he will be performing his duties quite as effectively as he will when he hales violators of the law to court. And so far as he succeeds in his declared purpose he will fortify all law, which in a self-governing country is but the will of the whole people. THE NEW SOLICITOR-GENERAL OF F all books published in America about the war few, if any, had greater influence in convincing the people of this country of the justness of the Allies' cause and the criminality of Germany than that entitled "The Evidence in the Case." It presented the evidence against Germany with the skill of an attorney learned in the law and experienced in facing jurors, and with the persuasiveness of one who believes profoundly in the truth of what he advocates. It is a book which stands unrefuted and remains valuable as an expression of what the most intelligent and ultimately most influential Americans believed months before America took her place at the front. The author of this book, James M. Beck, has now been appointed Solicitor-General of the United States. By virtue of his office he will appear as the attorney of the Federal Government before the Supreme Court. He. is sixty years old, a Philadelphian by birth, and a graduate of the Moravian College at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, he became some years later United States attorney for the Eastern District of that State, and in 1900 Assistant Attorney-General of the United States. In recent years he has been practicing law in New York City. (C) Underwood MORNELL'S choice of Dr. Livingston Farrand for President, like Yale's choice of Dr. Angell, is an indication that personal forcefulness, executive experience, and modern educative ideals are lately been editor of the "Educational Review." A noteworthy incident in his career was his resignation of one college presidency (Wyoming University) in order to study for a doctorate in education. He comes to New York from the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been dean of its School of Education. If ever a man was a specialist in the science of education, surely Dr. Graves is. IN COMMAND OF THE IX years ago, when the then Captain Eberle was appointed Superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, The Outlook remarked: "He is a naval officer of high professional attainment, especially distinguished as an ordnance expert, and, like so many others in the service, possesses a very valid claim to the title of statesman. Naval officers not only must perfect themselves in the technical duties of an exacting profession, but they must possess the ability to embody in their own person the law, the tradition, and the dignity of the country which they represent." as Now Rear-Admiral Eberle has been Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, with the title of Admiral. In view of existing circumstances, Admiral Eberle's assignment is one which will bring out his essential qualities. As when Admiral Sperry was in command of the fleet which went round the world during assigned by the President Equal approval has been given by edu- International DR. FRANK P. GRAVES, RECENTLY CHOSEN PACIFIC FLEET DREADNOUGHTS ATTACKED BY DESTROYERS IN SHAM BATTLE the Roosevelt Administration, the coun- The Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, if united, would make an especially impressive exhibition of American force in the Pacific Ocean. This union, it has been said, should not take place, because Japan might interpret it as a challenge to her. It may be questioned if such a quiet exhibition of America might not in the end be productive of peaceful rather than warlike relations, as was the case of the visit of our fleet to Japan on its way round the world some years ago. A DECLARATION OF DOMINION RIGHTS I' N his opening address at the Imperial Conference Mr. Lloyd George proclaimed the full national status of the British Dominions. He recognized them as taking their places in the councils of the Empire on a footing of absolute equality with the mother country. As this implies for the Dominions an adequate voice in the foreign affairs of the Empire, Arthur Meighen, Premier of Canada, later laid down four cardinal principles. These, he asserted, were essential to the Dominions' heightened status. The four points, as reported, are as follows: (1) On all questions of foreign policy the Dominions should be kept thoroughly and constantly informed. (2) On all questions of foreign policy affecting the Empire as a whole the Dominion Governments must be consulted. (3) The British Government should enter into no treaties or alliances without taking the advice of the Dominions; indeed, all such treaties should be subject to the approval of the Dominion Parliaments. (4) On all questions arising between the United States and Canada the Canadian Government's advice must be accepted as final. This declaration of Dominion rights may take its place as a turning-point in the history of the relations between the The essential elasticity and yet unity THE ITALIAN IVANHOE ON NE of Scott's novels may have a revival if the new Italian Prime Minister becomes an important figure. It happens that his first name was taken from Sir Walter Scott's hero, Ivanhoe. It would be interesting to make a list of literary revivals that have had no more literary causes. The new Ivanhoe spells his name of course in Italian fashion. Ivanoë Bonomi is well known in Italy as a public man, for he has held two important offices in the Cabinet. He has been Minister of the Treasury under Giolitti, and before that Minister of War. It is Giolitti himself that he succeeds. To most Americans who have been stirred by Germany's aggression in the war Giolitti's name will always have an evil sound, for during those early critical months Giolitti was pro-German. It was not until the war was well over that Giolitti came back into power. He has always been a shrewd politician, and, it must be acknowledged, has during his term as Prime Minister again proved his shrewdness. He has had to steer a difficult course between the radicals, who are some of them Bolshevists, and the Fascisti, who have been advocates of restoring law and order through violence. He has been subject to attack also on his foreign policy, for his opponents have held it up against him that the easternmost harbor of Fiume was awarded to the Jugoslavs. Giolitti International ADMIRAL EDWARD EBERLE, IN COMMAND did not wait for an adverse majority in Parliament before resigning; he resigned while the majority was still with him. It was, however, a majority of only thirty-four, and the old politician chose to assume that with so small a majority his Cabinet could hardly be sure of the country's confidence. His successor, Bonomi, may not be in office long. Most observers of Italian politics are likely to think that Giolitti has gone out only to come back. It may be, however, that Bonomi will not be content to be Giolitti's stepping-stone. He has gathered about him a good Cabinet. For the time being he has won the support of the Socialists in spite of the fact that he is a reformed Socialist himself. He has also the support of many Fascisti. In addition he has the support of the Catholic party. He gets his main strength, however, from the Liberals. He will be opposed by extremists from various parties. By profession he is a journalist and has written on Socialism. In aspect he is austere and in manner taciturn, but in action he knows how to gain his ends by gentleness. bration at Ravenna, where the poet died, will mark the culmination of all the Italian commemorations. The austerity of that ancient city will form a fit setting for acts of homage to one who was great in adversity. The Dante celebrations are not only impressive in themselves, honoring one of the greatest poets of all time, but are also incidental expressions in Italy of a national New Life. of That is the underlying fact marking these celebrations. A new sense youth, freedom, expansion, is rejuvenating Italy. Fascismo, aggressive nationalism as opposed to communism, is only one aspect of it, and, strange as this may seem, may turn out to be the least significant aspect. Throughout Italy the people have been stirred to a finer love of country. With some Italians, indeed, it is becoming a consciousness of the inherent great powers of the Italic race and a will to use them towards a new Renaissance of a now United Italy. This New Life is comparable to that new life of Dante's own Gothic age. In it man's mind and soul and will also made a great leap, founded on a great emotion and determination. For it was the age of Marco Polo as well as of Joan of Arc and St. Louis; the age of the greater reconciliation between Greek philosophy and Middle Age Christianity as well as the epoch when the cathedral builders did their unrivaled work; the age of beginnings of popular parliamentary rule as opposed to the despotism of kings; and it was the age of the craft guilds and of the urban civilization as well as the age of chivalry, of the Crusades, and of he rise of the universities. In all Italian history there has been this ever-recurring new note of youth, freedom, and expansion. THE AALAND ISLANDS AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS THE HE Council of the League of Nations has awarded the Aaland Islands, in the Baltic Sea, to Finland. This may mean a settlement which can be regarded by friends of the League as significant of the usefulness which the future may hold in store for that organization. The case of the Aaland Islands was first presented to the League by Great Britain, a disinterested party to the controversy between Finland and Sweden. This action was taken under the general provision of the Covenant that any case involving world peace is a matter of concern to the members of the League. All states in the League were notified as to the facts, and the Council was summoned to meet last July in special (C) Keystone HEAD OF DANTE, SCULPTURED BY ONORIO RUOTOLO, THE ITALIAN-AMERICAN SCULPTOR session at London. Sweden, though not a member of the Council, automatically became a member for this particular case. Similarly, Finland, though not then a member of the League, was also permitted under the provisions of the A SCENE IN THE DANTE PAGEANT AT MR. BARNARD'S CLOISTERS: FRITZ LEIBER AS DANTE AND MRS. MARSH ALLEN AS BEATRICE Covenant to become a temporary member of the Council. Both nations and also representatives of the islands themselves made a full presentation of their case, and Sweden and Finland pledged themselves to take no action which might jeopardize the preservation of peace. Finland first claimed that the case was purely of domestic interest, but a commission appointed by the League denied this claim. Thereupon the Council appointed a commission to report on the status of the islands, consisting of one American, one Swiss, and one Belgian. The American representative was Mr. Abram Elkus, formerly our Ambassador at Constantinople. The Commission recommended, after a careful study of the situation, that the islands should go to Finland, of which they were a geographical appendage. This decision was reached even though the islanders themselves, practically Swedish in culture and sympathy, have on several occasions expressed the desire to link themselves with the Kingdom across the strait. The Commission argued that the principle of self-determination should not apply in this case, because the Swedish population of the islands is but a small part of the Swedish population of Finland as a whole, and that the Swedes in Finland would be adversely influenced by the separation of the islands from that country. The Council, in confirming the finding of this report, also decided that certain guaranties for the protection of the interests of the islanders should be given by Finland. Premier Branting, of Sweden, has protested the decision of the Council, but has agreed to recognize it. NEWFOUNDLAND FISH THE THE one great industry of Newfoundland has been paralyzed. The calamity of having too much fish is very serious to a small country like Newfoundland. Fishing is its main industry. Mining and pulp and other industries are very secondary. The markets of Newfoundland abroad have been largely closed to the Newfoundlanders because, through poverty and adverse exchange, the foreigners have been unable to buy the usual quantity of pre-war supplies. Moreover, salt, twine, and canvas (all of which Newfoundland imports) are still so high as to make it impossible for the people to live and send fish across the sea at pre-war rates. A further peril now menaces the Newfoundlanders. The old-time tariff, which kept cod, herring, and oil out of their natural market in the United States may be reimposed. And yet America needs an increase of New foundland produce, for at this time, including canned fish, three out of every four fish that Bostonians eat and five out of every six that New Yorkers eat come from the Pacific Ocean. The United States need not fear competition from so small a people as the Newfoundlanders, who are our kinsmen as well as our neighbors. In a letter to The Outlook, Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, who has long lived among them, speaks thus of them: Here in America we have preserved to a great extent the heritage of our simple, God-fearing forebears who, with the spirit of the Norsemen and the Viking strain in their blood, crossed the Atlantic. We realize that in sea power lies the safety that now gives us that responsible pre-eminence which it has so long preserved for the Anglo-Saxon. . . . In 1914 we were glad of these northern hardy seamen, who from many coves and hamlets sprang to the aid of a world whose high ideals were threatened. Admirals and generals have testified as to the vital part the fishermen played in making possible the transport of troops and materials by literally sweeping the seas in the dangerous and unromantic tasks for which we landsmen were unfitted. We may need these men again if ever war clouds break upon us. tainable than to insist upon this or that solution of the problem. many understandings and misunderstandings that it is safe to predict that the task of reconciling the desires of the two opposing sections of Irish will be long and difficult. The Ulster counties would prefer to remain just as they are now, with a Parliament and Home Rule system of their own, close relations with Great Britain as the Imperial Government, and just as little to do as possible with their southern neighbors. This attitude, however, is as unwelcome to the south of Ireland as the "one Irish Republic" idea is to Ulster. This is one reason why the British Government through its Prime Minister has shown willingness to open the doors wide for conciliation, without insisting that its dignity made it impossible to deal with confessed revolutionists and men who have aided or prompted disorder. Mr. Lloyd George lays more stress on results than upon authority; but it is better sometimes to be inconsistent than to be inefficient. It must be hard both for the English Prime Minister and the Ulster Premier, Sir James Craig, to meet in peaceable counIcil with the so-called President of the invisible Irish Republic, and with Mr. De Valera's colleagues released from HOPES FOR PEACE IN imprisonment for disloyalty, and in at least one case, that of Austin Stack, arrested for activity in connection with Sir Roger Casement's plot to aid Germany against England. But bitterness and prejudice are evidently to have no part in the present conference. One thing that makes for peace is the desperate condition the struggle has reached. When affairs are at their worst, it is human nature to insist that something must and shall be done to remedy them. There are many hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland who are now more anxious to see murder and destruction cease, authority of some kind recognized, and prosperity at If forecasts from those near the Sinn Fein leaders are correct, it seems probable that what they may be willing to agree to would be separate parliaments for the north and south of Ireland dealing with local matters, as the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec do in Canada, but with an all-Ireland Parliament which would deal with matters relating to Ireland as a whole, just as does the Canadian Dominion Parliament. This is not attractive to the mind of Ulster; its people believe that in any such supergovernment over them their needs and interests would go to the wall because South Ireland would have overwhelming authority if the basis is to be that of population. So the real question may turn out to be wether such a dual or triple form of Dominion governmet can be conceived as would fully safeguard . the smaller section and yet be acce table to the larger section. The present hope for a settlement of the Irish question seems to hinge upon some phase of Dominion government. It is almost certain that the Sinn Fein leaders are willing to abandon their attitude of "Irish independence or nothing," which led them to refuse to take any part in the former Irish peace conference and was really the rock on which that attempt to bring peace and stability was wrecked. If they should still insist upon an Irish Republic to be as independent as France is to-day, then the conference might as well cease its sessions at once. The Dominion plan is capable of so The basic difficulty is the fierce animosity between the two sections-the smaller, Protestant, industrial, loyal, practical, and attached to the idea of close connection with Great Britain; the larger, Catholic, agricultural, patriotic, imaginative, and intensely eager for Irish independence or the closest thing possible to it. Probably Ulster would welcome such a relation to Great Britain and to the rest of Ireland as Newfoundland and Labrador bear to Canada and England; that is, absolute independence in local matters and full recognition of Imperial supremacy. But this would never be agreed to by the Sinn Fein leaders, and it might prove in itself an unsatisfactory adjustment. The consent of Mr. De Valera to attend the conference with his colleagues has been generally hailed as evidence that he is no longer an irreconcilable. Some of those Irish revolutionists who have been unreasonable to the very limit and who scout any mention of concession or compromise are now denouncing De Valera as a renegade. It remains to be seen whether the Sinn Fein leaders are really working for peace or whether they intend to insist upon such complete yielding to their demands that for a second time the attempt to find out what Ireland really wants and what the Irish people as a nation are willing to undertake shall prove futile. The grave importance of the conference now in session can hardly be exaggerated. If its members shall act as leaders of opinion and earnestly unite their efforts to dispel the hateful state of bloodshed and civil war that has existed in Ireland so long, then indeed we may see the dawn of peace and law and order in Ireland. If not, the British Government has apparently no alternative except to establish authority by force, but with the utmost care that the methods of its representatives in Ireland shall be free from the slightest tinge of lawlessness or cruelty. ural expression of the disappointment and disillusionment which the ex-service man felt when he returned to his home and found how inadequate the sacrifice of the civilian population had been in comparison to his own. The soldiers, sailors, and marines who went into the war never thought for an instant of asking questions concerning the financial rewards which they would receive. While the war was on, the fact of being able to serve was in itself the chief recompense which the service men could receive. The first and most cogent reason against granting a bonus to all service THE BONUS AND THE tion of a general bonus should be at C VETERAN ONGRESS has been under severe pressure to pass a bonus law providing what has been called "an adjusted compensation" for veterans of the World War. This pressure has been the result in part of Congressional desire to placate a large body of voters and in part from the very human desire of our Congressmen-Congressmen are human, you know-to do everything which they could for the men who bore the chief burden of the war. The Outlook has never classed the demand for the bonus as an indefensible attempt to raid the National Treasury. It has not considered the demand for the bonus as an attempt of the ex-service en to put a cash value upon their contion to the war. The demand for onus has seemed to us a very nat least put off until the disabled have been cared for. A statement by Secretary Mellon makes clear another reason why the present is no fit occasion for the granting of a general bonus. The payment of the huge sum of money required, running, it is estimated, into the billions, would, it is believed, wipe out the advantages which are expected to accrue to the whole Nation from the reduction of Governmental expenses by the planned economies of the present Administration. The payment of this sum to our ex-service men would probably serve to upset business to such an extent that any cash which the ex-service man might receive would be offset by the portion of the general loss which he would be called upon to meet. The third reason against the granting of a bonus lies in the fact that, save for those who have suffered in body or mind, the ex-service men have very largely re-established themselves in the civil life of the Nation. A bonus granted at the time of their discharge from the Army or Navy would have been a real help. The money given upon discharge was less than enough to provide the veterans with a civilian outfit of clothing. The time for adjusting that inadequate payment is past. An attempt to correct it now would, it seems, probably do the great body of our veterans more harm than good-enough indirect harm to offset the direct good. There is another method which friends of the veteran are urging, at least in New York State, for his partial relief, and this is a method which is much less defensible than the plea for a Federal bonus. In New York State there is an agitation on foot, that, we are sorry to say, is backed by many veterans' organizations, to secure the passage of a Veterans' Preference Constitutional Amendment in the election this coming fall. This Constitutional amendment provides that soldiers, sailors, and marines who are citizens and residents of New York State shall be entitled to preference in appointment and promotion without regard to their standing on any list from which such appointments or promotions may be made. The adoption of this amendment would destroy all the progress which has been made in the direction of establishing an efficient Civil Service in New York State. It is to the real interest of a veteran, as of every other citizen, that the Government of the State shall be in the highest possible degree efficient. The jobs which individual veterans may secure under such a law will be an inadequate return for the consequent lowering of the standards of appointment throughout the State. The destruction of the Civil Service is bad coin in which to pay any debt. That the proposed amendment is not without precedent constitutes no argument in its favor. AN INTELLECTUAL ECENTLY the Young-Old Philosopher has been traveling. We have heard from him only through an occasional message on a postcard, after the manner of tourists; but now he is home again, and to-day he called upon us. "I was struck, all along my journey." he began, "by the fact that, while almost every person I saw did a good deal of reading, few read books. It was mostly newspapers and magazines I observed; and heads were buried in them. Only occasionally would I see a man or |