Evening Star Newspaper, September 8, 1929, Page 31

AMERICA MAKES HEADWAY]| IN WAR ON BILLBOARDS Organized Efforts Which Mar Natu to Remove Signs ral Beauty Along Highways Bring Results. BY WILL IRWIN, HEN I was a boy, it seems several centuries ago, the American people were in a crusading spirit; to a degree which seems a little gro- tesque to the hard-boiled modern gen- eration, we went in for reform. Various “movements” were at bud or in blossom ~moral, like the war on demon rum; political, like the agitation against the trusts or in favor of woman suffrage; social, like the half-serious assaulf of the comic papers against the feminine custom of wearing picture hats in the theater. As I look back I find that every one of these movements has at least been given a trial. Some, like prohibition and woman suffrage, stand as the law of the land. Some, like trust-busting, have had their day in court and proved unsound. But the history of reform in America proves the old, casual American boast | that we're willing to try anything once. With a single exception. Turn back to the files of Puck, Judge or Life during the mauve decade and you find their best cartoonists and humorists wielding wit, sarcasm and irony against the ugly American custom of disfigur- ing our scenic beauties with advertising signs. That agitation began soon after the Civil War, when patent medicine men concelved the idea of rentlni barn roofs to advertise in three-foot letters the magic curative value of Perlman's Purple Pills or Langham’s Lotion. has gone on desultorily ever since. It has accomplished a few results. When the Government took over our most fa- mous beauty spots, such as the Yellow: stone, for national parks, it forbade the advertising sign in such territory. Here and there a county or State, exer- cising its right of ownership, has forbid- den billboards on the fringes of its highways—though neither county nor State has authority over private prop- erty a few feet beyond. Highways Advertising Mediums. But in the meantime the automobile has arrived. Nearly every American family owns a car and takes most of the vacations touring. Any main road has a hundred wayfarers now to one in 1870. In the language of the trade, our high- ways have achieved real advertising value. And this long war of esthetic- ism and common right against militant commercialism ended in total defeat. In this year of grace 1929, the scenic beau- ties of the United States resemble Venus with a rash. Being a veterap motor tourist, I speak feelingly and” with conviction. It is true that the great show places of the country, like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, have been kept, through one device or snother, free from_the disease. However, show places afford only a minor part of the pleasure in automobile touring. This United States, as a filvver tourist from Oklahoma once remarked to me, is a mighty pretty country. If you are looking for the beauty created by man, you must still g0 to Europe, though in that respect We have ourseives improved a great deal of late. If you are looking for natural beauties, you do best to tour at home. Baedecker's United States, with Ger- manic bluntness, says just exactly that. T the way of scenery, we have every- | thing—tender, pretty little mountains Jike the Green range in Vermont or the Appalachians; majestic, heaven-sweep- ing mointains like the Rockies and the | Sierras; lush, green country of many waters like Western New York: primeval | forests like those of Maine and upper | Michigan: every kind of desert; kind of finished, domestic beauty. Signs Hide Beauty Spots. Now the persons who select the sites for advertising billboards seem to be artists in their own way. They have a faculty of selecting not the points at which no one cares to look, but the lit- tle wayside gems of scenery. Going back in memory, it seems to me that four times out of five my view of an engaging wayside bit—like a venerable New England homestead, a brook break- ing through fern out of a forest, a pas- ture lot golden with buttercups or pop- pies—has included a splash of garish color advertising somebody's cigarettes, tires or fasoline. Almost has it come to be the price of admission. If France festooned her Gothic cathedrals with posters advertising liquors and tires, Italy plastered her Roman ruins with encomiums for local garages and hotels, they .would behave not one bit more barbarically or illogically. So much for beauty; which is the main point. But the custom has so | grown in recent years as to increase both the dangers and the discomforts of motoring. In certain States and road districts where the advertising sign runs riot, one finds huge billboards obscuring the approach to unguarded railroad crossings—veritable death traps. My own narrowest escape at a grade crossing occurred in Missouri. The highway turned, and just beyond lay an invisible, sunken, unguarded railroad track. On the left it ran into a cut, £0 that a hill concealed the approaches. On the otker side, as though to make the trap complete, & line of high sign boards blanketed the view. Some in- stinct made me come to a stop—just as a limited train flashed by at 70 miles an hour! Highway Markings Hidden. As for the confusion wrought by our modern notion that our highways be- long to the advertisers, let me cite an- other instance, trifling but typical. I was driving last Summer down an un- familiar main road in an Eastern State. Guiding myself by the map, 1 was try- ing to follow Route 17. I came to & point where the road forked in T-shape, and though I stopped and took a long Jook, there was no siga to show which fork was Road 17 and which Road 41. 1 turned on a venture to the right and ran a quarter of a mile before 1 saw the number “41” on a telegraph pole. I turned back. As I approached the erossroads, I perceived the number “7% on a telegraph pole of the other fork. That was a new complication! 1 stopped, got out, investigated. Over he route number on that pole, some one had hung a sign advertising Jmh eggs. The number was really “17. But the sign conegpled it utterly from a grlver coming down the stem of the T, and concealed the first dlllirhl {r(;n;ktlhe driver roaching on the other fo) -p'll"hose chlirzeu‘in with t,he.'d mke‘gtn:;:- and signing our roads st - ?S“m"gus :po%l for their designations and warnings.. So do the advertisers. That quick, raking glance, which is all the driver has to spare when he is going 40 or 45 miles an hour, must often wander through s kaleidoscope of clashing color before it picks up the nconspicuous, sign that warns of dan- ger. e. in many States this proceeding is 1::-1.:1? e aw. But I have just finished a motor tour which took me through 16 States; and I can testify that the statu‘es are more honored in the breach than in the observance. “Stop” Signs Irritating. Another device of the wayside adver- tiser is evufi more I:fl"-htlnl l&d meo:.-‘ ere an ere, the nnfim It | every ‘ Of late, women’s clubs and kindred | | organizations have begun to concern themselves with ‘landscape gardening” our highways. The elm-shaded old roads of New England, with their glimpses of wayside lawn and garden, illustrate what can be done with a road plus a little care and sense of beauty. A civilized idea, it has its commercial importance. With tens of millions tour- img every Summer, the tourist trade is important tp almost any community: and in this case, trade follows the line of beauty. | But this movement is futile so long as any Tom, Dick and Harry can plaster | our roadsides with garish advertise- ments varying from crudely startling to merely hideous. 8o in its infancy, this| movement found it necessary to join | forces with another—the attempt of the Federation of Women's Clubs and other bodies to abolish roadside advertising. For at last, after half a century of sniping in the newspapers and comic | sheets, we seem to be getting into our typical American swing. We are join- ing battle by the method of organiza- tion and agitation. However, the prob- lem has grown complex. The State or the road district has absolute property rights in its highways. Under pressure from their citizens, many districts have | wiped out advertising along the shoul- ders of the road. Thereupon, the ad- vertiser merely makes his signs a trifle bigger and moves them back 20 or 30 feet on to private property. Protection of private property against encroach- ment by the State is implicit in the spirit of our laws. _Before the road reformer can take this last sector, he must cross a wilderness of entangle- | ments, Most Billboards “Wildcat.” Recent experfences of the national committee for restriction of outdooriad- vertising serve to illustrate this point. The Outdoor Advertising Association has, through its membership, control of | most billboard advertising for national products. This, as the association it- self points out, comprises only 5 per cent of all billboard advertising in the United States. The rest is “wildcat”— casual signs of local tea rooms, hotels, fllltmg stations, eggs-for-sale and what- not. On the other hand, the signs adver- tising nationally known commodities are usually very large, conspicuous and perniciously well placed. And at least, to eliminate national advertising would be a splendid start. Approached by ladies with fire in their eyes and business in their hearts, the Outdoor Advertising Association promised to co-operate. It passed and enforced a rule that it would erect no billboards on scenic routes. Pressed to | define “scenic route” the association | replied that it meant any highway | which forbade trucks or other com- mercial vehicles! Any motorist knows that this cate- gory comprises not one scenic route in | & thousand. In this region, the Boston | post road. the glorious highway up the Mohawk Valley, the routes across the Berkshires and into the Adirondacks all admit trucks as well as pleasure ve- hicles. There, the association stopped and dug in. Massachusetts, which offers to the tourist great historic interest as well as beauty, has long concerned itself with the billboard problem. In 1918 it amended its constitution by popular referendum o permit legislation regu- lating billboards on private property. In 1920 and 1924 enforcement laws were passed, which, among other pro- visions, permitted townships to take ) this matter into their own hands. Concord Enforces Law. Now Concord, as all the world knows, fired the shot heard round the world and still preserves with amazing com- pleteness the very buildings where the trouble started, the very stone fences behind which the embattled farmers sniped at the British retreat. It had grown weary of craning its corporate neck around billboards in order to be- hold these evidences of its glorious past. It started to enforce the law. In jumped the Outdoor Advertising Assocation with an injunction. This ! threw Massachusetts law into the crucible of the courts. There it is yet, awaiting the outcome of long, tedious proceedings fostered by able counsel. One would regard this attitude with less impatience if the whole billboard business were at stake. But the Out- door Advertising Association itself ad- mits that the signs along our rural highways comprise less than 1 per cent of its total footage. The rest stands in the towns and cities—quite a different | matter, Well, as the American people are| gradually learning, the law is often the last and poorest way of correcting a bad national habit. Of late, the N. C. R. O. A. has gone at the matter in another and better way; and things are moving. Through its subsidiaries, and especially the powerful Federation of Women's Clubs, it has approached the great national advertisers, asked them to withdraw their signs from the rural districts, and has scored an un- expected success. By August, 1929, 240 national ad- vertisers and 18 advgrtising agencies had pledged themselves either to stop using the highways for billboards, to restrict such advertising to “commer- cial districts,” or to fall into line when existing contracts should expire. Large Concerns Co-operate. Nor are these converts one-horse con- cerns. On the list, for example, are eight of our most widely used automo- biles, six or seven of our most popular tires, our best known oil company, at score of our most heavily adver- | | i | | | | | ood products. Going further, the reformers have | started another campaign which, if only half-way successful, may end the mat- ter so far as national advertising is concerned. Organizations are pledging their members not to patronize firms and products which use the scenery for Again they have met a Probably the N. C. R. O. A, al ly won this battle. However, there must follow years of guerilla warfare against the “wild-cat” local advertisers. The Massachusetts case involved a constitutional question. Other States must wait its settlement ~ Are Scientists Intellectual? Are They Aiding or Harming Life? —Noted Educator Comes to Defense BY PALMER C. RICKETTS, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. OT long ago it was suggested that I write an article on engi- neering education, but I do not feel competent to doso. Ihave had only 54 years' experience in this branch of science, and feel that I should leave advice upon this subject te those more experienced and perhaps more dogmatic. But while the question of education is a serious one, some of the so-called educators themselves break loose at times and add to our gayety. Witness the professor from Columbia University whose ire was so greatly excited by the Scopes case in Tennessee that he called for drastic action against the monkey- less educated ones; action of such fash- fon that had it been carried into effect they would have always remained In their present benighted educational condition. And later a professor in the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology came into the limelight advising his students to become snobs, apparently under the assumption that none was such already. Lloyd Morris, in the Herald-Tribune, however, made light of this advice, as only a part of the usual commencement oratory, endured with indifference oy students who “during four long years have listened to too much to be capable of understanding anything." And eaily this year, partly excusable perhaps because it was Springtime, a Yale professor stepped out. In a com- munication to the American Philosoph- ical Society, answering a request from its president that members give their opinion on certain questions which he called intellectual stock taking, this learned doctor of philosophy and pro- fessor of history in that university con- cluded his observations as follows: “I cannot see that science is doing any- thing for the intellectual life, and in so far as it attempts to force its methods and results on the intellectual work it is doing an injury and not a benefit | ‘There are times when, except in mate- rial things, I wonder if science is not BY HENRY W. BUNN. The following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world | for the seven days ended September 7: * K K X PALESTINE.—Reports of a week back inporting invasion of Palestine by | a considerable body of Syrian Arabs. and even that Bedouin tribes were “moving into Palestine from three directions,” turned out to be grossly exaggerated. The French authorities in Syria have diligently and effectively watched their southern frontie: no | doubt a few Arabs have got across, but | only singly or in petty groups. But the | British troops, armored cars and air- planes dispatched northward to meet the reported menace from Syria found employment against Palestinian Bedouins who were -harassing Jewlh colonies in Northern Galilee, of whom they handily disposed. To all appear- ance the British authorities now have the situation as to the entire country securely in hand. There are said to be about 4,000 British troops in the country. The latest official report of casualties gives the following: Killed—Moslems, 87; Christians, Jews, 119. Severely wounded—Moslems, 121; Christians, 11; Jews, 175. The executive committee of the Palestine Arab Congress has an- nounced that it will present the follow- ing demands to the British high commissioner for Palestine: (1) A Palestinian parliament, ex- pressing the wishes of the majority of the population, to be established. (2) The Balfour_ declaration to be renounced by the British government (which pledged that government to ilitate _establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine). (3) No more Zionists to ad- mitted to Palestine. The committee has telegraphed the League of Nations requesting the latter to send an investigating committee to lestine posed of nationals of non- aanfatoyo The telegram de- British administration that the Zionists “aim at annihilating the Arabs and establishing & Jewish government that the unjustifiable Jewish aspirations are responsible for this revolt as well as for four previous ones, and that, if given further scope they will be responsible for other more serious revolts. The British government has ap- thnt‘:; ':, rlht:nex':!h‘rgg cm:l‘lgdlulon of qu nvestigal episode. There are said to be about 2,000 American citizens among the Jews of before they can pass laws giving town- ships or counties the right to regulate advertising on roperty. And, at any rate, ex methods offer the best promise of success. Already this phase of the war has begun. Chambers of commerce, shamed or‘ pe':nunud into &cv#m are putting Private preséire o) eir members. The Federa! of 5,000,000 of dignation. They are express advertisers who Having removed all signs along the right of way, it has blanketed with thick rows of trees those areas where the owners of private property insist on renting out space for billboards. Here, (0o, American motordom--which ‘ means almost all. America, may as a last resort fall back on the quiet boy- cott and refuse to patronize not only national offenders but the small fry of | the small towns. But one thing is cer- tain; sooner or later those are coming down! e. * ok kX CHINA.—A rumor was afloat several days ago to the effect that the Nanking government has negotiation of the Chinese Eastern ute “on Russian terms.” t Nanking f the of agreemen to ‘“redeem” tha time the Soviet Union governmen to appoint a new manager and assist manager of the Chinese Eastern replace gentlemen obnoxious to the Chinese), and both parties were to re- lease all those arrested in connection THE GOLD OF E doing the world a great deal of harm.” Science being accumulated and estab- lished knowledge, it is hardly to be sup- posed that a professor of history would take the position that history was doing nothing for the so-called “intellectual life” and that a knowledge of it was “doing the world a great deal of harn,.” So natural science is probably what he meant, and in his opinion of this sci- ence he is not alone, for I well remem- ber the colored clergyman of Richmond who some years ago attained national “the earth is as flat as a pancake.” He, too, probably thought that sclence was trying to force its results on his intel- lectual life. ‘The object of the use of this quota- tion as a text is not to criticize the pro- fessor seriously, for such observations among educated men must be regarded as highly humorous, but it serves to in- troduce a subject of general interest and to give me the opportunity to ex- jpress an opinion upon the value of 1he profession of which I am a member, which, until recent times, was not gen- erally held. What is the intellectual life? Has any class or any individual a corner on it? Who is to determine whether a contemplation of, for instance, the marital vicissitudes of Hent;‘ VIII tends to greater intellectuality than the consideration of the conditions existing among the stars: the thought, for in- stance, of the globular cluster in Her- cules, consisting of at least 60,000 stars, at a distance of 35,000 light years, more tl lnvtw thousand billions of miles, away? Of course, history no longer consists of an enumeration of the battles and amours of kings. This has been re- placed by more scientific studies; of the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire; of the causes which led to the French Revolution; of the story of the changes in the habits of a people, and other similar subjects. These belong to such as the present regime. * ko ok UNITED STATES OF AMERICA— months. acceptance of the formula framed by our Senate. Submitted to the several signatories as a pi d statute of the court, this formula requires acceptance by all. It is acarcely to be doubted that after such acceptance (which may fairly be assumed) the protocol as so amended will be submitted to our Senate for declaration by the President that our adhesion to the amended protocol had been consummated would legally suffice. Here is an upset indeed. On Sep- tember 4, in the opening round of the amateur golf championship tournament it Peblil)le ne:;:'d Clllfilzv Robert Jones, erally rega as the supreme golfer of all times, was beaten, 1 up, by'JODhn Goodman of Omaha, age 20. Unwilling to exalt Mr. Goodman unduly, fortune caused him to be beaten later on the same day by W. Lawson Little of San Francisco. The following is somewhat belated: Rear Admiral Albert T. Niblack, U. 8. N, retired, is dead at 70. He re. tired in 1923 after 47 years of dis- tinguished service. During the World ONCE did my very best to prevent a mar It was immediately after the war. The young man out of the Army without He owed me some money, ncidental. | would ed him more to get a start in business, but when he asked for a loan to finance his marriage, | refused. * * o “You're crazy to get married now,” | said. “There enough difficulties in keeping a ma riage happy without addi worries about money. You have not yet demonstrated that you can make a success of one life, yet you propose blithely to un- dertake the 1i of two. ' Wait a while more judgment and some ings. Then you can start right.” * k% Thus | spoke out of my aged wisdom; and he looked at pityingly, and borrowed the money elsewhere, and was mar- ried at once. A Th it Recently | visited his home. He has three children.. He owns his house. He has a responsible position and money in the bank. happy a family l came ;lw‘l‘m';eauwuummnwm of a successful man of 50. He not rush into matrimony. e accumulated money, and, carefully on his mt y years. 2 G ratification, though it is arguable that | notoriety by stoutly maintaining that | bod: [ | The Senate reconvenec on September | consider the Young plan was hel 4 after a recess of two and one-half | The Our Government has indicated \u‘ a plan of ‘:,“nlt‘“w,{ of tlhe ed| |bank of international settlements) E:{Eé’hgf"& ‘"::":fl:,"‘u t:—“' ":“‘2’;"0"3 | carry on work during adjournment of | lon of adhesion | the ° conference. to the World Court protocol passed by ' Belgium was elected permanent presi- | | | GINEERING 1S TO IMPROVE THE LOT OF THE HUMAN RACE. reasoning person as exerting a broad- ening/ influence on our capacity for intellectual work, adding something to the so-called intellectual life. But is natural science to be banned? Is a study of material things harmful to the human intelligence? Is the knowledge and use of natural laws harmful to the intellectual life? In asking these questions it may be assumed that I am putting up a man of straw to be knocked down, but men of science have never attempted as a to force their “methods and results” on any one. The shoe has been on the other foot. In a more ignorant and perhaps more cruel age such men were threatened and sometimes burned to death for holding to what they be- lieved to be the truth. The “and yet it moves” of Galileo, whether true or not, when he was made to recant his statement that the earth was revolving, for fear of imprisonment or death, ex- presses a conviction unchanged by threats. He believed he had discovered a fact. Even in my recollection students of science were on th: defensive and not on the offensive. Witness the attacks on Darwin. Remember Tyndall's Bel- fast address in 1876, before the British Assoclation for the Advancement of Science, in which he asked that scien- tific investigators be permitted %o pursue their work without being sub- Jected to continued attacks. It was real to him, but really humorous now when we consider what a half century of enlightenment has done to protect those who, like Tyndall, are searching after truth. And yet the general recognition of the value of the man of science has come slowly. For instance, I remember the time when a very large proportion of the manufacturers in thE country would not employ the graduates of engineering schools. They said they wanted “practical men": men who had started at the beginning with little edu- the realms of science and, like many | cation and had learned by experience other branches of buman knowledge, | what they knew of the work for which architecture, painting and | they were employed. Now all this is sculpture, must be recognized by every | changed. A large percentage of our the Chinese renaissance,” for unflat-; War he commanded our naval forces | four an ] tering comment on the Kuomintang and | in "the Mediterranean. e el PR 3 THE HAGUE—On August 31 a plenary session of the conference to 1d at e. Several committees were appointed (chiefly one for drawing up proposed Premier Jaspar of dent and adjournment was taken sub- ject to the call of the president. It is expected that the conference will be resumed after the conclusion of the | The British government has informed | session of the League Assembly, and probably at Lausanne. The dispatches do not make perfect- ly clear the decision reached by the conferees respecting supervision of the demilitarized Rhine belt after the de- partyre of occul)ying troops. Appal ently it was decided not to create the special commission urged by the French. It will be remembered that the Locarno treaty provides for creation at any time of a special commission to take cognizance of specific allegations of violations of that treaty, while the right remains unprejudiced to invoke in such a connection articles XLII and XLIII of the treaty of Versailles. Ap- parently it was decided that the afore- mentioned provisions furnish adequate safeguards. 1t is to be observed that by the de- cisions taken at The Hague the Rhine- land is to be completely evacuated When’s the Time to Marry? BY BRUCE BARTON. * x * Thus insured with wealth and wisdom, he proceeded at the age of 47 to pick himself a foolish and empty-headed le girl. Already the marriage shows gns of strain. It surely cannot ast. * ok ok Earnest articles are written about the nec y for making arriage difficult. Young people should be compelled to w they say, until they have funds and experience. e It seems a sound judgment, and yet such restrictions would nted the ma ge of incoln and the birth of They would have ss Hawthorne from . Thomas Li Abraham kept pen taken place since the beginning of the werld. * *x % 8o, having been a watcher of Jjudgment of maturity and more confident of the impulses of youth. * * x ™ ,For what is mature judgment, 'way, but ti total of ‘our disappointments and worries, our burned fingers and our fears? * X x £ Maturity has judgment which is the wisdom of age, but youth :-m instinct which is the wis- —From a Mural, by Fred Dana Marsh. great manufacturers and Pmme utility corporations will not employ for their technical work a man who is not a technical graduate. The school with which I am connected was overrun this year, and has been for several years, by Tepresentatives of scores of corporations looking for young engineering graduates. Ever since the beginning the men of pure science and the engineers have, by their work, added to the sum of human knowledge and human happiness— added to the intellectual as well as to the material life. The glories of the Renaissance, the works of Raphael, of Michelangelo, of Leonardo da Vinci would never have materialized had it not been for the men, the engineers of that day, who built the ships that brought the products of labor from dis- tant places. And these ships could | never have sailed the seas were it not for the knowledge of science, crude as | "},‘ was, of the navigators who directed | them. Ever since the beginning of history the engineer has had the right to be placed among the greatest of his con- | temporaries. Were the men who trans- ported the cbelisks from great distances and who built the pyramids, thousands | of years before the Christian era, add- |ing to or subtracting from the intel- lectual life of their day? Were they among the wisest or most ignorant of their times? Were the men who built the aqueducts, the Forum, the trium- phal arches, the roads, the least intel- lectual of the citizens of Rome? Did the works of Frontinus require less in- telligence for their production than the orations of Cicero? During the Renaissance the greatest of their artists, the incomparable Leon- ardo, was also the ;reatest of their en- gineers. Did he by his speculations and inventions add to the intellectual life? And as the years rolled on and the ‘world awoke, who awakened it? Was it those, supposed to represent all there was of the intellectual life of the times, who for hundreds of years had held it in thraldom? Or was it the men who (Continued on Fifth Page.) The Story the Week Has Told 'KE rs before the lim- iting date set by the Versailles treaty. No doubt Mr. Snowden has won | great domestic prestige for himself and | for his government. But the world in | general seems chary of admiration of ‘v,he methods by which that victory was achieved; and there seems to be a wide- spread opinion that the aforesaid pres- ige was gained at the expense of cer- {‘nln projects looking to world pacifica« jon. | _The report that the British govern- ment had revoked its announced deci- |sion to withdraw British troops com- | pletely from German territory before | the end of this year turns out untrue. the German government that British evacuation will be completed by Decem- | ber 13, * k% THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.—The fifty-sixth session of the League of Na- tions Council opened in Geneva on August 29, under the presidency of the Persian member—merely a “curtain raiser” to the opening of the Assembly. The tenth League Assembly convened on September 2, under the temporary presidency of Ali Mohammad Feroughi, temporary president of the Council. Dr. J, Gustavo Guerreo of the Républic of Salvador was elected per- manent president. Those present includ- ed 6 premiers, 22 foreign ministers, 4 former premiers, 15 former foreign min- isters and 7 woman delegates. On September 3 Premier | I ‘MacDon- expected speech. He expressed the hope that the Kel- logg-Briand pact would be “translated into constitutions and institutions,” and that articles XII and XV of the cove- nant would be amended so as to bring them into fullest helpful accord with the new pact. (I postpone notice of & resolution offered to the Assembly un September 6, by Arthur Henderson, the British foreign minister. proposing spe- cific amendment in the above sense.) He expressed the hope that a compre- hensive naval agreement between Great Britain and the United States would be struck within a very few days, and that it would be followed by & five-power naval conference. He announced that Great Britan would subscribe the “optional clause” of the World Court protocol. He declared his governmery to be ex- tremely cordial to the aspirations of the peoples of the Orient and Egypt to of statement in this connection was rather vague, but it would not be sur- yrlnng were his words to produce ef- fects somewhat similar to those pro- duced by the “self-determination” ut- terances of President Wilson. The re- .|actions to that part of his speech in the British Empire, the European con- gnent and '.l'wp United States will be He denounced tariff barriers, but very vaguely indeed, and in that con- an e lon B o wlooklnl fz an economic United Mr. MacDonald's style is not senten- tious or brilliant. But he almost struck hrase. His governmen he proclaimed. in effect, and almost in flmmue'wom is “ready to take great for peace.” It announced that the other members of the British wealth of na- tions will at once follow lead as to signing the “optional clause. addressed the Assembly. is room for deba B, B s ‘was the in de‘:y that was far the ald of Great Britain made his eagerly | PO control their own destinies. His mode | tiq t, | will move for an internat RADICAL RUSSIA FOUND TURNING CONSERVATIVE Reaction to Threatened Loss of Manchu- rian Line Held Like That of Capitalist Nation. BY WILLIAM RUFUS S8COTT. ' AKING the definition of conserv- . ative as “one with something to | conserve,” Soviet Russia un- i doubtedly turned gconservative i in its foreign pol as applied to the dispute with China over the | Manchurian Rallroad. | " This 1,100-mile railroad, worth hun- dreds of millions of dollars to Russia, manifestly was something to conserve. | The way Russia has acted to conserve | it leaves no room for future criticism by | Russia of actions of so-called capital- | istic nations in conserving their prgfl- erty interests in other countries, while it neutralizes past Russian criticism of { It will be recalled how loudly Rus- |sian radicals denounced the United States in 1927 for sending Marines to China to protect American citizens and their property during the most acute phases of the civil war in that country. Great Britain was equally roundly scored by Russian radicals for taking a similar coursé, as were France, Italy, Japan and other countries. Yet when threatened with the loss of some of its own property in China, Soviet Russia reacted precisely as the criticized na- | tions reacted—only more drastically, for Russia on the Manchurian border has been decidedly more militaristic and | menacing than the carefully restrained course of American Marines two years ago. No Lapse in Doctrines. Soviet leaders naturally do not ad- mit any lapse from their own doctrines, asserting that the display of force to- ward Manchuria is not the same as the policy of the capitalistic powers, but the Chinese are unable to see any such distinction or find consolation in the explanation that Russia is striking for the “rights of the world proletariat” in clinging tenaciously to Russian property in Manchuria. Imperialism, as popularly understood, | 18 the use of force by one nation to pro- tect its citizens and property in some other nation. The sole Socialist repub- lic in the world, by this measurement, is just as imperialistic as the capitalist nations are declared to be. What has happened in ‘Russia, of course, is a vigorous revival of nation- alism. The idea of working exclusively for the world proletariat and the world revolution has suffered a setback in Russia. This change in Russian view- point will have far-reaching conse- quences, because radicals in cther coun- tries in some degree will cease to look to Moscow for leadership in the world revolution. ‘The genuine international radical now must answer the question raised by Rus- sian policy in the Far East—namely, is imperialism always wrong. as radicals have argued hitherto, or is it wrong only when capitalist nations resort to it, becoming right when a Socialist na tion, such-as Russia, finds it expedient? Signs of Confusion. Already radicals in various countries are giving signs that they are con- | fused by Russian actions. Nationalists | in Russia retort that Russia would be a | fool to let slip from its grasp its hal interest in a great railroad merely to uphold a.strict doctrinaire concept of anti-imperialism. Moreover, national- ists argue that Russia cannot afford to suffer the blow at its prestin> from su- pinely submitting to an alleged ag- gression by China. Moscow surely weighed all the con- sequences of a strong-arm policy Manchuria. It knows that the shock of radicals in other countries from the ex- pulsion of Trotsky has not been over- come and now this new shock to outside radicals from the spectacle of the only socialist nation turning conservative will further undermine Russian lead- ership of the world proletariat. Never- theless, Moscow decided a bird in the hand, in the form of a railroad, was worth more than two birds in the bush in the sense of continued opportunity to lead the radical internationale. To be specific, what appraisal will English radicals make of the new Rus- sian nationalism? How does that na- tionalism as exemplified in Manchuria compare with British nationalism ex- emplified in China, India, Egvpt and elsewhere? Will English radicals agree that it is right for socialist Russia to use force to uphold its position in China, or make a threat of force, but wrong for England to do likewise if it | faces a crisis in China? Looking for Own Interests. The majority of English laborites and radicals will take the position that Rus- sia cannot run with the hares and hunt with the hounds at the same time or istic course at The Hague conference on reparations has been acclaimed by English labor largely because English labor sees that every nation, including socialistic Russia, is primarily looking out for its own interests and that Eng- 1and will be sunk if it does not follow —_— upon the French Parliament ratification of the League's general act for com-| pulsory arbitration of all international disputes; an act which to date has re- | ceived no ratification. He expressed confidence of a five- power naval accord, and of the conven- ing ghortly thereafter of the long-post- ned general disarmament conference, through which, said he, “we shall carry out the provisions of article 8 of the covenant respecting reduction of armaments, the most sacred of the obligations” enjoined by that instru- ment. While commending the Anglo- American naval parleys, with pleasant irony he reminded his hearers of criti- cisms which slew a-borning the Franco- British naval accord of last year. He referred to the Paris pact (the Kellogg-Briand pact) as “inspired” by the League, as “coming within the sum of the League's achievements;” an in- scription, belike, not too pleasing to some Americans. But the pact, he pointed out, went no further than to erect “a moral barrier against recourse to war.” It behooves us to erect a physi- cal barrier, to “forge for ourselves a secular arm to prevent war if possible, to punish it should it break out.” In that connection he harked back regret- fully to the League protocol of 1924 which failed of the requisite ratifica- ns. He did not, as many had hoped, give a detail of his plan for a united states of Europe, but he revealed the impor- tant fact that the plan contemplates not merely the economic but also the political solidarity of Europe, but “so as in no way to affect the sovereignty of the parties.” Obviously, he opined, an economic agreement would be the most important element of such a con- struction. He the representa- tives of European states present to consider the idea with a view to its realization in the not distant future, ‘haps at the next assembly.” Surely it is to be presumed that a substantial draft of the plan will soon be forth- coming. The indication is that Briand itional commit- tee to consider the project. Honduras, which, though remaining a member of the League, had not sent a representative to a League Assembly since 1923, has sent one this year, Peru | and Bolivia also resuming active par- ticipation. Of the 54 member nations of the League, 53 are represented in this year's Assembly, the one exception being Argentina. ‘The corner stone of the new League of Nations palace was laid yesterday. * ko % NOTES.—The dan; Austria seems to | of civil war in ive considerably alternately. Snowden’s strong national- | suit. Hence, labor will discount Rus- sian assertions about acting in the in- terest of the world proletariat. There is still another important as- pect of the new Russian pelicy which will be given increasing attention. What will native revolutionists, radicals or nationalists in the so-called backward l-c:ed.el g{ tl;: vv‘mrld think of Russian 'rship ew of the Manchurian exfibiél:n? ina, India, Malaya, Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, yA(rlcl, Arabia, the Near East generally and in Latin America, native radicals have had the lfhvnm-n of ll!uuun financial and othe . an propagandists have been in all these areas and others be- sides and Russian revolutionary meth- ods have been used as the models for native uprisings or attempts to throw off foreign controls. It was the undis- guised hope of Moscow that the world revolution would be precipitated by this aid given to native radicals. Now these native radicals see that Russia has shown itself quite as capa- ble of using devastating force to protect its interests in a foreign country as England or any other nation ever was -accused of using, and the native radi- cals will be asking themselves: Will we throw off the English or some other foreign yoke only to take on the Rus- | sian yoke? Will Strike Hard Blow. The fact that Russia has no consid- | erable property interest in the countries cited is beside the point. The outstand- ing impression native radicals every- where must get from the Manchurian situation is that Russia will strike hard whenever it considers that it has any- thing worth striking for. The blow is not softened by asseverations about striking in behalf of the world prole- tariat. If India, cut loose from Eng- land. should displease Russia, the na- tives well may ask themselves whether Russia then would throw its military strength to the Indian border as it did to the Manchurian border. While there is no sign that native radicals will cease to be radical the probability is strong that native radi- cals will cool off in their admiration for Russia and be more careful of entan- glements with Russia in their efforts to promote native nationalistic ambi- tions. That would considerably ease the problem of the big powers which now have close contacts with native nd‘lcflllsl lngh \'Bnflnuz sections Dfd‘;he world, for the Russian proj te, and sometimes Russian gn‘)fl. m‘::l‘y in- tensified native unrest and to cut off some, or all, of this Russian aid will be s0 much gain to the big powers con- cerned. ¥ China in general certainly has no illu- sions left about Russian nationalism or Russian _ foreign policy. There are within China a considerable number who have been converted to commu- nism and these, too, in the long run must ask themselves whether Russia is disinterested, or any more of a friend to China, than the ecapitalist nations. The men governing soviet Russia are not blind to any of the foregoing poten- tialities. Even if they cannot see them- == nthers see them, they are real- “~ir approach to all problems nediate effort to repair the Russian leadership of the ion may be expected. ogey Losing Power. Ti.. zreat problem for Soviet Russia today, is how to reconcile the growing sense of nationalism within Russia to the original international program. It is not easy to keep the Russian people keyed up indefinitely to the revolution- ary tempo. . The boleg.hereln(on used, namely, the charge that the capitalist powers had formed an iron ring around Russia and would crush Russia at the first opportunity, is losing its power to scare Russians. Furthermore, as the memory of past hardships tends to fade out, as & new generation of Russians comes along which knows of the World War and horrors of civil war in Russia only from books, it is increasingly harder to keep Russia up to the revolutionary tempo. With a slow but appreciable rise in material prosperity Russians more and more will concern themselves with pure- 1y Russian objectives, which will be & further blow at the international con- cept. Nationalism i€ a subtle force. It can convince a people that what they think best promotes their interests best pro- motes the interests of the world at large, or, in the case of Russia, the interests of the working class through- out the world. The remaind:r of the world, however, may not follow this de- duction as closely as Russia would like, especially if Russian nationalism presscs harder and harder against the nation- alistic interest of other nations. It would be a mistake to charge the leaders of Russia with a willing retreat from internationalism. Wiihm Russia this year there was a tightening up of socialist practice at the very time the turn toward conservatism was made in foreign policy. It was as if Russia wanted. to prove that the expulsion of Trotsky did not constitute a reaction from socialism toward capitalism. Soviet leaders even may be conceded sincerity in believing that the foreign policy will redound in the long run to the advan- tage of the world proletariat, yet :f one applies to that foreign policy the same realistic analysis that Soviet icaders are so fond of applying to capitalistic policies, the conclusion is inescapable that Russian nationalism has won & victory over Russian internationalism whether or not the leaders of Russia see or admit it. How Situation Now Stands. The situation now stands: Socialism within Russia, nationalism controlling foreign policy. Nationalism in foreign policy means imperialism, which in turn means & slump in Russian ieader- ship of the international radical move- ment. Radicalism will not necessarily decline, but it must seek a new center, a new leadership, and it may break up into fragments in the various nations pending this new alignment or the ap- pearance of a new cohesive force for- merly supplied by Moscow. Statesmen in all capitals must take , into account the orientation of Russian internal and external policy i..day. The * economic recovery of Russia, if con- tinued, will mean a new force in world commerce. It has the natural rescurces - to become a formidable factor. Ou the” ::‘de of the threat Rliusu has becn to: e peace of other nations througn prop-. aganda, there will be a nhan:e' h}u‘g: form though not in the substance of * radicalism, and the extent to which~ this change will affect world policies will be one of the most interesting :mgon'u‘:; th:. future. g been only partly right * in his diagnosis. What he denounces:, as & rcactionary movement under the.. Stalin leadership is, after all, only the natural expression of Russian nationals': ism as the immediate impulses of revo~ lutionary days are sul . Trotaky, as one of the co-founders with Lenin of the Russian socialist state, would” like to keep the fervor of the interna~: tional idea unabated, but present-day., Russia is showing a pronounced incli nation to make the experiment mary concern. ‘There may be spectacular moves by’ Moscow to convince itself that it is-as