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LIBERATING THE LIBERATOR

I

N the case of the Milwaukee "Leader," the Supreme Court, with but one dissenting voice, that of Justice Brandeis, decided that the Postmaster-General had the right to deny to a publication the privilege of the second-class mail. Justice Brandeis's argument that the Postmaster-General should either deny the privileges of the mail in toto or else refrain from withdrawing only the second-class privilege seemed to us at the time of the decision extremely cogent. The law, however, is determined, not by dissenting opinions, but by the majority of the Supreme Court, and therefore until the letter of the law is changed the Postmaster-General is in legal possession of a power which seems to us dangerous to the freedom of the press.

That Postmaster-General Hays sees beyond the letter of the law to a comprehension of its spirit is evidenced by a ruling he has just made in reply to the petition of the "Liberator" for the second-class privileges.

This petition has been pending before the Post Office since February, 1918, when the "Liberator" sprang fully armed from the decapitated head of the "Masses." Perhaps this figure of speech is unfortunate, for the inference might be drawn from it that we considered the "Liberator" as some kin to Minerva. We do not suffer from such a delusion, and neither does the Postmaster-General.

Mr. Hays states that the "Liberator" has been submitted monthly to the Post Office Department for the past three years, and in each instance the issue has been treated as mailable under a higher (and more expensive) classification. Postmaster-General Burleson did not deny the application for second-class entry. He merely postponed a decision as to the propriety of granting the "Liberator" the second-class privilege, to the financial detriment of that journal. Mr. Hays, his successor, holds that it is his duty to determine whether or not a journal is published "for the dissemination of information of a public character," and that it is not his duty to determine whether or not a journal disseminates information of public benefit. If the character of a journal is such that it violates the law, the PostmasterGeneral holds that the duty of suppressing that journal rests with the Department of Justice. Mr. Hays is of the opinion that a publication should be entirely suppressed and its publishers

JUNE 8, 1921

prosecuted, or that it should be given equal mailing rights in common with the other periodicals of the country. The principle behind the present ruling is clearly and fairly formulated in the following words of the Post Office an nouncement:

The war is over. We must return to the ordered freedom. Our method of safeguarding the public welfare, while at the same time maintaining freedom of the press, has been found through a long period of stable civil liberty better for the public welfare and personal security of citizens than to establish a bureaucratic censorship which in its nature becomes a matter of individual opinion, prejudice, or caprice. There is a certain cost in free institutions in which the institution of freedom of the press shares, but we in this country have preferred to pay such costs from time to time rather than to seek protection through the historically discredited devices of bureaucratic governments.

Nothing could more clearly indicate the transformation which has come over the spirit of the Post Office since the retirement of Mr. Burleson and the assumption of leadership by Mr. Hays than the ruling in the case of the illiberal "Liberator."

A DISASTER OF THE AIR

IVE army officers and two civilians

Flost their lives, May 29, in the crash

of an ambulance airplane flying from Langley Field to Washington. The accident came after a day spent in watching the experiments being carried out in the bombing of warships in motion, experiments which called for the concentration of an unusual number of planes at Langley Field. After the conclusion of the day's observations, several of these planes started back for Washington, among them one driven by BrigadierGeneral William Mitchell, Assistant Chief of the Army Air Service. General Mitchell, in a scout plane, succeeded in partly avoiding and in breaking through the barrier of sudden storms which brought disaster to the plane which carried its seven occupants to their death. The air conditions at the time of the accident are described by General Mitchell as follows:

I saw heavy storms spread out toward the north, with much lightning. I turned up the Wicomico River, a Maryland stream running into the lower Potomac, to investigate conditions, and then caught a glimpse of one of the worst electrical storms I have witnessed in some years of

flying. I thought to myself then: "Lord help the men that get into that storm!" However, I went up toward the edge of the storm to study conditions better.

Based on experience, I knew that if we got into that storm there would be a sure crash. . . . We were traveling over 120 miles an hour, and unable to go around the edge of the storm, which was moving too fast. . . .

Looking toward the northwest, I could see a clear space between two storms in the direction of Fredericksburg. . . . I cut back over Virginia into the country of the Rappahannock River. We followed up that

river until we struck the edge of a storm, and were then driven into a course that was on a line between Fredericksburg and Richmond until we saw an opening through the two storms. After traveling about fifty miles we managed to get through and then swung around so as to come out on the Potomac River again, about half-way between Aquita Creek and Potomac Creek, about fifty miles south of Washington.

By that time the atmosphere cleared up and we came into Washington without further incident, landing at Bolling Field about 7:20 o'clock.

Captain Rickenbacker, the well-known American war pilot, was also caught in the same storm and had one of the narrowest escapes from death of his adventurous career. The story of the army officers and civilians who went to their death will never be told, for there was not a single survivor of the crash.

The incident brings out the need for the development of an extensive meteorological service for the particular benefit of aviators. Until airplanes shall have mastered the terrors of fog and storm, a mastery which even the birds do not possess, safety for aviators can only come from the possession of information which will enable them to avoid the perils of the new ocean which we are beginning to explore.

EVE

THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR VEN if Grover Bergdoll did delude the War Department with his story of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the Government has at last succeeded in discovering a fairly large pot of gold which seems more accessible than either Bergdoll or his buried thousands. Bergdoll by his act of fleeing to Germany has become an "enemy without rights of American citizenship," so his property, which amounts to a very sizable fortune, has been seized by the Government, together with the property owned by Erwin C. Bergdoll, a brother,

less notorious, perhaps, than Grover, but likewise criminal. The house in which Bergdoll's mother is living is the property of Grover Bergdoll, and she must either move out or pay rent to the Government. Mrs. Bergdoll has been ordered to make a detailed report separating the three estates, her own and those of her two sons, and until this has been accomplished she will be unable to touch one cent of her own property.

Moreover, as we understand it, neither she nor any one else is permitted to send money or communications to this alienized American.

"Uncle Sam" is an easy-going gentleman, frequently lax in the discipline which he administers to his erring nephews and nieces, but, like Cousin Egbert in "Ruggles at Red Gap," he can be "pushed just so far." The Bergdolls before their affairs with "Uncle Sam" are finally settled may be able to give a fairly clear definition of the location of this point of final pushability.

A LOOK AHEAD

FOR

a long time certain financiers have believed that, both in the Government's interest and in the interest of the average investor, our Liberty Bonds should be refunded into one longterm issue; that half of this issue should bear a relatively lower interest and be tax-free, the other half to bear a relatively higher rate of interest and be subject to taxation.

It was not generally assumed, however, that the borrowings by other countries from us during the war would have any relation to this until, in his address the other day in New York City, President Harding said:

The exigencies of war compelled the Government to take by taxation much wealth from our people to be loaned to our allies. This is the basis of their obligations to us.

It is altogether to be hoped that in a reasonable period we may change the form of these obligations and distribute them among all the people.

We do not quite understand how new securities could be distributed among "all the people." Even under the spur of war necessity, but one in five Americans bought Liberty Bonds. We suppose the President means that the new securities should be distributed widely among the people as a whole and not among a few financial groups or through the Government.

In the New York "Tribune" we read the following announcement from Mr. Carter Field, writing from Washington:

The President proposes that, as the Liberty Bond issues mature, the Allies should issue long-term bonds, carrying a liberal interest rate, and that these bonds should be sold to the

American public, using the proceeds to retire the Liberty Bonds:

The plan proposed is a good one, first, if American holders of American bonds would be willing to exchange them for foreign bonds; second, if they would risk supporting any refunding plan which might have a tendency further to depress the prices of Liberty Bonds. For, be it remembered, we were assured by trusted authorities when these bonds were issued that they would not go below par. The fact that they have long been below par has caused untold suffering among many holders who, to meet the high cost of living, have had to sell their bonds at great sacrifice. Any refunding scheme must of course take into consideration the difference between the 5 per cent interest on the foreign bonds and the 8 per cent which this very week is being assured to the buyers of the $100,000,000 special French loan. The refunding scheme, therefore, must needs have attractive features, not only as to interest rate, but also as to tax exemption.

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are the allegations that wheat has been coming from Canada at the rate of half a million bushels a day and displacing our product; that frozen meat is coming in such quantities as to affect the prices of our live stock disastrously; that wool is coming by the ship-load to such an extent that it is not possible to get a bid, even in Boston, for that commodity. But a chief reason for the bill is found in the dye section.

The development of the manufacture of dyes has not yet reached that point in this country where the industry is able to meet the requirements of preparedness in case of the menace of war. In the old days tons of coal tar from the coal ovens were wasted. It seems strange to think that coal tar, which we have since used for healing purposes, should now have its chief significance for wounding. But so it is. Today coal tar is basic material for both medicines and munitions.

Direct connection between the dye business and war is seen in the manufacture of high explosives and gases. The Germans were able quickly to turn their dye factories into poison gas factories. Among the things produced by coal tar is picric acid, used in munitions. As Germany had a monopoly of the dye industry, she had a monopoly of high explosives.

Though to-day in this country many concerns are engaged in this industry, even so, we cannot compete with Germany. We need a tariff to keep off the rush of German goods.

GENERAL HORACE PORTER RIGADIER-GENERAL HORACE PORTER,

BR

who died at the age of eighty-four on May 29, was one of the last surviving of the notable men of the Civil War, and in other ways than as a military man has been a figure in American life. As a member of General Grant's staff he took part in the famous scene at Appomattox when General Lee surrendered, and later wrote perhaps the most authentic and picturesque of the many accounts of that great event in National history. Later he was executive secretary of General Grant when Grant was Secretary of War. His devotion to his chief was one of the most prominent elements in his personal history. His volume on General Grant's military career, "Campaigning with Grant," includes a fine appreciation of Grant's character. Next to General Grant's own memoirs it is the best book on Grant's achievement and personality.

General Porter was our Ambassador to France under President McKinley, and his diplomatic career of eight years was distinguished. It was while he was at Paris that General Porter took the chief part in the recovery of the body of John Paul Jones, who has been called "the father of the American Navy."

General Porter was not only noted for his military and diplomatic career, but also engaged successfully in railway life; a minor incident in that part of his career was his invention of the familiar "ticket chopper" still in use in the subway and elevated stations in New York.

Personally, General Porter was a man of genial qualities, was in demand as a speaker at public dinners, and was extremely happy in his telling of apt and entertaining stories.

A SCULPTURESQUE PAINTER

BBOTT THAYER is dead at the age of If any artist deserved to be called a sculpturesque painter, it was he. His figures stand out from the canvas with the dignity of sculpture. One thinks instinctively of those of his contemporary, Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

A seventy-one years.

This sculpturesque quality was emphasized by Thayer's broad draughtsmanship, especially his use of the palette knife. Except for his previous mastery of technique, he might not have experimented with the knife, for it is a risky process. But Thayer was sure of his general technique; indeed, he could have produced admirable dry-point etchings, for his first lines were practically unerring. Pigments which appear muddy when laid on by the brush sometimes change to a rich and beautiful quality when applied by the knife. With the knife, therefore, Thayer ob

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tained tones of white not easily reached with the brush. This explains why most of his figures are in white. No other painter, perhaps, used the palette knife so persistently and even passionately.

But whether by brush or knife, Thayer was always experimenting to obtain a peculiar quality of color. His well-known "Caritas," in the Boston Museum, his "Young Woman," in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, and his "Virgin," in the Freer collection at Washington, are examples in point. The "Caritas" is sometimes called "The Boston Madonna;" like all of the Thayer figure pieces, it impresses one as the work of a distinctly intellectual painter. The faces of the people in the Thayer paintings are not merely pretty or beautiful; they are those of people whose mental structure is evidently on a par with their physical powers.

A PERMANENT BRIDGE BETWEEN BELGIUM AND AMERICA

TH

HE Belgian Educational Foundation has just announced the names of the university graduates whom it has chosen to study for a year in the universities of Belgium. It also announces the names of the Belgian students who are to come to this country for a year.

This Foundation, and the parallel Belgian institution, the Fondation Universitaire, are the result of the liquidation

of the famous Commission for Relief in Belgium. At the close of the war the Commission's system of providing mass food supplies was continued until Belgium re-established herself on a pre-war basis. Then the residue from the sale

Hoover's suggestion, for educational purposes. Part of the fund was used to enable the Belgian universities and technical schools to resume their activities. The remainder was devoted to the extension of higher education. The two Foundations were formed to open the institutions of higher learning to the sons and daughters of those who have not the means to acquire this education.

The fellowships in question are open to American citizens who have a knowledge of French and who are nominated by the heads of thirteen of our colleges from members of the faculty, research students, and graduate students.

The plan should build a permanent bridge of high relationship between the two countries.

JAPAN AND GREAT BRITAIN

THE

HE present visit of the Crown Prince of Japan, Hirohito Michinomiya, to England is an interesting and picturesque event in itself. Whether or not it has political significance is uncertain, but its tendency must be to emphasize Britain and Japan's friendship.

The Japanese Crown Prince is about twenty years old. It is quite a new thing for Japan to send the heir apparent to its throne to a foreign country. The traditions of the Island Empire have heretofore made such a visit impossible. So that it may be said that the presence of Prince Hirohito in England marks an advance in freedom as to direct relations between the East and the West, and this step is notable also because it comes exactly fifty years after modern Japan began to model itself in

of foodstuffs was employed, at Mr. political, industrial, and social matters

PRINCE HIROHITO GREETED BY THE DEAN OF WESTMINSTER IN LONDON

after the Western type.

Naturally the reception of the Crown Prince in England has been cordial and the royal visit has been a memorable social event. The visit takes place at a time when the renewal of the AngloJapanese Alliance is under discussion. There are questions growing out of the recent war, and particularly those relating to the mandate of formerly German islands lying near Australia, that involve some disagreement of opinion in Great Britain as to whether the Alliance should be renewed. Yet it is reported that the Premiers both of Australia and New Zealand are in favor of that step. There is a pretty strong belief that what will result from the discussion may very well be, not a renewal of the treaty as a political and military agreement, but the substituting for it of a commercial treaty, the interpretation of which should be left to the League of Nations. This will probably include some kind of arrangement concerning the relations as to China between Japan and Great Britain, and such an agreement

would undoubtedly have a bearing on the relations of other Western nations with China. For this reason America is very much interested in the outcome of this discussion.

The relations between Japan and Great Britain will form one of the most important subjects to come before the meeting in an Imperial Conference of the Premiers of the different British dominions which is to be held within two or three weeks in London.

66

"CAN THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND UNITE?"

an article in this issue of The ou Outlook entitled "Can the People of Ireland Unite?" Miss Eleanor Markell gives a fair-minded idea of the factors of politics and prejudices that make the question she propounds so difficult of solution.

Two events of very recent occurrence are the reverse of reassuring. One is the election riots in Belfast; the other the burning in Dublin of what some judges consider Ireland's finest building, the Custom-House on the banks of the Liffey River. Both of these instances of violence illustrate the bitterness of extremists.

The more significant is that which took place in Dublin. Despatches from that city assert that the assault on the Custom-House was deliberately planned and not the act of an ordinary mob. One report states that over one hundred and fifty men were in the assaulting party, and that they were provided with eighty-eight cans of petrol and four bales of cotton to use in their fixed and successful design to destroy the CustomHouse as an act of war against the Government. There seems to be no denial of the statement that this act of incendiarism was carried out by a detachment of the so-called Irish Republic army; and if the Sinn Fein organization does not admit responsibility of the act it has not, so far as we can find, made any attempt to deny that responsibility. The "Irish Bulletin," which represents Sinn Fein opinion, speaks of the destruction of the Custom-House as a military operation ordered by the Dail Eireann, and complacently describes it as "a complete success." Ten or more persons were killed in the assault.

In the Belfast rioting extremists of both parties were engaged. The occasion was the voting which took place on May 24 throughout the northern or Ulster section of Ireland to elect members of the Ulster Parliament provided for under the Home Rule Law. The city of Belfast, although it is in the majority opposed to an Irish republic. contains a great many Sinn Feiners and also a small number of "covenanters"men strongly opposed to the Sinn Fein

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idea, but also opposed to Irish Home Rule in any shape, and pledged since 1914 to abstain from voting in any way that would support the Home Rule idea. The fighting was fierce and passionate, but resulted in few, if any, fatalities. Armored cars patrolled the streets during the voting. The result of the voting in northern Ireland gives the Unionists a fair majority in the new Parliament over Sinn Feiners and Nationalists.

Such outbreaks of passion as these are a disheartening reply to the recent appeal of Pope Benedict for conciliation. So also is the recent assertion by Mr. De Valera that no negotiations would be of any avail if they did not concede an Irish republic free from any control by Great Britain.

In a recent public statement Mr. Lloyd George makes an appeal to the Christian conscience of Ireland and expresses his amazement that responsible men, eminent leaders of the Church, should state publicly that Sinn Fein has some kind of justification for "murdering innocent men in cold blood because its novel and extravagant political ideals have been denied." The English Prime Minister took occasion also, in discussing the question of so-called reprisals, to point out that the Auxiliary Division, which has been charged with some of these reprisals, did not begin its work till after a hundred policemen had been murdered in cold blood, and that not a single guilty person was executed for any one of these hundred murders, simply because no proof could be obtained. He denied that the Government had taken no action to punish persons guilty of acts of reprisals, pointing out that forty-three members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and of the Auxiliary Division have been dismissed after prosecution. He asserted roundly also that the declaration "that there has been any authorization or condonation of a policy of meeting murder by giving rein to unchecked violence on the other side is utterly untrue."

In a later statement in the House of Commons Mr. Lloyd George announced that he would soon lay before Parliament a Government plan for dealing with Irish conditions. He discouraged the idea of colonial autonomy for North and South Ireland, taking the view that the idea would not be accepted by the fanatical upholders of total independence, but that, on the contrary, it would be regarded as an act of weakness.

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GERMANY PAYS SOMETHING

MPRESSED with the necessity of mak

Iing a money payment if ity of mak

THE CUSTOM HOUSE AT DUBLIN AS IT APPEARED BEFORE ITS RUIN BY
INCENDIARY RIOTERS

marks gold, which is the amount that
was due on May 31. Even the French
Government, which has, with reason,
been skeptical of Germany's intention to
pay even what she can, is now inclined
to think that the present German Gov-
ernment is intending really to pay a
huge sum, if not all that it ought to pay.
Indeed, the new German Government is
known in Germany as the "government
of fulfillment." The implication in this
phrase is intended by the German reac-
tionaries who use it to be derogatory;
for they count it no honor for a German
Government to have as its policy the
fulfillment of the nation's obligations.

With her characteristic tendency to do things that alienate even those who want to believe in her, Germany has accompanied her act of enforced reparation with a most disquieting attitude toward the Silesian question. German troops are in Upper Silesia, and have been in clash with the Poles. Artillery has been used on both sides. The Germans complain that the Poles are aggressors; but it is reported in more than one instance that the Germans began the attack.

On the arrival of British troops in Oppeln, Upper Silesia, sent there to maintain order, the inhabitants turned out to bid them welcome. This British support comes as a timely fulfillment of Premier Briand's request that the British Government should contribute something more tangible to the settlement of the Polish question than advice.

Naturally, the situation of the French avoid the occupation of her chief indus- Government is difficult, but has appartrial district, Germany has sent to the ently been handled by Premier Briand Reparation Commission treasury notes with skill. He has expressed what we and checks to the amount of one billion - believe to be the prevailing French

view-that the ends of justice must be pursued so far as possible with means of moderation, but that they must be pursued. Those who have had faith in the French during this critical period have every reason for gratification. The French have been patient, industrious, loyal to their associates, and unswerving from a straight course toward future safety and some measure of reparation.

A COAL CONSUMERS'

T

STRIKE

HOSE who think that the anthracite situation as regards the consumer is extremely unsatisfactory believe that the central point of the difficulty is in the tacit refusal of the wholesale coal distributers, or of what is sometimes called the "coal combine," to forward and store coal in excess of immediate demand by consumers and retailers. If last winter had not been an unusually mild one, there would have been a great deal of suffering and discomfort because of the shortage of supply. As it was, profiteers sold anthracite last winter at an excessive price and consumers had to beg for a ton at a time as a favor.

The price of anthracite to the consumer is almost half again as high now as it was when the war ended. There is a disinclination on the part of the consumers to buy at a high price. Those who control the supply say that this is a sort of "consumers' strike." The anthracite interests practically say to the consumer, "You should and must buy coal at the present price; if you di not, there will be a shortage of coa

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