Evening Star Newspaper, March 8, 1925, Page 39

Everyday Religion Not a Talk on Theology, But Upon Life and Right Living. ks BY RIGHT REV. JAMES E: FREEMAN, D. D, Bishop of Washington. The Christian's Obligation. Matthew zxii21: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Cae- sar's, and unto God the things that are God’s.” a dual obligation. To recognize this fact means to give It both symmetry and poise. Jesus not a fanatic demanding that men abandon the world in order they might serve God.. He recog- ed and acknowledged the com- mon obligations that devolve upon men in a world whose claims . are persistent. When He prayed for His lisciples His petition was, “Not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil.” In fine. He recognized that man's obligations Godward and manward are essentially related; his attitude toward the one would determine his attitude toward the other. In the instance of the text they had chal- lenged His judgment concerning the paying of tribute, and had asked Him the question, “Is it lawful to give iribute unto Caesar, or not? Taking the tribute money, He asked as He vointed to it, “Whose is this image They answered, To which He responded, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.” Once again His enemies were put to con- fusion, for they had failed to em- barrass Him. Rk re have been those who have lield that the Christian religion was designed to wholly separate those who held it from the things of the world. Once a Christian; their oblika- tions to men ceased. They became citizens of another world. Repeatedly his misconception has led men to lly separate themselves from all ian contacts that thereby they might the more fully and completely engage In what they believed to be their Christian duty. Doubtless, there lave been those who have been great- 1y profited by a life of separation from the things of the world. While lving apart from men they have pro- duced beautiful literature and art; thus they have enriched their fellows, and the world is better for their hav- ng lived. Life, to most of us, is much more real and intense because we are com- pelled to live in close contact with one another and to wrestle with mighty problems that engage our deepest interest. Christianity, as a system of life, is not designed to take away from men and things, but to make us more discriminating and charitable in our judgments, and more generous In our service to meet the needs that lie about us every- where. 1FE. has wholly th The world needs the church and the churchi needs the world. To keep the windows of the soul open Godward does not imply to close them man- ward. More and more we must take should | the things of religious belief and translate them into terms that men will understand. More and more the Christian church, as an institu- tion. must - bring its influence o bear upon the common life of the world about ‘us. Too many of us are regarding our church habit as the whole expression of our religiuos duty, with the result that we'limit the church's influence to its own immediate sphere, restricting it argely to one day of service and use- fulness. 4 g orge Tyrrell said, with striking . jod “will not ask us what church have you lived in?’ But “What church have you longed for?" He was seeking to emphasize the great'importance of making the e: pression of our Christian faith a pra tical and influential factor in the common life of our everyday expe- rience. Jesus did not consider the re- lation which a man bore to God as in any sense contravening the relation |he bears to his fellows. He thought of the two 'things as common duties, and in all of His teachings and work among men He abundantly illustrated his point of view and method. He would be obedient to the law as man had made it in order to be & consis- tent citizen of the state and fulfill all its obligations, and this because it was In demonstration of obedience to the higher purpose and will of God. He would seem to imply that a hea ler obligation was laid upon citizen- ship because of one's relation to God and his religious obligations. * »xx Too much emphasis cannot be lald upon this. Every now and again some religious body or teacher un- dertakes to afirm that the Christian’s whole duty is to fulfill his obliga- tions to God without any adequate realization that service to man is es- sential as a part of these obligations. Duty to the state and to one's neigh- bor is a distinct part of our Chris- tian duty. More and more we are coming to realize that our Christian habit of life, if it is to be effective, |must be interpreted to the world in terms of service. The New Testa- ment, more than any other book, em- phasizes this. Bishop Potter in an admirable essay on “The Scholar and the State” maintained that the high- er educated a man, the greater his re- sponsibility to his civie duties. He might also with large propriety have said that the stronger and more pro- nounced a man's religlous convic- tions or his sense of duty toward God the larger his responsibility to the state and to his fellows. Jesus never sought to create a distinction between the habits of Sunday and those of the work-a-day world. He sought to make it clear that man is a citizen of two worlds, and that these two worlds are essentially re- lated. His fidelifyy Godward must disclose itself in his fidelity man- ward. We shall make our Christian influence felt mors helpfully and practically when we come to recog- nize the consistency as well as the utility of His teaching and method. (Copyright, 1925.) MERICA’S FINANCIAL ALLIANCES BY GEORGE Vice President, The The wonderful development of the United States in the last 100 years was made possible by European in- vestments. They supplied the capital to pay the labor for dolng the work. Our present capacity to produce cap- ital has resulted from those invest- ments. European capital came hére be- cause conditions made this the part of the world {n which increased sup- plies. of capital would produce the largest results. The benefits to Lu- rope were greater than if the cap- ital had been invested there, because greater supplies of natural wealth Religion vs. Jazz A Rabbi’s View (Continued from First Page.) certain groups in the Nation had had enough of it; before they had ex- hausted their hatreds, their antag- onisms and thelr prejudices. What did these singers of hate do? "They transferred their bitterness to forelgners living in America. Since there were mnot enough forelgners| upon whom to_ exhaust their pent-up volumes of hatred, they devised groups of foreigners. Such groups are_the Roman Catholics, the Jews and the negroes. Ku Klux Klanism is nothing more than the blundering attempt to find an outlet for those energies of hatred which war re- leases. As to Non-Nordic Races. 1t crops out again in this agitation against non-Nordic races. Some one might be wicked enough to ask the Nordic expert what would become of our vaunted civilization today.if ail the Mediterranean races contributed to the world were blotted out or can- celed. The most immediate result would be the destruction of all the temples reared to the honor and glory of a child of Asia Minor, a son of the Mediterranean race, whose name was Jesus of Nazareth. Q. Can you give any further evi- dences of our moral decline? A. Two more. First, the failure of the child labor amendment, which is defeated not because America has seen any great light on the Constitu- tion, but because America’s genuine and tender concern for the child has been washed away in rivers of eight- eenth amendment gin. Faithless to World. Finally, America is unconcerned with international affairs. I don't be- lieve the American people are quite as hopeless as the State Department. 1 believe the American people are really concerned with something more tmportant than the payment of the allled debts. But we have ceased as a nation deeply to care for the thing that might constitute our crowning achfevement—the inauguration of world peace. 1am not thinking of the rejection of the League of Nations. for that Is only a token of the thing T lament. T am thinking of the moral decline that moves most Americans to say about Europe, “We are through.” As a result of this policy, we are the most hated country in the world to- asy. Q. What are we going to do about 2 . A. Diagnose the case and then doc- tor it. This moral decline is no incurable disease. Q. But have you a remedy? A. There will be no remedy, no healing, until we get into American life two things which we have not. One is education worthy of the name. The other s religlon. The right kind of education will help all of us to see what America needs for its moral and spiritual re-creation. Religlon along can fill us with the resolve to move forward out of the depths into which we have lapsed unto the heights which Amerlce may occupy agains E. ROBERTS ational City Bank of New York. were thus made avallable. The loans gave this country the means to im- mediately Increase its purchases in Europe, and eventually created a great permanent market for Euro- pean goods. British Loans Doubled. New capital flotations in the United States in 1924 on behalf of foreign countries and corporations aggregated about doubie the amount of such issues in Great Britain on behalf of other countries, including the British dominions. The figures are about $1,000,000,000 and $500,000,- 000, respectively, refunding issues ex- cluded. Before the var, London was far in the lead as a market for international financing, and the United States scarcely figured in the business at all. The reason was that the coun- try was still undergoing develop- ment at a rate beyond its own abil- ity to finance, and was itself the leading borrower in London. Cap- ital was cheaper there than here and other countries did not come here for it. It is not certain that the war has diminished the lending power of Great Britain. The productive ca- pacity of its industries probably Is greater than ever, although the de- moralization of world trade has tem- porarily affected its earnings. On the other hand, Great Britain parted with most of its American securities during the war, and incurred a debt of over $4,000,000,000 to this country, against which it holds the obligations of its allles for more than double that amount, but has said that it would settle with them for enough to pay the United States. Growing Need for Capital. The total capital flotations in Lon- don last year were about the same in amount as in pre-war years, but the world's needs were = very much greater because for 10 years borrow- ings for comstructive purposes had been below normal, and large loans were needed in Europe for the re- habilitation of monetary systems and for purchases in the United States. Hence the European flotations here. About one-half of the foreign loans in this country were for countries outside of Europe, one-third for Canada and South America, $187,- 000,000 for Japan, the latter made necessary by the earthquake. The United States today needs a restoration of the purchasing power of Europe, as in former years. Europe needed the development of America. It will bring the world's industrial organization back into_bal- ance, and these loans are not only doing this, but immediately increas- ing European purchases of our prod- ucts. - Thus far they have been con- structive loans, enlarging the produc- tive powers of the borrowing coun- tries, and tending to restore pros- perity of the world. We have the resources to do it and who will say that under existing conditions we should not do it? (Copyright, 1925.) DAY 'STAR, WASHINGTO Why Associated Press Holds a Unique Place Among World News Gatherers BY EDWARD McKERNON Superintendent of the Eastern Division of the Associated Press _ (From an ‘address delivered by Mr. McKeraon at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.) VALUE an opportunity to give to men who are working along scientific lines what I believe will be a new idea of the Asso- clated Press.' In these days when man's ingenuity .and study .afford almost daily surprises, the scientific 'side of things is likely to be overemphasized, and’ it is quite ‘possible that In your minds the prestige of the Asso- clated Press may, be due largely to the Spec- tacular things that it does from time to time. To be sure, in its business of gathering and distributing news the Associated Press has taken advantage of every device of wit and science: that would serve its purpose. But so has the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, according to their lights and the exi- geicles of competition. That 1s all very well, but I wish you to know that the greatness of the Assoclated Press is not to be found In its mechanical supremacy, its thousands of miles of telegraph wire, or the perfection of its human machinery, but rather in its fidelity to the supreme mission that gave it birth. That mission was, first, to free the press of the country frcm the domination of a few men who, because of thelr control of certain news sources and thelr commerctal alllances with various groups of newspapers, were in a posi- tion to dictate largely what news should be published and what news should not be pub- lished, and to treat events according to their personal ideas. Next, to supply the reading publia with a non-partisan report that should reflect accurately important events without any suggestion of the conclusions to be drawn from the facts reflected. In other words, to replace a press individually partisan and collectively commercial with a daily chroni¢le of events, scientlfic, i you please, in the sense that it was based on “knowledge galned and verified by exact observation and correct thinking.” Never Comments on News. If you do mot remember anything else that I say tonight, remember this. The outstanding and distinctive characteristic of the Assoclated Press is that it never comments on_the news. We may say that the President delivered an @ddress; we may not say that it was a good address. That is for the reader to determine for himself. The Associated Press was the first and, I believe, is today the only news sorganization in the world that presents only facts—unadorned facts—and compels the reader to form his own opinion on these facts. Thé tremendous importance to the public of this policy will be made clear by a moment's re- flection. It must result in a public opinion founded upon a universal knowledge of the facts. This we never have bad. What has passed for public opinion has been the opinion of the few who were Infermed or the transi- tory assent of the many to some popular ap- peal. Society has been directed in its every activity by a minority because only a minority has known. Many men have faith: relatively few have convictions. What we accept as con- victions frequently are nothing more than men- tal habits inherited like our religion and our politics. For 200 years the newspapers of America, by suggestion in their news columns, largely did the thinking for their readers. The Associated Press lays down the cold, cruel or happy facts and invites you to do the thinking for yourself. John Milton caught the vision 'way back in the middle b¢ the seventeenth century, wien in his famous plea for unlicensed printing he sald: "Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to consclence above all liberties” Well, when Milton had moldered in his tomb in Westminster Abbey 150 years the first amendment to our, Federal Constitution was adopted, ‘guaranteeing that nothing should be done to abridge the liberty of the press and of speech. But great as that victory was, the full vision of Milton had not been realized. . To the American colonists free- dom of the press and of speech meant freedom tives and their policies. In other words, the editor and the spellbinder were given the liber- ty “to utter and to argue” and, if they could, to convince others of the correctness of their views. i 7 Early Printers Were Feared. But I ke to think that John Milton had others than the editors and the politictans in mind when he sald “the liberty to know.” Cen- turles before, those in authority had discovered that the printer was a dangerous character, not because he attacked those in high places. He had mnot then reached that stage of’ develop- ment. But because through the dissemination of Intelligence concerning the every-day affairs of life the masses might come to know, and, knowing, think: +For them to think was the unpardonable crime of the period. And this is elisily understandable. When movable type was introduced in 1450 all gov- ernments, good and bad, derived their powers from the ignorange of the governed. Accord- ingly lgnorance was carefully nurtured. In this way it was possible for the few with & little more wit than their fellows to. exploit the many, and to this end the masses had been systematically taught to belleve that the gods had created two classes of men—those born to rule and those born to serve. An exposure of the humbug through the diffuslon of knowledge that might Incite the masses to think was threatened. That {s why they Interdicted the press. For 20¢ years the press was suppressed. Then avas Introduced the licensed press, licensed to print only that which bolstered the existing order of things. Thus for 300 years class privilege and the concentration of power in the hands of a few were perpetuated by the suppression or misuse of the press. America’s Service to the Wo: When In America we won freedom of the press and of speech we did the world a great service. But, as 1 have already indlcated, it was the editors and the politiclans who were set free. The potenthl thought of the people was still in chains. There was no longer a conspiracy to keep the masses in ignorance, but our early publicists were creatures of the times, and traditions of caste were not to be easily outgrown, even in a democracy. Those Who had dethroned kings enthroned wealth and po- litical power. The editor was a preachsr in- stead of a teacher, and he always preached from the same text: "~ “We point with pride” or “We view with alarm.” ‘The editorial policy was reflected in the news columns. Into the news the writer wove his politics, his re- ligion and his philosophy. A news story was made up of 25 per cent news and 75 per cent of what the editor thought about it. The reader did mot have to think whether a tragic event described was sad. The reporter told him it was, and wept all over the first page. Readers did not have to think, and very generally did not, and, worse, many finally came not to care. Ignorance of public affairs bred indifterence and 50 developed a distinct class of politicians, who very largely controlled governmental affairs. In 1848 seven newspapers in New York City banded tozether in what came to be known as the New York Assoclated Press, for the pur- pose of economy through Jointly gathering the news, largely foreign, and for profit in selling it to similar groups formed elsewhere. These groups exchanged news. But the disadvantage was that each had to accept from she other the partfcular brand of news that the other had to offer and in the form In which they chose to treat events. No group was able finan- cially to report adequately the news of the country independently. Eventually the Eastern groups formed an alliance and the groups west of the Alleghenies similarly united. These two larger organizations exchanged news. The Eastern assoclation, which virtually controlled the forelgn news, soon came under the control of three men, only one of whom was & news- paper man. .These three men were in position to dictate a great part of what the newspapers- of the United Statés should publish, for they gathered such news as they saw fit to gather, treated events according to their personal ideas and were accountable to no one but theniselves. This was the situation when there was writ- tional history. The rapid growth of monopoly and special privilege and’ the brazen assocla- ton of moneyed interests and political parties in tha: period will not be.disputed.- And I re- fer to it only to make the point that the at- tempt to influence the public politically through the news columns, However well intended and however enlightened were those who directed the policy of the mewspapers, failed to develop that. sense of individual responsibility which must be the bulwark of any democracy. It was then that.farsighted publishers came to realize that national progress and national, safety itself were dependent upon an aroused and enlightened public opinion, and that this neyer could be assured unti] the millions con- stituting the electofate were made to know and incited to think. So in 1892 was born the Assoclated Press of Today, a co-operative organization making no profits, ‘but operated on a cost basis, with a membership of newspapers representing every political, soclal and religious predilection, and with the supreme and single mission of gather- ing and dfstributing the significant facts of ‘world events without fear or favor and without editorial comment. _This new conception of journalism was es- sentially revolutionary. From the start it en- countered the outraged hostility of private and selfish interests. It required faith and courage to make it effective, and in the history of journalism there is mo more glorious and in- spiring page than that which records the strug- gle of Melville E. Stone, for more than a quar- ter of a century the general manager of the Associated Press; Victor F, Lawson, its first . president, and Frank B. Noyes, now serving his twenty-fifth year as president, and their asso- ciates to bring to frultion the creation their genlus had conceived. High Standard of Journalism. Whether these men were inspired like the prophets of old or were actuated by motives of material self-preservation, I shall not at- tempt to say: but, if the latter is true, they bullded better thap they knew. They raised a standard of journalism that today is recognized the world over as representing the highest ideals of the profession. In co-operation the member newspapers set a mark which as in- dividuhls they might not have attained, but toward which individual effort is firresistibly drawn. Thus the level of news values has been steadily raised and the public taste for news worth wlhile cultivated. In our report the room given to crimes in 12 years decreased 60 per cent, while there was a corresponding increase in the room given to the problems of Iiving and labor, the activities of colleges, churches and welfare socletles, and to scientific research and discovery. You may have noted the gradual disappear- ance of the intransigeant party organ. When I began newspaper work, in crder to get both sides of a political issue one had to buy two newspapers, and, unfortunately, few did. Now- adays you need to buy but one paper, though almost everyone buys at least two To me the most significant thing in the last presidential campalgn was the fairness with which the rep- resentations of the several candidates were given in the news columns regardless of what was being saild on the editorial page. But to me what lifts the Assoclated Press above all other considerations is that the policy of presenting a non-partisan report resulted in placing the burden of thinking upon the public. By refusing to think for its readers it has com- pelied the readers to think for themselves. The response to this was immediate. Before the days of the Assoclated Press the man who regularly read a newspaper, particularly outside the larger citles, was a rather rare exception to the rule. Today the dispatches of the Asso- clated -Press are read by sixty million persons daily. Think of it! Stxty million persons read- ing facts—unembellished facts—and doing their own thinking. And they are thinking as never before. Hence the open forums and the hec- kling at political meetings. The old spread-eagle oratory of the political stump falls on deaf ears. That is why we have the most enlight- ened electorate. That {s why we have the best -Howe About The Sermon and the Circus; Booze; December and June Love. BY E. W. HOWE, “The Sage of Potato Hill.” N the old days circus men were nearly all thieves, what was called a circus was really a poor show intended to collect crowds of people and pick their pockets. It is related that one of the most noted circus owners of 50 years ago was a great thief. He organized not a company of clever performers, but of clever confidence men. But dishonesty was troublesome and expensive. It was necessary to buy up the officers of the law every- where. Circuses came to be 50 cor- dially hated that when one appeared in ‘a town all the roughnecks for miles around collected to break up the penformance and whip the circus men, if they could. In addition to a gang of confidence men, It was necessary for a circus owner to carry prizefighters. As a result of all this trouble, the old clrcus owners made little money; I do not recall qne who made a for- tune. The old type of circus finally be- came bankrupt, because of dishonest management, and honesty was tried. Modern circus men are decent in overy way. The money formerly spent on prlieflrmers and confidence men is now devoted to clever acts and great spectacles. Circus people, from performers to stake drivers, are well be- haved. The coming of a circus means a great holiday, and people flock to it, knowing they will be treated fairly. Mod- ern circus owners, operating hon- estly, have made great fortunes. In the old days porch climbers and plck- pockets were carried with every cir- cus. The modern circus owner em- ploys detectives to see that no thleves follow him. The people may safely leave their houses unprotected and attend the big show, which is always 2 good one. And makes a fortune for its owner. Every dishonest, idle, tricky man may thrive if he will become honest. It is the first necessity of life. The industrious, fair, polite and useful man Is respected, and makes money: the idle, tricky man is not respected and does not make money. | Any one should be able to find the moral, * % 5% Although mnot a religious man, I believe the world is better off with the present religious activity than it would be without religion. Tt at least seems to be true that nations without religion have not prospered as well as nations with it. I am not one of those who believe only reli- glous people are hypocrites. Free thinkers probably equal or surpass them in hypocrisy. A Soclalist does not believe in half he pretends to be- lleve in. Half the stock in trade of a professional literary man is ‘hypoc- risy, and the musiclan or artist is worse. * % You must have observed that as soon as people marry literature quits them, so far as love is concerned: after marriage literature is busy with wrangling. In a newspaper of recent date T saw seven accounts of wives shooting husbands. In plays the story closes with marriage; there- after the record is supposed to be so bad that it Is not proper to lay be- fore women and children. According to literature, wives and husbands never like each other. What is it wives and husbands discover about each other that is so atrocious? Are wives and husbands natural enemies, as are foxes and hounds? EEE . I have seen beautiful cemeteries. But it is a form of beauty I do not care for. e to attack the colonial administrators, their mo- ten the “public be damned” chapter of our na- Government on the face of the earth. The Story the Week Has Told BY HENRY W. BUM HE following is a brief sum- mary of the most important news of the world for' the seven days ended March 7: United States of Amertca.—On March 4 Calvin Coolidge was inducted as President to succeed himself, and the Sixty-elghth Congress passed away. The President's inaugural speech was a notable utterance, its most striking features being its advocacy of adhesfon by us to the Permanent Court of International Justice, a sharp rebuke to Republican Insur- gency within Congress, an interpre- tation of the popular mandate at the November elections and a very lucid, brief statement of the President's outstanding policy of economy in public _expenditure, with reduction and_reform of taxzation. “The collection,” observed the Pres- fdent very happily and justly, “of any taxes which are not absolutely re- quired, which do not beyond reasona- ble doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny.” The following passage seems to me especially deserving of quotation: “This administration has come into power withya very clear and definite mandate from the peo- ple. The expression of the popular will in favor of maintaining our constitutional guarantees was over- whelming and decisive, There was 2 manifestation of such faith in the integrity of the courts that we can consider that issue relieved for some time to come. Likewise the- policy of public ownership of rallroads and certain electric utllities met with un- mistakable defeat. The people de- clared that they wanted their rights to have, not a political, but a judicial, determination, and their independence and freedom continued and supported by having the ownership and con- trol of their property, mot in the Government; but in their own hands. As _they always do when they have a fair chance, the people demon- strated that they are sound and are determined to have a sound Govern- ment.” The President signed the postal pay and rate bfll on February 25. On Thinks Ericksson Touched Virginia Students of the sagas are devoting a great deal of attention to the theories advanced by the late M. M. Mjelde regarding the explorations of Leif Ericksson. Mjelde died recently after a journey to America aboard a freight steamer on which he tested out through astronomical and geo- graphical observations his bellef that Ericksson’s “Vineland” was on the mainlind of America—what is now the Virginla coast. This new inter- pretation of the cabalistic reckoning in the saga upset an older Norweglan theory, advanced by Prof. Gustay Storm, that “Vineland” was the coast of what is now Nova Scotla. It would explain Lelf Ericksson's insistence upon the fact that ‘the climate in “Vineland” was remarkably mild, and that grapes grew, wild, Y March 4 he signed (with extrems re- luctance, it is said) the legislative appropriation bill, with its amend- ment providing for increase of the salaries of members of Congress, Cab- inet members, the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. Of the legislative proposals which failed of consummation by the late Congress the following were the most important: The Muncle Shoals leas. ing bill, the McFadden branch bank- ing blill, sundry farm rellef bills, the public buldings bill, carrying an ap- propriation of $150,000,000; the gov- ernmentel reorganization bill, amend- ment. of the transportation act, the bl proposing purchase by the Fed- eral Government of the Cape Cod canal; the bill for _the settlement of the century-old French - spoliation claims, ratification of the Turkish treaty and the lIsle of Pines treaty, and the proposals of adhesion to the World Court. On March 3, the House passed, 301 to 28, a resolution advocating our adhesion to the protocol establishing the World Court, with the reservations recommended by President Harding and President Coolldge. Dr. Beebe and his associates of the Deep Sea Oceanographic ecxpedition of the New York Zoological Soclety, aboard the Arcturus, are already in the Sargasso Sea, having by rare good luck discovered it within three weeks of leaving New York. In his speech to the new Senate upon the occaslon of his inaugura- tion as Vice President, Gen. Dawes in- timated in an energetic manner, not vold of suspicion of acerbity, his opinion that the Senate rules of pro- cedure should be revised in the in- terest of expediting the public busi- ness. The next day, March 5, Senator Underwood submitted to the Senate a resolution proposing a proper limit to debates, and the end of the prac- tice of the filibuster by that body. Sic transit gloria !— that is, if the reso- lution is adopted. Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt will start in April for a sclentific hunting expedition in the Pamirs and Chinese Turkestan, under the aus- plces of the Field Museum of Chicago. They hope to bring back specimens of the Dzeren (also known as the gol- tered antelope, the Chinese antelope and the yellow goat) of the Markhor (a wild goat) the Yardand stag, the Thian Shan ibex end long-halred tiger, and other rare and Interesting creatures. It will be no Sunday school plenie. The British Empire—Explaining to the Commons recently the air policy of the British government, Sir Samuel Hoare, the air minister, made the fol- lowing observations: “There is no use now in going into technical dis- cusslons as to whether such and such a number of bombs could sink a battleship. The central and undeni- able fact is that an air force today, passing in a few moments over trenches and armles and channels and fleets, could penetrate into the very heart of this country, and whether or no material damage might be inflict- ed, could make life well nigh un- endurable for popular living, mainly in the large: cities. We intend to bulld up a system of defense which will make it not worth while for any hostile power to attack us in the air.” He referred to the efficient record of the air force assigned to. Irak. In the .previous 12 months eight. air squadrons, four infantry battallons and a few armored cars had main- tained order in that turbulent country during an especially turbulent phase without the loss of a single Briton. “We are gradually introducing new types of machines,” said he. “Not machines to win records, but the kind of types which will give us more manageable machines than any one else has." The February summary of Britisl trade fssued by the American Cham- ber of Commerce in London contains the following Interesting items: Wage difficulties threatened in the three key industries, mining, egineer- ing, railways; number of registered unemployed _greater by 80,000 on January 1, 1925, than on January 1, 1924, the total being 1,320,000; only 30 per cent of the berths in the shipyards in use; depression in the coal market, the cotton and wool industries. The All-India’ Committee of Hindus and Moslems which began work .in January, on a program- for Hindu- Moslem co-operation, disolved March 1 with nothing accomplished. Sadly, Gandhi admits that co-operation is impossible at present owing to mutual suspicions. Vilhjalmur Stefansson tells of seeing a goodly number of Australian aborig- ines, or “Blackfellows,” as they are called by the Australians of European stock, absolutely in puris naturalibus, precisely as nature mage ‘em. Most curious of peoples, those aborig- inal “Blackfellows.” And what is more curlous, they are not the real aborig- ines of Australia, nor are they rightly called “Blackfellows.” The ethnologlets are fairly on the following : Aus- tralla was once only peopled by Papauns (negroids). At a period so long ago that no slightest tradition thereof is pre- served, Dravidians of India, fe. “dark- white' Caucasians, were forced by pres- sure from the north to cross to Ceylon. Ceylon belng thus overcrowded, many of them teok to bohts and sailed or drift- ed to Australia. In the course of. the rolling centuries their descendants part- Iy killed off the Papauns, partly ab- sorbed them and compelled the remnant to take to boats and rafts and cross Bass Strait to Tasmania, where about 2,000 of thelr descendants were living when the British, in 1802, made their first settlement in Tasmania. The Dravidian invaders of Australia were in.a primitive condition, which is not surprising, but it is truly surprising that thelr debcendants made scarcely one single advance in civilization down to the foundation of the first\British colony in Australia in 1788, . The British found them (and 50 are many to this day) nude, with no, knowledge whatever of agriculture, with no domesticated animals except the “dingo” (a cur brought from India), and with no houses except the rudest temporary shelters. Their food consisted of game, seeds, roots, grubs and reptiles. They went in strong for many disgusting and hor- rible practices. They had Ao sexual morslity ‘and wers complete Hars. They_were about as low as low could be. Yet it appears that they are very amiable, physically rather fine and mentally by no means coftemptible. Thelr bush-sense is uncanny, perhaps more remarkable than that of the American Indian at his best.. - The sheep and cattle ranchers found them efficlent and trustworthy. The sreat A. R. Wallace declared them to be “reaily of Caucasian type’—that is, T syppose, predominantly Caucasic, with some negrold crossing. Why the absolute lack “of development since immemorial time? There are perhaps 50,000 of them left, as against an es- timated 150.000 in 1788. Presumably the remuant will ulti- mately bo absorbed by their “light- .| white” Caucasian cousins. * ¥k ow France.—The French budget ‘for 1925 assigns §,400,000,000 francs to re- construction. of ‘the devastated re- glon. including German deliveries. in kind, valued at 200,000,000 francs. The French assert correctly that their budget of 34,000,000,000 francs repre- sents a much heavier tax burden, than does our Federal budget, but, of course, they have not our heavy bur- den of State, muynicipal, ete., taxa- tion. x X Our information on the matter is a little ‘vague, but apparently.the Ger- man - government -has _proposed - & Franco - British - German - Belgian treaty guaranteeing the present Ger- man frontiers on the west and sanc- tioning the reference to arbitration of {ssues relating to Germany’s east- ern frontfers. If the Information is correct the German move is a clever one. In return for a guarantee of her own frontiers, France is invited to dish her allles, Poland and Czechoslovakia, for obviously the stipulation respecting the eastern frontiers contemplates re- opening the Silesian question and the Danzig corridor question and the question of the German-Cazechosiovak frontier. The Germans can count on British interest in such proposals and they know how desperately the French crave a_ British guarantee of their frontiers, But it seems extreme- ly unlikely that the. French will be- tray their Polish and Czechslovakia allies. ' * % % % Germany—President Friedrich Ebert died of peritonitis on February 28 and the republic has lost a very honest and stalwart servant. The funeral ceremonies at Berlin were most im- pressive. If certain reports are cor- rect, hundreds of spectators suc- cumbed to hysteria as the cortege passed, shrieking and *ainting. The body Was interred at Heldelberg, where ‘Ebert was born, the son of & tallor, and where, In his youth, he fol- lowed the trade of saddler. Election for a new President will be held March 29, The German paper mark will be de- prived of official existence on June 5. Its present vajue \s four trillions to the dollar. * % % %k Miscellaneous—A sulcide wave In Vienna {s reported, 170 suicides or attempts at suicide, in February. The Polish government has con- tracted with a French company for construction of a port at Gdingen, on the Baltic, west of Danzig. Some reports indicate that the Kurdish revolt against the Angora gov- ernment, led by Shelk Said, is peter- ing out. Other reports indicate the contrary, one of the latter states that eight divisions, two-fifths of the ‘Turkish standing army, are in the field agalnst the insurgents. It {s reported ‘that troops loyal to Sun Yat Sen have finished off -Gen. Chen Kwang Ming. According to that delightful person, M. Karakhan, Bovltt'Amb-:‘lor to China, “an indescribable joy swept over Japan” when the news of rati- fication of the Russo-Japanese treaty ‘was published in that country. Russia is making great plans Yor economic co-operation with Japan. The Egyptian government will not send the holy carpet to Mecca this year and warns Egyptian subjects that pllgrimage to the holy places this year will be a risky thing. Conditions in Chile are by no means satisfactory. The restoration of Alessandri to the presidency is not universally acqulesced in. Reports state that the government has de- clared a state of siege in the three most important provinces and en- forces a rigid censorship. President Coolidge has presented to the Chilean and. Peruvian govern- ments his award respecting the Taona-Arion question referred to him by these governments for arbitration. Nearly 40 vears ago there lived in my town a handsome young fellow who was generally admired. He wents away one day, and returned with a bride—a pretty and amiable girl who, at once captured all of us. Altogether, they were about the nicest young couple I ever knew, and I knew them pretty well.' The young man was promising in business, and soon was called to larger responsibilities. ¥ did not see them from that day until the 1st of December, 1924. On my way to Florida, I had a considerable wait {n St. Louis, and, knowing my old friend was president of a big con- cern there, went to see him. We lunched with them at.a hotel—a rather mournful pleasure. It seemed a pity that such handsome young peo- ple should become old. They are grandparents now, and still handsome in an elderly way: still fond of each other; still notably nice people, but somehow the ravages of nearly 4% years: seemed a panticular pity in their case. ‘I suppose my looks shocked them, too, but I have slowly become accustomed to my present condition, and it does not seem surprising. = At a recent general election, a great proportion of the best people op- posed Socialism. Right or wrong every really important State in the Union_decided against Lenin, La Fol- lette, Brookhart, MacDonald, Wheeler, Bryan, and every brand of Sociallsm. The farmers who own the best land were against it; so were all the great manufacturers, bankers, engineers, transportation chiefs. The best work- ingmen refused to follow their lead- ers into the Socialist camp. Is it possible that the great majority of the best and most useful people in this country are wrong, and the So clalist leaders right? Are seven- tenths of the best people we have devoted to injustice and opposed to liberty? 1f you accept the Socialist doctrine, you must proceed from the premises that the best people in the country have no gense of falrness, and wish to rob the poor. I have just received a letter from an intelligent man who lately made, a trip through the West. Of one famous Western town he savs “Everywhere I went it was-boozen booze, booze. I had to stop Eoing visiting because too much booze was served. One gets tired, weary and discouraged with all the hospitality® oftered along with liquor.” This ina the West; the East is worse. * When an old man marries a young woman and has great trouble (as ix usually the case), a woman always says: “I am glad of it. He deserves it He should have known better.” When a handsome young man of 25 meets a girl of about his own age, and there is an explosion, the women do not say: T'm glad of it. She deserves it She should have known better.” I think an old man who marries a young wife, and is terribly punished is entitled to the same sympathy we give a baby who overturns a kettle of hot water on its head. So is the young girl who engages in a contest with a young man, and is beaten. Old men are worsted in marrying young women because the cards are stacked against them. The old Mo- hammedans had young wives, and claimed it kept them young, but the cards were not stacked against them. When a man loses in a contest with a woman, It is because the men, meet- ing as a legislature, have dealt the: women the best hand. (Copyright, 1825.) Germany Found on Up Grade After Widespread Sufferings (Continued from First Page.) was a time of even greater and more ®eneral history than even the war time, but others would deny this. One says, and I believe this to be true in all countrles where inflation has been or remains, that there has been and even continues frightful suffering emong the class which lived on small, but once sufficient mn- comes from government funds. All these ncomes have been swept away, people of these classes are destitute, and for them there is no hope. Re- pudiation of such government securi- ties was complete and will hardly be recalled. In sum, T have the impression in Berlin of a people accustomed to a rather high general level of prosperi- ty which has been recently fearfully impoverished, which has recently been in contact with the primary problems of food, fuel and clothing; which has passed through a period of almost complete ruin financially, of actual misery and great despair; which has quite definitely emerged from that evil circle, gone back to work with the greatest industry, and universally—for unemployment does not exist-in anything like British proportions—but has -not_yet been able physically to throw off the signs of the strain and outwardly discloses this fact. % ‘Workers' Wages Are Low. I am told by those who should know that wages of the workingmen are terribly low and that the strug- gle to support familles is still incon- celvably difficult. Certainly there is no mistaking the fact that the cost of living as measured by prices even in the public markets is appalingly high. Nevertheless, if one is to judge by appearances it Is not a hopeless struggle; one doesn ot see signs of actual starvation or even of acute want. “What counts, too, is the fact that in Germany during the war and after the war the standard of liv- ing of the masses was lowered, not raised, which was just the opposite trom what took place in the allled countries. Thus it is true that in England the condition of the work- ingmen has on the whole deterforated from a.very high level since peace came, while in Germany present con- ditions are much better than at eny time.in the last 10 years, while the people have accustomed themselves to a far lower -standatd of living. Germany is recovering; the signs of this are universal. Germans are, on the.whole, if not satisfied, at least without violent resentrhent over the existing conditions; the recent past was so much worse than the present that the contrast still bulks large in thelr minds. The sense of general uncertainty, with money falling to fantastic levels daily, and each day’s crop of currency worthless before it could be spent—that is over. But it would be a mistake to say, I think, that there is anything like the same air of settled confidence as in Lon- don. Has Germany -actually suffered, Have the Germans shared the agonies with which Americans are famillar in the case of Belgium and France, the hardships which the British people know? This is a question in- evitably on many American lips, For it has seemed an intolerable thing that the one nation of all engaged in the war, which knew no invasion, devastation, physical ruin, should be | Now, I am not pretending here td set down economic statistics, to ars gue .as to Germany's capacity to pay reparations or as to her political pol- icies. What I have sought to do is report impressions derived from su- perficial contact with the population. of the capital. But on the basis of, this coritact I am personally satisfied as to the fact of Germany suffering and as to the reality of its extent. It is impossible to escape a conviction. of suffering—of extreme suffering, physical, mental and moral—and also equally impossible to dodge the con- viction that this suffering has ter- minated much later than that of any other of the peoples of the great powers of the World War. You feel—you are bound to feel, | think, once and for all—that there were no frontiers to the misery and suffering and privation in the grea struggle and that these wrote the same kind of lines upon the faces of men and women—Ilines of wretched- ness, premature age, stunted youth— on all sides of the firing lines. You will see things in the faces of children here, which, particularly if you have children of your own, you cannot ever mistake or quite forget. g Present Situation Better. I do not mean to exaggerate and, I do not believe that there is any present cause for such sufféring, gen- erally speaking. Moreover, every-< one who went to the war zones in, the years of the conflict saw exactly the same expressions on faces in scores of cities and towns in France and Belgium. Perhaps the German people have not sufiered as much or as intensely as the French and the Belgians did—I am not alming &t com- parisons. What I am trying to maks clear {s that if there is to be any. understanding of the mood and mind of cotemporary Germany; if, after all, understanding of these be pos- sible, is it essential to bear in mind the fact that these people have not in the main been {mmune from very terrible suffering, evidences of which are plainly to be seen on all sides. And one should add that the su fering, the strain, the hopelessness lasted, on the whole, much longer here than elsewhere. 4 And so, after all, I return to the figure which I used at the outset of this dispatch, the statement that Ger- many today in contrast with Britain or France, Berlin in contrast with London or Paris, suggests the con- trast .between the early Spring in Washington and the late Spring ir northern New Hampshire. Yet, on the whole, the optimistic conclusion is that Spring is actually arriving here. Perhaps I should add that in co- temporary Berlin one is assured of all the things which contribute to the comfort and convenience of tha traveler, and If you were to judgeq merely by the display and luxury at one or two hotels there would be little to differentiats between cous ditions here and in other capitals, But opinions based upon such pre: ises are notoriowsly inexact. Ger- many and Berlin are 2 long way from resuming life at the point at which the war finterrupted it. Berlin is much more like Paris or London the first year after the armistice than like those cities now, and even them one has to make allowances for the absence of uniforms of the victorious armies and of the statesmen and their relatively enormous retinues, which Germany and that she should in ad- dition by evasion escape all repara- tions, ¥ . i particularly gave life and color W Paris in 1919, + (Copyright, 1925.)