absolute confidence with which they also accepted the philosophy, the religious dogma, and the social and moral standards laid down by leaders long since dead for generations which, with their conditions and limitations, have long since passed. If the spirit of this wonderfully changed period, now scarcely half a decad revealed, must be summed in a single adjective, that adjective had best be honest. Yes, these are honest times, or times that try to be so; and by now surely we are well used to jarring revelations of hitherto concealed truth. Mr. Shuster's picture of the contemptuous attitude of Europe and the veiled hostility of Latin America toward our fatuous shibboleth is as honest as it is vivid and well reasoned. Our historic vision of Uncle Sam looming, uncouth, but dignified, among the respectful nations dismayingly changes to that of an overgrown child babbling diplomatic nursery rhymes while it pushes silly counters between the squares on which the indulgent nations are seriously playing the Game of Civilization. It will also surprise many good citizens of this land to learn that, in foreign eyes, the comfortable humanitarianism of our war with Spain was little more than a novel and clever cover for a gigantic landgrabbing operation, and in land-grabbing, we of this generation are surprised to learn, America is historically regarded as wonderfully resourceful, unscrupulous, and successful. Our bestowal of liberty upon Cuba is considered merely a trick to relieve a temporary situation, or why, they ask, did we not also free Porto Rico and the Philippines? In the eyes of Europe there is no American diplomacy, only childish trickery, childishly changing its tricks with each new administration. Mr. Shuster demands statesmanship freed from local politics. We are grown up at last, so let us bear ourselves as a nation among nations. Let us throw away our counters and ourselves play the game. Mr. Whelpley views us from a different angle and at intimate range, but he sees much the same picture. An American who has spent most of his recent years abroad, a student of peoples and policies, a familiar in the embassies of Europe, he is keenly sensitive to the not always good-humored indulgence of the foreign grown-ups for our doll-house diplomacy. It is a picture which our modern and efficient President will do well to commend to the earnest attention of his Secretary of State. As Mr. Shuster demands that diplomacy be divorced from local politics, so does Mr. Whelpley cry aloud for a diplomatic service freed from the blight of personal and partizan patronage. America can never attain a dignified and businesslike position in the congress of nations by matching endless successions of gentlemanly amateurs against the veteran professionals of Europe. The time has come to introduce into the diplomatic service from top to bottom the common business principles and sound business practice which distinguishes certain other branches of the national public service. Now that Mr. Wilson has seen his tariff bill become law, and otherwise has advanced so marvelously a program of incalculable importance, it is reasonable to believe that, in his first breathing-space, he will rescue our diplomatic service from its ridiculous ineffectiveness and make it the tempered tool of that consistent, righteous, and forceful diplomacy which no doubt he plans to establish for America as the climax of his administration. The President whose foreign relations place this country in a position of dignity and influence among nations will, in the eyes of Europe at least, pass into history as one of the greatest Americans. Quite a different light is thrown on the picture by Professor Ross's disquieting findings concerning the vitiation of our nation's blood by the character of recent immigration. Twenty years ago British immigrants stopped coming to us, and since then the desirable blood of northern Europe has almost altogether ceased flowing into our veins. American conditions no longer appeal to the sturdy men and women of those nations which contributed to our early mighty growth. Yet immigration has, in bulk, enormously increased. America has become, in brief, the wastebucket for the relief of southern Europe, and, more and more, of Asia. Will not the same brave, independent Congress that passed the tariff bill undertake the still nobler, more imperative task of purging the nation's clotting blood? IN HOW MODERN MEN MAY HOPE TO PLEASE WOMEN BY HARRISON RHODES N the old days-which means only yesterday or the day before-there used to be considerable speculation both in the publicity of print and in the privacy of conversation as to what kinds of women most pleased men. The quaint phrase conjures up at once a delicious nineteenthcentury picture of a kind of king upon his throne actually choosing the damsel upon whom he shall cast a favorable eye. In the twentieth century, which is so definitely receiving that famous "touch of a woman's hand," all that matters is what kinds of men, if any, can please women. There are even pessimists who go so far as to declare that the ladies will soon be quite happy without men at all. Statistics, however, would seem to indicate the contrary. At the watering-places last summer there even appears to have been an actual scarcity of men to meet the female demand, presentable young fellows especially being quoted very high in an active market. Of course women no longer feel, as they used, disgraced if they have no men about. But when they have finished the hard work of the day, they like a little relaxation with men, just as men in the old days liked relaxation with women. They like a pleasant conversation with a well-groomed, well-dressed man; it amuses them and makes them forget their responsibilities. Women want men, but the point is that nowadays they want only the kind of men. they want; the once stronger sex had better look lively. Women are no longer tremblingly watching for men to throw them their handkerchiefs. They already figuratively stand, at their ease, in the restaurant "lounges" and appraise the pretty gentlemen as they pass in review before them. The consequences are easy to prophesy. We are in danger of soon seeing in the newspapers such articles as "Do Men Dress to Please Women or to Please Other Men," or even "Shall Men Propose?" Don Juan with his wiles and seductions has unhappily been forgotten for some decades. In America men have always been thought too busy to bother about women. But now perhaps Byron may be taken off the dusty shelves, and men may apply themselves to see how his hero's methods can be improved upon and brought up to date. If they cannot or will not do this, they must resign themselves to the inevitable, give up all right of choice, and sit with hands folded-as it were, "in maiden meditation, fancy-free" -until Donna Juana shall flaunt by and cast the eye of favor upon them. A crisis has come in the history of the sex. Some slight survey of the situation may be worth while, some little attempt to discover indications of how modern men may hope to please women. In the way of romantic and impassioned love-making, which includes home-wrecking, poetry-quoting, and other allied activities, American men have now for a long time been considered hopeless failures; you have only to read the many novels concerning the unhappy and misunderstood wives of our captains of industry to know that. American men may as well recognize this; if they cannot do the work themselves, women will provide people who can. To a mind of any international breadth of vision their remedy will suggest itself at once the increased importation of foreign noblemen, who work well and willingly at such amorous jobs. They are easily kept in good condition by a careful diet of lunches and dinners (rich food is perhaps best to heighten their emotions); they have plenty of leisure for those small politenesses which please women; and they are easily satisfied with an occasional marriage with an heiress, or even with a harmless little affair with a lady whose husband can help them in a business way. Now that the tariff is down it is probable that titled adepts at these gentler forms of pleasing will soon be fawning in still greater numbers at our ladies' feet. Happily there still remain for the native-born other possible means of softening the female heart. Chief among blandishments at which it might be hoped that the rougher male of this hemisphere would excel is physical violence. It is loudly asserted that nowadays woman is no longer like the dog and the walnut-tree, better for being more. beaten. And yet, somehow, one would like to see the walnut-tree theory tried again before it is definitely discarded. There may still be something in primitive man, dressed in the picturesque costume of the cow-boy of the plains or the miner "WOMEN ALREADY APPRAISE THE PRETTY GENTLEMEN AS THEY PASS" LXXXVII-40 of the Yukon, beating his mate into a mellow mood. And if by any chance woman really regrets the passing of the turbulent passions of the primeval world, man should go straight out and cut a club. A committee of wife-beaters should at least experiment in the matter in the interests of their fellow-males. The club, however, is only offered as a forlorn hope, for physically women are growing more powerful every year. a Of course some of the finest figures of women will always be won through their protective instincts, their wish to take care. of a weaker and more helpless man, kind of pet-dog or lap-husband, yet it will probably be safer for us to hope to gain the kind of love which they have for a great burly uncouth Newfoundland. Such a rôle, the amiable, kindly, willing slave, is suggested to men as still a possibility, still a path open to the female heart. As to real physical beauty, that will probably, in the future, find favor and a warm reception by the State Eugenic Committee. It is, however, denied, alas! to most of us. It is very probable that man's best chance for regaining a foothold is to make himself in some true sense woman's comrade, to raise himself if possible to her intellectual and artistic level. Here, of course, the foreigner with his cultivated artistic tastes has already an advantage over the native-born son, but it need not be permanent. For many decades now the American man has had his nose to the commercial grindstone, while the American woman has held hers uplifted to the stars. She has read the books, seen the pictures, attended the concerts, and taken the trips abroad. But now, distasteful as literature is, and repellent as art and music will always be to the tired business man of our country, it is probable that in the rôle of Don Juan transformed he must address himself to the sorrowful task of making their acquaintance. During the past summer the somewhat ominous rumor came from Newport that no woman of fashion there would think of appearing without her intellectual male attendant. This is a signal that must be attended to. The supply of "intellectuals" is, in our American community, extremely limited; they will soon be bleating in ter ror upon the slopes of Parnassus while marauding bands of ravenous tigresses of fashion pursue them to and fro. If the American man wishes to avoid further importations of foreign competitors, he must hustle on the trail of culture. He must realize that the day has gone by when women treat men merely as toys. Women nowadays are genuinely gratified at the discovery of intelligence in men. They like to hear them talk, however badly, about art and music and letters, and they are glad to indicate books and give helpful hints about courses of study. They are even pleased to see men interested in political and economic questions. It is the firm opinion of the writer that when, with the suffrage, women obtain control of the machinery of government, they will still be pleased to have masculine support and aid; he believes that the first female President will be glad, even in the White House, to have some one sit by her side and hold her hand. He is optimistically sure that women will go on encouraging, helping, and uplifting man for years to come. But man must buckle to and prove himself worthy of her faith in him. Once all this is realized, there will be a fresh intellectual stimulus applied to the whole structure of masculine existence. How easy would the task of the college professors become if the students understood that only with their degrees in hand would they inherit the right to hope for favor in female eyes, while failure to be graduated condemned them, as it were, to a physical and intellectual celibacy! Let the young men occupy their days, if they will, with athletics, but as night falls, and Venus hangs soft and brilliant in the evening sky, let them turn to their books. There is no need to despair: men once went to college to study; they can do so again. The classic figure of speech concerning the American relation of the sexes has been that man had put woman on a pedestal. She will not come down from it, that is certain, so the sooner he climbs up by her side the better. Once there he may again strut and preen himself, and, with his impassioned intellectual suit, again cause her cheek to mantle with a blush. Is it not, at any rate, a pretty, romantic picture for the twentieth century? |