Life — November 12, 1925 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

NOVEMBER 12, 1925 VOL. 86. 2245 “While there is Life there's Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY $98 Madison Avenue, New York Cuartes Dana Ginson, President R. E. Suerwooo, F. D, Casey, Art A RD times these for the doctors, mean- ing not the doctors of medicine, but the learned men in various departments of knowl- edge who feel themselves entitled to have opinions. Behold the League of Nations disparaged by Dr. Lodge and still more so by the learned George Pepper of Philadelphia, denied to us some time since by Dr. Coolidge, thrown out by Borah and his group and the door slammed in its face, and yet look at that organization—no sooner buried than along comes the resurrection man and digs it out! Just now it is very like the current stock market. The talent all say it is coming down, and stand by and sce it drop; the prudent sell out and hold their breath, and away it soars again. If the League quenches the war in the Balkans, that will be something and may embolden it to inquire into French exploits in Syria. Just as one was be- ing grateful to Charles Piez, of the Illi- Manufacturers’ Association, for punching at Borah about the French debt, and trying to make him listen to reason, along come reports from Da- mascus that give point to Borah’s reply that it was “no part of his duty to put the load of present militaristic war and France’s military establishment on the taxpayers of the United States.” The war Borah talks about is the one against the Riffs, but what about the recent French performance in Syria? The League gave to France a mandate to keep order in Syria and benefit that country. That is why nois Cratr Maxwett, Vice-President Laxcuorxe Giesox, Secretary and Treosurer French soldiers are there. So far as appears, France has fallen down on the job. Her ministrations have been highly unacceptable to the Syrians. Now comes the news of ructions in Da- mascus with the Druses and a bombard- ment of French guns which one reads has been exceedingly destructive to that venerable and highly interesting city. Were the French sent to Syria to destroy it?) The League of Nations that is the source of their authority to be there ought to take a fatherly interest in their performance and shows signs of doing so. Certainly one hopes it will. The case seems to call for earnest ad- monition, but since the United States has no vote in the League and only an outsider’s voice about its concerns, one’s comments about its duty must be mod- est. All the same, when the movement here is so strong to get the French debt settled on some reasonable and gener- ous basis, it is hard to have a ruinous bombardment of Damascus give new arguments to Borah. CURIOUS world this just now and very obstinate about responding to the calculations of calculators. The League may yet be a disappointment, but at least it has got back into the news and one reads about it on the first page. Few of the doctors in these times can win popular or even intelligent accept- ance of their conclusions. Whether it is bishops in council, or scientists in convention, or Nordic sharps in books, or Fundamentalists in legislatures, or Modernists in opposition, the onlooker smiles at them all, and says none of them are wise enough yet to reach trust- worthy conclusions about the concerns as to which they aspire to pontificate. RS. CRANDON, the Boston me- dium, seems almost as hard to bury as the League of Nations. She has been performing now for many months under the inspection of succeed- ing groups of experts who either dis- agree about her or find that she is no good, and yet she goes along quite un- impaired by any of the conclusions reached about her. A company of Har- vard psychologists are the latest to re- port on her. Their investigation some- how looks like an inquiry into anatomy by butchers searching not so much for knowledge as for meat. N New York State the prison popu- lation beats the record. Whether it is due to the Volstead law or repeal of the Mullan-Gage law is open to dis- cussion catch-as-catch-can. Meanwhile the Presbyterian Board of Morals re- sents the conclusion of the Federal Council of Churches that Prohibition is still on trial, but its resentment is not shared by General Andrews, the new and respected chief enforcement officer, who has been telling the druggists that the inconsistencies of Congress, espe- cially in providing for the sale of sacra- mental wine, have given Prohibition officers “an impossible task.” Mere than usually appealing is the call of General Wood for two mil- lion dollars for the rescue and support of mestizo children of | American soldiers in the Philippines. One reads there are about 18,000 of these children, a great majority of which are looked after by their parents; but four or five thousand of them, whose fathers have cleared out, need looking after. That there should be such children is what one would expect, and the responsibil- ity for them reposes on the United States. Send your money to Mrs. Kern, 8 West Fortieth Street, New York. E. S. Martin. comicbooks.com