TITE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER lO, 1916.
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JVRTLA.VD, SUNDAY. SEPT. 10, 1916.
I DUTY FIRST? OR SAFETY FIRST?
The recent address of Theodore
Ttoosevelt at Lewiston, Me. (printed
elsewhere today), strikes the highest
note of patriotism, duty and service
yet sounded in the Presidential cam
paign. It is a powerful stimulus to the
latent Americanism of the people, and
a needed warning to them that in duty
done, and not in duty avoided or
Ignored, lie peace, security and self
respect. It is no mere partisan
harangue at the mistakes of President
Wilson; it is a demonstration that the
fatal defect in his Administration is
his failure to assume the role of re
sponsible, stimulating and courageous
leadership in times of National stress
and peril.
It has been the Wilson method from
beginning to end to find the easiest
way through, and to take it. A policy
of facile and obvious opportunism has
been the real index of the Adminis
tration's deeds; and there have been
no deeds at all when it has been pos
sible to substitute words. The unpre
paredness of the Nation has not been
merely military and industrial; it has
been moral and spiritual. There have
been promises without performance,
and threats without consequences.
There has been an ostentatious pre
tense that the Nation has been kept
out of war, but it has been definitely
plunged into war. Whatever has hap
pened, or has bade fair to happen, the
Administration has sought to "play
safe." It has thought only of today,
never of the morrow. It has done
nothing which all its abundant re
sources of evasion, vacillation and
delay permitted it to evade and has
sought always by the arts of elocution
and letters to allay the justifiable ap
prehensions of the country or to quell
the natural and spontaneous instinct
and desire of the people to give their
sound Nationalism sturdy and ef
fective expression.
Colonel Roosevelt exposed the source
bf all Mr. Wilson's series of blunders
.when he said:
Th policy of the United States must be
shaped with a view to two conditions
only; First, with a view to the honor and
Interest of the United States, and, second,
with a view to th interest of the world
s a whole.
At the outset of his dealings with
Mexico Mr. Wilson departed from this
first principle, and he has never re
turned to it. Had he from the begin
ning placed the honor and interests
of the TJnited States first, he would
liave prevented or punished crimes
against American citizens in Mexico
without interfering in the internal
troubles of that country. During the
Madero revolution against Diaz and
during the Orozco and Felix Diaz rev
olutions against Madero, President
Taft did not meddle and American life
was reasonably safe at the hands of
both parties, while the American Na
tion was respected. Had Mr. Wilson
continued the same policy, the same
results might reasonably have1 been
expected. But he interfered not merely
by withholding recognition from Huer
ta but by dictating that the latter
should not be a candidate for election
as President, also by alternately rais
ing and reimposing the arms embargo
to aid one party or another to the
subsequent revolutions. By "so doing
he violated Mexican rights, for which
he professes such scrupulous respect,
he aroused the anger and incurred
the contempt of Mexicans, and the
slaughter of hundreds of Americans
was the -result, yet he refused to take
effective measures for remedying the
harm he had done. His policy has
done incalculable injury to the United
States, to Mexico and to the interests
of the world at large simply because
It defied those first principles of
which Colonel Roosevelt spoke.
The Democratic slogan that "Wil
son kept us out of war" was shown
by the Colonel to be shallow bun
combe. He rightly regards war as an
affair of deeds, not of words. While
Mr. Wilson's words regarding Mexico
have been peace, "a greater number
of Americans have been killed by
Mexicans during these years than were
killed by the Spaniards during our en
tire war with Spain" and "peace still
irontinues to rage as furiously as ever
In Mexico." Our army went Into Mex
ico to catch Villa, dead cr alive, but
it has not caught Villa, it has aban
doned pursuit of him, and the killed
and wounded "during this futile ex
pedition" Included to June 1 116
JTnited States soldiers and ninety-five
American civilians. ' Since that date
the number has been increased by the
fight at Carrizal and by other encoun
ters. "During this murderous 'peace'
in less than three months more Amer
ican blood was shed than In all the
operations combined during the Span
ish war, save only the actual battle
of Santiago itself." Colonel Roosevelt
most tellingly observed: "Moreover,
when the war with Spain was through.
It was through," but murderous peace
still rages in Mexico.
Colonel Roosevelt struck home when
he described the Wilson policies as "an
opiate to the spirit of idealism," which
has "meant the relaxation of our moral
fiber." He exposed the impudence of
those followers of Mr. Wilson who call
themselves Lincoln Republicans by
reminding his hearers that Lincoln put
duty first, while Wilson puts safety
first "the immediate safety of the
moment by shrinking from duty." By
the first step in his Mexican policy,
Mr. Wilson entered upon that path
which has led the Nation from one
downward step of humiliation to an
other.
It is a favorite retort of the Presi
dent's defenders to say that the critics
of his policies are for war, for the
only alternative of peace is war. Who
ran justify war and all its horrors?
they ask; and who can go with the
Hugheses and the Roosevelts and oth
ers who think with them in plunging
the Isatlon into blood conflict? It is
not at all a question of war or peace,
but of duty and life and self-respect
and honor and preparedness all first
principles of human conduct and of
National conduct.
War is not to be avoided by the
Nation which merely courts peace, any
more than the consequences of law
lessness are to be escaped by the citi
zen who observes the law and who
contents himself with no effort to re
strain and discipline others, or require
them to obey the law. The man who
runs from unsought dangers or unpro
voked perils does not often find solace
for himself, or approval of his friends,
in boasting of his agility in fleeing
from, them; no more should a nation
turn its back on the wretchedness,
misery and helplessness of a neighbor,
who is not able to keep his house in
order, after that nation has with lofty
phrases asserted its high duty to hu
manity and with meddling conduct has
affirmatively declared its right to take
a hand in its internal affairs.
War has not been the alternative of
the peace achieved by duty neglected,
or scorned, or. undone. Not at all. A
straightforward course is the only path
any nation may take in confidence or
respect; and it is the surest way to
keep others at a distance and to avoid
war.
BIQ FAMILIES.
The Tacoma Ledger has discovered
a family of sixteen comfortably living
In a happy home in that city, and
thinks the fact of first news impor
tance, for it is appropriately presented
on the first page of that paper, with
detailed text and many pictures. The
name of the family, which has thus
sought to live up to the Roosevelt
ideal, is Nilsen, and it is Norwegian
in origin and partly in birth. The
father is engaged in Alaska fisheries,
and somehow finds ways and means
to feed sixteen mouths and clothe six
teen bodies. The newest arrival came
on August 12, 1916, and led to a re
porter's visit. Says the chronicler:
Smashing to smithereens the modern ideas
that health, happiness and prosperity are
confined in these days to small families.
the Nilsen family is an example of all the
good old-fashioned virtues. Qf the sixteen
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Nilsen in
their twenty-five years of married life,
fourteen are living, and all are as fine,
robust, good looking and intelligent speci
mens of humanity as any proud father or
mother could possibly desire.
The mother is 42 and was married
when she was 16. Evidently she has
had a busy life, for the position of
mother in a large family is no sinecure.
The Tacoma discovery leads natural
ly to the not unfamiliar Inquiry as to
what has become of the large families
of former days? There are, or were,
numerous households among the Ore
gon pioneers numbering eight or nine
and sometimes more children; but now
they have gone out of fashion. There
are those who think that the biggest
families are the happiest families, de
spite the sacrifices and economies
which necessarily become the lot of
parents and children. Certain it is
that the virtues of self-denial and the
necessities of mutual help which boys
and girls must in such cases practice
are a gain and not a loss. You rarely
hear much about spoiled children in
households where there is no room for
them.
Perhaps Tacoma has the record in
large families. If not, we should like
to know where the prize for the most
numerous household belongs?
VOX H1XDENBURO IX COXTROI
Appointment of General von Hin-
denburg to succeed General von Falk
enhayn as Chief of the German Gen
eral Staff is ascribed to failure of the
prolonged effort to capture Verdun,
which Von Falkenhayn planned, and
to his failure, to provide against acces
sion of Roumania to the ranks of the
allies. Selection of Von Htndenburg
Is due not only to his decisive victory
of Tannenberg at a critical point in
the war, but probably also to a desire
to hearten the German people by ele
vation of their popular idol to suprerrle
control.
Von Hindenburg is the third man to
whom has been entrusted direction of
German strategy. Von Moltke under
took to carry out the long-cherished
plan of a quick decision against
Prance before Russia was ready. That
plan was foiled at the Marne and its
failure was made absolute by the un
breakable resistance of the allies at
the Yser and by the Russian successes
in Galicia. It was only prevented from
ending in disaster by the Russian dis
aster at Tannenberg.
To Von Falkenhayn's strategy is due
the great series of German successes
which marked the year 1915. He
planned the drive through Galicia and
then through Poland and Courland
which swept the Russians to Riga, the
Dvina and the line from the Pripet
marsh to the Roumanian border. He
planned the Balkan campaign which
won Bulgaria to the Teuton cause,
kept Roumania and Greece in hesita
tion for almost another year, left the
allies a mere foothold in the peninsula
at Saloniki, connected the central em
pires with Turkey and prevented or
at least postponed the elimination of
that country as a belligerent. That
campaign contributed materially to the
abandonment of the allies' Dardanelles
campaign and thus 'prevented the
opening of the straits and the close
linking of the western powers with
Russia. Von Falkenhayn's plans failed
of complete success, for they aimed
to destroy or capture the Russian ar
mies and to put Russia out of exist
ence as a military factor. . They also
failed to clear the Balkan peninsula of
ttie enemy, for that was impossible
without control of the sea, which
would have prevented the allies from
holding Saloniki, from rescuing and
refitting the remnants of the Serbian
and Montenegrin armies and from
massing a new army for the new Bal
kan campaign which has now begun.
He succeeded, however, so far as suc
cess was possible. He made a mas
terly bid for that success which might
have been attained through the ex
haustion of France and Russia before
the new British army was ready.
The attack on Verdun was probably
his last attempt to accomplish this
end, at least in part, and to revive the
German people's hopes, which seem to
have dropped . after the victories of
1915 proved to have only prolonged
the war instead of bringing peace. It
was a final effort to put France out
of the war before the full British force
entered the field. When that failed
after prodigious sacrifice, when Rus
sia began smashing, Austria, when the
French and British, began hammering
the Somme line to pieces and when
finally Roumania joined the allies, the
brand of failure was put upon him,
but only because Germany and Its
allies lacked the means to achieve suc
cess. Though Von Hindenburg holds the
highest place in German esteem, it
was not he but Von Mackensen who
won the most brilliant victories. Von
Hindenburg"s victory at the Mazurian
lakes prevented the German retreat in
the west from being continued to the
Meuse or even farther eastward and It
enabled the Kaiser to make his des
perate effort to cross the Yser and to
reach Calais, and then to hold that
line after hjs repulse. But he failed
in repeated efforts to reach Warsaw
and came to a deadlock north and
west -of that city -a deadlock which
was broken, by Von Mackensen's suc
cesses. The latter executed the plans
of Von Falkenhayn so brilliantly that
he crowded the Russians out of Galicia
and Poland to the line which they held
until their offensive began last June.
It was he who swept through Serbia
in October and November of last year.
He is reputed now to be executing a
daring counter-offensive by invading
Roumania on the east a movement
designed apparently to divert Rou
manian troops from Transylvania and
Russian troops from Galicia and
Volhynia.
Upon Von Hindenburg devolves the
unpleasant duty of deciding whether
to shorten the Teuton lines by with
drawal and In what quarter to with
draw. It is rumored that he has ad
vocated retirement in the east behind
the Niemen and Vistula rivers to a line
much stronger than that now held.
This would mean abandonment of
much conquered territory in Courland,
Lithuania, Poland, Galicia and Buko
wina. The western line might be
withdrawn to the Meuse or the Ger
man frontier, which would release sev
eral corps for the east, but that would
mean surrender of the . French, and
perhaps also the Belgian, coal and
Iron districts, and probably serious
losses In a relentless pursuit like that
from the Marne. The southeastern
line might be drawn in to the Danube,
but that would involve early collapse
of Turkey, opening of the Dardanelles
to Russia, probably desertion by Bul
garia and fading of all hope of domf
nation in the Near Kast. It would
permit the allies to complete the ring
around the central empires.
Were the Teuton powers thus to
withdraw to their own frontiers, it
would be a renunciation of that mili
tary map of Europe on which yon
Bethmann Hollweg insisted that peace
terms be based. It would be a con
fession that victory on those terms was
impossible, but it might prove that vic
tory for the allies on the terms which
they have outlined is also impossible.
A defensive war on those lines might
be prolonged to the point where the
allies would despair of penetrating be
yond the Carpathians and the Alps or
beyond the German frontier on east or
west. Reduced to exhaustion, they
might be only too glad to leave the
heart of Teuton territory in Europe
practically intact and to compensate
themselves by partitioning Turkey and
the German colonies among them.
Such a settlement would leave Ger
many and Austria-Hungary in a posi
tion to recuperate and to seek new
alliances as the preliminary to a new
effort at expansion.
STANDARDIZING SHIPS.
Why not the "standardized" steam
ship? The subject was broached in
the United States a few years ago, but
before definite progress" has been
made on this side of the Atlantic the
announcement comes that one of the
large German trans-Atlantic lines al
ready has launched the scheme, prep
aratory to putting it into effect after
the war. Briefly, it is to cover the
ocean, figuratively speaking, with
tramp steamers of convenient size for
average requirements, in a systematic
effort to capture the sea-carrying
trade of the world or that part of
the world that does not make trade
embargoes against them.
Experience has proved that a vessel
of from 3000 to 4000 tons' cargo ca
pacity is the most practical size. In
asmuch as in high-speed craft the last
few knots are obtained at dispropor
tionate cost for fuel, no effort will be
made to break speed records. Twelve
to fifteen sea miles an hour is a good
working speed, economical as to fuel
and labor cost. Since there are many
harbors in remote parts of the earth
that are not standardized and since
also drydock facilities, are more or less
subject to similar drawbacks, it is pro
posed to build vessels of moderate
draft and of modest length but of good
beam, to give great freight capacity
with the smallest expenditure.
The scheme contemplates more than
this, however. Having decided on a
type of steamer that experience has
proved to be of greatest all-around
serviceability, it is proposed to stan
dardize the propelling power, just as
would be done by an automobile con
cern that ordered its engines by whole
sale. This will enable the owners to
provide additional parts at various
ports of call for use in any emergency.
It is regarded as possible to carry the
idea of standardization to the last de
gree of minuteness. Even the bolts
and rods, it is said, can be made with
the view to their widest employment.
By a carefully thought-out method of
construction, it will be possible to re
duce the number of specially made
parts 'almost to the irreducible mini
mum. The ultimate aim of the build
ers is to produce a ship pattern that
will enable the practical reconstruc
tion of one vessej out of the integral
constituents of another. Loading ap
paratus would be made according to
the same rule.
The United States just now occupies
a prominent place in shipbuilding. We
are now building ships at the rate of
one a day. To be exact, there were
at the date of the last report 368 ships
under contract, to be completed within
a year. The number is likely to grow
as we enlarge our yard facilities, since
the demand is outrunning the supply
and we have not yet made up for war
wastage alone. But except that we
sometimes build what are commonly
called "sister ships," we have done
little toward "standardization." Even
sister ships do not attain the practical
mark.
Though it robs the sea of some of
its romance, there Is nothing inherent
ly difficult in the scheme from a me
chanical point of view. We already
have standard parts in steel-building
construction: patterns have been
adopted for types of railway cars; ag
ricultural Implement makers have the
system down to a fine point, and many
automobiles owe the success of their
"service" features to the same policy.
It is quite distinctly a move in the di
rection of better vessels for the money,
and it promises to deliver the goods
when the great contest for mastery of
the world's commerce begins again.
Experimental use of Chinese labor
in France and Russia, in order to set
free more of the men of those coun
tries for the armies, promises to give
Europe a taste of the problem which
confronted the Pacific Coast some
years ago, when peace shall have been
declared and the white men return to
their homes and begin seeking their
old jobs. There will be a difference,
however,, in the respect that while our
Chinese immigration came chiefly
from the southern provinces, the Chi
nese now going to Europe are from
the north, are of a robust type and
are believed to be capable of a high
degree of training In the mechanical
arts. They are to be employed, in mu
nition factories, in fields and on the
docks. The contract system is em
ployed and the new workers are to re
ceive wages unheard of in their own
country, half of their pay being re
tained by the contracting company for
their families at home. Preliminary
arrangements contemplate dispensing
with the services of Chinese as soon
as the war is over.
WAR AXD HUMAX PROGRESS.
Efforts to draw conclusions from
history as to whether war has helped
or hindered the progress of the human
race are shown by James Bryce, ex
British Ambassador to the United
States, to be made difficult by the
fact that mankind has lived in a state
of practically permanent warfare.
Writing In the Atlantic, Lord Bryce
notes that the Egyptian and Assyrian
monarchs were always fighting and
that the author of the Book of Kings
speaks of the Spring as the time when
Kings go forth to war, "much as we
should speak of Autumn as the time
when men go forth to shoot deer."
War, he quotes Plato as saying, is the
natural relation of states to one an
other, and he observes that the fact
has been hardly less true since Plato's
day. Except in rare instances, a state
of peace has been uncommon, either
among civilized states or ' barbarous
tribes. The case of Greece proves that
war and progress are compatible. The
case of Rome, he says, is still more
often dwelt upon. In the thirteenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in
cessant wars between the cities of
Italy did not prevent the growth of a
brilliant literature and an even more
brilliant art. Lord Bryce does not be
lieve, however, that there is anything
in Italian history to show a causal
connection between intellectual activ
ity and the practice of war. He is
loth to concede anything to the god of
war, and is inclined to insist that the
nations would have made even more
progress if not interrupted by de
structive conflicts, but he freely pre
sents facts that, to say the least, con
trovert those pessimists who assert
that as a result of warfare the bel
ligerents must necessarily recede in
the scale of civilization.
For example,- Lord Bryce, though
himself an Englishman, discusses the
progress of Prussia in a spirit of emi
nent fairness, and says that ever since
she became the nucleus of a united
nation her production, her wealth and
her commerce have rapidly increased,
while, at the same time, scientific re
search has been prosecuted with the
greatest vigor and on a scale unpre
cedentedly large. "These things," he
remarks, "were no doubt achieved
during a peace of forty-three years,
but it was what one may call a bel
ligerent peace, full of thoughts of war
and preparations for war." He adds:
"There is no denying that the national
spirit has been carried to a high point
of pride, energy and self-confidence,
which have stimulated effort in all di
rections and secured extraordinary ef
ficiency in civil as well as military ad
ministration." This he regards as a
clear instance in whicrr a state has
grown by war and a people has been
energized by war.
Painstaking as the author is, he as
sorts his cases into groups, and pre
sents also those which seem to show
that absence of war has been attended
by absence of progress. As has been
noted, these instances are rare, because
so few countries have enjoyed, or had
the chance of suffering from, periods
of long peace." One historical instance
is supplied, however, by the Spanish
dominions in America for two and a
half centuries, before they won their
independence from the mother coun
try. This vast country, from Califor
nia to Patagonia, "lay lapped in peace"
unbroken except for an occasional raid
by sea rovers or by minor skirmishes
with native Indian tribes. And these
colonies certainly did stagnate, with
out either material or intellectual ad
vance. Lord Bryce is Inclined to look
for other causes than peace, however,
for this result, and he thinks that
government that was at the same time
autocratic and incapable, coupled with
Isolation from the revivifying influ
ence of Europe, might easily explain
everything. China, another case often
cited, he does not admit as wholly in
line. He declares that on the one
hand China early in her life reached a
civilization remarkable for its moral
and intellectual as well as material
perfection. The example of China.
however, as Lord Bryce himself views
it, does not altogether harmonize with
its classification as illustrating lack of
progress in periods of long peace, for
he declares that there has always been
a good deal of fighting more than
Is commonly supposed on the out
skirts of the empire, and in the Tao
Ping Insurrection forty years ago sev
eral millions of men are said to have
been killed. Yet the fact that prog
ress has been slow in recent times he
is inclined to attribute to national iso
lation, with no nation near her from
which she had anything to learn.
On the side of war that has not been
accompanied by progress. Lord Bryce
makes reference to the Thirty Years'
War in Europe, which "inflicted in
juries on Germany from which she
was two centuries recovering," and
the history of the South and Central
American republics, including the ter
rible war of thirty years ago, in which
Peru was overcome by Chile. Social
and economic conditions, he says, no
doubt were against progress there, but
it is to be remembered also that war
apparently did not better those con
ditions.' Quite frankly puzzled to arrive at a
conclusion from the contradictory facts
of history, he nevertheless regards one
outstanding statement as proved. It
is this:
AH that can be safely said to be proved
by history is that a race that cannot fight
or will not fight when a proper occasion
arises, as, for instance, when it has to
vindicate its independence, is ltkelv to go
down, and be subjected or absorbed. Tet
the fact that a state Is subjected or ab
sorbed does not prove its inferiority. There
is no poetical Justice in history.
Scant satisfaction, though, to the
disappearing nation, it would appear!
Consciousness that its inferiority . has
not been proved seems hardly suffi
cient recompense for extermination.
Against the disadvantages of war,
against the conditions created by,war
which are unfavorable to progress in
the higher forms of literary and scien
tific work. Lord Bryce is willing to
place "that stimulus which a great
war Is held to give to the life of a
whole people." He offers the argu
ment, for what it may be worth, that
"when it rouses them to the maximum
of effort, and gives them the strongest
consciousness of national unity, it may
invigorate them for intellectual crea
tion." It would be rash, he adds, to
deny this possibility, but he does not
believe that a causal relation has been
traced between war and the produc
tion of great work in art and letters.
These often have- coincided, but
so. also, has each often appeared with
out the other.
The final conclusion reached is that
"isolation retards progress, while inter
course quickens it." -The great crea
tive epochs are declared to be those in
which one people of natural vigor re
ceived an intellectual impulse from
the ideas of another. Lord Bryce
would reject the theory of Trietschke.
He discredits an assumption which he
regards as "noxious as well as base
less." He would seek future progress
of mankind, not through the strifes
and hatreds of nations, but rather by
their friendly co-operation in the heal
ing and enlightening works of peace.
HOIAX FACTOR IX ACCIDEXTS.
JJespite all the efforts of employers
and inventors of safeguards for ma
chinery and organizers of systems for
the protection of workers, one factor
remains obdurate. It is what, is called
the "human factor" and it defies all
efforts at prevention. This Is illus
trated again by recent increases in
New York in the number of industrial
accidents of the kind commonly
classed as preventable, coming at a
time when there has just been an ex
ceptional effort to enforce the factory
laws and when employers and the pub
lic generally have still fresh in mind
the educational propaganda conducted
by safety-first advocates all over the
state.
The chief statistician of the State
Labor Commission explains that the
increase is due to the rapid expansion
of business, involving as a natural con
sequence two other reasons. In the
first instance there has been a demand
for workmen which has necessitated
the employment of large numbers of
inexperienced hands. These have
been among the chief recent sufferers,
as the figures show. Another cause
of accidents has been the desire of all
concerned to increase output as much
as possible. Piece scales have been
increasingly adopted and the workers
in many instances have thrown cau
tion to the winds in their haste to add
to their earnings. Both these facts
reflect the human element in accidents
as distinguished from the physical
safeguards, the statistician is con
vinced. Another significant feature of re
cent industrial accidents is that a rela
tively small proportion are due to ma
chinery. Allowance also must be made
in comparative figures for the fact
that workmen's compensation laws In
themselves insure much more complete
returns. Whereas under the old sys
tem of reports minor injuries were
likely to be passed by without notice,
now practically everything appears in
the reports.
We have gone almost as far as it is
humanly possible in the way of me
chanical prevention of injury to work
men. There is no factory without its
safeguards, and as a rule these are as
complete as it is possible to make
them. Automatic devices for checking
the voluntary acts of the operator are
in general use. The railroads only re
cently have discovered that they can
prevent the breakage of rails except
in an insignificant proportion of cases.
But there is much remaining to be
done, and it is all in the direction of
the education of the individual. Where
caution is not an inborn trait, it seems
to be difficult of acquirement. The
hardest part of the task seems
to be proving to be the education of
the workman himself.
A XATIOXAC DANCE.
There is disappointment, no doubt
widespread, general and illy, if at all
concealed, now that the National As
sociation of Dancing Masters has ad
journed its convention and gone home
without fulfilling its promise to give
us a National dance. When the asso
ciation first met, the future was full
of promise. No obstacles seemed to
be in the way; the need of National
expression of our terpsichorean indi
viduality was admitted; it was said
that the dance was even then in the
process of incubation and would sure
ly be announced within a few days.
But nothing was done. We are back
to our old-fashioned waltzes and
polkas, and our newer-fangled tango
and our bunny hug, which are not.
properly speaking, American dances at
all, and we are still expressionless, so
far as our light-footed aspirations are
concerned. It Is a cruel world, espe
cially for the young.
Just what is desired in a National
dance it would, perhaps, be difficult
to define in .words. We are not prl
marily a Nation given to excess of
merriment. Our beginnings were
rather of the solemn and determined
sort. It i3 true that our forefathers
were bent on achieving the right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi
ness, but the manner of their going
about it was rather lugubrious, on the
whole. There was a time, perhaps,
when a witches' dance would have
been subtly expressive, but to adopt
it now would be unfair to the present
generation and an unnecessary and
tactless reflection upon our well
meaning if misguided progenitors.
Somehow, the tired business man's
glide does not fill the bill. The tired
business man has been done to death
and it is doubtful If he Is fLa tired as
he Is reputed to be. Anyway, he i
not fully representative of our Nation
the tired one is not. We still have
a good deal of vigor left, and if there
is to be a dance to interpret the way
we feel it must be something alto
gether full of life, if not of fun.
The natives 'of Madagascar have a
dance from which we might learn
something we who have pioneered In
the wilderness and made our homes
In the forests and on the hills. It is
called the rice dance, but any other
grain would do as well. It begins
with a figure in which the dancers go
through the motions of clearing the
land. Swinging their arms rhythmically
to the sound of torn toms and kettle
drums, they show how they would
wield the ax; then they pile the brush
and fan the flames while the last
vestige of the treetops burns. This
is vigorous practice, but since it is
in the form of dancing, no one tires
of it. Presently and successively the
merrymakers go through the sym
bolical motions of plowing and har
rowing and sowing the seed and cov
ering it, and the National dance ends
with an Invocation to the gods for a
bountiful crop. Such is the expression
of the life of a simple people. It Is,
In a way, a parallel of the lives of a
good many pioneer peoples. Its cul
mination in the hope of a harvest is
not unworthy; some sort of harvest is
what most of us are hoping for.
Complaint Is made that in their dan
cing Americans fair to give Interpre
tation to their spirituality: that there
is lack of appreciation of beauty, such
as the Japanese show in their cherry
blossom dance; that Americans are at
a disadvantage, in the opinion of one
authority on dancing, even when com
pared with the South Sea Islanders.
Carolyn Coffin, who writes about dan
cing in an appreciative vein, says that
"one, two, three, kick" is as far as
Americans ever have progressed to
ward artistry. We are too gymnastic
and not emotional enough. There is
too much display of muscle and too
little worship of beauty for the sake of
beauty. Perhaps it is true. But that
is not all-there is to the arraignment.
We do not know that dancing in its
highest sense is the elemental ex
pression of art. that it came even be
fore singing, that it was originally a
religious ceremony. Ail these facts
are, indeed, lost on us, as anyone will
realize who has seen a country dance
in full swing, with perspiration oozing
even from the foreheads of the mu
sicians. The trouble seems to be that
we are a Nation that simply cannot
learn to play; we are so accustomed
to work that we make work even of
our more joyous forms of so-called
amusement. This is heretical, from
the viewpoint of art. Yet. believing
as most Americans do, that work is a
form of consecration, what better ex
pression could be found ?
The priests of Egypt danced, and
so did the ancient Hebrews. The
Greeks called it the "art of expressive
gesture," and developed it to the high
est plane, perhaps, that it ever at
tained. They made it a language.
Gait, body movements, even immobil
ity, says one enthusiastic writer, were
governed by its laws. The Greeks are
credited with having neglected busi
ness to dance, in which, however, they
have imitators in a more recent day.
The Romans borrowed from the
Greeks, but they perfected theatrical
dancing, and when the dance lan
guished in Rome for a time, the per
secuted Christians revived it secretly
as a religious rite, asserting the au
thority of Scripture in justification.
citing David, who danced before the
Ark of the Covenant, the women who
celebrated David's historical feat.
and other incidents. There was.
too, a dark age in dancing, and
another revival with the age of chival
ry, in which warriors danced in har
ness, laying themselves open to the
charge now made against Americans,
of making work of their play. France
gave the dance" a grotesque turn; the
false nose was so much a feature of
the dance In the day of Louis Philippe
that the making of false noses was an
important industry of the country. It
was out of this era of pomp and court
ceremony that the public dance of
the present day grew. The folk dances
of the people were put aside for dances
in public halls because of the passion
of the people to imitate the court.
Their own rooms were too small, so
public halls and public dances came
Into vogue. There was a spirit of
keeping up with the Joneses, then as
there is now.
It would be difficult by decree of
an association of modern dancing mas
ters to create in America a new spirit
of dancing. For one thing, we have
no "peasant classes," and all agree
that in modern Europe it is the peas
ants to whom the National dances are
due. It is said that the peasant is able
to convey the most subtle of messages
of joy, of hope and of spiritual long
ing but it may be that as much is
due to his interpreters as to himself
in this regard. Extravagant tales are
told of the dancers of the almost fairy
days of long ago. There is a legend
of Dalmatia that will bear repeating.
It is of a brigand who, on being cap
tured, feigned death. Fire was built
on his breast without causing him to
wince. A serpent was laid on his body.
and sundry Middle-Age tortures were
resorted to, without avail. Then dan
cers were called on to perform in the
room where he lay. He could not re
sist the spell, but smiled joyously and
betrayed himself. However improba
ble the tale, it has Its believers, and
it is typical of many that illustrate
the gap between a people imbued with
art and a people such as we are, who
never can hope to attain a National
state of mind even approaching it. It
looks as if the task of creating a Na
tional dance for Americans would
prove a thankless and probably a
hopeless one. Yet purely as. a form
common alike to the bashi-bazouk and
to the child in the streets, it contin
ues to be a vehicle of individual, when
not of National, expression everywhere.
Lo the poor Indian has become Lo
the rich Indian on the Osage reser
vation. Members of the Osage tribe
are rated as worth $20,000 each, on
the books of the Indian Office, and
Secretary Lane, of the Department of
the Interior, has recently approved
leases running for five years by which
the Osage Indians rent for five years
their valuable oil lands. Thomas F.
Logan, writing in Leslie's, estimates
that this will increase the average per
capita income from $600 to $1000 a
year. There are about 2000 of these
Indians and they are in sharp contrast
to the redskin of our dime novel read
ing days. Many of them are well edu
cated, all have comfortable homes and
it is saia mat tney even show signs
of thrift, which never has been re
garded as an attribute of the Indian
in any state of civilization. The area
of the land involved in the new leases
is about 6 80.000 acres.
An average yield of only twelve
bushels of wheat to the acre, even
with allowance for crop destruction
clearly indicates the need of more
careful study of agricultural methods.
The Irreducible minimum will soon be
reached, at the rate we are going, and
the farmers of the Nation as a whole
cannot continue to raise their crops
at a loss.
Philadelphians are said to have
hailed as a discovery the making of
denatured alcohol from rye. A good
quality of spirits has long been made
from this and other grains, and the
denaturing process is quite apart from
the making of the alcohol Itself. Phil
adelphia has simply been asleep again.
It is only the domestic goose that
is the symbol of stupidity. His wild
brother seems to know more than man
has been able to learn about the pass
ing of the seasons, and the flight of
geese southward Is ono of the most
reliable indications that Summer is
gone.
Even with the farm-loan banks, the
farmer will still need to work for his
living. There are doubtless some who
are counting too much on borrowing
to make them rich. They should re
member that there will be a day of
reckoning, just the same.
John Burroughs, who has camped
out a good deal of his life and is now
in his '8 0s, admits that he has got
to the point where a bed seems pretty
good to sleep in. Another evidence
that the race is getting soft.
The Episcopal church may as well
eliminate the word "obey" from its
marriage service. The women elimi
nated obedience long ago.
Life has its compensations. As the
vacation season nears its close, we are
relieved of the necessity of deciding
on a place to go.
Both the entente allies and the cen
tral powers are doing their best to
make work for the bureau of geo
graphic names.
A few days ahead of time, perhaps,
but Autumn is not so bad, after all.
Gleam;. Through the Mist
Br Dean Collin.
THE LEV1TATIOX MVSTEHY
or
SOXGS OP THE RISING OP BREAD.
Ode to the Cost of Living.
Hail to thee, blithe spirit;
Bird thou never wert.
But to heaven or near it
Thou dost make a spurt.
So doggone high, to see thee makes my
poor eyes hurt.
Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springestj
All that I require
Which the grocer bringest.
In its cost doth soar and upward ever
wingest.
We look both up and after
And pine for what Is not;
And the grocer's laughteV
With our pain is fraught,
For as thou acroplanest, O how shalt
thou be caught?
Better than all measures
Of delightful sojind:
Better than, all treasures
That in books are found;
It were to see thee coming again in
sight of ground.
In the days whenn Shelley
Did to skylarks write.
It is safe to tell, he
Had not seen thy flight
Out-skylarking the best records of the
skylark's might.
Otherwise the gladness
That his brain could knotv
Had been turned to sadness
And from his lips would flow
A yelp of bitter protest like I'm yelp
ing now.
Hail to thee, blithe spirit.
Bird thou never wert.
But to heaven, or near It,
I will bet my shirt
The cost of living will arise in this
premeditated spurt.
CHORUS (GRAXDIOSO.)
Oh-ho say, can you see-e-e.
By the dawn's early light.
What so loudly we wailed
At the twilight's last beaming.
Up so high in the air.
Darned near out of our sight.
While our income for help
Was distressfully screaming?
Oh, our coffee and cake, 4
And our rolls and our steak, .
Have become so expensive
It makes our heart ache.
(FORTISSIMO.)
'Tis the high cost of living.
It lo-hong ma-hakes uh-hus ra-a-a-avj
In this la-hand of the f ree-he-e-e-e.
And the ho-home of the brave!
(During the singing the audience will
stand up on stepladders if possible
to be nearer the subject of its song,
which will be seen volplaning above
the proscenium arch.)
Hobtalled Ballade of the Bakers' Bono,
As up went flour, down, down the
bakers sat
To plan a plan to meet the cost that
rose.
To figure out just where they might
be at
And some sort of a remedy propose;
And what they've done, too well the
whole world knows.
They've cut the sizes of their bread
once more.
And the consumer mumbles, mid his
woes,
"Where are the buns and biscuits
built of yore?"
The B-cent loaf the bakers tell it,
"Scat!"
The 10-cent loaf in smaller sizes
grows;
The cookies shall be thinner and more
flat.
As higher still the soaring flour price
goes;
The staff of life, as comes the sca
son's close.
Becomes too short to lean on any more.
And the consumer cometh to depose;
"Where are the buns and biscuits
built of yore?"
L'ENVOI.
Baker, for us in sooth an ill wind
blows.
And so forgive consumers if they j
roar.
While for still smaller loaves your oven
glows
Where are the buns and biscuits)
built of yore?
Interlude.
(UEDUCKD TO 5-CEN'T SIZE.)
The baker cried "I knead the dough
To pay the miller men who rob:
I need the dousrh so much you know,
I'll have to loaC loss on the job."
To get more dough- I'll use less dough,
Alas it is the only way,
I'll use le"ss dough and so, and so
Loaf less and le.--s from day to day."
"Sir." said the Courteous Office Boy,
and munched a buttered roll, "the bread
each day, doth fade away, unto my
bitter dole."
"Aye. aye!" I sighed in accents grim,
and snatched the buttered roll from
him.
"The loaves each day they trim In
weight." went on the Courteous Office
Boy. "until I fear that soon or late
they will exhaust avoirdupois."
"Oh, oh!" 1 cried and then; "O-o-o!
O-o-o! (iood C. O. B., what will we do,
when they no more can peddle round,
bread in the old 16-ounce pound?"
"Ha-ha!" replied the C. O. Boy.
"They'll have to use the weight of
Troy "
"And thus." in chorus then we said,
"we'll ask the baker for our bread "
Brrnd Line Song.
rat-a-cake, pat-a-cake. Baker Man!
Sell me a roll as quick as you can:
Weigh it by ounces and carats of Troy
For me and the Courteous Office Boy.
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake. Baker Man!
Two grains of brown bread I'll have
if I can.
Also, a couple of ounces of pies.
And a loaf of French bread of a ten
carat size.
(Changing the record slightly.)
Hot cross buns, hot cross buns.
Fourteen carat, eighteen carat
Hot cross buns
Trot, trot to market
To buy a loaf of bread;
Trot, trot back again
Let's buy a farm instead.
To market, to market
To buy a plum bun
Home again, home it cost
Ten cents for one.
i