its base" domestically, as Mr. Mellon called it, and upon the economic progress of Europe, and aided by improving business policies-apparently means that the usual extreme reaction will be avoided.

Wilson's Screen Biography

RE

ECALLING vivid war-time impulses, a motion-picture memorial of Woodrow Wilson, "more living than a statue," has been seen by half a million people as it has worked its way eastward during the past thirty-two months, from California, through ten States, to its first New York showing, its 734th performance. The Woodrow Wilson Foundation means to show the memorial "daily, somewhere, forever."

We have become accustomed to the highly dramatic assurance that future generations may see the actions and hear the voices of the notable figures of history now in the making by means of motion pictures and phonograph reproductions. The memorial to President Wilson is the first major record of this kind to be shown. Public consciousness has undergone such varied experiences since 1921 as to make this skillful selection of news-reel pictures already seem historical rather than contemporary.

"The Real Wilson" brings back refreshingly through the cloud of bitter controversy which separates the early Wilson from the present-the trim exprofessor concluding with a reminiscent smile a telephone conversation at his White House desk, or talking with dignified alertness to doughboys in France. It interpolates poignant battlefield scenes and views of Liberty Loan drives in America. It records the world power of the war President when he toured Europe triumphantly. It is important for its living views of contemporary figures -Roosevelt, Cardinal Mercier, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, the kings of Europe, Governor Coolidge.

The editing of the film seems less than worthy. But the actual pictures, and their continuity as a biography, form a distinguished first screen memorial.

Honors of Peace

FOUR statesmen-respectively, Ameri

OUR statesmen-respectively, American, English, French, and German -have just been honored with Nobel Peace Prizes. The prize for the year 1925 has been divided between VicePresident Dawes and Sir Austen Chamrlain; that for 1926 between Aristide

Briand and Gustav Stresemann. Three

of the recipients have been Foreign Ministers and have, says the Committee, worked efficiently for world peace in office. Equally valuable, it held, was Vice-President Dawes's contribution to peace, security, and the reconstruction of Europe in forwarding financial rehabilitation through the plan called by his name. Dr. Nansen in his address before the Nobel Institute said that the first light shed on the darkness was by the adoption of the Dawes Plan.

Almost simultaneously award was made to Elihu Root of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Medal, and with it goes the sum of $25,000. This is the second time that this honor has been conferred; the first, in 1924, was to Viscount Cecil. The specific reason for this year's choice was succinctly stated by Mr. Norman Davis, President of the Foundation, as being in recognition of Mr. Root's "services to humanity and the cause of peace through justice in helping to create the Permanent Court of International Justice, popularly known as the World Court."

Thus the first award to an American of a prize established in honor of a Democratic President goes to a Republican statesman. Mr. Root, of course, has rendered other services toward amicable relations between nations; one of the most important was his part in the Hague Tribunal, of which he was a member, and in honor of which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912.

The Dawes Plan Better than Expected

OTH Germany's ability to pay reparations for the damages done in the war and the ability of the Allied nations to absorb her payments have "outrun the expectation of the experts." So reports S. Parker Gilbert, the American Agent-General for Reparation Payments, in his review of two years of operation of the experts' plan which was drafted by the Dawes Committee on German currency and finance.

Germany has made the payments required of her "punctually and loyally." Her currency has been stabilized, and investment funds have been pouring in from other countries-particularly the United States. In fact, the Agent-General has felt called upon to issue a quiet warning against over-enthusiastic flotation of German securities. He has declared that new capital has been coming

in at a rate "exceeding ability to make advantageous use of it." Incidentally, at the same time it has been reported that some German municipalities have been so successful in securing loans that they have in turn become creditors and lent money for public works and utilities.

Even the reactionary and irreconcilable German Nationalists have begun to drop their opposition to the reparation program, in view of the change it has wrought in the situation of the country. Germany is feeling the benefit of her economic recovery. She is now entering upon the hardest test of her ability to pay.

Under the schedule of payments for the coming year, the surplus funds which the Government has accumulated during the earlier period of reconstruction will be used up. By a readjustment of two supplemental budgetary contributions of 250,000,000 gold marks for which the Dawes Plan would have called in the fourth and fifth years, a single advance supplemental contribution is to be accepted instead next year, the third year. That will raise the total payment next year from 1,200,000,000 gold marks to 1,500,000,000 gold marks. The following year it will jump to 1,750,000,000 gold marks; and in the fifth year it will reach the standard annual payment of 2,500,000,000 gold marks or about $625,000,000. When that point is reached, we shall begin to see whether the Dawes Plan can continue to work. And the outcome then will have a vital bearing on the war-debt agreements with the United States.

The Agent-General's report gives reason to think that until that time Germany should be able to meet her obligations. But he points to the possible need for reconsideration of the whole

question of international settlements. In the concluding section of his report he says that the plan tests the feasibility of reparations year by year by a program "extending in its application for a sufficient time to restore confidence and at the same time so framed as to facilitate a final and comprehensive agreement as to the problem of reparation and connected questions as soon as circumstances make this possible."

ace.

The resignation of the Cabinet at Belgrade undoubtedly was due also to some extent to the opposition of the radical Croatian peasant party, led by Stepan Raditch, This faction-centering in

of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Jugoslavia regards that action as a menwhich has arisen in place of Serbia as a result of the war, was his dream. For twenty years, with few interruptions, he held the post of Premier. He died-at over eighty years of age with his hand still on the helm, stricken with paralysis in the midst of a conference with the leaders of the Radical Party over the political crisis caused by the resignation of the Cabinet.

Born the son of an obscure merchant in a village near the Bulgarian frontier, he became associated in his youth with Russian Nihilists and founded the Radical Party-which then was all that the name implies. When he was elected a Deputy, the King refused to recognize the Parliament's choice of him speaker. Later he had to flee the country to escape a death sentence for fomenting a revolution. He returned only when King Milan abdicated in favor of King Alexander. He became Premier in 1891. Yet later he was imprisoned for five years for conspiring against the King's life-a penalty which was later changed into banishment.

After the assassination of King Alexander in 1903, Pashitch helped to establish the present Karageorgevitch dynasty on the throne, becoming Premier in 1906. The Radical Party became actually conservative. Since then Serbia has passed through the Balkan Wars, heading the Balkan Alliance which Pashitch formed to defeat Turkey. She has emerged from the World War, which was begun over Pashitch's reply to the Austrian ultimatum in connection with the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo. She is now the dominant partner in the tripartite Kingdom of Jugoslavia.

Pashitch died with his life-work completed beyond what probably could have been his hopes. It remains to be seen whether his successors can consolidate the achievements of the "Old Fox of the Balkans."

Keystone

Nikola Pashitch

1846-1926

former Austrian territory-always has had republican and separatist tendencies, and Raditch has been a long-standing political antagonist of Pashitch. The movement headed by Raditch probably will grow stronger and more active now that Pashitch is gone. But the danger which is apprehended from Italy is the actual cause of the political crisis in Jugoslavia.

On the surface the Albanian-Italian

Great

treaty looks harmless. The Italian Government even has hinted that Italy would not object if Jugoslavia concluded a similar treaty with Albania. Britain is reported to be friendly to the new arrangement; and Rome charges that France is backing Jugoslavia in challenging it, because of French desires to supervise and control political order in the Balkans. The suggestion that Jugoslavia conclude a similar treaty with Albania has more form than sub

stance.

Foreign Minister Nintchitch had arranged with Premier Mussolini. For Italy has established practical financial control of Albania.

Italy Astride the Adriatic

IT

TALY has lately granted Albania a loan. Albania had previously sought financial aid of Jugoslavia, which had none to give, and of Great Britain and France. Then Italy, having funded her war debt to the United States on favorable terms and secured large private bank loans, found it possible to offer Albania money. She lent the Albanian Government 50,000,000 gold francs, on terms which call for the repayment of 70,000,000 gold francs. The annual charges would be about half the estimated revenues of Albania, which are Hess than the usual yearly expenditure. The Italian loan constitutes a first claim on the income and resources of the country, and carries with it a banking control.

Italy thus sets up a practical economic protectorate over Albania. Under the new treaty, and in accordance with international practices which are admitted if not admired, she could step in at almost any time on the excuse of safeguarding her interests. That is the peril which Jugoslavia fears-an Italy astride the Adriatic and dominating the Bal

kans.

Bernard Shaw recently has made a remark to the effect that a financier is a man who will agree to lend you £70,000 if you sign a note agreeing to pay him back £100,000. Italy seems to qualify under his definition. The American interest in the whole situation lies in its relation to world peace and to the wardebt settlements with the United States. If nations whose debts we have funded on low terms find it convenient to make loans of this sort, Americans will begin to wonder why they cannot pay the United States more. And the Italian use of capital in the Balkans is hardly calculated to make American opinion favorable to any further modification in the terms of the Italian debt settlement in years to come.

The Original Fuzzy Wuzzy

T was Osman Digna whose native soldiers, over forty years ago in the Sudan, defeated Colonel Valentine Baker at Tokar and who, soon after, at the head of 10,000 dervishes, "broke a Britis1 square" at Tamal. That incident

spired Kipling in his oft-recited and oftsung ballad "Fuzzy Wuzzy" to offer tribute to the courage of these halfnaked fanatics armed largely with spears and swords.

Osman Digna was a military leader of skill. His death the other day at Wadi Halfa at the age of ninety recalls a strange and adventurous career. He was a slave dealer when in 1883 he joined the Mahdi. Osman became the Mahdi's general, survived the final defeat south of Khartum, fought Kitchener more than once, gained a victory over the Italians at Erythrea in 1896, and was for several years a dangerous agitator, plotter, and impediment to peace in the Sudan. He escaped capture in a marvelous way until 1900. For twenty-two years thereafter he was held a close prisoner by the British, and was released in his old age, only four years

ago.

Giving Athletics Back to the Boys

THE

HREE preparatory schools of Connecticut, by an agreement concerning athletics in which they engage with one another, have taken a position of educational leadership. Representatives of these schools-Choate, Loomis, and Taft (we give them in alphabetical order)—have approved of an arrangement which is in substance as follows:

In football, basket-ball, hockey, and

tennis the schedule in each case is restricted to six contests, in baseball to nine, and in track to four.

Football practice is not to begin at any school before the date of opening of the school which begins the fall term earliest.

No boy may be a candidate for two teams at the same time.

In track no competitor shall take part in more than three events in any meet, and not more than two of these shall be

runs.

During a contest there shall be no coaching of teams or individuals.

All substitutions, except those made by a physical director because of injury or exhaustion, will be ordered by the captain.

Although as yet this agreement (to which Mr. Reed refers in his article in this issue) remains provisional and is subject to ratification, it is not likely that it will be greatly modified, for it

expresses the athletic spirit of the schools likewise combine the educational with represented. the athletic purpose.

By this agreement these schools have plainly been guided by two principles which have often been forgotten and which need emphasis to-day.

The first of these principles is that athletics should be an integral element in the educational régime. Athletic contests in and between schools and colleges should be controlled by those whose purshould be controlled by those whose pur

poses are educational. poses are educational. Altogether too commonly the real direction of athletics commonly the real direction of athletics in schools and colleges is intrusted to coaches whose only purpose or chief purpose is to secure athletic victories, without reference to the aims of the institutions whose students they direct. Moreover, only too commonly the direction of education is in the hands of those who ignore, if they do not deny, the educational value of the athletic activities of the students. One of the repre

The other principle which this agreement embodies, is that athletics should be given back to the players. This does not mean that boys should not be coached in athletics any more than it means that boys should not be taught other subjects. But, as Mr. Batchelder says, "there is no more reason for adult suggestions to a football team between the halves than there is for an intermission in a College Board examination during which the candidates may receive instruction and intellectual fight talks from their teachers." It is this principle which has been of late more often honored in the breach than the observance.

We commend the example of these schools to their elders in the colleges.

Combating Crime in
California

sentatives who formulated this agree-W

ment is the head master of the school he represented, the Loomis Institute, and also the coach-and successful coachof the school's football and tennis teams. He is also secretary of the Head Masters' Association. In his comment on

this agreement in the school paper, Mr. Batchelder has pointed out that the limitation on the contests and participants will not only extend the benefits of athletics to more boys, but that those who participate in them will have more opportunity to devote time to dramatic, literary, musical, and other activities. The other representatives, Mr. Howe, of Taft, and Mr. Shortlidge, of Choate,

ARNING the people of California that crime is now an "organized business" that will soon control society unless society takes strong measures to control crime, the California State Commission for the Reform of Criminal Procedure has just issued a list of proposed drastic reforms. This program is to be presented to the State Legislature with a view toward a general reconstruction of criminal procedure.

The program, a summary of which our Pacific coast correspondent forwards, is refreshing in its vigor and evident determination to free the law from the toils of red tape and corruption in which for years it has steadily become

more and more enmeshed. Under the proposed amendments, a magistrate would be enabled to commit simply for felony, leaving it to the District Attorney to charge particular felony later. (Some lawyers may think that dangerous.) The forms of indictment and information would be greatly simplified, with all possible elimination of questions of technical pleading. The District Attorney would be required to charge all prior convictions in felonies, and farreaching provision is made to prevent the abuse of pleas of insanity.

Judge Lewis sets aside Judge Taylor's claim that the doing away with judicial discretion by the Legislature is unconstitutional, citing sufficient instances of mandatory legislation to affirm his position.

Meanwhile Mr. Justice Kellogg, sitting at Oneonta, New York, has warmly commended the Baumes Act as one in the right direction for the control of crime and meeting the popular demand.

Sunday Laws

A defendant, after plea, would be A

given five instead of ten days to prepare for trial, while courts would set all criminal cases for trial for date not later than thirty days after entry of plea, with no continuances granted without affirmative proof that the ends of justice require it. At the trial the court would control all proceedings and limit them to

relevant and material matters, in order to eliminate, as the report expresses it, the present "game between opposing counsel, with the court frequently sitting simply as umpire."

By other important recommendations, probation could not be granted to habitual criminals or to persons armed with deadly weapons at the time of arrest or when the crime was committed, and eligibility for parole would be greatly restricted. Furthermore, life sentences are recommended for habitual criminals, while the carrying of concealed deadly weapons without permits would be made a felony.

"The Commission," the report declares, "recognizes that no right of a defendant should be infringed," but adds, "Experience teaches that the criminal law which is most effective is the one which operates with the greatest swiftness and certainty."

The California proposals may be studied to advantage by other States.

N old statute, passed by the New Jersey Legislature many years ago, was invoked by a group of clergymen of Irvington, New Jersey, to shut up the motion-picture theaters on Sunday, December 12. In retaliation the managers decided to invoke that law against all who were violating it. As a consequence they haled a bus driver, a trolley-car motorman, the proprietor of a gasoline station, several shopkeepers, a shoeblack, eight reporters and two photographers, and a fiddler before a magistrate. Of course, the purpose of the motion-picture managers was to show that the law that had been invoked against them could not be enforced without paralyzing the customary life of the people.

There is much to be said for the restoration of the old quiet Sunday. Those who want it, however, have no right to enforce their views upon others. The law ought to provide for every one a weekly day of rest; but the law has no business to attempt to vest that day of rest with a religious or creedal significance, or to try to make people observe that day of rest in any particular way. It may well surround the day of rest for the majority with such restriction as to insure it as a day of rest and not a day of disturbance; but it invades the right of the citizens to try to enforce Sunday's religious sanctity.

The Rev. Dr. Henry Howard, of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, in New York, stated the next day the sound principle on which the Church ought to act concerning Sunday. "You are seeking," he said, "a political solution to questions where the answer should be sought in a more moral standpoint in the training of youth. . . . We are run to death with laws in this country.... Let's have fewer restrictions and try.... Let's have fewer restrictions and better principles."

of the citizen to try to secure the observance of law; but when ministers as ministers or churches as churches unite to secure the enforcement of the law they are on dangerous ground. The churches' function is primarily to keep men in mind of the eternal; when they engage in the business of attempting to enforce the law, they are moving in the direction of a theocracy. Such a law as that on the statute-books of New Jersey was common in the days when the distinction between Church and State was not as clear as it is to-day. It ought to be definitely removed from the body of the law and replaced by a statute that will protect properly, but without religious interference, the rest day that is a common need of man and a proper subject for the safeguarding of the law.

Shall We Ban Gas
Warfare?

POISON gas was generally regarded as

the most horrible means of combat in the World War. Ever since the Armistice efforts have been made to prohibit its use. The United States, in the Washington Conference, joined in signing a treaty containing provisions against the employment of noxious gases in war. That treaty is not in effect, due to the failure of France so far to ratify it. But the American policy of opposition to poison-gas warfare has been officially established.

Now the so-called Geneva protocol, of July 17, 1925, against gas warfare, is before the Senate for consideration, and officers of the American Chemical Society are urging their members to oppose its ratification. They have written also to Secretary Kellogg, of the Department of State, asserting that the people of the United States have been misled concerning the frightfulness of chemical warfare. Favorable action on the Geneva protocol, they argue, would tend to discourage all preparedness against an enemy which might unexpectedly use gases.

Secretary Kellogg, in replying, has refuted a charge that the report of an expert committee on poison gas at the Washington Conference was suppressed by showing that it was published in the record of proceedings. He asserts that all governments recognize the necessity of being prepared against chemical warFinally, he rejects a suggestion