Evening Star Newspaper, September 22, 1929, Page 35

‘MACDONALD’S LABOR PLAN COMPETES WITH RUSSIA England’s Orderly Democracy Puts Pre- mier in Lead of Race With Stalin for Approval of Masses. BY WILLIAM RUFUS SCOTT. " ABORING masses the world over are watching with fascinated in- I terest the race for the approval . of the masses between Ramsay MacDonald, premier of Great Britain, and Joseph Stalin, iron man 0! the Soviet regime in Russia, the one using the orderly processes of demo- cratic constitutionalism and the other the radical methods of communism. MacDonald has been scoring heavily since his recent accession to power. The victory of his chancellor, Snowden, in winning a better deal for England in the division of reparations, and now the achievements of MacDonald at the League of Nations meeting in Geneva and through the expected agreement with the United States on naval limita- tion, have turned the proletarian eye from Moscow to London. If the Labor government in England can add to this brilliant start a real improvement in business and a sub- stantial reduction in unemployment, the already tottering radicalism of a sec- tion of English labor will take the count for a long time to come. Since “nothing succecds like success.” and MacDonald h-s cicated the impression of being successful, the economic gains have a better than even chance of at- tainment. Follow Marx's Teachings. It has been the Russian idea, derived from Karl Marx, German Socialist philosopher, that all existing economic, political and social structures must be completely destroyed before the new ideal, proletarian state can be erected. In the first years of the Soviet experi- ment in Russia, or immediately after the 1917 revolution, the Communists were absorbed in the task of demolish- ing every vestage of the former gov- ernment and economic and social or- der, this effort being attended by a ruthless killing off of_ opposition far more savage than anthing recorded in the reign of terror in French Revolution. For the last half dozen years the Soviet has been in what is called the constructive phase of communism, or in building up on the ruins of monar- chical and capitalist Russia the first socialist nation, or workers’ republic, with the proletariat as the ruling class. But it is only in the last three or four years that this constructive process has made visible headway. Today the visitor to Russia finds signs of stability and improved economic conditions in comparison with what Russia previously knew, though far behind the standards known in America or Europe generally. See Good Times Ahead. Soviet leaders today believe the road has been turned toward comparatively good times. The five-year economic n, described in a preceding article, in operation with prospect that, if carried through, Russia by 1933 will be able to supply its great population ‘with most of the commodities enjoyed in other nations, though even then not in anything like ‘the quality or quantity now consumed in the United States. Against this record is that of the Labor government in England, which had a brief tenure of power in 1924, followed by a Conservative reaction and now a return to power again of Labor. Moscow asks, why do not English working classes emulate the Russian example by first violently overthrowing all existing institutions and then build- ing & working class government which would not tolerate, or be hampered by, middle or upper classes? English- labor has answered the query by deliberately rejecting the Russian method and stick- ing.to constitutionalism, involving also as emphatic rejection of the Marxian thesis that one must first destroy before one can create better social systems. In other words, English labor, having watched the agonies of the Russian masses through 11 years of communism, prefers to hold on to what is good and capable of being salvaged in existing society and to advance from that stand- point to something better. Nor did English labor make this decision by a long-distance view of Russia. Delega- tions of Engilsh workers have visited Russia in recent years and what they saw cooled off the first enthusiastic im- pressions of a workers’ republic, or socialist state, achieved by ruthless revolution. Price Is Too High. Russia in time may attain a high de- gree of prosperity and approximate the socialist ideals, but the price in human wretchedness paid by Russians to reach that goal has made English and other European workers recoil from following the same path. That is the explanation of the subsidence of radicalism through- out Europe. Doubtless Russia was the only country in Europe capable either of going through such a revolution or of bearing the hardships afterward. And so the workers of the world are ‘watching to see if English labor can in- crease human happiness without whole- sale killing, virtual or actual starva- tion, distressing lack of the most ordi- nary necessities of existence, drastic upheavals in family life, and other accompaniments of the first phase of Russian communism. The traditional eood sportemanshin of the English people never had a more striking exemplification than in giving to MacDonald the opportunity to try to find a better way than the Russian way. Labor did not win a clear majority in the election. King George could have retained Baldwin's Conservative party in ggwer. or called a Liberal, or some in- tween leader to form a coalition gov- ernment; but MacDonald's party had made the largest gains in the House of Commons of any of the parties and with fine sportsmanship Baldwin resigned and the King, taking the trend rather than the net results of the election as a guide, gave the premiership to the Jeader whose party had the best rela- tive score. King's Move Commendable. ‘History well may give this decision by King George a heavy rating. Had he with stubborn allegiance to Conservative party politics insisted on barring Labor from the government until they had won in an election a clear majority the effect surely would have been to create a resentful, revolutionary mood in English labor, which radicals would have been quick to fan into a flame, if possible. At any rate, MacDonald was given his chance and in a short period the lib- eralism of King George has been vindi- cated, for if MacDonald had to retire now his fame would be secure. The ending of naval rivairy alone, if con- summated, will a monumental achievement. But beyond that the working classes of the world will get a new inspiration, with the conviction that it is not necessary for mankind to ,o Lh;o%h a bloody revolution and suf- er e culable misery thereafter in | ,order to reach happier and more just levels of existence. Consequently, even if Russia con- tinues to make p! ss, the example of its success will not likely tempt any for- midible number of workers elsewhere to choose communist methods over English, or other European, constitu- tional methods. Moreover, if MacDonald continues to make progress the tempta- tion will become still weaker. In forelgn policy MacDonald has made another move that wiil go far toward offsetting Russian propaganda tactics for a world revolution. First, the new treaty with Egypt takes the ground out from under radical charges that England never wil give up a grip on any country. MacDonald has made concessions to Egyptian nationalism of such a sweeping kind that radicals are nonplussed. The most convincing proof of this was given during’ the recent Palestine erisis. tian Moslems in the mass refrained from siding with the adoglems in Palestine. - It is more than probable that if Egyptian Moslems had not had such recent proof of the g:d will of England they would have n actively against English efforts to re- store peace in Palestine. Policy Noted in India. The same fortuitious effect of Mac- Donald's foreign policy. was noted in India and other Moslem areas, where, although sporadic criticism was made of , the masses seemed to feel from the Egyptian gesture that England wanted to work with the nations tied up to her to reach mutually satisfac- tory relations. MacDonald in his open- ing speech at the League of Nations struck this note in memorable language when he si “You' will have seen in the press that we have offered an agreement to Egypt, the effect of which will be to put Egypt in a position to apply for membership in this league. e contribution that we are making by this action, I think, is a_very important one. “There is an old world, old in civ- ilization, old in philosophy, old in re- ligion, old in culture, which has hith- erto been weak in those material pow- ers that have charactreized the Western peoples. But that old world, wrapped in slumber, as we thought, has now become awake, is now beginning to un- derstand what national self-respect is— taught and tutored very largely by us. “The great danger of war, then, is this, that we may be too long in per- forming the act of recognition, that by our delays, by our half-heartedness, by our lack of courage, there may accumu- late forces in the political and social life of those nations that will present to us no request, but an ultimatum. “The great East never ought to be put in a tion where it will say: ‘Our only chance of becoming free from the undertakings that are too old to be observed now is to tear them up in tge faces of those with whom we made them.’ “That is the danger of war between one side of the world and the other, and by meeting the problem in time we will extend the realm of peaceful negotiation, resulting in the lberties of the peoples of the earth. We will make allies instead of enemies when the peo- ples get free.” Utterance Significant. Now the significance of this bold ut- terance in favor of revising British re- lations with China, India, Egypt, Malaya and other areas under Britich control, or in which Britain has special extra- territorial privileges, lies in the blow it strikes at Russian propaganda. In Ppevery such area communists have been working to create antagonism toward England—and, of course, toward the United States and other powers—on the charge that England had no other mo- tive than exploitation of the peoples and holding them indefinitely in bond- age. MacDonald virtually tells them that so far as his administration can effect it. the move will be progressively toward lfberalism and freedom, and this un- questionably will wet the powder of communist agitators. It is a program that MacDonald may not be able to put through as fully as he would desire, and, besides, it is not to be a program of yielding before mere mob action, as MacDonald plainly showed in the vig- orous suppression of mobs in Palestine, once the British got into action. It will be, nevertheless, still another contrast between the methods of Mac- Donald and the methods of Stalin; and the working classes of the world can and will make their choice here as be- tween the domestic methods cited. The| insistence by MacDonald that if Russia is recognized by England, Russia must cease hostile propaganda in any part of the British Empire is reinforced by this aggressive move by MacDonald to make such propaganda harmless in any big way by removing the fears of the old world peoples regarding ultimate British intentions toward them. ‘There never has been a serious com- THE SUNDAY: BY LELAND STOWE. RISTIDE BRIAND always has been and still is a man of the Boheme. He was such when, as a flery young radical in the '90s, he used to play poker nightly in the Cafe du Croissant in Montmartre and—when luck was poor—removad one laced it on the table as a " Today ‘when M. Briand finds himself in a tight political situation he is quite as capable of figur- atively removing his shoe in the nope that luck will turn, In fact, his doc- trine might almost be said to be: “If the shoe doesn’t fit one foot, perhaps it will the other.” Under the genius of France's great Bohemian statesman, more often than not, it does. Vet that gentus for reshuffiing th po- litical cards until, at last, they make a passable hand is an attribute of M. Briand's far more generally known than his Bohemianism. The latter quality is known only to his friends, to his po- litical assoclates and to journalists who have been close to him through one premiership and then another. Has Held Eleven Premierships. ‘The list of premierships held by M. Briand now has reached 11, but the man himself has not changed.” He is still a young dreamer, aged only by ex- perience. . He is still shabby, unksmpt and as absent-minded as a college pro- fessor. He remains an enthusiast, an ardent follower of his dreams—his pro- posal only two weeks ago for a “United States of Europe” is proof of this, for it is certainly part of a plan, a hope, for the security of Europe that he has carried through the years. He is still a lover of poker and cards. Still a man of the Boheme. Could you look in at him one morn- ing at 8 or 9 o'clock in his apartment upstairs in the Quai d'Orsay, you would munist peril in the United States; still the nucleus of communism here is feel- ing the stiffening of working class op- position to radicalism just as certainly as communists in England are feeling it and communists on the continent of Europe and in Asia. This opposition grows as labor sees that progress for labor can be achieved peacefully. Russia itself in time may conclude that the world will leave it alone to work out its salvation as it pleases, and asks nothing more than that Russia give up the vain dream of inducmg revolutions on the Russian model in all other countries. MacDonald so far is outgeneraling Stalin. Rush on Vatican P. O. For First Stamp Issue Vatican City enjoyed its first mob scene under the new situation of affairs on August 1, when a small horde of professional philatelists, tourists and ordinary Romans, together with many nuns and priests, besieged the post office of the little state to purchase the newly issued set of postage stamps. When the window of the little board shack which was erected as & porary post office went up at 8 o'clock there was already a good crowd on hand, causing no little confusion to the see the real Briand whom his intimates know so well. M. Leger Saint-Leger, his directeur de cabinet, has called with a bundle of morning papers, a stack of important documents and letters relat- ing to the foreign affairs of France. There, in his inner chamber, stands the distinguished apostle of European peace. Scarcely out of his bath, a faded old lounging Tobe .carelessly pulled around his semi-hunched shoulders and portly midriff, drooping mustache more frayed than ever; hair awry. a cigarette be- tween his teeth. Puffs Leisurely on Cigarette. “What is it this morning. Leger?” seating- himself to start pulling on a stocking. “Continuez! Continuez! Oui, oul ‘Oui, oul, oul on, non! . . . Ouf, oul” Perhaps by now he has leaned pack | in his easy chair to puff more leisurely at his before-breakfast cigarette and to listen with half-closed eyes to his direc- teur de cabinet's daily report. To begin & day hurriedly would be to spoil it . BY HENRY W. BUNN, HE following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended September 21: y * ok K % THE BRITISH EMPIRE.—It is re- ported .that the British government.is about ‘to send invitations to the gov- ernments of the United States, France, Ttaly and Japan to participate in 2 five- power naval conference to open in Lon- don in the third week of January. The Soviet Russian government has| accepted the proposal by the British government of resumption (in London on September 24) of negotiations look- ing to resumption of Russo-British diplomatic relations, the Russis note, however, reiterating the Russian posi: tion that resumption of diplomatic re- lations shall not be conditioned upon prior assurances by Moscow as to propa- ganda or as to debts. The committee on political questions of the Assembly 3f the League of Na- tions has adopted a report on mandates in which complete confidence i3 ex- pressed in the British manner of han- dll_?'g the Palestinian difficulties. e Britisk government has informed the government of Iraq that it has de- cided to recommend admission of the latter to membership in the League of | Nations in 1932. This means the end of the British mandate for Iraq and presumably a new British-Iraqi treaty, much on the lines of the Anglo-Egypt- ian treaty, recently proposed by the British government; ie., no doubt, pro- vision would be made for retention of of 1926 provided for continuance of the British mandate over Iraq “until 1950 or until such time as Irag should be admitted to the League of Nations.” * ok ok % SPAIN—It is e ted that the Na- tional Assembly will this Autumn act upon the new constitution, the crea- tion . (presumably under closest super- i by the government) of a com- mission "selected from fitself. As the National Assembly is the creation of lone official in charge of sales. At noon, when the office was abruptly closed for the afternoon recess, a num- ber of those who had waited patiently for more than an hour in the hot sun made a rush for the window, forcing two gendarmes to turn them away. A touch of comedy was added by the fail- ure of the postman to open the newly painted Vatican letter box until a lock- smith been summoned. Twenty thousand stamps were sold by the office the first day, indicating that this issue will-not be either rare or valuable for some time to come, even though the stamps be canceled with the first date of issue. The issue itself, however, is strikingly handsome. It contains 15 stamps, printed in 13 colors, 8 of them bearing the portrait of Pope Pius XI and the others the papal insignia of the tiara and golden keys. Values range from 5 centesimi (about Y cent) to 10 lire (about 50 cents). Japan t;» Curb Flow of Korean Laborers Increasing unemployment in Japan has brought the authorities of the home ministry .face to face with the task of limiting’ the number of immigrants ‘who come in search of work. Although not the subject of wide publicity, Japan has an immigration 'm all her own, this being cas by the streams of Korean and Chinese laborers who try to establish themselves here where the wage level is much higher than in their own countries, s Heretofore it has been easy to keep undue numbers of Chinese out, but be- cause the Koreans are Japanese sub- Jects they have had the right to enter | Japan proper at will. The first step in curtailing the forces of Korean immi- 1 grants, however, is about to be taken in . the form of an orcer prohibiting the jentry of any laborers they can show written contracts issued by em- ! ployers in Japan. There are now. nearly 250,000 Korean laborers h . ere. The continued economic slump fol- | " be’adopted everywhere,” 1 order. of the the dictatorial government (not an elected body), it will no doubt approve. The constitution will then be submitted to a national referendum. If accepted by the ple it will be promulgated by royal ree. _Meantime, presumably, the dictator, Primo de Rivera, will carry on. Some say the national ref- erendum will furnish a true indication of the wishes of the people; some say it will be a mendacious formality. As would be the case in most countries, the people will have little precise under- mndlnvfi of the instrument voted on: they will vote approval or disapproval of Primo de Rivera, the most amiable and not the least intelligent of dic- tators, one of the few dictators since Julius Caesar characterized by humor- ous amenity, * ok ok ok ITALY—The present full-fledged mem- bers of the Fascist party total 1,020,000 men and 93,495 women. * The Fascist Grand Council has 52 members. It is understood that Musso- lini contemplates its reorganization so as to concentrate power more effec- tively in a.few hands. Hence forward the chist secretary of the Fasoist party is to be appointed by royal decree, and the other secretaries by decree of the premier, “Fascism,” says the Duce, ique and the only new thing that the first 30 years of this century have seen in the ‘political as well as the social field.” ‘This would tive. the Duce,again. doctrine will eventually have to L This has the old Mussolinian - ring, not. so often heard of late. : ‘The Knights of Malta; few 1 suppose, are aware that the sover ts of Mall lowing the financial panic of 1927, the | ha) drastic retrenchment policy of the new Hamaguchi government and the ap- proachin, letion . of Tokio’s vast meonurufmon program combine to make the unemployment problem - unusually WASHINGTON, D. C., SEPTEMBER' 22, 1929—PART "2. STAR for M. Briand. He prefers to dress gradually, to make a slow transition from night dreams to day . dreams. Especial he prefers to. have the foreign affairs of a nation laid cut vy degrees before him. Interrupting only with a quick “Oui, oul!” a sharp “non, non!” or a brief question, he lets a subofficial draw the international dia- gram—between socks and slippers, shirt and old-style cravat—while he looks at the world of French internatignal poli- cles through a pleasant, detached haze . . . of tobacco smoke and some- thing else. Such is M. Briand—toujours I'nomme de la Boheme, Knew Him in Old Montmartre. In his younger days they knew him well in Montmartre. Not the Mont- martre of the 1929 tourists’ vintage, but the old Montmartre of artists and sing- ers, poets and reporters, youth and youth's extremist ideas. M. Briand was then a young journalist on the staff of the Socialist newspaper La Lanterne, an organ bitterly campaigning against the priests and the church for secularized schools and complete independence of state and church. The extent of his early ardor may be judged by the title of the column which he wrote dalily. It was called “Les Monstres en Soutane"” —“Monsters in Cassock.” What curious irony that the present year should have revealed its author formulating and in- serting .;n the 1929 budget the articles 70 and 71, which precipitated the down- fall of M. Polncare's government of na- tional union in November and which were designed to restore to the clergy certain of the rights which M. Briand in the old days had fought so uncom- promisingly to deprive them of. Sees Clergy in Different Light. But. M. Briand in those days saw the clergy, perhaps with some reason, in an entirely different light from today. ‘Time has taught him both the value of a middle course and the rewards of expediency and less need of compro- mises. Something else he needed far more, and had it, even as_now—the power of a rare eloquence. For it was his golden tongue much more than his swordlike pen which lifted Briand above his fellows at an early age and made of him a marked young man. ‘Those who sprawled with him about a wooden table top in the smoky inte- rior of the Cafe du Croissant knew it well. Did there chance among their number a defender of clericalism, cards and stakes were soon forgotten while the youthful leader in shoddy atti vented his eloquence against les mon- stres en soutane. Here was a realist, a skeptic, but above all an orator. So it was that the young man from Brittany found his place in the Bohemia of the City of Light, tried his spurs and won them, and in due time was rewarded by election to the Chamber of Deputies, where he has been a power ever since. «But la Boheme was in his blood and These many decades now the order, with headquarters at Rome, has de- voted itself to purely charitable func- tions, as at its original institution; one hears with sympathy of a kind of renaissance of the order. The other day President Doumergue of France was pleased to receive its grand cross, and a fascinating exposition illustrative of its history was given a few months ago at the Prench National Library in Paris. Some moonlight night, preferably in a félucca, creep into the narrow harbor of Valletta, past the ancient battle- ments; the world can afford few such | effects of faerie. * K * X TURKEY.—Our feelings toward Tur- key should be tender, because of the many ways in which the new Turkey has done us the honor of imitation. A new Turkish tariff of American altitude is to be instituted on October 1. In many instances the duties will be prac- tically prohibitive. The infant indus- tries are coddled to a fare-you-well. Agricultural machinery, however, will be exempt from duty; good news for our tractor manufacturers. A number of important irrigation projects are in contemplation, of inter- est to American concerns, such as the Foundation Co., which is engaged in important reclamation undertakings in Greece. Xk % UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.— Baltimore has been celebrating the bi- What Makes ‘Briand, /thé, Bohemian i 1 in his heart, as much his life as the forum for which nature had shaped him. The years were to change neufi'rv the one nor the other. Someth! of old Montmartre's laughter and mn-r faire_has clung to nim, from the Cafe du Croissant to the Quai d'Orsay, the old comrades are not forgotten. In fact, one of them—M. Peycelon—he brought with him from the provinces to Montmartre and from Montmartre to the Quai d'Orsay. There M. Peycelon functions in an official capacity of ‘his own, and when the day's work is ended you will find him more often than not seated at a table with his boyhood idol . . . both oblivious to all but -the shifting fortunes of piquet or poker. Does M. Briand again remove his shoe and place it on the table for a “porte- bonheur”? No one knows for a cer- tainty except that inner circle of his, but it is very probable that %e does. During the September League session at Geneva the French foreign minister gave an unusual interview to novupl‘n:' eorrespondents which a shrewd headline writer on_a Paris journal captioned thus: “A Portrait of M. Briand by M. Bl"l‘llld." The self-painted portrait was Not an Tlusionary. “I am not what one might call an illusionary,and I am a man peaceful h. Those who are rather badly disposed toward me say that I am a visionary. Despite all that, I know that I am & man sufficiently persevering. When, by chance, an idea comes to me, I persist in it and I don't let myself be deceived by illusions.” M. Briand's portrait is a true one. Throughout his long public life, when- ever “an idea has come to him” he has persisted in it with the true tenacity of a born Breton, Therein lies the success of his policy of Locarno. It is that which explains the vigor which still typifies his policy of rapprochement with Germany. He is not deceived over the cost—and even less so over the value of what he seeks. During the war M. Briand furnished an example of this stubborn persistence when he inaugurated the cry for allied participation on the Balkan front. Kitchener, Lloyd George and many oth- ers disagreed with Briand at first, fail- ing to believe his arguments that the war would be ended sooner if the Bal- kan allies were reinforced. But in the end M. Briand won and the expedition to Saloniki was organized. Today Jugo- slavia’s.unshakable alliance with Prance probably owes its strength more than | anything else to the deep appreciation of the Serbs for Briand's support in | time of need. Vision and Tenacity Characterized. It is this vision and tenacity which have characterized this Bohemian from his youth, Even at the beginning of his political career he dared to speak of in- Through Eleven Premierships He Has Remained a Bohemian, a Dreamer md Ardfint A And | sit; ternationalism. = Was it, perhaps, the seed of his policy of peace? At least, centenary of its founding. A striking feature of the celebration was a pageant of 61 floats and almost 300 participants, illustrating the foundation and history of the city, the individuals impersonated including Lord Baltimore, Edgar Allen Poe and characters in his works, the Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence and Prancis Scott Key, author of “The Star Spangled Banner.” On _September 14 Willlam Tilden for the seventh time won the national am- ateur tennis singles championship, thus equalling the record of Richard D. Sears and that of William A. Larned. He beat Francis Hunter in the final at For- est Hills, the match going to five sets. | Tilden was champion from 1920 to | 1925, was beaten in 1926 and again in 11927 by Lacoste of France and did not | contend in 1928, Cochet of France win- |ning the title that year by heating | Hunter in the final. This year, for the tenth successive year, Tilden is ranked as the leading American tennis player. ‘The Philadelphia Athletics have clinched this year’s title in the Amer- |ican League (base ball), and the Chi- cago Cubs have achieved a like primacy in the National League. Six hundred and ninety-eight lives were lost in automobile accidents in New York City in the first seven months of 1929, as against 589 during the cor- responding period of 1928. * K % % ‘THE LEAGUE ASSEMBLY.—The As- sembly has unanimously voted accept- a Job Good? BY BRUCE BARTON. NE morning the elevator starter was breaking in a new elevator boy. At noon the new boy was running the alone. had on a uniform, and w ing and stopping with the con- fidence of a veteran. From apprentice sional in a couple of hours. What thoughts are that young fellow’s head as he re. i nstructions from the gray-haired veteran? How can he fail to look for- ward and see in the older man a picture of himself 20 years from taking up a low paid job —a job with no future. Twenty years from now he be just e he is today—only older, p on the job some H is experience that any other man can gain in a couple of days. He m force an the increa Why? Because he learned the job in two days. And in any other two days the company can find plenty of men who will learn just as fast and take the job away » from time to time, crease in his pay. But will not be lacge. Recently | met -in a hotel restaurant a friend of mine who just ‘come ‘back from Eng- For 10 of tho: has been in ‘medic: Fourteen long years of hard, uninterrupted study. Years made more difficult by the ne- cessity for ‘self-support; filled sometimes with question- ings, as he has seen his college cians, and he lingering still in school. as acquired .a training such ae only a few other thousands. Fourteen years of inte the mastery of sion. - But he need have no of losing what he has No other man can displace except at the cost of 14 yi work. 1 would not say one word in depreciation of honest toil in humble places The . routine of life must be carried the. world . has n . of elevator men and . motormen. according to the loyalty and do work, they are entitled to the world's titude and respect. - My quarrel is not with the slevator boy who cannot be thing but an elevator boy; blit with the boy who might fill a larger place in life if only he were not too lazy to try. | would see every young man filled, if pos le, with a divine discontent, which would make him ‘unwil his very best. “The gods sell “anything to everybody at a fair price,” said him, s of busine 4 S THe job that the gods sell’ for two hours’ training is worth just what it costs. t Only that job is worth much which has tied to it the price, tag of constant, unceasing study (Copyright, 1929.) - postle of Peace l it was the forerunner of that ides, and | by the end of the war M. Briand’s “policy of Locarno” had so taken shape t he was musing through half-closed evelids a8 to how it could be applied. Already he was convinced of its neces- Y. As early as the Cannes conference, Briand djsclosed to one of his intimate friends that the proposed security pact ‘with QGreat Britain, which he had dis- cussed there, in his mind skould be- come within a reasonably short time a general European security pact. With that idea in Nind be convoked the dis- appointing Ganoa conference. And when M. Briand returned to power four years Iater his puvpose was unchanged. e was 3¢ady to take things up where they Zad been left off. Some Speak Bitterly of Him. ‘There are those who speak bitterly of Briandian expediency, of his political adroltness and souplesse, But here was a statesmanlike courage which no other statesman in France possessed at that hour. Only three years after the war, in a country still bitter and more dis- illusioned than ever, it was Briand who dared speak of making an agreement on a basis of equality with Germany. He, too, who talked of recognition of the Soviet, regardless of the fact that no great government at that time had recognized Moscow. It is a_ curious fact that Briand, dreamer though he is, from his very youth has rubbed elbows with realities. That more than anything else explains his great sense of reality, which is quite as pronounced as his attributes of a visionary. There are many men in French life of far more practical tem- perament than the farmer-statesman of Cocherel, but who, politically, are much less practical than Briand is. M. Poin- care, the most practical minded of them all, in a political pinch drifts away from realities, frequently misses his oppor- tunities. In & similar situation it is Briand, flagrant Utoplan and dreamer, who is the true realist, with both feet solidly on the ground of po- litical expediency. Thus it may be said that all M. Briand's policles have been based on facts. Not statistics, not collected data, heaven knows, for the apostle of Lo- carno shuns tabulated facts and figures alike. M. Poincare may devour them— and does. M. Briand spews them out. It has often been said that he never | read the Versailles treaty. Briand's; facts are men and a bull’s-eye knowledge of their motives and inspirations. 0 him the important fact is not how many marks to a decimal point 60,000,000 Germans can pay. The important thing is how 60,000,000 Germans feel, and why. Knowledge of men. clarity of vision to the desired end—these are the great characteristics ' of France’s only truly great minister of foreign affa The: (Continued on PFourth Pa; ance of the proposed amendment of the | World Court statute which embodies the reservations attached to our Senate's resolution of adhesion to the ‘statute. A resolution before the Assembly, sub- ml|wed‘by a membetr“ l;( - ‘:)hemuemm delegation, proposes the following: The governments so desiring, whether or not members of the League, negotiate | with a view to convoking by the| League Council gt the earliest con- | venience date (late in January recom- mended) ‘of & conféerence to “frame the first collective agreement for develop- ing and facilitatipg economic relations by all practicable means, especially by lowering tariff barriers and reducing hindrances to trade,” the states par- ticipating in thesconference to pledge themselves to make no increase in their protective duties over two or three years (as determined by the Assembly) and not to “impose new protective duties or create, new impediments to trade” over the w! period. Moreover, (and note this ‘Well, gentlemen by the Potomac), the resolution declares that the hoped-for conference agreement should not contain a most favored na- tion clause. (In other words, & country outside' the agreement could not, without reciprocity, profit by re- ductions of tariffs resulting from the agreement.) The invitation would be general: but participation in the conference by other than Europeanstates is scarcely con- templated. . It is seen how the resolution meshes in with idea of "an economic united states of Europe and how realization of its pi might furnish a gauge of the practicability of the latter. The British. delegation has submitted to the ly a resolution embody- ing instructions for the preparatory disarmament commission, the which resolution reads in part as follows: “The Assembly considers that in com- pléting a draft disarmament convention the preparatory commission should con- sider how far the following principle has been or ought to be adopted—Ilimi- tation of the strength of a force either by limiting its numbers or its period of training or both.” It is seen that this resolution opens the question of trained land reserves. It will be recalled that the Baldwin government assured Paris that its rep- resentatives on the preparatory com- mission would co-operate with the Prench representatives in opposing con- sideration of this question by the com- mission. By the resolution the British Labor government, in effect, an- nounces that it is not bound by the attitude or assurances (not embodied in treaty form) of its predecessor respect- ing disarmament questions. Here is & new source of refrigeration in the rela- tions between France and Great Brit- ain.’ 4 furious fight over the resolution is being waged in the disarmament committee of the Assembly, and it is unlikely that it will be reported out. However, there is nothing to prevent the raising of the issue of trained land reserves at the disarmament confer- ence, if the long-postponed meeling should ever take place. ‘The present indication is that the resolution proposing financial aid by member states of the League to & mem- ber state which should be a victim of aggression, will not emerge during this session_from the disarmament commit- tee, in which it is being earnestly de- Delegates to the Assembly of the Irish Free State have signed the “op- tional clause” of the World Court proto- col with only one trifiing reservation. On September 19 the delegates of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa and India signed it with a “common formula” of reservations. For reasons not made public Canada delays to sign; the failure of Australia to sign is explainable by the Australian politi- cal crisis, The common formula of reservations includes the have cognizance following: '(A) The kc:urltn not’ . e of “disput regard ques| ‘which by international law fall exclu- sively within the jurisdiction of the British commonwealth of nations.” This seems to refer to the court the declsioft . ( ps partly expl - xre of the Australian delegates to sign. ustralia being unwilling that any que tion relating to immi tion into that country. come before the court.) -_(b). The court not. to have coghizance tes within the British common- of dispu ‘wealth of nations. “"¢e) The court not to have cognizance of “disputes which may have arisen previous fo ratification of the clause, of 3 'WOMANMOVEMENTIN INDIA IS STILL IN ITS INFANCY iLack of Genuine Understanfliing Betwéen British and Indian 'Sis:ters Creates BY MICHAEL PYM. ELHIL—The woman movement in India is in its infancy, and the women themselves are al- most an, unknown quantity. ‘To the vast majority of the British in India they are a sealed book. It is only very, very rarely that an Eng- lishwoman and an Indian woman can be really friends in that intimate sense which' brings with it genuine under- standing and knowledge of each other. ‘The barrier between women of the two races should be less, but it is in fact even greater than that between the men. Nor would it be entirely fair to lay the blame for this wholly on either sid It is true that the average English- woman in India, by reason of her lim- ited education and the narrowness of her outlook, is not well fitted to mix with or to understand foreigners of any race. Ignorant of Indian Tongue. She is not, as a general rule, what the French call a “mondaine,” used tc cosmopolitan society. The average Englishwoman in India is usually a good middle-class suburban product, whose entity remains intact, with its prejudices enhanced, if anything, by the isolated circle of similar people in which she finds herself. I have met women, wives of important officials, who, after 20 years or more in India, have told me with pride that they could not speak & word of any Indian lan- guage. Among such women ignorance of Indian history and customs is colossal. ‘The wives of the highest officials in India often are genuinely sympathetic and anxious to help their Indian sis- ters. But all the pressure of the com- munity is the other way. Even in Delhi, for instance, I heard myself se- verely criticized by the wife of a gen- eral for “being seen about too much with Indians,” who were, of course, women. In another place I was mosi bitterly attacked and ostracized by the women of the British community for living in an Indian house. Indian Women Sensitive. On the other hand, the majority of | Indian women of the upper classes are | still to a very great extent in purdah.; Barrier. formally announced, and Mrs. Besant states definitely that ftnis == Z3ike the opening of the women's age. ‘Women'’s Conference Launched. What influence the Theosophical So- ciety may have lost among the men it quite evidently hopes to make up among women. The object of attack is social custom, because in India women are shackled by social “ustoms and tra- ditions rather than by actual religious precepts or civil and political disabili- ties. In one sense this makes the fight somewhat more difficult, in an- other much easier than that of West- ern ‘women, ‘because, ultimately, the is- sue lies in their own hands. About three years ago a new body came into existence—the All-Indis Women'’s Conference on Educational Re- form. It has constituent conferences with standing committees in every province, sometimes more than one to & province, and comprises most of the educational leaders of all races and ereeds in India. It meets annually to discuss the educational needs of women and to map out work for the following year. Fifty delegates attended the first meeting in Poona in 1927, 200 came to the second in Delhi in 1928 and as many or more to the third meeting in Patna this year. At the Delhi meeting Mrs. Kamaledavi Chattopadhyaya was organizing secre- tary, a position she still holds. Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, was chairman; the dowager Begum of Bhopal, president. Besides them . s number of princesses were present. It was at this conference that the first indications of an attempt to swing the organization politically were observable. Question of Purdah Avoided. The conference, being definitely non- political, centered its attention on | purely educational subjects to such an extent that even the question of purdah was not discussed. Arriving one morn- ing at the sessions hall, the delegates received handbills informing them of certain resolutions to be considered at a session -to be held that afternoon in their convention hall. These resolutions dealt with social reform and included such things as boycott of British goods. The handbills contained no indication | as to what organization sponsored this session, or that it was not a part of the Many of them speak no English. They are sensitive and shy. They do nct| approve of nor understand the social | customs of the English, whom they | find too often most unadaptable as far | as they themselves are concerned. The | mere matter of entertaining is extreme- | ly difficult, because it means providing | special food and special cooking for the | English visitor, who usually has & prejudice against Indian food. ‘The Indian woman is afraid of being perfectly natural because she fears | that the Englishwoman will not un- derstand. She is afraid to cultivate her too much because she knows per- fectly well that the Englishwoman, wife of an official, probably will s pect some ulterior motive. The En lishwoman, on her part, is not unjus- | tified in, 'this suspicion because the | sort who makes a point of cultivating the British socially only too often.does so with an ulterior motive. | Under these circumstances it is clear that doctors and missionaries are the | women who come most closely in con- | tact with Indians. But they have a specific job, which keeps them fully | occupied. Their contact, moreover, i mainly with certain classes, viewed from a definite angle. Thus Indian women, who are the atest influence in Indis, are the } least known and the least in contact with outside influence. ~ Nor do the women they know, women of their own | race, who have adopted “Western pro- | gressive standards” always prove re- assuring. When Western women paint | | their faces and become public dancers { the Indian woman, shocked and scorn- | ful, attributes her conduct to the effect | conference program. The conference had hitherto been holding all-day ses- sions in this place. Protests and inquiries finally elicited the fact, announced somewhat reluc- tantly by certain members of the com- mittee, that the session had nothing whatever to do with the - conference, but was sponsored and organized by & somewhat hastily formed “Social Re- form League,” of which but little has since been heard. This league had | been formed by certain members of the conference committee, who also con- trived to postpone the usual afternoon session of the conference 50 as to hold their own meeting in.such a way as to make it appear part of the proceed- ings of the conference, for whose dele- gates No other program Was arr: Social Reform Taken Up. As propaganda and also as a means of trapping the delegates into making it appear that that conference Wwas deeply in sympathy with the Congress party’s program, which would have damned it among the British and put it well into the hands of the Swaraj- | ists, the move was clever. | This year the conference met in Pat- | na, which is eight or nine hours from | Calcutta. The meeting was timed to | follow immediately the apnial meeting {of the Congress party and another mixed social reform conference. It was presided over by the Dowager Rani of Manadi, who was exiled from her state years ago for complicity in the Har- dir.ge bomb plot. No other princesses wete present. After a bitter fight the activities of the conference were e€x- of Western civilization. | tended to include social reform. Two A Maharani who passes her time abroad hunting, dancing, drinking, gi ing parties, is not viewed with admira- | th some pity, by the vast mass of Indian women, many of whom, | even if they do not speak English, may ‘be highly cultured, from an Oriental standpoint, able to speak two or three Eastern languages, well read in poetry and increasingly anxious for the wel- fare of their sisters. Scores of women who are not out of purdah often are so completely accepted that they are lit- | erally forgotten when scandalous ex- ceptions are disct L Neverthless, the desire for education, emancipation from social disabilities and the idea of taking part to some extent in public work is rapidly increas. ing among Indian women. The desire has come to stay. There are a num- ber of organized woman bodies dealing with problems of education, social wel- fare, etc. In these bodies the line of cleavage between the two races is rather marked at times, as, for instance. the Chelmsford League and others of that kind, which, although entirely British controlled and British staffed, are financed with Indian money con- sributed by the princes and rich indi- iduals. ‘Theosophists Active. As far as I have been able to ascer- | tain there is no such thing as feminine ‘membership in the secret terrorist or- | ganizations, nor any feminine organi- zation of that kind. The most widely known woman terrorists—the once prominent Mme. Cama and Agnes Smedley, the wife of Chattopadhala and sister-in-law of Sarojini Naidu—are abroad. Mme. Cama for a time was leader in the Paris circle,“which moved to Switzerland and eventually was ab- sorbed by Berlin. Nevertheless, cerfain maneuvers are taking place in India with & view to capturing the nascent woman’s movement so. as to swing it to_the revolutionary side. Until fairly recently the largest and most_well organized Indfan body was the Indian Woman's Association, of which Mrs. Annie Besant is honorary president and whose officers are prac- tically all Madrassi Theosophists. ~Mrs. Besant has long foreseen and esti- mated the vital importance of the woman movement. Theosophist schools for Hindu girls are spread over the country. A “world mother” has been disputes in which the parties agree to use other means of settlement, of dis- putes which have been submitted to the League Council, and of disputes re- quiring reciprocity the ratification.” France and Italy signed for 5 years; Peru, have signed the optional clause with reservations as per (C) above. France and Italy signed for five years: Czechoslovakia and Peru for 10 and the Irish Free State for 20; Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa and India for 10 years with the provision that, if before the expiration of that term the clause had not been denounced ll:'ydl!, it l'oll‘ld eont{lnue'u: be bll‘l'dnll\l efinitely for each of s tores. ‘These details seems to be im- portant. * ok K K NOTES — The Lithuanian cabinet, headed by Prof, Waldemaras, ‘has re- signed. Waldemaras had been premier since December, 1926. He had a_hectic time of it. One heard with curious interest that of Europe), now y. have become converts to. Roman ‘Catholicism, al:e new Amn;’;)( M,h-mnm;}.' Hlb:; liah, the “wa bd!v'»nmhh gree! the announcement with satisfaction. conversion is said to be the work ‘s Jesuit priest. jence sisted irn committees were elected, one for educa- | tion, the other for social questions. At the same time a determined effort was made by the more extremist women | to gain complete control of the national education fund, which had been in- augurated at the previous conference in the presence of the vicerein. and in | Which Lady Irwin has since taken an active interest. - Progressives Disappointed. In any other country the question of social reform would non-partisan, | and in that sense non-political, Unfor- | tunately, it must be admitted that | owing 1o & mistaken policy on the part | of the British, this is not s0 in India. The British shibboleth of non-ifiterfer- ence with religious customs and of & secular government has resulted to ® | very great extent in paralyzing the so- | promptly been given l’e"lkl:n ‘when attacked. Under the reforms the government has come to depend upon orthodox mi- norities for its support, and these are precisely the people who oppose social reform, while the Swarajists, seeing the obvious points of the situation. pose as champions of the various movements. The- more the government finds itself unable to support various worthy move- | ments, the more antagonistic and dis- appointed the progressive elements in the country become. For instance, the child marriage bill has done much to alienate educated ‘women from the government. For years bills to put down this evil have been pressed by Sir Hari Singh Gour and Ral Bahadur Har Bilas Sarda. Four years -m't.fm::hlfmm' the vernment aj allo ‘\‘3 remain neutral during voting on the question. But when it was realized that '!.he bill under these circumstances would pass easily, the government with many regrets withdrew its promise. The bill Was defeated. British Out-Maneuvered. In 1927 & deputation of women from ithe Educational Conference petitioned the viceroy personally to press his gov- ernment to remain neutral in this ques- tion. ~ The bill, sponsored by Har Bilas Sarda, was kept in committee while a { committee was sent through the coun- try by the government to collect evi- dence and opinion. Meanwhile the ‘small independent Moslem party. led by | Sir Zulfigar Ali Khan and Haji Seth Haroun, committeed itself to a public 'mmuesw against the bill, charging in- | terference with religious custom. As {the child marriage question does not concern them in any way, it was appar- ent that this maneuver was purely a | shady political deal. - Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the feeling of the or- ganized women tend more and more to distrust and dislike the government. As the organizing secretary of the confer- speech in one of the provinces, “We ready to fight the government to get what we want.” ‘Women Talk Revolt. And on another occasion: “Women must learn to revolt, rebel and fight,” and, if need be, break up the home and -turn herself out for a principle. So let us work, live and die for the revoflwss ” If the chilé. marriage mis Is agaZs de- feated, the riore advanced women seri- ously contemnplate direct, militant ac- tion. Whether in the end it wi lead to more than a very few women joming in purely political revolutionary move- ments is another question. But it is perfectly evident that today the politi- cal sympathies of the women are still |in the balance, tending, however, more and to toward the anti- | Britishe "side, whence the majority of their miore active leaders éome.