The Washington times., 1921-11-04
Today
Worried n. G. Wells.
He Hears Funny Stories.
And Secs Various Men.
He Need Not Worry.
ARTHUR BRISBANE
tcoeyrisnt ISsI.y

IDy ARTHUR BRIsBANE-l
tcosyrisnt issI.)
II. G. Wells dined with inter
esting men in New York on
Wsdne sday. They thought they
were studying him; many gave
him advice. He was studying
them, as Prof. Garner, inside his
iron cage in the African tropics,
studied gorillas and smaller mon
keys.
Mr.. Wells is short and grown
stouter since this writer saw him
fifteen years ago. He is SO in
tensely English that you say to
yourself: "That CAN'T be nat
gral. He must be putting 1t on"
But he isn't.
He is as diffident as a girl of
twelve. His ability has not been
depleted by egotism's waste Of
energy.
He is pathetically in earnest
about the desperate condition OF
the world. and tells men gathered
near him that humanity Is on a
sinking ship.
In reply. his American friends,
led by Chauncey Depew. in his
eighty-eighth year. tell him fun
nv stories. Depew's funniest is
about Henry Irving, who thought
he was going to enjoy one Ameri-
can dinner without MAKING
speech. Somebody from the West
said. "We must not let this oc-
casion pass without few words
from our distinguished" etc. Irv-
ing whispered to Depew, "God
- his SOUL"
All told Wells they did not
quite agree with his new his
tory. In the paeleolithic, neo-
lithic ages, etc, in his dealings
with cave men and primal proto-
plasm, he was, probably, all
right. But they did not see Caesar,
Alexander, Napoleon, and others
as Wells saw them.
Wells bore up we'll under criti-
cism. He might have replied as
Whistler did to the young
woman who said: "The sky does
not look to me at all as you
show it."
"No," replied Whistler. "Don't
you wish it did,"
Studying the list of men that
dined with him, Wells will realize
with interest that he came in
contact with many springs and
cog-wheels in a national machine
that represents the real begin
ming Of industrial feudalism,
skillful quasi-philanthropic gov.
ernment of men by organized
money, on a gigantic scale.
There were bankers and in
dustrialists that develop and
accumulate; lawyers tell them
when they go too far, or enter
the dangerous path. Also news
paper writers that may be COM
pared to broken pieces of look
ing glass, giving Imperfect, dis
torted reflection Of the civiliza-
ton before them. There was
even one radical, Max Eastman,
pood-natured, easy-going poet,
who thinks he is a Communist.
He was allowed to speak, lmita,
tion of the disturbing skull
passed around at ancient BAN
uuets, to remind eaters and
drinkers that there was trouble
ahead.
Mr.. Wells looked upon these:
Judge Gary. head of the biggest
Industrial concern in the world;
McAdoo, who once ran United
States railroads and treasury,
both at once; John G. Milburn;
foremost lawyer in the United
States, able to carry on the work
of Choate and Carter; also Sam
uel Untermeyer. marvelously ell
ficient worker in Rabelais' Court
of Grippeminaud; Oscar Straus,
ambassador to Constantinople,
and former member of the Cabi-
net: j. w. Gerard, who went as
ambassador to Berlin to have a
hswell time" and landed in the
war, OttO II. hdilIl' WIN o"ho ehS
Metropolitan Opera and other
things more substantial; Charles
M. Schwab. who builds battle
ships and will soon switch to fly
ing machines. which have made
the battleship a joke; B. M:
Baruch, who ran good deal OF
the war for Woodrow Wilson;
Frank A. Munsey. who has his
hand on the peoples pulse and
doesn't have to care whether 1t
GOES up or down; Adolph S. Ochs
and Louis Wiley, known as the
Irwin Fafners" of Times Square.
so called because their underlying
mass of advertising treasure
would make the Rhinegold seem
like petty cash.
There were many others, includ-
,ng Ralph Pulitzer, who gave the
party. and, more important. prob
ably. than all put together, DR..
Alexis Carrel. fighting disease
with science at the Rockefeller
Institute.