oad and colorful, shot through with tense dramatic emotion and droll humor and differentiated by vivid life-sketches of Washington's contemporaries, Hamilton, Tom Paine, Lafayette and others. ($1.75 net.) Of MISS E. M. DELAFIELD'S two novels, Joseph Hergesheimer writes: “ZELLA SEES HERSELF and THE WAR WORKERS ($1.50, net, each) offer to honest and intelligent people an enjoyment of what are recog- nized as really high traits of creative literature to- gether with a pervading amusement and lively inter- est sustained from paragraph to paragraph and from novel to novel. Miss Delafield is a valuable addition to the number of writers, always small, whose books ornament equally the drawing room table and the preference of undisturbed private hours.” These books may be obtained from any bookseller. If you order direct from the publisher add 8% to cover postage. ALFRED A. KNOPF, 220 West 42nd Street, NEW YORK GROLIER CRAFT 68 PRESS, INC., N. Y. Propaganda Toatter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., August 3, 1918, under the act of March 3, 1897. Copyright, 1919, by pany, Inc.-Martyn Johnson, President-at 152 West Thirteenth Street, New York, N. Y. Entered as Second Class The Dial Publishing Company, Inc. Foreign Postage, 50 cents. THE DIAL A FORTNIGHTLY VOL. LXVI NEW YORK NO. 783 FEBRUARY 8, 1919 I 21 . The PAPER WAR Robert Herrick 113 THEODORE ROOSEVELT . John Dewey 115 The Great TRADITION Ashley H. Thorndike 118 NEWSPAPER CONTROL A. Vernon Thomas Debussy. Verse H. H. Bellamann 125 ANATOLE FRANCE AND THE IMP OF THE PERVERSE . E. Preston Dargan 126 THE AMERICAN PRESS SINCE THE ARMISTICE Harold Stearns 129 The LAUGHTER OF DETACHMENT. Marvin M. Lowenthal 133 REMAKING THE PAST Walton H. Hamilton 135 PELLEAS ET MÉLISANDE Paul Rosenfeld 138 The UNRELEGATED QUILL Lisle Bell 140 EDITORIALS 143 COMMUNICATIONS: A Lance-for Max Eastman.—Poetry in the Laboratory-Automatic 146 vs. Autocratic. Notes On New BOOKS: The Garden of Survival.—Newspaper Building.–Madame 148 Roland: A Study in Revolution.—Camps and Trails in China.—Men of the Old Stone Age.—American Railway Accounting.–Principles in Accounting.—The Catskills.--A History of Spain.-City Tides.-The Other Side.-Benton of the Royal Mounted.—My People.-Capel Sion. $3.00 a Year 15 Cents a Copy 106 February 8 THE DIAL 11 LITERATURE OF THE NORTH COUNTRIES CAN HOTHE CHWILA RANNO The selected works of the great northern writers in authoritative translations in THE SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS Norse prose; and Comedies by Holberg, “ The Moliere of the North.” II Poems by Tegner, in the translations of Longfellow and W. Lewery Blackley. III Poems and Songs by Björnstjerne Bjornson. IV Master Olof, Strindberg's great national-religious drama. V The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, mythical tales by a master of Old VI Modern Icelandic Plays, including “Eyvind of the Hills.” VII Marie Grubbe, a Lady of the Seventeenth Century. VIII Arnljot Gelline, Bjornson’s verse romance. IX Anthology of Swedish Lyrics from 1750 to 1915, collected and translated in the original meters by Charles Wharton Stork. as Volumes X and XI of the Series, GÖSTA BERLING'S SAGA the first great novel by SELMA LAGERLÖF in the translation of Lillie Tudeer and Velma Swanston Howard. The romance of the twelve vagrant gentlemen in the cavaliers' wing at Ekeby, and especially of an unfrocked clergyman, the cavalier of cavaliers. These books attractively printed and bound in red and gold by D. B. Updike at the Merrymount Press. Eleven volumes. The complete set.. ..each $1.50 $15.00 Published by THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION 25 WEST 45th STREET NEW YORK CITY When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. 919 107 THE DIAL DUTTON’S Interesting New Publications a FRANCE FACING GERMANY By GEORGES CLEMENCEAU The Premier of France, the most dramatic figure before the world today, has been through all her intense fight for life, in a special way the spokesmman for France. In this book his flery eloquence reveals the important events of the war precisely as each at the moment affected France. It is most valuable illumination of the emotions of France before the peace table. Net $2.00 KOEHLER'S WEST POINT MANUAL OF DISCIPLINARY PHYSICAL TRAINING Lleut. Col. H. J. KOEHLER, Director of Military Gymnastics, etc., at the United States Military Academy, West Point, was Instructor at various Business Mens and Militia Camps in 1915 and 1916, and at United States Training Camps and Cantonments in 1917 and 1918. of the results of his work NEWTON D. BAKER, Secretary of War, says: "The advantage of this discipline is not merely to make men look fit, but actually to make them be fit; if we could follow Col. Koehler's graduates, either from the Military Academy or from these training camps, to the battlefields of France we would find an impressive story of physical and moral adequacy," Ready. Net $2.00 THE DAREDEVIL OF THE ARMY By Capt. A. P. CORCORAN Experiences as a Despatch Rider, and " Buzzer," or telegrapher, service fully as dangerous as any at the front and full enough of hair's breadth escapes to satisfy any one seeking adventures. Ready. Net $1.50 THE FORGOTTEN THRESHOLD Being the Diary of ARTHUR MIDDLETON An extraordinarily beautiful account of the manner in which a young man gradually learned to withdraw his soul from the outside world and place it in direct communion with d. Ready. Net $1.00 AMERICAN PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION Edited by ELISHA M. FRIEDMAN A Symposium by twenty-seven experts of national reputation, discussing the present and future of finance, commerce, labor, industrial research, transportation, etc. Dr. L. Rowe, Asst. Sec'y of the Treasury, and Pres. of the Amer. Acad. of Political and Social Science declares that “Mr. Friedman has done a real public service in bringing together this collection of essays." Third edition, revised with the addition of an article by Dr. F. W. Taussig, Chairman of the United States Tariff Commission on “Tariff Problems." Net $4.00 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ASPECTS By ROBERT CROZIER LONG The time has not yet come when the Revolution can be set in its true perspective; until then and as an aid when that time comes, such a first-hand account of conditions and events as is here given by a corre- spondent for the Associated Press in Russia in 1917, is very valuable. Ready February 19 ULSTER FOLKLORE By ELIZABETH ANDREWS, F.R.A. I A collection of Ulster traditions of “wee folk,” whch suggest a reminiscence of some very early dwarf race, of a warfare in which the capture of children perhaps originated a whole group of fairy tales. With fourteen illustrations. Ready February 5 ESSAYS IN LENT By HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE A series of beautiful little essays which originally appeared in the Outlook in 1915, in which the reader was enabled to turn from the warfare then absorbing the world's attention, to dwell awhile in the affair of the soul. Ready February 5. Net $1.25 NEW FICTION WHILE PARIS LAUGHED By LEONARD MERRICK An alry trifle--the Pranks and Passions of the Poet Tricotrin in the gay brilliant Paris that was; its light Inconsequence is extraordinarily skilful, exceedingly amusing. There is scarcely one novelist in a generation who can put on paper such escapades 'as those of elegant, preposterous Tricotrin and his light-hearted com- panions without dulling their sparkle. In these days there is only Leonard Merrick. Ready. Net $1.75 THE SHADOW OF THE CATHEDRAL By VICENTE BLASCO IBANEZ A new, entirely reset edition with a preface by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, who describes the book as with the greatest Russian work and beyond anything yet done in English." The tragic moment when the hero who has preached freedom" finds that he has but destroyed the restraint which kept his hearers from becoming criminal, has a very timely bearing. Ready. Net $1.90 THE CRESCENT MOON His new book is a strange and picturesque romance set against a colorful, unhackneyed background. By the Author of “Marching on Tanga." FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG It is a love story of unusual charm, tinged with the mystery of African Jungles and a hint of hidden cults. Ready. Net $1.75 THE CHALLENGE TO SIRIUS By the Author of "Sussex Gorse," SHEILA KAYE-SMITH A significant story written with a quiet power and sureness of touch that is unusual. Its scenes swing from in Yucatan and back in full circle to the little Isle of Oxney, between Sussex and Kent. in sleepy Sussex village by way of Literary London, to America in Civil War times, to a remote forest pueblo Ready. Net $1.90 THE HIGHWAYMAN By H. C. BAILEY płacallant romance of conspiracy, misunderstanding, and of as high-hearted love as ever banished pride of place or hope of preferment, and made even crowns and kingdoms seem of minor worth. Ready. Net $1.60 From the Spanish of JOSE MARMOL Ahromance of the Argentine'in the exciting days of revolution against the tyranny of the dictator Rosas. The English version is by Marya on. Serrano, a translator of that famous sensation " The Journal of Marle Net $2.00 AMALIA ." and classes of modern French society. Six further volumes are either in press or in process translation. DUTTON'S LIBRARY OF FRENCH FICTION Edited by BARNET J. BEYER, sometime Lecturer at the Sorbonne Angerles which aims to present through translations of French masterpieces, the life of all sections, types, JACQUOU THE REBEL By EUGENE LE ROY qualities of the people had changed from the perford this novel to the time of the present war. aleveals the sturdy rural communities of Perigord, where neither the conditions of lite nor NONO: LOVE AND THE SOIL By GASTON ROUPNEL is comceful story of life in the wine-growing district of Burgundy.-a deep drama in which stark realism is combined with the finest and firmest faith in human nature. Ready. Net $1.90 All of these may be ordered (postage extra) of any bookseller or direct from the gentle Ready. Net $1.90 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY, 681 Fifth Avenue, New York When writing to advertisers please mention Tue DIAL. 108 February 8 THE DIAL THE HE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH is organized to meet the needs of intelligent men and women interested in the grave social, political, economic and educational problems of the day. Courses of lectures on important phases of reconstruction will be offered to those who desire to attend. In addition, small groups of specially qualified persons will be organized for the practical investigation of important ques- tions. The work will be arranged with a view of preparing those who desire to enter the fields of journalism, municipal administration, labor organiza- tion, and the teaching of social sciences. The school will be open with an enlarged staff and a full program in October, 1919. In the meantime the following preliminary lectures will be offered from Monday, February tenth, to Friday, May third. Preliminary Lectures-February-May, 1919 THORSTEIN VEBLEN. The Industrial HAROLD J. LASKI. Representative Transition from the Eighteenth Cen Government. tury to the Twentieth. The working out of a new theory of An inquiry into the nature of the changes representative government, the breakdown which have taken place in industry from the of the system as conceived by the nineteenth eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, their century with special emphasis_upon the consequences, and the relation of these recent experience of England, France and changes to current questions of peace and America. the self-determination of nations. WESLEY CLAIR MITCHELL. The Price JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON. The Re System and the War. lation of Education to Social Progress. The role of prices in modern life, the An analysis of our current system of effect of peace upon prices, production, education, showing the need of its revision profits and wages. and an attempt to determine the ways in FREDERICK W. ELLIS. The Mind which it should be readjusted so as to for Viewed as a Factor in Social Adjust- ward the reform of existing evils. nents. CHARLES A. BEARD, Director of the An introductory study of the technique of Bureau of Municipal Research and mental adjustments, the customary forms of Training for Public Service. social thinking, the measurement of mental Problems of American Government. efficiency and the methods of securing in- tegrity of mind in the course of social ex- These lectures will be given at the perience. Bureau, 261 Broadway, and will deal with the practical methods involved in the de- ROBERT BRUÈRE, ORDWAY TEAD, velopment of efficient democracy. H. C. METCALF, W. E. MOSHER. EMILY JAMES PUTNAM. Habit and Administration and Industrial Relations Courses and field work in Employment listory. given at the Bureau of Municipal Research, How habit has dominated the individual 261 Broadway, combining lectures, readings in the past and how essential it is to recog and factory visits with the object of supply, nize the effect of excessive and undesirable ing definite technique as well as a sound habit on concepts of nationalism, religion, point of view toward the human problems of the status of women, etc. industry and government. All applications and inquiries should be addressed to the Executive Secretary. EMMA PETERS SMITH, Pá.D., 465 West 23RD STREET, NEW YORK CITY Telephone Chelsea 6636 . When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. 719 109 THE DIAL COMING! Robert Morss Lovett and others -Studies of Contemporary Foreign Writers—a series of critical essays. Norman Angell-articles on Internal Conditions Abroad. Thorstein Veblen—a series on Contemporary Problems in Reconstruction. John Dewey—articles from Japan on The Situation in The Far East. Bertrand Russell-contribu- tions. George Moore—second install- ment, Imaginary Conversa- tions between himself and Edmund Gosse. Richard Aldington-Letters to Unknown Women. Editorials --Reprints of the most significant foreign comment-Important original docu- ments—General articles on art, literature and the drama-And especially the best critical survey of current books that exists in America. THE DIAL A copy of THE DIAL'S “Rus- sian Reprints,” free with each four months'subscription. $1.00 Is this the first or the second This includes the famous “With- or the third time you have draw from Russia," commented picked up THE DIAL at a newsstand! upon as the most clear cut state- ment of our relations with Russia Perhaps you have come to the ever printed in an American jour- conclusion that THE DIAL is nal, Soviet Russia and the Amer- a real find. ican Revolution," by Lincoln That Colcord; “ A Voice Out of Rus- you don't want to miss an issue if you can help it. sia," by George V. Lomonosoff, and the original Soviet decrees on Many others have come to land and workmen's control. that conclusion. Pin a $1.00 bill to this coupon today! They are writing in-hun- dreds of them," Put me on Dial Publishing Co. your subscription list so I'll be 152 West 13th Street New York sure not to miss anything." Enclosed find $1.00. Send me THE Why not be safe? DIAL for four months and a copy of THE DIAL'S Special Russian Re- prints." 66 D2-8 When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. IIO February THE DIAL Sir Gilbert Parker's Strongest and Most Daring Novel in Recent Years WILD YOUTH AND ANOTHER By SIR GILBERT PARKER. 4 Illustrations. $1.50 Net. An intense and thrilling drama, staged in the Canadian west. Into this colorful world, to the booming town of Askatoon, Joel Mazarine brings his young wife, Louise. She is a white flower of unawakened girlhood, sold to a rich old man by'a selfish mother, to save their family fortunes. The spectators of the drama of Mazarine's Louise and Orlando are the young doctor, kindly and wise, the rough survivors of pioneer days, and the newcomers who are building up the new and modern town. Orlando Guise is the owner of Slow Down Ranch which adjoins Mazarine's property. Louise has almost become the hapless victim of her husband's cruelty, fading like a parched flower, when chance brings her in contact with Orlando; they “change eyes,” without volition of their own. The result is a heart-gripping tale of love and jealousy, hate and exquisite romance. Recent Publications of General Interest The Springtide of Life-Poems of Childhood Esmeralda or Every Little Bit Helps By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE By NINA WILCOX PUTNAM and NORMAN With a Preface by Edmund Gosse. JACOBSON Illustrated by ARTHUR RACKHAM. Illustrated in color and black and white, $1.00 net. 8 color plates and many illustrations in the text. A western girl in the China Shop of Society, $3.00 net. breaking the treasures of tradition wtih the de- Edmund Gosse has carried out a plan once lighted co-operation of all types of men—and made by the poet, to gather his poems on child- helping to win the war with an originality of hood in one volume, and Arthur Rackham has method that is bewildering but full of " interpreted them exquisitely. and individuality effective. A delightful ro- mance and a heroine who will create her own The Historical Nights Entertainment welcome. By RAFAEL SABATINI, Author of “The Clear the Decks! Snare," "Banner of the Bull,” etc. $1.75 net. A Tale of the American Navy Today. A remarkable work in which the author, with all of his rare skill in re-creating historical By "COMMANDER". scenes, has described a group of famous events, 20 Photographic Illustrations. $1.50 net. such as “The Murder of the Duke of Gandia," A thrilling tale of our navy boys in action- The Story of St. Batholomew," and others of based on fact. Thousands of our American equal or greater import. The fact that each boys are today living the life of the hero of story, culminates in the dramatic happenings of this book. It was written by a U. S. Naval a night leads to the captions: The Night of Be Officer during off hours in actual naval service. trayal, The Night of Charity, The Night of A wholly enthralling story of American naval Massacre, etc. The author is supreme in his activities is here described the fun, the dan- power to picture vividly, and in a new manner, gers, the everyday life, the encounters with the scenes already more than famous through great enemy. foreign writers such as Dumas. Decorative Textiles The Romance of Old Philadelphia By GEORGE LELAND HUNTER By JOHN T. FARIS, Author of 580 Illustrations in color and halftones; hand- “Old Roads Out of Philadelphia.” somely bound. $15 net. 100 Illustrations. Octavo. $4.50 net. The first comprehensive book on decorative textiles for wall, floor, and furniture coverings. The fact that Philadelphia was the center for A perfect reservoir of combinations and a long period of the colonial life of the nation schemes old and new. The illustrations are gives this volume a historical appeal to all Americans. The illustrations are of the most remarkable for both quality and quantity, show- varied and interesting character, ing texture values as they have never been shown before. A magnificent work. AT ALL BOOKSTORES J B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PUBLISHERS P H'ILADELPHIA pep o When writing to advertisers please mention The DIAL. 1919 III THE DIAL Important February Publications FROM PUTNAM'S LIST THE LADY FROM LONG ACRE Victor Bridges Author of "A Rogue by Compulsion" A riotous tale of fantastic adventures, of an Englishman of title and his prize fighting friend, of a lady who didn't want to be a queen, and of several swarthy skinned gentlemen of sinister and devious ways—an amazing, exuberant story with a chuckle in it. 12°. 6 full page Illustrations. $1.00. VOLTAIRE IN HIS LETTERS S. G. Tallentyre Author of "The Life of Voltaire,” etc. The letters portray the man "in his habit as he lived,” and noť only display his extraordinary mind, but show him in love and in prison, recovering from small- pox, lamenting a mistress, visiting a king, righting human wrongs, attacking in- human laws, belittling Shakespeare, and belauding Chesterfield. gº. Portraits. $3.50. IN FLANDERS FIELDS and Other Poems Lieut.-Colonel John McCrae, M.D. With an Essay in Character by Sir Andrew Macphail John McCrae was a physician, soldier, and poet, and died in France a Lieutenant- Colonel with the Canadian forces. The poem which gives this collection of his lovely verse its name, has been exten- sively reprinted, and received with unusual enthusiasm. The volume contains, as well, a striking essay in character by his friend, Sir Andrew Macphail. 12° $1.50. A SHORT HISTORY OF ROME Guglielmo Ferrero and Corrado Barbagallo Part II. of this important history embracing The Empire, 44 B.C.-476 A.D., ready now. Part I. includes the Monarchy and the Republic, from the foundation of the City to the death of Julius Cæsar, 754 B.C.-44 B.C. Though the history is primarily intended for use in classes, it is written with a broad, sympathetic feel- ing which will appeal greatly to the casual reader. 12°. Two volumes. $1.90 each. THE WORLD WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES William Herbert Hobbs Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt said, after reading the manuscript: “It is the literal truth that if I could choose only one book to be put in the hand of every man and woman in the United States, I would choose the book of Professor Hobbs.” 12°. $2.00. NEW YORK At all Booksellers LONDON you can find Street G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 24 Bedford Street When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. II 2 February 8 THE DIAL NEW MACMILLAN BOOKS $1.50 THE VISION FOR WHICH WE FOUGHT By Arthur M. Simons A brilliant study in reconstruction showing the need for conscious continuance of proc- esses already well underway. THE NEW AMERICA By an Englishman (Frank Dilnot) A series of short, vivacious sketches of im- pressions made by a trained observer from England of life in the United States during 1917 and 1918. $1.25 THE GREAT PEACE By H. H. Powers A highly original and brilliant discussion of Nationality and the general principles on which the new order must be built. $2.25 NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS AND THE WORLD WAR By Frederick A. Ogg and Charles A. Beard The political institutions, ideals, and practices -national and international-of the belliger- ents. $2.50 THE END OF THE WAR By Walter E. Weyl The most courageous book on politics pub- lished in America since the beginning of the war.”—The Dial. $2.00 CHRISTIAN INTERNATIONALISM By William Pierson Merrill The political, social and religious factors which must make an end of the old arbitrary conduct of nations. $1.50 THE DISABLED SOLDIER By Douglas C. McMurtrie A description of the whole modern principle of rehabilitating the disabled soldier by the director of the Red Cross Institute for Crip- pled and Disabled Men, Illustrated, $2.00 JOHN MASEFIELD'S POEMS AND PLAYS Include everything that the distinguished Eng- lish author has published in the field of drama and verse. Vol. I, Poems; Vol. II, Plays. Each, $2.75; the set, $5.00 WAR AND REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 1914-1917 By General Basil Gourko Chief of the Russian Imperial Staff. A book of permanent historical value and in- ferest. These memoirs of General Gourko present a new picture of Russia and Russian affairs. Illustrated, $4.00 MEXICO, TODAY AND TOMORROW By Edward D. Trowbridge A comprehensive statement of the general situation in Mexico-political, social, financial and economic. $2.00 CHINA AND THE WORLD WAR By W. Reginald Wheeler A clear and succinct account of affairs in China since the outbreak of the war. Illustrated, $1.75 FOREIGN FINANCIAL CONTROL OF CHINA By T. W. Overlach An unbiased analysis of the financial and polit- ical activities of the six leading Powers in China during the last twenty years. $2.00 WHO'S WHO 1919 This year's English Who's Who covers nearly three thousand pages and provides the essen- tial facts about many thousands of prominent people of the world. $12.00 THE HISTORY OF RELIGION By E. Washburn Hopkins An accurate and detailed one volume history of religion. $2.75 THE ENGLISH VILLAGE: · A LITERARY STUDY By Julia Patton A study of the village in English literature during the period 1750-1850. $1.50 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS OF FLORIDA By Clifton Johnson An attractively illustrated book containing information about Florida of special interest and to the tourist. $2.00 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Publishers, 64-66 Fifth Ave., New York When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. THE DIAL A FORTNIGHTLY The Paper War Ar one end of the Piazza di Spagna in Rome they suffered from the lack of an organized press rises an old building bearing the legend “Collegio propaganda, though most of the better known and di Propaganda Fide." Here, in the middle of the more responsible newspapers were distinctly friendly seventeenth century, was founded by Pope Urban to the cause of the Allies. The French had already VIII the first school of propagandists to spread begun the organization of a propaganda bureau as the true faith among Teutonic peoples. I do not an adjunct to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To know that the Imperial German Government in its the small rooms in the rear of the Quai d'Orsay wide-reaching plot for world conquest consciously building, where the Peace Conference is now sitting, revived this ancient Roman institution. But it is visiting journalists were led by the back stairs to certain that to the German example the world is obtain those privileges of information and military indebted for the curse of propaganda, which in the observation which, at that time, the French rather last four years has spread like a pestilence through- timidly and grudgingly granted. out every corner of the world; and today shows no By 1916 the simple installation in the rear of the ! sign of abatement. Ample revelations have be Quai d'Orsay Ministry had evolved into the famous trayed to what extent German propaganda was engi Maison de la Presse, which occupied, with its many neered chiefly in the two Americas, also the prodigal bureaus, a large six story building on the Rue sums of money spent by the German Government in François Premier. This was one of the busiest this and the allied activities of arson and violence, hives of wartime Paris; there the promising novelist, which may be considered as the “ direct action” arm the art critic, the publicist, or the well-recommended of propaganda. Opinions will differ as to the effi belle chanteuse, as well as the more vulgar film ciency of German propaganda. It is probable that, operator and press agent, found directions and mate- on the whole, the efforts of these German agents rial support for patriotic activities in the propa- indirectly assisted the United States into the world gande. From the Maison de la Presse were de- war. At any rate, if it takes several tons of metal spatched to every neutral and Entente nation select to kill a soldier in modern battle, it takes as many missions." The chief focus of all this Allied tons of presswork and picture reels, as well as mil- propaganda was the United States, especially Wash- lions of money spent on special missions to gatherington and New York, though itinerant propagand- in a few converts, who, judging by the German ists in great variety have covered every section of the results , do not stay converted. German propaganda country. By this time the English propaganda, has been a colossal failure—and a costly one. also, was in full blast, under the blunt leadership of During the first months of the war the Entente Lord Northcliffe, with a Minister at home—in the Governments were too busy about other matters to person of Lord Beaverbrook-all to itself. In those organize their propaganda and counter-propaganda. days Fifth Avenue became a multi-colored parade of cause, it seemed, was good enough of itself- Allied propaganda. One could scarcely dine with- broken treaties, invaded Belgium and France-to out meeting a fair propagandist or distinguished dispense with special pleading. Sometimes, when Frenchman or titled Englishman (titles in war be- one contemplates their later activities in the ramifi- ing chiefly for American consumption!), or enter cation of propaganda, one wishes that the Allied Governments had continued to let the great Cause a theater without suffering some secret or overt stimulation from the propaganda. speak for itself without the efforts of an army When we entered the war the game grew more of proselytizers. For it is debatable whether allied furious, for to the Babel of the existing propaganda propaganda has materially hastened the victory, but it is hardly debatable that it has been was now added not only the voices of Jugo-Slavia, attended with evil consequences which may far out- Czecho-Slovakia, and other small nationalities strug- gling to be born, but our own. For it was decreed run the scope of the present conflict. Early in 1915 it was apparent that the activities of German propa- that, just as we must have a real general staff, our gandists were worrying the Allied authorities. The own heavy artillery, and manufacture our own English felt that, especially in the United States, poison gas, so we must have our own Bureau of Public Information, with an export division for THE DIAL February 8 conveying our special U. S. brand of propaganda of the Associated Governments should see the pro- into friendly and neutral countries. This com priety of removing at once their tutorial forces from pleted the full bedlam of Allied propaganda, with the United States. If London and Paris would but the ironic situation of a proud democracy taxing release their stranglehold on the cables and permit itself to pay the interpreters and corrupters of uncensored news to circulate freely, there is enough its national thought. For eighteen months the intelligence still left in this democracy, even after United States has suffered mentally and morally suffering the passions of war, to enable us to reach from the nuisance of conflicting propaganda our own conclusions on world problems. Other (Jugo-Slav 'versus Italian, French and English means of employing the intellectual classes and of versus Russia, and so on) besides the output of giving deserved vacations in comfortable America its own official opinion-makers. As 'a crowning to war-worn heroes can be found. Most of us would touch for the comedy, the President set sail for the welcome our guests more warmly if they did not Peace Conference accompanied by his Minister of arrive, each with a brief in his pocket and a fixed Propaganda and a chosen staff of press agents. For resolve to do our thinking for us. These are but what purpose ? To persuade Europe of the purity the ephemeral annoyances of the war, however. of our national motives? Or to persuade our own They will pass with the over-production of TNT citizens that their chief executive was really doing and mustard gas. The real menace of propaganda things in Europe? is the discovery by governments and other interested Much of all this shooting of paper bullets has agencies that this extension of advertising—for that had merely negative results. Russia is an excellent is what propaganda essentially is—can be readily example of how much can be spent on propaganda utilized to sway and control democratic masses. with no result. Not to dwell on the fruitless efforts Hereafter no government will confront its electorate of the official United States propagandists to get without a secret or open bureau of propaganda, and their wares into Russia—and what effect could there every great interest” will organize propaganda as be in telling the Russians how benevolently we felt an essential activity. (Witness the appeal of the towards them while we were sending troops to liquor forces against the prohibition amendment to Vladivostok and Archangel ?—the general Entente the Constitution by gravely warning the country of propaganda on Russia has been especially bewildered. the danger of Bolshevism if the nation becomes The object of this campaign in the United States dry!) Already, to the cautious-minded citizen, the was to create a state of public opinion that would press has become more than suspect. Not that our compel immediate armed intervention on a large newspapers are bought, but the news which they scale in Russia, which was desired especially by offer is tainted at the source and inspired by a govern- England and France. To that end our newspapers mental or other interested agency. By becoming were regularly fed with reports from Stockholm, merely a channel for various propaganda the press Paris, and London, of Soviet atrocities. The same has lost much of its dignity and authority during the stories were frequently repeated as fresh news after An increasingly common remark upon the short intervals. Finally came the ludicrous yarn of daily news is, “I guess it's just propaganda!" a St. Bartholomew massacre in Moscow—which The spirit of propaganda is special pleading. Sup- proved to be pure hoax. The German end was pression, distortion, as well as misrepresentation and worked by inducing our official Bureau of Public direct falsehood, are the methods of the zealous Information to father the discredited Sisson docu propagandist. Propaganda, to be sure, kills itself, ments in order that the unwary citizen might be like many evil things, by its own excesses. led to believe that armed intervention in Russia has a habit of struggling into men's minds in spite meant fighting Germany's allies, and hence Ger of all the poison so prodigally poured out to kill it. many. Meanwhile alternate currents of fear and In the end, public opinion clarifies itself, separating hope were sent over the propaganda wires by two fact from propaganda—but at what cost of time and generaal reports: one that the rule of the Russian of deception! Truth, the complete, open, unbiased Soviets would collapse “in a few weeks "; the truth, is the only atmosphere in which freedom can other, that the "Red Army was making dangerous grow, in which democratic ideals can mantain them- progress. (I have seen the two reports side by side selves. Therefore we should regard the propagand- in the columns of a New York newspaper, where ist, no matter how sincere his intentions or how evidently the propaganda time schedule had become confused !) The net results of the whole immense, good his cause, much as the hired bravo, the poisoner, wasteful, and misleading propaganda on Russia or the suborner of justice, all of whose trades four- would seem, at the present moment, to be zero. ished when Pope Urban VIII, devised this engine of mental corruption known as Propaganda. Now that peace is remotely in sight, our friends ROBERT HERRICK. war. Truth 1919 THE DIAL I 15 on his hunting. Each of the acts somehow swelled irritation. In these acts, almost equally with those of Roosevelt making a stump speech, writing a state paper, taking a canal, or sending a fleet round the thought out. The generation had no sympathy with Theodore Roosevelt Ix The death of Theodore Roosevelt the America world, he was the man in whom we saw our own of the generation of 1880 to 1910 lost its typical ideals fulfilled or betrayed. One of the things that representative. Indeed, he was its living embodi rankled most in the minds of those who did not ment rather than its representative. Successful public like him was that they could not get rid of him, men are not merely themselves. They are records even in the innermost recesses of their minds. His and gauges of the activities and aspirations of their representative, incarnating force was such that he own day. It is futile to praise them or blame them stayed by them. Everything in American life re- except as we remember that in so doing we are minded them of something which Roosevelt had said appraising the time and the people that produced or done. The assimilation of the private individual them. Hero worship of the olden type is gone, at with the publicly assumed figure is so complete that least so far as statesmen are concerned. For in a for all except his personal intimates the former is democracy the people admire themselves in the man non-existent. All that an outsider can say of it is they make their hero. He is influential with them that it must have been great to permit such thorough because he is first influential by them. The ordinary identification with the public self built up out of politician is fortunate when by dint of keeping his impacts upon others, and out of reflections back into car to the ground he can catch and reflect in articu the native self of the successes and failures, the ap- late speech the half-formed sentences of the people. plause and dislike of others. Only an individuality Roosevelt did not have to resort to this undignified at once mediocre and great could have become so posture. He was the phonograph in whose em wholly a public figure. In thinking of him one is phatic utterances the people recognized and greeted never conscious of mysteries, of unexplored privacies, the collective composition of their individual voices. reticences, and reserves, hidden melancholies, or any To praise or condemn Roosevelt is, then, but to touch of inaccessible wistfulness. His inherited ad- pass judgment on the America which suddenly awak vantages of social position, comfortable wealth, edu- ened from the feverish and gigantic expenditures of cation without personal struggle against obstacles, energy that followed the Civil War to find itself in afforded external conditions from which he could the face of vast problems and in need of vast reforms. launch himself the more easily, without preliminary We can better tell the qualities and defects of the apprenticeship and without waste of time, upon his period by looking at Roosevelt than in any other task of representing the America of his day. For way. Through long living in the public eye he had this America had grown self-conscious about its become with extraordinary completeness a public pioneer days of log-cabin and rail-splitter learning character. It almost seems as if his native individu- hardly bought by light of candle-dip. It wanted ality, his private traits, disappeared, so wholly did something less sparse and starved, something more they merge in the public figure. Of every man who opulent, something more obviously prosperous in cul- goes into political life there gradually grows up a ture and social standing. It felt the struggles of double. This double consists of the acts of the the earlier day in the scars it had left behind, and original individual reflected first in the imaginations and then in the desires and acts of other men. Just rested easily only in the contemplation of a figure which never reminded it of a past which the nation because Roosevelt's capture of the imagination of his —for so it seemed—had so happily left forever be- countrymen was so complete, his public double was hind. It was a period of the complacent optimism immense, towering. One cannot think of him ex- born of success in overcoming obstacles, and of sub- cept as part of the public scene, performing on the public stage. His ordinary and native acts gained a conscious irritating memories of the shameful limita- tions involved in having such obstacles to overcome. representative significance. He shook hands with a Roosevelt was the Man of Action. In that he becomotive engineer, chopped down a tree at Oyster incarnated his time. He preached the strenuous life Bay, hunted big game, or wrote a magazine article and practised what he taught. The age was delirious with an almost ominous import. Each provoked with activity. It wanted not only action but action applause or rebuke, enlisting the partisanships of the done with such a resounding thump and boom that crowd. In all of these acts he was delightedly our all men should sit up and take notice. Bagehot somewhere remarked that a large part of the avoid- ours with admiring acclaim or with disgusted able evils of mankind had arisen because a number of men at some important juncture had not been able to sit quietly in a retired room until things had been > Teddy, 116 February 8 THE DIAL such a notion. If evils existed it was because men ically dead, that he had killed himself. Although did not act promptly and intensely enough. Gordian the vehemence with which they announced his de knots exist only to be cut by the sword of sharp mise was part of a calculated technique for making and vehement action. As soon as they are cut, we their prediction true, they nevertheless sincerely be- should have statistics of the number of strands, the lieved that no man could recover from what they variety of snarls, the size of the sword and the took to be stupendous blunders—such as the New number of foot-pounds in the blow that annihilated Nationalism speech, the recall of judicial decisions, the difficulty. Refinements and subtleties and shades and so on. What they never understood was the of distinction are not for such a period. admiring affection and unbounded faith with which To criticize Roosevelt for love of the camera and the American people repaid one who never spoke save the headline is childish unless we recognize that to make them sharers in his ideas and to appeal to in such criticism we are condemning the very con- them as final judges. Because of the power thus ditions of any public success during this period. A given him—combined, of course, with his own power period that is devoted to action can have but one to learn and to grow—probably no public man of measure of success—that of quantity and extent. any country ever equaled Roosevelt in power to This measure is essentially one of social and political come back.” reverberations. It cannot be said that it was re- Perhaps the best proof of the completeness with served for Roosevelt to discover the value of pub- which Roosevelt embodied the belief of his genera- licity for a public man. But he deeply divined the tion in action, action unhesitating, untroubled by demand for publicity of an emphatic and command- fine distinctions or over-nice scruples, is the irritation ing kind, and he allowed no private modesty to stand which his personality aroused in academic men. in the way of furnishing it. . When one has per- There are a few exceptions, but upon the whole up formed a resounding act it is stultifying not to to the time of the Progressive campaign they fol- allow it to resound. While other politicians were lowed him with distrust and only, as they felt, from still trusting to the gum-shoe, it took courage as compulsion of circumstances. A mind which ap- well as genial sagacity to adopt the megaphone. parently never engaged in criticism, certainly never Irritated critics of Roosevelt's egotism—which they in self-criticism, which in fact identified criticisms called megalomania--overlooked the fact that a petty with instantaneous assault, was the natural opposite deed cannot be made great by heralding, and that his of the mind tangled in the timidities which result acts commanded publicity because they were in the from always criticizing, and hence never acting save first place of a quality to command attention. when external pressure compels. Probably nothing in Roosevelt's career so won the It would require a history of the life of the attachment of the American people as the fact that United States in the last quarter of the nineteenth he had the courage to take them into his confidence. century to explain how and why there developed If it now seems a simple thing for a politician to such devoted admiration of action as action, provided make the people, in form at least , members of his only it was on a large scale. But that Roosevelt own household, politically speaking, and to share was a great figure because he was the exponent in with them at the breakfast table the political gossip word and in personality of this faith there can be of the day, the simplicity of the performance is no doubt. Nor can it be doubted that power accrued evidence of the thoroughness with which Roosevelt to him because he exemplified his period in thinking did his work. He established a tradition which even and speaking of action, exclusively in moral terms. a man as opposite in temperament as Wilson has felt And with Roosevelt as with the type which adores obliged to follow, and, whatever his practice, 'to action for its own sake, to think and to speak were make central in profession. Just as politicians since synonymous. There are those who think that Lincoln's time have studiously scanned the latter's morality does not enter into action until morality methods, so future statesmen will copy the style of has become a problem—until, that is, the right publicity which Roosevelt's courageous impetuosity course to pursue has become uncertain and to be created. Thinking out loud, or at least seeming to sought for with painful reflection. But by this do so, is one of Roosevelt's permanent contributions criterion Roosevelt rarely if ever entered the moral to the American political tradition. Lack of occa- sphere. There is no evidence that he was ever sional spasms of frankness will henceforth be resented as evidence both of lack of courage and lack doubts , which never wholly leave a man like Lincoln troubled by those brooding questions, those haunting of trust in the people. And these will become Right and wrong were to him as distinctly and because of, Roosevelt they are already becoming- completely marked off from one another in every the cardinal vices to a political democracy. Roose- velt's enemies repeatedly believed that he was polit- noonday glare. Nothing more endeared him to the particular case as the blackness of midnight and the 1919 117 THE DIAL was vocalized idealism, Mr. Roosevelt took the steps American people than the engaging candor take irrespective of moral considerations, he was in with which he admitted that in the face of this this also the embodiment of his generation of Amer- immense and fixed gulf he was always to be found icans. The generation was not hypocritical—and on the side of righteousness. As he repeatedly con neither was he. Prosperity is the due reward and fessed, he “stood” for justice, for right, for truth, recognition of righteousness. Defeat (in that reign against injustice, wrong, and falsity. When he did of moral law which Americans were brought up to not stand, he fought. Wherever his activities were feel all about them) is the sign manual of evil. engaged at all, he saw the combat between the The cause of righteousness was too precious to be forces of the Lord and of the Devil. The battle at compromised by the danger of defeat; it not only Armageddon was, after all, but the consummating needed to win but it needed the moral sanction that fight in the campaign for Righteousness in which he comes from triumph. And Mr. Roosevelt's glory in enlisted when he entered public life. And if upon the fray and his astuteness in discovering the condi- the whole the moral battle was a cheery thing in tions of success blended with his belief in righteous- which one was stimulated rather than humbled into ness. He endowed his frequent dickers with machine thoughtful meditation that too reflected the moral politicians and compromises with machine politics simplicity of his generation. with a positive moral glow. They were to him It is true, of course, that the cult of action for its proof that he was not as those academic reformers own sake tends to demand for its successful pursuit who profess high ideals and accomplish nothing. His either a cynical immoralism or the certainty of being belief in righteousness was of the sort that “ brought on the side of the Lord. No politician in America things to pass.” He trusted—and correctly enough can be successful beyond the local stage who takes —to a certain ingrained rectitude which would pro- the former course. The good old Anglo-Saxon habit tect him from being compromised beyond a given of thinking of politics in moralistic terms point; meantime it was the corrupt politicians who strengthened rather than weakened by its voyage took chances, not he. This dualism of theoretical across the Atlantic. Not, however, till the time of idealism with a too facile pragmatism in action has Roosevelt were economic problems treated in terms still to be faced in American life. of sin and righteousness. Roosevelt borrowed much When an epoch is closed, the following epoch is from Bryan, but Bryan came from Nazareth in not usually generous, or even just, to it. What it Galilee, and spoke the cruder language of the ex achieved is taken for granted; what it failed to do is horter and the itinerant revivalist. When Roosevelt the outstanding and irritating fact. Roosevelt's uttered like sentiments, his utterances had the color period has not wholly passed. The men who fought and prestige of a respectable cult and an established him are now just beginning to appreciate” him, Church. It is no part of my intention to appraise and their acclaim mixes with the reverberations what Roosevelt did for our American life in the from old fights and victories. The fact that the years around nineteen hundred. But events move old interests have, in profession at least, moved up rapidly, and if for a time Roosevelt, as the prophet to about where Roosevelt stood in his heyday of a new social day, loomed larger than facts justi- measures the progress made. But it also leaves him fied, it is already easy to underestimate what we by association in a somewhat reactionary light. owe him. Positively speaking, pitifully little has Above all, men are beginning to realize that our been done with our industrial inequities and con- serious economic problems are complicated, not ficts. But in addition to what Rooseveltdid in simple; that they have to do with deeply rooted arresting some of the worst tendencies of the time, conditions and institutions, not with differences be- men to where they could behold the tween malefactors of great wealth and benefactors newer problems. And it is very doubtful if they of great virtue; and that for the most part even could have been led to such a place by any other the most arduous fights of Roosevelt were waged than the moral road, or by any one who did not with symptoms rather than with causes. The epoch spontaneously appeal to ethical convictions and en- of “Onward, Christian Soldiers ” ended with the thusiasms. He made the problem of economic read- Progressive campaign in which it consummated. We justment the problem of rebuke of unrighteousness. glamour of virility and vitality and all those other idealistic slogans of righteousness and the strenuous terms of romantic energy that come to the lips when life are strangely foreign. Roosevelt's “luck” did not desert him. He has been forever saved from If under the cover of a buoyant and readily any danger of becoming the figurehead and leader of reactionaries. which a “ practical man" interested in success would JOHN DEWEY. he brought He endued the cause of the reformesh with the democracy in farm and shop to which the older Roosevelt is spoken of. 118 THE DIAL February 8 The Great Tradition FOR OR MOST American readers the first acquaint feud, and from the gruesome murders of an English ance with Mr. Masefield's poetry was made in 1912, countryside. But the plays even at their best are with the publication in this country of The Ever more experimental than the poems, where their out- lasting Mercy and The Widow in the Bye Street, standing virtues recur in more abundant measure. both written in the preceding year. That publica The passional tension, even in Nan, is maintained tion marked a notable revival in the popularity of with less certainty, and the course of the action poetry in the United States, and since then a verit rushes not less impetuously but more spasmodically able freshet of verse has run through the mill. Both than in the poetic narratives. in England and in this country there have been new Mr. Masefield won and established his reputation poets, new subjects, fresh impulses to expression, by four stories in verse, all written within the space innovations in technic, and an unfailing supply of of twenty months. They helped to turn poetry back new readers. An era of poetry seemed to be just into the open field of narration where it has always breaking into dawn when the great war came had its greatest popularity and where, perchance, its threatening the annihilation of all beauty and art. longer pieces are destined still to find full success. But the war itself has sown seeds of creation as well Narrative poetry in English in the nineteenth cen- as of destruction, and amid its horrors and fatigues tury has been often over-weighted either by descrip- has already quickened an early harvest of verse that tive ornamentation or by the philosophical obsessions throbs with the ardor of dauntless youth. of the author. Mr. Masefield had some amazing Mr. Masefield's plays and poems have now been stories to tell and he told them with the onrushing collected into two crowded volumes (The Poems sweep of one of the full-rigged ships he loves to pic- and Plays of John Masefield-Macmillan; $2.75 ture, bounding before a favoring wind. The moral each, $5.00 a set) which enable us to survey as a implications are plain enough, but there is no ser- w the work of one of the leaders in this imagina- monizing. The verse varies with the shifting mood tive awakening of the early years of the twentieth and rises to passages of opulent beauty, but it rarely century. As a record of literary achievement ex loiters over description and it never for a moment tending over scarcely a single decade, these volumes loses hold on the stirring action. Many readers must be pronounced a most impressive monument. could scarcely believe that this was poetry, for it In copiousness and variety, in originality and distinc held their minds glued to the story from its first tion, in their power to seize upon our sympathies word to the last. and to exalt and enlarge the scope of our imagina The Widow in the Bye Street and the Daffodil tions, these plays and poems reveal a genius that is Fields tell of wayward passion resulting in ugly mur- not only equal to a worthy leadership in the new der and bringing punishment to the just as well as movement, but is assured of a welcome among those the unjust. Their vivid realism is unusual, but their who have created abiding beauty out of the English themes are those oft-told in verse and hence more language. It may have been possible to maintain secure of an appeal to our sympathies and offering an attitude of skepticism or suspended judgment less technical difficulties to the poet than the other toward the individual productions of Mr. Mase- tales, The Everlasting Mercy and Dauber. The field's busy pen; but the barriers of conservative first of these tells of an unworthy rascal who cheated criticism are swept aside by the full tide of imagi- his friend, won a prize fight, went blind drunk, then nation, vigorous, sustained, irresistible, that sweeps experienced religion, and awoke to a richly unde- through these thousand pages. served happiness. Dauber tells of a boy who, im- One volume contains nine plays, two in verse- pelled by an irresistible desire to become an artist, Philip the King and Good Friday—four one-act plays, and three tragedies in prose. These prose goes as ship painter on a vessel voyaging round the Horn. His paintings are wretched daubs and he is plays would excite great interest of themselves, even accidentally killed before the voyage is over, but if their author had never written a line of verse. not before his brave spirit has triumphed over frail The three tragedies in particular, with their close flesh and sordid environment. Here are woven structure, and their direct and vivid dialogue, stories told in a new way. That animal , man, is radd an independent and novel page to our dramatic shown brutal, cruel, violent, and yet the abode of spiritual exaltation. The vocabulary of the prize evoke poignant and elevated emotion alike from the ring, the alehouse, the brothel, and the forecastle downfall of Pompey the Great, from a Japanese mingles with words remindful of Shelley or Shake- new *1919 THE DIAL 119 evident that neither in the choice of subjects nor in prehendingly perhaps than has any other—but the life than does not engage his interest. He shows none of the painstaking devotion to the poverty and drabness of the working classes which we find in the plays and tales Mr. Masefield oftenest finds beauty speare, and the terse rhythms of the crudest collo poetry of Mr. Wilfrid Gibson. The enormous and quialisms somehow unite with a melody rich and im- ever-expanding technology of our modern era excites pelling. There is never any doubt about the facts. neither his wonder nor his protest. Railways, engi- You are never allowed to question whether this is neers, factories, and machines do not inspire him. actuality or illusion. You see the prize-fight; you His ardor is all for the square-rigged ship, never for are in the midst of the tavern brawl; you climb out Macpherson's turbines. Nor does his art seek on the icy yard to reef the straining sail, or you methods that are novel or that threaten revolution. feel your soul the surprised recipient of a heavenly He has not experimented with vers libre or with any blessing. Everything is intensely real. of the many variations of impressionistic technic. In 1912 and 1913 even those of us who were not The well-known measures of English verse have theoretical pacifists believed that this was a pacific afforded him ample variations for an expression world. Its villains and tyrants might still rob the that has ever turned for guidance to the great mas- poor but they would not murder and rape. Adven ters of English poetry. ture lay in commerce, in science, and not in pain Mr. Masefield has known toil and privation, but and battle. Nearly every one of Mr. Masefield's he was as surely born a man of letters and an art- tales contains a fight, and usually a brutal and ist as was Keats or Carlyle. At fourteen he was horrid fight; but we were not sure that we were indentured to a captain in the merchant marine, any longer fighting animals. The life of physical and there he lived the life that found expression in violence described in the stories of Jack London and the Salt-Water Ballads. At twenty-two, after some in Masefield's poems seemed romantically remote months ashore in various employments, he was from our daily experience, real enough doubtless working in a carpet factory in Yonkers; and then, on the frontiers of civilization, not typical of mod as he tells us, he first began" to read poetry with ern life, but rather sensational and melodramatic. passion and system.” Chaucer was the poet and. The war, with its terrible revelations, has brought The Parliament of Fowls, the poem of my con- an undesired and sudden justification to the imagi version.” After that, the factory worker crowded native genius of the poet who had found in his own his evenings and Sundays with the wealth of Eng- experience with men both the brute and the idealist, lish poetry, especially Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and who had seen spiritual desire linked with animal Shelley, and Keats. One thinks of Keats in com- frenzy. We look now for a lasting peace and for parison and of the “ new world of wonder and a return of civilization to its more orderly ways delight” that was similarly opened to the surgeon's with a renewed and surer vision of its purpose; but apprentice. The two experiences are indeed it will be long before the imagination can forget the strikingly alike, only the new world for Keats was shock of battle, the anguish of flesh, the trial by created not from his own contact with men, but combat. Will poetry ever be content again with out of old stories, the Elgin marbles, the myths, "soft Lydian airs ” To sport with Amaryllis in legends, and fancies that had ever swayed the heart of the poet; while Masefield found in his own The sensational incidents and scenes of Mr. experience with the passions of the sea and of un- Masefield's narratives made him appear at first as sophisticated men the material that through the an innovator, and to some as an innovator reckless alchemy of verse might glow with the beauty of and disregardful of the idols of English poetic tra- Lamia, or Adonais, or Lear. dition. He faced life as he had experienced it and The poetic creed he adopted in that humble sought beauty in its toil and poverty, in its places of Yonkers room and which he has sustained and vialence and sensation, such as are rarely visited by strengthened in the following years of great poets or modern book-readers. But it soon became achievement was the creed of the romanticists, only the technic of his art was he steering a course that enlarged to fit a wider experience of which his own departed widely from the traditional path. He life had given him an insight. The poet was the sings of the spell of the sea, of its cruelties, hard- one divinely gifted to feel and understand beauty ships , its ships and sailors, more vividly, more com- hidden from less imaginative men, and the poet's: duty was to search ever for “the butterflies and sea has always roused the imagination of British petals of blossoms blowing from the unseen world! of beauty into this world.” Through his per- Meteor He is modern, but there is much in modern sonality , by the processes of his creative expression, men's emotions and sympathies were to be touched In his by these glimpses of a transcendent world. or the shade "? I 20 February 8 THE DIAL 1 شت (6 in emotional ecstasy, or to use his own words in to enlarge our sympathies and to gain a broader defining tragedy, “in the agony and exultation of acquaintance with fact at the same time that we dreadful acts.” But he finds it everywhere bright- have understood “the bright moments' gift." ening experience—in conversion, aspiration, in phy In concluding testimony of Mr. Masefield's sical bravery and effort, in landscape, and in his great and varied power, I may recall two of the torical associations, and in the manifold moods of best remembered passages in all his poems—the one, air, earth, and skies.” expressive of the fervor of “agonies and exulta- All had their beauty, their bright moments' gift- tions," the other rather of brooding reverie on Their something caught from Time, the ever-swift. “man's unconquerable mind.” After the rascal The full volume of Mr. Masefield's poetry is an Saul Kane has found the everlasting mercy he expression of that noble text of Wordsworth's awakens to a transformed world, and his raptures which declares to us as to Toussaint: are described in a torrent of images. He sees Christ Thy friends are exultations, agonies and joy and paradise everywhere, in bird, flower, And love, and man's unconquerable mind. brook, railway, and plowman. His opened eyes Many wise judges of literature will prefer some see everything, well, bridge, shunting engine, hunts- of tủe later poems, such as Biography, the Sonnets, man, clovertops, gipsies' camp, one old wagon, dew- or Lollingdon Downs, with their more reasoned berry trailers, the young green corn, the golden and less vehement emotion and with their more harvest, “ the sea with all her ships and sails,” the frequent reminiscences of traditional thought and lark overhead, the cows plodding up to milking imagery, to the naked rapidity of the earlier tales. house—and all these and much else focus upon I am not sure that I share their preference. In the Old Callow at his autumn ploughing," and this sequence of sonnets in the Shakespearean manner, picture of useful service holds its place amid the there are poems of such thoughtfulness and such other shifting images of damnation and salvation perfection that they must be given high rank until it fixes itself on Kane's mind as his call to among examples of that form which has com- work and as a symbol of his redemption. manded the best endeavors of the greatest poets; And in men's hearts in many lands but the difficulty of a sonnet sequence is that it A spiritual ploughman stands calls for a continual harping on the same strings. Forever waiting, waiting now, The heart's Put in, man, zook the plough." Mr. Masefield's crooning cadences that describe his searchings for beauty do not escape monotony. In this wonderful passage with its richness of pic- 2 Beauty becomes his favorite word, like Wit in ture and image, its sense of fact, and its emotional Pope and God in Browning; and after many vitality, its rapid but constructive imagination, is repetitions it loses its effulgence. The danger of there anything lacking which could add truth or this seeking after beauty is like that of too much beauty to the rapture of a redeemed drunkard? seeking after religion. The seeker comes to rely The other passage is from August, 1914, the on his power to excite emotional ecstasies; he is poem that hailed the opening of the great war. In forever irritating his soul. Keats, at least in his cadence and image it is not strikingly inventive, its earlier poems, found beauty through this excited emotiori and thought are not different from those sensibility, but not so did Chaucer conceive and that have ever and again stirred poet and artist, yet create the Canterbury Tales. Too much refine- is it more or less beautiful than the amazing con- ment of a phrase sometimes recalls the condemna- clusion of The Everlasting Mercy? The poet broods tion that Mr. Masefield puts into the mouth of over the quiet landscape, the loved Berkshire valley, one of his unlettered women: the long ancestry that makes England beautiful and brave, the spirits watching over those now ready There's a feckless brood also to suffer and to die. And who has said all this Goes to the devil daily, Joe, in cities Only from thinking how divine their wit is. more perfectly? The discovery of beauty, so far as it lies in All the unspoken worship of those lives poetry, depends on the variety and flexibility of art Spent in forgotten wars at other calls in meeting the ever-growing wealth of experience Glimmer upon these fields where evening drives Beauty like breath, so gently darkness falls. and knowledge. And Mr. Masefield wins our ad- miration because he has mastered so wide a range During the war Mr. Masefield has been render- ing service at the front and through his writings. of artistic means and because he has tried boldly In a preface he speaks longingly of the peace much that art had hitherto found intractable. It is through a personality, vigorous, independent, in- may release him again for the quest of the trans- cendent world of beauty known to the poets of his quiring as well as sensitive, that we have been led race, and for the effort to image more fully " what that 1919 THE DIAL I 21 Newspaper Control electorate upon the question by way of a referen- drove a wedge into the ranks of the Canadian formed during the fall of 1917, but not without deep heart-searching, much running to and fro between Ottawa and the provincial capitals, refrac- tory conventions, and the intriguing of political Warwicks. To Sir Wilfrid Laurier a large sec- tion of his followers remained true. Among the faithful were former federal ministers, provincial England and the English may become, or spiritually Masefield's poetry is itself witness that both are." No one will desire any diminution of idealism, idealism and beauty may be found in an enterprising or of spiritual sensitiveness in the poetry we may as well as in an exquisite art, and through a com- assuredly expect from his matured powers; but I prehending knowledge and faith in human will as for one do not desire any lessening of actuality, of well as by searching one's own soul. grip on fact, of probe into the hearts of men. Mr. ASHLEY H. THORNDIKE. EVIDENCE ACCRUING FROM THE LAST CANADIAN GENERAL ELECTION W Hile vast differences of opinion with regard ministers, and members both of the Canadian House to the war exist in the minds of absolutely sincere of Commons and of provincial legislatures. The men and women, there are some propositions, at Canadian Labor Party, newly formed, elected to any rate, to which practically all assent. One of make common cause with the Liberals. Hopes of a these is the duty of seizing and preserving for future Laurier victory, almost to the eve of the polling, sober study every scintilla of evidence which these were widely entertained. The veteran statesman years have afforded as to the nature of war, its traveled in midwinter from one end of the Dominion remote springs, its influence on character, and its to the other and was given everywhere an ovation ability to achieve what it claims, to achieve. Upon the warmth of which is probably without a parallel some or all of these vital things American students in Canadian political history. of war and democracy will find valuable material Although in the end overwhelmingly defeated, in the Canadian general election of December 17, Laurier had a popular majority in two of the eight 1917, fought upon the issue of conscription. Little English-speaking Provinces. In the Province of news of that election filtered through into the Amer Quebec there was a Laurier landslide, his candi- ican press, and much of what did appear there was dates securing sixty-two out of the sixty-five seats. colored or, indeed, false. Prime Minister Borden A determined attempt in the three Provinces to when in New York in the spring of 1918 took drive the Laurier candidates from the field proved occasion, it may be remembered, to deprecate the unsuccessful. With unimportant exceptions they highly sensational despatches from north of the border as to disturbances in the Province of Quebec. stood to their guns, often without any political machinery, and went to the polls. Taking the The choice of the Canadian electors a year English-speaking Provinces as a whole, Laurier ago lay between the candidates of a Union Gov- polled more than one vote in three. In these Prov- ernment, headed by Sir Robert Borden, and the inces 780,141 votes were cast for the Borden candi- candidates of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, for some thirty dates , and 461,592 for the Laurier candidates, while years the leader of the Canadian Liberal Party. 35,581 votes were cast for Labor candidates either The new Union Government pledged itself to im- mediate enforcement of a compulsory military opposed to conscription or in favor of a referendum. Opposition to conscription had been shared up service act, passed by the Canadian Parliament a few months previously, while Sir Wilfrid Laurier to the middle of 1917 by the vast majority of the undertook, if returned to power, to consult the Canadian people, by the majority of the Canadian newspapers, and by the majority of Canada's public But how did Laurier fare at the hands of the dum, pledging himself to enforce conscription if the referendum carried. The conscription issue press when the election campaign came along a few months later? In the eight English-speaking Provinces there were in existence at the time the Union Government. The latter had been tion of over 10,000 according to official returns. These thirty-three newspapers comprise practically the whole daily press of the larger cities. They include all Canada's large and well established dailies in the English Provinces. In politics thirteen of these newspapers officially described themselves as “Conservative" or "Independent Conservative;" eleven as “Liberal" or "Independent Liberal," and men. I 22 THE DIAL February 8 more ment. nine as “Independent.” Now consider the follow- conscription. Thus, in July, 1916, the Toronto ing facts: Globe said editorially: Nine of the eleven Liberal or Independent Liberal, The Globe in its editorial columns has consistently dailies which had supported Laurier in previous cam pointed out that in a country such as Canada conscription paigns deserted him. is an impossibility, and that no responsible statesman of either party, capable of forming or leading a war In the whole of English-speaking Canada Laurier ministry, would propose compulsory service. had three dailies with a circulation of over 10,000, The Manitoba Free Press, the largest news- and his opponent thirty. paper in Western Canada, spoke even In Ontario, the most populous Province of Canada, Laurier had the support of one daily of strongly. It expressed the view that conscription over 10,000 circulation and his opponents of nine. would mean one half of Canada garrisoning the other half. After and not before Sir Robert Borden In the Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Laurier had not a single newspaper announced his policy of conscription did he invite of the size stated. His opponents had six. (In Sir Wilfrid Laurier to enter a Union Govern- New Brunswick Laurier polled 44 per cent of the Is it not strange that Canadian newspapers vote and in Nova Scotia 51 per cent.) which in the fall months of 1917 were pouring In five out of the eight English-speaking Prov- abuse on Laurier's head and insulting both his can- inces, namely, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, didates and his followers, were able, a few weeks Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, earlier, to see the unfairness of expecting Laurier Laurier had not a single daily of over 10,000 circu- to enter a cabinet committed to a policy to which lation. he had been a lifelong opponent? Consider, for His opponents had fourteen, six of which were former Laurier organs. example, this remarkably frank editorial utterance In the cities of Toronto (capital of Ontario), from the Manitoba Free Press of June 12, 1917: Winnipeg (capital of Manitoba), Vaucouver, B. C., It is impossible to regard the situation as it affects Ottawa (capital of the Dominion), Regina (capital Sir Wilfrid Laurier without mixed feelings of indigna- tion and regret. It is less than five months ago since of Saskatchewan), Saskatoon, Sask., Hamilton, R. B. Bennett (at that time a member of the Borden Ont., St. John, N.B., and Halifax (capital of Nova cabinet), who presumably spoke with knowledge, told Scotia), Laurier was without a single daily of the a meeting of Winnipeg citizens that conscription meant bloodshed in Quebec and was not politically practicable. size mentioned. In the same cities his opponents Sir Wilfrid was put in an impossible position had twenty-six such dailies. by the tactics of Sir Robert Borden. The theory that it I have already said that Laurier swept the was intended to destroy Laurier was by no means far- fetched. It may well have been calculated that Sir Wil- French Province of Quebec. Naturally the news- frid, when confronted with the inevitable division of paper situation in this Province does not present the party, would retire from public life. the phenomenon that characterizes it in the English- Within two or three months of printing the speaking portion of the Dominion. But the posi- editorial from which the foregoing is taken, the tions were not reversed. In Montreal and Quebec Manitoba Free Press had thrown over Sir Wilfrid City both sides had the assistance of strong dailies Laurier, whose policies it had supported for nearly and no newspaper in the Province of Quebec, as far a quarter of a century, and was enthusiastically as I am aware, changed its coat before the election. backing the new Union Government headed by Sir When Sir Robert Borden, on May 18, 1917, in- Robert Borden. Later the same newspaper said: troduced his conscription measure into the Canadian For the young man who is liable to the draft to vote for House of Commons, four days after his return Laurierism is a confession in his own soul, from a visit to Great Britain, the news came to the what high-sounding phrases he disguises the truth, that he is yellow. Canadian people like a bolt from the blue. For no hint of conscription had been dropped by any mem- Efforts put forth to split the Liberal Party ber of Sir Robert's Government when the Canadian met with a large measure of success. Two methods Prime Minister left Canada for London early in were in the main relied on, one the gaining control February, 1917. In the spring of 1916—not much of the Laurier newspapers, and the other, the rais- more than a year before the announcement of con- ing of a racial and religious issue. Nevertheless , scription-Sir Robert said in the Canadian Parlia- the first attempts to stampede the Liberals into the Union Government fold were ill-starred. Con- In speaking in the first two or three months of this war ventions called in the Province of Ontario for the I made it clear to the people of Canada that we did not purpose of repudiating Laurier either endorsed him propose conscription. I repeat that announcement today with emphasis. or produced negative results. It was after these failures that strong influences were felt to be abroad The chief newspapers of Canada, especially the for the control of the Liberal newspapers. At this Liberal newspapers, had pronounced strongly against time—the fall of 1917—desperate attempts were no matter by ment: 1919 THE DIAL I 23 longed. They had to do that in spite of the fact that it vote for Laurier was held up in the press not mere- Canada from an enemy country during the previous fifteen years, no matter how long a citizen of the being made to form a union government. To induce hand a special military franchise was created under prominent Liberals to enter the proposed coalition which the wife, mother, daughters, or sisters of a was proving extremely difficult. A conference of soldier were given a vote, all other women remain- Liberal leaders held at Winnipeg demanded as the ing as before unenfranchised. condition of their espousal of union government the From practically every Protestant pulpit con- resignation of Sir Robert Borden, the conference gregations were exhorted to vote for the Union submitting the names of four prominent Canadians Government. Colonel (the Rev. Dr.) Chown, from whom the new prime minister was to be General Superintendent of the Methodist Church chosen. This overture was summarily rejected by in Canada, issued an encyclical in which the follow- the friends of Sir Robert Borden. During these ing appeared: days many of the Liberal papers which afterwards We must inquire what effect each ballot will have fell into line behind the Union Government were upon Christian civilization as opposed to undiluted bar- having their daily jest at Liberal leaders reported to barism, upon heaven as in contrast with hell. be considering the offer of a cabinet position. The question, it seems to me, which should But the silencing of the press supporting Sir interest American students of war and of this war, Wilfrid Laurier was nevertheless accomplished. Al is: What induced the Liberal papers of Canada to though tragic enough to the Liberals remaining true forsake Sir Wilfrid Laurier? Was it simply an to Laurier, the situation had much in it that was honest change of opinion? Had the reasons which comic. The transition from ridiculing union gov prompted them strongly to condemn conscription in ernment to supporting it had in some cases to be 1916 disappeared in 1917? made in unceremonious haste and under the rude Personally I do not believe that an affirmative gaze of astonished onlookers. Editorials supporting answer can honestly be given to these questions. It Laurier halted on the printing presses. Ottawa is quite true that a considerable number of Canadians correspondence favoring him stopped on the wires. sincerely believed that a Union Government was When it was all over, Laurier, Prime Minister of desirable. Again, a certain number of Canadians, Canada through four successive administrations, was chiefly elderly gentlemen well beyond the draft age, without a newspaper press in the English Provinces. had advocated conscription. But it is equally true During the election campaign the cry that that the idea of conscription was alien to the French Nationalism and Roman Catholicism were Canadian people. The suspicion is also justified that threatening the vitals of Canada was assiduously in many minds a Union Government, with Sir spread. The idea of civil war was on the lips of Robert Borden retained as its head, was preferable to many whose position might have suggested the duty the accession of the Liberals to office. Of the of conciliation between Canada's two great races. Borden Government whose term had expired, the To a friend of mine, a respected citizen of Winnipeg, Manitoba Free Press said: Had it gone to the coun- a cabinet minister in the Government of Manitoba, try in a party fight it would have met with an over- said: “Quebec has got to be licked and it might as whelming defeat. well be now as later." The quick and unceremonious switching from I had in my hands the original of a letter sent by one Alberta farmer's wife to another. It ran: Laurier to Union Government which I have de- scribed does not suggest a genuine change of heart, How do we feel about the election ? Well, we feel that the real Canadians showed the good stuff they are and many other things do not suggest it either. made of, and showed those Frenchmen where they be- What was it, then? Frankly, I do not know, but I do know that ever since the election there has would bring conscription, and though this conscription bill may take my husband. been a profound conviction in the minds of large numbers of Canadians that something happened a Intimidation of Laurier voters condition. His right-hand men were read out of was a general year ago which has never yet been explained. This public life forever by former Laurier organs. A belief persists in Canada and was never more alive than at the present moment. A few things may be ly as the acme of disloyalty, but as a piece of down- noted. On May 17 last, in the Canadian House of right iniquity. The terrors of the living and the Commons, Mr. Lucien Cannon, a French member, dead were threatened against those who were will- speaking in a debate on Taxation, asked: "How ing to risk conscription are those millionaires who bought and bribed the a referendum. No chances were taken. Any Canadian coming to press of this country during the last election taxed ? ” Mr. Cannon was roundly denounced for this utter- ance and it must be confessed that he produced no evidence in support of it. The Voice, a Winnipeg was by law disfranchised. On the other Labor weekly, said editorially on Dec. 4, 1917, three on Dominion, I 24 THE DIAL February 8 on days before the polling: “Wherein then lies the Canada, which almost unanimously supported Union Government, did so from the basest and lowest motives- significance of this frenzied campaign? It coincides that, in fact, it was bought with a price. with the visit to Ottawa weeks ago of the biggest The Whig's editorial went to denounce autocrat of the press in the world—Lord North- those who spread such rumors and declared that cliffe.” His lordship's visit to Canad certainly left behind it a crop of rumors, and one may note “ The press of the country supported Union Gov- ernment .. for a principle, not for mercenary with interest that the Toronto Globe went to some gain." pains to prove that its stock, at any rate, had no It is worth while noting that in one or two Northcliffian taint. instances there was concrete evidence that the There is another powerful figure in British switch from Laurier had been made reluctantly. The politics whose moves are regarded by large numbers of Canadians with distrust and suspicion. I refer Regina Leader, for example, was one of the papers to Lord Beaverbrook, whose rapid accumulation of that made a rapid transit from the Laurier to the Union Government camp. But in the opinion of wealth through the “organization ” of the Canadian cement merger a few years ago by no means en- the Manitoba Free Press there was still some hank- hanced his reputation in his native Dominion. ering after the Aeshpots of Egypt in the editorial Shortly after the Canadian general election Prime office of the Leader, for the former, during the elec- Minister Lloyd George, in the British House of tion campaign, accused its contemporary of duplicity. It said: Commons, spoke of the marvelous success which had attended the propaganda work of Lord Beaverbrook. The Leader's idea of fighting for the Unionist cause Mr. Lloyd George unfortunately did not specify is to give it a transparently hypocritical support upon the editorial page and to knife it in every other column to what particular "success" he had reference, but of the paper. the context seemed plainly to indicate that the tri Canadian newspapermen of standing with umph of the Union Government in Canada was whom I conversed recently, assured me that the what the Prime Minister had in his mind. Ever editors and editorial writers on the newspapers since the election assertions of independence have which deserted Laurier were spiritually coerced and been appearing in the Canadian newspapers. I have yielded to influences which they found irresistible. before me as I write, half a dozen editorials, clipped I pressed these Canadian journalists for a careful from the few Canadian dailies which come into my estimate of the proportion of editors and editorial hands, all protesting journalistic honor. One from writers who were, in their opinion, thus coerced the Toronto Globe strongly condemns the President and left Laurier reluctantly. They assured me of the United Farmers of Ontario for remarks about that it amounted to ninety per cent, and they pro- the Canadian “subsidized press " made to a gather- ceeded to name to me editors and editorial writers ing of several thousand farmers. The editorial who, in their opinion, would beyond question have proceeds to preach a little homily on the robust in- supported Laurier had they felt free to do so. dependence and absolute integrity of Canada's lead- I believe that in the foregoing I have revealed ing newspapers. Since then, however, on Oct. 5 a condition of journalism which is thoroughly un- last, to be exact, the Toronto Globe has had to healthy and under which' neither the press of Canada admit that all is not as it should be in Canadian journalism. In a Montreal court case it came out nor that of any other country can truly serve the people. Just what the solution is I do not pretend that two evening papers in that city, the Star and the to know. I simply offer the above as evidence Herald, although differing in politics, were under worthy of serious study by those who wish to see the same ownership. Commenting upon this the Globe said: the press a greater factor in human progress. I began this article a statement recently made in The Herald, with a long history as a Liberal paper, the Westminster Gazette by Mr. J. A. Spender, a was acquired a few years ago by Lord Atholstan of the staunchly Conservative Star. The union ended a bit- prominent British journalist, has come under my ter quarrel between the Star and the Herald over issues notice. I am disposed to think it throws some light not unrelated to Lord Atholstan's interest in certain municipal franchises. Since then they have been in upon the Canadian situation. I will close by quot- serene and perfect agreement on civic questions, but ing it. It reads as follows: they maintain their party differences. zens will not regard it as an ideal condition that the Many citi- The public would be astonished if it knew how few control of the English press in the evening field of a writers are regularly engaged in political journalism in great city like Montreal should be in one man's hands. these times and how little opportunity there is for the The Kingston Whig, another Ontario daily, exercise of a free judgment. three years during which I have been connected with in an editorial quoted by the Toronto Globe on journalism I have seen the power of the editor con- June 27 last, said: stantly diminishing and the power of the proprietor con- stantly increasing. Here and there rumors still persist that the press of A. VERNON THOMAS. Since During the thirty- 1919 I 25 THE DIAL Debussy I A silver dragon, Slender as a reed, Wakes from his sleep on a lacquered tray And drops his length, Shining coil on shining coil, Among the gray-green leaves Of a tiny garden Patterned on a table top. Poising his carved and lustrous head, He delicately intones A slow, fantastic monologue. Crystal cold and thin The ancient measures flow, While a dragon-fly, Perched, like a painted eagle, On la pygmy pine, Listens in silence. A passing swallow Hurls his shadow on the garden's elfin lake- The dragon-fly takes sapphire flight, And the silver dragon Climbs to his vermilion tray To sleep. 2 Rain, Like waving threads of raveled silk, Curls across the window glass And breaks the picture of the garden And the flowers And the fountain And the little black pagoda Into a quivering kaleidoscope. The wind bells Shiver under the beating clappers of the rain, And the long green vines With purple blossoms Shake from the trellis Like inverted fireworks. Under the eaves A cheerless bird complains, And a little lost wind Goes among the leaves And sings a song about the stars. A tracery of leaves, Stiff and precise, Conceals a faun Who dances to the mandolin, And wriggles his furry ears, And grins. 4 The dark Filled with muffled sounds: Rustle of silk; Soft tap of canes, Exclamations of polite surprise, And the exquisite staccato of murmured French. Colored globes, Deep in the crowded trees, Reveal the flutter and hurry of preparation. The rising moon, Hung in a turquoise ‘arch, Gilds the terrace Of waiting audience. From far, high towers Comes the unhurried, Uncadenced Chiming of bells. 5 Ah! Wheels of sparks Green, Red, Darting blue! Chain and lattice and lace of light! Fringe and spangles and fret of fire! High above the gulf of black, The curving flight Of rockets Blossoms in a shower of white and sudden stars. Fading jewels of fairy gift- Fire-drake dancing with Will-o'-the-wisp, And-dark. 6 A droll-mouthed minstrel In tattered black and red Struts round the cathedral corner. A girl Leans from a balcony in the Rue des Ponts, And listens to his cynical strumming. Freedom sings on the lute-strings- Sings of the sunny road to Provence, And the tavern fire; Hints of two-edged jests, And wine-warm kisses Of just such a red-lipped minstrel boy As he, whose graceful leg Struts round the cathedral corner In tattered black and red. A flower moon, 3 Tall stemmed above a bank of clouds, Stands in the east; Some fallen petals of her light Float on the sea. Mellow gold notes From a mandolin Sound outside an ancient wall On which dark lichens Mold an apograph Of legends carved on stone. Behind the high, heraldic gates 126 THE DIAL February 8 Tuba mirum spargens sonum, Rolls in Gregorian solemnity From old St. Louis en l'Ile, Coget omnes ante thronum, And drowns irreverent couplets Sounding still Down the Quai d'Anjou. Liber scriptus proferetur The girl in the balcony Suddenly closes her eyes, And sighs. 7 Golden tents Are pitched upon the wide, blue plain; Temple gongs Sound across an ecstasy of light. The vista Leads beneath the painted torii To the golden tents And the perfect mountain. Shall we go And lift the silken doors of tents, Or shall we pluck the scarlet poppy-petals Here? H. H. BeLLAMANN. 7) Anatole France and the Imp of the Perverse THERE CAME to a dreaming boy in a Parisian hatred for the ugly. You will come to hate more bookshop a good fairy who touched his lips with than you love and your irony will grow bitter and the “honey of romance.” She was akin to the your Evolution will become Fate and your desire sprightly fairy who teased the boy as an old man, sensuality. You will no longer admire the lofty and she was first cousin to the salamander who loved gestures of the Romanticists and you will see that for a time the pupil of Jérôme Coignard. She classic art is largely a legend. History, you will brought to life little leaden soldiers and many other perceive, is either archeological and keeps the life myths. She nourished the boy in naive and gentle out, or it is imaginative and keeps the truth out. imaginings, persuading him that nothing exists save You have read so much, Bonnard, that you know by imagination-which is why she existed. They that Relativity is the only extract of truth which is played together in the Jardin des Plantes and formed beneficial to the health. There is really no knowl- a bowing acquaintance with Latin heroes. The edge, no ethics, no esthetics. Therefore you re- fairy heard the terrible prophecy: “You will always nounce your old allegiance, speaking of artistry as be occupied with things not pertaining to class- doll-making and of religious traditions as largely work," and she consoled her friend by endowing Satanic.” him with a sincere and lasting beauty-worship. All But Anatole Jérôme Bonnard Bergeret declared his life the boy dreamed of a lovely villa by a blue that the beautiful still existed, epitomized in the lake, of classic repose and conversations. In his love of women. He would not forget the fair- first maturity, he came to feel a gay dilettantism, haired Clémentine of his boyhood, and he would an optimistic zest for life, a mild irony which cherish the image of Dido, wandering in the myrtles assuages it. Irony and pity were the rules of his with her immortal wound. He would still see Thaïs order; a blithe humor could be wedded with a love the actress as a lovely statue, sweet and proud, for all noble and generous things. When the boy communicating to all the tragic thrill of beauty," is called Bonnard, his Abbaye de Thélème includes He would dwell, in his fancy, with Madame de gentleness to animals, unobtrusive acts of kindness, Gromance, flower-eyed, empty of thought, and care for people's feelings, the charm of early sou therefore more desirable.” As an old philosopher venirs. It includes indignant action in behalf of he contemplated with delight the winsomeness of a justice—and it enshrines vistas and breezes from the street-girl, and he approved the stark passion of the garden of Epicurus. lovers in his “ Lys Rouge.” For he held that the Thus the od fairy seemed to have gifts for Venus of Milo is really symbolic of Voluptas, of every age: “ desires and adorations, winged per- creative life, and sensualism is a good thing, making suasions and veiled destinies.” Everything was for the grandeur and value of man, inspiring all art, found in- Pandora's box, except Hope, who flew out The Imp leered in assent. “I taught you that! of the window; in her place came a character whom Illusion and sense are the foundations of creative I shall call the Imp of the Perverse; he sat grin- beauty—but they are contradictory. Among Pagans ning on the edge of the box and said to Anatole and Penguins love was a simple, unimportant pleas- France: Do you really think you can get through Illusion came with the seven veils of Chris- on that schedule? Your deliberate dilettantism tianity and civilization. When the Church made means love for the beautiful but it also means love a sin, you have said, the Church created its ure. 1919 THE DIAL I 27 ( Sirius might very well be populated by Bergerets. Besides, you accept the likelihood of the Eternal Return; in all the permutations of worlds, A. France has been, is, and will be again—your Goubin is wiping, has wiped, and will wipe his glasses through all eternity. Progress, of course, is illusory mations of the herd-except when our advantages "excessive and iniquitous separation between man charm and mystery. It's not the fault of women over our forefathers allow us to perceive how little that men prolong a simple unit into infinity, and we are superior to them. Science merely adds spec- Madame de Gromance, who hardly speaks to you tacles to our poor eyes, prolongs and multiplies our anyhow, has no use for your ideal admiration. ignorance through knowledge." There is much perversity in the way women follow Exactly!” said Anatole. the forceful and brutal, only to swerve away when "And thereby furnishes a desirable criterion for their heroes become tender. So Thaïs follows progress. Tell us how you work for progress.” Paphnuce to the desert; so Chevalier and Balthasar Anatole then wearily repeated that knowledge are cruelly deserted when they truly love. For the was pure foolishness and metaphysics so much sensual law is cruel, your pleasure is somber, the romancing.” Because there are no absolutes, there act of love is really a sign of death, and pleasure in can be no real justice. And as for humanitarian beauty comes to be a sharp pain.” Positivism, the great fetish scarcely seems to me The good fairy had long since disappeared. It adorable.” seemed to the great ironist, watching the tossing “Yet," said the Imp, “you are always contending waves of illusion, that the Epicurean was still the for positivism in other fields—whenever you are not only way. It was the way of the ancients and the contending for illusion. The fact is, Anatole, that, friends of Thaïs. They teach us to adapt happiness like poor Flaubert, you were always at seesaw be- to our paltry condition, they maintain the innocence tween realism and romanticism. You were playing and the worth of joy. Combining this with the Truth, He wins—Beauty, I lose. It's a good thing simplicity of St. Francis, thought the brooding phil that Dreyfus came along to set you straight.” osopher, we are left with the master-keys of Irony “It's all Illusion,” said Anatole, staring gloomily and Pity, the charitable skepticism of the Abbé at his tormentor. Where do I show any taste for Coignard. There is one thing further about the positive realities? " Epicurean garden: it should not be cultivated, for · Everywhere! In love, religion, politics, and that is an act, and action is almost as deadly as thought philosophy. You find that justice is utilitarian- and you regret it. You make everything depend on The Imp retorted: “Then why do you think?” hunger and love—and you think it's a shame. You Conceding the inhumanity of thought, Anatole rationalize Joan of Arc, you materialize the impulses thought further that this self-questioning carries on of chivalry, you think that killing is an ordinary the world through the grace of the goddess Maia. human enterprise, you see history as a crude mess. This earth is a spectacle in which ignorance and But are you satisfied with all this? You once said folly are the true forces; whereas truth is single and that your mind contained both Sancho Panza and inert , illusion is multiple, moral, and individual. Don Quixote, and I think Don Quixote is still The races live by their harmless mythologies, and there. Your cynicism is really a disappointed ideal- nothing really exists save my thought. That is why ism, as I could amply prove, you mocking Benedic- I should send my imaginative adventures forth as tine, from your whole attack on religion, of which criticism, my impressions as science, my reactions as a creed. Let us accept universal prejudices, remem- it would scarcely become me to speak. Let us take bering further that the universe is as incoherent as politics. And Think!" Avoiding that main issue, the Voltairian then a novel by Anatole France. As clouds dissolving submitted a few of his neatest paradoxes , trusting are the appearances of life; it is a succession of ruins, changes , miseries. To think that we should people thereby to appease the Imp. He described life as delicious, horrible, charming, bitter," and himself as amused by its contradictions, interested in epochs The Imp rejoined, choosing always from Ana- tole's own words: “That is what you think, Ber- of conflict like the Alexandrian and the eighteenth geret , when discouraged. But when you are called century. Life is evidently ill-arranged, for youth to the Sorbonne, you brighten up and consider that should come at the close, climactically; butterflies do not need to cry, like the dying dauphin, “ Fi de la vie!” But why try to adjust anything? Beneficence has been spoiled by the Pharisees, charity is mothered by pride, and the improvement of man can only be forwarded by his extinction. The Rousseauists carry him back to monkeydom and become indignant when the monkey does not behave. On the other other planets! 1 28 THE DIAL February 8 > ) " that to and the gorilla.” It is easy to show that great Imp slowly. "Why did you come out for Drey- sinners become great saints, that neighbors are natu fus?" ral enemies, that Blue Beard was a henpecked genial “Because I could never stand by and see injustice gentleman, and that Pilate might readily forget the done! I hold that all fetters will fall before a single episode of Christ. just idea. The greatest compliment I received in His own works, insisted the novelist, were de the Affair was when a workman told me: “You signed to show this world as one huge paradox. In have come out of your caste and you have not wished Thaïs, a woman is carried from happiness to misery to fraternize with the defenders of the saber and by the illusions of a bigot; he renounces the illusions the holy-water sprinklers.' There is no paradox in as she swims to heaven on their wings. In the the bond of the proletariat and the intellectuals. Révolte des Anges, the angels become men of the With whom do you wish that thinkers and artists world, the devils become angels. The Histoire should consort? With the sly blind calloused bour- Comique is a tragic story, the Abbé Coignard dies geoisie? ” with gay songs on his lips, the man who married a Go on!” said the Imp. dumb wife has the tables turned on him-and turns “The education of the people has scarcely begun, them again. There is the juggler who offers his art but it is better to have a clean sheet than one to Our Lady; there is a whole library called in to scrawled over with the wrong prejudices. And the witness a kiss. In Les Dieux Ont Soif, we see the workmen are in earnest about what they learn- underside of the Revolution, in which the author none the less believes, and among the Penguins witness the night schools; whereas the lackadaisical there are accumulated climaxes and anticlimaxes. sons of the bourgeois avoid education as a pest. Vital enthusiasm-heart! Down with luxury!” Anatole sighed. Henry James once told me that up, “And you declare," the Imp took him the only thing my intellect left standing was- itself.” your dream of the future is the true evolutionary “I should like," dream, because it is founded on economic history, id the Imp pointedly, and always wise thinkers have been the masons of hear your views on politics." the future. Barring your attenuations and my per- It seemed to Anatole that his satires on democ- versities, you see Socialism as truth, goodness, and racy had settled that point. Had he not shown that justice, and the greatest of these is justice . You liberty, equality, and the like were unrealizable or believe that through the first Revolution France undesirable fetishes? Had he not shown that the owes herself to the world. You see the confuser state really subsists through the wisdom of a few strong statesmen and that the best thing to be said movements of modern labor as tending towards for the Republic is “ Elle gouverne peu”? Had he universal peace and unity. You say that after the not given dozens of cases where fraud, vice, and world confiagration the monster of militarism will self-interest moved both the Dreyfusards and their burst from obesity. You have even constructed a opponents? Popular governments are self-enslaved, somewhat mechanical Utopia, like Wells. And weak through their lack of secrecy, their poor ser- when it comes to the Great War "_the Imp sank his voice, and Anatole France looked at him uneas- vants, their whole “ turbulent menagerie.” ily. “When it comes to the Great War, you have The Imp inquired: “Do you like our aristocrats, uttered nothing which is not perfectly human, just then, our 'god-given hierarchies ?'” —and banal. You have shown the sense, feeling, 'It is a great irony that so much power was and patriotism which are now common among us. wielded by the Royalists and Nationalists, who You have spoken of the ancient town whose robe weaker-brained than those whom they of stone' has been violated, you have execrated the oppressed.” Thus spoke M. Bergeret, professor of Satanic science that was arrayed against us, you have eloquence at the Sorbonne. And he passed the defended with your great pen our ideals, traditions, sponge of universal raillery over the established classes—the nobles, the bourgeois, the bureaucrats, genius. And like the rest of us, you will have no peace until this horror is conjured forever from the the military, the clergy. He jeeringly asked how human horizon." two French war councils could possibly be wrong in the Dreyfus affair. He thought it fortunate that Anatole France looked at the speaker in great the state really subsists not through the wisdom of a wonder and bewilderment. “You, my other self , few strong statesmen, but through the needs of sev- have made me say all this. Who are you, eral million lowly workers. And the Imp of the Perverse answered: "My “You are really more at war with institutions other name is the Spirit of Reality.” and organizations than with the people," said the E. PRESTON DARGAN. 6 were brother?" 1919 THE DIAL I 29 seriously by many good citizens. The liberal news- Springfield Republican—and the liberal magazines There was practically no criticism of these condi- opinion. To suggest that any of the Allies, or of the Allies, had anything except the purest and The American Press Since the Armistice T UNDERSTAND the temper and direction of highest of motives was (aside from the possibility American newspaper opinion since that far-away of letting oneself in for a term in jail) to be guilty day, November 11, 1918, it is imperative briefly to of vile pro-Germanism. Even to suggest, on the review the public opinion of this country for the other hand, that Germany might have a revolution period just before the end of hostilities. When the was regarded dubiously, for there was a kind of armistice actually came, the American press—like hidden fear of a real revolution in Germany. All the American public-was intellectually unprepared newspapers gave lip service to the revolution and for it; for nineteen months we had been living in announced that if it did happen they would welcome a fictitious and unreal world of war hysteria, and it; actually they feared it, and hence said it was im- the corrective of suffering had as yet been only possible. For a revolution would have meant the feebly administered. Quite aside from the Espion end of the war, and hardly anyone really wanted age Act, which of itself inevitably forced a homo the war to end just when it did. Even pacifists, if geneity of opinion, the American press as a whole they are honest, will confess that the sudden termina- merely reflected the mood of the country—that the tion of hostilities was somewhat irritating. There Germans were devils in human form and the begin- is a deep instinct in all of us which resents making ning and end of all things were to smash them. elaborate preparations for something which doesn't The good man, bad man theory of our regular happen, even if that something is suffering and war. political life- -our manner of carrying over religious We did not quite like, to use a popular phrase, hav- emotions into political contests, otherwise purelying an army all dressed up and no place to go. formal struggles between the “ins " and the “outs But Germany committed the ultimate sin—she -had successfully given the direction to popular surrendered. And an editorial writer of the New, conceptions of foreign policy. Germany became the York Tribune honestly confessed that never again unregenerate and wicked sinner nation (or in more would his morning coffee have quite the savor it had naïve minds, the Kaiser, as a symbol of his nation), had during the glorious four years of blood-letting. and our war problem was the really simple problem The war had ended. Everybody knew that. It was of how to crush that nation. President Wilson's only several days later that we discovered that Ger- attempt to distinguish between the German Govern many had not. Some 80,000,000 of Germans were ment and the German people had never really fired still alive; Berlin and Munich were still on the map; popular imagination; indeed, even if it had, our the fact of Germany as a nation had not been over- patriotic organizations throughout the country come by the signing of the armistice. This was would have seen to it that the distinction was quickly really too difficult and embarrassing! But if Ger- forgotten. Since long before the armistice most of many had so unkindly robbed us of the opportunity our regular newspapers had merely aped the worst of punishing her by force of arms, we still could form of current Northcliffian vulgarity: the ignor- punish her in the peace terms. The mood of the ance and provincialism of the ordinary newspaper pre-armistice days inevitably persisted for a con- editor's views of foreign relations was almost as siderable period. If our war problem had been to ludicrous as the German foreign office's idea of the smash everything German, our peace problem was psychology of the American people. Propagandists, how to inflict adequate punishment for crimes com- like Chéradame (now busily attacking the League mitted. Our newspapers beguiled themselves with to undermine President theories as to what was to be done to Germany, and Wilson by appealing to disgruntled Republican Sen- busy arm-chair diplomatists spent hours carving up ators in America to start a backfire against him) the map of Europe. Many newspapers started were gravely accepted as prophets, just as the weekly popular series like " How Shall the Kaiser Be Pun- were taken ished ?” and telegrams were sent all over the coun- try asking the advice of leading citizens on this grave papers--as , for instance, the Evening Post of New York (before its change of ownership), and the question of world policy. The severity of the armis- tice conditions somewhat relieved the tension. were frightened into timidity by the wave of mass tions, though they frankly shocked all European rather , that any of the members of the Governments neutrals, who invariably compared the terms to the peace of Brest-Litovsk. American liberals contented themselves with pointing out that the armistice of Nations and threatening discussions of the “military experts 130 THE DIAL February 8 On terms were not the peace terms. The newspapers situation it really would seem that they might have as a whole delightedly approved. Even the New informed themselves from yndisputed official docu- York World, which since has become a fairly liberal ments of the frightful malnutrition in many parts paper, wrote on November 12, “Terms less severe of Germany and of the shocking statistics of in- would not have met the situation at all.” This crease in the rate of infant mortality and suscep- followed the very sensible observation that “De tibility to infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis. mocracy will establish no enduring peace except as And their skepticism came with special bad grace it shall be generous and just." In most places, from editors who every other week during the merely ignorance and malice; in others, good inten course of the war took pains to write an article tions with no realistic criticism of how to make showing Germany on the verge of collapse through those intentions effective. Compare, for instance, starvation. In a word, they were more preoccupied the World's admonition to be generous with an with morale than with facts. If Germany appeared editorial in a Danish paper of the same day: for a few months to have the military upper hand, After the capitulation of Paris in 1871, the victors were then morale was strengthened by pointing out that at pains immediately to facilitate transport so that the famishing population might be provided with food. But nobody need be worried because she really couldn't the Allies are not following the example of 1871. go on another month. If Germany became in a the contrary, the pressure is being intensified by the con military sense helpless, then the morale necessary for ditions formulated in the armistice. Not only is the blockade maintained, but simultaneously demands are the imposition of harsh terms was strengthened by made for the most important means of transport. We proving that she was a land flowing with milk and venture to hope that Solf's appeal, which describes the honey, and that therefore there was no need for fearful gravity of the situation in simple and dignified words, will create an impression not only in Washington going easy with her. but also in London and Paris. Germany is rendered mili In the case of the food question this technique tarily powerless by the other terms of the armistice in such a degree, and the Allies' victorious position is so after a few weeks lost its effectiveness. For the completely insured that they might display a chivalrous shadow of Bolshevism hovered over Germany, and magnanimity to an enemy in distress. the increasing tendency of the revolution towards But how was this condition met by the Ameri the Left could only be explained by famine. This can press? With the skepticism which a long period gradually became the popular view. But here again of war-time emphasis upon the duplicity of all things the pre-armistice dogmas which editors of news- German had rendered both unimaginative and un- papers had done so much to promulgate persisted discriminating. The New York Globe said suc to embarrass them. Until the recent elections in cinctly of Solf's appeal, Same Old Germany." Germany, most newspaper editors were torn between The American Women's National Committee said their desire to support the Ebert Government as of the pathetic plea of the National Council of the the one protection against the Spartacides and their Women of Germany to Mrs. Wilson and to Jane desire to prove that the members of the Ebert Gov- Addams, “ It seems evident that this is just another ernment were really all “ the same old gang" and piece of German trickery.” The New York World no more to be trusted than the Hohenzollerns. For headed an editorial on the subject: “1) Order; 2) the myth that whatever any German did must have Food; 3) Peace.” This, when it is obviously the behind it some evil ulterior motive had been so sensible thing to say that you cannot have order drilled into American public opinion that it was without food and peace as precedent conditions. difficult to find any reason for sanctioning anybody Mr. Hoover had to explain how reluctant he was in Berlin. There is such a thing as damning too to give food to Germany, while most newspapers indiscriminately. Gradually, however, the mere assumed an attitude which was not far from what force of events made the editorial writers abandon might be summed up in the phrase, “Let 'em the technique of juggling with the food question starve.” It was really difficult for most American and haltingly admit that perhaps the Ebert Govern- editors to imagine that even German 'hunger was ment might be strengthened by allowing it to pur- anything more than another “trap.” Begging for chase food. This, it was stated, was necessary to food must be either whining or hypocrisy. Many protect the German people from the dangerous in- newspapers received glowing accounts from their fluence of the fanatic Liebknecht (the hero of the correspondents in the occupied regions of course war, when he served the Allies' purpose), by whom luncheons, with real meat and butter, at less than Paris prices. Emphasis was laid upon the extraor- they were being exploited. This ironic vacillation was continued until, for a few brief days in Jan- dinary success of the last German harvest. Of course editors do not take the trouble to read much uary, it appeared that the Spartacan revolt might be successful. of the news, but considering the gravity of the Then opinion became frank and open. * Unless," wrote the New York Globe on 1919 THE DIAL I3I international guarantees of economic boycott and the like implicit in any effective League of Nations. urged a All liberal papers and those with even a slight liberal bias quite warmly approve the idea: only the ex- tremists at both ends are disgruntled. But criticism January 9, “ the forces of order and democracy in it should function, or realistic considerations of the Germany are able to re-establish control there is no difficulties that stand in the way, are appallingly option but to send forward liberating troops.” The infrequent. For here we touch, I think, one of the New York Evening Sun of earlier date had calmly. fundamental defects of American newspaper edi- stated, “There may remain no choice to the Allies torial writing—namely, an almost perverse un- save to pacify the country and turn it over to a willingness or inability (or both) to face the facts. sobered and stable popular government inspired Not to envisage any other kind of league except by the judgment of the citizens, not by the pas that which includes only nations like ourself is an sions of the mob.” Many newspapers advocated understandable intellectual astigmatism. That only the occupation of all large German cities — a 'stable” democratic governments of our type, based bayonet in one hand and a loaf of bread in an upon the principle that "the will of the people other , as one newspaper explained the method of must be expressed by local self-government instead bringing real democracy to Germany. The recent of free association by economic union, are to come exhibition of impatience at the slowness of de in is merely conventional lack of imagination. But mobilization by the men of all armies has some let me cite three examples from the New York what modified the editorial popularity of this Globe, typical of many others in different journals, view; it is now hoped that by economic concessions of downright stupidity. of one sort and another the German revolution can In an attempt to exonerate Italy from any im- be guided into the safe channels of imitation of perialistic ambitions the Globe, in an editorial dated Western democracies. How, it is now asked, can January 7, 1919, states inter alia: “ Italy has been Germany pay indemnities unless she is in position industriously misrepresented by those who are seek- to work off her debt? To make Germany strong ing to serve Teutonism and Bolshevism, those twin enough to pay and weak enough not to be a menace evils of the world.” But the Globe's own corre- --that is the paradox which our editors are now spondent in Paris, Mr. John F. Bass, in a dispatch trying to resolve after many weeks of attempting printed on the first page of the Globe on November to get both contradictory things at the same time. 23, wrote, “At the present moment the action of How are these aims to be accomplished ? one of the powers of the entente [Italy] is threaten- Here we touch upon the whole subject of the ing the possible peace of Europe.” The dispatch League of Nations. Public opinion is being grad- went on to accuse Italy of doing a very serious ually swung around into warm favor of it. To be thing-breaking the terms of the armistice she had sure, some reactionary and incurably nationalistic solemnly signed with Austria. And on December papers like the Chicago Tribune do not want a 16, 1918, another dispatch from the same corre- League of Nations any more than they want Presi- spondent spoke of the disruptive effects of the secret dent Wilson's fourteen points to become effective. treaties, with especial emphasis on Italian unjust On January 17 the Tribune wrote: The fourteen claims. Will the editor of the Globe say that his points were good fighting points, taking it by and own correspondent is seeking to serve Teutonism large; but are they good peace points? Probably and Bolshevism? Or can it be that he does not read not. The first one wasn't, as we have seen. Thirteen remain. It's an unlucky number.” And his own newspaper? Or that if he does, he does not understand what words mean? Another ex- the next day the same paper referred flippantly, to ample: on December 19 the Globe had an editorial the thirty-eight or more different kinds of Leagues discussing the Brest-Litovsk treaty in which oc- of Nations under consideration at Paris. But jin- curred this sentence: “ The world absolves Rou- goism of this type is exceptional for, after all, most mania, for she was flat on her back, but Russia was of the heated criticism of the league idea in the not similarly hopeless.” This is such a plain mis- Senate is of the partisan kind. Even the New York statement of proved fact (admitted even by those Times , which no one would accuse of radicalism, who detest the Bolsheviki) that one can only won- mildly reproved Marshal Foch for his statement der how far ignorance can carry prejudice. A final that the Rhine was the “natural" defense of France, example: in an editorial on January 2, 1919, the pointing out the best defense of France lay in the Globe tried to prove that Clemenceau did not urge balance of power " in the old sense. “ Balance urged a "preponderance of power." means a poise. Clemenceau through a coalition would have no poise, but overwhelming weight with of what a League of Nations should be like or how the democratic nations." Who could define this as intellectual honesty? a No; he 132 February 8 THE DIAL Yet distortion of the facts or ignorance of them most momentous decisions of history are being made, is not confined to the editorial pages. It extends we are left without any liberal newspaper guidance. to the news columns and even to the headlines, The record of American newspaper opinion since where the caption is often at variance with the sub the armistice raises again the disturbing question of sequent text. The news from Russia furnishes what is the function of the press in a democracy. plenty of examples. The New York Times, for Where local affairs of immediate interest are con- instance, solemnly reprinted Tchicherin's note to cerned the press is subject to a constant corrective. President Wilson—as a document secretly circulated People find out the facts for themselves and cannot about the city—weeks after it had appeared in the be long imposed upon. But in foreign affairs where December Liberator, where anyone could have read ignorance and apathy are the rule for the great mass it for himself. So skeptical has the average reader of people, the power of the press is practically om- now become that even accredited dispatches are dis nipotent. It is almost as great as that of the Church trusted, the popular attitude being, “ Better wait a in the old days and certainly greater than the power few days; they'll be contradicting it a week from of the State itself today—indeed, the governing now.” That mysterious creature, the man in the power of the State is the creature of that mightier street, is tired of trying to determine how the Soviet power of publicity. Nor does this power of publicity Government is collapsing on one day and is a world reside chiefly or even to a small degree in the edi- menace the next; of reading on the first page of the torial guidance" given its readers by the daily New York Times an Associated Press dispatch inti press; it lies rather in the direction and color given mating clearly that one of the reasons the Allies and to opinions by its entire treatment of the news, by ourselves had decided to invite the Soviet officials to what it leaves out as fully as what it prints. The a meeting was because their strength was too formid- question of the relation of the press to govern- able to be ignored, and then of reading on the edi mental propaganda in time of war—especially in a torial page of the same paper that the real reason democracy–has been raised sharply for America in they had been invited was because the Soviet Gov the last fourteen months. In a country as large as ernment was going out of existance rapidly; of being our own a rumor can be started and never caught up told that Admiral Kolchak and Generals Somanoff with by the belated denials. Most of our larger and Horwarth are representatives of democracy; of cities west of the Alleghenies have but one or learning that Lenin has been arrested in Moscow two morning newspapers compared with the many and has landed in Spain on the same day. party organs of a simpler and less highly cen- It is held, however, that recently there has tralized day. The independent local editor has been a reaction in the newspaper world towards been replaced by a small business man who makes fairness and liberalism. There is a certain amount use of syndicated material and "boiler-plate" edi- of justice in the claim. Many newspapers have torials and cartoons prepared at some central office. taken up the cudgels for a square deal for Russia The great news-gathering agencies, without which and for uncensored news from that country. Papers any newspaper is merely a local or trade affair, can like the Springfield Republican and the New York be counted on the fingers of one hand and are sub- World have somewhat timidly backed Wilson in ject to internal limitations. The power of censor- his liberal policies. Inevitably, as the pressure of ship over news and the readiness of the public to hard facts increases and we emerge from the cloud swallow all sorts of lies about foreign affairs have of war rhetoric into the sharper realities of inter revealed a weapon which is too good for the finan- national trade competition, problems of demobiliza- cial and interested parties to miss. In England tion, and labor unrest, many of our newspapers will careful observers declare that the Government itself return to something like common sense. But the is but the whim of the “stunt evidence is all against our coming out of the war that result seems more remote, although after our with anything like an enlightened or forceful liberal recent experience with our newspapers it must be opinion in our newspapers. The effect of the Es- reckoned a danger. A little more accentuation of pionage Act has been psychologically disastrous—it the present tendency towards consolidation, and the has caused any real differences of opinion to disap- press can easily dictate the kinds of national cam- pear and has made political discussion in a popular paigns which must succeed. That this is a mockery sense jejune and tepid. Where liberal opinion exists of what we mean by democracy goes without saying. it is spasmodic, half-hearted, and at cross-purposes. Without free opinion and free expression of that We have nothing in this country to compare with opinion, without a minority opposition which com- the two English liberal newspapers, the Manchester mands respect, so-called self-government is a failure. Guardian and the London Daily News. When the HAROLD STEARNS. press. In America 1919 '133 THE DIAL in common. The Laughter of Detachment An object of humor must be both of us and apart life. So Gulliver goes traveling in foreign climes, from us. A meteor, for instance, is too remote from and Montesquieu writes letters from Persia. How- our life to be a matter of jest; on the other hand, ever, the satirist is never fully honest; he always our mother is too near to us. But a mud pie or a makes a partial reservation in favor of himself. He mother-in-law combine the alien and familiar in the can laugh a world to scorn, but he somehow leaves piquant proportions to be traditionally humorous. I the impression that he fortunately doesn't belong to dislike lugging in serious philosophers to testify in that world. The rub comes when we attempt a so pleasant a matter as humor, but I suppose I owe withdrawal from our own life and our own interests. it to Bergson to say that he explains that human In addition to the pressure of the age, the trampling things are laughable in exact proportion as they are forces of the herd, entrenched conventions and tra- machinelike, that is, alien. This recipe for humor ditions, barrage fires of invested privilege, we meet is obviously easier to understand than to carry out, the supreme enemy in our own ego. There is a for a multitude of conditions and forces conspire to dignity in mocking the universe—Satan found it. prevent us from withdrawing sufficiently from life There is exaltation in a magnificent and inclusive to afford us even a wan smile. Of course, it is easy opposition; we equate the cosmos with ourself by in our human relations to laugh at a stranger. Our the apposition. But to expose our own little person primitive blood-lust takes care of that; indeed it is to the pitiless bolts of humor demands a rare soul. difficult to refrain. It is likewise easy to become Yet only through this exposure of self does the amused at alien peoples, providing their civilization humor we cast upon the rest of the world become is sufficiently below or above our own to afford little noble and regenerative. There is necessary the We smirk at the Hindu, and the courage of heroes and the humility of saints—and Eskimo undoubtedly smirks back at us: This sort something more, for heroes and saints are not notori- of fun-making at the foreigner, which concentrates ously humorous. Even in their sacrifices lingers a on his unfamiliar habits and relies on the minimum residue of reserve, a prejudice for their own cause. of similarity running through all mankind to keep I can perhaps make clear the extraordinary de- the raillery at a smiling point, is only one step above tachment of the humorist by saying that he attains plain belligerency. One word too much and the a cosmic point of view. From the promontory of a smile is a snarl. There is that famous occasion fixed star he observes our world and his own ridicu- when Mark Twain directed Paul Bourget's atten- lously obscure place in the poor stream of humanity, tion to the efforts Americans make to find out who while the bond of sympathy necessary for humorous their grandfathers were, and Frenchmen their expression becomes as tenuous as ether and yet as fathers. Bourget got all heated up over it. universal as space. In these moments the humorist We can also laugh with considerable ease at the shares with the philosopher that primary wonder things at home which we dislike, for our antagon- which is the mother of speculation. This philosophic ism, if not too intense, furnishes the necessary alien- wonder, as Schopenhauer phrases it, “ becomes a sad ation. In fact our laughter, in this case, indicates astonishment, and, like the overture to Don Giovanni, our hatred and our impotence to remove the object philosophy,” together with cosmic humor," begins of it through direct action. This is often the ter- with a minor chord.” Adversity and disillusionment rible laughter of Swift and Juvenal. Thoughtful are the classic guides to this lone observatory where men admire the courage and judgment required to the real wonderland is situate, and it is their com- condemn an age; perhaps they regret the weakness panionship which gives our great humorists an un- this laughter betrays. Often, indeed, their hatred relinquishable sadness, and which seasons their pushes its theme so far from their sympathies that laughter with the salt of tears. the note of pure belligerency hardly fails to domi This cosmic watchtower is never far away; at any nate; and we write them down for satirists. Their moment one may stumble upon it. Okakura Kakuza phrases are a jester's bauble to begin with, and in assures us it can be reached in the cult of Tea which the end a naked sword. The satirist occasionally " is the noble secret of laughing at yourself, calmly impots in our bent toward mocking strangers by yet thoroughly cand is thus humoct result the smile throwing a mask of unfamiliarity over contemporary of philosophy.” There you can “ dream of evanes- 134 February 8 THE DIAL upon him. . ence and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things." bring the race down to date, and expose it as of yester- day. If you will notice, there is seldom a telegram in There is no reason for presuming that Mark Twain a paper which fails to show up one or more members frequented this ghostly station on the peak of the and beneficiaries of our Civilization as promenading in his shirt-tail, with the rest of his regalia in the wash. universe more often than any other humoristic specu- I love to see the holy ones air their smug pieties and lator-indeed, I have a suspicion Rabelais built him admire them and smirk over them, and at the same mo- ment frankly and publicly show their contempt for the self an inn on the very crest, near the spot where pieties of the Boer-confidently expecting the approval Aristophanes used to shy pebbles at Olympus-but of the country and the pulpit, and getting it. I notice that God is on both sides in this war; thus no other has left us such wealth of biographic detail history repeats itself. But I am the only person who has in the way of reminiscence, chronicles, and letters noticed this; everybody here thinks He is playing the to indicate these excursions in disillusionment. His game for this side, and for this side only. Letters, arranged by Albert Bigelow Paine (2 vols., This could be the scolding of a satirist if there Harper; $4), particularly reveal him in his freest were not behind it the cosmic view that lumped mankind with—himself: speculative mood, and because this mood is the Parnassus of his merry brotherhood, the present two Am I finding fault with you and the rest of the popu- lace? No-I assure you I am not. For I know the volumes hold an assured place on the uncertain human race's limitations, and this makes it my pleasant border between literature and philosophy. Again, duty to be fair to it. Each person in it is honest in one Mark Twain was happy in the possession of friends or several ways, but no member of it is honest in all the ways required by—by what? By his own standard. who invited freedom of expression: Howells, who Outside of that, as I look at it, there is no obligation is an old lounger-about at that cosmic rendezvous; Am I honest? I give you my word of honor (private) "Joe" Twitchell, no slouch himself at mountain I am not. Yes, even I am dishonest. Not in eering in those laughter-swept heights; and a host many ways, but in some. Forty-one, I think it is. We are certainly all honest in one or several ways-every of free. men whom Twain met during seventy-five man in the world—though I have reason to think I am years of pilgrimaging in a world of Innocents. the only one whose black-list runs so light. Sometimes I feel lonely enough in this lofty solitude. I began to reread the letters for quotation at this point, but, when I had earmarked forty in less than To command these impersonal vistas requires a certain innocence of heart that we associate with as many minutes, I saw that the best thing to do was adolescence, when the world first reveals itself to to tell anyone interested to go through the two the heart of the child. Mrs. Clemens always called volumes himself. He will learn what Howells her husband “Youth.” Time and again he saw meant by the “bottom of fury” existing in Mark's himself as though for the first time—with gaping, fun—and what I mean exists in all great fun—when chuckling wonder. And simultaneously he would he reads, as Howells once did: boast and mock. He once concluded a ten paragraph I have been reading the morning paper. I do it every sketch of his life with the gay confession, “ I have morning-well knowing that I shall find in it the usual been an author for twenty years and an ass for depravities and basenesses and hypocrisies and cruelties that make up civilization, and cause me to put in the fifty-five." This is no more the disillusionment of rest of the day pleading for the damnation of the human age than the following, written in the flush of I cannot seem to get my prayers answered, yet I do not despair. twenty-eight, is the callow cynicism of youth: “ If I were not naturally a lazy idle good-for-nothing vaga- As an example of this sort of civilization, the Boer bond, I could make it [journalism] pay me $20,000 War was of course ” for the author of Tom a year. But I don't suppose I shall ever be any Sawyer. We need his lightnings today. I lead an easy life, though ... and I Privately speaking, this is a sordid and criminal war, am proud to say I am the most conceited ass in the and in every way shameful and excuseless. Every day I write (in my head) bitter magazine articles about it, Territory.” Both are quick and keen glances at but I have to stop with that. For England must not fall; himself from the top of the universe. it would mean an inundation of Russian and German The final detachment comes when we separate political degradations which would envelop the globe. Even wrong—and she is wrong-England must ourself not only from mankind and from our own be upheld. Why was the human race created ? person but from the tyranny of time. This measures least why wasn't something creditable created in place of it? God had his opportunity. He could have made the height of our withdrawal as plainly as the snow a reputation. But no, He must commit this grotesque line on a mountain. Our detachment from time, folly—a lark which must have cost him a regret or two however, is never complete; here our sympathies are when He came to think it over and observe effects. It was my intention to make some disparaging remarks hardest to subdue, and often the mere consciousness about the human race; and so I kept this letter open for of the tragedy of years is as near as we can come .but I can do better-for I can snip out of the Times various samples and side-lights which to freedom from it. Under the date of January 22, 1898, Twain writes: race. . nuts account. Or at that purpose . 1919 THE DIAL 135 I to interpret. He must be allowed to satisfy his obliged to write in terms that his readers can under- Dear Howells: Look at these ghastly figures. I used reading this letter 80 years hence. And so, my friend to write it "Hartford, 1871 and how much (you pitying snob, mean, who are holding this yellow lies between you speak of the glorious days of paper in your hand in 1960) save yourself the trouble that old time—and they were. It's my quarrel-that of looking further; I know how pathetically trivial our traps like these are set. small concerns will seem to you, and I will not let your eye profane them. No, I keep my news; you keep your Perhaps the gist of the humor, pathos, and pene compassion. Suffice it you to know, scoffer and ribald, trating vision of cosmic detachment are concentrated that the little child is old and blind, now, and once more toothless; and the rest of us are shadows, these many, in the lines he once wrote “ Joe" Twitchell: many years. Yes, and your time cometh! Well, we are all getting along here first-rate; Livy suppose, Boswell, you recognize Johnson's gains strength daily, and sits up a deal; the baby is five laughter. weeks old and—but no more of this; somebody may be MARVIN M. LOWENTHAL. Remaking the Past We have been taught that the past is gone be stand. Thus there is no sense of artifice in his ef- yond recall and that the future is ours to command. forts. Unconsciously he mistakes creation for ex- But this is one of the bundle of untruths that con position and knows not himself as the maker of the stitutes the moral instruction of youth. We have past. learned, all too painfully, that nerve cell, environ Of the process of supplying the nation with a ment, and the cumulative sweep of change are mak comfortable past there can be no end. The creations ing a rigid future which we can neither determine of an earlier period have been replaced by the nor anticipate ; that "what is to be will be." It is scientific ” histories of yesterday. The past which the past which is ours. Memory is short and un they have made for us is on the whole quite satisfy- certain, records are voluminous and fragmentary, ing to the great democracy. The shorter works, and we can make of what is gone very much what which are read, tell how consciously the men of old we like. labored together in order that just such a society Evidently it will not do 'for each one of us to as we have now might exist. The larger ones, which create for himself our national past. So very re are not, in their many volumes present mute testi- luctantly we entrust that work to the historians. mony to the stupendous greatness of our past. But They still talk as if the past were the result of the a small class of intellectuals, not at all representative skill and cunning of Franklin, Lincoln, Hanna, and of the healthy-minded nation, and rather fussy about James J. Hill, and without doubt such “ historical” things which they call “truth” and “ reality,” dis- persons had something to do with it. But the past like this. They demand a past created in the intel- which lives in our minds and animates our conduct lectual likeness of themselves. They insist that is much more the result of the craft of Fiske, Osgood, histories glorify rather than narrate; that they select Rhodes, and Becker, and even more the compiler of their materials by canons of social respectability; the school history. If the historians give us the that they neglect matters of significance of which truth, we accept the labors of their minds and only inferential evidence lies in the documents; that thumbs. If they give us a story we do not like, or they try to picture the whole by getting together a can not understand, or one that is untrue, others mass of unrelated details; and that the artificial can be found who will say truthful and acceptable characters which run across their pages are animated things. Of course there is a minimum of issue, in- by motives which are a combination of the spirit of cident , character, and event, which the most obliging Regulus and Paul's advice to the Corinthians. They maker of the past cannot avoid. But this gives zest insist that those who profess to be writing history to his game rather than restricts his art. Within the the facts and free from any limits the stores are ample and varied enough for philosophical bias whatever are merely deluding purpose. An issue can be variously formulated; the meaning of an incident can not be exhausted; themselves into doing uncritical work. They insist that there can be no scientific” history without the fulness of personality cannot be absorbed by a cognizance of what the humanistic sciences have to pen-picture; and the actuality of an event ramifies unto the ends of the earth. The historian must not teach of human motives and conduct. They demand be denied his right to select, to infer, to assemble, a history conscious of its problems, and one whose assumptions square with the latest conclusions of sense of proportion, of unity, of relation. He is psychology, economics, and sociology. They demand a past that is true and intelligible to people who babble about economic determinism,” pragma- based upon the 66 136 THE DIAL February 8 - 1 "Our tisun,' “human behavior,” and social guidance." of the story. It lies rather in a creative—or, if you To one anxious to see what stuff our latest past is will, a selective-touch deftly applied to issue, inci- being made of and how the materials are put to dent, and character. Note the setting for the ac- gether The Eve of the Revolution: a chronicle of tion. To the dignitaries of an imperial British the Breach with England, by Carl Becker (Chron- government “colonial rights” are incidental to a icles of America Series—Yale University Press; schedule in a tax bill. But American aristocrats $3.50) is to be commended.. Its appeal is alike in “clothed themselves” in “ the homéspun garb, half theme and authorship. Few episodes can vie with Roman and half Puritan, of a virtuous republican- the breach with England in tempting the latter ism,” and “stampęd small matters with “great day historian. It is a convenient thread whereon to character.” Or observe how Mr. Becker shapes the hang a theory that attempts to fathom the mystery issues. He quotes from George Seville, of human conduct. It offers a practical test of the trade is hurt; what the devil have you been doing? influence of the economic motive in history. It For our part we don't pretend to understand your gives a chance to see Americans of another age else- politics and American matters, but our trade is hurt; where than on dress parade. It shows something of pray remedy it, and a plague on you if you won't." the way in which incidents somehow get tied to He observes that a pamphlet of "twenty-three small gether into what later is mistaken for a historical pages," written by Mr. Soame Jenyns, in answer to sequence. The name of the author is equally invit the arguments of the colonists, was "highly satis- ing. It is guarantee of a sprightly style, happy factory to himself and doubtless to the average read- phrasing, and a disproof of Thoreau's dictum, “The ing Briton who understood constitutional matters sun never shines in history.” Even better, no his best when they were humorously expounded in torian of the present day knows more clearly what pamphlets that could be had for sixpence.” He he is about, is more sensitive to the nature of his shows how Hutchinson, and for that matter many materials, or is more artful in their use. The book another pamphleteer, loyal or liberal, arrived at con- is a type of a new class of historical works which clusions which were identical with his assumptions, bids fair to become increasingly numerous and but none the less satisfying for all of that. And he popular. points out how repeatedly during the quarrel the In form the book is a simple, straightforward colonists pronounced themselves “humble and loyal narrative with never a word about motives " or subjects," " dutiful children," " yielding in loyalty “ conduct or "causation." Like a good workman to none." the author keeps his craft knowledge to himself or The author's creative touch is even more in evi- expounds it elsewhere. He presents a rapidly mov- dence in portraying the men who took part in the ing and entertaining volume of incident, quotation, incidents. He pictures the industrious Ben Frank- and comment. This runs from 1757, when Frank- lin, “Friend of the Human Race," charged with an ordered home" to England, to the Dec- laration of Independence in 1776. He attempts important mission to England and yet spending two months “ more uselessly than ever he could remem- to convey to the reader, not a record of what men ber in deciding what boat to take.' He implies did, but a sense of how they thought and felt about that the Sage's return from the mother country, what they did.” The thread about which doings postponed month by month until five years had and thought and feelings move is the conventional rolled around, was delayed largely by his overfond- one of stamp tax, protest, and repeal; of customs ness for “interesting and agreeable conversation.” duties, non-importation, and tax on tea; of the rights Grenville is to him a dry, precise man ... of colonists, of Englishmen in America, and of men; and of the other matters indigenous to the sequel. most always right in little matters. The narrative quality is so well sustained that even a rising young lawyer, who was “just on the point amid disputation and polemic the reader would ac- of making a reputation and winning a competence,” count the story only an interesting episode well told, when trouble over the stamp act led to the closing were it not for the author's reference to it in his of the courts, insisted that “This execrable project preface as an enterprise of questionable ortho- was set on foot for my ruin as well as that of Amer- doxy.” ica in general.” His description of Samuel Adams, Perhaps this confession of heresy is a mere device the personal ingredient most essential to the Revolu- for tempting the reader. None the less it raises the tion, indicates where the sources of great events question of the element of novelty in the past as Mr. sometimes lie. S. Adams was " For business Becker fabricates it. It is not to be found in the he without sequence of incident, in the event, in the backbone instinct , and neither possessing nor ever being able whatever, being entirely devoid of the acquisitive lin was .. al- John Adams, a poor provider." any aptitude was 1919 137 THE DIAL to acquire any skill in the fine art of inducing people appraise his volume. In the matter of assessing to give for things more than it cost to make them.” values the issue is clear. The honesty, workman- He was a well-known member of the “Caucus ship, and artistry of the author are beyond ques Club," founded in the likeness of the Caulkers tion. There is no quarrel over facts." He has as Club” of his father's day, which had existed for the many as he needs; his picture would be spoiled by purpose of laying “plans for introducing certain many more. He might insist as truthfully as the persons into places of trust and power.” The scientific historians that his art is that of per- Copley portrait might be supplemented by another sonal restraint, and that he “has allowed the facts representing him “placed in Tom Dawes's garret, to tell their own story.” But he knows as well as dimly seen through tobacco smoke, sitting, with coat the critic that the facts tell different stories for dif- off, drinking Alip, in the midst of Uncle Fairfield, ferent men. Something back of them is to be called Story, Cooper, and a rudis indigestaque moles," the up for judgment, a something that we may call “ a while he devised schemes for making “ Brutuses of conception of history." A judgment upon his work the men of Boston." is a judgment upon a new adventure in history Beneath this easy narrative the stuff of which writing. Mr. Becker remakes the past displays itself. It con- Manifestly the verdict will depend upon who sists of act, thought, and feeling, in every tem- makes it. Fortunately there are many historians poral sequence in which the three can be arranged. and there is no reason why anyone should not have The incident to the British ministerial mind was a the past of America arranged according to his liking. mighty matter when eyed by the colonial aristocrat. There are the successors of Bancroft who see " the The issue which separated residents of the mother hand of God” guiding national development to its country and colonists and rent each into parties and consummation in the glorious present. There is factions was an ever changing one. As the matter McMaster with his curious mosaic that contains in dispute came to be newly formulated, colonists everything about the development of “the people shifted from one to the other side of the argument; save the few things one wants to know. There is those who quarreled with England meant by opposi- Channing with a collection of material far too large tion everything from submissive protest to open de- and miscellaneous to be turned into a past, but fiance; and many, too, even unto the last, remained which none the less he persists in using. There is in a "neither-nor" attitude. The incidents of the Hart, weighing and assessing men and events by story, rather than the outcome, concerned most the canons juggled out of a provincial conscience as if actors. Together they lack much of being a record they were the cosmic verities themselves, and being of a human purpose moving relentlessly to its con- “scientific ” all the while. And there is Beard re- summation. The actors are men of capacity and cording a clear-cut struggle between opposing eco- frailty. They respond to that within which makes nomic groups, with property in the offing imparting one man different from another. They vary in sen- values to events. sitiveness to conventions of thought and conduct, to As against these, and many others, the the sense of duty, and to their own material in- history," of which Mr. Becker's book is so valuable terests. They are wise and stupid, capable of under- a type, will find readers. It will appeal to those standing others and too obstinate to try, prone alike who have acquired "modern notions” of human to tolerance and jealousy. They are given to im- motives and conduct and what is meant by cause in petuous action which they can afterwards defend as history. They are likely to call his entertaining an expression of a well-thought-out purpose. They little volume, which contains statements that are can selfishly respond to their own material interests not recorded in any document, “realism,” the while and without manifest dishonesty vindicate their they hurl the charge of "romanticism” against the actions on high moral grounds. Their feeling that several tome atomic histories of the scientific they were actors in a great drama came rather from school.” Books like his are filled with issues, inci- a sense of their own importance than from a clear dents, and persons whom they ca understand. appreciation of the event which emerged from their And if at times they cannot escape the feeling that activities. The independence which came to them the author in his detachment is saying, “ Interesting was a by-product of much concern with immediate antics, these of the humans; watch them,” they can things. It clothes polemic and shaken fist with ex forgive him for not furnishing a new refuge to the post facto values alien alike to the man and the occa- homeless economic man. But they cannot escape the conviction that there is quite a bit of Mr. Becker It is the stuff of which Mr. Becker makes the in the episode of the past which he has remade. past shat one must take into account who would WALTON H. HAMILTON. new sion. + 138 February 8 THE DIAL such a Pelléas et Mélisande DEBUSSY'S EBUSSY's music is our own. All forms lie dor usually but the ringing of Alat-colored stones, be- mant in the soul, and there is no work of art actually comes rich and dense, seems to take on the prop- foreign to us, nor can such a one appear, in all the erties of satins and velvets and aromatic wines. At future ages of the world. But the music of De each new employment the pedal seems to wash a bussy is proper to us in our day as is no other. For new tint over the keyboard. The orchestration of it moved in us before its birth, and afterward re Debussy infallibly produces all that is cloudy and turned upon us like a release. Even at a first en diaphanous in each instrument. There is no other counter the style of Pelléas was mysteriously fa- style that could have transmitted so faithfully the miliar. All its novelty was but the sudden con essential qualities of that most glimmering, floating sciousness that we had always needed, say, of poems, L'Après-midi d'un Faune. The fruity rhythm, such a luminous chord, perhaps had even climbing of the chromatic flute, the drowsy pizzicati heard them faintly sounding in our imaginations of the strings, the languorous sighing of the horn The music seemed old as our separate existences. It have caught, quite as magically as Mallarmé's verses, seemed an exquisite recognition of certain intense the atmosphere of the daydream, the sleepy warmth and troubling and appeasing moments. It seemed of the sunshot grass, and the white wonder of arms fashioned out of certain ineluctable moments that and breasts and thighs. had budded out of our lives, ineffably sad and sweet, And yet, the music of Debussy is classically pre- and had made us new, and set us apart. And, at the cise and firm and knit. There is neither uncertainty music's breath, at a half-whispered note, at the un- nor mistiness in his form. His lyrical, shimmering closing of a rhythm, the flowering of a cluster of structures are logically irrefragible. The line never tones out of the warm still darkness, they were hesitates, never becomes involved nor lost. It pro- arisen again in the fullness of their stature, and ceeds directly, clearly, and passing through jewels were become ours entirely. and colors fuses them into a single mass. The music For the music of Debussy is proper to an im- plots its curve sheerly, is always full of its own pressionistically feeling age. Structurally it is a weight and timbre. It can be said, quite without fabric of exquisite and poignant moments, each one exaggeration, that his best work omits nothing, neg- of them full and complete in itself. The phrases lects nothing, and that every component element contribute to the whole , compose a richly, clearly has been justly treated. His little pieces occupy a organized mass, and yet are independent, and sig- space as completely as the most massive and im- nificant in themselves. No chord, no phrase is sub- passioned of compositions. It is just because of their ordinate. Each one exists for the sake of its own fotmal purity that they succeeded in imparting the beauty, occupies the universe for an instant, then sensations intended in them. In the hands of others, merges and disappears. The harmonies are not, as in the hands of so many of Debussy's imitators, his in other music, preparations . They are apparently style becomes confused and soft and unsubstantial. an end in themselves , flow in space and then change for the fluidity and the restlessness dominate them, as a shimmering stuff changes hue. For all its whereas in Debussy these qualities are controlled by golden earthiness, the style of Debussy is the most an indomitable love of clarity and concentration. liquid and impalpable of musical styles . It is for. For he is of the race of Molière and Pascal and ever gliding, gleaming, melting, crystallizing for an Verlaine. He is of the classical French traditions instant in some savory phrase, then moving quiver- in his intolerance of all that is vague and murky ingly onward. It is well-nigh edgeless. It seems and pointless, in his instinctive preference for what to flow through our perceptions as water flows is aristocratically temperate and firm and reason- through fingers, and the iridescent bubbles that float able. Despite the modern complexity of his spirit , upon it burst if we but touch them. It is forever his latter-day subtlety and delicacy and weariness, his suggesting water-fountains and pools and glisten- mundane grace and finesse, he is neither spiritually ing sprays and the heaving bosom of the sea-or the soft nor uncertain. From the very commencement of formless breath of the breeze and storms and per- his career he was nicely conscious of himself. Few fumes, or the play of sunshine and moonlight. At musicians have been more sensible of their gift, bet- the bidding of Debussy the sound of the piano, ter aware of its quality and limitations. He had a *1919 THE DIAL 139 delicious and the oppressive, are caught in this music. sureness of taste, a sense of fitness and values, that of his rare sensibility. Few musicians have felt with was rare and singular. It is just the superposition a greater tenderness, a greater poignancy. So de- upon a subtle and sensuous nature of so classical a cisively did the particular sentiments of his time tendency that gives his music its character. For he obtain over Debussy, so fully did his music grow out could fix precisely the most elusive emotions, emo of them, that he appears to stand in almost symboli- tions that flow on the borders of consciousness, cal relationship to his day. In a fashion he is the vaguely, and that most of us cannot grasp for very artist most typical of it. He is amongst us fully. dizziness. For him the shadowy places of the soul He is here in our midst, in the world of the city. We were full of light. seem to know him as we know ourselves. He seems There are moments when this work, the fine Auid to live our manner of life, and there is no experi- line of sound, the phrases that merge and pass and ence of his that is not, intensified perhaps by his vanish into one another, become the gleaming rims poet's gift, our own, or that cannot possibly become that circumscribe vast darkling forms. For, not in ours. He seems almost ourselves as he passes through frequently, Debussy captured what is distinguished the city's twilight, intent upon some errand which in the age's delight and tragedy. All its fine sensu we too have gone, journeying a road which we our- ality, its Eastern pleasure in the infinite daintiness selves have traveled. We know the room in which and warmth of nature, all its sudden joyous dis- he lives, the moments that come upon him there in covery of color and touch that made men feel as the silence of the lamp. For he has found there though neither had been known before, are con- quintessence. Few musicians have been so persever- tained in this music. Debussy's art, too, is full of ingly essential, have managed to maintain their images of the "earth of the liquid and slumbering emotion at a height so steadily. Perhaps Bach trees,” the "earth of departed sunset,” the "earth and Moussorgsky alone have found phrases as of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged pithy and inclusive as those with which Pelléas with blue." It is full of material loveliness, plies is strewn, phrases that in a few simple notes itself to its innumerable forms to the somnolence epitomize profound and fine emotions. There are of the Southern night, to the hieratic gestures of moments in the work of Debussy in which each note temple-dancers, to the fall of lamplight into the opens a prospect. There are portions of Pelléas that dark, the fantastic gush of fireworks, the romance are like those moments of human intercourse in of old mirrors and faded brocades and Saxony which a single word unseals deep reservoirs. In- clocks, to the green young panoply of spring. And, deed the most impassioned utterances of the drama, just as it gives again the age's consciousness of the Mélisande's half whispered “Pelléas! Pelléas!" in delicious shell of earth, so too it gives its sense of the turret scene, and the almost toneless avowal of weariness and oppression and powerlessness. The love in the last scene by the fountain, nearly approach century had been loud with blare and rumors and that silence which is the largest form of speech. the vibration of movement, and man had apparently And though the work is to a degree apart from all traversed vast distances, and explored titanic heights his others, and is indeed the ultimate Powering of and abysmal depths. And yet, for all the glare, the his art, none of the remainder of his compositions, earth was dark, darker perhaps because of the not even the slightest, is unworthy of it and devoid miasmic light, and the life of man seemed as ever entirely of its fine poesy. He never doffs his singing- a brief and sad and simple thing, the stretching of robes. His work is always the expression of pure impotent hands, unable to grasp and hold; the in- and clear, often intense and incandescent, feeling. terlacing of shadows; the unclosing, a moment be- He always was aware of beauty, always revealed it. fore nightfall , of exquisite and fragile blossoms. He never wrote ugly or dull or insignificant tones. In And this sense of the infirmity of life, the conscious . his brain , the thick-lipped sentiment of the coon-song, ness that it had no more than the significance of a even, gets a delicacy, a humorous tenderness. A dream with passing lights, or hal ting steps in the thing as trifling as the little waltz Le Plus Que Lent snow, or an old and half-forgotten story, had mixed has a lissome grace and sweetness. Perhaps his a deep wistfulness and melancholy into the very music wants the exalted and majestic mystical tone glamour of the world, and had itself become heavier of certain other music. Nevertheless it has a lumi- for all the loveliness. And both sentiments, the nous tenderness that is scarcely to be duplicated in musical art, perhaps only in the work of so rare and . . at 140 February 8 THE DIAL all, is the most intense of all emotions. is but what a man might feel towards a woman, a A complex of determinants made of Pelléas et woman that was his, and yet was strange and mys- Mélisande the most eloquent of all Debussy's works, terious and unknown to him. There are moments and his eternal sign. Issuing as he did from the when it is all that lies between two people, when classical French tradition, abhorring overemphasis it is the fullness of their knowledge. It is the per- and speciousness and exaggeration, want of taste and fect sign and symbol of an experience. For this is lucidity, it was ordained that Debussy should turn what we ourselves have lived. upon the excesses of the Wagnerian music-drama Debussy's art could have no second climax. For it is a unit. His task was the establishment and, fortified by the knowledge of Rameau's works, of a style. It was for that that he came into the oppose his proper standards. His own deep sense world. It was in the order of things that, once his of the French term and the possibility of its treat- ment in dramatic recitative almost compelled his re- genius having assumed its definite form and received its definitive expression, the remainder of his music volt to assume the form of an opera. Maeterlinck's should be comparatively less important. It is not little play afforded him his opportunity, offered it that the two series of Images for piano, or some of self as a unique auxiliary. In itself it is by no means the later orchestral poems, or the music to Le Mar- an insignificant piece of expression. It has the pro tyre de Saint Sebastian, are not perfect and astound- portions, the accent, of the time. It too is full ing pieces of work, and do not contain some of his of a constant and overwhelming sense of the loveliest ideas. It is only that they are the applica- evanescence and flux of things, and establishes a tions to the medium of the piano and the orchestra of thing by fixing its atmosphere. And this "vieille et a style already achieved in Pelléas. There is not the triste légende de la fôret” is filled with images-the progression in the art of Debussy which there is in old and somber castle, inhabited by aging people, Wagner's—a progression which permitted the com- lying lost amid melancholy land and sunless forests; poser of the third act of Tristan to write Die Meis- the rose that blooms in the shadow underneath tersinger and, afterward, Parsifal. Debussy's was an Mélisande's casement; Mélisande's hair that falls art, mature already in his quartet, that rounded it- farther than her arms can reach—that called a vital self out during twenty-five years of his life. His and profound response from Debussy's imagination. death robbed us of no fair development we might But it was the figure of Mélisande herself that ulti- reasonably have anticipated. Indeed, in his very last mately made him pour himself into the play, and works, the gold is spread more thinly, the emotion intensify it into the perfect and poignant thing it is. is less warm. He had completely fulfilled himself. This shadowy little drama permitted Debussy to His age had demanded of him an art that it might give himself in the creation of his ideal image. It hold far from the glare and tumult, an art into is Mélisande that the music reveals from the moment which it could retreat, an art which could com- that she rises from along the rocks in the mystery pensate it for a life become too cruel and demanding . of her golden hair, perhaps from the very moment And this he gave it, in perhaps imperishable form. that the orchestra begins the work. The entire score Paul ROSENFELD. The Unrelegated Quill 0 NE OF THE minor after-war adjustments is a corner, typewriters and social secretaries, have been sort of cerebral spring-cleaning which invariably jointly and severally accused, and we have been sends a lot of pretty notions to one's mental junk- quite content to tuck them snugly under one blanket heap. The plush albums and what-nots of the indictment, and thus give them credit for a dev- mind are out of harmony with new conceptions of astation beyond their deserts. Sheer repetition of interior decoration, and must go into the discard. the remark that "no one writes letters any more" It is in some such dusting about in corners that one put the observation in the realm of the unques- is impelled to abandon the theory that certain de- tioned-gave it, in fact, a certain social standing. vices of our civilization have succeeded in their con- We were trapped into a false security, and it was spiracy to discredit the writing of letters. And it not until the war came along and tumbled us out is surprising to discover how well entrenched the of it that we realized how far from moribund the idea has become. All such facilities—somewhat ironically labeled "modern conveniences”-as the art of correspondence really is. Instead of framing the obituary of letter writing, everyone appears to telephone at one's elbow, the telegraph office at the be writing_letters. 1 1919 THE DIAL 141 one is tempted to designate it as the age of the munication. While the reactions of an army may be publishing the volume in the hope that it will be recorded by wire, the reactions of an individual renaissance, one need but glance back over the ante- bellum decade. What was it—this pre-war period of love was not to be mailed until the end of the Doubtless the telephone and its co-conspirators souvenir postcard—a universal medium of exchange. did play a part in an attempt to outmode the pen, Its applications to the exigencies of existence ap- but it has become apparent within recent months peared almost endless. If one went on a vacation, that their success was destined to be fleeting—not one played a variation of the English game of “hare final. These poisoners of the ink-wells have failed and hounds,” with postcard “views” to mark one's in their large purpose. The pen and the sword, trail. When one wished to be humorous, one mailed linked for so long in the old proverb, have again an appropriate "comic" card, acquired in one of revealed their kinship in a new manner. The sluice the “shops” which flourished—and even yet enjoy gates are opened; once more there is a free flow of a diminished vogue—in the vicinity of railroad sta- ink. But that is not the full extent of what has tions. If one visited an “amusement park”-in happened. Not only has war shattered the letter which one may do everything but be amused—it writing inhibitions, in so far as they were operative; was considered desirable to acquire several “views" but it has shattered publishers' aversions to the of it. One could discharge one's social obligations traffic in letters as a business hazard. One hesitates simply by "placing a one-cent stamp here.” Just to say which is the greater havoc—the undoing of how much joy the recipient of a boat house or city the inhibitions or the undoing of the aversions, but hall facsimile succeeded in extracting from the the consequences of the two in conjunction have cardboard is a detail which has never been suffici- resulted in an apparently inexhaustible flood of ently studied. The chances are that he got as much letters—especially letters from the front. as he deserved. It has seemed as though letters no sooner got However, war is no tourists' attraction. There is written than they got printed. They began to more to be written than may be crowded into the stream steadily into newspaper columns, into maga confines of the "correspondence space"—things too zines, and into books. Any missive which passed intimate to be sent unsheathed through the mails. the military censor became-ipso facto—eligible for There are dramatic things to be said—and one can the market. Collections of letters threatened to hardly be dramatic on a postcard. “The blot which become as numerous and as miscellaneous as collec ended my last sentence was not entirely my fault. tions of relics. Had it not been for the sudden A shell landed at the entrance to our dug-out, killed termination of hostilities, which doubtless has one runner, wounded two, and blew the candle out." checked the momentum of the food, it is difficult to These sentences, from The Love of an Unknown say where we might not have been carried at its Soldier (Lane; $1.25), are inconceivable upon a crest. In fact, it began to appear that the most postcard, for they would be robbed of all sig- feasible method of dealing with the outpouring nificance. would be upon a basis of military rather than of It appears to be a common characteristic of prac- literary rank, although the problem of promotion tically all this war correspondence that it carries a might have proved bafiling. In any event, the har- certain degree of literary polish. You discover vest of recent books serves to reveal how far from little of the hasty scribbling of the postcard era. ranquished the ancient practice of writing letters Taking into consideration the reputed disabilities really is—and how adequately it has been reassert- of the average citizen, when it comes to the graces ing itself. We may rest assured that the letters—if of communication, it must be admitted that he has not the spirit-of the war will be preserved. done himself proud. The volume mentioned above As for those devices which sought to supplant the quill , they have been relegated to their former is a case in point. Incidentally, it differs from the main body of the war correspondence in that the role—that of mere go-between in the humdrum author's identity is unknown, that the manuscript was found in a dug-out, and that the girl to whom taking and canceling orders. They failed utterly the love letters were addressed is equally anony- to loosen our hold upon the older mode of com- mous. The publisher emphatically admits that he is the means of finding "the American girl, who, all unknowingly, had quickened the last days of this nie grasp the full significance of this epistolary unknown soldier's life with romance. Bearing in mind that this continued confession business of making and canceling engagements, of demand a more sensitized medium. in which we were allegedly “too busy to write let- on ng As one seeks for some distinguishingite ale credulity a bit over strained Occasionally. Under the war—and possibly not even then—one finds one's circumstances the officer might write “I must leave 142 THE DIAL February 8 many lines. lorries, booming, and mud.” And in another place, mately will find their way into the sacred corners off—something is happening," when he is inter Sheer modesty doubtless dictates the excision of rupted by the signal of an attack, but it is more A favorite aunt may make wonderful reasonable to imagine that he would simply "leave crullers, but she naturally shrinks from having the off”—and do his explaining later on. fact blazoned to posterity. Hence, when the youth- This sort of parading of the dramatic effectives ful enthusiast begins to compare army fare with occurs frequently. As a spontaneous outpouring of memories of her cooking to the utter discredit of the soul, The Love of an Unknown Soldier reveals a nation's commissariat, it is time to wield the shears. literary morale which never wavers. There are These intimacies must be stricken from the record. sentences which touch the imagination. “I have And it is not fitting to expose little details of finan- seen so many men rise up in the morning and lie cial stringency, such as happen in the best regulated Such incidents still at night.” “These unposted letters, written squads, to unsympathetic readers. out of loneliness, make the future seem too valuable. are, in the abrupt Americanism, “nobody's business." You ran up the steps without turning your head The sight-seeing instincts come to the surface in when we separated. That's the way I would pre- these American letters, as though many of their fer to go out of life.” He speaks of the English, authors—aware that they were enjoying their first "who do magnificent things and voice them in the European tour-kept a finger on their pulse to language of stable-boys,” and of the French: "I wish measure their reactions. This kaleidoscopic flare to God we Anglo-Saxons shared some of the vices for the historic, this eagerness to thrust a pin through that produce their virtues." each passing impression, makes itself apparent par- Jack Wright, in A Poet of the Air (Houghton ticularly in the Merrill volume, where the writer Mifflin; $1.50), is another of the correspondents reveals an impatience to crowd everything into one who cherished the public—even in the most private paragraph. There isn't much of London left over of his letters. The people who were to buy the after a few pages of such characteristic cataloguing book in which his letters appear were never quite excluded from his mind, nor from his epistles. Un- My eyes darted right-the Adelphi, yes, far down; restraint and egotism and poetic felicity are com- behind it I knew were Covent Garden, Maiden Lane, pounded in his pages. Asked what he thought of and old Drury. Boardings, significantly new, covered corners of two buildings: the Hun had come to “mighty France, it is not likely that he would have answered London"-not long since-but that thought was chased with the flourish with which he writes: "Paris is gaily away by our wheeling left of course. The Grand for me a Babylon and the country of France is for ahead, high and dark! Then, behind a big 'bus, a lion couchant, black-grey! Whistling and swaying we went; me a plain overflowing with the fever of the Huns; people laughing; a kid messenger's pill-box oscillating the incense of bursting shells and smoking powder.” as he chewed something; "Canidians, woť o!": then I This is letter writing from the rostrum. felt the imposing triumphal arch of the New Admiralty over against me, tall square and grey—the Mall be- Of course the key to much of this one-sidedness yond, yes—and we swung into the Square." in published letters lies in the blue-penciling of But the letters which have attained the distinction their editors. · The editors have been, in many in- of publication must be but the chosen representatives stances, relatives—and relatives exercise a rigid cen- of the great body of our epistolary renascence. They sorship sometimes. The flights of fancy are do little more than shadow forth the real bulk of the garnered, but the prosaic grumblings are deftly ex- cluded. The transient discomforts have no place know the permanence of book covers. Some of it. outpouring-much of which is destined never to in the record beside the felicities of phrase. That , of course, will make its appearance at a later day . perhaps, is why such details—even when they do possibly in the guise of memoirs or as source ma- creep into the narrative—are so touched with the gloss of humor that nearly all trace of the actuality terial in the threshing out of historic controversy. has been swept away. Wainwright Merrill writes, missives--well-thumbed messengers about which And then there will be the cherished personal in A College Man in Khaki (Doran; $1.50), that "here the ensemble is a sort of quintessence of will cluster the memory of anxious days and unex- mud, piles of brick, jagged earth, mud, banging pressed but ever present fears. These are the let- ters which, tied with ribbon in neat packets, ulti- "the little village fully justifies its name—nom de guerre-Codford-in-the-Mud.'” Surely this must of old trunks—to be almost forgotten for a time, refer to a substance far more amenable than the and then to be unwrapped with trembling fingers, stuff which clings to one's boots, and splashes into the stuff of dreams and fireside reverie. as this: ) one's ears. Lisle Bell. THE DIAL GEORGE DONLIN CLARENCE BRITTEN HAROLD STEARNS THORSTEIN VEBLEN HELEN MAROT our object is no longer victory but peace, it is clear the President at the moment when the Germans the devastated regions of France and Belgium. It forced the President to adopt a tone which dimin- Robert Morss LOVETT, Editor In Charge of the Reconstruction Program: JOHN DEWEY THE GOVERNMENT IS LEFT BY THE CONCLUSION ished the chance that the new German Government of the war in possession of immense stores of muni could hold its footing between Junkers and radicals, tions of all kinds, including vast quantities of ex and even so it supported the indictment brought plosives and poison gas. Some of this material can against him by Roosevelt and Lodge. President be converted to peaceful uses—for example the De Wilson was called pro-German in the Senate of the partment of Agriculture is said to have a use for United States, and repudiated at the polls. In the the 80,000,000 unexploded pounds of TNT. If ten weeks that have elapsed since the armistice was the expected revision of the rules of war takes place, signed this hatred has made it impossible for the poison gas may be outlawed in future, along with leaders of opinion in this country to formulate any submarines , and the only problem will be to set free consistent or dignified policy toward our late the accumulation of this substance without injury enemies. But already there are frequent signs to animal and vegetable life. There are other prod- that astute and far-seeing journalists are beginning ucts of our feverish period of preparation, spiritual to realize that hate, however essential in war, is dan- instead of material, but no less explosive and gerous to the peace of mutual self-interest, the poisonous because intangible. In order to bring the structure of which is being so painfully laid—that nation to a maximum of efficiency for war it was the explosives and poisonous gas must somehow be thought necessary to develop a large quantity of drawn off or neutralized. The gingerly way in hate for our enemies. The systematic production which they approach their task is evidence of their of this force was undertaken by newspapers and wholesome fear of being blown up. For instance, magazines, by moving-picture houses and patriotic Mr. Grasty in the New York Times reminds us societies , by schools and churches. It was frequently that " with all of the barbarism of Germans in the remarked that hate seemed of little use at the front, war, they have certain qualities—order, discipline, but throughout the population at large it was re- thoroughness. Because we justly despise the Germans garded as a valuable aid in preparing for the draft, for their brutality and militarism is no reason why in selling bonds, in maintaining morale in general— the Allieş as victors in the war should not employ so much so in fact that persons who objected on the German qualities to stabilize Central Europe." grounds of national self-respect to the production The New York Evening Post is equally guarded. of hate through the invention of atrocity stories “We do not love the Germans ... but ... we were informed that they were interfering with the recall that they owe the victims of Germany's on- success of their country at war, much as if they had slaught on civilization billions of money, The opposed the floating of its loans or the drafting of sooner they straighten out their affairs and get to its soldiers. Even during the war the hate generated work, the sooner they will be able to pay.” Self- for use against our enemies produced untoward results—like the explosion of ammunition at Black interest—that is undoubtedly the best neutralizing Tom and Halifax. More than once the President agent for poisonous hate. But a large portion of our hatred is undoubtedly .too recalcitrant to raised his chiding voice to rebuke those enthusiastic yield to this treatment. It can doubtless be resolved spirits whose hate for Germany would not permit by signal penalties inflicted on those who can be them to grant a legal trial to Americans who hated less than they. But now that the war is over and held personally responsible for the war. Probably no statesmen believes that such personal punishment that the presence of this commodity is likely seri- has the slightest relation to the aims for which the ously to embarrass us. It undoubtedly embarrassed war was fought, and yet all agree in the utility of such punishment as a means of satisfying the hatred requested an armistice. Our hatred demanded un- of their peoples. It might be well for the world if the Kaiser could thus become the scapegoat, if a manch to Berlin, the laying he could be miraculously preserved to suffer the tortures invented for him by imaginative ladies over their knitting. Failing this it is to be feared that no little residue of hate will remain a constituent conditional surrender, waste of German territory to an extent equal to I 44 THE DIAL February 8 Love your HE RUSSIAN PROBLEM IS NOT THE ONLY ONE of our national atmosphere. Deprived of its original from the foreign settlements in Peking. They are ex destination, it is already being directed elsewhere parte' and partisan. But they follow upon reports of by able manipulators. Months ago prudent men activities of Japan in China during the war that are began to turn hatred for Germany against the Bol most sinister. Wholesale opium smuggling with sheviki of Russia and those who in this country asked government connivance is the most unpleasant, but a hearing for them. Other unpopular groups not the most serious, of these tales. They are to the readily suggest themselves as likely to become the effect that Japan has subsidized the militarists of residuary legatees of the superfluous hatred left by the north in order to keep China weak and divided; the war—the Non-partisan League, the I.W.W., that all sorts of loans have been made merely to the Oriental, the Negro. Now these groups and involve China hopelessly; that bribery is regularly the questions which they raise are precisely those resorted to in order to get concessions of railways, which in the interests of our own social well-being mines, and forests; that the famous or infamous- as well as that of countless millions of our fellow demands of the twenty-one points have been with- men should be treated honestly, dispassionately, gen drawn only because the Japanese faction which is erously. They remind us that the demobilization now uppermost believes that the conquest of China of hate should be the immediate object of those who can be effected better by economic means than by have the civic as well as the spiritual welfare of the military. These reports are not proved. But also country at heart. It may be hoped that some effort they are not put in circulation by merely irresponsi- in this direction will be initiated, now that the war ble parties. The concentration of interest upon is over, by that class who believe and teach that Europe has cooperated with the censorship to keep their Lord came to earth and said: us all ignorant of the vast conflict of factions and enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them interests going on in China. The rumors, even if that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully not adequately authenticated, are worth setting use you and persecute you." down. They, as well as the facts behind them, declare the necessity for the League of Nations. THE They make apparent even more what kind of affecting Asia which will come before the Peace League it should be. Only some permanent body Conference. In the long run the peace of the world having scientific experts constantly in its service can may depend even more upon China than upon Rus- ascertain the facts. Only such a body can command sia. No one in his senses—even though some of the attention and belief for its reports. Only such a French have parted temporarily with theirs- body can investigate and report without exciting believes that Russia can permanently be governed all sorts of nationalistic suspicions and hatreds, and from outside itself. Disorganization in China is without itself becoming an instrumentality of almost as great as in Russia, and China never has intrigue. Secret diplomacy is not limited to treaties. been a great power. In other words, it is one of Our whole international life goes on in secrecy. It the countries that has been regarded as the Happy is this secrecy which allows rumors to flourish which Hunting Grounds for the Great Powers. Few are abominable if they are false, because they carry realize how far the parceling out has gone, or the the seeds of distrust and war. extent to which the path from the Open Door leads permits the abominable events to occur, if the into secret and blind alleys of foreign exploitation. rumors turn out to be justified. Only an interna- Superficially the report (which is probably authen- tional agency can introduce real publicity based tic) seems reassuring that China and Japan have on knowledge of facts into the situation. The agreed upon the policy to be pursued by China at need is most crying when colonies, backward regions, the Conference. When this report is backed by spheres of influence and Siberia and China are in semi-official news that Tsingtao will be returned by question. Japan to China, the omens seem most propitious. All the more disquieting then are the rumors coming THE from the Far East that Japan has exercised tremen- HE ACTUAL OUTCOME OF THE RECENT DECISIONS dous pressure, diplomatic and financial, upon China of the Peace Conference is a remarkable, if to a to determine the Peace Conference program of the great extent unconscious, disappearance of the pre- latter. It is even said that some demands are rogatives of State sovereignty in the old-fashioned included only because they are sure of rejection, and This is especially true of smaller nations. Japan can then make the better claim to be China's For what is happening in Paris in the field of diplo- macy is much like what has happened for some time to interest of Japan than of China. One circumstantial amalgamation, the big interests becoming bigger and past in the field of industry-consolidation and story goes so far as to say that one of the Chinese delegates was detained in Tokyo to make him sign the smaller, smaller. The real importance of these a promise that certain questions would not be raised incidents lies in their illustration of a fundamental by China at Paris—this even though it is stated difficulty facing a League of Nations in which the that Japanese pressure had already controlled the exactly as all private citizens are theoretically equal smaller powers, theoretically equal before the law selection of Chinese delegates. These rumors come before it within any civilized state, are from an It is secrecy which sense. 1919 THE DIAL 145 BY-PRODUCTS OF THE force decided that the people of Poland, like the Socialist government such as that of General Pilsud- economic and industrial point of view practically tion, seem equally determined to make a mockery impotent and dependent upon the crumbs of favors of the principle of “self-determination ”—which of the great powers. Just as small competing busi we have apotheosized with so much rhetoric. They nesses have been, in this era of large-scale corpora are backing the Paderewski faction for all they are tions, to a great extent eliminated, so are the smaller worth, utterly indifferent to the fact that the ma- nations coming to count less and less in the more jority of the plain people of Poland have shown no extensive decisions of world policy of trade, finance, interest and no affection for that faction. Our commerce, and industry. The truth is, sovereignty genius for an invisible government and the in the old-fashioned nationalistic sense has become a French genius for intrigue seem to have combined misnomer except for the great powers—and even successfully to wreck the prospects of a united with them, it is rapidly becoming a tenuous and Poland. Only one remedy for this destruction of fragile possession however much Republican Sena the fundamental principle of the League of Na- tors rage against a League of Nations. Nations are tions remains—to see that the representatives of no longer sufficient unto themselves. No matter how Poland, which represent the wishes of the Polish adequate and flexible a system of representation is people, and not interested cliques in Paris, are ad- devised for individual countries within the frame- mitted to the Peace Conference as accredited dele- work of a League of Nations, what will really deter- gates. mine decisions of world polity will be the interplay of economic and industrial forces bigger than O. NE OF THE NOISOME national boundaries. The groupings will be of a type necessarily different from that in the old days when recent war is the espionage habit. During the past nations were self-sufficient and self-supporting blocs, year it has not been unusual to see in the press editorial notices—“ Call number—" followed by with a numerical weight of men who could take up arms. What we are witnessing is the passing of the adjurations to report to the Department of Justice words and deeds which might be interpreted as old order of national irresponsible sovereignty. And there are few left today to weep over its expected showing hostility or even lack of sympathy toward demise. the American part in the war. The Department of Justice and the American Protective League have prided themselves on the sheer number of cases so WHY ARE THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH Gov reported, however trivial or malicious the grounds. ernments so interested in supporting the Paderewski It was useless to point out that by encouraging the faction in Poland? Aside from the sinister financial espionage habit we were fixing on our people one cliques in both countries, which are frankly desirous of the worst vices of the Prussian Police system. of a reactionary Poland, as a buffer state between an The temptation to the active exercise of patriotism imperialistic Germany on the one hand and a Bol was too strong, and men and women accepted the shevik Russia on the other, there are reasons more suggestion to become spies and informers who in or less inherent in the genius and national tempera- saner moments would have spurned the idea. How ment of both France and America which make the strongly this espionage habit has been fastened on phenomenon explicable. How many people in this the country, even in the brief period of its exercise, country showed any concern when our official Gov is shown by the novel activity of the United States ernment in Washington failed to interfere with the Senate. This body has recently emitted two lists of creation here in America of a Polish expeditionary persons whom it desires to brand with pro-German- force which was frankly a partisan army? Very ism or pacifism. The constitution of the lists shows few. Since our muck-raking days we have accepted by what methods of irresponsible tattle and gossip with magnificent unconcern the presence in our they have been made up. In this respect they form country of what we aptly term an invisible gov- an accurate mirror of the mind of the country appear to have carried over this do under the influence of the espionage habit, and it is mestic conception into our ideas about foreign policy. because the country at large so well understood the It never seems to occur to us that Poland may some propensities which produced them that it dismissed day vigorously resent the entrance of an expedition- the incidents with a humor which was touched with ary force carrying the United States Alag, yet with- shame. The repudiation of responsibility by Secre- out the sanction of the official American Govern- tary Baker, for the War Department, represents ment with which Poland must ultimately deal. It the better mind of the whole country toward prac- is evident that Paderewski and his expeditionary tices which lower the prestige of government and people of this country, would submit gracefully to degrade the name of justice. In his words the list the imposition of a particular government which, in of infamy becomes one of glory. In the particular list accredited to Mr. Stevenson there are names of mong ipun parlance, " has the goods." French diplo- people of great distinction, exalted purity of pur- matists , with their penchant for intrigue and with their natural inability to believe that a moderate pose, and lifelong devotion to the highest interests of America and of mankind. Miss Jane Addams, ski could possibly succeed in creating a strong na- for instance, lends dignity and greatness to any list in which her name appears." ernment. We 146 February 8 THE DIAL > by all Communications reputation of being the foremost poetical ichthyolo- gist in America. The singling out of this aquatic A LANCE FOR Max EASTMAN · feat from so much terra firma reveals the whole motive of Mr. Untermeyer's review. Decidedly, SIR: Mr. Louis Untermeyer's review of Max he was fishing for something. But then, why not Eastman's new book of poems—Colors of Life- say, like the Roman gladiator to his Gallic opponent which appeared in the issue of The Dial of De- who wore a fish on his helmet: “Non te peto, pis- cember 28, has caused me so much bewilderment cem peto-quid me fugis, Galle?” that I cannot refrain from commenting on it. The ARTURO GIOVANNITTI. review is so obviously acrimonious, and so delib- New York City. erately polemic as to appear almost invidious, much to the detriment of Mr. Untermeyer's reputation POETRY IN THE LABORATORY for critical sobriety and equanimity. Sir: I think Mr. John Gould Fletcher is unfair My purpose, however, is not so much to take to Dr. Patterson. In his article, A Rational Ex- issues with his judgment of Max Eastman's art, as planation of Vers Libre, he does not for a moment to deplore the method by which it is arrived at; for make clear that Dr. Patterson is a scientist who Mr. Untermeyer discusses Eastman's conception of has made important contributions to a little known poetry, as embodied in the splendid preface to the science. It is a mistake to dismiss “this atmosphere book, for nine-tenths of the review, and devotes of the laboratory” as Mr. Fletcher does. In olden only one-tenth to the poems. I am indeed surprised days art and science were one, and art can be but that once having decided on this very unconven- superficial which does not make use of the wisdom tional procedure, Mr. Untermeyer did not use this collected in the data of scientific experiments. last remaining tenth for a scholarly condemnation Vers Libre is composed by the aborigines of Aus- of the binding and typographical make-up of the book, and ignore altogether the seemingly unimpor- tralia, by the Negro in West Indian Islands, and primitive folk. Its introduction into tant fact that perhaps, as I strongly suspect, the poetry coincides with the primitive turn given to art book was chiefly intended to present Eastman's by Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Gaugain—and with poetry, and only incidentally to inform us of its author's opinions of Poe, Whitman, and free verse. the development of the sciences of anthropology and ethnology, and the “ back to nature movement in But whatever may have prompted Mr. Unter- dancing and in music. The Psalms—as translated meyer to follow this extremely original and brilliant method of reviewing a work of art by not saying in the English Bible—are vers libres. anything about it, the fact remains that Max East- AMELIA DOROTHY DEFRIES. man has written a book of verse, and that he is Washington, D. C. entitled to have it criticized fairly and directly on its own merits, or not at all. It is, therefore, to be AUTOMATIC Vs. AUTOCRATIC desired that when Mr. Eastman writes another book Sir: The excellent article by Mr. Roe in The THE DIAL will invest someone other than Mr. Dial of January 11 suggests two important points Untermeyer with the judicature—unless, of course, in the question of free speech which are worthy of Mr. Eastman gives up his bad habit of writing some elaboration. In the first place we can now see prefaces and excoriating free verse. that some of the important liberties which we sur- In the meantime, there is one thing that I cannot rendered in wartime are not to be restored to us let pass unchallenged, and that is the statement that automatically. If we get them back we shall have Mr. Eastman is an artist anxious to capture to fight for them. They are in the hands of the beauty, rather than a captor driven by it.” This, autocracy which we thought necessary to win allowing that it is true, seems to me a mere quibble, the war, and this autocracy can urge plausi- for surely the pursuit of beauty is as much a part ble reasons for the further suppression of them. of the creation of it as the pursuit of liberty is a And autocracies do not relinquish powers where condition of its inauguration. But it is not true, for there is any possibility of retaining them. much of Eastman's poetry is so replete with genuine In the second place, we should note that the and spontaneous beauty as to miss some of the more organization of the people to wrest their rights rugged, and by no means less poetical aspects of life, a fact that most of his friends sincerely regret. from an autocratic officialdom is a tremendously I need only call the attention of the interested reader difficult task. The agencies of social control are to a single poem, Hours, to bear out my assertion; everywhere in the hands of the Government and for to me at least, those six lines are the most beauti- terrific pressure can be brought to bear on all indi- viduals restive under restraint. The people are ful and exquisite in their particular field that have likely to learn in this present upheaval that relin- been written in many a year. But I am afraid that Mr. Untermeyer has over- quished civil liberties are not restored to them looked this poem, with many others, if the only one graciously by an autocratic officialdom which finds he can quote is At the Aquarium, whose appearance advantage in restraining such liberties. in an earlier volume has won for its author the Middlebury College. JAMES G. STEVENS. 1919 147 THE DIAL Another Sheaf By John Galsworthy The Only Possible Peace By Frederic C. Howe Another volume of Mr. Galsworthy's charm- ing and characteristic essays and studies. 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Each, $1.50 net Petrograd Since the Revolution THE CITY OF TROUBLE By Meriel Buchanan With a Preface by Hugh WALPOLE “Tourgenleft himself could not more per- fectly have epitomized the story of the Russian counter-revolution. -New York Tribune. “The best written and clearest account of the Russian Revolution that has come to the attention of the present reviewer."--New York “ The most weighty and important book of the day dealing with the immediate business of the whole world at this stage of the war."-New York Evening Sun. “ He brings to his work the amplitude of knowledge, the breadth of vision, the sanity of thought, the cogency of argument and the ex- quisite clarity and force of literary style which made his former works on The Pan-German Plot Unmasked' and The United States and Pan-Germania' two of the most important and most influential in all the literature of the war."--New York Tribune. $1.50 net Selections and Essays By John Ruskin EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY FREDERICK WILLIAM ROE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVER- SITY OF WISCONSIN. new volume in the Modern Student's Library. 175 cents net. Plays of J. M. Barrie Echoes of the War “ The Old Lady Sbows Her Medals,” New World," "Barbara's Wedding. and "A Well-Remembered Voice." $1.50 net What Every Woman Knows The Admirable Crichton Quality Street Three Volumes. Each, $1.00 net Times. $1.35 net * The The People of Action By Gustave Rodrigues "A brilliant book, brilliantly Englisbed by, an experienced and sympathetic translator." ---Literary Digest. $1.50 net CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS BOOKS SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK When writing to advertisers please mention The Dial. 148 THE DIAL February 8 Notes on New Books material, a budget system, a clear understanding of conditions, and an exact knowledge of income and THE GARDEN OF SURVIVAL. By Algernon outgo are necessary today. Guessing at half and Blackwood. Dutton; $1.25. multiplying by two lead to failure. A chart or graph pictures the leaks. This book is an interesting and To read Blackwood is to descend into a valley vivid presentation of the business methods plus the where the mists lie—mists that soften and subdue enthusiasm mixed with brains necessary to make a the outlines of reality. Often these mists bring a newspaper a financial success and also to make it a breath of enchantment and mystery, and yet there permanent and influential factor in the community. are other times when they merely react upon the The price of the volume seems excessive, although reader as a sort of esthetic damp. Occasionally one the book gives the results of years of study of the wishes that Blackwood might come up into the newspaper business freely and with great frankness. sunlight, instead of delving in the shadows, Aitting from the phantasy that is half-formed to the phan MADAME ROLAND: A STUDY IN REVOLUTION. tasy that is half-uttered. In the case of the present By Mrs. Pope-Hennessy. Dodd, Mead; $5. book it is difficult to lay one's finger upon the pre- cise flaw, yet we suspect that the secret lies in the By our readiness to let our thoughts revert from author's so complete absorption in his method that time to time to Madame Roland we acknowledge he permits a false harmony to creep into his mate- that nothing is so attractive in the long run as per- rials. In spite of all the expert modeling, he has sonality. Product of conditions that gave birth to not made us forget the clay. that doctrinaire and futile revolutionary type, the Blackwood sets himself to unfold the conception Girondist Republican, she proved that she alone of that out of an imperfect and unequal love there her numerous political family possessed the energy comes a perfection of beauty. His starting point is and persistance necessary for leadership in critical the marriage between a man and a woman who are times. And that leadership she often exercised, not mated. He descends into flashiness by having though just as often she refused to do so, at least the woman meet death in an automobile accident a openly, because the age had a strong prejudice month later. And from these ingredients he seeks to (which she fully shared) against la femme politique. clothe his thought—the belief that “those who loved Even her Prison Memoirs, frank and proud confes- beauty and lived it in their lives follow that same sions of fully emancipated political opinions, show ideal with increasing power afterwards—and for- an anxiety as laughable as it is sincere, to reduce her ever.” Had he chosen a more harmonic set of facts , proportions of the good wife who plied her needle role in the councils of the Girondist group to the a more ideal framework, he might have heightened the beauty of what he sought to interpret. The and listened while her betters held the floor. Her of weakness of the book is not in its message, but in the newest biographer was able to uncover so many early part of the narrative—which is not attuned to these modestly concealed trails that we shall be the idealistic pinioning which is to follow. obliged henceforth to accept her as the only leader the poor Gironde ever had. This is perhaps the NEWSPAPER BUILDING. By Jason Rogers. special contribution of the book, which shows quite Harper; $5. conclusively that the party policy adopted in the The application of efficiency to editing, to mechan- great crisis of 1793 and calling for a federal organi- ical production, to circulation, and advertising, is the zation of France as well as for a departmental guard main thesis of this interesting book. Curiously for the Convention, was her work. True, with these ill-starred measures she broke the necks of her enough, the opening chapters are devoted to a study of the personalities and methods of Melville E. Girondist friends and, incidentally, her own, but one Stone and Victor F. Lawson of the Chicago News, mitted her to act as field general for her party, is tempted to think that if circumstances had per- Colonel Nelson of the Kansas City Star, Adolph S. Ochs of the New York Times, and others. Out of of being just a secret, unofficial chief of staff, the this concrete study of previously successful news- Girondists might have come out on top. However, papers, Mr. Rogers and his associates built up the there was Danton—no, she could never have won New York Globe into a paying newspaper property. against the elemental energy of an adversary who The various problems were subjected to a searching very accurately took her measure when he said: “ In analysis, and out of that thorough study the best revolutions one doesn't write, one acts.” Beside methods of conducting the various departments of Danton, savior of his country through action, she the paper were worked out. In the present state of shrivels to a little quill-driving blue-stocking. competition and high cost of production only the The author has a singularly just outlook enabling most ably and most skilfully edited and conducted figures and forces of the Revolution. In consequence her to range in orderly perspective the crowding newspaper can attain enduring success. A mixture of brains and wise methods on the business side is as of this happy poise she steadily holds her heroine to necessary as on the editorial side. The right kind of the human level and makes her political illusions as building, a knowledge of costs in both labor and palatable as her sprightly wit, her love of nature, and her extraordinary gift for friendship. One instead 1 1919 149 THE DIAL Nietzsche, Henry James, May Sinclair, Leo Tolstoy, Woodrow Wilson, etc. Hand bound in limp Croftleather. Send for catalogue. 70 cents per volume. Boni & Liveright, 10542 W. 40th St., N. Y., publishers Read it during the coming All Russian-Allied Con- ference. It clearly explains--for the first time--who's who .and what's what in the highly complicated Russian situation JOHN REEDS Long awaited book on Russia will be published February 25th "Ten Days That Shook the World” This book is a moving picture of those thrilling days, whose reverberations were felt throughout the world. Written in John Reed's inimitable style: It tells facts hitherto unpublished, and will be used as an original source by historians. Profusely illustrated. We suggest that you place your order now at any bookstore-$2.00 net, postage 15c extra. BONI & LIVERIGHT, New York City, PUBLISHERS Recent Important Publications MEN IN WAR Andreas Latzko Accepted by the best judges as one of the three masterpieces of the war books of our time and a book that will live for all time. For a time impossible to obtain at bookstores, but now again in wide circulation. Now in its eighth American and third English edition. $1.50 Mary Heaton Vorse hablished late in December, now in its sixth large printing. Called by the New York Sun, Phila- etc., one of the best, if not the best, novels of American family life written in the last decade. $1.75 THE PRESTONS THE MODERN LIBRARY Escurteen New Titles (64 now ready)-Francois Villon, Gautier, Frank Norris, D'Annunzio, When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. ? THE DIAL February 8 150 misses the philosophic penetration that would have ancient human remains, opinions will differ, Doubt- delved into the origin of Madame Roland's ideas less they help to visualize what Paleolithic man may and uncovered their relation to the conflicting ideas have looked like, but the probable error as to the and programs of the age. However, when all's said, soft parts is a large one—which may not be appre- the author chose well in telling a very personal and ciated by the laity. Every book of this type suffers pragmatic story, for Madame Roland as a thinker from the difficulty that it must keep in view the is at best second-rate, while her personality with its disparate needs of several classes of readers—of pro- fine sympathies and rancors, bewitching gaiety and fessional colleagues, of students, of the cultured noble courage, bubbles for our delight like a peren layman. The author's endeavor has evidently been nial spring. to omit nothing that is in any way significant, and while this renders his book a most convenient work CAMPS AND TRAILS IN CHINA. By Roy Chap- of reference, a certain amount of judicious skipping man Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews. is advisable for the general reader. Thus the latter Appleton; $3. will be less interested in the history of all the vari- ous Neanderthal finds and their minor variations Mr. and Mrs. Andrews tell the story of the than in the general characteristics of this human Asiatic Zoological Expedition in a manner calcu type. However, the success of the work from the lated to appeal to popular taste. Yün-nan, a prov- publisher's point of view may possibly indicate a ince in southwestern China, was selected as the greater willingness to wrestle with scientific détail region in which the main work of the expedition was than was even recently noticeable among the Ameri- to be conducted. This province is about the size of can public. There can be no doubt that on the California, and, says Mr. Andrews, it is safe to say whole Osborn's book is the most useful general that in no similar area of the world is there such a treatment in English—at once sounder and more variety of language and dialects as in this region. up-to-date than Sollas' Ancient Hunters, its only Its faunal range is also very wide. serious rival. In Fukien Province, whither the party first went, the author spent several weeks vainly hunting the " blue tiger," an elusive man-eater that had long AMERICAN RAILWAY ACCOUNTING. By Henry C. Adams. Holt; $3. been spreading terror in the region. Curiously enough, a more interesting chapter is that which PRINCIPLES IN ACCOUNTING. By W. A. vividly describes a cave tenanted by thousands of Paton and R. A. Stevenson. Macmillan; bats, and the manner in which Mrs. Andrews $3.25. braved its terrors in the cause of science. “ All The government control of the railroads brought about is the swish of ghostly wings which brush her about by the war has relegated to the scrap heap face or neck, and the air is full of chattering noises much of the regulation previously practised. The like the grinding of hundreds of tiny teeth. Some- one definite result which remains of the work of times a soft little body plumps into her lap.” Any the Interstate Commerce Commission since its estab- but a naturalist's wife would find a blue tiger far lishment in 1887 is the standardization of railroad more desirable company! accounts. Chiefly responsible for that standardiza- The scientific reputation of the expedition, as the tion has been Professor Henry C. Adams, who was preface points out, will rest upon the technical in charge of the statistical and accounting work of reports of its work, which will be published in due the Commission from 1887 to 1911, and who has course by the American Museum of Natural His- worked out a scientific method of accounting. tory. The book includes, besides the data on the Originally Professor Adams intended to write a fauna of the regions visited, references to the state book on the abuses and uses of railway accounts, of Chinese politics in the days of 1916-17, the social which would have led to a criticism of most that and religious customs of the inhabitants, and numer- had been done relative to rate regulation. Instead ous more or less lively adventures. he has written a commentary on the standard system of railway accounts used by American railways . MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE: Their En- Accounting, according to the author, is the de- vironment, Life and Art. By Henry Fair- termination of relative equities: it can claim the field Osborn. Scribner; $3.50. dignity of science because it is subject to the strict Here is a popular edition, at rules of formal logic. The language used is that a considerably reduced price, of Professor Osborn's synthesis of of figures and the underlying conception is that of knowledge of our Paleolithic predecessors. With a mathematical equation. Exactness, as in any other its wealth of first-rate illustrative material it repre- science, is the end sought. Hence the railway sents a valuable compendium for teachers, both as countant is not so much a bookkeeper as an execu, tive, personally responsible for the observation of very full account of Magdalenian art doubtless principles instead of, as formerly , to the whims of all accounting rules and thus subject to accounting forms one of the most attractive features of the book. As to the precise value of the restorations from a superior officer. This of course does not mean that the peculiarities of the business must not be ac- 1919 THE DIAL 151 TIMELY Have You a Progressive Conscience? Books on Polish Matters OFFERED BY The Polish Book Importing Co. , Inc. 83 Second Avenue, New York Have you fixed ideals? Do you approve actions today that you condemned yesterday? Have you acquired the urge of Evolution ? Is your belief in rightness and wrongness based upon ancient doctrine, or is it grounded on a personal study of what really constitutes rightness and wrong- ness? Read this most interesting book ETERNAL PROGRESS by the distinguished thinker and writer, HAROLD ROWNTREE, and leam his conclusions regarding the Progress- ive Conscience. An example of fine bookmaking. To be had from your bookseller, or from the publisher. The price is $1.50 POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND By Dr. E. H. Lewinski-Corwin 628 pagos368 ilustrations-14 maps Price, handsome cloth binding, $8.00 Prot. R. H. Lord, U. S. Commissioner for Po- land, says in “The American Political Science Review": “This is the most detailed and comprehensive, and one of the most readable and Illuminating of author shows a wide acquaintance with Polish historical literature, insight, accuracy, and a gange of proportion." The work is undoubtedly the best of its kind in the English Language" (The Ameri- can Historical Review.) "A book which should be read by all those in- terested in the territorial problems which must be solved at the close of the war. (The Journal of Race Development.) " Dr. Lewinski-Corwin's book takes its place as the best and most authoritative brief history of Poland now on the market.” (The Survey.) " The most satisfactory account of Poland which has yet been published in English." (The Polish Review, London.) LAURENCE C. WOODWORTH Maker and Publisher of Books 502 Sherman Street Chicago Also privately printed books and memorial volumes. The Brick Row Book Shop, Inc. THE SPIRIT OF POLISH HISTORY By Antoni Choloniewski 68 pages60c. An excellent essay on the true significance of Poland's history and her democratic ideas of government. NEW HAVEN, CONN. We beg to announce that Part Two of Catalogue Number Five, embrac- ing a choice selection of books on ART BIOGRAPHY NAPOLEON DRAMA is now ready for distribution. We shall be pleased to send a copy of the same on request. High St., New Haven, Conn., and 489 Park Ave., New York FUNDAMENTAL CONDITIONS OF THE ECONOMIC INDE- PENDENCE OF POLAND By Joseph Freilich, Ph.D. 95 pages-50c. A study of the natural and industrial resources of Poland. Indispensable for those interested in the_economic possibilities of this important part of Europe. PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF THE POLISH LANGUAGE By Joseph F. Baluta cautua ANNUAL FEBRUARY SALE OF FINE STANDARD SETS An exceptional opportunity to add editions of recognized excellence at Substantial' reductions. Catalog ready HIMEBAUGH & BROWNE 471 FIFTH AVE, OPP. LIBRARY NEW YORK Cloth bound-$1.25 A manual of 300 pages for those English speak- ing people who want to learn Polish or who need this language in their business relations with Poles. The Polish Book Importing Co., Inc. 83 Second Avenue, New York When writing to advertisers please mention The Dial. THE DIAL February 8 152 and studied. Professor Adams does this in an illuminat- stopping to see John Burroughs, getting lost on dim ing chapter concerning the structure of a system of trails, and observing all the worthwhile things that railway accounts. The details involved in construc seem to hide during vacation months. tion costs prior and after operation are shown to Mr. Longstreth is something of a philosopher, have a vital relation to the questions of investment though by no means an aggressive one. He is pleas- and surplus as well as to renewals and betterments. ant company in a book, and we find ourselves rather In his last five chapters the author discusses with envying the young man who accompanied him on scientific thoroughness operating expenses his walking trip. The book is provided with an revenues, the income account, profit and loss ac excellent map, and in the back are addenda giving counts, and the general balance sheet accounts. Not directions to those who would see the Catskills in the least valuable part of the book is the appendices, the same way. which reprint the classifications promulgated by the Interstate Commerce Commission. A HISTORY OF SPAIN. Founded on the His- The influence of the ideas on railway accounting outlined in the above noted volume can be seen in toria de España y de la Civilización Española Principles of Accounting. The authors use to some of Rafael Altamira. By Charles E. Chapman. extent the terms adopted by the Interstate Com- Macmillan; $2.60. merce Commission in its prescribed classification as The renaissance of interest in things Spanish may representing the most logical system of accounting be in part a reflection of the heightened public phraseology at present developed. The whole field interest in all international affairs, but it is certain of accounting, however, is covered under the rubrics that it was bound to come, and indeed was on its of elements of accounting, the equity accounts, the way even before the war lifted us into a conscious interest problem, the valuation of assets, the construc cosmopolitanism. The Iberian peninsula, to be sure, tion and analysis of financial statements, and special is neither politically nor economically great as world fields of accounting. Further laboratory material centers go, and in latter months Spain has been con- is furnished in the appendices. The book is in spicuous chiefly in the dummy part of a chief among tended for the student of economics who desires a neutrals. But for all that, the political world can- broad training in accounting principles as a part of not, if it would, overlook the fact that the greater general educational equipment. The general reader Iberia—in language, law, tradition, and ideals—in- will also find it valuable and interesting because it cludes more than the whole of one of Earth's great is based on logical and scientific principles. Details continents. Latin America may never again be have been subordinated and the result is an eminent- merely Spanish in civilization, but it is-little likely ly suggestive and valuable work. The appearance that it will ever be non-Spanish; and it is beyond of these two books is an encouraging sign of the doubt that as time passes it will grow in world times in that scientific principles and ideas are being importance. The part which Spanish culture is applied in business. Guessing at half and multiply to play in the affairs of mankind is surely to out- ing by two is rapidly becoming obsolete. A scienti shine aught that Spain has achieved in the past: this fic method of accounting is the foundation for cor- is clear, and it is a sufficient reason for the growing poration honesty and general business efficiency as interest in Spanish history and politics. well as for the regulation of public utilities or ef- Professor Chapman's contribution in this field is ficient government ownership. a book which fills an obvious gap, for he gives us a readable and capable one volume history, compendi- THE CATSKILLS. By T. Morris Longstreth. ous in matter yet comprehensive enough in time to Century: $2.50. cover the whole historic range from the Cartha- Go to the Catskills in April, and you will not only work, as the title states, is founded upon the more ginian settlements to Spain in the great war. The avoid the depressing horde of “ summer boarders eminent of Spanish historians, the four volume work that seem to lurk behind every stone wall and corn- stalk in that region, but you will find its modicum of Altamira, but it is not merely an abridgment; of scenic attraction in one of its most inspiring the author has written in the light of his own studies phases. There were yet a few snow furries to come and has expressed his own opinions, and the two when the author began a several weeks' walking trip final chapters, dealing with the period from 1808 that had its beginning at Woodstock, where artists to 1917, are entirely his. The book's special claim to originality—in addition to an amount of original are wont to congregate, and ended, toward the middle of June, at Arkville. For company he had řesearch and the use of new materials-lies in the a young man native to the mountains, who had political to the social, economic , and cultural phases fact that it endeavors, if not to subordinate the never read Rip Van Winkle, but who nevertheless had the advantage of imagination and no little love Shadowed by the political narrative. This is an aim of history, at least not to allow them to be over- for the open road. Together they saw the ice break up, the snow melt, and the world come to life with so wholly laudable, and indeed so well attained the advent of spring. They traversed much of the within the possibilities of a limited book, that it is so-called heart of the Catskills, climbing mountains, near to carping to remark upon its shortcomings, or upon the something approaching the pamphleteer's yet 1919 THE DIAL 153 War Verse Articles by: Havelock Ellis, Margaret Sanger, Jessie Ashley, W. F. Stella Browne, C. V. Fifth Printing EDITED BY FRANK FOXCROFT Editor of “ The Living Age” “We are accustomed to think of poetry as the One feels that to have missed this book would expression of soft-handed, pleasure-loving, even have been an almost irreparable loss, and to have if impoverished, men and women, and have be read it is to have acquired an almost unforget- lieved that whatever else might be lacking in table heartache, and yet over and above all other wooing the muse, quietude was an indispensable emotions is the one of exaltation, the positive essential. assurance that the Great War means the triumph “But here is verse written to the accompani of Good over Evil, the end of the old régime of ment of the deafening roar of exploding shells Autocracy and the beginning of the reign of and the anguished cries of the wounded and World Democracy." dying; and through it all runs that note of a wonderful awc—that peculiar conviction of the presence of a Great Miracle—the awakening of -Review of “War Verse;" by Margaret McIvor- the god in man. Tyndall in “National Service." 303 pages, Flexible Cloth, Net $1.25; Limp Leather, Net $2.00 Postage extra, Order of Your Bookseller THE BIRTH CONTROL REVIEW Reconstruction is in the air. One of the first principles of reconstruction is the freedom of women through birth control. The Birth Control movement is dedicated to the cause of voluntary mother- hood. The Birth Control Review is the voice of this movement, which George Bernard Shaw has termed "the most revolutionary doctrine of the Nineteenth Century." No League of Nations, nor Government, no matter how ideal, can main- tain peace until it recognizes the danger of over-population and advo- cates the practice of birth control as a fundamental principle. THE FEBRUARY NUMBER Special Eugenics and Havelock Ellis Issue THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY, Publishers, New York $1.50 a year Drysdale, Geneviève Grandcourt, and Mothers of the Unfit 15 cents a copy Published Monthly by The New York Women's Publishing Co., Inc. 104 Fifth Avenue, New York City Margaret Sanger, Editor When writing to advertisers please mention The DIAL. THE DIAL February 8 < nied that he has made excellent literary material 154 flamboyancy in the characterization of the modern Wine, there is a charming pathos of thought and Spaniard which closes the book. Certainly the pub- expression, beauties remembered: lishers had aided their author valuably had they seen Here in the mud and the rain- fit to add to the volume illustrations drawn from God, give me London again! Spanish art, architecture, and nature, which the text I would lose all earth and the heavens above eminently deserves. For just one banquet of laughter and love. When my flesh returns to its earth, CITY TIDES. By Archie Austin Coates. When my body is dust as my sword; Doran; $1.25. If one thing I wrought find worth The OTHER SIDE. In the eyes of our kindly Lord, By Gilbert Frankau. I will only ask of his grace, Knopf; $1. That he grant us a lowly place City Tides is a compound of the good and evil Where his warriors toast him, in heaven above, With wine and laughter, music and love. influences of Spoon River. At its best, this first book of Mr. Coates' is an honest, and often colorful, BENTON OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED. By Ralph attempt to delve into the human consciousness and S. Kendall. Lane; $1.50. unconsciousness and select those rare things which are true beneath the illusions of the commonplace. There is a certain type of mind which likes its At its worst, it is very thin stuff, psychologically and fiction labelled fact. It seems to hold that books not rhythmically. The poorer side is probably due to the founded upon “the actual experiences of the author, fact that one influence other than inspiration and or not crowded with characters " which the reader Masters played a part in shaping these creations: a would instantly recognize, if their names were newspaper "column.” That sophisticated brother given” are scarcely worth reading, and it probably of the Poets' Corner does much, perhaps, to arouse. dismisses The Mikado and Alice in Wonder- the interest of the average reader in things literary; land as obviously and equally spurious. Fortu- but there is, too, a tendency to which nately this type of mind is not particularly prevalent, smartness but since it does exist in some measure, one really is amusing on the way downtown, but which falls flat, for some reason, between the covers of a book. cannot quarrel with fiction writers who cater to it. Scattered among the free verses of City Tides are But it is equally true that the kind of fiction which a few rhymed lyrics and sonnets; and it is curious to starts out with a certificate of authenticity is seldom note that when the poet thus restricts himself, he endowed with the credentials of genuine imagination. gains an intensity which is so often lacking in his This applies to Sergeant Kendall's book, which de- other pieces. Felicitously illustrative of this is the tails some of the adventures of an officer of the Royal first (and perhaps best) poem in the book—The Northwest mounted police. Fidelity to fact is, in Ticket-Seller, who rarely sees the faces of his cus- its place, an admirable attribute, but it has here been tomers, but more often their hands. taken with a literalness that is the antithesis of taste. In his Conscription, Mr. Coates takes an attitude Dealing largely with the apprehension of criminals , distinct from that in The Other Side. It might be the author feels constrained to write with all of a said that the attitude of the American_Conscrip- police reporter's accuracy and less than a police tion was written when he was facing the draft- reporter's imagination. Profanity is transcribed, was that of the man who had learned about war and the course of a bullet traced with care worthy from Over the Top, and the attitude of Mr. Fran- of a better cause. And when one comes to the love kau that of the man who had learned about war scenes, one is hardly prepared to find the Royal | There are blacker things than death, Mounted reciting Marie Corelli stanzas, seven lines there are sweeter things than living, Mr. Coates ro- long. Here the problem is perhaps more for the mantically says in the prospect of the trenches. alienist than for the critic. War, says the English soldier, is dirty, lousy, loathsome. MY PEOPLE. By Caradoc Evans. Men disembowelled by guns five miles away, Liveright; $1.50. Cursing, with their last breath, the living God CAPEL SION. By Caradoc Evans. Because he made them, in His Image, men. Liveright; $1.50. Versification plays a much larger part in Mr. Is this revelation or fiction? Frankau's book than poetry. There is much capital- squalor and bestiality scarcely seems consistent with esque effect when taken in conjunction with the literary faculties on variations of the general themes meters. But there is a sincerity in many of the verses so passionate and whole-hearted that the of sexual degradation and avarice. It is not to be de; impression is vividly made of a frank and rather fine nature instantaneously reacting against the false out of these unpleasant themes, but it is the excel- glamour of war when coming into the knowledge of lence of his handling which makes it so difficult to what it actually is, yet not blind to its braveries and suppress a question concerning the truth of his tales austerities. And in at least one poem, Music and and sketches. It is not at all impossible that these peasants of West Wales may be violent distortions Ha L T 2 -3 4 5 11 {% . S = 11 from war. Boni & Boni & Such uniform 1919 THE DIAL 155 Tax Reports Have You Left School? with a diploma, or without it? In either case, you of course do not wish to leave off being edu- cated. When education ends, life ends. Take a Reading Course Everybody reads, but too many read without any plan, and to no purpose. The college graduate is îike other people in the need of system, but a little more likely to realize his need. The Chau- tauqua Reading Course is useful alike to the per- son of limited training, who labors many nights over each book, and the critic or vigorous man of affairs who can sweep through them all in a few hours. For either, a group of related, intel- ligible, and competent studies leads to a well rounded result. The Prentice Hall Tax Service gives all the help you need in the preparation of Income and Excess Profits Tax reports. This Service com- prises : (1) an analysis of the new Revenue Bill, (2) à 1,000 page book explaining every legal and ac- counting detail of the new law, (3) weekly sup- plements, (4) complete instructions for the preparation of reports, (5) constructive sugges- tions for closing books of account that enable the taxpayer to take every advantage per- mitted by the new law, and (6) personal an- swers to three questions submitted by the sub- scriber. These recognized authorities, who have had wide experience in the interpretation of Federal Tax Laws, conduct the Prentice-Hall Tax Service: Charles W. Gerstenberg, Ph. B., J.D. Member of the New York Bar; Director of Fi- nance Department of New York University. Henry Brach, B.C.S., C.P.A. Certified Public Accountant; Co-author of "1918 Income and Federal Tax Reports." Gould Harris, M.A. Public Accountant; Lecturer on Cost Accounting at New York University. Walter S. Orr, A.B., LL.B. Member of the New York Bar; Secretary of the Committee of Banking Institutions on Federal Taxation. Richard P. Ettinger, B.C.S., LL.B. Member of the New York Bar; Assistant Profes- sor of Finance at New York University School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance. All this is but $20, payable after you are satisfied. Mall this advertisement today with your name, busi, ness irm or reference, and address, and we will send you the service for 10 days' free examination. dress, Dept. D, PRENTICE-HALL, Inc., 70 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Don't Read at Random ro For many years, the very mention of a reading course has meant without further explanation the Chautauqua Reading Course. It was the first and is still the best and it alone has a world- wide fame. The cost is trifling, $6 for a year. Are you tired wasting your odd minutes ? Write for free abstract or mail this ad signed to Box 414. Chautauqua Chautauqua Tessuten Institution New York Ad- 1874 To Parents and Teachers: The Book of the Hour Here is a new book which is meeting with much favor among those who are interested in the proper training of children. It is extremely practical and helpful, and can bo recommended unreservedly for u86, at home or school. (Listed in A. L. A. bulletin.) PAX ECONOMICA . GAMES FOR CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT By HILDA A. WRIGHTSON Miss Wrightson has had long and effective experi- ence in the training of children ; and the methods the employed in developing their minds, their bodies, their social instincts, are now revealed in this book. It is well known that some games will enliven the mind-others will stimulate the body. Some will build a strong sense of color_others will enlarge the vocabulary. Some will develop good behavior others will sharpen the imagination. In this book, the games have been carefully planned to do these very things; and the instructions given are simple and easy to follow. "The clever combination of mental and manual training makes the games doubly The book should find a grateful reception from mothers and teachers, and especially from the volunteer workers in the city's playgrounds." -The 12 Mo. Cloth. 238pp Illastrated. $1.50 nel Freedom of International Exchange the Sole Method for the Permanent and Universal Aboli- tion of War with A Statement of the Cause and Solution of the European Crisis, and the Outline of a Treaty of Economic Peace. Being a Sketch of the only Possible Conclusive Settlement of the Problem Confronting the World. By HENRI LAMBERT Manufacturer in Charleroi, Belgium Titular Member of the Société d'Economie Politique, of Paris “No Treaty of Peace is worthy of its name, if contained therein are the hidden germs of a fu- ture war."-Kant, Essay on Perpetual Peace. Third Edition. Revised, and Enlarged to 167 pages. Price, 75c. postpaid. Special terms to public llbraries. INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE LEAGUE 38 St. Botolph Street Boston, Mass. valuable. The Independent. Prospect Press, Inc., Publishers 186-192 West 4th Street New York City When writing to advertisers please mention The Dial. 156 February 8 THE DIAL of our correct selves, to whom the veiling of emo How the World Votes: The Story of Democratic tion and desire has become like a sixth sense. But Development in Elections. By Charles Sey- whether the tales and sketches are faithful transcrip mour and Donald Paige Frary. 12mo, 761 tions of truth or merely fiction, they possess force pages. 2 vols. C. A. Nichols Co. (Spring- and vitality. If Mr. Evans has not written of the field, Mass.). people of West Wales, then he has created a new Experiments in International Administration. By type of peasant and, in any event, his work is literary Francis Bowes Sayre. 12mo, 201 pages. Har- creation which our moral prejudices or preconcep per & Bros. $1.50. tions should not permit us to neglect. He has told Racial Factors in Democracy. By Philip Ains- us of a people who live their lives on a non-moral worth Means. 12mo, 278 pages. Marshall basis and who are yet so conscious of sin and of their Jones Co. $2.50. moral responsibility to the Big Man and the "little Can Mankind Survive. By Morrison I. Swift. white Jesus” that what might easily have been in- different non-morality becomes gross and repulsive 12mo, 201 pages. Marshall Jones Co. $1.50. immorality. These peasants, in spite of their Fighting the Spoilsmen: Reminiscences of the anthropomorphic religiosity, seem naively uncon- Movement for Civil Service Reform from the scious that filth is dirty. Their God is a primitive Passage of the Act of 1883 Down to the Out- patriarch, between whom and themselves there is break of the Present War. By William Dud- hardly any barrier of ritual, though at the same time ley Foulke. 12mo, 348 pages. G. P. Put- there is no beauty in the communion. The Big Man nam's Sons. $2. speaks in the vulgar language of the commonešt The Soul of Denmark. By Shaw Desmond. 12mo, peasant-being, one supposes, in common with all 277_pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $3. gods, a reflection of his worshipers. He doesn't Russia: From the Varangians to the Bolsheviks. By hedge himself about with any symbols of divinity- Raymond Beazley, Nevill Forbes and G. A. though he does insist on being invisible to mortal Birkett. With an introduction by Ernest eyes—and may be induced to wink at any subversion Barker. 12mo, 601 pages. Oxford Univer- of the moral laws, provided that the Respected, or sity Press. $4.25. the minister, intercedes (for a consideration) on be- From Czar to Bolshevik. By E. P. Stebbing. Il- half of the sinner. -"Ianto opened his Bible and lustrated, 8vo, 322 pages. John Lane Co. read. Afterwards he removed the tobacco from his $3.50. mouth and laid it on the table and he reported to The Unbroken Tradition. By Nora Connolly. God with a clean mouth.” Illustrated, 12mo, 202 pages. Boni & Live- The tales and sketches have at least the sound right. $1.25. of truth. And perhaps it is only our desire to have New and old. By Edith Sichel. With an intru- people live cleanly that makes it so very easy for duction by A. C. Bradley. Illustrated, 8vo, us to believe that the peasants of these books are 364 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $5. nothing more than creatures of the author's imag- Joyce Kilmer: Poems, Essays and Letters. Edited, ination. with a memoir, by Robert Cortes Holliday. Illustrated, 12mo, 559 pages. 2 vols. George H. Doran Co. $5. Books of the Fortnight The British Navy in Battle. By Arthur H. Pol- The following list comprises The Dial's selec- len. Illustrated, 12mo, 358 pages. Double- tion of books recommended among the publications day, Page & Co. $2.50. received during the last two weeks: Gösta Berling's Saga. A novel. By Selma Lager- löf. Translated by Lillie Tudeer. 12mo, 609 The Cambridge History of American Literature. pages. 2 vols. American Scandinavian Foun- Edited by William Peterfield Trent, John dation. $3. Erskine, Stuart P. Sherman, and Carl Van The Great Hunger. A novel. By Johan Bojer, Doran. 8vo, 658 pages. Vol. II. G. P. Put- Translated by W. J. Alexander Worster and nam's Sons. $3.50. C. Archer. 12mo, 327 pages. Moffat, Yard James Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal & Co. $1.60. Convention of 1787 and Their Relation to a The Roll-Call. A novel. By Arnold Bennett. More Perfect Society of Nations. By James 12mo, 417 pages. Brown Scott. 8vo, 149 pages. Oxford Uni- $1.50. versity Press. $2. The Desert of Wheat. A novel. By Zane Grey. National Governments World . By Illustrated, 12mo, 377 pages. Harper & Bros. Fredericia A Dogg and Charles A. Beard Boy The Scene cices of an Etonian. A novel. By Horace 603 pages. Macmillan Co. $2.50. An Introduction to the Study of the Government Buckley. 12mo, 314 pages. John Lane Co. $1.40. of Modern States. By W. F. Willoughby. Sinister House. A novel. By Leland Hall . [2mo, 12mo, 455 pages. Century Co. $2.25, 226 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50. George H. Doran Co. 1919 157 THE DIAL The authorized biography of a great American artist. does man live by lying? Do you believe that it is only by evading the realities of life and by erecting in their stead a lovely, unattainable dream that any human progress is made possible? That is the rather astonishing theory advanced in be y o n d life FRANK DUVENECK By NORBERT HEERMANN This volume is doubly weicome both on account of the interest attaching. to Duveneck and the clear, honest criticism of his work (twenty reproductions of the more important canvases appear as illus- tration). Art criticism is not as a rule of great interest to the layman, but this book deals not only with a great artist, but with a great man.—New York Sun. By James Branch Cabell In this teasing, provocative book Mr. Cabell defends the romantic spirit in life and letters, touching incidentally upon such matters as witch- women, prohibition, The Cinderella Legend as a social force and a multitude of other curious topics, including a discussion of certain aspects of literature from Sophocles to Harold Bell Wright. Those who are interested in writing of very real distinction and merit will find their antici- pations more than fulfilled in this book, which shows its author to be a literary artist of singular excellence. Opinions of Mr. Cabell H. L. Mencken: “An artist of the first consid- eration. He is an original and will be talked of hereafter." John Macy: A joyous anomaly—a satirist in America." Wilson Follett: " He is a realist of the realities which have nothing to say to fashion and change. Burton Rascoe: “ Cabell is the biggest event in American literature for many, many years, and, I am convinced, the greatest living master of English prose.” $1.50 Net. At All Bookstores Robert M. McBride & Co., New York Illustrated $2.00 net at all bookstores HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK APPLIED EUGENICS The Governments of Modern States By W. F. Willoughby By 'Captain Paul Popenoe Formerly Editor of the Journal of Heredity (Organ of the American Genetic Associa- tion), Washington, D. C. and Roswell Hill Johnson Professor of The University of Pittsburg Presents a more comprehensive development of the eugenic idea than any book so far published. In addition to a thorough discussion of the bio- logical aspects of the question, particular empha- sis is laid upon the practical methods of race betterment. The wide sociological significance of eugenics and its bearing on specific reforms, is treated with originality in chapters on the color line, war, taxation, rural life, socialism, child labor, unionism, vocational training, housing, feminism, sex hygiene, celibacy and prohibition. 450 pages, $2.10 THE MACMILLAN CO., Publishers, New York Director of the Institute for Government Research, Late McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, and Politics, Princeton University. “The Governments of Modern States” is of a char- acter quite unlike any other book now in existence. As would be expected, it describes in detail the mechanical structure and operation of the governments of modern nations. In addition it gives for the first time a thor- ough analysis of the problem of government as a prob- lem; it furnishes a scientific classification of different types of government, and it not only gives the features in respect to which governments differ among them- selves, but in all cases points out the advantages and disadvantages of the different types. 8vo, 456 pages. Price, $2.25 Published by THE CENTURY CO., New York City When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. 158 February 8 THE DIAL ness Current News of Songs and Sea Voices (by James Stewart Double- day-Washington Square Bookshop; $1.25), he be- The 1919 edition of Who's Who is announced comes keen to detect the flaws. Consequently by as ready for immediate issue by the Macmillan Co. the time one has reached the forty-seventh page of Little, Brown and Co. announce for March Green Dr. Doubleday's volume, he resents the “choppi- Valley, a chronicle of country life, by Katharine " of such stanzas as Reynolds. The fisher sails are floating Dodd, Mead and Co. have in hand the manu- In the blue evening calm, script of a new novel by Richard Baldock, The And I sense the breath of still waters Clintons and Others. On my torn spirit like balm. A Gentle Cynic, a translation of Ecclesiastes The author now and then rides the crest of a by Morris Jastrow, with a history of the conditions wave, and then one catches the freedom of rhythm, surrounding the writing of the book, is to be pub but he is quite as likely to destroy the mood, no lished at once by the J. B. Lippincott Co. sooner than it is achieved. Miss E. M. Delafield's War Workers, issued The reader should be grateful to Boni and Live- late in the autumn by Alfred A. Knopf, is to be right for three translations lately made available followed in March by the publication from the in their Modern Library (Croft leather, 70 cts. same press of her novel, The Pelicans, recently each) - Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, trans- brought out by Heinemann (London). lated by Horace B. Samuel; Gautier's Mlle. de Charles Scribner's Sons are shortly to bring out Maupin; and Maupassant's Une Vie, with the Another Sheaf, by John Galsworthy; Hospital Henry James introduction. Another recent issue Heroes, by Elizabeth Black; The Only Possible in this series contributes to the current vogue for Peace, by Frederick C. Howe; and Deer Godchild, publishing Villon; fortunately this reprinting of by Edith Serrell and Marguerite Bernard. John Payne's translations (with his introduction) Lemcke and Buechner have ready for early pub- gives him the credit that at least one contempor- lication, following the Entente "Baedeker" and ary edition has withheld. Entente “Almanach de Gotha," an Entente “ Min- erva” from the press of Gauthier-Villars (Paris) Contributors under the title Universitatum et Altarum Scholarum H. H. Bellamann is dean of the School of Music Index Generalis, Annuaire Général des Facultés, of the College for Women, Columbia, South Caro- prepared under the direction of R. de Montressus de lina. Mr. Bellamann was educated in Paris and was Ballore. closely associated with new movements in music A. L. Humphreys (London) has issued at one during his residence there. He is a frequent con- shilling a prose translation of Bion's Lament for tributor to American musical journals. Adonis, by Winifred Bryher, with the Greek text A. Vernon Thomas is a native of Manchester, that of the Loeb Classical Library edition of The England, and has done considerable journalistic Bucolic Poets (Putnam)-on parallel pages. Using work for the Manchester Guardian. In 1907 Mr. a simple, flexible prose devoid of archaic affecta- Thomas joined the staff of the Manitoba Free Press tions, the translator has rendered the poem faith and remained with that paper for ten years, for the fully enough and the poet with a sensitive fidelity to the Greek clarity and Oriental ritualism that greater portion of that time as editorial and special article writer. Mr. Thomas served as secretary of were blended in him. She has, moreover, made a beautiful piece of English. the People's Forum, Winnipeg, 1913-16. D. C. Heath and Co. have just issued at $2 a new Walton H. Hamilton (University of Texas, edition of President Wilson's The State: Elements 1907) has been Olds professor in economics in Am- of Historical and Practical Politics, revised by herst College since 1917. He has served with Mr. Felix Frankfurter on the War Labor Policies Edward Elliott, of the University of California. In Board. Mr. Hamilton is the author of Current this edition the chapters on the Theory of the State are substantially unchanged; but the chapters on Economic Problems, Exercises in Current Econo- mics, and an associate editor of the Materials for the government in the several nations have been re- vised to December, 1918, and new chapters have Study of Economics series. been added covering the governments of Italy, Bel- Ashley H. Thorndike (Wesleyan University, gium, Serbia, Roumania, Bulgaria, Modern Greece, 1893) has been professor of English at Columbia Russia, Turkey, and Japan. A postscript looks to- University since 1906. Mr. Thorndike is a frequent ward the League of Nations. contributor to various journals, and is the author of To write a bookful of poems in which the sea is The Influence of Beaumont and Fletcher on Shake- the dominant theme is to challenge the reader to a speare, Tragedy, Everyday English, Facts About particularly critical sensitiveness to the presence- Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Theater; and editor of or absence-of rhythm. It may be possible for the Tudor Shakespeare, Library of the World's Best writer of verse to falter in this respect in other Literature, and Longman's English Classics. fields, but when the reader turns page after page The other contributors to the issue have previ- ously written for THE DIAL. 1919 159 THE DIAL Plan for the freeing of labor from capitalist con- A REPUBLIC OF NATIONS Only a few copies left VISITS TO WALT WHITMAN IN 1890 & 1891 By J. JOHNSTON, M.D. and J. W. WALLACE A complete account of the relationship and intercourse be- tween Whitman and a little group of friends in Lancashire during the last years of his life. The story of the book is completed by an account of Whitman's last illness, which began soon after the return of J. W. Wallace, and of his last messages to the Group. The final chapter gives copies of, or extracts from, nearly eighty of Whitman's letters and postcards. American Edition. Two Dollars net. Postage 12c. Published by EGMONT H. ARENS at the Washington Square Bookshop 17 West 8th Street New York City A Study of the Organization of a Federal League of Nations by RALEIGH C. MINOR. 349 pages. (Postage extra, weight 2 lbs.) Net $2.50. Deals with the formation of a permanent league based on the Constitution of the United States. “A scholarly, dispassionate discussion of the whole subject. Deserving of the earnest, serious consideration of every individual who loves peace.”—Phila. Record. At all Booksellers or from the Publishers OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH 35 WEST THIRTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK DOMINA TILLVMA INVSITIO DOM TvTIG M MED First Complete American Edition of Labor in Irish History By JAMES CONNOLLY Commandant-General of the Irish Forces in the Insurrection of 1916 A bistorical review of the economic and political conditions which have given birth to the psychology of the Irish proletariat. Cloth, $1.00 Paper Cover, 50c THE DONNELLY PRESS 166 East 377h Street New York City The one book on after-the-roar problems that faces the issues of labor and bolshevism squarely- THE WORLD PEACE AND AFTER By Carl H. Grabo pleads that political democracy shall rest on a founda- tion of industrial democracy. $1.25 net at all bookshops ALFRED A. KNOPF, New York The Open Court Publishing Company Announces a new Book by the Eminent Italian Scientist, Eugenio Rignano, editor of SCIENTIA ESSAYS IN SCIENTIFIC SYNTHESIS By EUGENIO RIGNANO Translated by J. W. Greenstreet, M.A. Pages 253. Price $2.00 These essays appear now for the first time in Eng- lish but they have already appeared in French and Italian Journals. Each essay is a study complete in itself in which the author points out the immense importance of the mathematical method in working out a theory from experimental facts from biological, psychological and sociological fields. The OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 122 South Michigan Avenue CHICAGO, ILL. JUST PUBLISHED THE POWER OF DANTE By CHARLES HALL GRANDGENT Professor of Romance Languages, Harvard University The book consists of a series of eight lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute in the autumn of 1917, reinforced with other material, The translations are by the author. Price $2.00, postage 15c. MARSHALL JONES COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 212 SUMMER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. ANTIQUARIAN BOOK CO. Evesham Road, Stratford-on-Avon, England Dealers in Rare Books and First Editions: Dickens, Thackeray, Stevenson, Kipling, Conrad, Masefield, Wells, Noyes, Dunsany, etc., etc. Catalogues mailed free on request BOOKLOVER CAN AFFORD TO MISS THIS. Our Annual Book Sale is now under way. Practically our entire stock (except late current books) is being sacrificed. McDEVITT-WILSON'S, INC. 30 Church Street Hudson Terminal Phone : 1779 Cortlandt I wish to buy any books or pamphlets printed in America before 1800 C. GERHARDT, 25 West 420 St., New York REPRESENTATIVE BRITISH DRAMAS: Victorian and Modern Edited by MONTROSE J. MOSES LIFE!!-ITS NEW ASPECT Hyman Segal in " THE LAW OF STRUGGLE” REVEALS the weak spots in our time-worn theories on Social, Political and Economic problems and presents' a Constructive, Practical trol without confiscation. EVERY MAN OR WOMAN interested in the VITAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY Powerful Cloth, Postpaid_$1.50 MASSADA PUBLISHING CO. New York City A Series of Dramas which illustrate the prog- ress of the British Dramatist, and emphasize the important features of the History of the British Theatre. This Volume contains the complete text of 21 plays. Mr. Moses has been fortunate in securing the most potable English Dramas, 'from Sheridan Knowles down to John Masefield; and the most representative Irish Dramas from William Butler Yates down to Lord Dunsany. 873 pages. $4.00 net. LITTLE, BROWN & CO.:Publishers, Boston should Read this Book. 79 Fifth Avenue When writing to advertisers please mention The Dial. THE WILLIAMS PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK 160 February 8, 1919 THE DIAL The Disabled Soldier By Douglas C. McMurtrie An Important New Book Published by the Macmillan Company T THIS BOOK, the first on the subject to be published in this country, tells in non-technical form, of the achievements in the new science of rehabilita- tion, whereby the disabled man is no longer obliged to live in idleness—dependent alone on his pension—but is retrained for self-support and returned to the commu- nity well able to earn his own living. The efforts of the belligerent countries to give a square deal to the soldiers disabled in their service have laid the foundation for a revolutionary policy in dealing with the physically handicapped, civilian as well as military. The historical evolution of public attitude which he can hold—these and other questions toward the disabled, the beginnings of con are covered clearly but concisely. structive dealing with the cripple, how re The organization of rehabilitation in the habilitation begins in the hospital bed, in allied and enemy countries, the special prob- what trades it has been possible to train lems of the blinded, the deafened, the tubercu- disabled men for 100 per cent. performance, lous, and the mental cases, and-finally—the the extent to which public opinion can help government program for disabled soldiers and or hinder the cause of the disabled soldier; sailors of the American forces are likewise how tle handicapped man is placed in a job described. This is not a book for the specialist, but for any reader interested in social progress. It deals with a subject on which no intelligent citizen can afford to be uninformed. The author has long been identified with activities for the welfare of the cripple. He is now Director of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, President of the Federa- tion of Associations for Cripples, and Editor of the American Journal of Care for Cripples. Twenty-five remarkable illustrations showing crippled men on the high road to economic independence vitalize the text. Order the volume from our local bookseller, or it will be sent postage prepaid on receipt of check for $2.15 by the American Journal of Care for Cripples 2929 Broadway New York City When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. Labor at the Crossways The Dial Publishing Company, Inc. Foreign Postage, 50 cents. THE DIAL A A FORTNIGHTLY VOL. LXVI NEW YORK NO. 784 FEBRUARY 22, 1919 LABOR AT THE CROSSWAYS Helen Marot 165 NOCTURNE. Verse . Mildred Johnston Murphy 168 MR. BALFOUR'S CHARM Norman Hapgood 169 THE INDUSTRIAL COUNCILS OF GREAT BRITAIN G. D. H: Cole 171 BOLSHEVISM Is A MENACE—TO WHOM ? Thorstein Veblen 174 THE POETRY OF EDMOND ROSTAND William A. Nitze 179 Rogue's March: To a FLEMISH AIR. James Branch Cabell 181 Bridges. Verse. Annette Wynne 182 LETTERS TO UNKNOWN WOMEN . Richard Aldington 183 To the Amaryllis of Theocritus Louis COUPERUS AND THE FAMILY NOVEL Robert Morss Lovett 184 The LEAGUE AND THE INSTINCT FOR COMPETITION J. George Frederick 187 PossessOR AND Possessed Conrad Aiken 189 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF REDON Walter Pach 191 The THEORY OF FICTION Henry B. Fuller 193 LONDON, JANUARY 30 • Edward Shanks 195 TO ONE WHO Woos FAME WITH ME. Verse Ralph Block, 196 EDITORIALS 197 FOREIGN COMMENT: Long Live the German Republic!—The Last Paradox. COMMUNICATIONS: The Test of Democracy.-Soviet Russia and the American Con- 203 stitution. When Dreams Come True.—Mr. Untermeyer Raises His Shield.-Banishment or Death. Notes on New Books: Birth.—The Poetry of George Edward Woodberry.--Tin Cowrie Dass.- Jungle Peace. -Our National Forests.—Kipling the Story-Writer.—Backgrounds for Social Workers. -Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution.-Anthropology Up-to-Date.—God's Responsibility for the War.–Stakes of the War.-The Great Change.—Campaigning in the Balkans.—Echoes and Realities.-Gargoyles.—The Winged Spirit.-Where Your Heart Is. • 200 Pas Dzal (founded in 1880 by Francis F. Browne) is published every other Saturday by The Dial Publishing Com: mare banco Martyn Johnson, PresideniaBrowsis Tubliebeh se, other Sport, a X. y. Entered as Second Class The ofice at New York, nav. August , higis, under en meer op natarch 3, 1899. Copyright, 1919, by $3.00 a Year 15 Cents a Copy 162 22 THE DIAL February E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY'S NEW BOOKS FRANCE FACING GERMANY By GEORGES CLEMENCEAU Translated by ERNEST HUNTER WRIGHT. The Point of View of the Premier of France and Chairman of the Peace Conference. "A notably interesting, Illuminating, Inspiring book "-says the New York Times. It goes far to explain the passionate admiration the world feels for the man whose fiery eloquence sus. tained France in the darkest hour of the war. Net $2.00 INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A MINING ENGINEER By E. T. McCARTHY, A.R. S.M., F.R.G.S. The London Spectator comments with enthusiasm u pon the amount of raw material this book bolds for the scenario writer or the novelist of the Lone Trail, declaring, “ It contains more exciting incidents than many a self-styled novel of adventure," and inasmuch as the author's occupation seems to have carried him into the wildest parts of the Rockies, Central America, the Gold Coast, Morocco, Malaya, China, Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay and elsewhere, this is easy to believe. Ready February 19. $7.00 KOEHLER'S WEST POINT MANUAL OF DISCIPLINARY PHYSICAL TRAINING By Lieut.-Col. H. J. KOEHLER, U.S. A. With a Foreword by Director of Military Gymnastics, Swordsmanship, etc., U. S. Military NEWTON D. BAKER Academy, Instructor at Training Camps and Cantonments, 1915-1918. Secretary of War Secretary Baker testifies to the amazing rapidity with wbich Col. Koehler's method, formed by years of experience at West Point, developed young men of every part of the country into military officers of impres- sive physical and moral adequacy. Wherever the object of physical training in schools, colleges, and other institutions is disciplinary and educational and pot purely physical, this manual is easily adaptable and will prove exceedingly valuable. For the individual the directions are especially clear and practical. By following them any man can keep himself fit. Net $2.00 OUR ALLIES AND ENEMIES IN THE NEAR EAST By JEAN VICTOR BATES Introduction by the Rt. Hon. Sir EDWARD CARSON, K.C., M.P. A valuable study not only of the chief districts conveniently grouped as the Balkans "-Roumania, Dobrudga, Transylvania, the Bukovina, Bul: garia and Croatia--but of the submerged peoples, Jews, gypsies, etc. Ready February 19. Net '$5.00 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ASPECTS By ROBERT CROZIER LONG The time has not yet come when the Revolution can be set in its true perspective; until then and as an ald when that time comes, such a first-hand account of conditions and events as is bere given by a cor respondent for the Associated Press in Russia in 1917, is very valuable. Ready February 19. Net $2.50 THE FORGOTTEN THRESHOLD Being the Diary of ARTHUR MIDDLETON An extraordinary beautiful account of the manner in which a young man gradually learned to withdraw his soul from the outside world and place it in di rect communion with God. Ready. Net $1.00 ESSAYS IN LENT By HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE A series of beautiful little essays which originally appeared in the Outlook in 1915, in which the reader was enabled to turn from the warfare then all-absorbing, to dwell awhile in the affairs of the soul. Ready February 19. Net $1.00 NEW FICTION WHILE PARIS LAUGHED Being the Pranks and Passions of the Poet Tricotrin LEONARD MERRICK'S new book "compact of gay ety, and wit and mirth. irony that provokes to delighted chuckles."-New York Times. Its irony, though keen is the Net $1.75 AMALIA A Romance of the Argentine. From the Spanish of JOSE MARMOL Translated by MARY J. SERRANO, translator of "The Journal of Marie Baskkirtseff,' ete. tyranny of the famous dictator Rosas; and through all its exciting adventures runs the thread of a love A fine picture of the thrilling' attempt of the better element in Argentina to overthrow the brutal faithful unto death, Net $2.00 THE SHADOW OF THE CATHEDRAL By VICENTE BLASCO IBANEZ Translated by MRS. W. A. GILLESPIE. DEAN HOWELLS. Frontispiece showing the Cathedral of Toledo. New edition entirely reset with an Introduction by WILLIAM OLD-DAD By the author of “Mollie Make-Believe,” ELEANOR HALLOWELL ABBOTT. Crisp, sparkling dialogue and a series of breath-taking episodes, quite unbelievable but refreshingly enter- talning, altogether out of the ordinary, commend this book to any who are seeking relaxation from war strain, Net $1.50 3 $1.90 THE LIBRARY OF FRENCH FICTION Edited by BARNET J. BEYER, Sometime Lecturer at the Sorbonne, Paris JACQUOU THE REBEL, By EUGENE LE ROY NONO By GASTON ROUPNEL Translated by Eleanor Stimson Brooks. $1.90 Translated by Barne Beyer. artistic merits, but also with a view to exhibiting the life and character of all types, classes and The Arst of a carefully chosen series of French novels by modern writers, selected Arst on their institutions of French society. In Preparation TWO BANKS OF THE SEINE By FERNAND VANDÉREM Six Other Volumes Are Either in Press or in Process of Translation. E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY, 681 Fifth Avenue, New York When writing to advertisers please mention Tax DIAL. 1919 163 THE DIAL The Ameriran Scandinavian Review March-April Number AN UNSIGNED LETTER By Theodore Roosevelt “It seems to me we should consider far more carefully than we have done our duty in connection with the neutral nations in immediate proximity to the European com- batants: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland. These are small na- tions of exceptionally high ethnic and cultural type. I believe that in their hearts they sympathize with us in this war. They are probably on the whole in more fundamen- tal agreement with us, socially, politically, and in the deeper relations of life, than any of the larger continental powers."-So wrote Theodore Roosevelt in a letter published for the first time in the REVIEW. Professor W. H. Schofield, of Harvard, tells how the letter came to be written. VILHJÁLMUR STEFÁNSSON By John G. Holme Stefánsson belongs to the select Log Cabin type of great men now almost as rare as buffalo fur coats. His youth was spent on the prairies of North Dakota in a home stripped of all cultural advantages except the sagas on his father's book shelves. Mr. Holme tells of his adventures in hay at the age of fifteen, when a blizzard saved him from a business career and of how he side-stepped politics and the puplit, jour- nalism and poetry, until finally he struck the Arctics. FREEDOM THE BULWARK AGAINST BOLSHEVISM. Two Interviews Scandinavia has her own way of meeting the Russian and Finnish Bolshevik propa- ganda, with freedom and ever more freedom, according to the Socialist editors, Jacob Vidnes of Norway, and Otto Johanssen of Sweden. Plural voting and all remnants of caste and privilege have just been swept away in Sweden, and woman suffrage is assured. A GLIMPSE OF DANISH ART. Part II. By Maurice Francis Egan Interest in art extends through all classes in Denmark. Royalty opens the annual exhibition at Charlottenborg and buys the first picture, and the legation barber begins the usual tonsorial conversation with an allusion to the work of the modernists. Dr. Egan's essay is illustrated with reproductions from Kai Nielsen, Kröyer, Michael and Anna Ancher, and others. In the March-April Number of the AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW-Now Ready SUBSCRIPTION BLANK TO THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW, 25 West 45th Street, New York, N. Y. GENTLEMEN : Please find enclosed my cheque for $2.00 for which send me the AMER. is understood that not less than six and not more than nine numbers will be published in 1919. Name.. Street limber... Cilt..... When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. 164 February 22 THE DIAL NEW MACMILLAN BOOKS THE VISION FOR WHICH THE GOVERNMENT OF WE FOUGHT THE UNITED STATES By Arthur M. 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MacKenzie A highly interesting treatment of human nature, AUTOBIOGRAPHY community, the family, educational and industrial institutions, justice, social ideals, international “A book of extraordinary personal fascination. relations, religion and culture. $2.60 A record of Theodore Roosevelt's internal and ex- ternal life, a survey of his boyhood, his youth and ALSACE-LORRAINE SINCE 1870 his manhood, a book of his ideas and his ideals." Boston Transcript. Neio Edition. Ready Feb. 13. By Barry Cerf $3.00 valuable, thoroughly documented statistical FOLK-LORE IN THE study of the relations of Germany to Alsace and Lorraine, $1.50 OLD TESTAMENT MUSINGS AND MEMORIES By Sir James George Frazer Author of “ The Golden Bough." OF A MUSICIAN Studies in com- parative religion, legend and law, bringing out the full significance of the Biblical traditions. By Sir George Henschel In three vols. $15.00 The story of Sir George's youth, of prominent musicians and artists with whom he has been as. WAR AND REVOLUTION sociated and of the musical tendency of his day: IN RUSSIA 1914-1917 JOHN MASEFIELD'S By General Basil Gourko Chief of the Russian Imperial Staff. POEMS AND PLAYS A book of permanent historical value and interest. These memoirs of General Gourko present a new Include everything that the distinguished English picture of Russia and Russian affairs. author has published in the field of drama and verse. Vol. 1, Poems; Vol. II, Plays. Illustrated, $4.00 Each, $2.75; the set, $5.00 A $5.00 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 64-86 Fifth Avenue 64-66 Fifth Avenue NEW YORK When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. THE DIAL Labor at the Crossways N ENGLISHMAN are won- warded in wages as never before. It was appar- serious difference what was conceded to labor while A FORTNIGHTLY AN WRITES, “We cannot get Of course we wondered, while we were still at the hang over here of your labòr movement." Ap war and all the concessions were being made, what parently he has been talking with optimistic Ameri risks were in store for business when the competi- cans and reading our press reports. From these he tive market should take the place of the assured has learned that American labor secured unprece market and bills should be paid no longer by the dented wage returns during the war; that trade government. As a matter of fact we union officials were granted extravagant represen- dering about that now more than ever. Before the tation on war boards and state committees; that a armistice was signed it seemed so wonderful to host of labor officials held executive jobs under the have the strong arm of the state offering its pro- government for the administration of the war in tection that to many it was inconceivable that this dustries. All of this was represented for more than beneficent power should be withdrawn. Now, it was worth according to British labor evaluation. dumb as usual, we are watching with the helpless- Union officials of Great Britain were also given ness of little children the disintegration of the War administrative posts and held positions of influence Labor Board, the War Labor Policies Board, the for purposes of war. But these positions and the failure of the Department of Labor to protect the wage concessions paid British labor were regarded women workers against sudden discharge, discrimi- with a characteristic skepticism suggesting the state nation, and cuts in wage rates. These agencies I of mind toward industry of the British worker as speak of particularly because their failure to survive it differs from our own. Th American habit of the first murmur of peace left, with the timid who mind in relation to the industrial institution is not place their dependence on state machinery, a dis- the English; moreover, our war industrial policy quieting sense of the futility of government pro- was extraordinary tection in labor affairs. In regard to the latter it will be remembered Nobody has seemed to know what to do about that when we entered the war we were conscious it. We are at sea: the government, the labor that we were late for the accomplishment of our unions, and business. Business claimed the right avowed part in the conflict. If we paid sufficiently, to manage the situation. The national legislature it was argued, we stood the chance of making was glad to shunt the responsibility, and the na- up for our tardiness. As a practical people we tional administration blithely threw the problem decided to pay, to pay any price that would avoid over to the claimants. Since then events have been delay. The delay that was most feared was short- moving at an unwonted pace. The labor market age in industrial output. Immediate steps were has overflowed. The Federal Employment offices taken to insure vested interests against loss, or reaching up and down and across the country are rather to assure them of ample reward for any clogged and unable to function as factory doors cooperation they stood ready to give. Assurance remain closed and men fail to fit the jobs that offer was given the unions that workers would be re- and the jobs fail to fit the men. We are told by the employment managers that the refusal of sol- ently accepted that wage payments would not meet diers to go back to routine and confinement adds 1. W. W. requirements, so the I. W. W. was a new element to a situation already on the verge jailed. But high wage rates could be counted on of breaking to settle any difficulties that might arise with the In spite of the insistence of the business men 1. F. of L., particularly if union officials were that they be allowed to resume their sponsorship given ample representation on war industry coun- over the production of wealth and resume it un- cils . The concessions came high, but it made no hampered, the Secretary of Labor states that the statistics from the employment bureaus show that the government was the purchaser and business the unemployment is due not to any unusual labor reaped its necessary profits. It was not as though the unions wanted to run the industries; all they surplus, but to the timidity of the business men themselves. An industrial manager said to me, “ If you think that labor is without a policy and asked was " a voice” and a fair wage. 166 February 22 THE DIAL unequal to the present emergency, I wonder what European movement on the continent and in Great you would say of the business man if you knew Britain is characterized by a decentralization of him as well as I do?” With the price of raw power and an attempt of the worker to gain status material floating in upper regions, attainable only by through control and self-government, in his organi- government agents because they are unhandicapped zations as well as in the workshop. as are business agents with the payment of divi The intention of the American unions to form a dends; with Mr. Gompers shouting across the national political party expresses a new desire for the continent that wage rates shall not be reduced-what extension of political control rather any new sense can a sane business man do? He could of course of industrial sovereignty. It will be said that the treat with Mr. Gompers. It has always been the intention is to develop both. But I can find noth- boast of the American Federation that it can treat ing in the platforms as they were issued which with any sane business man. shows desire for change in industrial status, or in- But what the business man is now seeing, which terest of the unions in the extension of labor con- causes his discomfort, is not Mr. Gompers, but trol. The platforms of the Chicago and New that Specter which raised its head in Russia two York trade unions, it is true, as well as a recent years ago, which a little later faced west, crossed manifesto of the American Federation (declaring Europe, and passed into Great Britain. No one against a political party) are all opposed to the ex- can say that this Specter will cross the Atlantic. tension of privilege to corporations. They all stand But the fear that obsesses many of the business men for a tax on land values, but they stand for a tax is that cuts in the wage rates which were created in as well on inheritance and incomes. In other war times with the government's underwriting, words, they have no conception of clearing industry might furnish the Specter its incentive for a trial of legal handicaps so that it could be pursued and trip. It is difficult to tell whether this Specter developed; they are not concerned, indeed, with its could create havoc of grave importance in America, development. They leave development and control, should it make an attempt. But it has taken up as a matter of fact, to others—to any others, to the its abode for the time in England, and looks so business men or to the state. There is the tacit like a native there that they forget to call it by its assumption throughout that labor has no interest in Russian name. It has made it clear in Great the running of industry. The American wage Britain that its special mission is not confined to the earner, the American stockholder, financial manipu- protection of wage rates but that it is concerned lator, and employer of labor are alike concerned primarily in jacking up labor into the belief that with the possession of goods. That is what these political states and financiers are incompetent to labor platforms are about and that is what the carry industry forward to the satisfaction of the manifesto of the Executive Council of the A. F. people of any land. The most recent reports which of L. is about. They demand the right of organi- have come from England, Scotland, and Ireland zation to maintain wage rates. There is no sug- show developments which were not defined when gestion that these organizations shall represent Mr. Cole's article which appears in this issue of industrial self-government in the sense in which The Dial was written. The strikes are develop- they use that term in Europe. The Chicago plat- ing unusual significance as they are advancing. The form and the New York platform call for a clemo- latest reports show that the men are out for some cratic control of industry, but no further reading thing quite different from collective bargaining be of the platforms suggests that democratic control tween employer and employed. The most favorable means more than the higgling which the i nions settlement terms fail to bring a sense of permanent have heretofore carried on with employers—th: jug- peace. A forty-hour week seems to be no greater gling with a wage which was followed by a more accomplishment than a forty-eight. There are skilful juggling with a market. boilermakers, shipbuilders, and engineers who “im The Federation and these new labor part es in pudently” assert that they are out for the control the states are relying on the government to regu- of industry, that they intend to see that it no longer late industry as they lay stress on a proport onate pays business men to carry on. But more signifi- representation of labor in government admi istra- cant is the fact that the strikes represent a rank tive and legislative bodies. Such political rep resen- and file movement; that the old leaders and or tation might well follow an organization of ndus- ganizations are defied; that the movement in try where self-government had been effect :d or throwing off the old leadership has substituted an organization which has a centralizing power of its where labor had assumed responsibility and status in the work of wealth production. But pre eding own rather than one imposed from above and ex- labor's industrial control and responsibility, p litical isting by the weakness of its membership. The representation, as it is demanded in these plat orms, 1919 167 THE DIAL workers of the country should take over the entire operating control and financial management of the means labor's administration of industry through roads. There is no precedent in trade union prac- politics. Conceive for a moment the realization tice for such an astounding proposition. There is of this demand for political representation. The no tradition among the wage workers in America, legislatures and government offices would be domi such as still lurks in the minds of the British, of in- nated by labor. Under such circumstances labor dustrial responsibility. Our American unions have would block the movements of those who controlled not been discussing labor status as the English have. wealth wherever such action appeared to serve the On the contrary they have displayed a marked aver- purposes of the trade unions. The situation, as we, sion to the idea of industrial management or con- know, is inconceivable, and it is further to be con trol. Even these same railroad workers, it is ru- sidered what can be gained by a policy which de mored, turned down a short time ago a tentative pends on blocking? Is not this effort of labor to invitation to participate in the administration of the gain a strategic position through the state only roads when the government took them over while another move in a defensive policy? Does it not we were at war. Today with cool confidence they indicate that labor is admitting weakness, is side- make a proposition which might have sprung from stepping the extension of its function from its any corporation that was properly endowed with position of routine and employment to participa its usual quota of common, preferred, and watered tion in the management and control of wealth pro stock. In making their proposition they remark, duction? So far as these recent pronouncements of or their attorney does for them, that operating organized labor indicate, the union position is un- ability is the sole capital of this corporation. Has changed. Labor is to be bought and sold in the any greater heresy than this been spoken in Russia? market as usual. No reiteration of the American The proposition wears indeed the same air of Federation that laboris not a commodity can be impudence " which was objected to in England. seriously regarded while the union movement leaves But the animus is not the English nor the Russian. the workers without status in their industry, or It is not impudent and is not impelled by any revo- control in the development of the enterprise of lutionary thoughts or intention. Specifically it is a which they are an integral part. defensive move against the federal regulation which We have believed in our industrial institution denies government employees the full right of organi- because we were confident that our resources were zation. Although the proposition may be no more unlimited, that wealth was to be had, and that than a matter of trade-union strategy, as it comes sooner or later it would come our individual way. at this time when the industrial and labor situa- The chances were good if we could only get next to tion is highly sensitive to suggestion, it cannot fail some one in power. What could a union move to mark a new era in labor psychology. What will ment do against such a cheering thought? This be said in the next few weeks on the question of temper is unintelligible to our English friends: it acceptance or rejection of the proposal must in- it because of it that they cannot understand our evitably leave an indelible impression on the future movement or realize why it is hung up. It is hung if not on the present policy of the labor movement. up, but no one will predict for how long. With In the first place the proposal involves a com- the government leaving industry to business men, plete shift from craft to industrial unionism. It is and business men coming back for protection to the implicit in the very statement of the proposition government; with a desperate cutting in wage rates that industrial organization is the prerequisite of in some of the industries in spite of what may hap- mastery and control, for the very simple reason that pen later; with production blocked in other indus- it is the basis of actual industrial operation. What- tries ; and with food, clothing, and shelter maintain- ever disposition is made of the scheme, the 500,000 ing their purchase price, will the American labor members of the Railroad Brotherhood and the movement come down to the business in hand ? 1,500,000 members of the A. F. of L. craft unions Will it remain sublimely unconscious that such a which are involved in the proposal will all recog- thing as labor control of production is being born nize that any suggestion which insures a change of status for labor or places it in a position of control Today , for the first time, organized labor has will require this shift from craft to industrial or- riven a sign that it is conscious. Up to the present ganization. For the advancement of industrial moment there was no public evidence that 2,000,000 unionism the event could not have been more timely.. organized workers in the United States would pro- During the war the development of efficiency pose in regular form to Congress that the railroad methods in the factory reduced many of the so- called skilled processes to mechanical operations which would fit the strength and experience of into the world? 168 THE DIAL February 22 women and young people. This dilution of skill and stands to the old Zemstvos and to understand that of male labor has its serious, direct, and obvious con the Russian workers are better prepared for the sequences for the craft unions. assumption of industrial responsibility than the One of the most important effects of industrial workers of the United States. It is important to unionism is the compulsion which it imposes on remember in estimating the elements which have labor to think in terms of the enterprise rather given the workers of Russia and Great Britain their than the job. On the other hand, industrial union- impetus for industrial democracy that in both of ism does not, as is often supposed, insure industrial these countries the workers' cooperative enterprises democracy or give of necessity opportunity for self have persisted with the strong tendency to pre- government. In respect to the latter this scheme of serve the idea of responsibility for productive en- the Railroad Unions furnishes a striking contrast terprise which had rested with workers before the to the English movement of the shops, which is also days of business enterprise. industrial in its direction. It is not the industrial The attitude of American labor toward produc- form of organization of the shop stewards move tion is the national attitude of giving as little and ment which gives it its democratic character; it is taking as much as we can get away with. This the desire of the shop workers to participate in in attitude is common enough in modern Europe but dustrial management. The existence of this desire in America it is without inhibitions sufficiently im- in England and its absence in America is a pertinent portant to have had their effect, either conscious illustration of the differences which exist in trade or unconscious, on industrial responsibility. I have union psychology The division of labor and the not space to speak of the part this attitude may play successful competition of machine production with in the revolutionary changes which are apparently hand production, of the factory with the workshop scheduled to come off sooner or later on this side or the craftsman, never destroyed completely the of the Atlantic. But as industry is reorganizing British tradition that bound the workman to his in- for the benefit of financial interests it has become dustry. This tradition which has persisted for nearly two centuries without apparent warrant or apparent that the interest of labor and its sense value has made its contribution at last in the swift of industrial responsibility must be aroused if development of labor organization which is deter- American industry is to hold its own in the world mined by the men at work in the shops. Even market. There is no known way of developing should this shop steward movement end without responsibility except by experiencing it, and this complete victory over the unionism which is super- proposal of the railroad workers is the first sugges- imposed, this habit of mind of the British worker tion that the unions may seriously regard them- toward industrial responsibility is a labor asset with selves as responsible factors. While this proposal which the vested interests of Great Britain will is not as yet representative of current thought in eventually reckon. labor organizations, it will be received there as a Because modern industry has made little im- highly agitating event and one with which the in- pression in Russia, the Russian workers as a whole terests in some connection will have to deal. Today have never experienced an industrial environment the situation is this: the officials of unions represent- which is as irresponsible as is our own for pro- ing 2,000,000 wage workers have broken down all duction. Producing wealth in Russia has always precedent as they have proposed in serious form been a matter for serious concern, and the brunt of to take over the management of the railroad sys- the concern as well as the labor was borne by the tems of the United States. Here is adventure and peasant. It is not difficult to trace the idea of in- imaginative matter injected at a time when sug- dustrial self-government for which the Soviet gestion counts. HELEN Marot. Nocturne When night-winds blow, I open wide My window to the sounding seas, And the strange sea-birds come with cries, Their wings all wet from the wild seas (And the long-drown'd arise). When night-winds blow, I open wide My heart to loud and breaking seas; Oh the strange, passionate thoughts Aly near, afraid, Their wings all wet with wild sea-water! (And on my heart cold hands, long dead, are laid). MILDRED JOHNSTON MURPHY. 1919 THE DIAL 169 literature, “and bright sun and the birds singing, Mr. Balfour's Charm THE MIND of Arthur James Balfour : Selections and if there be a shower or a storm, it should be from his Non-political Writings, Speeches and Ad- merely a passing episode in the landscape, to be fol- dresses, 1879-1917 (edited by Wilfred M. Short- lowed immediately by a return of brilliant sun- Doran; $2.50) is a challenge to consider Mr. Bal. shine.” It is not the Lear or Oedipus type. I know four apart from his political record: as a thinker, a not how true it is, but there used to be a statement spirit, a personality. The two aspects of the man current, about the time Mr. Balfour was coming are not altogether separable. If the tradition of his into prominence, that the most quoted book in the class had not forced the languid and philosophic House of Commons was Alice in Wonderland, and youth into public life, his literary record would not surely there is no book that appeals more unques- have forced The Dial and me to destroy white tionably to a high and rather late culture. The paper talking about him. He is a fascinating fact that the House of Commons liked it so much is creature, of a fascinating entourage, but his indi not unrelated to their love of Mr. Balfour, to whom vidual importance for history lies in his policy of human reasoning appears much as a grotesque. force and the British style of reform in Ireland-in This type of mind has made him more formidable those long years when he led either the Government in destructive criticism than in positive propaganda or the opposition—and in his success as a diplomat or enactment, and it is fit that his most notable piece in the greatest of wars. As his uncle believed in of writing should be entitled A Defense of Philo- him, he was put in Parliament at twenty-six; five sophic Doubt. It is an entirely successful defense years later he made himself famous by applying to of philosophic doubt. It is not so conclusive a Ireland coercion plus sensible concrete proposals as foundation for the doctrines of the established seen by a mind bred across the Channel; and at church, or for any other affirmation, nor is its suc- forty-four he was prime minister. Nobody claims cessor, The Foundations of Belief. The ability ex- for him a constructive legislative record—in his hibited in these volumes is forensic. The misty three most conspicuous subjects, Ireland, education, notions of evidence harbored by the unskilled have and tariff, he solved nothing but the House of Com small chance against the writer; and his favorite mons, which knows so much about England's prog target is the cruder skepticism: ress, through many years loved and followed him. Suppose for a moment a community of which each England always has her men of action-her Rhodes, member should deliberately set himself the task of throw- Gladstone, Chamberlain; she has a quiet and pre- ing off as far as possible all prejudices due to education; where each should consider it his duty critically to ex- vailing instinct for getting things done; but her amine the grounds upon which rest every positive enact- governing class also love a measured manner and ment and every moral precept which he has been accus- calm indifference to political prizes. Sir Edward tomed to obey; to dissect all the great loyalties which make social life possible, and all the minor conventions Grey's known preference for fishing over public life, which help to make it easy; and to weigh out with the Duke of Devonshire's devotion to country occu- scrupulous precision the exact degree of assent which in pations, Lord Salisbury's indifference, fitted the each particular case the results of this process might seem to justify, To say that such a community, if it taste of an assembly of gentlemen long accustomed acted upon the opinions thus arrived at, would stand but to rule . Mr. Balfour's manner, his love of philoso- a poor chance in the struggle for existence is to say far too little. It could never even begin to be; and if by a phy, his rapier-like debating, his personal charm, miracle it was created, it would without doubt imme- and his courage reached the House of Commons, as diately resolve itself into its constituent elements. they will reach some who merely read his written Hence we take our stand for Authority: words. A Briton will pass final judgment on some- It is true, no doubt, that we can, without any great one by saying he is the sort of man with whom one expenditure of research, accumulate instances in which Authority has perpetuated error and retarded progress, He is picturing for unluckily none of the influences, Reason least of all, character in an emergency, when it would stand by which the history of the race has been moulded, have surely to its undertaking. Nobody ever doubted been productive of unmixed good. “Least of all,” Mr. Balfour? And again: This firmness is not to be exploited. Even if we would find the quality in which we most notably tragedy is questionable. A perfect type of the Brit- excel the brute creation, we should look for it, not so ish aristocrat has a kind of unobtrusive preference much in our faculty of convincing and being convinced by the exercise of reasoning, as in our capacity for in- for the agreeable. “I personally like the Spring Authority. fluencing and being influenced through the action of day,” Mr. Balfour says, in responding to a toast to Note the capital A. But this preference really fails at a glance. Our young chickens reproduce the would like to go tiger-hunting. Mr. Balfour's character. 170 February 22 THE DIAL (4 habits and conclusions of their ancestors. On the has known singularly well how to fit himself to ad- other hand, reasoning, and reasoning against the cur vancing circumstance. If the Bourbon forgot rent, guided Galileo, Darwin, Socrates, and Jesus. nothing and learned nothing, the British aristocracy Also if man has passed into a world unknown to renews itself with men of mark and respects in its apes, it is because he was able to reach a conclu own ranks not the wasters and the drones but the sion that if he put wood on fire he could maintain industrious and responsible. To a near relative of himself in warmth. By the heterodox has he gone Mr. Balfour's I once said, “The British populace forward. No doubt the first ape to walk on his has taken over political power just about in propor- hind legs was deemed an opponent of Authority and tion as it has needed it," and she replied, “We have a Danger to the Community. given it to them.” The “we” was a trifle proud, I would not willingly be frivolous. The Tory perhaps, but it is true that one of the greatest ac- tradition has a role of value in the world, and it complishments of the ruling class in England has will have value in the new world that we approach. been in knowing when to yield. It has never sat on Even we democrats should welcome an intelligent the lid until it was blown up. Mr. Balfour is over questioning of democracy. There will be a new seventy today, and his ideas are more liberal than Tory party, whateveſ it may be called. The public they were when he was twenty. Perhaps if the is the right judge of public affairs, but the public German aristocracy had been as sound in instinct as is compelled to experiment, and it is subject to at the British, the world-war would have had another tacks of caprice, fashion, and mob despotism. The ending, or there would have been no war. The future will do something strange to Oxford and Briton can tell pretty well the substance from the Cambridge, Heaven knows what; languid, critical shadow. If he had been in power in Germany, and charm will not mark the prime minister of 2019; had seen his country rapidly conquering the mar- but there will be other Cambridges, other Balfours, kets of the world, he would never have given up questioning the new, calm with the memory of cen such solid conquest for a dazzling grandiose idea. turies, guided (and limited) by taste. To that new No shining armor or terrifying noises for him. He Toryism let us hope that some of our best men and finds out what is essential and quietly makes it his. women may adhere. Democracy is one of the most In the growth of the mighty empire the liberal and difficult forms of government to administer, though the conservative forces have kept so close together it be the greatest.” Mr. Balfour was talking to that their differences have amounted to supplernent. Americans when he said that, in 1911, and he It is even true that a large part of the progressive warned them that the problems of democracy are legislation has been enacted by the Tories. As I not simple; are not going to solve themselves; re look back at Mr. Balfour's record, even at such quire the services of the best men; are of increasing parts of it as Ireland, I hesitate to dogmatize. He difficulty; and indeed, “while the word progress is is always intelligent; perhaps he might admit that perpetually on our lips, we may yet be face to face the more characteristic doctrines of Jesus hav: not with a danger and difficulty of which the solution shown conspicuously in his politics. This my be may escape even the wisest." for him or against him, for all I know. The Brit- The Tory was a person with a privilege to which ish Empire is a big place. was attached an obligation. He is not to be classed smaller if only democratically and spiritually m nded with the Bourbons. He recognized his obligations men had formed its governments. It cer ainly more than his successor in power, the captain of in- would have been smaller if stern men had uled dustry; and indeed the best of the Tories are alone, for in that case South Africa would have lining themselves up with those who would shake joined Germany in this war, with what re noter the hold of finance. Mr. Balfour said some years consequences we know not. Possibly the con bina- ago, and his cousin, Lord Robert Cecil, has said tion of compulsion and freedom, of idealisn and within a few weeks, that the hope of civilization business, of skepticism and hope, that the I .itish lies in actual partnership between capital and labor, elector has stood for represents as sound pc itical not in minor concessions. Yet Lord Robert re- government as there is. signed from the Government on the issue of Welsh However, in insisting on Mr. Balfour's es ntial disestablishment, and Mr. Balfour fights modern Toryism, we must emphasize also the superio :y of education in behalf of the established church. The his individual intelligence. Why did he cease : be Tory is an extraordinarily worthy and interesting the leader of his party? Why were the 1 ters , animal. Moriturum te salutamus. Your day is B.M.G., “Balfour Must Go," posted over Lon- passing, but we give you our applause. don? Who succeeded him? He lost his lead ship, The British aristocrat, whether Tory or Whig, in the fight of a decade ago, over the Ho e of It might have been .1919 THE DIAL 171 man, or Reed. means of securing full recognition and the right of The first Whitley Report, to which the later Re- Lords because he was not sufficiently rigid and nar all crises are not what we expect of him; but if, row-minded to meet the spirit of the unbending these acts give promise it will not be in Mr. Balfour Tories. It was the Bitter-Enders, in the House of to oppose. If mankind masters itself, to settle in a Lords contest, who threw Mr. Balfour out. Since better way the problems that arise between states; if those days the leader of the Unionists has been an Germany and Russia are made welcome partners; if industrious and mediocre business with no the method of governing this new assembly is well troublesome individuality, and apparently Mr. An advanced in liberalism; and if all countries, includ- drew Bonar Law managed his task, before the ing Britain, are asked to make sacrifices for a suc- world war and since, to the satisfaction of those cess so high-facing such a world Mr. Balfour will immediately concerned. Mr. Balfour's reputation at least acquiesce. Afterward he will go back to seemed to have started on the decline until in the England, happy to spend the evening of life with war he emerged as the man most trusted in foreign books and simple exercise, but ready whenever diplomacy not for imagination, for conceiving or needed to enter the ranks, and not afraid to contem- embracing a startling future, but for tact, negoti- plate any new world that the wisdom or folly of ating ability, forensic shrewdness, and judgment. man may choose. A Balfour is not a Knox, Lodge, The acts of leadership and faith in this greatest of NORMAN HAPGOOD. The Industrial Councils of Great Britain READERS whose knowledge of the industrial that in the better organized industries Standing situation in Great Britain is confined to the Joint Industrial Councils should be set up nationally speeches of Cabinet Ministers and the comments of in each industry, with District Councils and Works the daily press are apt to imagine that a new heaven Councils under them. The National and District and a new earth are being created by some magical Councils are to consist of an equal representation process initiated by the Whitley Report. Joint from Employers' Associations on the one side and Standing Industrial Councils representing employers from Trade Unions on the other. They are to be and employed, so the press and the politicians in voluntary in character, and the endowing of their form us, are being set up almost every day, and a decisions with any legal power is to be a matter for new spirit of fellowship and good will is animating further consideration. The State is not to be repre- masters and workmen alike. I can only say that I sented, and is to appoint a chairman only when re- have sought for this new spirit, and I have not quested to do so by the Council itself. At the same found it. Joint Standing Industrial Councils are time the Government has announced its intention of indeed being established in considerable numbers; recognizing the Councils as advisory bodies repre- but most of the vital industries have hitherto shown senting the various industries, and of consulting no anxiety to establish them, and, even where they them on matters affecting their interests. have been established, there is not much evidence of In all this there is nothing in the smallest degree the “new spirit” of which we hear so much. In revolutionary. In most industries in Great Britain fact , the Whitley Report, loudly as it has been ac- there have long existed regular means of joint nego- daimed in governmental circles , has almost entirely tiation and consultation between employers and em- failed to stir the world of Labor. In some indus- ployed. In some cases these have taken the form of tries, notably on the railways and in the big engi- Boards of Conciliation with agreed rules and neering group, it has been definitely rejected. In methods of procedure; in others there have been other cases it has been accepted as a useful piece of merely regular arrangements for periodic confer- machinery, but without any particular enthusiasm, and certainly with no idea that it provides a panacea ence. The important point is that, in the majority for all industrial troubles. The only case in which of organized industries, recognition of Trade Union- its adoption has been urgently pressed by the workers ism and frequent negotiation between Trade Unions is that of State employees, and in this instance the and Employers' Associations have long been the rule. urgency arises largely from the desire to use it as a The Whitley Report does not in reality carry matters very much further, though at first sight it may seem to do so. It hints again and again that one of its principal reasons for urging the establish- more than supplements, proposes ment of Joint Industrial Councils is in order to collective bargaining. ports are hardly 172 THE DIAL February 22 14 more. time; • satisfy the demand of the workers for a greater con trol, or offer any alternative to workship agitation trol over industry; but the actual constitutions of and workshop organization for the purpose of a the Whitley Councils which have been established gradual assumption of control by the workers. do nothing at all to make this aspiration a fact. Other critics, largely among State Socialists, dwelt They provide, indeed, for joint consideration of rather on the dangers of Whitleyism to the con- questions affecting the industry; but they do nothing sumer and the risk of establishing a common soli- to affect the final and exclusive control of the em darity between employers and workers in a particu- ployer over the way in which he runs his business. lar industry against the public—a risk also noted by I am not complaining, or saying that they could do the Guild Socialists. In fact, everywhere the left I am merely criticizing the prevalent view wing, and often a part of the right also, rejected the that the Whitley Report makes a new and revolu Whitley proposals. tionary departure in the sphere of industrial rela What, then, of the Whitley Councils and other tions. It does not: it only regularizes and formal bodies on similar lines, which are being established ? ises a process which has long been going on in most The first thing to notice about them is that many of our principal industries, and one which would of them affect only small and often ill-organized have continued whether there had been a Whitley groups. The Whitley Committee itself recom- Report or not. In fact, the control of industry can mended the establishment of Joint Industrial Coun- not be altered merely by the setting up of a few cils only in those industries in which employers and Joint Committees. The control of industry rests on employed were comparatively well organized. For the economic power of those who control it; and the industries in which organization was weak, it only a shifting of the balance of economic power recommended the establishment of Trade Boards will alter this control. Such a shifting of power under the act recently passed to extend the scope may be, and I believe is, in progress at the present of the original Trade Boards Act of 1909. Never- but it is quite independent of such events as theless, Whitley Councils have been established in the issuing and adoption by the Government of the a number of industries which cannot by any means Whitley Report. The view most current among be regarded as well organized. Instances of this Trade Unionists—that the Whitley Report does not are the Pottery Council and the Match Makers' matter much one way or the other—is certainly the Council. Moreover, Councils are being set up for right one. certain small sectional trades which can hardly by Nevertheless, though it is not likely to produce any stretch of imagination be regarded as industries. large permanent results, the Report has for the time The Bobbin Industrial Council and the Spelter In- being attracted a good deal of attention. Official dustrial Council are notable examples of this undue Trade Unionism, represented by the Parliamentary tendency to sectional organization. On the other Committee of the Trades Union Congress, accepted hand, Councils have been or are being set up in a it without enthusiasm and subject to its remaining number of important industries, including the purely voluntary. Even officia Crade Unionism woolen, printing, building, baking, and other in- will not tolerate compulsory arbitration in any form, dustries. except under protest as a war measure. Unofficial In addition to the Industrial Councils set up rank and file Trade Unionism, represented by the under the Whitley scheme, the Government, shop stewards' movement and other agencies, through the Ministry of Reconstruction, has estab- roundly denounced "Whitleyism" as an attempt to lished a number of Interim Reconstruction Com- sidetrack the growing movement of the class-con- mittees, principally in industries in which the for, scious workers towards the control of industry. mation of Industrial Councils has not been found "Whitleying away our strength,” one rank and file possible, but also in some cases for small or almost critic entitled his article upon the Report, and went unorganized industrial groups, such as needles and on to urge that the capitalists , fearing the rising fishhooks, and furniture removing and warehous- tide of rank and file committees, had inspired the Report in the hope of substituting for them joint ing. Altogether there are about twenty Indus- trial Councils now in existence, and a considerably committees of masters and men, and so depriving larger number of Interim Reconstruction Commit- them of their dynamic and revolutionary character. The National Guilds League, alsó representing the No steps have yet been taken to extend the left wing, declared against the underlying assump- Trade Boards Act to new trades, unless not very tion of the Report that industrial peace is possible workers, and to one or two other groups are treated definite promises to distributive workers, to tobacco and desirable under capitalism, and pointed out that, whatever the merits or demerits of joint committees, as steps in this direction. they cannot provide the dynamic for securing con- It is too early yet to say what the new Indus- trial Councils are likely to do when they get to tees. THE DIAL 173 Union backing, except among the Labor leaders of ployers and workers will be in any way bridged. In of the economic situation. work. Their constitutions are, as a rule, drawn so almost every industry of importance the workers are as to embrace a large variety of purposes, without already busy formulating extensive programs, em- giving much indication of the course which they will bodying demands which will hardly be granted with- actually pursue. One significant clause, which oc out a struggle. The railwaymen have already put curs in the constitution of several Councils, makes it forward their National Program, which includes not one of the objects to maintain selling prices at a only the eight-hour day and heavy demands for level which will secure reasonable remuneration to wage increases, but also a definite claim for an equal both employers and employees. This recalls the share in the control of the railway service. The professed objects of many trusts and employers' com promise of the eight-hour day, already given by the binations too closely to require detailed criticism; Government, has staved off the crisis for the mo- but it is important to note it because it is clearly ment but has done nothing really to solve the prob- based on the assumption of a common interest be lem. The engineering and shipyard trades, which tween employers and workers in a particular indus have just received the forty-seven hour week, have try—a common interest which clearly may easily an extensive list of further demands in preparation. become anti-social in its effects, and in any case runs The miners in most of the coalfields are already put- counter to the Socialist theory of a common soli ting forward comprehensive programs. The cotton darity of all workers irrespective of craft or indus workers have just come through a wage crisis, and try. Apart from this provision the constitutions' are about to put forward a claim for a substantial contain' few notable features, except that in many reduction in hours. The transport workers are cases the provision for District Councils and, still formulating a series of national demands for the more, for Works Committees is allowed to fall very - various sections of their membership. Nor is the much into the background. All the constitutions position in these industries peculiar. Almost every provide for regular discussion on matters affecting group of workers has a long list of grievances and the industry, and for communication with the au demands which have been perforce laid aside during thorities on questions of legislation affecting the in the war, and all these may be expected to emerge dustry; but it is too soon to see how this consulta- during the next few months. The existence of tion will work in practice. Whitley Councils or Reconstruction Committees Apart from the Whitley Councils, there are a will do nothing to alter the character of the eco- number of agencies at work with the declared object nomic conflict which seems to be impending. of promoting industrial peace. The Industrial Re I do not mean, of course, that the British workers construction Council exists mainly in order to push are class-conscious revolutionaries aiming definitely the ideas of the Whitley Report, and sometimes at the overthrow of the existing industrial order. seems to acquire in the process an almost official Nor do I mean that all, or even the majority, of the status. The so-called “ Reconstruction Society” is demands which they are making will result in merely the old Anti-Socialist Union suitably dis strikes. Most of them will probably be settled by guised. The National Alliance of Employers and negotiation, unless a general upheaval occurs. This Employed is, directly or indirectly, an offshoot of however is nothing new. The strike has never been the big employers' Federation of British Industries, more than an occasional weapon, and the fact that a and includes many prominent employers and a few dispute is settled without a stoppage does not alter well-known Trade Unionists of the right wing, the fact that the terms of settlement usually depend among them Mr. Havelock Wilson and Mr. John on the relative economic strength of the parties. My Hodge . This body has so far devoted itself mainly point is that all the talk about industrial peace and to the question of demobilization, urging that the re- all the action in setting up new machinery will be construction of industry should be undertaken.co- found to have made very little difference when it is operatively by employers and Trade Unions with actually put to the test . Employers and workers the minimum of Government interference. The will continue to differ about their relative status in Industrial League is a less formal propagandist body industry and about their respective shares of its with much the same objects as the National Allt fruits ; and they will continue to settle their differ- ance. None of these bodies has secured much Trade ences mainly by the balancing of economic forces, whether the balancing is done by negotiation or by the extreme right wing. In fact all these move- the open force of strike or lock-out. In fact the nenes for industrial cooperation are of little effect tendency is to attach far too much importance to reconstruction. Whatever joint machinery may be in the Whitley Reports, and to forget that no set up, it seems unlikely that the gulf between em- amount of machinery can alter the essential facts G. D. H. Cole. e celation to the really vital problems of industriat sende machinery such as that which is recommended THE DIAL February 22 174 Bolshevism Is a Menaceto Whom? WHEN TAKEN means 66 ( at its face value and trans Bolshevism is revolutionary. It aims to carry lated into its nearest English equivalent “ bol democracy and majority rule over into the domain shevism ” majority rule.” Another of industry. Therefore it is a menace to the estab- equivalent would be popular government,” and lished order and to those persons whose fortunes still another, “democracy”—although the latter are bound up with the established order. It is two terms are not so close a translation as the charged with being a menace to private property, former, particularly not as democracy” is under to business, to industry, to state and church, to law stood in America. and morals, to the world's peace, to civilization, and In American usage democracy” denotes a par to mankind at large. And it might prove sufficient- ticular form of political organization, without ref ly difficult for any person with a balanced mind to erence to the underlying economic organization; clear the Bolshevist movement of any one or all of whereas “bolshevism has primarily no political these charges. signification, being a form of economic organiza In point of its theoretical aims and its profes- tion, with incidental consequences—mostly nega sions, as regards its underlying principles of equity tive—in the field of politics. and reconstruction, this movement can presumably But in the case of any word that gets tangled make out about as good and wholesome a case as up in controversial argument and so becomes a any other revolutionary movement. But in point of storm-center of ugly sentiments, its etymology is no practical fact, as regards the effectual working-out safe guide to the meaning which the word has in of its aims and policies, under existing conditions, the mind of those who shout it abroad in the heat the evider.ce which has yet come to hand, it must of applause or of denunciation. be admitted, is evidence of a trail of strife, priva- By immediate derivation, as it is now used to tion, and bloodshed, more or less broad but in any designate that revolutionary faction which rules case plain to be seen. the main remnants of the Russian empire, Bol No doubt the available evidence of this working- sheviki” signifies that particular wing of the Rus out of Bolshevism in the Russian lands is to be sian Socialists which was in a majority on a test taken with a much larger allowance than anything vote at a congress of the Russian Social-Democratic that could be called a grain of salt ”; no doubt Party in 1903; since which time the name has at much of it is biased testimony, and no doubt much tached to that particular faction. 'It happens that of the rest is maliciously false. But when all is the wing of the Social-Democratic Party which so said in abatement there still remains the trail of dis- came in for this name at that time was the left order, strife, privation, and bloodshed, plain to be wing, the out-and-outers of the Socialist profes seen. How much of all this disastrous run of horror sion. And these are they to whom it has fallen and distress is to be set down to the account of today to carry the burden of humanity's dearest Bolshevism, simply in its own right, and how much hopes or fears, according as one may be inclined to to the tactics of the old order and its defenders, or see it. Beyond the Russian frontiers the name has how the burden of blame is fairly to be shared been carried over to designate the out-and-outers between them all that is not so plain. elsewhere, wherever they offer to break bounds and Bolshevism is a revolutionary movement, and as set aside the underlying principles of the established such it has neces cessarily met with forcible opposition, order, economic and political. Bolshevism is a menace. · No thoughtful person and in the nature of things it is bound to meet op- position, more or less stubborn and with more today is free to doubt that, whether he takes or less unhappy consequences. sides for or against-according as his past habitua- project such as Bolshevism can be carried through tion and his present circumstances may dictate. In- only by overcoming resistance, which means an deed it would even be the same for any reasonably appeal to force. intelligent person who might conceivably be stand- ing footloose in the middle, as a disinterested by- The Russian democratic revolution of the spring stander possessed of that amiably ineffectual gift, a perfectly balanced mind. He would still have to of 1917 was a political and military revolution which involved a number of economic readjust- admit the fact that Bolshevism is a menace. Only ments. The merits of that move are not in ques- that, in the absence of partisan heat, he would also be faced with the question: A menace to whom? tion here. In the present connection it is chiefly significant as having prepared the ground for the Any subversive 1919 THE DIAL 175 > 1 democratic powers and their democratic or pseudo- though regretful, about the disallowance of class later revolution of November 1917–out of which privileges and perquisites in Russia. Of course, it is the rule of the Soviets and the Bolshevik dictator disquieting enough, and the European statesmen of ship have grown. This latter is an economic revo the status quo ante, to whom European affairs have lution in intention and in its main effect, although been entrusted, will necessarily look with some dis- it involves also certain political undertakings and taste and suspicion on the discontinuance of class adjustments . Its political and military undertakings privilege and class rule in the dominions of the late and policies are, at least in theory, wholly provi- Czar; all that sort of thing is disquieting to the sional and subsidiary to its economic program. Any system of vested rights within which these Euro- slight attention to the Declaration of Rights and the pean statesmen live and move. But privilege simply provisions of the Constitution, promulgated by the as such is after all in the nature of an imponder- All-Russian Convention of Soviets last July, will able, and it may well be expedient to concede the make that clear. The political and military meas loss of that much intangible assets with a good ures decided on have been taken with a view singly grace, lest a worse evil befall. But it is not so with to carrying out a policy of economic changes. This the vested rights of ownership. These are of the economic policy is frankly subversive of the existing essence of that same quasi-democratic status quo system of property rights and business enterprise, in about the preservation of which these elder states- cluding, at least provisionally, repudiation of the men are concerned. “Discontinuance of the rights Russian imperial obligations incurred by the Czar's of ownership is equivalent to the day of judg- Government. ment” for the regime of the elder statesmen and for These documents of the Soviet Republic, together the interests which they have at heart. These in- with later action taken in pursuance of the policies terests which the elder statesmen have at heart are there outlined, give a summary answer to the ques primarily the interests of trade, investment, and na- tion: A menace to whom? The documents in the tional integrity, and beyond that the ordered sys- case draw an unambiguous line of division between tem of law and custom and businesslike prosperity the vested interests and the common man; and the which runs on under the shadow of these interests Bolshevist program foots up to a simple and com of trade, investment, and national integrity. And prehensive disallowance of all vested rights. That these elder statesmen, being honorable gentlemen, is substantially all that is aimed at; but the sequel and as such being faithful to their bread, see of that high resolve, as it is now running its course, plainly that Russian Bolshevism is a menace to all goes to say that that much is also more than a suffi the best interests of mankind. cient beginning of trouble. In its first intention, So there prevails among the astute keepers of law and in the pursuit of its own aim, therefore, in so far and order in other lands an uneasy statesmanlike as this pursuit has not been hindered by interested dread of “Bolshevist infection,” which it is con- parties, this Bolshevism is a menace to the vested in sidered will surely follow on any contact or com- terests, and to nothing and no one else. munication across the Russian frontiers. There is a All of which is putting as favorable a construc- tion on the professions and conduct of the Bolshe- singular unanimity of apprehension on this matter of Bolshevist infection" among the votaries of viki as may be; and it is all to be taken as a de law and order. Precautionary measures of isola- scription of the main purpose of the movement, not tion are therefore devised—something like quaran- as an account of the past year's turmoil in Bolshe- vist Russia . But it is as well to keep in mind that tine to guard against the infection. It should be noted that this statesmanlike fear of Bolshevist in- the original substance and cause of this Bolshevist trouble is a cleavage and antagonism between the fection is always a fear that the common man in vested interests and the common man, and that the these other countries may become infected. The elder statesmen have no serious apprehension that whole quarrel turns finally about the vested rights the statesmen themselves are likely to be infected property and privilege. The moderate liberals, such as the Cadets, and in its degree the Kerensky with Bolshevism, even by fairly reckless exposure, or that the military class, or the clergy, or the land- are made up of those persons who are ready to disallow the vested rights of privilege, lords, or the business men at large are liable to such infection. Indeed it is assumed as a matter of but who will not consent to the disallowance of the course that the vested interests and the kept classes are immune, and it will be admitted that the as- sumption is reasonable. The measures of quaran- These democratic or quasi- tine are, accordingly, always designed to safeguard democratic statesmen are not so greatly concerned, those classes in the community who have. no vested rights to lose. It is always as a system of ideas, or "principles," administration, vested rights of ownershop. And it is at this point that the European powers come into the case. 176 February 22 THE DIAL ** menace. meet on. 21 that Bolshevism spreads by communication; it is a sion that this subversive propaganda becomes a contamination of ideas, of habits of thought. And Both parties are acting on conviction, and it owes much of its insidious success to the fact that there is, therefore, no middle ground for them to this new order of ideas which it proposes is ex- Thrice is he armed who knows his quar- tremely simple and is in the main of a negative rel just "; and in this case both parties to the quar- character. The Bolshevist scheme of ideas comes rel are convinced of the justice of their own cause, easy to the common man because it does not require at the same time that the material fortunes of both him to learn much that is new, but mainly to un- are at stake. Hence an unreserved recourse to learn much that is old. It does not propose the force, with all its consequences. adoption of a new range of preconceptions, so that it calls for little in the way of acquiring new habits By first intention and by consistent aim Bolshe- of thought. In the main it is an emancipation from vism is a menace to the vested rights of property older preconceptions, older habitual convictions. and of privilege, and from this the rest follows. And the proposed new order of ideas will displace The vested interests are within their legal and moral the older preconceptions all the more easily because rights, and it is not to be expected that they will these older habitual convictions that are due to be yield these rights amicably. All those classes, fac- displaced, no longer have the support of those ma tions, and interests that stand to lose have made terial circumstances which now condition the life of common cause against the out-and-outers, have em- the common man, and which will therefore make ployed armed force where that has been practicable, the outcome by bending his habits of thought. and have resorted to such measures of intrigue and The training given by the mechanical industries sabotage as they can command. All of which is and strengthened by the experience of daily life in a quite reasonable, in a way, since these vested inter- mechanically organized community lends no sup ests are legally and morally in the right according port to prescriptive rights of ownership, class per to the best of their knowledge and belief; but the quisites, and free income. This training bends the consequence of their righteous opposition, intrigue, mental attitude of the common man at cross-pur and obstruction has been strife, disorder, privation poses with the established system of rights, and and bloodshed, with a doubtful and evil prospect makes it easy for him to deny their validity so soon ahead. as there is sufficient provocation. And it is Among the immediate consequences of this quar- scarcely necessary for him to find a substitute for rel, according to the reports which have been al- these principles of vested right that so fall away lowed to come through to the outside, is alleged to from him. be a total disorganization and collapse of the indus- It is true, these prescriptive rights, about whose trial system throughout the Russian dominions, in- maintenance and repair the whole quarrel swings cluding the transportation system and the food sup- and centers, do have the consistent support of those ply. From which has followed famine, pestilence, habits of thought that are engendered by experience and pillage, uncontrolled and uncontrollable. How- in business traffic; and business traffic is a very large ever, there are certain outstanding facts which it and consequential part of life as it runs in these will be in place to recall, in part because they are civilized countries. But business traffic is not the habitually overlooked or not habitually drawn on tone-giving factor in the life of the common man, for correction of the published reports. The Bol- nor are business interests his interests in so obvious shevist administration has now been running for a fashion as greatly to affect his habitual outlook. something over a year, which will include one crop Under the new order of things there is, in effect, a During this time it has been gaining widening gulf fixed between the business traffic and ground, particularly during the later months of this those industrial occupations that shape the habits of period; and this gain has been made in spite of a thought of the common man. The business com- very considerable resistance, active and passive, munity, who are engaged in this business traffic and more or less competently organized and more or less whose habitual attention centers on the rights of adequately supported from the outside. Meantime ownership and income, are consistent votaries of the the “infection ” is spreading in a way that does not old order, as their training and interest would dic- signify a lost cause. tate. And these are also immune against any sub All the while the administration has been carry. versive propaganda, however insidious, as has al- ing on military operations on a more or less extended ready been remarked above. Indeed, it is out of scale; and on the whole, and particularly through this division of classes in respect of their habitual the latter part of this period, its military operations outlook and of their material interests that the appear to have been gaining in magnitude and to whole difficulty arises, and it is by force of this divi have met with increasing success, such as would season. 1919 THE DIAL 177 sian transportation system is in sufficiently bad transport system; and, in spite of many reverses, it immediately in question here. Doubtless the Rus- argue a' more or less adequate continued supply of shape, but it can scarcely be in so complete a state of arms and munitions. These military operations collapse as had been reported, feared, and hoped by have been carried on without substantial supplies those who go on the information given out by the from the outside, so that the administration will standard news agencies. If one discounts the selec- have had to supply its warlike needs and replace its tively standardized news dispatches of these agen- wear and tear from within the country during this cies, one is left with an impression that the railway rather costly period. It has been said from time to system, for example, is better furnished with rolling- time, of course, that the Bolshevist administration stock and in better repair in European Russia than has drawn heavily on German support for funds and in Siberia, where the Bolshevist administration is material supplies during this period. It has been not in control. This may be due in good part to the said, but it is very doubtful if it has been believed. fact that the working personnel of the railways and Quite notoriously the Bolsheviki have lost more than their repair shops are Bolsheviki at heart, both in they have gained at the hands of the Germans. And Siberia and in European Russia, and that they have imports of all warlike supplies from any source have therefore withdrawn from the train service and re- been very nearly shut off. pair shops of the Siberian roads as fast as these roads Such information as has been coming through have fallen into non-Bolshevist hands, and have mi- from the inside, in the way of official reports, runs grated into Russia to take up the same work among to the effect that the needed supplies of war ma their own friends. terial, including arms and ammunition, have in the The transportation system does not appear to have main been provided at home from stocks on hand precisely broken down; the continuance of military and by taking over various industrial works and oper operations goes to show that much. Also, the crop ating them for war purposes under administrative year of 1918 is known to have been rather excep- control—which would argue that the industrial col tionally good in European Russia, on the whole, so lapse and disorganization cannot have been so com that there will be at least a scant sufficiency of food- plete or so far-reaching as had been feared, or hoped. stuff back in the country and available for those por- Indeed these reports are singularly out of touch and tions of the population who can get at it. Also, it out of sympathy with the Associated Press news will be noted that, by all accounts, the civilian popu- bearing on the same general topic. It appears, lation of the cities has fallen off to a fraction of its dimly, from the circumstantial evidence that the ordinary number, by way of escape to the open Bolshevist administration in Russia has met with country or to foreign parts. Those classes who somewhat the same surprising experience as the were fit to get a living elsewhere have apparently Democratic administration in America—that in spite escaped. In the absence of reliable information one of the haste, confusion, and blundering, incident to would, on this showing, be inclined to say that the taking over the control of industrial works, the remaining civilian population of the cities will be same works have after all proved to run at a higher made up chiefly, perhaps almost wholly, of such efficiency under administrative management than elements of the so-called middle classes as could not they previously have habitually done when managed get away or had nowhere to go with any prospect by their owners for private gain. The point is in of bettering their lot. These will for the most part doubt , it must be admitted, but the circumstantial have been trades people and their specialized em- evidence, backed by the official reports, appears on ployees, persons who are of slight use in any pro- ductive industry and stand a small chance of gaining Something to a similar effect will apparently hold a livelihood by actually necessary work. They be- true for the transportation system. The administra- long to the class of smaller “middle-men," who are tion has apparently been able to take over more of in great part superfluous in any case, and whose the means of transport than the Associated Press news would indicate, and to have kept it all in a business traffic has been virtually discontinued by the Bolshevist administration. These displaced more nearly reasonable state of repair. As is well small business men of the Russian cities are as use- known, the conduct of successful military opera- less and as helpless under the Bolshevist regime as tions today quite imperatively requires a competent nine-tenths of the population of the American coun- is apparently necessary to admit that the military try towns in the prairie states would be if the retail operations of the Bolshevist administration have on trade of the prairie states were reorganized in such the whole been successful rather than the reverse. a way as to do away with all useless duplication. difference the whole to go that way. The inference is plain, so far as concerns the point of Russia has discontinued much of the superfluous retail trade, whereas the democratic administration of America takes pains to safeguard the reasonable 178 February 22 THE DIAL profits of its superfluous retailers. Bolshevism is a all. The greater sympathy is, doubtless properly, menace to the retail trade and to the retailers. according to the accepted scheme of social values, Accordingly it is to be noted that when details given to the suffering members of the privileged and concrete instances of extreme hardship in the classes, the kept classes par excellence, but the cities are given, they will commonly turn out to be larger and more acute hardship doubtless falls to the hardships which have fallen on some member or share of the smaller trades-people. These, of class of what the Socialists call the Bourgeoisie, the course, are all to be classified with the vested in- middle class, the business community, the kept terests. But the common man also comes in for his classes—more commonly than anything of lower portion. He finally bears the cost of it all, and its social value or nearer to the soil. Those that be cost runs finally in terms of privation and blood. long nearer to the soil appear largely to have But it menaces also certain vested interests out- escaped from the cities and returned to the soil. side of Russia, particularly the vested rights of in- Now, on a cold and harsh appraisal such as the Ger vestors in Russian industries and natural resources, mans have made familiar to civilized people under as well as of concerns which have an interest in the the name of military necessity,” these “Bour Russian import and export trade. So also the vested geois are in part to be considered useless and in' rights of investors in Russian securities. Among part mischievous for all purposes of Bolshevism. the latter claimants are now certain governments Under the Bolshevist regime they are “undesirable lately associated with Russia in the conduct of the citizens," who consume without producing and who war, and more particularly the holders of Russian may be counted on to intrigue against the adminis imperial bonds. Of the latter many are French tration and. obstruct its operation whenever a chance citizens, it is said ; and it has been remarked that the offers. From which it follows, on a cold and harsh French statesmen realize the menace of Bolshevism calculation of "military necessity,” that whether perhaps even more acutely than the common run of the necessary supplies are to be had in the country those elder statesmen who are now deliberating on or not, and whether the transportation system is the state of mankind at large and the state of Rus- capable of handling the necessary supplies or not, it sian Bolshevism in particular. might still appear the part of wisdom, or of Bolshe But the menace of Bolshevism extends also to the vist expediency, to leave this prevailingly Bour common man in those other countries whose vested geois and disaffected civilian population of the cities interests have claims on Russian income and re- without the necessaries of life. The result would These vested rights of these claimants in be famine, of course, together with the things that foreign parts are good and valid in law and morals , go with famine; but the Bolsheviki would be in a and therefore by settled usage it is the duty of these position to say that they are applying famine selec foreign governments to enforce these vested rights tively, as a measure of defense against their enemies of their several citizens who have a claim on Rus- within the frontiers, very much as the nations of sian income and resources; indeed it is the duty of the Entente once were in a position to argue that the these governments, to which they are in honor exclusion of foodstuffs from Germany during the bound and to which they are addicted by habit, to war was a weapon employed against the enemies of enforce these vested claims to Russian income and resources by force of arms if necessary. And it is well known, and also it is right and good by law These considerations are, unhappily, very loose and custom, that when recourse is had to arms the and general. They amount to little better than common man pays the cost. cautious speculations on the general drift and upshot labor, anxiety, privation, blood and wounds; and by of things. On the evidence which has yet come to way of returns he comes in for an increase of just hand and which is in any degree reliable it would national pride in the fact that the vested interests be altogether hazardous, just yet, to attempt an which find shelter under the same national estab- analysis of events in detail. But it is at least plain lishment with himself are duly preserved from loss that Bolshevism is a menace to the vested interests, on their Russian investments. So that, by a at home and abroad. So long as its vagaries run their course within the Russian dominions it is pri- also a menace to the common man. roundabout process of production,” Bolshevism is marily and immediately a menace to the vested How it stands with the menace of Bolshevism in rights of the landowners, the banking establish- ments, the industrial corporations, and not least to the event of its infection reaching any other of the the retail traders in the Russian towns. civilized countries—as, for example, America of The last named are perhaps the hardest hit, because they France—that is a sufficiently perplexing problem to which the substantial citizens and the statesmen to have relatively little to lose and that little is their whose keeping the fortunes of the substantial citi- sources. the world's peace. He pays it in lost 1919 THE DIAL 179 The Poetry of Edmond Rostand dawn, had lived to see France victorious. zens are entrusted, have already begun to give their should come off indifferently well in such an event. best attention. They are substantially of one mind, But such a hasty view overlooks the great lesson of and all are sound on the main fact, that Bolshevism history that when anything goes askew in the na- is a menace; and now and again they will specify tional economy, or anything is to be set to rights, that it is a menace to property and business. And the common man eventually pays the cost and he with that contention there can be no quarrel. How pays it eventually in lost labor, anxiety, privation, it stands, beyond that and at the end of the argu blood, and wounds. The Bolshevik is the common ment, with the eventual bearing of Bolshevism on man who has faced the question: What do I stand the common man and his fortunes, is less clear and to lose? and has come away with the answer: is a less immediate object of solicitude. On scant Nothing. And the elder statesmen are busy with reflection it should seem that, since the the common arrangements for disappointing that indifferent hope. man has substantially no vested rights to lose, he THORSTEIN VEBLEN. Où Aleurit le Droit? tainly, he had done his share with the munificence Où luit la Raison ? of the spirit. Not only Cyrano, but all his plays C'est dans un endroit Nommé l'Horizon. and poems had been a rallying cry for those who despaired of the future. The celebrated Mais So sang Edmond Rostand in what was to be his quel geste” of Cyrano, after he has hurled his purse swan-song, published in the Mid-December number of the Revue des Deux Mondes only a few hours to the indigent players, is not merely panache, it is after his death. In 1897 he had became famous at also the act of faith of a generous and valiant soul. “Moi, c'est moralement que j'ai mes élégances,” a stroke. His heroic-comedy Cyrano de Bergerac had in the opinion of the critics given back to says Cyrano, and rightly. For it was to the moral France her birthright. conscience of his race that Rostand made his appeal. It was heralded as a re- Therefore, the lesson of the war is clear. The action against the depressing naturalistic drama and proclaimed as the beginning of a poem I have cited says “ Que devons-nous aux new literary epoch. Rendre leur mort féconde ”; and it tri- Quel bonheur,” exclaimed the critic of Le Temps, “ the play is graceful, it is clear, it has umphs with the lines: movement and measure, all of them qualities that · Qu'un peuple d'hier Meure pour demain, characterize our race.” Catulle Mendès, in a burst C'est à rendre fier of ecstasy, had called Rostand a great poet, divers, Tout le genre humain! multiple, heureux, follement inspiré, et prodige use Is there not discernible in the moment of Rostand's ment virtuose. More temperate voices either were death, as throughout his life, the shielding hand of drowned in this wave of general approval or re- Providence ? solved themselves into the peal of laughter which There is no doubt that he owed much to Fortune. greeted the absurd suit brought by a Chicago pundit Born at Marseilles (1868), he was educated in to show that Cyrano was plagiarized from the Paris at the College Stanislas. There is a Provençal Merchant Prince of Cornville. To all this we shall flavor to the tale that he urged his schoolmates to return presently . Let it be said now, without curl their mustaches before they had any—“ même derogation, that Rostand remains in death, as in si vous n'en avez pas.” At twenty-two he published life, the “poet of the horizon.” This is his dis- his first poems: Les Musardises. Dedicated to his tinction and his limitation. Like his own Chantecler bons amis les Ratés ” . [the unsuccessful], these he heralds the dawn, he does not-for he cannot, early verses have a freshness, a boldness and a lim- realize it. In passionate protest, the Lady-Pheasant Imme- pidity which made them popular at once. reproves the worthy Cock with: One is every diately after their publication he married Rosemonde thing for a heart, nothing for a horizon”; little did she know that his view was yet to triumph. In La Gérard, his companion in letters. The refusal of a one act comedy by the Comédie française was ac- Princesse Lointaine, the weakling Bertrand says to Mélissinde: '“I should fear too much to see the companied by the request for “another act," and a week later Rostand handed M. de Féraudy the şail on the horizon"-symbol that it is of Rudel's love and their betrayal of it. But the great war beginning of Les Romanesques. The performance also has its horizons. Rostand, the herald of the of the latter in 1894 at the Théâtre français estab- lished Rostand's position as a writer of verse-drama. Cer- But it was the two great actors of the Théâtre morts ? 180 February 22 THE DIAL cance. are. de la Renaissance, the Divine Sarah and Coquelin, action of the play lags; Rostand's favorite trick of who turned Rostand's budding fame into glory. La playing on words—le cliquetis des mots-is over- Princesse Lointaine, despite its dramatic third act done, and the disguise of the characters as birds and on which the masterful actress lavished all of her beasts hampers the actors in their movements. wonderful technique, was too subtle for “the stage Thus Cyrano de Bergerac remains the outstand- optics ” to win more than a succès d'estime. At ing production in Rostand's career and work. least, Sarcey's criticism was not favorable. Two Pellissier, who realized more clearly than the other years later, in La Samaritaine, Rostand treated a critics the epigonous character of Rostand's art, yet religious subject which was quite beyond his poetic cannot withhold from Cyrano the epithet of grasp. Thus it remained for Cyrano to produce the chef-d'oeuvre. It is true, strictly speaking, the play magic that opened the hearts of the world. Here has but one character and that character is a type the poet's gifts had full play. Revival to be sure, rather than a person. True too that the action yet what a revival! We can trust Rostand's words does not conform to genre as well as one would that the idea of recreating the story of Corneille's expect of one of Rostand's virtuosity; the fourth blustering but inspired contemporary had long been act comes close to opera-bouffe in spite of the tragedy slumbering in his mind. It was the contact with of Christian's death, while the fifth is in the tone of Coquelin and the desire to eternalize the actor in the sentimental romance. Nor can it be denied that play that impelled Rostand to put his idea into exe again and again the speeches are tours de force, cution. In this way Coquelin became Cyrano and clever and almost always scintillating, but often just Cyrano Coquelin. that. Still, as was indicated above, what makes the I wished to dedicate this poem to Cyrano's soul play is the complete adjustment of the modern lyric But since it has passed into you, Coquelin, to you I mood to the freedom, the gaiety, the bravado of the dedicate it. romanesque. For this reason it is so difficult, not to say impossi And the romanesque is not necessarily the “ro- ble, for any other actor to take the part. To the mantic.” Cyrano is no dark figure in cape and French, however, the play had also a deeper signifi- dagger like Hernani. He is not une force qui va, Granting that Cyrano is reminiscent of a man of destiny. None of Rostand's characters Gautier, Banville, and Hugo, we must not forget He is simply a frondeur, an individualist if that it was especially Rostand's footing in the seven you like, but with no ax to grind; a raté like so teenth century, the period of the Fronde, the age many of us, because of some physical or other de when France was really in the making, when the formity, but taking it gaily, humorously , poetically , French spirit still flowed free and untrammeled by with a sense of hope and freshness in his heart. In les règles du devoir and classical precepts, that ren- comparison, the lover Rudel in La Princesse Loin- dered the comedy what it is to the French. taine and the Duke of Reichstadt are sublimated The gratitude of France won for Rostand the creatures. Chantecler alone has Cyrano's valor, his croix de chevalier the very evening of the perform- willingness to sacrifice himself for a beautiful cause, And in 1903 he entered the portals of the and in addition his trust in the future. 'C'est que Academy with an address in which panache, the je suis le Coq d'un soleil plus lointain," Chantecler key-word of Cyrano, is wittily but euphuistically tells the doubting Pheasant. As for his song, his described : song of Light and the Day—“Je chante! . Plaisanter en face du danger, c'est la suprême politesse, c'est déjà la moitié du mystère." un délicat refus de se prendre au tragique; le panache est In Rostand, then, there is fancy rather than alors la pudeur de l'héroïsme, comme un sourire par lequel imagination. His lyricism is optimistic , wholesome, even buoyant. It would be a profanation to call The rest is quickly told. L'Aiglon, written to the so delicate a flower great. Moreover, he came to theme of Hugo's antithesis (l'Angleterre prit l'aigle literature via the consecrated channels of literary et l'Autriche l’aiglon), was the success of Sarah norms and formulas. Therein he is singularly Bernhardt's Hamletizing period, but for Rostand it French. His works bristle with near-quotations, marks a relapse into excessive Marivaudage. The 'princeling' is too shadowy a figure for a nation to as they abound in quotable lines. What French- whom Napoleon is an ever-present reality. As for man, fond of his literature, does not know the the long-awaited Chantecler—the performance of which was delayed by Coquelin's death—it too was Et ma raison s'endort au bruit sempiternel, Au bruit sempiternel des jets d'eau dans les vasques, a disappointment. True to French tradition as the animal world is, and deeply as Chantecler's hymn sentiment, always so close together that they sense and admire their beauty? Thus French wit and to the sun stirred the audience, nevertheless the to merge, are reborn in the works of Edmond Ros- ance. et verses: 1919 THE DIAL 181 Rogue's March: To a Flemish Air Coster as the central figure of a heroic romance, La tand. If others who are more materially minded “ Combien dans le médiocre où vivre nous enserre, Le sublime de cet amour m'est nécessaire." had forgotten the Gallic sources of inspiration—at least, not he. So the critics realized, and so felt Rostand, as we said at the beginning, is the “ poet the French nation. The Princesse Lointaine—that of the horizon," but of the eastern heavens, where true Princess of the Horizon—reminds her worldly the sun does not set but rises. lover: WILLIAM A. NITZE. Ir 15 IT IS A GENEROUS publishing season that to The and that this book has been recently translated into Education of Henry Adams and The Great Hunger our tongue by Geoffrey Whitworth. This much adds The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of it appears preferable to say as simply as possible Tyl Ulenspiegel (McBride; $2.50). Not often, and with frank egoism, because I am endeavoring one may assert, are thus coincidently given for the. to record my personal belief that an exceedingly first time to Americans three volumes with such a splendid and great-hearted example of literary art plausible air of being destined to longevity—al has for the first time been rendered into delight- though the cautious will affix to such assertion the fully adequate English; as likewise my belief that rider” that each book centers about a personality a masterpiece, such as I personally take this book to which is by way of being unfairly beguiling (in constitute, should be greeted simply, and reverently, that it is a personality evocative of the reader's and without vain speaking. Even to recommend” friendship, in the instant happy way in which peo it seems rather on a par with saying pleasant things ple between bookcovers are privileged to establish about a sunrise. such relations with beings less permanently bound So honest comment can but come back to this: in flesh) and so evades calm judgment. For to for Tyl Ulenspiegel himself one straightway estab- many of us these figure nowadays as new-found, lishes a sort of peculiarly personal liking, a liking heart-delighting, and eminently " personal ” friends, quite unbased on "literary values, and an un- this Ulenspiegel and this Peer Holm, come severally moralizing liking such as entraps you into indigna- from Belgium and Norway, and this wistful Adams, tion when the reforming Henry the Fifth re- lately freed from the decent reticences of living— pudiates that other not-unlovable rogue, Sir John so that we appraise them with the bias of friend Falstaff. "A Fleming I am,” says Tyl, “ from the ship, doubtless , rather than by any code of "literary" lovely land of Flanders , workingman, nobleman, . values. all in one—and I go wandering through the world, The' honest can but confess as much, and must praising things beautiful and good, but boldly mak- then pass on to further confession that of the in ing fun of foolishness.” So does Tyl describe him- triguing trio one finds Tyl Ulenspiegel the most dif- self, and the description is apt, as far as it reaches, ficult to judge with any pretense of equity, because but is overmodestly incommensurate to the speaker's this Tyl is so frankly a rogue. It would be pleasant variousness. here to digress into speculation as to why in English Thus Tyl can be upon occasion a very pretty literature there should be so few rogues portrayed fightingman indeed, performing salutary homicides full-length; and above all, as to why Anerica, that with heroic thoroughness. Here is a random taste ' in daily life derives such naive pleasure from being of his quality: and far-seeing Ulenspiegel took careful aim, and with his bullet statesmen,” should have produced in its writings no shattered the tongue and the entire jawbone of Don really memorable rogue, with the possible exception Ruffele Henricis, son of the Duke. At the same time of Uncle Remus' Brer Rabbit. But, upon the whole, Ulenspiegel brought down the son of the Marquess Delmares, and in a little while more the eight ensigns appears preferable to say quite simply that Tyl and the three cohorts of cavalry were thoroughly worsted. Ulenspiegel has been for some five centuries famed The prisoners imagined that some angel from heaven, who was also a fine marksman, had descended from the among the people of Belgium and the Nether- sky to aid them, and they all fell upon their knees. lands as a sort of Dutch Figaro or Scapin—as Such a deduction was natural enough, to illiterate * mischief-maker, jack-of-all-trades, and by turn prisoners; but the erudite will recognize forthwith fool , artist, valet and physician"; that this char- the authentic manner of a national hero; for thus acter was appropriated and ennobled by Charles de it was that Roland laid about him at Roncesvaux, Légende de Tiel Uylenspiegel, published in 1867, and in very much this fashion did Achilles choke Scamander with slain Trojans. and since known as “ the Bible of the Flemings”; So much of physical prowess one fas the fair and cheated by “fine business men it 182 February 22 THE DIAL ancient right to expect of a national hero. But Tyl Ulenspiegel does not slink, not even into draw- quite another facet of the jewel is the roguish, not ing morals; instead, with chance for guide, he at all“ heroic " Tyl who delights in jokes that are marches. For those who would wrong him his not always pre-eminent for delicacy. Then, too, eye and tongue and sword stay equally keen, and although Tyl is—of course--devotedly attached to the rogue knows these weapons to be in the long the fair Nele, and their marriage at the end of his run sufficient; meanwhile, that there should be over- wanderings is a foregone conclusion, nobody can 'ex troublesome fellows to be killed now and then is pect a rogue meticulously to emulate Joseph. And as naturally a part of wandering as that there Tyl, be it repeated, is frankly a rogue. One there should everywhere be girls to be kissed and flagons fore must regard with equanimity thc Walloon to be emptied, and songs to be made beyond any maiden to whose house Tyl went to sing some numbering, but never the last song. So the rogue Flemish love-songs which, what with one thing and marches and puts all things to their proper uses. another, were not ended until midnight. Then And the heart of the reader, given something better there was the beautiful, gay-hearted dame whom Tyl than the heart of a flea, goes out to this resistless guided to Dudzeel; in all dealings with young men rogue. she abhorred in particular the sin of cruelty, and so It is around this sprightly figure that De Coster Tyl left her with Alushed cheeks but not displeased. has woven (cotemporaneously, it is bewildering to Moreover, there was the Comtesse de Meghen, an reflect, with the weaving of a dreary mystery about other benevolent lady,' who offered Ulenspiegel hos one Edwin Drood) a romance as cruel as life and pitality, in the to him inadequate form of ham and considerably gayer. Somewhat to deviate meta- bruinbier. “Ham!” he cried, “ that is good to eat, phorically, in this tale of fifteenth century Flanders and bruinbier is a drink divine. But blessed above under the yoke of Spain and the Holy Inquisition, all men shall that man be to whom it is given to De Coster has builded a story that is not unlike a dine off thy loveliness.” How the fellow does time-mellowed cathedral, with the gentry about their run on!” she exclaimed; and then: “Eat first, you devotions, and with peasants joking on the porches, rogue! Shall we not say grace 'ere we con and with a stately organ music accompanying both sume all these dainties? ” said Ulenspiegel. “Nay,” aspiration and laughter; a cathedral, too, that is no answered the lady; and presently congratulated Tyl, less opulent in glowing paintings than in captivat- as in nothing resembling her husband. In fine, Tyi ingly hideous gargoyles. And here again one is marches, in the pride of youth, about a world of tempted to expatiate concerning these gargoyles as, brightly colored and generous women, and graces a say, upon the chapter that depicts the death of world wherein he displays as much continence as Charles the Fifth and his trial in heaven; or per- appears consistent with politeness, and wherein haps upon Tyl's hunting of the werwolf; or else Joseph, in the final outcome, could not manage to to dwell upon that really intolerable "catharsis by combine these virtues. pity and terror," when Katheline the good vitch So likewise this rogue marches, with chance for attempts to share her cup of cold water with Joos guide, about a world that even then was ruled by Damman in the torture chamber—although this last folly and bigotry; and he treads blithely, as be is a stroke of genius with which perhaps no ar thor a master of the merry words and frolics of has the right to unsettle his reader. youth,” in shadowed places where his gibbeted Yes, one is tempted to expatiate. But once nore kindred swing between him and the sun. For the it appears.preferable to remember that a master vork. ashes of a martyred father lie upon Tyl's breast should be greeted simply, and reverently, and vith- without at all oppressing a heart whose core is out vain speaking. roguishness. Therefore in the presence of injustice JAMES BRANCH Cabei L. 66 fits“ 1 Bridges A hundred bridges over the river- And never a bridge to you, Not one. Ah, but was it a river- The deep, dark hole where they took you, Too deep, too far, too dark For a bridge! A hundred bridges over the river, And not one bridge to you! ANNETTE WYNNE, 1919 183 THE DIAL Letters to Unknown Women The AMARYLLIS OF THEOCRITUS i tired eyes. our AMARYLLIS: imagination; but for that very reason you burn like You cannot have known, O white violet of Si a flame before us, you seduce us, you entrance us, cilia, that immeasurable tedium and exhaustion you are mysterious as a flower, you are the un- which weighs upon those who endure today the known. In the midst of our incredible helplessness tyranny of existence. Certainly the poet who cre your beauty makes one clear ray. Because, for ated you from his yearning for the valleys of Sicily your sake, the singers contended upon the slopes of in the dust and clatter of Alexandria would under Aetna, among the still valleys, beside the cold stand us, but you, whom he created free from that brooks, life is not utterly valueless to us. malady, saw life with eyes not feverish as ours are. For your sake the first narcissus of the year It is your exquisite animality, with perfect freedom catches our hearts with a sudden new beauty; be- from self-consciousness, which makes us love you. cause of you the five-petaled roses along our north- Your presence is 'as soothing to our wearied des ern hills become doubly lovely. With such roses perate souls as white violet petals pressed against you bound your dark hair; such narcissus flowers you laid upon the altars of your half-gods. And We are not of those who, by some sudden deed through you also we understand the correspondence or by a life of activity, impress their personality between love and flowers, we feel suddenly the upon centuries. We think in millions and act in presence of gods. We stagger through life blindly; millions; we know with only too dread a certainty we fumble among half-perceptions, half-desires. that each and every one of our acts is imitated, un But with the dear melody of your speech in our consciously and precisely, by thousands about us. ears there are moments when the world becomes We have just a slim thread of that divine common clear. We perceive for a flash that there is more sense your Athenians called Pallas,” which pre truth in your simplicity than in the subtilty of all vents our falling into uncouth extravagances or dis- earned men and women. We come to value sonant obstinacies, as some do, to avoid the banality kindness and simplicity above almost all other of this vast mediocrity. We are cut off from almost qualities. You give us, just for a moment, the every exercise of talent or power which would power to reach that blitheness which for you was satisfy us. Who speaks of Euripedes to the Beo natural, for us an effort. We are seduced-yes, literally seduced by a glimpse of brown breasts and We are driven back upon a form of existence by a snatch of shrill song—from our gloomy strug- which has been named "the life of imagination' gle, our perpetual fronting of grim unknown a weak substitute for that bright burning life you forces. Our universe shrinks from an overwhelm- lived a life we liken from our darkness to a clear ing vastness to your pastoral shores; our desperate gold flame. It seems the only existence compatible fever yields to the touch of your hand. We see that with calm and intelligence, two qualities you could there is more beauty in one wreath of your perfect, not fail to appreciate. But even the exercise of that conventional flowers than in all our intellectual faint simulacrum of your intensity is denied us now. striving. We leave the great gods for the less, con- We had willingly abandoned most of those actions tent to realize that indeed there is a spirit in an oak and possessions which men consider desirable, șo and a white girl in a brook rather than to search that we might possess full liberty within that vaguely for the “ deus ignotus.” shadowy but vast world which was ours. But There was a learned man of our country who was through a disastrous sequence of events which no so stirred by your poets that he spent many months wisdom could foresee or cunning provide for, we alone in your woods and saw the white nymphs are deprived even of that which we had, and are Aitting from tree to tree, heard with awe the rush abandoned helpless, or nearly so, to the vulgar in- of Artemis' hounds and the sough of her shafts stincts of mob passion and control. Ah, Amaryllis , through the pine boughs , watched the daughter of those who gave Socrates the hemlock were merci- the Earth-Shaker sitting at night upon weeded ful; and did Hyacinthus die today, we should feel rocks above cool water. His name I have forgot- through our sorrow a kind of gladness and grati- ten; I have never seen the strange book he wrote ; it We know, O Sicilian, that your life was impos- knew that he also is your lover and knows the a dream, that you are the product of a sick Sicilian singing. RICHARD ALDINGTON. tians? tude to that jealous blast of wind. sible, 184 February 22 THE DIAL Louis Couperus and the Family Novel THE FAMILY novel as distinguished from the heroic lives from the end of the Napoleonic era through has an equally honorable lineage. Undoubtedly the four generations of births, marriages, scandals, and first principle of structure recognized in fiction was deaths. The center of this life is the family business, the persistence of the hero, usually in a series of in the old Hanseatic city of Lubeck, and the family enterprises which took him far from home; but fortune. Though Lubeck was out of the main cur- when the chronicler of a more sophisticated day rent of events, scarcely shaken by the Revolution of sought to deal with man in society, he naturally 1848, and prudently avoiding the fate of Frankfort chose as his unit the immediate form of grouping in 1866, it affords an excellent vantage ground known to him, and we have the family dramas of whence to follow the development of Germany the House of Atreus and the House of Oedipus. politically, economically, culturally. The Budden- When the novel succeeded in modern times to the brooks did not keep up with this expansion; they place of the epic we have the same opposition. were small people, well fitted to play their part with Early novels followed the simple heroic type. In dignity in old Germany, quite unfit for it in the deed, in the popular form of the picaresque novel new. They perished in sign that the old Germany the hero was separated from his forebears as soon had passed away. after birth as was consistent with survival—what do Couperus has chosen another pattern: he has we hear of the family of Lazarillo de Tormez or arranged his characters, also four generations, like Moll Flanders ?--and proceeded to weave for him stars in their orbits about the ancient mother of self a pattern of adventure quite independent of the race, Mamma van Lowe, widow of a former organized society. With greater sophistication on Governor General of Java, who lives alone in her the part of the novelist the family background plays mansion at the Hague, and draws her family about an increasingly important role. The first part of her every Sunday night. These reunions recur Pamela is of the heroic type: the second part of if us, throughout the four volumes and remind the family. Fielding after Joseph Andrews and need were, of the fact that this multitude of small Tom Jones achieved a family novel in Amelia. In souls lives chiefly in the family. There is Bertha, Tristam Shandy the flagrant omission of the hero the eldest daughter, married to van Naghel van leaves what pattern there is to be supported by the Voorde, Secretary for the Colonies, the only one of Shandy family. In the nineteenth century 'the her children who recalls to Mamma van Lowe her romantic novel tended toward the heroic, with its own former state —and her children, Otto, and picaresque variant; the novel of manners toward Louise, Henri and Emilie, Marietje and Marianne the family type. Jane Austen set her heroines in and Karel—the fourth generation appearing in families; and in Thackeray families' persist from Otto's children. There is Adolphine Saetzema, novel to novel, giving a sense of social fabric to the whole of his work. In The Newcomes, indeed, eager to rival her sister's position with only an under secretary for husband, and an unkempt brood he gives a family the power of a chief and determin of girls and boys. There is Gerrit, Captain of ing character—a position analogous to Nature in Hussars, married to plump bread-and-butter Adeline Thomas Hardy—and it may be said comes near to who has brought him nine children; there is Karel creating a family novel in the true sense. who lives in selfish sloth with his stupid wife Only with the artistic concentration and technical Cateau; and Paul, the exquisite; and Ernst, the self-consciousness of very modern work do we reach connoisseur; and Dorine, who Aits about, messen- the true family novel—that in which hero and hero ger of the family. And there is Constance, bright- ine disappear as types and are merged in the back- ground, and their family group becomes the recog- est star of all, who had married her father's friend De Staffelaer, ambassador at Rome, and then shot nizable entity in which the characters live and move and have their being. One does not readily find madly from her sphere into intrigue, scandal, and divorce; had been raised thence only by a marriage examples of such concentration and self-conscious- ness in English fiction, but two instances in con- of reparation with her lover Henri Van der Welcke, tinental fiction emerge-Buddenbrooks by Thomas and who comes at the opening of the first volume Mann and Books of the Small Souls by Louis glory and in remote orbit , among her sisters and with her son Addie to revolve again, with tarnished Couperus. (Small Souls, The Later Life , Twilight brothers. There is Mamma van Lowe's brother , of Souls, and Dr. Adriaan, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos-Dodd Mead; $1.75.) In the Uncle Ruyvenaer, and his half-caste family with former the family lives though the characters die- their East Indian words and ways and food; and her two old sisters, the Aunts Rina and Tina who, 1919 THE DIAL 185 (6 different characters, each responding with a single deaf and half-witted, sit on Sunday evenings at quality as recognizable as that of a musical instru- opposite sides of the conservatory door, and shriek ment–in the clear, boyish honesty of Addie, in the scandal. whining gossip of Karel and Cateau, in the vindic- So resolute is Couperus in the enforcement of tive jealousy of Adolphine, in the selfish caution his formula that scarcely a person is mentioned who of Bertha, in the screams of the ancient aurits. The is not of the van Lowes or connected with them Later Life is built on themes of passion, the tender by marriage or domestic service. We hear of the wistful love of Henri van der Welcke for Marianne world of people only as it looks on the family drama van Naghel, and of Constance for Brauws-loves or comments and gossips. Like the Buddenbrooks, more pitful because born of small souls and destined the van Lowes are little people, living out the life to such brief bloom. And these themes again are of a family the initiative impulse of which has sounded by character after character as in strings, passed away. And yet, through them we feel the woodwinds, and brasses. The Twilight of Souls very essential things in Dutch life and culture, not is a madness—Ernst going mad with fear for the historically, through the development of an epoch souls imprisoned in his vases, Gerrit, the brawny of political creation, but statically, as befits a nation hussar, with horror of the great fat worm, a retired from business and living in the suburbs of beastly crawling thing which rooted with its legs the world, intent on its own comfort and well-being. in his back and slowly ate him up, the damned Now and then there comes a breath from over-seas, rotten thing." The two strains mingle and respond from the Indies, reminiscent of the adventuring days -Ernst's thin, anxious, treble, and Gerrit's deep, of the race and the glory of the family when Grand tortured bass, which falls at least into broken, papa van Lowe was Governor General in his palaces childish quavers and finally to silence. And in Dr. at Batavia, and Buitenzorg; reminiscent also of the Adriaan there is weariness and calm-soft with sub- source of the income which gives the nation and dued pathos and monotonous melancholy. The old the family their patent of respectability as of the themes are recalled and repeated but they have lost leisure class. But this only serves to emphasize by their tragic import. Nothing matters—nothing but contrast the dull montony of the world in which And at the end the old Mamma van Lowe they live. We feel the ease and well-bred indolence, dies. It is a symphony pathetique, with its four the triviality and mechanical precision of life, the massive subjects, sin, love, madness, rest, rendered lack of creation and ambition, the morbid fatigue in four movements—allegro non troppo, andante which takes possession of the consciousness. There cantabile, scherzo feroce, and adagio lamentoso. is no career for the boys to choose except in one of As the human background of Dutch life and in- the various routines; there is none for the girls terests is implicit in the Books of Small Souls, so except to marry into one. There is no outlet for without formal description the Dutch landscape is artistic impulse except Ernst's collection of bibelots everywhere present, its flatness and humility in and Paul's effort to keep himself clean. When physical congruity with the beings that crawl upon Emilie and her brother Henri revolt and flee to the it. And the weather is a perpetual reminder of the Bohemia of Paris, it is to a bizarre mockery of art; melancholy of the Northland. The first words of she paints fans and he becomes a clown. On such Small Souls are: “It was pouring with rain,” the a stage the motives and passions sink to a Lilliputian rain in which Dorine had gone about to collect her scale. Couperus has written a family novel brothers and sisters for Constance's home coming. of small souls clinging pitifully together; he has It was raining at the beginning of The Twilight of written likewise a national novel, an argument Souls when Dorine appears to summon Gerrit to against the right of self-determination of small Ernst's help. It was raining when Constance went nations. to Driebergen to be forgiven by Henri's dying Among these characters it is impossible to say that mother: any one has preeminence, nor is there any sustained plot. The personal title makes Dr. Adriaan, Con- It had rained steadily for days upon the dreary wintry trees, out of a sky that hung low but tremendously wide stance's son Addie, the hero of the last volume, as The and heavy, as oppressive as a pitiless darkness. throughout he has been the rising hope of the family, day was almost black. It was three o'clock, but it was but even here his emphasis is not unduly great. In- night; and the rain, grey over the road and grey over the houses and gardens, was black over the misty landscapes stead of a plot, or a predominance of character, which could be dimly descried through the bare gardens. Couperus has elaborated a structure depending on The dreary trees looked dead and lived only in the de- the recurrence of themes as in a symphony. Small spairing gestures of their branches when a wind, howling Souls begins with the sin of Constance, brought up from the distance, blew through them and moved them. home to her after twelve years as she rejoins the It was mist through which the stricken Gerrit family circle, and this theme is sounded through the wandered while the worm ate deeper into his back: The clouds seemed to be bending over the town in pity, an immense, yearning pity which turned into a desperate rest. 186 February 22 THE DIAL melancholy while Gerrit hurried along with his great The Small Souls series is not the only example strides; the wintry trees lifted their crowns of branches that Couperus has given us of the family novel. in melancholy despair; the rooks cawed and circled in swarms; the bells of the tram-cars tinkled as though In Old People and Things that Pass (translated by muffled in black crepe; the few pedestrians walked stiffy Alexander Teixeira de Mattos—Dodd Mead; and unnaturally; he met ague-stricken black-clad figures with sinister, spectral faces: they passed him like so many $1.75) two characters detach themselves more de- ghosts; and all around him, in the vistas of the woods, cisively from the background than any in Small rose a clammy mist in which every outline of houses, Souls, the old grandmother Dercksz, and her lover trees and people was blurred into a shadowy unreality. Takma. But these figures are static, fixed as the It is wind and cloud which emphasize the pathos of result of the spell laid on them by their crime; the the humble landscape at the beginning of Dr. action of the story evolves in the learning of this Adriaan: crime by their descendants, and the learning that The afternoon sky was full of thick dark clouds, drift- the others know. Slowly and fatally the guilty ing ponderously grey over almost black violet; clouds so secret which has been kept for sixty years makes its dark, heavy and thick that they seemed to creep labor- way until the circle is complete. By virtue of this iously upon the east wind, for all that it was blowing hard. In its breath the clouds now and again changed plot the novel is more concentrated than Small their weary outline, before their time came to pour down Souls, and the characters are presented with a in heavy straight streaks of rain. The stiff pine-woods quivered, erect and anxious, along the road; and the bolder outline, physically and spiritually. There is tops of the trees lost themselves in a silver-grey air hard- no portrait in Small Souls of such definiteness as ly lighter than the clouds and dissolving far and wide this of Anton Dercksz, whose aged sensuality has under all that massive grey-violet and purple-black which seemed so close and low. The road ran near and went taken refuge in his mind. winding past, lonely, deserted and sad. It was as though it came winding out of low horizons and went on towards He grinned, with a broad grin. He sat there, big and low horizons, dipping humbly under very low skies, and heavy; and the folds and dewlaps of his full, yellow-red only pine-trees still stood up, pointed, proud and straight, cheeks thrilled with pleasure at her outburst; the ends of when everything else was stooping. The modest villa- his grey-yellow moustache stood straight up with merri- residence, the smaller poor dwellings here and there ment; and his eyes with their yellow irises gazed pen- stooped under the heavy sky and the gusty wind; the sively at his sister, who had never been of the flesh. shrubs dipped along the roadside; and the few people What hadn't she missed, thought Anton, in scoffing con- who went along-an old gentleman; a peasant-woman; tempt, as he sat bending forward. His coarse-fisted hands two poor children carrying a basket and followed by a lay like clods on his thick knees; and the tops of his melancholy, big, rough-coated dog-seemed to hang their Wellington boots showed round under the trouser-legs. heads low under the solemn weight of the clouds and His waistcoast was undone; so were the two top buttons the fierce mastery of the wind, which had months ago blown the smile from the now humble, frowning, pensive of his trousers, and Stefanie could just see his braces. landscape. The soul of that landscape appeared small On the other hand the natural background is en- and all forlorn in the watery mists of the dreary winter. tirely suppressed. Once more a single family is It is snow which falls like a pall and marks the sufficient to itself-except Takma almost the only bitter peace of the winter of souls. intruder is Dr. Roelofsz, and he by sharing the Days had come of endless Alaking snow; and the hard knowledge of the crime has likewise shared in the frost kept the snow tight-packed in the garden, alongside love of the woman who inspired it. Again through the house, the silent, massive building whose thick white a single family we gain a vivid impression of Dutch lines stood out against the low bending show-laden skies: one great greyness from out of which the grey of the snow life, its local concentration varied by a sterile cosmo- fell with a sleepy whirl until it was caught in the grip of politianism—Therese, one of the daughters, is a the frost and turned white, describing the outlines of nun at Paris; Ottilie, a granddaughter, lives with villa-houses and the branching silhouettes of black and dreary trees with round soft strokes of white. The road her Italian lover at Nice. As in Small Souls the in front of the house soon soiled its whiteness with cart- structure is musical—the variations of the theme tracks and footprints; and with the snow there fell from of antique crime as it is sounded in the characters, the sky, like so much grey wool, the pale melancholy of a winter in the country, all white decay and white lone- quavering in the strings, sobbing and groaning in liness: days so short that it seemed as though the slow the winds and brasses; with passages of tender hours slept and, when awake, but dragged their whiter veils from grey dawn to grey, twilight, so that dawn joy—as where the great great grandmother em- might once again be turned to night. And the short days braces the babies, the fourth generation of her body were like white nights, sunless, as though the light were -alternating with those of horror when she sees shining through velvet, velvet cold as the breath of death, the breath of death itself, striking down and embracing with her terrible second sight the form of her mur. all things in its chill velvet. dered husband. That Couperus should have solved As the characters appear like musical instruments so completely the artistic problem of the family in an orchestral composition, so such passages as novel in the four books of Small Souls is a wonder- ful achievement: that he should have repeated the these represent the great bursts of sound of the performance in a single volume marks him as a organ, more frequent and sustained and overwhelm technician of the highest power—a virtuoso. ing as the finale comes to its close. ROBERT Morss LOVETT. 1919 187 THE DIAL The League and the Instinct for Competition IN A MOMENT of relaxation, and distinctly not for Even though it is now economic instead of military, publication, a well-known defender of corporations already it is compressing seriously the idealistic from the Sherman Anti-Trust Law said to me re hopes for the League of Nations. Every European cently: "I have come at last, after ten years of country, great and small, is literally "on its toes" fighting it, to perceive that the Sherman Law repre with economic ambition made all the more for- sents a more or less permanent instinct in the com midable by a national integration heightened enor- mon run of American people. I do not believe it mously by the war. There are going to be a great will ever be repealed, and I believe it is hopeless to many disappointed intellectuals everywhere, even fight it.” Occasional appearances before Congres- under the most favorable outcome, because the new sional Committees, the Federal Trade Commission, nationalistic aspirations, freed and stimulated by the and other bodies to debate matters involving the passing of autocracy, turn instinctively to economic principles of competition have given me inklings of contest, to economic self-determination. In a com- the truth and profundity of this opinion. The mass petition between instinct and brains, popular instinct of men are combative and competitive in instinct, will inevitably be the master, since in a democracy and they distrust and fear any and all combinations, it usually gets its way. And that popular instinct even government centralization of power. They for competition is not ready, I fear, for the national- feel safest when they buy from small competitors istic sacrifices necessary for an economically inte- vying with each other; they revel in contest in all grated world—for competitions of a more sublimated matters political and commercial; in athletics and kind. in love. The very doom of autocracy consists to a As a matter of fact it may safely be predicted certain extent in its fixity and lack of contest. There that the intelligent constructive minds of the world, are no excitements in America equal to those in in their work for a League of Nations of broad spired by four typical competitions—a presidential scope inclusive of the all-important economic ele- election, business, baseball, and until recent years ments, will now run up against a veritable unwritten the pugilistic championship. The cockfight and Sherman Anti-Trust Law among the peoples of the counter revolutions in Mexico, bullfights in Spain, world. In other words, the universal human in- politics in England, bristling war preparation and stinct for competition and against organized com- economic penetration in Germany—these have been binations will very likely stubbornly balk the forma- elemental competitive matters closest to the common tion of what might be the great master combination heart. Average mankind adores competition; is un of all history, in the same manner and for the same easy without it; hugs it, indeed, with almost the reasons that the antiquated and stupid Sherman Law love of a tippler for his flask! has balked wise and honest combination in America. America is very especially addicted to competi The common run of people and nations do not tion, because of its individualistic traditions. The believe what they do not see; do not trust organiza- feud and turmoil between politics and business in tions because they are abstract. Only the Germans, the past twenty years have been due largely, I verily with their genius for abstraction, could thoroughly believe, to the collision between the inveterate in visualize even the State. It has taken the war to stinct for competition on the part of the common teach other countries nationalism. And, though it people and the natural tendency of brains to appre- ciate cooperation and combination. There is no has also taught some internationalism, it is without the same enthusiasm. The individual—whether immediate hope that America will change greatly or nation-remains the most dramatic and in this respect, nor is there any indication that com- petition between nations after the war will be less effective unit on the stage of consciousness, because the common man knows how an individual feels On the contrary there are and moves and does. A great corporation is a many signs of a strongly renascent nationalism. It logarithmic abstraction to the common intelligence, is well, therefore, to introduce a note of caution hated and distrusted because it is both superhuman in the high hopes of idealists and intellectuals for approaching a millennium through the gateway of a and often inhuman. A League of Nations will be a veritable fourth dimension conception to the aver- League of Nations or after-the-war reconstruction. age mind, and whatever part of its logical scope and There is an impending tragedy in the develop outline will finally be agreed upon will need desper- me he now growing before our eyes—the sharpening ately to be “sold” and kept “sold” continuously to up of the instinct for competition among nations. the people of the world if it is not to suffer the man than before the war. 188 February 22 THE DIAL disaster of innocuous desuetude or worse. Strong race or nation; (2) struggle with other races or counteracting efforts will be necessary to remove the nations; (3) struggle against conditions of life. The curse of abstraction from such a League and give war has knit individual nations and races into it some of the strength arising from competitive in- amicable, effective units as never before. Can now centives. The streams of competition are already. this new and vivid sense of economic self-determina- racing through the national sluiceways with a swirl tion and economic rivalry among individual nations that will rise to a roar of elemental power as soon and races be carried upward and diverted to the as all the dams of war are removed. This most for- international ends of a logical League of Nations midable commercial and industrial nationalism, for universal amelioration of conditions of life, in- which is mobilizing itself within all such nations stead of wasteful competition between groups? It is as have remaining any mobilizing power whatever, indeed doubtful. Even amidst the most earnest co- must now, if ever, be led toward constructive inter- operation of nations for war and under dire national competitions. necessity, the nationalistic feelings, prides, pre- The present policy of individual nations is essen judices, and jealous self-consciousness of the tially one of economic self-determination, or as our various nations have at least unmistakably indi- Department of Commerce reports it—the word in cated their presence, even if not obstructively. itself is a condemnation—"economic self-sufficiency.” The one pivotal decision of the war—unity of As such it represents virtually a nationalistic prep- military command—was almost fatally delayed aration for economic battle; represents a conviction by this instinct for competition, this distrust that nations must hereafter be not more, but less of combination. He is a bold man who will predict dependent upon any other nation or group of nations. that with the weight of war once off his chest, the Never again, such nations virtually proclaim, shall average man's instinct will not again take him to we be surprised in a condition of dependence upon his' tipple, his delusion of competition, which cares other nations for vital "key" products. Social cost much less for efficiency and logic and wise equilib- and international efficiency and logical subdivision of rium than for a good fight. (Fabre has abundantly world tasks are as nothing in this intense national proved how little instinct has to do with reason.) istic view. Except that it is economic, the spirit of The fact that he is sick of bayonet and gunpowder this resolve is nevertheless militaristic in principle, battle does not make him any the less keen for battle even though purely defensive. It is flatly antag of goods and markets and price; in fact, by contrast, onistic in spirit to the principle of a World State it has made him very especially keen for it—not real- and disarmament, and as such breathes the same old izing in his fatuity that he may merely make certain instinct for competition; comprises, in unwritten another round of the old, old human savagery. essence, a universal Sherman Anti-Trust Law stand The League of Nations must be made successful ing in the way of a real League of Nations. It much after the manner of any great organization, amounts to the substitution of economic armament by the use of rivalry and enthusiasm for common for military armament. ends, kept skilfully in sight; by the most minute tech- It is doubly formidable, and withal contradictory, nical pains and coordinative ability. It must produce in that it aims to use the powerful tool of internal something which the common man wants, and lose combination to attain nationalism following the plan no opportunity to advertise itself to him in terms of German state-foștered combinations for com he can understand. It is with no disrespect either peting with other nations. England is earnestly to the League of Nations or to business—a business urging her industries to combine as a national unit proposition, pure and simple. It must enter very to meet the foreign competitor, saying that England's prosaically into the workaday endeavors of nations industries, disunited, cannot meet world competition, and show them its specific advantages in 'even a but united, can. We thus have combination along salesmanlike manner. It was with some such com- national lines to combat other national or inter- bination of vision, optimism, and practicality that national combinations-an infinitely more effective Morgan, after Carnegie announced his vigorous trigger for war explosions than disorganized indi- competitive program, showed the steel industry the vidual competition, because it represents industrial mobilization of nations for international aggression. Practical program—and showed also a clear picture value of combining, by chart, statistic, hard sense, State-fostered as such effort must necessarily be, it of the disintegrating alternatives. The League of will virtually duplicate the old Germany in spiritual Nations must become part of the daily desk and principle, and invite fatal trials of strength. The struggle for existence has always been three- bench labors of man or remain merely a trailing cloud of intellectual glory. fold: (1) struggle between individuals of the same J. GEORGE FREDERICK. 1919 THE DIAL 189 diagnosis; and that perhaps one would wisely look the critic's undertaking to name and analyze this redundancy and to ascertain the degree in which Possessor and Possessed The work of Mr. John Gould Fletcher has Unfortunately, this undertaking, in the present hardly attained the eminence in contemporary poetry state of psychology—and criticism is a branch of that it deserves. One is doubtful, indeed, whether psychology—is as yet highly speculative; it borders, it will. For not only is it of that sort which in indeed, in the opinion of many, on the mythological. evitably attracts only a small audience, but it is also . Criticism of this sort must be, confessedly, supposi- singularly uneven in quality, and many readers who titious. Thus in the case of Mr. Fletcher we shall would like Mr. Fletcher at his best cannot muster perhaps find the most suggestive light cast from a the patience to read beyond his worst. Mr. direction which to many literary folk is highly Fletcher is his own implacable enemy. He has not suspect—from psychology itself. Kostyleff, it will yet published a book in which his excellent qualities be recalled, maintains that a very important part of are single, candid, and undivided : a great many the mechanism of poetic inspiration rests in the dead leaves are always to be turned. . The reward automatic discharge of verbal reflexes—the initial for the search is conspicuous, but unfortunately it impulse coming from some external stimulus, but is one which few will take the trouble to find. the chain of verbal association thereafter unraveling Mr. Fletcher's latest book, The Tree of Life more or less of its own momentum, and leading, as (Macmillan; $1.50) is no exception to this rule: far as any connection of thought or emotion is con- it is perhaps, if we leave out of account his five early cerned, well beyond the premises of the original books of orthodox and nugatory self-exploration, stimulus. Of course Kostyleff does not limit him- the most remarkably uneven of them all. It has self to this. He grants that it is only a peculiar neither the level technical excellence, the economical sensibility which will store up, as in the case of a terseness of his Japanese Prints, nor, on the other poet, such a wealth of verbal reflexes: and he grants hand, the amazing flight of many pages in Goblins further that there is often—though not always- and Pagodas. Yet certainly one would rather have the initial stimulus from without. For our part, as it than Japanese Prints; and even if it contains a soon as we apply this engaging theory to the work greater proportion of dross than is to be found in of poets, we see that certain aspects of it are more the symphonies , it has compensating qualities, quali- illuminating in some cases than others; in other ties which one feels are new in the work of Mr. words, that while the principle as a whole is true Fletcher, and which make one hesitate to rate it too of all poets, in some poets it is one factor which is far below Goblins and Pagodas, or, at any rate, more important, and in some another. It is true, Irradiations. For the moment, however, it is in for example, that Mr. Fletcher has a very original to set aside these new qualities and to sensibility, and it is also true that his initial stimulus consider, or savor, the astonishing unequalness sometimes comes from without, but whereas in the which alone would constitute a sort of distinction in work of certain other poets these factors might be the work of Mr. Fletcher. It is the custom in paramount, in the case of Mr. Fletcher the striking such cases to say that the poet has no self-critical feature has always been his habit of surrendering faculty, and to let it go at that. But that explana himself, almost completely, to the power of these tion is of a general and vague character, and automatically unraveling verbal reflexes. In fact operates only under the fallacy that any such com- the poetry of Mr. Fletcher is as remarkable an il- plex is reducible to the terms of a single factor. It lustration of this principle as one could find. should be clear that any given complex will consist The implications are rich. What occurs to one that "absence of a critical facul immediately is that, as the functioning of these emis to a considerable degree a merely negative verbal reflexes is most rapid when least consciously controlled, the poet will be at his best when the for a more express clue to the particular personal initial stimulus is of a nature to leave him greatest equation in something more positive—as for example freedom. To such a poet, it will be seen, it would in some excess rather than lack. It is in a kind of be a great handicap to have to adhere too closely, , a elbaracter is most manifest. Here will lie the key able idea. The best theme for him will be the one to both his successes and his failures. It should be which is least definite, one which will start him off at top speed but will be rather enhanced than im- paired by the introduction and development of new elements, by rapid successive improvisations in un. teresting of several factors; redundancy, the artist has it under control. 1 190 February 22 THE DIAL foreseen directions. Any sort of conceptual frame the strictly human sense, extraordinarily little of the work prepared in advance with regard either to sort of emotion which relates to the daily life of subject or form would be perpetually retarding him, men and women; there are despairs and exaltations perpetually bringing him back to a more severely and sorrows and hopes, and the furious energy of conscious plane of effort, a plane on which, the ambition, and the weariness of resignation, but they chances are, he would be far less effective. These are the emotions of someone incorporeal, and their suppositions gain force when we turn, in their light, sphere of action is among winds and clouds, the to Mr. Fletcher's work. In Irradiations we find colors of sky and sea, the glittering of rain and him taking his first ecstatic plunge into improvisa- jewels, and not among the perplexed hearts of tion-formalism is thrown to the winds, and with humanity. In a sense it is like the symbolism of it much which for this poet perplexes and retards; such poets as Mallarmé, but with the difference that and an amazingly rich treasure house of verbal here the symbols have no meaning. It is a sort of reflexes, the gift of a temperament almost hyper- absolute poetry, a poetry of detached waver and esthetic in its sensitiveness to color, line, and tex brilliance, a beautiful flowering of language alone, ture—a temperament in which some profound dis a parthenogenesis, as if language were fertilized by harmony is most easily struck at and shaken through itself rather than by thought or feeling. Remove these senses—is for the first time rifled. It is in this the magic of phrase and sound, and there is nothing stage of a lyric poet's career that his speech most left: no thread of continuity, no relation between glistens. Impressions come up shining from their one page and the next, no thought, no story, no long burial in the subconscious. The poet is per emotion. But the magic of phrase and sound is haps a little breathless with his sudden wealth—he powerful, and it takes one into a fantastic world is at first content to bring up only small handfuls where one is etherealized, where one has deep emo- of the most glittering coin; he, is even perhaps a tions, indeed, but emotions star-powdered, and little distrustful of it. But the habit of allowing blown to flame by speed and intensity rather than himself to be possessed by this wealth grows rapidly. by thought or human warmth. The mechanism becomes more familiar, if anything Unfortunately it is only for a little while that a so vague as this kind of apperception can be said to poet can be so completely possessed by the subcon- be truly recognizable, and the poet learns the trick scious: the more complete the possession the more of shutting his eyes and not merely allowing, but rapid the exhaustion. One or two of Mr. Fletcher's precisely inviting, his subconscious to take possession color symphonies showed already a flagging of of him. The trick consists largely in a knowledge, energy, and in addition to the unevenness which is abruptly acquired, of his own character, and of such inevitable in a blind obedience to the lead of word- ideas as are, therefore, the “Open Sesame!” to this association alone (since it leads as often to ve bosity It was in colorism that Mr. Fletcher found as to magic) that unevenness also is noticed which this password. And it was in Goblins and Pagodas comes of the poet's attempt to substitute th 2 con- that he first put it to full and gorgeous use. sciously for the unconsciously found—an a tempt For in the idea of a series of symphonies in which for such a temperament as Mr. Fletc! er's is which the sole unity was to be a harmony of color, frequently doomed to failure. There are limits, in which form and emotional tone could follow the lead of coloristic word-associations no matter moreover, as we have seen, to the number of hemes which will draw out the best of the possesse / type how far afield, Mr. Fletcher discovered an Open of poet. Failing to discover new themes, h must Sesame!” so ideal to his nature, and so powerful, as repeat the old ones; and here it is not long before not merely to open the door, but at one stroke to he feels his consciousness intruding, and sa ng to lay bare his treasure entire. One should not over him, “You have said this before," a consci usness look here also an important secondary element in which at once inhibits the unraveling of wo l-asso- Mr. Fletcher's nature, a strong but partial affinity ciation, and brings him back to that more de berate for musical construction, a feeling for powerful sort of art for which he is not so well fittei. It is submerged rhythms less ordered than those of to this point that Mr. Fletcher has come, metrical verse, but more ordered than those of in Japanese Prints, and now in The Tree prose; and this element, too, found its ideal oppor- Here and there for a moment is a flash o magic tunity in the color symphonies. The result was, naturally, the most brilliant and powerful work and power—there are pages, even whole woems, which Mr. Fletcher has yet given us—a poetry which are only less delightful than the synonies -but intermingled with how much that unlike any other. It contains no thought: Mr. stiltedly metrical, verbose, or downright ug Fletcher is not a conceptual poet. It contains, in use of regular meter or rhyme brings him do 3 1 cave. cently Life. lame, The with 1919 191 THE DIAL a thud. . The Tree of Life is a volume of lyrics, a note of ironlike resonance, bitterly per- love poems, more personal than Mr. Fletcher has sonal, and written in a free verse akin to the stark given us hitherto, and that has an interest of its eloquence of Biblical prose ... Are these lyrics own. But the colorism has begun to dim, it is often an earnest of further development, and will Mr. merely a wordy and tediously overcrowded imitation Fletcher pass to that other plane of art, that of the of the colored swiftness of Goblins and Pagodas, the possessor artist, the artist who foresees and forges, images indistinct and conflicting; and if one is to who calculates his effects? There is hardly enough hope for further brilliance it is not in this but in a evidence here to make one sure. new note, audible here and there in the shorter CONRAD Aiken. was The Significance of Redon When the work of Odilon Redon was first startling design and Van Gogh with his intensity shown in this country, at the International Exhibi of expression had given a new turn to the line of tion of 1913, its success was immediate and, beyond art development. If they did not see Redon's full 4 doubt, more complete than that of any other artist importance, it was because they were content to represented in the epoch-making show. There was skim the surface of their elders' production and to naturally more of popular discussion about the draw from it the elements of a merely decorative Cubists and others whose work seemed revolution art, agreeable but light. They did see in him the ary, but the man who came for most admiration colorist and designer, and much that is good in the -more even than was given to Cézanne - work of Bonnard, Roussel, and numerous minor Redon. artists is to be traced to Redon. Should we see in this merely a sign that the Of the same generation, but of a far deeper talent artist had something which the American public and mind, Matisse consulted Redon to better pur- demands, through the nature of its preferences? I pose. Not only was his native gift of color enriched think not; twenty years earlier his reception here by contact with the rare opulence of Redon, but the would have been different, as it was different in quality of significance which lifts him above his Paris. Only in the last ten or fifteen years has contemporaries was intensified by his study of the there been anything like a solid appreciation of older man. Redon, while always glad to receive Redon anywhere, and his success here was not a the visits of young artists and to give them advice, question of place but of time. Indeed the fact is never undertook teaching in a school. The teacher that in a number of European countries the recog- who most nearly approached him in ideals (though nition of his genius was coming about, more and far from approaching in his results the plane of more positively, in the decade before the exhibition Redon) was Gustave Moreau, and it was from here. It was late in coming, among laymen at Moreau that Matisse had his most important les- least, for Redon was born in 1840 and the time Another student at the atelier, whose later when he had made clear the bearing of his art may achievement has been admirable, was Georges easily be placed before his thirtieth year. With an Rouault. The preoccupation of both men with exhibition of Redon's etchings and lithographs be the problem of expression is proof of their ad- fore us again (at the Ehrich Print Gallery, until herence to that art of the idea of which Redon is March 12) it seems incomprehensible that his fame the chief exemplar in the whole Nineteenth Century. does not date back fifty years, but the world is But it is the group which appeared after these probably no more interested in living genius now men which goes deepest into the significance of Redon. · A few years ago there was exhibited in this Artists were naturally the first to recognize his city a sheet of drawings by Picasso in which that importance, but even among them it was long before surprising person gave imitations of four of the the major quality in his art was understood. For older artists- unmistakable by themselves, but on there are in Redon the two phases which we find each of which he wrote the name of the man in in every master—the qualities of idea and of form. whose manner the sketch was made. One of them The first generation which turned to Redon for was Redon. And what has Cubism to do with guidance—the men who began to play a role in the old sage who invented for us this mythology, art about 1890—were followers or successors of the Impressionists who had come to see that Cézanne ancient and modern, these grand illustrations for sons. than it was then. with his infinite world of form, Gauguin with this Apocalypse, this recounter of dreams who portrays 192 THE DIAL February 22 style, if an experience befell him which rendered for us with equal sureness the Buddha, a bunch of well and to comprehend it, imagine the strangest, the most bizarre subject, if it is well based and if it remains within flowers, or the Spanish guitarist who has delighted the limits of that simple stretch of wall, your dream will him the evening before ? On the surface, Redon's be living. Therein lies art.” Bresdin made these re- art and the art of the men but halfway described marks in 1864. I note the date because it was not thus by their surname of Cubists have little or nothing that art was taught at that time. The artists of my generation, for the most part, [and in common. Indeed the geometrical side of Cubism he does not mean the masters), have assuredly considered is in strong contrast with the spontaneous, impro- the chimney. And they have seen nothing but the chim- ney. All that can be added to the stretch of wall through vising quality so apparent in the work of Redon. the mirage of our personal essence has not been rendered He himself felt this and spoke in gentle distrust of a by them. Everything that passes beyond, illumines or theoretical method of procedure in art. amplifies the object, and lifts the mind into the region of But he also understood the other side of the new mystery, into the trouble of the irresolute and of its de- licious unrest, has been totally closed to them. Everything school and was well pleased with its homage. The which lends to the symbol, everything which our art holds man whose work proclaims most unequivocally the of the unexpected, of the unprecise, of the undefinable, and which gives it an aspect which borders on the enigma- latter-day attitude toward art as an expression of they have hidden from it, they have feared it. True para. what takes place in the world of the mind, Marcel sites of the object, they have developed art in the visual field alone, and have to some extent closed it off from that Duchamp, is also the man of the new generation which passes beyond and could bring into the humblest who most frankly acknowledges his debt to Redon. essays, even into the blacks, the light of spirituality. I In the essentials of the question, then, there is a mean an irradiation which takes hold of our spirit, and which escapes all analysis. close bond between the master whose works are before us and the advance guard who have so far In the half century between Bresdin's remarks departed from his external forms. Together they and Redon's development of them a change took continue the line of those who tell us that art is place in the world's mind, and there is every sign not “homo additus naturae," but a pure expression that the present era will not accept the ever-present of the purpose of man through his joy in form and parasites of the object " as its representatives. It color-the natura of Bacon entering into the is turning to Redon and the others who “ dépassent operation only in so far as it is useful as a means. l'objet” with more and more understanding and cer- A part of the reason why it has taken long for tainty. He speaks with emphasis in the passage the world to see the greatness of Redon is, as I have cited, but it must not be thought that his have shown, that the artists took long. For it is habitual mood was one of criticism. On the con- often through the inheritors or even the vulgarizers trary it was one of faith in the world, of confidence of a creative work that the mass of men come to that there were always certain persons who saw be- know its quality. But another reason is that Redon yond the object to its new form after assimilation by was really that unusual being, the man ahead of his the mind, and who were thus ready to delight in time. It is only a thoughtless use of the phrase that the new form when an artist makes it visible by his applies it to artists like Delacroix, Courbet, or line and color. The fact that his belief was justified, Cézanne. They are of their time, not ahead of it, that the number of these persons is increasing, is the the violent opposition they had to face having been final reply to those shallow critics of the modern only a natural reaction on the part of the mediocre world who cry “materialism ” because the forms mob' which resented being dragged from its com of art change with time and because we are no fortable wallowing in the refuse of the past. longer working with Greek or Gothic models. Among the leaders, Cézanne and all the great Im Redon's family life was extremely happy and pressionists (save Pissarro) were born within a year his work went on steadily from year to year, with of one another and of Redon. The former group friends amongst the great painters, poets and musi- dominates the years from 1870 to 1900. Redon be cians of his time to give him the encouraging ap- gins to emerge only about the end of that period, plause that every artist should have. But the extent as a man of sixty, with a great work behind him of his good fortune did not hide from his clear eyes and, most fortunately, with sixteen years of glorious the fact that art appreciation, in a time at all similar production still before him. to ours, must be looked for amongst few people. He was clear in his own mind about the differ And he knew that when the understanding for his ences between himself and his contemporaries, as art of the inner world came, it would have about we see in some notes of 1913, in which he tells of a it nothing definitive. His great wish was that the friend and preceptor of his youth, the fine artist young men go on to their own work, provided only Rodophe Bresdin: that it be well pondered and the result of genuine He said to me once, in a tone of gentle authority: “ Look need. Late in life he once declared himself ready to at that chimney; what does it tell you? To me it re- forget all he had done and essay a totally different counts a legend. If you have the strength to observe it 1919 THE DIAL 193 serious social function. “You are responsible," he and exhilaration from the mastering and shaping of agent. How else can we take you seriously? How else can we hold ourselves in contenance while we such a change necessary. It was with a ring of while our civilization lasts. If his work is not the conviction in his power to go on to new things that last word in exemplifying the truth, we may rejoice he spoke the words. And this openness—which had in the vitality of the later generation—which owes in it humility and pride at once—was one of the him so much. Before his own work in the present marks by which one can recognize him as the seer of exhibition we have the pleasure of saluting an elder latent forces his own time and the prophet of their who does not grow old. The magical sonorous expansion in the time ahead. gradations of black and white thrill us only the With all there is of change in men's attitude more deeply as we see them again: the powerful, toward art, one feels that some underlying principles elusive, unprecedented forms find unsuspected cor- remain, in whatever form they may be embodied. respondence in our own minds, and they are One feels that the light Redon has thrown for us on clothed with an always more intense and permanent the relation of the object to the mind, the mind to reality. art, must remain clear, and will be handed on WALTER Pach. The Theory of Fiction THERE HERE ARE at least three standpoints—or three Yes, Mr. Follett has chosen the ether rather than levels—from which the field of fiction may be the clod, and he evades the concrete as long as possi- viewed: you may range over it while on its own ble. He prides himself, in his preface, on his suc- level; you may take it from aloft—the bird's-eye cessful suppression of the word "psychology.” One view; or you may take it from below—from the begins to ask, presently, whether he is intending to standpoint which gives what has been called, in suppress, in addition, the words form, tone, color, geniously and felicitously, the "worm's-eye view.” and the like. On page 199 there is a false dawn, The first of these is the ordinary way of the novelist and the silhouettes of "form" and selection ap- himself: with his feet on the ground and his head pear briefly on the pale horizon; but full daylight in the air, he takes his chances along the various is really deferred until his penultimate chapter on heights and hollows. The second, the bird's-eye Design. This part of the book contains the most view, is that 'of Mr. Wilson Follett. The third, of interest for the practical fictionist. Here we the worm's-eye view, is, with some shiftings and come upon the novel in metamorphosis; it is slough- modifications, that of Mr. Clayton Hamilton. ing off its ancient, cumbrous skin and is emerging In The Modern Novel (Knopf; $2) Mr. into the trim compactness desired by this later day. Follett is very much aloft indeed. He whirs and Here too comes in belated cognizance of France sweeps, aviator-like, through the thin, keen air of and Russia. The wonder is that anybody could live theory , and indulges frequent aperçus which take so long on Fielding and Richardson before getting in the vague groundlings that toil far below. One to Flaubert and Turgenev. wishes that he would come down to earth and try Some Modern Novelists, though cluttered with a little fiction on his own account. He might find the fabrication of two small anxieties, was not professorial. The Modern or three short stories Novel is. Not by reason of its notes, its bibli- worth a manual to him, and the consummation of a full-sized novel to outweigh an encyclopedia. For ography, its hints for study, but rather through a here, as in last year's Some Modern Novelists, he is growing tendency to jargonize. The “School of Terror," "unofficial sentimentalism, and even borne down, by the sense of the "the realistic spirit may be mentioned too fre- novelist's accountability: the writing of fiction is a quently and leaned upon too heavily. And there is seems to say through every page; always the risk that a man who is churning and so see that you rechurning limited material may jargonize not only are honest and earnest and right.” Joy in the his diction but his thought. swarming human scene counts for little, the com- Mr. Hamilton, in A Manual of the Art of Fic- or table satisfaction is the self-expression for Tess , tion (Doubleday, Page ; $1.60), does not take to material for almost nothing. "Be," he seems to the blue empyrean; he remains strictly below, among the . gelince the novelist, “ be a responsible, sober-minded aughly and faithfully. He accomplishes a good amount of serviceable earthwork and helps ventilate and rearrange the general soil. His book is really a recasting of Materials and Methods of Fiction, obsessed, even are writing serious books about you?” 194 February 22 THE DIAL very index > which appeared some ten years ago. Indeed, his matter and of event" like that of the Victorians, dates” him: Kipling, Stevenson, and “ which is our chief tradition in the novel "--a Poe are his biggest items, and George Eliot has her kind of continental welter, in fact, which leaves us good ten lines. He states in plain, sensible, ship where we were in the matter of clear and well- shape fashion a good many things that nobody will proportioned design. Mr. Follett sees the new now dispute—things that have been threshed out novel, whatever its length, as a sublimated short and have reached the safe bin of the handbook. story. It “avails itself of the novel's fulness of He leans somewhat upon Professor Brander treatment; it may run to any length, even the in- Matthews, who adds a paragraph to his introduc ordinate length of the Victorian novels.” However, tion for the earlier edition, and who contributes his “its theme is single, and it aims at rigid unity of theory of the short-story (with its hyphen). Review effect—the unity which comes from one direction Questions and Suggested Readings make the book inexorably followed, and the use of all the material obviously a manual indeed, and tend to sober to illustrate a single principle. . It is the the fighty romancer. Professor Matthews looms short story under a microscope, the short story on a large, of course, along with Mr. Bliss Perry, in the vastly enlarged scale." chapter which deals with the art of fiction as in He is thus quite at variance with such men of fluenced by the element of length: the paragraphs yesterday as Mr. Matthews, Mr. Hamilton, and on the roman and the nouvelle (in English the Mr. Perry, who believe that a short story can be novel ” and the “novelette ") have their interest in poised successfully on but one or two of the several a day when literary molds are in the remaking. bases required by a novel. For plot or situation Mr. Hamilton, stepping a little to one side of his alone may suffice; or characterization alone; or, in cathedra, notes toward his end (and perhaps a trifle special instances, even setting alone. Further, the mournfully) that " as far as the general reader is short story may pose problems without answering concerned, the appeal of any work of fiction depends them, may operate on highly arbitrary premises, may far more upon its content than upon its form.” create beauty out of the horrible, may indulge a One who happens to believe that, for the arts in poetic symbolism, and may make other excursions general, form remains the one great sine qua non denied the novel, whether long or short. may fancy, if he choose, that this species of recal Thus one may find no great reason for following citrance is exhibited chiefly toward such of the arts Mr. Follett when he telescopes the novel and the as require for apprehension the element of time and short story and squeezes out the novelette alto- the governance of consecutivity; works of architec- gether; yet there is a growing sense that unity and ture, painting, and sculpture, being observable at conciseness, under whatever categories, are better a mere glance, do not delay and embarrass us as worth striving for than was once thought The we try to take in their general scope; it is the works future appears to be for the shorter form which has which' unfold or unroll—the epic, the drama, the been employed now and then by Henry Jar ies and symphony, the novel that run the chance of hav Edith Wharton, and which indeed was employed as ing their form missed while their content comes far back as 1840 (for the French are usua ly first uppermost. Yet we recall that most paintings in in the field) by Merimée in his Colomba; t' e form terest the rank and file through the subject rather which, within the past year or two, has P than through the technique; and that, per contra, Swinnerton's Nocturne, Rebecca West's The Re- a play which does not shape itself as it ought to turn of the Soldier, and, within slightly wider sends the spectator out dissatisfied. It may be all limits, Joseph Hergesheimer's Java Head one can say is this: that the more restricted the technique of this latter, wherein the autho works work of art the greater the chance that its form, out his own problem through independi at and construction, and technique may be satisfactorily rather self-willed and overconfident endeavc , is far apprehended by the laity. Such apprehension is an intelligible and intelligent pleasure, and ought to be from perfect, but is most suggestive and ins ructive. It helps point out the new, indubitable roai promoted. Delimitation makes the novel easier to If novel-writing, as Mr. Follett insis compass, both for writer and reader. Mr. Follett, in the most arresting of his chapters, obligations too. A cultivation of the sense of form responsible social function, novel-reading has its notes the disposition of the French “to exhaust the possibilities of order, symmetry, and austere per- and proportion ought to add to the reader's Seasure, and even to discipline him, in a measure for the fection," and to achieve unity by whittling down general conduct of life. A burden shared ecomes their subjects to essentials ”; and he contrasts them less onerous. with the Russians, who run to an “inclusiveness of HENRY B. FI LER. oduced The is a 1919 THE DIAL 195 ness leave their sentences unfinished and without verbs, muddle their relative clauses and perpetrate on the London, January 30 A FEW DAYS AGO I asked an editor of my acquaint a politician in full flood is capable; and Mr. Asquith ance what were his plans for the reconstruction of will not be there to raise the tone of the debate by his magazine when increased supplies of paper should his majestic and Augustan style. The favorite make it possible. That,” he replied with impres locution of the present Prime Minister is What sive gravity,“ depends on the effect which the result you have got to remember .” or “ You have of the election has on literature." I do not know got to convince Labor ”; and though this precisely what effect he apprehended; I hadn't, to me, and, I imagine, to all right-thinking littera- in fact, the courage to ask him. He may have been teurs, is perfectly odious, I doubt whether it turned looking forward to the suppression of every periodi a vote at the election. On the political aspects of cal that does not sing the praise of our great and the election I will not dwell because they are too noble Prime Minister in the loudest possible strains; painful, and because they fortunately do not fall or he may merely have envisaged the imposition of a within my province. I go about daily murmuring prohibitive tax on pure letters. Those whose inter to myself a phrase which I read recently in Swin- ests are not bound up with the interest of “big busi burne's letters and which took my fancy, a phrase are looking rather gloomily to the future and about the God-doomed metropolis of this hell- are preparing themselves for any smashing blow devoted country." I find it a powerful incantation which the new state of affairs may casually deal them when I am reading the latest political news in my in passing. But I am not apprehensive for literature morning paper. myself. It is a matter apart from politics—it rarely I feel that I must advert-oh, how easily one penetrates to the utterance politicians; and au falls into political phraseology once one has gone thors, editors, and publishers, as such, are not greatly near to the accursed thing!—to the criticisms on concerned with affairs of state or the gyrations of my view of the right length for novels. Mr. Fuller, statesmen. It does occasionally happen that legisla if I may say so without offense, seems to me to be tion affects us. At Christmas time I met a pub refuting something I never said and his remark lisher in the country, who told me that he had serious about the old Anglo-Saxon resentment over a thoughts of going up to London the next day and disciplined work of art is particularly unkind, assassinating Mr. Wilson. He had no particular since it is one of my bad habits to go about adjur- grudge against your President; but, at the moment, ing the English author to learn form, proportion, dis- he disliked your country intensely. An American cipline, and restraint, to look at the French and so publisher had just written to him, proposing to issue to become a wiser man and a better artist. Further- an American edition of one of his books and offering more, it must have escaped Mr. Fuller that I re- him a royalty of ten per cent, on condition that he joiced over the vision of the technically perfect abstained from selling his own edition in America. and harmonious novel ” which, in my judgment, But irritation over the copyright laws does not often the present generation has a reasonable chance of rise to this pitch; and, though we have a grievance accomplishing. The English novel has suffered by to be redressed, we do not expect to be considered being the province of good honest men with im- at the Peace Conference or in the House of Com- aginations who think it is easy enough to tell a tale “in their own way”-pipe in mouth and slippered The main effect of the election, so far as I can see, feet on a chair. Our novelists have nearly all been will be to reduce even further (and Heaven knows men who, being born with the temperament of the it was low enough) the literary level of Parlia- mentary speeches. There were not many men in artist, think they need not give themselves the edu- cation of the artist. It is not thus that great art is the House of Commons who were capable of stand- produced, but by long and strict meditation, by pain- ing up and talking good, dignified English; and our ful experiment, by all the agonies necessary to bring electorate has now rejected most of them, preferring forth perfection-none of which must be apparent in such men of letters as Mr. Horatio Bottomley, the the finished work. But a mere mechanical reduction editor of John Bull. The official report of the of length does not solve this problem; and the debates will now be more lacerating to the literary reasons which have led to the reduction of the novel mind than ever. They will split their infinitives, have been by no means all purely artistic. It is right that the novelist should ask himself, “How much can mons. 196 THE DIAL February 22 ception can afford, that I should prefer him to word things being equal, it would naturally be more diffi- the inquiry, “How much must I put in?” Mr. cult to impart these qualities to it. But I do not Fuller will admit, I suppose, that there is no test agree that "brilliance "--by which in this context of the rightness of a novel's length, except in its I understand “work that is artistically satisfactory general harmony and the completeness and fullness -can be boring in however great a quantity; I only of the impression which it makes on the reader's wish that Miss West would give me an oppor- mind. By this canon, the novel may range from tunity of finding her “brilliance" so. I do main- fifty thousand words (which is shorter than any tain, to conclude, that no limit, inferior or superior, English publisher will look at without dismay) to can be set in principle upon fiction, except, in each a quarter of a million or more—and that is more given case, in relation to the demands of the particu- than our novelists at present usually dare to allow lar conception; and I do maintain that many of our themselves. I do not raise merely the undiscriminat- novelists do habitually ruin their conceptions by at- ing slogan “Longer Novels!” I only ask that when a writer selects a subject which cannot be ade- tempting, for reasons quite other than artistic, to quately treated in less than two hundred thousand treat them in an inadequate space. But the decision words, he should not scamp it in eighty thousand, on this controversy was really given many years ago because that is the number he can conveniently by Mr. Hilaire Belloc, when someone asked him write in a year and which his publisher thinks is the inane question-of how many words a novel the suitable amount to be sold for six shillings. should consist. It depends," he replied, with his There is no reason why a long novel should not have customary lucidity and directness of thought, "on as much form and harmony, concentration and which the words are and what their order is." brilliance, as a short one—though I admit that, other EDWARD SHANKS. 66 To One Who Woos Fame With Me . You and I may dream of roses, Flung Like flowered kisses Through the haze And powdered air- Showered At our feet Behind the candles of the world. But when laughter flows away And echoes die, When waving candles wane Like wearied lilies in the dusk, When shadows fade upon the painted scene, And voices Raised for soft applause Are tired grown, Murmuring As children's voices worn at play- What scent of this Will linger with the days for us? What fragrant gift remain Of roses carried off, Of garlands withered overnight, Dust With the laden air That midnight left behind ? RALPH BLOCK. THE DIAL GEORGE DONLIN HAROLD STEARNS HELEN MAROT dwelt upon. of organization of the sense of taste unthinkable to the ordinary mind, but the reenforcement of other congruity between Mozart's symphonies and thin ROBERT Morss LOVETT, Editor CLARENCE BRITTEN In Charge of the Reconstruction Program: JOHN DEWEY THORSTEIN VEBLEN National ATIONAL PROHIBITION MAY HAVE BEEN DIC clear Moselle wine; Beethoven takes on a lambent tated by political, social, moral, and economic con glow in conjunction with Burgundy; and the degus- siderations overwhelming in their combination. At tation of Wagner is powerfully aided by Munich the same time it would be folly to deny that the beer. The direct contribution of wine to artistic gain in the easier functioning of world machinery composition—especially to poetry-need not be has involved some losses. Morally, for example, From Anacreon to W. E. Henley the curse of strong drink is one of the primitive wine has been one of the catholic sources of inspira- enemies that have beset mankind, like the forces of tion to the poetry of pleasure. But this is after all nature itself, and the struggle against it has called an ancillary service. The highest value of the into existence individual qualities of initiative, alcoholic beverage to our civilized life is in the pos- energy, persistence, and adroitness, which now, it is sibility of raising a whole sense from its lowly posi- to be feared, wll be diverted from the assault tion as a source of crude pleasure to a function of against demon Rum tó an alliance enabling him to high discrimination and critical penetration-in make a diminished stand against extinction. The short, to a rank with the senses which furnish the moral life as affected by alcohol will be so thor- basis of the fine arts and the material of culture. of adventure and the chivalry of the lost cause will What is THE BACKGROUND OF CONTEMPORARY pass to the other side. No less will there be occa- French foreign policy, which on the surface appears șion to mark the loss to civilization through the nationalistic jusqu'auboutiste and even imperial- banishment of one of the elements of culture, an istic? It is considerably easier to be harsh than to element be it noted that alone saves one of the five be comprehending. We should first try to under- senses for the higher uses of life. That which dis stand as sympathetically as possible the basic French tinguishes the nobler from the baser senses is doubt- assumptions. French statesmen are not thinking of less their capacity for refinement, for being educated next year or the year after, but of the twenty and to keenness of perception and discrimination. Now thirty years from now. And when they think of wine, it is fair to say, is the only medium capable the future in the old historical concepts of the past, of affording this training and refinement to the have they not legitimate grounds for uneasiness? sense of taste. It is true that there is tea, which Consider: France's population is almost stationary, fulfills the same function for the oriental, and one Germany's is increasing at a rapid rate. The recalls the story of a forest ranger who could dis- French frontier is long and comparatively unpro- tinguish among eleven morsels of venison the part tected: English and American troops cannot stay of the animal from which each was taken; but in the there forever as a defense. Large sections of their long run it is only alcohol that appeals to the taste land itself have been devastated; Germany remains of the occidental in sufficiently exciting form to con- almost intact. The French debt is appalling, and stitute a motive and an end to intensive cultivation. without some sort of reparation they face bank- And this culture has its phases, pure, ornate, gro- ruptcy—can French statesmen be expected to for- tesque. The taste of the amateur of vintage wines get that they won the war? The future belongs represents the classical phase; the morbid fancy of to the industrially and commercially strong, but the connoisseur of liqueurs and the inventor of France has been almost wrecked industrially, and hikebours who invented for himself an horgano of prising competitor. These are the unpalatable facts which the notes were liqueurs to be discharged in Their motto which frighten French statesmen. drops against his palate like musical notes against his ear drums, and from which he drew palatal has naturally become “Safety first." They are symphonies, pastoral and military, humorous, pas- trying to incorporate in the peace terms conditions sionate, and pathetic. This may represent a degree which will hold Germany in check forever. Hence the reason for four cardinal policies, which if carried out literally will destroy any chances for a real League of Nations. First, the strengthening senses , especially hearing, afforded by that of taste is within the experience of us all. There is a divine of the reactionary parties in Poland in the belief that a strong, nationalistic Poland will act as a buffer against any German ambitions in the East. 198 THE DIAL February 22 171 1721 Second, the encouragement of extravagant Czecho elected him to Parliament and the Government was Slovak claims, for the same reason. Third, hos forced to free him. Likewise in 1894 Dr. Nicola tility to the incorporation of German Austria with Barbato, tried for treason and serving a thirty-year Germany, irrespective of the wishes of the people, sentence, was elected to Parliament and released because the prospect of a greater Germany appalls from prison in eighteen months. During the pres- France. Fourth, the annexation of the Saar valley ent war most European governments have shown a because such an annexation will weaken Germany wisdom and moderation in their handling of the permanently. All these policies, exactly as the political prisoner which put to shame our own bar- Russian and indemnity policies, spring from this baric and savage treatment of anyone who dis- basic conviction that France must be protected. It agrees with the majority view of the moment. For is understandable, but it is folly. Surely the French example, no European government has sentenced a statesmen might learn one fundamental lesson from political offender for more than five years. Pericat- the history which they read so assiduously—the called the Bill Haywood of France—was sentenced lesson that guarantees which are based on force and to five years, and he has been released since the not on justice are in the long run worth precisely armistice along with sixty other such offenders. nothing. Worse: ultimately such guarantees pro Menotti Serrati, editor of L'Avanti, who in June, voke reprisals, the cost of which is greater than any 1917, led the riots of Torino which lasted seven benefits accruing from the original guarantees. The days, was tried by a military tribunal and given worst possible misfortune that could befall France only three years. Furthermore, Italy has repealed today is that the policies now advocated by French the “ Decreto Sacchi,” a law imposing a two-year statesmen should succeed. France is helpless and sentence on Socialists who urged refusal to pay her future hopeless if today she sets the stage for taxes, and all persons imprisoned under the law a future war of revanche.” She cannot endure have been freed and those under indictment dis- another war like the present. She cannot be con missed. In England, members of all parties, con- fident that she will have the same Allies, whatever servative as well as radical, are demanding a gen- may be the accord among them today. She would eral amnesty for political prisoners, and among the in all likelihood emerge from it shattered and signers of the petition are such men as Viscount broken. France's real protection lies in the inter Bryce, Viscount Morley, and Arthur Henderson. national guarantees of an effective League of Na The contrast between European and American tions. For most other nations, the League offers the possibility of avoiding the waste and expense treatment of political prisoners is too humiliating to need emphasis. But there is one aspect of the of future wars. But for France, quite literally, the matter that we are inclined to overlook. If public League offers her only opportunity for any con- opinion in this country is so sluggish or so intimi- siderable nationalistic survival. It is pathetic that dated as to remain indifferent concerning the more the one great nation most in need of the League than two thousand political prisoners now in our should today, through whatever mistaken human jails, European public opinion will not. Unless we motives, be most skeptical of its value. soon revert to our traditional regard for freedom of conscience, European liberals may well be moved to form a protest committee, similar to the British Protest Committee of 1913, who by a year of ag; treat the political prisoner like the criminal does not deprive him of the sympathies of gressive propaganda succeeded in securing a general those who agree with him politically, but may amnesty for Portugal's political prisoners (among rather endear him further to them and at any rate them many Syndicalists and Socialists). When serve to embitter their feelings and stimulate them John McLean was released from Peterhead Prison to unlawful reprisals.” So wrote James Bryce he wrote a letter to President Wilson in which he said: some thirty years ago. And on the whole Europe has learned the lesson of experience. When the The Working Class Democracy of Britain forced the Dublin leaders in the Sinn Fein rebellion were con- Cabinet to release me from Peterhead Prison where I was undergoing a five-year sentence under the D.O.R. A. fined they were treated as political prisoners, and You are in Europe to negotiate a “Democratic the English government has granted amnesty to Peace" as a democrat. If so, I wish you to prove your most of these Irishmen, although in many cases the sincerity by releasing Tom Mooney, Billings, Debs, Hay- charge was active rebellion and homicide. When wood, and all the others at present in prison as a con Hervé was imprisoned in France he was placed in sequence of their fight for Working Class Democracy. The Clyde Workers will send me as one of their Dele- a separate prison for political prisoners (as Caillaux gates to the coming Peace Conference and there, inside is today); he was allowed to write articles and and outside the conference hall, shall challenge your continue his position as editor of a French journal. U. S. A. delegates, if my friends are not released. After In Italy the status of the political prisoner is fully that I shall tour America until you do justice to the real American champions of Democracy. recognized. Moreover, the Italians have their own peculiar method of liberating such offenders. When Will it not be ironical justice, if we find ourselves Cipriani was imprisoned in 1892 the Italian people viewed by Europe with the same pitying regard that we so lately held for the German people? “EXPERIENCE HAS AMPLY SHOWN THAT TO common 1919 THE DIAL OF THE WORST refutable proof of the truth for which The DIAL has long been contending—that the whole Archangel brigandage in which the employment of American dence that the Paris Conference has decided defi, nitely to withdraw Allied troops from Russia, recognizing the military futility of the whole ex- pedition. And the quicker we get out of Russia 199 CONFIRMATION THE COUNTRY HAS BEEN WAITING FOR MONTHS SUSPICIONS as to the political futility and military failure of for the opinion of the Supreme Court on the con- the ill-starred Allied expedition to North Russia stitutionality of the Espionage Act. The reason has been given in striking manner by the corre why the opinion is delayed is that each time a case spondent of the Chicago Tribune in a cable dispatch is about to reach the court on appeal the Depart- from Vard, Norway, dated February 1, 1919. The ment of Justice confesses error, or requests postpone- correspondent explains why he is sending his dis ment. This has happened often enough to raise patch from Norway in vigorous and bitter terms: the question whether the Department is itself con- I have come out of Russia to write this. The censor- fident of the constitutionality of the Act under ship that has crawled back into its hole in most of the which it has imprisoned hundreds of men and world still wears the iron heel of war days in the women. There is no question of the terrific blow borth. The American public has been fed pretty stories of the gentle glories of this "help Russia " expedition, but to the prestige of the government in general and the facts are that a mess has been stewed and has been of this administration in particular which the dis- kept for the cooks themselves. covery of the unconstitutionality of the Act would The principal counts in the indictment, according to deal. The Act was passed under the lash and spur this observer, are: that it has failed to inspire of the President. His Department of Justice has confidence and loyalty; that in the minds of the enforced it with ruthlessness. The discovery that soldiers the expedition has become a mere fighting loathsome prisons for terms of ten to thirty years men and women now undergoing confinement in job to collect Russia's debt to Europe; that the original commanders turned out to be neither diplo- have been deprived of their freedom without due mats nor soldiers; that there is no enthusiasm even and proper process of law will fill up the measure among the intelligent Russians in the north to assist of indignation and contempt which will be meted the Allies and fight the Bolsheviki; “ that the out to those responsible for a shameful miscarriage beautiful faith of the Russians in America is break- of justice. This possibility is another reason for ing under the manhandling by our forces under the insisting on the repeal of the Act and the immedi- foreign command.” As an example of “man- ate pardon of those suffering under it. Senator handling” by our troops the correspondent cites the France of Maryland, one of the few brave Senators instance of a purely political strike of protest by who voted against the Act on its original introduc- the workingmen of Archangel, where our men- tion, has introduced a bill for its repeal. It will always under foreign command—were used for the be passed if the public demands it. manning of the street cars, in a word, as strike- breakers . It is not a pretty report 'which the Ir T WILL BE AGREED THAT PRESIDENT WILSON'S Tribune's correspondent gives, but there is no choice of representatives to meet the Bolsheviki was reason to doubt its authenticity. He supplies a wealth of detail about the war-weariness of the a happy one. In Professor Herron, Mr. Wilson found a delegate who speaks, or at least under- Allied soldiers and about the utter destruction of stands, the economic language of the men whom he their faith in the good intentions of the expedition. The men were led to believe that they were to be is sent to meet. The other delegate, Mr. William used solely to police the city; they actually found A. White, of Kansas, can be trusted as can few that they were sent hundreds of miles inland on Americans, not to make a fool of himself or his foolish and wasteful "offensives,” which resulted country. His reported interview on his appoint- only in retreats and loss of men. They were led ment contains sound sense on the Russian situation. to believe that they were to protect supplies from It reminds one of the words of Gamaliel when the the Germans ; they found no supplies and no Ger- Jews were in doubt what to do with the Bolsheviki mans to protect them from. They were led to be of Jerusalem. Said Gamaliel: “Ye men of Israel, lieve that they would be welcomed by the “loyal take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as Russians; they found that they were met with dis; touching these men. Refrain from these men trust and that most of the natives frankly preferred and let them alone. For if this counsel or this the tyranny of Moscow to the tyranny of foreign work be of men it will come to naught: but if it bayonets. In fact, the entire dispatch gives ir- be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found to fight against God." The Jews took his advice, and (like an American mob) when adventure is a disgraceful and imperialistic bit of they had beaten up the apostles, they let them go. troops is humiliating and shameful. There is evi- for the inadvertence of a contributor who, in its issue of January 25, made him responsible for the The author of play An Englishman's Home. course was Major Guy du Maurier, the actor- manager's brother, who was killed in 1914. . THE DIAL APOLOGIZES TO MR. GERALD DU MAURIER the better the Russians will like it. 200 THE DIAL February 22 conquer. —the men with honors, titles, fortunes, pensions, Foreign Comment dream justified all the sacrifices " will be heard in the conference hall of the Quai d'Orsay. No! LONG Live the GERMAN REPUBLIC! Milner, Bonar, Law, Balfour, Sonino, et al—those The following manifesto appeared originally in professionals of diplomacy and of politics for the Paris paper Humanité, and was reprinted in whom the past that they have made for us hardly the Berliner Tageblatt, from which (as copied in serves for a recommendation," have locked them- the New York Staats Zeitung) we translate, as selves away in the customary secrecy of the profes- copies of Humanité are not easy to acquire in sion from the eyes of the world to organize that this country: new world, which others died and suffered to give birth to. In the name of the organized French working class, the ROBERT HERRICK. united workers greet the German Republic. This histori- cal crisis must signify the end of the lordship of power University of Chicago. and the beginning of responsibility on the part of the the attitude of the working classes of the Allied lands , Communications who now more than ever before must desire from their own governments that peace be created upon the founda- THE TEST OF DEMOCRACY tions of freedom and on the self-determination of peoples. Militarism is finally defeated. The world must be again Sir: Those who have watched President Wil- rebuilt on new international principles, and the rebuild son's varied career with regard to the woman suf- ing must follow on the basis of equality for all people. frage question will read with indignation but no The working classes of the lands of the Entente face a great duty. They must destroy every chauvinistic move- surprise his reply to the delegation of French work- ment and not permit the military power of the Entente, ing women who made the reasonable and timely re- under the pretense of restoring law and order, to attack quest that woman suffrage be included among the the new regimes in Russia, Austria Hungary, and Ger points to be settled by the Peace Conference. many. We have certainty that the international power of the workers—which ultimately will be recreated—will If the war was foưght for democracy (as he said We must especially guard what freedom we it was) and if Mr. Wilson really cared about jus- have won. Our first demand is full amnesty for all. The tice to women, he would have answered to the end of the military imperialistic adventures must give us effect that a minimum standard of democracy should full spiritual and industrial freedom, without which a social democracy cannot exist. be required of the countries which are to enter the Humanité of another date appeared with a great League of Nations, and that no nation would be considered eligible until it has fully enfranchised flaring headline: “ Citizens lay down your arms, its women. the German Republic lives!” But such explicitness and direct deal- ing is not in Mr. Wilson's line and he merely re- THE LAST PARADOX plied that a Conference of Peace settling the rela- tions of nations with each other would be regarded Sir: The following passage from a letter recently received from Paris will, I think, interest your as going very much outside its province if it under- took to dictate to the several states what their in. readers as it has me. The writer, a Frenchman of ternal policy should be”; and then bethinking him- high civil position, volunteered at the outbreak of self that this stand was not consistent with the the war and served four years in the trenches, being wounded and also suffering from fever. He is one recognition to be accorded to Labor by the Con- of the many men ference, expressed a vague hope that some occasion muris par l'épreuve terrible de might be offered for the suffragists to present their la guerre elle-même," who has won the right to be heard on peace: He then proceeded to smooth things over by paying the women of France some elaborate compli- Voyez-vous, mon ami, l'un des paradoxes de cette guerre, le dernière peut-être et le plus gros de conse- ments, using the sentimental platitudes and Spen- quences: C'est qu'au moment d'établir le statut du monde cerian copybook maxims in which his vocabulary is issu de cette guerre, aucune des democraties victorieuses so rich: his heart,” his “ feelings," n'appellera et ne songe même d'appeller un de ces hommes muris par l'épreuve terrible de la guerre elle- sympathy,” his passion for democracy”-stock même un de ceux qui dans la solitude morale des tran- phrases the value of which foreign nations will soon chées, était soutenu par le rêve magnifique d'un avenir learn to estimate as they are estimated in this meilleur et pensait qu'un tel rêve justifait tous les sacri- country. As if graceful flaţtery from him or anyone fices. could recompense women for the agony they have Combien sont morts avec cette espérance! Les autres, les survivants n'ont actuellement aucun moyen de se faire endured in this terrible war, or act as a substitute entendre des puissance en exercise. for the justice they are demanding. Livrés aux seuls professionels de la diplomatie et de Politicians have long been accustomed to reward la politique pour lesquels le passé qu'ils nous ont fait ne saurait servir de recommendation, vous comprenez que je those who have suffered and sacrificed in two ways ne sais guère rassuré. Neither the voice of the dead who died sustained high offices, and other substantial considerations ; by “the magnificent dream of a better future," nor women with praise, flattery, expressions of apprecia- the voice of their living comrades who “ tion, words, words, words! As Hamlet pointed out in the moral solitude of the trenches thought that such a this is to be "promise-fed," "air-crammed "-and even poultry could not be fed after this fashion. case. nerves of 1919 THE DIAL 20I the bill through the Senate before this Congress adjourns on March 4, and thus tardily give justice making merry, is your practical being. As for the President's further statement that suf SOVIET RUSSIA AND THE AMERICAN frage is a domestic question for the several na- CONSTITUTION tions," one would think he might be somewhat chary of that topic inasmuch as it was the Democratic SIR: I wish to make a correction in the illumi- Party which killed the Federal Suffrage Amendment nating article by Lincoln Colcord [in The Dial for in the Senate -a slaughter to which Mr. Wilson Decemb 28, 1918] entitled Soviet Russia and the largely contributed through his election attacks upon American Revolution, in line with the author's ad- pro-suffrage Senators and his hearty support of the mission at the outset that “the drawing of historical Anti-Senators. To cite one instance among many, analogies is a perilous undertaking.” In his com- last spring at the primaries (the only place where parison he confuses the American Revolutionary a candidate can be defeated in the solidly Demo- leaders with the framers of the American Constitu- cratic South) Mr. Wilson successfully bent all his tion. He then says that the framers “certainly efforts to defeat the senior Senator from Mississippi strove to construct an instrument by virtue of which on the ground that the latter did not support the the actual majority of the electorate should control Administration policies though Mr. Vardaman was the government. They certainly strove to render in favor of the Federal Amendment and voted for impossible the domination of a ruling class, to do it in the Senate. Another flagrant case of bad faith away with the artificial complexities of politics, and with the confiding suffragists who looked to the to bring every function of government within the President to put their bill through was his refusal grasp and comprehension of the whole electorate.” to appeal to the people of Tennessee to vote against Now this would do very well for the Revolutionary Senator Shields of that state after the latter had leaders, but the Convention of 1787 was a counter- contemptuously disregarded Mr. Wilson's request revolutionary movement born out of the fear of the that he should support the Federal Amendment. recent "excess of democracy.” The framers of the Mr. Shields' opponent was an upholder of all the Constitution asserted as their supreme aim the pro- President's policies, including woman suffrage, but tection of property rights; the doctrine that “prop- this brought him no help from the White House. erty is the main object of government” was repeat- When the November elections drew near Mr. edly declared and never seriously disputed. As Wilson threw suffrage to the wolves and came out Woodrow Wilson says: “The federal government in hotly-partisan support of antis and against suf was not by intention a democratic government. In fragists . We are forced to conclude that if the plan and structure it had been meant to check the Federal Amendment be one of Mr. Wilson's poli- sweep and power of popular majorities. The cies, it is only between elections, like the man who government had, in fact, been originated and organ- was a "vegetarian between meals ". Is it any won ized upon the initiative and primarily in the interest der that when the vote in the Senate was taken of the mercantile and wealthy classes. Originally immediately after the Prsident's magnificent speech, conceived in an effort to accommodate commercial the suffrage majority was still two votes short? disputes between the states, it had been urged to The party members must have listened to Mr. Wil- adoption by a minority, under the concerted and son's eloquence with their tongues in their cheeks , aggressive leadership of able men representing a rul- evidently. confident that they could oppose the Presi- ing class.” (Division and Reunion, page 12.) dent's wishes with impunity and that for once the ARTHUR C. Cole. party whip would not be cracked over their heads Urbana, Illinois. by the party leader, as it had been on so many occa- sions when they had tried to defy the President on When DREAMS COME TRUE a subject which he really had at heart. Sir: Much of the criticism that is being meted So women are standing in front of the White House burning the eloquent phrases that come to out against the Presidential program of peace is us from across the seas where Mr. Wilson is still based upon the unwarranted assumption that man talking about freedom, liberty, justice, and democ- is essentially a practical being. We hear stated again and again, The League of Nations is a racy. The prisons in Washington are crowded with suffragists from every'state in the Union, who have fine idealistic scheme, but it is not practical.”. broken no law, whose only offense is that they have It is not very evident why the lack of practicality asked for deeds not words. On February 15 the should cause concern to man, the fabric of whose Prison Special went out from Washington bearing life is built, not on practicality, but on dreams. To to the far South and West the just demand that live at all as human beings is to be impractical. the Democratic slackers in the Senate be required Our whole civilization we owe to the impracticality to furnish forthwith the one vote necessary to pass of man; where his work has endured, it has looked far beyond his practical needs and the demands of the moment. The epicure, eating, drinking, and The wild beast is essentially practical; he contents himself Mary WINSOR. with his full meal today, taking no thought for the mystical morrow. But man builds for the morrow; and liberty to American women. Haverford, Pennsylvania. 202 February 22 THE DIAL as Mr. SO his sowing and reaping, his planning and building, more Eastman than the proper and undistinguished point toward the future, the unknown, the non blank verse of The Thought of Protagoras, the existent. Having only today, holding only one pseudo-Elizabethan fancy of A Praiseful Complaint, moment at a time in his hand, his bold faith plans and the mere pleasantness of such lyrics as Autumn for the years and the centuries. Light, Hours, and others. What struck me as The typical American prides himself upon be the most valuable portions of the little volume were ing a practical man; he does not recognize that in the unrhymed parts in which Eastman's natural one sense to continue to live at all is to stand con gifts as philosophic essayist were displayed at their victed of being impractical. He grumbles about best. And when one considers that this book of high prices and low wages, about poor crops and little more than one hundred pages contains over devastating weather, when he himself if he were thirty pages of prose, my emphasis was not quite so really practical and sincere in his querulousness inconsistent nor unconventional * might his quietus make with a bare bodkin.” Giovannitti suggests. It is the vision of the unknown, of the unseen, Criticism is not always the impersonal and Olymp- which alike holds man back and drives him forward. ian affair that it is supposed to be. My own articles With prices high, and war and pestilence raging, bear their personal bias obviouslị; they may even it would seem the height of folly to fall in love, err on the side of an emotional conviction. Still, and the summit of impracticality to marry. When I think it rather unlikely that a review of a book it is difficult for one person to live, plain arithmetic, written by a man I am anxious to praise would the most practical of sciences, proclaims that it is at degenerate into a parade of prejudices-particularly least twice as difficult for two people to live, yet non-existent ones. Louis UNTERMEYER. the majority of mankind commit just that folly, and insure that human living shall continue along New York City. the line of impracticality. It looks as if men will achieve a League of Na- BANISHMENT OR DEATH tions, not because it satisfies those who call them Sir: Is not the time ripe for the establishment of selves practical, but because such a league is con a penal farm for our intellectuals? Somewhere in sistent with man's real needs and the spirit of hu Montana, perhaps; however, upon reflection, Alaska, man living. After all, man lives, and moves and for reasons of climate and isolation, seems to be has his being, when he is most human, in faith, far the better place. In the good old days in Russia in the world of imagination; and men achieve there was a Siberia that served the purpose for dreams because, in truth, they themselves are “such Russia. If the intellectual escaped Siberia, he had stuff as dreams are made of.” to fly the country altogether. Now, of course, all M. T. SEYMOUR. the intellectuals have Hocked back again, and they Urbana, Illinois. are causing no end of trouble. Is America going to be so short-sighted as to dilly-dally with her MR. UNTERMEYER RAISES His SHIELD intellectuals ? Quick action is necessary. We must not only prevent an exodus of these agitators to Sir: I was both pained surprised at the contents Russia; we must put them all in a place in this as well as the tone of Arturo Giovannitti's expostu- country where we can keep an eye on them. latory letter in The Dial of February 8 concern- Did not Bernard Shaw, in his preface to Major ing my review of Max Eastman's Colors of Life. Barbara, give us solemn warning as many as four- An attack from any other quarter would have teen years ago ? Did he not throw up his hands troubled me less. Giovannitti compels my deep and admit by asserting the contrary, that all his admiration; to Max Eastman I bear the complt ideas, like the ideas of his fellows, came from beetle- cated relation of admirer, fellow worker, and friend. browed Scandinavians and other continental unde- This fondness embraces most of his activities. I sirables? Was it not clear to us all, when Ibsen have an abiding respect for Eastman the person, the was introduced to us a generation ago, that America's propagandist, the pamphleteer, the provocative para- future welfare lay in the cultivation of things to grapher—not, unfortunately, for Eastman the poet. which the cultivation of ideas was quite opposed? Personally, I wish I were a blind worshipper of the Did we not all rise up as one man in opposition to well-written if often flavorless verse that Eastman ideas? The time was ripe then to squelch the in- indites between his pungent and penetrating edi- tellectuals forever. Now is our last chance. The torials. But much as I am stirred by his clean-cut whole country is clamoring for action. And the and lively prose, I am (and it is possibly one of my bagging of the game will be mere child's play; for many limitations) unmoved by most of his metrical these intellectuals-many of them are becoming lines which, unlike his ametrical ones, seem the regular dare-devils , speaking and writing in the result of a desire to write rather than a burning open, and those who do not speak and write can be need to create. easily identified by their moody and melancholy So, when I took up Colors of Life, it seemed appearance. natural to me that the prose preface contained much Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. E. C. Ross. '1919 THE DIAL 203 acteristics which have most deeply impressed the ence and conviction with which he clings to the Notes on New Books ideal that, with the peculiar iridescence of his style, give to his poetry its distinctive value.” Birth. By Zona Gale. Macmillan; $1.60. The book abounds in excellently selected quota- tions from Mr. Woodberry's poetry. To one who It is no slight accomplishment to catch the flavor is making a quick survey of American literature, of folk, to render the reality which lies beneath the but who wishes to know a poet's work more inti- flat surface of American village existence, but that mately than is possible from studying a list of is what Zona Gale has achieved here. Sometimes by a flash of insight, sometimes by a mere turn of characteristics, these quotations will have a value apart from that of substantiating Mr. Ledoux's phrase, she illuminates the dullest of incidents so that they take on dignity and significance . It is this analysis. For characteristics do not make a poem. A convenient bibliography is appended. quality—the art, with none of the tedium of taking pains—which lends most value to this story. The Tin Cowrie Dass. By Henry Milner little town of Burage, which lies not so far from Rideout. Duffield; $1.25. Chicago, is realized in all its tiresome detail, all its' In Mr. Rideout's latest story is none of the emphatic trivialities, and yet the reader's sympathy is held and his interest fed by the keenness of obser- usual claptrap of the lost heir of the kingdom tale. vation. One gets a fresh insight into the uneventful Tin Cowrie Dass, in his white clothes, pulling the routine of lives whose daily high-water mark of greasy thong to move the linen fan above the animation is a going downtown to the postoffice manager in a small Hindu bank, is an engaging "dusty, fly-specked little hole, where the state func and real character; his adventures follow with tioned as precisely as under hardwood and marble; romantic inevitability. Mr. Rideout manages his and, in their tiny glass coffins, marked with worn narrative with skilful suggestion of background, red letters, were popped missives of death, of life, people, and incident, until the comic-opera ending of love, of unspeakable commonplace." possesses illusion enough to be entertaining. Tin It is against this background that the gentle life Cowrie Dass, consistent, calmly heroic, offers him- tragedy of a wistful, indecisive little idealist, Mar self to the reader for a satisfactory hour of ad- shall Pitt, is drawn—a figure which has no flourish, venturing. The story is slight, but the dexterity no positive attractiveness, and is yet presented with which Mr. Rideout presents it compensates with a penetrating sympathy. 'Zona Gale plays a for its lack of elaborate plot. bit off key when she sends him to Alaska, for there is not enough adventure in his soul to carry him that JUNGLE PEACE. By William Beebe. Holt; far from Burage, but for the most part she draws $1.75 a consistent, living character. Marshall Pitt's son It is the true scientist who can run the risk of is not so successfully rendered; he is too palpably being imaginative-Mr. Beebe's charming book is shaped to the needs of the novel—and its title. But admirable proof of that. The timid naturalist or it is the father who is the real pivot of interest, and the too frequent dessicated product of the labora- the author has invested him richly with the frail tory will protect himself from criticism by the main- garments of humanity. tenance of a carefully restrained “ objectivity "; he will hesitate to be dramatic or narrative for fear THE POETRY OF GEORGE EDWARD WOOD- of being called anthropomorphic; he will be scrupu- BERRY: A Critical Study. By Louis V. Ledoux. Dodd, Mead; $1. lous in his observation and records of fact—and infernally dull. He will be meticulous in his cata-, In this small volume Mr. Ledoux gives a sym- loguing of the colors of a bird, but he will shun pathetic critical study of a poet who should be much expressing any spontaneous affection for it if it is better known. Professor Woudberry is no doubt a beauty, like the scarlet tanager, or any spon- among the number who are admired greatly if at all, taneous dislike for it if it is repellent, like the bald- but the critic has been careful not to express his headed vulture. He will set down in great detail admiration in superlatives. He aims rather to the profusion of plant life in the tropical jungle, analyze the poems than to estimate the poet's place but he will shrink from illuminating similes. Least in American letters. Intense spirituality, a pas, of all will this type of scientist be caught in a sionate loyalty to the ideal with an almost equal sentimental mood; he may, out of the weakness of devotion to the world of sense, a growing breadth his heart, rescue a besieged frog from the implac- of interest and sympathy, the love of children, an able attacks of army ants, exactly as Mr. Beebe unusually keen appreciation of color and light, and a did, but he will not be likely to tell of it. In a growing perception of the complete interrelation of word, he will be afraid to be “popular.” He will all manifestations of the "life-spirit” are the char- shrink from the tacit criticisms of his colleagues, who too often tend to regard any injection of sap and . “It , passion in Mr. Wood- dramatic vividness into a scientific account It truth is, this attitude is largely superstition. as 204 February 22 THE DIAL the Weald. Finally, Professor Hart, in common errs in seeming to ascribe the comparative shadowi. springs really from a scientific diffidence and not vivid. The protection of the forests against fires has from scientific exactitude. Aside from the purely come to be recognized as a joint problem and duty technical treatise or discussion, which is of course to be borne by the individual state and the nation. another matter, the best criterion of the effective A further step in conservation should be taken by and able scientist is whether or not he can let forbidding any timber owner to cut his timber with- himself go, naturally and easily; whether he is so out the consent of the government, and the gov- saturated in his subject that he can be almost naive ernment should see to it that he leaves the young before it. Mr. Beebe is a scientist whose repute growth as a basis for the future crop, or provides is beyond question, yet he has written a volume a new growth of timber by planting young trees. more genuinely dramatic and thrilling and pictur The book is a popular and, at the same time, scienti- esque than any adventure tale by a popular novelist. fic presentation of a great national problem. Nor to do it does he have recourse to phantasy which is so happily employed by that exquisite KIPLING THE STORY-WRITER. ornithologist, W. H. Hudson. He devotes a whole By Walter chapter to A Yard of Jungle, which is exactly Morris Hart. University of California Press; what it says it is, a square yard of jungle earth and $2.25. roots, a few feet thick, teeming with animal and This is the most comprehensive study of Rudyard plant life of all kinds, for the mold contained over Kipling's prose technique which has yet appeared ; it a thousand different animal organisms visible to the can, in fact, probably be regarded as definitive- eye, as well as numberless roots and sprouting shoots. complete and scholarly—without being stodgy. Pro- And the whole drama of evolution is exhibited in fessor Hart might have modified one or two of his microcosm in that square yard of earth and loam, conclusions and amplified several others, had he the whole pathos and humor and irony of the strug- gle for existence and of nature's inextinguishable extended his survey to the stories collected in A Di- vitality. Still more remarkable and illuminating is versity of Creatures, but the permanent groundwork will remain and will not be neglected by anyone the chapter on the hoatzins, those extraordinary interested in the art of the short story. birds that still preserve the reptilian habits of ages past. Mr. Beebe actually makes one see what life Professor Hart divides Kipling's prose into three must have resembled millions of years ago, when periods—Indian, transitional, and English—and the future course of their evolution was still un among the many merits of his book, perhaps the certain for thousands of zoologically unde- most conspicuous is its recognition of the superior cided creatures. There is plenty in the book to quality of the works of Kipling's later, or English, satisfy scientific curiosity. But Mr. Beebe's distinc period. After reading the lucubrations of critics tive achievement does not consist of this. It con whose acquaintance with Kipling apparently ceased sists of his power to summon and vivify the tu with the publication of The Day's Work (can it be multous life of the jungle and the sea and the tropic that they derive their knowledge from the premium earth. Everywhere his observation turns, the pano sets given away with the works of O. Henry?), it rama of animal or vegetable existence is unfolded, is refreshing to encounter a man who appreciates the and its inner rhythm and color are disclosed. He perfection of such a little masterpiece as Marklake catches and transfers to his pages the sting and Vitches; who realizes that An Habitation Enforced glow of the never-ending naturalistic drama. And is “one of the most utterly satisfactory stories that he does it with a literary precision and sensitive Kipling has written "; and who avows his belief ness beside which the conventional stylistic virtues that They is not only its author's best story, but of descriptive writing become tepid and cheap. even one of the best in the English language." In the technique of The Brushwood Boy, on the other OUR NATIONAL FORESTS. By Richard H. D. hand, Professor Hart finds many flaws; though Boerker. Macmillan ; $2.50. the end, after comparing it with the two or three The necessity for the preservation of our natural other tales on analogous themes in our own or other resources has been brought home to the American literatures, he is constrained to admit that people in recent years in no uncertain tones by the story of pure romantic love, [it] more than holds increased cost of lumber, minerals, and other com- its own.” modities because of prodigal waste in the past. An A few errors of fact and of interpretation may encouraging phase of this preservation movement is be noted. The Lost Legion was not found in the development of our national forests, by the natives who remained true to the English," which at present cover over 155,000,000 acres. Dr. but by Afghans beyond the Border who slew for Boerker in this interesting book brings together the the sake of plunder. Mr. Kipling does not many facts connected with forestry as a national tinue to live at Rottingdean"; for the past fifteen problem, with the creation and organization of the national forests, the administration and protection years, or thereabouts, he has lived at Burwash, in of the national forests, and the sale and rental of forest resources. with every other critic who has noticed the story, A number of half-tone cuts, from original photographs, make the author's points more ness of the figures of Ortheris and Mulvaney in at as a destroyed con- 1919 THE DIAL 205 quite satisfied us, he has yet suggested the way to a better understanding. The commercial interests of the aristocrats of their section and time. They independence. But independence cost so much, and Garm to the late date of its composition; the tale in wished the world to remain very much as it was. fact' antedates Kim, first having been published in But the English monopolists, notably the East India 1899, though not collected until ten years later. In Company, would not take them in on the ground general, however, the book is remarkable for its floor," as we say. Their agitations in the early accuracy. part of the Revolutionary struggle were, then, almost exclusively for a betterment of the world BACKGROUNDS FOR SOCIAL WORKERS. By from their point of view and not for independence Edward J. Menge, Badger; $1.50. or, least of all, democracy. When they found, as Mr. Schlesinger shows very clearly, that indepen- Infinite are the number of books written on dence and democracy were the aims of Adams and sociology every year. As a textbook, Professor his “ agitators,” they promptly withdrew from the Menge's Backgrounds for Social Workers deserves campaign. The Southern merchants and credit to find its place with the others on our college brokers, mostly Scotch dependents of the London library shelves. Aside from the discussion of the tobacco traders, made a class to themselves. They threadbare yet vital subjects of Marriage and The were never free enough to join any radical move- Family, the writer devotes several chapters to such ment, although the planters, groaning under the modern questions as Birth Control, Eugenics, burden of usurious debts, like the Western farmers Sterilization, and Sex-Instruction and Training. of 1896, compelled from them in the early part of After all, it is simply a matter of point of view. the struggle some sort of assistance. It was hardly Professor Menge is neither an advocate of birth different with the Middle Colony merchants. All control nor sterilization of the feeble-minded arid of these lent some sort of aid to American agitations insane. He thinks that the problem can be entirely in the earlier years of the quarrel. Most of them solved by education-first, of the parents; then, of returned to their conservative moorings when their children. On the same bookshelf next to democracy seemed to loom. Professor Menge's book we might find a physician's Mr. Schlesinger has analyzed these groups very discussion of the same subject from the scientific well. He has shown just what they did and what rather than from the moral point of view. One they wished, although he has not given names and says, train your child to want " to do the right amounts of fortunes or businesses involved. Per- thing, give him the proper early instruction and the future will work itself out; the other says, remember haps this feature is beyond accurate and definite the curse of bad inheritance, teach your public the portrayal. Some help may be got from Sabine on simplest scientific principles—and there will be less the personal side; something on the economic side misery about us. from Davis' Corporations, published a year or two We cannot understand the present without a ago. One element of the problem has escaped the knowledge of the past. The psychological basis of present author, as it has escaped all his predecessors. the family today evolved out of the primitive family That is the effect of the liquor interests of Boston and other Eastern towns. It might seem like exaggera- of the past. Therefore Professor Menge's discus- sion of the family, though dealing in familiar things, tion to suggest that the rum trade was a great factor is not out of place. He takes us in detail through in the American Revolution. As the story has never the less known phases—the Medieval, the Renais- been fairly set forth, it might have been brought sance, and the Reformation family—in a more in- within the scope of the present work. The positive teresting way, perhaps, than the average textbook. contributions of the present author are important and numerous. The ebb and flow of the tide of COLONIAL MERCHANTS AND THE AMERICAN revolution, the hopes and fears of democratic Revolution. By Arthur Meier Schlesinger. leaders, and the final break of the farmers, the mechanics, and the frontiersmen from the timid merchants are all made clearer than they have hith- There are some things about the American Revo- lution that have long needed to be cleared up. One erto been. And at the conclusion it is once more shown that the merchants and the professional men, of these is the part and conduct of the American commercial interests in the movement. Another is the shipowners and the embryo financiers, who were the contribution of the religious groups of the freedom, united at the end of the war to bring about unwillingly dragged along the path of revolt and colonies. And still a third is the frontiersmen. The last is perhaps the best understood, thanks to Pro- a federal organization, both social and national in fessor Turner's studies. And now Professor Schles- tendency, that would conserve their interests and inger endeavors to clear up the first. defeat, as far as might be possible, the aims of the He has succeeded in very large degree and where he has not radicals. Wars seldom attain their ends. It was so in 1783. The merchants set out to get a fairer share 1770, let us say, were divided into several groups of the profits of British trade. They soon found that did not always recognize common aims. The themselves in the midst of a wide-reaching demo- cratic upheaval. This they tried to control. They men of New failed and the real war men went their way to Columbia University Press; $4. 206 THE DIAL February 22 so many blunders were committed, that the traders est in it. The result is that books like Boas' Mind got back into the movement and set up a social of Primitive Man and Wissler's The American In- machine in 1789 that much resembled the British dian, to mention only two recent American examples, empire which had been so sadly disrupted. have not a tenth the general reputation or influence of the seductively vague and pedantically unsound ANTHROPOLOGY UP-TO-Date. By George works of the authors referred to above. Winter Mitchell. Stratford; 75 cts. It is by driving a wedge between these two sorts This skit runs the risk of not being so popular of anthropology, and exposing the sham kind, that as it deserves. In the guise of a solid little treatise, Mitchell's wit is justified—and useful. with chapter headings like Method, Magic, The Social Unit, The Origin of Exogamy, and with foot God's RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. By note references to Tylor, Frazer, Herbert Spencer, Edward S. Drown. Macmillan; 60 cts. Robertson Smith, and other eminent authorities, the The primary object of this compact modern author expounds one current anthropological doctrine theodicy is to excuse God from any responsibility after another, to slide off by gradual reductions into for the late war as for the other evils in the world. the absurd, or again to break outright into burlesque. Or, when the reader is unwary, he will carry him Incideņtally, the principle of non-resistance is dis- through from thin to thinner theory with straight- posed of on the best terms possible. Christian teach- faced irony. Half the cants of anthropology are ing creates the metaphysical puzzle as to the problem tenderly undraped, all its most hollow pomposities of evil by simultaneously asserting the divine good- neatly pierced and collapsed. Even he who has but ness and the divine omnipotence. Dr. Drown re- little interest in the verities as opposed to the pre- jects the proposed solutions of dualism, Calvinism, tensions of science, cannot but see what game is on and optimism. J. S. Mill, William James, and H. foot and smile at its deftness. Mr. Mitchell, who G. Wells have proposed to resolve the dilemma by resides at Queen's University, Kingston, is a more abandoning the claim of the divine omnipotence and than unprofessorial professor. But then he is a saving, by that sacrifice, the divine goodness. Dr. professor of the classics, on which the attempt has Drown is sympathetic toward the suggestion but recently been made to foist some of the crassest shows a theologian's reluctance to part with the products and extensions of ethnology. traditional divine attribute of almightiness . God's The little volume will thoroughly amuse any in- power must be redefined as "moral omnipotence." telligent reader for an hour. But it carries a moral God is omnipotent because goodness, right, and love for the serious minded. If anthropology can be so are omnipotent. But these exclude the use of force. easily shown up and legitimately ridiculed, what God himself is a pacifist because he cannot, in ac- merit can it still claim? The fact is, there are two cordance with the principles of his moral nature, streams in the science. One is learned but naive, employ force without stint and without limit." comparative but unorganized, finding evolutions and ready explanations at will, and piling hypothesis on “If God is to produce a moral universe he cannot produce it by force.” But is God justified in the use hypothesis as if building high enough on a theory of force defensively—or as a means of opposing force would convert it into fact. This is the anthropology that threatens to dominate the right? Apparently that produces the books on the shelves of well- not, for “the cross of Christ becomes the sign and appointed libraries , and that filters into magazines, symbol and realization of the supreme power of Sunday supplements, and parlor conversations. The God. In the cross is revealed the true omnipotence the colleges spread it before thousands of students physical non-resistance as it is of faith in the of God.” The cross, surely, is the symbol of —often when the teachers are anthropologists, near- ly always when they hail either 'from biology or omnipotence of right. from sociology. But why should not force be enlisted on the side The other current knows that knowledge is dif- of righteousness? Dr. Drown seems to imply that ficult and laborious, and devoid of short cuts, “ with God it is impossible, but with men it is It does not hope to solve all problems of human evolu- possible." tion by a series of happy guesses over night, but to Our purpose is so to use force that force shall yield work out this story piece by piece, with every re- to righteousness. We are to use force with the deep course of technical skill. Its pronouncements are conviction that force is not the final thing Force, like John the Baptist, must yield to that which is greater therefore fragmentary and tentative, like all the dicta than itself, it must prepare the way of the Lord. It of true science. This kind of anthropology offers must make straight in the desert of human life a high- no intellectual panaceas and no stimulus but for the way for our God. hard thinker. The public naturally has little inter- But is not this after all to appeal to the interim ethic of expediency rather than to stand by the abso- -- 1919 207 THE DIAL An Appeal To Americans Receive ye, oh the captive, and let us pre- pare an asylum for mankind to dwell in." HINDUS are indicted under the Espionage Act in America for prop- aganda, the aim of which was to secure a different political regime. for their country. One man, Tarak nath Das, an American citizen, faces proceedings for revocation of his citizenship and possible deportation be- cause of his interest in political reform in the land of his birth. Deporta- tion for a Hindu nationalist ordinarily means execution by the British au- thorities in India. Whether or not you approve of the activities or point of view of these Hindus, they are entitled to what has always been a traditional American right, the right of political asylum, which has been offered not only to Kos- suth, but to Puren, Rudovich, and numerous others who have flocked to these shores from every corner of the globe. Thus the continued prosecu- tion of these Hindus threatens an historic privilege and puts American courts in the position of assisting in doing the bidding of foreign govern- ments. While the war still continues officially, a new and special condition exists during the armistice which should give these cases a special status. Certainly this transitional period is no time for punishment, on the basis of a state of war, which might establish a precedent that may be used in all times to destroy the right of asylum in this country. These cases must be defended, and a defense fund has been started, with headquarters in New York, to defray the necessary expenses and to insure legal aid and protection to these men. Checks and post office orders should be made payable to Albert De Silver, 26 East Seventeenth Street, New York City. (Signed) JOHN DEWEY FRANK P. WALSH WILLIAM ENGLISH WALLING MRS. ERNEST POOLE CHARLES FERGUSON Mrs. ROBERT BRUERE PAUL KENNADAY CLARENCE DARROW MRS. MARY K. SIMKHOVITCH ROBERT MORSS LOVETT CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL Miss S. P. BRECKINRIDGE GEORGE W. NASMYTH When writing to advertisers please mention Tax DIAL. 208 THE DIAL February 22 In Mr. its fullest capacity, we could probably produce all lute ethic of Jesus summed up in the precept where certain pretensions are manitestly unjust or Be ye therefore perfect as your Father in Heaven unwise, or the reverse. Yet even a cursory reading is perfect"? Hazardous and impracticable as we of the book gives rise to one unescapable convic- may feel the pacifists' program to have been, we do tion: that fully fifty per cent of the problems which not feel that Dr. Drown has overthrown their theoretical stronghold. In fact, he has justified are engaging the attention of the delegates at Paris their primary contention as to the character and can be satisfactorily solved only by some sort of in- methods of God. ternational control, based on the simple philosophy of live and let live. So far as the book can influence STAKES OF THE War. By Lothrop Stoddard our public opinion—and we hope that influence will and Glenn Frank. Century; $2.50. be great-it will do so wholly in the direction of Few indeed are the reference and text books writ- justice and fair dealing. ten in the early part of 1918 which have survived the moderating and tempering influence of the THE GREAT CHANGE. By Charles W. armistice. Stakes of the War is one of the few. Wood. Boni & Liveright; $1.50. Although later developments have made for a direct This book is a series of interviews with the interest in Siberia, the Ural region of Great Rus “ Leaders in American Government, Industry, and sia, the Chinese-Russian frontier, the book keeps its Education who are Remaking Civilization.” It is high value as a compendium of the issues and prob- therefore a manual of reconstruction, predigested. lems which confront the makers of what we hope Mr. Wood reflects the enthusiasm of Washington to be a permanent peace. Practically every other in war time--when the city was a strange land territorial, economic, and national problem that is filled with people working at high pressure, ap- now to be solved—for better or for worse—is briefly parently of their own volition and, apparently, for and succinctly stated in this book: Belgium, Al- other interests than personal return. Wood's last chapter there is a suggestion that his sace-Lorraine, Schleswig-Holstein, Finland and the high hopes, inspired by his interviews with govern: Baltic Provinces, Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia, the ment officials, suffered a check. It doubtless has Ukraine, Italia Irredenta, Jugo-Slavia, Macedonia, become evident to Mr. Wood, as it has to others , Albania, Rumania, Dobrudja, Constantinople, Asia in the few weeks which have passed since the sign- Minor, Armenia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, ing of the armistice, that these hopes were a re- Egypt, Persia, and the African colonies. With the flection of the war mind, of the tense anticipation exception of those territories which the recent activi- of the incorrigible idealist. But Mr. Wood does ties of the Bolsheviki have made of immediate in- not pin his whole faith in the great change to the terest, and the German possessions in China and the simple evidence of social service in war time, or to Pacific, all the puzzles of the Peace Conference are the results of state administration. In his inter- exposed. It is a credit to the scholarship and fair- views with production managers, with H. L. Gantt, ness of the authors that these puzzles are exposed Charles M. Schwab, and Walter N. Polokov, his with absolutely no partisan rancor or bias. The economics underwent a revision. He saw that in the processes relevant facts of the case are first given, followed of production rather than in the capture of products there was the opportunity to become by simple explanations of the various proposed solu- masters of industry. "From collective bargaining," tions. Bibliographies are appended for more ex- he says in his concluding chapter, “workers may haustive reference . Maps and statistics are given gradually advance to collective management ou where needed for the sake of clearness. There is through any political or debating society but through no pretense at exhaustive treatment and no dog- first-hand acquaintance with the facts.” For in- matic assertion that one solution is better than an- stance, he saw opportunities for realizing the eight- other, although the authors do not mince words in hour day for which labor has been organizing and describing a proposed solution as nationalistic or contending for thirty years. imperialistic, where it is obviously such to demonstrate conclusively,” Walter N. Polokov of whether proposed by the Central Powers or the Entente. the Shipping Board told his interviewer, " that men Such a volume is of great value today, when con- can do more work in six hours than they can in eight. Positively they can do more in six than they can Alicting claims of the different nationalities are be- ing laid before American public opinion for its ap- do in ten or twelve; but, owing to certain con- ditions in the plants where I tried it out, the six; proval and moral backing. Amid the contemporary hour experiment is still inconclusive. However," currents of propaganda and carefully conducted the engineer added, “if America seriously sets out publicity for extravagant or moderate claims this to eliminate all the friction in her industrial system volume becomes a lucid and impartial guide. If it we may expect a four, or perhaps a two-hour day. cannot offer final solutions, it can and does reveal With production simplified and power utilized to I haven't yet been able 1919 209 THE DIAL bok for coln Colcord: "A Voice Out of Russia," by George V. Lomonossoff, and original decrees on land and work- John Galsworthy says: THE GREAT HUNGER is the first work of fiction I have ever reviewed. This story by the distinguished Norwegian writer, Johan Bojer, is so touchingly searching and sin- cere that it interested me from the first page to the last. White Man Joseph Hergesheimer says: THE GREAT HUNGER has beauty to a thrilling degree, the beauty that pinches the heart and interferes with breathing. It has the inexplicable loveliness that rare in- dividuals possess and which by no means can be accounted for in set conventional attributes. Price $1.60 net. At all bookstores. “A distinct departure in narrative conception" -New York World. WHITE MAN, a novel by George Agnew Chamberlain 12 mo. Illustrated, Price $1.75 The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers NEW YORK INDIANAPOLIS MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 31 Union Square West New York REPRESENTATIVE BRITISH DRAMAS: T Victorian and Modern Edited by MONTROSE J. MOSES A Series of Dramas which illustrate the prog- ress of the British Dramatist, and emphasize the important features of the History of the British Theatre. This Volume contains the complete text of 21 playe. Mr. Moses has been fortunate in securing the most notable English Dramas, from Sheridan Kuowles down to John Masefield; and the most representative Irish Dramas from William Butler Yates down to Lord Dunsany. $4.00 net. LITTLE, BROWN & CO.: Publishers, Boston HE plans of the Carnegie Foundation for the compulsory purchase of an- nuities are of concern to all college and university professors. The publica- tions of the foundation have been freely distributed. The most serious criticisms of its attempt to control higher education in America will be found in the following articles in SCHOOL AND SOCIETY: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teachiny and the Case of Middlebury College: the late Josiah Royce. January 30, 1915. Ten Years of the Carnegie Foundation: Joseph Jastrow, October 7, 1916. Report of the Committee on Pensions of the American Association of University Professors. December 2, 1916. Life Insurance and Annuities for Academio Teach- J. McKeen Cattell, November 9, 1918. The “ Policies" of the Carnegie Company: J. Mc- Keen Cattell. January 4, 1919. Supplementary Statement concerning the Plan of Compulsory and contributory Annuities Proposed by the Carnegie Foundation: Arthur 0. Lovejoy and Harlan F. Stone. February 1, 1919. Second Report of the Committee on Pensions of the American A880ciation of University Professor 8. (In Press.) Annual Subscription $3 Single Copies 10 cents SCHOOL AND SOCIETY Published every Saturday by THE SCIENCE PRESS Lancaster, Pa. Garrison, N. Y. 873 pages. er 8: "A Voice Out of Russia" RUSSIAN REPRINT containing With: "Soviet Russia and the American Revolution," by Lin- man's control. Single copies 10c.; 7 cents lots of 100; apecial rates larger quantities. THE DIAL PUBLISHING COMPANY When writing to advertisers please mention Tue DIAL. 2 IO THE DIAL February 22 CL fancy. The poet displays a vivid touch and a facile we want in much less time than six hours; and with dig a dike against the German food, and out of its distribution simplified we would have no trouble waste a British officer, using the direct speech of in securing the product for our own enjoyment.” the diarist, has raised his voice to tell of the worth Socialism? the author asked. "Engineering." of the British stock. Mr. Polokov corrected. The point which the author makes, and of which ECHOES AND REALITIES. By Walter Prichard his hard-headed comrades would do well to take Eaton. Doran; $1.50. notice, is this: if the workers' organizations will GARGOYLES. By Howard Mumford Jones. learn how to eliminate “ all the friction” and as- Cornhill ; $1.25. sume the responsibility of carrying production for- The WINGED SPIRIT. By Marie Tudor. ward, they may become masters of wealth instead Putnam; $1.50. of a voice” which pipes for a hearing. If the market for poetry is as limited as it is said CAMPAIGNING IN THE BALKANS. By Harold to be, how may one account for the cunning which Lake. McBride; $1.50. is lavished in masking much excellent prose in the trappings of half-fledged verse? It frequently ap- After the endless political volumes on the war pears that the poetic product is in far greater demand dealing with world plots and world leagues, often than we have been led to believe; otherwise authors no better than metaphysical moonshine, this simple, would not go so far out of their way to achieve it. straightforward account of an actual campaigning There is much alloy, for example, in the poetic experience in Macedonia elicits a sigh of relief. character of many things that carry the poetic label The author served in the British Expeditionary in Mr. Eaton's latest book. Echoes and Realities is Force which came to Salonika after the conquest mainly a series of pen pictures—adroit, colorful, of Serbia by the Central Powers in 1915 and there human vignettes—which he has consciously cast into he remained throughout the long period of inaction rhythms by breaking up the lines into requisite which so greatly aroused the ire of the newspaper lengths. The author has produced a volume of strategists and so profoundly puzzled the general tasteful prose in the guise of poetry. In the most public. His is not a tale of the fury of battle and representative pieces he is concerned less with the the exalted heroism which carries a man with his inspiration than with the subject, so that his treat- mates and his cause to the summit of existence. ment is essentially that of prose. His very titles- His stay in Macedonia befell exclusively in the Washington Square, The Daily Paper, Skis, Town period of gestation, in the long and wearisome days Meeting—these suggest the mood of prose minia- of road-making, transport organization, and other tures, extremely graceful in their way, but their similar scientific drudgery, when the distant victory way is not the way of poetry. had to be prepared by the detailed and intelligent Turning to Mr. Eaton's love poems, one is im- cooperation of the myriad parts of a complicated pelled to speak in another vein. Here he has taken war-machine. The enemy opposite the front the stuff of poetry, but failed to sustain it; he ex- trenches hardly figures in the book; he is quiescent changes vigor and originality for too much syrup. more or less, glad to be let alone. And the British There is a settled sweetness which quickly dulls the army welcomes the respite while it feverishly ap appetite. We find ten poems in a row (pages plies itself to the job of defeating a more deadly 89-101), for example, and each one is buttoned up enemy, persistent, snuggling close, Medusa-headed with a kiss, like a tailored jacket. One hungers for —the wretched land of Macedonia. By telling “the challenge of a soul more free and wild." just experiences, things seen and heard and felt, the author builds up an impressive picture of this With Mr. Jones, this tendency to treat poetically in turn writhing and torpid monster of a country, a subject which might yield more gracefully to prose is seen in the somewhat extended poem, His and by very virtue of a sort of commonplaceness of Mother. Here the author is concerned with a manner, a taking for granted the sacrifices, suffer- psychological analysis of a mother who hears that ing, and moral courage, he erects an authentic, spiritual monument to his British kin which gal first shock of the letter that she had "displays an her son is about to marry. Its opening line-“The fantly stood ground and in the end slew the Python unrhythmic abruptness which the writer is not ablis This Macedonia, synonymous these many centu- ries with trouble-is there its like anywhere under to avoid in several other places. We feel that His the sun? It rises before us in these pages, a coun- Mother might have been rendered doubly effective try without roads, food, or water, a country of if the impulse to put it in verse had been ignored. rocks, without trees or shelter, a country scorched However, this poem is not representative of the ex- brown and turned to powder under a blazing sun, treme variety of mood and manner which Mr. Jones a country infested with flies, mosquitoes, and name- has encompassed in Gargoyles. The title is well less crawling vermin—a country, one should say, chosen to symbolize the grotesque visages which fre- to cherish like leprosy. Across this desert land, as quently peer through the thin veils of rhythmic chance would have it, the British were obliged to dominion over words; his style is incisive rather ܕ 1 1919 THE DIAL 2 II Have You Left School? Take a Reading Course PLAYBOY Don't Read at Random q SATIRE U QUE 3. Open diplomacy-with democratic control of all questions with a diploma, or without it? In either case, you of course do not wish to leave off being edu- cated. When education ends, life ends. Everybody reads, but too many read without any plan, and to no purpose. The college graduate is like other people in the need of systein, but a little more likely to realize his need. The Chau- tauqua Reading Course is useful alike to the per- son of limited training, who labors many nights over each book, and the critic or vigorous man of affairs who can sweep through them all in a few bours. For either, a group of related, intel- ligible, and competent studies leads to a well rounded result, For many years, the very mention of a reading course has meant without further explanation tbe Chautauqua Reading Course. It was the first and is still the best and it alone has a world- wide fame. The cost is trifling, $6 for a year. Are you tired wasting your odd minutes ? Write for free abstract or mail this ad signed to Box 414. A PORTFOLIO OF ART AND Chautauqua Institution 'A New Magazine of Youth and Spiritual Ad- Chautauqua venture, dedicated to Joyousness in Art and Life. New York Trial Offer: Send $1.00 for four numbers. Pub- lished by EGMONT ARENS, at the Washington Square Book Shop, which is in 17 West Eighth Street, New York. A NEW WORLD WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT IT ? Let's Exchange Ideas — Join a Study Course on Reconstruction NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL Tuesday Evenings, 8 o'clock, at Washington Irving High School ENTIRE COURSE, $5.00 Room 601 - 17th Street and Irving Place SINGLE ADMISSION TO LECTURES,* 35 Cents Register — and inquire about extension plan by which you can take the course in your home of Woman's International League. SCHEDULE : A. ORGANIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERA- D. BASIC PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERA. TION. Jan. 21. A League of Nations - Why Not Before ? Jan, 28. A League of Nations - A Plain Necessity. March 18. Trade-Raw Materials. March 25. Colonies and Backward Areas. Feb. 4. A League of Governments or a League of Peoples? Feb. 11. Organization, Powers and Basis of Representation April 1. Territorial Adjustments. April 8. Armaments and Freedom of the Seas. of a League of Nations. Speaker - Dr. H. M. Kallen. Speaker-Dr. George W. Nasmyth. BEHIND INTERNATIONAL E. PROBLEMS OF NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. Feb. 18. Behind the Scenes at the Peace Table. April 15, 22, 29 and May 6, 13, 20, 27. Speaker-Dr. A. A. Goldenweisser. On the preceding dates a course will be held on the following problems in their relation to Reconstruction: British Labor, C. HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION. Land and Taxation, Government Ownership. Socialist and Feb. 25. National Conception of Independent States and Radical Movements, Labor and Collective Bargaining, Women in Industry, etc. Such speakers as Paul Kellogg, Amos Speaker-Dr. James Harvey Robinson. Pinchot, Juliet Poyntz, Mary Ware Dennett, Geo. West and March 4. International Organization-What Governments others will handle these subjects--the specific dates to be Have Done. Speaker - Dr. H. A. Overstreet. announced later. March 11. International Organization-What Non-Govern- THE WOMAN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE Room 722, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Telephone Chelsca 4410 Stenographic reports of all lectures are on sale for 25 cents a copy of office of the Woman's International League. This crganization is working for: A democratic league of all nations, based upon: Please enroll me as a member. 1. Equal trade and investment opportunities everywhere for the people of all countries. Name.... 2. Universal disarmament to be hastened by government ownership of munition plants and the abolishment of all Address... permanent systems of compulsory military training. which may lead to war. Telephone ... Membership is free. 18TL 1 IS IN THE MAKING TION. B. OPPOSING FORCES CO-OPERATION. Their Relation to Each Other. mental Groups Have Done. Speaker-Dr. H. A. Overstreet. When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. 2 I 2 THE DIAL February 22 66 ” chord. By W. F. 21 While Paris Laughed: Being Pranks and Passions than fluid. He sees the uncouth contrasts of life, no the machinery begins to creak. Where Your Heart matter whether it be in an abandoned cemetery or Is joins that numerous army of converted-by-war in a street car, and he possesses the deft faculty of fiction, and ends with the author's foot upon the catching that contrast on the turn of a phrase. The soft pedal while her fingers strike the keys in the University Sketches are among the most character- too-familiar carry on istic pieces. One will show the flavor of the style: . Books of the Fortnight A rag of sunset Aaps my window pane With curious insistence; memoried trees Stand up like solemn eastern devotees; The following list comprises The DIAL's selec- The empty campus floods with purple grain tion of books recommended among the publications Behind them where they pray; one cloud in vain received during the last two weeks: Threatens the moon, on dim and ghostly seas Of silent weather lost; day's emptied lees, The Only Possible Peace. By Frederic C. Howe. Spilled through the west, tinge heaven a wine-red stain. 12mo, 265 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. Papers are marked. The quarter's past and done. $1.50. Two sparrows, chattering, are very loud War and Revolution in Russia, 1914-1917. By Where yesterday I heard a happy crowd Basil Gourko. At graduation. Now the belated sun Illustrated, 8vo, 420 pages. Drops swiftly, and the vesper air is bowed Macmillan Co. $4. With weight of growing stars. The quarter's done. China and the World War. By W. Reginald Of the more than two hundred poems in the Wheeler. Illustrated, 12mo, 263 pages. Mac- Tudor collection, trickling down the pages between millan Co. $1.75. wide margins, we cull but one, which is entitled The Movement for Budgetary Reform in the States. The Universe: By W. F. Willoughby. 8vo, 254 pages. D. Nothing in the universe is fixed, Appleton & Co. $2.75. Nor God-nor purpose. The Problem of a National Budget. This absence of a fixed purpose may explain why Willoughby. Svo, 220 pages. D. Appleton -after dismissing the universe in two lines—the & Co. $2.75. author should have devoted such a quantity of poems The Disabled Soldier. By Douglas C. McMurtrie . to subsidiary themes. Their creator appears to have Illustrated, 12mo, 232 pages. Macmillan Co. regarded them all, however, as but so many colored $2. beads on the thread of her ego. Their texture is The Vocational Re-Education of Maimed Soldiers. uniformly frail; they seem saddened by similarity. By Leon De Paeuw. I 2mo, 194 pages. Princeton University Press. $1.50. WHERE Your Heart Is. By Beatrice Har- raden. Dodd, Mead; $1.50. Child-Placing in Families: A Manual for Stu- dents and Social Workers. It is all very well to put psychological heroines Slingerland. 8vo, 261 pages. Russell Sage into books, but it is unwise to keep nudging the Foundation. $2. reader's mind to keep him aware of their psychologi The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of cal aspects. The reader is apt to be rather jealous Massachusetts: An Historical Review, 1785- of his own psychological aspects—and among them 1916. By M. A. De Wolfe Howe. Illus- is his aversion to being nudged. If Miss Harraden trated 8vo, 398 pages. Riverside Press had kept this fact more carefully in mind, Where (Cambridge). Your Heart Is could have been made a better piece Dutch Landscape Etchers of the Seventeenth Cen- of fiction. The author does less insisting than she tury. By William Aspenwall Bradley. Illus- used to do, but she still retains vestiges of her trated, 12mo, 128 pages. Yale University ancient fault. This novel is not nearly so guide Press. $2. posted as, for example, her Ships That Pass in the Currents and Eddies in the English Romantic Night, but the landscape is still marred by finger Generation. By Frederick E. Pierce. 8vo, posts at almost every cross-roads. Miss Harraden 342 pages. Yale University Press. $3. needs to sit at the feet of Henry James to learn Dante. By Henry Dwight Sedgwick. Illustrated, something of the art of presenting psychological 12mo, 187 pages. Yale University Press. heroines without recourse to labels. $1.50. The early portions of this story are more success Another Sheaf. Essays. By John Galsworthy. ful than its conclusion. The character of a self 12mo, 336 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. centered woman, a dealer in antique jewelry and $1.50. collector of precious stones, is made vivid and plausi- ble. Her impulses are sympathetically analyzed, and the balance between her almost fanatical covet- of the Poet Tricotrin. By Leonard Merrick. 12mo, 298 pages. and But when Miss Harraden's heroine is drawn into shops and Houses. A novel. By Frank Swinner. the war-in order to facilitate her regeneration- ton. then the nudging becomes more conspicuous and Co. $1.50. 3 By W. H. E. P. Dutton & Co. 12mo, 320 pages. George H. Doran 1919 THE DIAL 213 Brentanos ALL LANGUAGES By JAMES BRANCH CABELL THE EASTERN QUESTION “IT is astonishing that he is not By J. A. R. MARRIOTT. Second edition revised, with beyond better known," says the New eleven maps and appendixes, giving a list of the Ottoman York Sun, of James Branch Cabell. rulers, and the shrinkage of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, 1871-1914. Crown 8vo. (8x5), pp. xil + 538. “'Beyond Life' has a quiet clever (Postage extra, weight 2 lbs). Net, $4.25. life ness, an audacious originality that A systematic account of the origin and development of the Eastern Question, dealing successively with the will delight a good many readers. Ottomans, Hapsburgs, Russian Empire, the Hellenic In fact, this mosaic of essays on Kingdom and the New Balkan States, with an epilogue PRICE books brought down to June, 1918. and things in general “Professor Marriott presents a clear, scholarly and ac- $1.50 should be sufficient to convince any curate account of Balkan problems from the Turk's NET one not actually in the mental first European activity to the zenith of Constantine's recent high-handedness in Greece."-N. Y. Sun. breadline that here is a thinker At all Booksellers or from the Publishers worth attention, a writer in bondage to no external ideas, a dreamer who follows after beauty." OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS POMIA DOMIN AT ALL BOOKSTORES Je to AMERICAN BRANCH IND ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO., Publishers, New York 35 WEST THIRTY-SECOND STREET NEW YORK OUR large stocks and location in the publishing center of the country en- able us to handle orders for books of all kinds more promptly and with a greater degree of general satisfaction than is possi- 5 AVE at 235 ble elsewhere. THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. Wholesale Dealers in the Books of All Publishers BOOKS 354 Fourth Ave. NEW YORK At Twenty-Sixth Street FM Booksellers to the World ALL - ThePutnam FUMAT Bookstore 2west45 St.of5"Ave. Book Buyers BOOKS N.Y. LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS By James Byrnie Shaw 193 pages. Cloth, Price $1.50 net Byrnie Shaw's Lectures the Philosophy of Mathematics, as published in single 200-page volume, will be found to offer rare interest to students of the mathematical heights and profundities. It deals with the forms logic, theories, methods, and validity of matbematics." -Nero York World. THĘ OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO., 122 South Michigan Avenue. Chicago, Ill. " James on а sources, who cannot get satisfactory local service, are urged to establish relations wit our bookstore. We handle every kind of book, wherever published. Questions about literary matters answered promptly. We have customers in nearly every part of the globe. Safe delivery guaranteed to any address. Our bookselling experience extends over 80 years. THE BRICK ROW BOOK SHOP, Inc. A Voice Out of Russia NEW HAVEN, CONN. Carries on a business as dealers in Rare and Fine books, Autograph letters, Manuscripts, etc., and in addition specialize in first editions of modern authors. Its general stock of second-hand books in good condition is especially rich in books on Art, Biog- raphy and Belles Lettres. (Catalogues sent upon request.) (Any book secured whether new or old.) We have reprinted in booklet form the important ar- ticles on Russia which have appeared recently in the DIAL. This 48-page booklet contains the following: 1. Withdraw from Russia! 2. Soviet Russia and The American Revolution By Lincoln Colcord 3. A Voice Out of Russia By George V. Lomonossoff 4. Decree on Land 5. Decree on Workers' Control Single copies, 10 cents; lots of 100, 7 cents; special rates for larger quantities. THE DIAL PUBLISHING CO. 152 West 13th Street New York, N. Y. When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. 214 THE DIAL February 22 NT T! 1 1 Current News Lindsay, and others; and a miscellany of undistin- Van Wyck Brooks is getting ready for book guished prose. The mood of The Playboy is publication a psychological study of Mark Twain. jocund, its spirit rather acidly contemporary: About the middle of next month Doubleday, Page Playboy comes with a handful of leaves to fling and Co. expect to bring out The Arrow of Gold, them over the corpses of the remembered dead. On by Joseph Conrad. each leaf will be written a thought of Today, and Scudder Middleton's recent verse is to be col- with such the Past will be buried.” But one ob- lected into a volume for publication in March by serves that some of the drawings are dated 1917, the Macmillan Co. The book will include his 1912, even 1909; that some of the verse has long The Lost Singer, which appeared in THE DIAL been in print elsewhere—and wonders. The price of November 2, 1918. is twenty-five cents a funeral. Mildred Aldrich, whose Hilltop on the Marne A Voice Out of Russia, a reprint of important and On the Edge of the War Zone were reviewed articles on Russia which have appeared in recent in The Dial of January 31, 1918, has written numbers of The Dial, is being issued in pam- another war book-When Johnny Comes Marching phlet by the publishers. The reprint contains Home, which is to be published by Small Maynard Withdraw from Russia! by The Editors; Soviet and Co. early in the spring. Russia and the American Revolution, by Lincoln The Marshall Jones Co. plan to issue in the Colcord; A Voice Out of Russia, by George V. spring an anonymous volume, Letters from a Lomonossoff; and the Soviet Decrees on Land Prairie Garden; Reconstruction of Churches in the and on Workers' Control. The price of the book- War Zone, by Professor Goodyear of the Brook- let is ten cents. lyn Museum; and The Seven Who Slept, a novel The Motor Truck As an Aid to Business Profits, by A. Kingsley Porter. by S. V. Norton (A. W. Shaw; $7.50) is a George H. Doran Co. will publish in February practical guide to efficiency in the use of the motor American Labor and the War, by Samuel Gom truck in business. Mr. Norton has taken an active pers; Ten Years Near the German Frontier, by part in the development of the motor truck industry Maurice Francis Egan; and The Riddle of Nearer and he writes in the light of his own experience and Asia, by Basil Mathews. of the experience of a large number of motor Edward S. Martin who, at the request of Mrs. truck owners. Subject matter covering 498 pages Choate, has undertaken the preparation of the bi is rendered easily accessible through careful index- ography of Joseph Hodges Choate, requests that ing, and is amplified by many illustrations and any friends of Mr. Choate who have letters which charts. Problems confronting owners, and prospec- they are willing to entrust to the biographer, either tive owners, of motor trucks, in business enterprises for his information or for publication, send them large and small, are differentiated and analyzed in to him in care of Charles Scribner's Sons. a direct and lucid way. Efficiency plans for keeping Leonard Merrick's While Paris Laughed, which check on costs, for the effective scheduling and rout- was reviewed by Ruth McIntyre in The Dial of ing of delivery systems are made clear. The vol- June 6, 1918, has just been issued in this country ume is an addition of first importance to the library by E. P. Dutton and Co., who announce a uniform of American business efficiency. edition of Mr. Merrick's books with introductions by English writers. The first of this new series, Contributors Conrad in Quest of His Youth, with an introduc- tion by Sir James Barrie, will appear in April. Norman Hapgood (Harvard, 1890) is president Others is again being published as a monthly, of the League of Free Nations Association. Mr. with a new editorial policy that admits prose and Hapgood was editor of Collier's Weekly from 1903 the reproductions of pictures, as well as poetry, and to 1912, and of Harper's Weekly until 1916. He even promises the publication of plays. The editors is the author of several books and many magazine are: Alfred Kreymborg, Lola Ridge, William articles. Saphier, Dorothy Kreymborg, and William Zorach. Mildred Johnston Murphy collaborated with her The present headquarters in New York are at the husband, Mr. Charles R. Murphy, in the transla- Washington Square Book Shop, 17 West 8th Street; tion from the French of a volume of poems by and in Chicago, the Radical Book Shop, 867 North Auguste Angellier. Mrs. Murphy is a graduate of Clark Street. Wellesley. The first issue of The Playboy—a new periodical Ralph Block (University of Michigan, 1911) attractively got up by Egmont Arens at the Wash- was dramatic critic on the Kansas City Star in the ington Square Book Shop, New York—is dated pre-war period and has since then been on the staff January, 1919, and is entitled A Portfolio of Art of the New York Tribune. His verse has appeared and Satire. It contains cartoons, caricatures, draw- in the Poetry Journal and other periodicals. ings, and designs—mostly in the new manners; verse by Alfred Kreymborg, Lola Ridge, Vachel The other contributors to this issue have pre- viously written for The DIAL. h 1919 215 THE DIAL Thackeray, Stevenson, Kipling, Conrad, Magefield, C. GERHARDT, 25 West 42d St., New York DUTCH LANDSCAPE ETCHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BY WILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY Cloth. 52 illustrations. $2.00. YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 120 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut 280 Madison Avenue, New York City That person who is a little disturbed about Russia, FRIDAY, FEB. 28th, is LAST DAY of our CLEARANCE SALE OF BOOKS. DON'T LET THIS OPPORTUNITY Go By McDEVITT-WILSON'S, INC. 30 Church Street Hudson Terminal Phone: 1779 Cortlandt who is a little disturbed about the Peace Conference, who is a little disturbed about Reconstruction, The first authentic account of the German Army from within. THE DIARY OF A GERMAN SOLDIER $1.50 net at all bookshops ALFRED A. KNOPF, New York who is a little disturbed about the hundred and one things that he never used to question! You know him. BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! Write, today, for catalogue MARSHALL JONES COMPANY 212 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. He is one of the thousands who are just awaking to the signifi- cance of events that are going on. THE BIOLOGY OF WAR By Dr. G. F. Nicolai A vital conception of war supplying solid ground for sane men and women to stand on. 8vo, 594 pages. $3.50. Published by THE CENTURY CO., New York He is grateful for anything that will give him a real grasp on the general situation. He ought to be a regular DIAL reader. LIFE OF LAMARTINE By H, Remsen Whitehouse The first complete life in any language, illu- minating not only Lamartine's activities as a poet and statesman, but his famous affairs of senti- ment as well. Illustrated, $10.00 net HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY, BOSTON Why don't you tear off this coupon and give it to him the next time you see him? Tell him why he ought to get acquainted. on request. Catalog THE MODERN LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST BOOKS Sluty-four titles now published—14 new volumes just issued. awaken interest. The series is doubly welcome at this time -only 70c. a volume wherever books are sold. BONI & LIVERIGHT, 105% W. 40th Street, New York ANTIQUARIAN BOOK CO. Evesham Road, Stratford-on-Avon, England Dealers in Rare Books and First Editions: Dickens, Wells, Noyes, Dungany, etc., etc. Catalogues mailed free on request DIAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 152 West 13th Street, New York. Enclosed please find $1.00. Send me THE DIAL for a four months' acquaintance sub- scription. I wish to buy any books or pamphlets printed in America before 1800 D2/22 THE WILLIAMS PRINTING COMPANI, NEW YORK When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL. 216 THE DIAL February 22 Just Published THE FIRST BOOK TO DESCRIBE THE THE LAST “BIG PUSH” OF THE GREAT WAR LIVING BAYONETS A Record of the Last Push By LIEUTENANT CONINGSBY DAWSON Author of “Carry On," " Out to Win," "The Glory of the Trenches,” etc. Second Large Edition, Cloth, $1.25 net. This volume, which takes up Lieut. Dawson's story at the point where “Carry On” laid it down, tells for the first time what the advent of the Ameri- cans on the Western Front meant to the French poilu and British “Tommy.” Lieut. Dawson's biggest book—the most complete, burning and prophetic utter- ance which has been produced by the Judgment Day which has now ended. To Be Published February 28th IN The Epic of the Poilu THE "CHARMED AMERICAN" A Story of the Iron Division of France By . GEORGES LEWYS. Frontispiece. Cloth, $1.50 net. Marshal Petain made his triumphal entry into Metz recently at the head of the famous Iron Di- vision (the battering ram of the French Army). This book recounts the experiences of a Franco- American soldier who fought with this famous Di- vision for thirty-two months and is the sole sur- vivor of his original company comprising 250 or It is the most forceful and vivid book on the Great War yet published. A New Canadian Humorist THE R E D COW AND HER FRIENDS By PETER MCARTHUR. Author of " In Pastures Green," etc. With Decorative Illustrations. Cloth, $1.50 net. Mr. McArthur' wields a prolific pen in a number of influential journals and has made himself famous through the length and breadth of Canada by telling people in a humorous-serious strain of the simple charms of rural life. This is the theme of his pres- ent volume, “The Red Cow," which, with its ap; propriate and attractive decorative illustrations, will appeal to all lovers of farm and country life. 13 inore men. Important Spring Books—Just Out FROM CZAR THE HAPPY TO BOLSHEVIK HYPOCRITE By E. P. STEBBING. Author of "At the Serbian By MAX BEERBOHM. With 24 Illustrations in Front in Macedonia," etc. With 28 Illustrations. Cloth, $3.50 net. Color by George Sheringham. Cloth, $7.50 net. This book was written in Russia while the events An edition de luxe of Max Beerbohm's classic, it records were evolving. It is the best-balanced and embellished with numerous full-page color plates, most veracious chronicle that has come to light re- initial letters, title page, cover and end papers, drawn garding a Russia torn to pieces between conflicting and designed by the eminent English artist, George forces. Sheringham. JOHN LANE COMPANY Publishers NEW YORK When writing to advertisers please mention Tui DIAL. The Covenant—and After The Dial Publishing Company, Inc. Foreign Postage, 50 cents. THE DIAL A FORTNIGHTLY VOL. LXVI NEW YORK NO. 785 MARCH 8, 1919 The COVENANT—AND AFTER. Robert Morss Lovett 219 REVERSING AN EMERGENCY . . Benjamin C. Gruenberg 221 Night Smell. Verse . Josephine Bell 224 TEN TIMES TEN MAKE ONE .Wilson Follett 225 Two LATTER-DAY HAMLETS . Lida C. Schem 228 NATIONALISM. Franz Boas 232 To ONE DEAD. Verse Rose Henderson 237 THE DRAMA OF SELF-DECEPTION . Katharine Anthony 238 The INDIAN AS POET. Louis Untermeyer 240 POSTPROGRAMISM AND RECONSTRUCTION. Rollo Britten 241 A New AMERICAN STATESMAN SERIES . William E. Dodd 243 LONDON, FEBRUARY 4 Robert Dell 244 EXPRESSIONS NEAR THE END OF WINTER Verse Stephen Vincent Benet 248 EDITORIALS 249 COMMUNICATIONS: Nationalities or Nations. 252 Notes on New Books: Wild Youth and Another.—The Web.—Formative Types in 253 English Poetry.—Another Sheaf.—The Life of David Belasco.—Religion and the War.- War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia.—Understanding South America.—The War in the Cradle of the World.-American Problems of Reconstruction.-George Meredith.- The Village Wife's Lament.-Three Live Ghosts. Pans , Dine (founded in 1880 by Francis F. Browne) is published every other Saturday by The Dial Publishing Com-- The at the Post Office at New York, na ty.,2ugust 3, higis, under the act of March 3, 1897. Copyright, 1919, by $3.00 a Year 15 Cents a Copy 218 THE DIAL March 8 The Collected Poems and Plays of JOHN MASEFIELD (Complete in two volumes) This is the first collected edition of John Masefield's poems and plays. It contains every- thing that this distinguished English author has published in the field of poetry and drama. Here will be found THE EVERLASTING MERCY and THE WIDOW IN THE BYE STREET, DAUBER and the rest of his great poetic and dramatic contributions, as well as those shorter pieces which have heretofore been published only in limited editions. Each volume contains a highly interesting preface by Mr. Masefield, throwing considerable light on his life and his poetic development. “Of living English poets there are none to match John Masefield in either the narrative or the dramatic field. There is poignant reality in almost every line; a burning hunger for beauty; utter sincerity; fervor, magic, a sharp sense of the dramatic.”—The Outlook. Vol. I. Poems (521 pages) Vol. II. Plays (640 pages) Each volume $2.76; the set $5.00 WAR AND REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 1914-1917 By General Basil Gourko Chief of the Russian Imperial Staff. “As fascinat- a book for those who seek first-hand information."" III. $4.00. NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS AND THE WORLD WAR By Frederick A. Ogg and Charles A. Beard The political institutions, ideals, and practices national and international of the belligerents. $2.50 THE VISION FOR WHICH WE FOUGHT By Arthur M. Simons A brilliant study in reconstruction showing the need for conscious continuance of processes al- ready well under way. $1.50 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES By William Bennett Munro A comprehensive survey of both the principles and the practice of American government cover- ing State, local and federal administration. $2.75 MEXICO, TODAY AND TOMORROW By Edward D. Trowbridge A comprehensive statement of the general situa- tion in Mexico-political, social, financial, and economic. $2.00 . THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM By William Stull A forceful discussion of the present relations be tween farmer and the Government. $1.25 $5.00 ENGLISH LITERATURE DUR- MUSINGS AND MEMORIES ING THE LAST HALF CENTURY OF A MUSICIAN By John Cunliffe By Sir George Henschel A brilliant study of the writers of the last half century with chapters on The Irish Movement, The story of Sir George's youth, of prominent The New Poets, and The New Novelists, musicians and artists with whom he has been as- $2.00. sociated and of the musical" tendency of bis day: THE SONG OF THREE FRIENDS ESCAPE AND FANTASY By John G. Neihardt By George Rostrevor A vivid narrative poem of the Upper Missouri River country in the early twenties. Poetry of a delicate fancy, showing marked origi- $1.25 nality and power. $1.00. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 64-86 Fifth Avenue NEW YORK When writing to advertisers please mention Tu DIAL. a division of which the Tories will be too eager to THE DIAL difference may confuse the answer of the country satisfactory conclusion of the world catastrophe be Germany and the conversion of Russia have been ment, as a condition of uniting their forces with those of more radical critics, and making impossible sidered in a spirit which is in conformity with the First of all, it must be recognized that the Cov- signed but will then require filling out with the A FORTNIGHTLY The Covenant and After The League of Free Nations, the League to inevitable that this should be so. The Peace Con- Enforce Peace, the International Alliance, the va ference had its choice of proceeding immediately rious concepts of a better world for which we to impose a peace among the belligerents, or of fought have taken form in the constitution of the drawing first the instrument which should be the League of Nations, which President Wilson has basis of that peace. Obviously the first course brought back from Paris. It will not be submitted would have meant a peace written in terms of the to the Senate until the entire treaty of peace of old world of national sovereignty and balance of which it forms a part is ready for action; but it power from which we had a chance to escape. The is now submitted to the country and to the world second course logically implies a peace written in as the basis of that treaty. As such it should be terms of the new world of which the Covenant is, received with such signs of acceptance as the Senate if it is anything, the guarantee. The Covenant is cannot fail to understand. The expected opposition part of the treaty of peace. It will be worthy to has already developed, on the part of those who are stand or fall according to the use made of their unable to think save in terms of national sover power by the five nations which constitute the eignty, entangling alliances, and the Monroe Doc Executive Council of the League, in the treaty trine. What is more to be feared is the opposition which they will impose. Their handiwork is at or the indifference of liberals, who look in vain in once to be subjected to the test of their own faith. the constitution for the fourteen points which Presi The points on which that test will chiefly turn dent Wilson so often asserted as the condition of have already become a part of liberal criticism of world peace, and therefore find themselves in a the Covenant. In the first place, it is pointed out mood varying between disillusion and disgust. With that the League of present conferees is no true the former, argument may be used, but it will not League of Nations, but a perpetuation of the vic- prevail. The question is one of practical politics torious Alliance—that as matters stand we may find in the Senate . If the country answers , the Senate the excluded nations setting up a rival league to will hear. It is to the latter, who not without throw the world back into the chaos of diplomacy, cause have learned to distrust fair words and noble preparedness, and war. Clearly the treaty of which promises , and who by skepticism, criticism, and in- the Covenant is to become a part must provide for the entry into the League of the nations now ex- suasion must be addressed. Such persuasion must be based on a consideration of the true nature of provinces of Austria, and Russia. And this in turn the constitution. And it is above all important that implies terms which make it possible for those units the great mass of liberals who may be tempted to to resume their status in the family of nations regard the document as it stands as a complete and -a new family of nations of which the basis is reconciliation. The questions of the punishment of to a realistic understanding of the instru- held in abeyance during the drafting of the Cov- enant. When they are taken up they must be con- brought e take advantage. enant is a blank check—a form, which figures which alone can give it meaning. It was meaning of the League and which it is the object of the League to make possible on earth. Second, the rights of weak nations, and among these we include Ireland, China, Mexico, Jugo- Slavia—those nations which are particularly subject to the predatory policies of certain classes in one may be 220 March 8 THE DIAL a great thing, or more of the five executive nations—must be be- gested in this article, with opportunity for direct yond any peradventure safeguarded. One of the representation of the people in the legislature of defects in the constitution of the League is in Article nations, that the present Covenant may become the XV, which seems to permit a nation to make war, basis of a League of Peoples. or to bring pressure equivalent to war, on another The most damaging criticism of the present with the sanction of one disinterested member of Covenant is that it is not a covenant of peoples. It the Executive Council. could not be. The people have no machinery Third, the provisions re