by reason of his training, forced to regard its work in conjunction with his own and from his own point of view. That the air force may have a strategy and striking power all its own and may not be a bit of the army and another bit of the navy frequently escapes him. He wants, in other words, to relegate air power to the secondary position of an auxiliary to help him perform his own job. This is a confession of weakness-a confession that, while pressing for this scheme, he is aware of and is afraid of the growing importance of air power. Now the air service is not going to take the place of the navy or of the army for many years to come, but if there are longheaded men in charge it is going to displace some sections of both forces. Unless a policy is based upon that recognition, European nations, and, I think, America, will be disregarding a grave peril of the future. To split the control, to divide the air service in two, is finally to destroy it.

A SECRETARY OF AIR AND AN AIR CONTROL BOARD

The only workable and efficient organization is a separate air service under a minister of air. Under him should be grouped five directors-respectively, the directors of naval air operations, of army operations, of an independent air force, of civil aviation, and of supply and research. I suggest that these, with a finance member, the President of the Aircraft Manufacturers' Association, and a secretary, would form an air control board that would make for smooth working and a thoroughly comprehensive grasp of the service and civil problems of flight.

Now as to its method of administration. Let us take first the independent air force. There are distinguished soldiers who have gone so far as to declare that an air force acting independently cannot be effective. I think I can prove that it can and will in fashions of which neither the army nor the navy is able to dream. The American General Staff, rather unfairly, has quoted in its report the words of the British Field Marshal, Lord Haig, that mechanical devices are incapable of obtaining a decision. No one has suggested that tanks and airplanes can take the place of infantry and artillery-yet, although it is proposed to maintain order in Mesopotamia almost entirely with tanks and aircraft. It is absurd to ignore the fact that the work of the British Independent Air Force during the latter stages of the war did more to destroy the morale of the enemy rank and file as well as of the civilian population than anything else. And this was a body that was given an entirely free hand and a free mission to have its base where it liked and to attach where it liked, irrespective of the units working in connection with the infantry, artillery, and tanks. It was not concerned with reconnaissance, with artil

General William Mitchell, Assistant Chief of the U. S. Air Service (standing next to Glenn Curtiss, who is at the extreme left), is, as was evinced by his recently published letter to The Outlook, a strong advocate of a Department of the Air. The plane-a Curtiss Libertymotored Eagle-is designed for passenger transport, and is America's latest contribution to commercial aviation. It has a speed of 105 miles an hour and has a record for lifting power

lery observation or scouting, and longdistance bombing was only a part of a great programme that had been very carefully planned and rehearsed, and which, if the war had lasted another month, would have produced undreamedof results.

This force had an offensive mission of a quality distinct from any other class of offensive. Plans were laid for swift descents upon enemy airdromes of squadrons, heavily armed with machine guns, which would have landed, occupied the areas long enough to have destroyed everything in the place, and then returned across the lines. Only an independent air force could do this, and it is obviously capable of tremendous development. The strategy of getting behind the enemy and destroying undefended enemy depots is really more important than bombing raids. Given air superiority, there is nothing to stop such a force from occupying, fortifying, and defending posts as far behind the enemy lines as two hundred miles and holding them for vital periods. Preventive methods to counteract such attacks would render such concentration of forces in back areas as has never been known, involving, in fact, entirely new strategy. An independent air body with strategy. An independent air body with full liberty to work out its own problems, not a mere scouting and skirmishing service, such as the air force might easily deteriorate into if handed might easily deteriorate into if handed over to the army, can be a swift and determining factor of future warfare. determining factor of future warfare. A notable instance of this was shown in the recent Somaliland campaign, when a dozen British aircraft finished in a fortnight the power of the Mullah who had been waging war for seven

attached for peace strength a small number of squadrons each for the special auxiliary work required. To the navy, of course, the lighter-than-air craft, seaplanes, and the airplane carriers; and in time of war the coast patrol squadrons. To the army, their eyes -the scouts, the low bombers, etc.a proportion of machines to each division.

CIVIL AVIATION DEPENDENT ON A

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR

I come now to the establishing of a civil aviation section, in many ways the most important section under the minister of air, for its purpose should be not merely regulative or restrictive, but essentially to foster progress. Its main object should be to advise the aircraft industry and to render it every possible assistance. It must be understood that the aircraft industry of no country can exist in peace times entirely upon government orders. It must also be realized that the advancement of the purely service side of flying will depend very largely upon the encouragement given to the industry towards commercial aviation. This section should open international relations; lay down internal and oversea air routes; establish stations for landings and departures; provide information on aerial navigation, meteorology, and communications; license airdromes, civil pilots, and machines; collect technical and commercial information from all possible sources for dissemination to the service side and the aircraft industry. In fact, its activities should be by far the most. widespread of the five proposed directorates.

Lastly, there is the section of supply and research. From here would

be controlled the supplies to the independent force and the naval and military arms. It would work in close liaison with the civil air section and the air

craft industry in every way, thus avoid ing any duplication or inefficiency of effort.

It will be nothing short of a calam

ity if in a panic of retrenchment the finances of a proper air force are mutilated or that vote-catching economy is allowed to fog a wider-minded vision.

TH

HE porcine man who had grown so fat that the back of his neck wrinkled in two red rolls of flesh leaned back in his deep wicker chair and lighted a cigar which he had just paid a half-dollar for.

"A-h-h-h!" he murmured, puffing out a great mouthful of blue smoke; "this is my idea of solid comfort.”

His companion, a lean, keen man with graying hair and the facial mask of one who has watched so many stock market fluctuations that crises no longer move him, grunted a comfortable assent.

They were sitting, resting, on the wide piazza of the Tantalus Valley Country Club, whose green-velvet undulations had more than once been nicknamed the millionaires' playground. It was the day before Thanksgiving, but the weather was so whole-heartedly Indian summer in character that golf was among the possibilities. Consequently these two money-made acquaintances were resting after their round through the clear, golden afternoon.

"Yes, sir, solid comfort," resumed the big man.

"Exactly; it's worth the money," agreed the other.

66

The truth is," philosophized the cigar-smoker in the wicker chair, "one can't be happy without money. Nobody can."

"Absolutely."

"There's really nothing else in the world to make one contented. Of course, I suppose somewhere or other in the world there's a stray specimen or two of humanity who

Tshirt and the patched trousers was HE young man in the blue-flannel

tired of his private car.

To be sure, he had picked it out himself. As it stood in the middle of the freight train it had looked just like all the other box cars before and behind it. But the young man had taken a fancy to it the instant he had discovered that its door was unlocked and that it was empty. Decidedly, this would be better than the trucks. Just as he had reached this conclusion he noticed that a brakeman was looking at him with altogether too clear an insight into his intentions. Immediately he tossed a quarter of a dollar toward the brakean, suggesting politely that he study

horizon in the other direction for a

minute. The brakeman pounced on the coin-as many another brakeman in the past has done under the same conditions and obediently looked away. When he turned, there was no one to be seen.

Flemming-for that was the name of the young man in the blue shirt-had enjoyed the first two or three hours of his ride. He had spent some time count ing over his remaining quarter-dollar and the three dimes, two nickels, and seven pennies which went with it. He had matched pennies with his right hand against his left, and had been duly entertained by the consistent way in which his left had won. But in time even the zest of gloating over his seventy-two-cent wealth had grown stale. So he slid back the car door and watched the country skim past, framed watched the country skim past, framed in the square of doorway like living in the square of doorway like living

66

movies.'

It would have been hard to say whether the country itself or the day contributed more to the picture. It was one of those mellow days that sometimes happen along even in latest autumn, when the air has a clean frosti

ness

without being cold and the sunshine that amber quality of translucence which one never sees in spring or summer. It was as if Nature herself had wished to do her share toward this had wished to do her share toward this Thanksgiving Day.

Young Flemming, perched on a dismantled crate in the car door, felt the spell without analyzing it. As the lowlands in the panorama before him shifted into hills or forests and then sped back into flat country dotted with farms, where the fields were filled with dry stubble and picked out with big harvest-moon pumpkins, Flemming at first grew more and more at peace with the world. At that moment it mattered not a particle to him that he had but seventy-two cents and no definite knowledge how he was to get more when that was gone. Nor did it worry him that he had no idea where he was going. He was on his way-somewhere. That was all he cared about. When he got to that somewhere-any spot that met his fancy-he would drop off and let his private car go on without him. That was what he was used to doing, And he was happy despite the frayed

trousers.

He might have stayed so indefinitely had it not been for one of the moving

pictures which came flickering past him in the sunshine. It was like a picture in more senses than one. The background was a prosperous-looking farm, with a big house and a rambling ell of outbuildings. In an angle formed by two of these stood a large and supercilious turkey. A ruddy farmer was approaching cautiously, with intentions only too obvious. The wife stood in the kitchen door, looking on and shrilling bits of advice in the direction of her husband. It was for all the world like the decoration on a magazine's Thanksgiving cover.

The train roared on. The picture was snuffed out. But from that instant Flemming was conscious of a lack. His mind began to dwell only on the fact that this was Thanksgiving Day. And Thanksgiving was not the day for a ride in an empty box car. No; it was an occasion for warm houses fragrant with the savors of cooking, for the shouts of eager children, for tables loaded with food where one could linger indefinitely.

For instance, thought he, there was the very place to spend a Thanksgiv ing-that cozy little house tucked in among trees at the foot of a hill. If he could only be there instead of in this rumbling car! And that instant, as if in some magic reply to his thought, he felt the brakes go on smoothly and the speed of the train began to lessen. It came so pat to his wish that Flemming was startled. He peered out. The expla nation was simple enough, after all. There stood a water tank; evidently this was a regular stop for freight engines.

Surely it would never do to ask a favor of fortune and then fling it back into her face. He had been wishing that he might go to that house. And now the train was stopping. The answer was easy.

As the wheels finally came grinding to a halt Flemming leaped down from the doorway and walked off. He was through with his private car. All his thoughts were centered on the little house at the farm under the hill; and a walk of not more than five minutes brought him up to it.

Flemming did not stop to ponder any special line of approach. He expected to be confronted by some child in the yard or its mother in the doorway. But nothing of the sort occurred. Yet the side door stood open, and Flem

W

How The Outlook is Edited

THAT rare literary dishes are to be served in The Outlook it is usually impossible to announce very far in advance.

The character of this weekly journal of current life requires something more than a cut-and-dried programme of coming features.

The contents of successive numbers depend upon a close observation and appraisal of the currents of life, and the knowledge of where to reach for contributions that deal with important phases of life with spirit and understanding.

It would not have been possible, for example, a year ago to-day, in any forecast of coming features to include adequate reference to E. V. Lucas's "From an American Note-Book." These articles are conceded to be one of the most whimsical commentaries ever written by a British visitor to our cities.

Likewise, it would have been impossible to announce to you a year ago that Owen Wister, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Joseph C. Lincoln, Gertrude Atherton, Emerson Hough, Stewart Edward White, George Ade, Ida M. Tarbell, and Reginald Wright Kauffman would contribute political articles to The Outlook on the eve of the Presidential election; or that 146 college presidents and many leaders in industry and finance would announce through our columns how they intended to vote and why.

Features of this unusual character, balanced to the times and reinforcing The Outlook's terse weekly editorial summary and interpretation of the world's most important events, are a continuous element of strength in the texture of The Outlook.

This search for what is the timeliest and the most vital is a persistent factor in The Outlook's editorial policy.

Had it not been for certain anxious hours preceding the election of Senator Harding to the Presidency of the United States, it is doubtful if "The Phrase that Beat Blaine" would ever have been written.

In "Diana's Tenants" Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer reported a prize-fight in Madison Square Garden with uncommon whimsicality and truth. It is regarded as a distinctive contribution to American journalism. A sudden impulse led Mr. Pulsifer to the ringside. The result was another of those Outlook contributions that no one could have announced in advance.

Theodore Stearns's new reminiscences of Edgar Allan Poe, published under the title "A Prohibitionist Shakes Dice with Poe," were the outgrowth of some chance remarks made between acts of the Kreisler operetta "Apple Blossoms," of which Mr. Stearns is the conductor.

Out of an argument at luncheon in one of New York's clubs grew the controversy entitled "Is the Athlete an Ass?" which began a few weeks ago in The Outlook.

These are but a few of the many examples of the kind of thing for which The Outlook is read year

CLI

'LINTON FARMS is one of our State prisons for women, and Muriel Harris, American correspondent for the "Manchester Guardian," writes the story of its work and people.

"Here were thieves, and murderesses, and prostitutes, moving freely about a normal house, carrying on normal occupations, encouraged in every way to be normal, no less. Apart from the outstanding fact of perhaps child or husband murder, or shoplifting, or of keeping a disorderly house, there was nothing in the life at Clinton Farms to suggest that it was other than perhaps a training school for domestic science or agriculture or merely for human beings which, indeed, it is," writes this observing Englishwoman.

A Boy at Lincoln's Feet

FOR many of us the

Lincoln Douglas debates are merely a fascinating chapter in history. To Garrett W. Newkirk these historic debates are living memories. As a boy of eleven he rode sixteen miles through Stark County, Illinois, in a band-wagon to hear Abraham Lincoln's speech. He has written his impressions of that extraordinary experience for The Outlook.

Contributors' Gallery

THIS
HIS illustrated column was instituted several
months ago, and will be continued during 1921.
It has the value of affording our readers illumi-

nating glimpses into the lives and personalities of its contributors. It presents brief, sketchy backgrounds of experience from which Outlook articles have emerged.

Putting the Talk in Chautauqua

GREGORY MASON, one of The Outlook's war correspondents, has written about his experiences as a Chautauqua lecturer. Here is a sample of his discoveries under the big tents:

666

"A Chautauqua lecturer must talk to his audience just as fast as he can move his mouth. Don't give them time to think. If you do, they'll begin to think about those preserves on the back of the stove, or that girl waiting on the corner, and you'll lose your audience. As for your message to them, they'll have all the next day to think about that!'

"This blunt advice, given to me by the circuit manager of a Western Chautauqua, I can recommend to all other lecturers," he declares.

Tales of the Air

L

AURENCE LA TOURETTE DRIGGS's aerial narratives will pick you up and carry you along. They have the rush and might of actual flight. Mr. Driggs probably knows more about flying than any other American writer. He was the founder of the American Flying Club, which consists of American aviators who flew over the lines during the war. He organized two of the greatest aviation contests ever held in this country-the New York-Toronto Airplane Race and the New York-San Francisco Airplane Race, both held in 1919. He believes that another decade will see the airplane as common as the automobile. The motive behind these articles for The Outlook is to present the capabilities of aviation as an aid to civilization as distinguished from an effort to aid in its war value.

Short Stories

DID you know that The Outlook was one of the first periodicals to recognize and publish the work of O. Henry? Many years before the general recognition of him as the American de Maupassant The Outlook gave its readers some of the work of O. Henry.

The Outlook has also published some of the earliest work of Myra Kelly, Zona Gale, Ernest Poole, and Elsie Singmaster.

Watch some of the unknown names that appear from time to time in The Outlook; some of them are undoubtedly the famous names of the future.

One noteworthy example of The Outlook's fiction for 1921 is Emma Mauritz Larson's story "Knud, Son of Knud." It applies the convincing art of Continental realism to an American background. It is a dramatic picture of politics in the raw. Its sub-title

is "A Story of Lincoln's Land." We fancy it is the sort of story that Lincoln would have relished. Miss Larson's story of this Danish immigrant boy and his family has a vast appeal. She lives in Minnesota, the State which produced Sinclair Lewis and his novel "Main Street."

"The Golden Day of Orpheus," by William S. Walkley, is a boy story of genuine distinction. A resourceful youth decides to see the circus despite his father's veto, and gets delightfully away with it.

In the imaginative field, contributors to The Outlook have in the past included the names of Donal Hamilton Haines, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dorothy Canfield, Demetra Vaka, George W. Cable, Irving Bacheller, Montague Glass, Rebecca Harding Davis, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Percy MacKaye, Charles Hanson Towne, Thomas L. Masson, Tudor Jenks, Don Marquis, and Christopher Morley.

sensation of the lecture platform. He was for years a lumberjack in the North woods; he has brought the wallop of the woods down to New York. He has appeared before some of the most important audiences. of New York financiers, has told them what labor thinks of them, and has made these frigid capitalists like it.

corre

As industrial spondent for The Outlook Sherman Rogers has contributed forceful articles about Packingtown and the telephone companies. His interview with Senator Harding on labor was one of the most widely quoted documents of the entire recent Presidential campaign. Mr. Rogers will continue to contribute to The Outlook during 1921.

The gifted camera work of H. H. Moore of The Outlook staff is responsible for many of the muchtalked-of cover illustrations of the past three months. Mr. Moore will continue to snap the shutter; many