HE editor of a house organ speaks

Tplainly about what he calls "the an

noying practice of being called on the telephone and then being asked to wait until the person calling me has been notified that I am on the line. The inference is," the writer goes on, "that the person calling is very busy, while I am not; that his time is worth money, while mine is not; that he doesn't like to sit with a receiver to his ear waiting for a call to be completed, but that I do. As a matter of fact, the person calling may be of far more importance than I and his time may be worth more, but unless he is a good customer and pays his bills promptly, I am justified in thinking that I have been imposed upon."

Illustrating the fact that confusion sometimes occurs in the use of words with different meanings but which are. pronounced alike, a subscriber writes: "An Idaho trapper was told that the Idaho statutes require that the four feet of coyotes be brought to a representative of the State Game Department in order to secure the legal bounty on these animals. The trapper repaired to the mountains and industriously hunted coyotes all winter, saving the fore feet of all the coyotes he caught for the bounty money. Of course he did not get it."

All Persons indebted to Benj Franklin, Printer of this Paper, are defired to fend in their refpective Payments: (Thofe Subscribers for the News excepted, from whom a Twelve-Month's Pay is not yet due).

Gentlemen, it is but a little to each of yo, though it will be a confiderable Sum to me; and lying in many hands wide from each other, (according to the Nature of our Bufinefs) it is highly inconvenient and fcarce practical for me to call upon every One; I fhall therefore think myfelf particularly obliged, and take it very kind of thofe, who are mindful to fend or bring it in without further Notice.

The British Post Office, which manages the telegraph system in England, has decided that it will not allow "alright" to go into a despatch. Its reasons for rejecting this linguistic combination, which has obtained some vogue on both sides of the Atlantic, are as follows:

"According to Murray's New English Dictionary, which is used for reference in this office, the expression 'alright' is obsolete. It is therefore regarded as an irregular combination, chargeable as two words in an inland telegram."

A young woman friend, a subscriber writes apropos of an anecdote in this column about "unfortunate remarks," called on a matter-of-fact clergyman who had befriended her fiancé during his illness. After telling with deep feeling

something of her gratitude for th clergyman's kindness to the young ma she wound up with, "And I would li you to marry me, Doctor," having i mind of course her approaching uni with her now fully recovered fianc The minister gasped: "That would ma unhappiness for both of us, my da girl."

ORE

Who is the oldest man or woman the country who is still actively work? A newspaper despatch tells Kansas twins, farmers, who at nine still do a day's work; not long ago Tem Outlook told of a New England manuffe turer, aged ninety-one, who goes to bu ness every week day; the "Railway Ag says that Albert Stone, eighty-six ye old October 8, has worked for the N York Central seventy-one years and still at it. What others?

Political economy need no longer regarded as the dismal science. An ticle in "Collier's" on the economic co dition of Europe, slightly scornful "experts," begins in this way:

Jo

the e

Scene at the Centralia Hotel in
Illinois.
Enters a candidate for Governor on the
a spellbinding tour. Up to him goes on

a trim, auburn-haired waitress.
"Good-morning, young lady, what
lovely hair you have."
"Good-morning."

"Would you mind stepping around to this side of the table, young lady, and raising the window shade?"

She walks to the window and raises i the shade.

"Splendid! Now I can get the won derful light effects on your hair.... "G'wan and order your breakfast. I've been kidded by experts."

Phillips Brooks's quick wit was show in a reply quoted in Dr. Allen's bie raphy of the famous preacher. A clerg man who was going abroad talked jest to a little group, among whom we t Bishop Brooks, about bringing back new religion with him. "You mig have some trouble in getting it throu the custom-house," some one remarke "No," observed Bishop Brooks; "we m take it for granted that a new religi would have no duties attached."

HE ELECTIONS: FOUR

ORE YEARS OF HYLAN

T

HE most important election of November 8 was undoubtedly that held in New York City.

The metropolis, since the overwhelmg defeat of Mayor Mitchel, has had in historic City Hall a Tammany henchan, John Hylan, now re-elected for a ur-year term. Mayor Hylan brought to S high office few qualifications for serce, and it is the general impression nong students of municipal governent that he has developed none since. this election he was opposed for reection by all but one of the leading wspapers of New York City, the Demoatic "World" and the Republican ribune" fighting shoulder to shoulder forth their contemporaries of various [filiations in their attack upon the adinistration of Mayor Hylan and Tamany Hall. Needless to say, the one urnalistic machine which supported e Mayor was that controlled by Willm Randolph Hearst.

Does the re-election of Mayor Hylan ean that the electorate of New York is orrupt and contented"? Does it mean at the average citizen of New York refers inefficiency to efficiency, ignonce to intelligence? We are not so Essimistic as to think so. The reason hy John Hylans are elected to office in merican cities year after year is partly cause they are backed by machines eld together by the cohesive power of ablic plunder, but in a very much teater degree to the fact that the John ylans have a homely neighborliness hich the self-confessedly more intelliFent elements in the community fail to cognize, or appreciate, or understand. In the present instance this spirit neighborly allegiance was greatly trengthened by the feeling that the uptate Republican organization was reachag out to exercise an undue control ver the city's affairs. We do not think The charge a fair one, but Hearst and Iylan undoubtedly won thousands of otes on this score.

Tammany for generations has been neighborhood organization. It has eached out to the people, not only luring the few weeks before election time, but 365 days in the year.

HE recent North Dakota election resulted in the recall of the Governor, Secretary of Agriculture, and AttorneyGeneral. The Non-Partisan League has suffered complete defeat of its candidates, although by a narrow margin.

The fate of the Amendment and Initiated Laws designed to complete the legal overthrow of Townleyism is still in doubt, with the last report favoring their passage.

We believe the people of North Dakota suffered wrongs, we all doubted the success of their experiment in correction through Socialism. We are glad to see them retracing their own steps.

To have criticised North Dakota's course, as we have in the past, is not to be without faith in the ultimate industrial and political success of that broad State.

important experiment in industrial peace now being conducted in the State of Kansas through its Industrial Court. What the Court could have accomplished in dealing with a situation with Nationwide ramifications is of course problematical. But it was prepared to function. Incidentally, there is a striking similarity between the position and plans of Governor Henry J. Allen, of Kansas, in view of the threatened strike and the position outlined by Theodore Roosevelt in his letter of September 2, 1916, to Dr. Lyman Abbott regarding the railway trouble of that year.

The Kansas Industrial Court Act grew out of the coal miners' strike of the . winter of 1919-20. It was the outcome of a general feeling in the State that industrial war should not be permitted to interfere with vital interests of the public. So it was made to apply to all essential industries, including transportation. The law creates a court appointed by the Governor to adjudicate industrial disputes of every sort. It has the power to order changes in the conduct of industries in the matter of minimum wages, hours, and working and living conditions. Appeals from its decision go at once to the Supreme Court of the State. Its provisions apply to employers as well as employees. Lockouts are forbidden, and if an essential industry is unable to give service the State is authorized to take over its management.

So far the Industrial Court Act has been tested, with a high degree of success, only in local disputes. When a general strike was ordered something over a year ago by the International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen and other unions, the Executive Committee specifically exempted Kansas from the call, on the ground that a railway strike in that State is unlawful. In the recently contemplated general strike no such exemption was made. So Governor Allen gave out a statement calling attention to the fact that the law prohibited "any men engaged in transportation from conspiring to deprive the public of this essential utility." "The law provides," he continued, "that all controversies between railroads and their employees relating to wages or working conditions shall be adjusted in the Court of Industrial Relations. In the meantime the lines shall continue to function. The law gives the State the power

to take over the railroads and to operate them on behalf of the public. In case of the failure of the roads to operate their lines, the State will take over those necessary to the public welfare." Meanwhile the State set to work to obtain a list of volunteers who could be enlisted in its service to operate the roads.

The similarity of this attitude and that of Colonel Roosevelt in the letter published in The Outlook for October 26 is apparent. Colonel Roosevelt's position was that the public interest demanded that the dispute be adjudicated by an impartial commission and that during this process transportation should not be interrupted. He proposed

crease of wages without really expecting to get it, and in order to fight off any new decrease in wages. This, no doubt, seemed a cunning policy to the leaders, but it defeated itself. The result in the case of the milk strikes has been to drive the distributing companies into an effort to throw off altogether union control and put the business on an openshop basis. If the companies succeed in that attempt, the unions have only them.selves to blame for the result of their injudicious and inhumane attack on the homes of the people.

Gov

ernor Allen was prepared to use the National Guard, but hoped to get a sufficient number of volunteers to keep the trains running. That he meant what he said nobody could doubt who watched him put his volunteers to work in the Kansas coal mines in the strike of 1919. From his experience, he believes a law enacted by Congress could do for the Nation what the State law has done for Kansas. Certainly in some such direction as this progress lies.

STRIKES AGAINST THE HOME

HE strikes of milk drivers and their

T helpers in New York City and Cleve

land have rightly aroused indignation. In such strikes as these the public plays the part of the innocent bystander who suffers more than either of the nominal parties to the contest. It is intolerable that such an essential in every home as the milk we drink, such a necessity for invalids and young children, should be dependent as to its supply upon industrial quarrels between the distributing companies and their employees. The limit of endurance of this kind of industrial warfare must sometime be reached, and then questions relating to employment and wages will be decided by authority after due hearing, instead of being tested by what really amounts to force. In the two recent milk strikes actual brute force was a considerable element in the situation, for innumerable instances of violence on a small scale were reported.

Not only was public opinion aroused against the abandonment of the milk service, but, as in the recently threatened railway strike, the feeling was general that it was both wrong and unwise for the men employed to demand higher wages at a time when the general lowering of war-time wages is believed to be a necessity as part of any plan for getting business on a normal and reasonable basis. The railway unions and the milkdrivers' unions both demanded an in

HE annual Roll Call of the Red Armistice Day, November 11. Dr. Livingston Farrand has been succeeded as Chairman of the National Central Committee by Judge John Barton Payne. Dr. Farrand, who has done conspicuous service as the practical executive head of the Red Cross, has become the President of Cornell University. In a special message from President Harding to Dr. Farrand announcing the appointment of Judge Payne, the President remarks: "We want the organization maintained at the highest degree of efficiency and ever ready to meet any emergency."

It may be that there are people who ask, What need is there of the Red Cross now that the war is over? It is true that many organizations for humanitarian service were formed in war time the value of which disappeared with the cessation of hostilities. It would be a tremendous error, indeed an absurdity, to believe that this is true of the Red Cross. It existed many years before the Great War. Its activities and service before, during, and after the war have been and continue to be practical and widespread and are not duplicated by any other organization.

If it is asked what these services are, the answers are so many and so striking that one hesitates where to begin. In the first place, the Red Cross is an insurance against disaster, a quick and effective relief when calamity on a large scale strikes any part or section of the country. We all remember what the Red Cross did in San Francisco and the Galveston floods; most of us know what it did during the last year at Corpus Christi and at Tulsa and in the Pueblo floods; but few know that it has been active in relief during the year in seventy different disasters in different parts of the country, or that it has expended in the last twenty years over fourteen million dollars for the single purpose of disaster relief. We all hear of the big disaster, but when a cyclone strikes a little town in Georgia (to quote one typical case) and the people are homeless

and hungry, and Red Cross nurses from the nearest large town are on the scene of disaster within a few hours, with tents and beds and food, the incident soon forgotten, yet it is typical of o division of Red Cross work. "Alway Ready" is the primary slogan of th American Red Cross.

"The improvement of health, the pre vention of disaster, and the mitigation suffering" is a large programme for hom work, but it is being carried out in dozen different ways. The Home Servic trains public health nurses, establishe health centers and rest-rooms, for local organizations to meet epidemics looks after child welfare, and it does a this and much else in a carefully though out and systematic manner. One Re Cross official said, "It is a great thing to go to the 'phone and command the un verse." The Red Cross does not claim to do this, but it can call out at th briefest possible notice the service th is needed most.

Nor have war needs ceased, so far a the Red Cross work goes. In this coun try it aids wounded veterans to g Government training, sometimes helping their families and the men themselve financially in the meantime. In Ne York City alone in the last year helped four thousand jobless ex-servic men to find work. It looks after ex service men in hospitals, and in New York City alone last year helped ove five thousand such men. It consider the care of disabled veterans and thei families its most sacred obligation. Las year the American Red Cross spent ap proximately ten million dollars in serv ing disabled ex-service men and their families. This one branch of Red Cros work cost nearly four million dolla more than the aggregate receipts from the year's membership dues.

In Europe and in the East the Re Cross work in famine and pestilence expressed in many millions of dollars but better expressed in the aid rendered to literally millions of people-for in stance, in the China famine it is believed that the Red Cross saved three or four millions from death, and of these the great majority were children. The Red of Russia will not allow the Red Cros entrance, but it sent quantities of sup plies there through other hands. I Poland it helped 40,000 refugees from the Soviet invasion and fed 500,000 chil dren. In the Balkans, Hungary, and elsewhere the work goes on every day

of the week.

The Fifth Roll Call, now at hand, is not primarily a call for contributions, but for a renewal of membership and a renewal also of interest and appreciation of the value of the American Red Cross to the American people. It is not to

International

M

be expected that the active membership could be what it was during the time of war, yet there is no manner of doubt that it will continue to be so extended as fairly to represent the interest of the country in the work. That it has been so since the cessation of hostilities is shown by the fact that in the year ending June 30, 1921, the total membership at that time was a little over six million persons, a number vastly in excess of the ante-war membership.

The Red Cross service is one way of preparing against war, and in war and peace time it works for humanity.

THE AMERICAN LEGION CONVENTION AT KANSAS CITY

TH

HE American Legion Convention at Kansas City brought together some 25,000 veterans of the World War. It is the conclusions of the Legion's Convention which are of first concern.

The Legion chose as its commander for the coming year Hanford MacNider, of Iowa. Mr. MacNider graduated from Harvard in 1911 and made a brilliant record in the A. E. F. which won him the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He is a forceful and dynamic character who seldom has failed, either in peace or war, to reach the objective upon which he has set his heart. Commander MacNider has outlined the four issues which the Legion will back as "law and order,

immediate relief for the disabled, Americanism, and adjusted compensation." The Legion passed a resolution, after some acrimonious debate, which censured Ambassador Harvey for his explanation of America's entry into the war. This resolution read:

Resolved, That the sentiment expressed by America's Ambassador, George Harvey, setting forth the reasons for America's entry into the World War, and the cause for which America fought, does not represent the true American attitude as interpreted by the American Legion, and let it be known now and for all time that America fought not only for the maintenance of America's rights, but for the freedom of the world.

The Legion in other resolutions expressed its sympathy for President Wilson in his illness, extended the courtesy of the Legion to all veterans of Canada visiting the United States, called upon the Veterans' Bureau to announce a constructive programme, advocated the use of alien property held by the Government to pay indemnity war claims, indorsed the idea of international armament limitation, demanded the return to the United States of Grover C. Bergdoll, and protested against any commutation of the sentence of Eugene V. Debs or others imprisoned for disloyal acts. The conclusion seems less momentous than friends of the Legion have might well have hoped for from such a gathering.

The Legion selected New Orleans the location of its next annual Conver tion.

OUR distinguished foreign visitor were the guests of the Legion Kansas City-General Diaz, Admira Beatty, General de Jacques, Marsh Foch.

old

As of highest rank among the fin three, by virtue of being Generalissim of the Italian forces, Armando Diaz m be spoken of first. He is sixty years but looks younger. He is of mediu height; his iron-gray hair and mustach are clipped close; his face is tanned b years of African sun. He is a Neapol tan born and bred. But his poise in hi daily routine and his coolness shown i face of danger prove that these qualitie are not exclusively northern, as is ofte supposed. Diaz made his reputation i the Abyssinian campaign, and built it during the Tripolitan war. When the World War broke out, he was already! junior major-general. He distinguisher himself in the Carso fighting, still mor in the defense of Venice, and supremely at Vittorio Veneto, whence he sent the Austrians staggering back, leaving thou sands of prisoners, hundreds of guns, and forced to sue for an armistice.

Bluff sailor-like Lord Beatty