The New York herald., 1922-09-24
By ARTHUR
BARTLETT MAURICE

thouSand-odd miles away the reader sees
the condemning words, but he does not
see the possible twinkle of the myopic
gray eyes behind the thick glasses or the
raising Of the shaggy thatch eyebrow.
Many years ago Mr.. Jesse Lynch Will
Jams. then reporter on the New York
Sun, wrote an exceedingly ingenious
story called "The Great Secretary of State
Interview" The cub reporter, who was
the inevitable hero of newspaper story
of that period, failed to see the smile or
understand the intonation which accom-
panied the great mans words: "The Ad-
ministration would give Mr.. So and So
the strongest support it possibly could
give" The experienced reporters recog-
nized the significance of the smile and
the emphasis upon the word could" and
their wisdom brought downfall.
p UT II IL with the purely literary as
- pect OF the Kipling controversy that
THE New YORK HERALD book section is
principally concerned. What Mr.. Kipline
may have said with qualifications uttered
or implied in talk that he regarded as
confidential is one thing. What has gone
forth to the world in his books is another
The printed page is fair target for at
tack. Mr.. Kipling, from the day in the
late eighteen eighties when he dis
covered San Francisco has raped us Joy
ously and frequently. The real American
of patriotic impulses, ,the kind who be-
lieves that when travelling in Europe pa
triotism to the flag is best expressed not
by blatant aggressiveness but by quiet
courtesy to. and consideration for, others,
by conforming to the customs of the coun-
try visited, and by adopting Mark Tap
leyan spirit, likes him not one whit the
less for It, That~kind of American recog-
nizes the cynic humor that has inspired
the rapping, and does not look behind for
motives of envy or hate that are not
there. Also he knows in his heart of
hearts that If the day ever comes that
sees the republic in dire peril, with the
waking of "the drumming guns that
have no doubts"-no voice is likely to
ring so loudly in championship of all that
is fine and sound in America as the voice
of Rudyard Kipling.
1.-TWO months ago there was published
= IN the book section an article enti-
tied "The United States of Rudyard Kip
ling" which attempted to show the vari-
Gus parts of the country which had been
used as backgrounds for Kipling stories.
A reader of the section, residing in Chi
cago, wrote, rather high -handedly it
seemed, condemning the article as one
exceedingly discourteous to Mr.. Kipling.
Certainly no discourtesy was intended.
and no one except the writer of the letter
seems to have found any such discour-
tesy. The writer considered particularly
Objectionable paragraph which pictured
the young Kipling of twenty-five or twen-
ty-three, carrying a grudge based upon
his dislike for the then inadequate copy
right laws into all his Investigations of
San Francisco. That statement our cor
respondent called something like "libel-
Ouoiy inaccurate. buI take hlpllES
own words: "This may sound blood
thirsty, but, remember, l had a grievance
upon me-the grievance of the pirated
English books" And again. "Oliver
Wendell Holmes says that the Yankee
schoolmarm, the cider and the salt cod
fish of the Eastern States are responsible
for what he calls nasal accent. know
better. They stole books from across
the water without paying for ,em and the