Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

held last week on the Chesapeake, the same type machine, with its wheels replaced by pontoons, flew the course at the rate of 232 miles an hour. In the Schneider Cup Race there were British and Italian entries, but the British "mystery plane" crashed during the preliminary trials and the other British plane finished a bad second, while the one Italian seaplane that flew was too slow for serious competition. Lack of foreign competitors, however, does not minimize the American triumph, as the winning planes beat all recorded flights

ever made abroad.

Speed supremacy, however, is not an index to air supremacy, nor even a prime essential to present-day aviation. Great speed means possible supremacy in military scout planes; but in commercial aviation, where speed does not count, America no longer leads. At the Pulitzer race the only machine which showed commercial possibilities was the wellknown Dutch Fokker plane. Slowness in speed did not prevent hundreds of these Fokker machines from making regular flights abroad on scheduled commercial air lines, carrying in the past four years 34,000 passengers and nearly 250 tons of freight. Another type 90-milean-hour plane, the German Junker, carried 40,000 passengers in 1924 alone and 874 tons of freight. During 1924 European air lines carried 84,200 passengers for a total mileage of 5,700,000 miles. The machines carrying this traffic are not model commercial machines, but they represent the best attempts to develop a commercial airplane. The safety factor has been brought to a point nearly equaling that of railroads, and engine reliability is slowly increasing. There was nothing at our air meets to show that America is developing anything but speed planes.

[blocks in formation]

gold, and the statement was made that several scientists were at work trying to make such a transmutation of elements or to prove that those announced by other scientists were merely some form of self-deception. In particular we told of the work carried on by Professors Smith and Karssen, of the University of Amsterdam, and of the roughly similar transmutation experiments which had been attempted by Professor H. H. Sheldon, working for the "Scientific American." Both of these experiments have now been completed. The two Dutch scientists claim to have effected a real transmutation, changing the atoms of lead into those of both mercury and thallium. But Professor Sheldon announces in the current "Scientific AmeriMen interested in aviation, though can" that his long-continued efforts have

Had America any real commercial machines, their value would have been recognized at the Ford Reliability Tour, held earlier in the month at Detroit. Speed was not the goal there. The objective was efficiency, a more accurate gauge of progress in aviation. Aside from the Fokker machine, one other plane showed promise, the American Stout plane, now a Ford product, which, if more or less a modification of the ordinary European passenger-carrying planes, was still an attempt at develop ing something other than speed scouts or sport machines.

resulted in entire failure. He doubts whether transmutations have been made by any of the scientists.

Those whose interest in the remarkable advance of the new atomic physics have led them to follow it at least as a speaking acquaintance, realizing that the insignificant laboratory experiment has frequently been father to discoveries of immense practical use to man, will recall that the first announcement that one of the chemical elements had been transmuted into another came only a year ago last July. Professor Miethe, of Germany, while burning just such a mercury lamp as the one shown on this page, accidentally produced gold from the mercury used in it. He was able to duplicate the result, and the announcement of his success received much attention. To the scientist it was extremely interesting, while to the layman-well, there is no way to tell just what invaluable byproduct may be derived from such a bit of purely scientific research.

At once other scientists tried to transmute the atom. Professor Nagaoka, of Japan, a noted physicist, announced that he had made a transmutation. Professor Miethe, the original transmutationist, more recently, it is stated, made gold enough for chemical analysis. Later came the announcement of the two Dutch scientists, who to avoid duplication chose lead instead of mercury to experiment with, and who claim also to have effected a transmutation. Tentative Verdict, "Not Proved"

[graphic]

PROFE

ROFESSOR SHELDON, using duplicate apparatus of that originally used by Professor Miethe, tried over and over with no results except that when he began with mercury known to contain traces of gold he got gold in the "transmuted" product. With absolutely purified mercury no gold was obtained. In addition to this, five Berlin University scientists recently obtained similar findings: impure gold, transmutation; pure gold, no transmutation. They too believe that Professor Miethe's mercury contained at the start traces of gold which deceived him in the final results.

It is made plain by the "Scientific American" that in any case there is no proof that the atom cannot be transmuted. On theoretical grounds, it can. and by the change of one electron. it is thought by many that man h now and perhaps may never have command the power and the skill

T

form this miracle. Again, it may prove possible to bring about this modern alchemy to-morrow.

Of what real use would it be? We do not know-perhaps none. Yet we can depict a querulous man fifty years ago, observing Professor Herz playing with the spark gaps which decades later were destined to be shaped by Marconi into. wireless and radio, shaking his head and asking impatiently, "Yes-but what good is it?" Many a piece of abstract scientific research has had its unanticipated billion-dollar by-product.

"No Questions Asked "

THE

HE criticism that has followed the return of stolen jewels said to be worth $683,000 to an agent of an insurance company on payment by that agent of $65,000 has opened up discussion as to whether the payment of rewards for stolen property under a "no questions asked" understanding is collusion with criminals. Technically it is unlawful, and the fact that by rather common custom this kind of condonation of crime has long existed as to minor thefts may be charged partly to the legal maxim which may roughly be translated, "The law does not bother about trifles," and partly to the sympathy one feels for

owners who in such cases have no other way of getting back their property.

With the growth, however, of insurance by corporations against robbery, there has come a recognition of the danger in any laxity in enforcing the law. Laxity comes about in this way: the owners of insured property look to their insurance company for redress; the company is anxious to cut its losses to the minimum; its agents may open negotiation with the elaborate underworld machinery by which the stolen property is passed through several hands from thief to "layer," to "fence," and so on to detective.

In this Donahue case the jewels were brought into the New York City District Attorney's office by one Scaffa, described as a private detective employed by the insurance company. He was allowed to depart on an alleged hunt for the thieves or their middleman. No one was surprised that the hunt brought no result, and the feeling that he had simply been allowed to gain time for the obliteration of all traces of the passing-on process of all traces of the passing-on process gained when his story was made public. He had simply made a telephone appointment to meet a man at a hotel, had been told that the man's name was "Sam Layton" (a statement that neither Scaffa

nor any one else believes to be true), had accepted the jewels without any expert advice as to their genuineness, and had handed over $65,000 in cash.

Mr. Pecora, Assistant District Attorney, has since been quoted in the newspapers as saying that "the knowledge these thieves have that they may negotiate privately with such complaints without much chance of punishment is the greatest incentive to professional criminals to-day." He recommends legislation penalizing the entering into negotiation for regaining loot by paying a reward without informing the police of the facts.

Some forms of crime seem to have become as closely organized as legitimate business. Law and law enforcement must be adjusted to meet the new situation.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][merged small]

only those of Washington at Mount Vernon, Jefferson at Monticello, Madison at Montpelier, Jackson at the Hermitage, and the modest home of Lincoln in the city of Springfield. In all those instances, however, more or less time had elapsed before the homes were acquired and put in a state of preservation, and but few or no personal relics or memorials were secured. Spiegel Grove met with no such impairment. When Colonel Webb C. Hayes, President Hayes's second son, turned it over to the State a few years ago, it was in perfect condition and all of the valuable historic effects of President Hayes were there intact.

The George Croghan Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. celebrate each year the birthday (October 4) of President Hayes. The programme this year took the form of the dedication of a Spiegel Grove Gateway, with bronze tablets, erected by Colonel Hayes in honor of General R. P. Buckland, "first law partner and lifelong friend of Rutherford B. Hayes." At the same time occurred the second historical conference of persons and societies interested in Ohio history. At this conference there was considered a tentative plan for the organization of a historical society, named in honor of President Hayes on account of his active participation in the affairs of the colleges and historical societies of his native State after his return to private life.

President Hayes was a great reader and a man of scholarly tastes and attainments. His library of Americana was not excelled in his time by that of any other private individual in the Nation. He had the instincts of a collector and preserved all papers and memoranda both of his public and private life in orderly form. His Diaries and Letters, edited by Dr. Charles R. Williams, author of the Life of President Hayes, are now in course of publication by the State of Ohio and will be a valuable contribution to American history. With the exception of Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt, no President has left such a collection of individual memoranda, literary remains, and personal-mementoes as did President Hayes. Archbishop O'Connell recently has said that not long before the death of Cardinal Gibbons a keen observer of men they were discussing the relative merits of the various Presidents whom he had personally known, and the Cardinal said: "I have known them all intimately and well

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

from Lincoln until now; and to my mind the most scholarly and refined of them all was President Hayes."

While President Hayes himself was utterly averse to self-laudation, the idea of some memorial to him occurred to a son whom he sent on an official visit to mark the birthplace of George Washington. The happy consummation of Colonel Hayes's almost fifty years of planning and filial devotion seem now near consummation by the prospective organization of the Hayes Historical Society as outlined at the meeting of October 4,

[blocks in formation]

bounded by precipices and in some places only a few feet wide-is a link between Peshawur, on the northwest frontier of India, and Cabul, the capital of Afghanistan. There is an ancient saying that no man can conquer India who has not made himself first the master of Cabul; and for thousands of years the Khyber has been a highroad of invasion, trodden by the armies of Genghiz Khan, Tamerlane, and other chieftains of central Asia.

The British approached India, not by land, but by sea; and to them the question has been to defend the Khyber, not to attack it. The danger of Russia invading India by way of Afghanistan is one which Lord Salisbury ridiculed by suggesting that people should use large maps. Still, the diplomatic struggle between Russia and Britain for the predominating influence over Afghanistan has been going on for a century, and may not yet be over.

As Foreign Secretary, Lord Grey flirted with the idea of a railroad connecting India and Persia, but nothing came of it. And it was not until the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon that the plan of advancing railroads into the Himalayas was seriously discussed. The reason is not merely strategic, in the usual sense of that word. Along the mountainous frontier there is chronic trouble with the tribes. But it has been found that the railroad through Baluchistan to Quetta and Kandahar has brought these border communities into peaceful contact with civilizing influence. In fact, the policy has been adopted of setting the tribal chiefs themselves to maintain order. And the hope is that the Khyber Railroad, by encouraging commerce, will introduce a new and more tranquil régime.

The Khyber of the Past

THE

HE Khyber Pass and its extension beyond Jeliahabad, known as the Koord Cabul, have witnessed more than one scene of horror. It was in 1841 that events occurred which drove the British out of Cabul. Troops and civilians numbered, in all, about 26,000 persons, many of them women and some of them children. It was the depth of winter. The defiles were almost impassable. And behind every rock there lurked a sharpshooter. Enough to say that of this entire column, one man only-his name was Brydon-staggered ultimately into Jellahabad. In a march of a little more.

than one hundred miles all others had perished.

In the 'seventies Russia seized Khiva, and Afghanistan came under her influence. A British mission to Cabul entered the Khyber Pass, but was denied the road by Afghan outposts. The result, once more, was war. Along three of the Himalayan gorges-one of them the Khyber-British forces simultaneously advanced; and Afghanistan was brought again into the Indian sphere of influence. It now looks as if the once formidable Khyber would become a national park for visitors to India, who will look with astonishment on its dizzy heights and sunless depths.

On the Seattle Battle

W

Line

HAT Seattle thinks of George Marvin, and what Tacoma thinks of what Seattle thinks

of George Marvin, are duly and fully recorded elsewhere in this issue of The Outlook. The Seattle "Times" speaks on behalf of Seattle, the Tacoma "News Tribune" on behalf of the city that lost out in the fight to name Mount Rainier.

What Tacoma thinks of Seattle-well, that is a family fight, for which The Outlook is not responsible. What Seattle thinks of George Marvin strikes nearer home.

We have analyzed the criticisms put forward by the Seattle "Times," and find that (disregarding personalities) they are essentially three in number: (1) The "Times" charges that Mr. Marvin has resuscitated tales of the "old Seattle Spirit," "a thing that has hardly been mentioned in the last fifteen years by people who live in Seattle, and probably not for a longer period by other people who live on Puget Sound." (2) It charges Mr. Marvin with faking a quotation from publicity material issued on behalf of Seattle. (3) It draws the pleasant inference that Mr. Marvin lied in making a comparison of Mount Rainier and Fujiyama.

Let us take up these charges and statements one by one.

We have just received from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce a most delightful and persuasive booklet entitled "Seattle -Her Faults and Her Virtues." It will be worth the time of any reader of The Outlook to drop a post-card to the Seattle Chamber of Commerce asking for a

copy. It is a mighty good piece of municipal publicity. What makes it of interest, however, in connection with the present discussion is the following statement telling of the birth of the "Seattle Spirit:"

Nowhere do men speak of the spirit of a city with such definiteness. Nor is it a term that has come into being with modern self-consciousness of publicity and civics-the records of a celebration twenty-five years speak decidedly of "the Seattle Spirit." It is an entity-a something-a civic personality that men speak of as they would speak of a building or a

man.

ago

The spirit of Seattle is something not to be denied. It needs only to be protected against ill-advised expression.

The Seattle "Times" was unfortunate in charging Mr. Marvin with faking the publicity material which he quoted in his article. As the illustration which accompanies the editorial from the "Times" shows, it was quoted verbatim. Mr. Marvin tore it from a pamphlet which the Advertising Club of Seattle issued as

an invitation to the members of the Pacific Coast Advertising Clubs Association to visit Seattle this past summer. Certainly this is from an "official publicity agency working on behalf of Seat

tle."

If the editor of the "Times" had taken the trouble to glance at "Who's Who in America," he would have found that Mr. Marvin's experiences in the Far East had been quite extensive. A simple reference of this kind would have saved him from drawing the inference that Mr. Marvin had not gone far enough East to see Fujiyama.

Really, it seems to us that as an attorney for the defense the Seattle "Times" fell down rather badly on the job. It may not be modest of us, but we think that we could draw up a much better defense of Seattle sitting right here in The Outlook's office in provincial New York. What we could do if The Outlook's office were located in the L. C. Smith building would probably be even better. If we could move The Outlook office to a trout stream in the neighborhood of Seattle, we could doubtless do even better yet. Under the existing handicaps, however, we might express our

selves somewhat as follows:

George Marvin, a special correspondent of The Outlook, has some rather unkind things to say of the spirit of

Seattle "which slumbers not nor sleeps." He thinks "the world is too much with us," that "getting and spending we lay waste our powers." We are too commercial to satisfy George Marvin.

A city such as Seattle can stand a good deal of criticism without injury. The only injury can come through its citizens failing to profit by any grain of truth that may be in such criticism. Our neighbor, the Tacoma "News Tribune," thinks that there is a great deal of truth in what Mr. Marvin says. It isn't pleasant to have a neighbor confirm such impressions as Mr. Marvin received of Seattle.

While we have been inviting the world and his wife to watch us grow have we been duly solicitous as to the manner of that growth? Mr. Marvin and the Tacoma "News Tribune" say no. Almost all the inhabitants of Seattle say yes.

Seattle has grown fast. Its citizens within less than a single lifetime have built one of the major cities of America. Literally they have moved mountains, and some of the intangible mountains were greater than those of earth and stone.

Seattle has fought for its place in the sun. From now on it should be the duty of Seattle to take every precaution lest the shadow of its growth keep the sun from its fellow-Americans of the Northwest. Seattle can reach its greatest destiny only if it moves in sympathy and unison with the other communities of the Northwest.

We are dowered with the richest portion of America's inheritance. It is our right and our privilege to use that dower for the best interests of our land. The greater the strength and power of Seattle, the greater its obligation to the State of Washington and to the country as a whole.

There are some things we have which Mr. Marvin missed and which might have been drawn upon to paint a different picture of Seattle as it is to-day. He might have noted on the right side of the ledger the fact that there is but one city in America with a lower rate of illiteracy; only one city which spends more per capita for schools; only one with a greater percentage of home-owning citizens. Such facts are not the earmarks of a city devoted solely to the pursuit of cash. In the maintenance of high standards of education and citizenship Seattle gives proof that her go-getters are getting something of greater worth than dollars and cents.

Some such editorial as this might have been more persuasive with Seattle's neighbors and the correspondents who have written us from the Northwest in full indorsement of Mr. Marvin's article than the editorial which we reproduce on another page.

The Cure for Crime

Ο

N the same day the President of the United States and the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church ascribed the increase in juvenile crime to failure in home training.

Said the President to the International Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association:

Too many people are neglecting the real well-being of their children, shifting the responsibility for their actions. and turning over supervision of their discipline and conduct to the juvenile courts. It is stated on high authority that a very large proportion of the outcasts and criminals come from the ranks of those who lost the advantages. of normal parental control in their youth. They are the refugees from broken homes who were denied the necessary benefits of parental love and direction. . . . What the youth of the country need is, not more public control through Government action, but more home control through parental action.

ter:

whether of the Nation or of the State or of the municipality, has for its prime purpose the protection of persons and property against assaults of every kind; but Government of itself can never cast out the evil spirit which prompts these assaults. It can foster the institutions through which the people at large may be trained to use their power for the service of society; but the power itself must come from sources which the Government cannot tap.

In importance to society there is no career comparable to that of a father or a mother.

F

Ashes of History

ROM August, 1914, to April, 1917, our relations with Germany made an extraordinary chapter in diplomatic history. The fiction of our "friendship with the German people" was being kept up, although very few of the German people felt any friendship whatever for us, and ours for Germany had vanished with the invasion of Bel

Said the Bishops in their Pastoral Let- gium. We had been astutely chosen as the representative of Germany in the capitals of the Allies, and were running her errands in London and Paris the while her submarines drowned our citizens. Mr. Bryan was being fooled to the top of his bent by various "neutral" and "peace-loving" organizations, eager to stop the exportation of munitions to Europe these organizations being merely pro-German societies under thin disguise, who objected to the munitions simply because they were not going to Germany. And the notorious von Papen and BoyEd, consorting with and entertained by Americans in Washington and New York, were engineering an underground warfare against the United States.

We see a weakening of the ties and a lowering of the standards of home life, due to lack of proper parental control and to the absence from homes of definite religious influence. We see a widespread revolt against the Christian ideals of morality and purity expressed in much of our literature, advocated openly by some of those whose position gives them hearing and influence, hailed by many as the advent of a fuller freedom and a larger self-expression, and, in correspondence with this, the appalling and still increasing growth among us of divorce. ... Can we fail to see the connection between this situation and the spirit of lawlessness, the startling increase in crime, and especially the increase in the number of youthful criminals, which is now challenging our attention?

Both the President and the Bishops see in religion the one force which will combat the evils they describe. The President sees that power at work in the Young Men's Christian Associations. The Bishops proffer that power in terms of the historic creeds of the Church. In whatever form that power is described and presented, it seems alike to the statesman and the churchman essential if peace, order, security, and civilization itself are to survive.

These addresses will serve a good purpose if they get a wide hearing for the idea that the safety of a nation cannot rest upon restraint alone. Government,

Certain periodicals and a few weird professors are now trying to spread the illusion that Germany's attitude was altogether high-minded at this time, and that the world would see her in her true guise of innocence if it were not for the dark machinations of England and France. They are fond of dismissing public indignation of the time as "hysteria." No incident of all that mad period is stranger than the publication of the Zimmermann note-that exhibition of raw Teutonism in which the German Foreign Minister proposed to cut up the United States and hand some of them over to Mexico. The story of this is now wholly revealed in an article by Burton. J. Hendrick in the "World's Work."

Mr. Hendrick adds nothing to our

« AnteriorContinuar »