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NORTH AMERICAN
REVIEW



VOL. CCXXIII
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Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur



NEW YORK

9 East 37th STREET

1926



Copyright, 1926, by
NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW CORPORATION



All Right* Reserved



INDEX

TO THE

TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD VOLUME

OF THE

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW



Adams and Jefferson: 1826-1926, 234.
African Cotton Rivals, Our, 16.
After Fundamentalism What? 406.
ALLEN, HERVEY. Books Reviewed, 360.
American Comment (Refers to The Plight of

England), 206.
Aristides The Second, 1.
Armaments, The Reduction of, 216.
ATKINSON, J. BROOKS. Sheridan Whom the

Gods Loved, 645.
AUSLANDER, JOSEPH. Cretan Tear Jar, 509.

Barres, Maurice: Author and Patriot, 150.

Basque Towns, 122.

Bell, Gertrude, 656.

Books Reviewed 157-192; 353-384; 534-560;

732-780.

BRAWLEY, BENJAMIN. Books Reviewed, 704.
Briand as Peacemaker of Europe, 1.
Britain, The Industrial Situation in, 400.
British Comment (Refers to The Plight of

England), 193.
BROWN, REV. WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D. After

Fundamentalism What? 406.
BROWN, ROSCOE C. E. Books Reviewed, 353;

700.

Bunyan's, John, Hypocrisy, 323.
Business, Why Women Fail in, 638.
Butler, Samuel, and Evolution, 626.

Cadenza, 97.

Calabria, A Scholar of, 664.

CANNON, CORNELIA JAMES. The New Leisure,
498.

Case of Hungary's War Guilt, The, 487.

CASTANEDA, CARLOS E. The First Pan-Amer
ican Congress, 248.

Catholics and the Ku Klux Klan, 268.

Cay use, My Kingdom for a, 456.

CHEW, SAMUEL C. Books Reviewed, 690.

CHEYDLEUR, F. D. Maurice Barres : Author and
Patriot, 150.

China, Nationalism and the Vernacular in, 311.

Clouds in the Franco- American Sky, 583.

COFFIN, ROBERT P. TRISTRAM. White and Cruel
Womankind, 99; My Babies Asleep, 101.

Commercialization of Tennis, 614.

Concerning Endowments, 80.

Congress, The First Pan-American, 248.

CONKLING, GRACE HAZARD. A Sonnet Letter,
622.

Control of the Liquor Traffic, 420.



Cotton Crop, Should We Restrict the, 590
Cotton Rivals, Our African, 16.
COURTNEY, JANET E. Gertrude Bell, 656.
CRABITES, JUDGE PIERRE. Our African Cotton

Rivals, 16.

Cretan Tear Jar, 509.
CUTTING, ELISABETH. Books Reviewed, 357.

DESMOND, SHAW. Prussianizing America, 256.

Dimension, War in the Third, 594.

DOWNES, WILLIAM HOWE. Books Reviewed,

173.

DOWNS, BRIAN W. Gerhart Hauptman, 102.
DRAKE, WILLIAM A. Francesco De Sanctis. 511.
Du Bois, W. E. BURGHARDT. The Shape of

Fear, 291.

Economic Sanity in Europe, 575.

Editor, The: Aristides The Second, 1; Briand

as Peacemaker of Europe, 1; "The Hon.

Mussolini", 209; Uncle Shylock Looks Abroad,

385.

Endowments, Concerning, 80.
"ENGINEER": Murder on the Rails, 433.
England Awakening, 193.
"England, The Plight of": A Reply, 68.
Europe, Economic Sanity in, 575.
EVANS, HIRAM WESLEY. The Elan's Fight For

Americanism, 33.
Evariste: An Image, 116.
Evolution, Samuel Butler and, 626.

FIRKINS, O. W. The Irresponsible Power of

Realism, 131.

First Pan-American Congress, The, 248.
Five Day Week, The, 566.
Flooded Land, 508.
Foreword, 561.
Francesco De Sanctis, 511.
Franco- American Sky, Clouds in the, 583.
FRANK, WALDO. Basque Towns, 122.
Fundamentalism, After What? 406.

GAINES, CLARENCE H. Books Reviewed, 161;

367; 541; 720.
Garden, Our, 466.
GARDINER, WILLIAM HOWARD. The Reduction

of Armaments, 216.
GOLDER, HAROLD. John Bunyan's Hypocrisy,

323.
GREEN> WILLIAM. The Five Day Week, 566.



INDEX



HARVEY, GEORGE: Aristides The Second, 1;
Briand as Peacemaker of Europe, 1; "The
Hon. Mussolini", 209; Uncle Shylock Looks
Abroad, 385; Maxims for 1928, 563.

Hauptman, Gerhart, 102.

HAWTHORNE, FRED. Commercialization of
Tennis, 614.

HOSE, REGINALD E. Control of the Liquor
Traffic, 420.

Hungary's War Guilt, The Case of, 487.

Industrial Situation in Britain, The, 400.
INGLIS, W. O. Books Reviewed, 190.
Irish Free State, What of the ? 606.
Irresponsible Power of Realism, The, 131.
I Saw A Thought, 98.

Jefferson, Adams and: 1826-1926, 234.
JOHNSON, BURGES. My Kingdom for a Cayuse,

456.
JOHNSON, WILLIS FLETCHER. Books Reviewed,

176; 577; 551; 712.
JOHNSTON, CHARLES. Books Reviewed, 729.

KENWORTHY, THE HON. J. M., M.P., R.N.

"The Plight of England": A Reply, 68; The
Industrial Situation in Britain, 400.

KIMBALL, MARIE GOEBEL. William Short,
Jefferson's Only "Son", 471.

Kingdom for a Cayuse, My, 456.

Klan's Fight For Americanism, The, 33.

Ku Klux Klan: A Paradox, 282.

Ku Klux Klan of Today, The, 304.

Ku Klux Klan: The Klan's Fight For Amer
icanism, 33; Catholics and the Ku Klux Klan,
268; The Ku Klux Klan: A Paradox, 282; The
Shape of Fear, 291; The Ku Klux Klan of
Today, 304.

LAUZANNE, STEPHANE. Clouds in the Franco-
American Sky, 583.

LECHARTIER, GEORGES. Books Reviewed, 556.

Leisure, The New, 498.

LEITCH, MARY SINTON. Pity the Great, 510.

Liquor Traffic, Control of the, 420.

LOWELL, AMY. The Real Estate Agent's Tale,
345.

Low KWANG-LAI. Nationalism and the Ver
nacular in China, 311.

LUDWIG, ERNEST. The Case of Hungary's War
Guilt, 487.

MAcDoNALD, W. L. Samuel Butler and Evolu
tion, 626.

MANSFIELD, MARGERY SWETT. Why Women
Fail in Business, 638.

MARKS, JE ANNETTE. Flooded Land, 508; Re
semblances, 508.

Maurras, Charles, 333.

Maxims for 1928, 563.

MCAFEE, HELEN. Books Reviewed, 168.

MEGROZ, R. L. Nocturne, 310.

Meritritzky Concerto, The, 145.

MEYER, ADOLPH E. Books Reviewed, 716.

MILES, MAJOR SHERMAN. War in the Third
Dimension, 594.

MOORE, VIRGINIA. I Saw A Thought, 98.



Murder on the Rails, 433.

"Mussolini, The Hon.", 209.

My Babies Asleep, 101.

MYERS, WILLIAM STARR. The Ku Klux Klan

of Today, 304.
M., W. B. Foreword, 561.

Nationalism and the Vernacular in China, 311.
New Leisure; The, 498.
Nocturne, 310.

O'CONNOR, SIR JAMES. What of the Irish Free
State? 606.

Pan- American Congress, The First, 248.

Pity the Great, 510.

Philosophy of Composition, Poe's, 675.

"Plight of England, The": A Reply, 68.

Poe's Philosophy of Composition, 675.

Poetry: Cadenza, 97; I Saw A Thought, 98;
White and Cruel Womankind, 99; My Babies
Asleep, 101; The Real Estate Agent's Tale,
345; Sonnet, 507; Flooded Land, 508; Resem
blances, 508; Cretan Tear Jar, 509; Pity the
Great, 510; A Sonnet Letter, 622.

POTTER, MARY SARGENT. Words, 531.

PRICE, THEODORE H. Should We Restrict the
Cotton Crop? 590.

Prussianizing America, 256.

PUTNAM, H. PHELPS. Sonnet, 507.

PUTNAM, MRS. WILLIAM LOWELL. Our Garden,
466.

Rails, Murder on the, 433.

Real Estate Agent's Tale, The, 345.

Realism, The Irresponsible Power of, 131.

Reduction of Armaments, The, 216.

Resemblances, 508.

RILEY, WOODBRIDGE. Books Reviewed, 707.

RODGERS, JOHN T. Books Reviewed, 375.

ROOSEVELT, NICHOLAS. Books Reviewed, 685

SASSOON, SIEGFRIED. The Meritritzky Concerto,

145.

Scholar of Calabria, A, 664.
SCOTT, REV. MARTIN J., S.J. Catholics and the

Ku Klux Klan, 268.
SEDGWICK, JOHN HUNTER. Books Reviewed,

182; 548.

Shape of Fear, The, 291.
SHERRILL, HON. CHARLES E. The White Man's

Burden, 64.

Sheridan Whom the Gods Loved, 645.
Short, William; Jefferson's Only "Son", 471.
Should We Restrict the Cotton Crop? 590.
Shylock, Uncle, Looks Abroad, 385.
SILVERMAN, REV. DR. JOSEPH. The Ku Klux

Klan: A Paradox, 282.

SKINNER, CONSTANCE LINDSAY. Books Re
viewed, 695.
SLAUGHTER, GERTRUDE. A Scholar of Calabria,

664.

Sonnet Letter, A, 622.
Sonnet, 507.

STANFORD, ALFRED. Evariste: An Image, 116.
Stevens, John, 440.
Sunday Races, 521.



INDEX



Tennis, Commercialization of, 614.

THORPE, FRANCIS N. Adams and Jefferson:

1826-1926, 234.
TURNBULL, ARCHIBALD D. John Stevens, 440.

Uncle Shylock Looks Abroad, 385.

WAGENKENCHT, EDWARD. Books Reviewed,

192

War Guilt, The Case of Hungary's, 487.
War in the Third Dimension, 594.
White and Cruel Womankind, 99.
White Man's Burden, The, 64.
WHITRIDGE, ARNOLD. Charles Maurras, 333.



WILSON, JAMES S. Poe's Philosoohy of Compo
sition, 675.

WILSON, PHILIP WHITWELL. Books Reviewed,
534.

WINSLOW, ANNE GOODWIN. Cadenza, 97.

WITHERS, HARTLEY. Economic Sanity in Eu
rope, 575.

Women Fail in Business, Why, 638.

Words, 531.

WYATT, EDITH FRANKLIN. Books Reviewed,
157.

YOUNG, STARK. Sunday Races, 521.




ARISTIDE BRIAND



Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine




NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

MARCH-APRIL-MAY, 1926

ARISTIDES THE SECOND

BRIAND AS PEACEMAKER OF EUROPE
BY THE EDITOR

THE members of the ill-omened Supreme Council assembled at
the Quai d'Orsay on the left bank of the River Seine on the
morning of a hot day in August, 1921. Immediately following
the conventional greetings, promptly on the hour designated, at
the instigation of the punctilious Curzon of Kedleston, the Rt.
Hon. David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England, chatting,
laughing and twiddling his eyeglasses, led the way into the
beautiful historic chamber of the palace, and the representatives
took their places.

At the right of the President's chair sat Mr. Lloyd George him
self, clad in a new morning suit, his abundant hair freshly trimmed
and slightly tousled for the occasion; next to him the massive
noble Lord, last of the small band of aristocrats who for so many
years constituted the "ruling class" of England, stiff in his con
cealed steel braces, in a splendid frock coat of former days; and
on his right the impressively gigantic Ambassador Harding, scion
of the same stock as our own beloved President as of the time.

At the left were M. Loucheur, ablest and richest of French
financiers, immaculately attired; the great Marshal Foch in a
glittering new uniform, and an alert, keen-visaged little General,
also in blue and gold, whose name we must apologize for having
forgotten".

* BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES I.

Copyright, 1926, by North American Review Corporation. All rights reserved.
VOL. CCXXIII. NO. 830 1



2 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

Flanking the British on the right were the ponderous Signor
Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy, his slightly bowed and very
spare Foreign Secretary, the Marquess della Farretta, indubita
bly aristocratic and consciously superior, looking for all the world
like the lamented Wayne Mac Veagh, and beyond them the
Japanese Viscount Ishii, who tied up our former Secretary
Lansing in a knotty treaty while Ambassador in Washington,
and Baron Hayashi, accomplished and trustworthy, brought over
from London; at the left, the American representative and the
Belgians M. Jasper, agile in mind and body, and M. Theunis,
taciturn and capable, as was recently noted in Washington, in
matters pertaining to what Mr. George F. Baker, the Elder, calls
"interest money". All were in raiment spick and span.

Suddenly the buzz of conversation ceased at the sound of a
lithe, yet shambling, step across the dais, and Aristide Briand, for
the seventh time Premier of France, in a wrinkled sack coat and
baggy trousers, bowing easily and pleasantly, sank somewhat
heavily into the President's chair. Many curious eyes rested and
lingered upon his mobile countenance while, for several long
seconds, he scanned meditatively the interesting diversity of
faces confronting him. He looked like a brigand, but when
presently he spoke it was with the voice of an angel. Simply and
melodiously, in astonishingly few words, he set forth the pur
poses of the meeting; then, turning his head to the right, he
nodded with friendly graciousness to the Prime Minister of
England, leaned indolently back in his chair and half closed the
lids of his eyes.

Not so much as a flicker relieved the impassiveness of M.
Briand's countenance while Mr. Lloyd George was voicing ardent
appreciation of the Premier's welcoming words, but the instant
the great little Welshman, after pausing obviously for effect,
declared with impressive solemnity that the occasion was one of
the gravest, if not indeed actually the most momentous, in the
history of the Council, the lids rose and an odd ray of light
flashed from the expressive dark eyes. It was hardly a gleam,
but rather the merest glint, of amusement, passing almost too
quickly to be caught and quite unverified by lips hidden behind
a carefully stroked moustache. And yet to at least one painstaking



ARISTIDES THE SECOND 3

observer it seemed to reveal humorous appraisal of something,
though of what could not be divined until later when cautious
inquiry educed the interesting information that "invariably
Lloyd George makes every conference in which he participates
the most important ever held and has done it so many times that
Briand now fully comprehends the only English he clearly under
stands."

But the trifling episode really indicated more than that; it
evidenced that M. Briand's understanding of Lloyd George him
self was no less exact than his comprehension of Lloyd George's
phrases. And that was interesting, important, too, in the light
of Clemenceau's shrewd observation to the effect that

"Poincare knows everything and understands nothing; Briand
knows nothing, nothing, but understands everything, everything."

Following the Prime Minister of England came the Prime
Minister of Italy, and his was a tedious performance, partly be
cause of the length of his oration but chiefly owing to the neces
sity of labored translation first into French and then into English.
Fortunately the procedure afforded an opportunity to scrutinize
the outer being of the man who now holds the center of the
stage that is called the world.

A massive head covered by curly black hair that straggled over
his collar; a long drooping moustache incessantly stroked, not
nervously but caressingly, by a hand so small and soft and white
that it would befit better a petted lady; a wide, full forehead
signifying phrenologically exceptional causative power; eyes, as
indicated, sleepy as a cat's and quick as a cat's to flash fire; a
flat, large-nostrilled nose; good ears; a hidden mouth; a round,
firm chin, upheld by a short thick neck, rising between two broad
and distressingly bowed shoulders from a big, square trunk
encasing an incongruously narrow chest expanding below into the
globulous corpulence of physical indolence.

So appeared at first full glance Aristide Briand, foremost states
man today of France and balancer for the time, whether in or out
of technical authority, of the scales of Europe.

We recall wondering idly, while the pattering of Signor Bon-
omi's decorative periods in three languages continued, why they
named him Aristide. Latins are not accustomed to cross racial



4 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

lines in search of distinguishing marks for perpetuation in family
records. And the bourgeois Briands of Nantes were humble
folk, so simple and unstudied, indeed, that it is far more likely
that they could not write their own language than that they
could read the Greek; else why should they have corrupted the
resonant and splendid "Aristides", an appellation truly so suffic
ing as well to merit the highest praise, as a "mouthful", from an
American Lady Mayoress?

No, neither Monsieur nor Madame could have based their
choice of a name for their bulbous product upon either hope or
prescience of emulation. And yet, if one cares, as one often does,
to go far afield in speculative fancy, a certain similarity of
Aristide and Aristides calls for no great stretch of the imagination.
Both were banished from their native lands, the Greek once
because his contemporaries wearied of hearing him called "the
Just" and the Frenchman many times as a consequence of com
binations against him of rivals who could not match his fairness
of mind and sweetness of disposition; and both were recalled,
Aristides once and Aristide seven times for the single, selfsame
reason that each possessed to a degree unsurpassed even by our
own President of today the complete confidence of the people
whom he served.

At the time to which reference has been made it was the com
mon practice of political diagnosticians to draw comparisons of
"les deux Bretons" who had become Prime Ministers, Mr. Lloyd
George and M. Briand, an undertaking hazardous, to our mind,
even to contemplate, but oddly enough none to our knowl
edge has hit upon the apposite historical parallel plainly sug
gested by the intuitive naming by his parents of the one who thus
far has survived the tempestuous politics which still constitute
the bane of national existence of both England and France.

Aristides the First, signally honored, as already noted, by the
cafe-keeping Briands, was one of the two most notable of the
younger contemporaries of the illustrious Miltiades at the time
of the Persian invasion. The other, of course, was Themistocles,
whose personality was, in a restricted sense, following the battle
of Marathon, hardly less vivid than that of Mr. Lloyd George in
the years succeeding the armistice.



ARISTIDES THE SECOND 5

The two were alike in that neither could boast, like Miltiades,
a lineage of gods and heroes but, the historian Grote informs us,
were of middle-class origin and "politicians of the democratical
stamp exercising ascendancy by and through the people, devoting
their time to the discharge of public duties and manifesting those
combined powers of action, comprehension and persuasive speech
which accustomed the citizens to look to them as advisers as well
as leaders;" but in other respects there was a marked contrast,
"the points which stood most conspicuous in the one being com
paratively deficient in the other".

According to Thucydides, who was of the succeeding generation
and consequently better informed than later commentators,
Themistocles "strikingly exhibited the might of unassisted na
ture" to a degree unapproached by any predecessor. "He con
ceived the complications of a present embarrassment, and divined
the chances of a mysterious future, with equal sagacity and with
equal quickness. The right expedient seemed to flash upon his
mind extempore, even in the most perplexing contingencies,
without the least necessity for premeditation. He was not less
distinguished for daring and resource in action : when engaged on
any joint affairs, his superior competence marked him out as the
leader for others to follow, and no business, however foreign to
his experience, ever took him by surprise, or came wholly amiss
to him."

Plutarch supplements the sketch by Thucydides with a more
personal estimate. Themistocles, the master biographer de
clares, had an unbounded passion, not merely for glory, but also
for display of every kind. He was eager to vie with others in
showy exhibition and not at all scrupulous in methods or procure
ment of means. "Besides being assiduous in attendance at the
Ekklesia and the Dikastery, he knew most of the citizens by
name, and was always ready with advice to them in their private
affairs. Moreover he possessed all the tactics of an expert party
man in conciliating political friends and in defeating political
enemies. And though he was in the early part of his life sin
cerely bent upon the upholding and aggrandisement of his coun
try, and was on some most critical occasions of unspeakable value
to it, yet on the whole his morality was as reckless as his intelli-



6 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

gence was eminent. He was grossly corrupt in the exercise of
power, and employing tortuous means, sometimes indeed for ends
in themselves honorable and patriotic, but sometimes also merely
for personal advantage."

"Of Aristides," Grote proceeds, "we possess unfortunately no
description from the hand of Thucydides. Yet his character is
so simple and consistent that we may safely accept the brief but
unqualified encomium of Herodotus and Plato, expanded as it is
in the biography of Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos, however little
the details of the latter can be trusted. Aristides was inferior to
Themistocles in resource, quickness, flexibility, and power of
coping with difficulties; but incomparably superior to him, as
well as to other rivals and contemporaries, in integrity public as
well as private; inaccessible to pecuniary temptations as well as to
other seductive influences, and deserving as well as enjoying the
highest measures of personal confidence. He is described as the
peculiar friend of Cleisthenes, the first founder of the democracy
as pursuing a straight and a single-handed course in political
life, with no solicitude for party ties, and with little care either to
conciliate friends or to offend enemies as unflinching in the ex
posure of corrupt practices, by whomsoever committed or upheld
as earning for himself the lofty surname of the Just, not less by
his judicial decisions in the capacity of Archon, than by his equity
in private arbitrations and even his candor in political dispute
and as manifesting, throughout a long public life full of tempting
opportunities, an uprightness without flaw and beyond all sus
picion, recognized equally by his bitter contemporary the poet
Timocreon and by the allies of Athens upon whom he first as
sessed the tribute.

"The abilities of Aristides though apparently adequate to
every occasion on which he was engaged, and only inferior when
we compare him with so remarkable a man as Themistocles were
put in the shade by this incorruptible probity; which procured for
him, however, along with the general esteem, no inconsiderable
amount of private enmity from jobbers whom he exposed, and
even some jealousy from persons who heard it proclaimed with
offensive ostentation.

"Neither indiscreet friends nor artful enemies, however, could



ARISTIDES THE SECOND 7

rob him of the lasting esteem of his countrymen; which he en
joyed, though with intervals of their displeasure, to the end of his
life. He was ostracized during a part of the period between the
battles of Marathon and Salamis, at a time when the rivalry
between him and Themistocles was so violent that both could not
remain at Athens without peril; but the dangers of Athens during
the invasion of Xerxes brought him back before the ten years of
exile were expired. His fortune, originally very moderate, was
still further diminished during the course of his life, so that he
died very poor, and the State was obliged to lend aid to his
children."

However one may view the seeming similarity of Mr. Lloyd
George to the brilliant, ambitious and daring Themistocles, a
point upon which there will be a great diversity of opinion, the
resemblance of M. Briand to Aristides is clear and unmistakable.
Like his famous prototype, Aristide the Second, as we are pleased
to depict him, has never forfeited the confidence of the people
which gave him his first Premiership in 1909. He combines to a
marked degree the straight minded conception of a Coolidge with
the "single handed course" of a Borah, "with no solicitude for
party ties and with little care either to conciliate friends or to
offend enemies".

After having acquired a local reputation for the florid and
fervid eloquence so dear to the French, he was elected a Deputy
at thirty-six, technically as a Socialist but really as a Radical, in
consequence of an impassioned appeal to the troops at St.
Etienne to revolt and join the workingmen of the Republic in a
general strike. He was then, in the laconic phrase of Mr. Wilbur
Forrest, a studious correspondent of The New York Herald Trib
une, "the dangerous type of revolutionary soapbox orator that
Secretary Kellogg would bar from the United States today".

But, as almost invariably happens in like instances involving
honesty of mind and stirring of conscience, a sense of responsi
bility brought to Briand's application of his theories a modifica
tion of action so distinct that, even while he was demanding
complete separation of the Church and State, his associates of
the Extreme Left became mistrustful of his tendency, and when
finally, having proceeded step by step toward Conservatism, he



8 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

prevented just such a strike as he had formerly encouraged by
threatening to fetch the railway men under control of the State
by conscription, he was denounced violently as a renegade, only
to light a fresh cigarette and shrug his broad shoulders.

"Look," he smilingly suggested the other day to friends who
had congratulated him upon his break with the Socialists, "at
poor Paul Boncourt, entangled in the Socialist organization when
he could have progressed much better if, like me, he had become
an honest renegade!"

A highly characteristic remark, if ever one was made, revealing