ing song which, with The Dream Girl ballad and Miss Bainter's I Want to Go Home, are the leaders of a highly melodious evening.

It was once said of Fay Bainter that she was probably a very pleasant person though technically not a fine actress. Since she is not called upon to do any special acting herein, the question will probably not be solved until next season. By that time, so many people will have seen and fallen captive to her naïve and witching charm that the solution will probably not make any differ

ence anyway.

Tendencies

War Plays are Coming

Last week there was noted in this column the widening ripple consequent to the recent plunge of Hungarian plays into the Manhattan theatrical pool. This is, one supposes, what is termed a "tendency." Now tendencies have a forbidding sound about them. Somehow they seem sinister. One speaks of the husband of one's neighbor as having a tendency to drink too much. It was a tendency in the Borgia family to, fortify their enemy's Chianti with toxic drops. Yet giving money to beggars is not described as a tendency. It is a form of personal advertising, and becomes a tendency only when the advertiser performs it to such an extent that his family have him removed to the hospital on the grounds that the fractional balance of his wits is against him.

Therefore it is with hesitation that tendencies in the Theatre are discussed. Let them be called, rather, inclinations; and let there be further inspection of the opening season's inclinations.

Though the younger generation was damned, defended and dismissed as a back number at least two years ago, there have already appeared two plays (Dancing Mothers and The Best People) in which the parents weep and wonder at the antics of their offspring. Apparently the ink of playwriting has not yet exhausted its quota on this topic. There will be others.

Already one play has lived and died in an effort to retell the general narrative theme of Abie's Irish Rose. Reports from distant parts indicate that the producers of this uncannily successful product will spend much money through the season exhorting the population to beware of imitations.

Kid Boots is another success which has accumulated its train of similarities. It is a musical comedy based on the vicissitudes of golf and bootlegging. Already To Hole, a golf musical comedy, is announced with others in the offing.

Yet the most significant inclination of the new season is the return of the War

play. Next week TIME will be occupied with discussions of Nerves by John Farrar and Stephen Vincent Benét and of Glory by Laurence Stallings and Maxwell Anderson. Hard on their heels will come Havoc, fresh from a London success, and The Conquering Hero, by Allan Monkhouse, an Englishman, under the beneficent auspices of the Theatre Guild. At least two others are now. in preparation. The swagger and tinsel of war in the theatre of eight years ago has been discarded. The majority of these new productions are bitter, ironic dissections of sorrow. Probably none of them will possess the mordant satiric force of Shaw's Arms and the Man. Yet their mission is clear., The young men who have written them have been to war. After five years their protests must be heard.

LAW

International Congress

W. R.

In Vienna, the Institute of International Law opened its 31st Conference in what was, before the War, the Austrian Parliament building. Welcome was extended to the delegates by Foreign Minister Grünberger.

U. S. Jurists present: Prof. James Brown Scott, President of the American Society of International Law; Prof. Philip Marshall Brown, of Princeton University; Frederick R. Coudert, senior partner of the law firm of Coudert Bros., author of Certainty and Justice, and Government delegate to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists, held at St. Louis in 1904.

The Institute of International Law was founded at Ghent, 51 years ago. Last year it held a 50th Anniversary meeting in the room that saw the first meeting. Later, the 30th Conference was held in Brussels.

International Law is defined as that branch of positive law which governs the inter-relations of foreign states and is clearly distinguished from that branch of positive law which governs the internal affairs of a foreign state and which is commonly called "Municipal Law." International Law is divided into Public International Law and Private International Law, which is usually referred to by the name "Conflict of Laws." The weakness of International Law lies in its provisions for enforcing the observance of its principles. Conferences such as the one now being held are generally recognized by jurists as useful in formulating the principles of Public International Law and in solving problems of Conflict of Law, but as comparatively ineffectual in contriving a means to punish offenses against the Law of Nations.

Dr. Moore's Book. In Manhattan, there was lately published a large book* elucidating the knottier problems of International Law. It is not a book for laymen; its interest can be only for the legally minded. Its author, Dr. John Bassett Moore, American Judge in the Permanent Court of International Justice, is doubtless the leading active authority on the subject in the U. S. Dr. Moore formerly lectured on International Law at Columbia University. His treatment of his subject was characterized by a fine faith in the value to mankind of the precedents of public International Law, which he held were as consistent and logical and, on the whole, as little violated as the precedents of Municipal Law. "Beware," he would say, "of the man who feels qualified to speak and write on International Law simply because of the correctness of his moral reactions."

Dr. Moore has made in this volume He original contribution to knowledge. That was not his purpose. He has rather sought to elucidate certain knotty problems in International Law and to dispel some common illusions.

For many years Elihu Root has been generally spoken of as the foremost international lawyer in the U. S. Mr. Root, as a member of the Alaskan boundary Tribunal (1903), as U. S. Secretary of State in President Roosevelt's cabinet (1905-1909), as counsel for the U. S. in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration (1910), as a member of the Hague Tribunal since 1910, as one of the Commission of International Jurists which, on invitation of the League, reported the plan for the World Court (established 1921), as Commissioner Plenipotentiary for the U. S. at the Washington Arms Limitation Conference (1921), Mr. Root has had unrivalled experience.

Two younger men who have attained distinction in the field of International Law are:

Prof. Manley O. Hudson, of Harvard University, who was attached to the international law division of the American Peace Mission (1918), was legal advisor to the International Labor Conferences of 1919 and 1920, and to the International Conference on Ob scene Publication at Geneva, 1923.

Prof. Edwin M. Burchard, of Yale University, who was for some time law librarian of Congress and an assistant solicitor of the U. S. State Department.

*INTERNATIONAL LAW AND SOME CURRENT ILLUSIONS AND OTHER ESSAYS-John Bassett Moore, LL.D.-M Millan-$4.00.

MEDICINE

Oil of Garlic

For many years British newspapers have carried extensive advertisements of an alleged cure, called Yadil, for cancer and other diseases. It occurred to the publishers of The Daily Mail (newspaper with the largest circulation in England) to investigate this nostrum; and they began a campaign of exposure against it. Yadil turned out to be essentially a 1% solution of formaldehyde, flavored with oil of garlic. The Daily Mail was aided in its exposure by Sir William Pope, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge. Threats of suits for libel and injunctions have not deterred The Daily Mail from continuing its exposure.

Beads

For many years physicians have been interested in the rate of progress of food residues in their passage through the body. In making tests, patients have been required to swallow insoluble matter, such as small pieces of metal and charcoal or dye substances, which could be easily detected in the excretion. When the X-ray was discovered, barium sulphate, which is opaque to the X-ray, was given, and the passage of the barium was observed through the fluoroscope. The giving of a large amount of indigestible material like barium with a small amount of milk or gruel, however, brings about conditions within the bowels which are hardly similar to the normal passage of food.

Twenty years ago, two English physiologists studied the distribution of food along the digestive tract by giving to rabbits large numbers of small glass beads. Then the rabbits were killed at various intervals; and the distribution of the material throughout the stomach and intestines was noted. Recently, Doctors Walter C. Alvarez and B. L. Freedlander, San Francisco, of the George Williams Hooper Foundation for Medical Research in the University of California Medical School, used similar method in studying passage of food through the human body. They found that the normal individual with good digestion and a daily excretion does not in 24 hours pass anything like 100% of the material given.

a

Fifty small beads were placed in a gelatin capsule and swallowed. These colored beads were given on three consecutive days; and the excretions were sieved so as to determine when

the beads, and how many of them, were recovered. The beads used were very small, about two millimetres in diameter. Two of the individuals studied passed around 85% of the beads in 24 hours; but most took four days to get rid of 75%; and there were some who passed from only 50 to 60% in nine days. On an average, 15% of the beads were passed at the end of the first day; 40% on the second; 15% on the third; and from 5 to 10% on the fourth and fifth -so that between 90 and 100% come through by the end of the week. In one person who suffered with chronic constipation, careful sieving until all of the beads were accounted for showed that the last one came through on the 40th day. Since the beads had been mixed with the food, it is obvious that the individual's food residues also must have required this amount of time for passage.

The conclusions from this work are that wide variations in the rate of passage of food through the body are perfectly compatible with good health.

All of the persons tested seemed to be normal on examination; and none of them admitted having poor digestion or poor health. Nevertheless, the rate of the movement of food varied greatly from very slow to very fast in the group of persons studied. The studies seemed to show also that the giving of purgative drugs, or that spontaneous, repeated emptying of the bowels results in such thorough emptying that no further excretions should be expected the next day, or even for one or two days following. The California physiologists also believe that there is little fear in general of the condition formerly called "autointoxication".

RELIGION

"Lord's Acre"

"Lord's Acre" has become an institution in the South, particularly in Georgia, because acres planted for God have produced more abundant crops and have been miraculously free from the boll weevil, potato bug, army worm, and other enemies of God's people.

Last year, the Rev. H. M. Melton, pastor of the Baptist Church, Bluffton, Ga., induced seven men to sign the following agreement:

"We, the undersigned farmer members of the Bluffton Baptist Church,

hereby agree to plant, cultivate and harvest one acre from our farm, said acre to be known as the Lord's acre. We agree to put the proceeds of said acre into a committee appointed by the Church. They are to dispose of same and distribute the funds derived from it in such a way as we instruct."

It was signed by J. B. Goodman, Dauss King, E. L. Gay, A. M. Hubbard, J. E. Shaw, W. G. Rish, J. A. Mansfield.

That year, the boll weevil did its worst. But it touched not the Lord's

acres.

Dauss King grew a bale of cotton on his Lord's acre, which he did not even spray with calcium arsenate. "It is in the Lord's hands," said he.

Belief spread that miracles had been performed at Bluffton. From all America and parts of Europe came inquiries to the pastor, the postmaster, the mayor, the banker of Bluffton. Literature was compiled.

This year, Baptist headquarters in Atlanta were amazed to find that 100 churches in Georgia had instituted the Lord's acre, making a total of 500 acres, from which the yield is expected to be at least $20,000.

Georgia pastors now believe that the institution of consecrated land will be adopted in every state. Whether miraculous or not, the institution of the Lord's acre stabilizes church finances and is in accord with Jewish traditions dating from Abraham and the Roman Catholic practice in feudal days.

"Hath Made Thee Whole"

The Soviet Chief of Police reached for the code. He read Article 120that imprisonment is the punishment for "exploiting the religious prejudices of the masses against the Soviet government and fostering superstition among the masses."

Summoning trusty agents of police, he directed them to the village of Pskoff, to search the doings of Priest Troitski, to bring him to justice.

At Pskoff the police heard tales. Troitski had an ikon, a painted image of the Blessed Virgin whose tears, copiously shed, performed miracles. One tear-drop, applied to a wound, healed it. By virtue of the tears, Lydia Belskaya was cured of scrofula, Nadya Kolkova of a chronic abscess, Natasha Arcipova of paralysis. Thousands of tears had been efficaciously shed.

The police-themselves but humble Bolsheviks-trembled to lay hands upon the holy man who conducted so holy a shrine. But they feared Moscow more.

against Evolution in the First Baptist Church of Butte, Mont.

Gloom pervaded the church, save for the glare of one spotlight playing upon the speaker's platform. There stood the Rev. O'Farrell, gesticulating, shouting to make himself heard above a strange series of interruptions. Beside him, chattering, chirping, squeaking, a lively monkey tugged and chafed at the cord that tethered it to a broomstick. Brought into the pulpit by the preacher to advertise his bold sermon and to illustrate his bold points, the simian had to be held in place by the sermonizer's 12-year-old daughter.

The Rev. O'Farrell, perspiring heavily with his exertions, blamed the teaching of evolution for the Franks murder in Chicago, said: "We are suffering from acute mental and spiritual intoxication," said "To save the world for God, we all must use drastic methods," wiped his brow, concluded: "We will now sing Hymn 123."

Papal Notes

In the crypt of St. Peter's, many Bishops, including Mgr. Canale Oberti of Santa Fé, last week said mass for Pope Pius X, "the Good", who died ten years ago. Before the tomb. thousands of candles were lighted, thousands of flowers scattered. The late Pope's aged sisters, who still live near the Vatican, attended.

The reigning Pope, Pius XI, will carry out the desires of the late Pope Benedict XV in presenting to the Catholic University of Washington, D. C., a picture of the Immaculate Conception, executed in mosaic at the Vatican. For model he has chos

as Mexico's Queen; as such she merits our gratitude and respect.”

There was no intimation as to who would be the new Nuncio.

Rev. Charles Jaggers

At Columbia, quiet sun-filled capital of South Carolina, a Negro preacher died last week. During the half hour before his funeral, no business was transacted in the city. White and black paid tribute, by proclamation of the Mayor.

Rev. Charles Jaggers, born a slave in the first half of the 19th Century, began preaching from fence corners, always on one text: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). With some contributions, he established a mission; with others he took the gospel to the chain gangs. At the end of each year he took one cent salary. He was wont to say: "My services belong to God."

Young Missionary

Eric Liddell, winner of the Olympic 400-metre race, returned to Edinburgh University to receive his degree. Mid cheering crowds, Sir Alfred Ewing, the Vice Chancellor, crowned him with a garland of wild olive. Students bore him in triumph to a service at St. Giles' Cathedral.

Liddell will shortly proceed to Tien-tsin, China, to join his father in missionary work.

During the Olympic games, the young Scot refused to participate in the 100-metre race because it fell on Sunday. Instead, he preached in Paris.

or so there is an opposition at which the two planets are extremely near together-about 34,000,000 miles. This occasion belonged to the last group.

The idea that there might be lifehuman life, animal life on Mars, based on the existence of geometrical lines on the surface of the planet, led naturally to attempts to receive communications. Several radio stations, at the instance of Professor David Todd, of Amherst, were tempted to listen. Positive results were of course few.

In Vancouver, a radio station heard a regular series of dashes or zipps every day at certain hours; these, however, were explained as signals from "radio beacons" set up by the U. S. to assist vessels at sea.

In Newark and in London, strange sounds were heard; they probably came either from amateur stations or from static or peculiarities in the apparatus.

¶ At sea the steamship France encountered an electric storm which upset radio communication, and the gullible press suggested "Mars !”

¶ On the top of the Jungfrau, a Swiss scientist claimed to have seen flashes of yellow and green light from the planet, which might have been flashes of sunlight on mountain peaks.

In the main the results were decidedly negative. Some study of the planet was made from certain observatories. The Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Ariz., which "specializes in Mars," made observations in an effort to advance the tenets of the late Professor Percival Lowell that there is life on the planet, as evidenced by the existence of vegetation colors and the alleged canals. In general, astronomers displayed more interest in studying the satellites or moons, Phobos and Deimos (Fear and Dread), named after the mythological steeds of Mars' chariot. No new

which hangs in the Prado, Madrid.

A group of Mexican Bishops are visiting the Vatican. The Supreme Knight of the Mexican K. of C. is consulting with prelates in Manhattan. Mexico City expects as a result the appointment of a new Papal Nuncio to take the place of Mgr. Ernesto Filippi, who was expelled in January, 1923. When President Obregon entered Mexico City ten years ago, he ordered all priests to leave. He was the Church's enemy. In ten years a President learns much. Said Obregon last week: "The Virgin of Guadalupe always has been regarded

Martian Opposition

"Come again, go again, talk again, Mars."

The "opposition" of the Earth and Mars, as their nearest approach to each other is termed in astronomical language, took place last week with a maximum excitement on the part of the public and a minimum excitement on the part of astronomers. These oppositions occur about every 26 months, but every 15 or 16 years there is an opposition when the two bodies are nearer each other than usual, and about every hundred years

the Yerkes Observatory at Lake Geneva, Wis., conditions were very favorable for examining the satellites.

There is considerable dispute as to the exact conditions which persist on Mars' surface, so that there is ample room for difference of opinion as to the possibility of life. Conditions are certainly different from those on the Earth, but it is just as impossible to say that there is no life as to say that there is. The evidence is circumstantial to a refined degree. But if there is life on Mars, it is in different form from that existing on the Earth. Some scientists are inclined to grant the existence of vegetable life, such as (Continued on Page 22)

Papers and Politics

In a recent article, Frank R. Kent, the eminent, keen-minded Democrank correspondent of The Sun (Baltimore) recited the great advantage which the Republicans have over the Democrats in the present campaign.

He said that of the 10,000 small town and rural newspapers, outside of the Solid South (where there isn't any contest) 7,500 at a fair estimate are strongly Republican and only 2,500 Democratic. He said also that in the largest cities, such as Chicago and New York, the Democrats are either unrepresented in the press, or they are mild and fair partisans, whereas their Republican opposites are "much more militant."

What is the truth of Mr. Kent's assertions? First, the figures which he gives for the small newspapers are unverifiable, unless someone is willing to go through the 10,000 or so papers in question and make a critical estimate of their attitude. However, it may be assumed that his estimate is approximately correct. These small-town papers must in general be placed in a category separate from the metropolitan press. Their power is wielded rather through their news than through their editorials. These papers as a whole gobble up the "news" releases of their respective party's publicity bureaus. Because their bias is presented as "news," it has thrice the effectiveness politically of the same partisanship confined to the editorial page.

Among the papers of the large cities, this politically predigested propaganda is usually cast out. But among the less conscientious, the news from their own correspondents, and the headlines from their "headline" men are freely tinctured with partisanship. Examine the press of the cities which Mr. Kent chooses for his examples. In Chicago the omnipotent Tribune is violently Republican. The News is somewhat less so, the Post still less, The Journal of Commerce (probably the cleanest newspaper of the lot) has the natural Republican leaning of most business publications. Then there are the Hearst papers-the Herald and Examiner (morning) and American (evening). Mr. Kent classes them as anti-Davis. Indeed, the Hearst press has been giving Mr. Davis some "dirty digs," but it has proven itself about equally strong against Coolidge. As between Davis and Coolidge, Hearst may very nearly be cancelled out.

In Manhattan, Mr. Kent points out two Democratic papers-the Times and the World. He declares that in their headlines and news they are "scrupulously fair" and "rigidly non-partisan" and "on the other hand, certain hidebound Republican organs give to many

of their dispatches a heavy Coolidge flavor and lose no chance to place the Davis candidacy in a bad light."

This is hyperbole. These "hidebound Republican organs" refer chiefly to Frank Munsey's Sun, Ogden Reid's Herald-Tribune, and Cyrus Hermann. Kotzschmar Curtis' Post. In the degree of news partisanship shown there is probably little difference between these three papers and the "rigidly nonpartisan" World. Incidentally, the most virulently partisan paper in the city, although it is new and therefore small, is the Bulletin, a rip-snorting Democrat.

If there is a paper that is "scrupulously fair" and "rigidly non-partisan" in its news and headlines, it can be none other than The New York Times. It occupies the place to which its fairness entitles it. If there is a national newspaper in the U. S., it is the Times.

Although fair in its news, the Times is yet editorially a partisan-not a narrow partisan, to be sure, but one that is forthright and firm in its faith. Editorially, the Times is as strong a proDavis paper as there is in the country. The record of its pro-Davis activities does not begin with the present campaign-it began long ago.

As long ago as May 23, 1920, it carried an editorial from which the following bits are extracted:

"The Times is very little given to the practice of urging candidates upon the Democratic Party or upon any other party. It is independent of all parties. It hopes that both parties will nominate men of the highest character and ability, men of steadfastness and courage, of broad understanding and of constructive minds. We feel, therefore, that it does not lie outside the newspaper province and privilege to urge upon the attention of the Democrats the name of a man whose distinguished ability and standing are attested by the high honors he has already received from the party, a man who is qualified not only to pass the tests and challenges of a trying campaign, but to discharge with credit to himself and with advantage to the country the duties of the Presidency. We mean John W. Davis, at present Ambassador of the United States at London."

Three days later the Times again cried out:

"A great body of testimony regarding the 'availability' of Mr. Davis might be cited. He is not merely available, he is not merely a man whom the Democrats may take, he is the man whom they should take, he is at the present moment conspicuously the strong man of the party as Grover Cleveland was the strong man of the Democracy in 1884 and 1892."

Again, during the 1920 Democratic Convention (on July 5th) the Timet poiced its support.

After 1920 the Times still remained loyal to its idol, and when he retired from London explained:

"It was partly by his faculty of such sententious utterance that Ambassador Davis won so high a place in the esteem of judicious Englishmen. His successor at London may have occasion to know the woe of the man that cometh after the King."

On Jan. 27 of this year the Times raised its voice again.

"In the opinion of a growing number of Democrats and independents Mr. John W. Davis is eminently fit to be President and the Democratic party could find no stronger candidate. The steady increase of his hold upon public confidence comes, perhaps, as much from his character as his high ability."

Again in early June of this year: "Concerning John W. Davis there is a remarkable consensus of opinion in all parts of the country that he would be an ideal candidate if only he could be nominated."

In the midst of the Democratic convention's deadlock at the end of June, the Times again cried out in the wilderness:

"It is inevitable that in so great an emergency their [the delegates'] eyes should be looking for some one who towers above the stature of most of the candidates, and that they should be coveting for their party the strength and hope which would come to it with the nomination, at this juncture, of such a man as John W. Davis."

Finally, in its hours of triumph, when Mr. Davis had been nominated, the Times called out:

"The nomination of Mr. John W. Davis by the Democratic Convention puts a special obligation upon the growing numbers of Americans who swear by no party. They are accustomed to criticize both parties for not bringing forward leaders of a higher character. They often single out in advance the names of men of eminent merit, who, they say, ought to be nominated for the most important offices, but who probably will not be, for the very reason that they stand too much above the ordinary run of politicians to be acceptable to them. But this year the thing that was too good to be true has come to be true in the case of Mr. Davis. He was the one man among all the Democratic possibilities whom the Independents oftenest singled out as the 'ideal' candidate who ought to be selected, but almost certainly would not be."