America is sound and is making prog

ress.

CYRUS NORTHROP

N

For many American educators have served consecutively forty-eight years in important university work. Cyrus Northrop, who died in Minneapolis on April 4, at the age of eightyeight, will naturally best be remembered for his upbuilding work as President of the University of Minnesota. He filled that office from 1884 to 1911, and from then to his death was President Emeritus. He came to the University of Minnesota in 1884 directly from Yale, where he had been a teacher of rhetoric, and English literature from 1863 on. The older Yale graduates remember Dr. Northrop vividly as always courteous, always earnest, and always inclined to lay aside the stiff professorial dignity which prevailed more in that day than it does now in order to encourage and interest the individual student. Chief Justice Taft was one of Dr. Northrop's students, and in a tribute to his ability says: "He was a charming lecturer, a most brilliant and effective orator, and in every way a lovable man."

Dean

Jones, of Yale, had special knowledge of Dr. Northrop's career as President of the University of Minnesota, and speaks of that institution as his monument, adding: "Wise, tolerant, persuasive, he conducted its affairs more than a quarter of a century with a skill and sagacity which made him known as 'the college president without any enemy.' The first citizen of Minnesota, the great moral force of the community, an inspiring teacher, a magnetic orator, a great leader beloved by all who knew him, is gone."

A good example of the friendliness and the easy way in which Dr. Northrop dealt with students is recalled by a Minneapolis correspondent of The Outlook in a personal letter:

I recall my experience with him just previous to the great campaign of 1896. I was then in the law school and president of the Republican Club, an organization which I had brought up from 200 to 1,800 members. He feared I was being misled by the freesilver doctrine of Bryan. I had led the inter-State debate the year before and won it. Our subject was "International Bimetalism," and I had the affirmative. Dr. Northrop stood for the gold standard. When I entered his office, after greeting, he threw down a ten-dollar gold piece and said, "Doesn't that look good to you, my boy?" I said, "A ten-dollar gold piece always looks good to a senior, Doctor." He said, "That gold is worth its face value anywhere in the world." He then threw down a silver dollar and said, "That dollar is worth its face in the United States, but it is only worth fifty cents anywhere else in

CYRUS NORTHROP, LATE PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

the world except China and a few silver countries. You don't want to put your country into a class with China. Let us not make any mistake about this."

Not only do the two universities which Dr. Northrop served so long and with such eminent success owe him gratitude collectively, but it may be added that thousands of college graduates feel a personal debt to him for personal encouragement and recognition of honest work.

A VETERAN TEACHER HONORED OLDIERS and sailors who have served

their country in time of war deservedly receive citations and decorations. An army of American teachers are serving their country well, and often at great self-sacrifice, in the war that must be constantly waged on ignorance and superstition. Whenever a veteran teacher is cited for distinguished service we are especially glad to report it. And so we pass along to our readers some information of an incident honorable to Smith College and to an eminent professor of that institution, although it may not be altogether of the nature of news to Smith graduates.

When Mary Augusta Jordan, for more than thirty-seven years head of the Department of English at Smith College, retired last June, her friends of the Faculty and members of the official staffs had a medal made in her honor for a permanent memorial in the Browsing Room of the Library, a duplicate being presented to Miss Jordan. The medal, which was designed by Alice

Morgan Wright, the sculptor, has Miss Jordan's likeness on the face and on the reverse the following Latin inscription: College Dilecta Ingenio Doctrina Humanitate Præstanti Coll: Smith: Consocii MCMXXI, of which, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the pregnant meanings of inscriptional Latin, a member of the committee has supplied the following free translation: "Her associates of Smith College dedicate this medal to a colleague honored and beloved, distinguished for native gifts of mind, wide and varied learning, broad and discerning sympathy."

Miss Wright, who is a graduate of the College and a devoted admirer of Miss Jordan, having refused any remuneration for her services, there was a considerable sum of money left over from the subscriptions, and this the committee has now used in the purchase of an illuminated manuscript of the Hora Beatæ Mariæ Virginis written on vellum in the first half of the fifteenth century and ornamented with five large miniatures surrounded by floral borders in gold and colors, as a gift to Miss Jordan.

From the same design as the medal the alumnæ of the College have had struck a medal to be presented each year as a prize for the best original literary work produced by a student; the inscription on this medal refers to Miss Jordan's service "in discovering and developing the promising writer and inspiring and encouraging the young thinker."

The subscriptions for this medal also exceeded the immediate demand and enabled the committee to present Miss Jordan with a bag containing gold pieces to the amount of $3,000.

The English Department presented Miss Jordan with a handsomely bound volume of eulogia from students representing each of the forty-one classes which had come under her instruction and placed a typewritten duplicate in the College Library.

In the recently published Catalogue of the College the principal Professorship of English Language and Literature appears for the first time as "on the Mary Augusta Jordan Foundation." It goes without saying that Miss Jordan has been made "Professor Emeritus."

May we add that somebody ought to start a fund to donate a medal to the man or woman who invented the term "Browsing Room" for that portion of the Smith College Library which in most institutional libraries is usually called the reading-room? Fixed and formal courses of reading are all right in their way, but there are times when browsing among stacks of books will do more for appetite and taste in literature than all the syllabuses that the most exacting pedagogue can make to meas

KNOW THE CONSTITUTION

HE National Security League is caran excellent civic and

Trying on

educational work. It rightly holds that the United States Constitution is the very basis of an intelligent exercise of the franchise. Leading men in the League became convinced some years ago that the knowledge of the principles and provisions of the Constitution is not taught as it should be in public schools and that the popular ignorance on the subject is greater than is generally supposed. They have therefore taken measures to remedy this lack. They have called the attention of the Governors of several States to the matter, have promoted introduction of bills into the Legislatures of the States, and propose to frame a list of pertinent questions regarding salient points of the Constitution, to be sent out to public schools as a test. One result of the movement may be the passing of laws requiring definite courses of study in the Constitution in these States.

Mr. Lloyd Taylor, the chairman of the League's Committee on Constitutional Instruction, in a statement on the subject, admits that a certain amount of opposition may be expected "from those self-sufficient educators who always object to anything mandatory." But he believes that in one form or another the idea of popular knowledge about the fundamental law of the country may easily be carried out. Four States already have such a law as the League I would like to see in all the States.

It seems to us that the League is in this plan doing a genuine service to American citizenship.

SEEDS OF INTERNATIONAL
FRIENDSHIP

NDER the supervision of Mr. Charles

U Lathrop Pack, President of the

American Forestry Association, there has been collected the largest amount of Douglas fir seed ever gathered together. Over a thousand persons have been engaged in this collection, and the collection amounts to no less than a thousand pounds.

International

presented to England will be used by the British Forestry Commission, not only in replanting areas which were cut down and used for war purposes, but also in planting a large acreage of moorland which has hitherto been practically waste land.

In France these trees will be planted on the battlefields and throughout the devastated territory where the fine forest growth was in most cases utterly destroyed and in other cases very seriously damaged.

Great Britain showed her wisdom in adopting a forest policy immediately after the war so that she may for the future be assured of sufficient homegrown timber to supply her needs. During the war Great Britain was forced to sacrifice her forests, magnificent parks, and woodlands to the extent of almost sixty per cent of their area.

France has had for over a hundred years a most successful forest policy, by which her forests continually produce without being decreased in area; in other words, she does what this country must do grow timber as a crop, and thereby secure a continuous yearly supply.

The French forestry authorities will, therefore, see to it that for every Douglas fir cut down another Douglas fir will be planted. It is also most likely that the seeds from the mature trees of this planting will be used to spread Douglas fir trees over wide areas of other Euro

Under the wise forest policy of Great Britain and France, the trees planted from these seeds will serve not only as a memorial to American soldiers who fell beside their British and French comrades, but will reforest great areas devastated in a cause that was American as truly as it was British or French.

In 1919 and 1920 the American Forestry Association sent two separate shipments of Douglas fir seed to Great Britain and France for experimental planting. These have thrived so well that Mr. Pack determined on a larger and a personal gift.

THE IRONIES OF GENOA

C

ALLED to establish peace in Europe, the Genoa Conference has discovered, much to its own surprise, that its first product is an exclusive partnership between Russia and Germany in defiance of the rest of the world.

Engineered by the Russians, this ar1angement has caused in the minds of the British, the French, and even the Italians, much perturbation, to the Russians' obvious enjoyment.

When the Russian delegates arrived at Genoa to confer with the rest of Europe, they carried in their baggage. or up their sleeves, several huge jokes. They have already displayed some of these specimens of humor. No people in

the world are in a better position to appreciate the Russians' sportiveness than Americans. It is much easier to see humor in somebody else's position than in one's own. If America had been represented at Genoa, we should have had to laugh at our own expense-if we could have laughed at all. As it is, the sort of comedy that is on the stage at Genoa is very close to tragedy.

When the Russians were invited to confer with Britain, France, Italy, and about thirty other nations, they were told beforehand how they should behave. They agreed to observe all the rules of etiquette laid down.

As Bolsheviki they had rather prided themselves in their emancipation from the accustomed codes of manners and morals. They made promises without any intention of keeping them. They plotted against other governments with whom they sought friendly relations. They printed paper money with the definite purpose of destroying all money values. They preached pacifism and practiced the most tyrannical kind of militarism. They laughed at the popular will as something negligible and contemptible; and controlled the people by an army recruited by starvation. They repudiated the acts and the debts of the Government as it was under the Czar, and let it be known that any promise by treaty or by, bond which Russia had made before Bolshevism got into the saddle was nothing but a scrap of paper.

Finding that their method of ostracizing the world simply meant that they themselves were ostracized, much to their own peril, they made what they explained to their intimidated Russian victims was a strategic retreat. Outside of Russia there were many who believed that the Bolsheviki offered this explanation to save their face, and that the change in policy meant the beginning of a genuine abandonment, not only of Communism, but also of the Bolshevist code which listed treachery, dishonesty, and tyranny among the virtues. Though Bolshevist leaders plainly said that they were making concessions simply to fool their capitalistic neighbors, they were treated as if they had experienced a real change of purpose. So they were invited as equals to Genoa.

Of course there were conditions laid down, which the Bolsheviki professed to accept. One of these was that the Bolsheviki should recognize the debts to other countries incurred by Russia under the old régime. The Bolsheviki blandly accepted this condition. Hardly had these gentlemen appeared at Genoa than they perpetrated a great joke. They said, in effect: "Yes, indeed; we owe the money that other countries

lent Russia before the war; but in the meantime other countries have become indebted to us. We Bolsheviki had trouble with certain Russians who were trying to overthrow us, notably Kolchak, Denikine, and Wrangel, and for the moral and material support that these men received from the Allies Russia was injured to the extent of several billion dollars. Besides, we lost to Rumania our rich province of Bessarabia. We have cast up the accounts and find that, while we owe you five billion dollars, you owe us about twenty-five billion. We should be much obliged to you for the balance." That was joke number one.

Joke number two promptly followed. Ever since they came into power the Bolsheviki have been pushing one industry-the printing of paper rubles. As a consequence, they have made their money so worthless that actually it injures the value of a piece of paper if they print upon it the statement that it is worth several thousand rubles. They have done this on purpose to destroy money as a medium of exchange. They have consequently driven gold into hiding or out of the country. Having destroyed the means of exchange with other countries, they thereupon complained that they were suffering under an international boycott and blockade. They impressed sentimentalists even in hard-headed America. Finally, at Genoa they have come forth with this delicious proposal; they say: "You other countries have garnered the world's gold supply. We suggest that you now extend to Russia credit."

Incidentally they introduced joke number three. Professed pacifists, they have organized out of a disrupted and unwilling people what is probably the biggest army in the world to-day. They have turned starvation into a recruiting sergeant. With this army they first sought in vain a military union with the radical element in Germany; they failed because they were withstood by Poland and by France. As soon as the Bolshevist delegates arrived in Genoa they proceeded to agitate for disarmament. They were very skillful; for they thus diverted the attention of the nations from the real cause of Russia's catastrophe and brought France and Poland into the picture as culprits. They found that the disarmament joke was accepted seriously during the war, when it served the purpose of destroying the eastern front and enabling Germany to reach the Marne for a second time. Perhaps the Bolsheviki are not miscalculating when they think that men's memories are short enough to enable this joke to be worked successfully

again.

The biggest joke of all, however, has been the Russian partnership with Germany. Eight years ago the war started as a conflict between Germany and Russia. Into that conflict France was drawn by her fidelity to her ally and to her sense of justice and liberty, and England was drawn as well. When Russia collapsed, the duty of the Allies was to see that Germany, thwarted in her attempt in one direction, did not succeed by finding a way over prostrate Russia. It was therefore in the interest of the Allies, as well as of Russia herself, that they should do all in their power to protect the Russian people from exploiters both within and without and to enable the Russian people to control their own affairs. Unfortunately, the Allies did not have the courage of their convictions. They intervened, but intervened feebly. They gave no true support to the forces that were working for Russian self-government. As a consequence a dictatorship arose in Russia which was distinctly in the interest of Germany and contrary to the interest of the Russian people. Now the dictators, still in power, have made a compact with Germany. In return for recognition as masters of the Russian people, they have opened the way for the Germans, the most ruthless of military and industrial organizers, to become their partners in exploiting the man-power and resources of Russia. In this alliance there is a formidable threat to the order, justice, and peace of the world. Concerning this compact the Russian people themselves have had nothing to say. They are the victims. The only beneficiaries of that compact are the Germans and the Bolsheviki. Thus Russia and Germany, invited to Genoa to be taught how to behave, have used the occasion to establish an alliance, not only in disregard of all the other countries of Europe, but actually to their peril. This last is the greatest and grimmest joke of all.

The trouble at Genoa is that the statesmen of Europe have been trying to find a way to say, "Peace, Peace," when there is no peace. They have thought that they could follow the example of the Washington Conference by disre garding its fundamental principle. International relations cannot be established on a basis of confidence except between friends. The nations at Washington were with regard to each other morally disarmed. The nations at Genoa are not. As long as Russia is under the control of men who wish to disrupt the order of society, and as long as Germany cherishes the sort of ambitions she had before she was beaten, so long will it be impossible for the nations that want justice and order and peace to deal with

them on a basis of equality and confidence.

America did well to decline the invitation to Genoa.

T

THE RAILWAYS

HE American railway problem continues to be one of acute controversy. Only the experienced railway man or the highly trained financier and economist can understand all the ramifications and complications of railway finance. But there are some elementary principles which underlie the financing and operation of railways that every intelligent voter can understand and ought to understand before he expresses his opinion on railway legislation.

First, shall the railways be owned and operated by the Government at rates and on wages which do not pay the cost of operation, leaving the deficits to be made up out of general taxation? Or shall they be owned and operated as a business enterprise by individual citizens at rates and on wages which produce a reasonable profit for the industry, the entire operation to be under strict Government regulation? If we do not mistake the temper of the country, we think it to-day prefers private ownership and operation to Government ownership and operation with deficits paid by taxation.

Second, assuming that the country at large is in favor of private ownership and operation, who are the parties at interest in this controversy? They are the owners, the workers, the shippers. The owners' instinct is to raise rates and lower wages in order to assure at least a reasonable profit. The workers' instinct is to raise wages without much regard as to whether this increases rates or reduces profit. The shippers' instinct is to reduce rates without much regard to wages and with no regard at all to profits.

We make the last statement because we think that there is a general notion among shippers-and shippers are really the entire public-that the railway owners in this country are a small group of rich men who have made vast sums of money out of the public and ought now to be compelled to disgorge their ill-gotten gains.

In our judgment, the controversy will never reach a reasonable settlement until the wage-workers and the shippers realize that they are themselves large potential owners of the railways and that they cannot draw cash out of the business in the shape of high wages and cheap rates without finally bringing the whole industry to collapse and bankruptcy.

The reader may think it an extrava

gant statement to say that the employees and the shippers have a very large ownership in the railways. But a moment's consideration will show that this is the fact.

The potential owners of American railways are the bondholders. The stockholders are the operators, but a stockholder cannot receive a penny of profit until the fixed rate of interest on the bonds is paid. When the payment of interest or payments on the principal of railway bonds is defaulted, the property goes into the hands of the bondholders.

Who are the bondholders? The hundreds of thousands of men and women who have money in the savings banks and the insurance companies of the United States. One of the great New York life insurance companies has just advertised that it has twenty-five million policy-holders. Every one of those policy-holders is a railway owner, because a large part of the money which he has paid into the company in the form of premiums, and which is invested and held by the company as trustee for his benefit, is invested in railway bonds. The same thing is true of the savings banks. If a great catastrophe could be conceived which should wipe the railways of the United States out of existence, every insurance company and savings bank in the country would immediately go to smash. Thus we have the curious phenomenon of the two great bodies of American citizens who are potential owners of the railways-the wage-workers and the shippers-fighting to make their property unprofitable.

are

In this brief article we are not urging that rates should be higher than they are now nor objecting to the reduction of rates wherever such reductions can be advantageously made. We simply calling upon every man or woman who has a deposit in a savings bank or a policy in a life insurance company to realize that he or she has a very real and personal interest in seeing that the railways shall be run as a self-sustaining industry.

This is what the National Association of Owners of Railroad Securities is endeavoring to do. With headquarters in Baltimore, this Association, organized largely by savings bank and life insurance officers to protect the bonds which they hold in trust for their depositors and policy-holders, is collecting the facts as to equipment, operation, wages, and rates, and putting them before the InterState Commerce Commission. It is even going into engineering questions and seeking to find means by which economy and efficiency in railway operation can be encouraged and promoted. The Presi dent of this Association, Mr. S. Davies Warfield, is unusually well equipped for the work which he is endeavoring to do

as a matter of public service, for he is a practical railway man, a practical sav ings banks man, and a practical insurance man. If his Association can succeed in getting the shippers and employees to realize their very great financial interest in the prosperity of the steam railways, an important step will have been taken towards a reasonable settlement of a controversy which affects the welfare and prosperity of the whole country.

B

THE FIGHT FOR

THE NAVY

OTH the President and the Secretary of State have entered into the fight to prevent a disastrous abandonment of the naval power as accorded us by the treaties which were the result of the Washington Conference.

In a letter to Representative Longworth the President said:

I am well persuaded that it is not wise to make so drastic a cut in the naval appropriations as has been proposed in the measure now pending in the House. . . . I must believe in the good faith of the Navy Department and our naval advisers, who say very emphatically that it is impossible to maintain, within the proposed appropriations, the standard set for our Navy; which was made the base of the international conference, and which standard we have proclaimed to the world.

Secretary Hughes, in reply to a letter from Representative Rogers concerning the 5-5-3 treaty and the proposal to cut the enlisted personnel of the Navy to 67,000 men, said:

Under this treaty the United States is allowed now to retain eighteen capital ships. You say that you are advised by the Navy Department that the proposed reduction in personnel will mean that not exceeding twelve capital ships can be kept in commission. As to this I am not qualified to express an expert opinion, but I have questioned the naval experts with whom the American delegates consulted during the recent conference, and whom we found both accurate and in sympathy with the principle of limitation by agreement. and I am advised that‍ the proposed number of enlisted men is far below the number required to maintain our navy upon the basis contemplated by the treaty. Accepting this statement of fact, the only question would seem to be whether our Navy should be reduced below the treaty standard by the provision of personnel inadequate to maintain it. To this question I think there can be but one answer, I strongly believe that it would be most injurious to the interests of the United States not to maintain fully the standard of the treaty.

To this statement of the Secretary Representative Garrett, of Tennessee. the Minority Floor Leader, said: "The

Congress of the United States is only bound not to go above the 5-5-3 ratio.. We are not bound legally or morally not to go below the mark set in the agreement."

It has been said-we think the story can be attributed to no less an authority than the Third Assistant Secretary of the Department of Imaginary Anecdotes that a certain Congressman recently promised to play a game of golf on the course at Hampton. Some hours later he was picked up in an exhausted condition from the Potomac, a mile or so from Mount Vernon. After the water had been shaken from his lungs he opened his eyes. A gentleman in the craft which rescued the exhausted Congressman noticed a curious twitching of his right hand.. Being familiar with the habits of statesmen, he lifted the Congressman's hand and inserted the fingers just below the top button of his vest.

With his hand in this position, the Congressman was able to tell his story faintly. Those who bent over his prostrate figure heard these words: "I promised a friend to play golf at Hampton. I was not bound legally or morally to go to Hampton by railroad, boat, or airplane, so I decided to swim." Congressman Garrett, in the future, should add one more clause to any contracts which he may assume. It is not enough to bind some men morally and legally, they should be bound intelligently as well.

The effort that the Administration is making to repel the Congressional attack on the 5-5-3 ratio has been ably supported by the American Legion and its National Commander, Hanford MacNider. Certainly, when the veterans of the World War speak on the subject of

preparedness they speak with authority. They know the cost of inadequate armament from bitter experience.

Here is the, message which Mr. MacNider sent to the President:

The safety of our whole country depends first of all upon the Navy. It is our first line of National defense in time of war and must be kept ready as an impregnable bulwark behind which completed National mobilization can be effected. Never again can we hope to prepare behind the fleet of another nation, as we did in the World War.

That officers and men must be trained for war in time of peace was shown in the late war, when we spent the first year of our participation in expanding and training our Navy for action, due to unreadiness.

The sense of false security engendered by unmanned ships would be fatal in the time of stress. The American Legion is squarely behind the Administration in its stand and believes that when the country at large awakens to the magnitude of this threat at our National safety it will make itself heard in language unmistakable.

It seems entirely probable now that the request of the Administration for at least 86,000 men will be granted. It should be borne in mind, however, that this figure is itself an abandonment of the 5-5-3 ratio. It means that we can keep eighteen battleships in commission, but it also means that some of the guns on those battleships will be unmanned and useless. It means that necessary auxiliary vessels will be tied up crewless at the docks.

Why does not the Administration frankly and courageously stand for the naval ratio it negotiated? The 5-5-3 ratio emphatically demands a naval personnel of at least 120,000.

Strangely enough, the delusion that a million men can spring to arms or battleships between sunrise and sunset still persists in the United States. If the last war could not kill it, what can?

I

NOT PEACE BUT

JUSTICE

a

HAVE received a letter from member of a committee organized "in the interest of world peace," asking me for any word of suggestion or encouragement. The aims of this committee are eventually to secure America's entry "into some form of vital international union for the prevention of war," and immediately to secure the co-operation of America in "the Court of International Justice." Both the International Union and the International Court the letter urges as a means to secure a world peace.

I am not interested in world peace; I am greatly interested in world justice.

Americans have a right to take pride in the facts that a prominent American statesman had so important a part in forming the Court of International Justice and is represented upon its bench by so deservedly an eminent American jurist. But this Court is to be welcomed, not because it will bring world peace, but because it will promote world justice. Justice is always to be desired; peace is not always to be desired. I am glad that when the Huns attempted to establish the Pan-Germanic empire the world united to resist the attempt. The World War was worth all that it cost. If ever another attempt to establish a world empire should be made, whether