of any of our master-keys.

But this much may be said for all of them, from the trip to Europe to the use of yellow paper: that, while a finished literary art is not likely to be revealed by a single flourish of a single key, there is one important door which, through eager fumbling, may be opened. It is the door to consciousness. When that mysterious region is entered, we can do without our keys. A nation of doers can only learn. by doing, and that may be some part of the thing which these people are about.

Of all of them, the club woman seems to me again the most revealing. I think of her as even more stridently characteristic of our mass attempts at culture than the manicurist who writes her confessions in a sprawling hand, or the newly made millionaire who, trying out his master-key, buys an ancient castle complete to the ivy on the walls, brings it home, and planks it down in Nebraska. "I have been taking a course at the university," cried one of these, "and I've learned all about how to write short stories! The only trouble is that I can't seem to think of anything to write."

A Grand Old Man

(Continued from page 476)

the affairs of the Sudan will ever be reversed. That verdict has been distinctly unfavorable. "Les fautes de l'homme puissant," said an eminent Frenchman, "sont des malheurs publics." Mr. Gladstone's error in judgment in delaying too long the despatch of the Nile expedition left a stain on the reputation of England which it will be beyond the power of either the impartial historian or the partial apologist to efface.

None of the political critics of Gladstone was half as severe as Queen Victoria, the third volume of whose remarkable letters has just been published. Apparently Queen Victoria was as terrified by the specter of Democracy as we are by the specter of Bolshevism, and regarded Mr. Gladstone with as much abhorrence as if she were an American capitalist and Mr. Gladstone were Trotsky or Lenine. For example, in September, 1879, she wrote to a friend as follows, the mid-Victorian capitals and italics being her own:

In the same way I never could take Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Lowe as my Minister again, for I never COULD have the slightest particle of confidence in Mr. Gladstone after his violent, mischievous, and dangerous conduct for the last three years, nor could I take the latter after the very offen

1 The Letters of Queen Victoria. Second Series, 3rd Volume. Edited by George Earle Buckle. Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

sive language he used three years ago against me.

In 1882 she wrote to Lord Granville:

Mr. Gladstone unfortunately lives still (even after his nephew and dear friend has been murdered) under the delusion that these dreadful Home Rulers and rebels are to be trusted, and are well disposed-even praising Mr. Sexton!! and she fears, backed as he will be by his evil genius Mr. Chamberlain, that he may retract, and yield and change and weaken the Bill. The Queen cannot too strongly warn against this contingency, which she expects the rest of the Cabinet to resist, as it is their bounden duty to do. The Queen regrets, however, to say she finds (unlike almost any other Government) no readiness, especially not in Mr. Gladstone, to listen to her views and warnings, which so often have proved (when it is too late) to be right. The want of cordiality and readiness to act with us on the part of the great Powers is the result of the want of confidence which they have in us-and in Mr. Gladstone.

And as late as 1885 a detestation of Mr. Gladstone was expressed to Mr. Goschen:

You must keep Lord Hartington up to the mark and not let him slide back (as so often before) into following Mr. Gladstone and trying to keep the party together. At this time, you know, the very reverse is required. We want all moderate men, all true patriots to support the Throne and Empire irrespective of party. I am especially anxious about this, as we hear that Mr. Gladstone (in his 77th year) is bent upon forcing himself into office. Such a wanton act should meet with NO support from those who like yourself-and I hope I may add Lord Hartington and many more -have the true interests of the Empire at heart; for I am sure that Mr. Gladstone has persuaded himself again, that he has some mission to do great things for Ireland, as he certainly was very full, when he took leave of me, of some enormous scheme for Central Local Government in Dublin which I know many of his former colleagues said meant Home Rule, though he might deny it.

It would not be difficult for a psychoanalyst to explain Queen Victoria's antipathy to Gladstone. They both believed, either consciously or subconsciously, that they were vicegerents of God. They were both inclined to be severe and uncompromising in maintaining and asserting their moral principles. They therefore, as so often happens in human intercourse, repelled each other. Disraeli, on the other hand, had not only paid compliments to Victoria, but was her complement. He supplied that

yearning for gayety and glory which was repressed in her by her evangelical principles or, what we should call in this country, her New England conscience.

Mr. Gladstone's bitterest political opponents did not belittle his intellectual power, his parliamentary skill, or the influence of his magnificent person and countenance. The brilliant but erratic Lord Randolph Churchill once said to Prince Bismarck when they were discussing some questions of political give and take: "The English people would cheerfully give you Mr. Gladstone for nothing, but you would find it an expensive present." Yet on another occasion he remarked to a friend that when with Gladstone he felt as if he were "in the presence of a superior being; I could argue, but before the man himself I bent."

Lord George Hamilton, a loyal adherent of Disraeli and Salisbury and an opponent of Home Rule, describes Gladstone's masterfulness as a parliamentarian in one of the great Home Rule contests of the eighties:

Gladstone faced the serious position so largely created by his own thoughtless words and acts with commendable courage, dignity, and resource. All the finer qualities of his complex personality asserted themselves in the terrific Parliamentary contest of the ensuing ten months, and at the end of the session he emerged a temporary victor over a rare combination of disorderly and dangerous influences. His patience, endurance, and the quickness and audacity with which he seized upon every mistake made by his adversaries were a real lesson in Parliamentary tactics, and the constant exhibition of these great powers made one deplore that prescience and sound judgment were not, to an equal extent, a permanent part of his political outfit.

It is as an unsurpassed parliamentary leader, a leader in representative government, in which no one ever accused him of dishonor or corruption, that Gladstone has his greatest claim to enduring fame. He entered his legislative career at twenty-two and ended it at eightyfive, when he laid down the office of Prime Minister, to which he had been chosen four times. Thus for more than sixty years he was a tireless lawmaker and administrator-a longer period of continuous service in the public interest than has ever fallen to the lot of any one man in the history of representative government. He is certainly, for this length of patriotic service alone, entitled to the appellation of "the Grand Old Man,” a tribute of admiration conferred upon him by friends and foes alike among his contemporaries.

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The Land That Paid No Taxes

(Continued from page 460)

destined to revolutionize the governmental finances of the world. Before the joint session of both houses of Congress he outlined his plan.

'Gentlemen,' he said, 'a year from today we will be able to burn the last bond. The United States of America will be free from all debt. Our annual budget this past year called for an expenditure of ten billion dollars-eight of which went for expenses and two towards the retirement of our debt. It is my proposal that we continue to levy taxes of ten billion a year and devote two billions to the purchase of securities in the name of the Government. If we pursue this plan for twenty-five years, and if we invest our money wisely, we will at the end of twenty-five years have fifty billions of assets plus the interest and increment on this sum due to the growth of the country. Gentlemen, I prophesy that if this plan is carried to its conclusion the country will have an income at the end of the next quarter of a century of not less than eight billion dollars a year. The Government will have become the business partner of the people.'

all business towards prosperity. Casaba, Jr.'s plan involved payments to the officials of the Treasury Department of salaries large enough to attract the leading financiers of the country to its service. As a result, to be brief, at the end of twenty-five years the Government had a revenue of ten billions a year. All Federal taxes were abolished and industry freed from the burden of these taxes. Although the Government now spends thirty-five billion a year, a large balance is invariably accumulated over current expenditures, which is turned over to the States to relieve the burden of local taxation by the creation of endowment funds for the States under Federal supervision. Our laws now require all new corporations to present five per cent of their common stock to the Government when they are organized, and in another fifty years we believe there will be no taxes of any kind within the boundaries of the United States. This seems a long time to you to look ahead, but, as the average life expectation of man is now well over one hundred years, we have been able to take a longer view of things than mankind and womankind did in your day.

"In some degrees," he answered. "The United States of Europe is about fifty per cent endowed; Africa and South America are about thirty per cent endowed, Canada and Australia about

eighty per cent, China about ten per

"Do these Governments make foreign investments?"

"Certainly, whenever it seems advisable. The government ownership of foreign securities has been perhaps the deciding factor in what really appears to be the final abolishment of war. Why attack countries where funds, not only of private citizens, but of your own government are invested? There have been no terrestrial wars, by the way, since the time of War with the Moon. Interplanetary communication is now so complete that we look for no further difficulties in the nature of celestial wars."

"And so you have reached a goal of real government ownership without the destruction of private interest and"

"That's the way it looks to us," he said, drawing a deep breath of satisfaction.

My head buzzed confusingly. "To think," I said slowly, as the green pants of my professor friend began to grow dim and the black grill began to change to an open fire and the cold lamp to a hot electric bulb-"and to think," I said again, "I've got to go back a whole thousand years and pay money out on a tax blank which, if I could stay here, you would even pay me good hard cash for. Quick, how much will you offer for it? $1,000? $2,000? $3,000? Going once to the gentleman in the green pajamas, going twice and gone!"

But so had the gay-colored room and the green-clad professor and the thirtieth century. I was back in my study with my Federal Tax still unpaid.

ow, if that isn't a dream, you tell

one.

The Outlook, March 21, 1928

THE OUTLOOK, March 28, 1928. Volume 148, Number 13. Published weekly by The Outlook Company at 120 East 16th Street, New York, N. Y. Subscription price $5.00 a year. Single copies 15 cents each. Foreign subscription to countries in the postal Union, $6.56. Entered as second-class matter, July 21, 1893, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., and December 1, 1926, at the Post Office at Dunellen, N. J., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Copyright 1928, by The Outlook Company.

WE print in this issue an editorial entitled "Call Mr. Hughes," which expresses very clearly the point of view of The Outlook on the Sinclair-Hays scandal.

To our mind, the theory that a political party is not responsible for the acts of its individual members is all very well in isolated instances. But when the members of a National Committee of the party disavow all responsibility for the acts of their predecessors on the ground that they themselves had nothing to do with those acts, party responsibility is completely lost and responsible government breaks down.

IN this case, The Outlook does not insinuate that the present members of the Republican Committee had anything to do with the efforts of Mr. Hays and his associates to hide Mr. Sinclair's contributions. Nor does it believe that these efforts were known to all the members of the old Committee. But it feels very strongly that the attitude of those Committee members who have so far expressed themselves is not conducive to the good either of the Republican Party or the public. A man can be so good a party man that he is not a good citizen. He can prefer the interests of his own group to the public interests. If the Republican National Committee is not responsible for clearing its own party record, who is?

So far as Mr. Hays is concerned, he would be funny if he were not genuinely important. Mr. Hays is the gentleman whose unquestioned integrity and keen perception of the moralities have been guarding us and our children against wickedness and low ideas in the movies. Is the point of view he has disclosed in this Sinclair affair desirable? Or is he a Gilbert and Sullivan character who can do equally well in opposed capacities? Apparently, the best we can hope for from him is a closer guardianship of other people's ethics than he has time to apply to his own.

WE should like to have our readers' opinions on the suggestion made in this issue that the country has complete confidence in Mr. Hughes-and that all good citizens would welcome his impartial investigation of a party condition which otherwise may end in the haze of partisan politics to the detriment of responsible party government.

Francis Rufus Bellamy