realizing
just what it costs to engage in a modern war
of great magnitude. The financial t,oll wrung
from the people is light during the* period of
active hostilities compared to that which is
saddled on the future generations in taxes.
Trtie it is we cannot measure lives with dol
lars and when a nation’s sons are shedding
their blood on the field. of battle, the pain is
more acute, the grief more poignant; but Var,
is not over when the peace is signed. It is not
ended until the bills are paid, for these must
come from the people in taxes, increased bur
dens of living, and often they reach far into
the second generation.
Os every dollar of national expenditure,
77.3 cents goes for purposes of war, accord
ing to the National Bank of Commerce in New
York, which points out that any constructive
program looking to a remedy of the present
tax situation must take this fact constantly
into consideration.
“This condition Is not a new one,” the
bank says in the June issue of its magazine.
“Each war in which th’ country has been in
volved has left us a heritage of Increased ex
pense. Not only has the direct military bur
den been permanently/ increased, but there
have been additional outlays on account of
war debt, for pensions, and for administrative
purposes growing out of the experience and
results of the war.
*‘The scale on vyhich military operations
were conducted during the most recent con
flict was so great that the percen: ,ge of the
revenue devoted to war purposes has enor
mously increased. In the five fiscal years
just prior to the outbreak of the European
war less than half of our governmental ex
penditures, on an average, pertained to the
military establishment. This condition pre
vailed until we entered the war in 1917. In
1919. when the /eak of war cost was reach
ed, these expenses were more than twenty
times as as those for purely civil pur
poses.”
The bank cites official treasury reports to
show that from 1910 to 1914 the verage an
nual expenditure for war purnoses was $4 36.-
320.000 or 45.6 per cent, of the total. This
figure increased to $869,568,000 in 1917 to
$8,653,1 32,000 in 19*8 and to $1 5,028,010.-
000 in 1919. then dropped to $5,071,740,000
in 1920. Even with all doubtful items, includ
ing advances to foreign government', exclud
ed, war expenditures in both 1919 and 1920
exceeded 77 per cent, of the entire amount ex
• nended.
“Thorough analysis of the cost of the dif
ferent functions of government is requisite
to an adequate understanding of such vital
domestic questions as tax revision, govern
| mental economy and a national budget, and
• a’so of the wider question of international
1 disarmament,” the bank adds.
PARASITES
By H. Addington Bruce
HABITUAL criminals are social 'parasites.
So are tramps, hoboes, and perpetual
idlers at street corners. With this
you will readily agree. One and all, they con
form to the definition of parasitism in being
“carried along by society without rendering
adequate return for value received.”
But do not make the mistake of taking it
for granted that social parasites are to be
found only among unpleasant folk on the or
der of habitual criminals, tramps, hoboes,
and corner loafers.
In higher social circles exist parasites fully
as parasitical u.s these. Nay, the higher para
sites are even more parasitical. For crimi
nals, tramps, hoboes, and corner loafers on
'occasion do contribute something through
honest labor, if only under the compulsion of
stern necessity.
But these other parasites labor not at all,
contribute nothing to the social well-being,
claiming exemption because of fat bank ac
counts mostly handed down to them* by
worthier progenitors. And, oddly enough,
the mere fact that they do not have to labor
sets them glorying in their parasitism, as
though it were a token of superiority.
The pity 11 it is that thep are too generally
confirmed in this pernicious notion by the at
titude taken toward them by those who do
work.
In their favorite loafing places cHib
lounges or card rooms, summer and winter
resorts, opera foyers and other places of fash
ionable assembly—the higher parasites are
listened to deferentially, pointed out admir
ingly Let them register at a hotel, the best
rooms, the best places in the dining halls are
made available for them. Their entrance
into a store is a signal for the disregarding
of better people. .
Year in and year out their lives are a feast
of adulation. No wonder they strut and
vaunt and puff themselves. No wonder their
feeble half-brains are turned until they
imagine themselves men and women of the
utmost consequence. *
Actually they are persons of not the slight
est consequence whatever —mere cumberers
of our good old world. They belong in the
same category as the frowsy ne’er-do-wells
whom they regard with supercilious contempt.
“Those lazy, useless good-for*nothings
should be made to work,” is their indignant
affirmation. What about themselves, every
Whit as lazy and useless, if more genteel?
Surely in these days of world stress and
world need it is time for universal recogni
tion of the arasitical nature of such gilded
inerts. Surely it is time to administer to
them the best possible medicine for their par
ticular type of parasitis—the medicine of so
cial ostracism.
Their possession of wealth may make it
out of the question to force them to labor, as
every one should labor, for the common good.
It is not out qf the question to shame them
into useful effort.
Instead of flatterng them, workers should
hold them in righteous scorn. Instead of flock
ing about them, workers should leave them
as much as possible to themselves. Contin
ually they should be made to feel that their
lives and their attitude to life are despicable.
That is the one logical course for all work
ers to adopt as regards pauper and well-to-do
drones alike. Until it is adopted parasitism
must remain the crushing burden it most as
surecyy is today.
(Copyright, 1921, by The Associated News
papers)
OUR DEAD IN FRANCE
By Dr. Frank Crane
Owen Wister and Thomas Nelson Page
have both written protesting against the re
moval of the bodies of the dead American sol
diers from the soil of France.
Mr. Page describes his visit to the cemeter
ies and battlefields and gives his strong im
pressions upon viewing those never-to-be
forgotten fields.
He says: “We were told the bodies were
to be exhumed. Standing’there it seemed in
credible. It seemed degradation to dig them
up. It would be impossible could those who
loved them see their last resting place.
“When General Lee was asked to lend his
name to a plan to remove the Confederate
dead from Gettysburg he replied that he had
always felt that the fittest resting place for a
soldier was the field of honor on which he
had nobly laid down his life. We knew as we
stood there that he was right.”
Owen Wister calls attention to the physical
difficulties' of removal. The remains are often
indistinguishable, fragmentary. What s
found in the grave cannot even'be embalmed.
It can only be sprinkled with disinfectant and
shipped to Hoboken. He continues:
“Piles of these poor fragments of human
beings lie at Hoboken unclaimed. They have
been dragged from the soil their sacrifice
made sacred and where, as an honored and
cared-for company, they lay in peace, their
graves tended, their memory historic and
precious to France. How man. go to the
Potter’s Field. Such as are claimed and
taken to some family graveyard, will soon be
forgotten. Those who mourn them will be
dead, too. Had they been left in France they
would have been cherished as long as France
endures.
“No mother could come to France and see
where her boy lies and not be comforted and
thankful he is there. But exploiting mothers’
grief to put money in certain pockets goes on.
“Three weeks ago I saw our great cemetery
at'Romagne. Its grass was green, its crosses
white. Peace and beauty filled it. In mid-
May forty per cent of those dead are to be
dragged up, aiYl Romagne wHI look like an
old mouth, half teeth, half gums.
“Can nothing stop this hideous mockery
of the living and the dead?”
It is always difficult to reason to sen
timent, particularly if it has to do with our
dead, our tenderest and dearest treasure.
But it surely would seem in this Instance that
the sounder and more beautiful sentiment is
to leave our fallen kinsmen where Roosevelt
left his son.
(Copyr’ght, 1921, by Frank Crane)
POINTED PARAGRAPHS
A chilly reception doesn’t cool one off on
a hot day. #
It is best, nowadays, not to know the as
sessor unless you have a pull.
Don’t crowd. It might prove uncomfort
able if some one else should forget to be
polite.
Every man likes to hear a wise woman talk
—because she always talks to him about him
self.
But we have to confess that we don’t al
ways recognize good luck frhen we do meet
it.
A good horse may be forgiven a kick.
Untold agony is a secret a woman can’t
repeat.
Men fight with their fist, women with their
tears. •
After giving the prospective maid full de
tails as to her duties, the mistress of the
house was about to turn away when another
ietai) occurred to her. “By the way,” she
said. “I suppose you know your way to an
nounce?”
“Wejl ma’am,” replied Mary, "I’m not so
sure about that, but I think I know my
weight to a. pound or so.”
DOROTHY DIX TALKS—GOSSIP
BY DOROTHY DIX
A YOUNG woman writes me that the
other women in her set talk about
her because she plays around a bit
with other men than her husband, and she
wants to know if I don’t think that gossip
ing is one of the seven deadly sins.
Not at all. Far from it. I think that
there is no other force in the world that
makes so much for righteousness, as gossip
ing. The old tabby cats who sit rocking on
hotel verandas, and who lie in perpetual am
bush behind their starched window curtains
at home, and see everything that goes on and
tell it, may not look like guardian angels of
the public morals, but they are.
“They say” keeps more people walking the
straight and narrow way than all the »ten
commandments.-. For the thing that we dread
most, and fear most, is our neighbor’s opin
ion. The thought of forming the subject of
discussion and having our little weaknesses
vivisected at the sewing circle, or the tea
party, or the club, is something that turns
our very bones to water.
It is the knowledge that she will be gos
siped about that makes a flighty young girl
watch her step. It is the certainty that Mrs.
Jones across the street, and Mrs. Smith-next
door, will foregather and discuss the way
she neglects her baby to go automobiling
with a man who doesn't look like her broth
er, that prevents many a silly young wife
from indulging in a stolen bite of romance
now and then.
It js the knowledge that the neighbors
keep tab on the hour he comes home, that
makes many a man punch the domestic time
clock promptly. It’s the fear of what his
business friends will say, that keeps many
a man from taking his pretty stenographer
out to lunch.
It is easy to drug conscience into a state
of coma. It’s no trick at all to invent ex
cuses to ourselves for whatever we want to
do, and to justify ourselves to ourselves by
saying that where no harm is intended, none
is done. But nobody has ever found any
way to head off gossip.
It has a thousand eyes, that never close in
sleep, and a perpetual motion tongue that
never stops wagging. Nor is it concerned
with our motives. It only takes heed of our
acts, it puts its own construction on
them?
A girl may be really pure as ice and chaste
as snow, but if she permits familiarities from
men, and has a loud, bold manner, she will
be talked about in <a manner that would
raise the hair on her head if she heard what
was said about her. A married woman may
be as virtuous as Caescr’s wife, but she can
not escape calumny if she engages in flirta
tions with young men. A business man may
really be feeding the hungry when he takes
chorus girls out to supper, and he may actu
ally be seeing out-of-town customers until
2 o’clock in the morning, but his friends,
who take note of his risings up and sittings
down, smile with their tongifes in their
cheeks when his name lead all the rest at a
gabfest.
MUSIC FOR THE MANY—By Frederic J. Hasikn.
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 25.—Grand
opera performed by local companies
in all of the principal American cities,
at prices which will make it possible for the
general public to attend, is the object of the
National Opera association which has been
organized recently by Edouard Albion, di
rector of the local opera company.
In Europe, opera is a leading popular
amusement, and Mr. Albion believes that it
can be made so in America as well.
The people of America, he says, are as
musical as people of any other country. The
huge number of musicians introduced to the
public by music schools every year bears
this out. And if we have no work for many
of them to do, no Audiences organized to lis
ten to them, that is a lack to be supplied.
In three years, Mr. Albion has shown that
a resident opera company composed almost,
entirely of local musicians can give grand
opera to the taste of fastidious audiences.
This is an achievement for one city, and it
has been repeated in other places, but these
scattered projects are only a beginning for
the country.
It is no exaggeration to say that grand
opera is almost unknown in the United
States. We have wondeYful productions in
New York and Chicago at large prices, and
we have several traveling companies, and a
few resident companies, handicapped by lac.,
of opera houses. But the mass of the people
know opera only through the phonograph,
which reproduces the voice but gives no
idea of the story or of the acting.
In Italy, 246 opera companies are support
ed by a population one-third the size of ours.
The famous operas can be heard there by
every one. Equally important, musical ta
ent finds an outlet. The student, direct from
his conservatory, can go into a small opera
house and begin his operatic career. There
is enough demand for his art so that he does
not have to spend tiresome years waiting for
some one aheadyof him to die or to retire,
as he would have to do in this country.
Here, finished artists, some perfected in as
many as fifty roles, crowd into New York,
eager to be heard by an impressario. And
suppose they do achieve a hearing? One
operatic official says he hears every week
young singers with promising voices, but he
has no room for them in h'is company. There
are enough singers in New York to create ten
good grand opera organizations. But alto
gether the operatic in titutions use not more
than., perhaps, 1,000 voices.
A Chance for Native Talent
Mr. Albion points out that if these singers,
who want dramatic careers, could be scattered
among the smaller cities, and could work
with local opera companies, they would be
doing the thing for which they were trained.
A resident company gives from four to ten
weeks of opera in a year, rehearsing mainly
at night. For Such a company to make a
satisfactory record, the performances put on
must be professional in standard, arranged by
a competent director, stage manager, drama
tic coach and conductor.
Members who show ability are given a
chance to take prominent parts and to ap
pear before the same critical audiences that
greet the stars of the stage, and the experi
ence and publicity resulting from such appear
ances are of indirect financial value, even in
cases where a company getting its start can
not at first pay its singers.
The practical possibilities of a resident
opera company have been shown in a number
of cities. Here in Washington, Aida, Carmen,
Faust, Pagliacci, Secret of Suzanne and oth
er operas have been produced in the past
three years. To put on a single performance
of one of these operas would be regarded by
many people as an extravagant financial un
dertaking, and one sure to end in heavy in
debtedness. Considering, however, that the
resident company has no imported stars un
der expensive contract, and no traveling ex
penses, the production of an opera is not so
expensive. Averaging losses on a few per
formances and gains on others, the Washing
ton company has managed to break even.
Occasionally expenses are made heavier by
bringing in two or three professional opera
singers for a performance when necessary.
Mr. Albion holds that local singers should
be given a chance to appear in important
roles whenever they are, of a high enough
standard. But if the community cannot fur
nish a satisfactory singer for any part, then
it is better to import a professional and keep
the work up to a safely proficient standard.
Mr. Albion has also tried the method of al
ternating the best local singers with hired
TUESDAY, MAY 81, 1021.
Everybody knows this, and they know that
there is no more away of escaping
than there is of evading death and taxes.
They likewise know that there is no way that
you can fight back at gossip, or disprove it,
or explain yourself to it, because it is in
tangible.
“They say” is like a deadly miasma that
rises up from the very earth, and slays its
victim with a slow and insidious poison.
And the only remedy for it is prevention.
Once let it touch a person, and he or she
can never be entirely whole and clean again.
Os course, there are plenty of cases where
gossip works terrible harm. Undoubtedly,
wrong interpretations are put on innocent
deeds, and scandalmongers blacken charac
ters beyond justification. There are plenty
of women who do things that seem wicked,
that are merely indiscreet, and there are
thousands of men who are more fools than
villains, but even with these unfortunate
sacrifices to slanderous tongues, gossip still
does more good than harm, because it makes
all but idiots give a thought to their con
duct, and avoid even the appearance of evil.
And to so live as to furnish no food for slan
der, is a pretty safe chart to steer by.
It is the custom to castigate the gossiper,
and to hold up as a model the three monkeys
with their hands before their eyes, and their
ears, and their mouths, who refused to see
any evil, or hear any evil, or to speak any
evil of their fellow creatures. t
But why should we expect the general
public to have more regard for our reputa
tions than we have for them ourselves? Why
should we expect other people to be more
carful of our good names than we are? Why
should we demand that our friends and
neighbors should keep silent about the
weaknesses we flaunt in their faces?
If we do not want to be talked about, we
should not do things We are ashamed to
have discussed. It' is only when people are
doing things that are wrong, or that lean
to the evil side, that they object to being
talked about. When they are doing fine
things, and right things, the more that peo
ple have to say about them, the better they
like it. The chorus of praise can never swell
too loud. It is only when we are being
blamed that we want to put the soft pedal on.
When the old ladies on the hotel veranda
at the summer resort look up from their
knitting, and say, “Isn’t that Marj Smith
the preitiest, sweetest, most modest young
girl you have seen in an aye?”, Mary Smith
doesn’t want to stop them; but when they
say, "Isn’t that Mary Smith the most painted
up, brazen-faped creature you ever saw, and
did you know that she sat out in a dark cor
ner until 2 o’clock with a married man?”,
Mary Smith calls them gossips.
And if Mary Smith doesn’t want to be
gossiped about, all she has to do is to be
have herself. Generally the fear of gossip
does make her behave herself. That is what
makes gossip so valuable. It’s the police
man’s club that keeps the world in order.
professionals at different performances of the
same opera. This is an interesting test of the
local singers and it is instructive for the com
pany.
The Co-Operative Spirit
The spirit of a resident opera company has
proved to be one of its interesting and sur
prising features. The jealousies and tem
peramental outbursts of professional opera
are proverbial. Singers wait years for an op
portunity to sing certain promised roles, and
the tension is necessarily high. But commu
nity opera is more of a family affair.
When Marguerita Sylva alternated with
Clelia Fioravanti, a Washington singer, in a
performance of Carmen, Madame Sylva gave
Up her dress rehearsal so that the girl who
was to make her debut might have the extra
practice. Mhdame Sylva attended the rehear
sal, however, and made a few suggestions to
the young singer and offered to lend her own
Spanish shawl to the rival Carmen. This in
terest in another singer by a professional was
decidedly unusual, but it seemed altogether
appropriate in a company where every mem
ber was working for the success of the per
formance before personal achievement.
Having companies such as this one linked
together in an organization would give en
couragement to towns without opera com
panies to organize them. The organization
could help them with advice and information,
and, what is a very important advantage,
scenery, costumes and singers could be ex
changed. If one company has gone to the
trouble to collect properties and costumes for
Pagliacci, there is no reason why another
town planning to give the same opera should
duplicate the work. And if a singer of one
company is unusually successful in the role of
Aida, another company might profitably bor
row her for a performance, either to save
training one of its own members, or to have
the visitor alternate with its own Aida.
Mr. Albion holds that the community opera
proposition is important because it is needed
as an outlet for musical talent, because the
people are Interested in it and would grow
more interested as the project develops, and
because opera is a natural hub for the musi
cal activities of a city. It may also be added
that it is the most broadly instructive of
theatrical productions. Grand opera tells a
big, dramatic story, generally in the language
best suited to the story. There is a setting
of music by a master composer. The scenes
are laid according to the country and the
period of the tale. Costumes must be care
fully correct. The arts of singing, playing/
dancing and acting are all displayed. All of
these elements fitted together into a careful
production have a wide appeal.
QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES
“Here you are, gentlemen, the greatest In
vention of the age!” bawled the street ped
dler.
“What/s it?” inquired an onlooker.
“A magnetized keyhole plate for front
doors. It will attract an ordinary steel key
from a distance of two feet. All you have to
do to find the keyhole is to take out your key
and hang on to it.”
(Three men were injured in the crowd
that rushed to buy.)
A learned English lawyer got stranded
at a country town and had great diffi
culty in finding accommodations, at length
being glad to accept a bed in a room
with another occupant. When he had made
himself comfortable he recognized the man
in the other bed as. one whom he had
been instrumental in getting five years’
hard labor. However, the lawyer said
nothing. “I see, guv’nor, you didn’t recog
nize me,” said the man in the other bed.
“Oh, yes, I did,” replied the lawyer.
“"Well, it’s orl right.” said the other. “I
ain’t agoin’ to object. Fact is, I ain’t got
nothin’ agin you. That four years and
three months I served done me a world of
good. “Indeed, and how was that?” “It
cured me of the cigarette habit,” said the
man in the other bud.
“Speeding the parting guests” might be de
scribed as one cf the negative virtues of hos
pitality. A woman recently overdid the part.
She was saying good-by to some visitors who
had long outstayed their welcome. “It wai
so sweet of you to let us stay so long.” said
they with effusion.
“Oh. I’m so glad ycu’ve been,” she replie 1
with obvious relief.
Around the World
Tri-Weekly News Flashes From All Over
the Earth.
Last Chief
With all the ceremony accorded to a
chieftain in bygone days, Albert Grass,
twenty-one, last chief of the Dakota Sioux
Indians, who was killed while fighting in
France, was buried recently at Cannon Ball,
N. D. Mingled with the Indian rites were
services of the American Legion and relig
ious ceremony of the local Catholic church.
Several thousand Indians attended.
The final resting place for the young chief
is Holy Hill, a spot sacred to the Indians,
where the last groat Sun Dance of the Sioux
was held. Grass’s body reached here from
France this week. ’ ’
The white horse riders had charge of the
Indian ceremonies, consisting mainly of
chanting dances, which lasted throughout
the night. The white horse riders is com
posed of middle-aged warriors who won
membership in the organization many years
ago through special bravery.
Major A. B. Welch, the only white man
to be adopted by the Dakota Sioux tribe as
a blood brother, Rev. A. T. Tibbetts and .
Claud Killspotted, delivered eulogies.
After the white horse ceremonial, regula
tion military funeral services were conduct
ed by the legion.
Hawaiian Sugar
Hawaii’s output of sugar for 1921 is be
hind schedule, according to experts in sugar
circles and steamship men whose business it
is to transport the raw product to the main
land. On April 1 the Hawaiian sugar output
was 100,000 tons behind the shipping sched
ule of the same date last year, according to
estimates.
The winter pineapple pack also is below
the usual figure, and the steamship com
panies are anticipating heavy congestion
when the sugar shipments begin to pick up
and the big pineapple season gets into full
swing.
No Jap Guns
Official denial has just been made of many
recent reports that Japanese had landed
fourteen high-powered guns at Davao, Island
of Mindanao. The provincial .commander of
the Philippine constabulary, after an inves
tigation, reporting to Brigadier General
Rafael Crame, chief of the Philippine Con
stabulary, said:
“With reference to 'the fourteen large
cannon reported to have been found in the
interior of Davao, I have found none, ex
cept a few old obsolete lantakas (Moro
brass cannon) of large caliber now being
used as park decorations. Some of these
were found by Spaniards in the hands of
Moros in 1848, when Davao tvas conquered.
Others were brought to the place after
ward.”
French Rookies
The Manchester Guardian says that the
1921 class of the French army, which ha»
just been called up for training, totalp 272,-
000 men, including those from Alsace and
Lorraine,, according to Reuter’s Paris corre
spondent. i
The enrolling of this class has shown that
the number of men registered as liable to
serve amounted to 75 per cent of the male
births registered twenty, years ago, a pro
portion which has never before been at
tained. Os those called up 78 per cent were
pronounced fit by the medical authorities,
which is a higher proportion than in 1913,
j although the fact that 61,943 were rejected
shows that the medical examination was a
strict one. Os those who were not accepted
for service at present a certain number are
liable to be called up later, so that the re
sults of the calling up of the 1921 class
are considered as being particularly good.
The press attributes this improvement in
national health and physique to the diminu
tion of alcoholism, the Influence of sports
and to a certain extent to the improved hy
gienic conditions among the peasantry.
Clean Sweep
A novel kind of clean sweep is to be made
at the French war office and throughout,
the army, according to a circular issued by
Minister of War Barthou, reports the Paris
correspondent of The London Times.
The circular has reference to the well
known custom which arose in all belligerent
countries during the war of employing ini
tials to describe army offices and officials.
The practice, M. Barthuu contends, has been,
so abused by individual fancy as to render
it intolerable. Many simple and time-hon
ored contractions, such as G. Q. G.,”Tor gen
eral headquarters, and G. A. N., for north
ern army group, present, of course, no dif
ficulty, but numberless additions have been
introduced by irresponsible peopfe, with the
result that a great deal of military corre
spondence and reports have become unintel
ligible even to the practiced eyes of the
war minister and his chief of staff.
All abbreviations, without exception, are
therefore to disappear from army documents
in future—a step which, M. Barthou adds,
will cause no loss to the regularity or effi
ciency of the service and will rtpt detract
from the beauty of the French language.
Wet Troubles
Bootleggers of Ontario who contracted to
supply rum runners in Detroit with whisky
have been so hard-pressed for supplies since
the law against Importation of liquor from
Quebec went into effect that they have re
sorted to organized raids on liquor stocks in
private homes. The entire police force would
be detailed to the task of running down the
raiders. Scores of homes have been broken
into within the last two weeks and large
stocks of liquor have been hauled away in
automobiles. On the West Side, citizens have
organized neighborhood patrols to protect
their property.
Charles to Vacate
Former Emperor Charles of Austria-Hun
gary, has formally notified the Swiss Federal
authorities'that he wiE leave Switzerland
with his family and .staff next August, and
that meantime he will abstain from politi
cal propaganda. He declined to say where he
intended going.
The Swiss government received the ex
emperor’s decision with relief, as there has
been constant concern over possible interna
tional complications through the presence
and activities of the formed ruler.
Much speculation prevails as to Charles’s
intentions.. It is variously suggested that he
is going to Holland, near former Emperor
William’s abode; to Spain, where it is be
lieved he would be welcomed, and even to
England or the United States. The most
talked-of theory, however, is that he hopes
to return to Hungary.
The Hapsburgs meanwhile are putting
their, personal affairs in shape, concentrat
ing their money, jewels and other valuable
possessions.
Costly Smokes
Deciding that the careless smoker is large
ly responsible for many fires, the National
Board of Fire Jnderwriteres has started a
publicity campaign for safeguarding Ameri
ca against fire. A new magazine has been
issued and the first number estimates that •
$91,000,000 was lost during the past five
years by fire due to careless smokers.