Evening Star Newspaper, September 30, 1923, Page 37

Society News Part 2—18 Pages LABOR OF U. S. MEETING CAPITAL ON Eventual Control of ble in Rapid OWN GROUND Industry Held Possi- Extension of Banking System. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. HE conflict between labor and capital is taking a new turn. Labor is meeting capital on its own ground—finances and ciedit. Eventually @nd inevitably, if the movement now started by labor to mobilize its monetary re- sources continues, it means compe- tition for the control of credit, which carried to its ultimate conclusion means the control of industry. Since the early part of 1920 or- ganized labor has launched success- fully in various parts of the country fourteen banks, and has bought sub- stantial interests in two other large capitalist banks. Before the close of October three other bariks are to be opened by labor, or at least to be placed in a position to open within & very short time. Richard Boeckel in his newly pub- lished book, “Labor's Money,” de- A scribes the inception of this move- ment, its causes, its results so far obtained, and the.aim of the move- ment. Mr. Boeckel has made a care- ful and thorough study of the move- * ment, and hiy analysis of the motives actuating labor in the establishment . of banking houses is both clear and interesting. “Labor’'s Money" fur- thermore lays before the public for the first time a complete picture of this movement. Have Resources of $50,000,000. It is estimated by Mr. Boeckel that the total resources of the banks es- tablished by labor or in the process of being established are not less than $50,000,000. Furthermore, he has in- formation, he said last week, that leads him to the conclusion that be- fore the close of the year 1924 the number of banks owned and operated by labor organizations in this coun- try will be doubled and their re- sources will approximate $100,000,- 000. The author of “Labor's Money"” is a Washington newspaper and maga- sine writer of long experience, who has given his attention largely to in- L dustrial questions. For several years he was Washington correspondent of the Independent, New York. He has contributed to many of the leading magazines, Including the Nation, Lon- don. In “Labor's Money"” Mr. Boeckel gives his estimate of the ‘“movement now launched by organ- fzed labor. He says in one para- graph: “While the end sought in this movement is as revolutionary as any radical reformer could wish, the means for its achievement hold no threat of industrial disruptfon or public disorder. The movement does not look to the ‘overthrow of cap- ftalism.’ On the contrary, it accepts the institutions of a capitalistic so- clety and seeks to work through cap- ftallstic methods toward a new so- , clal order.” First Bank in D. C. This sounds like a large order. But examine for a moment what organ- 1zed labor has been able to do In its efforts to mobilize its money in fits own interest. The first of the labor banks was established here in the National Capital, the Mount Vernon Savings Bank, set up by the Inter- national Assoclation of Machinists, May 165, 1920. epproximately $3,000,000. ' jater the Brotherhood of Locomo- tive Engineers opened in Cleveland, ©Ohio, the Brotherhood of Locomotive FEngineers' Co-operative National Bank. The development of this lat- ter institution has been enormous, un- til today its resources are set down &t nearly $25,000,000. In 1921 two more labor banks were opened, one. the Tucson, Ariz, Co- operative Bank and Trust Company, resources estimated at $300,000, es- tablished by local unions, and the sec- ond, the Hammond, Ind., People’s Co- operative State Bank, resources esti- mated at $500,000, established by the Brotherhood ~of Locomotive Engi- neers. In the following year, five more labor banks were added to the 1ist, the Philadelphia Producers and Consumers' Bank, estimated resources $1,222,339, established by the Central Trade Union of Philadelphia; the Chi- Bank, resources $1,792,000; e Bir- mingham, Ala., Federated Bank and frust Company, resources $750,000, established by the Alabama State ¥ederation of Labor; the San Ber- padino, Calif,, San Bernadino Valley 1« Bank, resources $1,000,000, established by local unions, and the Minneapolis Transportation Brotherhoods National ‘Bank, resources $76,107, established Py the four railroad brotherhoods. Five New Banks This Year. cago Amalgamated Trust and Blvlngsl Five more banks have already been | stablished this year, and three are to be opened in October or soon there- after. Those already established are: The Amalgamated Bauk of New York, resources $2,212,834, established by the Amalgamated Clothing Worker: the Federation Trust Company of New York, resources $2,000,000, es- tablished by the New York State Fed- eration of Labor;. the Telegraphers' Co-operative Nationai Bank of St. Louis, resources $3,000,000, establish- ed by the Brotherhood ‘of Raflway Jelegraphers; the Brotherhood Co- operative Bank of Spokane, Wash., avnources $400,000, establishéd by the four train secvice brotherhoods, and the . Brothernood Savings and Trust Company of Pittsburgh, established by the brbtherhoods and local unjons. Three banks slated to be opened in Oetober are the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks National Bank of Cincinnati, with a capital of $200,- 000 and & $50,000 surplus, and $300,~ 000 building; the International Bank t New York, established by the nternational Ladles’ Garment Work- ers, with a capital of $500,000, and /. 2he Brotherhood - Corporation Trust Its resources today dre | Six months) Company of New York, established by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, with a capital of $1,000,- 000. The last named bank has leased a building at 33d street and Tth avenue. First for New England. Within the last few days it has been learned that the officials of the Brotherhood of Locomtive Engi- neers are planning to launch a new bank in Boston, Mass. Unless some other labor bank Is established in New England at an earlier date, this will be®the first labor bank opened in that section of the country. New England, with its industrial centers, however, is considered likely ground for many of these banks eventually. Massachusetts, for ex- ample, has begn a fertile fleld for so- called credit unions or co-operative loan societies established by the workers. There are elghty-six of these credit unions in the state, with 37,937 members, and total resources of $5,021,265. The two caplitalist banks in which substantial Interests are held by unions are the Empire Trust Com- pany of New York and the Commer- cial National Bank of Washington, D. C. - The Brogherhood of Locomotive Engineers owas the interest in the first, and the International Assocla- tlon of Machinists in the second. Mr. Boeckel points out that already labor through its financial organiza- tions Is obtaining control by invest- ment in varlous industrial concerns. Labor’s vast %resources—in money— are scattered throughout the com- mercial “and savings banks of the country, are to be found in insurance companies’ investments in many In- dustries; in fact, it is pointed out, many capitalistic institutions, labor's opponents in the past, have been financed largely through the money paid to labor for its labor. May Medn End of Strikes. Hitherto labor has been content to : leave to capital the realm of finance and ownership of industries. It has used restricttve measures and the strike to obtain better wages and working conditions for organized la- bor. But under the new conditions, if the present movement.grows, as it now promises to do, the strike and restrictive measure may be abandon- ed to a very great extent. Under the changed conditions la- bor will strive for the control. of credit, and,if successful, will be in a position to obtain what it considers Just. ‘With one exception the labor banks 50 far established are on the co-op- erative plan. The by-laws of the banks provide for a limitation upon the dividends that may be paid to stockholders—from 7 to 10 per cent— and for a division of earnifigs in ex- cess of these amounts with depos- ftors. The average rate of dividends paid by national banks of the cour® | try in 1922 was 12.69 per cent. A resolution will be presented to the American Federation of Labor, meeting in annual convention In Portland, Ore., this week, indorsing the movement for labor banks and calling upon workers generally to deposit their money in such banks. The executive council of the fed- eration hitherto has been opposea to| this movement. $ There has been a hesitancy on the part of trade unlonists of the old school to enter inte the banking plans now advanced, fearing that if unfons own incorporated Institutions these may be subject of damage suits In the event of strikes, etc. But the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of the United Mine Work- ers versus the Coronado Coal Com- pany, lald down a rule that labor unions are sueable whether incorpo- rated or not. So the force of this ar- gument is lost. President Will Get Support of People Assurances that President Coolidge will get stror g popular support when nominated by the republican party for election are given by repub- lican representatives from all parts of the country as they drift into ‘Washington, after sounding out sen- timent “back home.” These reflexes show that the peo- ple are showing an unusually good disposition to help the President rather than to “knock,” even while they are dissatisfled with conditions closely affecting themselves. For example, Representative Charles Brand of the seventh Ohlo district, ays: “The people are patriotically back of Mr. Coolldge, and are much more interested in helping him than in finding fault. To run against him won't prove & path of roses, unless he somehow disappoints the public. “The \people are not exactly con- tented, though. Everything they buy costs too much, and they don't feel that, they are getting their money's worth. The ‘butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker’ are' ail or- sanized and extracting too much. The farmers feel it most, because their business is.an unorganized industry as far as price is concerned. Prices of all things they buy will have to change or the farmers are gradually going to the wall. The prices they are receiving for their products are reagonsbly good, provided they could exchange them for the other products. Remedies are apparent to those who want to see them,” sald Representa- tive Brand, who is deep in the farm- ing business himself, as well as in- terested in other lines of business, so his Information about farmers does not have to come froc\nom one else. EDITORIAL SECTION « ‘The Sundiy WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1923. Coolidge, Shunning Political Tricks, Making Big Hit With Plain People BY N. 0. MESSENGER. RESIDENT COOLIDGE, in the opin- ion of men with whom the present writer has talked in New York and New Jersey in the course of the past few days, is growing in public favor and con- fidence. These men were mot the hackneyed “prominent leaders” whom we political “sharps” are wont so often to quote second- hand, but were solid, substantial business folk and people to whom politics is but a “side line” and not the breath of their nos- trils, Their explanation of their own attitude and of their neighbors who agreed with them was that the President has evidenced not only possession, but application, of such qualities of good common sense, practicality, self-submersion and appreciation of his tasks and duties to give promise of his going on an even keel and holding the confidence of the people so spontaneously given him when he took up the office of Chief Execu- tive. ¥* % ¥k X This feeling, which was found to be wide- spread among republicans, may be analyzed as tending to make it a “Rocky Road to Jordan” for other aspirants for the republi- can nomination in 1924. There is no doubt that President Coolidge has even at this early day in the race made a long running start likely to be very difficult of overcoming by would-be rivals. Perhaps confirmation of this assertion may be found in the silence of those gentle- men who naturally could be looked upon as prospective candidates for the nomination, and from whom nothing has been heard au- thoritatively up to date. Is it not to be as- sumed that they are soaking in some of the atmosphere which seems everywhere prev- alent and are discouraged? They are wait- ing in conformity with the demand that the President be “given a chance to make good,” and he seems to be doing, so- with alacrity and dispatch.’ * %k Xk X In “sounding public sentiment” one of the men with whom I talked was a Texas demo- crat, but now engaged in “big” business in Albany, N. Y., a. conservative, cautious- speaking chap. He was talking of the way the democrats with whom he comes in con- tact feel. “We are pretty low in spirits about beat- ing Coolidge in 1924,” he said. “I take it that he is going to be nominated, although per- sonally I would prefer Hiram Johnson. But as I look at it, Coolidge is the republican party’s ‘one best bet, and all these sther prospective candidates will be just barking up a tree. ‘ “Once nominated, if the republican fac- tions stand together, as they will have to do or else turn the country over to us again, he will’ be powerfully hard to beat. Indeed, about all we would have to count upon would be his making some big mistake in adminis- tration, in foreign policy or in a row with Congress.” * % ¥ %k Now, it falls out that this utterance chimes in with similar things I have heard in the high councils of the democratic party, the “prominent leaders,” so flippantly spoken of aforegoing. The democrats are waiting for President Coolidge to “come a cropper,” someway, somehow, they can’t exactly fig- ure out, but ready to seize upon the disaster if it occurs. Indeed, it might be said that this attitude is very much that of the supposed prospec- tive rival aspirants for the nomination, who are counting upon his falling down before they can climb up. * %k ¥ ¥ The “hard-boiled” politicians, those who count a bird in hand worth two in the bush, who want to visualize actual assets rather than possibilities and who won’t “do busi- ness” until they can assay the actualities at their real and not speculative value, are de- scribed as taking the view that President Coolidge has more liquid assets which can be realized upon in the political market than any one else in the background—since there seems to be none in the foreground, though doubtless “in leash.” ¢ They, therefore, are lining up behind President Coolidge, as if sensing which side their bread is buttered on, and making a mighty phalanx ready to become available when the big leaders give the word to swing into line. * k Kk ok In politics it is classed as a mighty thin reed to lean upon, this waiting for the other fellow to make a mistake, the while he is go- ing on “making good.” * * * One thing which amazes the “hard-boiled” politicians is the consistent modesty and seeming indifference of the President about his political future, and his success in keep- ing politics in the background as he goes ahead keeping the administration of his of- fice very much in the limelight. Faith, it's ag new experience for the hard-boiled. What! No fireworks, no grandstand plays, no pro- nunciamentos? It's too much for them; they “pass it up” as beyond their ken. But it seems to be making a hit with “the plain people.” * ¥ %k % As referred to in a previous chapter, there may be interesting developments in New Jersey this week, when the republicans get together and decide upon ratifying or rejecting the plan proposed by some, of the leaders last week to come out for light wines and beer as republican doctrine. 'The ulti- mate action cannot now be forecast, as it is a battle between the opportunists and the rock-ribbed dry and reform elements in the party. The practical politicians who regard the end and not the means as the greatest con- sideration—that is to say, the possibility of regaining power in the state as more desir- able than adherence to the principle of pro- hibition—having grown weary of repeated drubbings at the hands of the wets with their policy of opposition to the Volstead act, are coming to clinches with.the women’s vote, the farmer vote and the reform vote on the question of light wines and beer. The hard-boiled leaders are said to have become utterly discouraged with the pros- pects of even holding their own, let alone gaining anything, by their adherence to the dry side. As there will be a seat in the Sen- ate at stake next year, they are disposed to loosen up on the wet and dry question and cast out a net for those republicans’ who went over to the democrats on the issue. * % % * As one robin does not make a spring, the desertion of one state, should the wet pro- gram go through, would not seriously affect the prohibition question for the national re- publican party, believed to be for prohibition. But if the wet republicans are beaten by the woman and farmer and reform votes, it is held that it would discourage similar defec- tions from the parfy’s general policy on the liquor question in other states. BRITISH EMPIRE, AMERICA AND FUTURE OF THE WORLD BY H. G. WELLS historian and movelist; of “The Outline of History,” ete. WILL begin with something that is more than a mere verbal quibble. I wish that this political - system could have some other name than empire, because it is not properly an’| empire at all. It is a complex asso- clation of at least three different types of territory and the word em- pire -is endlessly misleading and mischievous in connection with it. In the -last few years, for pur- posds that need not now concern us, I have had’ to study a certain amount of history and a number of historians. . Many men of command- ing intelligence have been histori- ans and I offer no comparison be- tween the Intellectual quality of his- torlans and that of scientific men as such. But trained as I was in the clear, subtle and beautiful disci- plines of comparative anatomy, T found myself amazed at the easy carelessness of the average histori- an’s habltual terminology, his slov- enly parallelisms and reckless as- sumptions. A large part of his work is the study of human com- Publicist, modities and political associations. Yet I found him without any intel- ligible olassification of political combinations, * any real sense of grades and structural differences between one community and another. He slops the word “empire” over the whole face of history; Athenian empire and Aztec empire, Shan em- pire and Sung empire, Empire of Alexander and Roman empire, Mon- gol empire and Hittite emplre, Brit- 1sh emplre and Brazillan emplire; it's il the same thing to him. dogs,” as the porter said, is poultry, but a parrot is a passen- ger” As a consequence the hi: torian argues from the most atroci- ous analogies.. And though there is a considerable and pretentious liter- ature of political science, there does not yet exist in all political and historical literature any attempt at a clear analysis of the differences and affinities of all these various human complexes. Yet fo make such an analysis would be a most at- tractive and fruitful task. Histroi- cal and political sclence has still to find its Linnaeus. History until that happens remains a slough of term- inological confusion and the ide: of the ordinary educated man drown in that mud. ‘Word Covers Opposites. The word empire came into the world with the expansion of the Roman republic.. The Roman em- pire was a thing different in many fundamentals from the so-called “empires” that preceded it, the “sha-doms,” if I may create a sort of temporary word of Asla and the “pharaoh-isms” ‘of Egypt for exam- ple. It differed from them at least us widely in its posibilities, struc- ture and range as a species of Ter- tiary mammals differs from a spe- cles of Mesozolc reptiles. It was unprecedented in arising out of an aristocratic republic Instead of a conquering monarchy and in having a legal traditlon of a strength and prestige unknown to any previous community. It was unprecedented in its disposition to extend its citl- zenship beyond its initial boundaries. Its expansion was concurrent with an increasing use of colped money and of credit based upon coined money; its economic and financial system had a quite novel facility and sta- bility. The empire was held together by a road system that made the road system of the Persians seem a mere preliminary experiment. Its extent was far greater than that of any preceding form of political ad- ministration. Reading and writing, raised to new levels of simplicity and convenience by the Greeks and Hebrews, brought what we should think, nowadays a small proportion, but which was in those days a quite unprecedented proportion, of the population into an Intelligent par- ticipation in public affairs. Iron hag become widespread for tools and im- plements as well as weapons, and the horse was now no longer a war- beast but, with its bastard child, the mule, a universally available means of transport. All these things made the Roman imperial system as new a thing in human experience as the United States of America of the pres- ent British “empire”—both of which I hold are new species—fresh be- ginnings without any true affinities in the past. There is in all history only one rough parallel to the Roman empire, and that is its cotemporary Chinese empire. But I will restrain the en- cyclopedic impulse and leave that out of our present discussion, Its Story is Europe's History. Now, as Gibbons' great history shows, the history of all Europe and western Asia since that tinfe is really the story of this unique thing, the empire, the Roman empire and its struggle to exist, to remain one and to restore itself when broken to complete existence. It was broken by the Adriatic crack, by that fatal wedge out of the nomadic great plains, "Hungary, by the general in- capacity of the Itallans for naviga- tion, due perhaps to characteristics of the Itallan coast; by the intel- Jectual inadequacies of & plutocracy. But the empires that sprang from it to west and east were only the re- ‘| sults of a fissia that left the idea of .reunion perpetually active; the holy Roman empire, the czardom, the im- perialism of Napoleon, even the Austrian and the Hohenzollern em- pires, were all logically and 'legiti- mately the products of the original empire, legitimately empires in origin and intention, attempts to re- cover a universal sway; parts in a great dreary futile European drama on which at last ig these days the cur- tain falls. There has indeea only been one real empire in the world, this that centered upon Rome and the Medi- terranean. Britaln played a certain part in this empire, Henry VIII for example was Iimperial candidate against Charles V and the King of France, but the role of Britain therein has generally been a mar- ginal one.. The importance of Eng- land to mankind began only when it turned its face from the empire and from thoughts of the empire to the ocean. What we call today the Brit- ish empire is a new thing and a dif- ferent thing than the Roman empire, created by new and greater forces and deserving an entirely distinc- tive name. The fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turles saw a great process of change in human conditions that has been going on until the present time. From the point of view of one who dlscusses political or economic ag- glomerations, the most Iimportant thing In that great revolution has been the development:of new means of communication between man and man. That revolution began with the appearance of the ocean-going sailing ship and of printed paper; it reached its climax nowadays in wireless telegraphy and the airplane. Communications Make Change. It is now a commonplace, though for many historians and scholars it is quite a recent discovery, that any change In communications involves new economic, strategic and political adjustments. For & score of cens tuples the horse, the horse-drawn vehicle, the hand-made highroad, the parchment document, the public speaker and vocal teacher and a feeble coastal shipping had been the limiting conditions of statecraft. Under these conditions the idea of the empire had been the highest po- litical idea in men's minds. Now, Lowever, in that age of renaissance, the ocean, which had been an ulti- mate barrier, became almost sudderly a highway and the printed book and presently the newspaper quickened masses in the community, hitherto politically ineffective, into informed activity. The politics and statecraft of Europe, obsessed—still to this day obsessed—by the doomed imperial tradition, began nevertheless a clumsy, slow adaptation to this proc- ess of material change, unable to ignore its pressures and compulsions, but evidently indisposed to recognize its nature. 3 1 use this word “indisposed” de- liberately. The political mind, like the legal mind to which it is so closely akin, looks backward habitu- ally, prefers precedonts to Utopias, clings to the old and is pushed along by the new. Europe clings still to the imperial tradition four centuries after it became impracticable, its kindred peoples are divided and de- stroy one another in the feuds of & man waste Europe as Asla Minor was wasted by Byzantine and Persian in a futile search for a kind of suprem- acy that can never return to this world. They are llke rivals who fight for a woman already dead and decayed. Europe Not The World. Continental Burope is being deso- lated and destroyed by Intellectual incapacity, by the failure to recog- nize the obsolescence of its political ideas and traditions. But Europe is not the world, nor will its decline and fall be the end of the human story. In the United States of America, in this so-called British empire, and now in the United States of Russia, we must recognize a breaking away from tradition complete as when the Roman empire broke away from the forms and traditions of any previous political synthesis. These new 8ys- tems arise not to inherit but to su- persede. Tt is this conception of the history of the world during the last four centuries as being essentially in its broadest aspects a belated, forced, and largely unconscious process of political adaptation to changing con- ditions, of vast subconscious and un- willing trials and experiments in new and greater political associations to replace that formerly dominant im- perial idea, that I wish to put before my readers. It carries us on to the further realization that since the process of change in communications is only now approaching some sort of limiting completion the new po- litical systems that have appeared cannot be considered as anything but preliminary and transitory systems. The United States 3f America, the Spanish, Dutch and British colonial empires of the eighteenth century, the Russian empire and the second British empire of the nineteenth cen- tury, the British emplire of this pres- ent discussion, must all from the angle of this conception be seen as things evperimental and transient, destined to the most extensive coal- escence, readjustments an dmodifica- tions In a few score years. ‘World Peace Foreseen. The form to which these synthetic material forces, this constant aboli- tion of distance between state and state and man and man, are driving us all, even In spite of ourselves, is a common Pax Mundl, & werld com- monweal, a federal suppression of armaments, a federal money system, a federal .postal system, a federal control of the production and dis- tribution of staple products, a. fed- eral direction. of main-line sea and land. transport and of the movements 5 PpoLy 3 now ' inexorably. The economic and financial world net grows tighter and. closer; war becomes so intimate and inconclusive and destructive as to become Jmpossible. The old Iideas dead trouble. Frenchman and Ger- EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL ARTICLES BUSINESS TO GET AID BY MUSEUM EXTENSION Revivified Institutions Will Play Greater Role in Educational Activites of Nation. BY WILL P. KENNEDY. HE educational system of this country is to have an impor- tant new adjunct, and Ameri- can business is to have & new ally. It 1S designed to “carry on” where the schools, newspapers and libraries now stop—visuslizing, meking real and usable what is learned through these three great educative agencies. With that purpose in view, develop- ment of community museums, broad- cast throughout the United States, has been undertaken in an organized way by the American Asso¢iation of Museums, co-operating With the states and with the federal govern- ment through the Smithsonian Insti- tution. This heralds the dawning of a new day for museums and brings into pub- lic service an idea which has been germinating for more than a century. It means that museum curators not only stand for sclentific and artistic scholarship, but also for popular edu- cation. Museums are now live insti- tutions—not “museoleums.” They are “out of their shell.” The American Association of Mu- seums, which has its headquarters in the Smithsonian Institution, is com- posed of the leading museums in the United States. As one of its activi- ties it has appealed to trade associa- tions and business organizations for the establishment in museums of ex- hibits of the principal American prod- ucts. General Awakening im U. S. There is actually coming to frui- tion at this time the outworking of an idea which many of the so-called “older generations” of museum men have been pioneering for years. There is a real awakening of museums to thelr power to educate and serve the public, and an awakening of the public to the fact that museums are not what they so often appeared to be, storehouses of dead things. Museums are now serving com- merce and industry—the work-a-day world—in a number of ways. Laur- ence Vail Coleman, secretary of the American Association of Museums, explains that it is working with the idea of bringing about during com- ing years-the establishment in every community—big or little—of a mu- seum for collections of art, industry, sclence and community relics. Many trade associations have already agreed to co-operate with this asso- clation by assembling exhibits of their products, showing processes of manufacture, history of develop- ment and methods of distribution. This association believes that a “trade or Industrial exhibit will serve immediately the purpose of ad- xertising and educating of children and the public concerning American products and production processes, and ultimately will become an object of historical interest. How Business Is Helped. In explaining what the museum does to help business Mr. Coleman pointed out that: First—It makes many commodities nossible, by pointing the way to sources of raw material or substi- tutes. A manufacturer finding his leng accustomed supply disappearing is oftehtimes advised what will serve his purpose as well or better and where he can get it. The same is true of metal goods and chemicals. There are hundreds of cases all over the country where the manufacturer first got Information that was of important money value to him from museum. All the museum got was Thank you,” and that’s all the mu- seum wanted, for it was “out to serve” the public. Second—It continually and re- peatedly improves many commodi- ties and & notable example of this is in the case of design. Thjs comes in wasteful subjection for two or three centuries yet; but the Pax Mundl waits at the end of the passage. A man holding these opinions must necessarily judge the present British empire without any fanatical loyalty, critically as a possible half- way house or a possible obstacle to a more comprehensive and enduring synthesis. It is not really the same thing as the British “empire” of 1823, which was a string of trading posts and areas of economic preponderance about the world, plus John Com- pany’s fantastic acquisition of the derelict rule of the Great Mogul. The bulk of the present British “em- pire” was created and held together by the steamship. This rendered possible the transfer of considerable masses of population to new terri- tories and the importation of bulky staples, of such things as wheat and cattle across great stretches of ocean. - The dominions were made by the steamship and the telegraphic cables and they constitute the fresh- est, most pecullar feature of the present British imperial system. Colonles the world has known be- fore, but neither the Greek nor Phoeniclan colonies of the old world nor the American colonies of the efghteenth century were linked closely and abundantly enough to the mother country to prevent a final trangement and detachment. The British' dominions today are, on the contrary, kept in touch and more and more effectively kept in touch with each other and the mother country. Thelr mutual relationships are un- precedented. Their unity may be en- during. India Different Problem. * But when we turn the relationship of Great Britain and these domin- fons on the one hand, to India on it ———— (Continued on Third Page.) the field of industrial art. Take any commodity.the production of which is established. The manufacturer, say of carpets, wants to study designs from other ages and other reglons— and the museum furnishes the ma- terfal to be studied. Thus the mu- seum exercises a strong influence on applied (or Industrial) art; especial- 1y on the designs of such things as textiles, costumes, housefurnishings, wallpaper, silverware, jewelry, and in fact anything that has to be de- signed from the standpoint of appear- ance as well as stréhgth. Manufacturers of all these com- modities have to depend upon in- spiration for new designs. ‘They can- not sit in a dark room and evolve some new design. They have to go out and see, and based on what they see they create new designs. In this is necessarily a large element of in- spirational artistic work—not mere copying. Consequently, the thing that can inspire best is most useful and this is the actual creation of some other artist—not a picture of it. So the museum can suggest to and in- spire designers, whereas mere tures of them might only suggest. Designers Aided in Work. Realizing that, hundreds of design- ers are studying museum materials all over the country. Two museums which are doing notable work for de- signers are the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Newark (N. J.) Mu- seum, but, of course, excellent work is being done by scores of others throughout the country. Museums to- day are also influencing motion pic- tures. Third. The museums educate the public_concerning products and pro- duction, making them more famillar —and this is directly advertlsing. When two or three persons co-op- erate each has to get something out of it; each has to put something in. The result is useful to a third party Consider, now, the application of this principle to commercial or industrial exhibit: The commercial house co-operating with a museum puts in something of real value and cost, either the value of the product, the time or labor of employes, etc. Before the commer- cial house can be persuaded to take on that expense it must see that it is going to get gomething in return. The best thing it gets is advertising. The exhibit in the museum brings the manufacturer's product to the atten- tion of the people. From the standpoint of the mu- seum—every exhibit installed costs the museum a lot of money, even if the exhibit is contributed. It must be housed and cared for. The mu- seum puts in ‘one other very impor- tant thing in this plece of co-opera- tion. Tt gives that product prestige 1t is not interested in one product as it enters Into competition with an- other or what the manufacturers get All the museum is inter- ested in is the real worth of the ex- hibit. While no museum can give its stamp of approval to a product, still it does automatically give prestige, for no product that is unworthy can make Its entrance into & museum. The museum gets out of this co-op- oration the educational value that the exhibit gives to the institution in the eyes of the publie. Eduecation for Pablic. From the standpoint of the “third party"—the public—the public gets out of an industrial or commercial exhibit education. Modern educa- tion is not merely the massing of ideas in one's head, but also it is the acquiring of ability to use ideas. So when the public comes in to sec an industrial or commercial exhibit it learns something about the product, and then goes eut and applies the information either by purchasing or by talking, and so influencing some one else to purchase. And the least the public can do is to tell the next fellow—which is the very best kind of advertising. The museums are glad to have this reaction on the part of the public, because if the public does not nct on what it learns in the museum the museum would soon be useles: This education of the public by an exhibit in a museum, which is real advertising — concerning production methods and products—is done large- ly by museums of sclence, as, for example, the United States National Museum, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, and the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Al- though a little out of their field, they are doing this, perhaps unconsciously, biding their time until Industrial museums will spring up all over the country to carry on and forward this work. Now lets see— What of it?” out of it. Industrial Museums Assured. There is vuund to come & day When a new order of museums will spring up—industrial museums—which set out with the prime purpose to serve business (and the public through business). This invelves a fundamental change in museum thinking, and that change is already beginning to be In evi- dence. The curator in putting a plece of art or rare furniture or beautiful mineral in his museum has gloated over the thing itself, admiring its in- trinsic “beauty, value or assoclations. But the new line of thought, that of the coming Industrial museum, will place utility first and intrinsic beauty second. It will vision how that ex- hibit can be used to inspire improve- ments of design, how a cast can be made of a carving on a plece of antique furniture to multiply its reproduction for present-day use, how a fragment of rare mineral can be used for laboratory study, etc.