I70

The Nation

[Vol. 96, No. 2486

of a
T H E COILS OF E X T R A T A G A N C E . and everybody. It is Just the result of a rigidcontrol is kept in the hands
responsible
Ministry.
The
Chancellor
huge scramble, favors being widely and
There is somethingalmostIaughable
of theExchequer
can makehis ~estiin the pained astonishment now prevail- unblushingly distributed for the purpose
without
fear
of having
them
of gettingvotes
f o r themeasure.
No mates
ing at Washingtoninthematter
of
a log-rolling comRepresentativewith a piece of pork knockedsky-highby
swollenappropriationbills.Everybody
safely in the barrel will object to its
be- bination in the House of Commons. In
is alarmed at the rising tide of extravaaddition to a national budget, we must
ingshovedalong.Thebillwasdrawn
gance,yeteverybody 1s helpless.Presicomnotonly w~thouttheauthority of the acquire somehow ,the authority
7
dent Taft is still busy on his plans for most influential Democrats of ,the House, pel living up to the budget, i f we a r e effectively t o make head against extravasomething like a national budget, but he butagainsttheirwishesand,indeed,
has no power t o cutdownGovernment
igance at Washington. At present, as we
theirprotests.CongressmanFitzgerald,
,can all see, there is onlythefeeblest
spending,exceptbyvetoingentire
ap- of theAppropriationsCommittee,who
,control.
Control
would
involve,
of
propriation bills-and
t h a t is no real is opposed t o t h e wholeplan,spurned
,
course,
sound
judgment.
In
the
Public
remedy.TheChairman
of theApprothe offer of an item of $300,000 for
for example.
priations
committee
in
the House Brooklyn,whichwasmade
as an in- Buildingsbillthereare,
Some appropriationsthatarenotonly
raiseshis
volce inemphaticwarning
ducement tohimto
acquiesce,orat
againsttherate
of expenditurewhich
leastkeepsilence.Butothers
in both lust~bedbut needed.Whatintelligent
Congress is authorizing, but all that he parties
were
caught
wholesale
by 1control would do would be t o allow these
items,butremorselesslytoexcise
all
candoistoprotest.Hecannotstop
sprinklingthroughthebillalmostin;
thewaste.Thecentralizedcontrol
of numerable appropriations of from $100,- 1those thrown in simply as makeweights,
appropriation bills with which the
Ap- I000 downto $5,000, eachonebeing
in- Ior tacit bribes, in order to get the bill
of that
propriations
Committee
was
vested
tended as theJustification of t h e Con- 1passed. Till wegetsomething
erapowYears
ago,
has graduallybeentaken
f o r voting sort, or untilthePresidentbe
igressman to his constituents
away from it. There are now some ten
or a measure whxh, as a whole, is in- 1ered, as theGovernor of New Yorkis,
1to veto separate items in anappropriaor twelve committees each authorized t o 1defensible. Theentirebill,considered
frame and report its own appropriation in itself and in the circumstances of its tion bill, we need not expect t o free ourof exbill. Andthisscatteredauthorityhas
1being pressed upon the House, is one of Mves successfully from the coils
which
are
now
crushing
meantsquanderedpublicmoney.The
the most glaring illustrations ever given travagance,
leader of the majority in the House, Mr. the country of the evils of our happy-go- Congress as theserpentsdidLaocoon
znd his sons,
Underwood, hasbeenappealedto,and
lucky methods of public finance.
his ,attitude in thematteriswhat
It
Themischief,
in theproportionsto
ought to be, but he can do little except which it has grown, is notonetobe
to pass on the appeal to his party fol- Imred by a budget system, pure and sim- T H E BULL N O O S E A N D T H E C O U R T 8
lowers. Neitherhe
nor anybodyelse
Mr. Roosevelt has spoken and writken
a greathelp,
no
ple. That wouldbe
h a st h e power t o comedownwith
a 1doubt, and ought to be urged and tried. 1Dn thejudiciary,timeswithoutnumblunt:
shall not have this money. But it could not g o t o the root of the 1ber; but never, we believe, has he made
How much good it does merely t o beg 1evil. Afteryouhadframed
your bud- %n utterance so illummative as to the
a popular assembly, with the unrestrict- iget as carefully as expertknowledge
Icondition of his own mind, or so instruced power of the purse, to be economical, 1could make it, howcouldyoubesure
1tive as tothetrue
significance of his
maybe
Been inthePublicBuildings
thatCongresswouldbeboundby
it? %gitation, as was contained in his Linbill, which was introduced in the House What guaranteecould
you have that I:ohDayspeech.Hismaintextwas
on Saturday. Bear in mind the circum1the Idaho decision exclfiding the
Rooselog-rolling
measures,
like
the
Public
stances.Thesession
is drawingto a Buildingsbill,wouldnot
from
the
official ballot.
at a n y mo- velt electors
close with the Democratic leaders
in a mentgainsufficientheadwayto
however
unfortuburst That this decision,
state of greatapprehensionoverthe
through all your labored plans of econ- 1nate, was simply the inevitable ,intermountmg
appropriations.
Pledged
t o Iomy? It is one thing to lead Congress1pretation of the law of the State, seems
economy, they see the bills piling higher men up t o a budget,butanotherto
ito us clear. We have recently set forth
andhigher.Thesolemnwarninghas
the actual facts of t h e case, which seem
makethemdrink
it. It is ndtoqlya
beenissuedthat,unlessthereisthe
I
to
us plainly t o showthat Mr. Roose1more
painstaking
and
quasi-scientific
sharpestpossiblecuttingdown
of t h e apportioning of Government
velts charges were based on ignorance.
expendiremaining bills, theappropriations
of turesthat
is needed, b u t a power 0 :e Butlet us waive that. Let us grant
thissessionwill
exceed those of the control,lodgedsomewhere,thatshal
1 t h a t Mr. Roosevelthasreasonto
belast by $100,000,000, andequal , i f not see to it that the thing proposed is car lieve otherwise. Let it be supposed, far
surpass the high-water mark of Repub- ried out, and that t h e official plans arc the sake of the argument, thatthe Idaho
lican
extravagance.
Now, this is the not
l Supreme Court rendered a decision that
trampled
upon
by
Congressiona
time-the
critical time-chosen
for raiders.
wasnotinaccordwith
a trueinterbringingforward
a bilI whichwould
We know how the
diffioulty has beerL pretation of t h e law.Andthenlet-us
appropriate in one lump more than $25,- met in British finance. All money
of
bill:3 ask ourselves what is to be thought
000,000 for publicbuildings in various are
reserved
for
the
Government.
A the state of mind of a m a n who, at the
celebration of the birthday of Lincoln,
parts of the country.
privatemembercannotevenintroducc
Who is responsible f o r t h i s ? Nobody a billtospendpublicfunds.Thus
z can speak in this way:

Feb.

20,

1g!3]

At this moment there has

Idaho a decision by the highest
which, within its ovvn limits,
graver offence against justice

The

Nation

occurred ir L for those who do not there is no needI Mr. Roosevelt himself has just
State couri of argument.
We merely remark that Does he try to show that the
is an ever I
the law?
when
Mr;
Roosevelt
first came out wit1 L judges misinterpreted
,
and decency

and an even greater blot on the America1 1 his own particular

nostrum of the re,
judiciary
than the Dred Scott decision itcall
of
decisions,
he
laid
great stress on1
self. . . . This decision I hold to have
been an outrage upon the people of Idaho the difference between that and the re,
and not merely upon them but upon the call of judges, and warned his hearer8
people of all the United States, for any in.
terference with the right of an America11 that the wicked press would be aceus,
in any State to cast his vote and to have -ilt ing him of having advocated the recal:
counted for the President of his choice ir3 of judges, when all that he proposed
an offence against the Americans of all th<
was the reversal, by popular vote, oi
States.
judicial decisions in a strictly limited L
The Dred Scott decision was one 0;e
class of Constitutional cases.
the memorable events of our nationa: 1
On the recall of decisions, Mr. Roose,
history-it
may even be said, of tha
velt offers nothing specially new, unlesr 3
worlds history.
Whatever may have?
it be when he says: I care not wheth
been its legal merits, whether it was>
er you call this action of theirs [the
right or wrong from the standpoint ojI
peoples] construing the Constitution 01
professional interpretation
of the Con
His critics
making the Constitution.
stitution,
it * embodied the clash oif
have always known that he did no1
mighty political elements, it brought tc)
care, and they have always assertedthal t
a focus the light and heat that had beer 1
making-or
unmaking-the
Constitu
beating upon the tremendous question 1
tion is precisely what this recall of de
of slavery and of States rights for sL
cisions would amount to. But Mr
generation. When Lincoln denounced i t
Roosevelt absolutely
ignores the fad
-even denounced it as a conspiracythat, so far as State Constitutions arc
he was grappling with great forces thal t
concerned-and
that is what he pro
everybody knew were at work, forcer 3
fesses to be talking about-there
is ar 1
that soon after came into collision in i L
easy way to do this already in exist
stupendous trial by blood and fire. Tc1
ence. He may or may not be awarf :
mention in the same breath with it thf :
that there is pending in his own State
act of a court on a technical point 01e
at the present moment a Constitutiona: 1
election
procedure,
a point not bount 1
amendment which would give the Legis
up with any general principle, a poini t
lature full and unrestricted
power tc
not paralleled anywhere else except ir 1
act as it thought best in the whole clasn
California, where a similar decision w&6i
of questions to which his recall of de
made by the courts, but made in Mr
,:isions is intended to apply. The amendRoosevelts favor-to
place this isolated
1ment has been adopted by one Legislajudgment
in juxtaposition
with the
1ture;
if the present Legislature
takes
Dred Scott decision and base upon it an
1like action, it can be made part of the
appeal to national indignation and POP- G
State Constitution this coming Novemular passion, is the act of a man either
1ber. To do so may be more radical as
filled with <aanegotism hardly to be dis1;o the immediate matter in hand than it
tinguished from insanity, or so reckless
would be to recall the Ives decision
as to be willing,
in the gursuit
of his
,If the Court of Appeals, or any similar
ambition, deliberately to play the Part
,Secision or decisions; but it would be
of a contemptible demagogue.
,loing the thing as it should be done,
And what is Mr. Roosevelts remedy ,lecently and in order.
for this appalling outrage that he sees _ The very thing that attracts the
in the Idaho decision-this
audacity Of 1Rooseveltian
mind
about recall
of
the judges in reading the law otherwise judges and recall, of decisions is that
than as he would have them read it?
1;hey do things not decently and in orThey do
A case like that in Idaho shows the need ,ler, but by noise and tumult.
of the power of popular recall of the juiithe task of curbing the
1not go about
ciary, a need which I believe could prob- ,:ourts through the setting of narrower
ably be best met by having the judges appointed or elected for life, but subject on 1sounds to their powers; they strike at
petition to recall by popular vote every 1hhe very heart of the idea of. the juditwo years.
And no enemy of these
,:ial function.
Upon this we do not propose to com- 1proposals has ever given so convincing
ment; with those who like that&kind (41 z presentation of the dangers to which
judiciary it is unprofitable to argue, and !:hkse proposals would open the door as

made.
Idaho

Does
he try to show t\hat they were personally corrupt? Does he try to show that
they acted under the pressure of outside
political influences? None of all this.
He simply denounces their act as having had consequences that were evil.
Whether that was the fault of the law
or the fault of the judges he makes no
pretence of examining.
If an ex-President, the head of a great party, can
make such an appeal at a time of tranquillity, what is to be expected of the
common demagogue, and what is to be
expected of the general mass of the people, in a time of extraordinary
excitement?

FRENCH

PROf3PECTfl.

The news from France, in this first

week of M. Poincares Presidency, continues to emphasize the tone of optimism and universal good will which was
struck after the election of a month ago.
The republic is looking forward to an
era of good feeling. The new President
and his Prime Minister, M. Briand, are
regarded as the two men best fitted to
raise the business of government from
the slough of factional politics to the
level of true nationalism.
It was M.
Briand who some three years ago announced that the time had come for a
The feuds and
.Ipolicy of appeasement,
1:ancors*that had sprung from the Drey- 4
iius affair were to be swept away. The
1iatreds engendered by the conflict beI:ween the state and the church were no
1.onger to be inflamed artificially
for po1.itical pmrposes. In other words, par1;ies and persons standing outside the
(lominant alliance of Radicals and So(zialists were no longer to be regarded
its under suspicion. A formula-and
itormulas are still dear to the Gallic
1nind-could
be found broad enough to
j include all Frenchmen.
That is very
i nuch the burden of the news to-day, but
must be taken with a certain
j it plainly
tmount of reserve.
The journals
of
weight and standing in France whose
views are apt to shape the reports sent
mt by foreign correspondents have as a
yule been in opposition to the parties in
!ower. They would naturally be inclinId to welcome any new regime as a bet;er regime. But even allowing for such
lias, there is no denying the fact that

The Nation

1.72

Poincarehasassumed
office at a thereduction of France to a meredemoment when an exceptionaliy healthy pendencyuponGermany.
It was marked by more than one Severe crisis; more
and confident tone animates the French
nation.
than once the question of war or Peace
The
internal
condition
of France hung in t h e balance. The contest began
with a humillation of France,backin
shows a notableadvancetowardspaci190% when the German Emperor forced
fication. The labor unrest which found
its most vigorous expression> in the ac- the retirement of M. Delcasse from the
tivities of the General Confederation of Mlnlstry of I k - e l g n Affairs. But in t h e
Labor, with its blend
of socialistic and course of the struggle the FrenchPeople
anarchisticpolicies,seemstohave
at- found themselves. The unofficial alliance
with Great Britain was one
of the factained its climax in the great railway
strike of theautumn of 1910. It was tors which enabled France to stand up
M. Briands masterful bandling of t h a t to German pressure. But simultaneously
crisis that madehimthelogical
ex- there has been a strengthening of t h e
ago those
pounder of a policy of appeasement. His popularmorale.Tenyears
past affiliations were with Socialism and who beIieved in the republic were afraid
Anarchism, but responsibility found him of thearmy,andthearmyitselfwas
rent apart by the animosities springing
preparedtodefendtheexistingorder
with as much vigor as the most moder- out of theDreyfusaEair.To-day,the
spirit of appeasementpervadesthe
a t e of citizenscoulddemand.Theacarmy,andthecountry
is no longer
tivity of therevolutionaryConfederahas
tion of Labor has wanedsince
that afraid of its troops. Gustave Hem6
had to take that fact somewhat into acdate.Thefirmpolicyadoptedbythe
Cabinet
towards
revolutionary
the
This same spirit of healthy confidence
unions of schoolmasterslastyearwas
is manifested in t h e 11teratUre Of t h e
anotherinstance
of a growingdetermination on t h e part of the Government day. Paris willneverbewithouther
anarchists in lettersandart,butthe
not to submit
to
intimidation.
The
slcklydecadentismsandepicureanisms
strikes and demonstrations which were
an annual feature of life in Paris have of a dozen Years ago have lost much of
of latefallenintoabeyance.
It is t r u e thelr vogue. Maurice Barrls is the most
that revolutionary Syndicalism is still a notable example of those who are turndilettantisms Of various kinds
livequestion of t h e day, b u t it is t h e ing
theories of Syndicalism that arebeing to the gospel of duty. The simple ideals
France,
mosthotlydiscussed.France
has had of theprovincialliterature
n o labor disturbance during thelast two as expounded by R e d Bazin and Henry
Bordeaux, are making their impress on
years that can compare with the crises
metropolis.
which Great Britain has passed through, theliterature of t h e
or evenwiththestrikescarried
o n i n The cult of the land and of the dead,
which isbut a literarynamefor
this counhy under the picturesque austriotism,hasgrown
in literature. U n pices of the I. W. W.
doubtedly
under
the
influence
Of t h e
It is a significant fact that even Gustave HervB, theexponent
of anti-mili- longstruggleagainstGermany.Altogether, it 1s notsurprising that there
tarismandanti-patriotism,whoonce
arethosewhospeak
of Presentcondiupon a timecalleduponthearmyrecruits to throw the flag
of the republic tlons in France as almost a national
upon the dunghill, has seen
fit to mod- renaissance.
M.

eratehis views. Herv6hasbeen

compelledtotakeintoaccountthechange
t h a th a s come overthespirit
of t h e
French
nation
during
the
half-dozen
years that followedtheappearance
of
the
Moroccan
question.
That has, of
course, been more or less a formal Issue
over which France and Germany engaged i n a bitterduelthatonlyrecently
came t o an end with the establishment
of a French protectorate over Morocco.
It was a struggle
which,
from
the
French point of view, had for its object
1

JUST BILLS.
Thirty-eight of theforty-eightState
Legislaturesare
in session,andtwo
more will meet before the year
is half
gone. Out of two score deliberative bodieswhatwisdommaynot
come! Yet
there are indications now and then that
all that 1s legislative is not wise. A
WisconsinStateSenator,
for instance,
has introduced a bill to abolish the
niorpromandotherclassdances
of

[Vol. 96, No. 2486

the
University
of Wisconsin. If any
member of theConnectlcutLegislature
were so bold astointroduce
a bill of
this sort, it 1s not hard to imaglne what
winged words would beat upon his ears
from New Haven.Butthe
Wisconsin
Senator has his reasons. A hearing OIL
a bill toabollshfraternitiesbrought
forthtestimony of lavishexpenditures
by students for social diversion.
When.
university students tend
to impoverish
their parents by supporting an eighteenhundred-dollar
dance,
exclaimed
the
Senator,subsequently,it
1s high time
the people of a democratic State should.
be informed of what 1s going o n at their
State-endoweduniversity.Arizona,
on,
the other hand, does not seem concerned
over what may be going on in t h i s l i n e
at Tucson, but is greatly disturbed over
a proposal to put the union label o n all
legislativestationery.TheHouse,after
a heateddebate,defeatedthemotion,
but in theSenate all stationery
bear the label of the union. count.
One of the oddest bills that have confronted the Legislature of North Carelina this yearwouldmakeIllegal
the
keeping of honey-bees withinone h u dred yards of t h e public roads in PenderCounty.Therewasmuchapplause,
I t is reported, when
this bill was r a &
finalpassage.OneInquisitiveSenator wanted to know how
bees could be
kept from the road. A colleague explained thatruralmail-carriers
in Pender
weregreatlytroubledbycertain.
bee- .
stands located near the mail-boxes.
othermovedtoamendthebillby
extending its provisions to wasps, bumblbees, and yellow-Jackets. A third d e
clored that hewouldnotvotefor
the
bill until he was sure that it would not
work injury to some humble citizen
of
Pender County with a smalltract
of
IGnd who might not be able to locate hi5
bee-stands as far as one hundred yardsfrom the road.Finally
it mas discovered that the introducer of the measure
was absent, and so it wentover.
serious is freakish tampering with the
fundamental law of a StateThe
Constitution of SouthDakota is hardly a
quarter of a century old, and it has been
materially amended, yet a constitutional
conventionisabouttobecalled
t o revise it. Will t h a t convention repeat the
mistake,commonto
so many of O w State Constitutions, of putting into that
instrument matters of detail that belong.
to statuies and not to Constitutions,and.

Feb.

20,

173

19131

thusperpetuatethenecessity
of frequent changes?
T h e flood of freak bills is confined t o
no section of t h e country. In Pennsylinvania, bills by the score have been
troduced in both Senate and House
at
Harrisburg.Some
of themareimportant. Most of themare not-are
Just
bills. The same complaint comes from
Callfornla, a trifle more bitingly expressed, theheadlinesbeing:Clean
Gone
Crazy. The State Capitol at Sacramento
Has Become a LunaticAsylum.The
text is in the same tone:
The character of our Legislature as an
organized body will not be known untll its
final adJournment, but that it contains a
large number of members whose mental
balance is so completely lost thattheir
proper place IS a sanatorlumis
evldent
from the great number of freak bllls introduced. . . . Some anarchlst wishes t o
abolish the
militla.
A near-anarchist
would abolish the Leglslature and substltute a single house. It is said that more
thanforty constitutional amendments have
been Introduced, and that the prospect 16
that s o many of them wlll pass that it wlll
be necessary to call a special electlon t a
vote on them.
One newspaper attempts t o set forth t h e
philosophy of suchproceedings.The
tendency of all legislative bodies, it rea mass of new
marks,istoturnout
laws. The consolation is that very few
freak proposals reach the Governor.
in any consid.
What gives one pause
eration of this situation is that bllls re.
flect thementality
of theirsponsors.
is
Like bill, like legislator-and, what
of more consequence, like legislator,l i k e
constituent.Yet
it mustbe
conceded
that the latter has fought valiantly tC
freehimself of thestigmaimplied
in
thiscomparisonbytryingone
device
oj
after another to improve the quality
hislegislator.He
has prohibited the
Leglslature from meeting annually, and
limited it to biennial, and, in
case
ses
t h a t of Alabama,toquadrennial,
slons. He has imposed the further Iim
itatlon of 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 75, or 9(
days in two-thirds of theStates
UP01
the duratlon of the session He
has be
gun to
establish
legislative
referencf
bureaus t o tell the legislators how tosay
what they mean, and in some States he
is div~dlngthesessionintotwoParts.
t h e recess being supposed to furnish OP.
portunity f o r reflecting upon what t o do
has been P r o
with the legislation that
posed.
All
of these
devices,
however,
have not stopped the deluge of bills, or
centred debate upon the more important
measures. Here is the real obJection t o

reakorunnecessaryproposals.They
hvert the attention
of thelawmakers
irom the essentialtotheunessential,
a misconception
mdthusbringabout
a
If- what legislators are for. We need
;raining-schoolforlawmakers in order
:o enable them to see the difference be;-ween a well-consideredprogramme of
laws and Just bills.

pense of realemotionalwarmth
imagmation.Thedriftis,indeed,
wards a purelyintellectualexercise

and
to-

of

thefancy,basedrather
upon concepts
than upon
intuitive
perceptions.
It
was Miss Ellen Terry who said she had
never heard so much talk about beauty,
Dr seen s o little evidence of its sensuous
apprecmtion, as among h e r i c a n college women.Thesamemight
be said
of American verse, which impresses the
POETRY T O O SERIOUSLY reader n o less by its coldness than by
In view of all that is beingdoneto
its intricate
subtleties
of form.
Nor
?ncourage the poetic art i n America, it has subJect-matter much t o do with this.
:an scarcely be said t h a t w e f a i l t o t a k e The young poets who to-day rebel most
poetryseriously. Is it notpossible,on
in
against what they call Puritanlsm
thecontrary, that wetake it too s e n - American art, and seek to introduce
a
susly, and that this attitude, having its note of passion, assume precisely the
effect upon the poets themselves,
1s re- sameattitude in essayingtocelebrate
sponsiblefor a certain sense of strain, its glowingmysteries;andinattemptz certain absence of simplicity and nat- ingtoexaltthese,theyimportinto
outworn
conceptions
of allureuralness, in theirexpression?What
is them
demanded of them, at present, is not ment and of sin i nt h em a n n e r
of
and
Baudelaire
or
Oscar
a Swlnburne
merelypoetry,butgreat
poetry-as
an exnation we will not be satisfied with less Wilde. It is,afterall,merely
The
mood
is t h e
it, o w change of models.
and In their efforts to supply
as far as before
poets r u n t h e r i s k of confusing artistic same, and we are just
rom real poetry-that is, poetry that is
greatnesswithFora1ser,iousnessand
spiritual elevation. It makes n o dlffer- an intlmate personal record of thought
encewhatthesubjectmay
be. Any- and emotion.
thing from a love lyric to an elegy on
It is n o t newthemes that we need,
ehe death of an airman must be treated buttheknowledge
that theprovince
in the same manner, must be subjected of poetrymarchesupontkpt
of prose.
tothesamesublimation
of styleand
that the material for the one as for the
sentiment, s o a s t o loseeverytrace
of other lies close at hand,. ready for use,
the common dr familiar and t o become and
that
the surest
way
to
attain
case in point is heights in either is t o pay strict attenideal. Anexcellent
affordedby a poemwhichappeared
in tion to t h h and naturalness of eupresa popular magazine on the death of t h e slon. The taste for sublimities tends
to
aviatorMoisant.Theysay
that maga- d r y up the sources of the simple, tender,
zmes do not publish great poetry
now- purely human sentiment that finds
utadays, remarked
the
edltor.
Why,
terance,forexample,
in the verse of
Shelley himself would have been proud
some of the younger French poets of tothat poem if hewere day who at once in their ease and thelr
tohavewritten
alive to-day! AnditwasIndeed
in eleganceafford
a distinctrelieffrom
t h e Xhelleyan manner, thls poem; s o ourown
lyrists. Thelatter,likeour
much so, indeed,thattheeffectwas
athletes,
seem
often
over-trained.
reallyludirrous;
as i f what the poet TheseFrenchversifiershavealso
that
hadstrlvenafterhadbeen
a parody sense of humor which we so irritably
ratherthantheslncereexpression
of arrogate to ourselves
a national exthepathosinvolved
in theuntoward
it doesnotsafeguard
cellence,though
us againsttakingourselvesveryseri.vent commemorated
in nearlyeverything
me
NOW, ldeallty is admittedly the high- ouslylnaeed
est attribute of great art. B u t t h e con- attempt.
so t o appear,
We
strlve
at home in
stant effort to ideallze life by spiritualiz- whiletheyfeelabsolutely
ing emotlon and sentiment, as Part
of a theirmedium
of expression,daringto
dellberate poetic and rhetorical Process. say so much in versethatweshould
it might be
Droduces a sense of effort and unreality. shrink from for fear that
bad manners or beneath
our dignity.
Much of ourcontemporaryAmerican
No incidentwhichpleasesoramuses
s o r t of forcedideal.
verseshowsthis
andattainselevation
only- at t h e ex- them, no fancywhichexcitesorgrati-

174

T h e Nation

fies them, is unworthy to be turned into

easy, flexible, and dexterous verse-yet
verse admirable in warmth and tenderness of sentiment-to which they bring
a closeness of observatipn, a realistic
coloring of description, a cleverness of
witty invention, productive of charming
surprises, from stanza t o stanza, that we
seldom, encounter
in
our
own versiEers.
It seems plain that the great poetry
forwhich
we are so desirous to-day,
and which must first of all be natural
and sincere, might be more surely attained in the course of time if we mere
t o relaxsomewhatfrom
our strained
and tense attitude in courting the Muse.
Weshould make of poetry one of the
gracesratherthan
one of the severe
duties of theintellectual Me. And we
should, in the meantime, be accumulatinganadmirable
body of well-turned
minor verse, without due appreciation
of which, according to the degree of its
merits, we mayfail
t o recognize the
great manifestation when it does finally
arrive.

THE

ESHIBI-

The -4ssociation of American PaintersandSculptorshas

deserved well of
the city In exhibiting, along witha
somewhat limited selection of recent
American work, a comprehensive series
of the
earlier
revolutionary
painters
with an adequate representation of the
verylatestanti-realistic
schools. Thus
materials f o r a public verdict on PostImpressionism, Cubism, andFuturism
are generously offered. Theexhibition
will run longenoughfor
readlustment
t o these novel tspes of invention;the
battle of the critics may be fought withm eye-shot of the hostile lines, and the
discriminatingminority
of the public,
theultimateJudgeinthesematters,
may take its position for OY against the
new movements. Obviously, i f sculpture
andpaintingare
t o be utterly revolutionized along anti-naturalistic lines, as
certain critics confidently predict, why,
the sooner the turn-over is made the better.If,
on thecontrary, as we believe,
these new tendencies are mainly the insignificant seething of crude and undisciplinedpersonalities,
the sooner thls
factis perceived thebetter.
In either
event, good mustresultfrombringing
the new art out of the incense of clique

and special pleadingintothelight

of
every day.
Aside from this special aspect of t h e
show, President Davies and his associ.
ateshave provided pleasure of a noncontentious sort by assembling works of
highly individual flavor which escape
the categories of movements and
schools. Few New ,Yorkers have had
the chance of enjoying the rich fantasy
of Redon, of estimating the morbid power of Van Gogh, the barbaric intensity
of Gauguin, thestalwartconstructions
of Cbzanne. It is interestingalsoto
have the chance t o view the painting of
that pride of otherwise despairing British art, Augustus John. In the foreign
exhibits the Association has handsomely lived
t o its programme of Internationalism, Internationalism being, of
course, defined as a technical and revolutionary word.
Not the least valuable feature
of the
exhibition is theclose Juxtaposition with
the newest work of paintings of the socalled Impressionistic schools-Manet,
Monet, Renoir. All thope revolutionists
of thirty years ago now assume the sedate aspects of classics. Ingres,
his
rival Delacroix, and
their
successor
Degas harmonize o n the wall, with an
old-masterlyassurance.
Thefactthat
these leaders of a couple of generations
%go now plainly fall into the general
tradition of greatpainting, emphasizes
the reality of the revolution on foot.
The romantic Delacroix belongs with
the classic Ingres: it is safe t o say that
Picabia and Watissenever will belong
with either. Art is
at the brink either
of genuine revolution, or, as we believe,
3t a monstrous aberration. Either
way,
something like a new thinghas
been
round under the sun, even if the newness turn out to derive from such venersblesources
a s excessive boredom, ignorant self-assertiveness, o r over-ingenious pursuit of novelty andnotoriety. If the newest artisreally
t o be
the a r t of thefuture,plainly
must become a new creature-

Ban,
a

master

a new man.

Waiving these ulterior issues, the exhibition sets an excellent example of efEcient organization
and
accomplishment. F o r years the National Academy
has been grieving for want of a building i n which largeandstately
shows
may be giver. But t h i s new Association

[Vol. 96, No. 2486

proves thatthe way to giveshows is
t o want t o give them badlyenough ta
take
the
necessary
trouble.
Nothing
could be more satisfactoryfrom every
point of view thantheinstalla.tion
of
the present exhibition.
the Academy
can give a large and fine exhibition under its competitive system, to give it i s
merely a question of rearranging, on a
that could be repeafed year by
year. any large, well-lighted hall. The
financial support implied in such a step
should readily be forthcoming, T h e
Academy should take
what is virtually a challenge of the revolutionaries.
The way t o combat the extravagances o f
theinnovatorsisnot
club-corner ridicule, but to show picturesandstatues.
that make out aconvincing case
sane
traditional ideals. The way toget
a.
splendid buildingfor Academy exhibitions is to give shows that plainly call
for fine housing.
I f the shade of Dr. Johnson could step
intothepresent
exhibition, one can
imagine it emitting a spectral
that would blow at least half the exhibits irrevocably through the skylight,
And if this robust sprite were suddenly
told that the official a r t of the nation
was being
shown
in cupboards and
crannies because nobody would build a n
a r t palace, it would be not the Post-Impressionists, but the conservators of our
nationalartistictradition
who would
hear the5 impressive utterance-Fiddlestick!

SIDNEYS ARGADIA.
Thedeath
of SirPhilipSidneyin
his thirty-secondyear. a few weeks atter the wound received a t Zutphen, was
only the culminating tragedy of several
which it is difficult not t o readinto
his life. Thehighesttype
of English
gentleman though he was, with a quick-.
ening influence upon many sides of activity, mourned by a whole nation when.
he died, he leaves those who have studied thebright
promise of hisyouth
grievouslydisappointed
that some of
his best talents were somehow almost.
smothered. This is bound to be the feeling with reference especially to his literary career. He wasfitted by native
ability and by education to be much
more than a patron of letters. And it is
true that his name
is usually included
among the great writers of his remarkable day. Yetafter
dueallowance
is
made for a few sonnets, which have an
independentbeauty,
his reputationin
literatureis too much entangledwith
passing fashions of the age not t o sur-.