Evening Star Newspaper, December 20, 1931, Page 30

SUNDAY Happy Christmastime (Continued From First Page) erystal threads of frost netting the margin even of the smallest puddles or, steel shod, to listen once again to the ring of the ice, or even to see a strand of transfixed waterweed of brightest green frozen into its glass prison- these are experiences invariably touched with the miraculous, And bold statement though it may be, it is probably a true one that no English poet of the last 150 years falls short of his best when his genius answers to the decoy of wnter But what of the poets before them” | To make certain on both counts would | need a good deal of exploration. In gen- | eral the earlier puets feared and hated | Winter. There are vivid and character- | fstic references fo it in_Thompson's “Seasons : but he is chiefly concerned with its discomforts, and 15 no devotee of its beauty. Ofthand. too. theugh this may be sheer ignorance. 1 can call no Scottish ballad wherein Winte 8 & pleasure. There is “the hoary Winter's night” of Hobert Southweil’s Jovely “Burning Bube. but he himself stands shivering in the snow: there i Ben Johnson's “Have you marked but the face of the snow before the soil hath smutched it”" Chaucer may have de- lighted in Winter, but where he declares 1t has slipped my memory. The earliest of the English lyrics is about the cuckoo. and the exquisite "I Sing of a Maiden” 15 all of radiance and dew and April. On the other hand, there is the old | holly and 1vy game rhyme (for indoors) | and the supreme holly and ivy carol, | but the refrain even of that is of the sunrise, the running of the deer and the playing of the merry organ Hideous 20 Shakespeare, When milk comes 15 & marvel of pre- And Kepeare” frozen homs m p cise aud condensed vignettes, and is for us,—-as vy with wintry delights as 5 Christmas tree. But it was in- tended in its setting as an ironical skit! —the barn owi's merry note! “Blow. blow, thou Winter wind” again is tinged with the complimentary. but solely on the negative side: “The Winter's Tale” Aas no Winter in it. except Mamilllus’ sad little tale fit only for so dismal a season, and of Shakespeare's dozen and more references to frost. nine or 10 re- fer to its ravages in early Spring. And fn one of the earliest of the Sonnets not only is Winter stigmatized as hid- eous and elsewhere in them always used in distaste of old age. but rather than snow ad. ery and magic, it a miscrable mask on thing but the face of nat; There may be reconciling exceptions to the general habit. but and prosaic conclusion is t forefathers with their nar and salted meat and lack « found Winter dark and dreary. even poets among them turned a cold, if aggrieved. eve on its magic. Eve Blake, Winter is a “dire! whom the joys of love are “a dreadful bis “Age of Gold” knew naught and for the children of the poor Holy Thursday.” whose sun does ne. whose ways are filled with thorns. that Winter is “eternal But with the “Romantic Revival” of Reckless Experiments Impair Schools which he himself was the day Spring, | and passibly with the help of the broth- ers Adam and the new coaching roads, and afterward of Scrcoge and Com- pany. there comes a change, as wonder- working as the old pantomime transfor- mation scenes beloved of my childhood. And soon that change is complete. Among Wordsworth's memories of his boyhood, that of skating is not merely the remembrance of a delirious sport, but transcends even his daffodils as a bliss of solitude, and while we truly la- ment his Lucy lost in the snow (a sen- timental theme completely devoid of sentimentality) we take (he greatest possible pleasure in the scene of the calamity. Sheer “Magic” Rules. As for Coleridge—bis imagination charged with Arctic explorations—the only difficulty is to choose for sheer “magic’ between the stagnant calm and maddening thirst of the Tottin tropical sea in “The Ancient and its hyperborean icebe clifts and mcon-gleaming, fog smoke, Keats' drear-nighted December s Eng- | land at its dismalist—in a thaw. But were ever utter quiet and cold beyend even the dream of a Laplander 50 posi- tively congealed into words as they are in the fist stanza of “The Eve of St. | Agnes?> “St. Agnes’ Eve—ah, bitter chill it was The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold The bare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass Anrd silent was the flock In the woolly old. Numb were the beadsman's fingers While he told his rosary and while his | frosted breath Like pious incense from a censor old. Scen'd taking filght tor Heaven with- | out death, Past s his praver he saith And so with the poets who have come after Keats, from Tennysen and Christina Rossetti and Robert Bridges whether his theme be grief for the child that is dead, “the trees with sil- very rime bedight.” or that master- piece of craftsmanship and imagina- tion, “London Snow"-—to those of our day. Edward Thomas (who can ever make beauty of “Thaw™), Eleanor Far- Jeon. Robert Frost, Elinor Wylie. And Stern, unfaltering realist though for (he time being) the English muse may tend in dutv to remain, biessed beyond words is the child who. on December the 24th (even though his washing s trozen in his jug). peers out into the dark at the first hesitant, falling, auifting flakes of Winter, or lo! on the rain gutter, a needle-sharp icicle quietly shining out to the quiet moon, and wakes to a Christmas morning trans- mogrified--within and without. L the gloom of whiteness, In the great silence of snow, A child was sighing ¢ saving, v have killed a w on her nest The down is Huttering from her breast'" And still it fell through that dusky brightness On the child erymg for the bird of the snow.” “Oh In Russia’s War Against lliteracy (Continued From Third Page) fil of the Soviet educational Consider facts like these 1923 the Soviet government ban- tshed wholesale several hundred uni- versity professors. sending them abroad “without the right of ever returning to the Soviet Unlon. That was done not because the professors were g of any “counter-revohitionarv activ ties” (in that case. thev would have landed in the hands of the O. G_P. U the Secret Police. and not abroad). buf merely because they were suspected of “not sympathizing with the Soviet re- gime.” Still worse, Jast Winter the Soviets smashed at one stroke the Russian Academy of Sciences in Leningrad —an institution in which, since the eight eenth century. Russia’s best scientists and scholars have assembled. Some one discovered in its bullding the shoul- der straps of a grand duke (long since dead) and a few documents of the Crarist Secret Police, about whose presence the academicians had ne Totified the Soviet government (appar ently in the confusion of 1917 they were dumped there by some one and forgotten) Grand-ducal hardly sufficient revolution™ with system shoulder straps are to start a “counter- vet. in most brutal invectives, e Soviet press branded the academy us a “den of old reaction- ari An investigation was carried on: over 120 academicians were ex- pelled. among them some of the most outstanding R an historians of our age. Some were tried and condemned to prison terms Brutality More Frequent. Such cases of brutality have become especially frequent since 192 n A Lunacharsky. who had held the paost of the commisar of edu for twelve vears. was replaced by A. Bub- nov. A superlatively bad but ambitious poet, Lunacharsky at the same time was a soft and kind man who often tried—most unsuccessfullv—to miti- gate the policy of his radical comrades His successor, Bubnov, formerly served in the Commissariat of War: and he has fully transplanted mto the educa- tional domain all of its brutal, soldierly methods. ich is the negative side of the balance sheet of the Soviet educational system In order to understand the underly- ing cause of this clashing contrast be- tween its constructive and the destruc- tive sides, one has to bear in mind that communism. which, of course, is the alter ego of the Soviet government, is not merely a political or economic doctrine; it is, in the literal sense of the word, a materialistic religion, with sacred dogmas, morals and a philosophy of life all its own Take the attitude of Communists toward science. Ideclogists of com- munism do not recognize the freedom of scientific thought. “Pure, impartial | science does not exist; like anything else. it is bound to be either bourgeois or proletarian”—such 1s the official formula. And the Soviet government encourages energetically the subordina- tion of scientific discipline, from neuro- logy to astronomy, to the Marxist and Leninist method. How can there be Marxist or un- Marxist astronomy or mathematics? With the irritation of fanatics, Com- munists answer that such sciences can and will be Marxist, although “the Marxist thought has not vet worked them out” Moreover, they add, in order to have a right to exist. scientific disciplines “must harmonize with the teachings of Marx and Lenin.” In other words, Marx and Lenin are the Scriptures—all the truth lies therein. . . . Al this is being preached in earnest by such leaders of Communist thought. More than one eminent Rus- | sian scholar and scientist has paid a | heavy price for raising his voice against | this pitiful obscurantism. Scientific Roll Lest. Small wonder that Russia has lost its former role as a notable scientific center. Only comparatively few sci- entists and professors have embraced Communism and thus become mem- bers of the privileged order. The ma- Jority, who have not, are a much-suf- fering: lot. Having to blame this o that mistake on some one, the Soviet government, from time to time, shoots & few of them as “sabotaging technical experts” (for, besides their usual work, | they often are employed as experts for | various governmental institutions). Be- | sides, as men “inherited from the old regime.” they always were looked at with cuspicion (as the case of the | lc:'my proves). & rule, i the place of the old | | educational s who die or are expelled, the Soviet government advances the “Red Often these men are mi 1gnorant. but it is by faith s to the proletarian cause. and not alent or work, that scientific ca- are now made in Moscow Recently Stalin, who hitherto was the chiet inspirer of this policy of in- ce, declared himself in favor of a more human attitude. but certain degree t regime.” Does that term include all scientists and professors, or ouly & | certsin group of them such technical experts in meaniug of the word as chemists, pro- ta6s0rs of engineering, ete.)? and for low long will this icy improve their posi- That remains w be seen is especially in its school policy the religiously proselyting char- | of the Soviet government is re- Its purpose is not merely but to educate “ideal Com- It is here thit oue of its sincere educational zeal only that it badly architects, ete., of lies, not gineers, industrial paradise -it needs still more @ young generation of “faithfuls,” with- out whom the domination of the Com- munist Church tn Russia could not continue. Who has the right to receive educa- tion in Russia® the Soviets would wish to educate each citizen. But even primary s ommodate all: as for and universities, they Bs Vet are far too few. Preference Is Necessary. How. then, are the lucky children to be selected” On the basis of the “class principle” preference is given to the children of “privileged wvorkmen and of “poor” nts. Children of “kulaks” (well- pessants). priests. ex-noblemen and ex-bourgeois)—of classes which ag- gregate a few millions—remain behind “Arm the proletarjan children educating them and disarm bourgeois ones by denving them educa- tien"—such is the principle. This leads to numerous tragedies. Exasperated, the daughter of an ex- nobleman or the son of an ex-factory owner sometimes will forge her or his documents and thus secure admission to a universitv. But woe to such “class enemies in disguise” i they are dis- closed! ‘They are tried snd severely punishea. and vet. in their desperate struggle for education, thousands of youths attempt the disguise, It is true that a youth of “non- proletarian extraction” can better his fate also in a legal manner by “re- nouncing one's parents.” “I. the undersigned, abhor the views of my father, who is a priest tor a ‘kulak.’ etc.), renounce him and never will have anything to do with him again.” . . If, after that, he succeeds in winning the confidence of a labor union and in being “adopted into the proletarian class.” the stain on his birth is washed and ‘“‘medium off—he can enter a university on an| equal footing with a proletarian. ‘The normal Soviet school is “‘continuous schoo! divided into two grades—the four-year primary school and the three-vear secondary school. Having finished the seven-vear course, the young folk can enter higher educational institutions.- Up to 1929, when the normal eourse t=ok up nine and not seven vears, the amount of knowledge required from children 1n such subjects as mathe- matics, physics, grammar, geography and one or two foreign languages. French or German, was, at least in theory, approximately the same in most 'of the Continental European schools. But now, with the abbreviation of the course, these general educational subjects have been considerably cur- tailed. Most of the schools have been “attached to this or that factory” and are being put on the technical basis— that is, children are supposed to become acquainted with the working of some industrial enterprise which, upon being graduated. they may enter. This is the newest Soviet experiment. Political Side Center. But the center of gravity of the Soviet school curriculum lies in its political side. It lies, first of all, in “politgramota,” or “political literacy.” which throughout the course remains the most important subject. It is the catechism of the Communist religion. It includes atheism, the Marxist and Leninist materialism and economics and the history of vari- ous revolutionary movements. As a separate subject history is not taught co- sub- cet Virgin's picture while | ite bird up there | of friendliness | ical experts loyal to the | And to| 10, the | lasses™—of city | the | To a Marxist real history begin: with 1817; that which was before was merely the oppression of the poor by the rich. Moreover, propaganda thickly per- meates even neutral subjects. In his primary reader the boy finds chiefly revolutionary hymns and poems of the “March ahead, Red children to fight for the wcigmes cauge.” , . In his book of arith- metic the text of problems is also “revoluticnized problems deal with the number of “Comnmnist children in Germany,” or the like. Fram the earliest age children get compulsory military training. Both boys and girls do target shooting, study the construction of the maehine gun. drill ete. And the pet Communist idea that “a final and decisive military conflict between the Soviets and the capitalistic world is bound to come sogner or later” Is being daily inculcated into these youngsters' minds After school hours each hay must da “social and political work.” Children of 9 or 10 have to read Soviet papers, wather at their own political meetings and discuss, under the leadership of a Brown-up person. the situation of the American unemployed or the test of ‘a collective letter” to be senf by them to the children of Geuman coal miners or | railroad workers, sory. without this no pupil can be grad- uated. All this is enforced upen children not only from above but also from within. For the Communist party has special organizations for the yvoung. The chief of them .re the “Union of Pioneers” for children of junior ages and the “Comsomol” (or “Union of Communist Youths™) for youths from 17 to 23 (after having attained this age the voung man can apply for membership in the Communist party). These two organizations, numbering between them some 7.000,000 (about half of all school children and university students) play in school lite & role of enormous im- | portance. Proud of having a place in the great | hierarchy founded by “llvich” (Leniny often wrrogant und looking at the rest of the world with the disdain of soldiers {looking at ciilians, the children of | these organizations set the tone to the whole school or university. What especially important is that to a great extent they hold the teachers and the professors in their hands. . Eleetric Razilroads Planned by Sweden STOCKHOLM. Sweden.—Nearly 1,000 miles more of Swedish railways are due | to be electrified within the next few | vears, witii notable adianta K the tourist and the Swe man. By the end of 1933 Stoc will e connected with Malmoe, at g southern tip of Sweden, by an electuic line 599 kilometers long. Stockliolm is already connected with Gothenburg, the great west coa: port, by 456 kilometers of elect line. The state railways are also p wing to electrity the 315 kilometers be- tween Stociicim and Avge. in {land, two projects which will cost proximately $20.000.000. One of the firiest electric railways in Sweden s the line stretching from Luleas. on the northern shore of the Gulf of Bothania. to Narvik, the Nor- wegian ore ahipping pert on the ath side of the Scandinavian Peuinsula This latter line is one of the most strategic in Sweden. because of the iremendous quantities of iron ore which it hauls from the mu at Kiruna to Narvik and Lu A - thirds of s stretch above arc Circle. Rate ap- lies Cat for Delegates To Honolulu Meeting HONOLULU. Hawali. - Rail ship snd hotel rates have been substan- tially reduced delegates and th families _attending the National and Pacific Foreign Trade C Honolulu next May, Word has Just been received here that all the lines in the Transco ntal Passenger Association have agresd up a round-tnip rate of a fare and s tenth —an extremely low figure. These lines operate west of Chicago, St. Lows and similar points. It is expected that the Eastern lines will make the same figure Steamship compunies have guaran- rved a horizontal reduction of 10 cent in any class of accommodation bought and local hotels have promised Tate reductions averaging 20 per cen Meanwhile assurances are bemg 1 ceived from both sides ¢ the Pacific that many leading business men of America snd the Otient will attend. needs en- | without whom | Russia cannot be transformed into an PUBLIC LIBRARY American Women in Polities. In connection with Mrs. Norton's ap- poiutment to the chairmanship of the | District Committee, and Mrs. Caraway's appearance in the Sevate, the Public This, too, is compul- | the | entions in | | | per | Library calls attention to the following | books ‘and magazine articles Precursors, Eliabeth Cadyv Stanton, As Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminis- cences, ed. by Theodore Stanton and H. S. Blatch. 1922, E.St2683a. Life story of the woman who, in 1848, made the first demand for votes for women at an organized political con- vention, Susan B. Anthony, the Woman Who Changed the Mind of a Nation, by R. C. Dorr. 1928. E.Ans4d and Work of Susan B. Anthony,” by Tda Husted Harper. Lucy Stone, Pioneer of Women's Rights, by A. S. Blackwell. 1930. E.St6835b This book “is admiring without excess of sentiment or of eulogy. It is rich in facts and anecdotes, and it leans heavily on contemporary records. Freda Kirchwey. 1915. KWZ.Sh29s. From a “cabin in the wilderness” to the auditoriums of world capitals, | through a life that reads as absorbingly s any work of fiction, Anua Howard [ Shaw carried the torch lit by Susan B. Anthony. & ‘Woman Suffrage and Politics: the In- ner Story of the Suffrage Movement, by Mrs. C. C. Catt and Mrs. N. R. Shuler. 1923, KWZ.C298wp. “The inner story of the woman suf- frage struggle in America from the first woman's rights convention in 1848 to the passage of the Federal suffrage amendment in 192 Prom Pinafores to Politics, by Mrs. F. J. H. Harriman. 1923. EH24. “Mrs. Harriman has had, as one of her friends expressed it. ‘a box seat at the Americgy of her times.’” Contemporaries. Gentlewomen of the House, by Duff Gilfond. American Mercu: 18:158- 159. October, 1929, Keen and humorous comments on the { women who have achieved the distinc- tion of congressional membership. ‘The Lady from California, by Mrs. P. P. Keyes. Delineator, 118:14. Feb- ruary, 1931. An intimate portrait of Representa- tive Plorence Kahn. Woman Senator? by William Hard. Re- view of Reviews, 81:62-67. Marc 1930. An excellent character study of Mrs, McCormick, and an estimate of her political opportunity. Some Are Born Great, by Mrs. F. P. Keyes. Delineator, 119:14. Novem- ber. 1931. As the daughter of Willlam Jennings politics practically all her Men Are Bad Housekeepers, by Ruth Pratt. Harper's, 154:682-688. May, 1927, Mrs, Pratt’s political creed, written as a member of the Board of Aldermen of New York City. Lady of the House. Outlook, July 3, 1929, \ A brief biograpby of Mrs. Prats, | The Story of a Pioneer, by A. H. Shaw. | | A good short biography for those who | despair hesitate to read the three-volume “Life its student members, largely come from Bryan, Ruth Bryan Owens has been in | Pasha, | ends. o ."_} F, . -~ leaves over Him as a protection from the Winter winds, and in the * heat of Summer I will eool His brow.” “I will bend over Him and per- fume His cradle with my tragrant oil’ It had no sweeping branches, no precious The stars ed and fixed theme-elves upon its branches. And the Babe was delighted, and cried Said the Olive The Fir said nothin oil. What could it offer? and so they descer be My own.” Thus the Fir tree became the Christmas tree. Only a few shepherds and other people of small importance celebration. world went on about its own affairs. assured you that the most beautiful woman was at the court of the king, that the most precious shrine was the temple, that Herod, or some rich and powerful noble, was the most successful joined in the first Christma man. All these have been almost forgotten. beauty the world remembers was a peasant who rode to Bethlehem The Man who has won immortal fame was a car- The shrine to which hundreds of millions is on the site of a stable. ristmas turned up: of values, and every Christmas raise on a donkey penter named Josept turn reverently So the first € 1 ] questions: What important? This year, more tha have worshipped money built on selfishn their trust in force, and The victorious Palm e is broken . and it as (o)} satl will Simple virtues i n ever, the questions will be asked. Men as proved g . and their buildi almost wrecked the world had i ! L and humbled. we are rediscovering the sfaction of simple living, of unselfishness, kindliness and good unpretentions, honest and en 1931—-PART TWO stable at Beth- lehem through which the in- fant Jesus could look out to the stars. On that first Christmas night the trees held a consultation. Said the Palm: “I will drape my locking down, took pity on it, “It is beautiful. It shall In Jerusalem the busy Any man there would have The Woman whose de down the world's estimate anew the heart-searching What is worthwhile i false god | £s have crumbled. They have They put its great hour. The luxurious uring, like the | in Eurepe Take Active Interest In Polities in Contrast to U, d Page) could not expl: deeper reason for economic voung have many of them gh the u also the certainty that shed their studies, 'S to come they will not be able t obtain ative occupation. State an: admipistrations as well as private terprises have ruthlessly reduced number of _jobs n to Versi graduates. The mtroduction on a wid scale of compulsory health @surance has reduced the field of tor the independent oencral prac wi It has not enlarged. in the same meas- ure, the number of doctors smploved by rance agencies. public and private lis and several other Teasons have to a state of things in which. in rmany instance, more than haf the gradua ho leave 1} rv vear are unable to find adequs plovment odav there bably rity graduates of the las five vears who have never vet had a job “The mportance of this fizure becomes clear when one realizes that the en- tire German student enroliment amoi only to sbout 130.000 studen Th-refore, it is not surprising that stu- dents shonld join extremist political movements in order to seek a poliical change which will enable them o pro- cure an economic basis of livelihood. Students Aid Hitler Movement. As Germany is rather tvpical of & mber of Eutopean countries. it s instructive to analyze somewhat more fully the Hitler movement in the nni- versities. which has sometimes been described s a “Fascist movement.” though it does not altogethe sent the same positive e is to be found in Italian F2 Hitler movement, to which present about 75 per cent of the German stu- dents owe allegiance. is a movement typical of the middle classes driven to Tts members, and particularly Th the the only in this radicalism is trend difficulties with faced bu lies in which generation 1s rowa; hav er they m municipal ¢ tmpoverished middle class families, the verv families which before the war gloried in the idea of the German Em- pire and the greatness of the German nation, both politically and culturally. They have saved this national tradi- tion and are even living by it nowa- days. At the s ne time they have really become pr. ctarianzed, and this is where the Sociulist tendencies in the Hitler movement come in. It has not got & well established Socialist program. but. for instance. its demands for the expropriation of those people who have made their fortunes since the begin- ning of the war and for the right to | work are of a definitely Socialist char- acter. The unbiased observer cannot expect any real improvement in the actual economic situation of Germany and of the middle classes from & vie- tory of the Hitler movement. for its program. with its elements of National- ism and Socialism haphazardly com- bined, does not offer any constructive solutions. spalr. we can understand it and have sympathy with it The Nationalist elements in the movement determine its attitude to in- ternational questions and explain its demands, put forward most strongly by its student members, for a revision of the peace treaties and the cancellation of_reparation *payments. This same revisionist idea is also strong in a great many other political movements in which students partici- pate. For instance, in Hungary the | universities are the stronghold of all those tendencies which work for the re-establishment of Hungary in its for- mer territory. In every student build- ing and office there are posters showing & map of the old territory of Hungary with a black lira marking the new terrioory aud uncameath the in- nem, soha!” (“No, no, In Turkey, where the Nationalist|Cathedrals. At movement among the students is very Student Service p strong, the students’ efiorts are directed |bus European capitals e ot e e fon | mer months a numbet of seminars open toward more definitely ‘the Ghazi.” of students direct the evening cours in which the population is taught the new Latin script, and they are found evervwhere as collaborators in govern- ment and municipal offices. Join Nationalist Movements. While, owing to their middle-class A large number 152:377. origin, on the whole, students tend to Jjoin Natiopalist movements, examples Yet as a movement of de- | They take a prominent part in|to students from the carrying out of the great reforms fshort. yet intensive. cou ! which have been introduced by Kemal on the political. econom. s | upon t . Attitude i t field are not ularly true of | students economic king examples In Greece the had a rich bar- | 1dents who come | that is to say | 922 were forced ! ersthing he- terrfic eco- to quit hind them nomic odds. few vears ago when T vis he governme these studen of 300 students baracks nist part has impr are up agains the sit but the Com- eut among the students is . In Austria than 2.000 ot the 12000 students in Vienna belong Lo the Soctalist party. and are actiy the Socialist vouth orgaLIZations, s’ education courses and in the ade union move- ment an studeuts were the first h: take ive for the formation | of s 1 cderation of Social came into beilg 1WO years 880 ana has been grow- lug steadily ever since. | L would be wrong to give the im-| pression that Buropean students spend WOst 0f thell time in organizing reve- utions and political riots. As has al- ady been pointed out, s grewt deal of heir political work is reglly construc- tve and the time they give 1o the study of political problems is well speat. In SOIe countries, for wsiance, m Spain their activides have led to actual revolutions. buf no one mav say that | these revolutions have been purely de- structive. However. even extreme die- hards cannot doubt the great value of the various study circles and clubs on | political questions which exist every- where. It 15 not accidental that very often the prominent leaders of the Union Societies in Oxford and Cam- bridge go directly from the university to the lfrlx\uéo secretaryship of some big | political leader as the first st 3 political career e When the American delegates to th Mount Holvoke Conference af Interna: tional Student Service heard of all these political activities on the parc of students they asked, “What could be done in America®” Thers is a strong consensus of opinion that the universi- ties and the student organizations in America are failing to provide oppor- tunities for real education in political thought. It was felt that. in view of the influential position which today the United States held in international af- fairs, more ought to be dene to acquaint American students with the political life of their own country and with that of other nations. The task is not but it is in no way hopeless Political Co-Operation Suggested. If the political parties in America made & real attempt to present their programs to university students in an intelligent form and to give them an opportunity to discuss and to criticize (it this would probably not enly help in the political education of American students, but also react favorably on the parties. If. at the same time, the various organizations tecested in in- ternational relations correlaied their etforts to make a real impact on the American university field. a great deal could be done for the widening of the international outlook of the American student through study circles, diseus- sion ciubs and the organization of in- ternational institutes and model League of Nations assemblies. In addition, educational travel should be organized on sounder lines than it is at present. Every year tens of thousands of American students come over to Europe, and when they leave most of them have never met a Europein student, nor'have they got in contact "m;]w of the political and economic problems of the Old World. Too often their knowledge of Europe is confined merely to hotel porters, music halls and a few present, International lans to set up in vari- diring the Sum- hat n wo nts. which Amorica at which 4 ses will be given | educat] ?nal cultural probloms of Europe. Tt is the problems and of the outlook of the | different nations that a new world is to be built. Both Europ2an and Ameri- can students still have a great deal to learn: European students in order to get away from a somtimes woally- headed radicalism, and American stu- dents in order to take an intelligent share in the future, Jeadership of thelr of radical, Socialist and Comununist country. | and ! this difficult U. S. Dole Would Be Disastrous, Is Claim ___ (Continued From ;t;st Page.) Labor party, has said that “of the laws for the weifare of the people placed upon the statute book in Britain in recent vears at least 40 per cent had thelr original inspiration in the work and spirit of the Selvation Army" 1t is not easy 1o overestimate the revolu- tion in thought and sympathy in re- gard to the conditions of lhe masses that has followed the appearance of ny father's book. “In Darkest England and the Way Out.” which 40 years ggo marked an epoch in the soclal evohi- tion of the English masses Of the degrading poverty which 1 knew 30 well tn the slums of London and the great provincial cities of Britain DY Years ago there hus been a no- ticeable amelioration Sheer aud utter dwstitution is today practically non-ex- Istent. ‘There has been & vast improve- ment it the agpearance and conduct of those who live in slum aregs, The number of homelsss peopiec has been sreally reduced y Years ago thoiss women and childrer Summer and W pie of such men 1 were to be found, inter. sleepin £ streets, Liding from the pul‘l’cc“ln“;l!y\“i ways. under arches and bridges, or lving on the seats along the Thames Em- bankment. number to be found today sleeping in the open in the central London area amounts to s few scores at the outside. Health Greatly Improved. The health of the le has greatly improved. Tnfant mortality hag been immensely reduced. According to Sir George Newman, chief medical officer at the Board of Education. the medical inspection of school children. the work of pre-natal clinics, child welfare cen- ters and kindred instiutions within | tre Jast 10 vears has added two and a half o Lhree Vears 1o the expectation [ life in the mentary school te cvils o bave been dimin- ished of the com- munity from st to the highest The number of con for drur enness were 188,877 in 1913, Thev fell to 55642 In 1928 the last statistics available —or fewer than one-third in a larger population. To this gratifying change many, many factors have contributed. Apart from any other circumstance, there bas been an increased sense of the value of money. due to uncertainty of trade Also the later opening and earlier clos- ing of premises licensed for the sale of " intoxXicants, inforced by legislation during recent vears; the higher prices charged for intoxicants as a result of laxation and their lower alcoholic con- tent—oh, England. why in for prohibition altogether large crease in_the number restaurants and tea shops: the parks. open spaces and other facilities for open-air recre- ation provided by local wuthorties: cheap and easy access Lo the country 1ds | bold gods, T (Continugd Prom Third Page.) masculine sympathy on seeing some militant_muster of the sons of Ma- homet shouting the devastating sim- Flicity of their creed in the mere cries of the desert. But on hearing the crescendo of those cries, “God is good! "God is great!” “Mabomet is the prophet of God!" we should never feel 100ved to round them off with @ cheery chorus of “On Christmas Day in the Morning.” We should feel it was & false note, st lewst on the assumption that the other was the Wue barmony Anyhow, we can all feel it is & peculiar note, & special spiritual and even phys- ical note. & blend of body and spiric after some fasbion which the other spiritual traditions not only do not pos- se88, but do not desire. A Greek paint- ing & picture of the infant Hercules 1 not ChiyLtmas, a Roman sacrificing to Saturn, even al the Saturnalia, is not Christmas: & philosopher drinking wine al & symposium of Plato is not Chris mas: 8 Viking throwing bones at a Loon compavicn at the Winter Lis not Christmas. Every one who knows anything of differences, even if he knows little of definitions, will be able to see—we might almost say to smeil the separate tang of the tradition that 1 mean. Festival of the Home. We might try to define the thing in many ways and fail ting it is to say that Christmas is & festival of the home, to which is added a strange sort of tenderness, with the thought that it commemorates the homeless. Therefore, no more teathen hedonism. no mere human security in the home, such as might be felt by a jolly pagan household Worstiping its hotse- covers the whole complexity oI the emoticin. On the contrary I the comedy of the thing. there 15 a streak of 1rouy and Msecurity, u shadow of the injustice of the world and of the ysterious misfortunes of the good This 18 closely connected with what are called the corporal works of mercy, and it must be emphasized, 5o to speak, that they are very corporal indeed There is & sort of mystical material- ism deliberately accentuated in the combination of Christmas charity and Christmas cheer. There is any amount of altruism. of pity. of philanthropy of various kinds in all sorts of cults and cultures; but not 50 far as I know. this pec and poignant combination of convivality and compassion. Even where the same things exist, the same things do not go together, in’ the cc tion and con tations of the other types or religion. When we unde! subtly the qualities of Ch be:n valued we may begm to spec on how strangely they nave been a tacked Has Always Had Enemles. even side by motor cosch and ruil. and the | populerity of the cinews snd radio as | alternatives Lo the Rublic huuse for the | cecupation of lefsure have all coutributed their quota of lenice in producing the incremsed subtiely of the | British pevple | This improvement s ingly, marked even atous the tho S oot homeless men and wower housed nightly under the rug: vation Army sociel institutions habitual vagrant druuken, unwsshed work-sby and & social parasite f but a very small proportion of WLo are forced. for economic rea to resort te the use of Salvation homes and hostels Religlon Gains in Quality. T was interesteg deeplv in the relig- | condition of the Old World. I cou that I visited the pec e suffering from the wave of ma- erialism which swept over mankind vwhere after the World War, and doubt, there has been a great away from attendance at publ ip _and ot Teligious obse: ances. But in Great Brit 1 found the sirong opinion that religion. may have lost in quantity. has g: in quality. It is a much less conven- tional and a far more vital thing ¢! it was before the war Miuisters and members of all de- nominations are deeply concerned over the indifference of the greal mass of | the people toward organized religion | their obsession Wwith sport and pleasure of every kind. Buf, on the other hand. there is proceeding & deep searching of hearts and much praver among the leaders, who are full of a growing convicton that @ revival of religion is not far distant | If the Salvation Army has suffered little from the drift toward material- Ism. it L. I think, becuuse of the ex- scting stundard of service and sacrifice which is the rule under our flag In Frauce I was particularly impressed by the appeal of the Army to youth. Ou oue oveasion. in Paus. 1 met 350 of vur French officers. About 273 af them were under 30 years of age. They were vivacious and full of the spirit of ad- venture in the realm to which they had given their lives. Nor can 1 conceive of a problem at time which would not vield, slowly but surely. to such prac- tical fervor, enthusiasm. optimism. de- votion and daring. Everywhere that I went I found that governments were coming to recognize the social value and even necessity, of such a redeem- ing force in society. The experience of the Salvation Army at this period nrl supreme testing is that secular authori- | ties are calling our leading officers into | conference and placing real dependence | upon our methods, our spirit and our special activities. World Ready for Gospel Message. 1 could discover no decline whatever in the eagerness of the people to listen to the preaching of a positive message. At Albert Hall, London, I spoke to more than 10.000 people in one mass gather- ing, and so it was on the continent of Europe. It may be true that, in all countries that I visited, some of the people were drawn by curiosi sonal affection and natural d greet a guest who, to many of them. Was also a friend. But. at this Christmas season. I may be permitted. perhaps. to express the view that the heart of mankind is yearning for those values in life which are not to be found in prosperity alone. which are not to be lost in any depres- sion. however severe. The world is as ready as ever to listen to the eternal message of the angel chorus, Pea Earth, Good Will to Men. As T listened to the views of ruon- archs and statesmen, wen of political ve- sponsibility, and social influence, who are confronted by the actual task of restoring and safeguarding the stability of Western civilization, I was pro- foundly impresed by the candor of their confessions that the solution of these otherwise insoluble problems lies be- yond the limits of politics, economics and diplomacy. Finds Desire for Peace Universal. Also, I became con.dent that the most-to-be-valued sentiment in the world today is a universal desire for peace. and may I say here that I am also fully assured that this desire will never be appeased until the standards of justice, happiness and hope are transmitted to the banners of all peo- ples of the earth. until there is not a remnant of a nation left to chafe and brulse beneath the g yoke of op- Dression, and that international differ- ances and political eontroveraies are set- tled by other measures than the mutila- tion and destruction of the best thing God has made—man. I believs the time is fast approaching when war will be regarded by all men of religion, learning and though a stalking monster of barbaric irrational- ! ism. The principle of the stronger striking down the weaker in order to settle ~international disagreements bound to surrender to the greater pr ciples of universal justice, and these have no sure foundation but in the re- ligion of Jesus Christ. When the good of all les shall be 81l men’s rule, universal peace, like a shaft of lfl&, will fling its mantle across the ulders of the world, and the liberty. protection and peace of all nations will be secured. A warld without faith cannot ex- pect a rempwal of comfidence, ion | ing smoke of industrialism | were indefensible. | things so ordinary as that. For it is the very proof of this pe- Cullar laste or taug that the thing uot wply loved but hated. ‘This Chiris- Uau stival, which @ niodern rational- L wishied (0 revive under the ame of the Feast of Friends. has siways had its encmics. 1t belouged to the home, but it sow:tiues had to take refuge in the howie, us its great orguiators had Lo take Ietuge the stable. It was mielides even pursued into the home 8 Delsscutors especially the Puri- s. I have even heard it said that 1tans established Thanksgiiin 3 order to insure the abolition Christmas day. so that the Puritan presumably ate his Thanksgiving turkey to express his thanks that he was not eating his Christmas pudding But it was not only among Puritan or any sort of theologians that queer reaction arose. The were as fanatical as the re the inteliectuals of the Age often frowned heay Revelry. This utilitar | radicais might have bee not been rush of a very this matter was t conservatives newed the flame of C | hearth if not the alta few have daved to re. or pessimist opposition t feast, but its perils are by over. The tradition of Christmas is at ent confronted with which is almost tk negative and unbelief ened 1t with destruction or but it is now threatened with a ticular sort of exaggeration. whic vet v meti exaggerated at and from a mot istic to itself, Yy no means 5 Threatened by Overproduction. The Puritans nearly destroyed it in 3 century, and the Utih destroyed it in the the twentieth it iy s that typleally twent century of destruction which we call overproduction. Christmas has been crikhed LY anti-Christmas laws, anti-Christmas s:rmons. anti-Christmas sects and of statistics. But Christmas is now beir ushed by Christmas publicity and big business. The Star of Bethle- hem was darkened in the dense mid- night of Calvinism and by the blacken- But today it is extinguished not by darkness but by light. by the glare of the ghastly sky- signs and the fixed fireworks of trade The old fundimental customs of the peopls are a sort of test of the aberra- tions of the people. Whenever they ar forced to do something that interferes with what they have always done, that is in itself a warning that the world is going crooked. Being a child of a cer- tain civiligation. for instance, I consider it normal to take off my hat on meeting a lady or going into a church: I even in my private capacity, think it normal to kneel in a church. Now, if 1 found that fashion required me to wear such a very tall hat that it could be removed only by a system of cranes and pulleys operating from the top of the house. or if slaves had to scale high ladders in order to reach the top of my hat. or mechanics in remote offices or factories had to press buttons in order to loosen it from my head. I shuld find myself judging and condemn- ing the whole system of hatting and unbatting by the very fact that it int-rfered with what used to be so familiar and instinctive a gesture, ‘Wandered From Christianity. 1t T found that sll the fashionable tailors (whose shops, of coursz, 1 fre- quent in turn) alike insisted on pro- viding nothing but & cast-iron pair of trousers, in which It was impossible to kneel, T 'should decide that that fashion tarians ns | was & bad fashion, if only by the mere fact that it interfered with kneeling. It would be possible to calculate, so to speak. how far society had straved out of the straight, by these curious crooked angles made where it crossed the ancient lines of a more natural ife So. from time immemorial, in the depths of the Winter s=ason, just before the turning of the year. Christians have always had a festival and even pagans have always had a feast. The extreme pessimism of the Puritan epoch and the extreme ugliness of the industrial epoch are sufficiently measured by the mere fact that both gave birth to the bl phemers of Ohristmas, whether the: were called Praise.God Barebones or Ebeneser Scrooge. The very fact that the Puritans furl- ously forbade any celebration of Christ- mas shows how far thsy had wandered from Christianity. It shows that the Puritans were not even pure, and the ry fact that Dickens found it neces to defend Christmas against ti econamists shows that the economists People have to go out of their way to get into the way of Men must have been wicked as well as stupid to hate so simple & form of happiuess: and most certainly stupid as well as wicked when they professed to combine their cald hatred with an equally cold en- thusiasm for the greatest happiness of the greatest number, But though Dickers delivered the world m-‘ the denger of Ebenczer One way of put- | systems and scientific tables | mechanical | Christmas Still Is Menaced | Scrooge as he was then, I am not sure that Ebenezer Scrooge is not much more dangerous now. For I very mueh fear that Mr. Scrooge has been econ- vinced without being converted. I very much fear that he has learned to ap- ! preciate CHristmas, though not to ap- preciate Christianity. He has discov- ered that it is perfectly easy to go on being devoted to his business, and noth- ing else except his business, and yet to recognize that Christmas is quite & good business proposition. Now it will be noted that most of the festivities described in “The Christmas Carol” as the type of the old tradi- tona! Christmas, did not require any particular apparatus from outside. The company played blind man's buff, for |lustance. which does not require any wpparatus except a haudkerchicf And even the rather mixed com, meet in those very ar Mr. Dickens were comnic with g herefore t g Se other people particuar opening handkerchiefs, an Fagin to steal handk i Typical Modern Discovery. But it would be entirely the spirit of the age it would be altogetner in qurdfln?«e with push and publicity and professional sport and all that makes our own epoch 30 truly charm- ing, if somebody did begin to sell & |8pecial sort of handkerchief that could be used only for blind man's buff. Sup- pose & man could only invent s more limited and insufficient sort of hand- kerchief. with it 4 be possible for a man to bind his eyes, but puss:ble for @ man to blow his ‘e made be uscd only for one BUrpose. as & golf club can be used for golf or a biliard cue for billards, And as the universal handkerchief ‘that 8 useful for many purposes) would be fairly cheap, but the special handkerchie! (that was useless for all purposes but one) would be frightfully dear, those trading in it would do very well’ And the new combined firm of Scrooge and Fagin, turned into Christ- philantbropists. would look s lenit as the Cheeryble brotners. Christmas, in short, has become too commercial.'because people depend too igs that have to be bought, things that could easly are taken by those con)u ot hat, but only with magician's hat, price three that & pillow-fight cannot be d with the pillows from the but only with sped ws from boxing in 1 empor e bouc ) b domestic fes even the secution or black the Russian Films Gain World-Wide Market MOSCOW. U American C 13 ee Sovie The Descendant of Ch ngis-Khan.” “Earth” and “The Old and the New,” received prizes. a fact h is particularly significant be- cause, out of 10 films only 3 of foreign origin secured prizes Simuitaneously. the number of cinema theaters has been increased frem 6.700 in October nuary, 1931, and at it will reach G t aty the product par and already started of spparatus inventors In addition two stalted afacty n of several the exc from sound ve production design of Soviet Ww factories g reels of in 1931 fiims. Drinking in Sweden hows Heavy Gains STOCKHOLM. Sweden —Tt will take more than hard times to hurt t uor bustness in this lan long. ¢ ters. Last year Swedes dran more than they did ear before. and Stockholmers the questionable hor ading the van The Swedish gover: acts a heavy tax on d trols the wine and spirits monopoly made approximately $23.000,000 on the affic during_the 12 months in all of weden. In Stockholm alone the gov- ernment profits amounted to $2 509.000 in taxes and $1.500,000 in dividends from the monopoly company While there was an increase in drinking dur- ing the last:vear. the system of ‘“re- stricted drinking.” by which every drinking person is rationed according to his needs and his record as a eit: zen. seems to be funetioning well. B tween 1913, when there was ne contro! Whatsoever, and 1930 the number of people arrested for drunkenness has dropped from 50 to 13 per 100,000. d W ent. which ex- nkables and con: Drinking Importance Held More Than Foa.i BERLIN. Germany.—-“Drinking more important than eating This is the new theory of & German physician, Friedrich Vinzenz von Hahn, who advocates beer drinking for the daily hygiene of human hife. According to Dr. von Hahn's calculation, “two (‘IIAYL‘ of beer supply one-fifth of the daily human requirements of albumen.” In other words, 10 quarts (quite a con- siderable quantity) would supply the normal human being for one day. Dwelling on other advantages of beer drinking, Dr. ven Hahn says: “We take things easier after a few glasses of beer, the “world looks happier and less gloomy. The central organization of German physicians has, for some reason. taken sides against von Hahn's theories. TIf actually accuses him of taking mone from the big brewers—a charge whiel is solemnly disavowed by the love ing doctor. ——e ‘Hawaii Gets Engine | Harbor Survey Boat HONOLULU, Hawall—Hawail has no navigable rivers—in fact, no stream at all that would rate as a river in most places on the mainland—but it has been allotted an engine survey boat by the War Department for “river and har- bLor operation.” The boat is to be 68 feet in length and will be equipped with a Diesel engme. And. though river waters are lacking on the mainland, she will get plenty of action in harbor op- eraticn, going from island to island of the group. The base wil be at Honolulu. Congress has appropriated money for the continuance of harbor work on each | of the main islands—Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawali. Secretary of War Hurley approved the allotment of the $41,00Q needed for the boat.