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THE NEW LEAGUE OF NATIONS ENJAMIN FRANKLIN, nearly one hundred years before United States Secretary of State Kellogg was born, declared that 'there never was a good war or a bad peace.' The Kellogg treaty to outlaw war, about to be signed in Paris by the great nations of the world as this note is written, does not go as far as Franklin's pronouncement of a century and a half ago. The Kellogg treaty exempts 'defensive warfare' from its inhibition. Franklin condemned all war. The signatories of the Kellogg peace treaty, reserving defensive warfare, agree to renounce war as an instrument of national policy,' but no nation to-day would admit that war was or had ever been 'an instrument of national policy.' All warfare is made to appear defensive warfare to the noncombatants of every

NEW PEACE PACT

nation at war. The men in the trenches do not theorize about it. To governments and ministries and peoples war is defensive, whether territory, material interests, or only altruistic ideals are involved.

Surely, then, there need not have been any haggling or quibbling over the terms of Mr. Kellogg's first draft. No statesman in any cabinet but knew that the text was vague and meaningless as imposing any definite or compellable restraint. But the exchanges over phrases and reservations served a purpose. They stressed the idealism of the effort, and by prolonged discussion there was aroused

EUROPE

BRIAND

No one need concede the extreme pessimism of Lloyd George in his assertion that the Kellogg treaty will prejudice rather than promote the cause of peace in Europe; but we are pessimistic enough to doubt that any international agreement, however specific and definite, will bind nations much longer than their ministries believe the obligation of that particular treaty to serve the national interests. History has found more than one treaty to be a 'scrap of paper,' and there can be no real assurance that history will not repeat itself in this respect so long as the present condition of international anarchy continues to exist.

peace nor war. It is not peace; for Poland and Lithuania have regarded themselves, formally at least, as belligerents ever since General Zeligowski's Polish guerillas seized the disrupted city of Vilna eight years ago. Neither is it war; for though the frontier is closed and though Polish and Lithuanian patrols glare balefully

at one another across it, there have been no battles and no bloodshed, except for the wounding of two Polish soldiers in a skirmish in July.

But though it is difficult to take seriously a 'war' in which nobody fights and almost nobody gets hurt, the Vilna dispute is too grave a matter to be dismissed with a smile and a shrug. The perpetual friction between Poland and Lithuania is having a disturbing effect on European relations generally. On one side of Poland stands Soviet Russia with a large and well-organized army. On the other, stands Germany, which has, indeed, promised not to try to alter its eastern frontier by force, but which has in the past been known to forget treaty obligations. To make matters worse, behind Poland stands her ally France,

always suspicious of the Teutons. It is easy to see what dangerous and farreaching results might follow were either Poland or Lithuania to venture upon open hostilities.

Only a few months ago Marshal Pilsudski, the Polish dictator, confronted Premier Waldemaras of Lithuania at Geneva.

'Is it peace or war?' he asked.

'It is peace,' replied the Lithuanian, after a moment of dramatic tension, and Europe breathed a sigh of relief.

The sigh was a little premature. The Lithuanians recently irritated the Poles afresh by adopting a constitutional amendment making Vilna their capital -in spite of the fact that the city is in Polish hands and that the great powers confirmed Poland in possession after the seizure by Zeligowski. On top of this came the clash of the frontier guards in which Polish blood was shed, while the two governments were still busily assembling data for the approaching meeting of the League Council, at which it is optimistically proposed to settle once for all a dispute with which the League of Nations has never in the past been able to deal adequately.

In the meantime Vilna is likely to occupy a good deal of space in the headlines; and the world will be fortunate if the controversy ends with nothing more serious than paper warfare.

THE CABINET OF PERSONALITIES ERMANN MÜLLER, the new HERMANN Democratic Chancellor (who is the subject of a biographical note elsewhere in this number), has discovered that it is no easy task to select a cabinet in a country which has so many political parties as Germany. In order to have any hope of success with his Socialist programme in the Reichstag, he considered it necessary to combine several parties into a 'Grand Coalition,' so-called, which includes the mildly radical Social Democrats on the Left and all the parties toward the Right as far as the relatively conservative People's Party. Having failed in his first attempt to unite all these somewhat inharmonious elements, he compromised with a 'Cabinet of Personalities,' which is almost identical, except for the name, with the 'Grand Coalition Cabinet' originally proposed. This autumn Herr Müller is expected to rebaptize his Cabinet 'The Grand Coalition,' with the probability that most of the present members will remain.

Dr. Stresemann, who retains the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, was the first to suggest a way out of Herr Müller's early difficulties. Although the well

known Foreign Minister caused a minor crisis in his own party when he telegraphed from his Black Forest sanatorium that the Cabinet should be formed of leading personages in German politics (who would for the time being be freed from party ties) he enormously increased his own prestige among voters whose politics are not the same shade as his own. The 'Cabinet of Personalities,' as it now exists, is considered merely

CHANCELLOR MÜLLER

WHO HEADS the latest ministry of Germany's ten-year-old republic

a temporary expedient, and in the autumn the concealed coalition it really represents will, it is expected, have so far ripened as no longer to need an alias and may blossom forth in all the assurance of name as well as fact.

But Herr Müller may find the same opposition from the Centre Party next October that he found this summer, when Dr. Wirth, the former Chancellor and leader of the Left wing of the Centre, almost succeeded in preventing the formation of the 'Cabinet of Personalities.' Although Dr. Wirth is himself a 'personality,' and a formidable one, he is not included in the present Cabinet. Unwilling to accept the Ministry of Transport, which was offered him, he modestly suggested himself for the ViceChancellorship, an office which has not been occupied for several years and which neither Herr Müller nor President von Hindenburg saw any reason for reviving. Dr. Wirth then asked for the Ministry of the Interior, though he knew that the Social Democrats had chosen their own man for the post and that the portfolio had already been accepted. Prospects looked discouraging indeed when President von Hindenburg angrily told Herr Müller that he would

not have the composition of a Cabinet imposed upon him by a Parliamentary group.

It was then suggested that Herr Hilferding represent the Centre, though this would reduce that Party's representation in the Cabinet to one minister instead of the three as originally agreed, and left out Dr. Wirth. As compensation, the Centre was told to consider itself in no way committed to the Government, and Dr. Wirth was given a free hand to oppose the present Cabinet.

Since the Centre Party habitually dislikes being committed, it assented to the arrangement and decided to mark time until this autumn when the real 'Grand Coalition Cabinet' is to be formed. The present body, not being a genuine Coalition Cabinet, the parties represented in it are not committed to the policies or courses which may be formulated or followed. But since parties usually approve the conduct of their leaders, it would not be strange if the personnel of the new Cabinet were found to be nearly identical with that of the one it succeeds.

AMBASSADORS OF GOOD WILL

ARE

RE old methods of diplomacy disappearing from the earth? May international understandings in peace time be only improved by unofficial 'ambassadors of good will'? The Prince of Wales in his travels stimulates the loyalty of the Colonies, wins world good will for Britain and all things British. Mayor Walker of New York in a different way pleases the multitudes in foreign capitals. His personality is genial, his methods conciliatory, to be sure. Prince Potenziani, governor of Rome, returned the Walker visit, finding America charming, and now it is said that in an even more personal sense Prince Potenziani left his heart in the United States. Of course Lindbergh was, and is, America's ambassador of good will par excellence. Years may pass, but none then living in the United States or France will forget the day when this young man dropped out of the clouds at Le Bourget, stepped from his airship and said calmly, 'I am Charles Lindbergh.' Foreign fliers have since come to the United States to welcomes of equal warmth, and the late lamented Carranza was widely and deeply mourned as messages of condolence and acknowledgment were exchanged between Washington and Mexico City.

Then the cab driver, Iron Gustav, and his ancient horse Grasmus, as related elsewhere in this number, markedly stimulated the slowly growing cordiality between Paris and Berlin, and no doubt

the Olympic games in Amsterdam and the incidental individual international contacts constitute a potent and enduring influence for international good will.

Meanwhile, we had begun to hear so little of the official ambassadors of the older school, the honest men 'sent abroad to lie for the commonwealth,' that had not Secretary Kellogg drawn up his peace treaty and started the talk about it, we might almost have forgotten that State Departments as heretofore known, and their representatives abroad, were necessary appendages of great nations. So it is well for diplomacy as a profession that something has begun to be doing along the lines of outlawing war.

ANOTHER UNFINISHED SYMPHONY

RANZ SCHUBERT'S greatest musical composition is undoubtedly the Unfinished Symphony. This year, when a quarter million members of various singing societies gathered in Vienna to celebrate the centenary of Schubert's death, they used the occasion to remind the world of another 'Unfinished Symphony' the political union of Austria and Germany, or Anschluss as this combination is called throughout Europe.

The injection of political propaganda into a great musical festival undoubtedly accounted for the absence of the French Minister to Austria, M. de Beaumarchais, from the official reviewing stand at the celebrations, for it is generally believed that he received instructions from Paris not to be present at this vast demonstration in favor of German hegemony. In all probability he felt that Deutschland über Alles and Die Wacht am Rhein were poor substitutes for Schubert.

Union which might later be extended to a political federation. This scheme is the pet project of Dr. Bénès, the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister. Germany has intimated that she would vigorously oppose a Central European Economic Union in which she was not included, on the ground that, if not a member, such a combination might be directed against her. In the past France has favored a new Danubian Federation, but has insisted that it must exclude the German Reich, fearing that, if Germany should be let in, she would dominate the union economically and, in time, politically. Italy is even more alarmed than France over the extension of Germany's economic and political influence in the Balkans, while England supports her Allies in the late war.

A treaty exists between Czechoslovakia and France, moreover, for the express purpose of opposing AustroGerman union. And Dr. Bénès, the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, recently declared that the political union of Berlin and Vienna might provoke another European War. Italy also opposes Anschluss, since she fears that Austria may become powerful enough to agitate for a revision of the Treaty of Trianon. Czechoslovakia is known to have a military plan for the occupation of Vienna in the event of political union Vienna in the event of political union between Austria and Germany, while Mussolini has declared that under such circumstances he would be forced to invade the Austrian Tyrol. Such a course might be considered a violation of both the spirit and the letter of the Kellogg anti-war treaties, and Europe speculates whether America would become involved in defending her compacts for world peace.

Upon the formation of a new German Cabinet after the General Elections this year, Hermann Müller, the new German Chancellor, telegraphed Mgr. Seipel, the Austrian Chancellor, that he hoped the relations between the two countries would continue increasingly cordial. Le Temps, the semi-official organ of the French Government, immediately concluded that Anschluss was being hinted, saying: 'We are not ignorant of the fact that the parties on the Left and Right in both countries regard with equal favor the principle of Anschluss, for the conservatives see in it the possibility of rebuilding German domination in Central Europe, whereas the Socialists regard it primarily as a means for the realization of Social Democracy in all its force in a united Germany.' Le Temps warned Germany that France, at least, would not regard any move toward Anschluss at all favorably.

Another plan which bears a certain resemblance to Anschluss is the formation of a Central European Customs

It may be said that, although Germany and Austria have been moving closer to one another, and Anschluss, or union, may be the natural evolution of the present tendency, for the moment the European Powers who were victorious over Germany definitely oppose any

5

AUSTRIA and GERMANY announce their engagement KINDLY OMIT FLOWERS

From Simplicissimus, Munich

AN ANNOUNCEMENT ILL RECEIVED A GERMAN CARICATURIST shows that he has no illusions concerning the reaction of Poincaré, Mussolini, and Chamberlain to an AustroGerman union

thing which might lead to German hegemony. Italy, England, and particularly France — the latter supported by the Little Entente of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Rumania, which she controls oppose the tendency toward political union of Berlin and Vienna. Nevertheless commercial rules and regulations in Germany and Austria are being brought into harmony, customs barriers are being lowered, cultural ties are being forged, and the believers in and promoters of union hope that in time Anschluss will exist in fact, although the other great Powers may withhold their blessing from any official solemnization of such an international wedlock.

CATCHING BOOTLEGGERS IN FINLAND

IN AMERICA, Door Bootleggers who

'N AMERICA, no special usefulness

has been found for bootleggers who have been caught and convicted, in spite of the fact that some of the nation's keenest intellects are now devoted to outwitting the duller minds possessed by prohibition agents. Those convicted and sent to jail just serve their sentences at the public expense, as do other prisoners, and, during their leisure hours in stripes, devise cleverer wiles and devices for more successful and profitable opera

This apparatus, manufactured by former bootleggers serving sentences in Helsingfors prisons, is laid across the road to rip open the tires of automobiles which fail to stop in response to police signals.

Although it is too early to say how effective the device will prove in halting bootleggers headed from the coast to the Finnish capital with automobile loads of German Kümmel, its practicability as a destroyer of automobile tires has been established beyond question. Within an hour after the "knife-carpet" was first laid across the road, a car disregarded the signal and had its tires slashed to bits. The police were gleeful, until they found that the car contained an eminent Finnish general on his way to an important appointment.

LEGISLATING FOR THE GERMAN
SERVANT GIRL

THEN Germany had a Kaiser,

W!

every domestic servant was required to carry a 'service book,' which contained the references given her by successive employers, their authenticity duly certified by the local police. Any intervals between the periods of employment indicated were closely scrutinized by a prospective employer, and households were thus protected against domestics whose pasts had chapters missing. All this was cast overboard by the Socialist revolution of 1918, because it was thought to work to the benefit of the employer rather than the employed. The fact that a section providing for the return of the 'service book' is included in a new bill put before the present Reichstag by the Socialists themselves is therefore significant. It perhaps indicates that domestic dishonesty has not decreased in the last ten years. It may also indicate that the socialists for that reason are placating the German housewife with the 'service book' in order to gain her support for other provisions in the same bill, which are thought to benefit the bill, which are thought to benefit the domestic servant greatly.

Some idea of what this 1928 German servant girl is like can be gained from a knowledge of how she spends her money. A correspondent sends to the Frank

The German servant girl is modernizing herself according to what she believes, from the American films she sees, to be the best American tradition. She puts silk stockings on her legs, that they may be displayed to as good advantage as the legs of the film stars; she watches her appearance carefully, paints and powders, spends little on undergarments not exposed to the gaze of friends and passers-by; she is literary to the extent of reading detective stories in addition to cook books; and, to increase the intellectual impression, which is reported to have a strong effect on the German equivalent of the American boy friend, she wears horn-rimmed spectacles, even though in her case she does not go to the needless expense of having lenses put in them.

Even if, outside of these externals, her situation has not changed greatly since the Kaiser's time; even if, as a cook, she is still paid fifteen dollars a month, or as a maid-of-all-work, ten; even if the conditions under which she works have not been altered except by the abolition of the service book' of monarchical days, nevertheless the Socialists feel that she has lost her old passivity, and has gained in intelligence and ambition to the point where they can count on her coöperation in the passage of new laws.

So, if the new bill is passed, although the service book' may come back as a sop to the housewife, with it will come many compensating advantages for the servant girl. She will be able to demand of her employer, among a long list of other things, a bedroom which can be heated if necessary.' Certain duties which may and certain others which may not be assigned to maids employed in certain capacities will be specified in the bill. Most important of all is the proposed appointment of inspectors to visit private households and report on complaints lodged by maids against their employers. In the end, the German housewife may find that servant girls will come very close to being organized into unions as, say the Socialists, they very properly should be.

GRASMUS FAILED TO UNDERSTAND

are past. In Finland prohibition is as old as it is in the United States, but experience there has apparently proved to be a better teacher.

When the Finns catch bootleggers, they put them to work making traps to catch other bootleggers.

The latest trap to be developed by the Helsingfors police is called a 'knife carpet,' and consists of an iron plate six feet long and six inches wide, in which is set a row of wicked-looking knife blades.

schedule of a twenty-year-old German cook:

THEN Grasmus was in Paris this summer, he had some of the best oats he had ever eaten in his life, but one mean trick was played on him.

Grasmus, it will be recalled, is the ancient German cab horse who drew Berlin's cabby 'good-will ambassador,' Iron Gustav, on a two months multiplestop jog from the German to the French capital. Naturally a horse like that had every right to expect to have things made as pleasant as possible for him, and Grasmus suspected nothing out of the

way when he was invited to the Latin Quarter to enter a race with a number of French cabs. The stage was properly set. A big crowd had already gathered at the starting point when Grasmus arrived, and more came from the cafés as the impatient hoofs of the racers clattered on the cobbles.

Grasmus was not in the least nervous. As he sized up his competitors, his confidence increased. He had been in the business nearly thirteen years and, given coöperation from his driver, felt sure he would win the race. But this time someone had informed the German Embassy of the event, and a young German attaché was on hand to whisper to Iron Gustav, the 'good-will ambassador,' that it would contribute to the success of his diplomatic mission to allow a Frenchman to take the competition.

When the starting signal was finally given, no such noisy racket of hoofs and rattle of rickety vehicles had been heard in many a day. Grasmus was well in the lead, until an unfamiliar tug at the reins slowed him slightly. Accustomed only to being urged to go, and never restrained, Grasmus was mystified. As the finish approached, he tried to pull forward again; but Iron Gustav controlled him just in time, and the German Grasmus underwent the shame of seeing a French horse beat him by a nose.

Iron Gustav was proud of his finesse in causing so close a finish. A new link in a chain of national friendship had been forged. But Grasmus, who did not understand diplomacy, looked dejected and disgusted, standing panting at the curb.

WHEN KRUPP OFFERED CANNON TO
NAPOLEON

TEN

EN years ago the name of Krupp, the great German armament manufacturer of Essen, made Frenchmen grit their teeth. To-day the animosities of the World War are so far forgotten that a French review, L'Europe Nouvelle, can make a huge joke out of one of the most curious business letters ever written. It is dated April 28, 1868, just before the Franco-Prussian War, and was sent by Friedrich Krupp, founder of the Krupp industries, to Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. In Krupp's own handwriting, the letter runs as follows:

'Encouraged by the interest which Your August Majesty has been kind enough to show in a humble manufacturer like myself, as well as by the happy

THE WORLD OVER

results of your great efforts and sacrifices, I risk begging you to deign to accept the gift of the illustrated booklet accept the gift of the illustrated booklet which I am taking the liberty of sending under separate cover. It contains a series of engravings of the newest products of my factories. I trust that the last four pages in particular, describing the cast steel cannon for which I have received orders from several European governments, will hold Your Majesty's attention for a moment at least, and thus justify my temerity in writing this letter. With sentiments of profound respect, and high admiration I remain Your Majesty's very humble and obedient servant, Friedrich Krupp.'

No Krupp cannon were ordered by the Emperor of the French. Eighteen months later the German uhlans, backed by Krupp's artillery, swept across northern France to Paris and dragged the last Napoleon from his throne.

ENGLISH À LA CATALONIA

AN ENTERPRISING Barcelona news

paper, El Día Grafico, is devoting several columns daily to English translations of news despatches for the benefit of visiting tourists. Efforts in Barcelona to protect the local Catalonian dialect against the advance of pure Castilian Spanish may have prompted the translator to try his hand at putting a few Catalonian touches to the English language. Here are some of the items.

'Amsterdam. An aircraft of the hollandish army which was flying in the aroundings of Grave fell down from a considerable height. The two airmen flying in same have been taken out of the burning remains, entirely carbonized.'

'Mukden. The Chang Tso Ling's burial has taken place last Sunday. The crowd was looking the funeral procession and blamed the Chang Tso Ling's political behavior.'

'Stockholm. The courageous swedish airman Lundborg, who saved the general Nobile, and that while trying to rescue the shipwrecked people broke his aircraft and was lost in the polar ice-blocks, has been rescued yesterday morning.'

'Sofia. Three unknown fellows have fired yesterday at midnight several shots against general Peteguerof. The general fell down seriously, and died while being carefully conveyed to the hospital.'

'Paris. Mr. Briand will submit to morrow to the Council the Kellogg's

7

contemplated agreement against the war. This agreement has been wellcome and the Quai d'Orsay is trying to make a real convention of the Kellogg's commentaries in reply to France reservations.'

'Brussels. The circunstances by which the banker Mr. Loewenstein has passed away bring to the conviction that his death has merely been a self-murder. Mr. Loewenstein had been born in Brussels in 1874 and he was the third of the richest men of the whole world. The Loewenstein's widow has ordered that the fatal aircraft is sold at once.'

'Roma. The boxing match for the Europe Championship of half weight has taken place in between the Italian Mario Basisio (champion) and the mulatto Jack Walker (challenger) who has won by points.'

'Belgrade. Etienne Radich is growing worse. His wound suppurates and his heart spreads out. Radich is diabetic and cardiacal.'

'Roma. While everybody is hopeless in Norway as to Amundsen and Guilbaud's fate, italian people is growing anxious for Viglieri group. The fog and ice conditions prevent seaplanes to go down in polar regions. The seaplanes which had succeeded in getting Leigh Smith's cape, have been compelled to go back retracing their steps.'

'Cairo. The Egyptian government has just been resigned and the whole country is very influenced by this event.'

Another theory suggests itself which may explain this collection of items from the principal cities of the world, if not their idiomatic phrasing. The LIVING AGE, in its June number, inaugurated the department Metropolitana consisting of characteristic and interpretive bits from the earth's metropolises. The department attracted immediate attention and stirred enthusiastic approval everywhere. Can the echo of this applause have reached the attentive ears of the enterprising editor of our Barcelona contemporary? Is El Día Grafico to have a Metropolitana all its own, and is what we have quoted the first installment of the series? The idea, we are sure, is a good one. The way it is worked out is a matter of taste, judgment, and literary skill. Our conception of these qualities is exemplified in our own Metropolitana found elsewhere in this number. But the items from El Día Grafico have their merit too.

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