davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
The American Pantheon

The announcement of another
quinquennial unveiling of tablets
in the Hall of Fame for Great
Americans, at New York Univer-
sity, calls renewed attention to an
institution which has confounded
its numerous early critics; for
among all the sixty-three names in
scribed upon it's walls there is not
one which any considerable num-
Der Of persons will declare repre-
sents a gross mistake. Not every
name has yet been inscribed which
deserves that distinction; but not
one has been inscribed which is
manifestly unworthy.
That is obviously the important
thing. There is no harm in de-
laying selection, as indeed the linn
tied number which the statutes
permit to be chosen every five
years makes inevitable; for any
fame meriting commemoration can
be in no danger Of waning through
u few years delay. The talk now
and then heard about the 'sexclu-
sion" Of certain names has been
pointless, since there has in fact
never been and never could be a
single vote cast against any candi-
date.
This good fortune in selection
which distinguishes the Hall of
Fame is superior to that of SIM
liar institutions, some of greater
age and wider repute. Thus West
minister Abbey, the most splendid
memorial chamber in the world,
contains the tombs or monuments
Of hopelessly obscure and unworthy
persons, while some of the greatest
names in English history are alb
sent. The fine achievement of our
Hall Of Fame is attributable, with
out doubt, to the method of it's
administration. With nominations
made by any American citizen, and
with election made by majority
of a jury of one hundred of the
most eminent living Americans, who
are limited to voting the honor
only after a special posthumous
period has elapsed, the choice is
about as perfect an expression of
"the common sense of most" as it
is humanity possible to obtain.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

Octic System Advocated to Supplant
Decimal Notation

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: The demand for 2sz-cent coin
is due to our instinct to halve our
units of measure, as well as to present
necessities Of trade.
The inconvenient fractions resulting
in the decimal system from repeated
divisions by two limit the convenience
of the ten system for easy mental cal
culations of everyday life.
AS long as money, weights and meas
ures are dependent on the decimal no.
tation, no one system has any particu-
lar advantages: hence variety Of sys-
TENS will continue to confuse and bur-
den the world.
The only practicable remedy for this
condition is to use eight instead Of ten
for our scale Of notation and units of
measure. The octic system easily al
lows unlimited doubles and halves.
The change to base of eight will
cause no great inconvenience il it is
carried out gradually over period of
fifty to one hundred years.
1t is entirely proper that the memory
of Theodore Roosevelt, our great pro-
gressive, should be associated with the
first steps toward such universal sys-
tenn of money, weights and measures
that will bring the world into closer re-
lations.
It is not the value Of the coin on
which his likeness is to appear, but
the sentiment and object of the move
ment associated with it, that is impor-
tant. E. M. TINGLEY.
Elizabeth, N. j., May 12, 1921.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
An Immoral Song
fFrom The NctD RcpubEtol

From The NetD RcpubEieJ '*
ZANE was Charity's sister.
~ Jezebel was a queen.
She painted her face with bistre
And played on the tambourine;
She was wicked and white as a feggy
night
And whenever she would complain,
"Slave, run and chop down forests OF
wood and draw large oceans Of
wateri"
Why, that meant work for janet
Jane didn't weep or murmur,
Jane didn't mind at all,
Her mouth set little firmer
And her pansy eyes got small.
She thought of Che lives of good kings'
wives
And as soon as she'd hear ring plain,
"Come and take this last stupid lover Of
mine away, for he's fat enough
now to slaughteri"
A smile would come over Jane.
Jezebel got into trouble
With all Of the pious fstes,
And her Gay cracked like bubble,
For Jane had opened the gates.
Oh, the dogs in the street found Jezehei
sweet
Till the new prince cried in pain,
go out and bury that aecursed woman,
for she is a kings daughter!"--
And then went and married Jane.
STEPHEN VINCENT BENET. 4
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
Overproduction and Undercon.
sumption

The Federal Reserve Boards sta
tistical bureau, getting it's data from
plants which employed 100000
wage earners last year, reports for
1921 a decrease of 6.4 per cent in
the average wage rate compared
with the same month in 1920.
The smallness of the decrease
shows again how an established wage
rate resists changes. Yet the fig
ures are reconciled with prevailing
opinions by the further information
that the number employed is down
25 per cent. Taking the two items
together it would appear that the
current wage distribution is about
80 per cent off from last springs
peak.
What counts most to wage work
er is not the wage rate. He is more
vitality concerned in continuity of
employment. Taking wage workers
as whole, they would be as we'll off
with 25 per cent less wages an hour,
or day, or week, provided they were
on their jobs steadily. 1t is unem-
ployment rather than low wages that
eats up savings.
Why are SO many out of jobs? Be-
cause those unheavenly twins, over
production and underconsumption,
are loose? And how did they get
loose? Because Of the death of
the ability or the desire of the people
to buy? 1t is most doubtful. A year
ago buying was at high tide.
The Federal Reserve Board, in the
plentitude Of sts wisdom, became
persuaded that too much credit was
abroad in the land. 1t began to
shorten bank loans to compel the
liquidation Of accumulated commodi-
ties. 1t said to the man who had
stuff on his hands on which he had
borrowed, "You must sell-must
dump your goods on the market"
Now, if there is one thing more
than another that instantly para
lyzes production and trade it is a
belief that goods are about to fall in
price. The factory owner cancels
his orders for raw materials, the
wholesaler and retailer places no
orders, even the improvident con-
sumner postpones purchases.
Many big words cucumber discus
sion of the simple fact that falling
market, in its first stages at least,
does not stimulate buying, as in
theory it should. The man who can
get for rs cents that for which he
formerly cheerfully paid dollar,
does not buy if he believes he will
later be able to buy for so cents.
When prices are changing it is the
direction they are taking which is Of
prime interest, not the level itself.
And how can overproduction and
underconsumption, once they get out,
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

be chased back into their holes?
Speaking generally only by a pre-
vailing belief that prices have hit
the bottom. Each man judges this
matter for himself. He is impatient
Of lectures concerning his duty.
The reason a turn for the better
in industry may be expected is
the fact that the evidence shows
that prices are now more likely to
go up than down. The holder-off
from the market, as he sees that
prices no longer easily slide, begins
to fear that if he waits longer he
will be compelled to pay more. Slight
upward changes are reported and
they signify much.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
Storm on Fifth Avenue

(Fronr The london MeYeuryJ
a SALLOW waiter brings me six huge
oysters.
Gloom shutters up the sunset with a
plague
Of unpropitious twilight Jagged asunder
By fashlight demonstrations. Gee, aDhut
a peach
OF a climate! Pardon slang: these
sultry storms
Affiict me with neurosis: rumbling thun.
der
Shakes my belief in academic forrns.)
An oyster-colored atmospheric runlpus
Beats up to blot the sunken daylight's
gildings.
Against the looming cloud-bank, ivory
pale,
Stand twenty-storied blocks of Office
buildings.
Snatched upward on gust, lost news
sheets sail
Waif-like in lone arena of mid-air;
Flapping like melancholy kites, they
My gaze, q note of wiIdness in the scene.
Out on the paStering sidewalk people
hurry
For shelter, while the tempest swoops
to scurry
Across to Brooklyn. Bellying figures
clutch
At wide-brimmed hats and bend to rneef
the weather
Alarmed for fresh-worn silks and fur
ried feather.
Then kissing deluge spiashes down {
beat
The darkly glistening fiatness of tt
street.
Only the cars nose on through rains
lashed twilight:
Only the Sherman Statue, angel-guided,
Maintains it's mock-heroic martial ges-
ture. .
A sallow waiter bri4gs me beans and
pork.
Outside there's fury in the armament.
Ice cream, of course, will follow, and
I'm content.
o BobyIoni 0 Carthagei Neso Yorki
SIEGFRfED SASSooN.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
Killing With Kindness

: The meticulous precautions taken
to insure Nine. Curie against a too
exuberant welcome serve as a re-
minder Of the dangers existing in
our favorite sport Of hero-worship-
ing. 1t takes an able-bodied, good
tempered, agile-tongued retinue to
stand between the visiting celebrity
and the caresses of the great Amer
lean public. "Killing with kindness"
is no merry epigram; it is physical
possibility and a psychic certainty.
Even that robust and experienced
young visitor, the Prince of Wales,
aged visibly under the strain of
American hospitality.
Mime. Curie came to us unskilled
in the art Of self-protection. She has
never been exposed to publicity be-
fore. Her existence has been rigor-
ously clustered; that the restric-
tions upon her life were self-imposed
and that she herself has never felt
the lack of experiences she might
have demanded had her nature been
different proves the essential happi-
ness of her lot. She has never sought
the public because she has been
supremely happy in her work for the
public.
Her triumphal procession through
this shouting nation will doubtless be
less qualification than terror to
her. She will go through it with the
gracious smile of the Pole, but with
the grimness of the scientist who
knows that one must be fit to sur
vive. Just as the discovery of radium
in the first instance required the
price of heroic toll, so the gift of the
gram of radium which is to be her
very own for the experiments in can
GER cures necessitates this arduous
pilgrimage.
Strenuous America will do we'll to
remember that one day of Nine.
Curie in the laboratory is worth ten
on the pink-tea line, and curb the de-
sire to fete her.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

.st and individualist. A true Renais~
sarce man, he does not base all moral
ity on an intellectual consideration of
the ethical means and ends which plays
so great part in modern English
moraiists, but on affection and the will
springing from it. Nay this capacity
for honoring great man, which the
German has 80 finely proved in the
case of Shakespeare, remain TO our
German people. 1t will then be able to
attain what it now needs above ali /
else--the closing up of its ranks as
une people with single national will.
Only when that is attained will tn
German Pheuix rise again from the
ashes.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
Germany al, Outsider

upper Silesia is not German ter
atory. 1t is not Polish territory.
It is in the custody of the Allied
supreme Council and it's future is
not determined. Germany is an out
slider. So is Poland.
1t is not permissible for the Ger
man government to send troops there
70 occupy it. Nor is it permissible
l0r the Polish government to send
troops there to occupy it. Nor may
eltner government do by indirection
@hat 1t may not do directly. Ger
Hiah lrregulars may not be properly
recruited in Berlin, nor Polish irreg-
a'ars be recruited in Warsaw. Po-
iand has recognized this fact and has
elSaYowed the Korfanty movement.
oefmany, so far, has not disavowed
,ne action of similar German irregu-
'ars--on the contrary, indicates that
sis seeks authority to supplement
Irregular troops with regular ones.
N the presence of this situation
u'0yd George, on the ground thash
a0uia have Germany and Poland
'eated alike in fact, practically sug-
sesss that Germany should have su-
ssflor ~ rights. American public opin-
"a Will scarcely follow him in this.
" would have no favorites. and is
partieularly not impressed with the
g0iiey Of favoring Germany against
oand, our friend and ally.
. Let the salient fact be restated
mat Silesia is not German territory
- sly longer. It was detached from
j ,s'ssnaany by the peace treaty, and
4s supreme Council, which became
I, 10'see, isn't required to recognize
& & results of the recent plebiscite,
1a'ca was taken merely as a test TO
!salQe the Sllesian commission in
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
many railroad state commissions, is
not comnlets1y in oSra,4 a-..,, 49,,

many railroad state commissions, is
not completely in effect even now.
The government raised railroad
wages first and rates last. The de-
sire OF the carriers to shake off some
OF the excessive wage burden is due
to the fact that they have recently
not been able to pay their way, let
alone produce that fair return on
the value of their property which
Congress promised them. The per-
version of view which the question
to Mr.. Kruttschnitt disclosed results
from a far too general ignorance of
what happened to the railroads un-
der unintelligent government man
agement.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
LLOYD George and Poland

Lloyd Georges speech on Poland
marks a return to his old mood of
strong antagonism to the new Polish
state. It was his personal insist
epce at the Paris conference which
merruled the decision Of the Pol
ish boundary commission returning
Dantzig to Polish sovereignty. He
baked at giving Poland eastern Ga
lcia, and fought for plebiscite and
long delayed settlement in Upper
Sesia.
When the Russian Red armies
we're at the gates of Warsaw he was
exultant and contemplated with
satisfaction the surrender by Poland
of the territory she had claimed and
conquered on her eastern border. The
representative Of the League Of Ma
tons at Dantzig Ga British diplo-
mat) sat by and saw the forwarding
Of sorely needed munitions to Poland
halted, although such transit had
been guaranteed to the Poles.
Lloyd George is more responsible
than any other one man for the feel
ing in Poland that she has been de-
serted in a measure by the Western
Allies. He has always looked the
other way in discussing Polish cues
tons His latest utterance sanction
ing the German program, which
looks to the expulsion of the Kor-
sianry irregulars from the eastern
mrts Of the plebiscite district by
scans Of German invasion, is an
invitation to Germany to renew the
war. 1t is bid for discord with
France and with the other Allied
powers, which hold that Germany is
not concerned in the settlement Of
the Upper Silesian boundaries and
which do not intend to allow her to
marshal any new armies under Hin
-dehburg or Ludendorff to restore her
prestige in Central Europe under
The guise of helping the Allies to
enforce the Treaty Of Versailles.
Lloyd George has his pro-Ally
veeks-and other weeks. He al
most ceases to be pro-Ally when Po-
land is concerned. Against what
ether Allied country would he think
Of asking anything SO preposterous
IS German aid to enforce the treaty?
The United States doesn't want
70 mix into. European territorial con-
tqoversies. But it's moral support
due to those who protest against
The British Prime Ministers extraor-
dInary concession of German right
% take up arms again for an excur-
son beyond German borders, and
who demand that the Allies shall
settle the Upper Silesian question
among themselves.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
A Week of Verse
The Discoverer
(prosu Y'hs Ne,o Ren,b,;

(From The NesD Repubtiej Z
YOUTH is crying in the streets,
Crying to the crowds ne meets:
None has ever loved ss be. =
Flaned or won 80 gloriousIyi Z
None so laughed at prison bars,
Stormed the sun and spilled the starsi
Not gray soul of them knows
How heaven buds and grows! :
Youth is crying in the streets
To the quiet folk he meets.
NJ. F.. CROKER.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
The Thoughtful German

Shakespeare, like the modern Ger
man, has a more thoughtful tendency
than the modern Englishman with his
business mind. We are accustomed to
hear difficult trains of thought from
the stage, as Shakespeare expects his
hearers to do, while the present-day
Englishman expects only amusement
from the theater. Shakespearian free
dom and independence of thought ap-
peals to US more strongly than to the
Englishman, who, moreover, in his own
thought moves entirely along the paths
Of tradition and convention. We re-
joice that Shakespeare has an accessi-
bic eye for foreign nations, that he has
nothing of the STUPID presumption so
characteristic Of the modern English
man. Shakespeare's patriotism, too,
glowing as it shows itself on every
occasion, has nothing OF the aggressive.
woundng form of that Of the present
day Englishman. 1t is more a home
feeling (HeimatsgefuhD, just as in the
case of the German. There is no trace
to be found in Shakespeare of that re-
ligious narrowness and hypocrisy which
has made religion to the present-day
Englishman a social matter and one Of
external form, but such beautiful toll
Grafton that even to-day one is in doubt
as to his belief and rightly attributes
to him religious indifferentism.
The speaker says that over 500 spe-
cial works have already been published
on the subject of Shakespeare and
Germany. The quickest and clearest
way, he says, to show how Germany
has appropriated Shakespeare's works
is to look at the part played by Shakes
peare in German theatrical enterprise.
In 1870 there was an average of 438
Shakespeare performances. The num-
ber increased slowly up to the first
decade of this century. It then in
creased by sudden jumps, reaching
1858 performances in 1906. This meant
that about five Shakespeare plays were
performed every evening in Germany.
Even during the war Shakespeare was
much played, the number of perform
aaces in 1915 being 1,17s. In the first
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
Chairman s Song

(FToT PoetTyD
I'm glad have but a little heart
- For my heart is very small:
1t makes it free to come and GO.
And no one cares at ali.
give my heart for tender lock,
For gentle word or touch;
And the one whe has it never knows,
And it does not hurt ME much.
e
] may give my little heart unseen,
II is so small and light;
And only very wakeful things
Can hear it cry at night,
ALIAEg gSILAEsR.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
instruction
Fyom Poetry.

From PcetYy)
MY HANDS that guide q needle
In their turn are led
Relentlessly and deftly,
AS needle leads a thread.
Other hands are teaching 'AN.
MY needle; when sew
feel the cool, thin fingers
Of hands I do not know. u
They urge my needle onward,
They smooth my seams, until IL
The worry Of my stitches
Smothers in their skill.
All the tired women, :
Who sewed their lives sway,
Speak in my deft fingers
AS sew to-day.
HAZEL HALL
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

~. Associated Press IS exclusively entitled 10
a. 81, for republication Of all news dispatches
ss~s;tss 20 4. or nc. otherwise credited In this
-sT and also The local news of spontaneous
s,srsn Published herein.
III NIGHTS of repuhlicston of all other matter
sArsr also ara reserved.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
A Strikeless Union

from The Cincinnati Enquiyerj
The seamen along the coast may
strike, but have you ever noticed that
seamen on the old Ship Of State never
do.
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
GUARANTY

y,s ese purchase merchandise advertised In THE
,eeuNF sith absolute sastty--for " dissatlsfae.
~ ss.uiss In any case the TRIBUNE gueran-
~ ~ .s psy yeur money back unon fequtst. No red
-. - No suhblIna. We make coed promptly II
~ ~ .aye-ssssy does rot
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

Finally, Shakespeare stands nearer
to us also in the domain of feeling
than to the cold-hearted, reserved, mod
ern Englishman, whose main task in
education is to suppress every exhibi-
tion of temperament, even if only in
expression. Shakespeare let man give
full course TO his feelings and affec-
tions. He could still laugh and weep,
rejoice noisily, complain passionately,
tear his hair, and throw himself on
the ground from pain.
In ethics, again, Shakespeare shows
nothing of that inhexible .narrow-mind-
edness which presses like an inclbu,
upon present-day England Here, too,
Shakespeare la like the German ideal
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

We must certainly, says the speech,
grant one excuse to the English. The
linguistic garment in which we and the
English read Shakespeare is quite diff
ferent. Shakespeare approaches the
Englishman who reads him in the
original in the very antiquated and
therefore -to-be-understood Ian
guage of the sixteenth century.
Thanks to the Schlegel-Tieck trans
lation, we Germans read him in the
linguistic form, familiar to all, of our
own classics. In reading Shakespeare,
therefore, we have no linguistic diff
culties whatever to overcome, while
even the most highly educated English
man can only understand his Shake
speare with the help of dictionary
md rnp, ny,t
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

year Of the peace the number again
rapidly rose to 1,349, and last year the
gigantic number of 1922 performances
was attained.
The significance Of these figures,
says Professor Forster, will only be
quite clear to us if we turn our eyes
to England and other countries. In
England, where exact statistics of per-
formances are not available, Shakes
peare is scarcely played few hundred
times year. 1t is still worse in other
countries, such as France, Russia and
Italy, where Shakespeare only appears
quite occasionally on the stage.
Professor Forster goes on to ask:
How is this remarkable fact that
Shakespeare is more living factor of
Kultur among US than in his own faith
erland to be explained? His explana-
tion is, first, that Germany, with it's
high level of education, which, more
over, is Of specially literary-@sthetic
character, affords better soil for all
which the encouragement of matter
of-fact practical business sense is the
chief end Of all education.
For this reason it could only happen
in England that the scion of one of the
finest aristocratic families, Randolph
Churchill, having been called away
from performance Of "Hamlet' -
should ask the actor, whom he met on
the following day, how the piece really
ended. So little did he know of the
most famous piece of the most famous
English poet! 1t was, therefore, bit
ter, earnest mockery on the part OF
Bernard Shaw when in 1916 he advised
his fellow-countrymen preferably to
leave the 300th celebration Of Shakes
New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

..scrprprfoN RAIFS--fsy mail, including
! s..Ss n THE UNITED STATES
The Washington times., 1921-08-25
VALUED SECRET
Of VIOLIN BOW
Unprotected
Son of Famous Maker Guards
Recipe for Making Excep-
tionaI Product.

When James Tubbs, the great Eng
lish violin bow maker, died recently
his two sons vowed never to teach
the art learned from their father to
anybody except their sons-and there
are no sons to succeed either brother.
Secrets in making Of violin bows
have been handed down for three
generations In the Tubbs family. The
fact was made public at the death
recently of James TuDos In Wardour
street. Soho square, London. The old
bow maker Is described as "a man
ninety-eight years old with a dropping
white mustache and keen black eyes,
who made violin bows for the great
artists Of his time"
The only living relative of the old
London bowmaker is Edward Tubbs,
q New York bowmaker.
What do you think is the finest
type of bow ever nader" Mr.. Tubbs
was asked.
We'll. the Tatini, suppose-he was
a pupil of the great Kroelich. They
all make a fine fuss over Tourte. the
man who introduced in 1775 the long
bow, backward bent, in place of the
short curved one then used. / make
Tourte bows-you can tell them by
this shadow across the tip--but the
artist Viotti was the real inventor