might be deduced that the authorities were accordingly bound to preserve MacSwiney's life by forcible feeding or any such method deemed proper and efficacious by medical authority. That this could be done in his case we see no reason to doubt. But what is absolutely clear is that for the British Government to release a prisoner shown to be guilty of heinous offenses would be to surrender the reins of government and to abandon the enforcement of justice and law. Mr. Bonar Law in an open letter states that not only was MacSwiney a leader in the so-called Irish Republic's army, which has openly declared itself at war with the legal Government of Ireland, and might have been lawfully executed as a rebel and traitor, but that, "according to his own written words in one of the seditious documents for which he was convicted, he and his followers had determined to pursue their own ends, asking no mercy and making no compromise." 66 It is obvious that if the Government yields in one such case it will be obliged to yield in many others. The release of such a public enemy should not be considered as a question of individual mercy, but as a large public question. The Chief Secretary of Ireland has justification in his bitter remark that none of the mercy which some seek to invoke for the Lord Mayor was shown to the eighty policemen who have lost their lives in Ireland." The condition of civic strife, riots, cowardly shooting of policemen and soldiers from ambush, which has come about in Ireland cannot be ignored, nor can it be remedied by weak concessions. Sir Hamar Greenwood, the Chief Secretary, declares that the present lawlessness "is the work of a small body of men who are striving by carefully planned anarchy to impose secession from the British Empire on eighty per cent of the people of Ireland who do not want to secede." latest reports from Mexico City to reach Obregon stood for election as the can- Despite the shadow over Obregon's name because of the treacherous killing of Carranza, or, more strictly, because of the lack of adequate punishment for those concerned in the deed, he is generally regarded as a man of ability and of moderate political views, with ambition to advance the material interests of his country and to maintain friendly relations with the United States. As a soldier he has had no superior in Mexico during the recent troublous years, and his military skill was undoubtedly far superior. to that of Carranza. His crushing defeat of Villa in 1914 was preceded by the quelling of the Orosco revolution in Chihuahua in 1911, and when he lent his aid to the movement against Carranza, whose Minister of War he had been, the fate of the Presidential election and the fall of Carranza became all but certain. One of the most encouraging indications that Obregon may prove something more than a soldier and revolutionist is found in an expression recently attributed to him. "I would rather teach the Mexican people," he said, "the use of the toothbrush than to handle a rifle. I would rather see them in schools than upon rather see them in schools than upon battlefields. I prefer any day a good electrician, machinist, carpenter, or farmer to a soldier." AMENDING THE LEAGUE wo international meetings bearing on A despatch to the London "Times" The League of Nations are to be held on September 7 quotes David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, as saying that if guarantees are given that the murder of policemen in Ireland will cease the Premier is convinced that Lord Mayor MacSwiney and the other hunger strikers will be released from prison. But from whom could such guarantees be obtained except from those who have been privy to murder, and how far could such men be trusted, even if it should seem to be within the dignity of the Government to make such a bargain? THE NEW PRESIDENT HERE is little, if any, doubt that Gen. Teral Alvarado Obregon has been elected President of Mexico, although the abroad this fall. A meeting of the League Assembly is to be held November 15. Certain amendments to the Constitution of the Leaguei. e., the Covenant to which the nations constituting the League have subscribed will be submitted by the Danish, Nor-will be submitted by the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Governments. The correspondent who sends us this information from England adds the comment: "There is every reason to think the League Covenant will be as frequently changed as was the American Constitution." We hope that it will be changed not more frequently but more radically. He calls attention to the work which has already been accomplished toward realizing a World Court, as reported in these columns, and he thinks Photo by Hadeur, El Paso GENERAL OBREGON that "it is equally possible that the greatest source of attack, namely, Article X, might be amended or interpreted by the nations which give the Covenant validity." The more important of the amendments proposed by the Scandinavian Governments is one providing that in case a League blockade is proclaimed against any state a neighboring state may get from the Executive Council permission to modify or disregard the blockade, "provided that such action is considered necessary to prevent the blockaded state from threatening or attacking its neighbor." AN INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CONFERENCE THE HE other international meeting is to be held at Brussels, September 24, under the auspices of the League of Nations. This is to be an International Financial Conference. To this Conference states not members of the League, including the United States, will be invited on equal terms with the states in the League. The members of each national delegation will vote, not as a national group, but as individuals. The decisions of the Conference will be advisory; there will be no legislative enactments, but recommendations to be submitted to the various states, whether in the League or not, for their action. This Conference will thus be in spirit akin to the Hague. Conferences and the Postal Union. Both these meetings seem to us helpful indications. They both look in the direction of a voluntry association of the nations in lieu of a quasi-military all ance, and of an association the first object of which will be the definition and interpretation of international law, and its second object a democratically organized Assembly in which national opinion never consent that other nations shall determine for her what that share is. IN THE WORLD OF SPORT on great international questions can be AT Forest Hills, Long Island, on Sep exchanged and an individual public opinion can be gradually developed. A NOTABLE ADDRESS S' IR AUCKLAND GEDDES, British Ambassador to the United States, recently made a notable address before the American Bar Association at St. Louis, tracing the development of free government, accepting Abraham Lincoln's definition of it as government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," stating his belief that this is the best form of government that the human race has been able to devise, but expressing a doubt whether even now in Europe there is a majority which supports it, and his conviction that there is not a majority which understands it. He points out two great world forces which are bitterly opposed to it-the reactionaries who have great possessions and great interests and no faith in the intelligence and virtue of the plain people, and the Bolsheviki and their supporters, whose avowed object it is to establish a privileged class and force the control of that class upon all the rest of the community. To meet this danger he says: Whatever difficulties might arise between our nations, I believe that nothing is more important than this, that you and we stand together to defend the hard-won hope of mankind that, through law made by the people for their own disciplining, man will at last escape from the toils that have snared the feet of his ancestors and will have taken a great stride toward the solution of the problem of how he shall live in communities in peace and ordered freedom one with another. We believe that the great body of the American people, if this issue is put clearly and forcibly before them, will desire to unite in defending the liberty of the world against its assailants. National interest and National honor forbid America to be neutral in such a world conflict. But it is also clear that the American people will not consent to allow an international body, however constituted, to decide for them when and how they will take part in the defense of the world's liberty. The spirit if not the letter of our Constitution requires that each generation should be left free to determine as circumstances arise whether this Nation will take part in any war. As we have heretofore said, and as we reiterate in an editorial elsewhere in this issue, America wishes to bear her share of civilization's burden, but she will on tember 6, William T. Tilden (who won the British championship earlier in the summer) defeated his ancient rival, William M. Johnston, the former Na tional title-holder, for the crown of American tennis. Tilden defeated his rival only after five terrific sets, scored at 6-1, 1-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. The match was considered by all those who witnessed it as one of the most dramatic and impressive examples It takes a newspaper man to understand a newspaper man. Richard Barry is a newspaper man. His estimates of Harding and of Cox, which will appear in the next issue of The Outlook, tell what kind of newspaper men they are and what kind of papers they have been publishing. One of these middle-aged Ohio newspaper men will be the next President of the United States. When he gets his hand on the White House shears, paste-pot, blue pencil, and galley proofs, how is he going to edit the United States of America? As we go to press there is another amateur American championship hanging in the balance at Roslyn, Long Island, on the golf course of the Engineers' Club of New York City. The qualifying round of this tournament saw several notable players eliminated, among them the British champion Cyril Tolley, who defeated Robert Gardner in the finals of the British tournament this year. Mr. Tolley was looked upon as one of the leading candidates for the American title. It is a disappointment to both American and British golfers to find the British champion eliminated so early in the contest. Over in Belgium, Americans achieved. another notable victory after the conclusion of the field and track events of the Olympic Games. This was the victory of the crew of the United States Naval Academy in the international eight-oared race. A TRAGEDY AND THE LAW OF THE AIR TH HE Tennis Tournament at Forest Hills, described above, was marred by a tragedy that might have resulted in the death of many innocent spectators. Two aviators, hovering over the courts, lost control of their machine and crashed to earth a short distance away. That they killed only themselves is a matter of fortune rather than foresight. The pilot of the machine was a naval aviator who violated regulations by flying so close to a massed crowd of men, women, and children. Both the military and naval authorities have prohibited just such dangerous attempts as resulted in the death of this officer and his companion. This tragedy has given added impetus to the discussion of the legal status of the aviator and the new method of transportation of which he is the pioneer. It is indeed true that a clearer definition of the duties and responsibilities of airmen and the rights of the general public to protection from the misuse of airplanes should be drawn. In an article to be published in next week's issue of The Outlook Mr. Wayne C. Williams discusses the new code that must be created to meet the demands of the present situation. It is none too soon for us to develop, as Mr. Williams says, 66 a new branch of the law-the law of the air." OLD PLYMOUTH CELEBRATES HE sailing of the Mayflower on September 6, 1620, from Plymouth, England, for the New World, was celebrated in that town by commemorative exercises which began on September 4 and lasted a week. They began with a historical and literary conference participated in by British, Dutch, and American scholars. In the opinion of some of these specialists, much still remains to be discovered as the result of research into the history of the personalities who composed the Mayflower expedition. It will be remembered that it is not many years since the discovery of the missing manuscript of the "History of the Plimouth Plantation," by Governor William Bradford, cast new light on the Colony's history, which up to that time had been somewhat traditionalized in the minds of most Americans by their reading of Longfellow's poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish." Dr. Rendel Harris, Chairman of the English-Speaking Union, Dr. Paloojion, of Leyden, and others presented at the conference some newly discovered material bearing on the activities of the Pilgrims. The people of Plymouth, it is reported, endeavored to make their celebration THE MAYFLOWER IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR, 1620. FROM THE PAINTING BY W. F. HALSALL primarily an American one, and generously displayed the American flag in the decorations with which the town and harbor were embellished, thus indicating the pride which Englishmen may well take in the Nation whose foundations were in part laid by the Plymouth colonists of three centuries ago. A message from the British Premier, Lloyd George, to the Plymouth celebrants read: "The Pilgrim Fathers achieved far-reaching results which have exceeded all their hopes and expectations, conscious though they were of the greatness of their venture. We welcome these celebrations as an opportunity for fostering the good relations which happily exist between ourselves and the great American people." Lord Reading paid a graceful tribute to American womanhood as represented by Lady Astor, who took a prominent part in the celebration. He said: "It was a remarkable coincidence that the Pilgrims went from Plymouth to land at a new Plymouth, and another coincidence that three centuries later another Mayflower came from Virginia to England, and by the constituency of Plymouth was elected the first lady to enter the British House of Commons." ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND NURSES NEEDED AT ONCE fession is facing the gravest crisis in its history. It is not so much that there are fewer nurses than formerly, but that there is a greater demand. To recruit the fast-dwindling ranks a campaign has been launched to enroll one hundred thousand women in the nurses' training schools of the country. In the appeal that has gone forth from the Department of Public Welfare, New York City, Bird S. Coler, director of the campaign, has made an interesting announcement. It is of moment to all women who desire to enter the nursing profession. It concerns the establishment of a school for attendant nurses, the first of its kind to be established in the United States. By reason of this departure in the standards for training of the nurse, women who have hitherto been barred because of educational require ments are now welcomed. In the literature sent broadcast by the Department this summer, accompanied by five thousand posters, the importance of this new course is explained in full. Its value to the housewife, the urgency of its plea, and a statement of the requirements are set forth. "It is hoped that this course will give an opportunity to young women who have been unable to have high school work. It should afford an opportunity for helping women broaden of OUT of the chaos and suffering of the young wo, or who aden the respon have for better health. The new demand arising from this changed point of view, aiming at the prevention rather than the cure of illness, has done much in thinning the ranks of available women for community nursing. Also the world-wide plea for the American nurse has caused an unprecedented shortage of women to carry forward the high standards of the profession. Depleted by foreign need and the increasing domestic demand for the trained nurse to manage public health work in big industrial concerns, the pro been unable to take the longer course for the nurses' training. During the training, which lasts nine months, the attendants are given full maintenance, are supplied with books and uniforms, and in addition are paid $33 a month. This ought to appeal to self-supporting women. On graduation places are found immediately for these trained attendants. They are registered and may, if they wish, go out and do community nursing." These attendants will release many of the trained nurses, it is thought, and in this way materially aid in solving the present problem of nurse shortage. The attendants are intended to supplement but not to supplant the work of real trained nurses. That will be obvious when it is stated that these attendants will be graduated in one-third the time that it takes to educate a trained nurse. At present four city hospitals in the metropolis have instituted the course. A woman between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five with a common school education is eligible for entrance. to In South American countries, where the nursing profession is in its infancy, the importance of such a short course is manifest. Prior to the war the nursing in these republics was relegated "slovenly, haphazard women, more noted for loquacity and assurance than for skill." But with the advent of peace South American doctors have started a campaign for more scientific nursing and the establishment of nursing schools. The Superintendent of the Evangelical Hospital at Rio de Janeiro has applied to Miss Agnes S. Ward, General Superintendent of Nurses in New York City, for a group of women to found a school for nursing in his country. It will be modeled on the school for attendants, of which Commissioner Coler is the founder. The war services of the American nurse have been universally appreciated. She is in such demand in Europe at this moment that only unprecedented volunteering will begin to meet the need. The slogan that hitherto has applied only to service men is now that of the women: Join the army of nurses and see the world. Hospitals where the course for attendant nurses is now in operation include Central Neurological Hospital, Blackwell's Island; New York Children's Hospital, Randall's Island; Sea View Hospital, Staten Island; and Greenpoint Hospital, Brooklyn. Eight years ago there was such an issue. The Republican party in that year was split in two. The campaign was fought on the issue of progressivism, and the progressives proved to be in an overwhelming majority. Likewise, there was a somewhat similar contest within the Democratic party, and the progressive element proved to be strong enough to control the nomination. The result of the campaign of 1912 was therefore a clear demonstration that the American people are predominantly progressive. As a consequence of that campaign, progressiveness has become one of the most valuable of political assets. It has ceased to be heroic for a candidate to announce himself as progressive; on the contrary, it has become a customary method of appealing for votes. There is no more obvious way by which a candidate for office in most of the States or in the country at large can gain political advantage or overcome a political disadvantage than by seeking to impress upon the voters the conviction that he is progressive. It was said of old, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you." This is not only true when addressed to the individual; it is equally true when it is said of a cause. Popularity ought of itself to be a warning. Now is the time when progressives of all parties should be on their guard. There are signs of danger to the cause of social progress that are not always obvious to those who are devoted to it. It was one of the proofs of the quality of leadership of Theodore Roosevelt, now practically everywhere acknowledged, that he saw the danger to social progress in the menace of imperial Germany. While lesser men debated over questions of industrial and social justice at home, he saw that all such domestic questions were submerged in the danger that beset the foundations of social and industrial justice from abroad. If the Nation were to maintain progress, he saw that it first must preserve itself and its own freedom. The cause of progressiveness then was involved in the larger cause of American rights and human liberty. It took some courage for a public man to be a progressive in 1912. It equally took courage for a public man to subordinate the progressive issues to other issues in 1916. Now in 1920 it is natural that many voters, realizing that the war is practically if not technically at an end, should revert to their former habit of considering the great issue in America to be that of progressivism or reactionism. There are, however, at least two great questions before the country which are more fundamental than any question of progressive legislation. One of these fundamental questions is that of the preservation of the right of America to determine its own destiny. Is the proposal that America should enter a League of Nations equivalent to a proposal that America should forego that right? If so, will the yielding of that right deprive Americans of the power to select for themselves their own programme of social legislation, or will that power be handed over to an international body? That is more fundamental than any specific plan of social progress can be. tal questions is that of the efficiency and character of the government. Shall Americans choose the road that leads to personal government or the road that leads to government by party? That is the question that concerns the character of government. Shall the American people intrust their government to those who believe in further experiments, or to those who believe that the time has come to make the government that we have work well? That is the question that concerns the efficiency of government. Unless the government we have is such as to respond to public need and public demand, and unless that government can translate the public demand from a programme into practical measures, practically administered, the programme itself, no matter how progressive and no matter how emphatically demanded, will be of no avail. It is easy for candidates now to proclaim their progressiveness. It is a great temptation for candidates to divert the public mind from fundamental questions by appeals, in the name of progressiveness, to the interests of classes and groups. The fact is that between the two parties in this Presidential campaign there is no issue as between reactionism and progressivism. The issues are more fundamental. WHY DO THEY DO IT? W HY do plagiarists plagiarize? The question is brought to mind just now because of what appears on the face of it to be a flagrant case of literary purloining in a recent minor signed and contributed article in this journal. We refrain at this time from specifying, for the reason that we feel that it is proper to await such explanation as the apparent offender may see fit to make in response to our inquiry; but ultimately, in justice to the magazine from which the short article in question seems to have been "lifted" almost verbatim, to say nothing of our own readers and in the interest of journalistic integrity, a statement of the facts may be necessary. So far as can be recalled, this is the first instance, certainly for many years, in which a direct literary theft has actually attained the stage of publication in The Outlook. But, as with most other periodicals, there have been narrow escapes. In one instance an article on an important topic signed by a well-known and prolific writer and dealer in articles, now dead, an article "bought and paid for," was on the point of being printed when by chance it was found to be practically identical with an article written by a The other one of these two fundamen- magazine writer of unquestioned integrity and reputation that had appeared in one of the best-known of American monthlies before the fraudulent article reached this office. The only excuse ever offered was a vague assertion that both writers had copied from the same sources-a totally inadequate explanation of literal plagiarism even if true, which it was not. In another case a dealer in interviews offered an article by a distinguished United States Senator, to be signed by the name of the Senator and with his authority. With what seemed at the time almost superfluous caution, we wrote to the Senator for verification, and learned from him that the "article was simply a long extract from a speech made by him on the floor of the Senate, published in the "Congressional Record," and therefore free to any one to reprint without any special consent or any dealer's offices. In a third case a guileless lady journalist offered an article by President Taft. This was not exactly plagiarism, but an attempt to induce us to pass off as a new and original article a hodgepodge of extracts from various speeches which the lady had ingeniously compiled and to which good-natured Mr. Taft had kindly affixed his name. Once at least The Outlook suffered, not from plagiarism but from plagiarists; the poem "If I Should Die To-Night," by Belle Tabor Smith, which appeared in our columns in 1873, found its way into the popular anthologies, was claimed by half a dozen non-authors and was reprinted under several claimants' names in scores of newspapers. So much for reminiscence! Mr. Sedgwick, of the "Atlantic Monthly," has told others more singular. To return to the question "Why do they do it?" Outright, vulgar, stupid cupidity is the commonest motive-stupid because the fraud is almost sure to be discovered. Sometimes the answer is vanity-we know of an instance where a wealthy business man used to carry around in his pocketbook and show to his friends as his a clever humorous poem written by one of the best-known versifiers in America but published anonymously. Rarely the offender is really so ignorant as to believe that "facts are facts," and may be taken, literary dress and all, without acknowledgment. On the other hand, there have been many unjust accusations of plagiarism because writers have used the same plot idea or gone to some common source for legitimate suggestions. Some years ago such a baseless charge was made against Robert Louis Stevenson as regards his "Imp of the Bottle," and we took some pains then to point out the difference between using historie material or ancient legend and stealing both words and thoughts. The plagiarist's offense is essential! |