THE "DIAL'S" OUTLOOK ON LITERATURE THAT Mr. Francis F. Browne has been editor of the Dial since its first number appeared in admirable literary journal, the to claim for even the best of them a parity of Dial, of Chicago, which has just importance with the best of those Victorian rounded three decades of continuous publi- authors whose deaths have been chronicled cation under the same editorial auspices, gives since 1880. If " politics and private avarice frank expression in its issue of April 1 to cer- were evil influences in Emerson's day, they are tain rather somber reflections on "The quite as pervasive now, in the Dial's opinion. Bankruptcy of Literature." The Dial maintains that "if bankruptcy be a failure to meet just obligations, there is a good deal to be said for the view that modern literature is dangerously close to the insolvent state." Many of our modern writers, in the Dial's opinion, are frantically striving for an extension of credit. "To achieve novelty at whatever cost is the sum of their ambition, for thus alone is their poverty-stricken estate to be for a time concealed. If they can make themselves sufficiently startling, they may hope to seem impressive. Prof. Barrett Wendell, of Harvard, has declared the Dial to be "the most unbiased and sensible organ of American criticism." Its judgments are almost invariably sane and wellconsidered. Its warnings, therefore, are not to be lightly dismissed as the utterances of the chronic pessimist. The Dial itself in the thirty years of its existence has done much to encourage sound and wholesome literature in this country, and it is not because it believes the present situation hopeless that it seeks MR. FRANCIS F. BROWNE, EDITOR OF THE "DIAL" to expose the demoralizing tendencies of the time, but rather in pursuit of its mission to speak frankly at all times and to be honest with its readers. It is this candid, outspoken comment on literary conditions that has made the Dial so useful and respected as an organ of criticism in the past. It is a thankless office, perhaps, but one that cannot well be dispensed with. While the Dial welcomes new writers, it is not prepared May, 1880. For twelve years he issued the periodical as a monthly, but for the past eighteen years it has been a fortnightly. The Dial has never missed an issue and its stability of management is almost unique in American journalism. Its editor has made us all his debtors many times. His has been a quiet but effective influence in the nation's literary development which we hope may be continued far into the future. A CLERGYMAN ON REAL REFORM OF THE THEATER THAT the theater as an institution is the strangest and most remarkable combiation of good and bad that society knows any thing about is the deliberate conviction of the Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, author of "In His Steps." Writing in the Independent Dr. Sheldon says: No other institution which is supposed to be a part of our civilization dares contain such a strange medley: The church is, for the most part, at least decently moral in its worship, its services, its entertainments, and its social life generally. It would not dare be anything else. The average school is for the most part giving to the civilized community good things in an overwhelming majority. But the theater, with an eye to box-receipts mainly, gives the people a purpose play one night and shows up the next with things so indecent that they could not be seen or spoken on the street or repeated out loud in any company of men and women, outside the theater, without a storm of protest." Largely on this account Dr. Sheldon himself rarely goes to the theater, because he does not know what he is liable to run into; but with the help of some newspaper reporters he recently summed up the character of twenty-seven shows that visited his town: Five of the twenty-seven were clean and good, had some definite lesson to teach, without a syllable or scene throughout that could offend the most fastidious man or woman. Seven of the twenty-seven were of the doubtful order, that is, they were for the most part good as to acting and such matters, but contained at least suggestive dialogue or questionable ethical teaching. The remaining fifteen were what could truthfully be called bad in the sense of suggestiveness; or the theme of the play itself revolved about some phase of human frailty, the discussion of which by the theater, as experience shows, does not help to better conditions but rather incites the passions, just as hanging used to do when it was performed in public. It is not a deterrent to evil, but rather a pandering to vulgar things, leaving in the mind a brown deposit which gradually coats the finer sensibility of virtue or takes the bloom off the necessary innocence of youth. As to the effect of the theater as an institution on the chronic theatergoer, Dr. Sheldon finds from his limited experience that this influence is not very permanent in its actual doing of righteousness. On the other hand, he does find "a more or less blasé condition of mind.” The theater seems to create an artificial atmos phere. It is glamour and dream life. Young nightly attendance on the theater become dismen who are caught by the fascination of the satisfied with real life. The atmosphere of the play affects them not as an incentive toward the cleaner and more ambitious righteousness but rather acts as a sensational tickling of certain emotional parts of their nature, and there is no question whatever concerning the rousing of certain passions in the inveterate theatergoer which, as far as my observation goes, tend towards demoralization of character. There is no doubt that Dr. Sheldon is perfectly right when he says that "the trouble with most theatergoers is the failure to discriminate. They go to good and bad alike." If the actor or actress is first class, that is sufficient for them, although "the play itself may be rotten to the core and the teaching objectionable in the extreme." Dr. Sheldon complains that church members will condemn the things they see and hear, yet not one of them will register a protest by leaving the house. This leads Dr. Sheldon to comment severely on what seems to him to be a remarkable inconsistency where the theater is concerned. It is this: billboards which depict women indecently clad Our civilized cities are vulgarized by staring advertising theatrical presentations. Very few persons seem to think anything is wrong about this; but if the persons portrayed on the billboards were suddenly to come to life and get down off the boards and walk along the street the law of any town in America would instantly arrest them for indecent exposure. The same thing is true of the things that are said and done on the stage. Actors and actresses will say and do things on the stage of a theater which could not be said and done on the street or on the sidewalk of any town without subjecting thein to arrest. There seems to be one rule for the theater and another for common, every-day life. Christian men and women who are in the theater not for the money to be got out of it but for the good they can do. Though there are some helpful and noble plays on the stage to-day their number is, says Dr. Sheldon, exceedingly small; and even with these it is doubtful whether the effect of a good play on the theatergoer has not been tremendously exaggerated. Not until there is a change of purpose on the part of those who carry it on as a business can any real reform of the theater come. DOES IT PAY TO SERVE THE government blue book published at Washington shows that at the present time the federal employees in the civil service, exclusive of those connected with the PostOffice Department, but including the officers of the army and navy, number approximately 146,000. If the postal employees be included and also the enlisted men in the military and naval service the total number of persons on the federal payroll is nearly half a million. In beginning an article on the subject of government service in the Atlantic Monthly for May, an "Ex-Official" suggests a comparison, as respects numbers, between the civil service of the United States and several of the most prominent callings,-for example, the teaching profession, in which the census of 1900 showed that 446,000 persons were employed. He shows, further, that the employees of the federal Government are much more numerous than all the physicians, clergymen, and lawyers in the United States combined, and almost as many as the aggregate of all the manufacturers, officials, bookkeepers, and accountants. As to the question, Does it pay to accept civil employment under the federal Government? this" Ex-Official" thinks that the answer depends upon the sex of the employee. If the employee is a woman, the answer should be, Yes. The government service offers work which is reasonable and agreeable, considerate treatment, generous vacations, sick-leave allowance, and a living salary. He says it is a fact that the girls in the department stores of the great cities often receive no more pay than do the floor scrubbers in the department buildings at Washington. If, on the other hand, the employee is a man, and a young one, the answer depends THE UNITED STATES? principally on his own temperament, ambition, and ability. If he is easy-going, indolent, and of moderate ability, a small income, so long as it is certain and attended by moderate exercise and little anxiety, may be a very desirable end to be attained. If, however, the young man is alert, energetic, resourceful, and ambitious, the "ExOfficial" warns him to beware of the government service, since the qualities which he possesses, while in commercial life they may lead to success, in the government service, sad to relate, generally invite failure. In spite of the growth of civil-service reform sentiment and the continuance in power of one political party, the tenure of office for all holders of bureau positions is still very short. In the last decade the average period of incumbency of a dozen such positions was two years and eight months. In the lower grades the tenure is indefinite; good behavior and moderate ability to perform routine work are nowadays likely to be rewarded by lifelong employment. This writer does not deny that it is possible for clerks, either men or women, beginning at the bottom to rise to high positions, but he points out that the process of promotion means increasing uncertainty of tenure, and to support this contention he traces the actual experience of scores of competent men. "I have been offered the headship of my bureau three times," said a minor government official not long since," and I never have dared to accept it. Of course, it meant promotion and greatly increased pay, and I longed to accept it, but I knew it also meant a short period of official life at the top, and then,-out, out into the street. Official position is a luxury, and the man who accepts it should have private resources to provide for a day when the newspapers publish a rumor that So-and-So has decided to resign.' As for me," he added, "I am a poor man; I can take no chances." "Refusal of responsibility and advancement for such reasons must always result," says Ex-Official," "in distinct loss of self-respect and ambition." Another complaint that this writer makes is that while in commercial life responsibility is definitely fixed so that as a man is justly blamed for poor work he is also praised for real efficiency, in government service inefficiency is not sufficiently condemned, and ability and fine service receive, in the long run, little consideration. 66 with any bureau chief or subordinate who could aid the executive with expert knowledge of important problems. "The effect of this policy, while not always pleasing to cabinet officers, was inspiring in the extreme to subordinate officials; it spurred them to unprecedented zeal, which in turn was diffused by them among their subordinates. A new and surprising energy and general awakening of enthusiasm for tasks made dull by long routine took possession of the federal service." The conclusion of "Ex-Official" is that a man who amounts to anything and settles down as an employee of the federal Government, whether of high degree or low, is an Ex-Official" shows that even with the air-plant. He has no roots in solid earth, and system as it is the influence of personality is any strong political breeze may blow him still to be reckoned with. He declares that away. "If you would have roots, settle in no executive within recollection exerted such the home community and grow up in normal direct influence on the federal employees fashion; then with a competency and town themselves as did President Roosevelt. He or city backing you may seek Washington, was not content to listen to the perfunctory and find in the government service an agreereports of cabinet officers, but claimed and able incident, but only an incident, in your exercised the privilege of dealing directly career." he KARAKTER-A SYMPTOM OF YOUNG EGYPT "KARAKTER!....I want my boy to When questioned as to what Karakter meant to him, the old Egyptian declared that the English-speaking people "alone of all mankind possess the secret of it, but it can be acquired in other schools for money." Pursuing the subject further the old man asserted that Karakter is not a science. "It is strength and durability of purpose. It is power of judgment. Some have it in them; some have not. It is not a thing which can be taught like mathematics." The old man expressed himself as willing to pay twenty pounds a month for "sound instruction in Karakter." sent his son to England to learn Karakter The young Arab's resentment of the Englishman's curses convinced the father that Karakter was not worth while acquiring. In reply to the young man's determination to join the Nationalists, the father, voicing the fatalistic point of view of the great mass of the Egyptians of all classes, said: What Son of the Nile before him ever resented the curses of one in authority? Are not our backs and the soles of our feet still sore from the Turkish whips? Yet see, my son resents this cursing which to me is nothing. He must join the malcontents, the wastrels of the land, because of it. He is become even The article goes on to tell how he actually worse than an Englishman: he is all Karakter. OKLAHOMA'S EXPERIENCE OF BANK-DEPOSIT INSURANCE IT The resources of the Columbia Bank and of the guaranty fund together were not nearly enough to go round. It was decided to T was in February, 1908, that the com- between the bank and State officials eleven pulsory insurance of deposits in the State protests against this assessment were received. banks of Oklahoma was first carried into As stated above, the Bank Commissioner beeffect. In September, 1909, occurred the gan to pay depositors the morning after takfailure of the Columbia Bank & Trust Com- ing charge. Mr. Cooke thus describes the pany, a State bank having the largest de- sequence of events: posits in Oklahoma. In the meantime the State banks had increased to a marvelous extent, both in number and in deposits; the national banks, on the other hand, having decreased in number and remained stationary as to deposits. In the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Mr. Thornton Cooke, in the course of an exhaustive survey of the whole question of bank-deposit insurance, relates in detail the proceedings that followed the failure of the Columbia Bank & Trust Company, which was Oklahoma's first practical experience of the working of the new law. It appears that in September, 1908, the company showed deposits of $365,000, of which $110,000 was due to banks. In September, 1909, its deposits had increased to $2,806,008.61, classified as follows: Individual deposits... 66 pay the individual depositors first; but even they only $411,000 of deposits remained unpaid, an posits. .$1,321,929.31 66 It will thus be seen that within a year the individual deposits had increased from $255,000 to $1,300,000 and the bank deposits from $110,000 to $1,300,000, a truly remarkable growth. On the night of September 28, 1909, the Bank Commissioner took charge of the bank, and the next morning he opened the doors to pay off the depositors as provided by the guaranty law. According to Mr. Cooke several hundred persons assembled, but there was no such excitement as would have attended the closing of so large a bank whose deposits were not in- Relying upon the insurance, Oklahoma banks, sured." The Commissioner announced that and outside banks, too, félt safe in carrying with the Columbia. all deposits would without question be paid deposit accounts in full, and proceeded to pay depositors. At ly for deposits at 4 per cent., Outside of Oklahoma the bank advertised widedeposits guarthis time there was but $400,000 in the guaranteed by the law of Oklahoma." Such adveranty fund; and the liabilities to be liquidated tising drew a good deal of outside money into amounted to more than $2,000,000. Under the Columbia. It is evident, then, that, just as the Oklahoma law emergency assessments may be made any year up to 2 per cent. of deposits. In this case the emergency assessment was fixed at 3/4 of 1 per cent. of the average deposits of 1908. Under this assessment the State banks had to pay $248,000. Owing to the relations said to have existed 66 made it easier for an incompetent management critics predicted, the insurance of deposits has to get deposits. The insurance system is not responsible for the failure of the Columbia Bank & Trust Company, but it is responsible for the magnitude of it. Mr. Cooke calls attention to certain questions raised by the Oklahoma experiment as |