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cm Spanish writers) the best known to Americans are precisely those which have the most action and most anguishing situations, and therefore those which have naturally obtained an even greater popular success as moving pictures than as novels, "The Four Horsemen" and "Mare Nostrum;" while the least desirable of those best known are "Women Triumphant" and "Enemies of Women," of the first of which an Outlook reviewer said that it did with meticulous art what would better not have been done at allit was a prolonged analysis of the perverted ideas of sex.

Ibañez (or more exactly, Blasco, for that really corresponds with the "family name") wrote too much, and too much of what he wrote was unpleasant and contemptuous of that which is finest in human nature, but at his best he was a true story creator. His fiery political propaganda was the real urge of his life. Not long before his death he said: "Dead or alive, I will never return to Spain as long as the present régime subsists."

Ibañez has been compared to Zola, and certainly he had more points of resemblance with the Frenchman than he had with Spanish writers like Valdés and Galdós, who were both contemporaries of his youth and whose place in Spanish literature is far more secure than that of Ibañez.

Germany's Star Athlete to
Run Here

Nor since the invasion of this country by the barrel-chested, imperturbable Finnish runner, Paavo Nurmi, have track circles been so thoroughly aroused as this winter over the conditional permission granted to Dr. Otto Peltzer, the great German middle-distance star, to run here. By the time these lines have been published Dr. Peltzer may have run the first of three races.

When he sailed for this country, the German officials, remembering the professional arguments roused by other foreign track and field stars on visits here, forbade their Olympic ace to take part in any races in the United States. Then suddenly they had a change of heart. Immediately on receipt of word from abroad, the American officials went into an executive huddle and debated for some time whether they would permit the German to run. Finally there came the permission for three races, provided one was the National championship. The American officials have been

Wide World

severely criticised for their action, but there is something left to be said on their side. This is an Olympic year, and injury to the greatest of German athletes or a cloud of suspicion of any sort would be a blot on the summer games in Holland.

A protracted "barnstorming" tour such as those engaged in by Hoff, the Norwegian pole vaulter, and Nurmi would have helped neither the visitor nor the sport. However, the insistence on his entering the National seems a little high-handed. It is difficult to see why this move was made, unless it was done with an eye on the money his name would attract at the box-office.

The Charges Against
Mrs Knapp

MRS. FLORENCE E. S. KNAPP, the last person to be elected Secretary of State of New York, has been under charges, not only of incompetence, but of wrongdoing in office. After an investigation of her record, Randall J. Le Boeuf, Jr., Commissioner appointed by Governor Smith, has recommended prosecution.

Among the charges, based on testimony, are these: That Mrs. Knapp removed important records and apparently had them burned; that she made ap

pointments which were not authorized by law; that she indorsed payments to people who did no work for the State. These charges have to do with the conduct of the State Census.

It is to be remembered that charges are not proof. Mrs. Knapp was offered an opportunity to testify before the Commissioner on her own behalf, but she declined for reasons which seemed to her good. The Commissioner declares that she declined to appear voluntarily "unless special favors were granted to her." Mrs. Knapp said that she declined because her interests were not sufficiently safeguarded. Her side of the case has yet to be formally presented.

On the face of the report based on testimony that has not been refuted it seems evident that there was either malfeasance or gross carelessness. Mrs. Knapp declares that the papers that were burned were from her own personal files; but apparently an important card index has disappeared. Relatives of Mrs. Knapp were appointed and paid for work which apparently had nothing whatever to do with the Census. In one case, it is charged, cost of personal publicity for Mrs. Knapp and her family, which the Commissioner thinks could not have been for the purpose of persuading people to co-operate with the

enumerators, for their work had been finished, was put down as a Census expense. The accusations include larceny and forgery.

There have not been many women in high public office in this country. To those who expected that woman's suffrage would help to cleanse American politics the record of Ma Ferguson in Texas and the charges against Mrs. Knapp in New York are discouraging.

Astronomical Independence

AMERICAN astronomers and makers of great telescopes have just made a new declaration of independence.

No longer need America go to Europe for the essential parts of the silvered that concave mirrors super-eyes gather together the faintest rays from distant space, which by their cumulative effect enable images of stars to be recorded photographically on sensitive plates so that man may know how infinitesimally small he and his own world. are. The United States Bureau of Standards at Washington has just completed a 3,500-pound disk of finest optical glass from which to grind and polish a mirror six feet in diameter for Ohio Wesleyan University. This is the first big job of this kind America has ever completed. The disk required a period of nine months to cool down to ordinary temperature-in fact, it was not permitted to cool any faster; otherwise, stresses due to rapid cooling would either cause it to crack or leave it with unrelieved internal strains, which would be fatal to its optical use in a telescope.

Few realize what refinements are involved in creating such a mirror disk as this one for a telescope of great size. In order that it may gather and bring to a focal plane the rays of light from distant universes, the glass must be properly concaved and coated on its face with silver. If it is not to suffer from optical defects, the surface of the glass must not anywhere deviate more than one-half a millionth of an inch from the geometrical figure called for. There are not half a dozen men in this country who can create on so large a surface of glass so highly refined a curve.

Heretofore America has obtained its great disks of optical glass chiefly from France. Two larger mirrors than the one just successfully cast exist in our hemisphere, a 72-inch disk at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory of the Canadian Government, at Vancouver, and the one at Mount Wilson Observatory in

California. Both came from Europe, though the curves were ground and shaped by American experts.

America's coming of age in the matter of optical glass is an unexpected byproduct of the World War. Germany, with France and England, formerly controlled almost the entire industry. When America entered the war, committees of scientists gathered samples of foreign lenses, studied them scientifically, ferreted out the necessary ingredients for reproducing the glass, and as a result we can now stand on our own optical feet. Incidentally, a National inferiority complex has been broken up as the Bureau of Standards has just proved, we can take care of ourselves nicely.

All Quiet in Havana

IF the Pan-American Conference is making no great stir in the news, it is not because it is merely marking time, but because Charles E. Hughes, head of the United States delegation, has done much to allay Latin-American fears of the Colossus of the North,

Mexico, for example, proposed some radical changes in the composition of the Pan-American Union. At present that Union is controlled by Ambassadors and Ministers of Latin America in Washington. What Mexico wanted, among other things, was a change so that the representatives of the various countries in the Union would consist of special envoys. One reason for Mexico's desire for a change was its belief that Ministers and Ambassadors were in too close association with the Secretary of State of the United States. There were objections to the proposal; but it is obvious that if the United States objected it would seem as if it were trying to maintain a position of dominance. Mr. Hughes neither wholly opposed nor wholly supported this change. Instead, he said that nothing would be more appreciated by the United States than action providing complete freedom for the Latin-American republics in appointing their representatives. Such freedom enables each nation to be represented by its regular diplomatic envoy or not as it pleases.

Similarly the question of intervention has been discussed freely and amicably. It seems now that the Latin-American countries themselves—or at least many of them—will hesitate to take the position that it is actually a canon of international law that no nation shall ever intervene in the affairs of another nation.

r

It is clear that the refusal of Mr. Hughes even to appear to impose a United States policy upon the Conference is having a good effect.

A. P. Giannini's Gift

By his gift of $1,500,000 to the University of California A. P. Giannini, founder of that behemoth of the West, the Bank of Italy, is carrying out his determination, formed some time ago, that he is never going to be a wealthy man, and that when his riches increase he will give them away. "If I had all the millions in the world," he said shortly after his gift was announced, "I could not live any better than I do. I enjoy work. What is called society means nothing to me. I have always said I never would be a millionaire. Maybe this will convince some of the skeptics that I mean what I say."

The $1,500,000 handed over to the University of California represents Mr. Giannini's share of the profits of the Bancitaly Corporation for the year 1927 and is really his salary for that period. Five hundred thousand dollars of the amount will be used to erect a new building on the Berkeley Campus, while the remaining $1,000,000 will be devoted to establishing a foundation dedicated to the work of investigating and formulating "ways and means of reliev ing and improving the economic condition of the farmers, dairy and live-stock men, and fruit growers of California."

Unsolved questions of agriculture that have occupied Giannini's attention dur ing his entire career as farm boy, commission merchant, and banker closely allied to agricultural developments will be studied by the experts who are to carry on the work of the foundation.

Labor and Politics

PERHAPS the most significant action at the recent meeting of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor was its "No more, thank you!” attitude to the idea of a political labor party. Four years ago the Federation made partial commitments to a third party movement. "We learned our lesson in 1924," said one of the members the other day. No voice was raised for a similar policy in 1928. As always, American workmen will in the vast majority support whichever party they are most in sympathy with.

What does labor ask for in the 1928 election?

Their leader, William Green, named a

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O. O. N.-S. No, indeed; we don't try to return them. There's a fine market for old foreign magazines right here in New York.

P. W. I. M. How come?

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to bootleggers. They use them to wrap their imported liquor in.

Curtain

Two Views of Modern Liberties

On arriving in this country, Dora Russell, author and lecturer, wife of the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, has attacked asceticism. "The early Christian ascetics were all afraid of matter, of their instincts, of letting pleasure into their lives. . . . The idea that the glory of the soul might be apparent through the vigor and splendor of the body was a sin. Corsets and crinolines are the logical outcome of religious civilization. . . . The life of Europe up till now has been treading the path of corset civilization. . . . Thank Heaven, the world is coming to its senses! . . . Inhibitions are being thrown off, and it is being more and more realized that asceticism has no place in this modern civilization."

At the same time Representative Tillman, of Arkansas, taking as his text a book alleging to reveal the private life of a former President, denounced the circulation of printed matter which he regarded as corrupting the youth of the age "suggestive and foul publications."

"I am no pessimist," Mr. Tillman said. "I do not believe the race is hell bound. I doubt if we are growing much worse. We may be growing better. But I have in mind young people, and wish to help them. Recently I talked with a progressive dean of women in one of the coeducational colleges. She complained of the deportment of college men and women on the campus, at social gatherings, at fraternity houses. She said: 'When I began my deanship I observed but little of the petting one sees now. Then the girls did not smoke cigarettes, did not smear scarlet paint over their faces, and when walking with a boy would not allow him the liberties he now takes.' I think that is true. There is

eration, less gracious courtesy, once everywhere in evidence at our higher institutions of learning."

So differently can two people view the same age-one sees liberty's restraints as the chief evil to avoid; the other, liberty's excesses.

T

HE presiding officer of the Senate, though he is General Dawes, can place expletive emphasis only with the gavel. And the best wooden hammer in the world hardly gets the proper pronunciation of "Helen Maria."

So it happened the other day that the Vice-President hammered impotently, the quavering of excited Senatorial voices rising above his lustiest licks.

It was the stormiest scene that the Senate of the United States has recently known, not excepting even the clash of the week before between Heflin and Robinson.

The Senate Chamber reverberated, as it had hardly done before for almost seventy years, to what sounded like clashing between the South and-not another section, rather another sentiment.

The question, in so far as a question existed, was this:

Must the South consent to the nullification of the Eighteenth Amendment in order that it may escape having its representation reduced on the ground that it is nullifying the Fifteenth Amend

ment?

Four Senators engaged in the debate. What they said, in brief, was:

Swanson, of Virginia, grimly: The Southern States have not violated the Fifteenth Amendment, or the Fourteenth, and they will not be driven to do things which they think they ought not to do by threats of reduced representation.

Bruce, of Maryland, combatively: The South has circumvented the Constitution with regard to Negro voters, and it ought to sanction the same escape from the tyrannical oppression of the Eighteenth Amendment.

Glass, of Virginia, keenly: Any Senator is at liberty to take as many drinks as he wants if he can get them in compliance with the Constitution, but no Senator ought to want to restrain a State from enforcing that instrument.

Borah, of Idaho, profoundly: A close inspection of the voting laws of the Southern States shows no violation of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court of the United States had previously said at various times that the election laws of the South

By DIXON MERRITT

ern States conform with all the provisions of the Constitution. Now that the decisions of that august tribunal have been confirmed by Senator Borah, the argument and the threats ought to stop.

Practically all of the Southern States have election laws which keep a great many Negroes from voting. But they do exactly the same thing for a great many white men. They do not deny the ballot to any class of citizens. They impose educational and civic tests which any citizen, if he really wants to vote, can prepare himself to meet. They do not differ in any vital respect from qualifications required by the election laws of many States not Southern. The imposition of such tests has never been regarded in law as a denial of suffrage to anybody.

None the less, it has been a common practice for a long time to threaten the South with punishment by reduction of representation in Congress-not, usually, that the threatener seems to care if the Southern States do violate the Constitution if they will only do something else which he wants them to do. This threat was resorted to in the recent arguments concerning the right of Smith, of Illinois, and Vare, of Pennsylvania, to seats. It has been of late most frequently resorted to in connection with. the Eighteenth Amendment. The attitude of the threateners, as Senator Swanson pointed out, seems always to be that the South may go serenely along violating its own pet hateful Amendment if it will only assist in or even consent to the violation of other persons' pet hateful Amendment.

The attitude which Senator Swanson took, and which most Southerners would take, was that, if anybody thinks the Southern States are violating their own valid election laws, they ought to do something more than threaten. There are ample statutes with ample penalties under which to proceed.

But there probably is no disposition anywhere actually to do anything with regard to reducing representation. However, a gentleman-a New Englandersuggested to me the other day that an effort to reduce the representation of the South is seriously contemplated. Cer

tain persons, he said, are disturbed by the growing importance of the South in industry, shipping, and other lines, and are not above trying to curb it by reducing the political and Congressional importance of the South.

I hope he is wrong. I believe he is wrong. If he should be right, the Swanson-Bruce debate becomes more important than mere political threatening and defiance.

It may not have seemed particularly important to those who read about it in the newspapers. Neither may the Heflin-Robinson debate of the previous week have seemed important, but merely amusing.

But there are times when between low comedy and high tragedy there runs a line so thin as to bear the mathematical definition.

The incidents which came at the end of that era of good feeling which was the Monroe Administration did not seem important. Yet they were never to stop reverberating until forty years had elapsed and they had carried the country into civil war.

The time to stop fires in forests and breaks in levees is when they are small. But, being neither a forester nor an engineer, I do not know how to do it.

Personally, I can find it in my heart to wish that Vice-President Dawes could enforce "Helen Maria" upon certain Senators with the living voice as well as with the gavel.

I

SAT facing President Cosgrave, of the Irish Free State, at a luncheon given by the Overseas Writers at the National Press Club. He is not more the Irishman by his record as a rebel and by his sandy hair than by other tokens.

That he has kissed the Blarney Stone and is adept at the premeditated making of Irish bulls he proved in one breath.

"The lead pencil," he said, "is mightier than-oh, than any thing else in the world."

A prognosticator of political futures ought to have his hands full with the United States these days. But I cannot resist the temptation to say a forwardlooking word with regard to the Free State. Watch for Minister of Defense FitzGerald.

"T

HE AMERI

CAN KAI-
SER" is the

name German reactionaries have given to S. Parker Gilbert. The young AgentGeneral for Reparation Payments was the object of a mock coronation ceremony in Berlin on the sixty-ninth birthday of the banished Wilhelm II. Posters announced it all over the capital, declaring: "Our former Kaiser ruled with crown and scepter; our new one rules with high hat and scissors for cutting coupons."

"As there seems to be no German capable of undertaking the difficult job," the German parties believing in the fulfillment of the Versailles Peace Treaty were charged with making Mr. Gilbert ruler of a "German hard labor colony."

About 10,000 people crowded to attend the mock coronation and hear tirades in favor of the military monarchist movement headed by General von Ludendorff, the war-time Chief of Staff.

The incident undoubtedly shows the restlessness and irritation that Germans feel as the burden of repayment of war damages grows. But such demonstrations are not serious; they are rather safety-valves. At the head of the Government is another war-time General, Marshal von Hindenburg, who takes his oath of allegiance to the Republic seriously.

Hindenburg has just put in charge of the Ministry of Defense-which has the responsibility of upholding the republican Constitution-another old soldier, General Groener. When the German morale was going to pieces in 1918, this commander urged the Kaiser to go into the trenches-either to win final allegiance by risking his life or to die as a brave monarch. But the Kaiser, feeling otherwise, fled as Ludendorff, disguised in blue goggles, likewise did. General Groener then put himself at the service of the Republic and aided Hindenburg in disbanding the armies. He has served in four republican Cabinets. Since no doubt seems to exist that Hindenburg has trusted the protection of national safety in reliable hands, the antics of the royalists can be enjoyed as an amusing way of letting off steam.

THE

FIVE

IVE FREIGHT CARS loaded with "agricultural implements" at a station on the Austro-Hungarian border would not seem to be any cause for diplomatic alarm in Europe. But it is another matter when they prove-as these did-to be loaded with machine guns. And when the machine guns are discoveredas these were to come from Italy, the matter becomes more serious. Although ostensibly consigned to Poland, the shipment appears to have been on the way to delivery in Hungary. There is the nub of the matter, for the arming of Hungary from Italy would constitute a violation of the peace treaties by one of the defeated nations with the connivance of one of the victors.

The nations of the "Little Entente" of eastern Europe Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, with the rather half-hearted agreement of Rumania-have been moving for an investigation by the League of Nations. Mussolini has been cultivating close relations with Rumania, which may account for Rumanian reluctance to

join in the policy of the two dominant allies in the "Little Entente," for Italy does not want League action and is bending every effort to forestall it.

Mussolini has been pursuing an unexplained and ominous policy in southeastern Europe-antagonizing Yugoslavia, forming an alliance with Albania, her neighbor on the Adriatic, conciliating Greece, her next neighbor to the south, forming friendships with Austria and Hungary, her anything-but-friendly

neighbors to the north, and tending to alienate her ally, Rumania. Just where the Fascist dictator is heading no one is sure, but it might be toward domination of both shores of the Adriatic. He has succeeded in gaining a good many points without successful challenge. But this time Czechoslovakia and Yugoslaviaapparently with the support of Franceseem bent on finding out just what Italy has in mind.

Machine guns labeled "agricultural implements" call for an explanation, and we are likely to hear more of them. They are not the sort of international trade that reassures European statesmen.

A

BRITISH COLONY in Bolivia offers a new opportunity to overcrowded dwellers in the British Isles. Bolivia Concessions, Ltd., a British concern, ob-, tained two years ago concessions for agricultural, oil, mineral, and timber rights in an area of some 50,000,000 acres in eastern Bolivia. That is a territory larger than England itself. And how important the concessions may prove is indicated by an estimate of David Smith, Chief of the United States Geological Survey, that Bolivia possesses great petroleum resources-perhaps the greatest in the world-in addition to ranking second in the world in exports of tin, and producing rubber and cotton.

British promoters have built roads and a railway into the concession and constructed a port-Bolivia's only port -on the Paraguay River, 600 miles inland. Now they are calling for British settlers to begin actual colonization. The numbers involved are not significant -600 in all. But the plan shows the determination and resourcefulness of the British in seeking to solve their post-war problems of economic reconstruction.

THE