Courtesy of the New York Public Library

development of aviation. It is certainly strange that Congress has never been able to put through the enactment of an air code.

Three other recommendations are contained in the Committee's report. They call for:

A definite Government programme concerning civil and industrial uses of aircraft.

Co-operation of all Government agencies to strengthen the aircraft industry.

Public and business support through modified insurance rates and careful investment of private money.

The Committee is opposed to a direct subsidy of the aircraft industry.

Most important of all, the Committee recommends the establishment of a Bureau of Civil Aeronautics in the Department of Commerce. The Bureau would have broad powers to regulate and promote civil and commercial flying. The Committee holds that the Government

has a "public responsibility" to provide essential air navigation facilities.

The report of the Committee goes into practically every detail of civil aviation and lays out a programme along conservative, constructive lines. What is to come of it all depends upon Congress.

The Strike Goes On

A

GLEAM of hope in the anthracite strike is found in the request of Governor Pinchot, of Pennsylvania, to the respective heads of the miners' union and the operators' committee (John L. Lewis and W. W. Inglis) that they meet him separately and discuss with him the situation. A published personal letter from Governor Pinchot indicates his befrom Governor Pinchot indicates his belief that there is reasonable ground to expect a settlement before long.

It is almost amusing to compare the critical situation as to strike coal prices now and twenty-five years ago. The New York "World" in its "Twenty-five

Years Ago" thus reports what it said on November 2, 1900: "Price of anthracite raised to $5.50 per ton. 25 cents above the September price, following the wage advance of 10 per cent to end the strike of miners." Raised to $5.50! Coal and everything else has "gone up;" even so the man is lucky who can buy a ton of anthracite now at three times the strike price of 1900.

Reports from Washington state that Congress will take into serious consideration the facts and recommendations made by the National Coal Commission. The last Congress did not take this important report into any consideration, serious or otherwise. We again recommend those who would understand the coal situation and the life and work of the miner to procure "What the Coal Commission Found," a book, published by the Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, which gives a clear and full summary prepared by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt and other members of the staff of the Commission and commended by its Chairman, Mr. John Hays Hammond.

The Open Door for Whitman
THE

HE Authors Club, as a method of arousing interest in its effort to raise funds for a memorial to Walt Whitman, has arranged an exhibition in the New York Public Library. With the assistance of the library officials, of Mr. Alfred Goldsmith, the Whitman bibliographer, and many collectors, there are now on display books, pictures, and a great variety of other material illustrative of the life and work of New York's greatest poet. There are first editions, translations into foreign languages, newspapers and magazines to which Whitman contributed, manuscripts and letters, books about Whitman, photographs, paintings, busts, and caricatures.

Mr. Emory Holloway writes:

"The strange merging of poetry and journalism in Whitman will be less of a puzzle to one who examines with care the cases showing his varied work as journalist, war correspondent, and magazine writer. Doubtless the poetry will endure the longest, but one can easily misjudge the poet if the journalist be entirely forgotten. This dual function accounts, in a measure, for Whitman's often deplored reviews of his own books.

""Shut not your doors to me, proud libraries,' said Whitman, in one of his poems. Libraries have been known to do that, as well as bookstores; indeed,

this is the first time that a library has honored the poet with a special exhibition. But how many library shelves are now bearing books written about Whitman is suggested by the two cases devoted to volumes of this sort-volumes by Burroughs, Bucke, Symonds, Edward Carpenter; Bliss Perry, H. B. Binns, Johnston and Wallace, Kennedy, O'Connor, Traubel, Bazalgette, Grant Overton, Edith Wharton, and many more."

Answer the Call

FROM

ROM Armistice Day to Thanksgiving Day the yearly Roll Call of the American Red Cross is on. This is primarily for the renewal and extension of membership, but it also calls for support by the American people, for this is the only "drive," if it may be so called, of the Red Cross.

Those who listened to the statement over the radio made by John Barton Payne, Chairman of the Red Cross, were particularly surprised at the number and variety of the Association's foreign activities in this time of peace. It bore out fully the claim of the Red Cross to be "the one National agency for mobilizing the hearts and hands of the American people for the relief of suffering in every part of the world." What it has done at home all know.

President Coolidge, who is ex officio President of the Red Cross, takes a

warm and personal interest in its work, as was shown by an incident related by Judge Payne of the night when a second Japanese earthquake disaster was rumored to have followed the great disaster which had prompted the Red Cross immediately to send a half million dollars clear of "overhead." The President on the occasion referred to by Judge Payne personally called him up on the tele

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Here is the French general who failed as colonial administrator. To the credit of France, he has been called home to account for his record in Damascus

phone that night and urged that cables of inquiry should be sent without an hour's delay.

No better statement of the claim of the American Red Cross on the American people could be made than the President's appeal for the present Roll Call. He said: "Wherever and whenever an emergency has caused human suffering, the American Red Cross, to the extent of its very abundant ability, has administered relief. . . . The American Red Cross invites all to share in its inspiring responsibility. It needs strength in numbers; it needs you."

Pershing's Plebiscite

GE

ENERAL PERSHING, commander of the American armies in the World War, has proved himself to be an effectual man of peace. He has just averted what threatened the peaceful solution of South America's most dangerous international dispute. The plans for the plebiscite to decide whether the provinces of Tacna and Arica should remain under Chilean control or be restored to Peru will therefore now proceed under conditions more auspicious than ever.

It was by virtue of victory in war that Chile first secured control of TacnaArica, but held them subject to the decision of a plebiscite to be held ten years later. In 1894, however, when the tenyear period had expired, there was no

plebiscite, and has been none since. Peru declared that in the meantime the region had become Chileanized and that a plebiscite now would be unfair to her. After a conference at Washington, held at the invitation of President Harding three years ago, it was agreed by Chile and Peru that the question be left to the arbitration of the President of the United States. President Coolidge as arbiter decided upon a plebiscite under certain safeguards conducted by a commission composed of a Chilean representative, a Peruvian representative, and a representative of the United States. Peru hesitated some time before agreeing to participate, but finally agreed. All seemed to be going well when this new threat appeared.

Chile had not been willing to relinquish any of the authority she had been exercising in Tacna-Arica and had insisted that the holding of the plebiscite would be possible while she maintained the troops, carabineros, police, Secret Service men, and other officials she considered necessary. Peru, however, demanded certain "safeguards" and threatened to withdraw if her rights were not fully protected. As a matter of principle, therefore, General Pershing insisted that the Commission's authority must be supreme in determining what was necessary for the proper conduct of the plebiscite. Of course the proper safeguarding of the rights of both nations is precisely what the arbiter, President Coolidge, had in mind in appointing the Commission.

For the purpose of safeguarding the plebiscite General Pershing recommended to the Commission, over which he presided, provisions for the withdrawal of part of the Chilean military forces, for the reduction of police and other officers and the removal of such officers from civil posts, for the freedom of entry for all voters and persons legitimately connected with the plebiscite, for freedom of travel, for the right to carry on legitimate propaganda for the election, and for

for registration of voters, and set the date for the holding of the election itself. Perhaps such a method of settling an international dispute is not as exciting as war, but it is certainly less costly and is quite as likely to be just. At any rate, if it succeeds, it will have a great effect upon the settlement of other outstanding disputes among our neighbors of the southern continent.

Nor His Ox, nor His Ass

STA

TATISTICS recently issued by the Canadian Government show that during the past summer no fewer than 2,000,000 automobiles crossed the Canadian border from the United States, carrying, in all, some 9,000,000 passengers. For the most part they were tourists who traveled far afield, seeing the sights and enjoying all the freedom which comes from a common language, similarity of tastes and ideals. They came and saw and went home again-nine millions of them; a number, curiously enough, almost exactly equaling the total popula

tion of Canada.

In almost any other part of the world. a similar invasion of one country by another would have occasioned grave misgivings. Why did Canada view it with equanimity and the United States take it as a matter of course? Because, as one writer has well pointed out, politically Canada and America keep the Tenth Commandment; the "bugaboo of annexation," as President Harding so justly styled it in his speech in Canada just before his death, is long since vanished, and in no direction does either people covet his neighbor's goods, "neither his ox, nor his ass, nor anything

that is his."

It has been more than once truly observed that here lies the key to the whole problem of world peace; if the countries of the Old World really ceased to covet their neighbors' goods, the world's munition factories might close their doors. News from Luxor

FTER a long interval we have reports of renewed activity in the Tutankhamen tomb.

It is three years ago this month since Howard Carter's diggers came upon a slab of stone that proved to be the first of a flight of steps that led down to the entrance of the tomb. Lord Carnarvon, who furnished the funds for this excavation, died the following year. Fifteen Fifteen months later the massive lid of the stone

sarcophagus, in the fourth of the nestlike series of shrines that filled the burial chamber, was raised and the superb golden lid of the mummy case was disclosed.

From that time up to a few weeks ago no further steps were taken to wrest from the tomb its last secret-the proof that the body of Tutankhamen was within. within. The sarcophagus was covered again with its heavy granite lid and left in peace. The reason for this delay was twofold. Dissension between Mr. Carter and the Egyptian authorities caused a long halt; the proper handling, preservation, and preparation for exhibition of the multitude of art objects, domestic utensils, and personal paraphernalia discovered was a delicate task, interfered with greatly by the crowds of tourists and other sightseers.

The recent news is that the granite cover of the sarcophagus, weighing a ton and a quarter and cracked by some ancient accident, has again been raised, the golden effigy of the young king with the symbolic face of the god Osiris has been for the first time lifted, and within has been found a mummy case with a linen outer covering, on the upper part of which are painted what are supposed to be the features of the young king's face.

Since the day when the fourth shrine was found intact, its doors marked with the original burial seals of the king, there has been little or no doubt that the body of Tutankhamen is within this tomb. There is a strong feeling that investigation should not go further. The claims of history, art, and archæology have now been satisfied as far as they are likely to be, and the exposure of the actual mummy, freed from its bandages, would serve no purpose. There should be due respect for even the dead of antiquity.

Tutankhamen's name will be prominent in Egyptology not because he was a great king, for he was not, but because his tomb is the only one which was found, not intact, to be sure, for robbers had visited it, but still filled to overflowing with such a mass and variety of things that from them can be constructed a vivid picture of the beautiful art of his age and of the inner life of the royal family and its entourage.

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circumstances at the international conference in Peking on revision of Chinese tariffs. China has been seeking for years. to get rid of the system of foreign restriction and control of her customs duties, which dates back to the treaty of Nanking with Great Britain in 1842. The American delegation at Peking has adopted the far-sighted policy of backing China's demand for the right, at the end of three years, to enforce her own tariff law.

Plans for the present negotiations were made at the Washington Conference in 1922, but the treaty adopted there was only ratified fully last August. The Chinese Government, in sending out invitations shortly afterward for a conference in Peking, reminded the signatory nations that the Chinese delegation. at Washington had reserved the right to bring forward the demand for tariff autonomy. This was contrary to the

wishes of most of the European signatories and of Japan; but American influ

ence was decisive in bringing the conference to pass without further delay.

As the conference met on October 26 hostile military factions in central and southern China were challenging the authority of the Peking Government. Doubts of its competence to hold the conference were expressed in some of the delegations. The conference nevertheless has continued.

China opened the sessions boldly by asking the right to set her own customs schedules not later than January 1, 1929. She offered to do away with the troublesome provincial taxes on goods in internal transit, known as "likin," but proposed at the same time that she be allowed to make increases in her tariff far beyond the programme of the Washington agreement.

American proposals, submitted by Minister MacMurray, have shown our willingness to go beyond the narrow terms outlined at Washington, though they do not meet Chinese desires in the matter of tariff increases. The most important point, however, is the favorable recognition of China's request for tariff autonomy in 1929. This has been the chief issue in the conference.

The other delegations have indicated their agreement in principle with the American proposals. Whatever the final decision on tariff rates, the concession of this central point marks a new victory for American diplomacy in the Far East. China could not have secured it without the powerful aid of the United States as a friend in a difficult time of need.

Royal Ambassadors

of Good Will

G

REAT BRITAIN knows the value of

the Prince of Wales as an ambassador of good will. Now America has a chance to greet and know two such ambassadors of royal blood from the Orient. The sister of the Emperor of Japan, Princess Asaka, accompanied by her husband, himself a member of the reigning family, recently arrived in New York after a three years' absence from their homeland. They have been in Europe studying economic, financial, industrial, and social conditions.

The Prince and the Princess know something of the West besides the serious subjects they set out to study. Both the Prince and the Princess delight in West