a hard row to hoe, and you're bound to make mistakes. I beckoned Puff Cheeks aside. The women making check-gingham aprons for the Eskimos looked at us sort of queer. The young fellow didn't have any socks. I looked at the women sort of queer too. "What time you going to quit, sir?" I asked Puff. He was puzzled as to what I was driving at. I said: "This boy's got the asthmy. I was wondering if he could sit by your stove and sleep down here when you're all done and gone home." Puff said: "He can sit here, but he can't sleep here after the church is shut for the night." "Why not, mister?" I asked. He gave me a long surprised look. "It's the house of God," said he. I said to the tramp: "You can sit by the stove, son. I got to go back to my beat." The tramp wheezed: "I don't want to sit here, mister. I'd sooner stay outside." The tramp and I went back to the windy, wet street. The women went on with the check-gingham aprons for the Eskimos. Puff Cheeks went on walking up and down. It was check-gingham aprons, and they were for the Eskimos. I'm not kidding. It's much too serious to kid about. But a fellow's allowed to laugh, for all that. If it wasn't for the ability to grin I would have died a long time ago. Contributors' Gallery The greatest letters of our greatest letter-writer the Personal War letters of our War-Time Ambassador to England . . . written to the President... held secret and Prohibited from Publication until after Woodrow Wilson's death. THE LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE TO WOODROW WILSON Volume III of THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE By Burton J. Hendrick Doubleday, Page & Co. $5 "It is to the everlasting credit of the intelligence of Americans that this book is having a record-breaking sale."-WILLIAM ALLEN White. Why We Behave Like Human Beings By George A. Dorsey, Ph.D., LL.D. An exciting and interesting book about ourselves. A graphic and fascinating' revelation of the amazing discoveries of modern science that so T vitally concern our happiness and our destiny. HE story of Dr. Dorsey's quest for knowledge reads like a romance. For more than a quarter of a century he has devoted himself to the study of mankind—in the library and the laboratory, among human beings in the most sophisticated capitals of the world, and in savage territories never before penetrated by a white man. His research has carried him on long and dangerous expeditions into nearly every part of the world-from the feverish swamps and forests of equatorial America to the white igloos of the Arctic, from the perilous hinterlands of the Orient to the remote islands of the Pacific, from the heart of black Papua to the African veldt. As an explorer, as an ethnologist, as an anthropologist, in politics, in sociology, as a newspaper man, as a naval lieutenant, as an adviser to the Peace Commission, as a curator of the Field Museum, as a university professor, and as an eminently shrewd and remarkable human being, he has watched and analyzed the extraordinary creature called man. Dorsey's writing never smells of the lamp; his erudition is tempered with wit; his knowledge is expressed in the living speech of the present day. "Why We Behave Like Human Beings" has been called "the most readable, the soundest, and the most fascinating scientific book our day has seen." Some Distinguished Sponsors James Harvey Robinson, author of "The Mind in the Making," says: "Here at last is a book about ourselves that one Sinclair Lewis, author of "Main Street," David Starr Jordan, President Emeritus Heywood Broun says: "This is the most it" Arthur Somers Roche says: "There is Dr. John B. Watson, author of "Be- But mail the coupon without The Outlook Company Book Division 120 East 16th Street, New York GEORGE A. DORSEY What Dr. Dorsey says: LIFE-All men die. Must they die? FEAR-Fear is old stuff, out of date. POLYGAMY-That man is "by nature" RACE Civilization is young; blood is LOVE-Why leave Cupid on the pedes- PURITY-The purity of the ignorant. when purchased at the price of a stifled natural curiosity, is not a safe and sane "purity." GENUS HOMO-That man makes an ass of himself and elects himself a saint only adds zest to the study of human behavior. Man is not only the most curious thing in the world, but the most interesting, not only to live with, but as an object of observation. Volume 142 Commissioner Curran Resigns I MMIGRATION COMMISSIONER Henry H. Curran has resigned his difficult office to become counsel for the City Club of New York. Ever since the passage of the Immigrant Exclusion Act he has been kept in the position of the little Dutch boy in the Holland legend, who saved his country from inundation and ruin by stopping a trickle through a leak in the dike with his finger. Dexterously embalmed in red tape, the Immigration Office in New York, which has to bear the brunt of most of the troubles engendered by the law, is helpless on the side of common sense and humanity. The ingenuity of two departments, State and Labor, are exerted to preserve as much oppression as possible and render discretion obsolete, Hundreds of distressing cases might have been remedied by trusting their adjustment to the good sense of the Commissioner. Mr. Curran had plenty of this The Tariff Commission HE most impotent thing in the Fed THE eral Government, and that not alone because of inherent limitation of power, but also because of acquired inability to function within its limitations, to wit, the United States Tariff Commission, is the subject of the latest and in many ways the most remarkable inquiry undertaken by the Senate. A special committee of five is authorized by resolution to investigate the manner in which the flexible provision of the tariff is administered. That alone was the original purpose of the resolution as offered by the Democratic leader, Senator Robinson, of Arkansas; but as adopted it carries an amendment offered by Senator Norris, of Nebraska, providing that the committee shall also investigate the appointments of members. of the Tariff Commission and report to the Senate whether any attempt has been made to influence the acts of members March 24, 1926 "by any official of the Government or other person or persons." This means that the special investigating committee is given authority to investigate charges made early in the session by Senator Norris that President Coolidge had asked at least one member of the Tariff Commission to leave, at the time of his appointment, a signed resignation with the President, that a diplomatic appointment was dangled in front P. & A. Photos Benjamin Day of another member in order to induce him to resign, and various other charges of similar import. In short, the President of the United States is, for the first time in the history of the country, to have his official acts investigated by a committee of Congress. Another amendment, offered by Senator King, of Utah, helps to make the investigation resolution most unusual. It stipulates that three of the five members of the committee shall be "members of the majority and include one who is a progressive Republican," and that two shall be members of the minority, presumably meaning Democrats, although that term begins to lose significance as applied to that party in the Senate. This is the first time that the insurgent Senators who call themselves Republi Number 12 cans have been recognized by name in any action of the Senate. The general impression about Washington was that this stipulation was made in order to insure the appointment of Senator Norris as a member of the investigating committee. If that was, indeed, the purpose, it failed. VicePresident Dawes very properly refrained from trying to determine which Senators are "progressive Republicans" and appointed to a place on the committee the only one who so classifies himself in the Congressional Directory-Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr., of Wisconsin. There are now four recognized parties in the Senate the Republican, the Democratic, the Farmer-Labor, represented only by Senator Shipstead, of Minnesota, and the Progressive Republican, represented only, so far as the record shows, by Senator La Follette. If any others wish to come within that classification, they evidently must so declare themselves. Mere insurgency apparently does not gain the distinction for them. None of the Senate's Business IT appears to The Outlook that the Senate has again transcended its powers and gone dabbling in matters. that are none of its concern. We say this with full realization of the fact that there is an essential difference between this investigation and the one that recently was proposed into the action of the Department of Justice with regard to the case of the Aluminum Company of America. What was proposed there was plain interference with the affairs of an executive department. Some part of what is to be done by the committee just now appointed is within the right of the Senate to conduct investigations for the purpose of ascertaining facts to be used in shaping legislation. The Tariff Commission is not an executive department or bureau. It is an administrative or, perhaps more accurately, a fact-finding body. But, though not executive itself, and though intended to be a sort of bridge between the legislative and executive branches, it is a piece of machinery created for the con venience of the President. If Congress intended to delegate legislative authority to it, the intention was extra-Constitutional, and the outcome was failure. The Tariff Commission has to do solely with the flexible provision of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922. Thus the legislative end of the bridge rests on that law. The Commission has no power to do anything except to gather facts and report them to the President; and there rests the Executive end of the bridge. The power to raise or lower rates, as conferred by the flexible provision of the Fordney-McCumber Act, is exercised by the President alone. He may ask for the advice of the Tariff Commission or he may not. When advice is given by the Commission, either on request or gratuitously, the President may accept it or ignore it. The Tariff Commission in operation certainly has not been an eminent success. It does not seem at all amiss that the Senate should inquire into the work of the Tariff Commission merely by way of learning whether or not the provision of the law creating the Tariff Commission should be repealed or modified. Therefore the resolution as originally offered by Senator Robinson was probably sound. But as adopted the resolution, including the Norris amendment, seems to us dangerously unsound. It is not conceivable that a committee of the Senate has the right to inquire into the official acts of the President. It is extremely unlikely that President Coolidge has done anything in this regard that constitutes a misuse of his powers. But, if it were conceded that he has misused his authority, the method of proceeding against him is clearly fixed. It would be the duty of the House of Representatives to investigate with a view to impeachment --not a committee of the House, but the House itself. The Senate would have nothing to do with the matter until the impeachment came to it for trial-and trial would be by the Senate, not by a special committee. Mere Investigation Not Enough HE sort of investigation that the committee will actually make remains to be determined. It is not, as committees go, a bad one. The regular Republicans on it are Wadsworth, of New York, and Reed, of Pennsylvania. The Democrats are Robinson, of Arkansas, and Bruce, of Maryland. The "pro gressive" Republican, as previously said, is La Follette. It is by no means a foregone conclusion that the Democrats and the "progressive" Republican will always act together. A Democratic-Republican coalition on some points is as likely as a Democratic-Progressive coalition on others. The one thing which appears certain is that the Democrats will dominate the situation. And there is no indication that the Democrats, either the two who are members of the committee or the entire Democratic membership of the Senate, Democratic membership of the Senate, are anxious to undertake an investigation of the President. It is not even certain that Senator La Follette is anxious to do so. The only Senator who has manifested such anxiety is Norris, though it is practically certain that some other members of the so-called "progressive" group feel it. The Tariff Commission is probably in for somewhat drastic investigation, and it deserves it. it deserves it. Perhaps the time has come for judging the "flexible tariff" as a policy. If so, the committee should bear in mind the "log-rolling" policy it supplanted. Can it devise something better than either? A Remedy for Unfair Competi tion in Merchandising M ANUFACTURERS and merchants who for years have been seeking a practicable method of preventing the sale at less than the advertised price of articles advertised under a trade name have agreed that in order to protect their mutual interests legislation by Congress is necessary. A bill has therefore been introduced in the House by Representative Kelly which, if enacted, will end the "cut-price" controversy by clearly defining the respective rights of the manufacturer, jobber, and retail dealer. The merits of the contention that the maker of standard articles Nationally advertised to be sold at a certain price should be allowed to protect his customers against destructive and unfair competition by dealers who resort to "price cutting" as a method of advertising "bargains" in other merchandise have been fully stated in The Outlook on various occasions. There would seem to be no good reason why Congress should not enact the desired legislation. Recent decisions by the United States courts have showed a tendency to abandon the view once held that agreements to maintain prices are in restraint of trade; but in order to avoid possible action by the Federal Trade Commission, creating uncertainty as to the right of a manufacturer to make such agreements with his customers as may assure them a fair and reasonable profit, it is highly desirable that the Kelly Bill, or some similar measure, should become law. An effort is being made to convince the country merchants that the policy of price maintenance will injuriously affect them by enabling manufacturers to withhold their products from any particular dealer for any or no reason, and thus will tend to create monopoly conditions under which the retailer would be compelled to handle standard merchandise on terms dictated by the producer. There is nothing in the proposed law that will enable a manufacturer to deprive his customers of a reasonable profit. On the contrary, the bill, if passed, will assure the retail dealers against losses through being forced to meet the unfair competition of "cut price" practices. A Pandora's Box IN N trying to keep out foreign pests that might destroy our plants and food crops, the Federal Government has made us practically helpless to control our own domestic pests. As a consequence an amendment to the Federal Plant Quarantine Act is before both houses of Congress. Some legislation of the sort is necessary if the several States are to have the power to protect themselves against plant diseases and pests from other States. A decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, written by Chief Justice Taft, and handed down on March 1, holds that, under the law as it stands, a State may not declare or enforce a quarantine. "When," in the language of the opinion, "Congress has acted and occupied the field, the power of the States to act is prevented or suspended." As only five States have no plant quarantine law, this decision affects fortythree States and has nullified several hundred plant quarantines. The decision was rendered in a suit between the State of Washington and a railroad company which, in sending a shipment of alfalfa hay from a point in Idaho to another point in the same State, routed it through a corner of Washington. The Washington authorities seized the hay and destroyed it by way of en |