The Shenandoah
439 THE COMMONWEAL September 16, 1925 ing the profits of neutrality in his restaurants. It is small wonder that he has revolted at last, and is shaking the dust of his desecrated quarter...
...and the relative protection of the men who undertake to conduct our air-fleet...
...It is small wonder that he has revolted at last, and is shaking the dust of his desecrated quarter off his feet and leaving it to the pushing, hustling alien to work his will upon...
...Yet the horror of this occurrence, the wreckage and suffering involved in it, are as nothing compared to the possible catastrophe that might attend the American arms were they to engage in a desperate struggle for the nation's safety without the help of a competent, welltrained and technically perfect air-force...
...Colonel Mitchell has broken a strict rule of the army by launching a prohibited attack upon conditions which he believes unintelligent and ominous...
...He is sustained in this by the practice of other nations and by the psychology which almost unavoidably prevails in military circles...
...and therefore everybody is wondering, first, whether giant ships of the dirigible type are helpful in battle or even in peace...
...Imagination exists in very different proportions in different people and the man whose dry-as-dust erudition would rob the world of any association that sets its pleasant chimes ringing shall not escape reprobation...
...It was notorious in the case of Great Britain...
...A tradition that has been fondly believed in by ten generations has acquired a respectability all its own, regardless of its authenticity, and the best plan would seem to be merely to let it alone...
...Science may always be trusted for a new theory or something that will buttress an old one it is not ready to give up just yet...
...that antiquated planes are in use...
...Nearer home is there not a local legend that the "House of the Seven Gables" acquired two surreptitious and wholly unwarranted gables in the years that followed the vogue of Hawthorne's deathless romance...
...It is obvious that, if he never lived, he can never have died and been buried at Elsinore, or elsewhere...
...While we hesitate to approve the Colonel's publicity methods and doubt the validity of many of his statements, we believe the American people cannot afford to let the man be curbed...
...In another, feathers of the more southerly of the humming bird family are being sold to be tucked into the hat band as knowing fishermen carry flies...
...and that appropriations are being cut down unreasonably—are all contingent upon the circumstance that no department of aviation is in existence...
...One of the most beautiful and unfrequented is the Pare Montsouris in the southern section of the old fortified zone...
...But since the whole departure is admittedly an experiment, there ought to be no attempt at blanketing failure with propaganda, or at drifting ahead in a kind of standardized, routine trade wind...
...Disquieted, after several hundred years, by the vogue that has accrued to their town through the tradition that it contains the grave of Hamlet, they are considering whether they can any longer, with peace of mind, consent to enjoy the commercial profits which pious pilgrims bring them, year by year...
...Colonel Mitchell's first demand is that the department of aviation be made independent of the regular army and navy bureaus...
...No other men are so glued to the minutiae of their work as are soldiers of the land or sea forces...
...Details of the settlement that have just been released make attractive reading...
...A noted native author, Johannes Jensen, has even told them roundly that what is an "admitted hoax" is unworthy of a cultured people...
...Over the further question as to whether Hamlet himself ever existed, their concern is less personal...
...Most of the pilgrimages in "historic Boston" are pilgrimages to sites, and an aroma of restoration clings about the home of Paul Revere...
...One must be poor, one must be French and one must be a "serious student," duly authenticated...
...1 T is to be hoped some means of settling the question will be discovered that will not too roughly unsettle the historic confidence among tourists...
...But something besides sympathy is involved...
...September 16, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 439 THE SHENANDOAH HP HE tragic questions which follow the collapse of *¦ the Shenandoah call for answers which, as a matter of course, a layman cannot give...
...Certain items in this attack can be discussed intelligently only by those who, like the Colonel, know air-craft in a practical way...
...The world is full of what might be called "phony" shrines...
...No event in our military history since the war has so deeply aroused the sympathy of the American people, who value the kind of fighting men lost to us when Commander Landsdowne and his companions perished in the wreckage of their craft...
...It may be—and certainly we hope so—that the Los Angeles will successfully weather furious intercoastal storms...
...There are only three requisites for citizenship in this new commonwealth of the spirit...
...LjLOTHING experts are prophesying brighter colors in more daring combinations for the male bird next summer, and signs are not lacking for those who have eyes and leisure to note them, that male love for bright vesture, so long confined to "neckwear," is on the point of invading new fields...
...The demolition of the fortifications, since the war, which were built during the reign of Louis Philippe has left an open zone of some 200 yards width all round the French capital, bordering at many points on parks or fairly open country...
...If nothing else were at stake than the future of commercial aviation, it would vitally interest us—a great urban nation— to learn all that can be learned about the open roads of the air...
...With the French care for the amenities of life first of all, lawns have been laid out round a number of cottages whose architecture is modeled on that of old French country houses, trees have been planted...
...An American neighbor, modeled on similar lines, would be an interesting experiment...
...Dante's house" at Florence is none too authentic, and the "portrait" of the divine poet in the Bargello hard by, rests under more than suspicion...
...The fun of wearing the "authentic colors" of clubs or regiments with which one is not connected, is not apparent on its face, neither is the point of sporting a blue mackenzie or red heckle during office hours when you could not cast a fly without alarming every hookable fish within a radius of a hundred yards...
...However conscientious his scruples may claim to be, he belongs in the large category of those who are malignantly busy "taking the joy out of life...
...Other things are at stake, however—the safety of the country and its forces in time of war...
...there is a large Gothic hall for dancing and theatrical performances, boxing and fencing rooms, and the whole is under the supervision of a young professor chosen from the university...
...r OR building a new Latin Quarter, the Paris student has been lucky enough to find a rare opportunity within his reach, and one which it is not easy to imagine occurring in any great American or English city...
...1 HE city fathers of Elsinore, Denmark, seem to be afflicted with what used to deserve the name of a New England conscience...
...Nothing but immediate and thoroughgoing investigation of the problem will fit the case...
...We all know that the Shenandoah was on trial...
...Other points raised by Colonel Mitchell—the fact that no weather service has been organized for the benefit of airmen...
...Politics in any disgraceful sense is not involved...
...The human waste is irreparable, though once again it proved that bravery is unforgettable...
...The other armies learned the same thing...
...It stresses precisely the same things which the French ace, Lieutenant Fonck, outlined in a more or less recent discussion of air-craft...
...Obviously a group of land generals will always see to it that their arms get most of whatever money is available and of such attention as happens to be abroad...
...They "come" mostly in yellows, greens and scarlets...
...One more tradition has gone into the limbo of the past...
...In one Fifth Avenue store, combinations of hues, calculated to "make the rash gazer wipe his eye," are being recommended as the "authentic colors of British clubs and regiments...
...and when the peace treaty had been safely signed, French critics openly and wittily declared that the conflict had been won in spite of G. H. Q. It is likely that we shall get a typically American, aggressive, and progressive air-service only when we give the men who are in it a chance to control its destinies...
...American experience during the great war proved how hard the earth must rock before military academicians will surrender a foothold...
...It is not surprising that, even before the scheme has been tested out (the Cite does not open till November) foreign students have hastened to follow its example, and that a Canadian, Belgian and Italian city are being laid out in proximity...
...The schools will still draw him to his old home during daylight hours...
...and secondly, whether the American forces have mastered the intricate code which makes air-craft serviceable in war...
...For the rest—Ichabod...
...Perhaps they will see nothing but a hint of camouflage— and protective coloration...
...When night descends, you may be quite sure the ghosts of Mimi and Schaunard, and Enjolras and Cosette will haunt the Place Maubert and the alleys of the Luxembourg where their lives and loves burned out...
...Possibly the very rigidity which makes them staunch and successful, hampers their impartial approach to any problem which lies outside their immediate sphere...
...It is here, within fairly easy reach of the schools, that the "Cite Universitaire" is coming into being...
...And how are our heavy social prophets of the Shavian kind, who have been noting a shyer attitude on the part of man, the pursued, in answer to franker tactics on the part of woman, the pursuer, going to say about it all...
...It was a horrible thing, this crumpling up of a carefully built leviathan of the air during a fierce Ohio storm...
...Joubert has reminded us that it is an evil practice to dig up traditions in order to examine their roots...
...the development of what all soldiers concede is a vital branch of the service...
...Designed as an American version of the Zeppelin, she may not have incorporated everything which now goes into the making of an ultra-modern ship...
...We believe they will give him an opportunity to speak out...
...But the general trend of his argument is akin to ordinary civic common sense...
...We cannot be indifferent to the strength of the defense by which this country is protected from the aggression of possible enemies...
...It is a case of the minor premise following the major...
...One officer at least has spoken so peremptorily that mere silence will no longer dispose of him...
Vol. 2 • September 1925 • No. 19
