HAROLD T. PULSIFER, President and Managing Editor NATHAN T. PULSIFER, Vice-President

ERNEST HAMLIN ABBOTT, Editor-in-Chief and Secretary LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT, Contributing Editor

Volume 146

James, His Pilgrimage

M

AYOR WALKER, of New York, is now on tour in the British Isles. He is making an exhaustive study, in an afternoon, of London's model tenements, and they tell us that he has gathered a first-hand im

August 31, 1927

have had abler minds than Jimmie Walker, but neither of them was so light on his feet.

And in Return for the Mayor

MERICAN men are awful. So thirty

busses from his journeyings through the streets of the British capital. He has traveled in a gilded coach or two, met reception committees in pajamas, and undoubtedly given to our British cousins a most satisfying confirmation of their ideas of an American mayor. His wise cracks on solemn occasions gave them much food for comment and his sartorial adornments brightened many important gatherings.

He is a genial soul, and we have no doubt that the British and the Irish found him quick-witted and likable even if not impressive according to Old World standards. Even though he appears to have established a transatlantic record for being late to his appointments (a Belfast paper has suggested a revision of the title of the Mayor's own most popular lyric to read "I'll Meet You in December if You Arrange for May"), he's on his vacation and the world should not be too captious. After all, the old Tammany could have sent across the Atlantic many other sons of the old sod who I would have been less a credit to New York than its present Mayor.

Possibly Croker and Murphy may

in London, who recently returned home from a visit to the United States, have

found, and it must be true.

For their sisters on this side of the water the English shopgirls-salesladies, rather-felt a generous admiration. American girls, they reported, have prettier figures and nicer-shaped legs and feet than their English kin, and more. and better-fitting frocks. And they have as much confidence at fourteen as an English girl can hope to muster at twenty. But the men who are allowed to pay the taxi fares of these beauties, who have followed their consistent conquest of every touring English novelist and lecturer by captivating even the shopgirls-the men are deplorable. Listen to these fair-or unfair-critics:

"The men are terribly dressed. Their tailoring is disgusting. . . . There was no fit about their clothes at all.

"We went to a dance at a country club, and, to our horror, the men took off their coats and danced in their shirtsleeves. We were so startled that we nearly walked out.

"Our men, at any rate, beat the Americans all hollow."

Number 18

The only hope of consolation for American manhood, apparently, is to send thirty girls from Wanamaker's over to London and arrange to have them dance at a week-end party with Englishmen who wear monocles and carry their handkerchiefs in their coat-sleeves-and then print what they say.

Costly Adventuring

A

LTHOUGH the goal set by the Dole prize has been achieved-in the sense that two airplanes have made the perilous passage from the American mainland to Hawaii-the cost has clearly been out of all proportion to anything that has been gained by it. Since the prize money of $35,000 was first put up, a few weeks ago, the toll taken by the enterprise has been appalling. Three aviators were killed before ever a start was made, two planes wrecked, one badly damaged, and another burned to a mass of twisted wire and bolts. A well-informed Californian declares in a letter to The Outlook that the winners, Goebel and Jensen, were really the only two of those that got away whose record justified a reasonable degree of success. A newspaper writer says: "One gasps to learn that Mr. Jensen, the second-prize winner, had originally intended to fly without a navigator, although he himself knew nothing of navigation, and did actually depart with a hastily patched fuelfeed that nearly cost him his life."

The tragedy of the race itself was

overwhelming. Up to August 23 seven of the contestants (including Miss Doran, a passenger, and Captain Erwin and his navigator, Eichwaldt, the latter two lost in their search for the others) were missing. There was then a slight possibility that there might still be news of rescues, but a far greater probability that all have disappeared forever as did Nungesser and Coli. The search had been carried on for several days by forty naval vessels and the sea was scanned constantly by other ships in those waters. In the opinion of many critics, the event proves the unsuitability of all but seaplanes for such a venture. Ernest Smith, for instance, the first civilian to fly a plane from the mainland to Hawaii, said of the Dole race, "It is stunt flying, and not practical with airplanes."

The very sensationalism of the airrace event, however, aroused the most unparalleled interest along the whole Pacific coast. A staff correspondent of The Outlook, writing from San Francisco, says that for hours before the start was scheduled to be made the hills behind Oakland and Berkeley, as well as all the vantage-points in San Francisco, were occupied by expectant crowds. Tens of thousands of people listened to vivid descriptions of the great event sent out over the radio; while reporters circling round in special airplanes telephoned by wireless the story as they saw it to their respective newspapers.

What can be done to repress recklessness in the air? That something must be done is shown by the general demand of the press. It is stated that the Division of Aeronautics of the Department of Commerce protested against the race and asked that steps be taken to make it safer, and that it urged radical changes in the plan. But it appears that there was no compulsory authority behind this protest. It seems obvious that such authority should be established somewhere by Congress. Admiral Eberle, since the flight for Hawaii has proved so disastrous, is quoted as predicting that Congress will pass a law to prohibit long-distance airplane flights except under rigid regulations. He opposes the use of land planes for sea flights.

Beyond question courage even to audacity, zeal to accomplish that which man has never done, passion for adventure and discovery-all are part of the American spirit. Such boldness leads to knowledge and power. Yet it must not be allowed to peril uselessly human life or to degenerate into reckless dashes for prizes and newspaper sensationalism. We learn by disaster; we must not discourage the taking of risks when great

Clark Russell's "Wreck of the Grosvenor." The Kingsway is an American sailing vessel (a four-masted schooner) with a Yankee skipper. Her eventful voyage from New York to the African Gold Coast and back took eight months. Murder, hatred, and jealousy made the vessel a living hell. Battice accused his wife of infidelity; she accused him of wanting to get rid of her because of a girl in Porto Rico, and left a scrawl saying that he had encouraged the engineer, Badke, to become his wife's lover. The captain said that Badke was "not a man you could control, any way, shape, or manner unless you killed him," and that he was afraid to put Badke in irons for fear of mutiny. The cook, on the stand, declared he cut his wife to discipline but not to kill her. The captain, after the cook had cut the wife's throat with a razor, nursed her for seven days and then "she was buried at sea at sunset."

A more sordid, brutal, dangerous state of things never existed in one small vessel. Her reputation reached ports of call, which refused to allow the crew to land. She was accursed aboard and ashore.

Acting under their statutory privilege, the jury found Battice guilty of murder in the second degree, and he received a sentence of ten years only. There will be no long series of appeals here. Counsel must have been glad to get their client off so easily.

The trial, of course, was before a Federal court, as the crime was committed on the high seas. The records of Federal courts of trials for mutiny, "barratry," smuggling, assault, and murder might furnish material for countless romances of the Jack London type, but few of them would be more replete with the dark stains of sin and bloodshed than this.

Recompense for Injury Incurred in Public Duty

A

BOMB shattered the other day the home of Lewis McHardy, who had served on the jury that convicted Sacco and Vanzetti. It was obviously set by some one who sympathized with the two men who were about to be executed. It fortunately caused but slight injuries to Mr. McHardy and his family; but it destroyed his house, the fruit of years of savings, and was a terrific shock to him and his household. This was in retaliation for his service to the State and his performance of duty. For a soldier who suffers on the field of battle or for his dependents the Government provides compensation; but for this man who suffered for civic service to the State there was no compensation provided. In order to make some recompense the State will have to enact a special law.

Two days before this explosion John Golden, driving his own car in New York, was suddenly halted by a large roadster that crossed in front of him. Almost immediately a police officer jumped on the running-board of Mr. Golden's car and commanded him to follow the roadster. In the pursuit Mr. Golden was shot by the driver of the fugitive car and was killed. He was not even a resident of the State; but in the performance of the duty of an American citizen to aid the police he lost his life. Again it is to be recorded that neither the State nor the city had any provision by law to make recompense for injury or death incurred in its service. In this instance the authorities of New York City have voted compensation for the family of the martyr to duty, and have authorized similar payments in the future.

Every State has the right to command the services of its citizens for the preservation of its institutions in peace as well as in war; but it should see that in return for such service citizens should

W

HEN Some one makes a lot of money from a simple invention, one asks one's self, "Now why didn't I see the possibilities of that thing myself?" About fifteen years ago students saw a professor conduct an experiment before a physics class. Into a peculiar double-shelled vessel he emptied carbondioxide snow-white, clean, fluffy. The vessel was a Dewar flask. Its double walls contained nothing-a vacuum. That was its secret, the carbon-dioxide snow would not soon melt. Air, as every one knows, is a poor conductor of heat. Nothing is still better. The snow was said to be about 100 degrees below An interesting experiment. Well -what of it?

zero.

Somebody with practical brains saw possibilities in the Dewar flask, which had already been used by scientists for several previous decades, and the "ther

mos bottle" was the outcome. Now the carbon dioxide that was kept frozen in the Dewar flask is making more money for some other hard-headed man who doubtless saw that experiment. It, too, has gone into business "dry ice."

Dry ice may be a trade name. But so is Ford-yet we don't hesitate to mention it in editorial comment. Some commercial products burrow their way into the warp and woof of modern life. Kodak is an example. Dry ice has already become a valuable refrigerant, ready become a valuable refrigerant, and the reason is that its temperature stands some 112° below zero. Pound for pound it refrigerates fifteen times as much as common frozen water, and when it disappears it goes directly from a solid into a non-poisonous, inert gas, leaving not a sign of moisture. Think of being able to lay a piece of ice on a choice bedspread or tablecloth, allow it to vanish, and find no sign that it was ever there! That is the kind of ice we get when we freeze carbon dioxide, and the reasons given account for the fact

that it is attracting considerable attention. With dry ice you can transport a car of fish in summer without the costly necessity of re-icing the car at frequent intervals. You can ship ice-cream from New York to Cuba, and that is just what is now being done in immense quantities. You can put a small piece in the bottom of a cylindrical cardboard container of ice-cream and take it with. you on a picnic and it will stay solid through all of a hot day.

A couple of years ago we saw such containers in ice-cream store windows. To most of us it then seemed a stunt. The stunt has spread into industry and is still spreading. Ice manufacturers are sitting up to take notice, for, though dry ice costs ten times what wet ice costs, it refrigerates fifteen times as much. The stunt of the store window and the entertaining experiment of the professor of physics have gone to work in earnest.

The President and His Indian Fellow-Citizens

IN

IN his talk to a great gathering of Indians in South Dakota President Coolidge did not quite say, as commonly reported, that the Indian should be allowed to live his own life. He pointed out that many thousands of Indians have adjusted themselves to the new conditions-half of the Indians on that, the largest reservation in the country, are now voters-but that others of them cling to the old ways, and added, "They wish to live and die according to the traditional ways of the Indians, and they should be permitted to do so."

The impressive sight of ten thousand Sioux, some of them in ceremonial Indian costume, a few of them warriors who had taken part in the Battle of the Wounded Knee fought thirty-seven years ago on the ground where the tribes welcomed their Great Father, emphasized the fact that the Indian question has become a matter of lawmaking, and not of fighting. When, two years ago, the Indian Citizenship Act made all native-born Indians American citizens, as Mr. Coolidge stated, two-thirds of them had already acquired citizenship under previous legislation. There is still much to be done before they become in any full sense assimilated. The progress in doing away with the reservation system, which is logically inconsistent with independent citizenship, is necessarily slow. The Indian must be protected, not now against the seizing of his hunting-grounds and the breaking of treaties, but against his own ignorance, against the riches which have in some