The

An Interrupted Voyage

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THE flight and plight of the Bremen have aroused public interest acutely than any aviation event since Lindbergh flew to Paris. When Koehl, von Huenefeld, and Fitzmaurice reach New York, they will receive a vociferous and eager welcome. That may possibly happen before this issue of The Outlook reaches its readers, but up to April 23 the fliers have been held back by circumstances beyond control.

Naturally, the fliers are anxious and determined (if it be possible) to finish in their own now famous plane the journey as originally planned to New York. But storm, illness, mechanical needs, and the remoteness of Greenly Island up to that time left it uncertain just what could be done and how long it would take.

Major Fitzmaurice left the vicinity of Greenly Island on the Canadian Transportation plane, chartered by the New York "World" and the North American Newspaper Alliance, on its return to Murray Bay. His object was to get new parts for repairs to the Bremen, to buy relief supplies, and to consult with Miss Junkers, who represents the builders of the Bremen. It was planned that a Ford tri-motor plane should fly to Greenly Island piloted by the famous aviators, Floyd Bennett and Bernt Balchen; both men have been ill, and Bennett at the last minute had an attack of pneumonia and as we write is in a serious condition at a hospital. Despite this setback, the relief plane started from Lake St. Agnes, near Murray Bay, with Balchen, Fitzmaurice, and an expert mechanic.

Its weight, 12,000 pounds, nearly prevented its start (it) ran about a mile before it took the air), but it reached Seven Islands safely, and at our last accounts was nearing Greenly Island.

Under discouraging circumstances, all those connected with the problem of re

lief, repairs, and resumption of the voyage have shown courage and persistency.

Herta Junkers

SOMETHING new in aviation for ladies has been going on at Murray Bay, Quebec. Usually the young women connected with flying feats smile and pose in the spot-light while their male partners do the work and take the responsibility. But the tremendous, intricate task of getting the crippled Bremen off the rocks of Greenly Island was directed by a tall, lean, blonde young woman of twenty-nine.

The young woman, Miss Herta Junkers, is the daughter of Professor Hugo Junkers, who designed the all-metal plane which made the first east-to-west Atlantic crossing on April 12-13. Officially she is assistant treasurer and a director of the Junkers Corporation of America; practically she is her father's chief representative here. She is not only an experienced pilot, she has had thirteen years of engineering experience. In Germany in 1915 she persuaded her father to let her leave boarding-school so she could have the practical experience of working in his laboratories during the war. After the Armistice she resumed her schooling, and a few years later was graduated from the Technical University at Munich with high honors in aerodynamics. For six months she tried housekeeping, was bored almost to death, and fled back to the laboratory. She has been in America since 1925.

With Major Fitzmaurice as her leading consultant, hers was the voice of authority on repairing the Bremen and on resolving the difficulties which lay between it and New York. She knows all there is to know about the construction of the plane, and considerably more than the three gallant men who flew it across the Atlantic. Miss Junkers still further disproved the theory of feminine weakness when she denied herself the thrill of

Eastward Across the Polar Sea GEOGRAPHERS and explorers agree th the flight of Captain George H. Wilk across the polar regions was a majo exploit in aviation. It reversed in a meas sure the flight of the Norge under com mand of Amundsen, Ellsworth, and No bile from Spitzbergen to Point Barrow in Alaska. But, while the great air passed almost directly over the Nu Pole, Wilkins purposely took a r southern route, with his nearest point t the Pole about 300 miles away from i

The object of this was the paramour idea of the voyage; the course plann and executed took Wilkins and his p Eielson, in their monoplane over tha section of unexplored region wh Peary and later adventurers saw w seemed to be indications of land. Wi kins had clear views and excellent oppor tunities, but saw tunities, but saw no islands, jut rocks, or even cloud indications of land

To most of us it may not seem ver important whether or not a few ice-cla crags or arid islands exist in the hig Arctic degrees of latitude. To scientis and especially to geographers, it is a important addition to human knowle of the globe on which we live to kno what the exact facts are.

In its extent the Wilkins flight wa notable. For 2,200 miles, over ice an mostly over a region never before tray ersed by man or plane, the expeditio flew without stop or misadventure. Onl at the end, as was the case with th Bremen in its transatlantic east-to-wes voyage, did they meet with troubl Also like the Bremen, the Wilkins plan was forced down by weather on a littl island, called by Wilkins Dead Men Island. There the fliers were maroone

broadcasting do not represent enough energy to establish a storm in a back yard, nor even a tempest in a teapot. It takes ridiculously little power to set a world of radio receivers in action, while the smallest storm involves natural forces measurable in billions of horsepower. Again, on statistical grounds it is equally easy to refute the claims of those who still suspect the radio of weather villainy. The earth's weather is anything but uniform from decade to decade, and it is easy to demonstrate that there has always been a passage of weather cycles, not merely attested by man-made records (comparatively recent), but far back into the past by means of the rings of trees both living and fossil. How these changes could have taken place with no radio to cause them is a question we dare not attempt to answer. They show, at any rate, that the radio has no pull with the weather man. What is most needed is not something that will rescue the weather from the abuses of the radio, but something which will rescue the radio from the abuses of the weather.

Spring in China

HOUSE-CLEANING on a national scale is getting under way with the arrival of spring in China. The Nationalists, from their capital of Nanking, are driving northward once more against the militarist rulers of Peking. They have been drawing close to Tsinanfu, the capital of Shantung Province; and foreigners have begun to flee from that strategically important city. At the same time, Japan has despatched troops to Shantung, just as last year, provoking protests from both Nanking and Peking.

In the northern capital much discontent and disorder is rumored to prevail. The police have not been paid for months; and the northern forces are said to have lost much of the organization they had last year. But China is China, a land of uncertainties; and April is too early to tell what the political weather map will show in June, or even in May.

France for Peace and Order

POINCARE has apparently maintained his hold upon the Government of France. That was indicated by early returns from the elections held on Sunday, April 22. But such early indications can scarcely be called definite-for two reasons. In the first place, France is politically divided into many groups, each of them representing some idea or policy. Of the many candidates, some have no party connection at all. Therefore the

effect of the elections on a national leader is inferred rather than directly indicated. In the second place, these elections are in a sense preliminary. If a candidate fails to get a clear majority, there has to be a second ballot, which this year occurs on April 29. So far the returns do not record the election of any Communists on the first ballot, but in some districts they show gains for Communists in pluralities over other opponents of Poincaré. Unquestionably, one source of strength for the Government has been the popularity of the peace policy of Briand.

Germany's Comeback

How far Germany has recovered from the business and industrial depression that paralyzed her economic life five years ago, the report of her revenues for the fiscal year just ended proves. The total was 8,490,000,000 marks, more than 200,000,000 marks above the estimate issued in December by S. Parker Gilbert, the American Agent-General for Reparation Payments.

That surplus is nearly half the amount charged to the German Budget for reparations under the Dawes Plan for the year ending in August-500,000,000 marks. It is true that the surplus fails to balance the Budget. But that is because Germany has made "supplementary expenditures" during the year that bring the whole amount of the governmental outlay above 9,000,000,000 marks, leaving a deficit as large as the item for reparations to be met by shortterm loans. But, on the face of these figures, no one will doubt that Germany has measurably recovered and has a very respectable "capacity to pay."

The President Again Refuses the Crown

FOR the fourth time President Coolidge. has made clear his decision not to be a candidate this year for re-election. In candidate this year for re-election. In spite of his former declarations, political leaders have been engaged in several States in a movement to "draft Coolidge." Hearing that this movement had taken definite form in his own State of Massachusetts, the President wrote to the Republican State Chairman of Massachusetts, Francis Prescott, that the proposed action of some persons to write his name as a candidate on the ballots in the Massachusetts primaries would be "most embarrassing." In the course of his letter he refers to the use of his name in New York in a way that is contrary to his wishes.

He notes the claim that has been made

that such use is with his consent, and says that to give countenance to such a movement in his own State would tend to compromise him and "lend color to the misrepresentations that are being made in other States." He requests that such action be discontinued.

The Volstead Act Upheld

THE members of the National Republican Club of New York have decided that the prohibition question is one regarding which practical politicians must be silent. At a spirited meeting last week they did the expected thing and voted down, by a large majority, a report of the Club's National Affairs Committee which called for repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment.

The original report of the Nationa Affairs Committee professed to ignore the wet-and-dry issue. Its recommendation for a repeal plank at the Kansa City Convention was based upon the theory that the Eighteenth Amendmen violates the established theory of Amer can government. By its nature, the Committee set forth, the Prohibition Amendment nullified the earlier one guaranteeing freedom to the individual.

This rather academic distinction faded, as every one knew that it would fade, as soon as the members of the Na tional Republican Club assembled to de bate the matter. The first speaker for the drys announced that he would resign from the Club if the report wer adopted. "Go ahead," yelled severa irreverent wets. In the end, the repor was voted down; not because the mem bers had any very definite belief in pro hibition, but because rejection was ex pedient. One speaker caused shudder of apprehension to pass through the assemblage when he said that to encour age the wets would be to aid and abe the candidacy of Alfred E. Smith.

The meeting at which all this tool place was secret, but most of the detail leaked out and were duly recorded in th press. It is interesting to note tha President Nicholas Murray Butler, o Columbia University, an ardent wet, wa present but did not speak. Most of th important local leaders felt it prudent to remain away from the meeting.

The Spark Makers

No one knows what may come as a re sult of the present strides being mad by physicists in the generation of elec tricity at extremely high voltages Newspaper accounts tell us of the prog ress, but they do not tell us of the pur pose. Either it is thought that we can

far higher in frequency; the higher the frequency, the higher the form of natural radiation man can duplicate. The upper limit of voltage, far beyond reach as yet, is about 50,000,000 volts, corresponding to the creative cosmic rays made popularly known by Millikan, the noted physicist.

not comprehend, or the reporter has no inkling of the real purpose of these spectacular experiments in which great resounding sparks crash about the heads of those who direct their creation. Not long ago it was thought that the million-volt sparks released in the hightension laboratories of the General Electric Company represented about the highest electric pressure man could reasonably aspire to make. But now two physicists, Dr. Breit and Dr. Tuve, experimenting at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, have succeeded in generating currents at 5,000,000 volts. These are not of the nature of the electric currents of ordinary experience, but are concentrated surges only about onemillionth of a second in measurable duration. What the scientists are seeking comprises two things, in particular. One is the generation of very high speed particles-electrons for bombarding opportunists. atoms, performing hoped-for transmuta

the United States is lukewarm on National preparedness, if not worse.

"I travel over the country, and hear it said again and again that the Middle West is pacifistic," General Smith says. "They say to me, 'I don't see how you

get along so well out there, because those people are a lot of pacifists.' But there isn't a word of truth in it. I tell them SO."

If the view of the section is as prevalent as General Smith's observations indicate, it is not at all clear how it originated. It was not unfamiliar in connection with response of the region to the plea in behalf of President Wilson in 1916 that "he kept us out of war." And there has been the assumption that the area, because of a sense of inland security, has not appreciated so keenly as other regions a need of preparedness. But records of its representatives in Congress and of enlistments in the World War do not bear out that idea; nor was response to the slogan of 1916 confined to the section.

General Smith says that the Seventh Corps Area-Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota-has more R. O. T. C. units and members than any other area; that its rifle team last year "earned the highest rating in the history of the Army, except some of the regular teams;" that it leads in reserve officers in training; and that "this region was not settled by pacifists."

To the last, older residents on the border between Missouri and "bleeding Kansas" could abundantly testify.

Nonsense or Good Engineering? ONCE more the much-projected landingstations at sea-great floating rafts anchored in the middle of the Atlantic for transoceanic aviators-have come in for public discussion; it is announced that the first of these artificial islands is soon to be built. This is one of the most

tive repertoire of the man on the street, and the opinions heard are seldom lukewarm or half-hearted; he is either for the idea or he thinks it is sheer nonsense.

While the project seems to be governed largely by its economic aspects, there is no really unsurmountable engi

tims of elements, and duplicating on a Fighting Stock in the Inland Area mass scale the potent particles emitted MAJOR-GENERAL HARRY A. SMITH, by radium. The other is the concomi

ant generation by means of tubes of ether waves like light and X rays, but

Commander of the Seventh Corps Area, has spoken his mind about the view often expressed that the inland region of

constructed, they will float, and, built as planned, with slender legs placed on deeply submerged hollow bulbs of steel, they will be affected by wave motion to a far less extent than ordinary surface vessels. They must be anchored in some manner, but there is no insuperable diffi

culty in this, though the anchor gear required must necessarily be heavy; cables several miles long would be required in mid-ocean in order to provide that long, slanting curve whose variable sag acts in all anchor gear as an absorber of sudden shocks. Statements that the islands would be placed on steel supports -stilts-reaching all the way to bottom may safely be dismissed as sheer nonsense, originating, doubtless, with some good feature writer. In three miles of height even when partly buoyed up by the water-the stilts would collapse of their own weight.

From an engineering point of view there are many things which look harebrained but are feasible, just as many plausible appearing projects are harebrained. Given money, an engineer can accomplish almost anything. In this case, how much money? Will it pay? We attempt no answer, but we think it can be done.

The D. A. R. Upholds

the Black List

THE Daughters of the American Revolution, gathered in convention at Washington, promptly squelched an insurgent movement protesting against the organization's semi-ludicrous black list. Only fourteen of the nearly two thousand delegates felt that the individual chapters of the D. A. R. should have the right to select speakers without interference. Mrs. Eleanor Roy, of Kansas, who opposed the black list, was greeted with hisses when she announced that she belonged to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Pacifism-meaning any agitation against war -landed scores of publicists and writers. on the D. A. R.'s proscribed list.

Mrs. Alfred J. Brosseau, PresidentGeneral of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, had previously expressed her approval of the black list, and the action of the Convention was vindication of her position. But it was a triumph, also, for Fred R. Marvin, Director of the Key Men of America. Mr. Marvin, whose name has previously appeared in these columns, assists such organizations as the D. A. R. in learning about radicals and pacifists. The Key Men of America has worked with the D. A. R. in behalf of further immigration restriction, and Mr. Marvin sells, for $6 a year, "Daily Data Sheets" giving detailed information about "subversive activities."

The press accounts of the Washington Convention are reminiscent of National political gatherings. The ladies showed

their familiarity with steam-roller methods and the foes of the black list were quickly flattened. One of the last acts of the delegates was to take from Mrs. Ellenore Dutcher Key, of Maryland, a contract under which she furnishes official pins. Mrs. Key had supported the resolution condemning the black list.

Meanwhile, the Washington Council on International Relations issued a statement in which it was said that, "however disagreable the task, it becomes an obligation to insist upon holding the D. A. R. and its officers sternly to accountability for having brought odium and ridicule upon an organization for which many who are not in its membership have had a sentimental regard."

A Conductor Scores Americans AFTER a sojourn in this country as Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pierre Monteux has left behind him a scathing criticism of American, and specifically Philadelphian, concert audiences. "People who are musically uneducated," he has said in an interview with the Philadelphia "Jewish Times," "are given the powers and libTimes," "are given the powers and liberty to choose the conductors for this world-known symphony troupe. This is world-known symphony troupe. This is unheard of abroad. There the members of the orchestra are permitted to choose their leader. They know who is best suited. That is something those who appoint the guest conductors here cannot boast of. Philadelphians want a slim conductor who pays a great deal of attention to his tailor. Perhaps that is the reason why my popularity here was sort of half-hearted. . . . Philadelphia audiences think they know something about music, but they know nothing. They talk of teas and dresses and parties while the concert is going on. . . Philadelphians and, in fact, all Americans want to be bluffed."

At his final concert in New York with the Philadelphia Orchestra, M. Monteux, who for several years was conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was a familiar visitor to the metropolis, received an ovation.

Appreciative musical audiences, in spite of what M. Monteux has said, are in the making. An orchestra of three hundred high school pupils from thirtyeight States, under the direction of Frederick Stock, gave a creditable performance of Dvorak's "New World Symphony" recently in Chicago; under the direction of Joseph E. Maddy performed two numbers of Tschaikowsky's "Nutcracker Suite," Grieg's Piano Concerto, and Wagner's "Rienzi" overture;

and, under the direction of the composer, Howard Hanson's "Nordic Symphony."

Five Million Slaves

How many countries tolerate slavery and how many slaves are living today? To both questions the answers given by a report of a League of Nations' commission and by the President of the British Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. Charles Roberts, are surprising.

There are, it seems, eighteen countries or political areas in which slave-owning slave-trading, or slave-raiding exists. The list reads like the answers to a geographical questionnaire. Morocco, Liberia, Sahara, and Abyssinia are the largest offenders. Little known are Kufra, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Rio de Oro, Nepal. In Abyssinia the slave trade is "open, cruel, and fiendish." As to numbers, the total is estimated by the commission as from four to five million slaves.

The British boast that no slave can breathe under the British flag is not true as regards British spheres of influence and mandated territory; but Great Britain has caused the liberation of nearly half a million slaves since the end of the World War, and has also urged that the transfer of slaves by water should be considered an act of piracy, but has failed to get other Powers to agree.

Modern slavery takes some modern disguises, such as contract labor, peonage, and the enslaving of children under pretext of adoption-an extensive prac tice in China.

Greed and cruelty follow in the wake of human slavery, however disguised. The League of Nations has a mission to eradicate such world evils as commerce in opiates and commerce in men.

Teeing Up

It is an imposing enough team that this country has named for the Walker Cup golf matches of the season. Headed by Robert Tyre Jones, of Atlanta, the list of players selected for the defense of the trophy against the invasion of Great Britain contains seven other names almost as imposing in the ranks of ama teur golfers as the captain's. They are Jess Sweetser, George von Elm, Charles Evans, Jr., Francis Ouimet, Harrison R. Johnston, Watts Gunn, and Roland Mackenzie.

The return of the veteran Chick Evans to the front rank of the amateurs is hailed with joy by the many friends of this Middle Western star. It is considered that the honor of playing on this