Evening Star Newspaper, September 15, 1929, Page 41

EDITORIAL SECTION Part 2—12 Pages ASHINGTON, EVOLUTION OF FARMING ADDS TO TARIFF TANGLE Tendency Is Toward Larger Units of Land, Though Best Informed Are Reticent in Predicting Future. BY MARK SULLIVAN. APID changes in many aspects of life are creating at once a van- ishing America and a new America. Among the changes, one of the least understood is in the occupation of farming. Directly associated with this change in agri- culture is the chief ¢ontention in the tariff bill over which the Senate is now wrangling. Consciousness of a change, not clearly understood but vaguely feared as a menace, is back of the almost passionate demand that the pres- ent tariff revision be confined to helping agriculture and agriculture only. (Perhaps it should be added at once | that no one believes the tariff, whether | old style or proposed new style, is or | can be the sole agency determining the | fate of agriculture. The influences af- | fecting the farm are wider than the| tariff. Undoubtedly, however, the tariff | is one agency, and a very considerable | agency.) Something Has Been Happening. That something has been happening to farming—something disagreeable to the farmer—is sufficiently well known. ‘Thousands of pages of the Congres- sional Record since 1922 testify to it. ‘The existence of the Federal Farm Board testifies to it. But the direction of the transformation, the ultimate status of the farm and the farmer, is a | thing that few persons are clear about. | “Few persons” is too broad a phrase. No person embraced within the range of the present writer’s conversations or reading can answer the farmer’s ques- tion, “Where do we go from here?” | Some persons make confident predic- tions, but as a rule the more confident the prediction, the less dependable it is. ‘Thoughtful, sure-footed persons confine themselves to saying that a rapid evo- lution is under way, but that the future stages of it are a matter of guesswork. Future Remains Problem. ‘We can state the problem thus: Everybody knows what is the typical verage American farm today. But who can venture to say what will be the same thing 10 or 15 years from now—what will be the typical, average American farm in, let us say, the year 1940 The typical American farm of today is a plot of land from 20 to 175 acres, | owned by one farmer and operated as | a rule by himself and his family. To start with the narrowest and most | concrete aspect of the problem: What will be the size of the future American | farm? Will it be smaller, as the typical | farm is in that excellent farming coun- | try, Prance? Or will the future Amer- has grown, in percentage of all farms, as_follow: 1910. 28.5 per cent . 33.7 per cent 1925. 34.8 per cent Here is a striking change, farreaching in its social and economic consequenges. Accompanying it is the familiar story of farmers going away from the home acres and seeking employment in cities. And this is the phase that has led to the position taken by some Western Senators about the pending tariff. City Drift Is Large. To take only & small period of the cityward drift during the five years from 1920 to 1925, a really vast farm population—2,633,000 persons—left the farms to take up city occupations. This is regarded by the Western Sen- ators as deplorable, as a thing to be, stopped. Wishing to stop it, they argue as_follows: The reasons why a farmer or a farm- er's son leaves the homestead’ to live in the cities can all be summed up in one reason. That reason is higher in- come—larger wages in the city than the income he can hope to make as a farmer, One cause of higher wages in cities is the protective tariff on manufacturers. Therefore, if we really | mean what we say about keeping thei boys on the farm, let us stop using the tariff to stimulate manufacturing in the cities. From now on let us use the tariff not to stimulate manufacturing. but to stimulate farming, and farming only. History Is Cited. ‘The same argument. stated histor- jeally by those who believe in it, runs thus: Sixty years ago, farming was the great American occupation. More than half of all our people were engaged in it. It was regarded as more desirable nd elevated than any city occupation in which men received wages. Farmers at that time were able to pay their hired men wages that would hold them. Wi that condition existing we adopted a protective tariff to stimulate manufacturing as an “infant industry.” Now the condition is reversed. Manu- facturing is no longer an infant indus- try, and therefore, no longer in need of further tariff stimulation. In the meantime (and for the same reason as the farm leaders in the Senate believe) farming has become a “sick industry.” Let us now, therefore, use the protective tariff to stimulate our “sick industry,” and for that purpose only. Machinery Is Omitted. ‘This may not be the whole picture of the change in farming. Indeed, it certainly is not the whole picture. Among other things it omits the influ- BY HAROLD E. SCARBOROUGH. ONDON.—After a post-war dec- ade in which European nation- alism reached its highest devel- opment since the Middle Ages, is the dawn of a United States of Europe discernible, however faintly, in_the djstance? ‘Will men of different races, with al- most incredibly complicated political, { economic, social and natural barriers between them, at last agree to unlearn| the teaching of more than 2,000 years and co-operate for their common wel- {fare? Will they realize and unite, as the North American Continent has done, making an end of their petty jealousy? In other words, is Briand's scheme for a United States of Europe practical politics—or is it just another | |of the pretty but academic thoughts for iwhich Geneva provides so admirable a | sounding board? 0Odds Are Against Unity. Perhaps the strongest feature about { present discussion concerning the |sible formation of a United States of { Europe is the fact that only 10 years | ply. DG, : 8U the development of a United States of Europe would come about within the lifetime of any one now living. The idea is one of those which, in the pres- ent fairly placid condition of European politics, diplomats, writers and politi- cians find not interesting to consider academically. ‘What has actually happened is that Aristide Briand—a Celt to his flnl!r-l tips, with that not uncommon com- bination to be found among the men of his race of mysticism and practical political ability—has been toying for some months with the idea of a Euro- pean economic federation which might eventually bring about closer political and social ties between Europe’s vari- ous nations. Briand himself, who is stronger on imagination than on eco- | nomics, cheerfully admits he has no | more than a vague idea of the form which such a merger might take. As the situation siands at present, he | has been authorized by the representa- | tives of 27 European states to circulate | an_explanatory memorandum to their | governments, which undertake to con- sider it, although not necessarily to re- Briand, however, is requested to DAY MORN he Sundwy Star. y - United States of Europe? Will New Era for Old World Dawn or Is Present Discussion Merely an Academic One? of Trade, brought the discussion back to earth by the proposal that all League members should agree not to increase their tariffs for two years, thus giving time for a consideration of how to reduce them. This proposal will be de- bated during the present session of the Assembly and the reaction to it will afford an advance indication of the European nations’ views on Briand's larger proposal. 1 American interest in the United States of Europe idea naturally is expected in Europe to express itself in one particu- lar query: Is that development directed | Rome and the first German Empire, | permit. against the United States? 1dea of Unity Is Old. In the present stage of the United States of Europe idea the answer must be an evasive one. Yes and no. The idea of a European federation is one At a hegemony of Europe and were sion, he was secretary of the arbitra- of the oldest in history and was dis. | mostly wrecked on its stubborn rock |tion between the United States and| cussed 15 centuries before America was discovered. But every previous attempt ta unit> Europe has been made on a | Might draw the nations of Europe vol-| habits and habitats of fur-bearing seals. military basis. This one, however much Briand may | Of many conquests was not able to ef- | between disclaim an ant-American bias, de- rives its present impetus from the fear | barbarism, if not at the moment, might | preference to be given or not given to SEPTEMBER 15, 1929, Europeans to a subject of serious dis- cus:élgn by the responsible heads of the states. This is recognized in serious circles | in London, according to the Morning Post, which publishes the following pas- sage: “If we were to trace the con- ception back into history we should find ; the European map a palimpsest of sbliterated approaches to this concep- tion. Ancient Rome reached it so nearly BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HILE no acute issue gave cent meeting of the Assem- bly of the League of Na- tions and there was lacking the entrance of the Germans in 1926, this tenth annual session may well be remembered as the first gathering of a and greatest war. Unmistakably there was the sense of something beginning rather than of the older and morei ‘That the position of Ramsay Mac- | Donald was made more difficult by rea- | son of the course of Snowden at The | other hand the Labor premier had a | good press and public at Geneva, be- | cause it is still recalled that his deci- sion to come to Geneva in 1924 marked | the first step in the process that has| gradually extended until many prime expect to attend the assemblies. | Until the Young plan is actually ap- | plied and all the pending political and of course, premature to regard the | European slate as clean. But no one | now doubts that in the end. after much | Prench and German parliaments will | bow to the inevitable. Then for five, perhaps even for 10, years the question that of military occupation will be per- manently disposed of. Difficult Questions on Hand. rectly from the war are soon to be | removed from the calendar it is not| less clear that at the present session of tion of the fact that henceforth Europe | was destined to wrestle with questions that admit of no easy solution, and can, | peculiar interest to the re- the dramatic circumstance supplied by Europe that had liquidated its muz\ familiar sense of enduring handicaps. Hague cannot be gainsaid, but on the ministers and all foreign secretaries | financial details are cleared up it is, eloquence and many protests, both the | of reparations will cease to trouble and But if the old problems arising di-| the League there was a real apprecia-| —_— that she gave the civilized world—not, Ilndetd. quite the same as Europe—the | peace of the Augustans. Christian acting together, nearly succeeded in forming a united Christendom, held to- | gether partly by its faith and partly by the threat of conquest from the East. | The Hapsburgs, Grand Monarque, Napoleon, the Hohenzollerns, all aimed of nationalism. | “Is there any inducement which | untarily into a union which the might | fect? The menace of a new Eastern the exigencies of American needs Wlll‘ So much for the quality of Mr. Gar- rett's diplomacy. Now for a further| listing of his diplomatic appointments and activities. | ‘While he was yet a secretary of lega- tion and before he was a chief of mis- |Russia in the matter of the interna- | tional complications caused by the | He was secretary also of the arbitration various countries and the | United States in the matter of the | race and ruled by another. EUROPEAN MINORITIES THREATEN WORLD PEACE League Assembly Faces Difficult and Intricate Problems in Trying to Clean Off War Slate. in fact, be seized only as a consequence of very great changes in the temper of many nations, great and small. ‘When MacDonald told the Assembly that it was physically impossible to draw any map of Europe which would not create intricate and troubling mi- nority questions he touched upon thé real center of the problem of peace of today. And he could well have added the equally exact statement that no minority problem of any consequence can be solved by territorial change. In the Europe of the present hour there are, laying aside all Russian cir- cumstances, between 15,000,000 and 20,- 000,000 of people living under govern- ments to which they do not consent. And behind these millions are not less than 100,000,000 more for whom the fate of these dissatisfied minorities is at once a potent issue in domestic politics and a determining factor in foreign policy. But in the same fashion there arc more than 100,000,000 persons be- longing to other nations for whom any revision of the present frontiers is to- tally out of the question. Desire for Peace Held Universal, It is a fair assumption that in the main the same desire for peace exists in all the great capitals and among all the great peoples. Yet there are nearly 80,000,000 Germans for whom it re- mains an impossible thing that the existing frontiers should exist. No pub- lic man. could live in the Reich who proposed that Germany should accept the territorial decisions of the treaty of Versailles. But no Frenchman, Itaian, Pole or Czechoslovak statesman could survive advocacy of any revision. MacDonald's " id>a as expressed at Geneva was that the real solution must come through the decision of the peo- ples having minority populations to treat them with consideration. This :Fggu!ion pretty clearly indicates his oubt of the possibility of any remak- ing of frontiers. But the difficulty with such a simple proposal lies in the fact that it is equally unsatisfactory to the peoples who possess minorities and to those who are forced to submit to seeing fractions of their races under alien rule, A minority is not a mere accidental collection of people belongln!( to one t is first of all the basis of a claim by some na- tion to interfere in the domestic affairs of another and of a hope some day to include this minority within its own frontiers. No matter how kind and con- siderate the treatment of the German minerity in Poland, the people of that minority would still hope to return to | Germany and the Germans of the Reich would hope to reclaim them. If all the minority populations of Europe would accept their destiny as ican farm be larger? And if larger, | ence of machinery in bringing about|after Versailles a premier of France |summarize such replies as he receives | of American economic and financial | Decome so formidable as to effect such certain creditors of the government of | promptly and as completely as do the v what will happen to the ownership? ‘Will, the ownership continue to be in- dividual? Or will the ownership be corporate? ! Hoover's Views Are Quoted. 1f the answer to the last question s “Yes,” then assuredly we shall see a striking change in the social aspect of the farm. President Hoover, in his campaign last year, sald movingly that “farming is more than an occupation— it is a state of living.” Farming as a state of living is involved—is indeed at stake—in what is now going on. Cer- tain Western Senators think this pow- erfully. They think the future of the American farmer rests on their hands. As one of them put it to the writer, “This is the last stand of the American farmer as we have known him; if he loses, he will become a hired man.” That the average farm is growin, Jarger is asserted by some, and deni by others. The changes going on are 80 new that ordinary statistics do not fully give the answer. The changes in farming, as in other aspects of Amer- jcan life, are so rapid that they are upon us before the statistics can catch up with them. Larger Unit Is Favored. Fugitive bits of information seem to indicate that the tendency is toward a larger unit of farming. In the East, old, small farms are being bought up and combined by wealthy persons who operate them as “estates.” One of the richest farming counties in America, one ot the regions best adapted by nature to farming, is Ches- ter County, Pa. It lies all within 60 miles and some within 20 miles of a large city, Philadelphia. In that county the old-time small farm is decidedly not holding its own. Groups of 10 to 20 farms, of 50 to 100 acres each, are bought up by men who have become wealthy in manufacturing automobiles or radios. The social changes attend- ing this enlargement of the unit of land ownership are far-reaching. Ten men and 10 families who wefe formerly in- dependent. become something else. In some cases they become hired employes of the new owner. From the West a tendency very dif- ferent, but arriving at the same end, is reported as just getting under way. A few years ago when prices were high banks loaned more money on farms than was safe. When the prices of land fell the banks became owners of many farms. In some cases the banks have put these farms, as groups, under the menagement of experts who use hired employes. . Corporations Are Formed. From elsewhere in the West it is re- ported that corporations are being formed which have a routine technique. The corporation seeks out any farm that is for sale at a low price, they buy it and they instruct the former owner to remain where he is and to operate the farm according to the di- rections of the corporation manager. PFrom Western Kansas the Wichita Eagle reports that the most striking success with the presefit year's wheat crop was accomplished by a man who | operated units of more than 2400 acres. Prom New York State it is reported that nearly 10 per cent of w‘!;lt was farm land 10 years ago now some- | thing else. Some of it is being bought up by the State for reforestation or for park purposes. Not all these changes are the same in nature—but they all point in the same direction, decline of the small farm, toward a status in which farming will be. done in larger units. If farming is to be done in larger units, obviously that means a smaller number of independent owners, & larger num- ber of hired men. Statistics Bear Out Theory. ‘That this is the tendency seems borne out by such statistics as exist. The following figures picture the decline in the small unit of farming. For the yurpo:e of this classification a small A rm is defined as one having between 20 and 175 acres. The following figures give, for the years named, the per- centage of this type of farm to the whole number of farms in the country: 1910, .41.3 per cent 1920., 37.5 per cent ‘The s yed in a vifferent way in the following 3 larger units of farming. Twenty to 50 | acres might be an appropriate unit when whe was reaped with a scythe or “cradl and threshed with a flail or an old-fashioned “thresher.” And several hundred acres may be an ap- proximate unit when wheat is reaped and threshed in a single operation by an immense, costly and intricate ma- chine of 50-horsepower or more. But the competition between farm and city for the farmer’s son and the rela- tion of the tariff to that competition lies at the bottom of the present controversy in the Senate. And we are going to have eloquent and illuminating argu- ment about it. Radical Centralization -Is Seen. The argument for confining tariff | benefits to the farm may or may not | prevail. If it prevails it may or may not_arrest or profoundly influence the evolution that is going on in agricul- ture. One thoughtful person so situated as to have had a long range view of farming all his life, says the present evolution will go farther than we now dream. He thinks that in a decade or | two all the farming in the United States will be done within a limited number of States best adapted to it—that great! areas which are now farm land in the | Eest, for example, will become forests, or will be bought up by the States for parks, Is such an evolution desirable? If we | could command the future by legisla- tion, would we decree that fate> Can we fully command the future by legis- | lation? Can the Western Senators and their Democratic allies from the South change the ultimate destination of | agriculture? They think, most earnestly, | that they can, and that whether they | can or not public interest in the broad- ! est sense demands that-they. make the | effort, ! . Japanese Stage Star Bars Women in Roles Koshiro Matsumoto, an outstanding | actor of the Japanese stage, whose per- formances in the Imperial Theater have | charmed thousands, has announced that hereafter he will never act in any play in which an actress takes part. He says that his conscience will not per- mit it, because the presence of women | on the stage is insulting to him as a| first-class actor. For the most part the roles of women | are taken by men in all the traditional | or Kabuka dramas. Some men who are | adapted for such parts train for them | all their lives and play nothing but | female characters. There are occa- sions, however, when actresses still have parts, and it has been the custom of the Imperial Theater management to include one or two in every bill. Matsumoto has taken part in_these from time to time, playing opposite some feminine character. . The actor said, when asked to explain further his sudden outburst against actresses, that the lines which he had to say when talking to them were too foolish, and he | preferred to play in the old type of ! drama, where men did more with their | swords than with their tongues. Be- cause of his prominence in the theatri- cal world in Japan Matsumoto's action has created quite a sensation. il Chinese Women Sell For as High as $1,000 I While removal of the Chinese cap-| | should be able to sponsor this idea and | retain his position. It might be said, however, at the outset that it would be difficult to find @ serious student of European politics and to prepare a report, which will be considered during the League's 1930 As- sembly. Foliowing Briand's appeal at Geneva, | Wwilliam Graham, ~the _hard-headed | who would accept any sort of odds that Scotch president of the British Board | domination. And it is the widespread publicity that has been given in Eu Tope to the new American tariff legis- Jation that is probably responsible for transforming it from the pet idea of a few internationally minded Central' | a unity. There is on the West another | sort_of pressure—the rising tariff wall | of the United States, which might force | Europe into at least an economic uhion | of self-defense. There are forms of (Continued on Fifth Page.) Our New Envoy to Italy John W. Garrett of Baltimore Has Moved Steadily Toward Heights' of Diplomacy BY WILLIAM HARD. | | OHN W. GARRETT of Baltimore, | who has been appointed our new | Ambassador to Italy, is a per-| fected representative of a cer-| tain most admirable and serv-| iceable type of diplomat. Should a diplomat have “experience”? He should. The canons of professional | diplomacy require, at the very outset, “experience.” Of course, it is quite | difficult to be born with “experience.” The next best thing to do is to start acquiring it in your twenties as a “sec- | retary of legation.” So that is what Mr. Garrett did. Having been graduated from Prince- ton and having spent a short time on a ranch in the wilds of the West, Mr. Garret became a “secretary of lega- tion” at The Hague in the Netherlands. | From that time forward for 18 years, | through to the end of the World War, he continuously diplomatized. | He was not content, however, with simply “experience.” He was bent also upon all other diplomatic virtues, A diplomat should have, for instance, “background.” He should have it, in fact, even before he has “experience.” Now. it is difficult in the extreme to have “background” without the help of the right sort of ancestors. So Mr. Garrett had them. The general impression in Baltimore is that the Garretts were created with great houses already over their heads and vast collections of elegant things already totally surrounding them. It seems to be regarded there as an auto- matic and almost incidental matter that | a great Garrett of the past should have ! taken a majestic and comprehensive | hand in the original financing of the! Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, now a quite | considerable transportation system. It | also seems automatic to Baltimore that Garretts should accumulate and leave behind them vast selected arrays of en- gravings, etchings, rugs, Japanese vases, coins, stamps, first editions of famous books and signatures of famous men. Mr. Garrett accordingly arrived in the world all laden and illuminated with “background.” Foresight of Diplomat. He proceeded dutifully through his boyhood and young manhood to ex- pand this “background” which his heri- tage had given him. He foresaw, for insance, that a diplomat should know foreign languages. When, therefore, he became a “secretary of legation,” his “chief of mission” was able at once to report to Washington, as this writer glscuven by diving into archives, that ‘young Mr. Garrett reads, writes and speaks French and German and reads Spanish and Italian and Dutch.” One must turn for a moment, however, to remark that a lom! ital to the Yangtze has spelled ruin for many businesses which formerly thrived | this in Peiping, it started one flourishing new trade—selling Chinese women of the poorer sort: into slavery. Information gathered by local detec- tives indicates that a gang of traffickers which has been operating here since last Fall has shipped away between 2,000 and 3,000 women and girls at fancy prices.” Some of these human chattels are reported to have fetched as much as $1,000, depending on their attrac- tiveness. Owing to the vigilance of the local po- fromnmwu. ‘The best private business or & diplomat should be banking. So urfiflmu“enmed,lt.. £ i grandfather had already foun a banking firm with an entrance to.it for him. He passed through and became & partner in Robert Garrett He accord and a the lice authorities, the slave dealers have avoided using the railway, ling their vietims out of the city by mule cart or ricksha to Manchi ‘where Tor the purpose of these res & tmu&flnadumehl%‘lmm wara The nwmhar nf ensh favme ‘women are said to be great. He also tion to the right " for an ‘poli S ST JOHN W. GARRETT—AN AMBASSADOR OF BACKGROUNI D: . rawn for The Sunday Star by 8. J. Woolf. exactitudes of the merits of Mr. Gar- rett this writer thought it wise to tele- phone to Mr. Frank Kent of the Bal- timore Sun. Though this writer had known Mr. Garrett for many years and had never found any flaw in him, it be- gan to seem impossible that anybody should be so undeviatingly and illimit- ably flawless, This iter sought Mr. Kent as a refuge and corrective. Mr. Kent's {llustrious writings have now re- vealed positively billions of flaws in American public men. The soul of sweetness , Mr. xen%j which can pierce through the fanciful and delusiye colors of any po- litical wedding-feast to disclose the gris- 1y outlines of the scandalous skeleton at its center. Additionally, or accord- ingly, he is a Democrat. RS “Mr. Kent,” said the writer respect- fully, “what is the worst John Garrett ever did?” - Record Called Flawless. “Bill,” said Mr. Kent mmmy.» “John Garrett never did any worse thing um"" that T can allege against John Garrett, Jjust to give my article an air of im- partiality and remorseless truth?” Mr. Kent pondered. “I cannot,” he said. Securely, therefore, this writer now resumes the painful and unconvincing task of endeavoring to portray to the public a public character with no errors upon him, either public or private. ‘The heart of the matter, after all, is that this public character fosmsen character. A diplomat should be vir- tuous and patriotic. There is infinite tosh talked'and thought to the contrary. T ous al and s and internationalistic. . He is mtunllmnly altogether all | an injury ing the matter with in his record upon him by his numerous “chiefs of mission” in his diplomatic secretarial days contains two extremely significant entries under the interrogative headings, “Habits?” and “Affectation of Foreign Characteristics?” nutely the State Department demands from chiefs of mission—and from other | sources—a detailed analysis of the char- acter and behavior of our professional foreign service officers. The list of in- terrogatories used toward that end is so | protracted that it might seem to be a ‘mm:lel for a preliminary examination | of & patient by an exceptionaly indus- trious psychological physician, ‘Under “Habits?” is was early reported | and then repeatedly re-reported regard- | ing John Garrett that, for instance, “He has no dissipations and leads a dignified, proper life Under “Affecta- tion of Foreign Characteristics?"—a tendency which the State Department is supposed to encourage but which it actually resents, reprehends and repels— it was steadily reported regarding John Garrett that “He has no such affecta- tion and is thoroughly American.” Rich but under rigorous self-control. utterly familiar with the great world abroad but wholly retentive of his up the diplomatic ladder toehold by toehold and rung by rung. From being secretary of legation at ‘The Hague he became second secretary at Berlin and then second secretary at Rome. His chiefs of mission—Mr. Charlemagne Tower, Mr. Lloyd Gris- | com, Mr. John G. A. Leishman—con- tinuously and monotonously filled their official accounts of him with such nar- | rative and prophetic words and phrases ndustrious. Attentive. Sensible. | Great information. Great cultivation. | Thoroughly efficient. Tact. Discretion. Pleasing person One of the ablest | and best secretaries in our service. | WortHy of promotion.’ The promotion came in the reign of President Willlam Howard Taft. By Mr. Taft Mr. Garrett was appointed to be_Minister to Venezuela. ‘Within a very short time the head of the division of Latin American affairs in the State Department was reporting: “Mr. Garrett has been effective in creating the best feeling in Venezuela that has existed toward the United States in a long time.” Ability the Nation Needs. That observation upon him is really the epitome of the type of diplomat that Mr. Garrett perfectly represents and symbolizes. Mr. Garrett, whatever :h:r:ouem of our country may be to- ward the country to which he is accred- ited, is able to make them as palatable to that country as in their nature they possibly can be made to be. get out of any situation the maximum of feeling which it is capable of lucing. . He c:une:hm:;y'evm a brutal message co! ess. can deliver a thunderbolt with charm. He can present his country's requirements ui ly but unrasp- ingly. He cfll cu.u!l ‘misapprehensions. He tan dispel fogs. . He can bring into the white light of courtesy and Americanism, John Garrett persevered | He can|eq Venezuela. He was also a delegate of | | the United Gtates to the hospital ship | | International conference of 1904 and a signatory to the treaty there achieved. He was also, in the absence of his chief of mission. ‘“charge d'affaires ad in- lterlm"—: dignity certainly amply word- Berlin and 4 times at Rome. | ed!—11 times at The Hague, 3 times at | foreign-born elements in the United States, there would be no minority issue. The persistence of their mother lan- guages among the Pennsylvania Dutch or the Scandinavians of the Northwest does not disturb any one on our side of the Atlantic because this persistence does not threaten -American territorial unity. Sweden will not some day claim Minnesota because some thousands or Minister to Argentina. After being, then, by promotion, Min- ister to Venezuela, be became Minister to Argentina. That pos because of the iliness of his wife, which | happily turned out to be transitory. | Ah!" One characteristic of a good| diplomat hitherto has remained un-| noted in this article. A good diplomat | should have a Wife who is well-to-do, | extremely beautiful. much given to de- lighting in hospitality, and able to in spire famous painters to want to paint her portrait. -So Mr. Garrett has such ia wife. | There was in Washington a retired | | manufacturer of harvesting machinery | jof the nate of Warder. His three| It is not generally realized how mi- | daughters were all of them ladies of | { highly distinctive personality, and co: { tinue to be so. They acquired this trait |as much from their mother as from their father. Old Mrs. Warder at her oldest could command the fixed atten- | tiveness of any spirited young man at his youngest. The three Misses Warder | extended and expanded their mother's| career of touching life with vitalizing | vigor and charm. One of them is now | | Mrs. Ralph Ellis of New York: one of them is Mrs. Henry Leonard of Wash- ington; the third (Alice) is Mrs. John ‘W. Garrett. Alice Garrett is of a loveliness much more Latin than Nordic in cast and color. The eminent Spanish painter | i Zuloaga has painted her twice in terms | | which would lead the stranger to call| her “Senora” much more readily than| “Mrs.” There are well known paintings of her also by Bakst, by Gari Melchers, by _Jacques Emile Blanche. In the language of the historians of social events, Alice Garrett, as the wife of John Garrett, is “the gracious chate- laine of Evergreen!” Evergreen is John Garrett's prodigious Baltimore house. It is within the city limits but insists upon having 150 acres of grounds about it. It contains now a room in which Mr. | Garrett has installed some 70,000 of his books. It contains, also, some- where, Mr. Garrett’s extraordinary col- lection of coins and his pertinacious collections of all the personal signa- tures of all the signers of the Declara- tion of Independence. It contains also a theater in which there are perform- ances of much excellent chamber music, not too often heard otherwise by ‘Washington’s political society, and in which Mrs. Garrett occasionally re- sumes the singing in pursuit of which, {as a student, she went to Berlin and there in her early youth first met the Amerjcan secretary of the legation who now is her husband. It contains also, at week ends, vast parties of people from up and down the Atlantic coast. Recall to Service Unexpected. i When Mr. Garrett resigned from his i post at Buenos Aires he hardly expected to be recalled to the diplomatic service, and especially not by President Wood- row Wilson, a regular Democrat. Mr. Wilson, however, as president of Prince- been much supported in his les there by the Garrett influence. atched Mr. Garrett immediately outbreak of the World War to t to the American in Paris. He later appoint- Mr. Garrett to be Minister ‘The Hague. till 1919, when once more he resigned. ‘The blican President Warren Gamaliel Harding summoned him back from his earned retirement to be secre- tary general of the Washington arms conference in 1021. The Republican President Herbert Hoover now . b him to the final technical rung of the diplomatic ladder by making him an ambassador. Mr. Garrett has given to his country precisely what a man of his particular resources and talents best could give it. L”n ial & spec] Ambassador than | His career has been a service to the re- public and at the same time a simple and natural expression of himself, and | tenth assembly mark, hundreds of thousands of the people of lhnt State cling to memories of their pas! Majorities are Embittered. On_the other hand, just as long as the Germans in Poland snd Czecho- slovakia and the Magyars in Rumania and Czechoslovakia constitute bases for claims for revisions of treaties, the Poles the Czechs apd the Rumanians are bound to do everything possible to assimilate or expel th rdant and dangerous elements. Just as ce tainly each measure of coercion or op- pression embitters not only the minority but the free ity to which it be- longs. e Moreover, the whdle question of se- curity turns upon e peme issue. No naticn will disarm W it knows that ds that an adjoining country - there be new frontiers. - ent. ‘waits upon the arrival of the time when peoples feel secure and this happy time can come only when all nations are prepared to make the formal announce- ment that they accept their existing frontiers. And in the larger sense the whole question turns upon the final decision of the German people. Germany is very shortly to be free from all occupying armies. She is sure within the present generation to be more powerful in every sense than any of her neighbors. 1f ghe decides to use her power. their salva- tion must lie in making a common cause, in arming themselves and striv- ing to keep her disarmed. But all Germans feel that they are as a matter of right entitled to a re- ision of the treaties. That they should now resign what they hold to be a mat- ter of right and equity is not to be ex- pected. In this situation there is far more chance that Germany will pres- ently arm_than that her neighbors will disarm. But as she arms, her neigh- bors will add to their preparations. Americans who are inclined to criti- cize the Germans should recall that they would be in a similar position if Mexico, by reason of a military vietory, took back California. In that case is l-it conceivable that either the Califo: | nians or the citizens of this_cou: try generally would accept the loss of territory as final and abandon all hope |and purpose of regaining the lost province? Fifty Million Freed by War. And would the critics who denounce the Polish Czech or Rumanian treat- ment of minorities be prepared, particu- Jarly those who are citizens of southern states, to turn over to the League of Nations the authority to watch over the political as well as the material inter- ests of the Negro and agree to abide by the dictates of Geneva? Americans are accustomed to regard war as the worst thing in the world, and it would be for us. But the last war, bad as it was, resulted in the libe: ation of nearly fifty millions of people living under intolerable conditions. For them this war, so costly to all the great powers, was a war of independence worth all it cost them in blood, treasure and misery. No one wants to fight today, but no one is to abandon finally There Mr. Garrett remained | not any been to persuade nations having minorities to surrender them or of compelling mi- norities and their free brethren to give up hope of eventual freedom. Peace by pact is a method of dealing with questions between les who are, in the main. satisfied with their mt condition. But pacts may easily e instruments dat oppression in_the 3; dissatisfied peoples. And today the reparations and evacuation lems out of the way, or Europe is just confron for the n& time under normal its gmblam. Henceforth we shall ear little about m and an endless amount about m “Thus the may well prove a land- (Covyright, 1029, *