The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-04

every day. Even in the rush of incidents
that have furnished the newspapers with
good copy and big bills and the states
men with puzzles this year, the occasions
for such poems have not been daily mat
tiers. But one is inclined to ask, is MI.
Kipling quite fair to his genius? The
question as to whether he has genius
seems to be no longer a debatahle one as
it was even a year ago. He is hardly
doing with it what his admirers had ex
pected, apart from the two poems men
Toned.
For instance Mr. Kipling seems to
have fallen into the hands tor clutches
of the literary syndicatcs. One is dis
posed to regret that. Syndicate literature
is not precisely the kind that is expected
of the author of the Ballads" and
Tales" There is some very excellent
reading that reaches the public through
the syndicate medium, but there are
some thousands of writers who can pro-
duce it. They can not write Recession
ais and Jungle Stories. The English
navy is a subject that catches the popu-
lar ear just now and Mr.. Kipfng writes
about it in his own inimitable way and
the newspapers print what he writes. He
doubtless gets well paid for his work but
somehow one hoped that Mr.. Kipling
would not be bitten by the dollar-a-line
mania and that he would reserve for him
self some standard othes than that which
rules on Change. Doubtless the 'ldyls
Of the King or VANITY Fair would
have been quite as meritorious if they
had reached the public with the aid OF
a literary bureau but some carping souls
will always be glad that they did not.
In writing the Truce of the Bear did
Mr.. Kipling think what an instrument
of torture he was putting into the mouths
of the female elocutionists? He probably
did not 1T is Il fine poem. very hne
poem. but if he had once grasped how
readily it lends itself to the fell purpose
stated one is inclined to think he would
have thrown it in the waste basket, as
he did the Recessional, and have refused
to let Mrs. kipling fish it out as she did
the other poem. 1t is sure
TO get itself printed in all the col
lections of pieces to Speak" 1t is too
open to the designs of the young leader
of her class and the pride of the family
who will chant it from the front of the
rostrum on commencement occasions,
while the local brass band sup
plies cleaning and martial background
/ hope the publishers will hug the copy
right and deny to all makers of elo-
cutionary collections an opportunity to
subject the Truce of the Bear to the fate
that awaits it, all too soon at best.
Why is it, by the way, that no one has
arisen to do for America, on the inaugu
hot In Ia in.
ling did for England ON the occasions
of the Jubilee and the Disarmament Pro-
posal? Certainly the day was quite as
suspicious, the contingency as rich in lit
erary possibilities The spirit was here
and needed only some one to embody it.
But the some one did not appear and SO
the poem that would have been worth
considerably more to the race, and prob
ably to the country, than the Philippines
had to go unwritten. 1t has been q
good many years since such an opportu-
nifty to wake up famous was dangled
under the noses of our poets and it vii
necessarily be many more before another
such arises. The poets might begin to
train for it meantime however.
The Rt Hon. Joseph Chamberlain
British Colonial Secretary. is the JmgC
of England. There is no one i'll this
country to whom he can be compared
since we have no jingo who is pre-emi
nent Naturally there is interest tt
know how Mr.. Chamberlain regards oul
new aspirations to become a world pow
err, all the more that we have not our
selves quite made up our minds yet how
to regard them. Mr.. Chamberlain gives
sls..n r.,
December under the title: Recent De
velopments of Policy in the United States
and Their Relations to an Anglo-SaxoI
Alliance"
In one lucid paragraph Mr.. Chamber
lain crystalzes the best opinion on botl
sides of the Atlantic with reference to tht
proposed Anglo-American alliance: Amy
attempt to pledge the two nations before
hand to combined offensive and defensive
action in all circumstances must inevi-
tably break down and be a source Of
danger instead of strength. All there
fore that the most sanguine advocate of
an alliance can contemplate is that the
United States and Great Britain should
keep in close touch with each other, and
that whenever their policy and their in
terests are identical, they should be pre-
pdTcu ~ GUuCeIL LOSGinSl iHS h1tSSodis
measures for their defense"
Mr.. Chamberlain, of course, advises ex-
pansion though it is not that but his sum
mary of England's experience that inter
ests us. After referring 10 the method
by which England governs her English
colonies, he says: Influenced by the same
idea, we elaborated constitutions by the
score for every kind of typical dependency
in the vain expectation that the native
population would appreciate, forms of
government evolved in our own ciyiliZa-
ton, and would learn quickly to be self
supporting and to develop for themselves
the territories in which we began to think
we only had temporary interest. We
were disappointed and we have had to
recognize that for an indefinite period of
time the ideas and the standards of our
social and political order cannot be intel
ligently accepted and applied by races
which are centuries behind us in the
process of national evolution
This experience of England, including
...,1 Ind, x.tKy1 zn1