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"D

O you know of a good book?" is probably the most frequent question asked by the average person in search of the mental recreation that comes from reading. The answer to this question does not lie in any analysis of novel writing from the standpoint of the author. The reader is the one who creates the demand. What does he want? That is the standpoint to be considered first.

And the first thing that suggests itself is that, as the standpoints of readers vary according to their environment and culture, there can be no standard by which a

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good" book can be judged. If this is true there would be no case. We should have to stop short. But experience shows that there is an extraordinary agreement about certain books among a large variety of read. ers. Experiments by librarians have brought out the fact that people who patronize a library rather aimlessly, and have no welldefined standards of their own, will begin first on the lower order of books, but will gradually, of their own accord, gravitate to higher levels. They will first be attracted by the good story, and that it is crudely written will not trouble them. Little by little, however, they acquire the rudiments of a taste that constantly tends to make them more careful in their selections.

But if this is true on the part of the most uncultivated readers, on the other hand it is also true that the most cultivated people, especially if their lives are greatly occupied, will often seek lower levels in search of that kind of abstraction that comes from a story of action. Thus we have Justices of the Supreme Court reading dime novels with avidity; we have Macaulay devouring this kind of literature. Presi Ident Wilson himself has confessed to this sort of dissipation.

There must, then, be a sort of middle ground where these two extremes meat; and it is to this middle ground that I would direct attention.

Dismissing those so-called "deeper" books that deal with history, philosophy, and science, many of which are read by large numbers of people, let us confine ourselves to fiction; and in fiction novels easily fall into three groups:

1. The character novel, in which everything else is subordinated to the delineation of certain types of human beings. These types are by no means photographic studies of real people, but are almost invariably the author's reactions to his own artistic sense of life. The novels of Henry James and George Meredith fall within this class. The people they portray are "built up" with a literary skill proceeding from the author's creative ability plus his conformity with the true principles of art, which hold good no matter in what field these principles may be expressed. For these same principles apply in music and painting and the drama.

2. The story of action, in which everything else is subordinated to the story itself, scarcely any attempt at art being displayed in the delineation of character and everything being leveled down to the course of the story, the construction of which must, from beginning to end, be

without any unnecessary impediment, so that the reader is carried on unconsciously, his attention held by a continuous sense of mystery, until the dénouement comes. It should be observed that this kind of story

ends with the book itself. The reader sighs, wishes that it might have been longer, is grateful that while reading it he has completely forgotten himself, and then proceeds to forget the book. A few weeks later it is extremely doubtful if he can tell anything about it.

3. The great novel, in which these two forms are blended into a whole. This occurs so rarely as to make the great novels extremely scarce, and even at that the great novels have blemishes. Fielding's "Tom Jones" is considered by leading critics to be the greatest English novel. It wanders along, from the modern reader's standpoint, rather aimlessly. Nevertheless it is one of the world's greatest novels, with the story element true to life and the character element true to literary art. To many lovers of Jane Austen her novels not only depict life true to literary art, but contain enough of a plot to carry them home. They may be read and re-read with increasing pleasure, and this in spite of Mark Twain and Mrs. Atherton. Yet there is no sense of excitement about them, slight incidents serving, because the author knows how to handle them, to create a dramatic interest.

In modern life Joseph Conrad's novels rank very high, yet there are many readers for whom they contain no interest. These readers do not rise to their story-telling power, and are cold to their characterization and fine English. This is due to Conrad's method of delineation, which he has developed from his own individual standpoint and which he has had to force gradually upon the attention of a growing body

of readers.

This leads me to group novels in two other ways. First, the novel of pure entertainment, and, second, the novel of racial depth. Conrad's novels are of the second type, are essentially allegories. They treat of man's struggle against the elemental forces of nature, and unless the reader himself has developed a genuine sense of the difference between the moral and the purely material he is almost sure to miss Conrad entirely. To read one of Conrad's books purely for entertainment, just as one reads a detective story, is utterly to misunderstand it. When a novelist has this sense of moral values, that is, when he is deeply imbued with man's eternal struggle against the powers of darkness, the value of his art depends upon how he can tell his story in such a way as to keep up the interest without leaning too far in the other direction. That is the main difficulty with so many of the so-called problem novels. They are frankly nothing but propaganda, and that is always bad art. Dickens was enraged against some of the grossest abuses of his age, but, being a great artist, he was able to tell his story and keep the attention of the reader while bringing home his lesson.

But these two types may be combined. Take the historical novel, which has four

elements, for it must not only tell a story and delineate character, but it must be suf ficiently accurate to contain a correct idea of the age of which it treats, and in addition it may treat of the interplay of moral forces and bring home a great lesson. To those who know nothing of Rome and care less, Hawthorne's "Marble Faun" would lose a large part of its remarkable atmos phere and quality, although without this knowledge it would of course carry home its charm. To American readers more or less familiar with the history of their own country"The Scarlet Letter" would, how ever, be better understood.

Briefly, if the modern novelist is concerned only with the sale of his books, his problem is to avoid anything that taxes too much the minds of his readers, the great mass of whom desire to make no effort in reading a book, but prefer that the author should do all of the work. Thus a novelist who deals with a strange people mustfrom this standpoint-recreate them in such a way that the reader is not made to feel that he is being fed up with history. That is why the popular novelist writes of the things and the people everybody knows about. When he is a great novelist, however, this is by far his best medium. It is probable that if Mr. Conrad could have written of things nearer home his audience would have been more responsive. In reading his stories the reader is always repaid for the trouble he takes; but in the case of Dickens, no matter if he descends to pathos, or how torrential may be the stream of his book, the reader is carried along in a kind of swirl of humor. and description and delightful surprises, and doesn't care much what happens to him. Mr. De Morgan's books contain a wealth of observation and delightful writing, but there is little order about them, and they miss fire from a lack of the principles underlying all art. To those who claim that art is nothing but personality I would register an immediate objection, for art is not alone personality, but it must be founded on a technique requiring even from genius itself a long apprenticeship. The history of all great artists is the history of one long struggle to achieve perfection.

The reader, therefore, in his search after the "good book," must begin with a definite idea of what he really wants. If his sole purpose is to pass away a certain period of time without any other result than to tide himself over that period, then he is apparently hopeless so far as good litera ture is concerned. But, as I have intimated in the beginning, even at that he is doing something, for as he plunges, one after another, into a number of exciting books that have only a story value and make no claims on his attention other than to keep him riveted to the spot while he is reading them, he is still bound, in the nature very of the case, to institute unconscious comparisons. He will discover that the "trashy" books are all of them built on the same formula, and, still quite unconsciously, he will discover that one of them is better written than another. At this point, in spite of himself, his sense of discrimination is aroused, and he is then on the path to better things. His next step will be the discovery that with books of genuine value the reader himself must always contribute something. He must exercise a certain patience and restraint, and must come to feel that there may be much more in the

turn of a phrase, or in the background which, for a certain purpose, the author creates, than he at first suspected. In short, the reader must help the author by taking the time and thought to understand him. Snap judgments of a book, based on the fatal habit of skimming it over, are too

common.

And still beyond the literary art displayed, the reader's own fundamental experience with life itself will be put to the test. If he discovers nothing in Conrad or Kipling beyond the story, about the telling of which there may be a divergence of opinion among those who think they know a story as a story, then he has still missed much, because he himself has missed many of the fundamental experiences of life.

THE NEW BOOKS

FICTION

True Love. By Allan Monkhouse. Henry Holt & Co., New York.

The title gives an erroneous impression of sweet sentimentalism. If anything, the book errs on the side of arid intellectualism. But the talk of the journalists, actor people, and theoretical internationalists is clever and epigrammatic. Their interests center around the "Manchester Herald," and it is obvious that the "Guardian" of that English city is in the author's mind. Whether it is worth while now to dissect the state of mind at the outbreak of the war of the English disciples of Tolstoi who believed that all war must be iniquitous and also beyond possibility, is perhaps debatable. One of the coterie of the book says in effect that all the world's crimes are due to national patriotism; but hazy, vague internationalism really underlay most of England's non-preparedness and lack of recognition of actualities. As fiction the book is not appealing, but it is keenly and sometimes brilliantly written.

Wind Between the Worlds (The). By Alice

Brown. The Macmillan Company, New York. Not so well-rounded and satisfying as Miss Brown's" Bromleigh Neighborhood.' But there is one capital character, a fine old New England grandmother, whose mind is keen, whose tongue is sharp, and whose heart is warm. One takes great joy in her scorn at the "psychic" trickery by which her daughter is led to hope that her dead soldier son can send her messages, and at all the sappy sentimentalism of the flabby talk that purports to be from those who have " "A scientist who begone over." lieves that a new radium-like substance he has found will give him wireless messages from the other world, and who, like most of the spiritists, ekes out by fraud the results he gets from his subconscious mind, is also a clear-cut figure fanatic, scientist, and dreamer in one. The loveplot is singular, but not convincing or quite well managed.

HISTORY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

Advancing Hour (The). By Norman Hapgood. Boni & Liveright, New York.

This is journalism, not literature nor history. The author demands freedom of speech and press, but he does not define either, nor does he indicate what, if anything, should be done by the State to protect the community from crimes committed by tongue and by pen. He devotes pages to the narration of incidents, some of very doubtful hearsay, in order to demonstrate, what no one doubts, that in time of war extravagant statements are made and ex

aggerated and fictitious stories are published. But his readers would never learn from him that the atrocities of the Germans in Belgium have been subjected to three independent official investigations, have been verified by oath, the time, place, and circumstances being given, and that no attempt has ever been made to deny the testimony or refute the conclusions reached. He demands the recognition of the Bolshevik Government in Russia as a de facto government without defining what a de facto government is. No government has a right to recognition unless it has both the power and the will to protect persons and property. Nor does he give to his readers any information respecting the official docments issued by the Bolshevik_Government, or the Address made by Lenine to his constituents, in which the principles of Bolshevism are defined with great frankness. The best chapter in the book is chap

It was one of E. V. Lucas's great moments in America when he held in his hand Lamb's drafts of "Roast Pig" and "Dream Children." Mr. Lucas wants to know what British collectors were doing to let America get hold of the many letters and manuscripts of Keats and Shelley, Burns and Byron, Lamb and Johnson. The second part of his article "From an American Note-Book" will appear in the next issue of The Outlook. It ranges from Coney Island to the Guaranty Trust Company; and from Boston's Beacon Street to Philadelphia's Franklin Inn. One gathers that he has fallen quite in love with America, despite his conclusion that: "For the Nation's good nearly every one, I fancy, has too much money."

ter eight on the advantages of co-operation, over both Socialism and government regulation of great combinations, as a remedy for industrial injustice. The book ends with an unqualified admiration for Mr. Wilson and his policies. Mr. Norman Hapgood is an effective pamphleteer; but excellences in a pamphleteer are fatal defects in a historian.

American World Policies. By David Jayne Hill. The George H. Doran Company, New York.

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The author in his preface condemns the Paris League of Nations, which he defines as a limited defensive alliance for the protection of existing possessions," and advocates one which will provide for "the enforcement of peace by conformity to international law as a body of just and equal rules for the conduct of nations in their relations with one another." Diplomat and historian, Dr. Hill is a recognized authority in international law. We do not know of any book so valuable as this for the information of editors, legislators, or other students of the League problem who wish to get in clear and authoritative form the objections to the Wilson, or Paris,

League and an understanding of the grounds_on which those objections are based. For such students the value of the book is greatly enhanced by the official documents appended to it, which include President Wilson's "Points," the "Covenant of the League," and the Senate's "Reservations."

Mexico in Revolution. By V. Blasco Ibañez. Translated by Arthur Livingston and Joseph Padin. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. Some Problems of the Peace Conference. By Charles Homer Hoskins and Robert Howard Lord. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

Sovietism. By William English Walling. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York.

Mr. William English Walling wrote in 1908 a volume on "Russia's Message" based on a careful and sympathetic study, especially of the Russian peasantry. Despite some extravagant claims for the creative power of the peasant population "in religion, in politics, in economic institutions," his volume is recognized as an authority in its peculiar field. This volume is therefore the more significant. It is a vigorous indictment of Bolshevism, which according to Mr. Walling is not an economic doctrine, nor a constructive programme, nor are the Bolshevists idealists, nor unselfish humanitarians, nor moral philosophers, nor representatives of the masses. They are not fighting against capitalism, nor against class rule, and have not developed any superior economic organization, and are not giving chief attention to feeding starving Russia or reorganizing its railways or other industries. They are fighting for power, for the rule of the proletariat, and against the religious institutions of the people, against peace, law and order, and are using as their avowed instruments compulsory labor, industrial dictatorship, the army, and the Red Terror. Mr. Walling quotes from official documents, from Soviet newspapers, and from the public addresses of Bolshevist leaders to support his charges. We do not know of any book from which the American reader can get a better photograph of Russian Bolshevism as portrayed and interpreted by the Bolshevists themselves.

BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS Rick and Ruddy. The Story of a Boy and His Dog. By Howard R. Garis. Illustrated. The Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass. Wonder Stories. The Best Myths for Boys and Girls. By Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Illustrated. The Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass.

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY Freethinkers of the Nineteenth Century. By Janet E. Courtney. O.B.E. Illustrated. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. By "Freethinkers" Miss Courtney means not an avowed disbeliever in Christianity but one who, whatever his beliefs or disbeliefs, discards the authority of tradition. In this sense she herself is a freethinker. We should have made a somewhat different selection; we should have included in the freethinkers of the nineteenth century Principal Jowett, who did so much to emancipate education; F. W.. Robertson, who emancipated the pulpit from the conventional requirements of his time, and Dean Stanley, who emancipated Bible students from their bondage to the letter. The influence of their life and teaching has been much more permanent than that of Charles Bradlaugh or Harriet Martineau. But Miss Courtney has done her work well; her brief biographies are intelligent, sympathetic, and discriminating, and are interesting reading.

THE American saloon has vanished. It

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frittered away its day of grace, and the cold intelligence of the American public is set against it once for all. Yet, blighting and iniquitous as the American saloon proved itself to be, we are compelled to admit that in some respects it supplied a legitimate social need. Is it not now high time for us to inquire what this pearl of value is that through all these years has found its lodging-place in the swine's snout? Since the saloon has disappeared, we should see to it that whatever component it contained of social value should be preserved and utilized for the continued benefit and enjoyment of men. What, then, is this subtle and potent ingredient-purity in the midst of impurity? Does it not lie in the deep and perennial desire of men to come together in free and independent good fellowship amid surroundings that minister to leisure and good cheer and physical comfort? And has not human nature always and everywhere decreed as an almost necessary accompaniment of such intercourse that men shall eat and drink together? Surely, if the charm exercised by the saloon resides in this enjoyment of unconstrained and democratic indulgence in talk and food and drink, it ought not to be hard to provide an acceptable substitute.

It seems to the writer of this article (one who is incurably social and gregarious, and at the same time, both in theory and practice, an enthusiastic investigator of the eating and drinking habits of mankind) that the English coffee-house of the seventeenth century supplies us with just such an example of a popular social institution as we are now in search of here in America as a substitute for the saloon. There remains in England to-day no vestige of the coffee-house as a distinctive institution; but for a century-from 1650 to about 1750-it exerted a unique and powerful influence on the national life. During the period of its supremacy it met definite and widespread needs-needs that we speed maniacs of the twentieth century, with our highly organized business, social, and political life, can scarcely conceive of. The coffee-house was at once a sort of specialization of the higher and more intellectual aspects of the tavern, a forerunner of the club life of the succeeding century, and a substitute for the daily newspaper. It afforded every requisite for comfort, convenience, and companionship, and all this at the slightest cost and with no temptation to debauchery. At the expense of only a penny a man could find light and warmth and congenial company; a place to receive his letters; access to the latest news; a common meeting-place for the transaction of business; untrammeled opportunity to discuss politics; the privilege of gleaning expert knowledge from the lips of the great or those who were near neighbors to the great; and, finally, the incentive to cultivate fine manners, correct decorum, and sound morals. All this in addition to gratifying his palate for the outlay of another penny-with the beverage that makes men wise and keeps them sober. It is not strange, in the light of all this, that the coffee-house should have come to be looked upon as an institution of national importance; that it should have seemed so fit and fascinating to all

classes; that it should have been called the citizen's academy; and that an Oxford wit should have said," Learning no longer remains a dry pursuit."

The practical task of establishing and operating coffee-houses attractively and successfully here in America must, of course, be left to expert students of society and to professional caterers. But even in these bread and butter and coffee and pipe and newspaper matters much valuable information may be drawn from the practices and material conveniences of the coffeehouse in the time of Dryden and Swift and Addison. There is, too, so much that is quaint and charming about these old Engquaint and charming about these old English coffee-houses that it may not be amiss to point out in some measure what constituted the rich and varied life of the typical

From The Early History of Coffee-Houses"

HEADING OF BROADSIDE, 1674

English coffee-house in its high and palmy days.

At that time each place had its own appropriate sign-a hand pouring coffee from a Turkish pot into a coffee-dish, a. sultan or a sultaness, or the Great Mogul in his chair of state. Once within the charmed circle of the coffee-house, we see a clean, well-sanded floor, orderly and decent stools and benches, and nicely polished tables. A great fire burns cheerily at the end of the room, and before it an abundance of water is kept continually boiling. Shining rows of coffee-dishes and coffee-pots are conveniently displayed about the room. A buxom dame or a pretty maid presides graciously at the bar; and within a glass case near at hand the letters of the regular patrons are so arranged that the addresses may easily be read. The coffeeboy or the master of the house plies industriously to and fro, supplying newspapers, pipes, and tobacco; replenishing the empty dishes; and welcoming or repelling newcomers as occasion may demand.

Upon entering, each person paid a penny at the counter, and coffee was usually twopence a dish. There was no other charge. Regular frequenters of the place had their favorite seats reserved for them, and were accorded special attentions by the mistress or the landlord. A certain amount of privacy could be secured by individual or fraternal groups by retiring into inner rooms reserved for guests of special pretensions. A man of fashion or leisure might be expected at the coffee-house between ten and twelve in the morning; and again after his two-o'clock meal from four

to six. He might then go to walk in the park or might attend the theater; or he might remain throughout the evening, as Dryden and many wits often did. When quest was made for a man on any account, it was not asked where he lived, but what coffee-house he was in the habit of frequenting. Some habitual loiterers and gossips made a practice of going about from one coffee-house to another, visiting sev eral of them between breakfast and bedtime. In the earlier days the coffee-house was a perfectly democratic and representa tive meeting-place. All classes and conditions of men came together; so that here might be seen every type of individual from the braggart and the bully to the fop and the philosopher. Hither came the wit, the beau, the politician, the country greenhorn, the soldier, the apprentice, the lawyer, the doctor, the clergyman, the man of the world, and even the gentleman of the road. Nobles and plebeians, Whigs and Tories, Quakers and Puritans and Cavaliers-all alike frequented the coffee-house. Men of like tastes and pursuits tended, of course, to meet together, with the inevitable result that each particular coffee-house soon came to have its own congenial group of patrons and to take on more or less the character of a club-but democratic none the less, and not until a rather late period crystallizing into distinctive club life.

The distinctive features of the old English coffee-house are almost identical with the popular features of the modern saloon accessibility, democracy, convenience, physical comfort, comradeship, information, amusement-all this at slight cost. Whatever modern institution is evolved as a substitute for the saloon must recognize and emphasize these universally attractive qualities. It is not amiss for the church to do what it can to supply the physical and social needs hitherto provided by the saloon. But when the church and philanthropy have done their utmost to reclaim men and open to them the doors of sober comfort and wholesome fellowship for mind and spirit, the great mass of men who have been habitual frequenters of the saloon will have been unreached. In large measure they must find or devise their own substitutes, or must find their satisfaction in new institutions that will arise naturally out of new conditions. Community centers will increase more and more; cities and States will be more prompt and intelligent than they have been in the past to provide from the public money public comforts and conveniences such as the saloon has been accustomed to supply; and business enterprise and foresight will recognize the new demand and will set about meeting it, in the spirit of mere gain, adapting their establishments as far as possible to the same desires that were formerly supplied by the saloon. Foremost among all these purely business undertakings, it would seem to the writer, should be the modernized coffee-house, modeled upon that of two hundred years ago, but, so far as possible, taking over the unique, popular, and unobjectionable features of the American saloon. Why should not the great wholesale coffee dealers of the country take lessons from the brewers, and thereby, at this transitional juncture in the social and drinking habits of the American people, vastly stimulate the sale of coffee through the establishment in opportune locations of hundreds of cozy, attractive, accessible, well-equipped and well-managed and advertised coffee-houses?

Hawaii's Serious Problems

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ELL how Hawaii came to be annexed to the United States. Do you think we acted wisely in accepting possession of these islands?

Explain the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Hawaiian Government. How are the Governor, the Senate, and the House of Representatives chosen?

Compare the Hawaiian Government with the Governments of Alaska, the Philippines, and Porto Rico.

Can the Legislature of Hawaii enact any laws it sees fit?

Suppose a question regarding the Constitutional privileges of a citizen of Hawaii should arise, where would the question be settled?

Do you think the United States Government should take a hand in solving the problems of Hawaii that are mentioned in this article?

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What points would include in " you wise and adequate programme of education and Americanization for the people of Hawaii?

What is the meaning of the "coolie class," evictions, sabotage, equitable, heterogeneous?.

The Public and the
Strikers

One newspaper says that the two million or more Brooklyn citizens " merely desired to be let alone so that they could go peaceably about their business unmolested and safe from bodily harm." Is this the extent of interest the public should take in strikes? Do you think the public ought to be willing to undergo inconvenience in order to help strikers achieve their objects?

As part of its plan for dealing with industrial disputes, The Outlook advocates the incorporation of labor unions. What good would this do? Why don't union leaders themselves advocate the incorporation of the unions?

The Outlook also advocates the right of collective bargaining. What does collective bargaining mean? Why is there any question about the right of collective bargaining?

If wage-earners did not strike, do you think they would be working for less than living wages? Do employers of men and women in your community show a voluntary practical interest in the social and economic betterment of their employees?

Ought wage-earners always to keep their contracts? Should there be a means of into by enforcing contracts entered wage-earners? Illustrate both of your

answers.

There seems to be considerable opposition on the part of labor unions to com

1 These questions and comments are designed not only for the use of current events classes and clubs, debating societies, teachers of history and English, and the like, but also for discussion in the home and for suggestion to any reader who desires to study current affairs as well as to read about them. -THE EDITORS.

pulsory arbitration. Should arbitration be compulsory or voluntary? If you were a wage earner, which would you prefer? Why?

Do you think industrial concerns should call in strike-breakers ?

What, in your opinion, are the purpose and the aim of organized labor in America?

Define the following: Incorporation, corollary, public sentiment, subterfuge, ultra-radical, impertinent.

Some of the most valuable books on labor movements and labor problems are "Labor and the Common Welfare," by Samuel Gompers (E. P. Dutton); "Labor's Challenge to the Social Order," by John G. Brooks (Macmillan); "The Casual Laborer," by C. H. Parker (Harcourt, Brace & Howe); "Labor and the Employer," by Samuel Gompers (E. P. Dutton).

The Hunger Strike as a
Weapon

Worn the World Over

For more than forty years Boston Garter has been a friend to men the world over. It not only keeps the old friends but makes many new ones each year. Most men ask for Boston Garter as a matter of course-the two words go so well together.

GEORGE FROST CO., Makers BOSTON

SELECTED GOSPEL HYMNS

A choice selection from the famous

MOODY & SANKEY GOSPEL HYMNS, 1 to 6 COMPLETE Herein are the favorite and the tenderest of the World's best hymns; those hymns which have endured the longest by the estimate of time. In durable cloth binding for all departments of the Church. $50 per 100, carriage extra. THE BIGLOW & MAIN CO., 156 5th Ave., New York

A Cash Offer for

Mr. MacSwiney from prison?

Many people do not know the plan of self-government which Great Britain has offered to Ireland. What is England's real attitude on Ireland?

What are the rights of Ireland as seen from the Sinn Fein view-point?

Is it the divisions within Ireland itself or want of good will on England's part that causes the delay of a peaceful settlement between England and Ireland?

Tell what you think of injecting the Irish question into American politics?

Do think this country should recogyou nize the so-called Irish Republic? Tell why or why not.

Would you be willing to have the United States engage in war with Great Britain over the question of Irish independence?

Both sides of Ireland's case are presented in the September (1920) number of "Current History Magazine." Read it. Also read "Ireland and England," by E. Turner (Century), and "Ireland a Nation," by R. Lynd (Dodd, Mead & Co.).

A Question and a

Comment

What is your opinion of The Outlook's argument against a federation of nations at the present time analogous to the federation of States in the United States? Support your opinion.

An editor of a Democratic newspaper charges the Republican party with playing politics with peace. Is there any proof that the editor is right?

There are those who believe that if the United States does not join the League of Nations as advocated by President Wilson and Governor Cox it will show that the United States is a coward. Is this so?

What is your definition for the following terms: Civilization, federation, analogous, confederation, contiguous?

Cash payment, from $1 to $5, will promptly be made to our readers who send us a cartoon or photograph accepted by The Outlook.

We want to see the best cartoons published in your local. papers, and the most interesting and newsy pictures you may own. Read carefully the coupons below for conditions governing payment. Then fill in the coupon, paste it on the back of the cartoon or print, and mail to us. THE EDITORS OF THE OUTLOOK 381 Fourth Avenue, New York

To the Cartoon Editor of The Outlook: The attached cartoon is clipped from the of the following

date If this particular clipping is selected for reproduction in The Outlook, I will accept One Dollar as payment in full for my service in bringing it to your attention. I agree that if it is not used it will not be returned nor its receipt acknowledged. Name.. Address..

To the Photograph Editor of The Outlook:

The attached photograph is the property of the undersigned and is submitted for publication in The Outlook. Postage is enclosed for its return if unavailable. It is my understanding that The Outlook agrees to pay $3 for this photograph if reproduced as a halfpage cut, or smaller, and $5 if reproduced in larger size than a half page. The enclosed brief account of the object or event depicted you may use as you see fit.

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