Evening Star Newspaper, November 17, 1929, Page 47

PSYCHOSES RECOGNIZED AS WORLD WAR WOUND Veterans’ Bureau Strives to Aid Those . Whose Minds Are Disabled to Adjust Themselves. BY THOM. R. HENRY. N the days of the great war men moved through the world in clouds of fears, hates, exaggera- tions and exaltations. Everybody may have been a trifle psychopathic. Everybody saw things in distorting perspectives. It was an in- terlude of disordered dreams—a period of hallucinations of great blonde beasts and of black pterodactyls belching smoke. Eleven years have passed. Most of the world has been restored to normal perspectives on things as they are. It never lost entirely its contacts with reality. It is absorbed once more in its routine, 'peacetime tasks. The inci dents of war days are dimming memo- ries. But the war plunged many individuals deeper in the clouds than their fellows —far deeper and beyond the bounds of reality altogether. Thousands of them still are lost there, unable to find their way out again into the sunlit world of things as they are. ‘The Armistice anniversary found ap- proximately 13,000 of them scattered in institutions throughout the country, in- cluding more than 300 at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital here. These are the psychi- atric cases—the “mad men” left behind by the receding tide of war. They con- stitute one of the most pathetic of all | the aftermaths of that interlude of | world madness. The cases range all | the way from disabling *nervous dis- orders to extreme functional psychoses from which the prognosis is extremely dubious. Adjustment Problem Complicated. ‘When the U. S. Veterans' Bureau took over the care of those. disabled in the service one of the major purposes was to help them adjust to the world they must live in so that they could be inde- pendent and self respecting. The prob- lem was complicated enough for those disabled with physical wounds which rendered their bodies less efficient ma- chines. But these men thought and reacted in comprehensible ‘ways. It was far more difficult to work out ad- Jjustments for those whose minds were affected—who could not think and re- act as others did. The Bureau still is working on this problem. It recognizes the psychoses as wounds of war, just as much as bul- let or bayonet wounds or disablement resulting from disease contracted in the service, Perhaps these mental wounds were the deepest and most terrible of all. A man can be given a new arm or new leg, a new nose or a new chin. But he cannot be given a new brain. Nobody has yet found the secret of restoring nervous tissue. Recognizing the insane as truly victims of the war, the policy has been from the first to work out adjustments for them so that they can live hlpglly, ‘This effort never ceases, even when the individual apparently is beyond all hope. The varjous psychoses resulting from the war, it is explained at the Veterans' Bureau, smblhly originated in difficul- ties of adjustment. Profound Changes Demanded. ‘The great war tore hundreds of thou- sands violently from the adjustments they had made. It demanded profound changes in the psychical patterns into which they had become fitted. It de- manded of the extreme individualist the subordination of individuality to an un- comfortable, and sometimes unendur- able, degree. It required of the weak- ling, to whom kindness and coddling had become necessities, and adjustment to the discomforts of inattention and harshness. It required—most of the adjustment of the individuality's inborn drive for its own survival with the prospect of extinction. These requirements, for a new adjust- | 9 ment cut through [ levels of soclety. ‘The draft took the boy from the moun- tain farm—independent, deeply religious, unlettered and adjusted to a very simple routine of daily tasks and a very limited #ocial circle of folks thinking precisely as he f thought—and forced him to adjust to the profanity, crudeness, harshness and cosmopolitanism of the Army cantonment. It took the moron fron: the factory, where he had an al- most perfect adjustment in the doing of one simple task automatically minute after minute and year after year, and confronted him with complicated re- quirements which taxed his feeble men- tality to the utmost. It took the high- spirted youth from the foot ball field and the college classroom. from which he had surveyed the world with an ex- alted, if not altogether unjustified, idea of his own importance, and forced him to demean himself, at least 50 it seemed to him, before men whom he consid- ered greatly his inferiors. In fact, it took men still in the formative years of their characters and personalities from all levels of living and made them all adjust to a common level. For some it was too high. For others it was too low. For some it was too complicated. For others it was too simple. Transition Difficult. Even for men in the Regular Armv, both officers and enlisted soldiers, the transition from the adjustment to the gomparatively simple, comfortable, mo- notonous routine of ‘the military post to the tumultuous, dangerous activities of the battlefield was difficult. It was no simple change from polishing boots or conducting military ceremonials over familiar fields to facing bayonets in rain-drenched darkness. * ‘These adjustments all were difficult. It required a certain balance of intelli- gence and character with past-and pres- ent circumstances to make them. Few fitted naturally into the war environ- ment. It necessitated a struggle to act in an approved fashion so differently from the way cne was accustomed Lo act. For example, the normal reaction of most men to a “cussing out” for no| particular reason is physical resistance or a return of the same kind of cussing. 1In the new environment they only coul respond with respectable “yes sirs while they stood at attention. normal reaction to machine gun bullets raining across a fleld is to get safely | out of the way as soon as possible. the new environment the response Te- quired was to go forward into the| Jeaden rain—a response refuiring the subjugation of the strongest drive of nature, that for preservation of the self. Everything Topsy-Turvy. Everything was topsy-turvy. And everybody had to adjust in some way. The wonder is that such a vast ma- jority in all the armies made the sort of adjustment approved by society. A more titanic struggle than that which swayed back and forth over the shell- torn fields and forests of Northern France took place in the souls of men, & | struggle which had no witnesses and had no historians. There were various ways of making the approved adjustments. The man who found it hard to submit to dis- cipline in training camp could steel himself to endure it, if he possessed the strength of character, as an unpleasant necessity. Or he might submit with Yeservations, vowing revenge as soon as he got out of the Army. Then again, he might let matters drift, having ro particular convictions, until he became accustomed to the new order. Or he might develop a machoistic reaction, actually taking pleasure in pain offered on_the altar of patriotism. But_there were still other adjustments possible, depending on the make-up of the individual. For example, he could become sick and exchange the harsh- noss of the camp,for the ease, comfort ond attention of the hospital. If he could contract some ailment requiring !:d;onxed hospital treatment the prob- m of adjustment would be setiled In |t | satisfactorily. Now some people, if they want to be sick badly enough, have their wishes gratified. Sicknesses al- ways are coming advertently. Functional Sickness. This does not mean that they are “shammed.” The individual really is sick. The sickness may take a form astonishingly like that of some organic disease. Functional sickness remains one of the most obscure and difficult problems the physician has to face. This was the mechanism of some of the war neuroses. Many of them were classed at the time, especially if they came under fire, as “shell-shock.” This came to be regarded by the general public as_a specific form of nervous malady. It came to include the func- tional sickness, the abnormal fears and obsessicns, and the curious mental be- havior which seemed to result from the stresses of danger and action. The term has long since been in dis favor with Veterans’ Bureadl doctors. It is believed to have no meaning, so spe- cific syndrome. It was supposed at first to indicate injury to the nervous sys- tem by shell-fire. The facts were that there were about as many cases in training camp which might have becn classified as “shell-shock” as in the front lines. It merely indicated a grea® variety of abnormal reactions to diffi- culties, The great majority of these cases cleared up when the victims were taken out of the circumstances wpich gave rise to them and given a liftle treat- ment. These were the neuroses, in which the patient never lost touch -en- tirely with the reality cf things. But there were thousands of other cases which, from the very nature of the Individuals, displayed extremenly abnor- mal adjustments which could not be corrected. These were the psychoses. The victims had tendencies in that di- rection before they entered the service. But in familiar environments, where they were not subject to violent strainc and stresses, the mental difficulties might never have been precipitated or have been delayed for years. ‘War“Tlastened Conditions. The tumult of war brought to the service these tenden -ies to abnormal re- action. They might have come any- way, but the changed conditions has- tened and extggerated them. It is pos- sible that fundamentally they were in- evitable from some peculiarity in the physical structure of the individual. It is these individuals who now con- stitute, 11 years after the armistice, the pa‘hetic legion of lost minds, The army camps took men at an age when one of the most dread: of psychiatric conditions, dementia, precox. is most likely to become manifest. Con- sequently the great majority of the in- sane veterans now are suffering from some form of that classification. Very little is known about its causes or the proper treatment. The Veterans' Bu- reau considers it of so much importance that a special study of its etiology, to continue two or three years, has been started. This will be exhaustive. Pres- ent plans call for Several hundred dif- ferent examinations of every patient to give complete data on heredity, physical condition, intelligence, personality, physical type and environmental factors at all stages of life from infancy up- ward. ‘Meanwhile the dementia precox are not considered entirely hopeless and even at St. Elizabeth’s, where treatment is handicapped by the fact that most of the patients are in an advanced stage of the condition before they are sent there, a considerable number go out greatly improved if not entirely cured. But there is no set treatment. Psychotherapy has sccomplished won- ers in some cases where physicians could establish contact with the real difficulties presumably responsible for the condition. Must Interest Patient. ‘This disease takes the form of a sort | of progressive degeneration, a slipping bacgwlrd to lower and lower levels with less and less capability of adjusting to reality. The first consideration is to arrest this process by getting the patient BY JAMES E. ABBE. HAVE recently been to Cuba in my wanderings about the world as a “tramp photographer,” and that little republic—where Americans go each Winter by the thousands to drink in the warm sun and the forelgn atmosphere and possibly a little of the foreign beverages—is all worked up. For a long time Americans have held up Cuba as “Exhibit A" to prove that {our country has never had any pred- atory intentions toward the various little nations clustered around her feet. We could, they say, have easily annexed this island, “but did not. Instead, benevolent Uncle Sam took down-af the-heels Cuba, washed her behind the ears, taught her the benefits to be de- rived from plumbing, sent her to school, established the schools, dressed her nup like a millionaire’s child and then not only gave her independence, but lav- ished on her vast amounts of tourist money and what not. “Look,” they say, “at the millions of dollars American tourists “leave each year in Cuba! Staggering! staggering!"” “All very true,” “Americans do money down here. But where do they leave it? In the hands of other Amer- icans!” My Cuban friends say that now, 28 years after she was freed, the island practically belongs to Uncle Sam. They don’t seem’ to object to this so much; what they are all worked up about is that Uncle Sam is again preparing to slam the tariff door in Cuba's face. And they say that if the higher rates on sugar go through, not only will the Cubans themselves suffer, but things won't be so good for the American dol- lars (800,000,000 of them) invested in Cuban sugar, nor for the millions more invested in other Cuban enterprises. The Place Is Ours, You can’t wander around Cuba for even a short time, as I have, without realizing that the Cubans are right on one point at least: We have moved into the place and taken possession. The Americans own all the big hotels, ‘The $25 per day which the visitor from the United States pays for his or her comparatively modest room and bath, plus the price of three square meals and the customary all-night cabaret fees, all go into the hands of American proprietors. We also own the street railways, the railroads, the taxicabs, the sight-seeing cars, the airplanes and the steamboats. Sugar, of course, is the big .source ot Cuba's income, but it seems that the sugar plantations are mestly owned and operated by Ameri- can interests. ‘Tobacco growing and the manifac- ture of cigars are, strange as it moy seem, in Cuban hands, but one hears that the tobacco planters and manu- facturers. depend to a considerable ex- tent upon American banks to keep them financed. And I forgot to add that the Cuban banks are branches of our very best American institutions. Also, dur- ing the last decade, Americans have gotten to be great cigarette smokers, and no longer relish the wonderful Havana say the Cubans. interested in something real. Much is accomplished in the occupational ther- apy shops where the patients work at simple tasks which require, however, more than automatic motions. In many cases the deterioration can be stopped altogether. In others it can be greatly slowed down. i In the meantime hope is held out to everybody. No war damage is looked upon as irreparable. It is at least pos- sible to remedy the physical condition and every patient is given a thorough physical examination. Sometimes when 1oci of infection are cleared up and the victim's bedy restored more closely to northal there is a decided mental im- provement. But the physical basis of the malady, if it exists, remains un- nown. St. Elizabeth’s gets, for the most glrt. only advanced cases which have been classified as true peychoses. There are a great many neuroses resulting from the war scattered in hospitals through- out the country or at large and maxk- ing imperfect adjustments. Such cases present_continual difficulties. pa- tients often are difficult to deal with, de- manding unreasonable provisions and misrepresenting their treatment. A few years ago short shrift might have been made of them. But now no sufferers from the war get more patient and kindly attenticn even from those they abuse the worst. For the Veterans' Bureau takes the po- sition that they are war casualties just as much as men who lost arms or legs. It will continue to help them to ad. just until the adjustment is satisfac- torily accomplished. South Africal; Mines Threaten to Shut Down | There is considerable anxiety on the Witwatersrand over the possibility that some of the lower-grade gold mines may have to close. It is just announced t New Kleinfontein at Benoni, which employs 2,000 whites and nearly 30,000 natives, will have to cease operations | unless the government will come to the | rescue by reducing the taxation on the property. This mine has been in oper- ation for 33 years and has ylelded over | 7.000,000 in’gold. 1t still holds many millions but the cost of working has | becomeprohibitive as the levels have | gone deeper. The mine pays nearly { $1,000,000 yearly in phthisis compensa- | tion, and the veople of the town of | Benoni have petitioned the government | to relieve the mine of this burden. Governor General Bags Six Lions While Hunting South Africa’s governor general, the Earl of Athlone, member of the British royal family, bagged six lions on a hunting_expedition in northern Rho- desia. He was accompanied by his wife, | Princess Alice, and his_sister-in-law, |Lady May Cambridge. The vice regai | party _found a wonderland of big game a few miles to the north of Livingstone, and had they been out to kill for the sake of killing, the bag would have been enormous. One day the governor gen- | rhinoceros and & young rhino. He has roved himéelf an excellent shot in ndia and elsewhere, and on this occa- sion he wasted no time. With one well- The S BY HENRY W. BUNN. The following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended November 16. GREAT BRITAIN —Sir Ronald Lind- say has been designated to succeed Sir Esme Howard as British Ambassa- dor to the United States. Sir Ronald is now permanent undersecretary -of state for foreign affairs and chief of the foreign office. His diplomatic ex- perience is very great. He entered the diplomatic service in 1898. He has served at St. Petersburg, Teheran, Paris and The Hague, and has been Ambas- sador to Turkey and Germany. He is the fifth son of the twenty-sixth Earl of Crawford and is 52 years old. He knows his Washington, having served several years on the British embassy staff here, and his wife is an Ameri- can. It is thought he will assume his new post early in February. Sir Esmond Ovey, formerly Ambas- sador to Brazil, is to be the new Ambas- sador to Russia. SR & FRANCE.—TI reported last week that Tardieu’s new government received & vote of confidence by a majority of 71. The figure was actually 79. Right parties voted solidly for the gov- ernment. Of the Left Centre parties, some 6 members voted against the gov- ernment and 11 abstained, the rest voting for the government. Of the 125 Radical Soclalists, 109 voted against the government and 16 either voted for the government or abstained. Of the many groups in the Chamber only the JIndependent Socialists and the Com- munists voted solidly agamnst the gov- ernment. The conciliation of the in- transigeant 17 members of the Right was undoubtedly due to the finesse and cold reasoning of Tardleu to the eloquence of Briand should be ascribed the de- fections from the Radical Socialist ranks; while the two share in the honor of holding the Center. A handsome majority; achieved by a sort of wiz- and how long? We are informed that, despite a recent statement to the French Cham- ber, the implication of which scemed to be somewhat different (perhaps it was not accurately reported), Premier Tardieu has given assurances that, provided the German plebiscite of De- cember 22 favors the Young plan and provided commercialization of German reparations bonds has been started be- i the Rhineland will be completely evl:ulud of French troops by June 30 next. i SPAIN —Here, after a long interval, is an important item from Erlln. Primo de Rivera, Marques de Estella, is the most amene of dictators; in respect of his humorous amenity, he is Caesar- jan. But it is a type that lends itself to misconstruction; enemies are apt to mistake courtesy and forbearance for weakness. The time comes when it is necessary to bring them up with a round turn. That time seems to have com> with Primo de Rivera. Not that he is showing his teeth; a Caesarian never shows his teeth, None the less he is unmistakably intimating that he is boss of the show; he is tell- ing the critics of and agitaiors against the dictatorship “where to get off.” He fssues a communique announcing aimed bullet he brought down the big fellow, and he would have spared the little one had it not foolishly worr: the party by making frantic cifarges. important changes of policy. He calls a halt to the “march toward normality.” conven! f the “National Con- B e I the final’ yuan, Yen's capital in sultative Assembly” to put Simply | leave large sums of | ‘The four | ardry. How muc hof it can be held | | | CUBA'S NEW $15,000,000 CAPITOL, cigars that are rolled by Cuban hands (or is it by American machinery?). Cuban cigarettes are great when e becomes accustomed to them, but visii- ing Americans rarely remain long enough in Cuba to acquire the taste; so they buy American brands sold iu American shops. Cuba has its own currency: that is, T should say, it has its own silver specie. (The smaller denominations are really not silver, but there is no point in bringing that up.) Dollar bills, how- ever, and@ll bank notes of larger de- nominations are none other than our own perfectly good yellow and green bits of paper, printed in Philadelphia or Washington, or wherever it is we print | our currency. The value of the Cuban | dollar doesn't fluctuate and cause | Cubans uneasiness for the very simple | reason it is good old American money. Besides, the Cubans don't handle much of this money anyhow, except in tips ‘This is one item (I admit this in order to be perfectly fair to the Americans) that still goes to native-born Cubans. Most of the waiters, chambermaids, taxi drivers and flunkeys at large are Cubans. However, most of the barkeeps, who rather top the list in the matter of receiving tips, are cld veterans of bars that were legitimate back in_the days before prohibition struck Broadwa: Chestnut street and Pennsylvanla ave- nyue. Their honest, Irich faces guaran- tee their unwillingness to continue in the American speakeasies of today. Shoe-Shining Is Industry. The American visitor is not an hour | in Hanava before he realizes that one | of the big industries of Cuba is shining shoes. The cool, porticoed sidewalks are literally lined with shoe-shine chairs, where perspiring bootblacks | itically free. massage the recumbent feet of those who sit as if cn an elongated reviewing tory the touches on the draft of the proposed new constitution is postponed to next year. A “new plan of action” is hinted at; interpreted by as importing drastic departure from the constitu- tional scheme as so far formulated. At a dinner of bigwigs of the Patri- otic Union (the new party formed by him which bears a distant Hispanic re- semblance to the Italian Fascist Party) he unwontedly gives himself a loose, almost in Hercules' vein; there is even a suggestion of the indomitable one, a | Mussolinian bouquet. “When the bul- lets be‘l.n to sing,” observes his excel- lency, ™I feel in my element, I am braced for action. You gentlemen of the Patriotic Union must take a more prominent part in the life of the nation, because peacefulness and cordiality are being mistaken for weakness and slack- ness. However satisfactory the progres: the dictatorship has made toward ma terial rehabilitation and development, too little advance has been made to- ward conciliation. In view of the de- velopments, I fear that the abdication of my functions, which I had happily contemplated for the near future, must be indefinitely postponed. Alas! The fruit is not yet ripe; caciguismo is not yet extinct.” Those are not the dictator’s exact | ‘words, but such is the gist of them, as I interpret from the meager dispatches. It is rumored that the Patriotic Union and the Somatent (an old form | of provincial militia revived on a na- tional basis and constituting a body bearing some resemblance to the Fascist militia) are to be reorganized on stricter lines; or, if you please, along Fascist lines. * oK X% GERMANY .—Referendum of the “lib- erty bill,” which proposes rejection of the Young plan, will be held Decem- ber 22. T stated last week that Helmuth Al- brecht had been appointed minister of economics in succession to Dr. Julius Curtius, transferred to the foreign min- istry. The report on which the state- ment was founded was incorrect. The new minister of economics is Dr. Paul Molldenhauer, professor of insurance at Cologne University and a leader in; the People’'s Party, holding views close to those of the lamented Stresemann. He is a member of the executive board of the German dye trust. ‘The following is a little belated: Prince Bernhardt von Buelow, one- time chancellor of the German Empire, is dead at 80. He had been for the most part prac- tically in retirement for 20 years. He was an imperialist but not a swash- buckler; though a loyal subject on a famous occasion as chancellor he dared to rebuke the emperor. It is significant that shortly after doing so he found it expedlent to retire to private life. In his “‘Imperial Germany” he freely criticized his countrymen, but his asser- tion that they are #ot “politically mind-d” was more striking than true. He had manners and charm, was a citizen of the world. His admirers are apt to say that, had he been at the he'm in 1914, the hideous catastrophe of that year would not have occurred. It is D!rhlgl more correct to say that the fact that men of his type were relegated to the background was sig- nificant of the inevitability of the catastrophe. * x4 x CHINA.—An allegedly officlal patch of the 9th instant, from dis- Tal- 1, declared Cuba’s Independence Attitude of United States in Overseeing Island Government Resented by Many Natives. BUILT BY AN AMERICAN FIRM. stand, much in the same spirit as do the Parislans on the terrace of their cafes, watching the whole world go by. Up until a short time ago the native-born ‘Cubans had a stranglehold on this shoe- shining business. But lately Italian- Americans have arrived and established little shops which have cut ccnsiderably into the home talent. ° No one can say that Cuba is not po- The Cubans have their own elections, and elect Cubans to of- fice. They have a Cuban President, and have just built a $15,000,000 Cuban capi‘ol building. This capitol building was constructed by an American ccnstruction company, but when it was completed and paid for the Americans withdrew, just as thcy did a few years back when, after they had built up Cuba itself, they withdrew and left her to her own resources, pro- viding, of course, no Cuban governmer." should ever make any foreign treaties, or give any foreign concessicns or do anything which might appear they were forgetting who it was who had given Cuba its hands-up. There is something called the Plaft amendment which takes care of this matter, I believe, and which might be foreclosed if Cuba started get- ting too free. Now in case the reader might think the writer is waxing facetipus about “Cuba Libre,” I want to go oh record as stating that there are only a minority of native Cubans who would prefer Cuba’s becoming something just for Cubans. The majority of them are reconciled to having their children and grandchildren become Americans. The young generations in the Cuban schools whose parents have limited means are taught English at the same time they are being taught Spanish. The children of those Cubans who are quick to see on which side their bread is buttered send :\ |"~ e, e COT ghioe .y 4 their children to schools in the United States proper. They return to Cuba in due course, 100 per cent Americans. even though they owe allegiance to a foreign land. They realize that thus, in the course of evolution, the Cubans of the future will be able to take care of themselves better in a business deal with any other Americans. Cubans Not Puzsled. Until that time comes the chief busi- | ness deal they are worrying about is the tariff. Greater minds than mine have been puzzled by the schedules of the American tariff, but there is no puzzle- ment in the minds of the Cubans. They are remembering what has happened to them in the last 20 years or so, and they feel perfectly clear about what will hap- pen in the future if the proposed new sugar schedule goes through. There was a time, when the United States entered the World War, when Cubans actually caught up with the mirage composed of independence. wealth and liberty, which they had looked upon in the distance for many, many years during the Spanish occupa- tion. As many of us remember, sugar was at a premium while it was necessary to ship it abroad to our own soldiers as well as to soldiers and citizens of cur allies. Also, sugar was needed in the manufacture of explosives. So we Americans took Cuba to one side and said: “Now here! We've got to win the war, and we must stand shoulder to shoulder.” Cuba had not exactly figured that she was called upon to get in on the war. but with Uncle Sam’s genial right arm around her shoulder and being told that “we” were both vitally interested in making the world safe for democracy. the flattery was so subtle that Cuba im- pulsively agreed to furnich sugar at only a slight advance over her old prices, instead of stooping to profiteering. As it was, the Cubans made some fortunes overnight, but nothing to what they could have made if they had boosted the ante and just sat tight. The Cubans went even farther at being included in big league company and organized a little army which they offered as a sort of premium coupon along with every pound of sugar. Dance of the Millions. Nevertheless, as I said, the Cubans made more money than they had ever known existed and basing their actions on the theory that the war would never end, they went out and bought them- selves pink and blue palaces, patios, fountains and marble porches ‘which they sat in their inevitable rocking chairs and where in the cool of the eve- ning they could compare notes as to| the profits that were rolling in. B This period in Cuban history. was called the “Dance of the Millions,” and what they didn't kriow about dancing they learned overnight. Then, as every one knows, the war ended. Almost immediately the bottom dropped out of the sugar market and the Cubans, having somewhat hastily ! spent all their profits, could not raise the price of maintaini all their newly eek Has Told that Yen Hsi-Shan had accepted the | Balbus and Napoleon. post tendered him by Nanking of vice | “difficult.” commander-in-chief of all the forces of the Nanking government, and that he had promised to take the field per- sonally against Feng Yu-Hsiang, An- other dispatch of the same date told of a great Natlonalist success at Mihsien in Northern Honan, a little southeast of Yenshi where, according to the dis- patches, the Kuominchun won _.a “famous victory” a few days previous. But the dispatches of the following day were of a-quite different complex- fon; the rebels reported to be having the better of it along the Lunghai Raily way and to be “rapidly developing” their thrust down the Han River; Yen Hsi-Shan, moreover, reported to be supplying them ammunition from his great arsenal at Taluan. Dispatches of the 132th represented Yen Hsi-Shan as holding the post of vice commander-in-chief of the Na- tionalist forces and at the same time supplying the Kuominchun with food, munitions and money. This seems a little incongruous, even fantastic, ac- cording to western notions, but is not so for China—or, rather, “would not"” be so for China, for probably it isn't so. The report, however, is plausible enough to the effect that Yen has proposed a conference at Peiping to include him- self, Chang Kai-Shek, Feng Yu-Hsiang, Chang Hsueh-Liang, supertuchun of Manchuria, and Wang Ching-Wei, the radical leader now en route home from | forelgn parts: pending the result of Which there should ge a general armi- stice. The dispatches of the 13th painted the situation black for the Nationalists, the * Kuominchun capturing Yuchow and so threatening to cut the Peiping- Hankow Rallroad, Nationalist troops at Siangyang, Linying and Sinye going over to the enemy, and the push down the Han River préspering. The dispatches of the 14th tended somewhat to falsify—those of the 15th to confirm—those of the 13th. But it is all very, very vague. 1t is a suitable object of wonder, what iwlll be the effect on the general Chi- nese situation of the arrival back in China (now fmminent) of Wang Ching- Wei, the Left Wing leader, who heads the "“Reorganization Party” and would fain be president of the Kuomintang. Among the demands of the Reorganiza- tion Party are the calling of a new Congress by the Kuomintang, free from autocratic interference, expulsion of cor- rupt officials and renewal of the cam- paign against “imperialism.” The party smacks of Communism and anti-for- elgnism. * % ¥ * THE BANK FOR INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS.—The committee ap- pointed by the conference at The Hague to draw up a plan of organization for the proposed bank of international set- tlements ended its labors, at Baden- Baden, on November 13. It did not do a complete job, referring certain matters on which agreement could not be reached to the full conference. ‘The charter and thc statutes of the proposed bank have been published. A study of the latter shows that the pow- ers assigned to the bank are great, but far short of the transcendent powers which many had hoped, but probably many more had feared, would be as- sign But a difficult process is au- thorized wvhereby: evolution to & super- bank might be achieved, an evolution which should the of i THE NOBEL AWARDS.—Thomas Mann, the German novelist, author of “Buddenbrooks,” “The Magic Moun- tain,” etc, has been awarded the 1929 Nobel prize for literature. Prof. Owen W. Richardson of King's College, Lon- don, renowned for his work on the theory of electrons (ze “Richardson’s Law"), gets the 1928 prize in physics, and the Duc de Broglie the 1929 prize in physics. The duc is great‘grandson of the duc who was Lafayette's chief lleutenant in the American Revolution. He entered the PFrench navy, retired, and rejoined it for the war, serving therein with distinction. His researches on the nature of matter are notable. ‘The chemistry award for 1929 is divided between Dr. Arthur Harden, professor of blochemistry in London University, and Hans von Euler. professor of bio- chemistry in Upsala University, Sweden. son of a German general. Both, of course, have done important creative work in their fleld. Each award carries with it about $46.000. it NOTES.—The divorce rate is in- rreasing with extrfordinary rapidity in England. A new ecumenical patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church has been in- stalled at Constantinople—Photius IL Exigencies of space forbid detail of the fantastic political developments in Poland, but I ant constrained to observe that in the light of these doings one begins to understand Polish history and the liberum veto. Yet, though one is apt to despair of development of political sense in Poland, the country is coming on very well economically. As-a dictator, Pilsudski is in a class by himself, quite unique; his bizarre methods seem adapted to a bizarre nation. What will happen when Pil- sudski goes? Georges Tchitcherin has voluntarily retired from the post of foreign com- missar of the Soviet Russian govern- ment, because of long-continued illness. There seems no doubt, however, that, had he not voluntarily retired he would have been forced to retire. A notable man. but he does not see quite eye to eye with Stalin et cie. Moscow has not yet developed a graceful method of kicking upstairs; she should do so. ‘The governments of Guatemala d Honduras have accepted the invitation of our Government to discuss at Wash- ington, under the auspices of our Gov- ernment, their old boundary dispute, which involves a banana-growing re- gion on the Atlantic littoral. ‘The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. is to erect a 100-story office building in Madison Square, New York, to be quite the tallest building in the world, and to accommodate 30,000 persons. Its own neighboring campanile will be quite dwarfed. . Drinking Qualified. From 'the Butte Dally Post. Amberst College students have banned “'objectionable drinking.” Must be get- ting after the tightwad who never buys more than one. ———— Tough Coaching Job. Prom the Akron Beacon Journal. The hard part of establishing foot ball in MEXM;."II Nu'o urluldeofl m(oummwnmwml Emphasis on | NEW TRIAL PROCEDURE IS DECLARED ESSENTIAL Plan to Eliminate Legal Delay in U. S. Would Embrace Adoption of Many English Ideas. BY WILL P. KENNEDY. OW the much-complained-of “law's delay” in this country could be efficiently eliminated, the court dockets more promptly cleared, time and ex- pense consumed in the taking of much irrelevant testimony saved the higher professional standing achieved by those engaged in Xleldlng cases has been pro- posed by Assistant Attorney General George R. Parnum and is receiving widespread consideration in law jour- nals and among the legal profession. ‘The matter was first brought to the attention of the Federal Bar Associa- tion, composed of lawyers engaged in various and specialized phases of legal work throughout the United States Government service, by Mr. Farnum, who had just returned from Europe, where he had been representing the United States in foreign claims cases involving hundreds of millions of dol- lars. Many members of Congress who are well known lawyers have become deeply interested in his suggestions, Explains English System. After explaining the division in Eng- land of the profession into those who are primarily confined to what might be called “office practice,” known as solici- tors, and those engaged exclusively in the trial of cases, called “barristers,” Mr., Farnum has drawn certain com- parisons between that procedure and the system in vogue in the United States, somewhat to the disadvantage of this country. The English system, he explains, is the result of years. of development. ‘The Inns of Court, in which all barris- ters are matriculated, today consists of the great organizations of the Temple, the Inner Temple, Lincoln’s Inn and Gray's Inn. These Inns can be traced back to the last oi the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. | Naturally, Farnum says, their customs and practices are based upon traditions, strengthened by the well known con- servatism of the English nation. When our country was settled, he points out, the establishment of legal institutions in our midst, comparable to those which had grown up through the centuries in England, was impracti- cable. It would be equally so today, he emphasizes, to attempt to change our own legal institutions, which have de- veloped to meet our own peculiar needs, into any sort of a strict and complete conformity to English models. How- ever, he argues, the division of the Eng- lish lawyers into solicitors and barris- ters certainly leads to the acquisition iamong the latter of an extensive expe- rience and to the development of a high degree of expertness and skill in the trial of court cases. That, of c(tzurul.mr’ne s?yx. is the ‘filtml ‘;es"lll.‘lt of a body of men s izing e handling of lltllllu)n.v'c Holds Trials Too Protracted. While in America in recent years there has been some tendency in the larger communities toward some special- ization between court and office prac- tice, the average office lawyer is free to take a hand in the conduct of court proceedings wherf he so desires, and he | does so not infrequently. The result is, he abserves, that a large part, if not the majority of cases in America are tried in whole or in part by men who have never been trained in the science of ad- vocacy and who have never had ex- perience enough to acquire even a mod- erate degree cf technique in the work, with the consequence that our trials are usually grossly over-protracted, much time is consumed mngllng over the admissability of evidence by lawyers who have ho adequate knowledge of the laws of evidence or the science of judicial rcof, a mass of immaterial matter i rought into the trial, clouding to a large measure the real issues, and there is a greatly increased liability. of the trial court committing errors which may lead to a reversal of the case in the ap- pellate court. He gives as a concrete example the following: Some years ago a man named Seddons and his wife were triea in London for the murder of a Miss Barrows, who lodged with them, by the administration of arsenic. Seddons'was convicied and his wife acquitted. The cas» was entirely circumstantial and the motive assigned was that the woman was murdered by Seddons to present the discovery of his fraudulent appropria- tion of her property, consisting in a large measure of notes on the of England. In the course of the trial it was necessary to unravel the details of many dealings between him and the deceased and to trace the disappearance of the bank notes. All the circum- stances surrounding the parties and leading up to the commission of the crime were gone into with great thor- oughness, Trial Lasted Four Days. Having read the verbatim report, Mr. Farnum, recalls that the trial did not consume more than four days, 8uring which there were not in excess of the same number of objections to the ad- | mission of testimony, all of which were disposed of without discussion. The Crown was represented by Lord Read- ing, then Sir Rufus Isaacs, the attorney general; Seddons was represented by the leading criminal advocate of the Eng- lish bar, now deceased, Sir Edward Marshall Hall, and Mrs. Seddons by an- other harrister, who took a%ole, subordi- nate to counsel for her husband. “I do not think I am exaggerating.” Farnum declared, “when I say that the trial of this case in America would have consumed three or four weeks and would have developed 300 to 500 objections to testimony and exceptions based thereon. This striking difference would be the re- sult, almost entirely, of the work of counsel. Of course, the English judges, on the whole, exercise a little T supervision over the course of a trial than their American brethren, but the barristers are so trained that, to a superficial observer, the illusion is some- times given that the British judge is playing a less active role than is the case in America. “Strange as it may sound,” he con- tinues, “I am really convinced that many lawyers do not consider advocacy to be a real science and its practice & difficult art. Unfortunately, so far as 1 know, there are no courses which teach the prospective barrister the rudiments of this science. Neither are there any adequate treatises from which an Ameri- can aspirant can learn the funda- mentals. He must, therefore, in a large measure learn for himself in the hard and difficult school of experience. T{}i_‘s means that for the ordinary morta and most of us come into that class—a daily experience of years in the courts is necessary before he attains any real degree of proficiency in his art. Cross-Examination Is Art. “I suppose the average attorney would concede that an opening statement in a trial is a rather elementary perform= ance. Far from it, judging from the daily models. Consider a moment how many of us have really heard an excel- lent opening statement. Why, in one of the last cases I tried in the State Courts of Massachusetts before entering the Federal service, I represented a defend- ant who had pleaded certain affirmative defense in support of a general denial. In opening, after the plaintiff’s counsel had outlined the facts in support of his prima facie case, he proceeded to antici- pate and discuss at considerable length the affirmative defense which he ex- pected I would stand upon. And there you have it. It is unnecessary to multi- ply examples, but a brief reference w0 the art of cross-examination is impor- tant. / % “If one were deducing the basis the art of cross-examination from the Tun of daily examples one would be almest forced to conclude that two of the principal objects of cross-examina- tion were: FPirst, to emphasize the testimony on direct examination by af- fording the witness an opportunity for repeating his entire testimonial narra- tion; and, second, to indulge in the rather fascinating, although altogether inept, variety of questions out the slightest idea of what u:e“chn- acter of the answer is likely to be. “Do not think,” he warns, “that this sort of procedure is confined entirely to youthful members of the bar by any means.” He also calls attention to the fact that there are differences in the tem- peraments _of men which render them . more fitted to do certain types of legal work than others. There are excellent lawyers, he says, to whom the court- room is a never-ending source of terror, and there are others for whom office practice is an unmitigated bore. The former will never qualify as barristers, although they may appear in that role on occasions under the present dispen- sation, Mr. Farnum says; and the latter afford very poor material from which to develop good solicitors. Urges Specialized Trial Lawyers. While he asserts that the English. system cannot be imposed in its entirety upon the American profession, he does claim that it is possible and would be beneficial to foster and encourage to & greater degree than now exists the de- velopment of a body of lawyers clalized in the trial of cases and dis- couraging the participation in trials of men whose practice is largely con- fined to office business. Possibly the time may come when we can accomplish this by legislation, he predicts. -He expresses sincere belief that if we had here in the United States, as in England, a body of highly- trained professional men, specializing in the trial of cases, it would go far in the long run to remedy “the ecriticisms which we hear on all sides in the manner in which our trials are con- ducted.” He does not claim it would be a panacea for all the ilis that litiga- l‘o‘?"" is heir to, but it would “help & “Nadir Khan, the new sovereign— and sovereign against his own wishes, it seems—of turbulent Afghanistan, is a man of remarkable courage even in that wild and warlike country, where everybody s courageous and pays lit- tle attention to dangers and a risk of his own or other lives,” writes “Chalux,” in La Nation Belge of Brussels. “He is a man of great will power, | tenacious, firm. He sweeps away ob- stacles and goes straight toward his aim. He has proved that now in a striking fashion. “A few morths ago he arrived in Southern Afghanistan, where he had aurried upon the news of the flight of Amanullah, his king and his relative, who had lost his throne because he stayed too long away from his coun- try and wanted to impose a detested Europeanism upon his strong and fa- natical population. “So this 60-year old warrior, ex- minister of Afghanistan in Paris, who saw his country once more in the pangs of civil war and anarchy, decided to oust the usurper, Bacha Sakae Habi- bullah, and to re-establish the old or- der. Orientals have an innate liking for diplomatic and political games and tricks, but I don't believesthat Nadir Khan, whom I met several times per- sonally, wanted to satisfy,any personal ambitions. ‘Nadir lacked money and war ma- terial. But the powerful and fanatical ‘Mullahs.’ enemies of all Western re- forms, who rightly or wrongly regarded him as an ‘old’ Afghan, a pure and orthodox Mohammedan, 'recruited an army for him. Acts Part of Stolc. “The rest is known. Within a few weeks, Nadir and his followers started irom Kandahar, defeated the troops of Bacha Sakao and reached Kabul, the capital dH;‘r’T Il‘lln,_r:lle showed his nerve and stoicism. e usurper haua fortified Kabul and kept houlllrg: there, among them several members of Nadir Khan's family whom he threatened to kill in case Nadir would attack tne town. Yet Nadir Khan ordered his troops to bombard the city. ‘Nadir Khan is cultured, subtle ana possesses a certain finely ironical hu- mor, as the following anecdote proves. ‘Three years ago I met him fre- hen he entertained me i b3 lesasion entertained me in legal bullding in the suburb of . X i;u" p on the it of starti: il i S New Afghan Sovereign Takes Throne Against Own Wishes, Friend Declares visit Afghanistan. Friends who_ were living at Peshawar (in British India, the very frontier of the country over which Amanullah ruled at that time) | had written to me and advised me to | g0 by no means to Afghanistan. . . . So |1 asked Nadir Khan whether there | really was so much danger in going w Afghan'stan. Both Envey and Friend. “‘My country is a happy, smiling, peaceful country,’ he replied. ‘You will be absolutely safe there, and you surely will be welcome there.’ “I said good-by to the envoy. As I was about 0 get into my car some- body called me. and Nadir Khan came out of his garden, without a hat, ana stopped for a moment at the side of my car—there was quite a rain pour- ing down in that moment—and he handed me a little package and said: “ ‘As minister of Afghanistan in Pars I just told you that everything would | be” well with your trip to my country. An envoy must speak that way. Buc lallow me now, as a friend, to recom- mend to you to be careful and always on the watch out while you are in Afghanistan, and do accept this littie ':yrheunt which you may find useful out ere.’ “Nadir went back into the house. The package contained a heavy revolver and 200 bullets.” | | Ireland Plans to Cut Membership of Dail Decrease in the population of the Free State recorded in the latest cen- sus necessitates a. revision of the rep- resentation of the Dail, which is based on population. More than a dozen constituencies are found to be now overrepresented and only one, County Dublin, has less than its fair propor- tion of members. The government will introduce legislation making repre- sentation conform with the provisiofs of the constitution and the most im- portant result will be to diminish membership in the Dail. Incidentally it is prophesied that the Jovernmem will seek to restrict eligibility to the Dail, and will bar those who receive salaries from public funds. Some mem- bers are in the employ of local authori- ties and so have a voice in 3 regulal for pays them.