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THE OUTLOOK, November 30, 1927. Volume 147, Number 13. Published weekly by The Outlook Company at 120 East 16th Street, New York, N. Y. Subscription price $5.00 a year. Single copies 15 cents each. Foreign subscription to countries in the postal Union, $6.56. Entered as second-class matter, July 21, 1893, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., and December 1, 1926, at the Post Office at Dunellen, N. J., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1927, by The Outlook Company.

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Out to Beat Al Smith ?

D

IVERSE reports come to us concerning the policy of Southern politicians toward the candidacy of Governor Smith.

From a well-informed correspondent in the extreme South comes, on the one hand, the report that, especially in the cotton States, the impression seems to grow that the way to defeat Governor Alfred E. Smith in the Democratic nomination is to concentrate on defeating him. According to this impression, the plan is to drop other political interests and to put all effort into the naming of delegations to the Democratic National Convention pledged to nobody, but oath-bound against Governor Smith's candidacy. One instance is cited in which the women of the Protestant churches of a little city in Texas had banded together for the exclusive purpose of fighting Governor Smith's nomination. Another instance is that of a Southern Methodist conference in which the defeat of the Smith candidacy was made the subject of a resolution which only the more diplomatic members prevented the conference from passing in its original form, but which was finally passed in a form which left little doubt. as to its meaning.

Dry, anti-Catholic, anti-Tammany, and anti-New York City sentiments, it is said, all furnish motives for the movement. But the theory behind it is, of course, that if the Smith campaign leaders learn before the Convention that there are a decisive number of votes which they never can have, that campaign will collapse the sooner and leave the anti-Smith forces free to pick a satisfactory candidate at their leisure.

As political strategy the obvious weakness of this plan is that it makes Governor. Smith the sole figure on the Democratic landscape. Saint or horned demon, he would receive from this, if the plan were carried out, an extraordinary amount of personal advertising. If all who are not against Smith in the South are thus driven to be for him, the Smith

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THE WEEK

campaign will almost necessarily, it is argued, attract a large number of Southern adherents who would normally be disposed to neutrality.

It may be replied that such a plan once succeeded. In 1916 the Republican bosses saw to it that a sufficient number of delegates were pledged to nobody in particular, but against ex-President Theodore Roosevelt to assure Roosevelt's defeat. So honest were these delegates that when the bosses changed their minds they could not change the delegates' minds. But that was more than ten years ago. Perhaps that cannot be done now.

At any rate, the impression among the original Smith following, according to this report, is growing that their candidate is being politically martyred. This impression may even extend to some who now are opposed to Governor Smith. It is suggested, therefore, that the anti-Smith movement might prove more effective if it opposed the Governor, not with the vote of general antipathy, but with a better candidate.

The question thus arises whether it is best to try to beat Governor Smith with nobody.

Or Out for Other Men ?

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the other hand, we get from our Washington correspondent, who has been traveling through the South, the report that nobody in the South

certainly no politician-is lying awake nights hating Al Smith. Those who are opposed to Governor Smith, according to this report (in which, of course, we have great confidence), do not seem to think of him much unless he is called to their attention. As a matter of fact, they talk about other candidates. There may be localities in which Democratic voters are content with being against Governor Smith, but they are not numerous or significant-at least in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. It is true that the

Democratic voters in the South are not combined on a candidate. If they should be, our correspondent believes, the result would be a repetition of the íratricide of Madison Square Garden. Any candidate upon whom the Southern States might now concentrate would inevitably become a successor to McAdoo, and therefore become the man whose mission was to stop Smith; and that would mean dissension.

As a matter of fact, we are told, Southern Democrats are interested in a number of candidates, some of whom are not enemies of Governor Smith at all. They are interested in Ritchie of Maryland and Reed of Missouri, both wets, and decidedly interested in Donahey of Ohio, a dry. Kentucky's mind is running strongly to Evans Woollen of Indiana. Tennessee is thinking of a Southern candidate-especially McReynolds, of the Supreme Court, and Representative Hull, both Tennesseans. Others are thinking of Meredith of Iowa, Baker of Ohio, and Houston, now of New York.

According to this report, Governor Smith is not as strong now as he was before Mr. McAdoo withdrew. There is less bitterness than if all Democrats opposed to him were united now on one candidate. Some of the Southern leaders appear to think that Governor Smith is already beaten. But, in any case, another fight like that of 1924, it is argued, and the argument seems reasonable, means ruin to the Democratic Party.

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Constitution of 1917, which declared resources of the soil to be the property of the nation. President Calles put the law in effect at the end of 1926. It provided, by Articles XIV and XV, that titles to oil lands acquired before the passage of the new Constitution might be confirmed, substituting concessions for fifty years in place of full ownership, in case application was made within a year. American corporations opposed the measure as an invasion of their legally acquired property rights.

The Mexican Petroleum Company, an American firm, fought the law by asking for a court order to restrain the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor from canceling its drilling permits under the terms of the law. Now the Mexican Supreme Court has created intense interest in Mexico City and Washington by a decision in favor of the company, declaring these articles of the law unconstitutional. This decision of the

court must be reinforced by four other similar and successive decisions, it is true, before it becomes definitively established. Then the Mexican Congress will have to pass a new Petroleum Law not infringing on the property rights of foreigners before trouble over the issue can be considered entirely past. But the way to dispose of it is now open.

Mexico has taken a long step towards the peaceful adjustment of relations with the United States.

Football at Its Best

F

OOTBALL attained the peak of its career this season for a multitude of reasons particularly cheering to those who have nursed it along through one stormy period after another. Its present state of health is unsurpassed, thank you. That applies to the enjoyment of the spectator, the emancipation from the old-time drudgery of the player, and sportsmanship now frequently as graceful as that of the tennis court.

From time to time the game had been in danger from various evil influences. These have been eliminated with apparent permanency. Coaches look upon themselves as educators, and are in most cases members of the faculty. Their teams more than ever this season have been organizations rather than the machines of the old days. Still in the newspapers one finds an eleven referred to as "the thundering herd" or the "Siwash steam-roller." It is a pity that more of the spectators could not sit at the training table with some of these

GARVEY'S DASH TO VICTORY

This was the high light of Yale's triumph over Harvard in the stadium on November 19. It shows to perfection the pretty interference with which the Yale backs were provided throughout the geme

herdsmen or rollers. They would be found to be simple college boys, good students, and better sportsmen than are found in any other game involving personal physical contact.

The battle is as hard as it ever was in the physical sense, and infinitely superior in the mental sense. Except in such instances as those in which one team outclassed another, not an important game this year was won by sheer superior physical power. Generalship accounted for the triumphs all along the line. Thus we have practically a standardized game, with all the thrills of wellmatched skill in physical contact, battle plans, forays, and skirmishes, but yet with a great margin of allowance for the upsurge of individual genius, the latter often turning out to be the deciding factor.

It is perhaps significant that some of the great triumphs of the season were scored by elevens habitually given to first-class team-work of an elastic nature -Yale and the Army as fair samples in the East, Illinois in the Middle West, and Georgia in the South. The elasticity of individual play and of coaching was perhaps best illustrated by the turning back of Notre Dame by the Army. Notre Dame was the product of the greatest machine coach in the land, Knute K. Rockne. It was inconceivable, his material being of the best, that

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he could be defeated, according to hi followers, since Army already had los a close hard game to Yale. Yet th beautifully geared machine was upset by a special and unexpected defense tha was the product of shrewd thinking by coaches and players. Once checked, the South Bend team was in its turn unable to stop a soldier attack that was buil upon sheer audacity. It was the audac ity of one man, Hoben, that gave Yale a victory over Princeton in the last eight minutes of what had looked like a losing game for the Blue. It was a great year for quarterbacks, therefore. And it was an even greater year for the coaches who taught these quarterbacks and ther turned the game over to them on the field. Indeed, the old evil of side-line coaching has been checked less by rule than by undergraduate opinion, rein forced by action on the part of coaches who believed that the game belonged primarily to the players.

With the rise of football coaching to the dignity of a teaching profession, football players are coming once more into the control of the game.

How the New Rules Worked

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ORE than one incident of the good humor with which the modern game of football is played comes to

mind; but one will suffice. If there is any harder game than that between Army and Yale, it would be hard to find at that stage of the season. Yet in the thick of it Fishwick, the Yale end, who had to face most of the running of the famous Harry Wilson, the Army captain, stepped up to the Army leader and said: "Look here, Wilson, I want to go to the Army-Navy game. How about it? The next time you come my way, if you get by it's all off; if I stop you, I rate a pair of tickets?" "You're on,"

was the prompt reply. Fishwick will attend the Army-Navy game and root for the Army in consequence of a superb tackle that followed a few minutes after the bargain.

In a game of such delicate checks and balances as modern football has come to be the so-called "upsets" that trouble the sports writers have long since ceased to annoy the general public. Those

who understand the technique of the game can frequently foretell these upsets with considerable accuracy, while in consequence of their frequency many an undergraduate body backing a team that has been beset with reverses all season may have something approaching reason for his hope of a final triumph. On this may rest another tribute to the balance of the game as it stands. Victory lies just around the corner any time. Thus much of the blight of defeat has been removed from the game. No one is entirely downhearted throughout the season.

Geneva conference on the re-establishment of the world balance between production and consumption upset by the war. Through Colonel J. M. Tarafa, representative of President Machado, Cuba also led the way to the policy of checking a rate of production said to threaten entirely to outrun the demand. Colonel Tarafa heads the so-called Cuban Sugar Defense Committee. The agreement achieved in Paris, largely through his efforts, is effective for one year, and then renewable. It provides for the admission of all sugar-exporting countries.

Colonel Tarafa is proceeding to negotiate in Holland with the owners of the Dutch sugar plantations in Java. If he brings them into line, European observers believe that the general agreement for limitation of output will be successful. That means the completion of another international economic combine -similar to the chemical and steel combines already in force in Europe-primarily designed to operate at the expense of the United States.

The United States consumes a little more than six million tons of sugar a year, and rate fixing seems certain to follow the limitation of exports.

The price of a pound of sugar has become an international question of interest to every family in the United States.

Coal Problems Again

HE coal industry in its relations to

Not to go too deeply into tech- THE

nique, it is safe to say that no more brilliant play has ever been seen all over the country. The new rules turned out to be eminently satisfactory, despite the advance-season croaking of some of the old-fashioned, hard-boiled coaches who suddenly found themselves confronted with new situations that could not be met by their old-time machines. In the course of the season they became converts to the new régime.

There remains in football nothing to tinker with for another sea

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and public service is under

discussion in two ways:

A friendly conference of anthracite operators, labor leaders, and public men has been held at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. Its representative character is shown by the fact that among the speakers were Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce; Governor John S. Fisher, of Pennsylvania; John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers of America; and Samuel D. Warriner, President of the Anthracite Operators' Conference. The ultimate consumer was not there, but it is evident that he was much in the conference's thoughts and latently in their fear-that is, that he might find that he can get along without anthracite.

Mr. Lewis, for the miners, strongly urged the signing of another five years' agreement as to wages. Governor Fisher and Mr. Warriner would like to get rid of the Pennsylvania State tax on anthracite, but do not exactly see how to do it. Mr. Hoover urged that the

public be assured of continuity of the anthracite supply and reduction in costs by improved scientific methods, new methods of co-operation by employees, and improved sales organizations.

The other news aspect of coal mining came from what is described as the pitiful suffering of 130,000 striking soft-coal miners in Pennsylvania and Ohio. A conference of leaders in the American Federation of Labor listened to reports that miners and their families were on the verge of bitter destitution and took measures for relief and to engage public sympathy. Charges were freely made that the coal and iron police had in Pennsylvania committed abuses against the miners, and that evictions of miners from their houses had been cruel and arbitrary. Steps were taken to bring these charges before Governor Fisher and President Coolidge.

Certainly ill conduct on either side of this labor war should be sternly repressed. But as a whole the strike of the soft-coal union miners seems illjudged; the non-union miners are producing immense quantities of coal; prices have not advanced materially. The trouble is not, at its basis, one of wage rates, but of overproduction and bad organization of the industry.

Congress has spent millions in getting coal commission reports; and so far this is all it has done. Undergraduate Thinking

SOME

OME recent items of news from what are known in current university slang as "the big three"-that is to say, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton-justify the belief that the present generation of college undergraduates is interested in original thinking. At Harvard they have invented a new sport called "vagabonding."

bonding." To "vagabond" is to frequent or sample various lectures that are not in the courses in which a student is enrolled. It is a sport of pure intellectual pleasure. The "Harvard Alumni Bulletin" looks upon "vagabondage" with approval, because it "shows that the quest of academic credits is not the only thing that brings the undergraduate to the classroom.”

At New Haven the "Yale News" is discussing in a spirit of impartial criticism the famous and sacrosanct Yale secret society system. We report this, not because we would ourselves venture an opinion on this delicate and highly intricate subject, but because we approve of any endeavor of undergradu

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