The evening world. Newspaper, March 27, 1920, Page 8

“POTABLE ISH Br JOmMPM PULITZER, ia Detiy Gaoeet he Press Publish! “Company, Nos. 5. te 8 Dark Row, Hew Tar. 4, RALPH RULITZER, 4 6, BIEXNOUS SITAW. 4 GOSEPH PULITZE Presid: Treasurer, 63 Park Row. P IR, Jr., Secretary. 63 Park Row, ‘BBs Amociated Press is exciusively entitled to the use for republication Gl news deepetches credited to it or mot otherwise credited in this paper ‘alse the local news published herein. VICE. AND THE POLICE. police scandal. “Qharges and counter charges between the Polke * Department and the District Attorney's office are only of the mess. " only in the public interest, but in justice to the _ tomest and efficient men who constitute the biggest © part of the city’s police force, the dirty comers will have to be swept clean. , © St is unfortunate that police methods as applied © Wee have come more and more to involve a kind of | @mialliance with vice, _ Gnside detective work, carried on with the aid of “Stool pigeons” and the like, puts a heavy strain on Police morals and makes soil favorable to graft and - een Organized and directed from higher po- : Gircles, such corruption soon becomes formidable. If the police attitude were confined to protecting the | public from vice, if there couki be less mixing with “vice as a part of police policy, there would be fewer police scandals. _ WHERE THE LOAD IS HEAVIEST. > AJEW tax legistation proposed in Japan aims to ~ FN relieve a part of the population upon which, in countries, burdens—particularly war burdens— weighed of late most heavily. fn the Japan Weekly Chronicle we read: Taking the Government measure as it stands ‘at present, it is interesting to note that the Government has extended marked considera- tion and sympathy to the position of the sal- aried classes; or, in other words, people of a Mmited income, in the new regulations, in which the level of obligations incumbent upon them fe greatly lowered. The case is Quite different ‘with the rich, whose obligations to the State are now considerably increased. Evening World readers know that for months past The Evening World has specially championed the “eause of those workers in the United States who now _ find themselves struggling in vain to keep up with a post-war cost of living on pre-war incomes. This newspaper has fully set forth the plight of the “New Poor,” whose incomes have lagged far be- hind fhe rise in prices and whose standards of living are forced down by the new spending power of classes favored by war. ‘Congress has shown no sign of*sympathizing witle + these “New Poor.” It has made no move'to readjust tax load so that the shoulders of salaried workers carry an easier share. Yet it is this class that is bearing the heaviest weight of present so-called prosperity in the United States. Congress might well take a hint from the Japan Diet. eeoes THE PRIZE FIGHTER DE LUXE. ARGUERITE MOOERS MARSHALL'S charac- ter sketch of Carpentier, the “Beau Brummell * of Fisticuffs,” in The Evening World yesterday gave New York its first vivid pictureof what a professional ‘pugilist may be but usually isn’t. ‘The news columns recounted his experiences at a . gentleman’s club, in which he appeared socially as an | honored and respected guest, a gentleman among gen- tlemen, as well as an entertainer and exponent of De American sportsmen are already in debt to the French champion. The visit of Georges Carpentier is _ providing a strong incentive for an uplift in the stand- ards of American sport and sportsmanship. THE LAW'S BLIND SPOT. i ARRY “NELL,” or Neu, the “Slasher,” has been sentenced to the workhouse for six months, And then what? In his trial it developed that he had been involved ina similar crime before, but had escaped punishment. At the end of six months will he be turned loose on the comaunity as a possible menace to young women and chikiren? stance Hoxie murder, The Evening World commented ‘on the need for protection of the community against degeneracy. We indorsed the recommendations of Justice Harry ‘Olson of the Chicago Municipal Court, as follows: Justice Olson’s vidws are the result of long experience and study, and deserve serious consid- eration. He believes that the police court grist ‘of petty criminals should be examined by compe- tent psychologists as aids to the Judge who must _ ass rentence. He believes that psychology is ' sufficiently developed as a science to warrant laws providing for the segregation of moral perverts before they have opportunity to commit such _ etimes as occurred at the Hoxie home. In the “Nell” case this suggestion seems particularly apropos. He escaped sentence in his first offense be- ) cause friends testified to his good character. Doubt- ty ss their testimony was entirely honest. Neu had | shown degeneracy in their presence, But a psy- have discovered It and the second "T 1S plain that New York must brace itself for ay _ the usual preliminaries to mud-stirring that will remain ‘musd-stirring unless the city courageously digs to the Three months ago, at the time of the Ream Con-}. Offense would have been avoided by proper preventive measures, What will become of Harry New when he is re- leased from the workhouse? n Our faws have a blind spot. Degenerates shoukl be protected from themselves. Society should pro» tect itself from degenerates, | THREE-POINT SUPPORT. | UBLIC interest continues to play am increasingly important role in our labor problem. This development has been gradual, so graduai that the public has scarcely sensed its new. power, is scarcely prepared to play its necessary part. Public opinion has “won” or “lost” strikes in the past, but only after the strike had visited its full dis- ruptive effect on industry, usually after violence had developed in the struggle. Two recent happenings in our industrial organiza- tion have suddenly emphasized the public’s part, If the findings of the President's Coal. Commission are to result in permanent benefit to the industry, ‘the co-operation of the public is essential in providing a year-round market for coal, so that miners may work with greater regularity and economy of employment. In the report of the Industrial Commission published last Sunday the part of the public is clearly recognized. In the Councils the representatives of the public would hold first place. They would be the motive force with independent power to take action even when em- ployers and employees balk. If these representatives of the pyblic are to be effec- tive, they must have behind them the power of public opinion. They must be real representatives. The public must watch these men, make sure they truly are representative, and then demonstrate to both employers and employees that all the power of an understanding public is behind its representatives. If the public is to do this it must enter into a new relationship with employers and employees. It must cease to be the lifeless metal on which both capital and labor hammer—most often with conflicting aims, In the past the product of this process all too often has been a misshapen lump, a result inevitable when one blacksmith tries to make an anchor, the other a needle, The public must become part of the machinery of industry. It must do this on the basis of knowledge By * f 1 ' NING WORLD, SATU Lot of Smoke. Where’s the Fire? « | i and with a judicial attitude. It must play its own yart, stand for its own interests, instead of merely taking the side of whichever party seems least at fault. This implies study of industrial conditions from a new viewpoint. ‘The development of a new industrial philosophy ts essential. FPhis is, perhaps, the biggest question before America. ‘Chas resulted from the, world-wide breakdown of the ok} industrial philosophy in’ which labor was regarded 48 acommodity rather than a product of humanity. Capital and Labor, the world over, have come to a point where they confess their inability to solve their troubles and have virtually thrown up their hands. In Russia the result of the breakdown has taken the form of a so-called Dictatorship of the Proletariat, in ich only one party in interest, the workers, has any control in industry. \ England has sought the elimination of one party, capital, in its movement for nationalization. America is seeking a better system for the Democ- ratization of Industry, in which all three parties to in- dustry shall bear their equitable shares, The success of this experiment depends on the ability which the public shows in holding up its end of the industrial structure. In mechanics three-point support is recognized as the most stable. Is not the same principle applicable in industrial economy? HOW TO SEE THE CIRCUS. HEN the circus comes to town the small boy or girl immediately becomes a valuable bit of— shall we say—camouflage. Parents, aunts and uncles, family friends, find in Little Johnny a convenient reason and excuse for go- ing to the circus. There is a case on record where seven mature per- sons took one small Johnny to the circus—and lost him. There ts a reason, Of course, adults enjoy the even though they may be unwilling to admit it. But there is no denying that the eyes of youth do have in advantage. A youngster can give pointers to his elders in the matter of seeing the circus. This being so, what can be done for the numerous adults who have no youthful nephews? How may the numerous unattached men and women without chil- dren, or whose children have grown away from them, enjoy the circus to the full? One suggestion is to borrow a child to help see the circus. For every unattached adult there are many young- sters who want to go to the circus but have small chance of doing so. Mothers who would be glad to give them the treat cannot afford it. Find one of these children, Overcome metropolitan aloofness. Find the child who ‘has never seen a circus and get him or her to introduce you to the parents. Arrange for a loan of the youngster for one afternoon, and so see the circus as it should be seen, This is. good advice, It has stood the test of \*perience, Censorship of the Beautiful. Te the Dadvor ot The Evening World: One note the student of American literature in all its course failed to hear until very recently: the clear, Sweet note of .the great humanist. rhe dominant tone of the leading American writers has been, indeed, revolutionary. Thomas Paine, James Russell Lowell, Emerson, Thoreau, Walt Whitman, aN wore priests of revolt. Poe took refuge in super- aeatheticism; Mark Twain was per- verted into’ a popular clown, and Henry James expatriated himself Plenty of healthy protest there is in most of the volumes of these writers, but how little, aside from Henry James, of repose, of untroubled large ways of thinking, of unconscious aris- tocracy! The explanation for this lies in the irritants and restraints which pressed so hardly upon American writers of ability. And one of thc most baleful of these negative in- fluences was the activity of the So- clety for the Suppression of Vice. Recently a/book was published— a suave, ironical, sophisticated book. a book that will become a classic, a masterly book written (miracle of miracles!) by an American. "If Amer- icans are looking for a book to show to Europe, here it is," wrote Hugh Waipole, the English novelist. But it was not long before Cabell's "Jur gen” was banned by the Society for the Suppression of Vice, About the same time another book “The Story of a Lover,” by Hutchins Hapgood, appeared—a brave, sincere, well-written account of his attemp! to mould his married life as an artist works with his material. A docu- ment of extraordinary interest be- cause set down by a man of unusua sensitivity, It has been suppressed by the Vice Squad of the Police De- partment. Now, I ask, are not we Americans as a Nation, culturally mature enouch to make such censorship of the beau tiful In our letters a thing absolutely impossible? GORHAM B. MUNSON, 25 East 14th Street, N.Y. C March %, 1920, ‘Taxi Pirates To the Pattor of The Fvening World Permit me to thank you for the story “New York Cab Pirates Again Preying on Strangers In City,” which appeared in The ning World of March 9. It is pitiless publicity such as this that profiteering of this intquitous kind deserves. Almost as soon as the paper was on the street the License Bureau called up to make inquiries about the case, and I do not doubt that we will have other reactions from it. ‘Allow me to.thank you also for the article written by Miss Loeb regard- ing our work, The Evening World has been particularly fine to us. TRAVELERS AID SOCIETY, Virginia M. Murray, Acting Sec'y. Ashamed of New Jersey, ‘To theladtor of The Hrening Wortd : As & constant reader of your paper I have been deeply interested in the letters for and against Prohtbition Comparing tho letvers, the one signed “Reformed Drankant” was evidently written by a gentleman; he dit not inwult people opposed to Prohibition. He has reason to be proud of what he says it has done for him and his fasmily, end I believe every word he says. If moderate drinking makes a man so insulting, so impolite, so self- igh as in the case of Paver Johnson and John O'Brien, then me for Pro- hibition. [am not a drinking man and I have been axhamed to a citizen of New Jersey since Gov. | wards took his seat, working as he | does against the Highteenth Am ment. KM. BENNE’ 1 East Orange, N J., March 23, 1920. | Apprectates “Uncommon Senn To the Piitor of The Evening World As a constant reader of your won-} derful paper, permit me to state that) the articles of Mr. John Blake are| truly a blessing, I'd suggest that y should be put in book form so| t everybody can get some wisdom | out of it, JAMBS PATRICK, | 430 Broome St., March 25, 1920, “Drys’ Next Daty. To the Faltor of ‘The Evening World As the fanatics, through the Eigh- teenth Amendment, have deprived! the biggest provincial city (New York) of its only public comfort sta- | ons, 1. @, the saloons, it behooves | these saints to follow the example of | up-to-date cities and arrange for the | comforts of thousands of daily visi- tors, as well as local citizens. TBA Printing in the Movies, To the Exitor of The Evening Wortd If an important speech was mum- bled through a beard in an inaudible, | indistinct manner I really believe that certain members of the movie profes- sion would be among the loudest pro- testants, The last few visits I have made to lvcal picture houses convince me that the cleverest producers of the silen drama are very sadly lacking of in- | telligence in certain directions. | In the first place, it is evident that | the offending producer has made no allowance for the fact that not every person is endowed with a “twelve power" vision, The text or title, the reproduction of telegrams, business or personal cards, letters, bills and anything which is in print or seript is the only medium by which the observer is able to link action with intent and “get the plot. Can you imagine any self-con- fessed intelligent producer throwing | upon the screen texts which are camoufkuged with scenic effects, such texts often being in Old English (or Teuton)—a very indistinct and hard type to quickly discern, especially when dissolved in foliage? This type is often very small, and the most insolent disregard of the patron's visional feelings 1s when such text is tinted by a muddy purple or deep green or anything but plain white, ‘Another “cynical joke” in this di- rection js Placing.a text in the upper left-hand comer of the screen, Per- sons seated in the extreme right of the theatre have to have what might be termed “contortionate” lamps. Handwriting and newspaper clip- pings are not within easy seeing range of persons not gifted with nor- mal or abnormal viston, and Tam sure the reader, and even producér, will agree that a lange percentage of per- sons are not of normal sight capacity. There !s only one answer, and that 1s to make all reproduction of thought other than action In @ very clear black oe — ® UNCOMMON SENSE By John Blake (Copyright. 1920.) LEARN HOW TO USE WORDs. Tools are useless to men who do not know how to em- ploy them. Give a draw knife or a plane to the average man and he will be as helpless as he was before he received it. Give c'ther of th implements to a carpenter and he can perform prodigies of skill with them. Because thought rules the world, and words arc the mes- sengers of thought, words are to you the most important tools there are. From childhood you learn to use a few of them, But your vocabulary, unless it has been carefully built up, is wo- fully short of your requirements. And, unless you have studied words and their meanings, you do not know how really to use half of the words that you employ, Study words, whether you are in school or out. Get a dictionary and a thesaurus. The dictionary will tell you how to use words and what they mean. The thesaurus will en- able you to add new words to your vocabulary. Correct speech spoken and written is the mark of the intelligent man, You will speak correctly if you read good books—-even though you spend but little time on grammar. But your reading will be of little value to you unless you understand every word that you read, and learn to use it yourself when you talk or write. You need not know Latin or French or Spanish in order to speak and write good English. But you must know*Eng- lish. And you can only know English if you know the words in the English language, Try to master new words every day. Write them in sentences. Think about them, learn how to them yourself, And when you read, note how good writers use them, and why. ; Equipped with a knowledge of correct speaking and cor- rect writing you can go far. Slovenly speech will always hold you back and often embarrass you. Study words faithfully, They are the foundation stones of education, and white bold manner in large, plain | print, taking as much of the screen | space as possible, This includes text, | “eaps,” telagrams, cards, clippings, letters, &e, | Light rays or sound waves may be de- the transmission of ‘ays or may (be miscalculated. LEWIS SHAW JR. Hartford, Conn., March 25, 1920. miners TOlShE Ast Be noth or the noticed, or misunderstanding of Signatlt ‘To the Biitor of The Pvening Work! | In regard to the letter of Curious on inter-planetary communication, in which he refers to meteors To the best of my knowledge there are quite a few meteors on exhibition | at the museum, and if I ‘have read aright, their metallurgical composi- tion differs greatly. Therefore his | pogies supposition that they came from the| . sane planet at intervals, as signals to the earth, is upset. Other meteors that have been un- earthed have been found to differ in| their metallungical composition from | those at the Museum of Natural His- tory. Curtous states that the scientific opinions as to their natural meteoric formation are merely surmises and theories. His suggestions likewise fit) into the sume category. We could not be sure that any sig- be facts. nalling from the earth of any formidence of that. had been intercepted by other planets. Bronx, March 21, Dy life existing on other planets, The conditions peculiar to land prevailing conditions. be much further advanced, is merely supposition, ory. History is the greatest evi. FITZ ALLEN. flected through some invisible cause. The amount of power necessary for waves Many other causes can be given as to why any it ed the incapalbility of answering, them. Above all, there may be no intelligent the earth not being the same on other celestial bodies does not necessarily preclude the idea of life on the other | planets existing. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that life in some form does exist on other Such creatures would be formed and adapted to their eurroundings Their in- telligence might not be developed to the same extent as ours, or they may Of course this, like that of Curtous The greater portion of scientific data and opinion are founded pn supposition and the- Research and investigate work eventually proves or disproves. ‘The suppositions of the present may later | letters seemed to have de of value both to the teacher and to TURNING THE P, —— BY—- Otis Peabody Swift Vopyrigns, 1! (TWe vw, hy ‘The Frew Pabantng 09, New York Evening World.) 1 —_ Pleasure and Profit— George Bernard Shaw has an- nounced that he is not going to visit America. In a recent interview he explained that he thad seen fll our tall buildings in the movies, and that every one in America who was of any interest whatsoever sooner or later came over to London and called on G. B, Shaw. Mr. Shaw's announcement is en- couraging. Here, at least, is one lec- ture that we shail not have to at- tend. It js cheerful news indeed. We hhave all had to attend so many lec tures lately. All the British world of sd smut taneously to discover America via the box office receipts. We have had a flood of pocis, and novelists, and philosophers, hastening westwanl to explain the workings of the inter- esving souls. A flurry of interviews sent out by publicity burcaus, a three weeks’ tour of the States, the midwest from u Pullman car window—and our British author is homeward bound again having discovered the soul,of Amer ica, and having told us all about his soul in turn. We thought of this when we read Arnold Bennett's analysis of America in “The Worker and His Work,” a collection of word pictures of | all types of American industry taken from the works of well know! authors, There are stories of the work of the lumberman, the banker. the department store clerk: They are collected from the works of H. G. Wells, O. Henry, Eden Philpotts—a score of writera—and compiled by Stella S. Center in a volume that is the young man who has not yet chosen his life work and is interested in a graphic portrayal of varied in- dustries, Bennett wrote of a mail order house in Chicago, He didn't have time to tour the Middle West, but when he got as far West as Chicago was taken to visit a large mall order house that supplied thousands of homes in the States beyond. He saw the busy clerks receiving the orders, and wrapping up bundles for Montana, Utah, Colorado and Texas. “I saw a packer deal with @ col- lected order,” he writes, “and itt this order were a number of tiny crookery utensils, a 4-cent cur ing iron, a brush and two inc’ ibly ugly china mugs inscribed cheap gilt with the words “Mother” and “Father.” Here in a microcosm I saw the reality of the backbone of all America, a sym bol of the millions of the little plain people. I could see the table on which the mugs would soon proudly stand. 1 could see the hand heating the curling iron and applying it. Almost no sense of beauty in these tremen- dous supplies of merchandise, but a lot of honesty, self-respect and ambition fulfilled." Thus it is that, simply and grace fully, the British Mtterati grasp the fundamental soul of America eee in A Busy Man’s Time— “114 Proved Plans to Scve a Busy Man's Time” (Shaw), is a tide de- signed to appeal these days, Some of the proved plans in the little book, a compilation of “speed up” methods used by business executives, might prove helpful and suggestive. One bik business man, for example, shortens the time spent in interviews by hav- ing only one other chair in his office besides his own, and that a stiff! un comfortable one where the visitor w!l not feel at ease. Another talks over business in the reception room, where his vis-a-vis can gee the line waiting for conferences. Plans for indices and filing systems are also gtven, and the ‘book is illustrated with charte and diagrams. . 8 Our Old Friend D. Ram— A retail clothing merchant has stated that on recent Saturday after- noons homeward bound business men stop at his store and spend large sums for neckties, sik shirts, guy checkered handkerchiefs—a sartorial debauch, a wild fling in haberdash. ery. He calls it a “buying jag,” and explains that men demand a certain amount of excitement in thetr lives, and that if they cannot become al- coholically convivial on pay day, take out their surplus cash and ’ good spirits in buying unnecessary clothes. There is truth in the suggestion. Excitement is a psychological neces- sity. Life without color, without ex~- citement, without emotion, is unbear- able. It is not worth living. And as much of life is monotonous and without apparent color, we all de- mand either physical or intellectuat stimulants. Wines and Hquons were a vital, necessary thing in the lives of thousands of people. They were more than a physical necessity. The were a psychological necessity—the luxury that lifted man for a few mo- ments above the commonplace; that made him forget to«day. Forgetting to-day is often a necessary and im- portant thing. Ellwood Hendrick, a chemical en gineer, has just published a volume of quaint and charming essays whiet he calls “Percolator Papers.” It is Peasant to discover that such essays nre written nowadays, They are fuil of quizzical humor, and reflect a broad interest in life as seen through the eyes of a man of neience. A cial essay is devoted to our old friend alcohol, diseuised under the fonmula name of C(2)H(5)CH. Of liquor Mr. Hendrick says: “Mankind in the mass scems better for it. ‘Totally abstinent races and peoples do not seem to get ahead For instance, the stripe of Norther Africa was in the days of Carth the garden spot of the world those days when its drank In inhabitants: the country was lively and prosperous. Now for over a thou- sand years its pec 8 have been to tal abstainers and they have proved themselves incupable of self-goveri ment, In this country we have had illuminating experiences, Maine, after Nev! State-wide Prohibition, the green back idea found favor among the voters and a majority of them fo! lowed the idea th omise to pay is equivalent to Pp Tr in Dow had incited i ment other worls, intense ability with loss of inhibitory powers, unrestrained passions, great” cxc nt over foo! - ish ideas and fins collapse—the evi- donge ot drunkenness in all its stages —results, would seem, although not conclusively proved, that tota! abstinence from alcohol by » who! people results in the appearance of a serious national intoxication,” DL peren!