Life — October 27, 1921 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OCTOBER 27, 1921 “While there is Life there’s Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY Vol. 78. No. 2034 London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. T this writing nothing that is going on gives entire satisfaction. No- body is sure what is going to happen in any department of activity. The baseball series is not completed: either contestant may win it. Ireland is not loose yet. The London conference about that is in session, and De Valera’s secretary is over here with a suggestion about raising twenty million dollars for use in case the issue of the conference does not suit the Sinn Feiners. Congress has not yet been able to devise a new tax law. An organization called the Agricultural Bloc: has been able to upset the sales tax plan, and to secure deferential consideration for taxes more acceptable to the farmer, including the high surtaxes on large incomes, and high inheritance taxes. The Senate has passed the canal tolls exemption bill by a vote in which party lines broke. The exemption from the tolls may still be far off, but to have the idea win in the Senate is embarrassing to the administration with the armament conference on the point of meeting. However, the hardy souls that come to the armament conference will hardly be disturbed by action in the Senate which is criticised as a breach of a treaty. The conference will have to deal with the world as it is, including the Senate, and the apparent indiffer- ence of Senators to treaties is just one more symptom of the general condition. Mr. Lodge objected to the passage of the bill in the Senate because he thought it might make trouble for the confer- ence. But, after all, if the thing is to be done at all, might it not better be done when the objection to it is most apparent? It is not a measure that we 598 Madison Avenue, New York ought to have up our sleeve when we go into the conference. It might bet- ter be in sight. Any country that in- tends to be bad ought to be bad now while the political doctors of the world are assembling. The most samples of possible conduct that can be shown them, the better able they should be to prescribe. - DVERTISING is not yet so copi- ous, nor news so pressing, but that the newspapers for the moment have plenty of room to talk about any- thing, and lavish space on baseball, and show a timely hospitality to the specu- lations of astronomers about vegetation on the moon and inhabitants in Mars It is a good time to think about these extra-terrestrial matters. If science could be satisfied that Mars was in- habited and that the greenness of the moon came from vegetation and not from green cheese as is popularly un- derstood, it would help the scientific imagination, which seems to lag a little in celestial adventure, though it is do- ing better than it was. Old Moore’s Almanac, an old and much respected London publication, says that next year will be very trouble- some. So far as we know, prophetic almanacs and astrologers are bad guessers and entirely unworthy of con- fidence, but so are legislatures and a large proportion of the people, and even about conferences you never can tell what they are going to do until they have done it. But no one will go much amiss in looking for a bad year next year. It is a proper thing to expect and get ready for. Philip Gibbs says the coming winter will be the most anxious time Europe has had since the armis- tice. The Wall Street Journal si sow more wheat! and warns the farm- ers not to take the opposite acvice, which has been given them over-abun- dantly. LL the country is interested in the Mayoralty election in New York, though it is not a matter that the na- tional public loses any sleep over. ’re- liminaries so far have been calm. There have been few wild cries, little excite- ment, and the main election arguments have taken the form of figures. Expe- rience, however, has taught New York that a couple of weeks is enough to de- vote to a Mayoralty election, that the ground can be covered in that time. the feelings of the voters sufficiently ex- cited to make them vote, and their in- telligence sufficiently informed to make them vote right if they want to. The great objection to Mayor Hylan is that he does not know enough to be Mayor; that he is not a good enough municipal expert for the job and has a deleterious connection with Tammany. The main argument for Major Curran is that he is qualified, and is a much better mind to manage the business af- fairs of New York than Mayor Hylan, and is much freer from embarrassing political associations. The women’s vote seems to be looked to to decide the election. That is as it should be. It is the women, even more than the men of New York, who are concerned about good city government. The great problems that are up are the problems of providing schools for the children, of keeping the streets c| of maintaining efficiency and di in the police department, and of pro- viding for comfortable public transpor- a yee oe Se tat th: set Mi vor old vol int (er comicbooks.com