out, done up and run down, and as you ride off and turn to wave farewell to the bunch of drawn, white faces blinking out in your direction against the glare of the morning sun, you wonder what in the world has possessed you to have made you so happy all night in the company of such an odd-looking lot of people; a thought that has crossed the minds of many who have stayed up all night at dances nearer home than those on the outermost fringes of the great Argentine Pampas. [Poetry Review] BY MARGARET SACKVILLE Wandering roundness, mystic measure O thou, for whom the uncharted years and wars From darkness into darkness fought: For whom the age-long vigil of the wise Questions the sullen skies, Look not too soon to see what these have brought! Look not too soon! But rather set thine eyes On gulls that wheel above the sunwashed dune, And make the lark thy prize, And moths that flatter downward from the moon! [Spectator] SUMMER BY RICHARD CHURCH Summer! Summer! Daffodil, lily, and lilac bloom, Scattered their petals, hot bridegroom, Spoiled their beauties, one by one. What have you done? JOURNAL DE GENÈVE publishes a letter from its Berlin correspondent who has just returned from Upper Silesia, reviewing the situation in that troubled and debatable territory. He says that while the Poles and Germans remain distinct races in Eastern Prussia and Posen, they have become sufficiently amalgamated in Upper Silesia in the course of centuries to make any attempt to separate them on ethnographical lines impossible. To be sure, most city residents talk German, and most country people use a Polish dialect. But many families with Polish names speak only German, while there are numerous Meyers and Schmidts who understand no other tongue than the local Polish patois. Another curious phase of the situation is that some of the most ardent ProPolish agitators have to make their speeches in German. Throughout the whole province a majority of the people are violently opposed to any effort to separate them into two races. They are first and foremost Silesians. However, a majority of them are Catholic, and the religious question plays an important rôle. During Bismarck's Kulturkampf, the church was for a long time at sword's point with the Copyright, 1920, by government, and the effect of this hostility still remains. However, sentiment is much divided on the question of joining Germany or Poland, and predictions based on insecure race statistics are likely to be falsified in a startling manner. RAILWAY ELECTRIFICATION ABROAD SEVERAL important projects have just been added to the movement to electrify the steam railways of the world. France proposes to operate three great railway systems by water power, developing 480,000 horse power for this purpose. This will afford a large surplus for industrial and other objects. It is estimated that the scheme will result in a large saving, and will possess the further advantages of absence of smoke, practically inexhaustible motive power, and relieving a whole industrial population of an underground existence. Meantime the Austrian government has submitted to the National Assembly a bill for the electrification of all the steam railways of that country, a movement which will go far toward freeing the nation from its present dependence upon its neighbors for coal. The first construction period exThe Living Age Co. tends to June 30, 1925, when it is hoped to have completed the electrification of the lines between Vienna and the Swiss frontier. Sweden proposes to electrify the Gothenburg and Stockholm railway. Chile, following the example of other European countries and Japan, is preparing to operate a section of the state railways with electricity. The government proposes to float a loan of $32,000,000, partly abroad and partly in the country, for this purpose. It is expected that this improvement will reduce railway operating expenses by $3,000,000 or $4,000,000 annually. RELIGION OR RELIGIOSITY IN AMERICA M. LOUIS THOMAS, whose articles in L'Opinion on the United States we have recently published, adds in the number of September 4 a chapter on the state of religion in this country. After referring to the influence of Protestant morality on public opinion and legislation, he adds the following reflection on the present indifference of the American public to the Protestant religion itself: In spite of the influence of Anglo-Saxon protestantism, the most amazing thing I have observed in America is that, except in certain parts of New England, the Americans are inclined to forget and even to deny the principles of Christian religion. That religion, founded on the doctrine of original sin, on the idea of the weakness and wickedness of man, and the thought of death and eternal salvation, prescribes to the faithful the contemplation of death and the necessity of divine grace for salvation. Such at least is the European Protestant conception, the vigorous Pascalian conception of Christianity; and we realize in Europe that when we depart from this conception in order to make Christianity easy, agreeable, practical, and pleasant we are false to the spirit of Christianity; we become pagans, hedonists, epicureans antichristian, false to the God who suffered crucifixion for the salvation of men. Now, the Americans seem to me to be less and less Christian - except, I repeat, in some of the old families of New England and more and more devoted to the religion of pleasure. They are people who in order to live as pleasantly as possible, deny the existence of evil, sin, and the wickedness of man. The Americans are very religious, even laboriously religious. They are always ready to build churches, to take up new religions, sects, and g doctrines; but they have vitiated Christianity and only think of the present life, of the pleasure and comfort they can find on earth. Their conduct denies death and the idea of death, and they are drifting farther and farther away from i the austerity of the Christian religion of which they preserve only the externals. PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN PROHIBITION and Pussyfoot have become synonymous terms in the British political vocabulary. A correspondent of the London Times, in a highly emotional attack upon the present campaign in Scotland, sends the following alarmist communication to his paper: I have reached the following conclusions about the Pussyfoot campaign for the November elections, which will decide whether Scotland is to be a Prohibition country or remain as it is: 1. That the Pussyfoot campaign is but a mask for bigger game that is, for an attack on England. 2. That the Pussyfooters have already 'spied out the land' in England, and have their plans already laid. 3. That they believe they have an excellent chance to win England, if not at the first, at the second attempt, if they first win Scotland. 4. That the Scottish campaign has been inspired from America, and that American speakers and organizers and funds are helping in Scotland, and will help in England when the time comes. 5. That the only chance of preventing a surprise coup in England, as in the states, is immediate organization. DEPRESSION IN EGYPT EGYPT is facing acute trade depression, occasioned by its very prosperity during the war. Immediately after the armistice there was a feverish rush to import goods for sale to the numerous new rich, who had made their fortunes out of cotton and war contracts, and te GERMAN HEDONISM An article by a young and hitherto unknown contributor to one of the minor German reviews has attracted some attention of the European press as a document of the sentiment among the younger generation in that country. He confesses that he has lost all his old ideals. He no longer believes in God or his fatherland or labor. He would no longer sacrifice himself for his country. I would not go again into the hell of Verdun or the Carpathians. I no longer am thrilled by the name of 'Fatherland' that has been dinned into my ears too much during the last four years. Still, I am not a Communist. I no longer believe in Socialism; not merely because it failed in August, 1914, not only because its leaders have bproved so commonplace and mediocre that it must fail whenever put to the test, but rather, because I have seen so much brutality during the past four years that I cannot conceive of a social system inspired by humane sentiment and ideals as something permanent. Neither do I longer have any faith in the old governing classes. In our impoverished Germany, egoism is still the dominant motive. Our great merchants and manufacturers are as absorbed as ever in making profits. The result is indifference to all higher ideals. The only thing that seems worth while is to get as much erotic enjoyment as possible out of the moment. MINOR NOTES COOPERATION continues to make substantial progress in Great Britain, not only in its distributive branches but also in the manufacturing field. According to the most recent figures, which are for 1918, the number of societies belonging to the principal cooperative unions, is 1474, of which 95 are engaged in production. The total membership approaches 4,000,000, and the employees exceed 164,000. The combined capital approaches $400,000,000, and the sales are nearly $1,250,000,000 a year. Among the branches of production in which cooperative societies have succeeded, are the manufacture of biscuits, canned goods, flour, margarine, and other food products; soap, tobacco, printing, boots and shoes, furniture, brushes, tinware, and paints. WILHELM WUNDT, a distinguished philosopher and psychologist, died at his summer home near Leipzig, August 31, in his eighty-eighth year. He was a pioneer in the field of experimental psychology. His three principal works which have given him an international reputation are: Foundation of Physiological Psychology, first published in 1873, System of Philosophy, published in 1889, and Experimental Psychology, which has been in process of publication since 1900. FOUR ancient frescoes have recently been discovered in the church attached to the Casa de Beneficencia at Tarragon, Spain. They belong to a very early period of mural decoration in that country, and are attributed to Pietro Paulo, whose work dates from the fourteenth century. As works of art they are crude in both execution and subject, but they possess much archæological interest. L'OPINION quotes the chief detective of a large Parisian magazin, to the effect that there are certainly more 'department store thieves' in 1920 |