ministration both England and France were tending to follow it through the force of circumstances, England's effort to find a basis of trade relations with Bolshevist Russian being as futile as France's support of anti-Bolshevist revolutionary movements. The Republicans and their Irish supporters in the 1920 campaign revived the old demand for the exemption of American shipping from the Panama Canal tolls, but this and various other differences with England which arose toward the end of Mr. Wilson's Administration were left over for settlement by the new President. More urgent, however, was another ancient issue now revived the California land question. In 1917, when America was just entering the war and could not afford any dangerous entanglements on the Pacific, the Lansing-Ishii agreement was negotiated with Japan. By this the United States recognized Japan's "special interests" in China, particularly in "the parts to which her territory is contiguous," while both powers professed agreement on the principles of Chinese independence and territorial integrity, and the open door. However necessary this concession in order to protect an exposed flank in time of war, it was regarded with much alarm by friends of China, whose wrath was later aroused by the action of the President at the Peace Conference in agreeing to the cession of Shantung to Japan. There was a renewed antagonism between American and Japanese interests in certain quarters, and the American Army in Siberia, if it did nothing else, at least kept the Japanese from seizing Vladivostok until the Americans had left. With this background, the situation created by the revival of anti-Japanese agitation in California seemed more or less disquieting, but when a more stringent land law was enacted by the Californians in November negotiations between the two Governments began at once and are still going on at the close of the Administration with good prospect of agreement. The President's unpopularity had been so violently expressed by the election of November 2 that it was bound to be mitigated soon after, and this natural reaction was aided by the failure of the Republican Congress to accomplish anything in the short session and by President-elect Harding's slowness in deciding among candidates offered for the Cabinet and policies put forward for his attention. As President Wilson prepared to turn over the executive duties to his successor there was already evidence that the American public was returning to a greater appreciation of his services. As a token of the estimation in which he was still held by the more intelligent circles abroad, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him in December, 1920; and European statesmen who had opposed him at the Peace Conference were already expressing surprise at learning that Mr. Harding believed that the League of Nations was dead. Copyright New York Times. Published through the courtesy of the New York Times. In Flanders Fields By Lieut. Col. John McCrea In Flanders fields the poppies grow We are the dead. Short days ago Take up our quarrel with the foe! America's Answer By A. W. Lillard Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead! The fight that ye so bravely led We've taken up! And we will keep True faith with you who lie asleep, With each a cross to mark his bed, And poppies blowing overhead Where once his own life blood ran red! So let your rest be sweet and deep In Flanders fields! Fear not that ye have died for naught, Recessional By Richard Linthicum I The tide is at the ebb, as if to mark Our turning backward from the guiding light; Grotesque, uncertain shapes infest the dark And wings of bats are heard in aimless flight; No friendly star, no beacon's beckoning ray; Steadfast in honor, marches toward the goal. II The spirit that was Peace seems but a wraith, Our boasted virtue turned to scarlet shame Still wears a victor's wreath on unbowed head. O land of mine! how long till you atone? To Woodrow Wilson, March 4, 1921. THE FOUNDERS OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS tttt BALDRIDGE IN Stars and Stripes Make firm, O God, the peace our dead have won, And points us back to darkness and to hell, -Alfred Noyes Workmen's Compensation WE must hearten and quicken the WE spirit and efficiency of labor throughout our whole industrial sys tem by everywhere and in all occupations doing justice to the laborer, not only by paying a living wage but also by making all the conditions that surround labor what they ought to be. And we must do more than justice. We must safeguard life and promote health and safety in every occupation in which they are threatened or imperiled. That is more than justice, and better, because it is humanity and economy. From President Wilson's Speech of Acceptance at Shadow Lawn, September 2, 1916. |