BY THE WAY "With the Paris Salon closed and the German galleries in most cases transformed into hospitals, London can, without cavil, claim to be the remaining center of such artistic interests as have survived the clash of arms," an English correspondent of an American art journal asserts. The Royal Academy held its usual exhibition this year, followed by the "Old Water Color," the Royal Institute," the International," the "British Artists," and the "PainterEtchers." The attendance and the sales, it is claimed, have been but little below the average. What was called in 1775 "the grandest house in North America " is described in the "House Beautiful" for August as still our finest example of Colonial architecture. It is the Royall House at Medford, Massachusetts. A pageant consisting of scenes from the history of this fine mansion was recently held in Medford. The house is now used as a museum. In many sections of the Middle West it is the custom to limit the hours of labor on the farm, regardless of where the sun happens to be when the time limit is reached. So states a Southern farmer, arguing for a similar practice in his section. This, he says, is imperative if the brightest boys and girls are to remain on the farm and help to develop better rural life conditions. Inkstands, a stationer says in " Office Appliances," are far more apt to break when filled with red or purple ink than when they contain black ink. "A ray of light through a blue curtain," he says, "will often cause an inkstand to pop open, as will a ray of light from a prism." To wash inkstands in hot water without breaking them, this expert says, requires care. "You can boil water in a glass without its breaking if you allow the glass to stand until it is cool before the water is poured out; but if the boiling water is poured out of the glass, the cool atmosphere will break the glass at once." It was not an Irishman, but a distinguished Pennsylvania Congressman who is credited with the remark, "I see before me many faces that I have not shaken hands with for a long time." The circulation of the London "Daily Mail," according to an article by Sydney Brooks in the "North American Review," has reached the astonishing figures of 1,300,000 or 1,400,000. Two features are cited to account for this circulation, "never before dreamed of in the history of the British daily press." The paper is telegraphed each night to Manchester, to Paris, and to the Riviera, to be published in editions planned for those points. The other feature is the Fourth Page-a page of special articles. "For sheer breadth of interest," says Mr. Brooks, "I know of nothing in the British or American press that even begins to approach these Fourth Page . articles in the 'Daily Mail.'" In an editorial tribute to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the "Dramatic Mirror" says that the time has passed when that manufacturing city was the subject of cheap gibes on the part of every traveling man who needed an anchorage for a funny story. "It has come into its own as a commercialized center; it has capital and standing; and, especially," says the "Mirror" in enumerating its virtues, it has "one who is regarded by the theatrical profession as the salt of the earth-Honest' John Williams, of Oshkosh," a man concerning whom, it is asserted, there is a saying, "As good as 'Honest' John Williams's word." Americans who feel a tinge of resentment at the news that Henry James, the distinguished novelist, has taken the oath of allegiance as a British subject should remember that Mr. James has lived in England for many years; and that when they commend the naturalization of foreigners who come to live in America they are estopped from criticising similar action on the part of Americans who elect to reside permanently abroad. Newspaper enterprise in putting out editions to appeal to special classes of readers is exemplified in the "ball-grounds edition" of a metropolitan daily. When the crowds are leaving the bleachers and the grand stand in the rush for the home-going cars, they are met by newsboys selling papers which contain an account of the game they have just witnessed. A special kind of linotype, called the "fudge machine," is used for the rush work on this edition. The port of Liverpool, England, normally the greatest cotton market of Europe, has today in its warehouses a greater quantity of cotton than ever before-1,626,260 bales, an increase of 743,850 bales over the quantity stored at this time last year. Every available building, it is said, has been converted into a cotton warehouse. Writing of Edwin M. Stanton in the "Atlantic," Gamaliel Bradford tells this story illustrating the fact that Lincoln's brusque Secretary of War sometimes succumbed to manners equally brusque : "Colonel Dwight went to the Secretary to get a pass for an old man to visit his dying son. The pass was refused, whereupon the Colonel said: 'My name is Dwight, Walton Dwight, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 149th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. You can dismiss me from the service as soon as you like, but I am going to tell you what I think of you.' He did, and got his pass." BY THE OUTLOOK COMPANY, 381 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT, PRESIDENT. N. T. PULSIFER, VICE-PRESIDENT. FRANK C. HOYT, TREASURER. ERNEST H. ABBOTT, SECRETARY. ARTHUR M. MORSE, ASSISTANT TREASURER. TRAVERS D. CARMAN, ADVERTISING MANAGER. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTIONS-FIFTY-TWO ISSUES- THREE DOLLARS IN ADVANCE. ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE NEW YORK POST-OFFICE THE OUTLOOK COMPANY, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York City "most artistic... yet inexpensive STAINED "CREO-DIPT" SHINGLES 17 Grades 16, 18, 24-inch; 30 Colors They are rot, decay, worm, and weather-proof. Cheaper Send for Sample of Colors on wood and Book picturing 89 beautiful homes ' Architects, Considine & Haskell, Elmira, N. Y., for J. W. THE OUTLOOK ADVERTISING SECTION THE OUTLOOK ADVERTISING SECTION-FINANCIAL New York and New Jersey Railroad First 5s, which are a first mortgage on the lines between Hoboken and Thirty-third Street. The average income available for the interest on the Hudson and Manhattan 5s is $2,566,309, and the amount required to pay the interest is $1,838,255; out of which $50,400 must also be taken for interest on equipments. Of the Adjustment Income 5s, 1959, there are outstanding $33,574,000, on which interest is being paid at the rate of 2 per cent per annum. The present price around 70 and interest is the lowest at which the First and Refunding 5s have ever sold. We do not look for any particular change in the condition of the company which will improve the quotation. The bonds ought, however, to advance in price with any general improvement in the bond market. Do you know of any municipal bonds that have failed to pay at maturity or within a short time after maturity? If so, can you give the reason for their failure to pay? There have not been recently, so far as the published information shows, any cases in which a municipality has failed to meet its bonds promptly at maturity. The Atchison incident mentioned in the Financial Department of The Outlook of May 26 is the latest case of this kind which has come to our attention Maurice B. Dean, 20 Broad Street, New York City, has published a book, "Municipal Bonds Held Void," which gives several hundred instances where issues have failed of payment, together with the reasons for default. This book ought to be obtainable in the public libraries. This whole subject is of a very technical nature, and is not usually of interest except to those who have to do with the legal proceedings affecting municipal issues. The proportion of defaults to the number of issues has been, of course, very small. The question of validity is becoming better understood, precedents are fairly well established, and attorneys are specializing in this branch of the law. Furthermore, the banking houses are making it a point to look out for their clients in this respect, so that defaults are becoming less and less frequent. If you have any specific instance of default in mind, we may be able to obtain the details for you. 7% Do You Wish a Safe and Sure Investment? California Street Improvement Bonds EMPIRE SECURITIES CO. times the amount loaned will net you 6%. Write for list. Devereaux Mortgage Co. 601 CONCORD BUILDING, 6% Afford the safest possible investment. We offer these attractive se- CRONAN and let me know if you would consider it a safe and conservative investment for a person whose entire capital is small. Also please tell me whether long or short term investments are better. The Argentine 6 per cent bonds are, in our judgment, safe and conservative. If your capital is small, we suggest that you diversify your investment as much as possible. Under present conditions investors seem to prefer short-term securities. As a result, longterm bonds are selling at more attractive prices, because they are in less demand. Whether short-term or long-term bonds are best suited to your requirements is a question which you will have to decide for yourself, depending on your particular circumstances. If you do not anticiAs an Outlook subscriber, I beg to ask if you pate the necessity for liquidating within a year or would do me the favor to look over the inclosed two, we believe it will be to your advantage to circular regarding the Argentine Treasury Bonds, I buy the long-term issues. As the book which we have mentioned records hundreds of cases, it is, of course, impossible for us to begin to send you the information it contains. The destruction of the Arabic occurred after the editorial forms of The Outlook had gone to press; the importance of the event is such that this supplementary sheet is added B THE ARABIC-GERMANY'S ANSWER The Outlook Office, Friday morning, August 20, 1915. Y sinking the Arabic, Germany has repeated the crime of the Lusitania. All testimony the day after the event is that there was no warning. If that is established, all other facts are subsidiary. The sinking of the Arabic is piracy on a huge scale, and the pirate is a nation. . Are Americans willing that our Government's solemn warnings shall be reduced by inaction to empty threats? If they are not willing, then they should insist that the Government act. Let it be remembered that what we are to hold Germany accountable for is not merely loss of American lives. If civilization is to be preserved in spite of warfare, then war must be confined to conflict between armed forces. The deliberate killing of non-combatants is not warfare; it is crime. And the killing of non-combatants (whether Americans or not) on the high seas, which are the common property of all mankind, is crime against all mankind, America included. There are at least three special reasons why America should act in the face of such crimes as these committed by Germany: First, and least important, America should have consideration for her own future safety. If the United States is ever forced into war, neither the American Government nor the American people would countenance for a moment attacks without warning on peaceful merchantmen of the enemy by American submarines. America can, therefore, not afford to allow a precedent to be established which would seem to offer a shadow of justification for any future enemy to do to her what Germany is doing to Germany's enemies. Second, and much more important, if the public law of nations is to be preserved by enforcement during war, it can be preserved only by neutral nations. The enemy of a nation that is violating that law cannot do more than he is doing already to restrain the offender unless he resorts to reprisals-and reprisals, so far from being a remedy, simply extend the evil. It is therefore only a neutral that can bring new pressure to bear. America as the leading neutral Nation is thus charged with the grave duty of restraining just such crimes as that committed against the Arabic, even if there are no Americans lost. Third, and most important of all, America is committed to the principle of co-operation among nations in the interest of common humanity. This means nothing at all unless Americans are willing to make sacrifices for this principle. "It is upon this principle of humanity," said the President's note of June 9, "as well as upon the law founded upon this principle, that the United States must stand." If this country is to conform to the standard which it has set itself by its traditions and which the President has thus stated, it must show its faith not by what it says only but by what it does. Action, we have said and we here repeat, does not necessarily mean war. More effective and more rational than entering upon war at once would be the adoption of a policy of non-intercourse. Germany, by her piratical course, has made of herself a criminal and outlaw among nations; let her be ostracized, isolated, shunned. several ways of adopting such a policy. America may sever diplomatic relations with Germany. Or, America may cut off all trade with Germany. There are Or, America may make the announcement that, as she is no longer accorded the rights of a neutral, she will no longer observe the restraints of a neutral, and will therefore open her ports to the fleets of Germany's enemies, put an attachment on German merchantmen in American harbors, and in every way act on the principle that Germany has forfeited all rights to be regarded as a civilized belligerent. That this is not a warlike or militaristic attitude is clear enough from the fact that it is along this line of isolating Germany as a recalcitrant member of the family of nations that a proposal is made in the "New Republic" by one of the foremost of pacifists-Norman Angell. In meeting objections, Mr. Angell says: It will be said that by the proposed action America would have sacrificed her neutrality and created a state of war with Germany. Of course; and if Germany cared to avail herself of existing international law to insist on that point, it would simplify America's action. But it would be an academic point raised by Germany. She could hardly oblige America to send troops to Europe; and just for the moment she is not in a position to send troops here. . . . And why should America worry as to the precise meaning which Germany may attach to a state of war"? In adopting this policy of non-intercourse, whether in the form Mr. Angell suggests or in the other forms which we have on other occasions outlined, America should invite the cooperation of other neutral nations. Our Government should not call for a conference of neutrals that would mean delay, confusion, debate; but should settle on its policy promptly, put it into operation, and at the same time request that all other neutral nations join us. Germany has defied the rest of the world. Let America do her part in seeing that Germany, as long as she persists in her course, is treated as an outcast. THE STORY OF THE CRIME Off the southern Irish coast, about fifty miles west of the spot where the bones of the Lusitania are lying, a German submarine sank the White Star liner Arabic-except for the giant Cunarder the largest of the 285 merchant vessels that have been sent to the bottom by Unterseeboten since the German war zone went into effect on February 18. As this is written, twenty-four hours. after the disaster, it is reported that of the 423 persons that the Arabic was carrying-181 passengers and 242 members of the crew-eight are missing and are believed to have perished, including four of the twenty-five Americans on the vessel's passenger list. With fair weather and a quiet sea, about nine o'clock on the morning of August 19 the Arabic, on her way to New York, and therefore not carrying munitions, was standing well off the Irish coast for the purpose of avoiding submarines, when the attention of those aboard her was attracted to another vessel, presumed to be the British steamer Dunsley, which was being attacked by a German under-sea boat. As the Dunsley was struck, fearing that their turn would be next, those passengers of the White Star liner who were already on deck began to help themselves from the life-preservers that had been piled near at hand. The lifeboats had been swung out-board and the fastenings of the life rafts loosened when the ship had left the Mersey. Returning to the side of their vessel to watch the plight of the Dunsley, several passengers on the Arabic distinctly saw the streaking white wake of a torpedo roll out from a point near the Dunsley toward their own doomed ship. The torpedo struck the Arabic on the starboard side one hundred feet from the stern. There was a terrific explosion, which stove a huge hole in the ship and killed several of the crew working below decks. Several lifeboats and rafts were quickly lowered, and, thanks to the coolness of passengers and crew, nearly all of the persons aboard the ship had found a place in one of these emergency craft when the Arabic settled to the bottom, eleven minutes after she received her death-blow. Many of the passengers on the Arabic were in their berths when the torpedo blew in the side of their ship, and as they did not have time to put on more than the scantiest clothing several of them were weak from exposure when they reached Queenstown. Several efforts have been made to destroy the Arabic. Not only was she long hunted by submarines, but on the day before her departure from New York on her last eastward trip two sticks of dynamite were found aboard her, and while the vessel was in Liverpool in June six fires were discovered at various places on the ship. Captain Finch is said to have predicted that if the submarines "got him" at all it would be on the westward trip when he would have nothing in his cargo of much use to the Allies. Although as this is written only meager information of the disaster is available, two important points seem to be well established: The Arabic carried no contraband, and the submarine gave her no warning. It was no fault of the commander of the submarine that every soul on the steamer was not lost. |