Babbitt Review

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BABBITT is the reverse of “Main Street;” it packs into the personality of one ordinary citizen the banality, vulgarized energy, and ambition to be a hustler and a good fellow, of a whole class, while “Main Street” took what was alleged to be (but wasn’t) a typical town and diffused all over it the meanness and crassness at which the author chose to direct his arrows of irony.

Thus “Georgie” Babbitt is the book; the other people are merely what actors call “feeders” to Babbitt. This is why Mr. Lewis’s new story will puzzle and disappoint one large class of novel readers-those who demand situation, construction, suspense, culmination, and all the effect of drama. If, however, such readers will lay aside that perhaps Victorian attitude, they will find that Babbitt is in himself an epitome of one kind of American life; he bristles with actuality; he holds the stage of one’s attention ‘as closely as Lulu Bett did in Miss Gale’s story-to compare as opposite characters as there could be.

Babbitt’s literary portrait is a piece of meticulous exactness; the technical skill with which his creator avoids the temptation of making a mere type of him is a triumph. So, too, is the cleverness that endows Babbitt with a recurrent, only semi-conscious, longing for romance and idealism, in his breaking away from his campaigns of “pep” and hurrah to go fishing with his stupid and gloomy friend, or now and then to revolt for a time against the crooked business and politics which usually seem to him just what every “regular guy” does.

Fortunately for the reader, who might otherwise tire of the minute realism of the description of Babbitt’s daily acts from the time he throws away his safety-razor blades to his last drink at night, Georgie is a bubbling joy of slang, and his quick, bumptious talk is amusing; whether one laughs at him or with him doesn’t much matter. He is vain, uncultured (though a college graduate), a pusher and a boomer and a jollier. He echoes all the slogans, repeats the dubious stories, “orates” at club dinners, takes for granted that whatever is the business practice must be right, gets his politics and convictions at second hand, and is a successful church booster despite bad breaks in his personal morality. In short, he is an amusing scamp, but he is not a villain; he is not meant as a type, yet his vulgarisms and delinquencies are typical of a pretty large number of men who would be terribly outraged if they were to be told that they were not valuable citizens and go-ahead, progressive American business men. Irony is sometimes good for the soul, for it strikes deeper than moralizing. But the weakness of unrelieved irony is that it borders on cynicism; there are plenty of Babbitts about; but, thanks be, there are also plenty of non-Babbitts.

Eight years ago, in reviewing Mr. Lewis’s “Our Mr. Wrenn,” I spoke of it as a first story that aroused great expectation. The author has certainly gone far since then. The young shoe drummer there depicted was less real but more joyous than Georgie Babbitt; perhaps a little mixture of his gay efficiency and personal cleanness and honor might have made Babbitt something better than the man now so sardonically depicted with faultless realism.

Babbitt. by Sinclair Lewis. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York. $2.

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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Development of the St Lawrence Valley – Part 1

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

THE wealth of the Indies was the objective of Columbus and the early explorers in their search for a westward passage to the Orient. The Portuguese navigator Antonio Galvao in 1550, in the belief that no channel-way existed between the Atlantic and Pacific, recommended that an isthmian canal be built-the precursor of the present Panama Canal.

Hernando de Soto in 1541, or possibly de Pineda in 1519, discovered the Mississippi; Jacques Cartier in 1534 discovered the St. Lawrence, and reported to his master, Francis I, “It is the greatest river that ever has been.”

These two great rivers have their sources close to each other near the head of Lake Superior. The Mississippi flows southward through the Great Plains and empties into the Gulf of Mexico; the St. Lawrence, the broadest and deepest river on the continent, flows from its source by way of the Great Lakes, down the valley of the St. Lawrence in a volume of a quarter million cubic feet each second, to the northern Atlantic, a distance of more than two thousand miles.

The, Rocky Mountains to the west, the Laurentians to the north, and the Appalachian ranges from Alabama curving north and eastward to Nova Scotia, form the sides of a great trough which runs from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of St. Lawrence by way of the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence Valley.

Robert Cavelier de La Salle, in quest of a passage to China in 1669, voyaged 180 miles from Montreal up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, thence across the lakes to the foot of Lake Michigan, and southward by the Ohio and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, thus establishing the connection between the discoveries of De Soto in the South with the discoveries of Pere Marquette, Joliet des Groseilliers, Radisson, and the other explorers in the North, whose names are still preserved in the nomenclature of the localities and waters about the Great Lakes.

The discovery and establishment of water routes from the ocean by way of the Mississippi and by the St. Lawrence with the rich- midland areas about the Great Lakes brought with them a recognition that the potential natural wealth of the vast territory tributary to the lakes was far greater and more real than the fabled riches of El Dorado or the Great Khan. Trading posts were established at the site of Duluth in 1678 by the Sieur de Luht, at the site of Detroit in 1701 by Cadillac, and throughout the region of the lakes and St. Lawrence by the contemporaries and successors of these pioneers.

To-day these regions are productive of greater wealth from manufactures, mines, and agriculture than any other region in the world.

The Panama Canal provides passageway to the East for vessels of the largest type, but the vastly greater trade and commerce of the tributary areas of the lakes still remains landlocked to vessels of a size that could profitably engage in ocean carriage. The tonnage passing through the Panama Canal is not one-tenth of the volume of tonnage passing in and out of the ports of the lakes and the St. Lawrence.

Of the white population of this hemisphere more than one-half inhabit New England and the States and provinces that border on or are tributary to the Great Lakes or the St. Lawrence Valley. Two-thirds of the railway tonnage of North America is carried in this region. Iron, coal, and grain are the essential elements of the material predominance of a nation; eighty-five per cent of the iron, seventy per cent of the coal reserve, and seventy-five per cent of the grain are of the resources of this region, and copper, zinc, lead, timber, pork, and wool are of its main products.

The manufacture and distribution of the products of the United States have resulted in a commerce that excels the total international commerce of the rest of the world. The industries produced $63,000.000,000 of wealth in 1920, three times that of 1910 and five times that of 1900. The Nation’s business has outrun its transportation facilities; the transport of an ever-increasing volume of products must be provided for if development is to continue.

Transportation is a link in the chain of costs from producer to consumer. It is an economic maxim that “The total cost is the cost of production plus the cost of transportation.”

Judge Gary stated, in commenting on the business of United States Steel for 1921: “Railroad transportation, on the basis of existing -rate conditions, averages, in the case of subsidiary companies, forty per cent of the cost of producing steel.” If the average cost of transport on the Nation’s business of $63,000,000,000 in 1920 was forty per cent, the consumer would have paid more than $25,000,000,000 for transportation.

The commerce tributary to the lakes, under existing conditions, is under the economic handicap of long hauls and great transportation costs when competing for foreign or seaboard trade. The geographical situation of the lakes in the midland of the continent, the great extent of shore-line adapted to ports of accumulation for the vast agricultural and industrial production, and the depth of water in the lakes are a combination of natural conditions conformable to the most efficient employment of large freight vessels, the most economical known means of transportation. The greatest economies can be realized in navigation on through freights-that is, where bulk is not broken from the port of loading to destination.

These conditions cannot be realized in the commerce of the Great Lakes until the deep-water .way, the New Welland Canal, now being constructed by the Canadian Government between the upper lakes and Lake Ontario, is completed and the deep-water way down the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic is developed. This development in its simplest form consists in the deepening and widening of the six canals of the present St. Lawrence system. These canals are from one to fourteen miles in length; their combined length is less than forty-five miles.

The cost of ocean freights averages one-tenth of the cost of rail freights, or in the approximate proportion of one mill to one cent per ton mile. The augmentation in the cost of transport where bulk is broken and cargo transferred between terminals is emphasized in the shipment of wheat from the lakes by way of the New York State Barge Canal to New York en route to Liverpool; the figures are approximate percentages of the cost from Duluth to Liverpool:

Distance/Miles— Cost/Per cent.
Duluth to Buffalo1 1,000 – 18
Buffalo to New York2 496 — 47
New York to Liverpool 3,107 – 35
4,603 — 100
1 In elevator.
2 On barges.

It is estimated that half of the cost and about half of the time will be saved in shipping directly down the St. Lawrence to destination. The distance from the foot of lake navigation to Liverpool via the Barge Canal is 3,600 miles, by way of the St. Lawrence it is about 3,100 miles, or 500 miles less, or about the length of the canal system between New York and Buffalo.

In addition to the New York State Barge Canal there is the Canadian canal system down the St. Lawrence to Montreal. The State Barge Canal is designed for twelve feet navigation; there is but ten feet available. The cost of this system was $200,000,000. The Canadian system is fourteen feet deep in the 75 miles of canalization between Lake Erie and Montreal; the river reaches between the canals would average thirty feet in depth. The distance from the present foot of lake navigation to Montreal is 400 miles; with the opening of the New Welland Canal this distance will be reduced to 110 miles.

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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Two Significant Political Conventions

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

THE Republicans and the Democrats have held their conventions in the State of New York, the one at Albany, the other at Syracuse. Each gathering marked the return of the convention system for the nomination of State officers.

A friend of The Outlook who was an eye-witness of the Republican Convention at Albany writes to us of it as follows:

It seemed strangely something that hadn’t the reason it once had. There were over a thousand persons (delegates), I believe, all very much alike in appearance and manner of speech. I never saw so many people together who were so much alike.

“What does your political-philosophical makeup say to this?” asked a friend. I said it seemed much of the same thing. “Yes,” said he. “It is all Governor Miller.”

I told him I didn’t object to that, and I didn’t. But I kept on thinking, “Is this the best we can do with a serious job?” Groups here and there were talking like stock brokers. About twelve men were upstairs slate-making at the Ten Eyck [a well-known Albany hotel]; and in the lounge both men and women were yawning and asking, “When do we eat and is it fixed yet?”

Really, at both Syracuse and Albany one man has been doing all the thinking for the State. This is not so anywhere else in the world to-day. We are back in the good old ’90′s, bag and baggage, in this State.

Not quite, we believe, for now the delegates to party conventions are chosen by direct election by the party voters in the direct primary. As a consequence, in the conventions this year the personal quality of the different delegations was much improved over the old days of unrestricted selection by the bosses; but the failure of the Convention as a deliberative self-governing body was as marked as it always has been and always will be, except in those special cases when the public is greatly aroused over political conditions. A thousand men and women meeting for two days only are incapable of reflection or of self-mastery. A convention is essentially a social function; useful enough in its way as a means of bringing a thousand representatives of the party from all parts of the State into closer touch and unity, and sometimes helpful to the leaders as offering an opportunity for a test probe of public opinion while the slate and platform are being made.

But the real work of preliminary jockeying and final decision is always done by a few outstanding political personalities who meet more or less secretly in a hotel suite, and not in the convention. It is in the human nature of the situation, and it cannot be changed by statute.

The chief surface features of the two Conventions appear to have been somewhat as follows. The Republican gathering was dominated almost completely by the leadership of Governor Miller. His term of office has been marked by an economical and intelligent direction of government, and his unusual ability both as a party manager and exponent of public opinion has made him the chief asset of the Republicans in New York. He swept the slate practically clean of the State officers who served with him during his first incumbency, and selected an entirely new ticket, with the exception of State Treasurer, to stand with him for his second campaign. There seems to have been a reason in every case, and the Republican public has taken little umbrage at the Governor’s drastic action. His course in this matter is a most practical admission of the need of the so-called short ballot in State government, which means in essence that the Governor should have authority to select the chief State officers who really make up his Cabinet and who should be chosen for their team-work qualities. Governor Miller has fulfilled the short-ballot idea by a short cut of gubernatorial pressure upon a Convention which was absolutely beholden to his renomination. Of course nobody but a candidate in the position of Governor Miller could accomplish the reform in this way.

The Democratic gathering was characterized by a struggle for control between the forces of William Randolph Hearst, the well-known editor, and the forces behind Alfred E. Smith, former Governor of New York. This Convention had less of the self-governing quality than the Republican Convention. The Republicans at least nodded assent to what they knew beforehand was going to happen. The Democrats had not the slightest idea of what was going to happen until they heard it from the Tammany machine leader at the final session; and then they also cordially acquiesced.

Hearst was repudiated and Smith was again made the standard-bearer of his party. The Republican platform is dignified, orderly, economical in its tendency, conservative, and practical. The Democratic platform has a great deal of humanness in it, but is stuffed with schemes of municipal operation and with ideas and suggestions of government action for human welfare which would probably swamp a municipal or State treasury if carried out. The Republican platform favors slow advance, only as fast as the State can pay for and manage it. The Democrats in New York seem to be for headlong advance, whether or no. A wave of “torrential” emotion swept the Convention at Syracuse upon the reading of the plank demanding the legalizing of beer and light wines as beverages of the people. But, as one of the participants said to the man next to him: “It doesn’t mean anything. I have lapped up enough of it myself, but I’m glad that my two boys are growing up in a ginless generation!”

Underneath these surface ebullitions and intimations the fact seems to be that the same conservative forces of the country were behind both Conventions, working out their will. There was some alarm in high conservative centers outside as well as inside the State of New York that Hearst might secure the gubernatorial nomination, perhaps be elected, and win the Presidency in 1924. becoming the leader of the radical irresponsibles in the Nation. These influences and the natural trend of desire on the part of the Democratic rank and file united to push Hearst aside with Smith, who has had a sensible career and is now connected with a large business enterprise in New York City. There is no reason to believe that Smith cared to be nominated, except to keep Hearst away from the centers of control of the Democratic party. The conservatives in both parties are now likely to join with the majority of the citizens of the State in electing Miller. Miller is a natural conservative, but it is usually true that honest conservatives under responsibility become liberal, and that is what is happening to Miller. His record is one of moderate rational advance. The Hearst forces regard this conservative tendency in the State of New York as reactionary and- denounce it. Probably the true interpretation is that it really fulfills the present desires of the voters. Throughout the world radicalism and Socialism are just now under the ban of common sense because they are associated with disorder and starvation. Whatever may be said of conservatism and capitalism, they at least have the merit of being able to feed the world.

When we meditate upon such conventions as these which we have described and reflect upon what lies behind, we are more than ever impressed with the lines of the Rubaiyat:

“We are no other than a moving row Of visionary Shapes that come and go Round with this Run-illumin’d Lantern held In Midnight by the Master of the Show.”

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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The Passing of Tom Watson

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BETWEEN democracy and demagogism the dividing line is not always easy to trace; and yet there are no two qualities of government which are more contradictory. Originally the name demagogue was applied to a man who successfully led the people in the art of self-government, which is the art of political and social self-restraint. Nothing could be further in purpose and character from such a man than one who seeks and obtains power over the people by inciting their passions and intensifying their prejudices; and yet it is to this opposite extreme that the name demagogue has come to be applied. Undoubtedly, many a true leader of the people in self-government has found it impossible to lead by virtue of reason alone, and undoubtedly many a man who has mounted to power through popular passion has served some good end at one time or another in his career; and therefore the determination whether a man is a demagogue in the one sense or the other has been at times a matter of opinion rather than of demonstrable fact.

To many thousands of persons in the South, and particularly in his own State of Georgia, Tom Watson (as he liked to be called), who died on September 26, was a demagogue in the good old sense. He was regarded as a leader of the oppressed and unprivileged in their struggle for emancipation. As one eulogist, writing in the Atlanta “Constitution,” said of him on the day after his death: “As a practicing lawyer, when he traveled from one end of Georgia to the other in criminal cases, in which he specialized, he invariably fought the battle of the defendant and not the prosecutor. … It was this spirit for the man who was down, for the farmer who was struggling, for the laborer who was fighting the tide, that made him the idol of the poor.” As a consequence, Watson gained a following which he commanded as few officers can command their men even in time of war. As another eulogist said of him in the same newspaper:

“When ‘Tom’ Watson appeared before his people, he played on their emotions like a master of the violin plays on his delicate instrument. . . He molded the opinions and thoughts of his followers like so much putty, and with most of them it was only for him to say and for them to do.”

No man can attain this position in any community without exceptional ability. Tom Watson was a man of mental vigor and brilliance. Proof of his ability abides in some of the books he wrote, notably his two-volume work “The Story of France,” which is a picture of France as distinctive as Carlyle’s “French Revolution,” and, like Carlyle’s book, is as much a portraiture of the author as of his subject.

Unhappily, the gifts of Thomas Edward Watson were ill employed. His power to sway the people by eloquence was perverted again and again to the arousing of racial animosities, religious prejudice, and class hostilities. His influence was immeasurably hurtful to right relations between whites and blacks in his State and elsewhere. He aided the unthinking hate of the Jews as Jews. He made it more difficult rather than less difficult for conscientious Roman Catholic and Protestant citizens to live in amity side by side. And he tended to arouse in the minds of all who were poor a feeling of distrust for all who were rich, without regard for character. During the war he was an obstructionist. He sought to prevent the sending of selective service men for the war overseas. His periodicals, “The Weekly Jeffersonian” and “Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine,” became so hostile to the effective prosecution of the war that they were excluded from the mails. After the war he made himself notorious by bringing unsubstantiated charges of the most atrocious character against American overseas officers. His constructive record is very slight.

Born in Columbia County, Georgia, Thomas E. Watson was a student for two years in Mercer University, taught school, and was admitted to the bar. He was elected to Congress as a Populist and was the Populists’ Vice-Presidential candidate in 1896 and Presidential candidate in 1904. He was elected in 1920 to the United States Senate, having defeated both Senator Hoke Smith and Governor Dorsey in the Democratic primaries, and died before eighteen months of his six-year term had elapsed.

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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Death of Artist Leon Bonnat

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WE hereby express our gratitude to the New York “Times” for printing on the editorial page of its issue for September 22 a delightful article on the late Leon Bonnat, the French artist who died last month at the ripe age of eighty-nine. Bonnat was one of the most popular and successful of French portrait painters during the last half-century, and made a fortune with his brush.

Many well-known American artists were pupils in his studio from time to time, such as: Edwin H. Blashfield, President of our own National Academy; H. Siddons Mowbray and Henry Oliver Walker, the distinguished mural painters: Charles Y. Turner, widely known for his figure and historical paintings; and William A. Coffin, of the National Academy, and author of the “Times” article.

Bonnat was apparently a great personality as well as a successful artist. Indeed, it is his personality as portrayed by Mr. Coffin that is of special interest to the layman. He did not indulge in “blurbs” in his studio; the highest commendation which he ever gave to a pupil was, “Pat mal”!”-not bad. It is evident that he believed that genius is composed of perspiration as well as of inspiration, for, “a remarkable and accomplished draughtsman himself, he insisted upon his pupils working incessantly to arrive at the fairest measure of success they might show themselves capable of achieving.” Although he had what some painters scorn, a social success as a portrait painter, it did not spoil his intellectual standards, as the following anecdote related by Mr. Coffin indicates:

One time when I was in his studio in his fine house in the Rue Bassano, Bonnat had, among other canvases on his ten or twelve big easels, a portrait of Mayor Hewitt, a most excellent work by the way, and a full-length picture of an American gentleman socially well known, in hunting costume, as he appeared on his estate in Scotland. He told me he was one of my compatriots, naming him, and then, indicating the Hewitt portrait, he said: “Main, voila un homme intelligent.”

During the war Bonnat worked actively in an association, of which he was the founder, for the benefit of families of artists who had been killed in the conflict, and co-operated in full sympathy with the American Artists’ Committee of One Hundred, which was organized for the creation of a relief fund for the families of French soldier-artists. That Committee, by the way, is still in existence and is proposing to continue its aid to the dependent widows and children of French artists during the calendar year 1922. It may be that there are some who read these lines who have had pleasure from the canvases of Bonnat and may like to express their pleasure by sending a contribution to William A. Coffin, Chairman of the American Artists’ Committee of One Hundred, 58 West Fifty-seventh Street, New York City, for the benefit of these artists’ families.

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Women’s Golf Championship

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

YOUTH has been served in the women’s amateur National golf championship as well as in the men’s, for the victory in this year’s tournament has gone to Miss Glenna Collett, of Providence, Rhode Island. In the finals she defeated Mrs. William Gavin, of England, by five up and four to play. Four former American title-holders fell by the way during the progress of the tournament. In the final match Miss Collett scored a forty-three and a thirty-eight for a total of eighty-one strokes in the morning round. Any man not in the first flight who plays nine difficult holes in thirty-eight strokes generally feels like going home and buying himself a cup. Such a score is ample testimony of the quality of Miss Collett’s golf.

The tournament was held at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia.

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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New University Athletic Code

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

YALE, Princeton, and Harvard have formulated an athletic agreement which is admirable. Of course this agreement does not indicate any radical departure from present practices, as some commentators would have it, but is very largely merely a codification of the public opinion of these three universities. It puts in explicit terms ideals which have been generally held by graduates and undergraduates of Yale, Princeton, and Harvard.

The terms of this agreement are worthy of study by all those who are interested in cleaning up the amateur athletic situation in America. The present regulations, supplementary to those already in existence, include, first, a requirement that-

The university committee on eligibility shall, in advance of competition, require of each candidate for competition in any sport a detailed statement of the sources of his financial support, including any sums earned during vacation. In the case of each athlete who is shown to have received financial aid from others than those on whom he is naturally dependent for support, the committee shall then, in advance of his competition, submit the facts to the committee of the three chairmen (representing the three universities), which shall decide upon his eligibility. In cases in which the motives for extending aid to an athlete are not clear to the committee of the three chairmen, that committee shall take into account failure on the part of the athlete to maintain a creditable record in his academic course in character, scholarship, and willingness to meet his obligations, as evidence that a continuance of financial aid to the athlete on grounds of character, scholarship, and conduct seems unwise, and that therefore the committee may have to declare him ineligible.

An athlete is barred from participating in college sports if at any time he has received any pecuniary reward from any connection with athletics, and a student is also barred from any athletic team or crew who receives, “from others than those on whom he is naturally dependent for financial support, money by gift or loan, or the equivalent of money, such as board and lodging, etc., unless the source and character of these gifts or payments to him shall be approved by the committee of three chairmen on the ground that they have not accrued to him primarily because of his ability as an athlete.”

Two important sections of the new agreement state that any student who transfers to Yale, Harvard, or Princeton from any college or university shall be ineligible to represent these institutions in any sport in which he represented his former college or university except when playing against the university from which he transferred, and that the “three universities wholly disapprove of all propaganda, either through special inducements or through disparagement of other institutions, to induce boys in the schools to go to a particular institution.”

Concerning coaches, the agreement says that “it should be the aim of each university, as far as practicable, to have the coaching of all teams done only by members of its regular staff,” and that “while under contract” no coach shall write for publication on the subject of athletics without first submitting for approval by the university authorities any articles intended for publication.”

The agreement prohibits athletic practice prior to the week before the universities open, reduces the length of athletic schedules, and forbids post-season contests. Two wise provisions require that athletic schedules shall include so far as possible only contests with teams representing institutions setting similar standards of eligibility and that athletic publicity shall be subject to constant supervision and study in an effort to lessen undue emphasis upon athletics in general and football in particular.

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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Oxford Debates in America

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There is at present in this country a debating team from the University of Oxford. Already Oxford has met Bates on its home grounds. The decision in favor of Bates was rendered both by judges, according to the American plan, and the audience, according to the British method. An editorial discussion of Anglo-American methods of college debating has already appeared in The Outlook, and in a forthcoming issue there will be an article by Ralph M. Carson, the American Rhodes Scholar who was President of the Oxford Union last year.

Concerning the Oxford-Bates debate the New York “Evening Post” says: The three Bates debaters regarded themselves as a team, they carefully divided their “points,” they shunned repetition, and they filled their speeches with a maximum of unassailable “evidence.” The British debaters, on the other hand, spoke as individuals, did not mind contradict-ing one another slightly, were intent on thought rather than facts, and gave no attention to rebuttal.

The Oxford team is to speak at several Eastern universities before its return to England. At Harvard, at any rate, the debate is to be carried on according to the English system, as the audience will give the only decision which will be rendered. At Harvard each speaker will have the floor for fifteen minutes and there will be no rebuttal. The Harvard debate will be held before this issue is published, and the subject defended and attacked will be: “Resolved, that the United States should immediately join the League of Nations.”

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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Friendship Between France and America

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ON the steamer Chicago, from Havre, France, on September 19, sailed a large number of American students returning from a summer abroad to their respective colleges and universities. But there also sailed forty-two young French men and women who attracted equal notice. They had been selected for the scholarships offered by our colleges and universities. These students will join about a dozen others, also scholarship-holders, who are remaining in America for a second or third year of study.

The French Government furnishes transportation to and from the American institutions. A large number of the students will remain in the East because of the expense involved in traveling to our Western colleges and universities; perhaps most of the students will be attracted to our institutions of the Middle West.

As to scholarships and fellowships in French universities for our college men and women, it is gratifying to note that the number of them has been increased from 50 to 62. These fellowships are in addition to those-some thirty in number-maintained by the American Field Service Fellowships Society, and also to those privately founded. The last named were in large measure established to commemorate the heroism of Americans who died in France during the war.

Further information concerning the scholarships in French universities may be obtained by writing to the American University Union, 1 Rue de Fleurus, Paris.

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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Kato the Liberal

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WHEN Admiral Baron Kato became Prime Minister of Japan last June, it was natural for Americans unacquainted with the details of Japan’s politics to assume that, with a naval officer at the head of the Government, the military party of Japan would be strengthened. As a matter of fact, however. Admiral Baron Kato, as we pointed out at the time, is of liberal mind and believes in civilian control and party responsibility. The task of such a man in the Government of Japan is not easy; for traditionally, both the army and the navy are under the control of Ministers who are responsible directly to the Emperor. To change that control without affronting the people’s regard for the sacredness of the Emperor’s person and authority requires statesmanship, and the fact that a great change was brought about by the late Mr. Hara, who was assassinated for his liberal tendencies, was proof of the statesmanship of that eminent Prime Minister.

Now Admiral Baron Kato, according to a despatch from the well-known publicist B. W. Fleisher to the Philadelphia “Public Ledger,” is facing a very acute situation in which the militarists and the anti-militarists are ranged against each other, and, as a consequence, the Prime Minister is threatening to resign. The issue has arisen out of the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from Siberia. The presence of those forces in Siberia long after the war and after the American forces which went in at the same time were withdrawn was one of the obstacles to the belief on the part of many Americans in Japanese good faith. When the Washington Naval Conference was adjourned last February, Japan had given promises to withdraw from Siberia as soon as possible consistently with the protection of Japanese civilians there. The cynical were inclined to regard such a promise as worthless, inasmuch as there would always be a good excuse for keeping troops to protect civilians under the circumstances. Nevertheless, Japan has been taking measures to fulfill her promise, and Japanese troops have been evacuating the region. Indeed, so far as the evacuation goes, it was reported that Russian Communists and Russian Anti-Communists have troops concentrated ready to dispute with each other the right to take the place which the Japanese troops are leaving. The crisis in the Japanese Government has arisen, not over the withdrawal of the troops them-selves, but over the disposal of arms and ammunition, which include some of the material left by the Czechoslovakian army which evacuated Siberia two years ago. It is now reported that, contrary to Japan’s promise to keep out of factional fights in China, a large quantity, of these munitions have been sold to the Manchurian military despot, Chang Tso-lin. The disposal of these munitions in this way puts Japan in a position of ally to one of the most disturbing factors in the Far East. It had been repeatedly charged that Japan has been secretly abetting Chang’s aggressive tactics, and this sale of arms seems to confirm that allegation. According to the “Public Ledger” despatch, this sale was made under the authority of the Japanese military chief of staff without consulting with the Japanese Government.

It is such action on the part of military authorities without the consent of the civilian Government of Japan that has repeatedly put Japan in an embarrassing position in her relations with other Governments. Admiral Baron Kato is evidently undertaking to make this a test case. On the one side, there are the Japanese army officers who want to be accountable to nobody but the Emperor, and on the other side are Admiral Baron Kato, his War Minister, General Yamashina, and the former War Minister, General Tanaka, who wish to have the military party subordinate to the authority of the civilian government. “If the chief of staff is unyielding,” says the special despatch from the correspondent of the “Public Ledger,” “Baron Kato will offer to quit the Cabinet as an alternative.”

It is evident that Japan is passing through a period of development in which political decisions will be of the utmost moment and consequence. Not only will Japan’s own prosperity and progress depend upon these decisions, but also good relations between Japan and other nations. All the evidence which has come to us indicates that Admiral Baron Kato is on the side of progress in Japan and international justice and peace. The very fact that he is making a fight on this issue is reassuring to the best friends that Japan has in other countries, and it confirms their faith in her.

Source: The Outlook, 11 Oct 1922

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