February, and will visit important trade centers on the Continent and along the Mediterranean on the way to Rome.

One of the great advantages of this particular kind of an industrial convention is that its deliberations and recommendations can be reported back to almost every community in the United States through the United States Chamber of Commerce. If the business men of this country can really unite on a few fundamental principles of international economic relationship, they will find Congress very willing to embody their ideas in necessary legislation. The trouble is that up to this time the "business interests" of the United States have been too often more vitally interested in logrolling on tariffs than they have been in the adjustment of international trade and finance.

GOVERNOR SMITH AND SENATOR COPELAND

F all candidates victorious in the recent election can make as good an impression upon their communities as Governor-elect Smith and Senator-elect Copeland made in New York the other day at a dinner of the Chamber of Commerce, they will enter upon their political duties with the good wishes of all their constituents.

Mr. Smith in beginning his speech, and alluding to the popularity of brevity in after-dinner speakers, told the following entertaining story:

I remember one day there was quite a hearing in the Assembly Chamber on an appropriation bill to build what was known as the great western gateway between the city of Schenectady and the village of Scotia, and spread around the chamber were a number of maps and engineers' profiles, and big long and lengthy arguments going into hours and hours. And a clergyman came down from Schenectady who, when it was his time to talk, rose and said: "Governor, I am a great believer that short sermons bring large collections."

"Now," he says, "everybody in Schenectady wants this bridge, and if you give it to them you will be helping the city of Schenectady, you will be helping the State, you will be helping the country, and God will bless you for it." And he sat down. When he was on his way out one of the attachés of the Executive Chamber stopped him and said: "Father, that was quite a long speech you made."

"Well," he says. "I heard he was going to sign the bill, anyway."

Governor Smith then proceeded to a serious statement of some of the policies which he would endeavor to carry out when he is inaugurated as Governor. He asked the business men whom he was addressing to support the completion, maintenance, and effective operation of the Erie Canal, which is now known as

the "Barge Canal;" to get behind the movement known as the Port Authority for planning and reorganizing the har. bor facilities of New York City; to get behind a movement for the inauguration of a sound and effective budget system in the State Government; to support him in his urgency of a reorganization, coordination, and simplification of the government departments in the State; and to urge in connection with this organization "a Constitutional amendment to lengthen the term of the Governor. It is a positive joke to be electing a Governor for this State for two years. Everybody knows it; he is just in there a year and a half when he is running again, and I say this in a very serious way, because I have had the personal experience."

Senator-elect Copeland is a physician, and has been Health Commissioner of the City of New York, from which position he has just been promoted to the United States Senate. He urged a policy of sound hygienic laws for the Federal Government, not only for domestic reasons, but because of the menace of disease coming in from foreign countries. Apropos, he told the following interesting story:

Last year there came into this port a ship from which the United States Public Health Service landed four persons suffering from pneumonia. They were sent to the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. The hospital authorities, becoming alarmed, telephoned me, and I assigned one of the Board of Health experts to see these four cases of pneumonia. Not one of them had pneumonia, but three had well-developed cases of typhus, one of the most dreaded of epidemic diseases.

The ship which brought them here was tied up at the dock and the passengers were on the dock ready to be dispersed through the city and the country. I sent them back on the ship and the ship back to Quarantine for the Federal authorities to reexamine. More careful inspection revealed nineteen cases of typhus on that ship, and a number of the victims died in our harbor.

This experience and the resulting events brought home to me the real attitude of Congress toward National and international health matters.

It seemed to me that such a slipup must be due to lack of personnel and equipment at Quarantine, so I went to Washington to discuss the situation with the Federal authorities. It was frankly admitted that such a lack existed, and I was told that $500,000 was the sum needed to guard this port against disease from abroad. To my amazement, no request for the money was pending and no plan had been made to ask Congress for the money.

On my demand to know why, I was informed, reluctantly, that Congress looks with unfavorable eyes upon requests for the Public Health Service and treats all its requisitions with coldness.

Determined to have New York and the country protected, I marched over to Congress. Here I was sent from pillar to post, and finally I landed in the office of the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House, Congressman Good, of Iowa. He listened to my story, but seemed unimpressed. Finally he said:

"Doctor, the trouble with you New York men is that you want a lot of money to beautify your Harbor." My reply was: "I don't care whether you beautify the Harbor or not. I never see it. I don't care whether you protect New York or not-the Board of Health of New York City will do that, but what we are trying to do is to save Iowa."

Immediately Mr. Good lost his listless air.

"Iowa," he shouted. "Do you mean to say that Iowa is in danger of typhus?" "Certainly I do," I said.

"Well," said Mr. Good, "that's different. Something must be done about it at once."

And Congress appropriated a half million dollars to guard New York Harbor against the admission of foreign disease.

Senator Copeland made an impassioned appeal for the treatment of immigrants in accordance with the laws of humanity rather than the laws of mathematics. He denounced the present three per cent Immigration Law, and said (we think with reason, for The Outlook has long made the same contention) that you cannot admit immigrants to the United States either safely or humanely on the percentage system. Dr. Copeland's expressed views on the immigration problem were so sound that we hope much from his influence in passing reasonable legislation on this complicated and important question when he enters the Senate chamber.

AN EXPERIMENT IN
RAILWAY OPERATION

T is useless to blink the fact that

I there is a very large, and possibly

growing, body of public opinion in this country inclined to favor Government ownership and operation of steam railways. At all events, there are thousands of plain, matter-of-fact Americans, neither radicals nor theorists, who are wondering whether the admitted political evils of Government ownership and operation would be greater than the evils which arise from selfish financiering and from conflicts between labor and capital under private ownership. The only practical experience this country has had in Government operation was during the war, an experience not wholly assuring to those who fear the red tape and inefficiency of bureaucracy. Americans who are open-minded on the question, and who wish to learn what is best for the general social and economic welfare without regard to preconceived notions or the dictates of self-interest,

But

Government owned and operated, have a mileage of about 22,000 miles and constitute the largest government-owned system of railways that the world has ever seen. With the railways there is affiliated under the same management a great system of transportation by ocean and inland steamers. The Canadians are a practical people, like ourselves, and, like all English-speaking countries, the spirit of individual initiative and enterprise is the dominant spirit in Canada. Socialism or Communism has never gained any foothold there. the Canadians have had some unfortunate experiences with privately owned railways, and they apparently propose to see what Government operation will do. Perhaps the best proof that the experiment is not a visionary one is found in the fact that the post of President and General Manager of the Canadian National Railways has been accepted by one of the greatest railway operators in the world, Sir Henry Thornton, now of England, but an American by birth and education.

Sir Henry is about fifty years of age. He was born in Pennsylvania; went to St. Paul's School at Concord, New Hampshire, and the University of Pennsylvania; and entered the engineering department of the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he held various important engineering offices; and finally became General Superintendent of the Long Island Railroad. In 1914 he was called to England to take the managership of the Great Eastern Railway, in which position he made such a striking success that during the war he was called upon by the English Government to have general executive charge of British transportation, both by rail and by water, with the rank of major-general. It will thus be seen that he is no theorist. If he should successfully meet and solve the problems of the relation of Government to railway operation in Canada, his judgment and opinion about the very real and perplexing difficulties of railway transportation in the United States ought to have great weight. Wise men who want to inform themselves about the future development of railways in this country will keep their eyes on Sir Henry Thornton.

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY THORNTON, PRESIDENT CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS

and political legislation will by common consent be held in the background until that immediate task is accomplished. There is little or no doubt that Parliament will see the importance and desirability of carrying out Great Britain's share in the work of establishing the Irish Free State.

The Parliament now assembled represents two convictions among the people of the country. One is that Mr. Bonar Law truly represented popular feeling when he argued that what the country needed was quiet and restful. ness and that the administration of Lloyd George was too adventurous, too sensational, and too changeable to meet the views of the people-in other words, that a change toward "normalcy" was eagerly desired. The other conviction that brought about the political overthrow was that of economic pressure; the labor element and the radicals are concerned about unemployment, while the middle classes and the manufacturers are concerned about high income taxes. It is to be remembered, however, that it is by accepting trying conditions as to taxes and employment that Great Britain has been able to quote Lloyd George's phrase again-to make the pound able to look the dollar in the face; the exchange rate for English money is far stronger than that of France and most other European countries.

a total of 296 votes in possible opposition if all party divisions and odd men outside of parties should be combined, which is altogether unlikely. The proCoalition Lloyd George members have decreased from 129 to 44. Yet the Conservatives fell far behind on the popular vote; some estimates say that less than forty per cent of the total vote went to Conservative candidates.

PARTIES AND ISSUES

THE

HE most outstanding feature of the Opposition of the new Parliament is that now for the first time the Labor Party becomes the leading Opposition pary. It almost doubled its representation in the last Parliament and now numbers over 120 members. Its present leader is John Robert Clynes, and there is some significance in the fact that a former Labor Party leader, Arthur Henderson, suffered a severe defeat at the polls. Previous to the actual assembling of Parliament there was some question as to who should be the recognized leader of the opposition in the House of Commons. Two precedents seemed to conflict. Usually the leader of the Opposition is the leader of the largest Opposition group; but also usually that man is a former Prime Minister; in this case there are two former Prime Ministers in the House, Lloyd George and Asquith, and the leader of the largest Opposition group is a Labor member. The question was easily and pleasantly settled, however, when, as the members fell in line to enter the House of Lords for the first organization meeting, Mr. Asquith (who as the older of the two former Prime Ministers would take precedence over Lloyd George) stood aside and motioned to Mr. Clynes to join the present Prime Minister, Mr. Bonar Law, at the head of the line.

The notable gain in the Labor Party in size and importance appears to be due, not to its advocacy of a tax levy on capital, which is a radical political proposal still in its infancy, but to the general dissatisfaction of the masses in England with industrial conditions. It does not represent a movement toward limited industrial supremacy, such as exists in Russia; it may be noted that a Moscow Bolshevik organ, while rejoicing in the Labor victory in England as the base of a proletarian offensive against capitalists, remarks: "Frankly, we place no hope on English labor in a revolutionary rôle, as the composition of the party does not inspire confidence." WINNERS AND LOSERS

HERE were some singular personal re

tions was so great that the party has an absolute majority over all the other combined elements in the House of Com

feeling about individual candidates rather than to general principles. Win

defeated, standing fourth among his rivals, while the winning candidate was a prohibitionist. Lady Astor was re-elected by a vote of 13,000 after a lively and even bitter contest, throughout which she maintained her reputation for force, originality, and popularity. The election of the famous economist Sidney Webb as a Labor candidate is one of many indications that the English Labor Party is not made up solely of representatives of labor unions. Mr. H. G. Wells, the novelist and historian, was defeated in the London University election.

In the cases of Arthur Henderson and of some other notable defeats the comment of English papers is to the effect that, as a matter of course, a seat will be found for the person defeated. This means that some generous and supposedly less important member of the party who has been elected will resign and that his constituency will be kind enough to elect the defeated man. The technical process of such a proceeding is odd and, to an American, amusing. The defeated member takes "the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds." That is, he accepts a commission as a royal official for the district once known as the Chiltern Hundreds, and, having done this, he can and must resign his membership in Parliament, as a member cannot hold a royal commission of honor and profit. Thereupon some one is elected in his place, and he forthwith resigns his appointment to the Chiltern Hundreds, an office which has no duties, but a nominal salary of twenty shillings, which makes it a "place of honor and profit," and hence is inconsistent with membership in the House, and the office is open for the next member who wants to resign.

EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST

s the Lausanne Conference on the Near Eastern problem opened there was a strongly optimistic feeling in the press of Europe. It seemed to be the general opinion that the Turks overplayed their hand in making extreme demands in advance. The result, unless all forecasts are mistaken, has been a genuine and positive drawing together of the Allies. Conferences between the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, and the French Premier, M. Poincaré, have brought about a mutual understanding as to what issues are really important. A new element entered when the Fascisti leader, Mussolini, now Premier of Italy, indicated pretty strongly that he would contend vigorously for equal rights for Italy in determining matters that affect her interests.

We in America are not so much interested in the exact drawing of boundaries as we are in the safety of Europe against Turkish aggression and war, the pro

(C) Underwood

THE GREEK EXODUS FROM EASTERN THRACE-PRIESTS REMOVING THE FURNISHINGS OF THEIR CHURCH AT LULE BURGAS

tection of American citizens and of Christians generally against Turkish, Greek, or Balkan cruelty, and the preservation of trade and commerce.

The exodus from Thrace continues to be a heartrending spectacle. Whatever may be said of the faults of other Balkan nations, none of the non-Turkish races in the Balkan countries are willing to take the risk of fire and slaughter. These peoples in vast numbers are struggling from Western Thrace into Greece. One result is that the Turkish

leaders are beginning to clamor for plebiscite in Western Thrace, evidently believing that, since they have now frightened the Christian peoples away, a Turkish majority might perhaps be obtained.

The two things which are expected to

Photo by Abbe

FRANK BACON AS BILL JONES

receive most attention at Lausanne are whether Turkey shall be allowed to fortify the Straits and whether the longestablished system of the so-called capitulations shall be abolished by Turkey. In the one case Turkey would be free to make closed seas of the waters east of the Straits; in the other, the protection needed by foreigners living and doing business in Turkey would disappear.

The flight of the Sultan from Constantinople on a British ship and the appointment by the Nationalist Assembly of Abdul Medjid to be Caliph (but not Sultan) are important only as indicating the complete ascendency of the Kemalists.

FRANK BACON, ACTOR

TH

HEORETICALLY the dramatic critic demands of a play that it should at least have reasonable construction and a well-balanced cast of interesting characters; but once in a while there appears a play which defies the canons of criticism and yet deserves the success it wins because of one single character that dominates the play, makes plot and the other players insignificant, and delights audiences, simply because the actor and the part are one. Familiar examples are Joe Jefferson's "Rip Van Winkle" and Warfield's "The Music Master." To these must be added Frank Bacon's "Lightnin'." He played the part in New York for 1,291 consecutive performances and had acted it 2,000 times altogether, when in Chicago he was stricken with the heart attack that resulted in his death on November 19.

Mr. Bacon created the part of Lightnin' Bill Jones in a double sense, for he not only played Lightnin', but he

vented and shaped the character in the writing of the play, with collaboration in other parts and in the construction. There have been, we believe, some at tempts to produce the play without Frank Bacon in the cast, but it would be an extremely good imitator that could satisfy any one who had enjoyed Bacon's slow drawl, dry humor, cheery optimism, gentle friendliness, and altogether lovable personality. One feels sure that these were qualities of the man as well as of the actor-and those who knew him confirm the impression. His great success followed forty years of hard work as actor and manager. Few actors of our time have given such pleasure to so large a number of people.

ROBIN PLUS DOUGLAS

HERE is always romance in Robin

THood, whether we find him in the

old ballads, or Sir Walter's "Ivanhoe," or in the well-known comic opera, or in the remarkable moving picture now being enjoyed by countless thousands. As Douglas Fairbanks plays the rôle, he is part Robin, part Puck, and part "Doug." Robin as thus shown does not quite correspond to the excellent description of him written long since as "the ideal outlaw, courteous, liberal, and reverent." Even in the first part, where Mr. Fairbanks is the chivalrous Earl of Huntington and his agility is for the most part kept under the restraint suited to a champion of the tournament, antics are introduced that are hardly knightly, and this peer of the realm is made to act as if he had never seen a gentle lady before in his life. When he becomes Robin Hood in the forest, he does not act the part; he skips, runs, and jumps it, and always with the engaging grin that gains the affection even of critics. For the skilled and careful work of the actor who lives his part we must look in this film play to Mr. Wallace Beery, who plays the part of Richard the LionHearted, and to Mr. De Grasse, the vil lainous Prince John. But Douglas is Douglas, and no one at heart wants him to be a great actor.

Dramatically speaking, the play has been constructed with skill; its action carries on; plot and continuity hang together; the spectator does not become listless or uninterested-quite the contrary.

As a brilliant spectacle and as an elaborate attempt to picture twelfthcentury people, their costumes, customs, wars, weapons, castles, huts, wealth, poverty, tragedy, and jollity, "Robin Hood" is truly remarkable. The attention to detail is as noteworthy as the setting and the mass movements of soldiers, knights, horses, and crowds. The etion is so rapid (often decidedly too

rapid) that one really needs to see the play a second time to recognize in full the interest of the details and to appreciate the magnitude of the care and thought that have been given to the production and the designing of this ambitious and almost stupendous drama.

THE SUPREME COURT AND THE JAPANESE

T

QUESTION

as

HE opinions recently delivered by the United States Supreme Court through Mr. Justice Sutherland in connection with the question to whether Japanese aliens in this country may have a right to naturalization have a wide bearing on racial as well as legal questions.

There were two cases, but both practically rested on the same questions. We will briefly state the facts in one case. A young Japanese living in Hawaii applied to the United States District Court for that Territory in 1914 for citizenship in the United States. It is interesting to recall what we said at the time, that this man, by name Takao Ozawa, was so well thought of by the white people in Hawaii that many white professional men and business men contributed to a fund to provide expense money for the testing of his right to naturalization. Ozawa was born in Japan, brought to this country as a boy, lived here twenty years, was a graduate of a California high school, and had three years in the University of California. He was married, his children went to American schools, his family attended American churches, and they all spoke English perfectly. The present decision specifically says, "That he was well qualified by character and education for citizenship is conceded."

The Federal District Court of Hawaii denied his petition, holding that as one born in Japan and being of the Japanese race he was not eligible to naturaliza tion. An appeal was made to a Circuit Court of Appeals. That Court took a course quite correct, although not, we think, very common; that is, it certified three questions, which it sent to the United States Supreme Court, requesting instruction. The present decisions form the reply. The Court, so to speak, boiled down the three questions into two. The first was whether the Naturalization Act (1906) was limited by a certain statute published later. The Court makes it perfectly plain that it is so limited, and it is not necessary here to give the technical reasons. The second question is, in effect, whether Ozawa, the appellant in the principal case, is eligible to naturali

zation under the Naturalization Act so limited. This the Supreme Court decided in the negative.

As the law stands, the naturalization of aliens is limited to "free white persons and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent." The word "free" has now no significance, as there are no slave whites, and the Court holds that the word "free" means nonslave. Therefore, as regards aliens other than Africans, the whole question is what the word "white" means.

The Supreme Court holds that the words "white person" are synonymous with the words "a person of the Caucasian race." This makes the test in any individual case racial. The Court cites many decisions in former cases to the effect that the words "import a racial and not an individual test" and it agrees with the view as fortified by reason and authority. It points out that a color test is quite impracticable.

Having reached this point, the natural expectation of the reader of the decision is that the Court will proceed to define what is meant by the words "a person of the Caucasian race." It does not, however, find it necessary to do that, because the cases before it were of men belonging to a race admitted to be not Caucasian. The Court does, however, go so far as to recognize that the words indicate "a zone of more or less debatable ground outside of which, upon the one hand, are those clearly eligible, and outside of which, upon the other hand, are those clearly ineligible for citizenship."

Our friends in Japan should bear in mind two things about this decision. One is that the highest American Court is here not establishing a new policy but simply interpreting and applying the existing law. The other is that neither the opinion of the Court nor the law which it interprets implies any idea of racial inferiority or superiority.

The law which the Court interprets is in substance nearly as old as the United States itself. Originally it confined naturalization to free white persons. Eighty years later the statute was changed to permit the naturalization of people of African descent. It is obvious, therefore, that the application of this law to the Japanese is simply carrying out a long-established National policy. It is obvious too that the very phraseology of the law forbids the thought that the naturalization of aliens is determined by a theory of Caucasian superiority, for the simple reason that Africans, who are not Caucasian, are admitted to citizenship.

The reason underlying the law as it has stood for generations on the statute books is to be found in the feeling that