Evening Star Newspaper, May 30, 1926, Page 21

EDITORIAL SECTION Che Sunday Stad . WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 30, 1926. THE CHANGE OF YOUTH Richard Linton, who, after a visit to England in 1928, realized that the great hope of get- ting some of our youth out to the Australian commonwealth could only be realized if British parents were satisfled that these boys of theirs would be properly fed and treated, with good care for their moral wellbeing and happiness, instead of being friendless and perhaps bru- in isolated farmsteads. BIG BUSINESS FINDS 'HIGH WAGE SCALES PAY Worker Is Worthy of His Hire When Paid for What He Produce Leaders Hold. EUROPE, DONE WITH WAR, STRIVES ONLY TO EXIST Old Nationalistic Pdlicy of Spoliation Found Dead—Growing Hostility to United States. BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS 'VERY year in Great Britain 200,000 boys become old enough to start their job in life. What happens to them in & country where there are still over a million unemployed? No doubt the majority get absorbed in some ‘way, and after some time, into the activities of our great cities as office boys, clerks, of men who were willing to take the chance overseas. As ex-soldlers they loathed the idea ‘of getting back to the factory or the slum. Un- fortunately their eagerness was not encour- aged, 80 that they lost heart. The government talked a deuce of a lot about “populating the empire,” but did noth- ing, or very little, to give the willing man a BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. OR the first time in any Euro- since 1908 the impression which I have carried away is something profoundly differ- ent from the immediate past. For the first time the dominant interest is not in possible or probable war; it is not in a continuation of the conflicts begun centuries ago. For the first time since the World War the absorbing consideration is not how to regain what has been lost or how to retain what has been gained. In a word, cotemporary Europe dis- closes for the first time the clear evi- dence of the fact that the war, tech- nically ended on November 11, 1318, is actually ended. As recently as a year ago, when I was in Berlin, the memory of the then recent occupation of the Ruhr, the fact of the continuing occupa- tlon of the Cologne zone, the sense of helplessness and hopelessness in the presence of a vindictlve and de- termined France, all combined to create a profound post-war bitter- ness. Germany was convinced that she was not to be permitted to live, to recover, to exist as a great na- tion. Hence, German attention was fixed upon the larger objective of national salvation from foreign menace. France Now Trusted. In Britain distrust of France, of so-called French militarism, of French imperialism, constituted a factor, and a potent factor, in public | tional opinion and in national calculations. But today there are few Britons who do mot admit frankly enough that there is no more pacific country in Burope than France. As for France, despite outward evidences at moments, there is no mistaking the fact that the all-pow- erful fear of Germany, of a new and relatively early German attack, is passing away. You have—or had until a few days ago, when the Luther cabinet fell—French and German prime ministers and forelgn ministers who could talk together, who could negotiate together, and ‘who, beyond any question, were sat- isfled of the good faith and per- sonally straightforward purposes of other. In a word, carefully avolding exaggeration, one could yet say that the international relations of France and Germany, and indeed of Britain, France and Germany, had at last reached a state where busi- ness could be conducted on an ordi- nary peace basis. But back of all this there was and is something which is in a sense and to a degree explanatory. France, Britain, Germany are not thinking primarily or greatly in terms of for- elgn affairs and international rela- tlons. France is thinking of a falling franc, Britain of an economic and political crisis, which has just ex- ploded in the great general strike, and Germany is thinking of an in- dustrial crisis which discloses itself in two millions of unemployed. The people of these three countrics are not facing outward or thinking im- perfally, nor even *“talking Euro- pean,” as M! Briand put it; they are facing inward and thinking and talk- ing in terms of domestic problems. Europe's Present Position. Is Britain finished or can the ap- palling problems of the people be sur- mounted by a new draft upon the, so- far unfailing resource of national gen- ius? Is France bankrupt and sink- ing slowly into anarchy and disorder, with a Fascisti solution behind the horizon, or will France once more sur- vive a period of national financial prostration, which cannot be worse than others which have falled to de: stroy her? Is German recovery, eco- nomic and industrial recovery, to the old pre-war altitude a vain illusion or a reality soon to be established despite the present check? In recent months I have traveled from London to Budapest, via Paris . and Geneva, -and from Budapest to Rome, via Vienna. At Geneva I saw and talked with the representatives of a half dozen nations, whose countries I daid not visit, notably Germany, Cgachoslovakia and Poland. With the single exception of Italy, there was not one of these coyntries, nor repre- sentatives of any of them, who talked in terms of war. Moreover, the Ital- ian references to war were not in terms of pre-war or even war-created resentments. I shall speak of Italy again presently, but at the moment 1 merely note the exception. As far as France, Britain, Ger- many, Austria, Belglum—that is, the western belligerents—are concerned, the similarity in states of mind is im- pressive. You will not find in any of those countries really solid evidences of militant nationalism, of dynamic imperialism, however much you may hear academic mention of such things in party press and political utterance. All these countries are weary, weary nigh unto death, of war and war talk. 'nuz have inherited from the war a frightful legacy of problems, problems of life and death, problems which so far have defled all solution. But in none of these countries will you en- counter any considerable or responsi- ble opinion which believes a new war can solve the problems of the old. People Working Desperately. Broadly speaking the people of these ‘western nations, as of the smaller neutrals of the war, living nearby, are all working, working desperately hard, when work is available, as it is ~for all in France, saving where saving is possible. And for all the consum- ing and absorbing problem is not in- ternational but domestic. To come from any one of these countries to the United States is, after all, not so different from making the same jour- ney during the World War. The dif- ference in conditions is almost as great as during the period when we were still neutral, the mentality is al- most as unlike. ‘Then the belligerent nations were facing the possibilities of defeat and ruin, the neutrals those of Invasion and destruction. Today for all these countries the problem of national sur- is almost as acute, but there is no foreign foe, no enemy, no war, and for each country the problem is in the twl constricted within national fron- lors. Moreover, and this is really the out- standing circumstarfce, along with the other acute problems of natfonal ex- istence goes the question of whether the existing form of political exist- ence—democracy in our sense, repre- seatative democracy—can live, can in the last analysis meet the test. If, for example, the Britisn general strike had lasted long and ended in a real “knock-out,” whatever the effect in Britain itself, the repercussions on the continent would have been terrific. At the moment representative de- mocracy s falling, even i the failure pean trip which I have made | p, be temporary and in France, Ger o A0 lozen smaller countries, like Spain, Poland, jumania, Greece. It has been defl- nitely abandoned in Russia and in Italy. The recent Polish upheaval, de- spite all the elements personal to Pil- sudski, was possible and at least mo- mentarily successful because the Po- lish government had failed to save the economic and financial equilibrium of the country. It would be, perhaps, an exaggera- tion to speak of Europe at the mo- ment as actually in revolution, but from Warsaw to Madrid, and from Berlin to Bucharest, no government is actually secure. Presidents are giv- ing way, or have given way, to dicta- tors; prime ministers have followed suit or become themselves dictators. And what is asked of the old or the new is not to conquer adjoining prov- inces or regain lost lands, but to as- sure to the man and woman of any rank work and wages, the chances to earn a living and the certainty of be- ing pald for thelr work in money ‘which will represent a living wage. Aside from Britain there is no Euro- pean government with a real and functioning democracy. In every na- tional legislature -the membership is broken into groups, and between these almost innumerable groups no co-op- eration, no solidarity is possible. When Germany has 2,000,000 unem- ployed and needs foreign confidence and capital desperately, the Luther cabinet, which had foreign confidence, falls over a petty squabble between groups over the colors upon the na- incidental, half a d N Other Nations Restless. Poland, which more than any other country in Europe needs foreign con- fidence, needs the subordination of all itical and partisan issues to the su- preme task of re-creating a vanished state, flies into insurrection over still more trivial political issues. In France members of the Chamber of Deputies are more afraid of their constituents than of the ruin of the country, and, therefore, have been incapable of ac- tion until inaction has well night de- stroyed national solvency. A sort of creeping paralysis has more or less affiicted the govern- mental machines of all continental countries. Even in Britain the fact of the strike is a sign of the desintegra- tion of natlonal sentiment. The fact that such a strike could take place at such a time, with all the fate of Brit- ain in the balance, demonstrates that Britain, too, 1s going through some measure of the same phase. But note the contrast with a time still recent: The Frenchman no longer believes the remedy for his domestic miseries is the coercion of Germany in the mat- ter of reparations, the German no longer finds French hostility the insu- perable barrier to his recovery, it is not the omissions or the commissions of neighbors which explain the British trouble. Europeans, western Europeans at the least, are not thinking of fighting each other to benefit themselves, nor are they expecting to be attacked by less fortunate or more ambitious neighbors. On the contrary, from one end of Europe to the other nations with almost immemorial hatreds are actual- ly making business agreements. Even in the distracted Danubian region new, saner tariff arrangements are replac- ing the products of the post-war pas- sions. No Real Threat Seen. I have been speaking of the west of Europe, but even in the center, the east and the southeast, the real prob- lems are not international but do- mestic. Were Poland actually under the shadow of a Bolshevist threat, the latest revolution would not havé taken place. The tumuit and chaos in Rumania are plain proof that Soviet troops are not on the way to Bessa- rabla. To be sure, at Geneva and else- ‘where diplomats continue to quarrel according to the old rules and the va- rious national organs break out with all the old-style attacks, but the man | peas in the street is neither impressed nor interested. His problems are more personal and ever so much more press- ng. Explain the cof 0} Euro) state of mind na“l;gumcme; m down to post-war mentality, to the in- evitable consequences of the war ft- self. Go vastly farther and accept it as proof of the decline of western clv- ilization, or Interpret it as the onset of a new and tremendous revolution still gathering force and presently to disclose itself in some transformation as far-reaching as the French Revolu- tion itself, the fact remains that Eu- rope at the moment is something vast- ly different from the Europe which ex- isted in all the period from the Tan- gier crisis of 1905 to the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, Again, what must be perceived is that European peoples are - moving rather in parallel than in conflicting courses. From Madrid to Moscow gov- ernment is on the whole functioning badly. In practically every European country there is a sense, a gemeral sense, that something is wrong, funda- mentally wrong. Life is not only hard, but on the whole getting harder, the machinery and the men that gught to provide the things which !ll?!s exist to provide are failing to function or at best functioning very poorly. Situation in Italy. For eight years, ever since the close of the struggle, the mass of men and ‘women in all countries have been per- forming miracles, rebuilding ruins, re- ordering their lives, going back to work where work was to be had, bear- ing, enduring, striving, but, on the whole, the government, which should have helped, has failed, has even again and again hindered, rendered next to useless the labors of Hercules which the people have performed. 1 made an_exception of Italy & mo- ment ago. Italy tried the most violent solution of all, save only Rus- sia. Italy has found a great man, the great man has undertaken to order the domestic,life of.the nation, he has imposed governmental efficiency and economy, order and discipline by the device of abolishing government as we know it, substituting force for law and personal power for parliament. But today he has filled Italy with the conviction of a great future and an enormous imperlal aspiration which may tomorrow end in new misfortunes. “And in Italy Mussolini is master be- cause 'in Italy the system which is working badly everywhere completely broke down. Italy suffered from the same disease—she is now experiment- ing with a cure. If I were to sum up my experiences in nearly four months of European travel it would be to point out that, however difficult it may be to define, much less forescast, the future of contemporary Europe, it is essential to recognize that there is a new Eu- rope, or at {east a different Europe. It it not a Europe dominated by mili- tarism or imperialism. It is not & tory hands, shop assistants and professions of & higher social status, which costs more money to their parents. But tens of thousands in every class have to hang about in idleness before they can find a soclal system. 1 remember that & year or two ago Gen. Booth shocked me by the figures of unemployed youth in such cities as Sheffleld, and Manchester. It may be better now, but is certainly true even now, that large numbers of with parents, who can i1l afford to keep them, are in danger of becoming idlers and wastrels, not through any fault of their own, but owing to conditions in England which them a decent chance of a good career. * ok Kk K It s thie fathers of sons who get most wor- ried. They come home from their own work and see young Dick or Tom or Harry lighting another cigarette or throwing away & half- smoked one, moodily. “What have you been doing, old 1ad?” asks the father. “Nothing! * * * What the devil is there to do?” The boy is becoming impatient, ill-mannered, His eyes have a sullen look at times. restless. He is “fed up” with the futility of very threshold! particular problem. popular, ‘workingmen of England fought t country. Why should they be told to get out? ‘Why should their sonssbe evicted I don’t think much of that argument. point is whether, by getting out, the youth of this country—some of it—may fi lives and greater chance of prosperity than by staying at home in our big o cities, where, at best, money will al ited by poverty and strike condi mean streets of this squalid civilization of ours. * k %k Xk After the war there were tens of thousands Europe divided into groups of powers, bound by secret alliances and aiming at vast international accomplishments of a more or less predatory character. Much less is it a Europe in which strong men at the head of powerful states are publicly or privately en- gineering great nationalistic opera- tions. On the contrary there is, out- side of Britain and Italy, no cabinet, no government which is sure from day to day whether it will stay in power or whence will come the votes to enable it to carry out even the most routine of governmental tasks. There is nothing more bewildering and more characteristic than the constant shuf- fling of ministries and changing of ministers, whether in Paris or Prague. Cabinets are llving from hand to mouth, able to subsist, if at all, only by avolding real decisions and evad- ing necessary actions. All the old in- ternational bitternesses survive to a degree, but all tend steadily to become secondary by contrast with the do- mestic resentments and passjons born of governmental failures. And the gulf between the present- day Europe and America is almost in- conceivable. Prosperous, with an un- equaled standard of living, with work for all, with no profound breach be- tween labor and capital, with no do mestic problem of even headline im- portance, with no evidence of any na- tional discontent and no sign of the breakdown of our political machine we are looking at & Europe which is the antithesis in all these respects. Again, we are talking about and to this Europe—which feels vaguely, but almost unanimously, that its whole scheme of things broken down, which is concentrating all its atten- tion upon domestic questions—as if it were the Europe which went to the war, fought' the war and made the ce. We are steadily reproaching this Europe for cherishing purposes and carrying om operations which must make a new war as bad as the old, and with doing these things de- liberately. General View of U. 8. Andmxinzwom not)"a:turll:::?l: urope upon the sins wv-stzurm. we are admonishing it in the matter of its debt to us. The collection always goes with the ser- mon, and the contribution s not volun- . As a result Europe from Lands Efi to the Golden Horn resents us, dtslikes us and is with unmistakable steps coming to have a common Eu- ropean view of us. More and more all European peoples are coming to hold us responsible for the worst of their economic difficulties and for the least tolerable of their peace grievances. Thus the two outstanding circum- stances of Europe today are, first, the almost complete replacing of interna- by domestic, and, sec- rapid development of & Col pean dislike and worse of the United States. If I belleved for a moment that the debt settlements which have been made would last, would be carried out even for a de- cade, I should regard this Europe- wide feeling with real alarm. But one does not long remain in Europe and rish any such illusion. Europe regards the debt nttlg- ments as blood money, as Shylock’s bond which.in this case must be signed because on no other terms can American loans be obtained. But I have never yet found a European, who believed that in 1960 or even in 1940 debt payments would be coming to us still from the other side of the Atlantic. Don’t Want U. 8. in League. I gathér that there sur vl:‘:r dmy one or considerable desire amo! Europeans for our return to ive participation in Eu- Topean - affalrs either through the League or otherwise. G Absorbed in its own terrific prob- lems, struggling with its own tre- mendous burdens, Europe feels that America is ready to do but two things: to offer advice; which is inevitably accompanied by indictment, and to demand cash. Moreover, from the European point of view, this advice, this constant stream of declamatory exhortation seems based upon notions .devoid of the smallest semblance of accuracy and rather the product of malfce than of good will ‘Whether, however, one believes that Europe is in evolution or revolu- tion, it seems to me abundantly clear that one must recognize the fact that FEurope is passing or has passed one_period to another and that issues and problems of 1926 are vastly differ- ent from those of 1914 or 1918. More- over, if the differences between the Europe and America of 1914 were enormous those between the America and Europe of 1926 are incalculable. (Copyright, 1_920.] That is rather a tragedy in our English homes—and not uncommon. I think an increase in emigration to the overseas dominions is the best solution of that It is, I know, very un- especially in the poorest classes. There 1s a kind of political propaganda against emigration in the labor papers. They say “‘the and its laggard lon from | United States is a disgrace ization. the various place in our Hsh or Scottish labor. Nottingham boys, lving do mot give * *x gration. Some of the f life—on its vast dominions which ment and population. gent way. 0 save their X quality. u The nd healthier verpopulated ways be lim- tions in the * .k who go to Australia. helping hand. The Salvation Army was the only agency which tried to get unemployed boys to the great dominions, and its efforts had to fight up against officlal lethargy, red tape and every kind of obstruction. To be honest, there was also no eagerness on the part of the dominions to welcome Eng- At officlal banquets emotional speeches ‘were made (as I heard them in Canada) calling for the youth of Britain to come out to the broad lands and develop their {llimitable re- sources, but underneath this hot air there was the cold truth that all the costs of overseas settlement would have to be paid by the Brit- ish government, and the still more chilling fact that Canadian labor (and Australian, too) ‘was hostile to new recruits from this side at a time whep their own cities were crowded with unemployed ex-soldiers. Other incidents happened to discourage emi- out to Canadian farms were brutally treated, it was sald. One or two committed suicide. Ex-officers, unused to farming, bought land in Australia, and lost their money. promises began to look rather mythical. And yet when one has acknowledged those temporary fallures and tragedies the truth re- mains that at tho present time and for years ahead the greates., perhaps the only, chance for the prosperity of British youth lies in those The opportunities of emigration are now belng organized in a more efficlent and intelll- The government is taking a lead and giving grants to settlers of the right The group system is being encouraged, so that instead of men and women going out alone to new and unknown conditions, to desperate loneliness, without friends or any social life, they may now form little communities of their own kind, from their own district. One of the best schemes for adventurous boyhood is the ‘big brother” movement for lads tally treated wages each brother. It seems and mother: brothers are adopt & cou sential that hardy. * ok young boys who went Those golden poys of that that is true, on the land go overseas gradually bef are awaiting develop- citfes. ‘We shall He hit upon the idea of forming a body of Australian citizens, all men of good quality and repute, who, individually, would undertake to be the guide, philosopher and friend of one boy from Great Britain. This idea was taken up with enthusiasm and each member of the group is given the name of “big brother.” Each boy is pledged to follow the advice of his big brother until the age of 21, to write to his parents and to his big brother at least once a month and to save something out of his week. He is also pledged to en- gage only in rural work, and not to leave his employer without the permission of his big to me an admirable scheme for safeguarding the welfare of the boys and re- Heving the natural anxleties of their fathers s. It will be seen that the big only interested in boys willing to ntry life, and it is, of course, es- these lads should be healthy and * % K X People may say that we do not want to lose type from this country. In a way but until there is more work to go round, and until there s some better prospect in England, it is better to.let them to a splendid future than see them ing demoralized by lack of employ- ment or finding some 1l1-paid job in our crowded not be losing thefr vitality and the results of their labor. The wealth they make in the future will flow back to this country for the purchase of the things we have to sell. Our strength as a nation, our place in the world, is not limited to these little islands, but pire, as we need. banquets, it * X chance of a It was started by an Australian named Mr. Speaking of the World’s Work Seek Key to U. S. Prosperity—Business Methods and Preparedness. BY JAMES M. LYNCH. HILE British labor leaders and parlor radicals have been hunting furiously for political remedies of work- ing class troubles and mys- tifying the rank and fille with doc- trines of complex economic philos- ophy, the American labor movement has been driving ahead along lines of pure trades unionism. One result has been a wage level twice that of the British level in actual buying power, and another has been relatively stable prosperity, due to generally unbroken employment. comparatively happy situation for America consti- tutes a vindication of the consistent American Federation of Labor policy. * ok ok X America has her radical thinkers, daring adventurers into the realm of theory, but they have not been placed at the helm of the labor movement. In their proper sphere economic and soclal theorists are useful citizens. They spur others to think and they produce ideas, but they are usually too impetuous to be intrusted with active leadership. British labor al- lowed itself to be made enthusiastic | q: by academic radicals and elected many of them to the House of Com- mons. When the Labor party achieved the reins of government, they found that most of their schemes for a short cut to universal happiness were im- practical. If the same courage and energy had been directed along trades unfon lines, some lasting benefits would assuredly have been achieved. ® kX ¥ I am not unmindful of the fact that 1 differ United British _economic prob! 'widely from those of the States, but it doesn’t require a prophet to predict that a change in British industrial policies would improve the present situation. Hide-bound con- servatism of British employers is even more to blame for the present situa- tion probably than the radical leader- ship of the labor movement. Two young Englishmen, Bertram Austin and W. Francis Lloyd, authors of a recent book on “The Secret of High Wages,” the result of an inves- tigation of American industrial condi- tions, cite the fact that American em- ployers “are not hostile to high wages,” as one reason for thig coun- try’s prosperity. It strikes me that I have observed some hostility to high wages in America, but it must be ad- | mitted that the British observers pro- ceed to a correct conclusion when they write: ENOERMITY OF U. S. CRIME WAVE AROUSES LAW FROM INERTIA BY WILLIAM J. BURNS. Crime has greatly decreased throughout the country recently, and this is due to an awakened public consclence, with a resulting rigor in the axocuflo: lol Nthe l;w;. ity “tl has happened in New Yorl recent gl’:)enfiu is typical of what has occurred in other places and marks a movement that seems to be becom- ing general. The controlling purpose in this movement is the ft and relenttless pursuit and detection of criminals. If this can now be fol- lowed by the swift punishment of criminals, this so-called crime wave will surely recede. Chief Justice as Authority. No less an authority than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Ceurt of the United States has given it as his opinion that the criminal law execut! in the to_civil- This opinion was confirmed by the committee of the American Bar Association on law enforcement, which, in a voluminous report, stated that the means for coping) with crimes and criminals in the United States are neither adequate mor effective. s 5 “America sticks to the principle of small profits and quick returns, and wealth is made by fine margins of profit on immense and rapid turn- over.” * * k¥ American employers are less “hos- tile” to high wages than they are “partial” to quick profits. This atti- tude of employers, coupled with the higher living standard and increased consumer buying power, brought about largely by the American labor movement, has made American pros- perity. We have by no means at- tained the ultimate desideratum, but we are on the right road. * ok ok X During a recent labor convention a delegate who had been flouting the Volstead law, slapped the back of a visiting British labor leader and with a string of cuss words invited him to meet another visiting notable. A friend of the bibbler took occasion to apologize for his conduct. is a playful custom in this coun- , “to abuse an ac- “Ah, I see,” sald the Englishman. “Then it 18 very clear that your friend has conceived an extraordinary fond- ness for me."” * * % ¥ Secretary of War Davis, testifying before the military affairs committee of the Senate, proclaimed an aim to “apply business methods in plafning preparedness.” Of course, Secretary Davis meant that he hoped to improve the efficiency of his department, but why “apply business methods?” It is an error of rhetoric that Americans are frequently led into by the national admiration for business success. Business is primarily concerned with No evidence has ever clent at anything else or that it even cares to be. Why should it? Ameri- can business is frequently charged with debasing merchandise in the scramble for profits. Surely Socretnr{ Davis does not propose to ape “busi- ness” that way in preparing for war. Further on Secretary Davis dis- closés a plan for war control of in- dustry to prevent profiteering. Then he spoils it all. “Is diss a beeznuss?” The idea is splendid, but really it hasn't the true ring of “business” at all. However, more power to the Secretary of War. We only wish he would choose his words more ac- curately. Recession Already Noted by Detective Burns, Who Claims Swift and Relentless Punishment, as in England, Is Real Solution of Problem.’ who spend our time in an endeavor to detect crime and to apprehend criminals to know that the greatest authorities on the law in this coun- try realize its lax administration has much to do with the prevalence of crime. There is at last manifest a broad determination to improve crim- inal procedure. Law Enforcement Better. By a fortunate circumstance, this movement - has been accompanied a more determined effort to enforce ! existing law, and particularly to de- velop greater effectiveness in appre- hending criminals. The most portant contribution along this line has probably been made by the new police commissioner in New York City, Mr. McLaughlin. When he took charge he made a careful survey of the police department and brought about a very thoroughgoing ‘over- hauling of its organization. He adopted the most up-to-date methods of coping wl'g: crime, ona, otdh::.flmw acts arrange for a:‘l‘l,‘ ‘with the National Bureau “Identification of the Department of Justice in Wi n. Oddly enough, ly_every other city in the country had been eo-op- It is encouraging to those of ual = : : upheld by the great family of the British Em- saw In time of war and desperate In any case, avolding all that emotional talk of empire which has been overdone at public seems to me unfair to our boys not to give them a free choice and a fair fine, healthy and prosperous life and an outlet for the spirit of adventure which is in their blood and tradition. (Copyright. 1026.) erating with this important depart- ment for several years, except New York City. The result of this quiet and efficient work has been immedi- ate. Gang after gang of desperate bandits, who have been killing and robbing citizens indiscriminately, have fallen into well laid nets of detec- tive headquarters. Among these was the Koerber gang of five young thugs; they were not only arrested but all have been convicted, and then there followed the important and impressive arrest of the Whitte more gang, with attending confes. sions of murder and robberies. Other Arrests Follow. Following this came the arrest of Hilton, the so-called radio burglar. ‘This notable achievement—for it was nothing short of that—illustrated how completely Commissioner McLaughlin meant what he said in his brief in- augural statement, that “merit alone will count in all appointments and promotions.” The men who made the capture of Hilton were immediately promoted and publicly commended by the commissioner. This action has served as a great incentive to the whole department, making it more alert and faithful in the discharge of its duty. And what has been happen- ing in New York City has taken place in police departments very generally throughout the country. There is nothing difficult to under- stand as to the course that needs to be followed. First, there should be swift detection of crime. In the sec- ond place, there must be prompt ex- ecution of the law. cently pointed out that one person in every 15,000 in the United States is murdered every year, while in Eng- land the ratlo is about 1. in every 236,000. The redson for this great contrast, in my' opinion, is found in the fact that in England punishment for serious crime is swift and certain, The way to improve conditions in this country is to do what England has done for hundreds of years—be alert in the detection of crime and switt in its punishment. consclence and intelligence of the country have come to understand this that real progress is now under (Copyright. 1926.) —_— Sacred Geese Annoy Kashmir Noblemen One of te most serious problems that faced the new Maharajah of Kashmir, Sir Hari Singh, was the dis- posal of the flock of geese that were kept by the late maharajah. When he died he had 300 geese, which police- men used to escort from the palace grounds to their own watering place; and way. the traffic in the palace grounds had to be stopped till ‘h‘;‘h pflvl}ssed birds ly passed. e n goose, a fabulous bird, has bo‘;';n noted in Hindu mythology as the carrier-char. iot of Brahma, the Creator in the Hin. *Sie oty Singh ingh on ascending th Kashmir throne found ‘theoen‘uu: rather troublesome and made the sug- gestion that they should be quietly dispatched. The priests held that ow- ing to the sacred character of the birds they could not be kllled. Sir Hari Singh soon had a brilliant idea. geese, and soon the 300 cackling holies were removed from the palace pre- cincts. - They are proving an equally troublesome nul ~ 1 Women More Agile Speed Test Shows A method of measuring the speed of an individual's fingers has been de- vised. The test has been applied to 1,021 -women applying for work in the shops of a Massachusetts electri- company. Since the inauguration of this test 77 new woman workers have been as- signed to the fine meter or instrument work requiring finger dexterity. Sub- sequent records show that more than of l.hu:- Wwomen are suc- ‘worl 85 per cent in showed adapted are men. uch better time. BY WALTER R. McCALLUM. SIGNIFICANT step has been taken recently by America’s “big business.” Gathered at the shrine of big bpusiness, the home of the Chamber of Com- merce of the United States, in Wash- ington, more than 2,000 business men from every nook and corner of the United States indorsed the principle that the laborer is worthy of his hir that thp measyre of rightful compen: sation for the worker depends upon the production results of his labor. Casting aside for all time the theory still held in Europe and on which some American business leaders believe the British general strike was based, that the daily performance of the worker must be restricted so that more days’ wages must be paid to accomplish a given result, American business lead- ers have indorsed the new-found prin- ciple of the labor leaders of the Na- tion that the laborer is worth exactly what he produces. His production must not be curtailed to make room for more men or to ease off a falling market. He is literally worth just what hé creates. “We are a long way on the road to new conceptions. The very essence of great production is high wages and low prices. It depends upon a widen- ing range of consumption from high real wages and Increasing starcards of living. Today the majority of em- ployers in times of desperation ex- haust every device to make ends | meet before resorting to wage reduc- tion. They turn to labor-saving ma- chinery, to constant research for bet- ter processes and better administra- tive methods. “In turn, the pressure of high wages is forcing labor-saving devie.s and better administration to an extent which ofttimes reduces labor costs per unit of "production below even those of the cheaper labor abroad. There is no more profound proof of labor saving than the fact that we to- day use roughly 55,000,000 horse- power in industry where we used 18,- 000,000 a quarter of a century ago, and even that omits the increase in the power for transportation. Nor are these labor-saving methods de. veloping harder conditions of lahor, for the hours of labor have been stead- ily lessened. Backed by A. F. of L. This principle has been one of the foundations of the creed of the Amerl- can Federation of Labor for more than a year. But only recently has big business given it its official in- dorsement. The step takes on added significance, coming at the very time when British labor had cast down the gage to the British subsidy and dole system, while millions of men walk the streets looking for work even be- fore the strike began. Slowly accumulating over many years in the minds of worker and em- ployer this new thought—this new concept of production and”the value of labor—has had the direct result of raising American living standards until today they are the highest in the world and European workers cast envious eyes at thelr contented, well paid, steadily employed American brethren. A High wages make for prosperity, and high wages can be paid only out of great production. This keynote was sounded by P. W. Litchfield, president of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., who said the thought used to be that the first thing to cut when profits began to shrink was wages. “It 18 now recognized that this con- ditfon should be met by increased efficiency, elimination of waste, the cutting down of overhead in produc- tion and distribution. Demand Is Reduced. “An attempt should be made to maintain these wages by increased and more efficlent production, because a general cutting down of wages cur- tails the demand for the finished prod. ucts of industry, the demand for which is the very lifeblood of pres- perity.” . Mr. Litchfield sounded the keynote of the new situation in these words: “For many years it has been the opinion of many that a man should be paid for the time he puts in. He wished to make such use of his time as he thought proper, being paid wages of a fixed amount per hour, based upon the classification under which he worked, rather than the amount of goods he produced. “Since the beginning of the World War wages have advanced, but the purchasing power of the wage has come up to a greater extent than the cost of living or the exchange value of the wage, so that today the stand- ard of lving, or the purchasing pow- er of the wage, is approximately 30 per cent above the pre-war standard.” Seeks to Maintain Scale. Management, Mr. Litchfleld said, does not wish to decrease wages, but seeks to maintain them, even though it realizes that wages can be main- tained only through increasing the production output per man. Secretary of Commerce Hoover, one of the Nation’s foremost economists and the Government liaison officer be- tween the wheels of industry and the executive branch, takes a precisely similar view. “There is a marked change during the last 25 years,” he says, “in the attitude of employers and employes | busine yward wages and conditions of labor, larger | think only of trades unions. It is not so many years ago that the employer considered it ‘was in his interest to use the oppor- tunities of unemployment and immi- gration to lower wages irrespective of other considerations. The lowest wages and the longest hours were then conceived ‘as the means to at- tain lowest production costs and larg- est profits. Nor is it many years ago that our labor unions considered that tainéd by restricting individual -ef- fout. “No one will doubt that labor has always accepted the dictum of the high wage, but labor has only grad- ually *‘come to the view that unre- stricted Individual effort, driving of machinery to its utmost and elimi- nation of every waste in production are the only secure foundations upon which a high real wage can be duilt, because the greater the production the od 51?::}-' will be the quantity to di- New Fleld Opened. Mr. Hoover’s thoughts have opened up an entirely new fleld in the minds of ‘some business men, who see in them a possibility of lowering of the tariff wall on some manufactured articles in whose production American labor, aided by machines, could meet cheaper European labor on the same production cost basis. While the Commerce Secretary gave voice to no such thought, there remained the possibility in the minds of business leaders that mass production and high wages in this country might en- able American manufacturers to meet European competition on an even basis without a protective tariff on some merchandise or manufac- tured goods. Still another of the foremost busi- ness men of the Nation, Jullus H. Barnes, former president of the United States Grain Corporation, the largest grain exporter in the country and a man whose opinions are given ear whenever he speaks, has outlined the same thought. Here is the Barnes creed of the present iabor coneeption: 'We have learned that national wealth is only the aggregate of indl- vidual possessions. “We have learned that national wealth in the last analysis means the conversion of natural resources by man’'s hands and mind into things of daily use. Social Service Lesson. “We have learned that methods which quicken and enlarge this con- version are the greatest form of so- cial service, the surest ways to put shoes on the children of the poor. ““We have learned that increasing production in the day’s work means increasing earning and buying power. “We have learned that modern in- dustry, with its volume production. under free competion, can create the magic of higher wages, larger divi- dends and yet lower-priced products. “When we seek for the causes which maintain the wide divergence of living standards in the world today, and when we study the forces which raised or destroyed the empires of history we reach the conclusion that the place In the social scale of pro- gress by any people at any time is a reflection of the degree to which that people possess three major factors. ‘These are: 1, the possession of natural resources; 2, habits of industry: 3, stable and sound government.” Big Business Listens. Coming from the man who, with Owen D. Young, had the largest part among the American delegation in formation of the Dawes plan for re- habflitation of Europe and straighten- ing out the reparations mess, big il Barnes its ear. Some call him & zealot, seeking for an ideal world, peopled by altruists, who would others world de- mocracy. But business men Barnes is looked upon as p man of shrewd, sound judgment, and a ploneer in that leadership which en- courages higher standards of wage and living conditions. « Mr. Young himself, fresh from Eu- rope, warns the business men that taxation creates nothing; that hard ;u:rak u;d a g:n: v;ase are the only ns by which the world can re- habilitate itself; that the State may tax, but cannot create, and that the worker himself is the final factor Which determines the fate of nations. Modern Man Soon to Live 150 Years, Is Confident Prediction of Experts BY FREDERICK S. HOFFMAN, ‘Matistician. Most people desire to live long and many now live longer than ever be- fore in the history of our céuntry. Ac- tually during 1922 there occurred 421 deaths in the United States registra- tion area, which includes about 85 per cent of the whole population of :hne persons, 100 years old and un- er. Eleven of these died from influenza, 1 from pulmonary tuberculosis, 8 from cancer, 34 from diseases of the nerv- ous system, 91 from diseases of the heart, §2 from diseases of the respira- tory system, 14 from diseases of the di- l’mfll nts, of which 20 were due to s. Thus the deaths in old age are due to a considerable extent to much the same adult life. Better care. and better medical skill could, no doubt, have ' prolonged some of these lives. As yet, the diseases of far advanced old age are but imperfectly understood. What is called the science of genatrics is making progress and the outlook for the aged is decidedly encouraging. How to obtain old and at least the century mark has been the sub- ject of countless discussions from an- tiguity to the present day, but never in mankind's history did people Kippur pro-1111 years of age. Ty portionately attain to old age as fre- quently as.they do at the present . The death rate of all civilized countries is falling and now rarely ex- causes as death in advanced |of who iid ceeds 12 to 15 per 1,000, against from 15 to 20 per 1,000, say 25 years ago. The explanation of this phenomenon lies in the obvious evidence that man. kind lives more intelligently and as a result ‘more rationally, especially as to food, drink and exercise. The fac- tors which make for premature deaths are now better understood, and atten- tion to personal hygiene is becoming the rule rather than the exception in adult life. There are those who with confl- dence predict that modern man will, before long, live to 150 years—and why not? If he knew half as much about diseases of old age aswe do about the diseases of infancy, the propor- tion living beyond the century mark would long since have increased ma- terially. Among those who have made this prediction is Sir Ronald Ross, the ished_discoverer of the cause Estimaces for this eoun- tryare to the effect that in 1800 the average expectation of life was 33 years, while in 1920 it was 58 years. Every few days the newspapers re- yeal some extraordinary record of longevity. There recently died in Nichals County, Ga., a woman' who fought as a spy in the Civil War, at the age of 112. In New York City, & Roumanian Jew was recently car- ried to the Synagogue for the Yom rites, who was stated to be According to the census of 1920 there were in that year almost 150,000 people in this country had lived to 95 years and over. (Copyright. 1926.)