long dominance of one party anywhere is not productive of the best results. However, it is hardly reasonable to suggest to one so lately National Chairman of the Republican Party that he help lose these strongholds of Republican solidarity. Mr. Hays is an interesting figure. His policies are attractive and, despite a certain skepticism about politicians in the Post-Office Department, the public looks to him with expectation and with a keen desire to see him accomplish such things as would enable them to call him a great Postmaster-General. The confidence of the people of the United States in their highest tribunal is based as much upon the character of the judges as upon their learning. Mr. Taft has both qualities in large measure. He has a much more extensive practice in judgment on the bench in Ohio than most of us realize who have been accustomed to his figure in politics. He has had as varied an experience and intimate knowledge of all phases of American problems, governmental and otherwise, as any man of his time. He has also a character and personality which has won for him the complete trust, confidence, and affection of the American people. No one could be better fitted to keep the Chief Justiceship in the high repute in which it has always been held. T The Road to "Normalcy" HE attempt of British labor to extract a permanent subsidy from the national Treasury failed with the settlement of the coal strike a short time ago. The fundamental proposition which the miners fought for was that the country owed them a living. Despite its close unionization, the British miners had never been able to make much progress toward this idea with the mine owners; first, because the mine owners would fight strikes; and secondly, because in bad times they might not have the money to pay all the miners the living which the miners felt they deserved. Therefore, the miners advocated the nationalization of the mines. It would be easier, they felt, to frighten concessions in wages out of the Government than out of the private owners, and if the mines at any time should not yield enough to pay the wages the miners demanded, the Government could always make up the deficit by taxation. This major contention the miners lost. They failed to achieve the nationalization of the mines. They did, however, achieve a settlement to which the Government is a party. They have pretty well established the fact that the mines in Great Britain are quasipublic institutions. This means that the adjustment of wages and hours in mining will not be done purely on the basis of the supply of labor and its relation to the amount of coal for which there is a demand. It is so vitally necessary for the coal industry to function in Great Britain-a coal strike is such a national calamity-that government investigations and participation will accompany, delay, and affect these settlements whenever they occur. Under these circumstances the miners' wages will probably be higher than they otherwise would be, but ference in the situation can, by the pressure of on the other hand, the Government's interpublic opinion, limit the desire if not the right of the miners to strike. right of the miners to strike. The settlement of the recent strike included a provision for profit sharing, probably the first profit sharing agreement in modern times to cover an entire industry. The British Government also contributed $48,400,000 (normal exchange) to help the industry get on its feet again-a kind of reorganization subsidy. The settlement did nothing to solve the most pressing question before the British coal industry-how to increase efficiency so that the cost of mining shall not be so high as to cripple the British coal trade in its world-wide competition. It is interesting to compare the similar attempt of American labor to establish the principle of nationalization. The field chosen in this country was the railroad and not the coal industry. The Plumb Plan, as it was called, had all the essentials of the British miners' plan-nationalization, high wages, and, if necessary, the payment of the deficit out of general taxation. In this country also the main scheme failed but some of the by products remain. Through the Railroad Labor Board, the Government has a hand in settling all railroad wage disputes. This means that the processes of adjustment in this field will be slow, and not necessarily governed by the supply and demand of labor, but on the other hand, the danger of strikes will be lessened. In this country, also, the Government had to provide a temporary subsidy in the form of a guarantee in order to get the railroads back into normal operation after the war and government ownership. It looks as if still further special help will follow. In all this, the evolution toward "normalcy" of the British coal industry and the American railroad industry shows a striking resemblance. And the final problem-the increase in efficiency so that a possible cost of operation may be attained—is the same for both and is still unattained. Sm Correct or Courageous? always busy using their American votes for non-American purposes. They are more interested in Ireland than in America. They bring political pressure for meddling with Ireland upon the American Congress. For example, Senator McCormick, who rushed so rapidly to see Secretary Denby to protest against Sims's remarks, is an apostle of isolation. He has the most profound convictions that the United States should have no entanglements or commitments in Europe sometimes he even seems to wish us to have no friends in Europe. But to these profound convictions there is one exception. He is eager to meddle in Europe to help the southern Irish in their struggle with Great Britain. Congress has several times voted resolutions of sympathy with Irish freedom and thereby encouraged hyphenism. These votes were pusillanimous political hypocrisy, for Congress knew when they passed them that this plea for the hyphenate vote would result in no action for or aid to Sinn Fein. But they hoped that it would please the Irish and that no one else would care. That playing with fire is extremely dangerous. The tremely dangerous. Once before we encouraged the Fenians by such hypocrisy, so that they attacked Canada. They were quickly defeated in their attempts and the remnants of their army surrendered to the forces of the United States. We are in danger of producing this kind of result again, not to mention creating an irreconcilable group in Congress who vote on every measure as to whether it affects Sinn Fein favorably or Great Britain unfavorably, rather than as to its affect on the United States. ECRETARY Denby's reprimand of Admiral Sims was undoubtedly correct from the martinet point of view. The Admiral has no business to discuss political subjects, especially abroad. The public understands that Secretary Denby was technically correct on the point about which it cared very little. It understands likewise that on the question of hyphenism, which is far more important, Admiral Sims is not only technically but generally and morally correct and courageous. It realizes also that Secretary Denby saw this more important question raised and preferred to pass it unnoticed even though by so doing he allowed the hyphenates to accept his reprimand of Sims as a kind of victory for them. It is too bad that the great gift of plain speech should have been given to a man in a service that should be silent to be correct, and withheld from so many in politics, where it would be at a premium. After all to make fun of or even to denounce people who did their best against us during the war can not be a very heinous breach even of naval regulations. And as the Government has not even promoted Admiral Sims for his services in the war it might, in lieu thereof, allow him a little freedom of speech. The Secretary stuck to the rules and missed the main issue, and the Administration lost a fine opportunity. A certain part of the Irish in this country are of the Amazon are included in this feverish search. At the same time, at home we are seeking to improve methods with better machinery, cheaper fuel, more efficiency; and thus we are on the verge of great water-power development. In this world-wide inventory, the rugged island of Newfoundland will find due consideration. No portion of the British Empire is so richly endowed with undeveloped, economical water-power. The Island is literally covered with timber which is hardly touched. Furthermore, it is said that Newfoundland possesses at sea-board the largest known iron deposits in the world-at Belle Isle between Newfoundland and Labrador. But the prosperity of this island dominion is assured not only by a climate which the warm current of the Gulf Stream tempers until it is like that of Maine, but also by unparalleled resources of fish and iron. The famous Banks of Newfoundland, well-known to trans-Atlantic travelers for their fogs caused by the curious mingling of polar and southern currents, are perhaps the finest deepsea fishing preserves in the world. Last year Newfoundland with its population of less than a quarter of a million exported fish and fish products to the value of 33 million dollars as compared to exports of the same commodities from the United States of 42 million dollars. One importance of Newfoundland is its geographical position. St. John's, the chief port and capital of the country, is one thousand miles nearer to England than is New York. In fact, it is only 1460 miles from the coast of Ireland, so greatly does the Atlantic shrink off the coast of Newfoundland. That is why this unique country has had the distinction of receiving the first trans-Atlantic wireless message, at St. John's in 1901, and also why the first non-stop trans-Atlantic airplane flight started from the same vicinity. The Cape Race light is the first greeting from America to ships on the northern route from Europe, and it is the last to flash Godspeed to eastbound vessels. Newfoundland is verily the stepping stone between America and Europe. stantly in Europe and as one of Hoover's assistants and as a member of the War Trade Board he has had a practical experience with the conditions which he has studied. A statement of conditions from him has an almost unique value as an accurate picture of European economic conditions. What Dr. Taylor said recently about Germany as reported by Mr. Carl W. Ackerman in a copyrighted article to the Philadelphia Public Ledger is particularly significant because of the dependability of Dr. Taylor's testimony: German manufacturers to-day are in a position to undersell virtually any manufacturer in any country of the world. The Old World is returning to 'normalcy", Europe is recovering her economic and agricultural stability. That is the substance of a statement given to your correspondent by Alonzo E. Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania and American authority on European conditions, who has returned to England after careful investigations in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary, and Czecho-slovakia. Dr. Taylor said that "compared with other large European countries, Germany seems to have improved more in the last year than the United Kingdom, France, or Italy." Comparing European conditions generally to-day with a year ago and during the war years, Dr. Taylor declared there were distinct signs of progress in agriculture; transportation facilities have improved; coal in every country except England is more plentiful; the labor viewpoint is returning to "normalcy"; supplies of commodities are more abundant; frontier restrictions which impeded interstate commerce have been lifted, and on the whole there is an upward trend, particularly in Germany. Dr. Taylor added: "Conditions in the labor market seem in most Continental countries to indicate a definite return to pre-war conditions. The cause of the return to "normalcy" is found in the disillusionment of the rank and file of labor as well as of the leaders in the Russian experiment. From every country and from many trades, leaders have been sent to Russia. Without exception they returned reporting that direct action and Communism led to results worse for labor than the worst conditions of capitalism before the war. Labor unions have recovered their independence from Socialistic parties. This is particularly striking in Germany. "The monarchistic government before the war never extended to the great industrials and magnates of Germany the concessions that are being enjoyed by Hugo Stinnes and his co-workers to-day. The process in Germany is for the state to grow poorer and the magnates to grow richer. These subsidies occur in the form of concessions of various kinds-cheap coal, low freight rates, and the evasion of taxation. "No matter what happens politically or economically, the mark remains practically stationary. "Side by side with statements of further issues of paper money and internal bonds, and the figures for impending deficits, are the flattering reports of cartels and large industries, expansion in capital, and large earnings. A German manufacturer told me he was making more money now, using 38 per cent. of his plant's capacity, than ever before the war. The result is that Germany occupies to-day a position of peculiar potentiality as a manufacturing nation. She has the best labor in Europe. The German worker is recovering his traditional thrift and ambition, is disillusioned as to Communism, and is to-day, in the hands of the German employer, the most docile worker in Europe." Practically, what is going on in Germany is that the German State, by one device or another, is subsidizing its industries to enable them to undersell the industries of other coun tries, and doing this by issuing paper money. In the long run, especially now that the Allies are demanding reparation settlements this practice can hardly continue with success. AN A New Era for the "Movies" N ANOMALOUS condition exists in the motion picture industry. It is said that there are more projectors in educationalindustrial use than in theatrical use, yet until recently practically no distributing agency existed for furnishing films to any but the theatrical field. It has been estimated that there are 44,000 churches, 100,000 schools, and 6,000 factories which are now, or are planning to be, equipped with moving picture machines, besides a large number of portable projectors in homes and clubs. Much of this equipment is inactive due to lack of films, but it makes a large total whose primary use is educational and industrial as compared with the equipment of 30,000 moving picture theatres. Because almost all these moving picture machines have lacked a source of regular supply, and have only gotten films which were privately taken or else obtained by luck or condescension through a regular distributor, there has been a general misapprehension of the actual extent to which the "movies" are already available for better use; and consequently, also, there has been a justifiable outcry in the press about the lost opportunities and the harmful tendencies of moving pictures. The tenor of this can be seen in such titles of articles as "What Are the 'Movies' Doing to Our Children?" in the January issue of the WORLD'S WORK, and "The World's Worst Failure" in which the Outlook went a step farther. It would appear from the numbers of projectors that the answer to this is much simpler than might be thought. The moving picture machines are ready for a larger use, the will exists, and now the way must be found to distribute the educational-industrial films on a large scale. If a way is found to give the public what they should have, then they will soon want it. With this in mind a combination of non-theatrical producers for the development of educational-industrial films has been formed, with distributing agencies throughout the United States. Since the field is so ripe, this new development of the "movies" ought to be extremely rapid. A picture is more easy to understand than a book and it is also more easy to remember; it takes less intelligence to grasp. For this reason the use of moving pictures in education is both good and bad. is both good and bad. It is good so far as instruction can be given to a wider range of intelligence and more efficiently; and it is bad so far as it fails to develop imagination and, in fact, tends to throttle imagination by substituting itself for it. For memory depends on visualization, and both pictures and imagination produce that, but they do not produce each other. Of these two forms of visualization, imagination is the more valuable because it carries on beyond the original concept, while a picture produces a visualization of itself and little more. But certainly the "movies" can teach where other methods have failed, and with much greater speed. This development is at hand. From being a training school of immorality and lawlessness, the "movies" are to become a medium of valuable instruction. E BONDS vs. STOCKS Every month in this part of the magazine the WORLD'S WORK prints an article on investments and the lessons to be learned therefrom XPERIENCE and adversity are great teachers, and wise people learn from the experiences and misfortunes of others. A few years ago a middle-aged woman was forced to take over the entire management of her husband's financial affairs because of his continued and possibly permanent illness. She had no experience in such matters, but was a capable and forceful woman and had the courage to ask questions to find out what she did not know. Fortunately her husband had for some years been buying bonds from one of the best investment banking houses in the country and she had met the salesman of this conservative old house, a man whom her husband had learned to depend upon for investment advice and suggestions. Her husband had also had some dealings with a house in a near-by city, not as old or as conservative, but of good reputation. Therefore, when this woman took entire charge of the family money she was protected from the wiles of the get-rich-quick promoter, who might soon have gotten the money from her, by these established connections with two good investment houses. She continued investing along lines that her husband had followed. Then the war came and the cost of living jumped upward. The husband was no longer earning; the family income, largely from investments, did not go as far as formerly. In 1919 the investment house nearest by participated in the underwriting of an issue of Willys Corporation preferred stock. It sent out circulars to all its clients. This woman was attracted by the high return the stock gave. She saw in it a chance to solve the problem of the increased cost of living. But she was careful to inquire of the house whether the stock was suitable for her purpose or not. The answer was favorable. So she invested in Willys Corporation 8 per cent. first preferred stock, employing money that came in from the sale of real estate. She had not held it long when it began to decline in price. That did not worry her because she had bought it for the income return and she felt no concern regard ing the permanence of that. But as it kept on going down she began to wonder if something could be wrong. That was when the Investment Editor first heard of the case. She asked for an opinion regarding the suitability of her security holdings with particular reference to this issue. The other investments were all bonds of good grade. But this stock was of a newly organized company which had yet to prove its earning capacity, particularly in a period of depression. And the assets back of it did not entitle it to a high rating among industrial preferred stock issues. She was told that it was not the character of security that the Investment Editor would recommend for her purpose. She was left to decide for herself whether to take her loss and invest in something safer. It was not then possible to foresee the severe depression ahead of the automobile industry. Whether she did sell is not known, but the chances are that she did not, for one of the hardest things for average investors to do is to take losses even after they know securities are not suitable for them to hold. To-day this stock is no longer paying its dividend, it is selling for only a fraction of what it was then. This is but an example of what has occurred with many other stocks in the past few months and the lesson to be learned therefrom is now clearly evident. In the first few months of this year, according to a compilation made by the Wall Street Journal, holders of stocks of about forty companies suffered a reduction of seventeen million dollars in their income therefrom, due to the "passing" of dividends. If this compilation was carried back to include the latter months of last year and forward to take in recent reductions of dividends like that of the Pennsylvania Railroad and other complete cessation of payments, the total loss of income would be considerably greater. Since last fall, it is said, nearly three hundred companies have discontinued dividend payments or reduced the amount of their disbursements. Most of these have been industrial concerns. They have felt most the pinch of depression. |