Evening Star Newspaper, July 21, 1929, Page 27

TRADES FOR HELP THEM ‘GO STRAIGHT”, Mass Production Has Entered America’s Prisons, Turning Convicts Into Producers. BY LAWTON MACKALL. HE news that a racketeer or hold-up man is being sent to prison gives us a false feeling of security. We imagine that lives and property will here- after be safe from him—forgetting that, after he has served his term, he may come out of prison as unfit to at large as when he was “sent up": and forgetting also that our pocket- books are taxed for the cost of keeping him behind the bars. In prison or out, the unfit exist at the expense of the people who do use- ful work in the world. They continue to be liabilities unless given an oppor- tunity and an incentive to change their ways. For example, in a New York peniten- tiary there was a “bad actor” who was | sore at everybody and everything. The keepers could do nothing with him. ‘They tried him at different kinds of | work, and invariably he soldiered on the job and stirred up discontent | among the other prisoners. Fonally, as an incorrigible trouble-maker, he was transferred to another institution, in the hope that it might have bstter luck with him. Laundry Had Appeal. But his recalcitrance was unaffected by the change; he was “agin the world” and averse to making any effort 1 earn his salt—until one day he wa: a-signed as a spare hand in the laun. drv. For some reason the work inter. ested him, although it was.rated as about last choice in the whole insti- fution. He saw that the men_ around him were doing their work listlessly and badly: because they disliked it and that they disliked it because they were doing it listlessly and badly So he took a notion to see what might be accomplished in that laundry by some one’s really getting on the job. The effect was magical. The spare hand gradually reorganized the entire department, his zeal for better standards and more efficient ways of doing things spreading to the other workers. Today he is in charge of the laundry, and it ranks as about the best-run department of its kind in any prison in America. Furthermore, when he has finished serving his term and comes out into the world again, it will not be as a shifty-eved jail-bird with no means of making an honest living, but as an industrious, highly competent ‘worker. To adjust himself to life, all this man had needed was to discover some- thing worth doing. And so it is with thousands of malefactors who really misfits; they have just never found a useful line of work that in- terested them. Another instance! In s certain re- formatory the girls were employed at making clothes under the supervision of a forewoman who had been brought in to instruct them. This forewoman was not so much a “boss” as she was an understanding human being. She had been secretary of her locgl union. and had been given leave of absence by her regular employers to help the institution get its industry started. She | won the girls’ confidence easily and she did all she could to help them and en- courage them. One day a girl asked her: “Say, what do they do with these dresses>” The forewoman told her they were being made for the inmates of the old women’s home. The girl busied herself with her | stitching and remained silent for some time. After a while she asked permis- sion to say something to the other girls. Discovers Usefulness. “Say, girls,” she announced, “I been thinking about our making these dresses for the birds down at the old women's home. We ought to make them just as good as we can—because you can’t tell, maybe some of us'll be down there some day. I think we ought to stand by the old birds and make their dresses the nicest we can, so they’ll like 'em.” She had discovered what it meant to be of some use in the world. She had Jearned without quite realizing that she | was being taught, which is the kind of instruction that goes deepest. In days gone by—and not so far away at that—prisoners were sometimes taught with a lash. Even the contract system, whereby convict labor in cer- tain States is hired out to individuals or companies, has countenanced ‘ex- | treme measures” which hardly bear | inspection under the limelight. Human beings thus exploited are not likely to ‘be cured of their anti-social tendencles. When released from this legalized slav- ery they have no hankering to be of use to any one. But archaic abuses are being recti- fied. State after State has given up the contract system. The Hawes-Cooper bill, passed by Congress during the last ion and taking effect five years from now, will put an end to it nationally, by forcing the State governments -to employ prisoners in industries con- ducted by State officials. Which means that the 20 or 30 thousand men now exploited by outside interests under the ohsolete system will become factor: thands employed by and working di- yectly for the taxpayers. This reorganization—already in effect An some States, just getting under way 4n others, and in prospect in still more —is the result of many vears of effort #o improve prison industries and the istatus of the prison worker. State gov- ‘ernors long have grappled with the roblem and have discussed various {phases of it at their annual governors’ conferences—especially the marketing of goods made in prisons. For exam- ple, at one such conference an enter- riting governor exhibited goods manu- actured by prisoners in his State and uggested that other States buy them. §ae stirred up some bilsiness. No Fear of Useless Production. In another conference the Governor jof Virginia brought out figures showing §hat State and city purchasing depart- Iments in the United States are in the mmarket each year for more than $700,- 00,000 of commodities which prison fimp. could manufacture, so that there meed be no fear of “useless production” the right kinds of commodities are ade. Just now the governors from all parts ¢ the Union and Alaska and Hawaii re gathering in the East for this year’s ymeeting, which opens in New London, Conn,, on Tuesday. Undoubtedly, the lgubject of prison industries will be one iof the principal matters gone into, par- {ticularly in view of the previously men- ioned Hawes-Cooper legislation, which, Lx}e;s charted a definite course of prog- 5. A man who helped to make this prog- lress possible will not be present. His Yame is Dwight W. Morrow. 1In 1915 |Gov. Edge of New Jersey asked Mr. Morrow to study the evils of the con- tract system in-that State and to out- line the development of a new and bet- {ter system. Mr. Morrow spent time and money on the investigation. With the elp of another !ilerr H. Hammond, he worked out the system which is now in effect in the enal institutions of New Jersey. Adolph Lewisohn performed a somewhat similar {gervice in behalf of the prisons of New |¢hat they were drawn up by successful | business men. Both stress the idea that the way to get people to work is to of- ger them an incentive—something more |gangible than kind words. Convicts Are Human. Convicts are human, too; they robably as much actuated by sse;(- t the rest of us are! s onitions 10 reform and be ood do not are | Ambassador-to-be, Og- | Erap %Kih of these plans reflect the fact | bel CRIMINALS affect them as permanently as a chance to make good in a practical way. The new method of inducing prison- ers to be efficient producers is to pay them wages. Such a thing would have been con- sidered preposterous a generation ago. Even now it seems a bit odd—paying money to criminals who are “guests” of the taxpayers. If a man were in the penitentiary as the result of being caught burglarizing my home, I wonder how I should feel about his getting wages for, say, tending a loom run by electricity. Probably, with my grudge against him, I'd like to have him breaking rocks and getting nothing for it but bread and water. But when my burglar had finished _serving his time he would be worse off than before as regards fitness for making an honest living. There would simply be another criminal at large. The cure for him and his kind is wage earning in productive work. Prison wages are small, usually 25 cents a day—over and above board and keep. Some prisoners are inclined to sneer at the daily “two bits,” forgetting | that in the outside world the contents of even a fat pay envelope are largely eaten up by living expenses. Institutions which pay the men a ccmplete wage and then deduct expenses put themselves to a bit more trouble, but use better psychology; for it is hu- man nature to prefer receiving a large | amount, even though one has to give ' p the greater part of it. Board and | keep plus 25 cents, minus board and | keep, it comes to only 25 cents. But| | there's a difference. | Question Competition. | In whatever way they may be figured, prison wages, like all other factory wages, must come out of values created | —goods manufactured for a market. | Immediately this brings up the ques- | tion, Shall convicts be permitted to manufacture in competition with honest | men whose jobs may be none too cer- | tain? It is an issue which once provoked serfous riots in New York City, with | mobs seizing and destroying prison- made goods which were offered at ruin- | ously low prices. | For more than half a century the ex- ploitation of convict labor for under- | selling industry was inveighed against. | Finally the man with the dinner pail | | won a bitter victory, and the prison be- | came idle, An intolerable state of af- | fairs, both for the prisoners, with noth- |ing to occupy their time, and for the taxpayers, including the workingman himeelf. Something had to be done, and Elihu | Root did it, with the backing of labor ‘lpws. He put into the new State con- stitution of 1894 (subsequently accepted by the voters) a section which has |come to be the Magna Charta of the | prison shop. It declared the contract | System to be abolished forever, substi- | tuting a program of manufacture of | commodities usable by the State gov- (ernment and its subdivisions. In other | words, prisons were to manufacture, not | for the open market but for supplying | the needs of institutions maintained by the taxpaying public. Sheets for hos- | plals, clothes for asylums, shoes for| | police and fire departments, and so on. | In this field low prices would be a public benefit. It was a happy solution, and the idea spread. Diversified industries have! been set up in the prisons of New York, Massachusetts and other large States, the State governments using the com- modities. The smaller States are following suit, but find that in order to manufacture at a reasonable cost per article they hn:é to produce more goods than they need. Again the old bugbear of finding a fair market for what the prisoner pro- duces, Perfectly good shoes, textiles, eloth- ing, brushes, aluminum pots and pans and tinware—and nobody rushing for- ward to buy them. Who ever thinks about prison goods, anvhow? Or ever sees any of them? License Plates Prison Made. We see gflson craftsmanship every time we look at the front or back of an automobile. License plates. Virtually all of them are prison made—manufac- tured by convicts in more than 30 States of the Union. When we see a roadside warning sign, such as “Dangerous Curve” or “Narrow Bridge Ahead.” a convict is speaking to | us through his handiwork. Somebody who crashed in life has provided for our safety. These signs and license plates are now manufactured so widely that there is not much chance for developing out- side markets. But other commodities can be exchanged between States, if there is a “middleman” to introduce supply and demand to each other. As no such go-between existed, one had to be created. It was organized as| a non-profit-making agency under the name of ociates for Government Service, Inc., headed by Dr. E. Stagg Whitin, the well known sociologist and ! welfare authority, who is also exect %fiu director of the national committee on[ | prisons and prison labor. The treasurer, Herbert Woods (brother of the famous Arthur Woods), is a man with 25 years’ experience in merchandising. Recent- ly a Rockefeller donation has enabled the “Associates” to progress from “en- couraging” results to very substantial ones. Here is an example of the way the organization works. Learning that the State of Alabama is in the market for shoes, it finds out exactly what kind of shoes are wanted, for what sort of use they are intended, and what price Ala- bama expects to pay for them. Result: an order for the shoes is_divided be- tween prison factories in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. And prison work- ers get the chance to show they can |turn out good merchandise according! to specifications. Must Meet Requirements. No favors asked or expected. No sug- gestion that a point be stretched in be- half of “society’s unfortunates.” Prison goods have to meet the strict require- ments of purchasing departments, which use the scientific methods of big business. The fact, therefore, that more than 150 different products are now being bought through the Asso- ciates for Government Service, Inc.— and bought on a ‘“best value” basis— proves that convict skill has come a long way since the days of broom-mak- ing, a kind of work now given over to the blind. This remarkable progress, only just now getting into full swing, has been largely due to the generous and very expert aid given by such men as Hugh Frayne, of the American Federation of Labor: Maj. LeRoy Hodges, who drew up the Virginia State budget and is now managing director of the Chamber of Commerce of that State, and William Bancker, formerly head of purchasing for the Western Electric Co. which buys for the American Telephone and Tele- h Co. These and other leaders in the flelds of Government, labor and business have helped transform the prison shop into an up-to-date institu- tion—a social laboratory which produces not only good commodities but also self- respecting and self-maintaining human | ings. "‘A.;d how do the convicts feel about it all?” T asked Dr. Whitin. 3 Story of Micky. For an answer he told me the story I former New York police commissioner, | > BY G. K. CHESTERTON. Author of Many Famous Buoks. WAS amused to note the other day that a writer in a newspaper, ap- parently unacquainted with a quo- tation very common in other news- papers, actually attributed to me the authority of that ancient defini- tlon of metaphysics, “Looking in a dark room for a black hat that isn't there.” If I had ever written any- thing as good as that it would be super- fluous for me to go on producing more trivial and tedious works. I might al- most be content to die and have that simple phrase graven on my simple headstone in the quiet churchyard. The journalist in question must have been indulging in a quotation from a quotation, and one which I probably thought too familiar for quotation marks. Tt is a mistake that many ex- cellent journalists have made, and I | shall not be surprised to see some other | scribe writing, in the same fashion, ! “Mr. G. K. Chesterton has happily ob- | served that a rose, even if designated in a different fashion, would retain its characteristic fragrance.” Or, “Only Mr. Chesterton would have ventured on the paradox that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Or possibly | even, “England, as Mr. Chesterton ob- | 'served on a famous occasion, expects every man to discharge his moral obli- | gations.” | I have quite as little claim to the epigram about metaphysics as to any of these great sayings: but I have often | noticed that views of mine are often | attributed to a personal perversity, | when it would be easy to support the with sayings of equally ancient author- | ity. When I am called paradoxical for | saying that domesticity gives to wom- an a position of domination, why does nobody mention that I fixed this truth in the fresh and unexpected figure of speech, “The gray mare is the better horse"? When my eritics refuse to give me credit for being serious in saving that bold originality in inventing the phrase | “mine ease at mine inn"? The truth | is that if most of these views are | frivolous, it is not through being too | young to be serious: like their present | champion, they are at least old enough to know better. Material Science Misleading. | But T introduced the metaphysical ex- | ample with another purpose. When I/ mentioned the metaphysician and his | black hat, on the occasion presumably | referred to, I was really saying some- | thing else which I still venture to think was worth saying. I was not attacking metaphysics, but rather, if anything, de- fending it by comparison with physics. in the sense of physical science. I pointed out that material science is really far more mystifying and even misleading; for it talks of its abstrac- tions as if they were actualities, and even material actualities; and then dis- credits its own material objects as myths. Scientists first talked about atoms as if they were alligators 8r an- telopes; then they dismissed them as| dragons and hippogriffs, and told us| that nothing exists except electrons. | The metaphysical thing is at least ad- mittedly a mystery: the material thing can only be called a mistake, and a rather extraordinary mistake. What I said about metaphysics was merely th: The metaphysical may be looking in there. But the physical scientist actu- | BY HENRY W. BUNN. HE following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days I ended July 20. * ok kK BELGIUM.—The vexed question of the German marks (destined to become worthless) left behind in Belgium by the departing Germans in lieu of con- fiscated Belgian marks and their gold cover, has been settled by negotiation Dbetween representatives of Belgium and the Reich. Germany is to pay annuities over 37 years, whereof the total is cal- culated to represent a present value of | 320,000,000 Reichs marks (about the equivalent, of $76,200,000). The Belgian members of the experts’ committee who signed the Young plan signed it con- ditionally upon a settlement of the| marks issue. The sum agreed on is short of the Belgian claim by about one-fifth. The agreement requires rati- fication by the Belgian Parliament and the Reichstag, but such ratification may be considered assured. . * ok ok ok ' AUSTRIA.—Said Herr Severing, Ger- man minister of the interior, the other day: ' “We cannot wait any longer; union between Austria and Germany. is on the march.” Herr Severing overstated the matter. Germany and Austria will have to wait while longer; but apparently Anschluss is surely coming. The way is being solidly prepared. The penal codes of the two countries have been assimilated; the same of railway regula- tions, the postal services, etc. process resembles that by which the German_ empire was created and con- solidated. Yes, Anschluss is on the march, but there are yet some Para- sangs to be traversed. Yet, though the majority of Aus- trians favor Anschluss, they do so with- out enthusiasm. They recognize it as inevitable and think that a new phase being in sure prospect, it were best it should be instituted as soon as pos- sible. They see that economically Austria stands to gain by Anschluss; th doubt—and many of us sadly jol the doubt—that she will gain culturally. And from the viewpoint of Olympus culture’s the thing. ~Well, well, let's not repine. The world wags. Plutus, not Apollo, calls the tune. * ok ok ok _CHINA.In consequence of the sefs- him to do so, and Micky said he would think it over. Next day Micky came to him again. “Say, Doc, I can’t go straight,” he con- fided. ““My job is pickpocketing, and it's a real hard job. To make $15 or $20 a day in the subway and not get caught is real hard going. But it's the only thn:g I know, and I got a wife to sup- port. “‘But say, there’s a kid up in the hos- pital who has five years to do. Learn him something! I'll promise to get him a job when he gets out, and he'll go straight. So will you please learn him something?” Two years later Micky was back in prison. Three years after that, having done his bit, he came to Dr. Whitin. “Re- member me, Doc? I'm Micky the pick- et. This bit they put me in the iler room—stoking and helping tend boilers. They learnt me a job. “Now, I told you the truth about last time. I said I wasn't straight, and I didn't go straight. But now me and the kid are both leaving and we've both learnt jobs we can do when we get out, and we're both going straight. You can believe me this time, because I told you the truth last time.” And Micky and the kid have gone f Micky. o Micky came up to Dr. Whitin in the t in a few days, and he was troul Fes yme authorities that he straight. So have hundreds of others who were “learnt something.” The rec- ords show that even the woman ex- The | & prisoners—who are 12“ hn"r‘d;:t l:n ad- Just—do carry on in & arned the bara, ” CIVILIZATION CANN FOUND A CITY CAN BE FOU hat, handled the hat, worn the hat, weighed and photographed the hat, all by way of leading up to the announce- | ment that it isn't there. 1 For the note of the nineteenth cen- tury especially was this curious con- fidence and familiarity with these hypotheses: these things that were al- | ways invisible and generally unverifi- able. Men of that school worshiped the unknowable: but they seemed to| know a good deal about it. The agnos- | tics did not talk about atoms as tho" gnostics talk about aeons. That is, they | did not mean such names to be sym- | bols of ultimate mysteries, which the philosopher believed to be at the back of all things. An atom was not merely | a convenient sign of starting point, like a cipher or a decimal point. The atom was talked of almost as if it were an | animal known to us all. i ‘The agnostic walked the world with his atom, like the saint with his lion or the sage with his bird. He spoke of his body being made of atoms as he spoke of his houses being made of | bricks. That is. he spoke of it only as | something which nobody could dispute, | dark room for a black hat that isn't | but as something that anybody could | ing Euclid. verify. Normal educated people of the E NDED ON THE SEA. | | | cience and Civilization What May Be Considered a Certainty Today Will Be Offset in Future, Says Noted Writer hypotheses that had seemed to him like hard facts. His visions were much too vivid to be visions at al ‘To him infi- nite space was not a paradox, but a platitude. If the followers of Einstein maintain that space is finite, it is they who will appear to this old-fashioned rationalist to be irrational. It would certainly be the mnotion of a limited cosmos that would be more likely to make him go mad and beat out hic brains upon the wall of the world. He did not suffer from the vertigo of the infinite in the universe of Tyndall. He much more likely to suffer from chlunrophobtn in the universe of Ein- stein. . Our Victorian evolutionist, risen from the grave, would not only miss his atom, and miss his infinite space, and miss his conservation of energy. He would actually miss his missing link. ‘That is, he would have the imaginative power adequate to a most mystical achievement. He would miss something ‘which not only did not exist, but which was so called because it did not exist. Question of Missing Link. But the evolutionist seems to know everything about the missing link ex- cept the fact that he is missing. He has & sort of picture of him in his| mind; and the picture is not merely the newest and sketchiest of his scientific diagrams; it is rather the oldest and | most. authoritative of his family por- traits. He sees the monster as hairy !'as if the hairs of its head were ail | wild and melancholy eves theory not only as a fact but as a finel thing. They would have been mysti- fled even at being told it was a mys- tery. They would have been partly puz- zled even at being told it was an ab- straction. I cannot imagine what they would say now; for their abstraction is abstracted from them. Cited as Practical Example. T only take the old theory of the atom | and the new theory of the electron, as a practical preliminary example. The | thing is equally true of nearly every one | of the scientific discoveries most widely | associated with the great scientic cen- tury. An evolutionist of that period | would have to be a considerable reac- | tionary in our period. if he wished to | preserve his own evolutions. He would | have to be a very stubborn conservative | now to conserve the conservation of | energy. He would have to be a rather | artificial traditionalist in order to find | natural selection a natural theory to | select. Conlépnllng the new mathe- | maticians and astronomers, he woud | find himself quite a romantic champion | of a remote past: for he would be de- | fending Newton and, possibly, de(end-l But the point is that any such Vk-! ally announces that he has found the | nineteenth century regarded the atomic ' torian evolutionist would be defending | The Story the Week Has Told numbered, though nobocy has seen a hair of its head. He imagines it with as if we it would , enjoy its He imagines the exact could possibly know whet enjoy its existence; or rathe: non-existence. angle and attitude at which it can stand | on two legs, though in logic it has not a leg to stand on. For to say that a missing link is sad and hairy and stands on its hind legs is. in logic, ex- actly like saying, “I met a contradiction | in terms in the street and it had horns and a broad grin, showing two rows of | teeth.” or “There is a distributed mid- | dle living in Surbuton, and it is a bright orange with green spots.” A missing link is simply a gap in an argument; and a gap has no hair. But I only mention the missing link here to illustrate the general attitude of the old popular science in the nineteenth century toward its creations. Many scientists seem now to suggest that man | was not evolved from the anthropoid ape, thus familiar to our vision, but from some much smaller creature, like a lemur. But the resurrected Victorian | would feel a shade of disappointment | In_being, offered a furry little thing | looking like a squirrel in place of the | old shaggy magnificent giant of the forest—the anthropoid ape become a little more anthropoid and a little less apish. To him the ape was not so much a long-lost brother as a long- lost father. Without his ape he feels like an orphan. How Was Man Evolved? However man was evolved, it is in- creasingly certain that he was not evolved by the exact formula of Darwin. ‘That truth can be read between the lines of all the writings of Darwinians. But since there still are Darwinians, it may still be considered a disputed point; and I am not concerned to dispute it here. I leave it on one side because my subject is only the general change, | or rather revolution and reversal, that (Continued on Fourth Page.) ure by the Manchurian authorities of Chinese in Russia against aggression | Kellogg pact may or may not enter into the Chinese Eastern Railway, the ar- rest and deportation to Siberia of Rus- | sian officials of the railway and of the other relation on July 14 an ulti- | matum from the Russian to the Chinese | government was handed to the Chinese charge d'affaires at Moscow. It pro-| posed (1) an immediate Sino-Russian conference to compose all matters at| issue between Russia and China relat- | ing to the Chinese Eastern Railroad, | (2) that the Chinese authorities at| once cancel all “arbitrary orders” re- | specting the railway, and (3) that all Soviet Russian citizens arrested by the Chinese authorities be at once released and that the Chinese authorities “cease persecution of Soviet Russian citizens and Soviet Russian institutions.” Should a satisfactory reply be mnot forthcoming within three days, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics would be “compelled to resort to other means in defense of its legal rights,” the which means were “sufficient.” The peaceful negotiations urged must presuppose action as per (1) and (2) above. ‘The Chinese government, replied with- in the assigned time, but the reply could scarcely be imagined “satisfac- tory” to Moscow. It declared that the Chinese action respecting the railway was fully justified because of Russian violation' of the 1924 agreement con- cerning the railway and because of Communist propaganda. It does not appear to have offered any satisfac- tion with respect to items two and three of the ultimatum, and it countered by lemanding release of Chinese imprisoned in Russia (alleged to number in the hundreds) and “adequate protection of The Fiddlers. BY BRUCE BARTON. T was at a concert in New York where a celebrated teacher of the violin was exhibiting his pupi A boy of 18 stepped on the stage and began to play. A hush fell over the room. His face, his fingers, every move and look proclaimed an embryo ist. With e urance, in which was no trace of effort, he played one number after another, the audience urging him on with enthu c applause. Each of us felt the thri® of personally di ring this mew star in the musical heavens. The concert over, a gentleman rushed for- ward to congratulate the teacher. “You must be wonderfully proud of that brilliant boy!” he exclaimed. acher was unresponsive. “Not very proud,” he said. “But surely he will be a He will prob P The man was a bit indignant. Was this coolness born of pro- fessional jealousy—the envy of an older man for the brilliant youth? The teacher did not leave him long in doubt. ‘The boy could be a m: he explained, “but he never will. Some of the others who per- formed less well today you will hear from later. But “he—no. He will be a fiddler. 1t comes too easy; he will net werk.” ably be a . " ance.” nd repression.” But it stated that a| Chinese plenipotentiary was at point of leaying Nanking for Moscow “to discuss | to all matters at issue between the two| governments.” On July 17 the Russian government broke off diplomatic relations with| China. A Russian note in that sense| demanded immediate withdrawal of 'all| Chinese officials from Russia, and stated that all Russian diplomatic and consular representatives had been or- dered to leave China and that railway communication between Soviet territory | and China would be suspended. It de-| clared that “all means of reaching an | amicable settlement had been exhaust- ed” and, of course, charged the Chinese government with entire responsibility for the situation. It characterized the Chinese reply to the Russian ultimatum as “unsatisfactory in content and hypocritical in tone.” “The Moscow government reserves all the rights aris- ing from the Peking-Mukden agree- ment of 1924." In view of the above one notes with interest the rumor (which may or may not turn out correct) that considerable Russian mobilizetion obviously having China in view preceded the Chinese coup, and the inference that the coup was precipitated by Chinese knowledge thereof. Of course there is a vivid possibility of war, but there is strong ground of hope in certain_considerations present- ed to Moscow by such a prospect; in particular, the expense and the possi- bility of complications with powers other than China. The fact that Russia (as well as China) has signed the If you have read mueh of biography you know that the teacher was right. Nothing is more impressive than the infini pains which great men have taken, not merely to achieve position, but to keep it. Emerson tells of a letter from an artist friend describing Michelangelo's huge mural pai ing of the Last Judgment, which the friend of seei astonished at the minute finish of muscles and nerves, finished i ture.” No detail was bent by the long effort of finishing his immortal pictures under the dome of St. Peter's. Booth, the great actor, was seemed to the audien surpassed himself, a friend went to congratulate him. He “found Booth with his head - in his hands in the deepest d jection, from which not even the se of an old friend could arouse him, disgusted at having given sec miserable a perform- Whether great worth what i or whether mediocrity appier state are debatable questions. But there is no secret about the formula. Eternal work is the difference I;G‘Q;:cun the artist—and the succ is (Copyright, 1929.) the picture; not to mention the fact that the Chinese charges (whatever is be said of the Chinese methods) appear to be substantially true, Vague rumors reach us of border engagements; Russian troops reported to have captured Manchuli; this and that. (Manchuli is in Northwest Man- churia on the Chinese Eastern close to the border of Trans-Baikalia), but though these rumors should prove cor- rect. it is quite possible that Moscow should disavow the agrressions and that war, in its full hideous sense, will be averted. There seems, however, to be terrific bellicose pressure on the Moscow government from all over the Soviet Union. There are said to be some 30.000 White Russians in Manchuria, whereof many, in the event of war, might serve China. Ataman Semenov, the Siberian bayard, sans peur et sans reproche, is preparing to the fray. Rumor has it that the Ataman has been authorized by the Chinese authorities to form a ‘White guard of 15,000 men and start to the border; just the kind of thing to rouse fury in the Red breast. The Nanking government has a competent military adviser in the person of the German. Lieut. Col. Griebel, who last Spring gicceeded in that capacity the late Col. Max Bauer, LudendorfI's chief of staff in the World War. ‘The latest item of news on the situa- tion is to the happy effect that Secre- tary Stimson has reminded China and Russia (the latter through French diplomatic channels) that both govern- ments are signatories of the Kellogg pact and should act accordingly. It is equally happy news that M. Briand is bustling himself in the interest of peace. Apparently after receipt of this re- minder, on July 19, Jan Rudzutak, com- misar of railroads, and, perhaps, after Stalin, the most important man in the Moscow government today, said to American correspendents in Moscow: “Unless or until the Chinese or_the ‘White Guards attack us, no single Rus- sian soldier will set foot on Chinese itory.” gg that's that, let us hope; 8. (Mr. Stimson acted partly pursuant to the Kellogg-Briand treaty and partly pursuant to a clause in the four-power treaty - negotiated at the Washington arms_conference of 1921, the four pow- ers being the United States, Great Britain, France and Japan.) The proposed 1929 Gobi Desert ex- pedition, under the auspices of the Museum of Natural History of New York and the leadership of Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews, is off because Dr. Andrews could not secure a satisfactory arrangement with the Chinese commis- sion for the preservation of ancient objects. ERE I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA— On July 15 the Farm Board met for the first time, and was addressed and blessed upon the occasion by the Presi- dent himself. On July 17, 14 Florida banks, all above $22,000,000, sus] 5 grtr\en“:fion h‘ aed‘non the chief u; “freezing of assef consequence Of the blowing up of the real estate boom a few years ago, to the following in- vasion of the Mediterranean fruit fly and. the resull quarantine, and to general business . The Fed- éral Reserve Board of Atlanta has in- stituted rescue operations which promise to be effective. A ,:wup of 99 Ameflc;n bunn;esi men, lawyers, engineers and newspaj editors are in Russia for a four-week tour of that country, some of them ac- companied by their families. The group Mcm:!u uum }un c.:rmp:n’k" Gfl'!}enn‘ a eral for reparations (&%fi]@umhmmm ml.u into effect of the Young plan); bert Ot , pecently candidate for the governorship of New York; James MILLION YOUTHS SPONSOR WORLD PE American Groups BY CHARLOTTE KELLOGG. S I packed my bag for c-.morr!:'h. a friend telephoned: “Oh, | | 1 tomorrow with our 50 African student guests.” San Francisco. Another friend: “If you had only arrived yesterday, you would not have missed our 100 Aus- trllllln students—such delightful young ple.” Honolulu. I picked up a last Sum- mer’s number of “the Mid-Pacific, a magazine, and read that 10 students from each country bordering the Pacific had recently set out on an encircling Pacific friendship cruise. Antedating Mr. Hoover’s trip to South America! Tokio. A letter from a Czecho- slovakian acquattance fold me that Prague was happily preparing for the entertainment of some 50 young visitors from the United States. By this time my imagination saw the world’s youth suddenly cut loose from {its moorings and embarked on some ! planetary mission whose import I de- | termined to discover. Here was move: ‘ment not sporadic and local, but world- wide and apparently concerted. What | was the meaning, what were the poten- i tialities of this perennial youth pil- grimage? Represent a World Company. ‘The unit of today's arithmetic seems { to be the million, 50 I was not surprised | to learn, at the outset, that these visit- | ing bands represent a world company of organized young men and women al- ready more than a million strong. And | since we live in what future historians will label the post-war period, I was not surprised to find that their union is another of the great fruits of the terrible war—there are such fruits The traveling troops, captained by good will, bannered by faith, are just one outgrowth of the present world's longing and striving for & reliable foundation for peace. Superlatively, young was war's vic- tim. At its close, the flower of Western youth lay blood-drenched on Flanders and other fields. Surviving youth faced physical and mental starvation, sptri{:; al despair; it quickly began to_ al against the menace of post-war defeat —began in Europe, where the danger was greatest. Practical Methods Adopted. ‘They began practically. They must have education, if they were to have it, they must wrest books, food, shelter from a chaotic world. These they could win as an organized body where they would lose as individuals. There grew up swiftly in many coun- tries student federations concerned primarily with securing these first ne- cessities. Soon young men and women were opening their own restaurants, {food and book shops; their own stu- dent houses. At the same time national organiza- | tions were looking toward an interna- | tional union which could facilitate the | attainment. of these objectives while ej visioning other, higher ones. At Stras: ’bourg. the very vear following the ar: | mistice, they raised their standard—a | victorious pennant, “Confederation In- ternational des Etudiants.” ‘The confederation’s first resolution revealed the determination of young women and men, facing the post-war world. to make it a warless world. There is only one road to international under- standing and peace, youth said—it is the open, old-fashioned way of neigh- borliness. It bridges areas of separa- tion, cuts across barriers of ignorance. For, in order to know our neighbors, we must visit them, either over transcon- tinental hedges or around continental blocks. Student youth organized at Strasbourg “to create bonds of mutual esteem and friendship among students of the world. Cannon, vice president of the Chase National Bank of New York City: James C. Bennett, vice president of the West- inghouse Manufacturing Co.; Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of the Nation. and H. Parker Willls, editor of the Journal of Commerce of New York. Obviously a distinguished and repre- sentative group. So as not to offend proletarian _susceptibilities, the men were advised to leave behind top hats and evening dress, and the women to forego display of feminine fallals for {the nonce. The Russian “promoters” !of the tour hope “it may prove the procursor of a new and bigger era of business between the United States and Soviet, Russia.” At Cambridge on July 13 the combi- nation Yale-Harvard track and field team beat the combination of Oxford- counting. Yale won six firsts and Har- vard two and a half, tying with Ox- ford in the high jump: Oxford won two and a half firsts, and Cambridge one. With this victory Yale-Harvard teams have won five out of nine times in the series of contests between Yale- Harvard and Oxford-Cambridge teams inaugurated in 1899. * x k% NEW HOPES FOR HUMANITY.—Dr. Oscar Riddle of the Carnegie Institute Station for Experimental Evolution dis- coursed chamingly the other day on the prospect of regulating the size of human beings. Salamanders have been doubled in size by feeding them with the an- terior pitulary glands of other animals and similarly of rats. A way, too (not described by the doctor), has been found of making the salamander either a water or a land animal (it's now a fire animal: vide Anatole France and other authorities). To cap all, the sexes of certain animals have, we are told, been changed. in humans will in due time be effected by science; tomorrow, maybe? The population problem will then be solved for some generations at least. That is, of course, the surplus humans can be turned into water-denizens (perhaps the primitive Greeks had the secret, of Tritons and sea-nymphs), to fight it out with the fishes, as now on land we're fighting it out with the“Hinsecks” (the issue doubtful, say the wicked scientists, whom we hope the fundamentalists will dispose of). Then, of course, standardization can be carried to the limit, ad nauseam. The proportions of the sexes can be fixed, etc., etc. But there's going to be a terrible how-d've-do about fi:ng the standards. What should be the rg‘(.vyemom of the sexes? How big shall we have the men? More impor- tant, how big the women? Please, please not too darn big. Here's something worth talking about, something that shpuld please Premier MacDonald. No iransportation .costs, sir. Make ’em (ih2 surplus humans, that is) big enough 1 fight the w] % and turn ‘em loos¢ into the “deep, un- plumb'd, estranging sea.” Note: We're only waiting for islo- tion of the pure hormone of the an- terlor pituitary, which come any day. en hey-go-mad for the mil- lennium. L NOTES.-w-Arthur Henderson, the British secretary of state for foreign affairs, has informed the Commons that “the British government has sent through the Norwegian government an invitation for a responsible representa- tive of the Soviet government to visit London to discuss the most expeditious procedure for reaching a settlement of outstanding questions.” A considerable battle is reported be- tween Ibn Saud, Sultan of Nejd and King of the Hedjaz, and _rebellious tribesmen, in ich Tbn Saud was victorious and 700 rebels bit the dust. ‘ Sin more 'm | Similar way to plan for further neigh- sorry. I hoped you would dine | 29" Cambridge team, 81> to 315, firsts only | ‘Who may doubt that similar changes | high accounts for the so-called tables | ‘EE-CRUSADE Exchanging Visits With Those of Other Lands in Effort to Promote Fraternal Understanding, ce then official delegations from than 30 countries heanve met in & borliness. The{ have met at Prague, e Hague, ford, Warsaw, Copenha- gen, Prague again, Rome and, last Sum- mer, at Paris. In 1924 the confederation achieved the delicate task of bringing students of conquered enemy countries into_the general union. Germany, Hungary, Bul- garia and Turkey sent official repre- sentatives to sit for the first time beside delegates from France, Czechoslovakia and Poland in the council meeting of the confederation at Warsaw. This youth accomplished, while the most im- portant international organization of adult scientists was still struggling to reach a like milepost. I believe the young people got there two years ahead | of their elders! In the meantime they had established | a central office at Brussels and a spe- | cial travel bureau at London. While they were carrying on exchanges in text books and scientific films. in athletics |and debating and building a _direly needed student sanatorfum at Leysin, | Switzerland, they were organizing stu- dent camps and arranging for yearly | exchange visits among more than a thousand students. Obtain Other Advantages. 'To facilitate these and student move- | ments_generally. they secured advan- | tages of primal importance. They won | the privilege of reduced travel rates on railway and steamship lines and achieved (through what agency 1 will explain | later) an international student identi- | fication passport, which shows what the | student traveler has done and enor- | mously facilitates his movements. They | arranged for a collective or group vise | and fee, which reduced the cost of pass- ports. Which suggests that American youth has given its hand in this attempt to lay the only sure foundation for a different, | warless world. It has. More than 500.- ! 000 strong. young men and women from | every State in the Union have fallen ! into line with the world student army that visions as the supreme victory an | understanding world friendship. ‘That is why Asiatic guests were en- thustastically invading South American ports; why African guests were pouring into Washington, Australian into San i Prancisco, Oxfordians into New Haven | —all eagerly awaited by young Ameri- cans. That is why large numbers of our own students set forth joyously for Europe last Summer—embarked know- | ing that they were expected by poten- | tial friends who already had made in- ! teresting plans for them really to get | acquainted with other peoples. | American Student Movement. { America’s National Students’ Federa- | tion grew out of a meeting at Prince- ton in 1925 of 200 delegates from 45 colleges and universities who went there to try to arrive at a consensus of opinion on the World Court. In the end they formed the National Students’ Federation of America, “to achleve a spirit of co-operation among students f the United Sta to give considera- | tion to questions affecting students’ in- | terests, to develop an intelligent student opinion on questions of national and in- ternational importance and to foster | understanding among the students of the world in the furtherance of an en- during peace.” It was in 1927. at Rome, that the American federation joined the inter- national body. Our branch has instituted its own travel service for sending and receiving guests—from now on there will be suc- cessive incoming and outgoing friend- | ship pllgrimages. It has been Writing to, and is writing to, student unions throughout the world, telling what is being done here and offering to send its publications to any country desiring them. It has interested itseif in the problems of other young people—send- ing to the confederation. for instance, a resolution of protest against the per- secution of Jews and other minorities in certain universities. Organization Extremely Busy. This is no paper organization. It is | tremendously in earnest. extremely busy. Its national activities are en- grossing, but they do not dim its ulti- mate purpose. Responsibility for the international debates alone—taken over { from the Institute of International Education—would form a_ considerable | item on any agenda. England plans to send us two teams a year. Australia, | Canada, South Africa, Holland and | Germany wish to send English-speaking teams. We, in return, hope to send \v;smnz teams to each of these coun- tries. | The travel division hums. It offers two types of facilities; one for official representatives—upper classmen—and the Open Road Tours for others. In connection with the latter, the bureau limits itself to giving advice, contracting for space and making other arrange- ments with steamship and railway | companies. But for the official tours it assumes | larger responsibilities. The delegation of 100 who will go to Europe this Sum- mer, for instance, will be divided into | groups of from 10 to 14. each under the | leadership _of a graduate or senior | student. Each group will follow one | of ten interesting programs which the national federations of various Euro- | pean countries have outlined. These | itineraries include, in common, an ex- | tended stay in one particular country, | one week at the International Student | Center in Geneva and another at the | Cite' Universitaire in Paris. Besides, there is the 1929 Pan-Pacific Students’ | Congress to plan for! Million Post-War Youths Enrolled. ‘This is but a glimpse into the inter- national activities of our American unit in the great confederation. Like en- deavor is sponsored by more than a | million post-war youths. | Paralleling these major undertakings | are innumerable more indirect ap- | proaches toward better understanding | among them, such experiments as those of certain California pioneers—it does not surprise us to find enthusiasm in the Far West antedating the work of our national organization. For some reason Southern California is a par- :gurl-:fly fertile field for international ort. Some six years ago a handful of young idealists in the University of California dedicated themselves to the task of bridging areas of distrust in the world. How to begin? Practically, in their own schools, by enrolling in mod- ern language courses. They recognized, at the start, that the greatest barrier to understanding is diversity of lan- guages. They found that by cutting out less important subjects they could easily take on a language or two. hales, | Spanish proved a favorite, and they told us, their elders, that if we did not overwhelm our minds with a staggering amount of unrelated, unessential read- iny wn them in a sea of ink—we could just as easily equip ourselves for adventures in bridge building. California Suggestion Noted. In the meantime Southern California youth said, all peoples today do under- stand a common language—the lan- flx:n of beauty. Why not ecirculate uty? They selected from the world's paintings certain outstanding ones, bought excellent prints of them and set down briefly on the reverse of each an account of the painter and the particu- lar culture he represented. These be- came a loan exhibit which has never yet caught with its waiting list! As a corollary to the loan exhibit. these yc people set up a showcase (Continued on Fifth Page.)