ment.

Senator Howell is well known for his management of the municipally owned utilities of the city of Omaha. He is a graduate of Annapolis and is in his fifty-ninth year.

Nebraska elected for its Governor Mr. Charles W. Bryan, the brother of William Jennings Bryan. Mr. Bryan has been for many years the publisher of the "Commoner."

At first it appeared that the NonPartisan League had failed in its attempt to elect Lynn J. Frazier to the Senate. Later returns, however, indicate that Mr. Frazier has been elected. He represents an extreme phase of the agricultural unrest which has been behind the Socialistic policies of the NonPartisan League.

Another new Senator who will belong to the farm bloc is Dr. Henrik Shipstead, a St. Paul dentist, who will represent Minnesota. Dr. Shipstead is in his

R. BEECHER HOWELL, OF NEBRASKA

Republican

Keystone

Paul Thompson

Keystone

Paul Thompson

DR. HENRIK SHIPSTEAD, OF MINNESOTA Farmer-Labor

NEW SENATORS-ELECT

historical difference between France and Switzerland than it is to comprehend the subtler distinctions which differentiate the character of our individual States.

There is a tendency for Americans to think of State rights as artificial when they prevent them from doing what they wish. Perhaps for this reason we do not give them credit enough for the advantages which they afford us. We object to State barriers when they prevent us from protecting the children of the Nation as we believe they should be protected. We do not remember at the same time that our compartment system of Government permits us to try out political experiments by a laboratory method which would be impossible under any other form of government.

To the foreigner our multitudinous divorce laws often seem nothing less than ridiculous. To the American, who understands the spirit of his Govern

C. C. DILL, OF WASHINGTON STATE Democrat

ment, these divorce laws are an indication of diverse public opinions which could not be harmonized without a moral sacrifice on the part of large portions of our population. This diversity of State opinion is well illustrated by the popular referendums at the last election. We have not seen the text of many of these amendments, but their purport seems clear enough from newspaper accounts of the votes.

In the social field we find that South Dakota voted two to one for a strict ban on all Sunday festivities. Montana, on the other hand, authorized the adoption of a pari-mutuel system of betting on horse-races. Nevada, by popular vote, has refused to change its divorce laws. Massachusetts declines to censor her motion pictures.

Massachusetts rejected the measure providing for more stringent State prohibition enforcement, but California took

the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act to its bosom by incorporat ing them in her statutes. San Francisco and Sacramento voted against such incorporation; all the other large cities of California, all of southern California, and most of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley combined to carry the measure through. By a large majority Ohio defeated a measure designed to throw the burden of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment upon the Federal Government.

The popularity of the proposition to grant a bonus to veterans is indicated by the votes of the six States confronted with the proposal to use State funds for this purpose.

Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, California, and Montana voted heavily to this end. From Oklahoma the final figures are not available, though the in dications are that a bonus proposal has been passed.

Oregon manifested her faith in her public school system by adopting a law which requires children between the ages of eight and sixteen years to attend public school. Only those who are physically incapable, those who have completed the eighth grade, and those who live at inconvenient distances from schools or are taught by parents or private teachers are exempt. These, however, must have their education supervised by the State. Though opposition to this law came largely from Catholics and Protestants interested in church schools, it ought to have been opposed by all who believe in freedom of education. In this the voters of Oregon have adopted what is fundamentally an undemocratic measure.

Sentimentalists failed when antivivisection laws were defeated in California and Colorado. Washington struck

CHARLES W. BRYAN,

OF NEBRASKA
Democrat

NEW GOVERNORS-ELECT

a blow for her children by defeating the attempt to prohibit the physical examination of children except with the consent of their parents.

Florida voted, among other things, to increase the school taxes of the State.

THE DANGER IN THE NEAR EAST

WH

HEN the date for the assembly at Lausanne of the delegates of the Powers specially interested in the Near East was changed from November 13 to November 20, it was a slight concession to the wishes of Great Britain that the later date was fixed. Up to November 15 the only authorized delegates to appear at Lausanne were those of the Nationalist Turkish Government. The feeling among British diplomats that led to the short postponement and their evident desire for a longer postponement arose because the acts of the Nationalist Assembly at Angora since the pact made at Mudania have altered the situation. Most spectacular among these acts was the Turkish demand that the British and French forces in Constantinople should abandon the city and that non-Turkish vessels entering the Straits of Dardanelles should be ordered to take out permits from the Nationalist Government. This was not only an unparalleled piece of international impudence, but was entirely outside the Mudania agreement. Apart from this, the Kemalists have extended their already sweeping demands, have been expressing their insistence on the abolishment of the capitulations (extraterritorial rights long conceded to foreign nations in Turkey), and have repeatedly declared that nothing but full sovereign rights to Turkey under the Nationalist Government would be considered. This last would, taken literally,

FRIEND W. RICHARDSON, OF CALIFORNIA Republican

include the right to fortify the Straits as against foreign warships if Turkey should so desire.

In view of all this, it cannot be said that the situation in the Near East is free from serious danger. It is natural enough that the Kemalists, swollen by their easy success over the weak-kneed Greek army, should consider this their appropriate time to bluff and bluster. They are trying in every way to sound the sincerity of the purpose of Great Britain, France, and Italy to act together. It is no wonder, then, that an effort to strengthen and clarify the mutual intentions of Great Britain and France is desirable as a condition precedent to the Lausanne Conference. Pasha, who heads the Turkish delegation at Lausanne, darkly hints that the military success of Kemal in Asia Minor has put the Nationalists in such a position that they need not fear compulsion from any direction.

Ismet

The exodus of Greeks and Armenians is now from Constantinople as well as from Eastern Thrace into Western Thrace. Many thousands of Christian and Jewish people, including large numbers of employees of American firms, are trying to get away from Constantinople, and rumors continue to be spread of danger of massacre and conflagration. The proposal of a state of siege or military control over Constantinople has been discussed between France, Italy, and Great Britain.

Mr. Lloyd George in one of his campaign speeches expressed his view of the situation when he said: "The Treaty of Mudania, which was won by firmness, has been torn to shreds by the Turks." Lord Curzon declares: "The policy of the Turk is one of nationalism gone wild and is almost suicidal in its character.

The pretensions of the Turks cannot be tolerated."

THE EARTHQUAKE

CATASTROPHE IN CHILE

T is impossible at this writing to esti

degree accuracy the

number of fatalities from the earthquake of November 11 in Chile. Probably a thousand perished, and the fatalities may be largely in excess of that number. The disaster affected a great stretch near the coast; much, if not most, of the damage was inflicted by a tremendous wave which followed a subsidence or break beneath the bottom of the sea; so that, first, enormous quantities of water sank through the crevices, and, secondly, its withdrawal caused an inrush of the ocean. The towns of Coquimbo, Copiapo, and Valenar were seriously damaged and the last was practically destroyed. Numerous small places and country districts were devastated; the length of the territory damaged is put at about 1,200 miles.

Earthquakes are no novelty in Chile. As long ago as 1853 the town of Concepcion was destroyed by an earthquake quite similar to that now recorded, and the whole country along the coast has often suffered from smaller disasters of this kind.

rifying, both because of the vastness and mystery of the overwhelming power which produces it and because man can neither escape from it nor protect himself against it. The ancients, as modern barbarians do, ascribed earthquakes to the malevolence of demons or to the anger of outraged gods. All unusual and gigantic phenomena of nature, they thought, were produced by supernatural causes. Thus Herodotus, whose history is one of the great classics of all literature, in two passages mentions eclipses as prodigies or portents of the gods, in both cases unfavorable to the Greeks and foreshadowing their destruction. Science, however, made earlier and more rapid progress in astronomy than in seismology, a term of very old Greek derivation employed by geologists to define the very modern study of earthquakes. For, while the Greeks and Egyptians knew something about the cause of eclipses before the Christian Era, it is only within a few decades that an attempt has been made to formulate the causes of earthquakes. Even now a good deal of explanation of earthquake phenomena is hypothetical. In general, however, it may be said that scientific investigators be

lieve that earthquakes are caused in two ways either by the explosive pressure of volcanic gases in the molten interior of the earth or by the slipping or displacement of gigantic strata of rock under the earth's surface. In the one case the earthquake is a monstrous explosion, in the other a monstrous landslide.

In most recorded cases the landslide or explosion has taken place near the sea or under its bed, so that it has been accompanied by a violent and deathdealing tidal wave. The earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755 was followed by a tidal wave which swept the shores of Portugal and drowned or dashed to death thousands of human beings. Altogether 40,000 lives were lost in that disaster. Messina was shaken by an earthquake in 1783 and again in 1908, and on the latter occasion a great tidal wave wrought much of the destruction which resulted in the death of 60,000 persons. The recent Chilean earthquake and tidal wave, while terrible and sad enough, are not comparable in magnitude to the Portuguese and Italian disasters, nor probably, in loss of life, to two great earthquakes which have stricken India during the last twenty-five years. It is not surprising that there were times when the Hebrew poet thought man to be a puny thing in the midst of the incalculable forces of nature: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? ... Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it. Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke!"

ANSWER TO THE ROLL CALL

THE

...

HE sixth annual Roll Call of the Red Cross is now under way and will continue until Thanksgiving Day. Once a year the Red Cross appeals to the American public to join in its work. The Roll Call is just what the name indicates; a call to members to renew their membership and to those not members to find out what the Red Cross is and does and then become members. This is not a "drive" in the usual meaning of an attempt to raise contributions and donations; no doubt the National Red Cross welcomes at any time of the year new memberships and special contributions, but its sole direct appeal to the public is to join in membership.

We do not know what the exact figures of membership are at present. A year ago there were about six million members a much larger membership than had existed before the war.

As probably most of our readers know, the membership fees, amounting to sev

eral million dollars, go directly for relief purposes; the beautiful National Red Cross building in Washington was paid for from special contributions made for that purpose; the National officers, or most of them, either serve without pay or are paid from special contributions made outside the membership fees; thus membership fees paid by individuals go intact to carry out the work of the association.

WHAT THE RED CROSS DOES

W

HAT is that work, now that the war has long since been ended? This is a question sometimes asked, and easily answered. The watchword of the Red Cross is "Always Ready." One big part of its work is to be ready for emergencies. When such disasters happen as those at San Francisco and Galveston and Tulsa, and now Smyrna, relief and help cannot be improvised in a minute. This is just what the Red Cross is for; to have funds, railway trains, nurses, doctors, medical supplies, food, tents, ready to send with speed to any place where the need is great.

The greatest emergency this century has seen was the emergency of the Great War. What the Red Cross did need not now be recapitulated. It can be told only in terms of many millions of money and of arduous and unpaid service of many thousands of men and women.

Since the war the Red Cross has rendered services of vast magnitude in devastated countries and regions; nor is its work in this direction to be confined to the ravages of the past. President Harding, who is the President of the American Red Cross, in announcing the present Roll Call, points out that a fearful emergency exists abroad at this moment. In the Near East, he says, "the lives of millions of unfortunate people even now depend and must continue for a long time to depend on the untiring liberality of more favored communities." The relief that is to come from this country must be rendered, as President Harding points out, almost entirely through co-operation between the Red Cross, the Near East Relief, and some smaller agencies. It is understood that the Red Cross expects to spend for the Near East at least five million dollars. It could not spend it now if it did not have it now; it would not have it now if it had not been for the membership fees of last year. On the day we go to press the American Red Cross has cabled to Red Cross chapters in Chile offering aid to sufferers from the earthquake.

One other among many activities of the Red Cross may be mentioned, namely, the aid it renders to +1 returned American soldier. Ce' Forbes, the Director of the Vet