davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
Very Much Alive

10 the Editor % The Tribune
SIR ! wan; TO expires. ,..v ..-......ds
20 you Tor printing Nj, Mart, f..n
ards letter oar the sabIe.. os .ao ,..l
American have wished TO .ee t.t
h'ach The sam- th.ne nx.eif bs. ,e
'r"'heu from doing 30, showing. ~ b
writer the difficulty Of getting po,r.
o' view apparently so unpopular 20
oay inio print IN magazines nd now.
papers Yet it seems as n fran.
ia'ing OF the facts Of America hi.,os,
would seneHt no ono so much p. m.
c",iuren OF our foreign imsnigrart..
'e" years ago "rhe Call review
ing my novel. THE Stranger ~ the
hearth which r.tlralt refereed 10
0o' foreign c.ti7ens as foreigners. re
marked that it Was noi a.ce ~ cali
names, adding I'VE are all for..enars
IN America
But seriously for TO educated ner.
80" could take such statements serious
iy-is 1t not the most important ser
ID the much talked Of Americaris,.,.,,
oi 'he immigrant to clear IN his ,deAs
as 10 what an American rcali,-,. In,
immigrant has been told. be trsc~ 10 he.
'-e''' -, 'hA' ne has ''usde America A de-
"Oe'a'e propaganda. as well as much
o"' ignorance. IS IN circulation 20 th's
erect designed to convince our forcte~
N'''A'h '"ho suspects that Amorc. ws4
"o' MADE the week before he landed
e.Se ne would not have cor,ei tina, al
e"e descendants Of the early Anglo.
saxon Americans are asai I have heard
''"' very statement made to a eroun OF
people oy fairly prominent resident Of
''' country. minister. who assulodly
anew better. at one Of the peace treaty
discussions at the Commodore las, win
ter The existence oe the Colonial
Danes of America o c, which bappen
"e memoer-and Of many other
patriotic societies il of itself proof,
even to the reluctant. that many de-
scendants of Colonial and other early
americans are very much alive day
KATHARINE MErcALF ROOF.
New York. Nov. .. 1919.
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
the not make an exceptionally good

she not make an exceptionally good
Judge?
There is no reason why the occu-
pancy of important public office by
women Of the right kind should be
of such rare occurrence as it is at
present. And until it becomes more
frequent there is occasion for such
organized efforts as that made by
Miss Rembaugh's campaign COM
mittee. 1t is not so much that
women as women need to be repre-
sented either on the bench or in the
legislative chamber, though in GER
tain cases this argument also holds.
The best reason for wishing to use
women of high abilities for high
posts is that high abilities are rare,
whether in men or in women, and
that the state has need Of them.
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
Why Private Schools?
Democracy Antedatcd Public Schools and Needs NO
Common Education for Its True Development Is Argued

school boys. Perhaps q close ih'esI''
cation of the facts might prove that
nsvutc school boys were, in the mass
tho first 10 answer the call, and thai
while many Of them, because of their
better education, became officers. there
was at least an equal number who took
their places in tfe ranks side by s'de
with bows from the public schools, and
in at least an equal number OF cases
made good as common soldiers Of de-
mocracy.
The fallacy underlying Professor
Sharp's suggestion that We can become
democratic only by having all our boys
and girls attend the same schools
seems to be that this method would be
preoccupied with establishing n merely
external uniformity, for i. would be
vain to hope that you could make all
Young America remain at the same
level Of thought and emotion in regard,
not to their country alone. but TO the
world in which they live. Many Of us
believe that there is no contradiction
between the acquisition Of culture and
the preservation of true dem mocracy. 1t
takes all kinds of men to make up the
world. Perhaps we are not wrong IN
concluding, in view of the past history
of our country, that 1t takes all kinds
of education to develop true democ-
racy.
Your editorial brings new point
into the discussion, in that you take il
for granted that private education IS
often inferior to public education,
from which assumption you come TO a
definite conclusion. stated thus "In
union there would not only be more
Americanism and more democracy for
ell, but better. education for all" A
discussion Of this statement would lead
me further than I intend to go. | do
not think that il is supported by facts.
The only test that would prove any
thing would be the submitting OF boys
of both types of schools to uniform ex-
aminations. Whenever this is done in
the examinations of the college en-
trance examination board I believe
the result is all in favor of the private
school
1t is undoubtedly beneficial TO dis
cuss such matters earnestly in publ
cations like The Atlantic Monthly"
and The New York Tribune, but it is
we'll to guard against the attitude OF
the special pleader, which usually fails
to see al sides Of a question.
NELSON HUME.
Headmaster Canterbury School.
New Milford. Conn, Nov 7, 1919.
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
Women in Public Office

The failure Of the 1st Judicial
District to elect Bertha Rembaugh
as a justice of the Municipal Court
was not matter for surprise. Miss
Rembaugh lost not because woman,
but because a Republican candidate
running in a hard-shell Tammany
district. The LIST District, with it's
mixed population elements, Is a
stronghold of Tammany. The or
ganization at Fourteenth Street sits
close to men Of many tongues,
watches over them, whispers in their
ears, teaches them to look to it for
Jobs, for favors, for friends. To
vote as it tells them is part of their
code of honor. No judge that was
not a Tammany nominee has been
elected to Office in this district for
the last thirty years.
The losing game was we'll worth
playing. The contest blazed trail
Next time first-rate woman is nomi-
mated for judicial or other important
public Office perhaps she will be al
lowed to run in q district in which
there is chance of success; but
whether she is or not, the struggle
made by Miss Rembaugh, with all
the odds against her, will serve as an
inspiriting example. Meanwhile,
one immediate gain is to be noted.
The appointment of Mrs. Norris to
a position on the magistrates bench
An appointment made just a week
before Election Day-was probably
influenced, or at least hastened, by
the women's vigorous non-partisan
campaign in behalf of Miss Rem
baugh.
The campaign must, moreover,
have made an impression on the pub
tic mind. People who had hitherto
regarded a woman judge as an
anomalous concept have had occa-
sion to question whether there is any
excuse for the old taboo. Miss Rem
baugh, in the opinion Of representa-
tive members of the bar, is an excep-
tiouAlly good lkyer; why should
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13

wintering in California. The grum-
bling urbanite, looking at the prices
the farmer has been receiving, has
thought, whatever the past, that
now the farmer should be happy.
But the Kansas Senator implies
that, in point Of fact, his constitu-
ents scarcely scrape through.
Senator Capper in his threnody
fails to mention one thing-namely,
that a marked increase in the value
of agricultural land has occurred.
Farm land prices for whole states,
it appears, are up 100 per cent or
more. How so if planting and reap
ing have not been profitable? Does
the Senator when figuring produc-
tion costs put in the land at high
er rental? Push up the assumed
rental fast enough, and, of course,
farming can be shown never to pay.
But the farmer, though making
nothing as an operator, may at the
same time do we'll as a land owner.
The evidence surely is that land
values are up, and the land owner,
no matter what may be true of ten
ants, has little cause to complain.
That every one profiteers except
you and your class is a prevailing
belief. The investor, looking at Sc
curities the dollar income of which is
no more and at income and other
taxes, is sure he is victim. SO the
salary worker is sure. So also is
the wage worker. And now comes
the farmer as another candidate for
sympathy. There has been general
protiteering, yet no one has cashed
in. Who is beneficiary to the sub
traction every class feels?
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
Business or More Wind?

The Lee resolution for the mu-
nicipalization Of the business of
milk distribution has been sum-
moned from it's pigeon-hole.
Does the board mean business or
is it merely indulging in political
exercise? The windy discourse of
the author of the resolution suggests
the latter, but, although fearing the
worst, the public hopes for the best.
What the milk consumer wants is
cheaper milk Of wholesome quality.
He is weary Of insincere and profit
less Investigations" Does munich
palization mean lower priced milk.
and, if so, how? Will it lessen what
is paid to dairymen, or lower rail-
road rates or pasteurization costs,
or induce drivers of wagons to do
more work for less money? None
of these things is likely. Municipal
izaton thus probably means higher
priced milk or the throwing Of a
milk depot on the city treasury.
The milk companies are reported
to net less than half cent a quart
to meet interest charges on their in
vestments. To cut them out alto
gether, therefore, means only a
minute reduction--perhaps none at
all, for the city would also need to
collect to meet the cost of it's invest
ment. The question then is, Can
the city do the work of distributing
for less and pay present wages
1t can, perhaps, but it is safe to as
sumo it won't. Imagine what Mayor
Hylan would do in the presence Of q
new wage demand!
The public is thoroughly tired of
insincerity and false pretenses. 1t
wants those who advertise their
solicitude for the public welfare to
be honest and to face the facts. Un-
less there is honesty one may be sure
no betterment will come.
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
Writing Up to Children

Fortunately, as Kate Douglas Wig
gin pointed out in The Tribune the
other day, books good for children
are just as good for grown-ups--or,
at least, good for any grown-ups
worth the fresh air needed to keep
them alive. SO browsing over chill
dren's books is no dread chore for
any one. Even the bachelor uncle.
with only his pocketbook to attach
him to those vague and enlarging
circles of children known as rela-
tives, can take pleasure in this part
of his annual task.
Just why is this? Any children's
classic that children still genuinely
and ardently adore will give the
answer. Such book is not written
down to children in the sense that
our grown-up jargon is simply trans
lated into words Of one syllable. 1t
is much more accurate TO say that
good children's book is written up to
children. Any sort Of slushy, hazy,
windy writing will dc for grown-ups.
(See-but you can pick your own
humorist or sociologist or novelist.
For a child there must first take
place vast simpliflcation of thought
IT the product is to be anything more
than temporary pot boiler. No
concealment Of thought by words is
possible. The outline cannot be
smudged over by soppy romance or
sickly sentimentality for the sup
posedly downtrodden. 1t is a world
OF clear and simple outlines, at once
kind and cruel, in which the adult
mind must learn to dwell if it is
ever to speak to children with last
ing appeal.
You come back to the best theory
OF learning composition-that the
problem is not to write, but to think.
1t is impossible to write poorly for
children if you have appreciated
your problem and mastered YOUR
task. There is limpid beauty Of
style in 4sop's Fables, in the great
fairy tales, in Stevenson's verses for
children, in the Jungle Books, hard
to surpass in any written work. 1t
is as if the grown-up had realized
that here was public that could not
be dazzled or deceived or triched.
and that only the one right and
llmpid word could count.
If you doubt, this is children's
book week the country over. In
shops and in libraries you can browse
and investigate to your hearts con-
tent. You will be entertained. at
any rate; and you will, unless a
hopelessly pompous and dul]y adult
creature, take therefrom a fresh
sense Of that crystalline, childish
mind, STAINLESS and unafraid, the
example Of which the world never
needed more than here and now.
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Having read in the current "At-
lantic Monthly" Professor Sharp's ar
ticle, "Patrons of Democracy" only
yesterday, | was especially interested
in the editorial "Why Private
Schools?" i'll this mornings Tribune
Professor Sharp seems to have taken
only a partial view of the consequences
of what he advocates, and you appear
to have taken only partial view of his
suggestions. There is need here Of a
clearer definition of the word "democ-
ratization," and even perhaps of a
clearer and broader understanding of
the meaning Of democracy. If democ-
racy necessarily means uniformity, not
as to political rights alone, but as to
education, mental development, moral
and religious training, and even per-
haps in regard to food, clothing and
shelter, then perhaps Professor Sharp's
suggestion should be followed. 1t may,
however, be reasonable TO doubt
whether such a plan would succeed in
accomplishing its purpose. Such de-
mocracy, however, would be a forced
and artificial growth. If democracy has
no power to unite in q common devo-
ton to country men of different kinds,
but must first bring them all to an
absolute uniformity before it can unite
them, it is but poor thing, and hardly
worth all the sacrifice that our coun-
try has made TO create and defend it,
l do not think that the history Of our
country supports the theory that the
only men who showed devotion to the
ideal of democracy were those who
came from the common schools. In
deed the establishment of democracy
in the United States as an ideal ante
dated by many decades the establish
ment Of any large system of common
schools. The great founders of our
American democracy were almost to q
man the product of what you wou d
now call private schools, and the great
English champions OF democracy dur
ing our early days were the products
of the English schools and universities
Was even Lincoln more devoted to the
ideal of democracy then Roosevelt ?
Had Washington lower ideal of de-
mocracy than Samuel Gompers?
1t would be hard to prove that when
our young men were recently called to
defend democracy the BOYS who had
gone through private schools were less
prompt to answer than were the public
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
The Washington Massacre

Veterans of the war observed
Armistice Day in Centralia, Wash,
by parade celebrating the return
af peace. AS they peacefully
marched murderous shots came
rom the local I. w. ". hall. Four
soldiers were killed and three others
severely wounded.
The victims had risked their lives
chat all men might be free. They
came home, an honor to their coun-
try and to the human species. And
Ehey are slaughtered by fiends in
earnate. These monsters plotted
and planned for Germany until
Germany fell. Since they have plotted
and planned for the Bolshevist Rus
sia, which inherited and has ap-
piled in viler ways the German idea.
They spontaneously hate a soldier
for the same reason that criminal
hates a policeman. They talk of
freedom of speech and of assembly,
but, enemies of the human race, the
only liberty they seek is one to rob,
to burn and to destroy.
1t is to be ascertained who's who in
this country and what's what. The
sdoom of the miscreants and their
sympathizers is written-particular-
aly their sympathizers, for except for
the encouragement from section
sof the press and professional TO-
smenters of disorder, the Reds"
would not be troublesome. A stern
ser sense of realities is entering into
1.-The mood of the American people.
! The inspiration of the invisible gov
sernment which is trying to substi-
4tute the rule of force for one of law
SIS more and more realized.
Strike the conspiracy at the top
frather than at the bottom. 1t is the
who are most dangerous.
Coiled in the flag are Kissing foes
Of every good. In the informal
amnesty that followed the armistice
they escaped being summoned to ac-
count for conduct during the war
But the grace shown them was a
mistake-they are as much traitors
now as before, and have construed
condonation as license to continue
their evil designs.
The blood of the boys in far-off
Washington is not shed in vain.
Their deaths, providing startling
evidence of what the "Reds" mean,
may do more for their country and
civilization now than if they had
perished on the other side. 1t is
/ time for every American to dedicate
himself anew and to VOW over the
bodies of fallen brothers that their
. work shall be carried on.
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
The Indeterminate Scntenc.

tFrom the Mexico On. " Independenfl
The trip was made by auto. his friends
acting as escort, giving other than tue true
reason for insisting having his company
FOR the night, and ne feeling that he was
contributing to others' pleasure and happy
In the thought. was most cofnpletely sur
prlsed when he came in sight of that dear
old home that he had carried q mental
picture of through all the lons days and
nights OF activity danger and suffering
in the war zone with the faces of his loved
father and mother Chaunoey Austin and
Wife as d centerriece, to ind it aba 70
with light. the portals thrown wide in
glad welcome, not only to himself but to
ninety five friends and relatives whose
faces We're lighted with Joy and Zach one
glad to radiate the intense happiness and
solemn gratitude OF his parents to the
Cfiver of all good that he was spared TO
return to the country this side the ocean
bars, where their loving hearts were wait
ing and the flag is full of stars
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
Who Gets 1t?

In a recent speech Senator Cap
per, Of Kansas, upholder Of the
agricultural interest, tells of the
hard time the farmer has to get
along. Urban opinion strongly runs
to the belief that the farmer is ex-
ceptionally prosperous--that he has
benefited more than the follower Of
any other pursuit from the economic
changes incident to the change in
the purchasing power of the dollar
According to Senator Capper, all
this is not true. He quotes from
many letters which unite in declar-
ing that prices Of agricultural staples
are now below production costs. eve
are the most submissive of any in
dustrial class" writes one of Senator
Capper's correspondents. "We take
what we get for our products and
have no price-fxing authority of our
own, and when we want to buy any
thing some one else fixes the price
for it. We never go on strike and
stop producing, and now, while
nearly all other industrial classes
are striking and restless, we are
going on preparing our wheat ground
for another crop, with
lower prices staring us in the face
on account of the great cry against
the cost of living"
That the farmers of America
formerly worked longer hours and
received less than other workers is
not open to doubt. The drift to the
cities attests this. Persons of rural
training who are in the cities re-
member their youth.
But since 1914 the impression has
prevailed that an equalizing move
ment has occurred and that perhaps
for time the scale has kicked to the
farmers side. Stories Of the vast
number of automobiles flooding
country highways have been told,
and Of the Anumber Of farmers
New-York tribune., 1919-11-13
Do Unions Stultifv
The Attitude of Labor Is Criticized
and Deplored

10 tiie Eoltor or The Tribune.
SIR In view Of the agitation OF
Samuel Gompers over the injunction Is
sued at indianapolis by Judge Ander-
son III the case of the miners strike. II
is interesting to note the following par
ngraph in a letter he wrote me under
date OF April 80, 1918:
"One of the most potent forces in
achieving this end fthe humanizing of
business, as discussed in an article of
mlne IN The Tribunel has been the edu-
catlonal campaign inaugurated and
maintained by the organized workers to
establish the principle that labor power
IS human attribute and not COM
modify This issue became of para
mount Importance to the workers be-
cause Federal courts .rere perrertino n
the lnjunctire process into an ooency IN
destroy the organized labor Increment.
AS result of this educational cam
palgn there was enacted into leyisla-
ton a revolutionizing principle-the la
Dor power OF human being is not a
principle inevitably socializes and hu
manzes the attitude OF mind toward all
labor problems"
The italics are mine This statement
shows how Ny Gompers's mind has been
working for some time.
In reply 10 this letter 7 wrote Mr.
Gompers of some of my impressions in
visiting many factories and in investi
eating many labor disputes and con-
tiicts. / quote from this letter becouse
1T seems to me that the point is signiti
cant, especially in view of the fact that
Mr. Gompers did not reply wrote:
At times | have been distressed in
visiting factories. and in my earlier
career as q newspaper reporter, at wit
Messing the frequent lack of interest
and inspiration Of workers in their
work, and the frequent sullen inclina-
ton to get as much pay for as little
work in as short a time and with as
little interest as possible. This is igno
Die and unwholesome, and cannot make
for the permanent good of labor or Of
the country. To be frank. | am greatly
opposed to the attitude of labor in nor
nal times ignoring the good of the pub
lie and OF society in it's aggressive in
sistence upon what labor considers tn
be its rights. But even the critic of
organized labor in ordinary times must
commend the main body of organized
workers for their patriotism and deter
mined stand by the country in this war.
Yet there are some branches of labor
that, even in these perious times, have
fagranrly ignored every instinct of ma
tional consciousness in the demands for
their material gain"
When any experienced investigator
emphasizes the morally, spiritually and
industrially stultifying influence of
trade union philosophy upon the worker
the officials of trade unions invariably
remain quiet. FELIX ORMAN.
New York. Nov. Z, 1919.