Evening Star Newspaper, December 9, 1928, Page 45

Editorial Page EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Star. Part 2—14 Pages MERCY’S TAX COLLECTOR FOUND IN CHEST ACTIVITY Fund Community Is Described As “The Arm of the Social Conscience” —Not Begging. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. . VERY community, even in the most_prosperous times, has its socially maladjusted fringe of humanity. It is constituted of persons who don't fit in the economic and social system by reason of deformity, disease, deficient mentality, temperament, lack of education, unfortunate environment —or just plain bad luck. Such individuals have been in the world since the beginning of the human race. With the increasing complexity of the social structure as it has ad- vanced from the loose, isolated family group to the modern metropolis, the number has increased. The more com- plicated the science of living, the eater is the proportion of those who, y their own effcrts, cannot master it. Social Conscience Evolves. At first, doubtless, the maladjusted simply were allowed to perish. But as mankind emerged from barbarism it be- gan to develop a social conscience—a group sense of responsibility for its weaker members. This social con- science grew slowly, evolving with the religious and intellectual growth of the There was at first a tendency to look upon the various maladjustments as foreordained by the Creator and any attempts to remedy them as interfer- ence with the divine will. The few rich and the many poor, the kind and noble commissioned by God, and the great mass of miserable humanity was considered as the natural order of things. The second class, in fact, ex- isted partly so that the great man might take pleasure in feeding and clothing them. Their tearful gratitude, as well as their taxes, were his pre- requisites. But the social conscience was not to be denied. Its development was sided by necessities which arose in the growing communities. At the same time the spread of great religious systems, all preaching charity as one of their cardinal principles, led to development in another direction. Hospitals, insane asylums and orphan- ages began to spring up. Some institu- tions, necessary for the public safety, were supported by public taxation—or rather, by the generosity of the king, which amounted to the same thing. The maniac, for example, might be a person possessed of the devil, but at the same time he was a menace to others. So was the leper, whose ghastly trail winds through medieval history. It was necessary to build institutions for confining such persons. Since such Institutions were public necessities they ‘were supported by public taxation. Others, notably the hospitals, orphan- ages and free schools, were the direct outgrowth of the great religious es- tablishments. System Still Embraced. This dual system of dealing with the maladjusted has continued to this day. Jt seems to be the only possible ar- rangement ‘which makes progress pos: sible. Charity and welfare work sup- ported by taxation necessarily is con- servative and static. It is concerned with doing the least possible as cheaply and effectively as possible. There is no yoom for progress through experiment. Tt cannot satisfy the public conscience. Private agencies are necessary for the hard, thankless work of pioneering. Generally the charitable and welfare projects, founded and financed by indi- viduals and small groups, continue un- til the social conscience expands to embrace them. Then the tax-paying public steps in and the far-seeing and charitable individuals are left free to pioneer in other fields of human wel- fare. They establish new activities and wait until the Government sees fit to take them over. They are the eyes and the heart of social work. The work of the pioneers naturally has been unco-ordinated and expensive. Depending on the whims of individual generosity, it seldom has had a secure financial basis. Its energies have been consumed in supporting itself. Orphan- ages, hospitals and character-building institutions continually are appealing for funds. Sometimes they get them snd sometimes they don’t. It depends on the temporary generosity of various sections of the public. Begging is hu- miliating. It makes bitter the hearts of those whose duties demand hearts overflowing with the milk of human kindness. The problem has been to make the @ual system—by taxation and individ- ual giving—more satisfactory and effi- elent, The difficulty has been encountered in the fields of private charity and welfare. The general public recognizes that it owes a duty to its poor and un- fortunate members, which is not met by paying a tax bill. It has not known exactly how to meet this obligation with any certainty that its con!fix- tions really would be devoted to the purpose for which they were intended and that there was a real need for the work. Consequently contributions have lagged. Organizations doing work of primary importance have been to secure support while other organizations, with intentions equally worthy but without efficient director- ip, sometimes have had more money an they know what to do with. Idea Ten Years Old. During the past 10 years a method has grown up in American cities which is about to be applied in Washington. This is the community chest organiza- tion. Under this system any charity or welfare organization which can con- vince expert sociologists that it is do- ing a worthwhile work and is expend- ing its money with a certain standard of business efficiency is included in a gen- cral fund which is raised once each year—obviating the scores of smaller appeals made by the individual societies. The societies do mnot lose their au- ‘tonomy. They continue their work ac- cording to their own principles. But they do recognize that there are many sides to the social problem and that it is their duty to expend their money ac- cording to business principles. Social work is becoming an exact science, re- quiring the application of scientific ‘methods. Under this system the citizen gives once each year as much as his con- science dictates. He can rest assured that only 4 or 5 per cent of his money, at the most, is going to pay the costs «f the campaign. Under the old meth- ods of individual financing it ran any- where from 10 to 90 per cent. Cases where solicitors kept 50 per cent of all the money they secured were not uncommon, even with the most reputa- ble organizations. Naturally people be- came chary of giving under such cir- cumstances and felt that they could do better by relieving privately cases of distress which came under their @irect observation. Some education of the public consci- ence is necessary in order to make the community chest movement a success. The individual must realize, after all, that there is a rather direct ratio be- tween what he should give for charity d his income. For the average man is hardly the biblical 10 per cent. mmx:n‘un.lr,y chest, which obtained 1 the city's income would be doing very well at the start. Never- theless, it does not depend entirely on his whim. It is a tax which the citi- zen assumes on himself and collects from himself. He is partly responsi- ble for the conditions he wants cor- rected. No Begging Matter. The community chest is not a mat- ter of begging money. It is collecting | a bill which the community owes. It is the arm of the social conscience. It is mercy’s tax collector. The plan has been applied with suc- cess in many American cities. Notable examples are Philadelphia, Rochester, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minne- apolis, _Louisville, Columbus, Cincin- nati, Indianapolis, Providence, New Orleans and Des Moines. It does not, of course, succeed equally everywhere. But in every city where the plan has been tried considerably more money has been secured for public charity and welfare than under the individual financing plan. It has been a matter of education. Ordinarily _co-ordinated with the community fund organization is the council of social agencies—the cen- tral clearing house of all the charitable and welfare organizations of a city. It is in this organization that programs of united action are decided upon, that needs are determined and work appor- tioned. A smoothly working council of social agencies is of even more importance than a constant, reliable supply of money. It may save almost as much as the public contributes by eliminating duplication of work, doing away with needless activities and con- ducing comparative studies and re- searches. After all, the final objective of the community fund and council-of social agencies is not to relieve distress. Orphanges, asylums and hospitals are side issues. Poverty and suffering are side issues. Unfortunately, they acquire too great importance in the present soclal structure and take too much of the money which should be expended toward progress to the real goal. Disease must be cured where it is found. Poverty must be relieved. There must be shelter for the shelterless and food for the hungry. But the ideal is not attained when every beggar has & new suit of clothes and a chicken diunner. It is not attained when every crphan has been gathered in from the streets and every crippled child cured. . It will be attained only when there is no more poverty, disease and crime to be cured. Most councils of social agencies recognize clearly that their primary function is not curative but preventive. They must get a the roots of poverty in their own com- munities. “ They must eradicate those conditions that lead to sickness and destitution. Capable of Reduction. “The poor ye have always with you.” ‘This_famous biblical quotation cer- tainly has held true in the past. Yet there is no reason to believe that poverty is part of the inherent scheme of things. It certainly can be greatly reduced— perhaps eliminated altogether some day—by the proper training of individ- uals. Neither are sickness and crime inevitable. Experience has shown that pennies spent for character and body building today save dollars for medicine and family relief in the future. ‘The problem is to eliminate eventuelly the whole of that socially maladjusted fringe. It requires the co-ordinated ef- forts of the best brains now engaged in social and charity work. It requires a pooling of interests and resources. In seeking to answer this problem social, sectarian and racial lines must appear. Thus the character of health building organizations—like the Boy Scouts, the Y. M. C. A, the Mental Hygiene Asso- ciation, etc.—have a prominent place on community chest budgets. As the years g0 by they are destined to have a still larger place while the actual relief work will diminish in importance. No one organization can understand adequately the needs of the whole com- munity. They all have a common pur- pose, but different parts to play in the working out of that purpose. The ma- chinery of a council of social agencies appears essential, CLin ok Mussolini Acced To Plea for Holiday Mussolini has waived his objections to Italy’s too-numerous holidays in favor of St. Joseph. Il Duce, with the concurrence of his cabinet, has made March 19 a civil as well as a religious holiday, which means that public build- ings as well as stores and offices will be closed on the day dedicated to St. Joseph. Several years ago Mussolini suppressgd a number of Italian holidays so that the Italians could have more time for work and transferred other “feast-days” and anniversary celebra- tions to Sunday. The decree adding March 19 to the list of Italian holidays is therefore a graceful concession to the Catholic Church, which claims the al- legiance of more than 90 per cent of the Italian people. St. Joseph, as & carpenter, is considered the special pa- tron of the workingmen and, as head of the Holy Family, enjoys special favor in the eyes of Italians to whom the family is a_most sacred institution. ‘When Pius X suppressed St. Joseph's day to help free an overcrowded calen- dar the Italian civil authorities followed suit and abolished it as a civil holi- day. When Benedict XV re-established March 19 the civil authorities refrained from making it a state holiday. Musso- lini now restores St. Joseph to his place of honor on the civil calendar. Pope Leo XIU proclaimed St. Joseph pro- tector of the universal church. Stockholm Is City Of “Automat” Devices Stockholm is an automatic city, full of mechanical devices which supply every need of its inhabitants except, perhaps, the honorahle functions of the badorsko. Every street has its “auto- mat” restaurants, where one may buy anything from a glass of wine to a sandwich by putting a crown in a slot. Nine out of 10 apartment buildings erected in recent years have automatic elevators. If blue-sky laws prevent one from cigarettes on Sunday, there is always the slot machine in front of the tobacco siop, and others furnish apples, candy, handkerchiefs, perfume and what not. As a result of the “au- tomatic complex” American manufac- turers of electric ice machines, oil heat- ers, vacuum sweepers and other labor- saving devices are finding a ready mar- ket, and even the most modest house- wife feels disgruntled without some self-operating servant. Qn the other hand, automatic telephones are not en- tirely popular, an unfortunate exception for the foreign visitors, who can never quite learn to distinguish the difference between “sju sjuttia sju” and & good aneeze over the wire, A S5t A WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 9, 1928 What Will Curtis Do? Capital Speculates as to Whether Vice Presidency Will Mean Oblivion, But Agrees It Will Not. INDIAN BRAVES WILL POINT PROUDLY TO CHARLES CURTIS, THE FIRST OF THEIR RACE TO REACH SUCH AN EXALTED POSITION. BY CARTER FIELD. N the fourth day of next March a man who when a boy was a jockey, when a student was a hack driver, when a lad lived as an Indian among his red- skinned brothers in a tepee, and who later was among the first county prose- cutors in this country to gain a reputa- tion by enforcing prohibition, will be- come Vice President of the United States. He will take up the little ivory gavel which for the last four years has been made to sound like a sledge hammer by Charles G. Dawes, and for the next four years, assuming good health on his own part and that of Herbert Hoo- ver, will be presiding officer of the United States Senate. He will appoint conferees to settle differences between House and Senate on every bit of leg- islation that may be passed during those years. He will be the official “diner out” of the administration. Indian braves, arrayed in brilliant blankets and war paint and feathers, giving thrills to the small boys who en- counter them in the Capitol corridors, will point to him proudly as the first of their race ever to reach such an exalted position. But what kind of Vice President is | Curtis going to make? That is a ques- tion which political observers and poli- ticians generally are asking with con- siderable interest. There is no doubt whatever about one thing. He will be generally satisfactory to the Senate. He will niot start off with a denunciation of Senators as long-winded time wasters, as did the present Vice President. Yet Curtis agrees absolutely with Dawes as to this time wasting. He deplores long speeches and is constantly maneuvering to prevent debates from running on in- definitely. Curtis understands people pretty well. He knows how to run a blufl when that will serve, and he knows when to give up when he is beaten. In either case he emerges with the friendship of his opponents. In the old Uncle Joe Can- non days he was regarded as the best poker player in Washington. To those familiar with the old American game in these days of golf and bridge that is an unerring index to his ability to under- stand his fellow man. Curtis’ whole political career shows his keen percep- tion of the necessity of building surely and strongly on good faith and per- formance. Those who have observed him in this campaign may have ac- quired a totally false impression as to what has made Curtis what he is. What he did in the campaign he did because the Hoover leaders and the Republican national committee desired it. It was a sharp departure from the normal Curtis methods. Despite a painful accident in closing an automobile door, which made it nec- essary for him to go through most of the campaign with his arm in a sling, Curtis was continually on the stump. The plan was to have Hoover make a few big speeches, and this was rein- forced by getting Borah and Hughes to make tours, But Curtis carried the real stumping load throughout the cam- paign. Normally his campaigns have been tours of his native State of Kansas, but they have been much more of visiting and personal greeting than of oratory. He does not think much of oratory. He believes few votes have been changed in the House and Senate by speeches, (Continued on Fifth Page.) Versailles’ Glory Restored John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Helps Save Historic Chateau From Ruin by Huge Gift—What Has Been Done BY ARNO DOSCH-FLEUROT. change has come over the Cha- teau de Versailles. It is begin- ning to look rather spruce. It is no longer the mere histor- ical monument. It lives again. It is not possible to point out a single detail which is different from what it has been for the last hundred years ex- cept for stones replaced in the founda- tion, a new roof here and there or steam-cleaned marbles, but even these have been so discreetly handled that no ordinary visitor could say, except in the case of the marbles, where the old left off and the new began. Money, American money, has made Versailles look prosperous. John D. Rockefeller, jr., has given the Versailles of the seventeenth and eighteenth century back to France. Of the $2.- 000,000 he donated for the restoration of Versailles, half a million has been spent on the chateau and more than ten million francs from the French treasury besides, and the work of resto- ration is at least half done. The most expensive _portion, which shows the least, is finished. From now on the money will begin to show more. M. Bonnet, the architect, and his assistant, M. Francastel, took me with them during an afternoon’s inspection of the work in progress, and their loving care for details showed they were not missing a chance to put everything right for 200 years, said M. Bonnet. To Remove Status. “We are not trying to remake the Versailles of Louis Fourteenth,” said M. Bonnet. “There were many changes under Louis Fifteenth and Sixteenth— and historically they belong there. But. Versailles was never lived in after the revolution, so we feel privileged to get rid of as much of what Louis Philippe did as we can, and when we are through we are going to have as nearly as possible the Chateau as Marie An- toinette last saw it.” Any one who has ever visited Ver- sailles will remember the statues of heroic size placed about almost at ran- dom near the main portal. They are out of proportion and, though a hurried visitor might not realize what jarred him, they “kill” Versailles. ‘They are coming down. The orig- inal balustrades, discreet and rmo- nious, broken here and there now by the gigantic square bases of the statues, will be restored so the visitor to Ver- sailles of the future who is seeking the atmosphere of the past will be greeted by converging lines of balustrades which will carry his eye right up the middle of the court. to a short flight of steps, not there now, leading to the marble court, the center of the intimate life of the palace. Saved by Rockefeller Gift. ‘The marble court was lowered and the gigantic statues were placed there by Louis Philippe, moved by the warthy purpose of creating a historical mu- l seum, but to the twentieth century, in- | trying cluding Mr. Rockefeller and the archi- tects, he destroyed the whole symmetry Eru and meaning of the building. It has taken some restraint on the part of the architects, I could see, not to begin by correcting the architectural errors of Louis Philippe, but they went seriously to work from the beginning on the big job, which was to save the building from falling into ruin. Time and the weather were getting at the chateau and rapidly turning it into a ruin when Mr. Rockefeller de- cided to spend some money on it. To him Versailles represented an epoch and one of the greatest artistic periods in e history of Europe. It is also the t-visited royal chateau in Europe. money i3 thus not only sas a Diece “of history, hut is LE CHATEAU. every visitor a gratifying impression of a well spent American donation. So far the most important work done is the saving of the chateau from going to pleces. Its damp walls have been drained by the boring of many thou- sands of holes now filled with an ab- sorbent clay. The rotten stone—thou- sands of blocks—have been replaced. The roofs have been almost entirely re- covered with slate where visible, with lead where not. They were in such bad repair that the joists were rotten and the dampness was filtering into the pal- ace from every side. The window cas- ings were also entirely remade. ‘The casual visitor might not notice any difference. It was the architects’ idea that he should not. When the | nade of Mansard’s, which is, after the Gallery of Mirrors, the most typical | piece of Louis XIV art, and which has stood sheltered behind trees, is a con- spicuous case. Long blackened with stains, moss-grown, the marble columns eaten and faded, it has already been | completed, cleaned and restored, so that | the exquisite harmony of the colored Reviews of | Books | | marbles are again a delightful surprise. | It only needs to have the hedges grow | up again (or to be transplanted full- LA COUR DE MARBRE, VERSAILLES. marble court is raised and the coquet- tish windows of Mme. Dubarry look down again from the mansard roof on the design of marble which old archi- tectural records have made possible to reconstruct, and the French windows opening upon the court, the ‘most inti- mate corner of the palace and yet visi- ble for a mile to visitors approaching it, it will simply appear to be what it should always have remained, the dura- ble testimony of a splendid past. The domain of Versailles has remain- ed intact, the Revolution having simply changed ownership. So all the coquet- ries, the plaisances imagined in the days of gallantry are easily recreated. The marbles are mostly there, eaten and moss-grown. The famous Colon- Efforts to Colonize Dobrudja Cause Bulgarian Families to Flee Their Homes BY. A. R. DECKER. VIENNA.—Efforts to colonize the Dobrudja, the Bulgarian section cf Rumania, with Rumanians from Mace- donia are causing another emigration similar to the exodus from Greek ‘Thrace. Hundreds of Bulgarian fami- lies, unable to hold out any longer, have fled across the Rumanian frontier into Bulgaria. Once in safety they camp in the open, or build rough shelters near the frontier, but on the Bulgarian side. Here they eke out a miserable existence through the aid of the Bul- garian government, although they are but a few miles from their comfortable homes and rich flelds. ‘The great majority of Bulgarians elected to remain in the Dobrudja, where their ancestors have been lor hundreds of years. But those who are to stand firm are leading a troubled life. Recently the people of arvan, a Bulgarian village in the Do~ idja, sent a letter of protest to the prefect of the department, a sort of provincial governor directly responsible to the Rumanian minister of the in- Lists Alleged Abuses. The letter, which was signed by the mayor of Gamvan and all the villagers, reads as follows: “Four months ago the colonists from Macedonia came to Garvan, and during this period we have been exposed to all manner of violence. Not having re- ceived any answer to our complaints, and the acts of violence increasing to an unbearable extent, we are forced to a) to you once more. Each day we -are -beaten and{law ang order in our village/ mistreated by the Koutzo-Vallachs (Rumanians from Macedonia) without any provocation on our part. “2. The colonists treat us like slaves, forcing us to work for them with our animals, plowing and sowing, all with- out pay. “3. They have taken our vines. “4, The colonists have installed them- selves in our homes, where they live as proprietors. “5. They have taken the casks and the barrels we prepared and they are placing in them for their own use the preserves and wine we made. “6. The colonists menace our women folk, as was the case of the wife and daughter of Christo Ivanov Doitchinov, the wife of Todor G. Tzonkov, the wife of Vassil Obretenov and others. ' 7, The colonists become intoxicated |~ at the saloon and terrify the village by shooting in_ the air, They break in windows and doors. “8. The sthool committee started a schoolhouse, but work had to be stopped because we are forced to work like slaves for the colonists. No Relief From Protests. “When we protest the colonists tell us to run away to Bulgaria if we are displeased. It is apparent they are trying to force us to flee, leaving be- hind us all our property and belong- ings. In the constitution it is written that all citizens are equal before the law. Are we not entitled to the pro- tection of the laws which guarantee liberty to 18,000,000 citizens of the country? It is our right, and, there- fore, we appeal to you to r'e,,uu | grown) to make it the sunny beauty | 5pot to which the elegants came in silks | and laces. | The marbles of the Trianon have also | been treated by the same cleansing process, and it already has its original | splendor back. The gardens of the Petit | Trianon are also being restored, and the | hamlet of Marie Antoinette will be soon done over, too. Her private theater is already being fixed up. To Complete Work in a Year. Louis Philippe did not do much damage to the gardens. He removed, however, a flight of stairs to the Mirror Basin, the symmetry of which will be re- stored by putting them back, the original designs having been found in the Chateau Library. On both sides of the wide steps were two inclined ways, made no doubt for the wheelchair of Louis XIV in his old age. They will also be replaced. The steps having been of rough chiseled stone, they will be again. While looking for the design of these steps and of thousands of other details, the sum total of which will serve to recreate the elegance of another age, the architects happened upon the de- sign of the original great gates of the Trianon, and they will be restored. By the time the work is finished—in a year or so—and the 31,000,000 francs of Mr. Rockefeller’s donation as well as the 20,000,000 francs voted by the French Parliament are spent, it will be apparent to the whole world that Mr. Rockefeller knew what he was doing. The visitor then will feel from the moment he enters the outer court that he has stepped back into a portion of the past that had an exquisite feeling for artistic effects. Everything will look intact; there will be no evidence of restoration. It will all be as fresh as if the visitor were walking there in silk and lace with his sword at his side, instead of a dark overcoat and a hard hat, or plus-fours and cap. It will seem to have been kept miraculously unaffected by the weather, and it will not be difficult then—as it has been— to imagine the life of the great courts of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies. In the future it will only be neces- sary to keep it up from yesr to year. In its essentials the palace and grounds will be in a condition to last a couple of hundred years. It is the first time any serious attempt to keep it intact has been made in more than a century. Sky's Blue Being Measured. Just how much blue there is in the sky is being determined by Prof. Wil- helm Oswald, physicist and color ex- pert of Germany. A color chart which he devised is being used. It contains all the sky colors from the bluest known to almost colorless gray. By com the colors of the chart 'x'.h mp:m the sky, and picking out the shade that most nearly matches, the amount of blue in the sky can be determined, declares Prof. Ostwald. High altitude aviators and Eskimos in the polar regions are said to see the bluest skies. According to the United States Weather Bur;:u ;fiymum&: of the‘sflk‘y ‘:ile.; | pends cl on amoun “@#nd moisture n the air, FREEDOM OF AS REAL Britten Proposal to BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HE equally impossible proposals of resentative Britten of Illinois for new conferences to settle the Anglo - American naval dispute more how confused and confusing the whole issue has become. Neither Lord Lee nor Mr. Britten has proposed that ference to settle the real issue at stake, namely, the question of policy. Both | have simply asked for a talk to bring which two national policies are to be | carried out. ‘What is at stake between the United of their respective fleets. The real question is whether the United States is prepared to accept a British regula- whenever Great Britain happens to be at war with a third nation. If we are willing to agree to the traditional Brit- need an equal fleet; all we need is a fleet adequate to hold our coasts against invasion, and that, in size and charac- parity. Dragged in Two Wars. For several centuries the British, pos- serted the right to deal with neutral commerce in accordance with British interests in case of war. They did it in the opening phase of the World War. The result in both cases was to drag us into a European conflict. In 1812 Germany. But in both cases, had we possessed a fleet equal to that of the British, Britain would not have had merce, because that would have in- volved the risk of having to face Ameri- can in addition to German or French There has never been any funda- mental difference between British naval policy and German military policy as it glum. The Germans explained their invasion of Belgium as the consequence of their state of necessity. The British, maintained that their needs in war overbear all neutral rights on the sea. Insofar as the construction of the new empty and futile performance, it ex- presses the settled purpose of the United States to protect its own commerce ference in case of a war in which the United States is not involved. It is based not merely upon abstract right circumstance of national interest. The transformation of the United States since the war into a great credi- the country into one of the greatest of all exporting mations have combined to make our foreign commerce and our portant for the Nation than they were before 1914. Interference like that of 1914 and 1915 by British sea power with greater domestic catastrophe than then. If Great Britain, in company with all the other great sea powers, would recognition of the freedom of the seas, in the proclamation of the inviolability of neutral commerce during war, and international law in such shape as to insure that it would not be violated in case of war, there would be no reason tonnage against British. But, by contrast, as long as the Brit- ish decline to recognize the principle Lord Lee of Fareham and Rep- have at least served to indicate once there should be an Anglo-American con- about an adjustment of the means by‘ States and Great Britain is not the size tion of the commerce of the world ish policy in this respect, we do not ter, is something far different from sessing supremacy on the sea, have as- in the Napoleonic time and they did it we fought Britain, in 1917 we fought the power to interfere with our com- naval strength. was expressed in the invasion of Bel- in precisely the same fashion, have American fleet to parity is not a mere against any illegal or extra-legal inter- but also upon the far more concrete tor nation and the patent evolution of foreign interests incalculably more im- our commerce today would involve far join us in a final and unequivocal if such freedom could be established in on earth for trying to match American of freedom of the seas and possess a naval strength sufficient to abolish such freedom the moment Britain goes to war, all conference is not only foolish but for us dangerous. It is foolish be- cause we have nothing to gain in the conference: it is dangerous because we may be brought to concede things which would compromise our rights. Pacifism is Apparent. Since Mr. Coolidge made his Armi- stice day speech we have had a fairly general explosion of pacifism in this country. But this pacifistic explosion arises largely from the conception that the purpose of our fleet is to fight the British. This is not the case, of course. If the British had the smallest intention of resisting our naval de- velopment by force they certainly would not wait until we had built to parity to fight us. ‘The British situation is simple. They have sincerely and definitely excluded war from their calculations where we are concerned. But they have not abandoned their policy of regulating sea traffic in case of war. It is the greatest single detail alike in British power and in British prestige in the world. And they are not going to resign it until they perceive that the American fleet has reached a point where their power no longer exists. Hitherto, in all British history, Eng- land has fought rather than to permit any nation to possess a strength which would_challenge British control of the sea. But while England has now defi- nitely renounced war as a means of preventing the United States from at- taining the position Prance sought and missed at Trafalgar and Germany at Jutland, they have not renounced the diplomatic weapon. Just as long as there is the smallest human possibility of preventing American parity by, ne- gotiation or conference, they are going | to_try to do it. 1 In reality the Washington confer- ence and the Coolidge conference were indistinguishable from the conflicts at Trafalgar and Jutland, save that the weapons employed were diplomatic and not naval. And in both cases British diplomacy ‘Prnved as_successful under ! Balfour and Cecil as British fleets had | been under Nelson and Jellicoe. In| both struggles our effort was to assert our right to possess a naval strength Wwhich would automatically abolish British sea supremacy, which would insure the freedom of the seas so far as our own commerce was concerned when we were a neutral and Britain a I belligerent. that Blct Anglophile Elements. If the pacifist and Anglophile ele- ments in the United States are able to- day to prevent the construction of the American Navy to parity, the immedi- ate effect of their intervention will be to insure that Great Britain will con- tinue to exercise the power to imj her will upon us and upon all other neutrals in case of war. Britain will continue to be in a position to make us her ally against her enemy, as she did in 1914-15, by making it impossible for us to trade with her o&ponent and thus bound to serve British markets exclusively. And just as long as Britain can keep the discussion restricted to the question of fleets and not of policies she has a very good chance of winning, because there is a vast and powerful ion of American Dubg:od op&;on ‘which thinks wars are luced not by the con- ofpolicies, but by the existence of SEAS SEEN NAVAL ISSUE Cut Size of Fleets Fails to Touch Regulation of World’s Commerce Directly. fleets and armies. But the real danger in such pacifism lies in the fact that the effect of successful intervention would be to expose an inadequately armed United States to a dispute which would be grave and might in the end lead us into a war despite our naval weakness. There are two possible solutions for the present Anglo-American naval quar- rel. The first is to be found in an Anglo-American conference to discuss and settle the question of the freedom of the seas. If the British will agree to the formulation of international law in such a fashion as to guarantee that neutral commerce shall not be inter- fered with in war, then the purpose for which the United States fleet has been conceived will be attained. Then any matching of British and American ton- nage would become absurd. The second solution lies very simply in the construction of a fleet up to the point where it becomes a greater risk for Great Britain to interfere with our commerce than to let us trade with her encmy. Once we have attained that strength, British power to regulate the seas disappears, and then both countries will have an equal interest in discus- sions for the limitation of armaments, because for both there will be the same reasons for reducing useless expense. But as long as the main issue re- mains a matter of dispute, all confer- ences over tonnage are useless. It is a fact beyond challenge that the peculiar economic and geographical circum- stances of the British Empire and of the British Isles impose upon Britain the necessity for a greater navy than that of the United States merely as a matter of national defense. But it is Just as clear that the vital interests of the United States require that the larger navy needed by the British to defend their legitimate rights shall not also be employed to injure our equaliy great interests and imprescriptible rights. Important to British. It is true that it is a matter of life and death for England to be able to keep open her sea lanes and thus to insure the food for her great population. But it is just as clear that a fleet sufficient to perform this Huty could also inter- rupt our trade and commerce with every other European nation. If the British are prepared to renounce the right to use their defensive power offen- sively, to agree to the establishment of the rights of neutrals in international law. well and good. Then the prob- lem of American naval strength takes on a different aspect. But without fighting us the British desire to keep the power and the right to regulate our commerce in war. And without building we are trying to at- tain a parity which will prevent such exercise of power. That is the ridicu- lous side of the whole dispute. The question of parity is a red herring drawn across the trail. What the United States needs, to carry out the policy our government has adopted, is a fleet large enough to prevent the British from regulating our commerce to suit their necessities in time of war. To that end we may need more ships or less than the British, the same sort of cruisers or different—that is a purely technical matter to be settled by the naval experts. All the discussion of a big navy or a small navy, of parity or equality, is pure humbug, where it is not mere muddled thinking. The fact is that the United States has adopted a policy of preventing interference with its com- merce by belligerents, when it remains neutral. It has done this for the double reason that it desires to protect its legitimate material interests and be- cause it perceives that inability to pro- tect these interests in 1914-15 led to dragging us into the World War. ‘Woodrow Wilson perceived all this and undertook in his Fourteen Points to establish the freedom of the seas. " He was outmaneuvered at Paris and sacrificed his principle to obtain his League. Mr. Hughes was similarly out- maneuvered at Washington, because he permitted his attention to be directed at the moral issue of limitation of armaments, rather than the political question of policy. Geneva was a dead- lock because Gibson was unable to ob- tain recognition of our right to build a fleet large enough and strong enough automatically to insure for us the free- dom of the seas. Any new conference must be either a deadlock or a British triumph as long as the real question at issue, that of the freedom of the seas, is not brought up. All British effort is con- centrated on delaying what may be inevitable, but at the least may be post- poned. (Copyright, 1928.) Danish Royalty’s Speeding Is Scored The royal princes and princesses who dash around the Copenhagen boulevards in high-powered American motor cars with little regard for traffic regulations have met with strong criticism in the press. One irate mother recently wrote the Ekstrabladet that her children were not safe on the streets because of the reckless manner in which the younger members of royalty handled their cars. The editors even published a request that King Christian ask his relatives to correct their ways. Lieut. Christen~ sen, head of the traffic police, has is- sued the explanation that members of the royal family are not liable to prose=- cution for such infractions of the law. No names are mentioned in the article, although it is noted that King Christian himself is an intelligent and cautious driver. Two of the most indefatigable motorists among the younger set of roy- alty are Princess Erik and the Princess Viggo. Both Crown Prince Frederick and Prince Knud, younger son of the King, are also seen frequently driving their own cars. . Malchm Letter Held Fake by Writer That letter of the Swedish match syndicate to its Riga agent, I. Babus, reproaching him for prematurely pay= ing a $50,000 bril ment officials T ling deposition, J. Varbut, former match splint manufacturer, tells how he had an unsi photographer . _When suspecting street make a counterfeit facsimile. this facsimile appeared in a Latvian newspaper—coming like a bombshell during the negotiations—it was accepte: as a true reproduction. Now Varbu says that he simply procured an ordie nary letter written by the Swedish match trust, covered the original con- :;uu phvglh the Mi:vgm text and paid e tograp! cents to make facsimile which seemed genuine, 3 1o the real letterbead and