come for the magazine to print a continued story such as will attract national attention. To secure the best, and to make of it not only the serial, but the story, of the year, we offer as an Atlantic Prize, TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, for the most interesting novel of any sort, kind, or description. This sum will be paid to the winner for all serial and book rights alone, and will be in addition to all royalties accruing from book publication. Cinema or dramatic rights remain with the author. We are indifferent whether the author is new or old, male or female, whether born in London or Indianapolis. We do not care whether manuscripts have pseudonyms or not. We do not specify whether the book should be long or short-if it is reasonably full-sized whether it be a tale of adventure, an episodic story, or a psychological novel-whatever that may mean. Our modest plea is that it should be interesting, well written, and original. We hope to print in book form several novels beside the winning serial, but we reserve the right to reject any or all. Every novel published by us as a result of this competition will be given wide and continued publicity. No effort will be spared to make each an outstanding individual success. There are no hampering rules in this competition-merely that all manuscripts must be unpublished work, typed and submitted before February 15th, 1927. After serial publication in The Atlantic Monthly the winning novel will be issued in book form by Little, Brown & Company, publishers of Atlantic Monthly Press books. THE LIVING AGE. Published weekly. Publication office, RUMFORD BUILDING, CONCORD, N. H. THE LIVING AGE VOL. 329- MAY 22, 1926-NO. 4272 THE LIVING AGE BRINGS THE WORLD TO AMERICA A WEEK OF THE WORLD THE BRITISH STRIKE THE merits of the original controversy behind the general strike in Great Britain are rapidly being submerged by the incidents of the latter conflict, which it is impossible to discuss on a basis of direct material from England at the time these lines are written. Up to the last moment the British press refused to believe that a rupture between the disputants would occur. The latest journals from that country to reach our desk, nearly two weeks after negotiations were broken off, still express the hope that a peaceful solution for the crisis may be found. J. M. Keynes, writing in The Nation and the Athenæum, proposed this solution: provement of 3s. per ton in the net proceeds would enable all but the worst mines in every district to continue without actual loss, and the better mines to earn a normal trading profit averaging about 1s. 6d. per ton. Thus economic problem of the mines is to in round figures we may say that the raise the net proceeds by 3s. per ton. Anything much less than this would knock out whole areas, while anything much more would tend to perpetuate overproduction and to hinder the gradual transference of activity to the newer and better mines and districts. only sources from which this necessary 'It is agreed that in the long run the improvement in the net proceeds can come are three: (1) lower wages, (2) economies resulting from the Commission's miscellaneous recommendations, and (3) higher prices to the consumer. The Commissioners have proposed that the contribution from lower wages should be about ten per cent, which would work out at an average of about 1s. 3d. per ton. They have not specified how much they expect from the other two sources an omission Copyright 1926, by the Living Age Co. 'In the last quarter of 1925 the amount of the subsidy varied from 48. 7d. per ton in South Wales to 18. 7d. per ton in the Eastern Division, and averaged 38. per ton for the whole country. This enabled the mines to make a trading profit averaging 18. 7d. per ton for the whole country, and not less than 8d. per ton in any district. The Report of the Commission shows that an im which gives a certain vagueness and lack of precision to their intentions. I suggest that rough justice would be done if we were to start off in framing a concrete scheme of settlement with the idea that we might get 18. per ton from each of the three sources. It is evident, however, that, while an agreement could make sure of the contribution from wages, the amount of the contributions from eventual miscellaneous economies and from higher prices is bound to be problematical beforehand, and will only emerge with certainty in course of time.' The London Daily Herald, speaking for Labor, thus analyzed the proposed wage-cuts which the coal-miners are resisting. Present Reduc- New level. In addition to these reductions, the owners require certain other variations in some cases longer hours, in others the withdrawal of free houses and free coal.' The New Statesman, which believed that it would be cheaper to subsidize wages for the moment on a steadily decreasing scale than to support the miners in idleness, and assumed that reorganizing the mines and introducing more efficient working methods would make them generally profitable, declared that the present crisis 'is no more than the most difficult moment of a transition. If the Government will use its full powers- and if it nationalizes the royalties its powers will be ample it should quite easily be able to avert the danger of that fight to the death which the miners, supported by the whole trade-union world, will make if their basic minimum rates are threatened. The Mineowners Association is a most foolish and incompetent body, with which the more successful coal-mining concerns will have nothing to do. In no sense does it represent the industry as a whole; it merely wants more subsidies and lower wages in order to keep alive pits which, either because they are so badly managed or because their seams have practically run out, cannot offer a living wage. Roughly speaking, a third of the coal mines of 8 Great Britain are so profitable that they care little what wages they pay; another third can pay decent wages and keep their heads well above water; the remaining third cannot pay a living wage at all without a subsidy, and ought to be abandoned.' 8 3 8. d. 8. d. 7 0 8 11 10 5 } 10 0 1 7 8 9 2 6 10 5 10 7 113 2 8 11 1 8773 7687 "These are average wages for all workers below under-managers. Further analysis shows that, in South Wales for instance, the day-wage men, with the exception of two classes, would lose 2s. 8d. a day, while the collier on piecework earning 12s. 6d. a shift would lose 48. 6d., and the collier on the other shifts would lose nearly 68. a day. In Durham the hewer now getting 9s. 8d. a day would get 6s. 10d., which is 74d. below the present subsistence Ramsay MacDonald, in addressing a meeting of three thousand coöperators shortly before the strike began, entered the following protest against the proposed flat reduction of wages: "There are properties in these bad days getting something between seven shillings and nine shillings a ton profit, adding to that profit something like five shillings a ton from the subsidy. (Shame) Alongside of them and in the same districts there have been properties losing seven shillings, six shillings, five shillings, a ton on their coal at any rate according to returns. (Laughter) Now to say that all over that district, including the nine-shilling profit and the seven-shilling loss, you are going to have a flat-rate reduction of wages could anything be more antediluvian, more stupid and absurd, than a proposal like that as a solution for the difficulties of the coal industry within that district? It can't be done.' A CORRECTION TO AN EXPLANATION OUR office has received several protests against the implications of the article we published in our issue of April 10 entitled 'A Tragic Chapter in Mexican History,' particularly in so far as they impugn the conduct of the American Ambassador in Mexico at that time. One of these letters has all the authority of an official statement from the highest source. Another, from a person in a position to be intimately familiar with the facts, says: "The charges against the American Ambassador are so vicious and so infamous that they cannot be allowed to stand uncorrected. Needless to say, the idea that the American Ambassador instigated or took part in any improper way in the resignation and assassination of the President and Vice-President is completely false. ... Mr. Wilson has ample evidence, not only of the propriety of his official conduct, but also of the fact that he made every effort possible to save the life of the unfortunate Madero. . . . The official correspondence (between the Ambassador and the Department of State) has all been published, and no one can read it without realizing that the course of the American Ambassador was not only proper, but highly creditable and in accordance with the best traditions of our diplomatic service.' The article was published in the Living Age as an illustration of the Mexican state of mind. No well-informed person would assume that our Ambassador in Mexico City at the time President Madero was overthrown was a sympathetic witness, far less an accomplice, in these proceedings. Indeed that was insinuated, rather than asserted, in the article. Much of the difficulty in our relations with Latin America, however, springs from a public mood that gives such charges widespread credence among her people, where they continue to be repeated in private conversation and in public print. There is no way to combat them except by inviting their open discussion in this country as well as in Mexico. Just as Uncle Sam is caricatured as a Shylock by so many European cartoonists, so are he and his representatives caricatured as imperialist intriguers in an influential section of the LatinAmerican press. We hope that this distrust is but a passing cloud in our neighborly relations, which will disappear automatically with the growing prosperity and political stability of the nations south of us. Nevertheless, it is a hard fact with which we have to deal in the present day's work. Just now an International Commission is considering the American claims against Mexico arising out of incidents that occurred during the Madero revolution and subsequently, and an active propaganda is being conducted to prejudice American contentions in these cases. Mexico's hereditary suspicions of our country are therefore stimulated by the fore stimulated by the spur of practical interest. Supporters of the present Administration in Mexico, moreover, |