Evening Star Newspaper, May 16, 1926, Page 59

INDEPENDENCE ISSUE LONG DOMINANT IN PHILIPPINES Desire for Free Rule Existed Before War With pain and Is Cry of Native Politicians. BY RALPH STOUT. Managing E¢ Kansas City Star, ANILA. ~The issue is no mew thing in the Philippines. It has been in existence since before the independence | | tained the purpose of exploiting the | Filipino people or their country. “"_here have, indeed, heen different among our own people as to sely proper relationship with There are some among are some among vour opinion | the pre [ the Filipinos. lus, as there Americans came. It has had | ;eople, who believe that immediate in its ups and downs escence and of activity. its periods of qui-| fependence of the Philippines would be best for both. I should be less than The vitality of this demand for inde. i i o we ' | cand Wi vever, if I did not \pressed several year Osme tions to the United States: The Flipino people aspire to before taking up arms for the s against Spain, as thereafter « din of arms and then in peace, for v national independence. se ‘immediate independence’ caved on the banner of the m: not mew: it has not been invented Iy today, nor does it signify a new . The phrase, ‘immediate independ ence,’ the present slogan of the Fili- yino people, has been their slogan al x N ago by Sergio | est argument which has been used in in one of the frequent peti-|the ('nited States in support of im | mediate independence of the Philip pines is not the argument that it would that States m con the it dvant benefit would “ilipinos, but ze the United ax and as 1 vinced the jority of Ameri cans do regarding our obligations to the Filipino, 1 have to say that I ard such arguments as "he American people will not evade or repudiate the responsibility they have assumed in this matter. The Ameri- can Government is convinced that it ! : ways, and embodies and signifies their 3 has the overwhelming support of the t aspiration, that aspiration which American Nation in its conviction that has not suffered mutation nor change, |at present independence would be a which has not even cooled, which has | misfortune and might easily become a 1ot heen forgotten by the sons of the | disaster to the Filipino people. Upon country for even a moment through | that conviction the policy of this Gov- 11l the adve suffered and all { ernment is based the viclssitudes have arisen: il has not been forgotten, no. this ideal Va'uable as Political Issue. has not dimmed, npt even at the mo- Wha has served more than ny ent aking alleg e | thi else to keep alive the independ ‘ nstitut nt, because | ence agitation is its value to the Fili gian »t repudiate our pino politicos as an issue hefore ihe | 1eve that people n 1s:zue on which they may | us to be keep i . There is no other issue | Filipinos. | in politics of the islands. 1t would | national 2 blessing if there were, for the attention of the Filipino would then | A > be drawn from the one question which. | e [until it Is Sttled definitely, will keep | gitation has been di-|capital in any considerable amount « minds: by men who | from coming. have studicd the mental psychology of | Abhove all other things, the islands the American people, who know how | need” big capital to develop the re. the picture of a people struggling for | sources with which nature has, with independence seizes the sympathy of | javich hand, endowed them. These he great mass of United States cith | resources in’tropical products of infl- s who know what to play up and f nire variety, which the United State ot g e e | lumber. now lia practically 0 ‘:4""” ally \'Y‘Y'L‘.:“"" i l::"" \“: nt. The Filipinos do not 119\01u|.! : SRS themselves; they do not even dicsd A enough rice for their own use. | pen A will not permit American o el r capifal to come in under condi. | ions under which capital would have and Span . . e i 4 fair chance of protection. i \n Opportunity in Rubber. ; Rubher in point. Firestone. ' the American tire manuf: urer, sent | experts here in August. 1973, 1o report | | on rubber growing in the islands on a vast scale, The report was favorable. He had seen lon proaching | jerisis in the world’s rubber market | and his aim was to have the American | supply American owned and American grown instead of depending on the ‘lh‘lflf‘h and the Dutch. Mindanao and |and other southern islands are ideal rubber production. Only about 500000 pounds a year is grown now. The proposal w to plant several hun dred thousand acr to rubber. It kes five to seven ars to bring a e to production and ired tn finance i oy o independe I ted All along the rected by by 1 of ns rem w that these independence the the Aguinaldo rebel nited States after omn had, in the stress of war, brou ik 1o the islands the old leader who had sought refuge in Hongkor after accepting a bribe of §400,000 11 ain to lay down arms Say was ac watchw n agai It Was Promised Often. The Filipinos have oft-repeated claim th promised independen: from ma MeK from which can be co of complete independence ably has heen the ultim he Americen people cept in the Wilse re 1 itled ounds for their they have been There were 1< ublic n, irom om Roosevelt, rued into a mise which prob- purpose of : e r plantation tone has in rubber growing | was to get the n 'y started. The only practical way seemed to bhe for big capi to plantations during the long period between plant ing and the flow of sap. There vas talk of leasing the land for |but no direct proposal was made by the Firestone interests. i Under what many believed to be a too generous policy, the United Si kad placed control of the public lands (there are in all about 63,000,000 3 in the nds) in the hands of the I7ili pino Legislaturb. The American Con had fixed a limit of 2,500 acres iy the only to speak authority American Congress. That act mble the Jon Iaw anic net which gave argest measure of had had. Its exact reproduction. Here it is: “Whereas it was never the inten- tion of the people of the United States | 1 the inci f the war with Spain to make | war ongquest or for territorial nd “Whereas heen, the pu United States eiznty ove P the < the or e Filipinos the | ependence they anguage is worth 1 with , endence THE SUNDAY H STAR., WASHINGTON, D. C., MAY 16 BY JAMES HEN Thomas Lechford, a | | | | 7 lawyer, came over from | i Englend, in 1641, and set. | tled in Boston the (‘nlz‘-n—l vy of that budding metropolis gave him to understand that he could stay, | but the practice of law could not. 1 Lechford was America's first Jaw-| yer. He remained fn the New World, | but did not follow his calling. | The Puritan Fathers abhorred law- vers and clung to the opinion that the | magistrates could handle legal mat- | ters without any professional befog- ging of issues. It is recorded that up i to the time of the Revolutionary War | i “lawyers were gencraly looked upon | in this country as unsuited to good | society.” Our i the i | were extremist: " | there is something to be said for their | unworthy. { attitude toward lawyers, after all. It | would, no doubt, be difficult to keep the complicated machinery of modern soclety and commerce in working order without lawyers, but certainly the task might be accomplished with fewer of them, and the wealth of the country proportionately increased. * ok ok X It is not my purpose learned members of the bar, nor do 1| believe they will look upon my criti cisms as entirely unjust. Of course, no individual counselor would wel- come the suggestion that he leave his vocation and work, but he would. T am sure, agree that he could do very well with less competition. Economists define capita! as repre- | senting “accumulated labor.” Indeed wealth of all kinds comes under this | definition, whether it be goods, cash or credit. Thus, the value of a chal let us say, Is ostensibly determined by the amount and kind of labor that| went into felling the tree, dressing the | lumber, designing the chair, making | the chair, directing its manuravun'ei to offend the g0 1o M. LYNCH, President, International Tpographical Union. JAMES M. LYNC and sale, plus the labor involved in uilding and operating the railroad orl ship which moves the chair to the! market and the operation of the store | that syccesstul men of law have ac- | through which it reaches the ultimate consumer. If a lawyer enters the transaction | at any point his efforts are not pro ductive of wealth. quired such a share of dignity and pecuniary reward that far voung men are inspired to enter the profession when they might. with * ok ok ok | greater profit to the Nation, go into Nevertheless, since human beings|some productive vocation. Parents. are neither uniformly reasonable nor | in all walks of life, yearn to see their amiable, the sclence of jurisprudence | sons become “professional” men. The must be maintained or else the prog- | medical profession requires some nat ress of the chair from forest to draw- | ural aptitude, a good share of initial ing room is liable to stoppage at most | capital and years of study. It is not any point. So, lawyers are necessary | overrun. The legal profession, on the in the modern social scheme. other hand, can be entered by several The trouble seems to lfe in the fact | routes, few «¢ which present extraor too many i idea has penetrated to the BY HENRY W. BUNN. pla _mater of the thickest-skulled HE following is a brief sum- | \{' p ihat the problem of the coal mary of the most important | ining industry must be dealt with news of the world for the gt once and drastically. Only by res- seven days ended May 15: toration of that industry to complete Great Britain.—On Wednes- | health can the wellbeing of British day the British “general strike” was | nduetry in general be restored called off by the General Councll of |y, ¢ Bajdwin, Sir Herbert Sam the Trades Union Congress, havins | o and other wise heads see farther. run a coursa of only eight dayvs | ppa grastic reorganization contem- Prime Minister Baldwin had declared | b8 (Rash e ORI Srram 1s o that he would not resume negotiations | Do ‘o5 ‘beginning. the With the council until it had uncon- | inefor the day (surely mnot far-dis ditionally called off the strike. | tant) when some process for the dis. Whether or not Mr. Baldwin was well | tijjation of coal shall demonstrate advised in taking that position, it was | jiselt technically and _commercially difficulties. Short college night schools, even corre- spondence schools, are busy turning out journeymen lawyers every da The gradnate needs in many States only a friend at the bar, or a friend who has a friend at the bar, in order to get admitted. He is then entitled dinar. courses, to acquire all the emoluments of the | profession that he can get at. *ox ok ok Some artfulness at “getting by" is | all that is required to enable him to working. His humble live without which {inability the to be congratu- a cabinet: republic is lated.) upon perhap: ok ¥ % Poland—Marshal Joseph Pilsudski as executed a military coup d'etat, | and apparently has made himselt dic: | tator of Poland. I say “‘apparently for it does not surely appear that he is completely master of the situation. Pilsudski was provisional President of He is undoubtedly a minds_concerning his political sagac- He is regarded by his country- men as a military hero of the first | water. Of his intrepidity there can 1926—PART 2. SPEAKING OF THE WORLD’S WORK The Puritan and the Lawyer—A False Road to Dignity start in the night school—whether he | actually studied and learned anything | or not—may even serve him in good | stead politically some day, when his career may be likened to that of the immortal Lincoln. Disclaimnig any disposition to keep a good man down, I can’'t help bellev- ing that society would be better served if thousands of the mediocre lawyers of the country could be persuaded to enter a productive vocation. Thelr practice of the law is injurious to the social fabric in two ways; first, be- cause they are not at work. and, sec | ond. because of the devious and per | nicious ways into which they are led by their desires to make the law Every city of any size swarms with shysters, many of whom ra | below the average skilled in general intelligence and inte | public affairs. Many devote the | tivities to police courts and ser | runners for professional bondsmen, | stool pigeons for the police and recipi- ents for scraps that fall from the bench in the form of appointments to defend paupers. As idlers and men of little character, some of them are useful tools of unscrupulous politi cians and corrupt offictals. in for divorce practice and stand ready to promote any domestic in | felicity that may come within their ken % * engage in Still other near-barrist the collection business ¢ art of blackmail and abuse in operation with the rapidly-growing. high-pressure credit selling business. Frequently one of these low-grade lawyers Is caught compounding a fel- ony for a client by way of faclitating the payment of his fee. Some, deed, maintain constant intercourse with crooks and serve as “accessories before the fact.” Democracies must ever stand guard against the incroachments of law- makers and lawyers. Every legisia- up of at least 90 per cent lawyers. | With the lawver-statesman a law pro posal means a chance for fame, or at least for advertising. Then. too. the | more laws a nation has the more | cases there will be for the nation's | lawyers—a bad incentive for leader- | ship in statecraft. In casting about for causes of the crime wave, it might be well to look into the law business. Honorable at torneys should be encouraged in thelx attempts to elevate the ethics of their prétession. the worthy and able Dr. W. W. Yen | Wellington Koo is minister of finance. | Dr. Yen undertakes the foreign port- folio for the present, but Alfred Sze, now Chinese Minister at Washington, has been designated for that office. There is no President, and apparently no prospect of one. The cabinet is under the joint patronage of Wu Pei Fu and Chang Tso Lin. The Nicaraguan rebellion is being suppressed. President Coolidge is to spend his are wait- | great patriot, but there may he two|gymmer vacation in the Adirondacks. | Judge Alton B. Parker, Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1904, | is dead, at 73. | Tait, Thompson and others of their a living at [ Others go | tive hody in America today is made} r i in- | parenthetically, ; worth 1 | re 9 WILDERNESS PLAY PLACES URGED IN WIDE PROGRAM U. 8. Officials and Ranking Citizens Back Plea of Conservationists for More Outdoor Recreation. into the One eminent mservationist A Leopold. who has worked with the national conference, helieves firmly |that one wilderness area could ba fitted Americans must needs be (inte the national forests of each State dull boys unless they mix with the [without materfal sacrifice of other leaven of their routine work a little | kinds of playgrounds or ofher uses play in the outdoors, the National |Additional wilderness areas, he be Conference on Outdoor Recreation, [lieves, could be fitted into the varfous established more than three years ago, | national parks. has urged State and city executives Mr. Leopold, foreseeing the 1o further the interest of the people | when there will be no more deep w of this nation by formation of com- |dernesses left in this country, s mittees to carry forward the word that | there would usually be necessary to the outdoors 1% a good place and that | the carrying out of such a progran further use should be made of it neither new nor new laws no Gratifying response been had | M6W Nell e s the executives of the conference detiyting the in Washington to the invitation of Murray Hulbert, secretary the te delegates comnmitiee, and Chaun J. Hamlin. chafrman of the con ence, that Governors appoint com mittees to work with the national or- | ple forest playger ganization. Under this organization. are already bein; tablished, 1 continuing one with headquarters | adds just as idle as to urge thy in Washington, it is hoped ultimately | therc is no need for public tennis RGANIZED to carry States and municipalities of the nation the message of President Coolidge that day 1 pern tages or otk lerne u grounds s of opments inir cey wilderne essary beca mds of othe to gather under one banner all the conservationists, the wild life lovers, those who would preserve our few re- maining wildernesses and all those who love the great outdoors. Hoover Backs Movement Although his chief business is pro- motion of American trade, Secretary of Commerce Hoover has declared that | he is not so much interested in hether a man catches fish as in get ng that man outdoors where he can AVe OpPOrtunity to rest his so d nd pursue the | secure that rest and peaceful outlo on life that fails to come in the shadow of skyscrapers of steel shod heels ments. Addressing the natlonal conference here Jast Winter, Mr. Hoover pointed out that fishing (and by this e spoke meaning diso any sport where calm reflection takes the place of the worries of business) has in addition to fts physical benefits a great spirftual uplifting quality. Mr Hoover, a member of the President’s committee on outdoor recreation. was assumed to have heen speaking for the Administration Only recently added steps have heen taken to bring the value and true of outdoor recreation hefore Americans. Mr. Hulbert has sent to Governors resolutions adopted by ten nationally prominent lovers of the outdoors, urging the Siate executives to appoint committees 1o work with the President’s Committee on Outdo Recreation and the National (onfer- ence on Outdoor Recreation Official Status Urged. ! is respectfully suggested,” Mr. | Hulbert wrote. “that in the appoint ment of said committee the Governors be urged to consider the selection of persons willing to serve without com- | pensation and representative of offi- | clal departments of the State and ci vilian organizations of State-wide character interested in the field of out to the echo concrete pave and on | | door recreation and education and the | conservation of plant and wild life resources “And that it shall be the function of this committee to co-ordinate in an advisory capacity the plans and poli- cies of all State agencies, official anc unofficial, to the end that there may be a definite State program and policy which will promote the acquisition and adequate administration of outdeor recreational facilities — playgrounds. parks, forests, game preserves, high- ways, public camp sites and unpolluted streams and beaches—for the use, en- | joyment and education of all citizens.’ The letter also urged that such State plans and policies be co-ordinated, in | o far as practicable, with the plans | and policies of counties and munici- palities and with the governors’ com- | mittees of neighboring States and | with the President’s committee, head- | to the primz | fied courts because there are alrea lic_golf links “The two things represent different needs of different people, each entitled to recognition in due proportion to their numbers and importance. The people in need of wilderness areas arc numerous, and the preservation of their particular kind of contact with Mother Earth is & national problem Growth of Orig “T'he derness areas growth in the national forests were timber al Tdea. ceeptance of the entai inal conception of he original pur production ane tershed protection, and these are and must remain the primary pur P But the whole sub:equent his of these forests has iecn a histor | of the appearance and growth of mew which, when skillfully adjusted ¥ uses and to each ®the: were one by one provided for and the net public benefit correspondingly in creased. Public recreation was one of these, When the forests were firs estalilished recreation did not exist ir the minds of either the foresters ¢ the public i important use public forests. Today it has beer added to timber production and water shed pre s an additional pub lie service s leen proven that skillful administration can provide both in the same tem withoui fice of either The great wilderne oa. fast ng with the onslaught of the r seeler, the advent of the a mobile and the ambition of the enxz uses, | neer who sees in them potentialities of alone the goal of the s within the national conference. The Department of Labo has warned the conference that the great human longing for uninterrupt ed and unharassed use of the publ parks in the cities and urban ar must have free fling. Aid to Working People. Ethelbert Stewart. United commissioner of labor statisties speaking for the department, has tol the conference that of the shoe factory wants Joa from the stock vards into a public park t a little they shall not i« evented from using benches by blue outed guardians of the liw. And if hildren of the ghetto want to ma use of the God-given g in the park areas set aside for them. let them lit ter up the grass with the remains of their lunches, just so they enjoy the light and sunshine of the outdoors The Labor Department contends that the great human problem of a satis working people is intimately bound up with unlimited few hours and privileges given to the small wage earner. Mr plains that the factory girl often has no place to entertain her boy friend, nd asks “What better place than the public_pari in the free air and ownership by any one corportion, | it had given the Filipi e wer to_ alter this provi westion that thi ing on a opposed recogr m slished Where: plishme be no question. but perhaps his mili- | great ‘cotemporaries of a generation tary skill has been overestimated. 1t jugr passed allowed the earth an age 't Pilsudski, but the French!or not more than 40,000,000 vears. ygand who drove back "'*‘} Recent studies of radio-active n 1920, { ments (uranfum and thorium) one from which he simply could not | efficient. kngland stands to gain far recede. more than any other country by such | The council a consummation. That day will be conditionally for England the heginning of a new Baldwin vouchsafed and happier industrial _revolution. {ed by Secretary of War Dwight F. | aw flctal restraints of | Dav be done and rubl ttin by ot ber aie encouraged | ie i Filipino politi- | surrendered Formally, ves. Mr. no written or then un : Nellie would suffer a specles of so- racism if she were to entertain tockyards friend in her hall bed | he group which drew up the re: ele-Ligtions on which the letter was based indi-1 jncjuded the following: Squire Du Ree com e the able 10 p 1 con- antinie. 1 he e the n of the peaple ¢ that, by impair of sovereign United Staies, use and exerc ¢ popular fr ind_governmental pr the i the better prepared to fully assume the responsibilities and enjoy all the privileges of complete independence.” But Is It “Stable Government.” The 1 message verwhelmir electio on g it they had “st a able government” since the age of the Jone ot, four y J sofore, and had “fulfilled the condition set by Congress as « consideration of sranting full independence to the into effect in | 0, in his last after the his party in President Jos testimony in maintain- Jones law went ceede Have the F government President Harding Coolidze have said they Americans in the i government is far from point to the reckless us vitonomy granted the Filipinos by the Jones act and the story of the eight ars of the Harrison administration, the end of which the island money finances were to the is the heart of it all: | pinos established a stable President e not (s say the table. They of the greater and system and the insul on the brink of ruin: use of governmental power for selfish private ends: to the intolerable cor ruption of the courts as proof that the Filipinos are as yet unfit for dependence. If ‘ever tl arrive, they m satisfactory demonstration of capacity than has been furnishe Harding and Coolidge Say In 1922 President Harding turned down a request for independence pre sented by a Filipino mission. holding the people of the islands had not vet shown they were ready for the mo step. in 1924 another independenc mission visited the White House. ate with President Coolidge wa same. This mission charged Gov. Waood with “illegal. 2 and un- democratic polici which brought from the President the reply that the American Government had “full confi dence in the ability. good intentions, irness and sincerity of the present ernor general.” vir appraisal of all considera- * President Coolidge said to the missfon, “and of others which suggest themselves, will, I am sure frank statement that the Government of the United States would not feel that it performed its full duty by the Filipino people or discharged all of its obligations to civilization if it would yield at this time to your aspi ration for national independence. The present relationship between the American Nation and the Filipino peo- ple arose out of a strange, an almost unparalleled. turn of international af- fairs, A great responsibility came un- sought to the American people. It was not_imposed upon them hecause they had yielded to any designs of im- perialism or of colonial expansion. The tunes of war brought erican power to your islands, playing the part of an unexpected and a welcome deliverer. You mav the American people have never ent reckless | full in- | justify the | | islands in dis | | Duteh | natives, == | the granting of independence to the cians. stone Went to Liberia. Firestone could have circumvented this law by organizing a multiplicity corporations, but devious ways did to him. He left the cust, got 2 million acres along the west coast of Africa, and began a rubber planta- tion the _The Filipino politicos had drawn a picture of thefr lands swallowed up by the capltalista classes, as they expressed it. They succeeded in evading this peril. The land still lies untouched. for it is all wild land. and none of the money . that | the capitalista class would have been required to invest flows into Fili- pino hands. A vear of missing this | opportunity for a great development | nd it began to sink in that a mis- tuke had been made. Firestone, jr.. has come back to the islands and there 1s still a possibility that a start on rubber production may be made. X he Filipino attitude has changed he must “save face.” He talks of his desire to help the Amer- owners of motor cars in the they face from the British and rubber barons. One of the| Is made at a recent agricul- tural congress in Manila was that the government plant rubber trees along the roads! New Life for Agitation. New life was given to the inde- pendent agitation by fear their pres ent autonomy was to be reduced by the American’ Government and by the contention advanced by the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila, that only the people of the United States, not Congress alone, could alienate American sovereignty in_the islands. President Coolidge, in his message in December, advised a strengthen- ing of the powers of the governor general. This inspired fear in the but Congress with custom- neglect of the Philippines has not moved. The point fathered by the Amer- ican Chamber of Commerce is that the status of the Philippines is that of a territory of the United States. American sovereignty in the islands acquired from Spain, both by conquest and by purchase and, hav- ing been thus acquired power to transfer it, as would be involved in 1 l in Liber buy nol ican peri prop Filipinos, resides only in the people of the United States; that no terri- once brought under the Amer- flag has ever been ceded to power and that Congress no more power to transfer American sovereignty in the Philip- pines than it has to transfer the vast area of the Mississippi Valley cquired by purchase from France s the Louisiana purchase. or to transfer New Mexico, Arizona and California acquired by conquest from Mexico. Eminent lawyers have pro- nounced this view sound and ex- expressed the b f the United States lof worl | unprofitable | from 150,000 to 200,000 men). direct oral guarantee. But there had been conversations, wherein labor leaders (not including miners’ chiefs). mine owners and sundry bigwigs par- ticipated. in which Sir Herbert Sam- uel, who had been president of the Royal C Commission, played the leading role, closely supported by the | Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Reading and Lloyd George. Sir Herbert submitted to the labor leaders a program for pacification and recon- struction of the coal industry, of which the following are the main i features: (1) The government subsidy to the oal mining industry to be renewed ‘for such reasonable time as might be required.” (2) A national wage board for the industry to be.instituted, to include representatives of the miners and the mine owners, and neutrals, which should revise the miners’ wage sched- ules, but with the priviso that no wage before iron-cl iven the miners Pt the industry as per the recom- mendatlons of the coal commission would promptly be effected. (3) The government to appoint a commission to include representatives [ of the miners, which should draw up the legislation required. (4) The government to pr quately for the miners thrown through _closing colleries (estimated finding ther employment for them and grant- ing a super-dole pending such pro- vision. The above program seems answer- able to the farthest reasonable de- mands of the miners. It may scarcely be doubted that the general council was induced to call off the general strike by the convention that Mr. Baldwin was pledged to do his utmost toward realization of that program But is Mr. Baldwin so pledged? W have only inference to go upon. But to me the inference fs ir- resistible that Mr. Baldwin authorized Sir Herbert to intimate delicately, ovide ad: out ! whisperingly, that he did so pledge himself. That the council should ac- cept the intimation so conveyed as though it were a signed and seals written pledge is. in my view of it, the highest tribute to Mr. and Sir Herbert; while testifying no less to the good sense and magnanimity of the council. At any rate, the council presented themselves to Mr. Baldwin on Wednes- day morning and without expressed conditions declared the general strike off. That, However, did not affect the coal miners’ strike, which continues. The miners’ executives, as was to be expected, have shown themselves intransigent, announcing dissatisfac- tion with Sir Herbert’s program; but better sense is expected of the na- tional conference of miners' delegates, now in sessiorl in London. It is probably correct to say that the losses from the general strike are more offset by certain happy ef- fects therefrom. That monstrous ipreme Court would hold that only by a vote of the people can sov- ereignty be transferred. In the meantime, things drift along in the Philippines with American prestige continually dwindling. There are oceans of conversation but not drop of action. (Copytight 1026, by the Kafisas City Star.) ! prestige. Best of all, the allimpor-* ler has ann sham, the general strike, has been exposed; that popular fallacy has been punctured; that terrifying but com- paratively harmless Djinn has been put back into his bottle and the stop- per forced home. The British people have acquired a new self-confidence and a remarkable addition to their revisions should begin to run | ad guarantees had been | that reorganization | down of | at | must be prepared \ The coal industry against that day Some British employers seemed dis | posed, from motives of cupidity or | revenge, or out of sheer dunderhead edness, to turn to sinister advantage | the defeat of the trades union, but Mr. Baldwin brought them up with |a round turn with his magnificent | statement to the Commons, including the following: “I will not countenance ar on the part of any employers to use the present occasion Lo get reductions | in wages below those in force before the e hegan, or to get crease in hou rhe occasion calls neither for malice. nor for recrimina- | tion, mor for triumph.” Morcover, it hecame | known that the quiet, gentle King had once been aroused 1o | against certain die-hards. Therefore, liquidation of the general strike pro ceeds as sanely as could be expected. % ek Germany. — The latest political de- | velopments in Germany seem a little absurd. Dr. Luther and his cabinet have resigned and Dr. Otto Gessler, defense minister in all cabinets since ttempt invited to form a cabinet. Dr. Gessler is nominally a Democrat. but he is not on good terms with his party and | apparently every one considers him a | thorough monarchist at heart. Dr. Luther’s downfall came in this | wise: He caused an executive order to be signed requiring the old imperial black, white and red merchant marine flag to_be flown alongside the Repub- lican black, red and gold national standard over Gernian embassies and legations. For this he gave the curl- ous reason that the national standard was offensive to certain Germans, resi- dent_abroad, who could only be pla- cated, to the benefit of German trade, by the arrangement ordered. The or- der immeasurably disgusted the So- cialists, Communists and Democrats. The Soclalists proposed a_resolution of lack of confidence in the govern- jment, but it was voted down. Then the Democrats proposed a. resolution | of “dissatisfaction with the attitude iof the chancellor, who by his actions in the flag matter has unnecessarily conjured up a mew conflict in this | 1 i Miscellaneous.—Belgium- is having ! Baldwin [clear to me (apparently they jus* a cabinet crisis. The French franc continués to fall. | | troubled period.” For some reason not wanted to give a ‘“dirty deal” to | Luther, whom they detest, but whose | flag order one should have expected |to please them) the Nationalists ab- | stained from voting on the resolution, with the result that it was carried. Luther quite properly interpreted the vote as equivalent to one of lack of confidence, wherefore his resignation. At the same time the Prussian po- lice (the Prussian government is of a Socialist bouquet) unearthed a plot | Fascist government, to be followed, in | due time, by restoration of the old ! monarchistical government. Accord- ing to some, the plot was most for- midable and the overthrow of Luthér was connected with it; according to others it was the. harmless product of a few crack-brains backed by sun- dry bellicose singing _socleties and athletic clubs. My reading of the dis- patches inclines me to the latter view. But Luther's fall i5 by no_means unimportant. The ensuing develop- ments should, be watched _closely. ‘What of the sfirit of Locarno? (Gess. ed inability to form an in-| generally | anger | 1920 is acting chancellor and has been | aimed at establishment of a super-| Pilsudski claims, I understand. that his intervention is directed against a actionary movement tending to monarchy. 1is main political sup- port in the past has come from the | Socalists, and. unless he has moved away from his former principles. he | stands for agrarain reform, amalga- mation of racial elements and the re- public—good things to stand for. But there is something singularly unreal about Polish politics. | Of course, the zloty, previously more or less slumping, has since the | coup slumped furiously * * ok Arctic Adventure.—Comdr. Richard Byrd, U. §. N., with Floyd Bennett 'f Lake George, N. Y.. as his pilot, | took off from Kings Bay, Spitzbergen, in the Fokker plane Josephine Ford | at 12:50 a.m., May 9. pointed for the orth Pole. 1lie reached the pole, verified the fact with sun compas: and bubble sextant, circled the top of the world three times, dashed back to Kings Bay. circled above it three | times and made a perfect landing, | elapsed time 1514 hours. | 'Never in the annals of adventure | was there a more elegant perform- |ance. The immortality thus achfeved was the deserved result of the most exact scientific preparation, finished | technique and two hearts of oak. | On Tuesday morning (5 o'clock. | New York time) with hearts no less | stout, Capt. Amundsen. Col. Nobile, | Lincoln Ellsworth and their 14 com- panions sailed in the airship Norge from Kings Bay for Alaska via the Pole. In 15 hours the Norge was over the Pole. The last clear radio mes- sage recelved from her was dispatch- ed about two hours later. She was seen off Point Barrow by several per- sons at about 2 a.m. Thursday (New York time). About the same time the last fragmentary radio message from her was picked up. On May 8 Capt. Wilkins in his great plane Detroiter safely negotiated the hazardous fiight from Fairbanks to | Point Barrow over the Brooks range. | He has been deterred by unfavorable weather conditions from flying over the unexplored region. * K K Kk ‘War is on again vigorously in | Morocco. The French are cleaning up the Hauran Druses in Syria. Of the three Spanish planes which, on April 5, hopped off from. Madrid for Manila, one, and one only, reached Manila, on April 13. Ouzounovitch, who recently suc- | ceeded the veteran Pashitch as pre- mier of the Kingdom of the Serb: | Croats and Slovenes, has reconstruc | ed the cabinet, giving Raditch, leader of the Croatian Peasants’ Party, the | portfolio of education, which he held in the late cabinet. Pashitch resigned |as the result of a row kicked up by | Raditch. Matters are not running any too smoothly in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. (Why don’t they get a less clumsy denomi- nation for their country?) ‘When about a month ago Gen. Pan- galos became President of Greece he renounced, with some ostentation, his dictatorial powers. He has resumed them with still more ostentation. China has a new cabinet; headed-by cate an age over 1,500,000.000 vears. this matter? Law Obeyance Held Liberty’s Sole Basis (Continued from First Page.) that of the vlolators. Not only is there a considerable body of our cit- 1zens engaged in making a living by violating this law, but there is an- other considerable body who live by preying on them—for corruption al- ways breeds maggots. To me, this is the principal objection of it. Volstead Law Blamed. Questionnaires were recently sent to the newspapers in towns of 20,000 or more in the United States, requesting both editor and police reporter of the papers to comment on the crime situ- ation in their cities. In a very large number of cases this question elicit- ed a response to the effect that the Volstead law was very greatly at fault. I have never been for the Vol- stead law, there is but one sound way to act when one disapproves of a law, and that is to endeavor to repeal it. As for our public servants, if they do not believe in the Volstead law, they should work for its repeal or modification in the Federal Congress, but while it is a law of the land they should enforce it with all the powers that lie in their office. Honesty de- mands that the public officials genu- inely strive to enforce the law by en- actment and otherwise, even if they believe it wrong, for not to endeavor to enforce it is to play into the hands of the corruptionists, the anarchists and all those who would overturn our Government. People are notoriously shortsighted. There are many business men who support with all their strength the | opposition to law enforcement in this | matter. Those business men are do- ! ing more to hurt themselves than any one else, for their very existence as business men depends on the people in this country retaining their respect for law. Do they intend— To pluck down justice from i T 5 che cotree of Taw ot Bt e swoy That guards the peace and safety of their ‘erson, If law falls into disrepute, those who have not will certainly help themselves to the possessions of those who have. The country must awake and face this problem of law viola- tion and crime. If it does not, the rottenness will strike to the bone in our body politic. We need less laws, better laws and strict enforcement of those that exist. N (Copyright. 1926.) The J. Sanford Saltus medal, re- cently awarded to Laura Gardin Fraser, wife of a New York sculptor, marks the first time a woman has been thus honored by the American Numismatic Society. More t! 60 Derl.eeil't”nf htlhe dled c&fi“’m year. ’ | What will the next generation say to| i of Califor rado, Jlis: lowa. Mrs | John H. Hatton of Colo. Clara Julia Anderson of ederick D. B. Austin of | i Maryland, Karl E. Pfeiffer of Mar land, Murray Hulbert of New York, John J. Blair of North Carolina, Dr. K. Y. Ames of Ohio. Edward A. Bur- lingame of Rhode Island and Mrs. H. Quarles of Virginia. room, he points out “We are more interested in blue jeans than in blue jays.” he although both he and abor Davis expressed their entire willingness to work with the President’s committee and the con ference for all the wilderness conser vation aims outlined at the Midwinter meeting Grave Threat to Pe Founded in Fasc (Continued from First Page.) justice to suggest that Mussolini or the men about him are deliberately preparing & war as Bismarck ma three. 1 do not believe Europe has this conception. What is more exact is that Mussolini and his associates are concentrating national attention, energy, enthusiasm, passion, upon ob- jectives which can hardly be attained save by war. Moreover, in all that they say and do they are not exclud- ing war as one of the possible means by which to attain the end. Unconsciously, perhaps, but not less manifestly, the Italian people are com- ing to look more and more with a sort of rationality upon the possibility of war. War Spirit Runs High. | “Italy has been the first nation to recover h pirit after the war,” they say. “She is the first, the only nation which would now face a war. She wants peace, like every other nation She wants peace, but peace With ex- pansion, peace which is possible for her, peace without the suffocating ‘which threatens her. And if other na- tions forbid her this expansion, let them take the consequences. We shall be ready, we shall be strong, we shall be united. We are young, united. We are strong.” And so, in the end, T cannot escape the conclusion that Fascismo means war; that if it continues along the pathway it has marked out for itself— and I can conceive of no deviation— ‘we shall presently face the old situa- tion of 1914 and the evil years which preceded it. Not France, not Jugo- slavia, not any of the nations around the periphery of Italy, can lay aside arms. Disarmament becomes an empty phrase. Either Germany will go with the British and the French in a combination to restrain the ex- plosive Italian nationalism or Ger- many will presently forgive Italy her present Upper Adige policy and re- open all the old controversies. But in either case—and I think the former far more likely—it is an ohvi- ous absurdity to talk about peace, disarmament—above all, about a real| League of Nations—while one coun- try, strong with the strength born of a great domestic revolution and a veri- table national resurgence, is pursu- ing the course which Italy is follow- ing. The League of Nations might be the basis of a combination of nations to restrain Italy and preserve the peace of KEurope, but this would be very far from the original conception. Otherwise it could do nothing. Finally, then, it seems to me that the Italian revolution has brought a new force and a new factor to Europe, and that force does not make for peace. A new nation has arisen, as /f | Mussolini and_ Fa Agiaces of i ace of Europe ist Italy’s Ambition France arose from her reveolution Germany arose from her unificatior claiming for itself all the things which the French and ( 'man people in tury claimed for themselves, and preparing morally and materially. to dispute with all comers for the recognition of herself which she demands. And this, alas! is at one moment very new and very old. It s the basis of all great European struggles it is the abiding obstacle to all real European adjusiment. Napoleon gave the French revolution an organization and an order, but Napoleon gave Eu rope 15 years of way As M. Clemen ceau said to me in Paris in March when we were speaking of Mussolini after noting with justice Mussolini's achievements: “But, Simonds, we French have had two Napoleons, and as to one, as to the first, no one can deny that he had certain faculties. Yet he left nothing behind him. and did his coun try a very great deal of harm.” What Will End Be? Mussolini, unlike Napoleon, shared in the revolution which he organized He is mcuh more the embodiment of the Italian revolution than was leon of the French. There area of other distinctions one can make. although one must at the least con cede to Mussolini very great quali ties. But when all is said and done there is in Fascismo enough of Napo leonism to make all Europe apprehen- sive. A great man has now obtained complete control of a nation. He has fired it with an almost unbelievable conception of its destiny and fits power. He is taking many of the steps which would seem to lead to foreign adventure. He may be wise enough and great enough to percelve the dangers and to desire to arrest the movement before fatal complica. tions and conflicts arrive. But can he? Will he not in the end be the willing or unwilling victim of the forces he and Fascismo have un loosed? The question of European peace fn the immediate future all Mes here, T : belleve. And I confess that not since the end of the war has the immediate future been so dark as now, nor has any phenomenon seemed so menacine for peace as Fascismo. For what cismo have done materially for Ttaly one can only feel admiration, however one may shrink from indorsement of the methods em ployed. Yet all this admiration can not prevent the gravest fears for the futdre. And in saying this T think I only echo the apprehensions which, for obvious reasons, find little public expression in Europe, but are in every one's mind and fill all the secret International discussion. (Covyrisht. 1020.1