136

$72.50 per month as compared with $27.50 in 1916, and that the company has been saved by the part-pay, part-tip system some $150,000,000 since the Pullman sleeper was invented.

There is undoubtedly a special pleasure in recognizing by a gratuity service well and politely rendered. On the other hand, when tips are paid solely because it is the custom and without regard to good, bad, or indifferent service rendered, or when tipping is ostentatious display of money-pride, or when it is a sort of competitive bidding to get unfair precedence, it is a nuisance and an offense.

The Country Doctor

IN

N a speech before the National Clinical Congress, which was held at New Haven, Dr. Morris Fishbein deplored the passing of the personal physician. Under existing conditions, he said, the skilled practitioner and the specialist are being transformed into medical machines, while the advantages of our modern hospital system tend to become outweighed by the depersonalization of the patient.

Dr. Fishbein might have extended his remarks to apply to the country doctor. Even more than in the city, the passing of personal physicians would be a cause for the deepest regret in our rural districts. Yet there is a tendency in this direction. It is hard for country districts to get doctors who measure up to the standards which they rightfully demand, for the type of man who used to be content with a country practice is being drawn into the city, lured there, not only by hope of fame and fortune, but also by the opportunities for advancement in the practice of his profession. It is a problem which has already awakened the concern of the American Medical Association.

and are of general as well as of scientific interest.

Baffin Land is rated as the fourth largest island in the world. This expedition has trimmed its size down by 5,000 square miles (about the size of Connecticut) as a result of a coast survey in stretches not heretofore measured. But this reduction from an area which has been estimated at from 230,000 to 300,000 square miles (at least three times the size of Great Britain) still leaves Baffin Land a vast expanse, largely unmapped, much of which, Mr. Putnam says, has never felt the foot of white men. Mountains perhaps 8,000 feet high, lakes over a hundred miles long, minerals of commercial value, are known to exist. Incidentally, it is believed that the expedition has discovered in Baffin Land the summer home of the blue goose, a problem that has long baffled naturalists.

Wireless despatches from Mr. Putnam to the New York "Times" give an interesting account of a sub-expedition in a whale-boat along the unknown western coast and a push of fifty miles into the interior. Along the eastern coast there are small Eskimo settlements, but for the most part the great island is barren and desolate.

Baffin Land is out of the usual line of whalers and explorers, and for that very reason, as Mr. Putnam points out, it offers a peculiarly interesting field for geographers, geologists, and even perhaps archæologists. The task is not without hazards as to sea and coast.

It is a distinct gain to science that a large extent of accessible land is no longer to be almost fabulous as regards its nature and availability to human

uses.

The New Radio Waves

N some manner the newspapers seem to have created the impression that the new five-meter radio waves with which the scientists of the General Electric Company have just been experimenting are something inherently different from ordinary radio waves. They move in straight lines, and so-called "radio shadows" are cast when they encounter solid obstacles. Both performances smack of what we know as light. Yet radio waves are a kind of light.

Light to most of us is something we sense with our eyes. Our difficulty lies in grasping without the bias due to our own immediate experiences the reality behind such almost identical phenomena as visible light and radiant heat, X-rays and radio waves, all of which are also a kind of light. It is because we have

The Outlook anatomical equipment for perceiv only two of these four that we tend regard them as something quite differ from one another. To sense radio wa we must first translate them into sou a wholly unrelated phenomenon; X-r we must first slow down ten thous times in frequency before we can se their presence with our eyes.

Why this peculiarity, this "choosine of the human senses, if all these p nomena are one and the same kind thing? It is enough to say that man a the animals evolved in an environm whose description was evidently w enough conveyed to them by the limi senses they possessed. Can we n however, conceive of a synthetic cr ture equipped to sense the entire rar of phenomena comprised in this te "light," taken in its broader, m philosophic sense? From the long wireless waves, fifteen miles from cr to crest, to the shortest known wav made known a year or so ago by Mil kan under the name of cosmic "ray (waves), there extends an absolute unbroken gamut: wireless waves, rad broadcast waves, radiant heat or infr red light, visible light (red to viole ultra-violet "rays" (waves again, reality), X-rays, the gamma "ray given off by radium, and the cosm "ray."

We Remain Ignorant

IN

N all this great spread of waves the is no inherent difference. The differ only in length, which is anothe way of saying they differ in frequend of vibration; for we may think of the as something like smooth water waves a quiet, pond, moving ahead and vibra ing up and down at one and the sam time. And the five-meter waves of th recent radio experiments are simply part of this great gamut which we mu regard as only artificially or arbitrari divided into various ranges to suit th convenience of man (the waves existe before man).

What medium these waves exist in an interesting problem. A few years ag we should have said with certainty, th ether. More caution is used to-day though the ether remains a splendi postulate by means of which to explai their performances. Like the hypothe cal ether itself, the Einstein theory ha rendered the old ether concept rathe tenuous. Einstein did not, as is some times erroneously stated, throw out th ether he simply did not need it, hend He did not bring it in. And the Einstei theory is now pretty well along towar tentative acceptance. In place of the

October 5, 1927

ther for the transmission of light we have the newer quantum theory: light is some sort of energy flying in separate ittle bundles. This is a return to the cruder idea back of Newton's original corpuscular theory of light. The fact is, however, that we do not yet know what ight is. We only know some of the hings it does.

The Women's National Golf
Championship

UST when it seemed almost certain that the American champion among women on the links would be a Canalian, the tables were unexpectedly urned. Just before the semi-finals Mrs. W. G. Fraser, of Ottawa, defeated the rilliant young French golfer, Mlle. Simone Thion de la Chaume, who was egarded almost as the Helen Wills of golf. Miss Ada McKenzie, champion of he Dominion of Canada, at the same ime reached the semi-finals. Though born and bred in Georgia, and as Miss Alexa Stirling winning her chief golfing ame in the United States, Mrs. Fraser

of British parentage and is the wife of Canadian. Contrary to general expectations, Mrs. Fraser was beaten by Mrs. Miriam Burns Horn, of Kansas City; and Miss McKenzie was beaten by Miss Maureen Orcutt, of Haworth, New Jersey. In the finals the victory went to Mrs. Horn by five up and four to play. On the links, as on the tennis courts, women have been successful in repelling he invaders.

* Kill the Umpire"

C

ERTAIN principles of sportsmanship have decreed that onlookers at such sports as tennis, golf, and polo must retrain the natural expression of their feelings, but there has never been any disposition to restrict the prerogatives of baseball fans. It has been an unwritten aw that if the spirit so moves them they nay hiss, jeer, catcall, and at times of extreme provocation-throw bottles without awakening any extreme condemnation from the public. It is true hat mobbing an umpire is not in the best of form, but the rules of etiquette governing spectators at the great National pastime have always been most iberally interpreted.

Now a severe blow has been struck at his bulwark of free speech. Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, has dragged into court an obstreperous fan whom he charges with disturbng the peace. He is not accused of throwing bottles or mobbing an umpire, but simply of upsetting the nerves of the

Underwood & Underwood

ish contestant, in one lap attained the marvelous speed rate of 2891⁄2 miles per hour. This is stated to be the highest officially recorded speed ever reached by a human being.

The only other contestants were three Italian planes. All were forced down by engine trouble.

If we compare the new record with that of Major de Bernardi, of the Italian Air Force, last year (2461⁄2 miles), it will be seen that the speed of seaplane flying has been pushed forward notably. In part this is due to improvement in the form of the planes and in part to superior engines. The plane that Lieutenant Williams would have entered for this country had he been able to get it in shape in time has been laughingly described as the "flying motor" because its motor is enormous in proportion to its small wings.

There has been special interest in this

Acme

contest since M. Jacques Schneider offered the prize to the French Aero Club fifteen years ago, and from that time the speed shown has increased by five times and more. There is a growing feeling that the use of the seaplane for sea trips will be developed until it is both. the best and fastest plane for that purpose.

The races to Spokane and at Spokane (called the National Air Derby) were completed with one fatality-Richard Hudson and Jay Radike were killed near Morristown, New Jersey, when their plane crashed. Several other planes

were forced down in the across-thecountry flights. There were three separate contests in the New York-to-Spokane races; the non-stop flight produced no winner; the list of contestants and winners in the two flights with certain fixed stops would fill a column or more of this journal. That the flights were successful in increasing a healthy spirit of reasonable competition in aviation races is generally agreed. Careful official planning and supervision made this possible.

Convention this year in Paris, there were many misgivings. On account of the

Keystone

Edward E. Spafford, of New York City, the newly elected National Commander of the American Legion

war debts the French were believed, some quarters in America, to have no too kindly feelings toward America and to be none too ready to welcome a reminder of that other debt, not es mated in money, to those from overs who had helped to repel the invad Besides, there were doubts as to the se restraint of these Legionnaires w would be celebrating far from home a without military discipline. If repo that come to us from the Conventi may be believed, there was no occasi for these misgivings or doubts. Bo French and Americans have justifi faith in their common sense, self-contr and good will. The French people ha welcomed their old friends and glad acknowledged an unpayable debt. A the visitors have shown that mixture exuberance and of respect which is t natural response of men revisiting scen where they have had a great and lasti experience.

Now General Pershing has suggest that the Legion make another pilgrima ten years from now.

For the first time the Legion h chosen as National Commander a Na man. The new Commander is Edwa Elwell Spafford, a graduate of th United States Naval Academy, wh

October 5, 1927

after resigning from the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in 1914 to study law, re-entered the Navy and served in command of a destroyer in the Mediterranean.

With the election of the successor to National Commander Savage the formal meetings of the Convention came to an end. During the Convention, however, and afterwards many Legionnaires visited scenes of battles and other parts of France where they had served. Especially noteworthy were two pilgrimages -one, of several hundred of the Legionnaires to Verdun as a mark of respect to the French who to the number of nearly half a million gave their lives there that the invaders should not pass; the other, to St. Mihiel, where the Americans for the first time as a unit made their presence really felt on the German lines by wiping out the salient that had stood there for four years.

Whatever the impression of the Legion Convention of 1927 may have upon France, the effect upon America is likely to be most significant. The men who made this visit are men whose influence directly, and indirectly through the organization they represent, upon American public opinion will continue for years to grow. It is not likely that this visit will do anything to change either the interests of France or the interests of the United States; but it is certain that it will affect the way in which our interests are represented in any dealings with France and the way in which the interests of France are understood in this country.

A Plausible Plan

BECAUSE the members of the Ameri

can Legion will furnish an increasing number of leaders in public affairs, what the Legion thinks on public questions is an indication of future legislation. It is therefore of significance that at the Convention in Paris the Legion adopted a resolution urging the creation. of a Department of National Defense with three branches, one branch for the Army, one for the Navy, and one for aviation. The demand for this change, however, was conditioned by the words

"as soon as warranted."

The resolution for this change was not adopted without a very active and at times hot discussion. The argument for removing aviation from the Army and Navy seemed to many, and especially to some aviators, as convincing. Nevertheless we believe that those who voted against this resolution really represented the best sense on the subject. The President pointed out that the Army and the

Navy were now united under the Commander-in-Chief and that bringing them together in a new department would serve no useful end.

There is really no more reason for taking naval aviation out of the Navy Department and taking military aviation out of the War Department and putting

Wide World

Baron Ago von Maltzan

them together under an Aviation Department than there is for taking naval artillery out of the Navy and field and heavy artillery out of the Army and putting them under an Artillery Department. There is no doubt of the need for improvement in the organization in both the War Department and the Navy Department, as there is need for improvement in all the departments in Washington; but the burden of proof rests upon those who for the sake of securing better aeronautical supplies and getting rid of red tape would tear down. the present structure and build a new and untried one.

Ago von Maltzan

139

March, relations between the United States and Germany were still those of nations quite conscious of their recent enmity. By his tact, his good will, and his common sense he hastened the restoration of normal feeling. Two flag incidents may be taken as symbols of the change. When President Wilson died, the flag at the German Embassy in Washington was noticeably not at halfstaff. Last November, on Armistice Day, both German flags flew over the German Embassy in honor of the American dead. Of themselves such incidents do not make or mar international friendships; but they do signify a good deal concerning the attitude of those on whose ability and tact international relations largely depend. The real business of diplomacy lies in adjusting the interests of one nation with those of another; and when the business of making adjustments is intrusted to people who understand one another's points of view, diplomacy has a good chance of success. Baron Ago von Maltzan was ready to risk some loss of popularity at home for the sake of considering American points of view.

He came of the German nobility. His first name, Ago, was really made up of the initials of three of his given names. Baron Adolf Georg Otto von Maltzan was Freiherr zu Wartenberg und Penzlin. He belonged to the class known as Junkers, associated in American minds with the régime in Germany that was responsible for the war; yet he adapted himself with astonishing readiness to the new order. He was one of those who recognized the superiority of loyalty to their country over loyalty to their class. Much to the horror of some of his compatriots, he approved the Dawes Plan.

It was Baron von Maltzan, so the story runs, who secured the German Emperor's abdication. This may be his greatest achievement, but he served his country well as diplomat in various posts. He was only fifty years old when he died.

Elbert Francis Baldwin

W

E deeply regret to announce that as this issue of The Outlook is partly on the press we learn by cable of the death of Dr. Elbert Francis Baldwin at Geneva, Switzerland. For over thirty years he had been a member of the staff of The Outlook, and at the time of his death he was in the sixth year of his service as The Outlook's editorial correspondent in Europe. His wide acquaintance with public men here and abroad, his painstaking accuracy, his poise and sound judgment, his sense of fairness