Evening Star Newspaper, December 20, 1925, Page 61

‘EDITO RIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES Part 2—14 Pages DEAN INGE SEES UPHILL FIGHT FOR CHRISTIANITY Battle Against Heavy Odds or an Inward Apostasy and Unholy Alliances Is Alternative Now. BY WILLIAM RALPH I Deean of St Paul's Cathedral. London, the Januars 1ssue of The Forum HE white have a veligion, and that religion must _he Christianity. So 1rnst Troeltsch wrote a year hefore his death, adding that, together with this conviction, his own faith was hecoming more radical and superdenominational every vear. His attitude and the course of mental de- velopment which led 1o it is, I helieve, typical of the educated thought of our day. But a short defense of his sec- ond statement, that our relizion must he Christian perhaps desirable, since we it said that we want a A new re man must mes hear religion cannot he had more than a A orzanization try build A tree have creative periods in bhut this is not one of them, < the \West seem to be the part world where they arise li- exotics in_ Furope and n the East they srow wild, sometimes ~ into the sirangest fruits and flowers. The West nccasionally attempts some- thing new. hut in our time it has pro- duced nothing more respectable than Mormonism, Spiritualism and Chris- tian Science. The great living faiths the world arose in Asia and in the millennium which ended with Mo- hammed som new for new We zion ny aski political an mizht There =ions Americ lnxuriating Must Have Spiritual Power. has heen fortunate as of the dominant races. 1= wide diffusion and po- may he due to the nventiveness and persever- ance of the European stocks, even an unbeliever mizht vith Troeltsch that a relizion which has satistied for =0 lonz the most progressive nations of the world must have such spiritual power that it may justly be deemed a revelation of divine truth Rut must define What do we mean by Historically, Jesus of Nazareth placed himself in the line of the prophetic siccess He was called the prophet Na h in Galilee. His manner life —that of a wandering preacher—was the way of the Jewish prophets. His message was prophetic His stirving call to repentance and amendment: His emphasis on moral conduct: His y tion of a coming day of the Lord”. His disprragement of ritual and tradition: H nflicts with the priesis—all belong to the prophetic tradition. 1fis teaching was individual and unive lie had thought founding a new reliz rival hierarchy. though His move clearly than His dis- He was in fact undermin- ing the authority o Church. He was no He aholished all har them. It impossibl the substance of His Jewish or Greek, Bastern or It is the pure re n of ternal and world-w The 1 Palestine after the were. and wi orthodox and e distinctive pected Messiah 1 - fied and risen Master. Messianism. however, made anly a weak appeal to the Jews of the Dispersion, and was unintelligible to the Gentile world. Under the influence mainly of St Paul, the new wine hurst the hottles in which it had heen confined Christianity hecame a reli for the Graeco-Roman empire. This was the sreatest that chirch has ever encountered spel had heer purely Semitic and apocalyptic as some assert. it conld not have sur- vived such an upreoting. As it Christianity took very kindly to the Greek lanzuage and ways of thinking. Long hefore the closing of the New Testament canon it had 4 Minity with the Platonism of time, ‘which was drawing into itself stoical morality. Pythagorean mysti- cism and all that was most alive in the 12 tradition of Cireek philosophy. e Orient. it is true, was lost, and it hos never been recovered. Christianity i< now perhaps the least Asiatic of ail religions Christianity the relizion But thoush litieal ascendaney energy we our terms Christianity ? sal. no n mies saw ciples that e S We he tle group of who came traged disciples in izether again t Caivary considered, Jews, who held that the e he their eru be plons the the erisis i was, the Deep in Civilization. The Christianity was converted had FEuropean civilization. Church was the last ment of classical he said to h to it. Its were mainly tfirst were to which < roots Europe deep in The Catholic reative achieve ntiquity. which may ve died in giving philosophy and theology Platonic ethics were largely stoical: but the latter profoundly maodified by the entler and humbler spirit of the inal g while Judaism con nted certain features which do not fit in with Platonism. Among these were helief in the creation and +.2 of the world in time, and a ~cconger hold on divine and human personality. Even more important for the victory of the church was the Jewish refusal to make any terms with “idolatry with the syn. cretistic mystery cults. Both came lack later: but the chureh would make no terms with the old religion “hristianity was persecuted as the foe of the old culture, and as an imperium in imperio. The fear which inspired the persecntions intelligible, hut they had the naturai resuit of alienat ing the church more completely from the tradition ind polit old world w ek and classical he social 1 structure of < crumbling, and the ns were themselves Ving ont. The city-state was pre served fare possible under the empire: but civilization was increas- ingly mer by the inroads of bar- harians from the North and East, and o centralization of a definitely non Furopean type was forced upan sovernment. The princip: of Augustus had been a camouflaged perpetual dictatorship: the monarchy of Diocletian was an undisguised Asiatic sultanate. It was at this con juncture that Christianity, after A tharp struggle, hecame the official religion of the Graeco-Roman world. The great Mediterranean empire scon afterwards split into two halves, \f which the eastern spoke Greek and the western Latin. The position of the church was not the same in the {wo sections. In the East Roman Empire, which lasted till 1453, the m of government was that known ws Caesaropapism. The church was {he right hand of the nuwnarchy, honored and protected by it but de- prived of independent powe This {vpe of polity. which is not iavorable Lo the spread of progressive ideas in church or state. subsisted in Russia {ll the bolshevik revolution. It is notewerthy that the Czars were so Jmuloue of a possible eastern papacy {hat they pwf the patriarchate into' commission by synod. In the West there opaplsm, because there was no real sar. In the contest between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy the theocracy won. It took to lts(‘”‘ all the attributes of the dead empire the houndless prestige of the name of Rome. the claim to universal gvereignty. the autocracy with al sraded hierarchy of officials, the | praetorian guard of priests’ and | monks, and the right to extinguish by | fire and sword any rebellion against | the central authority. Like the late empire. it was a_tvpe of government | fundamentally alien to the European | peoples, but a type which has often shown great strength. The Dark Azes were a long night-| mare of savage anarchy and oppres-i sion At no other time have the | rains of eiviliz n bheen nearly lost. The dawn came very gradual-| Iv: the sun rose again at what we call the Renaissance. The city-state once more flourished in Italy. and proved itzelf again a marvelous forcing-house of genius. though terribly wasteful of | its human material. Then the mod- ern European system of sovereign in- Gependent states came Into being. Henry VIII led the way by proclaim- Ing that “this realm of England is an | empire”—that is. a nation which acknowledzes no allegiance to any | other power. The Reformation natu rally followed. The pretensions of the | rriestly Caesar of the Vatican were no more valid than these of the Holy constituting a holy was no Caesar- |came a v | dream vered fts | birth | the | | g1 t | known. Roman Empire. Thenceforward and | forever the twin ideas of a universal | empire and of a universal church be-. | tionary or sentimental | Roman Catholicism its claims to a srace were only a k of trade i Modern history has been a record of | progressive emancipation. The nations | of the West have freed themselves from absolute monarchy. from reli gious persecution, from oligarchy and from alien domination. The liberation is now complete, and we may soon he lookinz for some new integration to save us from dissolution. The further evalution of democracy is quite uncer- | tain. Extremists on both sides are in clined to abandon constitutional politi- | cal methods. 'So far. there hax heen | no tendency to revert (o theocracy or Caesaropapism hecame | monoapoly | familiar sectarian of divine tri Reformation Reaction. e Reformation sense reactionary period was in a inasmuch as the ! fierce wars of relizion checked the hu- | manist movement which accompanied the Renaissance. Humanism was un- | dermininz the Catholic Church, but in- | stead of putting in its place a4 more spivitual form of religion, it tended to pa sm_or pantheism. and was ac. companied by moral licens North rn k. pe wanted not this, but politi ¢2} independence, o reformation of | manners, and 4 return to the primitive is it could not get from! asmus, still less from the ltalian | scholars and arti . But the wars of | igion dra ed the Reformation out | of its orbit | They compelled Protestantism. which is essentially a relizion of individual inspiration. free inquiry, and ethical | strictness, to become rival religion of authority, buttressed by the infal lible hook, as its enemies relied on the | infallible church It was disastrous that these strugzles followed the great astronomical discoveries. which shat tered the medieval cosmography. The necessary adjustments were never made: the hook inquiry no less than the decrees the church. When it was pra that “the Rible is the relizion ot estants.” a large part of the gains of | the Reformation were temporarily lost. | An infallible book is at hest a poor substitute for an infallible institution: and when criticism began to do its work on the sacred text, the founda tions of Protestantism gzave way. the present time it shows less vigor. less power of attraction. even less adaptability, than the rival system. It is also naturally fi divisions in the have long heen a of | ed teformed scandal Churches Protestantism that we have most to ! hope. 1 have said that the Gospel of Christ is the relizion of the Spivit in its purest form. In St. Paul's in the Epistles to the Hebrew the Fourth Gospel we have tian theolozy and philosophy ra on this foundation. hut brought into | line with Kuropean thought. From that time to the advent of the Dark Azes there was 2 type of Christian teachinz which Sometimes called Platonic, distinguished by its friendly attitude towards secular culture, by its is resolute determination to find the seat of authority, not in tradition. or in the arbitrary commands of God. or in an external and supernatural revelation, but in the heart and mind of man, illu minated by the Spirit of Christ. This illumination must he earned. or rather Prepared for. by a strenuous course of moral discipline. The religious life hegins with faith. which has been de- fined by Frederick Myers as the reso- lution to stand or fall by the nohlest hypothesis. This venture of the will and conscience progressively verifies | itself as we progress on the upward path. That which hegan as an experi- | ment ends as an experience. We be- come accustomed to breathe the atmo- | sphere of the spiritual world. i | Faith Knowledge of Essentials. Writers like Clement of Alexandria protest that faith is not an unreason- ing acceptance of doctrines imposed by authority. Faith,” he says, “is a compendious knowledge of essentials, while knowledge is a sure and firm demonstration of the things received through faith, carrying us on to un- broken conviction and scientific cer- | tainty. There is a first kind of saving | change from heathenism to faith, a second from faith to knowledge, and knowledge, as it passes into love, he once to establish a mutual friendship between the knowér and the ! Perhaps he who has reached | this stage is ‘equal to the angels.’" This kind of teaching will be found in | Origen and the Cappadocian Fathers. | and even in Augustine. Tt is the faith | of the medieval mystics, of the Re. naissance on jts truly religious side. and it has been alive continuously since the Reformation. The little group. called the Cambridge Platonists in the seventeenth -century, exhibit this type of religion in a singularly pure and attractive form. We find it again, in the prosaic | eighteenth century. in that robust and eloquent divine, William Law. It is today the faith of liberal theologians generally. a school which should re-: pudiate the name of modernism for two good reasons. In the first place it is not modern, but older than Catholic- ism and much older than Protestant- A wardness. come of Genesis foreclosed | gefile a man. of modernism has been appropriated by a school of Catholic thinkers who. ! with the help of the pragmatist philos Christian dogma faith are said to helong to a different order parous. and the | g, pje truth will make headway.. It is too obviously the desperate expedient of men who have ceased to be Chris- And yet it is, in my judgment, from | tians, but who desire to remain Cath- olics. lible church as hook. 'light quite as the old Quakers did. Insistence on divine immanence, by its ' ppey were in danger of making the | anxiety to accept it as infallible. when all men shall speak well of you, | for =o ait | unholy alliances—such is the alterna- EDITORIAL SECTION he Swnday Star WASHINGTON, D. Dignitaries Flout Advice of Solomon C., SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 20, 1925. And Lend Names to “Fishy” Enterprises BY BEN McKELWAY. OLOMON said: “A good name is as a precious ointment.” One wonders if the value of a good name has changed as other things have changed since the time of Solomon—his ideas on matrimony, for instance. What leads to this thought is the willingness with which men possessed of a good name lend it on the slightest provocation, without investigation and with no thought as to how it will be used or the harm which may come from its use. The American people take many things for granted. They know the Armenians are starv- ing. that more missionaries are needed in China and that the most efficient way to get pins out of freshly laundered shirts is to curse steadily, softly and earnestly during the proc- ess. They also know that Senator E. Casper Gump of Alafornia is a high minded, intellec- tual and scholarly statesman, who, before com- ing to Congress, was often referred to as one of nature’s leading noblemen. So, upon seeing the Senator’s name engraved in flowing script upon heavy sationery used by a soclety, an or- zanization, or a simple Movement, they take for granted the fact that the organization, society or Movement is worth while, and im- mediately go about and advecate it upon the houlevards, the arterial highways and the one- WAy streets. * kK % But the sad fact remains that while Sena tor Gump himself is all that could he desired as a leading citizen, the use of his name by some organization does not necessarily stamp that organization as 99 per cent pure. This salls to mind the tragic case of the Mammoth Cave Fish-Eye Association and the history of its sudden dissolution. Senator Gump one day was sitting alone in his office, glancing idly through mail an ef cient secretary had sorted out as needing his personal attention. He drew from an envelope a neatly typed letter, hearing in bold, blue letters across the top—'"The Mammoth Cave Fish-Eve Association, Inc.” A neatly en- graved name in the upper left-hand corner conveved to him the information that Cor nelius €. Hookem was president of the as sociation and that his offices were located in a well known downtown office building. * ok ok ok Senator Gump read the letter. the text of which, minus the usual salutation, follows, in full “As vou probably know, the Mammoth Cave Fish-Eve Association has heen formed by a se- lect group of the country’s leading philanthro- pists for the laudable purpose of providing the fish which inhabit the waters of the Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, with glass eves. You are doubtleés aware of the pitiable condition of these fish, which, horn in darknmess and living n darkness, have no eves. The least we could do, we thought, to provide them with mlass eves. So far our only difficulty has heen in find me big, broad minded, outstanding man to take the chairmanship of our committee on credentials. Tt is true that until Secretary Blick of the —— Department, teok over the lead ership of our membership committee, we did not feel like going ahead with the selection of a man for the committee on credentials. But now that Secretary Blick has solved one difficulty, we face another. e only vesterday that the board of lirectors, after meeting three hours and a half, was was ahout to break-up without thinking of any body to take the chairmanship of the com- mittee on credentials when Rev. R. R. Rip, one of our honorary vice presidents, turned to Mr. C. C. Blip of the law firm of Blip, Biip, Blip and Blip, and said: ‘Why not Gump?' “It was an inspiration. 1 quickly assembled the stenographers and dictated this letter hur- riedly, as 1 know you are a busy man. “All we wish is that you lend us your moral support and accept the inactive chalrmanship of our committee on credentials. There will be no dues, no meetings, no speeches. “Wishing you continued health and pros perity, allow me to remain, my dear Senator, “Your Humble Servant, “CORNELIUS C. HOOKEM " * % ok X Senator Gump, still holding the letter in his hand, called for his stenographer. “Take this letter: Cornelius C. Hookem, president, the Mammoth Cave Fish-Eye As clation, Inc., suite 1001-1012, the Blank Build- ing, Washington, D. (.. Dear Mr. Hookem—oh, hell, Jim, vou write it and tell'm I'll accept provided there are no dues, I gotta go to lunch.” So Jim wrote the letter which usual salutation, follows, in full* our interesting letter regarding the ideals and purposes of the Mammoth Cave Fish-Eye Assoclation reached me today, and though I am in the midst of great mental stress over the condition of the farmers in the Middle West I have taken time to answer immediately since being a barefoot boy I have loved fish. 1 always have them on Friday. That there are fish which do not have eyes was a shock to me, and that there is an organization which hopes to fill this glaring need filled me, e, with unutterable joy, not to say en- minus the it a greai honor to accept vour gracious offer of the chairmanship of the com- mittee on credentials, and it has just occurred to me that we should have some slogan which will typify our ideals in this great crusade. “I suggest the slogan—Every Needle Has an Eye—Why Not Fish?' “Accept my sincerest wish for the unbound=d success of this great and humanitarian n deavor, my dear Mr. Hookem, and always count me among your strongest supporters. “Cordially Yours, “E. Casper Gump. * ok ok ok Senator Gump's enthusiasm in taking over the chairmanship of the committee on dentials was shared by Mr. Hookem. Mr, Hookem, upon receipt of this letter, called in Jake, his handy man and general publicity pert. “Gump came across . Jake,”” he said “and that makes 3 5 Representatives, 3 cabinet officers, 16 clergymen and 2 rabbls, 12 bankers, 26 lawyers, 36 covernors, 40 State secretaries of State, 1,672 mavo of towns ranging in population from 16 ta 1,000.- 000 inhabitants, 3 branch presidents of the W C.T 0.8 R.’s and 6 U. D. C.'s—so we're all set. Get that pamphlet printed and play up the names. Say that we are hampered for lack of funds and therefore are organizing State-wide campaigns. Look up some quota tions from Izaak Walton and see if you can't run in some sob stuff about blind fish, never looking on the light of day. living In eternal darkness, and all that sort of thing. Quote the price of glass eves for fish and the letter from the glass eyve manufacturer. saving he would sell them at cost. See if vou can't get over the idea of having each town buy two glass cre toda Senators eves, and having the fish wesring them answer 20 the name of the town contributing them. Be sure and get the photostatic coples of Gump's letter ready to go with the fish pam- phlet. Send them out privately. 1 wouldn't monkey around the newspapers yet. They might get wise.” * k¥ % Jake and Mr. Hookem worked long and hard at their task. They mailed out the pamphlets to 50,000 selected men, women and children. Some of the pamphlets were thrown awiy. Others brought tears to the eyes of the readers. Any suspicion the recipients may have had over the worthiness of the project was allayed by the names contained in the pamphlet. They were names of men known from one end of the Nation to the other. Familles who had voted to send Gump to the Senate passed the pamphlets around among their neighbors. “Gump,” they all agreed, “iz making a name for himself in Washington. Lets all contribute enough to buy glass eves for a colony of fish and name it the. Gump colony.” Headquarters of the association in Washing- ton was deluged with mail. Checks began to pour in. The stationery became heavier, creamier and the list of prominent namds to grace it was so long that linotype operators and engrhvers were kept husy long into the night. Mr. Hookem became affuent. Jake. the press agent. bought a cane, spats, began to wax his mustache and had a special secre- tary to visit the newspapers and make ap pointments with the city editors. Then one day somebody worked on a porter’s suspicions. “This man Hookem." he said. “looks to me very much like the same Hookem who got chased out of Wyoming 30 vears ago for steal ing horses, who got chased out of Texas for selling fake oil stock and who recently wis looked upon with suspicior in Florida—this last incident being comparable to indictment and conviction in many communities. Why don't you look him up?” * X X % Sn the reporter hegan calling upon the Sena tors, Representatives, cahinet members, clergy men and bank presidents listed as members of the executive committee of the association Their answers to his questions were vers similar to of Senator Gump. who said, “Why, no, come to think of it, I know noth ing of the organization nor of Mr. Hookem, al though 1 deem the movement a most laudable ane. No. I did not investigate the organiza- tion. 1 thought that unnecessary as I saw the name of Sceretary Blick. What? You say that Mr. Hookem stole horses, that he sold fake oil stock, that he was regarded with sus picion in Florida? Why, cancel my name, take this letter, I resign at once.” The ticle in that day's paper was followed by the resignation of many mem hers of the hoard of directors, who had never tirected anything: by members of the execu tive committee. who had never executed thing: members of the membership com mittee, had never sought any member. hips, anl by members of the advisory hoa whose had never been asked. Mr. Hookem, pocketing the money for thousands of glass eyes, quietly closed his office and slip ped out of town, together with Jake, the press 1gent. And the following day Senator flu,mn. sitting «dly in his office reading his mall, called to his secretary: “Hey, Jim. answer this letter ask- ing me to be a member of the Society for the Eradication of Unsightly Humps on Camels' Backs and tell ‘em sure, I'll join—provides there are no dues.” re. reporter’s any whao advice ism. It goes back to the New Testa- ment. and we may even say to Christ himself. whose “secret and method. as Matthew Arnold said, wvere the necessity of “dying to live,” and in From within, Jesus taught. I things that elevate and that And secondly, the name ophy. have defended a kind of Ca tholicism which has cut itself loose from the historical facts on which is based. Truth of from truths of fact, and to he independent of them, In an age which takes scientific research serfously, and is not likely to take it less seriously. I cannot think that this doctrine of a | 1ary Religion of Spirit. In spite of differences due to tem- perament and _training, differences which we should welcome as signs of independent and vigorous vitality, the hest religious thought of our age seems to be converging upon Chri tianity as the religion of the Spirit. a ilities are gone, e infal- e ncallbnl well 'Ai the infallible Nor can we trust to the inner growth, realized. duction or try for Southwest their | duction. We do not need these props; Clement's conception of faith satisfies us. As for the old proofs from miracle and proph- ecy. we now see that, even if the facts could he established, they could not carry the weight which the old apolo- getics placed upon them. A critic: of Tord Balfour’s “Foundations of Be- lief” remarked: “It is the peculiarity of theological architecture that the foundations are ingeniously supported hy the superstructure.” We are in fact driven back upon the “Testimon- jum Spiritus Sancti,” the witness of the spiritual life to itself. And it is enough. Do I predict that the religion of the Spirit will have a resounding triumph? No. T do not. I can find nothing in the Gospel to justify the notion that the true religion will ever convert the world at large. “When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith—or. the faith—on the earth?” “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household?” “If they have perse- cuted me, they will also persecute you: it they have kept my saying, they will keep vours also.” ‘“Woe unto you itself external, in inner light eign Southwest pacit; tions. The family lite; robust thelr fathers of the false prophets.” An uphill fight against heavy odde, or an inward apostasy and ax well tive for the Christian societies, now no less than it was eighteen hundred years ago. Reds Cut Own Throats. 1t is, however, possible to predict a rosfer political future for Romanism. Mr. Hilaire Belloc, in his history of the French revolution, argues that the Jacobins made a fatal mistake in antagonizing the church. The Bolshe- viki have done the same, and in 20 years Russia will probably be the most devout, superstitious, and conservative country in Europe. Bolshevism has cut its own throat, and it is probable that the- revolution will before long see the necessity of a Concordat with the Black Internationale. That church can make no terms with com- world."” BY GEORGE Vice President National City Bank of New ork. It is undeniably true, as the Secre- tary of Labor, Mr. there is a considerable excess of productive capacity in certain of | the industries, due to various causes. One is the fluctuation is the demand for the products. very good the industries are expanded out of profits, in anticipation of future not Changes in conditions affecting pro- marketing stimulate an | Unquestionably | has existed in the flour-milling indus- vears: nevertheless, rapid ex pansion has been going and at crease being in fine, capable of the most economical pro Buffalo | for obtaining wheat from any of the United Rtates or delivering flour in the most populous part of the United States or in for- markets. are in what the chief Winter wheat territory. fact that there was ample milling ca already has not prevented the building of mills in more eligible loca result is that mills are going ont of business munism_which but communism anyhow, and there is not much to pre- | vent an alliance between predatory &o- | work. clalism and the Roman Church, based on a common policy primary education in the interests of their propaganda, of destroving the modern industrial system, and of si lencing the voice of science. remember that Calvinism, form rather closely allied with business en- terprise and material have shown elsewhere why it is that the modern millionaire, if he is not a child of the ghetto, is usually a grand- child of John Calvin. therefore, is hated by the revolution as by Church, and it is not difficult to argue that Christ would not have approved of modern capitalism. If this suggestion seems fantastic to optimistic Americans, them not only to read history, which shows that alliances of this kind are highly dangerous, but to study the present conditions in a far more ad- vanced democracy than America—the Commonwealth of Australla—and to consider the significance of that sinis- ter figure, Cardinal Mannix. Nations get the religions that they deserve, and the future of the white races is not secure. the slightest fear that the light kin- dled in Galilee will ever be put out. The Spirit of Chrisi, the same yester- day, today, and forever, is “with us all the days, even to the end of the ‘Those will follow Him who FINDS PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY ,smtm'nvnnn OF INDUSTRIES EXCEEDS NEEDS rii Bank Official Notes Fluctuations in Demand for Products as One Cause, Citing Flour and Shoes and Cotton Goods as Examples. E. ROBERTS. are taking their place. Davis, has said, | mills New [England Under The increase in shoe goods capacity has been to a natural development and South. New expect to alway in these industries | held. The raw able closer to a great ultimate market. New When business is always fmmediately sometimes increase of capacity. an excess capacity ucts and new ing so. on in the Buffalo, the in- modern mills, Iocated part Canada and is eligibly to changing conditions. ment or management The mills in the | has hecome | The The bituminous coal ln. small | while are too many too lew. is incompatible with | unsound, but is dead | e cept by Gradually of controlling | ployments. We must the most of Protestantism, is| I| would not one. progress. Protestantism, | able from freedom. the Roman Catholic productive _capacity. is to larger productive I would ask management. best locations. But I have not, Co., Iron & Steel Co.) sorbed companies and Bethlehem Co. mills equipped for more economical | B production and for more general trade According to | efforts of practical men to reduce pro- | the census there were 10,785 flouring | duction costs, and although costs have | in the United Stat |and 5.232 in 1923, while the amounts | OMies o accomplished, neither costs of wheat milled in those two years |Nor prices upon finished products have | were practically the same in the West | England could not | hold predominance which materials part under pressure to develop new prod industries, A large part of the employment arnd | 4 industrial losses which occur are due | to the unwillingness of hoth proprie- | tors and workers to adapt themselves who fail to keep up to date in equip- | afford tunities for rivals to become estah- lished and-successful, although the in creased capacity may not be needed. | industry stimulated by the war, and capacity has been excessive ever since. mines and miners, and although wages per ton | are very high, wages by the year are The situation is economically he doubted therc is any way of correcting if ex letting _competition do mine-owners, untarily or under compulsion, are giv- irg up the fight and closing mines, and the miners are scattering to other ‘mining districts or other em- Changes in Methods a Factor. The changes in industrial methods are a great factor in the increase of The tendency larger investments in equipment, more complete integration of all operations required for a given product, and a greater volume of business under one New plants are bullt, net because more capacity is needed, but in order to incorporate the latest methods and take advantage of the ‘The Bethlehem Steel Corporation has absorbed ' the Mary- lanc Steel Co., the Pennsylvania Steel the Lackawanna Steel Co. the Midvyle Steel Co. (the latter hav- ing previously absorbed the Cambria All of these ab- the original had expended great sums during the war and since, upon are not atraid to take up their cross.' improvements, but since the absorp- tions the Bethlehem has expended in bringing them “up to date.” and in rounding out their ca ity to secure the maximum ef- ney. While the economies which Secre | tary Davis has in mind must come in the main by evolution within the in [flt legislation, we may well consider whether the policy of blind opposition | to consolidations should not be modi fed. The dismemberment of the United States Steel Corporation or the | International Harvester Co. would ve been a backward step. Those organizations were the outcome of th in 1914 | risen in recent years despite the econ increased proportionally | rials and lahor. o | o Holland with mate Pressure. and cotton due largely Is Dependent On East Indian Wealth Although Holland, living above her it once are avail of the Engiand is means, is unable to afford a hig navy vet the defense of her colonies is a question of supreme gravity. The im I portance to Holland of its overseas | possessions was emphasized recently n a speech by finance minister and chairman of the employers’ council of the Dutch East Indies. In the Dutch archipelago, {area is 5 and is do- whose times greater than that of >- | the mother country, is a population of OPPOr-{50,000,000. There is invested there $1,- 200,000,000, three-quarters of which is Dutch and one-quarter foreign capi- | tal, on which the annual veld is about $180,000.000. About $100.000.000 is paid in dividends and royalties. Twenty | per cent of these dividends accrues | to_the Dutch treasury. Were Holland to lose East India her industrial and commercial life would | be mortally hit. Old Unknown Italian Industries Are Sought Proprietors was, There too many if TEE its vol- their | To discover unknown Italian indus. eration for centuries, is part of the work of the National Confederation for Little Industries organized year. Some of the discoveries have been impressive. Charming pottery decorated with traditional peasant de- | signs, furniture of antique type pieced together, carpets, shawls and lace made by peasants in their homes— these are a few of the things of high artistic value that to have been put on the market by the confederation or by its local com mittees. units, with ciation for Venetian Work, which, through years of patient labor, dis- covered the little industries of the Venetian region, craft schools, workers and organized selling agen- cies. It limits itself to individual handicraft or small shop work where the employer works with his appren- tices. When it finds a fine handicraft tradition about to die it revives it by instruction and encouragement. When and tasteless design it seeks to persuade them toffadapt beautiful traditional ever it is beautiful. | dustries, and are not dependent upon ! Prof. Treub, former | tries, some of which have been in op- | We llve under a regime of freedom. | | There is no overhead authority to tell men what work they shall do, or how ihey shall manage their affairs, and it improve matters to have The people must learn to adapt themselves to conditions and to accept the responsibilities that are insepar- this | some extent | The confederation is extending to all Italy the work done by the Asso- | established handi- | granted credit to the | Aim of Once BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. T the close of what must be reckoned as the twelfth year in the series which hegan with the crisis leading directly to the World War w«e come to |another of the more or less conven ient points at which to take stock of | recent history In the present article and that of next Sunday 1 shall ac- {eordingly try to review briefly the his {tory of one vear and to discuss the |outlook for another. Of 1925 one may say at once that lit has been, not merely the best year in all the period since the outhreak Zf\f the World War, but quite as fairly {that it is the first in a quarter of a jcentury in which what has happened may he viewed as opening new hori ! zons rather than suggesting the march 10 new crises or the approach to a [final catastrophe. The first year of jbeace, this must, on the whole, be the fashion in which we describe the clos ing vear. There is, however, a little broader point of view which it is perha fa 1o note at the beginning of the present Ireview. It not merely that 1925 suggests the end of the war, it sug gests quite certainly the end of one of the zreat and more or less uni- fied periods in human history. There is today on all sides to he met and felt the sense that the world is passing vapidly into a new era, as well differ entiated from the immediate past as was the span of vears from 1815 to 1828 from that between 1783 and 1815 is War Consequences Abate. For seven vears—in fact. ever since the armistice of November 11—we | have been more or less deafened and confused hy the continuing conse- | quences of the war itself. During the | struggle there existed the profound | hope, at times the single thing which | made life tolerable, that with the ar rival of the termination of hostilities there would come not merely peace but something better than the peace we had known, something more perma nent than the state which existed before 1914 It was, refore, one of the great | est disappointments of all time when the fighting over, peace in any real sense did not return. The struggles which had been carried on over many battlefields, so far from coming to an end, seemed merely transferred to the area of negotiations, and there was an enduring sense that if weapons had | heen laid aside they might at any mo- ment be resumed. For seven years, until vear was well entered, while we have discusred the making peace, we have at the same time remained under the shadow of the possibility of return. ing wars: indeed, we have had in that time at least two really considerable wars. those hetween the Pole and the Russian and between the Greek and the Turk, while nearly a score of inei dents like those of Vilna, Fiume, Upper Silesia, Memel, Corfu and Mos have served “to keep alive and limit optimism Yet. somehow, in the last 12 months there has arrived a sense of an emerg. ence from this condition. People all over the world, but particularly in the ! danger areas of Europe, have at last | begun to helieve in peace. There has ibeen, acrosk old and new frontiers, a erowing perception that there existed the same underlying desire not alone ito get done with fighting but to get on with every sort of convenient and necessary arrangement which might enable men and women to live, to work, to endure and even to enjoy life. the dying 1924 Memorable Year. Certainly 1924, which saw the ne gotiations leading to the Dawes plan and the adoption of the plan at the | London conference. followed hy the | ratification of the plan in the German { Reichstaz. will he counted a memo- rable and fortunate year. But in 1924 men were still under the empire of recent disasters and collisions such as |the Anglo:French quarrels and the Ruhr occupation; they were in appear- fance at least moving toward peace hecause necessity drove, not hecause they hoped much or believed even a little in the possibility of this peace. | The atmosphere of London in the Autumn of 1924 was one of experi- | mental conciliation. Ramsay - Mac- Donald for Britain, Herriot for Trance, Stresemann and Luther for Germany were establishing contact and dis- covering, with not a little measure of surprise, that it was possible for them | not alone to meet, but actually to do business together: that the same de- sire to ad nd to arrange was dis. closed by the statesmen representing all three countries. Without this London conference Locarno would not have heen possible. But before Locarno came all three of the cabinets which existed in Britain, | France and Germany had fallen, Ram: | say MacDonald had given way to | Chamberlain. Herriot to Briand. the Stresemann-Marx cahinet had been ireplaced by the Luther-Stresemann government. Yet the change had modified nothing in the sentiment of the people. of these nations, and the new cabinets were quite as obviously | anxious to continue as the old had been to begin. ist | Americans Skeptical. | At a distance, Americans following the complexities and contradictions o | cotemporary Furopean history re- main somewhat more skeptical and suspicious of Europe than it is possi ble now to justify by any appeal to the evidence. For us the Paris confer- ence was a tremendous disillusionment which continues to exercise a pro. found influence upon our attitude and feelings toward Europe. On the whole we saw the conference gather with the dominant helief that, the war being | over, Europe would be able to make i peace, not merely with regard to im- | mediate war issues, but peace in the broader to adjust show of permanence all the old causes of strife and to eliminate all the secu. Jar_ reasons for internaticnal mis understanding. | After Paris failed in any real sense | to bring peace. when on the contrary | the peace made at Paris seemed but to accentuate the old divisions while ' adding a full crop of new, the Ameri-| can public arrived at a natural, if in- | exact, conclusion that Europe, while | protesting a desire for peace, remained | committed to its ancient rivalries and | { under the guise of making peace was making new wars or, even more pre- | | cisely, continuing the war which we | | had believed to be terminated with the | ! order to cease fire. | " This conclusion, more than all else, ! has explained the growth of the it finds able craftsmen working with | American sentiment favoring isolation, | of { the decline in the sentiment favor-| ing entrance into the league, the ar-| designs. The individual, the local and | rival of a thoroughly critical and cen- | that even remotely sugz: the traditlonu are preserved—wher- sorious attitude twoard Europe in gen-| ness. the ylelding of any eral and those nations in particular with some | in the United States, namely 12 YEARS OF WAR OR FEAR | OF WAR ENDED WITH 1925 Last 12 Months See Europe’s Mental Attitude Reversed, With Peace Now Bitter Foes. with which we had the close during the conflict, and the mutual svmpathies even before w entered the struggle Peace Like That of 1815 That s why now, when Europe has, in my judgment. made peace as com pletely ‘as it did in 1515, when an era of relative calm, such extended from Waterloo to the revolutions of 1845, ix beginning. the American still opens his morning paper with gree of apprehensive conc may report a new explosion Names which have had an evil dan zerous connotation for ten vears tinue to raise the same horrid eties when they return in tf dispatches Such an agreement as though it has been measur cepted on this side of the Atlantic hopeful beyond all else recent years, just fails of ultimate achieve- ment in convincing, hecause we have lost our faith in European documents We have reached the point where we are almost incapable of read ropean contracts without conjuring up still recent which the documents have been ibly torn up or in which belied. the meaning of written while the ink was still undried Yet the reality as contrasted with the appearanc far as Europe is concerned, seems to me hardly 1o be mistaken. As recently as the Summer of 1924 all Europe was still talking of conflict: the Ruh the vivid of cotemporary memories the hatred and passion it had exc between French and Germans almost surpassed anything in modern history between two peoples whose soldi had frequently in a century refused quarter upon the hattlefield Talk of War Ceases. Yet today the outstanding Europe is that, although almost the old causes for quarrel remain no one has actually abandoned thing of the national and racial trines which it has held, Europe is no longer talking conflict. So far as tangible and material things are con cerned there has been no great change in the outward surface, and vet there is no mistaking the fact that if nothing is changed in appearance all is changed in interpretation In 1925 France has received little real reparation and Germany has con- ceived no actual revision of the treaty of Versailes. The question of war guilt remains an open wound for all Germ: the Polish Corridor, the Upper < issue, Danzig and Mem < intolerable out- wardly as a year : and vet the German like the Frenchman knows that he cannot fight today smor row on these issues. He almost eager Iy explains that they are not a reason fizhting. d a momen instantly history in fe have words actions fact in all of and any- 1 doc- 1925 was of peace: perhaps one more exactly. it is the first year in which people and nations have almost completely stopped talk ing of fizhtinz. The atmosphere of peace. the habit of peace, these have at last returned. Even such awkward episodes as the Greco-Bulgarian colli sion can come and go and leave Eu rope calm. Some nationalist states men in every country, men of same outlook and habit of thought « tinue to discuss irrepressible conflicts impending crises, but the 1 peoples of all countries listen, much less believe the ass of the no lor Real Peace Seems at Hand. All prophecy is idle and much can he said and it seems to m deserves saving to an Ameri ence: The bhest and the servers in Europe are one mind that Europe is approachinz—hag deed entered—a period of peace w is destined last as long and as few major complications as that which followed Waterloo in 1815 an only came tn a with the reve Tutions of 1545 "here is a rapidly expanding realiz tion that the World War was not the consequence of the action of an dividual nation, which remains a me ace to future as to past tranquillity It is being appreciated rather that the war was the final explosion of forces which had been gathering for fifteen vears hefore: it was the uitimate vie. lent expression of national. racial and commercial aspirations which had heen forming ever since the rise of modern Germany and united Italv, ever since the liberation of a fraction of the Balkan peoples The very perception of this has led to hope rather than to fear. If th war had its ¢ in and its proximate cause in the German rejection of all the principles of finternational rela tions upon which our comme civili zation was founded., then short of some sudden and very far-reachinz transformation of a whole people, the danger would remain and a new con flict might he expected when the ex- haustion due to the last had passed n wisest o is close Understanding Sought. For the first time, perhaps. In a quarter of a century, e world—the | European world—has heen able and | willing to look objectively upen the | flow of events which made for the tre- mendous catastrophe. It has recos | nized ultimate causes rather than rel atively trivial occasions. It has con cerned itself less with hlame and more with understanding. Tt has heen less | occupied in analyzing a crime than in explaining rmmon calamity. Tt has perceived that the war was one which, wholly aside from military cir- cumstances, was not susceptible of victory fer any combatant on the European side. Beyond and above all this, there has | been” emerging something still little* appreciated and even less understood a meas- ure of European solidarity. FEurope is | beginning to think as a unit and not as a_number of widely and hopelessiy divided units. The common culture and civilization of nations as totally hostile as France and Germany has become once more a factor. The great moral and intellectual blockade of the war and the first post-war vears has ended. Peoples which still hate each other In theory because of recent Wrongs are once more beginning to appreciate each other for reasons ais- coverable in the individual contribu- tion to the common wealth of art, of literature, of music. To give a simple illustration, T have been struck enormously in re. cent months by the extent of the modi- fication discoverable in the comment Germans upon Frenchmen and renchmen upon Germans. Thera is no reconciliation, there is noihing sts forgive. measure of (Continued on Third Page.)