Evening Star Newspaper, June 20, 1926, Page 49

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATUPRES Part 2—14 Pages YRD TELLS OF ICE FLOES GRINDING ABOUT AT POLE Dash Into Arctic a Feat of Navigation. Flying Straight Ahead North BY RICHARD E. BYRD, Lieutenant Commander. United States Navy. who attempts to explore the Arctic by aircraft is pioneering and stands a good chance of making a great monkey of himself in the eyes world. There are no airplane fac- tories in the Arctic. The smallest slip might result in a cracked-up airplane, failure, ridicule and possibly banl vuptcy. There are many opportunities for mishaps which mean all the diffe: and dismal fail- we flew Midsummer s from open leads of water. This year we flew from snow on skils, Now our fllght was somewhat experi- mental. Some explorers had said that alrships could explore the Arctic but airplanes were impossible because con- ditions were largely unknown and little was known about the task of lifting a heavy three-motored plane from skiis. But it was not of the world 1 was thinking when our skiis left the ened for our flight Poleward. I had & Ruick moment of thankfulness to- ward the members of our expedition to whom we owed the success of our take-off —thankfulness for thelr un- gelfish, tireless work and their ingenu- fiy and skil' Their intense pride ‘in the expeditii n and their lovalty had oxpressed the highest patriotism. It placed a terrific moral obligation upon fe. They were the world for Bennett 8nd myself. We felt we could not fail _ them. in gle Mishap Meant Ruin. Al this flashed through my mind rapidly: How easy it would be to go back ruined by a slight mishap, my reputation gone. my naval record eclipsed. One false start which would smash the plane and there would be nothing left but an ignominious re- turn. Now we were off. What lay ahead in the lap of the gods. But this was forgotten instantly in the joy which surged through me when I realized that finally we were off—on our way after all our disappointments, our motors roaring smoothly, the plane lifting slowly but steadily with its great load; the midnight sun shining only a few degrees to the right of our course as we turned toward: the white waste of ice between us and the Pole. When the motors were started for our flight it was midnight. I looked toward the North Pole and there was the sun exactly in line with it. What a peculiar sensatior. it was to be start- Ing at midnight with the sun shining clearl Our skiis had taken us off the snow with a load—that much had been accomplished. The confidence which had been placed in us by Messrs. Ford, Rockefeller and Astor before we left home had been justified to that extent at least, and that meant a very great deal to me. There had been many difficulties to overcome, some tangible, others intangible. The season had been early, much earlier than we expected, which was char- acteristic of the capricious Arctic. The vear before (on May 21), when | Amundsen took off from the ice of s Bay in his flying boats, he had smooth hard surface before him. but on April we found ice broken and floating in cakes and small bergs—an impossible surface for planes equipped with skiis. When we had taken to land covered with snow we had broken skiis and made false starts and felt our hearts sink into our boots. But now we were off. Really on Our Way. The plane. lifted over the ice-flecked bay, rising hicher and higher until | we passed Cape Mitre about 2,000 feet in the air. I think that was the first moment we realized that we were really on our way. It had seemed too good 1o be true. Back there, behind us, men waving their hats and cheer- ing had faded from view, the houses of Kings Bay and even the great shed of the dirigible Norge had faded into a background of snow-covered moun- talns. We were alone in the wilder- ness of snow and Ice, with sea be- neath, and northward on the horizon, shimmering under the midnight sun, was the ice glint—that line of flicker- ing, shining light where ice and sky meet. There lay our goal. Through that shining curtain we must pass to whatever lay beyond. Years ago when I was a boy I read & book by Poe which told of the zp- proach of some adventurers toward the South Pole and their being con- fronted by a mysterious barrler mist beyond which they could not see. It made a profound impression on my mind as a youngster, and for a mo- ment as we looked northward toward thls shining vell which always receded and which we must penetrate, mem- ory of it flashed through my mind. It was a strange world we were enter- ing, cold and baffiing, and what an ad- venture it would be to fly 1,500 miles through it! We drove north along the coust of Spitzbergen to Amsterdam Island, where we were to head toward the Pole. I thought of what was ahead, the difficulties of finding our way in space where there are no guide posts, where the compass fluctuated wildly, where we would be depencent upon knowledge we had accumulated of navigation in the Arctic during the preceding year. Would it be suffi- clent? Would charts I had and knowl. edge 1 had gained of variations be enough to pilot us from land to that indeterminate point — the Pole —and back again? Checked Up Compasses. T thought of this many times as we hummed north with motors working faultlessly. I got bearings on known points of land, checked up the compass we carrled—a big compass which I had placed in a osition where it was affected little v the metal of the plane. I checked up bearings by the sun compass and prepared ‘o start off to the North. * had picked up a line from a mountain peak or Hoel Peninsula to the northernmost tip of Amster- @am Island as giving us a course ¢rue north, and when we got to that Bemnett swung the plane and we began our flight into the unknown. I knew the variation of the magnetic compass and found that it checked with the sun compass. That was good. By means of the sun compass I was able to check the course ex- actly, so that by a wave of the hand to right or left after sighting through the trapdoor at the top of the fuse- fage I was able to keep Bennett on the straight course I had outlined on the map. Strangely enough, Bennett had a tendency to swing to right for no reason which either he or I had been able to account for since we have tahed the matter over, and 1 had to keep after him constantly for some minutes. After that the eourse splendidly. When I took whe wheel I steered to the left that and South. i bird dog. amount Bennett had gone to the right. I had a perfect view of Hoel Mountain for more than 50 miles and so had plenty of time to check all the instruments and make sure we were started fair and true for the Pole. Reaches Edge of Ice Pack. We had gone only a short distance when we reached the edge of the ice pack. It was a rather clearly de- fined edge, {or there was little drift- ing ice, and it was with a queer sen- sation that I realized that at last we were over the famous ice sheet upon which so many famous men had struggled and = fought their way northward without success, until Peary made his epic trip. What a lonesome and uninviting expanse it was! I thought of all the tragedy which was written on_ those shifting ice floes—of men and ships which had disappeared below them, leaving no trace behind, of brave and fear- less souls who had dared the North vainly, often to perish. And here we were in a huge contrivance of man’s ingenuity, driven by three powerful motors, humming over the pack at 90 miles an hour, safely and in comparative comfort, with the mid- night sun overhead guiding us north- ward, always northward. I did not know which most to ad- mire, the brave men who had toiled on foot or the genius of man which had made this flight possible. All-this time I was busier than a I was working in a small compartment filled with tanks hold- ing 100 gallons each. with a small aisle between them, through which, in my fur coat, I could just squeeze. Back along the sides were loose 5-gallon cans of gasoline. Over the forward tank on the left, or port, side was the radio-sending apparatus. Back of the right-hand tank was a trapdoor in the fioor for sighting _with the drift indicator. Directly behind was a small shelf for my maps and sun compass, with a smaller shelf on the other side to vhich I could transfer the sun com- pass if necessary, so that the sun shining through small windows in the fuselage would hit it. There was another sun compass fastened on top of the fuselage just back of the trapdoor in the top, I could see this by standing on a box and sometimes 1 had to look forward and check up the direction of the plane. It was in doing this that the blast from the wind stream froze my nose and cheeks; only by vigorous rubbing did I restore circulation. Below the sun compass aft and di- rectly under the trapdoor was the ship’s big compass. Fortunately there were no bumps over the Polar Sea on the day we flew, so the plane maintained a fairly even altitude, avoiding those jerks which throw a compass off. 1 believe the Polar Sea is seldom bumpy, except in a storm. Over the chart shelf were chronom. eters. /I had been studyving for weeks to be sure that T had exact Greenwich time. d Danger in Getting Off Course. We knew our greatest danger was getting off the course and that we must fly a stralght course If we were to reach the Pole. It is very easy to deviate from the course a little, one side or the other, but the tendency is to eventually even up if navigation is correct. I was watch- ing the drift indicator and sun com pass at intervals of not more than three minutes, hopping from one to the other, and I found by calculat- ing the speed and drift that we were able to navigate by dead reckoning s it is called at sea) with an ac- curacy that far exceeded my expec- tations. By making sights on the sun with my sextant and getting lines of position at intervals I learned that this method checked pretty well with dead reckoning. This was interesting to me, for, having done a good deal of navigation both by sea and air, it seemed apparent that dead reckoning in the air un- der the favorable conditions we en- countered was more reliable than on a ship when it encounters ocean cur- rents. For on a ship there is no way of seelng bottom as I could see ice or of checking speed currents as I could check wind drift by sighting down at the ice. Tiis correspond- ence between dead reckoning and sights with the sextant .was very encouraging. During these long periods of navi- gation, when I was jumping from one instrument to another and making my calculations from sextant sight by means of the rapid method I had learned and applied on other flights, I had little opportunity to think of anything else, The mind became & machine which registered, calculated and deducted with precision. Every moment of time was occupled. There was no leisure to think of what we were passing over or the hazards which might lie before us. But after a time it became necessary for Ben- nett to pour gasoline from the cans into the big tanks and thereafter every now and ‘then I relieved him at the controls. It was a welcome change, so much so that when the flight was half over I relaxed with such unconscious relief that I dozed off. Only the increased speed of the motors as the plane nosed downward woke me from a hypnotic trance caused by the constant beat, and I started up to find the plane diving toward the ice. During these in- tervals of piloting I kept the course by holding the sun compass—that in- valuable little instrument—in one llR‘:\d and plloting the plane with the other. Sensation of Flyer and Explorer. - There came a time when I knew we were holding our course with accuracy. T could then turn my at- tention to the ice below us and gaze down upon it with mingled sensa- tions of fiver and explorer. The many_stretches of snow-covered ice looked fairly smooth and even, so it seemed that there must be landing places within view ail the time. But I knew that ice is deceptive from above, and what seemed smooth was possibly rough and hummocked sur- face. for this diffused lght of the midnight sun does not throw shadows. To one who had time to observe it all, 100,000 square miles of ice spread out before us during the flight, and toward the end we saw 10,000 square miles never before viewed by man. Peary’s vision was relatively limited. and from the air we saw distances which he in his lonely, unceasing toil could never have seen. It was with strangely mingled feelings that we last miles toward the Pole. looked upon these ‘When he kept |We were about 20 minutes away 1 _wrote this note to Bennmett: “We " (Continued on Thir\ Page) ! BY | extent the WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNM EDITORIAL SECTION Che Sundwy Star ING, JUN 20, 1926. [IS THE WHITE RACE DOOMED? ' BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS. HERE are many keen and brilliant minds trying at the present time to read the riddle of the future. to the last war, and its consequences, there was never a period of history was so much uncertainty as to what is in store for mankind in the plot of fate. What is going to happen to us all during the next 50 years, to say nothing dred and the next thousand? would answer that question by say’ tal man can tell. But there are prophets about who are bold enough to forecast the future, an their prophecies not on any mys but upon what they believe to be analysis of present conditions, they say, lead to inevitable results They are, unfortunately, prophets of pes- simism, and if we believe what they say, fate has some very unpleasant history in the future history of mankind. ¥ ok %k 3k During the past week I have by two books which sum up this philosophy of pessimism that has caught hold of many ad- vanced thinkers of today. One Is of the Next War,” by John Bakeles: “Today and Tomorrow,” by J. H. Curle. Bakeless, who is an American writer of great distinction, has made a most careful and scientific study of the social, political and Mr. racial problems now lying beneath of human life, and his conclusions the least, alarming. He asserts that the last war deci and settled nothing. flict are produce than in Natlons Locarno,’ another world explosion 1914. and all talk about and all the efforts of pacifists will be made a mockery by racial and economic struggles which will be ordeal of battle. Owing to the increase of populations in varlous lands, competition for the empty spaces of the earth and the raw materials of indus- try will become intensified. The race and its natural ambitions for self-preserva tion and development are stronger the last war. e Mr. Bakeless gives us a map with the dan ger spots marked. They lie about a chain of islands leading to Australia. are scattered over Europe, where the old pan- Slav movement is stirring again, France, with a dwindling population, has made temporary alliances with weak states to hold back a growing Germany, which Most of us which must, He is convinc same causes which led to that monstrous con existing in more dangerous forms to In his opinion, the League of “the Spirit Owing when there Africa. of the hun- morrow. ing no mor- prides, the arrogance d who base stical gifts, a sclentific Reioe to unfold been reading, simism. plunges In “Today and Tomorrow,” by J. H. Curle, the writer forecasts the time when the white een reading race of the world will The Origins i the other, the surface are, to say ded nothing ed that the 1t delivers a natlon a cheap press. far worse of sentimental by wiser men decided by * * instincts of ing from the utfit. wian before ling: tellectuals and the well bred mentality gives the dole and other forms of relief to those who would otherwise die because they won't or can't work. allowed to legislate for men and to sap the virility and philosophy of the old man-ruled Japan and They and where states. must find more elbow room and capture new markets ° tor her manufactured goods. These danger posts are all along the Medi- terranean, where Great Britain holds a series of strategic bases, which cut across the in flamed amibitions of Italy and threaten the free passage of a French native army from North There are hundreds of these sign- posts of danger on the map of the world to- day which may lead to the Armageddon of to In the opinion of Mr. Bakeless, nothing has been altered in the mentality of peoples or in the methods of statesmanship. Mussolini, playing on those prides, and, above all, the desperate urge of commercial compe- tition are at the present time preparing for a new war more frightful than the last. Well, that is a gloomy outlook, if true. But the second prophet, whose work I have perate fight for preservation against the Asfat ics and colored peoples. At the present time the white races, he thinks, are just playing for their own downfall by ignoring certain weaknesses which are sap- ping their mental and physical health. One of these weaknesses is what he calls “the make-belleve of democrac the government and discipline of peoples out of the hands of those who have most knowl edge and strongest character. cducated folk who get most of their ideas from They become weak-kneed So- cialists, sentimental pacifists and labor agita- tors, and are jealous of all that is superior to themselves, so that their main idea of progress is to pull down what has been strongly built Worst of all, Mr. Curle sees the stamina of the white race in many countries weakened, poisoned and ultimately destroyed by “breed Modern science keeps alive the invalids, the imbeciles, the half-witted, the hereditary weak- who produce more children than the in The masses (he says) can neither govern nor choose wisely those who can. is more and more rising to power. races, whil masses gather force, so does the quality of men they alect steadily decline. The struggle between capital and labor lead- ing to civil war will eventually lead to new wars between European states. ress of weakness goes on among the white So the prog- e all the time the colored races are waiting and watching, masking their hatred, but feeding on it. * ok ok ok The time is nearing (says Mr. Curle) when the masks Old national of new dictators, like the opinion I really do % & a shrug of of morbid : h and fact. even deeper into pes 5 e its alleged tience with unfit, It class, but have to put up a des- the slums. which takes not to dest to ennoble into the power of half- of Mussolis ing sword” Everyw! * » stincts of too strong will be off, when we shall see the whole of Asia, and, it may be, all Africa as well, try to throw off white domination and come near succeeding. How democracy based on s and the prejudices of the ignorant masses is going to handle an era such as this n't know. One cannot put off all that on one side with the shoulders as the fantastic raving minds. This philosophy of pes- simism is not without some foundation of truth ere 1 differ from these pessimistic prophets is in the question of democracy and weaknesses. I have very little pa- that stuff about “breeding from the is true that slums produced a C3 the remedy is not to prevent slum people from having children, but to wipe out It is true that our present system of educa- tion has produced a large number of people who get most of their ideas from bad novels and the baser kind of newspapers, but the cure is not to abolish education, but to improve it; troy the liberty of democracy, but it by a higher standard of character and thought. Democracy has its weaknesses and its fol- lies, but dictatorship and autocracy produce more immediate dangers. The "clean sword” ni is uncomfortably like the “shin- of Kaiser Wilhelm. * kK % here in the world, as far as 1 know it, the common folk want peace and security for their work and homes. They may be led away by passion, the in- nationality and racial urge may be for them; they miay be poor pup- pets in the hand of destiny working again to- only chane Modern senti- Women have been of life and of national The glib talker way of life. As the CITY BOYS INDUCED TO REPLACE {RURAL YOUTH RUSHING TO CITIES| Senator Capper Sees Gain for Nation in Pennsylvania Farm School Plan to Cope With Agricultural Exodus. SENATOR ARTHUR CAPPER. We must find a remedy for the | contlnuing drift of the flower of rur- ial youth from the country to the city. For agriculture is the basic industry of the nation and a high propor- tion of men and women cannot be removed from the farms without en- dangering its stability. To a large harm has already been done. There is, however, an obvious step to be taken. If the youth of the country cannot be made to see the advantages that country life holds out to them, the exodus from the rural districts must be checkmated by a movement from city to country. ‘The youth of the cities must be shown that the country may hold advantages for them that the city does not af- ford. New School Commended A really brilllant factor in point- ing the right way s the National Farm School, at Doylestown, Penn- sylvania. This school takes city boys and intends to take city girls, who have only a grammer school educa- tion at thelr command, and says to them in effect: If you want to exchange the uncer- tainities of city life for the profes- sion of farming we will take you, clothe, feed, house and educate you free of charge, for three years. Af- ter that you will have an expert knowledge of scientific agriculture and will be able to supervise farms in whatever branch of agriculture you choose to speclalize. You can learn to be a horticulturist, a dairy farmer, or a floriculturist. Here is the chance of a career, with the possibility of owning your own farm in time and belng your own boss. The farm needs you and you need the farm. This séhool will inculcate in you in- dependence, initiative, love of the sofl. Coordination of Effort It is one matter to train for farm- ing by means of laboratory and text- book. It is another to coordinate such education with ordinary every- day work on the farm. This is what the Natlonal Farm School achieves. Besides the agricultural subjects such as farm-management, stock judg- ing, field crops, feeding, landscape gardening, floriculture, butter-making and the care of farm machinery, chem- istry, botany and engineering are taught from the agricultural point of view. Attention is given also to the making of citizens with wide interests. All the work,on the farms, in the orchards, poultry department, dairy, greenhouses and nurseries 1is per- formed by the students, who actually learn by having charge of projects that involve the handling of farm ma- chinery, the operation of the soil, the growing, harvesting and marketing of crops, the care of live stock and other things. Good Chance of Success. The school functions on the theory that probably no fleld at the present time offers so attractive an opportun- ity for an independent career, with a minimum of risk, as does agriculture. It contends that profits in farming are better than the average in most busi- nesses, and much more certain. Com- plete failure is as improbable’ as ex- treme wealth. Science is the keynote of the age, and science must be the keynote of the farmer. Persons who are informed will hard- ly deny that the average city dweller has less of economic independence than the scientific farmer, and that modern farm machinery plus a thorough practical training in sclen | tific farming has robbed agriculture of much of its former arduous labor. The successful farmer of today has a well built, well planned home, Jyith commodious and well planned interior, with radio and automobile, and is in constant contact with the State uni- versities. He is placed well forward in the category of those who have made the United States an outstand- ing nation. (Copyright. 1026.) FATAL TO THINK ward some mighty struggle, but at least the e 1 see of preventing or postponing those evils is by the gradual development of education and wisdom among the masses They will no longer breed from the unfit, because they have attained a decent standard will not allow their children to be used as gun fodder for the ambition of auto- crats, or the folly of statesmen, or some point pride, or some sinister claim upon colored peoples desiring their own liberty and (Copyright. 1926.) FARM LOSSES HIT ONLY ONE CLASS, IS VIEW Bondholders in Cities Have Vital Interest in Welfare of Agriculture, Says B. F. Yoakum, Expert on Subject. BY B. F. YOAKUM. It is a mistaken idea that “farm relief” is applicable only to the farmer. If agriculture is permitted to continue its trend toward bankruptcy, it will not only hit the farmer. Every class of security and every class of business will be affected should agriculture face the bankruptey upon which it is now verging. So if business looks at the farm situation purely from a selfish view- point it will find that clippers of bond TRUTH AND TOLERANCE NEEDED Controlled Intolerance Is Advantageous, Johns Hop- kins Head Declares in Outlining Plan for Progress. BY FRANK J. GOODNOW, President of Johns Hopkins University. The National Anthem of the people of the United States speaks of our country as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Whatever may be the truth of the characteriza- tion of America as the home of the brave, it is certainly true only in a qualified sense that our country may now be or might ever have been selected as par excellence the land of the free. De Tocqueville says his famous “Democracy In America’ “I know of no country in which, generally speaking, there is less inde- pendence of thought and less real lib- erty of discussion than in America.” This was said in 1830. Fifty years later Lord Bryce, while recognizing the existence of a certain tyranny exercised by the majority which he thinks has tended to produce great uniformity of thought in the count: . believed that the intolerance of which De Tocqueville wrote had largely dis- appeared. But he says: “Should pas- sfon again invade politics one can imagine the tendencies of 50 years ago reappearing in new forms. But, in no imaginable future is there likely to be any attempt to repress either by law or by opinion the free exercise and expression of speculative thought on morals on religion, and, indeed, on every matter not within the imme- diate range of current politics.” How dangerous is the attempt to prophecy with regard to human con- duct is shown by recent legislative and governmental tendencies in this country to curtail freedom of thought in both religious and social subjects. ‘Whatever may have been the progress of the last 75 years, it would seem that the American people in recent years are reassuming their former in- tolerant attitude. This is noticeable as well in the case of conduct as in that of freedom of expression. Control of conduct is not, however, s0 serious as the attempt to curtall freedom of thought. Its manifesta- tions may be annoying to those whose conduct is subjected to control, but, after all, this sort of control does not impose limitations on the speculations of the human spirit which, if we are to live happily and profitably, must be_encouraged to reach out for truth. You are probably asking yourselves why these observations should be made? The answer is that there lies in this intolerant spirit to which at- tention has been directed a great dan- ger. An intolerant spirit, when not carried too far and in too many direc- tions, is in some respect an advantage. One can hardly be intolerant witheut being self-confident, and _self-confi- dence is probably one of the factors of successful accomplishment. At the same time a tolerant spirit toward those with whose opinions we disagree is a necessary basis for in- tellectual progress. We know really very little at the present time. There is much which we can justly hope to learn. Every one of us who has lived through a_reasonable span of years has seen changes in many things with regard to which when we first learned about them there was much greater certainty than there is now. Kternal change is & characteristic of nature. How, then, can we ever be certain that We know the whole truth? How, then, can we rightfully endeavor to hamper the search for truth? It is only as we can know the truth that this land can really be the “land of the free.” But in the search for truth be tolerant of other persons’ opinions. Remember that you may look at things from one point of view while others may look at them from another, and, as in the case of the shield in the fable, both may be right. | (Copyright. 1926.) What Polish Revolt Brought in Its Wake Strict censorship prevented pub- lication of the exact number of cas- ualties caused by Marshal Joseph Pilsukski's army revolution. Con- servative estimates made by mem- bers of hospital staffs and others in a good position to know give the fig- ures as between 500 and 600 killed and fully 1,500 injured. Besides, many casualties ' of a minor nature never came to the no- tice of the hospitals. They were cared for at home or by family doc- tors. ‘Warsaw will never forget the tragic Jday of the funeral, when several com- mon graves, holding 60 bodles each, were filled and marked with témpo- rary wooden crosses. Families of the victims stood for a long time about the graves and wept bitterly. The women had wound their heads in cheap shawls. Many of them held babies in their arms. > — A Strike Incident. During the recent strike in Eng- land the volunteer driver of the Lon- don-Liverpool express performed the miraculous feat of bringing the great train into Liverpool twenty-five min- utes ahead of schedule time. The passengers went forward in a body to thank him. A pale green face emerged from the cab. “Don’t thank ‘me,” it gasped; “thank God! I only found out how to stop this thing 10 minutes ago.” coupons will have their investments endangered if farmers are driven to bankruptey. Preferred stock holders who receive their income from earn- ings of industrial and transportation enterprises will see the passing of dividends if agriculture is financially destroyed. Dividends upon common stock will cease with agriculture in the throes of bankruptcy. The safety deposit vaults where the wealthy store their securities will feel the strain if the farmers are permitted to be forced into further financial embarrassment. Enormous Farm Debt. The Department of Agriculture gives us the alarming estithate of twelve and one-half billion dollars as the amount of the farmers' indebted- ness. The funded debt of the entire raflroads of the country is less than twelve billion dollars. Few people know that the hard-working farmer is struggling under a greater debt than the great and powerful railroad sys- tems of the Nation. This fabulous farm indebtedness is in the form of mortgages and other evidences of in- debtedness by six milllon farmers representing thirty-one millions of our population. Agriculture is the supporting foundation of all our wealth. If the foundation of this bridge is permitted to become unsafe, then the prosperity of America becomes unsafe. The exceptional prosperity of the Nation is heralded almost daily from business leaders and from the Cap- itol at Washington. They forget that this is only 70 per cent true. They are reckoning with the great pros- perity that is piling up its wealth in the interest of industries, of business, of manufacturing, commercial enter- prises and organized labor. They are overlooking the important fact that 30 per cent represented by the farmers of this country’s population is in the throes of financial distress and verg- ing upon bankruptey. Must Be Profitable. ’ All must appreciate that to make a business of such national importance attractive to those engaged in it the business must be conducted in a man- ner to make it profitable. All appreci- ate the fact that profit cannot be realized from the products of any business where two-thirds of the ulti- mate price goes to pay the cost of distributing and selling, with multi- plied profits and commissions between the producer and the consumer. No one can defend a system of marketing any product that permits a difference between the price the pro- ducers recelve of seven and one-half billion dollars and for which their ultimate customers pay twenty-two and a half billion dollars. No one can defend but must con- demn any system of marketing where the products of an industry are pro- duced by six million farmers and in which there are three million dealers selling the products of the industry in different forms, who must depend for their living upon their four to seven profits and commissions between the farmer and the table. Middleman Called Issue. I want to go on record as challeng- ing any statement to the contrary from any source that there is more money, more profit, in the farming business than in any other business of the Nation—if the products can be passed direct to the consuming public, with 15 per cent less cost to the con- sumer. Remove the uneconomic waste in excess of a legitimate cost in dis- tributing and marketing, after allow- ing a fair and reasonable profit for marketing, and the farm industry of the United States will, without doubt, prove the country's most profitable business. All theories, all Federal legislation and all devices proposed under un- sound and uneconomic legislation will ]tan shor:hol benefiting agriculture so long as the unnecessary, uneconomic middle waste is permitted to continue. 7 (Oepyright, 1926.) 1 i Society News U. S. HELD BLIND TO WAR PERIL FACED BY EUROPE Failure to Achieve Results in Disarma- ment Seen Due Partly to American Lack of Perspective. BY FRANK H. SIMOND! HE latest fiasco in the attempt to deal with the question of disarmament, even in a pre- liminary discussion, might serve a useful purpose, if only it disclosed to the American publio the futility of attempting to deal with what i3 essentially a European prob- lem g0 long as we refuse to consider it at all from the precise standpoint from which Europe must and will view ft. The failure was totally foreseen in Europe and in the Winter and Spring 1 did not find in any foreign office which I visited the slightest belief that anything could be accomplished. There was the general feeling that, had it not been for apparent and rather inexplicable American eager- ness in the matter, no serfous attempt would have been made, and there was not a little only thinly concealed regret at American insistence. In so far as Europe is concerned, the question of limitation of arma- ments is an incidental and dependent proposition which can only be dealt with when the main problem of se- curity is disposed of and, by contrast, will not be a very serious matter when that time comes. The American idea that disarmament will insure peace, that armies are the causes of war, finds little support on the other side of the Atlantic and is on the Continent viewed with a certain de- gree of cynical amusement. Europe Knows War Cost. As for' the periodic outbursts of propaganda against war and against armaments, conducted on the lin of “clean-up day” or “swat the fly they leave Europe quite cold where they do not arouse its rather con- temptuous amusement. This is be- cause there seems to be underlying this form of demonstration the idea that it is necessary to educate people, and particularly Europeans, to the fact that war is costly in lfe and treasure and nothing short of a gen- eral disaster. At the present moment, viewed from all angles, Europe is in a far better position than America to real- ize the cost of war, suffering and the devastation _and destruction which follow it. Were the problem of pre- venting war as simple as the Ameri- can propaganda seems to imply. Europe in its present appalling situ- ation would be able to muster the in- telligence and the courage to disarm and settle down to peace. 5 But of course, Europe rejects as childish, most American ideas with respect of its\ problems, as a rather droll form of oversimplification, which has no other importance than discov- ering how little Buropean issues are understood with us. Because, how- ever, our financial position is what It is and no nation can afford to affront us, there has grown up a policy of public and official tolerance _for American advice and proposals, which is counterbalanced by no little caustic eriticism. Security Main Problefn. It is aximatic in the minds of con- tinental Europeans that the main problem which confronts the whole continent and all peoples is that of security. It may be that if nations are completely armed they will still be at- tacked and it is even possible that in the process of self protection com- petition in armament will ensue and lead to hostilities. Nevertheless, the continental nations are convinced that the dangers incldent to preparation are relatively imsignificant by con- trast with those of defenselessness. As a consequence, ever since the close of the last great conflict, all con- tinental thought and effort have been directed at finding some form of se- curity which will permit the rigid limitation of armament. Were it possible, for example, for the British people to feel secure with respect both to their homeland and their vast empire, then in the existing situation of British finance and industry, noth- ing could prevent a sweeping re- duction of the vast navy and the same Is exactly true of the French people and their considerable army. Until some method of insuring se- curity can be found, however, nothing is more certain than that the British will maintain a navy and the French an army adequate to their own con- ception of their own dangers, and no outside advice or exhortation will have the smallest effect upon either people, both of which are essentially peaceful and have every human rea- son for desiring uninterrupted peace. Hopes Roused by League. When Mr. Wilson brought forward his idea of a League of Nations, both France and Britain seized upon it, be- cause for both it held out very attrac- tive possibilitles in the matter of se- curity. But what the British hoped for was an Anglo-American combina- tign which by reason of its vast re- sources, its wealth and its power, could impose peace upon the world. What the French saw in the proposal was an American guarantee against any new attack upon themselves com- ing from Germany and, more than that, an Anglo-American guarantee of the status created by the peace treaties. But the United States was totally unwilling to undertake either the British or the French task, while the British, after we departed, were quite as willing to guarantee the status quo in Europe, although in the end and at Locarno they undertook a very limited contract to preserve the status quo as between France, Germany and Bel- gium, solely because in this area peace was of utmost importance to Britain and the Rhine was in reality the real British frontier. Thus their action was entirely in the nature of a fortification of their own security. The departure of America and the refusal of Britain left the French without real security and they under- took to obtain it by forming a series of alliances, defensive -alliances, which should bind-all the nations equally interested with France in keeping things as they were, to defend each other in case of attack upon any. In the same sense, the nations which wholly or in part issued from the old Hapsburg monarchy formed the little entente. Wanted Germany Admitted. The basis of this French system, however, was the French army. Without it, there was no promise of safety for France, Poland, Belgium or the countles of the little entente. But at the same time this allience consituted an obvious menace to other nations not included, and teaded to divide Europe again into rival systems which might in the end come to conflict and thus insure an- other general war. To meet this danger British states- manship worked steadily at an effort to transform the league—which had become and seemed bound to remain the association of the nations victori- ous in the war to maintain the result—into_an association in which victors and vanquished were alike included and could work together for the creation of a stable equilibrirn. Above all, the British wanted Ger many in to avoid the obvious dangey of an eventual Russo-German combi- nation. While Poincare dominated the French situation the British concep tion was steadily blocked, but when Poincare fell and the Radical-Socialist combination came into power in France there was a change. The French consented to discuss the Brit ish conception. But, in company with thelr continental friends, they pro ceeded to give it a very definite twist In a word, they agreed that the league should become universal and that Germany and her former alllas should be admitted, but they insistad that to balance this very definits steps should be taken in the direction of security. Their views were em bodied in the famous protocol which bound every member nation of the league to go to the assistance of any member wantonly assafled. Force Was Provided For. This meant that if Russia attacked Poland or Rumania, Germany as- safled Poland or Czechoslovakia, Hunfary attacked Rumania or Czech oslovakia, then all the member na- tions would be bound to interfere, and that to all intents and purposes the British fleet would be pledged to the task of maintaining the sea for the league. In a word, France and her continental associates, together with the neutrals, substantially all of the continental states, said: “Let us make the league real, let us all agree to submit all our disputes to compulsory arbitration, to insure each other’s se- curity by pledging our aid in case of aggression; then, with security in- sured, we can proceed to discuss the vital question of the limitation of armaments.” But the British would not hear to the protocol for exactly the same rea sons our Senate rejected the covenant of the league—namely, they were to- tally unwilling ‘to pledge themseives to intervene automatically in any Eu ropean dispute, to surrender 'their freedom of chofce, to become bound and anchored to continental problems and rivalries. They were willing to guarantee the Franco-German boun- dary against any forcible violation, with the Belgo-German boundary also included, because they realized that any war on the Rhine would involve them, anyway, and, therefore, that they undertook no new responsibility. But that was all. Now, since the protocol was reject ed by Britain, not the smallest prog: ress has been made in the matter of general and combined limitation of armaments, because no comprehen- sive plan of guaranteeing security has been substituted. No conference, whether under the auspices of the league or not, can achleve anything until it is able to address itself to the main question, which is resolving the doubts in the minds of the nations which maintain armies because they believe that they are in danger of an eventual attack. Armies Have Been Cut. It is true that armies have been re- duced. The French, for example, have reduced their military and naval ex penses over 50 per cent from what they appropriated for 1914, the. last peace budget; they have reduced their army from around 900,000 to less than 650,000, and they are now reducing it again, this time to 600,000. Italy has also restricted military expenses. But case the reduction of Euro- pean armaments has been wholly based upon the national estimate of the existing danger and has no rela- tion to any question of the principle of disarmament. With the French army at 600,000 the French will have 350,000 for home detense and 250,000 for the colonial army, while thelr navy is negligible. Britain, by con- trast, maintains some 240,000 troops in India alone, while her home army remains at 150,000, rather less than half the French, but she has a su preme fleet, which serves to cover her agalnst invasion and performs pre- cisely the task allotted to the French army. Beyond this point both the French and the British affirm that without compromising their own safety they cannot go until such time as_conditions are materfally changed. Moreover, as a matter of fact, the British see quite clearly that they cannot ask the French to reduce their army further, while insisting that the British fleet remain intact. There fore, since Franco-British relations are fundamentally friendly, there is no object for the British in having the issue raised. To argue for greater re. duction of the French army while re. fusing to limit their own navy and at the same time declining to undertake any larger responsibility for French security would convict the British of pretty crass hypocrisy. Italy Reorganizes Army. Italy is reorganizing and re-equip ping her army, but it remains ma terlally below the standard of num- bers of pre-war years. Her fleet is of little importance because, like the French, it is restricted by the Wash ington conference agreement and also by the lack of any financal resource to permit any ambitious program of expansion. But, again, Britain can- not fnsist upon a requction of the Itallan army while she keeps her navy at its present point. As long as any natlon insists upon the right to declde for ftself what steps it shall take in the way of self-protection, it cannot object to similar policy on the part of any other nation, unless it is prepared to underwrite the security of that nation with its own armed strength. Now the United States has increas ed its military and naval expenses over 50 per cent since 1914, where France and most European nations have cut theirs by the same percent age. We have built a fleet which divides with Britain the supremacy of the sea. This fleet, too, reinforces our protective belt of 3,000 miles of sea and insures our utter security. We have an army much larger than before the World War, an army strong enough to overrun our north. ern neighbor, Canada, at will. More- ever, we have at least twice in recent years showed that our military and naval forces were sufficient tc occupy Mexican soil without running the risk of any counter-invasion. If you measure our military strength against that of Canada, you will see that it is far and away larger than French compared with German, while our leet would make it practically im- "~ (Continued on Fourth Page)