COMMERCIAL COURTESY HE Fifth Avenue Coach Company also asked them to give their names and addresses and to indicate their willingness to testify in behalf of conductors unjustly accused because of their efforts to enforce the company's sensible rules. This is a duty which should be a pleasure for the patrons of this company to perform. The president of the company says that the replies to this inquiry" struck a remarkable average of tolerance and consideration for fellow-passengers, and Hoppe himself is a delight to watch THE Fw York has recently given gave fresh proof of that trait of the in action. He rarely hesitates for a moment between shots. His every action speaks vividly of sureness of mind and an uncanny physical co-ordination. Under his expert touch the balls seem almost endowed with individual intelligence. They do everything but talk. At his direction they separate, scatter widely, and come back to him again as though drawn by an invisible magnet. In the illustration which accompanies this editorial Hoppe is about to effect such a "gather shot," though one of a much simpler nature than many which he successfully completes in every tournament. If our illustration could be turned into a moving picture, it would show his cue ball striking the first object ball and returning in its track to the ball which lies beside his hand. Likewise it would show the first object ball on its way to the end of the table, whence it would in turn come back to a position assuring to the master of billiards an impregnable position for the continuation of his run. There are times when we are tempted to declaim against the futility of spending a lifetime in the perfection of a thing which is in itself not essential to life. There have been Chinese carvings of spheres within spheres which have to the New York public an example of commercial courtesy and common sense which is distinctly deserving of record. The busses of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company, as is well known, are double-decker affairs. Smoking in the past has been permitted on the rear seats of the upper deck. The president of the company found that complaints against the abuse of this privilege were increasing, so he invited all users of the busses to present their views for his company's consideration. Hundreds of letters came in response to this request, and as a result of this inquiry the company has decided to permit smokers to enjoy the use of the rear seats on the upper deck, while at the same time enjoining them to observe certain restrictions necessary to prevent giving offense or annoyance to nonsmokers utilizing the transportation facilities of this The comcompany. pany has provided its conductors with little pamphlets giving the history of this inquiry into public manners, which they are instructed to hand to offenders against the present rules. It has not only asked its patrons to carry out these very reasonable regulations, but it has New York public-their genuine sense of fairness-which makes our own task of serving them so much lighter and more pleasant." In support of this statement he quotes letters from ardent smokers offering to abandon the practice of smoking on the busses if it should be decided that this practice constituted an unfair annoyance to the general public. Letters from women were received who had suffered serious annoyance from smokers and who yet were willing to have this practice continued. One such woman wrote: I think if you forbade smoking it would deprive many men of a great pleasure; but there is another point of view. Once my hat was entirely ruined by a man spitting from the top of an omnibus as I was getting off-and another day a dress was almost spoiled by the same thing. I do not think there are many such thoughtless people, and I think I would advocate the men being allowed to smoke. A man also showed his ability to see with other people's eyes by writing: I presume the writer spends $1 per day on your busses, appreciating it as a very reasonable transit. I am an inveterate smoker and generally ride on top. I think it would be wise to abolish all smoking on the busses, and am ready to make that small sacrifice in the interests of the general good. If a forceful and thoughtful presentation of the subject is made, I believe the innovation could be made without friction. The bus company hopes that the regulations which have been adopted will prevent the need of so drastic a change in the habits of its patrons, but whether this is so or not, the whole controversy has created an inviting picture of American good sense and afforded a striking example of commercial courtesy. There are other public service concerns which can well afford to follow the example of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company. PROTESTANT CHURCHES THE recent meeting of the Feherat HE recent meeting of the Federal at Washington was significant, first, for the character of the attendance. More than five hundred delegates were present, representing thirty Christian bodies. Conspicuous among the foreign delegates were General Robert Georges Nivelle, of France, and the Rev. R. C. Gillie, of London, President-elect of the Free Church Council. The meeting was significant, in the second place, because of the importance of the subjects considered; during the six days' session practically all the larger problems before the Christian Church were passed in review. The climax of the meeting was reached when a report was presented outlining a programme of the Council's future. This report recommended to the constituent bodies the strengthening of the Council, so that it might better fulfill its purposes, among which are : To express the fellowship and catholic unity of the Christian Church. To bring the Christian bodies of America into united service for Christ and the world. To encourage devotional fellowship and mutual counsel concerning the spiritual life and religious activities of the churches. To secure a larger combined influence for the churches of Christ in all matters affecting the moral and social conditions of the people, so as to promote the application of the law of Christ in every relation of human life. The Council was established, as has often been said, "for the prosecution of work that can be better done in union than in separation." To this end it authorized the Executive Committee to appoint such additional secretaries as may be necessary to carry forward a larger work, and requested the constituent bodies to provide for the Council's support by a system of equitable apportionment. Should this recommendation be adopted by the churches it would give them, for the first time, an adequate organ of representation in their common work. Dr. Robert E. Speer was chosen President for the next four years. Most significant of all, however, was the spirit pervading the Council. While not blind to present difficulties and dangers, the Council faces the future with a confident spirit promising well for "the resolute and united advance" to which it calls the churches. We hope that the Council may realize Bishop Lawrence's words to them: "We need to-day something of the same spirit of adventure which the Pilgrim Fathers had. If they had put on the Mayflower the motto 'Safety First' they would never have reached this they would never have reached this country." WHAT OUR BOYS FACE IN THE CANAL ZONE MTM elements in the mixed foreign and native population, undermines our boys' morals. They must be safeguarded at all costs so as ultimately to come back as unsullied as can be. Of course the best possible solution would be to get reform legislation from the Government at Panama. Pending this, Americans must do the next best thing. They must provide halls for clean amusements and light refreshments and buildings for religious wor ship. As to worship, some seventeen Protestant denominations are represented among the five hundred resident members of the Union Church of the Canal Zone and the thousand young people in the Sunday schools. This nonsectarian church was established in 1914. It includes four local congregations and one mission. The treasurer of the Church is Mr. A. R. Kimball, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York City. From the beginning this experiment in Christian co-operation has been successful. But only a beginning has been made to provide proper physical equipment. The Outlook appeals with confidence for aid in this endeavor. WAR UCH of our present prosperity is due to our merchant sailors. When Jack's ashore in the seaport THE TWILIGHT OF THE cities of our mainland, he finds welfare work carried on for his benefit. This is also true of some of the ports of our possessions. In one of these possessions -the Canal Zone-the need for such work seems to be greater than elsewhere. The ports of Colon and Panama are daily visited by hundreds of seamen from commercial vessels as well as by sailors and soldiers of the United States Navy and Army. In addition there is the American community along the Panama Canal, composed of nearly fourteen thousand of our white fellow-citizens, together with the many soldiers located at the posts which guard the Canal. The social conditions are remarkable. In the first place, though the Eighteenth Amendment is in operation in the Zone proper, in some of the streets of Colon and Panama nearly every other store is a saloon. The Zone comprises a strip of territory five miles wide on either side of the Canal, but excluding the cities of Colon and Panama. Second, in no other region of equal population is there more prostitution. Most of the prostitutes are suffering from syphilis or gonorrhea or both. A tropical climate, together with bad A S there is a time in our northern lands when day is ended and yet night has not come, so now we are living in a time when the World War is ended and yet world peace is not come. It is the twilight of the war. Impulses that governed all but the most sordid or insensible or cynical among us while the enemy exposed us to a common danger, are no longer lively. There is no longer the urgent call to self-sacrifice, no longer the prompt response. And yet there remains the restlessness bred of war. Nerves are still on the trigger. People are again resorting to foreign travel for recreation, and yet, as never in the former days of peace, they are hampered by war-time passports. Commerce is reviving, and yet it feels the drag of the restrictions surviving the blockade and of the impediments in foreign exchange. Treaties of peace have been signed, yet we hear of fighting in Russia, in Ireland, in what was Turkey, and along the Adriatic; and we expect fighting to be renewed in Poland. Nominally, enemy nations are now friendly; but there lacks the confidence that is the only true basis for interna tional as well as for personal friendship. It is impossible for those who felt the devastating touch of the creatures in field-gray to think of Germans without a shudder. The Germans meant that their atrocities should be remembered, and they are remembered. Peaceful relations with those who perpetrated the deeds cannot be re-established by the mere signing of a treaty. With them we are no longer at war, but it can hardly be said that with them all the world is yet at peace. It is in this twilight of the war that the League of Nations is sitting at Geneva. This assemblage seems to be an embodiment of the spirit of the times. While it attempts to organize peace, it lacks the coherence and driving power of a war alliance. It is designed to unite in a common fraternity the civilized nations of the world, but it still excludes, as it ought to exclude, those nations which, though deprived of belligerent power, retain the belligerent disposition. Lacking both the stimulus of war and the normal relationships of peace, the nations whose representatives are assembled at Geneva are in these days subjected to a severer test than that provided by either peace or war. In spite, however, of its depressing influences, such a time as this has certain compensating advantages. In time of peace sentimentalism is too likely to interfere with reasonable preparation for war. In war time emotional strain forbids concentration of thought upon the establishment of permanent peaceful relationships. In this twilight period, free alike from an abnormal emotionalism and from sentimental excess, it ought to be possible for men to keep in mind the lessons of war while setting their faces for peace; to keep their minds fixed on ideals without letting go their hold on facts. It will serve to promote just and stable international relations if, in organizing peace, men in authority keep clear certain distinctions. National isolation is a relative term. No nation has ever been able to live wholly in itself. Those who profess to advocate a policy of aloofness could not, even if they would, keep nations aloof. The Chinese Wall, a symbol of isolation, never kept China isolated. Japan, even in the period of exclusive. ness, was never completely shut off from other peoples. Great Britain's traditional policy of "splendid isolation was carried on when the British were penetrating all parts of the globe. In the world as it is constituted today points of contact between nations are increasing in number and in complexity. These international relations are not all of the same kind. They may for the most part be put into three categories administrative, diplomatic (or political), and legal. Under administrative relations may be grouped all those questions that arise between nations which can be settled on a basis of routine. These involve no questions of essential policy on the part of any nation or group of nations. Their difficulties can be mastered by experts and need never become cause for friction. Such questions as international postal arrangements, bills of lading, details of the management of ports, exchange of information concerning maritime charts, and many other matters essential to intercourse between nations are of great importance, but they need never become questions for public discussion. For centuries such questions have been arising from time to time, but in recent years, with the development of means of travel and trade, they have become more and more numerous and more and more technical. Even war so destructive as that from which we are emerging does not sever all such relations; for the processes of exchanging prisoners or of sending money and provisions to prisoners in enemy territory became, after the arrangements were once made, aʼmatter of routine. Under diplomatic (or political) relations may be grouped all those questions tions may be grouped all those questions that arise between nations which involve matters of national policy and interest. These questions are often conflicting, and in many cases are pregnant with strife. What is to the advantage of one nation may be or seem to be of disadvantage to its neighbor. They are not necessarily questions of right or wrong. For example, if the matter of tolls in the Panama Canal had not been made the subject of agreement by treaty, it would have been a question purely of national interest and policy. Such questions, like questions as to wages or hours of labor between employer and employee, do not necessarily involve any law or equity. They are questions to be settled by compromise and mutual agreement if possible, and are proper subjects of arbitration. They are usually settled by compromise They are usually settled by compromise between diplomats. They constitute the texture and fabric of diplomacy. The men to whose settlement they are intrusted are trustees of the interests of their respective nations, and are morally bound to see that their respective peoples are not put at a disadvantage. These constitute the kind of questions from which most wars spring, or at least used to spring. They cannot be settled by strictly judicial tribunals because they do not involve questions of law or equity; but they can be, and often have been, settled by arbitral tribunals, because it is found that a disinterested party can often adjust conflicting interests. Indeed, it often happens that even after a war the belligerents will resort to what is virtually the arbitration of a neutral. Under legal relations should be grouped all those questions that arise between nations which involve international law. This group of questions is of comparatively modern origin, because the existence of international law as it is at present understood has been recognized clearly only in modern times. And yet these legal questions between nations are not without precedent in mediæval or even ancient times. There was a general recognition in the Middle Ages of the distinction between lawful and unlawful dynastic claims. The Church acted on occasions as a judge of the law. Those who take the German view that every sovereign state is unmoral and without obligation to observe any law, human or divine, except that of its own necessity, deny even now that there is any such thing as international law; but that question seems to have been settled by the World War. It was Germany's defiance not merely of the interests of her neighbors but of her neighbors' rights that roused the world against her. It is generally recognized to-day that nations have rights in law and equity, and therefore that nations are bound by law and equity to observe one another's rights. With the development of practice and custom generally recognized as having legal validity and with the multiplication of treaties, which are in the nature of legally recognized contracts, these legal relations between nations become more and more important. In great measure the failure of statesmen so far to perfect an international organization for peace, or even to draft one that creates more confidence than distrust, is due to the failure to observe the distinction between these three kinds of international relations. It is natural for diplomats and politicians to think that all questions can best be settled by political and diplomatic methods. As a matter of fact, many of the most serious failures in government have been due to intrusting to politicians questions that are essentially non-political. We are learning in America that there is a legitimate function concern of the politician, but that it does not such purely administrative questions as those affecting the routine business of a municipality or the conduct of such a national enterprise as the post office, and that emphatically it should be kept separate from the machinery of the law. What we have learned of the corrupting influence of politics that has extended beyond its proper sphere in matters of domestic concern we should apply to questions arising between nations. If during this period the nations can learn how to organize their mutual relations so as to confine the diplomats and politicians to their proper function and to intrust administrative questions to experts and legal questions to international jurists, this twilight of the war may prove to be not what it seems, a time of confusion, but a time of construction. HYPHEN AND PACIFIST ALLIES TWO elements in our population T have repeatedly shown a mutual affinity. During the war the German-American who was more concerned with Germany than with America found a ready partner in his propaganda in the pacifist. Together the GermanAmerican and the pacifist labored to keep the country out of war. The fact that their reasons were not altogether identical did not prevent the effect of their activities being the same. And together they did more than any one else to create dissension within the Nation and to keep the Nation unprepared for the task to which it was inevitably called. To-day there is a new partnership of exactly the same kind. This time the pacifist's partner is the Irish-American. A privately organized committee has been holding sessions in Washington, listening to reports and opinions of various people concerning the troubles in Ireland. The head and front of this committee is Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of the "Nation." Mr. Villard is one of our pacifists. He has found ready supporters among those Americans of Irish descent who think of Ireland as their motherland, just as the German-Americans thought of Germany as their fatherland. It is this committee which has brought to this country Mrs. MacSwiney, the widow of the hunger-striker, Lord Mayor of Cork, who starved himself to death as a martyr to the Sinn Fein cause. This committee has no power to swear witnesses or to provide adequate cross-examination. It has failed, as it was bound to fail, to secure reports and opinions directly from Sinn Fein's opponents. Its only effect upon Great Britain has been to arouse resentment against what the British regard as American meddling with matters that concern the British Empire. It is the same sort of resentment which would be aroused in this country if a committee of Englishmen should stir up racial feeling in this country by assuming the prerogative of inquiring into the lynching of Negroes. It is not necessary or right to attribute consciously selfish or sordid motives to those who are engaged in this socalled investigation. Their intentions, however good they may be, do not alleviate one bit their offense against international relations and the interests of this country. Theirs is a performance which can result in no contribution to sound public information and can result only in intensifying prejudice and occasioning resentment. The Irish-Americans who are engaging in this effort are obscuring the just claims of the Irish by their endeavor to involve America in the cause of Sinn Fein, and thus are injuring the cause they are professing to promote: And the pacifists engaged in this enterprise, by arousing resentment and causing friction, and thus making peace more difficult, are likewise injuring the cause they profess to promote. It has always been the doom of the hyphenate to bring disrepute upon the country of his origin and the doom of the pacifist to bring disrepute upon the cause of peace. NOT AS OTHERS ARE, BUT STILL WORTH WHILE THE Provincetown Players have for seven years flung out the T banner of defiance to the commercial stage of Broadway. Despite the excellence of some of their productions, despite the idealistic aims of those who have organized this association, the commercial stage still seems to be doing nicely, thank you. Nor is this statement to be taken as referring wholly to its financial status. We are quite aware of the fact that the commercial stage has a legion of shortcomings to answer for. It has coined vulgarity into profit, it has built up a star system which has retarded the development of the art of acting, it has pushed forward incompetent actors for personal reasons, and it is alleged (with how much truth we cannot say from first-hand knowledge) that it has entered into a conspiracy to keep plays of real intelligence off the stage. The evidence of this last season's plays does not wholly support this complaint. One thing, however, the commercial stage has not been guilty of, and that is intellectual snobbery. On the whole, we are inclined to think that the dramatic snob may be as hurtful to his art as the dramatic vulgarian. A hint at what we mean by intellectual snobbery may be found in a quotation from the announcement which the Provincetown Players distribute to those who foregather in their excellent little theater in Macdougal Street. This announcement begins: gins: "There exist to-day in New York City perhaps a thousand men and women who, as individuals, are the spiritual equals of those who saw the first performances of Aristophanes, Molière, or Shakespeare." It is easy to guess what argument follows this statement, a statement which is neither historically sound nor dramatically wholesome. Certainly neither Aristophanes nor Shakespeare wrote their plays for any small group of (we know of no other word to use) highbrows. The art of Shakespeare was catholic enough in its embrace to include in its appeal the euphuists who followed in the footsteps of Sir John Lyly, the gallants of the Court who watched his plays from coigns of vantage on the stage, and that Elizabethan equivalent, filling the pit of the Globe Theatre, of those who now delight in the antics of Mack Sennett and his troupe. When one is further informed by the Provincetown Players that " groups like ours are about to inherit the whole duty of dramatic man," and that they think one of their promised plays "good, even though it be predestined to popularity," the casual visitor in Greenwich Village is indeed tempted to hie himself back to the dramatic marts of Broadway. But for those who chance to visit the theater of the Provincetown Players and who feel, such a reaction we have a word of advice. Don't depart in anger, for the fare is better than the menu. One of the most successful bills which the Provincetown Players have recently staged begins with a delightful curtain-raiser wherein Harlequin and Pierrot war for the heart of Columbine. Pierrot is a dreamer and his weapons are fantasies of the mind: Harlequin is a practical soul, useful at sweeping time, but otherwise about as inspiring as a cold potato. We can leave our readers to guess which wins the victory. Following this curtain-raiser by Lawrence Langner comes a play which has excited no little interest among dra matic critics. It is Eugene O'Neill's striking study of terror called "The Emperor Jones." The Emperor Jones is an American Negro, an ex-convict, and a refugee from justice. When the play opens, he is Emperor of a West Indian island, a position he has won by a process untainted with legality or honor. He is biding his time, waiting until he has squeezed his superstitious followers dry. When that moment occurs, he is expecting to prescribe for himself a very sudden change of climate. He miscalculates his time of grace, for when he comes on the stage he learns from his side partner in evil, at cockney beach-comber, that his followers have fled to the hills, whence the tom-tom has called them to war. But he has laid his plans for escape well. With bravado based upon his conscious superiority to the rabble which he has be trayed, and trusting to the fact that the tribesmen believe him invulnerable save from a silver bullet, he departs for the coast. The next scene finds him at the edge of the forest at nightfall. He has trav ersed a great plain and has come to the place where, his cache of food was hidden. It has disappeared, and his bravado begins to slip away from him. The great forest which he has entered takes hold of his spirit. The brittle' armor of the theology of his childhood disappears and leaves him at heart a primitive savage, as superstitious as the wild pursuers whose drums continually throb through the forest aisles. The story of his progress through the forest is told in seven scenes. As the terror grows upon him he sees apparitions among the trees-the form of a fellow-gambler he has slain, the figure of the prison guard he has murdered, a slave auction CHARLES S. GILPIN, AS EMPEROR JONES. THE TRAPPINGS OF STATE HAVE FALLEN and himself upon the block, the hold of Certainly the psychology of his visions and of his terror is not wholly sound. Nor are the stage mechanics of his apparitions as successfully, done as (whisper it not in Gath) they might have been done on commercial Broadway. But even if the obvious limitations of both stage and book are taken into consideration, the work of Charles S. Gilpin, the Negro actor who plays the part of Emperor Jones, is remarkably convincing. It is extremely doubtful whether Broadway would have afforded him the chance to play this part, and for that lovers of the drama can be grateful to the Provincetown Players. But we wish that their efforts were a little less permeated with the spirit of the fly that rode upon the wheel of Alexander's chariot! |