Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-01
MARCOT ARRIVES

Mo ONE in tho Conference for the l.im-
~ tation of Armament, SO far as we have
been able TO learn, had anything to say
about the Menace of the International
Lecturer to the Cause Of World Peace and
no delegate appears to have been able TO
formulate any plan adequate to cope with
practice which still tends to firmly cstab-
lish q tendency toward homicidal mania
among the national characteristics Of other
wise wcll.mcaning peoples. So Mrs.
Margot AsGui,h. wife of the former Premier
of Britain, arrived like W. l.. George and
the rest of them, without interference. We
have reasons for feeling that it would be
better for US to withhold complaint. For
Nachcl Lindsay was lccturing not long ago
in England. il memory serves. and one
Nach"l may easily be as painful as ten
Margots.
Mrs. AsQuith, whose inpoltcness in
print gave her International fame. has come
10 lecture. She will not discuss British
politics or British labor or the social state
of England, The international lecturers
never talk II the things they know. And
there is on" strange thing to be said about
all Of them. whether they are Britishcrs
holding forth to the people of the United
States or Americans lccturing to the
British. They appear to know less about a
subject after they have studied it than they
knew when they knew nothing. So. at
least, it appears after a survey and analysis
of the things said and written in England.
and even on the Continent. by the literary
ladies and gentlemen who like 10 exploit on
the platform the transient fame that is
theirs as the writer's of books.
Ono may venture to guess at the cause OF
all this. The literary trottcr on either side
H.,
aspects of a hurriedl.' visited country. Mr..
Wells saw little of the United States but
ovcrcrowded and ovcr-lavish restaurants
and hotels. Margot Asquith will see Broad
way and Congress. She will see much Of
the hotels. and it would be like her to be-
licvc that the United States is land ,popu-
lated wholly by bcl-hops What is more.
she would be- ready enough to say as much
in book Of essays entitled. let us say. the
American Scene. Whatever book she writes
about Amerca-and she is sure 70 write
one. because they all do twill be unkind.
II Mrs. .Asquith couldn't be kind TO her
own friends she cannot be expected to be
kind 10 her distant cousins across the
water.
The literature Of misrepresentation which
grows out Of these lecture tours is con-
tnually expanding. \ very large reading
public in England visuaizcs the United
States as q place in which each days work
is riot Of high hated. whitc-vested men
for any dollar that happens to be brought
70 light and one in which the captains Of
industry wear two or three pounds Of dia-
monds on each hand. In n similar quarter
in the United States II is fashionable to
suppose that the English DO nothing but
drink in their pubs and scheme TO steal
other peoples trade and other peoples ter.
ritories.
1t will be interesting to listen to Margot
Asluth-att"r she returns 10 England.
Her book was said to have been dcvastat
ing. 1t was dcvastating--to the British
arStocratS' reputation for good taste. Like
all the other itinorant intcloctuals, Margot
will look at Upper broadway and the
House Of Representatives. and say. 80
this is America - Similarly our own
wanderers look at tho Paris boulcvards and
the Cafe Of tn" Cat Dead or Paul Poirct or
Clcmcnccau and say. so this is that heroic
France.
international conferences called IN the
future to seek out the causes for the per-
sietcnt dt>truSt and dislike which exist
among nations will surely put Il ban of
some sort Oh the international lecturer.
There will be established boundaries within
which each country will be compelled to
keep the takativc folk who do not know
what they are talking about.