OUTSTANDING DUTTON BOOKS My Years on the Stage By JOHN DREW OLIVER HERFORD writes in Life: "The glamour of the golden age of American Drama is happily re- flected in the mirror of this narrative whose valuable records and commentaries together with the direct- ness and the good style of its telling place it at the "Six Characters in Search of an Author," a recent success in London and a present sensation in New York, is to be produced this winter by Pitoeff in Paris and Reinhardt in Berlin and Munich. The publica- tion of it, with two other plays also in his character- istically original and brilliant manner, has moved the critics to say that " the publication of Pirandello's 'Three Plays' seem to us now as important a work A record of the manifold activities of James Gibbons as parish priest, missionary bishop, metropolitan archbishop and Prince of the Church, and an account of his contacts here and abroad with rulers and states- men, of his influence in labor circles and wherever the questions of the day demanded his wise considera- tion. These volumes deserve to stand beside the life of Phillips Brooks, of Theodore Roosevelt, or of your favorite American whoever he may be. With portraits and other illustrations. Two vols. HENRY T. FINCK, the musical critic of the New York Evening Post, commends this book of anecdotes about the famous singers whose friendships the author has shared." It is the most personal and entertain- BRANDER MATTHEWS writes in the International Book Review: "It is the kind of book which Howells himself would have been glad to read and perhaps even to review. . . . It is because Mr. Cooke is as keen-eyed as he is open-minded that this study of the work and of all the works of a great artist in letters is likely to hasten the day when the abiding value of Int N the article concerning "Bob Cook," the famous oarsman, in the issue of The Outlook for December 20, it is stated that the race of 1872 was won by Amherst Agricultural College. It was Amherst, not Aggie, that won that race. Brooklyn, New York. [Our correspondent is not only right, but proves that she is right, by sending us an extremely interesting account of the 1872 race on the Connecticut River written by the Rev. Arthur J. Benedict, of Amherst '72, who rowed in the Amherst boat in that race. Incidentally, Mr. Benedict illustrates the uncertainty of university boat racing by telling us that in those good old days when pools were openly sold Amherst and Williams formed the "field" in the betting for this race. But, he adds, in verse: Contempt for smaller colleges died, Mr. Benedict remarks that it is with pleasure as a Yale man (he holds a divinity degree from Yale) that he records the fact that the next year Yale I won under Captain Bob Cook. His Amherst loyalty, however, again comes quickly to the front when he adds, "It also gives me pleasure to state that it took them 27 seconds longer than our record over the same course." The writer of The Outlook paragraph was present at the race, and his error is a curious instance of the fallibility of recollection as compared with record. Turning to our own files for verification of the fact, we now find this succinct account of the race in our issue of July 31, 1872: "Amherst, Harvard, Massachusetts Agricultural, Bowdoin, Williams, and Yale rowed the annual race at Springfield and passed the goal in the above order. Amherst's time, 16 m. 32 4/5 seconds."-THE EDITORS.] Men's Reformatory, Anamosa, Iowa. WANTED-CARTOONS THE OUTLOOK wishes to receive cartoons from its readers, clipped from their favorite newspapers. Each cartoon should have the sender's name and address together with the name and date of the newspaper from which it is taken pinned or pasted to its back. Cartoons should be mailed flat, not rolled. We pay one dollar ($1) for each cartoon which we find available for reproduction. Some readers in the past have lost the dollar bills to which they were entitled because they have failed to give the information which we require. THE EDITORS OF THE OUTLOOK 381 Fourth Avenue. New York you For this occasion we have prepared a new "January Sale Catalog" that brings most remarkable linen values right to your door, no matter where live. Its pages are filled with liberal selections of damasks, towels, household and fancy linens, as well as blouses, lingerie, laces, and other personal things of irresistible loveliness. All the articles are absolutely of the regular McCutcheon standard of quality. Take advantage of this big opportunity that Fill in and mail the coupon James McCutcheon & Co., 345 Fifth Ave., N. Y. City Opposite Waldorf-Astoria Please send me a copy of your New January Sale Catalog No. 35. Name Address. PEACEFUL ARTILLERY HE UNITED STATES ARMY, we have found, is something very handy. T We have just called up an officer in the Ordnance Department, and we got at once the information which we had been seeking for in vain through encyclopædias and reference books. We learned that guns of forty tons are not very common. A gun of that weight is somewhere between the big seacoast guns that guard our shores and harbors and the mobile guns that are moved about by motor. A gun of that weight, however, can be found in seacoast artillery. It can fire one or two shots a minute, though ordinarily it doesn't fire quite so rapidly as that. When an order to build a gun of that sort is given, it takes about a year before the gun is finished. T HE OUTLOOK has a rapid-firer in the process of construction. The order was given last March. We were rather hopeful when we gave that order, for we wanted it to be ready to begin firing about the first of the year; but we found that it took about as long to build this as it does to build a piece of coast artillery. The technical name of this is rather formidable, as perhaps the name of such a mighty piece of mechanism should be. It is called a Sixty-nine Inch Single Web Patent Improved Rotary Web Perfecting Press. It weighs eighty thousand pounds-just about the weight of one of the seacoast guns we were inquiring about. It is a little over twenty-eight feet long and nearly nineteen feet wide, and, with the folder which is connected with it, it is over eleven and one-half feet high. Imagine a room of these dimensions and you can get an idea of the size of this great piece of mechanism. HEN this press begins firing its ammunition of paper and ink, which will be carried, not five miles or fifty miles, but thousands of miles, and reach its objectives all over the world, it will fire at the rate of not two shots a minute like the big gun, but THE OUTLOOK'S RAPID-FIRER about two shots a second. That means that if it is pushed by the artillerymen-we mean the pressmen-two Outlooks will issue every time the clock ticks, and will start on their way to their respective readers. This mechanism, moreover, will not only print The Outlook, but it will fold the sheets up, assemble them, insert them in the covers, and then bind them with wire staples. The men are busy at work making this rapidfirer in the arsenal-that is, C. B. Cottrell and Sons Company's Works at Westerly, Rhode Island. The reason we think the readers of The Outlook will be interested in this piece of mechanism is that it will provide for them a better and a prompter Outlook. INVISIBLE INJUSTICE A TTEMPTS to regulate conduct or to combat racial or sectarian incursions on public welfare by secret bands of self-appointed judges are always bound to work injustice, sometimes even to the "regulators." Thus in their fights against "invisible empire" Governor Allen, of Kansas, and Governor Parker, of Louisiana, are faced by the impossibility of telling what is done by the Ku Klux Klan and what is done by imitators trading under a false name, so to speak, -men incited by personal hatreds and grudges or factions which are at bitter enmity. Governor Allen says his mail basket is full of letters complaining of threats from the Klan, most of which emanate from individual would-be terrorists. Governor Parker in his action against the Mer Rouge murderers has a hard task to unravel the responsibility for the local feud-like hatreds which ended in ghastly murder. There is, however, already evidence in the Mer Rouge case that Richards and Daniels were brutally murdered after being kidnapped by a masked and hooded mob; their bodies have been found and identified and an arrest has been made of a man named Burnett, who is identified by one witness as a member of that mob. Governor Parker has acted with firmness and has not hesitated to use the State militia to protect witnesses and detectives and to preserve law and order in a community that fairly seems to seethe with hatred. Another recent event which is freely attributed to anti-Catholic hatred was the burning at Quebec of the famous old Cathedral, called a Basilica since the new Cathedral was built. officers have given to the authorities a written anonymous threat received not long ago, which declared that the Basilica would be destroyed and named a date that was within twenty-four hours of its actual destruction. Other Catholic churches in Canada (nine, one Quebec newspaper correspondent states) have been burned after similar threats. Now it is quite possible that these threats and fires may be coincidences, and still more probable that they were the acts of half-crazed individuals or a small (C) Underwood THE SCENE OF THE HERRIN TRIAL-THE COURT HOUSE AT MARION, ILLINOIS point of view. The first mass was celebrated there in 1650-two hundred and seventy-two years ago. Its associations, ecclesiastical and architectural as well as historical, made Notre Dame de la Recouvrance unequaled in Canada in the regard of all lovers of things ancient. In the Canadian Parliament Mr. Suave, leader of the Opposition, said: "Would it not be well to question whether this fire is not the work of a criminal organization? That is in the air, and I call the attention of the Attorney-General to the fact that within a year we have. had to deplore losses of that kind every month." There is no substitute for law and order. No doubt there is something substantial in the feeling that there are racial and religious evils in this country that need checking. But the remedy is not in the hidden ways of darkness nor in the violence of "direct action," but in the clear light of public opinion and through the channels of democratic selfgovernment. THE HERRIN MASSACRE HE trial of five men chosen from band of fanatics. But it was inevitable, among over four hundred indicted as we know of a secret anti-Catholic band of night-riders, that suspicion should even without evidence turn toward the Klan. The destruction of this ancient Quebec church was a calamity from the historical for participation in the massacre of mine officers and guards last June at the Herrin mines in Illinois is nearing its close as we write. It would be legally improper and also wrong either to forecast its result or to comment on the moral probabilities as to the innocence or guilt of these five men. Whether the jury does or does not find their guilt established, the evidence of the prosecution has more than justified public belief in the savagery and bloodthirstiness of the mob action of that day. Three of the mob's victims, two of whom had been reported dead and all of whom were wounded, were on the stand. From their testimony it appears that Superintendent McDowell and fortyseven men at the mine surrendered under a white flag which had been repeatedly fired at by the mob. What followed was described by one of the very few who escaped alive, Robert Officer. We quote his testimony as reported and explained in Associated Press despatches: After being assured of their safety, according to the witness, the fortyeight non-union men were led from the mine. The crowd increased, and Officer quoted one of its leaders, whom he could not identify, as shouting: "They're nothing but strike-breakers and we ought to kill them all." About a mile from the mine C. K. McDowell, the superintendent, was led away by two men. Other witnesses have testified that the crippled superintendent was slain at this spot. Then the crowd marched about two miles further, where the remaining forty-seven prisoners were lined up before a barbed-wire fence near clump of woods. "We're going to give you a chance a for your lives," Officer quoted one of the leaders as shouting, and the firing began. Officer said he dropped at the first discharge, rolled under the fence, and fled while the crowd was hunting down others who had escaped the rain of lead. It was at the wire fence that fourteen bodies were found, other witnesses have testified. Four others were found in a clump of woods near by, having been shot as they fled. Six fugitives were captured, witnesses have said, driven through the streets of Herrin and shot down at a cemetery just outside the town. Other eye-witnesses also described the march of the mob and its bleeding captives a mile and a half through the streets of Herrin to the cemetery, of the refusal to give water to the gasping, helpless captives, and of the callous jeering of the mob. We are not repeating this story of horror in order to harrow readers' feelings, but there are some things that ought not to be forgotten. One is the sinking of the Lusitania; another is the Herrin barbarism. In the latter is seen what industrial warfare may bring forth. WE NEVERTHELESS DISAGREE N official and authoritative communi office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs concerning our editorial report of the bill to settle land claims of white people on Pueblo Indian lands in the State of New Mexico. It is signed by the Commissioner himself. Because of its official character we give it this prominent place on our editorial pages. It is as follows: THE LETTER FROM COMMISSIONER BURKE I have just had brought to my notice the editorial in your issue of December 6 entitled "The Pueblo Indians With Their Backs to the Wall." Believing that you would not knowingly publish a statement containing misinformation, and for the purpose of correcting your misapprehension as to certain features of the bill known as the "Bursum Bill," I am writing you. Criticising the bill, you say: One feature is the transfer of jurisdiction. This transfer is twofold. It transfers the jurisdiction over some of the administrative questions from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to a court of law. This is misleading. What it does is to definitely fix jurisdiction of controversies between Indians and others within a pueblo that might possibly be subject to jurisdiction of the State courts in the United States Court. It in no way takes from the Indian Bureau any jurisdiction of administrative questions. You further say: It transfers jurisdiction over some of the most important questions from Federal courts, which are removed from prejudice, to State courts. This is absolutely untrue, as the bill does just the opposite, and defines definitely that only the Federal courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over every question involving the title to lands or water, and, in fact, declares that no legal question affecting the personal or property rights of any Pueblo Indian shall be determined in any court other than the courts of the United States. Yours very truly, CHAS. H. BURKE, Commissioner. The provisions of the bill briefly referred to in the passages from our editorial which Commissioner Burke quotes are as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House the of Representatives of United States of America in Congress assembled. SEC. 2. That the District Court of the United States for the District of New Mexico shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all suits or controversies of a civil nature, at common law or in equity, in addition to the jurisdiction heretofore granted to said Court in the following cases: (e) All suits of a civil nature, at SEC. 3. That the State of New Mexico and the courts thereof shall have jurisdiction over all lands and in all questions arising in relation thereto which shall have been segregated from any of the pueblo grants hereinbefore enumerated, by final decree, as well as also over all lands and as to all questions or controversies arising in relation thereto which have ceased to be reservations as hereinbefore provided, or which shall have been legally sold or disposed of by any of said pueblos or any Indian or Indians thereof, as now or hereafter provided by law. The opinion of the Commissioner that these provisions in no way take from the Indian Bureau any jurisdiction of administrative questions or transfer any important questions from the Federal courts to the State courts is interesting. Controversies about the right to hold office in Indian tribes have been regarded as administrative questions. It seems to us that the law distinctly gives exclusive jurisdiction in such controversies to the District Court of the United States. Lands which have been segregated from the Pueblo grants are of It great importance to the Indians. seems to us that the law gives jurisdic tion over controversies concerning such lands to the State of New Mexico and the courts of the State. The statement of the Commissioner to the contrary does not make it clear to us that the bill would do what be believes it would. We have given the provisions of this law verbatim on these points, however, in order that our readers may judge for themselves. THE PRESIDENT'S PROHIBITION CONFERENCE ROM their annual Conference, held Springs, Governors of fourteen States journeyed to Washington to discuss the problem of prohibition enforcement with the President. At the conclusion of the Conference the Prohibition Commissioner, Mr. Haynes, said: In many cases the reports of Governors were of an encouraging nature, indicating very gratifying progress in making the enforcement of the Volstead Act effective. Numerous instances of lack of co-operation were pointed out; many instances of the inadequacy of the Federal forces were suggested. On the whole, the informal conference was helpful to both State executives and Federal officials who were present. There was a preponderance of opinion that an earnest official appeal for reverence for the law and a cordial support of law enforcement by the press would combine to cure the worst conditions reported. The Governors gave their own views of the subject after the conclusion of the Conference, and these opinions ranged in character from the discouraged words of Governor Ritchie, of Maryland, to the hopeful and determined sentiments of Governor Allen, of Kansas. Maryland's Governor said: The great majority of the people of Maryland believe that the Volstead Law simply cannot be enforced there. Our people are imbued with a fine traditional respect for law and the established order, and we were effectively solving the temperance question by local option in the various units of the State. Under that method, when the people of a community wanted prohibition, they actually got it. The Volstead Law changed all this. Our people in the main regard it as an unnecessary and drastic Federal infringement of their State and personal rights. The lack of respect for law and the actual lawlessness which have resulted is deplorable. The only remedy I see is to recognize that the Volstead Law is destructive of the rights of the States, and to turn the whole question back to the States, so that each may settle it in accordance with the will of its own people. Governor Allen pointed out that the present laxity of enforcement was to be expected. His prophecy as to the future success of prohibition lends support to |