ART

Pennell's Pen

Joseph Pennell, famed painter, etcher, published a gasconade, prefaced with a diatribe-Etchers and Etching. Writing it, gall scored his pen; gloom puckered his mouth. In his foreword, he denounces, derides all others who have written about etching. The curator of prints in the British Museum, he is demolished; "poor old Hamerton" (Hamerton whose works have long been the only authority on etching), he is spurned. He employs many great names, many swaggering pronouns. "Whistler," says Etcher Pennell, "Whistler and I. . . ." "Whistler and me. . . . Down the list of the world's immortal etchers he runs his pen, here scratching out a name, there setting a black spot, occasionally making the faint check-mark of approval. Of Zorn's later prints he says: "They had become feeble and photographic beyond words," though for the other periods of that surpassing master he has some admiration. The book is illustrated with the prints of many great etchersWhistler, Rembrandt, Pennell, Gova, Duveneck, Turner, Lepère-in exquisite photogravure, illumined with pointed anecdote. He recounts how he talked before a certain print society "to educate it," and how after his tirade a lady "furry and smelly" sailed up to him without glancing at the gallery walls:

"Oh, Mr. Pennell, your exhibition is so beautiful, and it was so sweet of you to come and tell us about it."

"Yes, madame, I can say it is beautiful, because it is by the greatest artist of modern times."

Andrew J. Volstead clapping his hand to the shoulder of Jesus Christ in the manner of one who makes an arrest; William J. Bryan spilling a jar of wine made by holy miracle out of water; William H. Anderson at the doorway in a derby hat. This parable-a raid on the marriage feast of Cana, painted by J. Francois Kaufman and exhibited last year in Manhattan-led to the arrest and conviction of Abraham S. Baylinson, Secretary of the Society of Independent Artists, for "violation of public decency." Last week an Appellate Court reversed the decision, returned to Mr. Baylinson the fine of $100 which he had paid.

CINEMA

The New Pictures

Isn't Life Wonderful? Down the long rank of cinema producers, uniformed in the maddening monotony of platitude and always marking time, one man may now and then be seen to step ahead. David Wark Griffith took his first step forward with The Birth of a Nation when the ranks were straggling and new. Since then he has widened the margin of his advance and stands unchallenged as Commanding Officer. This absolute leader in the film field has made another of his all too rare productions. To Germany he went to make it; took Germany's postWar hunger as his theme; two peasants are his personalities. Dealing in the oldest properties of drama-love and poverty he has made an extraordinary film.

The tale is all simplicity. Hans and Inga, young and virtually without food or money, marry. They raise potatoes. Raiders seize the crop. They save a little money to buy beef and find the price has abruptly jumped beyond them. Sausage, presented by a rich American, they lose. Hand in hand at the end they are still happy. "Isn't Life Wonderful!" cry they.

Neil Hamilton and Carol Dempster (cf. America) have the parts. So telling are their portraits that the director must be further commended.

As postscript to this tribute must be added the opinion that the film will not be popular. So taken are the masses with tinsel imitations that simple sincerity must necessarily be tasteless.

Sundown. The chief impression afforded by this film is that all the cows in the world were assembled. This bovine convention purports to be the "last great Western herd," driven from the ranges by the squatter settlers, on its way to wider grazing lands in Mexico. In other words, the twilight of the old West. The idea and the purpose were commendable but the endless appearances of thousands of cows simply became monotonous. Woven roughly into the migration was the love story of the head cowboy and a girl whose cabin on the plains was wrecked in a stampede.

The Silent Accuser. Dog films usually succeed. Peter the Great is the canine protagonist of this example. He frees his master, falsely accused of murder, from jail. A remarkably trained actor, he is eminently worth watching.

SCIENCE

Leeds? Turin? Rome?

"National Radio Week" was cele brated by attempts on several successive nights to exchange the programs of U. S. and European Radio Stations For one hour, the U. S. radiocasters had the ether and the Europeans tried to keep still. For the next hour, the Eropeans had the air and the Americans were supposed to do nothing but listen The experiment was hardest on the Europeans because it was held from 3 to 5 A. M. London time, which in the U. S. are respectable hours of the previous evening. The object of choosing such inconvenient hours for the Eur peans was, of course, to have the favor able atmospheric conditions which night affords.

The success of the attempt was par tial but not complete. Some people heard and some did not. Some people thought they heard, and did not. Recep ́tion was usually fragmentary, although now and then quite clear. On som nights the success was much greate than on others. Frequently amateurs or both sides of the water heard more of the programs and more stations than did radio experts.

Americans believed they heard Lon don, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Paris, Madrid, Turin, Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds. Rome. Abroad the greatest success seemed to be in picking up station KDKA of Pittsburgh. WJZ (Manhattan), WCAP (Washington, D. C.) and WGY (Schenectady) were among the other U. S. broadcasters.

Forward Marches

While radio fans were tensely listen ing for voices overseas, the Radio Cor poration of America was straining its eyes to see across the Atlantic.

After several days experimenting with a device on which 22 months of labor had been spent, the public was at last permitted to see the results. Photo graphs were turned into radio impulses, were shot across the sea from Carnarvon (Wales), were picked up the U. S. and the pictures reproducel

The device used for the sending was similar to that used last May for trans mitting pictures by telephone (TIME) June 2). It consisted of a cylinder in which a photographic negative is placed A beam of light strikes the cylinder which slowly rotates. Passing through the film it activates a photo-electric cell The cell gives out electrical impulses ia proportion to the strength of the light that filters through the film. The grada tions of these electrical impulses are very delicate. If put upon the air, static would greatly interfere with them. Irstead they are stored until a give amount (two-millionths of an ampere)

accumulates. Then it is discharged as a sharp dot with which static does not interfere. Thus static is eliminated and the device can be worked at all hours of the day and night. When the light portions of the negative appear, these dots follow each other so rapidly that they produce a dash. These impulses of even intensity are picked up and by a reverse process set to work making sketches. The recording device is double-a fountain pen records the sketches; and a photographic device registers the picture anew on a negative. Strangely enough, the pen draws pictures that at the present stage of development give better ideas of the original than the photographic reproduction, although the pen device was added only to give the receiving operator a better idea of how the picture was coming out.

Pictures were sent at the rate of about one every 20 minutes. The first to come was President Coolidge. The next, Secretary Hughes. Next came a Chinese proverb in heavy type: "One picture is worth 10,000 words" (at the present speed of transmission each picture is about the equivalent of 600 words—at 7c. a word, press rate, $42). Pictures of Oxford winning a relay race at Cambridge, of a steamship wreck on the Tweed River, of Queen Mother Alexandra, of Premier Stanley Baldwin, of Owen D. Young, of Ambassador Kellogg, of the Prince of Wales, were also transmitted.

The man principally responsible for the new radiograph is Captain Richard H. Ranger, who devised the means of sending uniform impulses so that static does not annul the transmission.

General J. G. Harbord, President of the Radio Corporation, philosophized: "As we study the forward marches of science and their effect of steadily shrinking the world to what will ultimately become a single, big community of fellow humans, we must admit the growing necessity for the development of a universal language. Until this new process is worked out in its tedious way and accepted by the nations of the world, photoradiograms, which speak the truly universal language of pictures, will go far to bridge the gap that different latitudes and tongues have interposed between the peoples of this sphere on which we live,"

Sailless Ship

Anton Flettner's Rotor Ship (TIME, Nov. 17)-or Sailless Ship, as it is more commonly called-has set the scientific world agog. Early reports were entirely misleading. There is no question of capturing the energy of the wind by means of a windmill and transmitting this energy in electrical fashion to an ordinary type of propeller. The invention is at once more simple in mechanism and more recondite in principle. Imagine the Flettner ship broadside to a natural wind, with its huge cylinders rotating in the same direction as the hands of a clock laid flat on deck,

with the top of the clock at the bow. The air of the broadside wind will follow the path of least resistance and move with, and in the same rotational direction as, the surface of the cylinder. When air passes rapidly over any surface, it produces suction over that surface. And this is precisely what happens in the giant revolving cylinders. They are in suction on their forward side and are pulled forward accordingly. The vessel moves with them. This principle was discovered by Heinrich G. Magnus, a German physicist, in 1853. It took more than 70 years to find a genius to apply it.

THE PRESS

At Woodlawn

They could stand it no longer, those business men of Woodlawn, Ill. Last week they assembled in the Woodlawn Business Men's Association and drew up a resolution:

"WHEREAS, Certain newspapers are exploiting crime and criminals to a degree to disgust and discourage the average citizen, and

"WHEREAS, Said newspapers have the habit of publishing the names and addresses of unfortunate women and girls who are the innocent victims of criminals; Therefore, be it

"RESOLVED, That the Woodlawn Business Men's Association in regular meeting . . . urge a cleansing of the daily press of this mass of crime reports and suggest that the names and addresses of the aforesaid unfortunate women and girls be eliminated. . . . Further be it

"RESOLVED, That this Association encourage clean journalism by coöperation with such newspapers as show a disposition to cleanse their pages of these lurid crime stories."

Chicago is a city of many suburbs. Chicago depends upon its suburbs as few cities do. Suburbanites are its big buyers in the department stores. Suburbanites support its theatres. Suburbanites buy many bales of its newspapers. There is a big transient population from the surrounding agricultural districts; but without the suburbanites Chicago would be at a loss.

Wherefore the Chicago newspapers, with one exception, had cause for concern in the indignation of the Woodlawn suburbanites.* The Chicago Tribune was meant as one of the "certain newspapers." The Chicago Daily News was meant. The Journal (Hearst) was meant. The Herald-Examiner (Hearst) was meant. The only Chicago newspaper of any dimensions that

*Other important Chicago suburbs: Riverside, whilom seat of Society; Hinsdale and Wheaton, gentleman-farmer communities; Oak Park, Rogers Park and Wilmette, middle class" communities, civic-spirited; Evanston, puritanical and efficient; Kenilworth, Winnetka and Glencoe, more countrified and country-clubby; Highland Park, a cross between these and the larger pretensions of Evanston; Lake Forest, "the Newport of the Middle West."

was not meant was The Journal Commerce-terse, unemotional, ence business man's daily, which one Was lawn Business Man particularized, gether with the earnest Christian S ence Monitor, as being a "clean sheet"

The Dogs

After the U. S. press published income tax figures (TIME, Nov. 3) U. S. Department of Justice was on lookout for a newspaper-dog or t When the dogs were caught-or rathe selected-the equivocal tax-public law, as set forth in the publicity cha of the Revenue Act of 1924, would or tried on them in test suits. It was a matter of interest to the public wh of thousands of available canines, t Government would select.

A fortnight ago, a Federal Gra Jury in Baltimore indicted The Be more Post. As dogs go politically an adays, this was a homeless stray; t Post supported La Follette.

Last week, Federal Grand Juries dicted The Kansas City Journal-? and The New York Herald-Tri Of these, the Journal-Post was chose because, being privately owned and et ited by one Walter S. Dickey, the would determine the rights of an vidual under the tax-publicity law. T Herald-Tribune was chosen because was the leading Administration or in the biggest U. S. metropolis and t prosecution would clear the Administra tion of any charges of partisan discri ination.

It was noted of the three cases: The the indictments were virtually identicl in wording, each citing as the cause indictment the publication by the par of the tax figures of individuals ch at random from long lists of names p lished. Thus, the Baltimore Post's leged offense was in making known t payments of five separate citizens, : wit, the Messrs. Daniel Willard () road man), Waldo Newcomer (c talist), and J. Cookman Boyd, Lear Coblenz, Frank A. Furst (small tax payers). None of the individuals protested their treatment by the paper to the Government.

That the indictments were brought b the Government, not seeking fines a imprisonment, but to come at the men ing of the law. For the newspapers there was safety in numbers.

That, in outlining their defense (~ the defendants declared they would p "Not Guilty”), the newspapers fell upon the First Amendment to the US Constitution, that Amendment whi guarantees to the press the right ✅ free speech. Everyone was agreed the the law provided that the tax should be placed "open to public spection." The question, as the Her Tribune framed it, would therefore be "Can Congress say, 'You may talk, h you may not write?""

That Congressional leaders deci to await the outcome of the suits befor considering whether or no to alter the publicity clause of the Revenue Act of 1924.

A

MONG all the world's magnificent treasures of literature, the genius of Shakespeare shines forth with matchless splendor. He is the wonder and the inspiration of each succeeding generation.

No home is complete without his works. The finest art of the book-making craft has been called forth to present these masterpieces in hundreds of different editions.

But now comes the achievement of achievements. Now comes the most amazing edition of Shakespeare ever known. It comes from the one place known above all others for centuries of fine book-making-The Oxford University Press in England.

Everything in One Volume!

How can this marvelous new edition be described! For it comprises everything that Shakespeare wrote in ONE handy volume! Yes, all his plays, all his poems, all his sonnets-not a single one omitted, not a single word omitted.

Yet this extraordinary book is less than one inch thick. And most amazing of all, the type is NOT small, but wonderfully clear and readableselected as the most readable from 550 type styles of the Oxford University Press.

Magic of Oxford India Paper

How is it possible? Only through a tremendous new discovery in paper-making. Oxford India Paper! A paper so marvelously made that 1,352 pages occupy the space of 200 ordinary pages.

A secret process produces this marvel of modern paper-making. Others have tried to

duplicate it in vain. Rare materials enter into its making. Skilled, painstaking craftsmanship is required. So the number of those who can own this wonderful one-volume Shakespeare is limited.

A Princely Volume

But this is not only a volume for convenient reading; it is a book of such luxurious beauty as to embellish any home. No illustration can suggest the quality of the limp, flexible binding-rich maroon in color, beautifully grained. The pages are heavily gold edged; a thumb index of titles affords ready reference.

EDUCATION

Yale Workshop

Uneasy lie the heads that administer the funds of a college.

This fall, when the Harvard authorities came to the conclusion that the space occupied by Prof. George Pierce Baker and his famed school of dramatic technique, the 47 Workshop, had best

Keystone

A. LAWRENCE LOWELL Laconic, sad at heart

be reconverted from studios to bedrooms, the Workshop closed for the year, Prof. Baker set off for a wellearned sabbatical, and the Crimson (undergraduate daily) scored the authorities for "polished neglect" of Prof. Baker and his work.

Nothing notable in this situationuntil, last week, adroitly timed as such things usually are, a windfall landed in the lap of Yale University. Edward S. Harkness, Manhattan Mæcenas, gave $1,000,000 to the Yale School of Fine Arts for the establishment of a dramatics department, the erection of a theatre, the gathering of a dramatics faculty. Speedily Prof. George Pierce Baker was invited to lead this faculty. Speedily he accepted. Presto-Harvard had lost the 47 Workshop altogether.

Said the Crimson, bitterly: "The President and the Board of Overseers, with their shameful neglect, are accountable."

Said President Lowell, laconic, sad at heart: "The gift to Yale of $1,000,000 supplies an endowment that does not exist elsewhere."

Said Prof. Baker: "There has not been friction."

Harvard men pondered the cause behind their loss. In the past. Prof. Baker had sought, and been refused, an experimental theatre and other adjuncts of expansion. Had it really been lack of funds that underlay this refusal? Or

lack of belief in dramatics as a va partment in undergraduate inst Or sheer lack of sensibility?

Yale men speculated upon the of their new school. Recent eña the Yale Dramatic Association ha tered an interest in the stage could now expand enormously. Everett B. Meeks of the Art went promptly to work with a c tee to plan buildings. Prof. Bakr) mated that there would be a pr the annual Yale play and Yale r called how plays from the 47 shop had reached Broadway, Workshop graduates had become playwrights.

There was Frederick Ballard, Believe Me, Xantippe! was prod 1913 by William A. Brady, act John Barrymore. Cleves Kincaid Common Clay, Jane Cowl's srece 1915. Mamma's Affair was th of Rachel Barton Butler. Two ago there was You and I, by P Q. Barry. Other craftsmen learned their trade from Prof. E are Eugene O'Neill, Edward Shi Edward Knobloch, David Carh, I Eckert Goodman, Kenneth Mac (producer) and Lee Simonson (s director).

Prof. Baker started teaching Fr at Harvard in 1888, the year aft graduation. The Workshop grew of student enthusiasm for his co "English 47," and soon attracted n bers from outside the Harvard e ment. Young women from Radd College and Boston Town joined i productions, budding playwrights other colleges took "English 47" as ps graduate work. Theatredom and critics cocked an eye whenever Workshop had something new to and one Broadway producer offere standing prize of $500 for the Workshop play each year.

Comment on the Yale windfall chiefly congratulatory. There some persons, however, who quali their felicitations with the hope young people would not be encourag to express themselves "before they ha thought and observed vitally, and du those years when they might better acquiring a background that would hance all that they might subseque care to express." In a word, that Pro Baker's expensive work at Yale be de icated, not to the alleviation of yea ings of the undergraduate ego, but the serious business of fostering a tional drama.

Smith Workshop

In 1918 was organized at Smith Col lege a Theatre Workshop, mode after the 47 Workshop at Harvar The Smith Director is Samuel A. Eli Jr., a talented, intense, egotistical gran son of President-Emeritus Charles A Eliot of Harvard. As a Harvard dergraduate, young Mr. Eliot embrac the cause of woman's suffrage. Later