Evening Star Newspaper, February 6, 1927, Page 47

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECI Part 2—12 Pages AL FEATURES EDITORIAL SECTION he Swunday Staf Society | News | WASHINGTON, D. €., SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 6 1927. y WESTERN HOLD ON CHINA . SEEN AT BREAKING POINT Britain Chief Loser in Uprising, But U. and Other Powe rs May Be Hit by Wave of Nationalism. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HE events which are now at- tracting the attention of the world to China must fairly be compared with the circum- stances which accomplished the Russian revolution, because in both cases what has taken the world Jargely by surprise was long prepar- ing and was forecast by many pre- Aiminary warnings. Actually the Russo-Japanese War was the first in a series of events which ended in_the comparatively complete destruction of Western pr tige in Asia—and it w: by alone that Furope maintained and e panded its Asiatic position. While 2 small force could accomplish Jarge results and modern material. machinery and methods intimidated the Orfental mind, it was possible f»r‘\ naturally Burope almost literally to expoloit the millions of Asia for its own profit and in_its own way. The World War disclosed Western civilization as relatively bankrupt. All the vast resaurces of Europe and, in part, of America were presently con- centrated in the tremendous occupa tion of self-destruction. From the war all European states emerged ap- proximately bankrupt and practically exhausted. At one time the victors recklessly accepted principles which were utterly contrary to their prac- tices both in Asia and in Africa and gave frequent evidences of their in- aability to defend their own material interests. Effect of Turkish Move. The greatest single disaster which overtook post-war Furope in its deal- ing with Asia was Chanak. When the whole of Europe surrendered un- conditionally to less than a hundred thousgnd hungry and ill equipped Turkish soldiers, when Kemal Pasha first retook Constantinople and Adri- anople and then at Lausanne tore up the Treaty of Sevres and destroyed all the servitudes which the great spowers had inflicted upon Turkey in a century, the prestige of Europe was shattered, not merely in Angora but in Asia. At the same time the latter stages of the war and the preliminary pre- tensions of the Paris Peace Confer- ence set afloat many doctrines of which self-determination was at once the most potent and the most sub- versive of the whole structure of Kuropean power in Asia and North Africa. This principal’ would not 1n itself have been fatal, however, had it not been accompanied by various evidences of the weakness of the West Two other factors must be reckoned with. For half a century young Chinese students have been studyving democracy in any countries, but in the main in the United States, Year by vear there has gone back to the Orient a certain contingent of {Humi- nated minds in which there has been lodged, perfectly or inperfectly, the conception of democracy as it exists in the United States and of independ- ence as it is found in all great 4 ‘Western peoples. Work of Missionaries. This ferment has been stimulated by the activities of missiconaries in Shina. Thus, it is not any great exaggeration to gay, as many Europe- an ecritics are now proclaiming, that the Chinese revolution has been made in the United States. That the vast mass of China, the almost innumer- able millions of the population of the empire, are even touched by any intellectual ferment is of course ab- ssurd. But there has been created an elite, with intellectual bases, and there has always been the vast mass of the Chinese people dominated by an instinctive hatred of the foreigner. Finally, Red Russia, having been definitely beaten in all its attacks upon the capitalistic West which were launched in Europe, has naturally and inevitably fallen back upon the Hne of least resistance. After the de- feat before Warsaw in 1920 the thrust- ing power of bolshevism in Europe was_broken, but after the pitiful sur- render of the West at Chanak the whole Asiatic field was thrown open. The strategy of bolshevism is no more to attack Europe where it is strong, but where it Is weak. And just as Europe is weakest in Asia, Great Britain, which s the most convinced and consistent opponent of Soviet Russla in Europe. is most vul- nerable in Asfa. It is Great Britain which in India rules over hundreds of millions of Asiatics and in China occupies the first rank economically and financially. No blow to the Brit ,ish Empire can be even conceivabl as severe as that struck in Asia. Nor can any defeat in China fail to have repercussions in India its The British situation is, most impossible. Chinese trade and commerce are a_very considerable factor in British domestic prosperil Enormous amounts of British capital are invested in China. Not only is Hongkong the principal base of Europe in Asia, but the British settlement at Shanghal is the most important com- mercial foundation of the West in the s Chinese Empire. Boycott Losses Large. For several years now the battle of the boycott has been carried on against the British, and the losses in trade have been colossal. If the Brit- ish can be driven out, if their trade can be smashed, if eheir whole eco- nomic, finan: nd political influ- ence can be destroyed, then the estab- lishments of the other European coun- tries can have little permanence. France, Belgium, Italy, all will have to_follow Britain’ out. 1f, however, the British force in the until very recently offensive, then the of fomenting and passion and instantly rendering more omplete the boycott which has ’ already done them such great injury All British policy, at bottom, up to very recent days, has consisted in watchful walting and enormous self- control. There has been at least the hope 1€ mot the expectation that the present agitatlon, like so many others, would dle down, disappear; that after a period in which losses were great, normal conditions would return. There has been the belief that the greatest danger would lie in some overt of violence which would intensify and prolong the present phase. @ut in the nature of thin poliey of “walt and see” has had every outward evidence of weakness. It has avoided increasing the Chinese passion by any act of force, but it nevertheless contributed to increasing netivity, because it has demonstrate that Chinese violence with perfect immunit And now, in the end, things resort to mainly run ever: expanding thi prestige | can continue hardly to be denied now that Brits must fight or go. The dispatch of thousands of troops to Shanghai is a clear demonstration that the British government has_arrived at a where it recognizes that further vield ing s impossible. Today the British are evidently pre- | pared to resign many of those ad- | vantages which they have acquired by force and through long vears. They are now prepared to surrender most, If | not all, of those invasions of the sov | erelgnty of China which are the tech- nical if by ne means all the basic causes of Chinese revolution against| | the West | But what 'y hard to discover point | ism the olini or ascism? Is Fascism something that invention is Mu: and No doubt that und as an organization F ginning has been most with Mussoli But, though name very completely years ago. Beg vlty, ity has abandoned every it ever’made. i on the name and organization of fully vocal in Italy before the its pr it since its now is whether surrender now will he of much aval Moreover, while they | are prepared to abandon political and | commercial privileges, the British are not prepared to surrender | ! property. The destruction or seizure | | of the vast establishments in Shanghai | | and the smaller interests in other por- | tions of the Chinese empire would be | for Britaln an economic disaster of | the first magnitude. Yet it is not merely to regain po- litical and tariff rights that the Chinese are now fighting. The Brit government in the Russo-Polish W undertook to restore peace by propos- ing great territorial concs the bolshevists. But thes made, to be sure, at the expense of Poland, awakened no response in Moscow, because Moscow was playing | for much larger stakes, for the whole or nothing, for a general European | rising of the proletariat. | Lack of Coherent Nation. In the larger view, of course, there is no China in the sense that there is a France, a Britain, a Germany of the United States. China remains a vast incoherent mass. There is not one government, there is not one ruler. Nevertheless, there is the hatred of the foreigner which is com- mon to all classes and is a driving force amidst all the incoherent revo- lutionary groups which are today in the field. To compare the present Chinese up- rising with the ordinary revolution within western countries, in highly organized national entities, to liken it to the American Revolution, the French Revolution or the still recent German Revolution is absurd. China s, in fact, in the western sense, amor- phous, unorganized, incapable now of organization in the European sense. Even the small group of intelli- gentsia is actually exercising very little influence upon the course of | events. The fundamental hatred of the foreigner is far more responsible for the gravity of the sitpationt than the desire for liberty in the western sense of any conception of such prin- ciples as that of self-determindtion. And the prospect of loot is an incal- culable incentive, G But the question is squarely raised for the British and measureably for | all other European countries which | hold Chinese concessions, whether it | is possible longer to permit things to drift. There are Britons, who know the East, who still cling to.the old- fashioned notion that prestige is still a possible basis for power and the use of, force in adequate amount could restore the situation. Obviously no permanent advan- tage will accrue to the British if by thes dispatch of military forces they simply save and guard their prop- erties at Shanghal. If a state of slege and an extension of thé boycott are adopted, on the other side, Brit- ish trade is ruined, British finance is paralyzed, even the property be- comes in itself worthless. The single hope must lie in the possibility that! after the property has been saved | some modus vivendi can be arranged, some_basis of peaceful living on the foundation of political surrenders, Powers Lose Solidarity. Hitherto Europe has appeared before China as a solid force. The soldiers and warships of all Euro- pean countries have united to give the impressfon of combination of irresistible strength. But Germany has disappeared from the FEast, France has sufficient pre-occupations in Syria, Italian interests are rela- tively inconsiderable and Belgium lacks ‘the resources for a Chinese war. If the United States declines to be drawn into the conflict the British -are, it would seem, destined to stand alone, But such isolation would in itself be a source of incalculable weakness, just as it would at once place & very large burden upon Brit- ish finances, for a real war, even limited in its field, would be patently expensive and could hardly bring any profit. But if the United States is drawn into the struggle then the British position would at once be strength- ened and consolidated. Moreover, even if evacuation were in_the end | inevitable, Anglo-American associa tion would at least destroy the very real danger that the United States, by pursuing a separate policy, might retain an advantageous position and | might eventually inherit, with Chinese consent, not a little of British trade {and commerce in the East. The present Chinese affair is a_great British disaster. It has already in- flicted great losses, it can hardly fail to Inflict even greater expenses. It may easily compromise British pres- tige in other parts of Asia and have repercussions in India which will prove ultimately unfortunate. But one of the most unlucky consequences might easily be the destruction of the whole British position in the Far East and the eventual arrival of the United States as a successor, not to the po- litical but to the commercial position Britian has so long occupled. On the whole our reputation in China is very good. We have been in no large degree a party to the exces- e exploitation of the Chinese people and we have refrained from taking any Chinese territory. As foreigners, we are undoubtedly sharers in the general hostility. Against us Russia is bound to work almost as_energeti- cally as against Britain. Neverthe- less, up to the present moment our situation is materially different from that of any European country. Europe Watching U. S. And, as a consequence, all Europe is watching us carefully and Britain most closely. If we withdraw our na- tionals, refrain from any forcible ac- tion, then our course will be put down ito the seiflsn desire to prsecs future and to play a lone hand in the East. If, on the other hand, we should ) | North spiritual her is d'Annunzio. It and armed 3 was still to and preaching “the railways for men” and land for the peasants Spirit Expressed in Poetry of 1912, This spirit in Italy, which Mussolini did not udied, adopted and create but which he has used to clamber to his present f: tion of Italian tyrant, had alre erary expression in the “futuris Marinetti early as 1912 and dinner of the Poetry Society war, reciting, shouting, the new violence. nonsense, that abjured the pa the future, that exulted in the tumult of war, that was axistc ant, proud, pitiless and above Tn those days Mussolini was fellow that present-time Fase 18t t He was ft, and death. extreme lef a pacifist, a he had made week, in Romagna. Even in 1919 Mu; real soul and substance of his vouthful violence of Italy had its orzanizer and god. The ear] lini had ram, read over again now, seven years later contradictory It was ineredibly now proclaims. it demanded the almost ascism pacifist; confiscation of unproduct! classes. But its strength I lini the creature of would d he died or is it something that would have played its part in the world if that eminently theatrical figure had never been born? t name seism from its very intimately ¥ nd its leader, it has changed its n appearanc ng as something of novel pretension This reality that has now t: Fasc war, . whil the dy o 191 remember that rich voice in London at long intimation: of an Italy that would st and thought crati n would a happy evening in waylaying and beating to Social himself spicuous by leading an agrarian revolt, the red not arty, and the still to abolition freedom of the press, fieedom of association, freedom of propaganda, a census of wealth, ve capital, sion of banks and stock exchanges, grants of Jand to peasant soviets and so forth. in fact, a new organiztion of Socialist ex tremists, outside the trade union and peasant not in its ideas, but in What Is Fascism? Whither Is It Taking lialy BY H. G. WELL of ability about il the set weapon with adolescent the heart of youth lark into a alute. nd the Populist mense opportuni of the uniform and and be associated s kept its ture seven a nov pa connivance of. intimidate electors. but effective fashion police dealt with it in a And when next year el arty represented in ussolint shops railway 1oot by were it not for the lini poses and grofes itastic posi- found lit poetry of 1 ca . the unscrupulou muker of a Ha G before the of and no med and intoler futurist.” the sort of spend patriotism, and conservatism. with a cunning and this change of front. t of the con- than by himsel any found the liscover cist pro- of all that republican, £ titles, - e, suppres- lini was on It was, is now bespattered which ts work from the beginning with a melodramatic pleturesqueness that seized upon imaginations. s adventurous, quarrelsome and imy It was, in a word But it put the rampant Itallan futurists taught It developed a feud with the Soclalists 1ty. s at the municipal elections 0, when it supported, and in return had the Giolitti supplied convenient bands of young roughs to It got ar and a properly instru it the Chamber, uinst its foster father, Giolitti, which served that venerable statesman right 3 gram had dropped out of that time—it would be forgotten altogether obstinate witagonists like Sturzo and was feeling his way steadily toward the ns that would satisty the cravings of the more energetic and adventurous sections of Italian youth emerged gt last in a role that d’Annunzio could have written for him 15 magnificent Savior and Re , Herofe Italy. ed by Instinet of Actor. As late as 1919 he had still been flirting with extreme Socialistic ideas; it was only with the fall of Giolitti that he moved definitely over to nationalism, k alculated self- He seems to ha guided by the quick Instinet of the born actor and demagogue for what would ‘“‘take,” rather intelligible reasoning; and all his resources into the demanded by romantic reaction. The forces of romantic reaction had been in capable of producing an organization, but they were_prepared for melodr had no great leader except an elderly poet of literary habits, unhappily lacking in’ bair and a little exhausted by aviation and Fiume, and they cried out for a hero in the full vigor of The Fascist organization, with the very little modification needed to scrap all the origi- nal principles, gave them the first, and Musso- too ready come forward Into the limelight as the second. One need only study a few of the innumerable photographs of Mussolini with which the world to realize resultant and no original. It feeble face fection. It herolc costu eyes devoid expression o have vou g 1t i$ the f at the mere physically a it was organized. It was aggressive, cable after 9. great them a Roman It grasped an im the truth w and outrage: ministry. It natural con: too afraid of of an antag Away wit Misuri, Away eriticiz Not one of or foully do: of a which hold: supreme quack-destr trating eye. 1s in some s spirit of friendly laxity had_become an actual it turned with ight memories of itti—and Musso most fully He has ge jg 4 pro Ttalians without Mu would have and ais nd will go Fascism wo finding amc succe ity would many suc rears ago, the role of orthodo: charge him King in ve been religious would not inflates this a little whi row o tyrant of forms entrance of matic devotion. They It here is co or uniformity areas and within their increasingly to take his cue and oclation discusses it regulate: that he is a That round forcible- in the shadows, but afraid lie like a trail of blood upon hi Matteotti, and w better n of In truth Mussolini has ask: sor as dramatic and rhetorical; anized brotherhoods, maintaining a cer Secret societies there have alw but Fascism is not a secret s them_thrc (Continued on THE WAY THE WORLD IS GOING 4 is the popular actor's face in per stares, usually out of some pseudo, me, under a helmet for choice, with of thought or intelligence and #n )f vacuous chailenge. ‘“Well, What it against me? 1 deny it. ace of a man monstrously vain first rustle of a hiss—afraid. frald, not of the assassin who lurks in deadly fear, of The murders nd critics that record are the comitants of leadership by a man ¢ self-realization to endure the face onist. h them! Nitti hich walks by s against opponents Amendola [forni. Salvemini, Sturzo, Turati! these men who atch and it! What are they waiting for? these names of men beaten, exiled ne to death which is not the name man than this posturing figure the stage in Italy. And the one of them been the ving comment, the chill and pene all s made nothing in Ttaly. Jduct of Italy. A morbid product “What should we have done ssolin| And the answer is: “You got another.” What is now drilled plined as Fasclsm existed before him on after him. If he were to die, uld not have the least difficulty in g the rich resources of Italy a its diffi be that it would probably find too eSSOTS, Fascism Aims Are Open. What, thel n, is this realitv of Fascism, which strange being and allows him for le to do so much violence as the Italy? What* complex of forces sustains him? One power of sm is that it is the first an organized brotherhood upon the drama of Itallan politics. is_only apparently a one-man iderable reason to supp tyranny se that in of thought and action over large exacting a quasi-religious devotion membership, are going to play an important part in human affair been in Italy, ciety; it is an with open and declared aims., It s activities in big meetings and h a p leventh Page.) n 70,000 MILES OF FEDERAL-AID ROADS FINISHED OR UNDER WAY | Tenth Year of System’s Operation Finds More Than $1,000,000,000 Spent to Improve Highways. BY WILLIAM ULLMAN. Announcement by the United States Bureau of Public Roads that more than 4,000 miles of roads included in the Federal-aid highway system have been completed since the beginning of the current fiscal year serves to focus attention on the progress which has been made on the program thus far. Construction ‘during the fi‘::zl year ending June 30, 1927, was begun on 14580 miles of roads emtodied In this State and Federal co-operative build- ing scheme. When this addition has been completed, approximately 70,000 miles of this nation-wide network will have been laid down with the aid of Federal funds. It is appropriate to take account of stock regarding the Federal-aiid high- way m at the present time, since this year marks the tenth anniversary of the start of this plan for stimulat- ing road-building in the United States with an especial view to providing bet ter highway those States whose re- sources and income were inadequate to performing the task alone. Has Cost More Than $1,000,000,000. The Federal-ald w launched in 1917 and since its initia- tion has involved the expenditure of more than $1,000,000,000. The total outlay to July 1, 1926, was $966,692,- $34.36. Of this sum the Federal Govern ment contributed $426,178,703.58. Th mileage which this amount made pos sible totaled 52,526. The first largest units bullt during this period were 4,920 miles in Texas, 3,181 miles in Minnesota, 2,193 miles in North Da- 2,181 miles in South Dakota and 114 miles in Tow Between 1,000 and 2,000 miles were built in 21 other States. < Projects now under construction call for an estimated expenditure of $365,729,746.36, or approximately one third the whole sum expended from 1917 to July 1 last. Of this huge to tal, the Federal Government is & hed- uled to contribute $151,489,782.13. Nebraska i down for the largest mile age of any ate which is to benefit from the projects now under way, the total for this State being 1,359 miles Dakota is second with 807 miles, Kansas third with 800 miles and New York, which acquired 1,197 miles prior to July 1, 1926, is fourth with a total mileage of 665 miles. Figures indicating mileages com- pleted with the istance of Federal moneys do mot, however, tell the whole story of the progress of the Federal-aid system. The entire length of this highway scheme is 182,134 miles, but the fact that about 70,000 miles have been built or are under construction does not mean that less than half the entire system is still on paper. Most of Foundation Prepared. It is far more than projected and Thomas H. M Donald, chief of the Bureau of Public Roads, is authority for the statement that the mileage within the system at present initially improved or in process of improve: ment is not far from three-quarters of the total. This does not mean that this portion is entirely improved. But it does indicate that the greater part of the foundation work for this great scheme of nation-wide highways has been accomplished. With, comparatively slight excep- tions, the roads included in the Fed- eral-aid system are embodied:in the State highway systems. Thus it is that a goodly portion of their improve- system our * ment has been complesed without Fed. | eral Government participation. 1In fact, State reports show that the ratio e led or brought to share in any mili- tary operation, even to defend our nationals, European policy would be modified. For nearly a generation, and par- have | ticularly during the last qome to & very, clear crisis, It is (Continued on Fourth of mileage completed by State high- way departments in 1925 was more than double the Federalaid mileage completed during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1926. The system will insure the improve- ment of the main arterial highway of 4 I the Nation, as may easily be realized when it is borne in mind that the Federal-aid system includes- less than 200,000 miles of the total 3,100,000 miles of roads existing throughout the United States. “All have been selected,” says Di rector MacDonald, “by the constituted State and Federal highway officials as essential links of a system adequate for the accommodation of interstate trafiic Thus there the Federal-aid re definite signs that system is making notable additions to the country’s highway mileage in sections where good roads are needed most and least likely to be built without extra assist- ance, . 2 Lowly scale insects and species of moth are aiding farmers of Australia in saving 25,000,000 acres of land from the prickly pear blight. After five years of experimenting, in which $40,- 000 was spent, the farmers now see a chance for victory. After many tests three strains of the insect and the moth have been liberated to de- stroy the prickly pear, which, for 25 vears, has been spreading at the rate of 1,000,000 acres a year. | TARIFF AUTONOMY FOR CHINA FAVORED IN U. S., SAYS BURTON Ohio Representative Declares Vast Majority Also A prove Abolition of Extraterritorial Tribunals, If Safeguards BY THEODORE E. BURTON, Representative from Ohio, The overwhelming majority of the American people believe in granting the demands of the Chinese for tariff autonomy and the abolition of extra- territorial tribunals, if safeguards be afforded and there be a responsible government with which to deal. As regards tariff, no one can deny that a country should have control of rates of duties imposed upon Im- ports or upon exports. China has been restrained from exercising an un- doubted right by treaties and regula- tions dating back to the 40s. Obstacles to Agreement. The obstacles to an agreement are: First, the adoption in China of nu- merous vexatlous regulations which hamper commerce, such as the likin or transportation dues levied by va- rious provinces, consumption duties on imports and production imposts on exports established by the Cantonese government; second, the fact that b specific agreements loans to China are tosbe repaid from customs collections. There can be no assurance that these loans will be paid until there is a responsible Chinese government and thus foreign commissioners have been assigned in the respective cus- The Acid Test for Reformers BY BRUCE BARTON HUNDRED and fifty years ago there lived a man who wrote a splen- did book. The title was “The Friend of Men”; and the progre: ments in France and hailed it as an important con- tribution to their cause. What sort of a man was the author, the Marquis of Mira- beau? He did his best to ruin the career of his son, the great Mirabeau. He kept his wife locked up in an asylum the greater part of her life, while he lived with an- other woman. He persecuted his daughter and reviled his second son. In his study, locked away from the world, he could dream fine dreams of unive: kindliness i fo as Carlyle , “was the enemy of almost every man he had to do with. | have known a good many reformers in my life, and have found them an i Of course, as a class, they are not as interesting as reformers were two hundred or three hun- dred years ago, and for the simple reason tl there is now no danger nor inconvenience at- tached to the profession. When a man ran the risk of being burned at the stake or losing his head on the block for the sake of convictions, he com- pelled & certain admiration whether one agreed with him or not. But the modern reformer runs no such risks. He may denounce the rich until he is out of breath and the penalty is only applause. He may thunder away at the church or the state, and instead of incurring. any sacrifice he wakes up to find his picture in the Sunday papers. But the two general types ofK reformers remain what they have always been—the small, quiet, conscientious group of those who back up their .words by their works; and the noisy, unpleasant and selfish group who criticize conditions as they are, but do nothing by their lives to make conditions bett Before | accept any man’s criticism at face value, | want to know of him: Is We supporting a wife and children? Is he as good a hus- band and father, on the whole, as the men he is denouncing? Does he pay taxes and vote? Is he as good a citizen as those Does he meet his pay roll reg- ularly and treat his employes well? Is he as good an employer as those whom he would over- throw? If he does not meet th tests, then though he speak with the tongues of angels, he does not interest me, and | will not leave my book at night to go out to a hall and listen to him. Why was it that with all his faults we loved Theodore Roose- velt so well? He preached at us disturbingly, but he practiced what he preached. In his zeal to make us better, he did not neglect the duty of being a good father and good en out at Oyster Bay. This truth was written many years ago: “If any man say ‘I love God" and hateth his brother he liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen That's the real acid test of eformers to me. Before they tell me how much they love God and the race, I'd like a chance to ask them, please: “First, how do you stand at home?” (Copyright. 1027.) Are Provided. toms districts to protect against graft and inefficiency. In every proposition that has been made for tariff autonomy the aboli- tion of these annoying likin imposts has been agreed upon by Chinese as well as foreigners, but the ability of any existing government to do away with them is questionable. As regards extraterritorial jurisdic- tion, there has been a marked tenden- cy toward abolition of this right by the more clvilized powers in oth countries, and it is only natural that this exemption should be extended to China. Aguin, there are serfous dif- ficulties in the way. The Chine: have no established code of laws, s in a few categories. Such law enforced in courts are the results of mandates from the President, or regu- lations adopted by the department of justice, and these are subject 1o constant changes. Rule of Force Vital Featura. . The leading feature of the situation is the rule of force in China. The courts and administration functions are dominated by military leaders. Wide areas are under the domination of somie dozen military despots who are bittefly antagonistic toward each other, though probably favering Chi- nese independence. Several points shonld be emphasized First, the Government of the United States is by no means to blame for the delay in meeting the demands of the Chinese. As soon as the treaty relat- ing to China was ratified by all the powers who met at the Washington conference our Secretary of State took immediate steps for the convening of the commissions provided for. There was favorable prograss, including sub- stantlal agreement that additional d ties should be levied at once and that absolute tariff autonomy be effective January 1, 1929, but, under a chan, in control at Peking, the Chines withdrew from the conference. But the most important of all is the daifficulty of dealing with any govern- iment or agency in China which can act for the whole country. The most aggressive and the most powerful fac. tion is no doubt that which is known as the Cantonese movement. They {are the disciples of Sun Yat Sen, whose three principles may be expressed as { nationality, democracy and the eco- {nomic improvement of China. In a jconversation of the writer with Sun Yat Sen in the latter part of 1919 he was asked If there was any possibility of the northern and southern of China uniting. He replied they agree to my terms,” and soon after that he gave out a statement that it would be better to have war than to submit to the rule of Peking. It is well for those of our citizens who are prone to criticize their own country that they should have an ap- preciation of the very serious diffl- cultles which stand in the way of granting to China that which our people would most willingly grant them (Copyright. 1027.) Hungary Has Plans For Electrified Line Hungary's finances are in excellent shape and about 650 miles of railroad are in prospect of being electrified. It is hoped first to electrify the Jine from Budapest to the Burgenland, over which run the Vienna trains, and which has probably more traffic than any other line in this section of Eu- rope. modern station at Kelenfeold, a sub- urb of Budapest. The government also is enabled to render financial aid to the small farmers who have ac:| quired plots_ander the land purchase plan put Bugh by the government the | la It is planned to build a large | CONSTITUTION IS TARGET 1,350 TIMES IN 38 YEARS Amendments Abolition of Sen Name of United BY GOULD LINCOLN. the last vears 1.330 posals to amend the of United Siates made by members o That_is something {about. Many of these { amendments have covered same | ground. But a wide range of sub { jects is included in the list of amend ments, from proposals to limit the hours of work in factories to a pro posal to change the name of the United States of America to United States of the World, and to a pro posal to abolish the Senate. In those 3§ ye however, begin ning in 1889, only four amendmer to the Constitution have been adopt Indeed, only 19 amendments all told have been made in the 140 ve: ce the adoption of the Constitution Tinkering with the pnstitution has been a favorite pastime, howev with many people, who belleve the can improve on the work of the con stitutional convention, which drew up the historic document in 1787. Many proposals to amend the Con stitution are pending in the S and House today. Perhaps the violent reaction whieh has arisen in quarters to the eighteenth amend ment, the dry amendment, may give pause to Congress before it submits further proposed amendments to the States for ratification. N have « te ngress think sposec Amendments Are Listed. A document, recently presented in the Senate by Senator Dill of Wash ington, after being prepared under the direction of H. H. B. Mever, director of the legislative reference service of the Library of Congress, gives a com. plete list of the proposed amendments to the Constitution offered in Con gress from 1889, to July, 1926. They total 1.316. In the prese session a score or more additional amendments have been introduced ‘There is one amendment at lea which has strong support and whic undoubtedly would be submitted to the States for ratification if ‘the Re publican leadership of the House | would withdraw its opposition and llow the resolution to come to a vote. This last is the Norris proposal to change the gress, the beginning of the terms of members of Congress and of the Presi- dent sident, and to do away with the pi hort' ions of Congress. This proposal has been passed by the Senate overwhelmingly three times. But always it has been held back in the House, though it is now on the House calendar, and if its friends can prevail on the Re- publican leaders of that body, it may be permitted to come to a vote before the close of the present Congress. March 4. Otherwise, it will have to be reintroduced and passed through the various parliamentary stages in the Seventieth Congress. While this proposed amendment to the Constitution now bears the name of Senator Norris of Nebraska, in various forms it has been before the Cengress for a long time. Tndeed, an examination of all proposals to amend the Constitution shows that those which have been adopted have had long years of waiting before he ing approved by the Congress; except in the case of the first ten amend ments—the bill of rights, so ed, which it was virtually agreed would be offered soon after the ratification of the Constitution itself. Two Before Civil War. After the adoption of the first 10 { amendments, only 2 amendments were adopted until Civil War days, when | the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth | amendments 'were included in the Constitution. Since that time four amendments have been placed in the Constitution, as follows: Authovizing Congress to lev, an income ta February 23, 1913 providing for the direct election of Senators of the United States, May 31, 1913; providing for Nation-wide prohibition, pro- claimed January 29, 1919, but not ef fective until ® year later, and finally pgoviging for woman suffrage, August 26, 1920. 1t is a matter of some interest that the late Willlam Jennings Bryan was Secretary of State and issued proclamation regarding the ratifica- tion of the seventeenth amendment providing for the direct election of Senators. Years before, while Mr Bryan was a member of the House he’ introduced several amend the Constitution by providi for the popular election of Senato The first of these Bryan resolutions ‘was offered January . but reso- lutions by other members of Congress for the same purpose had antedated the Bryan resolution: for example, one by Representative Hermann of Oregon offered in 1889, and there were still lier proposals of this character, one as far back as 182 The trend of public opinion regard- ing subjects which have come be the people for discussion is cle: indicated in the lists of the prope jamendments to the Constitution, as { Mr. Meyer points out in a brief intro- { ductionto the document recently pub- lished. While there was interest in some quarters in the proposal for the direct election of Senators years ago, the sentiment did not really begin to crystalize until after 1890. In 18 the Populist party was launched and one of its planl 5 the direct elec- tion of Senators. Many r were igtroduced in Cengress, some in number, for the direct election of Senators. With the decline of the Populist movement, however, the sentiment in favor of direct elections of Senators cooled, as was reflected in the dropping off the duced in the following vears. But i 1910 there was a revival of interest in the matter, and two years later the amendment was proposed by Cong to the legislatures and ultimately ratified. First Dry Amendment. The first amendment proposing pro- hibition was offered in Congre in 1876 by Blair of New Hampshire. For 30 years there was little indication of sentiment in favor of the proposed | amendment and few resolutions were introduced for it. From 1896 until 1908, there was no effort in the Con- gress to obtain such a constitutional amendment. But after 1912, many resolutions were proposed to dry up the nation constftutionally, and they multiplied until finally the matter was submitted to the States by Congress. The proposal for a constitutional mendment for woman suffrage ran a long course before it finally became part of the basic law. Mr. Blair of New Hampshire, who sponsored the t is Proposed Constitution | 1| % uniform € | submit many | t| h | time of meeting .of Con- | the | olutions i esolutions intre =after many yea Range FKrom ate to Change in tate | tation has been simply to one term of four years. In others it has been pro posed make the term eignt Years, seven yvear, six vears or five years for President and Vice Pr ident, and to extend the term of Senators and of Members of House. Amendments limiting a President to two terms of | four years each have been offered also, seeking to establish the precedent id #ywn by George Washington as *_<aw of the land. Some such res olutions were offered when both President Wilson and esident Roose velt were in office. he Democrat platform on which Mr. Wilson wi elected President contained a plank for a single term for President, but | little was heard of it after the elec | tion had been held Marriage Many amendme | tion giving the Con marriage for the country his is by | although it cent years | the Constitu ress right to pass and divorce laws ave been proposed no means a new proposal, has been renewed in r Senator Dolp of Oregon, |in 1889, introduced a solution to such an ame to the | States for ratification. At one time there was considerable demand that the Constitution be so |amended that the postmasters should be elected by the rople, instead of | appointed by the President. Senator Hoar of Massachusetts was one of | those sponsoring such an amendment | and he introduced a resolution for that | purpose in 1890 Not very long ago there was agita tion to extend to the President the ight to veto an item in an appropria- | tion bill. without vetoing the rest of | the bill. But this, it appears, is no new | suggestion. Mr. Payson of Illinois in 1839 offered an amendment of that | character. Tn earlier days it was the practice frequently to include in ap- | propiration bills items of legislation, [some of which might have little or nothing to do with the appropriation | measure and which might be objection- |able to the Chief Executive. But ow- ing to the fact they were included in |one of the annual supply bills, they could not be rejected by the Executive | without killing the whole bill. Now under the new rules of the nate and House it is rare that any |legislation creeps into an appropria- | tion bill. If the amendment submitted | by Mr. Payson had become part of the Constitution, however, President Cool- idge would now be in a position to veto the item for beginning the con struction of three new scout cruisers {for the Navy, which the Senate has inserted in the naval ‘appropriation bill against the desire of the President. Asked Biennial Sessions. Rack in 1892, Semator Chilton of Texas offered an amendment to the Constitution _providing for blennial sessions of Congress instead of an- nual. This proposal has never made any particular headway with Con gress. But President Coolidge in hi; budget message to Congress this year came pretty near that suggestion when he proposed that appropriation bills be enacted for the two years of |a Congress'lite, instead of enacting | them annually. | The issue of a national currency | on a per capita basis was an amend- ment to the Constitution proposed in 1892 by Senator Felton of California. The election of President and Viee President by direct vote of the people, doing away with the electoral college, has been suggested many times in pro- posed Constitutional amendments,. for |example, by Representative De Armond of Missouri and Representa tive Miller of Wisconsin, 1893 Representative Barrett of Massachu setts. in 1896, had a resolution pro posing an amendment by which Con gress would be empowered to limit the | hours of work in factories. | Proposals have been made to amend | the Constitution so as to permit the regulation of child labor, and consti utional amendments for that purpose | have been urged on Congress. Con | gress tackled the proposition in legis- lation, but the Supreme Court held |such ' legislation unconstitutional. Many of the proposals for constitu- tional amendments have fallen into the discard when the States them selves have undertaken to deal with | the matters included in those amend ments. Mr. Lovering of Massachu- setts in 1898 offered an amendment to | allow Congress to enact uniform hours dment " | abor. resolutions to | °F JAhor: At one time there was a flock of res olutions proposing to ke polygamy unconstitutional. The Mormons then had plural wives. But polygamy has been dealt with in a different way in | this country. and the amendment to | the Constitution was not needed, developed. Amendments have been proposed from time to time providing for the acknowledgement of “God, Jesus Ch and the Bible in the Constitution and to prohibit sectarian legislation. Mr. Morse of Massachu setts, in 1895, and Senator Frye of Maine both wished God acknowledged in the Constitution. Right to Vote in D. C. | For many yea proposals have been submitted to Congress to grant to the people of the District of Col. umbia the right to elect representa- ltives in Congress. Senator Blair of New Hampshire in 1889 proposed such an amendment. A similar amendment, offered by Senator Jon of Washington, is now pending before the Senate, and in the House thereis still another resolution for that pu {pose. Perhaps this right will be a corded to the people of the District s, just as the Consti was “eventually amended for | woman suffrage and for prohibition Here are a few other proposals for amendment of the Constitution which will give some idea of the wide range covered in such proposals and the ex- tent to which the basic law might be swollen if these amendments were adopted: That no noncontiguous territory be annexed to the United States, by Rep- resentative Crumpacker, Indiana, 1897; to Jimit the membership of the House to 356, by Representative Brosius, Pennsylvania, 1897 (the mem- bership of the House is now 435) prohibit suffrage to aliens, by Repre- sentative Stone, Pennsylvania, 1898; to elect representatives every four years, by Senator Harris of Kunsas 1899; providing penalty of death for any person attempting destruction of property of the United States, end to provide pen © - deportation or life imprisonment To: all members of anarchial societies; providing terms of ion ohibition amendment, was also a sponsor of the suffrage proposal in irly days. proposal to limit the service of man as President of the United 10 one term has taken many . In some resolutions the limi. eight years for the President anl Vi President, eight years for 8. and four vears for Representatives, by Representative Norris (now Senator), Nebraska, 1906; repeal of the fifteenth * (Continued on Third Pagey