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paid by the state to observe and even to uphold the proprieties. A government, be it republican or royal in form, depends upon prestige. To undermine that prestige is an offense, best to be described, perhaps, in the Shakespearean couplet:

There's such divinity doth hedge a king,

That treason can but peep to what it would.

There is a reason why the humors and scandals of high life in Europe-let us add, America--matter more than they used to do. Asia and Africa are learning to read. And their judgment of our civilization is based upon what they hear of our manners and see in our movies. The British, with an Empire, dare not ignore this aspect of the case. If King Edward, a monarch hard pressed for time, dispensed on occasion with certain formalities, it was because he put his whole trust in the honor of men like Sir Almeric Fitz Roy whose birth and breeding suggested noblesse oblige. The monarch and the nobility are supposed, as it were, to belong to the same club and to have interests in common. It is thus on an assumption of reticence that for half a century Sir Almeric Fitz Roy has received emoluments from the state which in the aggregate exceed $250,000. A civil servant of the rank and file who broke faith with the rules would be severely disciplined. Indeed, the interests of the nation are protected by an Official Secrets Act which junior clerks forget at their peril.

Sir Almeric has not, of course, revealed confidential document. He has been merely indiscreet. And in such cases King George cannot repudiate anecdotes which are harmful because they are humiliating in their pettiness. Would any good be done by hitting back at Sir Almeric, by stopping his pension and depriving him of his orders of knighthood? For if he is to be thus punished, what about other scribes? "Margot" Asquith has not been entirely guiltless of speech and print. She got away with a good many anecdotes, not excluding the personal idiosyncrasies of King Edward VII. Nor has she indicated repentance. Yet "Margot" is a countess. And there are others. Only this year Parliament has had to insist that Prime Minister Baldwin enforce on the prolific Viscount Birkenhead the rule that Cabinet Ministers do not accept assignments as free-lancemen of the

daily press. It is only after they have
left office that, like Mr. Lloyd George,
they may write for Mr. Hearst.

About the case of Sir Almeric Fitz
Roy there are peculiar circumstances.
The name Fitz Roy means that this gen-
tleman is born of blood royal. Belong-
ing to the ducal house of Grafton, he is
descended from that Barbara Palmer
whose intimacy with King Charles II
was notorious. Young Almeric took a
First in history at Oxford, where, as a
Balliol man, he came under the spell of
the redoubtable Jowett. But if he was
ensconced in comfortable armchairs
which he occupied for life, the reason
was aristocratic influence. Doubtless
he has done sound and useful work.
Yet his chief merit has been his pedi-
gree.

Candor compels us to add that his
career was abruptly ended. During the
war a certain laxity was to be observed
in the streets of London. The police
were ordered to renew vigilance, and
they arrested numerous suspects, among
whom was a curate, accused of looking
too earnestly and found to be almost
blind.

Returning from dinner one eve-
ning, Sir Almeric, already in his seven-
ties, was seen by the police patrolling
Hyde Park to address people who were
passing by. Angrily resisting, he was
arrested, charged, released on bail of
£500, convicted, and fined £5. On ap-
peal, the case was quashed. But it was
followed by an immediate retirement of
the Clerk of the Privy Council. For a
proud man of stainless record such a
climax to life's drama was a tragedy.
It is a pen thus acidulated that has
inscribed these reminiscences.

Political Peace in Jugoslavia
A

VERY important political change
has taken place in Jugoslavia.
Hitherto this strongest and largest Bal-
kan state, with almost twelve million
population, has been weakened by the
bitter struggle of two political national
parties: the Serbian Radicals of Pashich
(the present Prime Minister of Jugo-
slavia) and the Croat peasants of Radich
(the leader of a strong parliamentary
minority). Nothing, it seemed, could
reconcile these two enemies. But the
reconciliation came; a "treaty of friend-
ship and co-operation" was concluded
about a month ago between the two lead-
ers and their parties and a coalition Cab-
inet including Pashichists and Radichists
has been formed by Mr. Pashich. This

Cabinet is now working smoothly and effectively. As far as one can judge, the reconciliation is likely to be not only verbal and provisional but serious and lasting.

The

Jugoslavia is inhabited by three kindred though distinct peoples of the Slavonic group-Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes who were brought together after the termination of the Great War. Serbs are the strongest both numerically (they form more than one-half of the total population) and politically (they formed before the war an independent state, while Croats and Slovenes lived under the rule of Austria-Hungary). The dispute between Pashich and Radich has been in its wider aspect a dispute between two of the three brother-peoples, namely, the Serbs and the Croats.

The End of a Bitter Dispute

TH

HE cause of the dispute has been rooted in the very Constitution of the country. Profiting by their numerical superiority and by the preponderance that was given to them by the rôle they had played during the Great War, the Serbian Radicals and Democrats succeeded in drafting that Constitution, in spite of the protests of the Croats and of the Slovenes, along strictly centralistic lines. Self-government in local affairs was granted neither to the Croats nor to the Slovenes. All governmental affairs were thrust upon the Parliament and upon the central bureaucratic machinery manned mainly, if not exclusively, by Serbs.

This aroused the dissatisfaction of the well-balanced Slovenes and the indignation of the less-cultured Croats. Mr. Radich, together with his party began to boycott the Parliament, and refused to recognize the Constitution and even to swear allegiance to the King. For five years he struggled against the ruling Serbs, and especially against Mr. Pashich, the author of the Constitution and the leading Serbian statesman. A year ago, it is said, he even concluded a secret agreement with the Communists of Moscow under which they were to help him in his attempts at separating Croats from Jugoslavia. But the Jugoslav authorities arrested him and some of his colleagues and virtually outlawed his party.

Meanwhile Mr. Radich's Croat supporters, mostly peasants, gradually began to forget their grievances against the Serbs. The irreconcilable attitude of their leader became rather inconvenient

International

R. Norris Williams (left) and Vincent Richards (right), winners of the National Doubles
Championship, with Mr. J. W. Mesereau, President of the U. S. Lawn Tennis Association

existence.

It is also to be hoped that the increase of the Croat influence in the country will contribute to the improvement of relations between Jugoslavia and Bulgaria. It is the Serbs who have been Bulgaria's enemies, but not the Croats, whose interests have never come into conflict with Sofia.

ston and "Peck" Griffin, fairly recent Davis Cup veterans, practically off the courts, like leaves before the storm. Big, powerful men, aggressive, crafty, presumed to be ultimate masters of doubles strategy-Patterson of the smoking service and the unplayable smash, Hawkes of the sharp and oddly breaking service and the lightning cross-court lefthanded scoring shots-they loomed over the boyish Richards and the slight Williams like a pair of ogres over schoolboys. But Richards and Williams were in giant-killing mood. Whence came their superb pace save from exquisite style no one knows. But the plan of their campaign was evolved in their own fertile brains.

Against the battering strokes of the invaders the Americans matched wonderful placing the rapier against the mace, and against the obvious if sound generalship of the Australians the Americans added occasional touches that could have been born of nothing but genius and daring, the high valor of the true champion. For instance, the Australians sought to offset Williams's best stroke,

[graphic]

to them as placing Croatia in the posi- beginning of a new era in its political his wonderful backhand cross-court, by tion of an unpopular part of the country. Economic ties between Croatia and Serbia grew closer with every day. Finally it became evident that Mr. Radich remained isolated in his uncompromising attitude; and that if he should hold out longer he might lose his influence with. his Croat electors, but that, on the other hand, the reconciliation with the Serbs would bring him again to power, would mean jobs for his political friends, and

America's Doubles Triumph

would immediately improve the posi- Nor

tion of Croatia. These considerations prompted him to capitulate. In the last days of July he and his party swore allegiance to the King and to the Constitution and disavowed all their former activities. Thus the patriarch of the Serbian politics, Mr. Pashich, won a great victory. With political wisdom he received his former enemy with open arms, declared that all former misunderstandings were forgotten, gave four seats in the Cabinet to the Radichists, and proclaimed the friendship and the brotherhood of the two peoples.

This is a very important step towards the consolidation of Jugoslavia. No immediate danger of dissolution seems to threaten it any longer. The Jugoslav papers are probably right in referring to the reconciliation as to a turning-point in the history of the country and to the

OTABLE in many ways was the
triumph of the American pair, R.
Norris Williams 2d, of Philadelphia, and
Vincent Richards, of New York, over the
formidable Australian invaders, Gerald
L. Patterson and John B. Hawkes, on the
famous Longwood turf in the final round
of the National Doubles Championship
of America. It was notable, first, in that
it cast a shadow of what is to be ex-
pected in the final of the Davis Cup,
whether the challenger come from France
or the antipodes; second, in that a pair
put together only three weeks before the
big match outplayed, not only in the ac-
tual making of strokes but in the maneu-
vering that is known as court general-
ship, probably the greatest doubles team.
ever sent to this country, and hitherto
impressively unbeaten.

Just the day before Patterson and
Hawkes had driven "Little Bill" John-

keeping the left-handed Hawkes on the usually wrong side of the middle line, which was supposed ordinarily to "spike" the Philadelphian. It did have the effect for the moment of compelling him to relinquish his favorite shot, and to make errors in attempting the forehand down the alley, the stroke for which he had not been set. But that did not last long, for soon Williams was shooting them across to Hawkes, let the errors fall where they might, with the result that in the end he mastered him.

The American craft was far more subtle than that. The ball was kept in play long enough, preferably on too low a plane for Patterson to smash, to draw the Australians together and pass them down the outside alleys, and then to spread them apart and volley down the middle alley. A clever variation of this was to drive them apart and then work the outside alleys with just enough delay on the stroke to catch them hurrying to their positions in mid-forecourt.

The rhythm of the play of Richards and Williams had something of the enthrallment of music. The Australians were more of the staccato type. The crowning triumph of the Americans lay in their ability to put together service aces when there was need for them, t in a row, three in a row; Richards

[graphic]

one game with four strokes. Nothing could be closer to perfection than that. As usual, the Longwood tournament was run without hitch, without even marking time at any stage. When one considers that there were five separate tournaments under way simultaneously, the achievement would be remarkable were it not for the atmosphere with which the famous club is surrounded. This was tennis at its superlative.

"The Father of American Chemistry"

DR. CHARLES F. CHANDLER, who died

on August 25, was a great chemist and a great teacher; for nearly seventy years also he used his knowledge and skill to render public and humane service. A notable instance occurred when he was President of the New York City Board of Health. It is told so dramatically in the New York "Sun" that we reprint the complete narrative of the incident:

When cholera and typhoid fever were threatening the city, he undertook a campaign against unsanitary curb shops for the sale of meat at Washington Market. The proprietors resisted his crusade with all their resources of political pull and obstructive law. One night Dr. Chandler assembled 150 laborers, 60 sanitary policemen, and all the medical inspectors of the Board of Health, of which he was acting chief. At the head of this band he marched upon the market, tore down the offending stalls, put all the meat and equipment worth saving in safe places, and swept the streets clean. The proprietors howled; sued the city; they had only their trouble for their pains. A newspaper of the day remarked ironically that it was reported the Czar of Russia was about to establish a board of health to

increase his power. But the unsanitary shops were never restored.

A long list might be made of the ways in which Dr. Chandler used analysis to expose fraud and adulteration and to secure honesty and purity of products. Apart from his professional skill he was active in the movements for sanitary and decent tenements and for the training of nurses; and as head of the New York State Charities Aid Association he was able to push forward and enforce helpful and humane efforts to improve the people and the cities. One writer says: "He One writer says: "He was the city's great analytical defender, trying to keep out everything that defiled or worked physical abomination or made a lie as to its ingredients."

International

Dr. Charles F. Chandler

break between operators and miners is short in duration, the attention of our National legislators is already called for vigorously from various directions. Thus Mr. John Hays Hammond, President of the Federal Coal Commission, has, according to news despatches of September 1, visited the President at Swampscott for the express purpose of urging him to recommend to Congress the enactment of laws suggested in the Commission's report. It will be remembered that this report was at the time approved by President Coolidge and that action was recommended. The legislative branch of the Nation calmly ignored, not only the Congress, but the President of the United States.

Another way by which the attention of Congress should be aroused is seen in the book entitled "What the Coal Commission Found." This is edited by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt, the secretary of the Commission, and others. It not only has in it material for thorough study of the facts as known, but suggests directions in which facts should be sought and includes specific recommendations as to action which should be taken. These recommendations include the establish

Dr. Chandler was almost eighty-nine years old when he died, and he began his scientific work in New York when he was only nineteen years old. His classes at Columbia University were for many years famed for the vigor and directness ing of permanent Federal coal superof the instruction and the friendly personality of the teacher.

Thousands

of former pupils will recall their debt to Dr. Chandler and honor his memory.

Three Coal Strikes in Four Years

Ο

NE reason put forth for what seems to be a rather general belief that the present hard-coal strike will be short is that the soft-coal industry would naturally dislike to have the strike in continuance when the new Congress comes into session in December. If that state of things should come about, it is more than likely that Congress would pay sharp attention to the demand of the consumer that measures should be taken to avert in advance such industrial clashes as have occurred in 1922, 1923, and now again in 1925. It has been pointed out repeatedly that the last Congress did absolutely nothing and apparently cared absolutely nothing about the proposals made by the National Coal Commission.

apparently

But even if the not very inimical

vision in the form of a Coal Division in the Interstate Commerce Commission. Many advocate such a plan; others point out that with undoubted advantages it would share some of the deficiencies of the Railway Labor Commission, and in particular that the rights and efforts of miners who are not members of the unions grouped in the United Mine Workers' association would not have due attention.

One notable finding of the Federal Commission should receive approval. In all the arguments of the operators it is assumed that any increase in wages must mean at least a great increase in the price of coal to the consumer. This is logical only if it is assumed also that the ultimate owners of the coal industry (that is, really, the stockholders in all companies which handle or sell coal except the retail dealers) should not under any circumstances take less profits than they have now. But that is an open question, and the more so as the facts were not ascertainable even by the Federal Commission. On this point the Commission says: "Because of the large increase in operators' margins per ton since the strike of 1922, and the possibility of fur

ther increase in prices as a result of the recent settlement [1923], we believe that such current publicity as to costs, margins, and profits should begin at once. Unless the public is protected by publicity of accounts, we are apprehensive that the concentrated control of the industry may take indefensible profits." Another suggestion of the Commission is for "special compulsory investigation when the prospect of failure to renew an agreement is imminent, so that the public may have a chance to be heard before conflicts arise."

These are two of many suggestions, all of which should be carefully considered. by the people and by Congress without the least reference to the question whether this strike is short or long.

It cannot be said that either operators or miners show any great distress about the situation. One view about this lack

to their business in this direction and even suggest that the increase of this competition from soft coal, oil, and gas may in time reduce coal prices and coal profits.

It is said that up to August 8 there had been produced at the mines about 56,000,000 tons of hard coal out of about 90,000,000 tons, the average yearly product. This makes immediate suffering and inconvenience from coal shortage unlikely; but if the strike continues into the middle of winter the situation may very easily come to be that which we had in the winter of 1922-3.

One thing has been gained from the point of view of the consumer and the people generally-that is the almost unanimous recognition of the truth that this coal industry is in a very special way affected with a public interest.

French soil. The French fought till it hurt. No one at the time considered America's relations to France in 1917 and 1918 as mere business dealings. Even if.. they had so considered them, they would have had to take into account as balanced against America's cash the contributions France had made in the destruction of property, the wiping out of homes, and the sacrifice of human life.

It is true that France "hired our money;" but it is equally true that she hired it to spend it mainly, if not wholly, in this country for the manufacture of munitions, and that later our army in France would have been helpless without the munitions which France had accumulated. Americans are not the sort of people to treat money borrowed under such conditions as if it had been borrowed from a bank for a money-making

of excitement is expressed in the New Uncle Sam Not a Usurer transaction. Uncle Sam is not a usurer.

York "World" as follows:

The coal strike which begins tonight will enable the operators to sell surplus stocks, possibly at advanced prices. The miners are getting a solid vacation when the weather is good instead of intermittent lay-offs later; they hope that public pressure will give them the wage increase. The only real worry is John Smith's. He knows that a stoppage means profiteering, anxiety, inconvenience, perhaps suffering. But John Smith can have his gain also from this strike if he will but arouse himself and Congress to insist upon it.

The reason behind all this calmness, so some students of the question believe, is that the operators are not now trying to offend the consumer by talking higher prices, but are trying to make him feel happy that he is only continuing to pay the already excessive prices. So too these reasoners say that the miners do not expect to get higher wages now, but they think the best way of keeping present wages where they are is to clamor for more. They are very much in earnest about getting the check-off privilege in the hard-coal field and perhaps are influenced by a feeling that the strike will help the union miners in the soft-coal field, where the number of miners and the number of mines are admittedly much too great.

However this may be, the hard-coal industry is admittedly facing real competition from other sources of producing heat, domestic and industrial. The operators talk frankly of the danger

.

Ο

N foreign policies, as well as domestic, public opinion has a right to make itself heard. It has a right to urge upon the Government regard for the material interests of the Nation. It equally has the right to urge upon the Government regard for interests that are higher than the material. When a matter is under negotiation between this Government and another government, every organ of public opinion that discusses the points at issue is performing a public duty if it discusses the matter honestly and with frankness to the limit of discretion. This we propose to do.

For the purposes of the war and of reconstruction after the war France at various times borrowed somewhat more than three billion dollars. Her authoritative spokesmen have declared that she has every intention of repaying this sum. The whole question at issue concerns the time and method of payment and the amount of interest on the debt.

The money loaned to France by the American Government was borrowed by the American Government from the American people. The loans which the American people made, however, were not ordinary loans of a commercial character. When we bought Liberty Bonds, we did not buy to make a living as money-lenders. We bought "till it hurt." The object of those loans was the winning of the war and the defeat of Germany. That war was fought mainly on

If France and America were individuals, the problem would be much simpler. Under similar circumstances the creditor, if prosperous, might legitimately remit all interest on the debt, or even cancel it altogether and count it a part of the price of liberty. But governments cannot act with the freedom of individuals. They are trustees. The property they handle is not their own, but the people's. As conscientious trustees the respective governments cannot be guided solely by generous impulses, but must consider their own people's rights.

As a wise trustee the American Government is free to take into full account the devastation of France, the unequal share of the burden which she was required to bear in the war, and the consequent effect upon her capacity to repay the loans. On the other hand, the American Government cannot disregard the necessity of seeing that its own. Budget is balanced and of taking due care that whatever it does shall not have a harmful effect upon international economic or political relations.

In taking these facts into consideration the American Government, it has been semi-officially announced, will not regard the arrangement with Belgium as a precedent. This has been interpreted generally as an indication that the American Government will not concede as much to France as it did to Belgium. There were reasons for giving Belgium consideration which do not apply to any other country. In particular, a

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