Week by Week
THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 25 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. MICHAEL WILLIAMS, Editor Assistant...
...But now Mexico, appearing as a claimant to hegemony in its section of the Latin-American world, has virtually created an association of all revolutionary elements...
...These showed that the living births in the English-speaking provinces of the Dominion for the month of Febru- ary of this year--the last month of record---were the lowest of any February for six years...
...Years ago, when our envoys sailed into revolution-ridden countries about which they knew practically nothing, and sup- ported factions.which they guessed were progressive, there might have been an opportunity to lay the bases of agreements which would have preserved the peace and advanced the prestige of Washington...
...But Scranton has for years been the fateful battleground of a great struggle for disposition of the mining industry--disposition, that is, of the profits which far too customarily were turned into dividends before the worker had received his honest share...
...That communism attended with a peculiarly conscienceless attitude toward the responsibilities of government, is rampant everywhere south of the Rio Grande, is a political fact which might long since have been taken for granted...
...But in spite of everything, the trouble in Nicaragua and Guatemala must be faced and, if possible, settled...
...For all the sluggishness this manifests in the conduct of ordinary af[airs, there is a compensating vehemence and intolerance when any special issue is once seized upon...
...Of the i7,852 living births recorded last February, II,447 were m the eight English-speaking provinces, with the re-maining 6,4o 5 in the French-speaking province of Quebec...
...One result, at least, of Queen Marie's progress through our Union has been to attract em-barrassing attention to conditions in the country of which her husband is king, and to give an opportunity for a good deal of resentment that has been gather- ing here for years to find its expression, over names that cannot be ignored, for they represent many cate- gories and many communions...
...Louis C. Cornish and the Honorable G. Duca, Roumanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, re-ported by The Independent, the startling admission was made that, should war break out, the racial min- ority, comprising, as has been stated, a quarter of the population, stands ready to rebel and would join the enemy...
...But it undoubtedly gives our people a remarkable opportunity to bring their ideas on decency and tolerance to bear when there is occa- sion for examining the security with which any loan is to be backed, and which it is useless to pretend be- gins and ends with material resources...
...That money can be tainted at its destination is a newer discovery...
...For months, some prominent news-papers have gone ahead talking as if the men indicted were obviously guilty, and as if they therefore cast aspersion upon an entire administration...
...What will Canada make of her new powers...
...The position which this country has attained as the world's banker may have its disadvantages...
...Shaw's influence upon the German theatre, for instance, has been almost incalculably great...
...The tabloid papers have, of course, enjoyed their golden opportunity...
...His preference for internationalized culture was, of course, his own business, and may do good...
...The possibilities of agricultural development in the Dominion--east as well as west-- are limitless...
...THE great virtue of the jury trial in which Albert B. Fall and Edward L. Doheny will be the defend- ants, is that the whole matter is thus definitely taken out of politics...
...It is a pity the matter did not appeal to Mr...
...One may regard the haste of respected figures in public life to rush into print as part of the general let-down in post-war ethics, and yet hesitate to join the British statesman in regarding them as outraging the "rules of decent behavior...
...The great danger of democracy, from the individual's point of view, is its momentum...
...In a conversation between Dr...
...and since Montesquiou used the realm of Persia as a device for pointing out the political faults of a country much nearer home...
...The presen~ disturb-ances go back directly, however, to that urffortunate solution of the Madero-Huerta difficulty w' ich Presi- dent Wilson essayed in the interests of "co:,lstitution- alism...
...The Whispering Gallery, just disavowed and withdrawn from sale in England, seems to be about as unfortunate a means of familiarizing the public with the frailties of their governors as could be devised...
...Shaw's uni- versality and efficacy...
...It made rfhe error --which has rather generally been the error of United States colonial practice--that the solution of 'the agra- rian problem could wait until reading and writing had been stuffed into everybody...
...The facial specialists have read the grooves in all the principal faces...
...Always the part played by the spir- itual leaders of the people, the support and encour-agement given by them, was a highly important ele- ment in the defense and culture of the miners...
...What this has meant is earnestly led to mind by the passing of the Right Reverend Michael J. Hoban, Catholic bishop of Scranton...
...But the mere fact that he could rise above such sacrificial demands emphasizes Mr...
...There prevails a definite primitiveness of forest and stream, of remoteness from the artificial metropolitan scene, which suggests very strongly certain mountainous regions of central Europe...
...The Nobel Prize people were probably influenced by Saint Joan...
...The grievance is an old one, but it was accentuated when, after Roumania's tardy and futile entry into the great war on behalf of the Allies, her shift of policy was rewarded by large grants of territory, including Bessarabia and Transylvania, the latter a positive crazy-quih of diverse tongues, races, and religions...
...He was, of course, a sincere Catholic and gave much of his time and thought to matters in which religion and citizenship meet...
...It was an evil day when ghastly reconstructions of the scene, or lyrical de-scriptions of some tangent love-affair, could not be introduced to startle sober folk clean out of their wits...
...It seems that the spurt taken at the close of Victoria's reign has thudded out in a stale un- profitableness crowned by cinema successes...
...All the cranks, and the oddities, the soli- taries and the bridge sharks, of New Jersey have con- tradicted themselves magnificently...
...However strongly one may doubt that all his skilful fencing has really extricated him from the meshes of his time, or that his fetich of cleverness suf[ered him to whack away at an abiding bas-relief of human nature, the fact remains that he is grand---in the old sensemintellectually and even emotionally...
...They have always been faithful to their admiration for imagination devoted to the contempla- tion of history...
...Today the latitude allowed the political writer, at least in countries where the liberal ideal of government has survived, is pretty complete...
...Various German critics have lately been bewailing the "collapse" of the serious theatre, and everybody knows what has happened in Paris...
...After a month of evi- dence-giving, the mystery is precisely what it used to be in the good old days when it was presumably safely interred...
...It accepted the belief that Mexico and itp~neighbor countries could be industrialized...
...DoEs Mr...
...SHvsrm~ Jo~ F. McCoamcg, Business Manger Editorial Council T. LAWaASON Pdc, os JAMES J. W~a~SH C+.m~To~r ]. H. Hx~s 11...
...There is too much evidence, however, that Rou-mania's government is neither enlightened nor wise and that the effect of finding her proportion of non-Roumanian subjects raised from 4 to 25 percent has only been to accentuate a condition which permits the New York Natior~, with some excuse, to describe the country as "one of the plague spots . . . of Europe...
...The king re-mains sovereign of the Dominion, and will continue to be represented by a governor-general, but that official no longer will personate the British government...
...Mooney believed in the power of the daily journal as a moulder of public opinion, and the code of civic ethics to which he adhered honor- ably was consistently reflected in all he wrote and dealt with...
...But they have the disadvantage that the publicity they create is not completely within their own control...
...Meanwhile, everybody seems to have overlooked the fact that both defendants are as yet legally men with good reputa- tions, and that the past of both is, to some extent at least, a record of honest achievement and public serv- ice...
...THE arrival of Mrs...
...MOUNTAIN scenery lends the territory of which Scranton, Pennsylvania, is the centre, a ragged and yet singularly appealing beauty...
...No recent case, it seems to us, demon- strates more clearly the abiding necessity for tribunals as a check to public opinion...
...The present relations between Mexico and Nicaragua are only another symptom of an evil that is universally corrosive...
...Small wonder that the lady from Pocono described this as a "conversational century...
...It may be that the "problem repertory," so dear to the natural...
...WHAT is most unfortunate about the development of this Doctrine is that nothing in the way of effective union between American countries has been estab-lished...
...Charles P. J. Mooney, editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, is too much of a shock to permit just now a calm appraisal of the man and his work...
...Briefly, the memorial to the Queen of Roumania, now signed by sixty representative Americans, includ- ing Cardinal O'ConneU of Boston, and which follows on the next page of this issue of The Commonweal, is concerned with the treatment of religious minorities in King Carol's kingdom...
...British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island all showed declines which were far from being ot~set by the reported increases of only 4 and 38 respectively in New Brunswick and Manitoba...
...Besides, it has the exquisite advantage of being thor- oughly Shavian--a quality which most people would, no doubt, also have admired if the witty playwright had simply and silently pocketed the cash...
...He can't set the thing in motion when he cares to, and once it starts rolling, only time will bring it to a halt...
...Qne might hunt out a variety of causes, and some per- sons are ready with remedial suggestions...
...But at any rate, much could be done with money in behalf of older and always beautiful plays...
...IN extending his remarks to cover authors who have signed their names to memoirs of a frank nature, such as Colonel Repington, Colonel House, and the Coun- tess of Oxford, however, the Secretary of State for India carries his case a little farther than most people will care to follow him...
...The good will which they aim to build up remains dependent upon the nature of the collateral behind it...
...When one notes that the vogue of many of his plays, even in very poor translations, has exceeded that of first-rate native dramatists, it is apparent that his name has been mentioned in rather important critical circles...
...And we presume it must naturally be considered an important accession to the treasures of American civilization that such failings become the subject-matter of curiosity during futile and gossipy months...
...One of the objects of Queen Marie's visit to our shores has admittedly been to solicit financial aid through American financiers for the development of Roumanian internal resources...
...It might have been possible, for instance, to accept the leadership of Costa Rica in Central America, and with this as a foundation, to begin some- thing like a federation of the varied republics...
...MUCH water has flowed under many bridges since Samuel Johnson, in order to escape the pains and penalties of that terrible engine, British parliamentary privilege, was driven to write up debates in the House of Commons under the camouflage of fiction...
...In asking Roumania's popular queen, who has, on the whole, earned her title as "Mother of the Bal-kans," to use her great influence to secure legislative measures which will do away with the discrimination exercised against 4,ooo,ooo Roumanian subjects who are racially Magyars, Saxons and Hebrews, and relig- iously Baptists, Jews, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Ro-man Catholics, and Unitarians, the petition draws attention to dangers that not only threaten Roumania's domestic peace, but through her, and in view of the attitude of unreconciled Russia over the loss of Bes- sarabia, to the peace of Europe...
...To be quite logical, the charge would have to include, not only the writers who make money by communicating to the public "intimate" news reserved usually for club sanctums and political sanhedrins, but those who repeat and give them currency inside the circle of the initiated...
...John Dewey have a recipe for stopping murder in Mexico...
...Patrick Campbell, on the heels of various other distinguished English actors and musicians, calls attention to the very real plight of London artists...
...And the American public has been regaled as never before...
...The Reverend Billy Sunday has speculated about the immortal whereabouts of the pretty victim...
...To some extent, the condition is not restricted to Great Britain...
...That error has created an impoverished Porto Rico, where every :slump in business means a starving populace, and a Philippine situation characterized by oratorical hot-air and a stupid debate about independence which makes us all look foolish...
...BY the new charter of the British empire, adopted by the Imperial Conference, Canada is given status of absolute equality with Great Britain...
...and owing to the circum-stances of the case, inevitable discredit falls upon its accuracy and credibility...
...But should the verdict prove an acquittal, many moons will pass before the allegations of villainy are wholly silenced...
...Years ago, in the brave days of insurgency, there was much talk about big money "tainted" at its source...
...But he remained outspoken in expressing convictions which did not coincide with those held by the majority, and was well known, for instance, as an ardent supporter of prohibition...
...In him were ex-emplified these old words by Kenelm Digby: "Chivalry is only a name for that general spirit or state of mind which disposes men to heroic and generous actions and keeps them conversant with all that is beautiful and sublime in the intellectual and moral world...
...ment would have risen to the occasion and seized the opportunity to put through a measure of toleration called for by the inclusion of 4,ooo,ooo souls within her boundaries who owned allegiance to other than the Greek Orthodox Church...
...NEWS of the sudden death of Mr...
...Now years of bitter fighting have at last brought improve- ment...
...there is a difference which must be discernible to all Americans who realize how dosely the future of their neighbor to the north is linked with that of the United States...
...One thinks with regret of the brighter moments and the other hours that could have been used to advantage...
...These it aids with arms and money, adopting in the meantime a defiant attitude toward Washington...
...Perhaps a lucid answer might be expected of those who, dwelling in the security of the United States, fancy that the con-servative sodal doctrine of the Catholic Church has been an obstade to Mexican "social progress...
...From the professional point of view, he was highly successful and grew naturally into a great many positions of trust...
...It is assumed that "graft" so obvious and notorious is a matter which ought to arouse the public to vigorous protest against the way in which it is being governed...
...There is no money to be made and no endowment to be looked for...
...Revered by thousands who came to view his dead body, the Bishop is mourned by countless other thousands who never saw him in the flesh but honored in him a friend...
...Liberty, however, can be abused, and in the strictures just voiced by the Earl of Birkenhead, it is possible to see more than a grain of justification...
...It is not so much a case of lawyers' accounts and trial costs...
...How seriously this problem is regarded was made manifest at the very conference, which, in enlarging her sovereignty, also increased the duties and obligations of the Dominion--for much of the time of the imperial gathering was given to the elaboration of a definite plan of emigration to Canada...
...A wise and enlightened govern...
...ists who managed things just before the war, bores the contemporary public to tears and must be superseded with a newer and more vital form of drama...
...Showing bad temper when the leak widens sufficiently to let the public in, leaves questions of loyalty just about where they were, and the old Latin motto, "vox missa nescit reverti," might well be taken to heart by those who should know how far whispers can carry...
...Per-haps people like Mr...
...The modest homes are a little more attractive, and the families who live in them somewhat more safe from destitution...
...THE PEOPLE TO A QUEEN R OYAL publicity agents, as a contemporary innova- tion, doubtless have something to be said in their favor or they would not be brightening our prosaic streets and imposing new problems on worried traffic authorities...
...In embracing her new opportunities, Canada would appear to be con-fronted by the obligation of dealing drastically with a danger which, masked as the "new morality," shows itself as a deterrent of material well-being...
...A brief summary of conditions printed and distributed by The Independent of Boston, which has acted as publicity medium for the petition that has been signed, tells us that "several commissions which have gone into Roumania in the past seven years--in t919, t922, and 1924--have reported even more specifically of the persistent wrongs, especially the commission of t924, which has been widely read and commended for its accuracy and restraint...
...As a man, he possessed that lovable firmness of character, that loyalty to friends and convictions, which seem characteristic of the South at its very best...
...But the more frankly it is recognized the more will the reproach that attaches to international finance be in a fair way to removal...
...it turns out to be the work of a writer with no great authority...
...The Monroe Doctrine is both a tradition and a treadmill...
...He had learned the newspaper profession through a series of humble beginnings and later rapidly widening responsibilities...
...Shaw...
...Shaw merit the Nobel award...
...MRS...
...WITH these facts in mind, some official figures is- sued from Ottawa while the Imperial Conference was in session in London, are somewhat startling...
...POYSER'S statement that some conversa-tionalists go on merely because there "is summat wrong with their insides," would be fairly applicable to the now famous Hall trial...
...Beyond any question, European critics could have selected no writer of English more honestly...
...the potentialities for industrial expansion scarcely can be previsioned...
...There is here something more than a distinction in terms of self.government...
...George Bernard Shaw when he found himself burdened with money attached to the Nobel Prize...
...The whole life of the trial has lain in the circumstance that a man who preached did not practise...
...If there be guilt, let the court uncover it and mete out appropriate punish- ment...
...Its authorship, ascribed to a very well-known and courtly diplomat, has been disavowed...
...We may add here that no American editor was more deeply interested in the work of The Commonweal or co6perated with it more regularly...
...Today the errors of fifty seasons are being harvested...
...But the evidence behind it was quite strong enough to pierce through the courtly phrases usual on such occasions...
...If, as now seems likely, the whole musty business is going to end in a draw, somebody may well begin to calculate the beneficent effects of an aired skeleton...
...Our country occupies the quaint position of an outsider who can be held responsible for the family squabbles...
...and when opportunity came to develop the Commercial Appeal into one of the greatest newspapers in the "new South," he was fully prepared to carry a titanic burden and at the same time to maintain the highest standards rigidly...
...Possibly the criticism implied may be of some value to Mr...
...What to do, is an interesting problem which we have no ambitions to solve...
...Now, at last, there is a chance to come out into the open with the whole story...
...For what, after all, could Washington do ? Nothing short of a complete sanitation of Mexico would remove the causes of the social disease...
...Never before has the art of comment been given such a resplendent opportunity...
...Such a record as that left by Elihu Root--who, inci-dentally, arranged the only treaty that has etrer meant much to the politicians of Nicaragua--is e:;:ceptional but salutary in remembrance...
...Naturally, the petition which was presented to the Queen of Roumania just before her departure from America used more moderate language...
...A country deprived of the great words which have been spoken on the stage during generations is stripped of one of its best spiritual possessions...
...DAm~ SKmm BEaTRAM C. A. WIlqDLE Subscription Rates Ye.ar!y: $10.00 S'mgle Copies: ~0 WEEK BY WEEK T HE effect of United States note-writing upon ac-tive seditious elements in Central America will probably be approximately nothing...
...This made the theory of revolution .9 lominant...
...His memory is virile and instructive even if darkened now by sorrow at his going...
...So menacing, in fact, did the Foreign Minis- ter consider the situation, that he took what at first sight seems the strange step of requesting the help of the commission to better matters...
...He has always been an ideal- ist--at least in the sense that he has been hopefully sincere...
...We are listening with what is, however, considerably more a mood of scep- ticism than of hopefulness...
...THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 25 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. MICHAEL WILLIAMS, Editor Assistant Editors THOMAS WAt, S~t Iq'~.~r~ W.~at.X~ HmmY LoNc,+.s Stunt GEoRtmN...
...A cortege of the world's greatest reporters has caught every angle and every curve...
...If the matter had not concerned a minister of the Gospel, it would long since have been voted desperately tedious...
...Perhaps, as Herr Bry, an excellent critic, has pointed out, much of genuine Shavianism was completely missed by Teutonic audi- ences...
...But progress of farm and of factory in Canada must be predicated upon the possession of man-power--and man-power is Canada's most pressing problem...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 4
