66

mind may ination. There are people who recognize no difference between an Emma Goldman and a John Spargo, to whom the name of Socialism is like a red cloth to a bull, who applauded the expulsion of the five New York Socialist members of the Assembly without even asking what the rule of free thought and fair play dictated. Such a lack of discrimination is in itself a danger, for it is reactionary in its effect.

Whoever may have incited the crime of September 16, its actual perpetrators were the vilest of assassins. They knew perfectly well that the banking houses and Government buildings would not fall before their attack; they knew that the danger to the "capitalists" was small; they knew that the shower of slugs and the rain of broken glass their infernal machine set loose would maim and murder scores of workingmen and working women-clerks, girl stenographers, and innocent passers-by. An expert report by Mr. George S. Rice, of the Bureau of Mines, says that the intention of the perpetrators was not to destroy property but human life, that for this reason they chose the hour when the greatest number of people are out on the street, that the explosion was "the work of terrorists."

Terrorism never helped permanently any cause. The Germans found that out; our Anarchists and ultra-radicals can never succeed by wholesale murder. Their crime has stirred the country to its depths. In the future efforts to detect and punish criminals who seek to overthrow liberty by violence will be more rigorous and searching than ever before.

O

THREE PLAYS

F plays recently performed with great success in New York, and we hope to be played before audiences in many parts of the country, there have been two extreme types. One may be called the play of structure; the other, the play of character. This does not mean that the play of structure lacks character or the play of character lacks structure; but each type is determined by its predominant quality.

What we characterize as a play of structure is "Jane Clegg." St. John Ervine, its author, has not set up a single character as a living statue on which the light of situations plays, bringing out the molding of his subject's personality, but has taken a group of people, as a composer might take a stringed quartette, and has played them against one another, with alternating consonance and dissonance, to a conclusion that is right because it is, or at least seems to be, inevitable. The story, if we undertook to tell it in outline form, would seem drab and depressing; but the play itself is not depressing except possibly to those who see only its superficial features, and such must be rare. Mr. Ervine has worked in the production of this play as every artist should work, whatever his material. He has not photographed life as he has seen it, though there is a verisimilitude in this play that is photographic; he has not drawn up a thesis and then used his characters to fool the audience into thinking it a story, though he leaves the auditor with an impression of truth the auditor with an impression of truth that arguments cannot make. What he has done is to find in human lives and their environment, which to the ordi

nary observer would seem to be most unpromising, material out of which to erect a structure that has harmony and balance as convincing as that of a pure Gothic church or a great symphony. And he has enveloped that story with a humor that not only gives delight but evokes laughter. To call the woman whose name supplies the title good and strong and self-sacrificing, to call her husband worthless and contemptible, to call the old granny, his mother, sharp and sentimental and selfish, to call the two children symbols of the mother's and the granny's influence, to call the racing tout a refreshing exhibit of virtue reduced to its lowest terms though still human, and the bookkeeper virtue likewise reduced, though not downward, but outward by remoteness from anything compensatingly human, is to spoil the whole play; for it is to divert the mind from the real significance of the play as not a group of isolated figures exhibiting certain traits, but the progress of life as these particular people must live it. Not the least evidence of the greatness of this play is the fact that it has evidently produced upon the members of the very competent cast that played it an impression of its power as real as that received by the audience.

66

A notable illustration of that type of drama in which one character dominates is "Lightnin'." In this play Frank Bacon, author and actor, has delighted, and continues to delight, thousands of playgoers. Like Joseph Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle " and David Warfield in "The Music Master," so in 'Lightnin'" the man is the play. In all three cases, too, the attractiveness is in the gentle sweetness, the deliberate utterance, and the unforced humor that belong to the actor's personality. But Frank Bacon not only made the character he acts; he also made the play itself, building it up into its present form after several earlier attempts. His popular success came to him only after forty years of struggle in his profession. Frank Bacon as he appears in private life has little need of "makeup" to become the "Lightnin'" of the stage. Around the character, to be sure, are grouped odd and amusing incidents, situations, and people. But the play depends for its appeal, not on construction or dramatic tensity, but on the drawling, slow-moving, irresponsible, but altogether lovable and kind-hearted "Lightnin'." The play is wholesome and its fun is contagious; its dramatic art is not high, but its entertaining quality is irresistible.

Porter Emerson Browne's "The Bad

Man," a new play of a most unusual type, like "Lightnin'," centers around a single character, but the subordinate parts are remarkably well drawn and ably presented. The central figure of Mr. Browne's satiric comedy is a Mexican bandit with the manners and morals, or rather lack of morals, of a Pancho Villa. The Bad Man is absolutely guiltless of what modern psychology calls "repressions." He is an essential primitive, a creature of passionate love and passionate hate. Loyalty he knows, and a sense of justice he has, even though his sense of legality is completely and utterly nil. The Bad Man would wonder at the use of the word "even" in the previous sentence. He is a child in impulse and a man in execution. Indeed, whenever necessary for the carrying out of his will and desire, he shows not the least hesitancy in doing whatever executions the situation requires with his own hands. And he does it to the nightly satisfaction and relief of hundreds of men and women who are doubtless as solicitous for the safety of human life as Uncle Toby was for the protection of flies. Any one who remembers Mr. Browne's caustic papers on "Uncle Sham," in which he flayed the sophistries and weaknesses of our Government in the early days of the World War, does not need to be told that. the presentation of such a character as The Bad Man gives to this vivid humorist and satirist the opportunity of a lifetime to pillory the conventions of twentieth-century America.

" we

Of the plot of "The Bad Man " shall say nothing more. It is too good to be spoiled by any written description. We suspect that before The Bad Man ends his career he will have an opportunity to display himself for many long months in New York as well as in all the theatrical centers between Broadway and the Golden Gate.

FOR NEW YORK DYS

T

PEPTICS ONLY

HESE are hard days for New York dyspeptics. Dyspepsia is a disease which feeds on quick lunches, worry, and the absence of the contemplative spirit. Against these three great foes of health New Yorkers have usually two most successful antidotes ready at hand. But fate has seen fit to deprive them at one fell blow of both these aids to contented digestion.

When the average New Yorker goes out to lunch, he usually takes with him, either to his favorite stool at a "hamand" emporium or to his club armchair,

FRANK BACON AS BILL JONES IN
LIGHTNIN'"

enough afternoon papers to supply any inquisitive statistician with an explanation of the present paper shortage.

From personal experience and observation we are inclined to believe that this compound of printers' ink and deceased forests is not acquired for the purpose of extracting therefrom vital information concerning business, politics, or sport. The Wall Street editions do not appear until after the usual lunch time, and baseball games are played in the afternoon. As for politics, that, like the poor, is always with us, and we have seen few news items concerning the present campaign which would tempt the average luncher into undue haste to secure information which could doubtless be obtained in more extended form from the morning paper of the following day.

No; we are led to believe that even hurry-scurry New York is moved by higher motives than business, politics, or sport when it makes its daily attack upon the wood-pulp supply of America. We are led to this conclusion by noting the frequency with which our table the frequency with which our table companions and neighbors turn first of all to the columns of the most contemplative of our American journalists. We refer to the "Sun Dial" of Don Marquis and to the "Bowling Green" of Christopher Morley.

Some Health Department official, with a nose for figures, should work out a table showing the number of minutes added to the average New Yorker's lunch time by the existence of these two columns. Doubtless he could prove that a perusal of the "Sun Dial" leads to an x number of minutes of additional mastication, and that a reading of the "Bowling Green " develops a

Ira D. Schwarz

HOLBROOK BLINN AS PANCHO LOPEZ IN
"THE BAD MAN"

technique of leisure of salutary impor tance that could be expressed algebraically by the letter y. From such an investigation it would be easy to prove (everything is easy to prove when one argues with one's self) that the x+y of Don Marquis and Christopher Morley could also be expressed by a tangible factor of increase in the longevity and civic usefulness of the average follower of these two literary exponents of the maxim that "Haste makes waste."

We started this editorial with the statement that "these are hard days for New York dyspeptics." To explain this statement algebraically, we will say that at the moment of writing the citizens of New York are minus both x and y. The editors of the New York "Evening Sun" and the " "Evening Post" have, with a total disregard for the health of the citizens of the metropolis, permitted both Mr. Marquis and Mr. Morley to go upon their vacations at one and the same time. It matters not how able are the substitutes provided for the departed columnists, the citizens of New York are now deprived of at least the whole comfort of both their names.

We do not believe that it would be regarded by the Supreme Court as a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law if the editors of the "Evening Post" and the "Evening Sun" entered into a gentlemen's agreement to restrain Mr. Morley and Mr. Marquis from synchronizing their vacations. Such an agreement, even between two competing newspapers, could not be regarded as contra bonos mores. Will the editors of these two papers kindly give this matter their careful and most uncongressional consideration?

W

E are under the shadow of a strike which, if it comes to pass, will be more than a strike. If the miners push their demands, as they threaten to do, to the stoppage of work, the United Kingdom will be quickly in the throes of a constitutional struggle. The public read with interest the news from America in reference to the challenge of the miners there. It is regarded as being an industrial affair, which, though serious enough, does not imperil in any way your system of government. There is a whole world of difference in the situation as regards the miners on this side. We are face to face with a crisis the outcome of which may be a modification of our process of government. It does not follow that such a modification would inevitably result within a week or two, but it could not be very long delayed.

A survey of the past year is necessary to get the miners' strike into proper perspective. Coincident with the enormously increased (and increasing) power of the organized labor movement there has been manifested among the workers a new attitude of mind, arising partly from a sense of injustice, partly from a recklessness engendered by the tragic experiences of the battlefield, partly from the greediness born of a new strength. There is a mixture of good and bad in the general motive. What is important for the moment is the widespread prevalence of the motive. People who want things desire to take a short cut to secure them, and they do not care very much what consequences follow in the train of their impulse so long as they attain their immediate object. This further word may be said by way of preface, that, despite the high cost of living, the working classes have never (except in the height of war) been so well off.

Just a year ago the railway men attempted a general stoppage throughout the country in order to secure higher wages. The general community rose in revolt, and the Government fought the railway men.

Although the railway men were defeated, they, by their action, instituted for the first time an attempt at what may be called soviet government in England. A month or two ago the labor movement as a whole set up what was known as a "Council of Action," and that Council of Action dictated terms to the Government with regard to foreign policy. There was a fear (though there was no foundation for it) that the Cabinet might involve the country in war on behalf of Poland against Russia, and the labor move

ment, forming a body of dictators, announced a stoppage of work of all kinds should the Government embark on the war. Vehemently Mr. Lloyd George denied that there was any intention of war on the part of himself or his colleagues. Without discussing the right or the wrong of the feeling which moved labor, one cannot blink the fact that a substantial body of people, possibly a predominance of them in numbers, were prepared forcibly to take the reins of government from the House of Commons. And it should be pointed out that this concerted move

Keystone View Co.

ROBERT SMILLIE, HEAD OF THE BRITISH MINERS AND ADVOCATE OF SOVIET RULE

ment was made, not by the extremists alone, but also by moderate leaders, who have secured the ear of masses of the electorate who cannot be described as the working classes. There was no war with Russia, but the Council of Action is kept in existence in case of emergency.

Hardly had the excitement aroused by the institution of the Council of Action died away before another dramatic situation began to present itself. The coal miners, who in the past few years have secured great improvements in their position, put forward new demands, and these demands were

of such a nature and were made under such circumstances as to bring once more to the fore problems which, though they are thrust first upon this country, can hardly fail to be experienced in a short time by other great democracies.

While some people put stress on the justice or injustice of the actual demands of the miners, these demands in themselves are not of tremendous import. What is of significance is the spirit and determination which lie be

hind them. Briefly, the situation is as follows: The miners engaged in arduous occupation are well-paid men. They dispute that their earnings have risen above the cost of living, although on the other side figures are given to show that their wages have gone up out of proportion to increased expenditure. In 1915 they worked an eight-hour day-they now work a seven-hour day. The average pay for adult workers in 1914 was 7/1d.-the average pay now is 18/3d. The output, in spite of an increased number of workers, has decreased. Here are the figures:

The Government is still in general control of the coal industry, and the profits of the owners are rigidly regulated. The profits at present are found in a balance of £66,000,000, secured by the export of coal, and this £66,000,000 goes to the Government for the relief of general taxation. The miners claim that one-half of it should be given to them in extra wages, and the other half should go to the reduction of the price of coal to the consumers. In other words, they are taking upon themselves not only the legitimate task of trying to improve their own conditions, but they are also attempting to interfere in the general government of the country. They are, in effect, telling the Cabinet how the finance of the nation should be conducted.

This is a usurpation of the powers of Parliament which may be fittingly compared with the attempts in bygone days by tyrannous kings and barons. Parliament is no more likely to stand it than it stood the threats of the Stuarts.

Meanwhile the miners are steadily preparing for a strike. A ballot has been taken, showing the requisite majority in favor of a stoppage of work. In a few days we shall know the worst. A strike of the coal miners would paralyze the railways, the great factories, would interfere with food supplies, and, indeed, in the course of a week or two would put the majority of workers in this country out of occupation. There are leaders of other trade unions and members of those trade unions also who see the losses and hardships which would be brought upon workers in general, but, on the other hand, there must

be taken into account the general tendency of workers which I have already mentioned. The heads of the labor movement have indorsed the claims of the miners. In spite of this there may be some moderating influence exercised oehind closed doors, although there is little sign of it at present. Apart from the Council of Action, the newly established body of chiefs, there is an organization already in existence which has practically as much power. It is, in effect, another soviet. The "Triple Alliance," as it is called, consists of railway men, miners, and transport workers, who have associated themselves for common action towards common ends. If the transport workers and railway men join with the miners,

W

ALL STREET is to-day somewhat nervous over European credit. Symptoms of this are the renewal of the French Loan in part at 8 per cent interest and redemption at 10 per cent premium.

Even a British Loan, redeemable in 1937, is quoted at only 82, and thus yields 634 per cent in addition to enhancement of value before maturity. And it is reported that at least one large corporation has disposed of Canadian securities on the ground that Canada is linked with Britain's liabilities on the Continent of Europe.

There is no concerted movement to depress British credit. Indeed, the Bankers' Trust has just issued a little book on the subject in which Mr. Harvey E. Fisk gives ample grounds for confidence. The Guaranty Trust also supports an optimistic view and urges that now is the time for Americans to invest in good European securities, so getting the advantage of the exchange and at the same time helping to rectify it for the future. Also, it must be remembered that United States Debt, bearing 434 per cent and redeemable at par in two and a half years, are quoted at 952, while the Pennsylvania Railroad is paying 7 per cent for money. Uneasiness as to Britain is emphasized by a certain misgiving over labor in the United Kingdom, also over the Bolshevist threat on India, while there is always Ireland. Moreover, Americans, more concerned hitherto with the development of their own country than with the problem of international trade, look a little askance at British exports to the rest of Europe, asking whether Britain is only receiving paper in return and what kind of an asset this will prove to be when payment falls due. My belief is that in financing such exports the policy of British banks, imposed centrally by the Bank of England, has been fairly cautious since the armistice, and that no real risks have been taken. Also, the national credit

The Government stands firm. It is bound to do so or it will cease to be a Government. It is suggested that the underlying reason of the leaders who are pushing this strike is that they desire the nationalization of the mines, and feel that by throwing the industry into chaos they can bring this about. This indeed would be a soviet governThis indeed would be a soviet government with a vengeance. Mr. Lloyd George is a man of swift action in emergency, and it can hardly be doubted that, should the miners persist in a stoppage of work, the Prime Minister would dissolve Parliament and go to the country. Whatever happens, there are serious portents for the

II-BRITAIN'S CREDIT

(C) Wide World Photos

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY, GUARDIAN OF PARLIAMENT AND THE TREASURY

is not involved in such private commercial dealings.

British credit must be tested by public revenue and expenditure. The figures here are simple and conclusive. In the six years between August, 1914, and 1920 Britain spent about 11,500 million pounds. Of this she borrowed 7,100 millions and raised by revenue 4,400 millions. Her total debt is to-day about 7,800 millions. Against this debt she has assets nominally amounting to 1,800 millions, but as these include 568 millions owed by Russia, 515 millions owed by France, and 455 millions owed by Italy, the "assets are probably not worth more to-day than onehalf the stated total, perhaps not a third. But what has to be realized is that Britain handles the service of her debt as if there were no assets at all

against it. She reckons it at the gross amount-7,800 millions sterling.

The financial year in London is from March to March. Not once during the war and reconstruction period has revenue failed of estimates. This year Britain budgets to receive 1,418 million

Our hope lies in the basic common sense and in the practical fiber of our race. We are not in the habit of burning down our house to secure roast pork. There must be unsettlement. I think some reform of our institutions will come to pass. In view of the massive and prevailing power of labor, it will probably take the form of a development in our Parliamentary system, and that development may before long give us a House of Commons which is in effect a grand trades union of the nation, available for immediate appeal and capable of quick and final decision. FRANK DILNOT. Balham S. W. London, England, September 3, 1920.

pounds sterling and to spend 1,184 millions sterling, leaving a clear margin, after paying interest, of 234 millions sterling for redemption of debt, or over 2 million dollars daily. In the first three months, a period of low receipts, 37 millions sterling was repaid, or onehalf per cent on the whole debt. Unless, therefore, some catastrophe British liabilities will be handsomely reduced by next March.

occurs

It is true that "revenue" includes special receipts amounting to 310 millions sterling derived from sale of war stores and so on. But, on the other hand, there are special expenses on the opposite side of the ledger, which also will not recur. And an interesting official statement has been issued of the probable balance-sheet in a normal year. Not reckoning excess profits tax, or any "special receipts," the Treasury would receive 1,029 millions sterling. It would spend 849 millions and have 180 millions left over for redemption of debt.

It is thus clear that Britain is amply paying her way and getting her liabili ties reduced. Yet it is sometimes hinted that "she is not meeting one penny of interest." The reference is of course to the funding of interest for three years on American loans to the Alliesa general concession which Britain shares. The statement is not really true in any save the most technical sense. While some interest is added to capital, a much larger capital sum is written off. Indeed, the repayment of 50 millions sterling on the AngloFrench Loan goes far to replace the funding of other debt above mentioned. Funding is really a device for helping the exchange. It is postponing interest for that purpose only-so far as Britain is concerned. Provision for all interest is made in London, as I have explained.

With regard to the labor situation, the unemployment has been for months this year little over one per cent, and sometimes under. It is less than half

A

T no time for a long period has more attention been given to the character, influence, and steadfast qualities of Abraham Lincoln than seems to have filled the minds of men, both here and abroad, during the last two or three years, especially since the armistice. New statues have been erected of him, many and fresh eulogies have been spoken, on both sides of the ocean; even a great play has been written about him by an Englishman which has had an almost unprecedented run both in England and in this country.

Since the armistice nations seem struggling in a bottomless quagmire, with nothing solid to cling to. Perhaps that may be the reason so many people's thoughts have turned to the memory of Lincoln, as one would reach out and strive to lay hold of a granite rock in an overwhelming bog.

This makes me believe that a quite personal and hitherto unpublished story of Lincoln might be of interest to the public.

It was recalled to my remembrance the other day while looking at the clay model of Abraham Lincoln which Mr. Daniel C. French has just finished for the Lincoln Memorial in Potomac Park at Washington. As I stood studying that grave reflective figure, with the right hand partly open as if to receive all the facts of life, the left hand firmly clenched as though to hold and use them to best advantage, out of the depths of an old woman's rather nebu-. depths of an old woman's rather nebulous past came the memory of this story. It was told me by Major Gerrard Irvine Whitehead, who went out at the beginning of the Civil War with the celebrated old Philadelphia City Troop, and who served in various capacities and on various staffs until the end.

At one time, during the darkest and most trying days of that great struggle, this

young officer was sent up to Washington with secret despatches of the greatest importance. He was ushered at once into the President's private room, a very barely and simply fur

nished spot indeed. Mr. Lincoln, seated at his desk, took the despatches and motioned the young officer to be seated while he studied the papers. Those two were quite alone in the room. The President sat absorbed in the contents of the despatches, and then fell into a deep study, looking, probably, just as the statue represents him. The tired, dusty young officer scarcely dared to breathe for fear of breaking in upon those anxious thoughts.

The one window was wide open, and across the sultry sky came up heavy thunder clouds; the storm broke and the rain began to pour into the room. Of course Major Whitehead did not think he had any right to move when the Commander-in-Chief was so engrossed, so he sat there and watched the water form a pool, then slowly trickle across the wooden floor almost to the President's feet, who sat absorbed and unconscious. At last Mr. Lincoln made his decision, seemed to rouse from his deep reflections, and, becoming conscious.