January 6, 1926 from that of private, corporal, and sergeant to that of major-general and Deputy Chief of Staff. His services in the World War and in the establishment of European peace have been recognized by the highest decorations both at home and abroad. General Pershing has publicly said that he relied more upon General Harbord than upon any other one man during his operations on the western front. Thus the association of the names of New England and Old England by General Harbord means something. What a series of historical memories the juxtaposition of the two names revives! The long series of irritations which gathered and burst into the American Revolution; the continuance of controversy, after the peace obtained at Yorktown, between the pro-British Federalists and the anti-British Jeffersonians; the bursting out again of the conflagration in the War of 1812; our narrow escape from another conflict with England during the Civil War period; the irritations over the Alabama Claims, which happily were assuaged by judicial procedure instead of an appeal to arms; the gradual rapprochement of the two nations during the hurricane at Samoa, the Spanish War, and the building of the Panama Canal; and, finally, the complete amity and fraternal co-operation of the "Tommies" and the "Yanks" during the World War. There are no quarrels quite so deepseated and acrimonious as family quarrels; and the wonder is, not that there are still irritations and misunderstandings in the English-speaking family, but that there should exist to-day so great a degree of sympathy, friendliness, and appreciation of each other's good qualities. The bitterness of the Revolutionary struggle has been brought more vividly to my mind than any school history did in my boyhood days by a little book which has just been loaned to me by an old friend, Judge Hiram R. Steele, who still actively practices law in the city of New York, although he was a captain in a Vermont regiment during the Civil War. a This little book, published more than hundred years ago, bound in old calfskin, its pages yellow with age and its margins gnawed and broken by time, is the narrative of the captivity and suffering of my friend's grandfather, Zadock Steele, who in 1780 was captured by the Indians under British leadership at the burning of Royalton, in what is now the State of Vermont. The Indians' There is no space here to detail the Whatever may be said of the uncom- 15 Puritans and their Cromwellian antipa- There were Fundamentalists in those days. Modern Tennessee has nothing on ancient Vermont in this respect. The record is filled with controversies between the "Brethrin"-and, let me add regretfully, between the Sisters also-like the following: The Chh. then Reseved a Complaint from Brother Daniel Leonard against Brother Edward Spears which was as followes that Brother Spears had Charged him with Lying and that he-as he thought-Did it in an unbecoming harsh Sperit-and that he had taken the first and second steps with him and Could not Git satisfaction and now Layed it before the Chh:-Brother Spears Exknowledged his fallt and asked the forgiveness of Brother Leonard and all the Bretherin and the Chh for Gave-and Brother Leonard for Gave and Receavid him into there fellowships. For the benefit of those who are not Fundamentalists let me add that the firs and second steps referred to in the above quotation from the record are set forth in the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew, wherein a man who has a complaint to make against his brother is enjoined to go alone to the transgressor, and if the fault is not admitted to go again with two or three witnesses, and if the offense is still persisted in, to take the complaint to the church. There was a simplicity about our New England forefathers which is amusing to look back upon, but which, after all, had considerable merit. They had, for instance, a sense of justice which must be at the bottom of all durable international as well as individual peace-making. What 1925 Brought To Europe Correspondence by ELBERT FRANCIS BALDWIN death marked the year 1925 for all English men and women. The year had seen the passing of notable statesmen-Curzon, Milner, Bourgeois, Branting, Ebert. But no death could signalize the end of an epoch as did that of this august octogenarian, a veritable fairy princess and of unlimited popularity. The year was important in the history of the British Empire because never before had the London Government shown such respect for the various Dominions; in this regard Article IX of the Locarno Treaty was unprecedented. The Mosul affair was not without influence. In the United Kingdom, as I prophesied a year ago, two of the political parties underwent some change. Among the Liberals one noticed the increasing assertion of the radicals, perhaps the seed of a new party. Among the Laborites the cleft between moderates and extremists grew steadily wider until, to his credit, Mr. MacDonald had to expel the Communists. The year also witnessed a new effervescence in Ireland. The limitation of the frontier between North and South has caused much trouble, Catholic and Protestant populations being closely intermingled. Some months ago an equally menacing shadow came over the economic domain. The Labor crisis in the coal districts resulted in the certain prospect of a cessation of nearly all industrial life. The Court of Enquiry, inaugurated by the Government on July 13, could not ward it off; only the Premier's compromise of the 31st averted the disaster for ten months. In addition there was the shipping strike; had it succeeded, it would have brought the people to the verge of The Outlook's Editor in Europe starvation. As to the workless in general, there are now, according to Mr. Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer, about 200,000 fewer unemployed than a year ago. the poor should The situation among be relieved by the time these lines are read because of the new pensions; some 200,000 widowed mothers and 400,000 children will receive their benefits from increased appropriations. As to land conditions, the year saw the beginning of a new reform. Will it go to the root of the injustices found in the lack of land, in the low wages, and in the low production? As to forestry, 1925 was the first year when England officially was informed that there was enough territory available for forests to provide the country with a third of its annual timber requirement-territory at present practically wasted. Finally, 1925 was the first year since the war when England maintained the pound at parity. France IN net IN France the year was one of Cabichanges. In them, to my mind, the most curious and, I fear, the most significant feature was not the country's sorry financial predicament, but the Socialist attitude. M. Herriot, Prime Minister at the beginning of the year, head of the largest group of the majority in Parliament, the Socialist Radical, a man of amiable and attractive personal qualities, had become the slave of the "pure" Socialists. In April he was overthrown. He was succeeded by the eminent mathematician and statesman, Paul Painlevé, who invited M. Caillaux to return to power as Minister of Finance. The first Painlevé Cabinet was more independent of the Socialists than the Herriot Cabinet had been. The second Painlevé Cabinet veered more in the Socialist direction and fell on November 22. Having tasted the sweets of power without being personally represented in the Cabinet, the Socialists now demanded what they had not before, namely, direct representation. They offered (1) to enter a new Cabinet if they were given the Ministries of War, Finance, Justice, Public Works, and the Interior (of course, the party controlling these offices controls the state); or (2) to form a purely Socialist Cabinet. And this effrontery was from a party with less than a hundred seats in the Chamber of Deputies, but representing, as it believed, the balance of power there. Apparently the Socialists did not fear the certainly adverse votes in Parliament, because, with the Bolshevist example before them, they saw that a small minority, once in power, could by force impose its will on a whole people. That this was their aim is revealed by a widely circulated journal, the "Midi Socialiste," as follows: If our laws do not allow us to get funds where they are and to punish the traitors to their fiscal duty, we will override the law. And if financiers hold up the people, after having placed their own funds in safety, we, unable to reach those funds, will not hesitate to arrest the culprits and say to them, "Pay or you will be hung." And we will hang them. No wonder, then, that, on the one hand, a Fascist counter-movement arose, and that, on the other, the Communists promised their support to the Socialists. The Kerensky régime led to the Lenine régime, those Communists remembered. Now there is real reason for discontent in France. But it does not come mainly from financiers; it comes from the great body of the people. They have never been trained, as have the English and ourselves, in the habit of paying all the taxes imposed. The year 1925 revealed, according to a well-known Paris author ity, that tax evasion costs France every year a sum large enough to balance the Budget, provide a sinking fund, and stabilize the franc. What was needed was not a Socialist Minister (even a few weeks of Socialist power would ruin France), but a Ministry with the courage to impose necessary new taxes and then to collect them. Though the Briand Cabinet is not sufficiently a coalition Ministry, it has a chance to save the situation. All friends of France will hope that it may. If the trying financial crisis seemed completely to dominate French opinion during 1925, the year was notable in revealing a correspondingly cheerful fact on the economic side, namely, an unprecedentedly good trade balance-an apparent paradox. It proved to be of first importance in the attempt to settle the French debt to America. Italy FOR OR Italy 1925 was the Fascist high-water mark as well as the culminating point in the the popularity of Benito Mussolini, the great Fascist leader. The year steadily de veloped his eloquence and appeal. For instance, the other day, to call attention to the seventh centenary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, Signor Mussolini declared: In Dante Italy showed poetry's highest flight; in Leonardo, the profoundest reach of art and science; in Columbus, the hardiest navigator; and in St. Francis, the holiest saint, whether of Christianity or of humanity. Restorer of the religion of Christ, St. Francis was also one of the first Italian poets. His brother-monks who went to the East were at once missionaries of Christ and of Italy. This passion for Italy (we have its proof in the magnificent popular subscription to pay the Italian debt to us) is the base of the Fascist movement. To succeed, however, that movement needed discipline even more than enthusiasm. According to Mussolini, the Italian parliamentary system has never led to that end. "Parliament," he asserts, "cannot function if the party having the largest number of adherents is not assured of a solid majority protecting it from all the plots of the little groups in coalition." He obtained the passage of such a protecting law, favoring the Fascists, and during 1925 followed it by some even more surprising measures. The climax was reached by a law providing for prac- resulting from that Treaty are maintical parliamentary abdication. tained in all their force. Regarding another measure, prohibiting workmen's syndicates save by Fascist organization, the "Osservatore Romano," the Vatican organ, recalls Leo XIII's pronouncement concerning the natural rights of workmen to form associations. In other words, the new project was a restriction, not only of political liberty, but also of the conception of universal social organization. There were also Fascist measures against the liberty of the press. Their boldest attack upset the management of the Milan "Corriere della Sera," the most eminent and gratifyingly the most widely read of Italian dailies. During 1925 it often reached 1,000,000 copies a day, and rarely fell to less than 800,000. When it became known that Senator Luigi Albertini and his brother Alberto had been expelled from the management, the sale of the paper, it is said, fell by some 75,000. In 1914 the "Corriere" was the first Italian journal to espouse the Entente Allies' cause. After the war it was equally courageous in affirming that the conquest of Dalmatia was not in Italy's interest. It favored Signor Mussolini's participation in the Government. Taking its stand on the firm principle of the Constitution, however, it opposed the march on Rome and all the revolutionary Fascist tendencies. To sum up, despite Mussolini's immense services to his country in a time of her great need, the year 1925 showed beyond a doubt that he had gone much too far. Constitutional government had indeed collapsed. Germany FOR OR Germany, in the first place, really hardly less for France, indeed, for the whole world, the greatest event of 1925 was the Locarno Treaty. As the Paris "Temps" says, "One may now feel that the war is actually at an end." In February the base of the Treaty, at the suggestion of Lord d'Abernon, British Ambassador in Berlin, was put forth by Herr Stresemann, German Foreign Minister. After being elaborated at Paris and London, the timely suggestion developed into an event the most striking not only of the year but of our epoch. What makes it peculiarly striking is the fact that its conclusions were reached entirely within the limits of the Versailles Treaty; hence all the rights of the Allies An equally striking feature is the fact that seven of the principal European nations pledged themselves to submit their differences to arbitration. You may think perhaps that the Locarno Treaty really does not do more than apply the League of Nations' Covenant to a limited area. area. But it does do more. (1) It replaces for this area the somewhat vague system of military aid from all the League members by a formal guaranty on the part of England and Italy. (2) It defines more specifically what are legitimate acts of self-defense and what may be regarded as acts of war. (3) It erects a Permanent Commission of Conciliation. Conflicts may be submitted to this Commission before being submitted to the League Council. (4) It defines more exactly the procedure to effect the decisions of the World Court. (5) It takes away the liberty of going to war if settlement is not reached by this means. The signature of the Locarno Treaty marked the end of one period of history and the beginning of another. More particularly it registered the welcome fact that a German Parliament and President, both supposed to be strongly and obstinately nationalist, had passed and signed the enabling law. Coincident with the final signature, the first detachments of the British Army of Occupation left the Cologne zone. Had Germany fulfilled her disarmament promises, the British would have departed on January 10, 1925, agreeably with treaty provision. The evacuation gives enormous satisfaction to all Germans save, perhaps, to the thousands of Fräuleins now the wives of English soldiers and to the Cologne merchants, with whom the "Tommies" and their officers have left tens of thousands of dollars every week. At the same time the French began to reduce by a third the number of their soldiers in the zone occupied by them. All questions concerning soldiers in the occupied zones are to be centralized in Paris and dealt with by the Ambassadors' Conference. Though German commerce and industry are still considerably dislocated, Germany is producing more wealth than she consumes. The future, by reason of the advance of 1925, promises more economic and political stability than she has known since the war. The year 1925 has thus been a significant period for Europe, and consequently for America. TH As Seen by HE next time any one tells you that people are not interested in the war you can laugh loud and long and send them to see "The Big Parade," by Laurence Stallings. I got to see it half by accident myself. Not because I've lost interest in the war, but merely because the rather too supercilious critics--or some of them--had half damned it with rather faint praise. But there was a kind of familiar sameness about the men I saw piling in to get tickets, and, incidentally, they weren't getting any tickets either. Sold out! Well, you invariably want something you can't get, so in I went and got the worst seat in the house-in a box. Where do theaters get the nerve to charge as much as they do for these abominations of desolation? In other words, I wasn't the only one there no thanks to the critics; and by 66 Ex. Sgt. 102nd Engrs." the time the orchestra started up the That box, when I got to it, already THIS is, in brief, a war film. And when I say "war" I do not mean a sham battle in the suburbs of Peekskill either. This means that some folk, and particularly our women folk, won't like it; but it will "get" them, just the same. For they will be thrilled, they will unavoidably laugh, and they will have their hearts torn to shreds for that, mesdames, is war for you! Let us put it right in front of you-with all its horror and its comedy, its agony and its gayety, its ruthlessness and its infinite love and sacrifice. Perhaps you may not like it, madam, but that audience dropped seven years and forgot itself. Men roared at times and slapped one another on the back. With broad grins they sang along with the orchestra of that highly popular if indiscreet "Mademoiselle of Armenteers." They hummed "You're in the Army Now" when the bugles played it, verse after verse. They muttered imprecations under their breath, and then for a while sat in grim and breathless silence. In an hour or so they experienced anew the whole gamut of emotions that meant for them an infinity of experience. For the Great Adventure-hate it, if you will-is a very cherished memory to millions of us every-day humdrum men. There were deft and cunning touches on the part of folk who knew what they were about. Little touches-even to the cow stable-the haymow and manure pile thereof! It made me ache to see those buddies getting off their shoes. And here and there, if you will pardon me, ladies, there were men in that audience who unconsciously quite unconsciously -scratched while they guffawed. And do you remember, sergeant, how furious "madame" was when we "policed" those barnyards? As for the company mess-well, you could actually smell those beans and that amazing coffee, so useful in getting gravy or grease off your mess kit. There were our late friends the "M. P.'s," of course, getting earnestly and grievously misunderstood, as usual, and-oh, well, it was the real stuff, right down to the mademoiselles. And the buddy behind me forgot he was not in Bar-le-Duc, or Martignas, let us say, and whispered, "Oh-la-la!" in my ear. And suddenly-just as it came to us the war arrived. There was the roaring by of interminable trains of motor trucks jammed with men. And there was Jerry in a plane who swooped down and got you with his machine gun. And there was the abiding horror of trench warfare, barrages far too real, and that worst of all things, a heartbreaking "walking charge," timed walking, against those murderous machine-gun nests, with the wiping out of men-rows of men, who dropped like stone or who sank and scrambled about. Well, it is all there, good people-incredibly real, incredibly tragic, and therefore true to nature. Such a picture as this should be kept ready and waiting, and when saber-rattling numskulls begin prophesying war they should be made to see it again and again-many times. They will go away quiet and abashed. The Great War may well have been the "war to end war" it was said to be if, now and then, people can see it as it really was, without the glamour of romance so usually cast over it. "This is no picture," declared the man behind me; "this is the real thing. You can't fool me! That there's the road through Fismes! And you don't get a bunch of hard-boileds like that hanging around movie studios!" Neither do you. The actual war scenes were so obviously true that if you forgot for an instant you were only looking at a picture you caught your breath and wondered how the Signal Corps ever did it, and how King Vidor ever got those films released for his picture! THIS is how it was. The whole battle was planned by general officers of the Second Division, and it was carried out to the bitterest detail by thousands of overseas men who simply re-enacted performances indelibly branded into their memories. It was a duplication of Belleau Wood; the harrowing advance, with everything complete-artillery, barrage, tanks, planes, and ambulance corps. The whole personnel of a Legion post took over a "billeting" episode in a French village, largely improvising as they went along, and simply brought down the house! So, for the background of a wellworked-out plot we have army life at the billet and at the front, and the story is that of three buddies and a farm girlthe buddies from as diverse homes as was usually the case, and all exceedingly well acted. The farm girl, Renée Adorée, had only to re-enact her own experiences, having been among the refugees fleeing from the Belgian border. "The Big Parade" will bring back poignant as well as hilarious memories to members of the old A. E. F. It will fascinate and thrill innumerable men who did not and could not go over. The schoolboy will learn at first hand what war really is like as will the aforesaid. saber-rattlers. And many an old "vet" will go back again and again and see it, for, with all its cruel realism, they will recall comrades, places, doings, tragedies, and heroisms one never will, or can, or should forget. CHARLES K. TAYLOR. |