July 30, 19141

~~

-~

WAR

Blshop Butler once speculated

on the possibility of awholenationgoingsuddenly
to-day, he could
insane. If he werealrve
extend his query and ask If a half-dozen nations at once mightnot becomecrazy.
In
Vienna, in Paris, in Berlin, ~n S tP e t e r s
burg, he would see signs of acute mania afflictlng large bodies of people. Mob psychology oftenshowsitself
~n discouragmgand
alarmlng forms, butIS never so repulsive and
appalling as when ~t is seen in great crowds
we forget,indeed!
shouting f o r warLest
About nothing does the mob forget so
IY as about war. The Parisian crowd i s cryingoutto-day
%Berlin!Just as if the
same madness had not
filled the streets of
Pans m 1870, withwhatravageandhumillation to follow, others have not forgotteneven if theFrenchmobhas.
And t h e
way m which the war-fever has selzed upon
Berlln seems equally to call for the services
not of a physician, but of an alienist. If one
looked only at these surface manifestatlqns,
one would be tempted t o conclude t h a t Europewasaboutto
become a glganticmadhouse
Indications have long been that the mllitarist party,whichhastheupperhandin
Austria, intended to have a war with Servia,
no matter what that country did. The originaldemandsmadebyAustrlauponthe
ServianGovernmentwereimperiousinthe
to proextreme.Thattheywere~ntended
voke a refusal and to brmg
on hostilities 1s
now clear F o r the
Servlan
reply,
which
was a n almost
complete
submisslon,
was
promptlydeclaredbytheVlenna
Governmentto be, notmerelyunsatisfactory,but
dishonest It would be hard to Bnd rougher
language
in
diplomatic
a
note
Moreover,wenexthadthe
cool announcement
that, even If Servla were t o comply literally
wlth every detail of the Austrian ultimatum,
it wouldbetoolateTheAustriantroops
musthavethenlong-awaltedwar
If a decentpretext
could n o t be found,the
Austrian forwards would proceed without one.
Allthishas
come as a greatsurprise t o
AmericansTheshockcausedbytheassassination of ArchdukeFerdinandwasfully
realized ~n thls country, but the later news
d~spatches gave us in thls country very few
premonitions of thesequel.Yettheforeign
newspapers,coveringtheperiodfromthe
first t o the middle of July, have nowcome
of affairs
to hand, and they make the state
much plainer From them
i t is evident that
a press and militarist campaign against Servia was at once set on foot i n Vlenna, Thls
didnot
confine itself t o thg naturalout-

The Nation

1
5
3
1

~.

bursts of grief and anger

at the murder 01
theheirtothethrone,butwentviolently
into the whole matter of the Serb movement
and the threat to Austr~a
which it was al.
leged tomean.Thereweresigns
In plenty
thatthe old Emperor.FrancisJoseph,
was
pushed aside, more o r less, by the aggressive
party.He
once went so farastosend
statement t o the press denying some
of the
assertions which the army men had father
to
ed;buthisagedhandwastoofeeble
withstandtheonrush.Thosewhohad
so
confidently counted upon the Archduke Fer.
dinand, as one who would take a high tone
to
in foreign reIations, were determined not
be balkedbyhlsdeath.
So manifestwas
their purposethattheHamburg
Fremdew
bZatt, so early as July 4, spoke of an attack
byAustrlauponServiaas
a settledthing.
The only question was whether Russla would
be drawnintothestruggle:inthat
case,
asserted the Fremdenblatt, there can be not
a particle of doubt that the German Ambassador i n St.Petersburg
would notifythe
Czar that
Germany
would
conslder
it a
BundnasfaZ2-that
is, t h a t Germany,under
her treaty with. Austria, would be compelled
t o go to war with Russia.
Quotations could bemultipliedfrom
the
Vienna papers of t h e first and second week
cf July, going tb show the zeal displayed in
manufacturing,
not
alone
an
anti-Servian
spirit,
but

a demand
for
war

Thus the

oflicial DeutscAesVollcsblatt
publlshedthe
decislon of the Council of Ministers to apply
theseverestmeasurestothe
S&-bs i n BosniaThesewere
t o includeeven a rlgorous
control of their schools, into which military
dlsciplihewouldbeintroduced.
It also assertedthatAustrian
officials mustbeadmitted t o the inquiry which the ServianGovernment was to make into the assassination
Neues Waener Tagehlatt
atSaraJevoThe
spoke of thesatisfactloncausedbythe
belief that Austria would soon, i f necessary,
intervene with ener,T in Servia A strongRezchsposc, which
ertonewasheldbythe
declared
that
diplomatic
methods
would
to
be of no avail wlth Servia, whlch ought
be dealtwith
by Austriasummarlly.The
FrezePresse lookedahead
actual
intervention, or towar,andarguedthat
Russiaought
t o giveAustria
a freehand
a t Melgrade, since it was clear that the ambitlonsandtheplottings
of theSerbs constltuted a dangerto all Europe, as wellas
to Austria,aqdmustbesternlyrepressed
Thegeneralattitude
of the .,Vienna press
by
the^ Reachswas pot- badly,,represented
~,
post when it asserted that Austria was
not
~

threatening
Servia,
but
that Servia
was
menacing the Dual Monarchy.
To all this, the
official declaration of war
It is
byAustrlawasthelnevitablesequel.
a stepwhichwastakenwithout
a decent
regardfortheopinion
of mankind,and
is
fraught with consequences whxh may easily
amount to that
terrlble
catastrophe
of
whlchSirEdward
Grey solemnlywarned
Europe on Monday. Thedullestmustsee
that what Austria is driving at IS not simply
a blow at Pan-Serbism,but t h e acquisition
of Servianterrltory.This,
however, would
surelynotbepermittedbythePowers,
no
matter how rapidmay
be thetriumph
of
a EuAustria?_arms,withoutreferenceto
ropean Conference. TheGermanEmperor
has refused to assent to the calling
of such
a Conference i n advance, i n order t o prevent war, if possible, but it will have to come
later-unless,
indeed, all the Continental niLtlons should,
drawn into theconflict which
Austria
has
arrogantly
and
wickedly
begun.
WILSONS USE OF

In requesting the President to withdraw

from the Senate his nomination as a member of the Federal Reserve Board,Mr. Thoma s D. Jones has behaved as handsomely as
hehasdonethroughouttheentlre
affair.
Thecountryknewnothingabouthim
before, but it now knows him to be a man of
exceptionalsigor,independence,andhighmmdedness. It is e v ~ d e n tthat the striking
testimonialto him, signedbythe
leading
merchants and bankers of Chicago, did not
over-statehisqualifications.
This 1s said to be the Presidents first notabledefeat in Congress. It is such in the
sense that Mr. Jones was his personal choice
for the Federal Reserve Board, and
that h e
urged a confirmation with all the power of
hls Administration. Mr. Wilsonsletterto
Senator Owen, 111 behalf of Mr. Jones, was
not ~ntended, it is reported, for publication.
It wasgmenoutinadvertently.But
in its
statement about Mr. Joness connection wlth
the Harvester Company, ~t showed that the
President was not fully informed, and gave
an openmgforthepreJudiceandanlmus
whichhavebeen
so unhappilydisplayed.
Against them Mr. Wllson has not been able
to make head.
It IS onething,however,tobedefeated,
and a different thing to utilize defeatin such
a way as to strengthen ones posltion for t h e
future.This
is what President Wilson h a s
done ~n his remarkable letter accepting the
declination of Mr. Jones.Besidesexpress-

The Nation
ing avery clear and biting opinion of the
petty attitude of Senators Hitchcock and
Reed, B e has seized the occasion to set forth
certain convictions and principles of his own
which cannot fail to commend himtothe
sober Judgment of Americans who think.
the first place, he has put vividly his conception of the new banking system as a great
instrument for the general good upon which
it is an outrage for partisanship to lay its
hand. Anything
like
party
scheming
captious meddling, in connection with it, is
a wrong to the whole country. In the endeavor to establishsounderfinancialmethods and t o bring about a genuine prosperity,
there should be, affirms the President, united effort, with nothing of partisan preJudice o r class
antagonism.
Wlthmarked
emphasis he writes: I believe that the judgmentanddesire
of the whole country cry
out for a new temper in affairs.
What the President means bg-this, he has
made very definite. There has been a spirit
of proscription in theair.
Against some
classes of men there has been the grossest
discrimination.Theyhave
been lumped together, after the fashion of the French Revolution, as Enemies of the People.
one
wanted an example of this, one could find it
in the ranting in
which Senator Reed was
indulginglastThursday
atthe
very moment when thenews of Mr. Joness withdrawal was made known in the Senate. Could
we believe him, there are whole groups of
rapacious Americans going about to oppress
and devour their fellow-citizens. It isthe
Terror come again. O cocrse, a manlike
Senator Reed is more than half-conscious
thathe is talking clap-trap.He
1s simply
holding up bogey-men before his frightened
constituents. But the effect of such tirades
as his is most mischievous. It tends not only
to exclude a man like Mr. Jones from a public service which he was ready t o undertake
a t aPersonal sacrifice, but to prevent others of his kind from subjecting themselves
to similar vilidcation and rebuffs.
This was
a point made by the impressive array of Chicago men who urged the co-rmation of Mr.
Jones. How, they asked, if he IS rejected,
can we expect men of hlgh character and
marked ability to undertake public work f o r
the
nation?
They saw clearly that
the
course of the Senate was putting a premium
on littleand
subservient men. President
Wilsoi, too, sees it, and makes plain his abhorrence of the small-minded and intolerant
attitude which would shutoutgreat
capacity from great services. In the most expllcit language, he declared in hisletter that
the manifest injytice done t o Mr Jones

was not in keeping with the desires and the

demands of a generous, fair, and honorable
people; andhe
stamped upon the whole
idea of proscribing any class when it is a
question of enlisting the best skill and the
truestpatriotic devotion inthegreat
constructive work of government.
Some people in Washington have intimated that this Erst defeat of the President will
be as a letting out of the waters. Hereafter,
they pretend t o think, Senate or House will
feel at liberty to deny or thwart him. This
will be as it will be.No
cool observer ever
supposed that President Wilsons extraordinary ascendency over Congress could be indefinitely maintained. But it is far from being at an end as yet. And in the way in
which he has so seized upon his first striking check as t o cover his enemies with humiliation and t o get his own strong purpose
more clearly before the country than
ever
before, is plain warning that some men do
not cease to be formidablesimply because
they are defeated. Of Mr. Wilson it may
evidently be said, as it was of an English
statesman,
that
he
has
a terrible. rebound.

As thefirstmonth
of the operation in
New York State of the Workmens Compensation act draws t o a close, itsreality
as a factor in the peoples life becomes apparent in the news of the day. Such headlines as A Thousand Claims a Day for Cornpensation, Forty-eightDeaths in Twentythree Days, bring home vividly t o the mind
how large a part the simple and comprehensive mechanism of the new system I s going
relieving
to play in reducingdistressand
anxiety among the great mass of toilers in
thisStat?,andin
preserving t o thousands
of childrenopportunities
educationand
advancement of which a wholly unexpectedblow
of fatemight otherwise have deprived them. Thatthelawhasmarked
faults, and that, aside from any specific defects, the system will carry with it difficultiesand evils thatmust be reckoned with
as an offset t o its benefits, may be admitted;
but the feeling must be well-nigh universal,
among persons of right instincts, that here
has been accomplished a greatstrokein
the fight against human misery, a great addition to the sum of human happiness.

That the cost of this great gain has t o be

paid
and that it will beborne by the
people a t large in their capacity as consumers, is also being broughJhome in ,yarious
ways One of the most definite, and i n some

[Vol. 99, No. 2561

respectsmost interesting,instances of this
is furnished by the action of a number of
thelaundry companies, which haveadopted thesimple plan of adding one centto
their charge for each bundle of laundry delivered. On theslip it isdistinctlystated
that this is done on account of the cost of
the Workmens Compensation law, the company adding that they are firm bellevers in
workmens compensation, but it undoubtedly increases the cost of production. From
the beginning, the advocates of the legislation have planted themselves on the ground
that. the burden of accidentsoccurring in
L
the ordinary operation of an industry ought
not to be borne by the individuals who happen to be the victims, but ought to be regaTded as a normal charge upon the business, the cost entailed by proper compensationforinjury
or deathtoenterintothe
accounts on the same basis as the outlay for
fuel, or light, or fire-insurance, or taxes And
although it took some time for this idea to
become familiartothe
public, it must be
saia that as soon as it was clearly grasped
it met everywhere withready acceptance.
Therehas
been nofalse pretence in the
advocacy of the policy, nor has there, among
intelligent people, been any mlsunderstandingastothenature
of Its working. We
were all supposed to be very willing to pay
our share, as consumers, f o r that which it
was clearly desirable should be done and for
which, if done, it was clearly equitable that
the consumers should pay. Nevertheless, it
is fortunate that in this little matter of the
laundry people are made to realize expressly and palpably, even though on a small
scale, that these things
have to be paid
for, not by anabstractentity
called the
State, but by John Smith or Mary Jones, in
the_ very concrete capacity of a wearer of
shirts and stockings.
As for the amount of burdens of this kind
in general, when they are realized at all, it
must be confessed that people are prone to
magnify ratherthan
t o belittle them.
the cost of living should continue t o rise,
or even should continue at its present high
level, therewill doubtless be a greatdeal
said about the way in which the compensation act has aggravated thesituation.
Generically, suchtalk
is perfectlyJustified;
specifically, it is apt to be very loose and irresponsible. The same kind of thing is true,
too, about the burdens laid upon the community by the ever-increasing demands upon
State andcitygovernments
humanitarf o r educationandpublic
ianinstitutions,
health,and f o r themaintenance of conditions conducive better living for-the mass-

es. Butthe
cold figures, when looked at,
largeas they arein themselves, areseen
to be very small 1n comparison with the aggregate expenditures of the well-to-do and
therich. To imagme, as some have done,
thatthemamtenance
of theirstandzrd of
comfort by even the fairly well-to-do, or their
ability t o rear a family, is seriously affected by the cost of the States philanthropic
activities is to form arithmetical conclusions
without
arithmetical
data.
The
state
of
mind at the bottom of suchnotions IS not
altogether unlike t h a t which was wittily ex
posedby a public-spirited man of wealth, a
short time ago. If any man tells you,he
said t o the solicitor for a charity for whlch
a vigorous campaign was
made, that he is
being called upon for s o many things that
he is afraid_ he- will end in the EoorEouse,
just tell him that whenever he gets to the
poorhouse I will refund to him all the money he has ever spent on charity.
We must avoid both the extreme of ignoring the seriousness of the expense that may
be involved in the multiform schemes which
fall under the comprehensive designation of
social betterment, andthe otherextreme
of crying out in exaggerated alarm whenever
any such scheme is broached. Largeas is
the scope of this compensation for injuries
and the expense thereof, it has limits which
would seem t o be pretty well fixed from the
beginnmg by obvious conditions. Thisis
not the case with old-age pensions, nor with
penslon schemes generally; andin
these
there are aptalso t o enter factors which may
be far moredemoralizing, both as t o politicsand as t o individual life, thanisthe
case with the system of compensation for accident.
TRIALS:

~~

The picturesque proceedings in the Caillaux trial bring to the front,

more vividly
than anything that has happened since t h e
Dreyfus case, the contrast between Continen.
tal crlamal procedure and that prevailing
throughout
the
English-speaking
world.
Great as are the differences Inherent In t h e
two Juristic systems, thecontrastis
perhapsgreatest between the Continental system as practiced in France and the English
system as exemplified in the United States.
Reading the reports of what has gone on day
after day in the Paris courtroom, one-flnds
ones self in a world so different from that
depicted in any great trial inNew York, that
one hardly feels as if the same name should
be applied tothe
two things. A person
whose habiis and training had caused him t a

believe thai either was marked out by sacred

and indisputable principles as the only just
method of establishing the truth of a criminal case might easily fall into the error of
looking upon theother as absurd or monstrous. What, admit hearsay and sentlment,
let witnessesdeliver
stump speeches, and
drag in any fact, however remote, that they
their counsel fancy may have some influence on the jurys Judgment? How can a
jurydeal responsibly withthisfarrago
of
miscellaneous assertions? Will not
the
value of them be judged simply according t o
the fancy, o r the prejudices, o f - the jury?
And is this not reducing a trial t o a farce?
Such might be the feeling of the American or the Englishman; but the Frenchman
could match it in his judgment of
methods. Is it possible,-he might say, that this
everlastingfencing on the admissibility of
evidence 1s reany calculated to bring out the
truth? Again and again, one finds ones self
atthe very crux of thematter,but
some
metaphysical objection closes the lips of the
witness. Moreover, the effort expended on
these
technical
matters is so exhausting
that the pomt of view of all concerned becomes a false one. You not only refuse to
let in all the light that
can be had
the
subject, but you fix attention so intensely on
the rules of the game that the real objecttheascertainment
of the truth-ceases
to
be, as it should be, the oneabsorbing purpose of judge and jury. With us, the truth is
thething
constantly soughtfor;
we may
dash about wildly in our search for it, but
our eyes are open, our hands are untied, and
we get it at last if there is any way of hunting it down.
-That the one way is as good as the other
would be a bold assertion: but that each has
its advantages and each its drawbacks there
can be no question. Probably the opinion of
FltzJamesStephen that, on the whole, miscarriages of justice have, in practice, been
found t o be just about as likelyunder one
system as under the other, is not
very far
from being the opinion of the ablest students
of the subJect. But t o hold this opinion is
very different from asserting that questions
of procedure are of no importance
I t - is
quite possible that the English method has
worked out, among the peoples of whose traditlons andtemperament it is an outcome,
far better than theContinental method could
have done, and vzce
Butthe fundamental fact is that the right working of either depends essentially on the desire t o do
justice. Given this, andeither method will
be made to serve the ends of truth and
equlty; the-right of the accused on the one

hand not to be condemned without convincing evidence, and of the State on the other
not t o be paralyzed in the upholding of the
lawby
trivial o r unreasonabledificulties,
will be paramount, however theexternal
orm may seem to stand in the way. Popes
dictum, Whateer is bestadministered
is
best, applies more truly t o the forms of the
administration of justicethan it does
forms of government in general.
Interesting aspect of the questlon
ed by these comparisons relates to thedegree
of strictness with which the rules of procedure should be appiied. Under the English
system, there has been at various times a
vast amount of abuse arising from a senseless magnifying of technicalities. I n England, procedure was long ago so reformed as
almost completely- t o rid criminal trials of
this reproach. I n our own country, the agitation of the subJect durmg the past twenty
years has accompllshed notable improvement
in pract&e$but there is still room f o r much
more. The fact that all the great natlons of
the Contment get on without a large part of
those rules of procedure which we regard as
so essential does not justify a general and
undiscriminating laxityin the application of
those rules; this would be sure t o mean partiality andinequity at best, and something
like chaos at worst. But that consideration
may properly be adduced t o fortify the argument from common-sense againstthe erection of technical rules into a sacredness that
1s foreign to them nature. The rules should
he obeyedstrictly, and above all uniformly;
but they should not be stretched beyond their
natural meaning,
made so-exacting as to
demand for their fulfilment
performance
that borders on impossibility.
It IS in reference t o the subject of immunity that this question of the limits to the
saeredness of aprinciple
of procedure is
most strikingly exemplified. The Constitutional principle-wholly absent from the procedure i n French trials-that
no person
shall belEompelled, in any criminal case,
to be a witness against himself, has been
construed t o cover so much more than what
the words themselves say, that it has acquired thename of the criminals privilege.
This, it seems t o us, could never have come
about if thedistinction between principles
of high import in themselves and principles
which are mere practical rules
the attainment of an ulterior end had been borne in
mind. Thereisnothinginherently
wrong.
nothing inherently oppressive, about asking
an accused person to tell his
in court;
but the process is liable to abuse, and the
Constitutionalprovision is based solely

T h e Nation.

[Vol. 99, No. 2561

the belief that the only safe way to prevent

.y, who did not know that the law gave them
CENTURY
WAVERLEY.
the abuse 1s to exempt the accused from any nme t o make a defence, -would plead gullty
Nothing in Waverley is more romantic
necesslty of answeringquestions.Such
be- 50 as t o receive a minimum fine.
than the story of its varying fortunes, from
ing the case, let the rule be obeyed by all
the day when, upon the unfavorable opinion
Tnecivilside
of the Los Angeleswork
means; but let it be obeyed and n o more. It has revealedneed
f o r reliefwhlch
would of a criticalfrlend,Scottthrewaside
1s senseless to girdle

it about with one line

of defence after another, for fear that somehow o r other it mlght be violated. A violation of the rule 1s n o t a n evil in ~tself, for
the rule is not a good in Itself, to treat it
with the fearful reverence belonglag to the
fundamentalrlghts
of person orproperty
is n o t only mischievous, but senseless

T H E PUBLIC DEFENDER.

The Plan tohave a publlc defenderhas

doubtlesssufferedfromthetltle
proposed
forthat
officer. I t seems t o assumethat
is simplytoseek
t o obtain ac.
hlsduty
quittal.ButState
law-s have long guarana qualiteed to accused personsdefenceby
fied attorneyBYmany
a fee ist regularly
allowed tothistemporarypublicdefender.
The creation of the public defender aims
to
Put this
defence
on a better
basls
The
MassachusettsCommlssion
on Immigration
hasfoundthathundreds
of misunderstand
ingandmlsunderstood
poor personsyearly
of their cases
suffer through the entrusting
tomenlackinginablllty,honesty,
or
ergy; and it recommends the establishment
of a public defender a s essential topre.
vent crime and teach respect f o r t h e law.
Thesoleplaces
in Americawhich
have
madetrial of thepublicdefender~are Loe
Angeles, whereonehasservedsinceJanu.
ary, 1914, as a State officer, andPortland,
Oregon. whereprlvate
provision has been
made for the malntenance
of the office. The
law
authorizing
the
innovatlon
in
Oklahomawas vetoed by t h e Governor. In five
monthsAttorneyWard
of Los Angelesha
investlgated 3,000 cases, andhasappeared
in 135 of theseinthecriminalcourtsThr
District Attorney, admitting hls hostcity
tc
theplanattheoutset,remarksthat
you
are performmg a duty which tlm
office has
attempted In safeguarding the rlghts of the
defendant;and I belleveunderthecircum,
stances
your
position
gives
you a better
opportunity to performthatdutythan
the
prosecutor has It appears that the mosi
cryingneedwasforsomeonew~lling
tc
verifythestones
of the accused and Ene
witnesses In theirbehalf.
Men, again, whc
involve
dld n o t realizethatmanytrials
questions of law as well as of fact, or men
mentally defective, would
plead
guilt:
though they had committed no crime, or on
palliatedbycircumstances.
Accused, fina:

its first half-dozen chapters, without either

reluctance or remonstrance, to the day, nme
years later, when, happenmg to want
some
fishing-tackle for the use of a guest, he looklonged into an old writing-deskandthe
lostmanuscriptpresenteditself.Likethe
Dminherited K n ~ g h of
t a later tale, the neglectedchapterswentforthwith
no recommendatlon
save
their
own
merit
The
au.
thor of Marmion could not afford to risk
in a newstyle of
hispoeticalreputation
composition1 Nor was it certain at first
thathishesitationwasnotwellfounded.
Thepubhcdidnotappeartowelcomethe
anonymous
production
Yet
thls indlfferencewasshort-lived.Scottconfessedthat
after the first two or three months its popularityhadincreased
in a degreewhich
musthavesatisfiedtheexpectations
of the
author,had these beenfarmoresanguine
thanhe everentertained.Ahttlelonger,
and it became evident that
a new era had
been inaugurated m English literature This
was in 1814 A hundredyearslaterfinds
the serles of romances thus begun flourlshing in undiminished popularity,andevery
aspiring author hoping fora tithe of t h e success of the novels that poured forth from the
Wizardspen.
Peoplesometimesamusethemselvesby
askingoneanother
in whatperlod of t h e
worlds h ~ s t o r y t h e y wouldchoosetohave
lived. It wouldbeeasytomake
a worse
answerthantosay.
In the early part
of
he
the n~neteenth century, when one could
sure of a n e v novelbyScotteveryyear.
One mightimagine
the UlsterConference
adjournmg for a few days in order that the
of His Majestys Governleadingmembers
ment and of His Majestys Opposition might
To maintain that there should everywhere
finish the latest romance
spun by the Wizbe a publlcdefenderwouldbeabsurd.The
a r d of the North No murder trlal would
innovatlon is one t o beintroduced
slowly.
completewlthoutcopiousquotationsfrom
One locahty may learn from the experience
the newest volume from Edinburgh, not necof another.Theinvestigationsundertaken
essarilybecause
of therelevancy
of anyseparately by the Phi Delta Phi Society and thingutteredbyhero
o r heroine,but
bsthe New York County Lawyers Associat~on
cause of the
compelling
interest
of t h e
a publicdefender
is scenes.
shouldshowwhether
The
opposing
lawyers
would
vie
deslrablehere.There
IS no doubtthat
In w ~ t heach other for the privilege of readmg
many courts the ignorant andhelpless Suf- as much as posslble to the jury. High-school
feratthehands
of pettyexploiters;there
students,neglectingtheirprescribedreadislittledoubt
that, evenapartfromsuch
ing,
would
cover severaltimes
as much
shysters, the machinery
of Justice frequent- groundinthefascinatmgnewstory,
nor
lyworkswithroughness.Theremaybe
i c r e d ~ ta bold prophet who should speak
of
variety of remedies.Maynotthe
public thedaywhen
so irresistible a book would
lfind its way to the college entrance list.
ldefenderproveto be one of them? . . ,

2therwlsecosttoomuch.Manyhavewon
wage settlementswhentheyhad
n o t the
ante of a meal.LiketheLegal
Aid Soxeties,thepubhcdefendergivesthehe
to thechargethatthecourtsareonlyfor
the
rlch.
Portlands
public
defender
has
labored only in police courts.The
Municipal Judge testifies that he has given a new
meaningtotheguarantee
of a fairand
impartialtrial,and
he himselfwrltes
in
Case a n d Oowzment of the correction of the
gravest defect of the Western police courtthedisregard
of therules of evldence observed In a court of record, s o t h a t dozens
o n hearsaytestiof personsareconvicted
mony and testimony otherwise incompetent.
Thereiteratedobjection
to t h e public defender is that the State concedes the accused
everysafeguard;hemustbeindictedby
a
grand
jury,
on a sworn
accusation;
he
he 1s confronted by his witnesses;
LE
allowed challenges
and
pleas,
and
guilt.
twelve men must agree on his
One really wonders, remarks Bench und
Bar, how a conviction can ever be secured.
But
the
fact
is
that
many
charges
are
backed by coloredevidence, and that action
by thegrandJury
is oftenhhrried.The
machinery of the law is directed by a public
officer eager f o r results. Fitted against hired
lawyers, he acquires aggressiveness not easilyshaken off Wheretested,thepublic
defenderbasnothamperedthe
law, buthas
facilitateditbycooperationwiththe
dm
trict attorney, and has reduced expenses by
pointing out cases where prosecution
IS useless H e w ~ l obviously
l
be no moreInclined
toacqult a guilty man than the prosecutor
toconvict an innocent.

- 8

The

July 30, 19141

But do you mean to imply that as a n hie

toricalromancerScottwasperfect?
On1
t h i n g we like ahout the author
of Waver
ley is that he did not think so himself. H
seems almost pained that so careless a plec
of writing should have won so great a su(
cess. Thewholeadventures
of Waverley
in his movements up and down the countr:
with the Highland cateran Bean
Lean, h
points out, just as if he were a professor o
English,literature,aremanagedwithou
much skill. Robertson
Nicoll has just bee:
demonstrating Scotts gloriousconfusion
in Midlothian.Thenthere
is t h e awfu
of The A
;$,
slip in theseventhchapter
quary,where he makesthehugedisk
o
a setting sun sink intotheocean
off thl
east coast of Scotland. Moreover,especial
l y in Waverley, he is long in getting un
der way, and more than
a
uncertain 0.
his course. His third reading of Pride ant
Prejudice brings from him a sigh. The
bow-WOW strain I candomyself,like
an1
nowgoing,buttheexquisitetouchwhicl
rendersordinarycommonplacethings
anc
charactersinterestingfrom
the t r u t h
the description and the sentiment
is tienlec
m e Withlimitationslikethese,how
it that he and his taleshavesurvived
:
hundredyears?
Let the shamefultruth come from the nov
elist himself.Afterconfessingthelack
plan in Waverley, he immediately added:
It suited best, however, the road
I wantec
totravel,andpermittedmeto~ntroducf
somedescriptions of scenefyandmanners
to which the reality gave an interest whicl
the powers of the author might have other
wise failed to attain for them. And in an
other place heis even bolder in setting inter
estabovetechnicalperfection
or even his
torical accuracy. He
t h a t would please thf
modern world, he writes, yet presen! thr
exactimpression
of a tale of the Mlddlr
will bc
Ages, will repeatedlyfindthathe
oblige& in despite of hisutmostexertions
t o sacrifice t h e last t o the first object. I1
is unnecessary to readfarther.Here
waL
evidently a man who was determined to de
light his readers even at the cost
of offend
ing the antiquaries.Lethisknowledge
.of
the past, and his conscious tampering wlth
I t , be the measure of his guilt. Carlyle hit
message,
him a harder blow. Hehas
according
to
the
Prince
of Message-Bearers.
We should not be surprised if the romancer
hadinstinctivelyavoidedanythingresembling one. Howbrazen,then,
for Waverley
and his fellows t o be marching along after
a hundredyears,theireyes,notdim,
nor
.
their natural force -abated!
-

, A d

Wation

Foreign Correspondence
SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS IN ENGLANDTHE VALUE OF THE OXFORD LO
CALS-THEIR
SCOPE AND
SIGWIFI
CANCE
LONDON,
July 17
There IS a familiar story of how a Frencl
Minister of Public Instruction one day pullem
out hls watch, and remarkecl that at that mo
ment every schoolboy in France was taking i
lesson insuch-and-such a sublectThe
tal
IS not true, but Den trovato, and the tltle of 1
Trowatore belongs in this sense t o the late E d
ward Bowen, of Harrow.whoinvented
th
story as a satire o n the Contineutkl ten6enc:
to the over-regulation of education. But ther
exists a n office in Oxford where the secretar:
-a
distinguished
mathematical
don-migh
pull out hls watch a t nine oclock next Thurs
d a y mornlng, and declare. At this hour 15,001
Enghsh schoolboys and schoolgirls in all part,
of the country-from
Berwick t o Weymouth
znd fromPenzancetoGreat
Yarmouth-wil
sit down to tackle my examination papers
11
arithmetic For next week is one of thl
most important in the English
school yearthe week of the Oxford Locals
Forcign students of English secondary edu
-ation have scarcely given due attentlon to thc
p a r t played in its development by the local
examinations oJ the older universities.Unti
the last few years the national Governmen
h a d littleto do withthesecondary
schools
There had grown up a large number of sucl
schools of varyingtypes and underdivers
-.ontrol-old endowed schools. schools foundec
3y religious denominations and other corpora,
tlons. and schools owned by private mdivid.
uals. It allseemed utterly chaotic-an
exam.
ple of independence run mad Yet, in fact
;his apparently heterogeneous mass of institu.
:ions was largely coordinated by a n examina.
i o n system, Orianated by Oxford, and afterflards adopted by Cambridge also. which. whilc
tht
tllowing elasttcity of method,brought
Nark of these schools to the test of a commor
jtandard The impartial outside criterlon
thu!
tpplied t o wealthy and poor schools alike gav6
L recognltion to good teachingwherever
pas t o be found. and helped to kill off the pre.
:entiousacademies, so called,whose ineffi.
:iency had hitherto escaped exposure. I n thc
3mallcr ruraltowns, especially. the local extminations of thetwouniversities
did muck
.o raise the tone of the secondary schools
ong before the national Government attemptanything in the way of Inspection and asxstance.
Next weeks Oxford local exammations m1
,e held slmultaneously at 41 centres in or neal
London, 351 in the provlnces. and 1 3 abroad
3f the last group,threecentresare
In Nen
at St. Kitts, one
:ealand, one inNatal,one
n the Bahamas, one at Malta. one at Hong:ong. one at a mission settlement at Chefoo,
the
convent
nd f o u r In Belgium. where
chools for mrls attract many English pupils.
!he establishment of a local centre IS not a
eryintricate
affair Most of thework
is
one by some resident interested in education,
Tho undertakes the duties of local secretary
e gathers around him
localcommittee t o
hare the financialresponsibihtyandtake
urns m assisting in thesupervisioninthe
xamination room Some centresadmit boys
nly, others,glrls, only, and others both boys
s d girls The ldcalcommittee has to guarI

125
m t e e t o the Oxford Delegacy of Local ExamInations that I t will nresentnotlessthan
twenty-fivecandldates, each paying- toheadquarters a fee of 1, o r that, in default of the
of
fullnumber, It will makeupthebalance
fees The committee is authorizedtocharge
the candidates an additional fee of a few shillings tomeetthe
localexpenses
of hire of
examination room, stationery. postage. and the
superintending examiners railway fare, board,
and lodging. At some centres the number of
canddates considerably exceeds a hundred. I n
such cases the local committee can afford to
very small sum, and,
reduce its local fee to
at the same time. have
surplus to spend on
prizes.
Candidates may come fromany school or
may have been privatelytaughtTheyenter
themselves for either the senior, the Junior,
the preliminary examination. Theyarenot
ehmble f o r honors in the senior if over nineteen years of age, o r In the lunior over seventeen, or in the preliminary over fourteen, but
candidates for a pass certificate are admitted
though exceedmg these ages
The senior examination comprises twentythreesections.
(1) arlthmetic: (2) rehaous
knowledge: (3) history; (4) Enghshlanguage
and 1iteraNre; (5) geography; ( 6 ) polltical
economy, etc., (7) Latin; (8) Greek, (9)
French: (10) German. (11) Italian. (12)
Spanish; (13) mathematics; (14) higher mathematics, (15) botany: (16) chemistry: (17)
physics, (18) domesticscience andhygiene,
(19) music; (20) bookkeeping; (21) needlework; (22) natural science, and (23) drawing
To obtam a certificate candldate must satisfy
theexaminers
in at least five sub~ects, of
which four must be from sectlons (1) to (19).
No one may offer morethaneightsubJects
rom sections (2) t o (23) The scheme is thus
distinctly a n elective one, while discouraging
soft snaps It is announced that the quality
of the handwriting and of the spelling and the
style of the composition will be taken into ac-aunt throughout the examInatIon
Still further alternatives are offered in the
3etmls of thevarlous
sections. so that the
schools which send
candidates are not
lbllped
follow a n identical
curriculum
There are choices, for example, in the books of
Scripture that may be stuaed for ( 2 ) . in the
serlods of history f o r ( 3 ) . in the Enghsh classics for (41, and in the Latin and Greek books
Cor (7) and (8). Themusic is entirelytheretical, but no one can pass in chemistry or
mtanywithoutsatlsfymgpractlcaltests
A
31milw- syllabus, butlessadvanced
and less
rarled. is prescribed for the lunior examina;ion, w1thtwenty sections, and fortheprclmlnary, with seventeen
The experience of many years has brought
;he management of theseexaminationsto
a
ugh pitch of efficiency.. The instructions issued from headquarters at Oxford t o superlnending examinersand localcommlttees,
as
re11 as to CanChdates, make what appears like
, complicated
scheme
work
with
perfect
moothness. At each centrethesupenntendn g examiner is an Oxford
appolnted by
he Delegacy
H e has nothingto
do with
udging the answers, but IS responsible for the
upervision during the whole of the examinaton week.
le hdsto see. f o r instance, that
he local committee has housed the exammaLon In adequate rooms with a desk space of
feet for^ each candidate. that the sealed
Nackets of questlon papersare
opened and
he contents
distrlbuted
at the prescribed
tmes,- that the answers are collected accord-