Iolanthe's Wedding
(Continued from page 7)
me. It was such a touching, helpless gesture that it completely disarmed me. So I sat down again for a few moments, and spoke about indifferent matters. Then I took leave as soon as I could without provoking him again.
"Go to the door with him, Iolanthe," said the old man, "and be charming to him, because he's the richest man in the district." At that we all laughed. But when Iolanthe walked next to me in the twilight of the hall, she said very softly, with a sort of timid grief:
"I know you don't want to come again."
Breaking Barriers
(Continued from page 16)
ever be on the alert. He may not leave the least movement to the machine's discretion. For little recks the machine if it and all its occupants go smash. Thus, the chauffeur tends much more than the cabby to develop into a real man, that is, into a being who no longer expends his muscular energy in direct effort, but only in guiding great external conquered energies.
Why does the burlak, in Russia, the man who tugs boats on canals, seem to stand on so low a level of humanity? Because he uses his energy as mere raw energy. And an ox can do the same. But I have the sincerest respect for the man at a switchboard. He requires but little energy to move the levers, yet on occasion his presence of mind and rapidity of judgment will prevent incalculable misfortune.
We are wont to lay many evils at the door of technical progress. But now we see that to compensate, it in the end raises human worth by opening up activities to man more in keeping with his character. Future man will be as different from men nowadays as the chauffeur from the cabby. The use of the bicycle has made workmen much keener and readier. Similarly, we may expect that the flying machine will produce a comparatively even greater advance in the typically human characteristics.
The flying machine has already counted its scores of victims, pioneers ready to risk death. And it will produce many more before a flight in the air will signify as little as a bicycle ride. But the beings that will soar in the air will and must be a superior race. Nerves, sinews, and muscles must be of the highest type in order to cope with the new demands, and the most careful economy of one's powers will be a self-understood condition of life, since the failure of them for the fraction of an instant will involve risk to life.
But this is not all. It is to be expected that man will learn to fly like the sea-gulls. Sea-gulls can dart through the air at tremendous speed without a single movement of their wings. That is, the motor will be needed only at the start, for certain turns, and for rising. On the whole the flight will be accomplished without considerable expenditure of energy, yet very swiftly. As a result, our standards of distance will change. Men will be able to live more scattered, and so in conditions worthier of them. The wounds that the development of machinery in its early stages produced, the horrible misery of the great cities, a higher stage of technical development will surely heal.
We saw that in keeping with the physical character of the air travel through the air will greatly facilitate and augment diffusion between nation and nation. And now we see that it will effect the same for individuals within communities.
And so we look forward happily, as the poet says, to "a world far too vast for men to be divided."
The Social Problem in Japan
(Continued from page 14)
imperial government, gives the average wage of a male farm laborer as $20 per annum in addition to his food, and of a female laborer as about one-half that amount.
It is very evident from the foregoing that Japan is being "taxed to death." She waged a very costly war with a much richer country, resorting to the easy, but perilous, experiment of borrowing the necessary funds. Consequently, she is now facing the problem of repayment. Each year she must pay about $50,000,000 upon her war debt. The Katsura government has been struggling hard to meet this problem and
The Godhead of America
to improve the national credit. Naturally, it has had to resort to increased taxation, and the people, already overburdened, groan on account of soaring prices and sinking incomes and clamor for a reduction of taxes.
If the government should heed this clamor, and lighten the taxes on land, it will not be able to pay the interest on its foreign loans and the national credit will suffer. So argues the brilliant editor of the Kokumin, of Tokyo. But the finances of the Empire are going from bad to worse. The farms are being neglected, and the people are sinking into deeper and still deeper depression and misery, says the editor of the Hochi, also of Tokyo. And unless a speedy remedy is forthcoming the fate of the Empire is sealed, and its credit will be more rapidly and effectively shattered than by the reduction of taxes.
The meteoric rise of Japan among the great world powers created an impression in the minds of Western nations of a virile and progressive nation. It now seems likely that her rise was due to an artificial and unhealthy stimulant, which has been followed by the inevitable reaction. The Hochi is responsible for the statement that, since the conclusion of peace with Russia, five years ago, "not a single new industrial enterprise has been started."
Japan defeated Russia, but seems herself to have been conquered by debt. Her best minds are seriously asking whether, after all, the war with Russia was not equal to the financial and economic hari kari of the nation.
Following the time-honored policy of The Masses, we must make formal mention of three valuable additions to our staff of artist contributors. In this number we welcome Samuel Schwarz, Horace Taylor, and A. O. Fischer. Schwarz illustrated the sketch by Björkman, Taylor, the article by Wood, and Fischer, the story by Stettenheim.
