M’ADOO, IF OUT OF RACE, IS STILL PROGRESSIVE FACTOR By MARK IUUJTAN Washington. March I.—Within a week now we shall bsgln to sm In various statss ths presidential pri maries In which McAdoo’s name will be entered among others. By ths outcome of these primaries we ehall be able to tell Just how McAdoo's standing befors ths voters —as distinguished from the party leaders—has been affected by the dis closure that he was a lawyer for Doheny and by the uncovering of other facts relating to large fees re ceived by him from rich men and corporations for his services. Pending this verdict from the peo ple, It must be stated that from the point of view of the party leaders, little and big, the disposition to re gard McAdoo's availability as seri ously Impaired has tended to Increase w ith each new Installment of publicity given to McAdoo’s connections. Not by any means all democratic leaders have shared this experience. On the contrary, a considerable body of the leaders are as 6trong for McAdoo now as ever. Another Group There la a formidable body of demo cratic leaders who merely wanted to pick the strongest possible candidate who now regard McAdoo as no longer available. They think the campaign Is going to center around the oil scandal. Assuming that this Is to be the main issue and psychological Inter est of the campaign, it Is obvious that the relation of McAdoo’s large retain ers from various corporate and In dividual business Interests Is a seri ous Impairment. That there is nothing Improper In the services McAdoo has given his clients for the fees he has received Is universally admitted. Nevertheless, under the conditions of the coming campaign, as those conditions are be ginning to crystallise, the mere fact of such connections Is a serious hau dicap. McAdoo, when he left the public •ervlce, could have chosen, on the one I land, to be a big lawyer, or to look forward to the possibility of being president and keep himself equipped for that office. But, as events show, it was hazardous to attempt to do both. Unquestionably, If the progressives of the country as a whole, regardless of party—could put into the White House precisely that man that most fits their wishes and prejudices, they would choose a man completely free from any connection, direct or remote, with big business. Was Ideal Progressive. it It should turn out that McAdoo has been disqualified by the nature of his legal practice It will be a blow to the progressive cause in all sec tions of the country. “For, omitting this one detail, McAdoo was and is ideally equipped for the purposes the progressives had in mind. McAdoo was and is a radical In both the con structive and critical sense. Before the recent reason for op position to McAdoo arose the principal argument against McAdoo was that he might. If made president, do some thing ‘‘radical’’ about the railroads. And so, In all probability, he would. But what McAdli would do about the railroads was not and Is not "radical" In the destructive sense In which McAdoo's opponents have sought to tie the word to him. It Is possible to be “radical" In the con structive sense, and that i» the sense in which McAdoo certainly—and creditably—is radical about the rail roads. Hudson Tube Work. For example, when McAdoo wa» a comparatively young man in New York he observed that the only direct means a resident of Manhattan Island had for getting to the mainland of the United States, was of the Hud son river, and the only means a resi dent of the mainland had for getting to New York was by going on a boat. The bridges over the Harlem river at the far upper end of Manhattan were the only means of exit from New York to the rest of the world except by boat. McAdoo conceived, planned and car ried out the first tunnel from New York City to the mainland. So com plete was his Identification with that enterprise that the new Institution was called for years the "McAdoo tunnel," until McAdoe himself took formal steps to have it called, both officially and In the popular sense, the Hudson tunnel, which Is the name by which millions of travelers know It today. That is the sort of thing that en titles McAdoo to be called "radical" 1n the constructive sense. Knemies “Fainted” Him. McAdoo’s opponents, until they had the n«w and more effective way of arguing against him, sought to dis credit him with the public by dis seminating the idea that he is a “radical” In a sense In which that word has coma to hava connotations tha ordinary citizen does not like. One Impression widely disseminated is to the effect that as regards the railroads'McAdoo la a government r — ^ ABE MARTIN Domestic Troubles (ftoiPOwSO /WW/f.dPMl pi!tOLl-£0(4 YKXOUR ReeuLA/f ptwie* Jo4> In th’ Busy Marts o’ Trade. Some woman has written us th' follerln’ letter: "My husband Is gen erosity Itself. He's a grand provider an’ often leaves money layln’ around where I kin And It so I won't have t’ ask fer It. But we don't see much of him. He's out early In th' morn in’ an' gits In after me an' th’ chil dren are In bed. He’s mighty gener ous. but we'd like to’ have more of his company." Ther’s a lot o’ gen erous husbands like this one. They think all wives want Is plenty o' money an' clothes. They never think they might need a little lally gaggtn' an’ companionship. We'll bet this woman would Vie twice as happy If her an’ her husband fought an' made up three or four times a week. Th' husband that provides his wife with ever’thing but companionship 'll bear watchin’. He hain't up t’ no good. But ws don’t hardly know what ad vice to’ give t’ thle poor woman. She might ask him fer a divorce some time when he’s in a generous mood, jest t’ try him out. It’s our guess he'll gladly divorce her an’ give her a snug sum on th’ side. An’ it’ll be th’ kindest thing he’s done yet, an' tli' best thing fer both o’ them. Tber's lots o’ husbands like this bird. They're like lots o' lodge members In godd standln’—they keep ther dues paid, but they never take any interest in th’ work. My advice t’ this woman Is t' git a divorce an’ put her alimony safely away an’ be satisfied with 8 or 6 per cent, an’ turn a deaf eur t’ promoters an’ adventurers, find some light, congenial employment an’ wait for events. We recall that Amandy J,ark had jest such a hus band as this woman describes. Her husband used t’ leave money on th' mantleplece an' notes tellin' her t’ go downtown an' git anything she wanted. One day she tried on a $500 sealskin saque jest fer fun, an' th' clerk told her that Mr. I.ark had bought one Jest like It last week fer his wife. Then she smelled a mouse an’ kicked up a fuss, an' her husband Jumped at th' chance t’ divorce her. He gave her a lot o' Liberty bonds, th' ole home near th’ sawmill, a beau tiful lavilier, an' a nifty sedan, an' she could have married th' best feller In town, but she picked a stranger. We wuz talkin' t' her this mornin' at th' Monarch Five an’ Ten, where she has charge o' th’ golf balls an’ jackstones. an’ she remarked: "I nev er knowed how grand It wuz t' be single till T got t’ waitin’ on th' gen eral public.” (Copyright, ownership man. This. McAdoo's friends say, Is utterly untrue. In January, 1918, just after the gov ernment took over the railroads for the period of the war and put them under McAdoo’s management tem porarily, there was a hearing on a federal control bill before the senate committee on Interstate commerce. In the course of that hearing Sen ator Watson of Indiana, asked this question: "Do you personally believe In gov ernment ownership of railroads?" Mr Adoo answered: "I do not, or I haven't, at least, felt that It was necessary to take the actual owner ship of the railroads. . . .1 favor some form of government regulation and control of a far stronger, more intelligent and effective character than we have had heretofore. New York Terminal Problem. In an Informal utterance from Me Adoo not long ago he said lie thinks the owners of the railroads ought to get a minimum return on their ln^ vestment of at least 5 1-2 per cent, or something close to that, and that above that figure the returns ought to lie divided 50-50 between the securi ty owners and the government. Tills is similar to the present Esch-Oum mlns act. It Is true that there is one aspect of the railroads that McAdoo obvious ly lias on his mind which he thinks ought to be bettered, and which, un doubtedly, he would like to have a chance to better. What he has in mind Is to achieve more economical management and better results, both for shippers and railroad owners, through certain reforms which he thinks could be Instituted. The best way to Illustrate what Mc Adoo has In mind Is to give a single example: The Pennsylvania railroad owns a passenger terminal in the heart of New’ York City. The Balti more & Ohio has no such terminal. For years preceding the time when McAdoo had control of the tfiilroads passengers who went to‘New York on the Baltimore & Ohio had to get out of the train on the New Jersey side and go across by ferry. When McAdoo had his wartime control of all the railroads one of his first actions was to decree that the B. & O. trains to New York should run over the tracks of the Penn sylvania railroad, through the tunhel owned by the Pennsylvania road and into the station in New York City owned by the Pennsylvania road. Mo Adoo issued that order April 28, 1918. But the two roads, now under pri vate control, have continued the ar rangement that McAdoo Instituted, greatly to the convenience of the traveling public. Private Property Invasion. Doubtless there are many things to be said about this from a techni cal point of view. It is a fact that the Pennsylvania railroad owns the station and tun nel. It is a fact that to order the Pennsylvania railroad to let the B. & O. trains use its tracks and station is invasion of private prop erty by the government. Nevertheless, the deeper economic fact is that the station was there and th» tunnel was there. That there was room and time, for this station and this tunnel to accommodate B. k O. trains in addition to Pennsyl vania trains is proved by the fact that it has actually been done for nearly six years. This common use of terminals, en forced by pressure from the govern ment, is the type of thing which apparently McAdoo has in mind when lie shows zeal for a chance to make the railroads more efficient. There are said to be hundreds of similar stations in which great economies could be achieved and great benefits conferred, both on railroad security owners and on railroad shippers and passengers, by similar action. At recent hearings before the inter state commerce commission it has been shown that in the neighborhood of New Tork a carload of freight Is frequently carried over more than 100 miles of track in order to reach a destination less thdn 10 miles away. McAdoo’s mind will never let go of his zeal to do something about the railroads. Also, even if it should turn out that McAdoo is now perma nently disqualified for the democratic nomination, he will not cease to be a large figure in the party. While some of the progressive dem ocrats have decided that they had tetter have some one else to make the race, they are still devoted to McAdoo personally. The other pro gressive leaders and the other pro gressive candidates for the nomlna tion will co-operate with him. The whole present effort of the progressive democrats Is to keep that iwlng of ths party Intact and to work [harmoniously to get the nomination for some progressive. If the progressives succeed in con trolling the nomination, and If the democrats win the election, McAdoo and his Ideas will have a consider able part In the administration. Essays Set to Art by Clarence Day "AT A VENTURE." by Chari** A Rea nett. Harper A Brother*, publisher*. Would you read an optimistic speech on co-operation delivered at a national convention of the burglars' union? Or would you be more interested In the application of up-to-date advertis ing methods to college courses In an thropology? If not. perhaps you would like to take a peek into the future and watch a strangely Instrumental or chestra playing Sampel P.osenberg s subway suite. These queries are written to give an idea of the delightfully capricious mood which is uncovered in this book of short essays by Mr. Bennett. But they don't do the essays justice. In the last year or so there may have been a more whimsical, way ward, inconstant and thoroughly en joyable book of essays written. But if there has been, It hasn't wandered into our clutches. Drawings by Clarence Day, Jr , catch the spirit of the book, and add to its general attractiveness. Neihardt’s “Easter” Poem in Anthology ' THE BEST POEMS f*r Iff*. SELECTED WITH AN 1 N'TRuDtlCTION, »■: Thomas Moult. PuMIcbtd by Jonathan Cap*" I^mdon All lovers of poetry will cnj«- these poems and find them filled with un usual beauties. It is a collection of what, in the compiler's mind, were the best poems published in English and American periodicals during the la^t year. “Easter,” by John G. Neihardt, wiil hold special interest for our readers, as this work of Nebraska’s poet laure ate first appeared in The Omaha Bee In April of last year. LEAGUE MUST PLACE MANKIND ABOVE NATIONALISM By H. G. AVELI.S, (Author of "The Outline of History”) London, March 8.—If the world had suddenly become rational in Novem •>er, 1918. I suppose there would have been a conference of all the powers of the world to atone for their com mon aliis and restore their common welfare. But this world la some thousands of years yet from rational collective conduct. AVe have a treaty of vie ‘ors, a derni-league of nations, all the postwar disorder, waste and misery that still unfolds upon us. The league is unsoundly planned. It stands on ■otton foundations. It Is poisoned by he delusion that soverlgn statee are eal. enduring, human things Instead ••f being arrangements entirely pro > islonaj. largely hallucinatory; and It does not represent more than a por tion of mankind. Still there Is talk of at last brlng iiyf In Russia and Germany. It will he Interesting to*see how the people who have got hold of It will set about tinkering up the arrangement with the Herman people and the Rus sian soviet states. Social Power Only. In Britain and America there are considerable organizations for the glorification of the league of nations. In Britain, in the countryside especial ly, the league of nations has become a social feature. No parliamentary candidate can afford to Aglect It, but It has no ideas worth speaking. It Just glorifies. At the beginning, a few of us made a desperate at tempt to establish a research depart ment In organization. We felt there were a lot of things that had to be known about the psychology of In ternational co-operation. It Is, how ever, impossible to get snythlng ef fective done. Few of our colleagues realized that there was anything that could not he settled at once. Then Wilson came to Europe. Upon the wave of hts coming this present league of nations, such as it la, a ramshackle raft of political mlscon ceptlona, achieved Its magnificent launch. Mental Slorenilnees. Future generations will study Its Incredible constitution In a desperate attempt to realize the mental sloven llnsa of our times. Personally I am for the world con ference to take It down and build something better. What everyone will consider mors practicable will be to alter It a bit towards-the form of a league of mankind against the na tions that It ought to have been from the beginning. Now how are Germany and -the union of soviet states coming Into the league? Are they to oome In as boss states, Uka tits British emplrs, with a parcel of accessory faggot votes rep resenting their dominions and posses stons, or are they to come In on a footing with Halt), the Hedjas and Abyaatna? Will they come In as equals of Abyssinia? I do not think the pres ent constitution of the league of na tlona allown that they come In on eny tolerable terms at all. That being so. It follow* that any attempt to bring In either or both of thedb great masse* of people will Involve a ape rial conference to reconstruct the league. Both Germany and Russia may have some hold pmpnaal* to make. In Britain we have bad little lmt praise or angry exposure. ' Endless TnJIi In I’nlted States. In America It haa been talked about endlessly, but I do not know If It haa been thought about at all. In France there are signs of awakening to the need of a reconstructed league. The time la at hand when the league might be made more serv iceable to mankind. One cardinal evil could be mini mixed, the absurd pretence that any thing with the legal status of a sove i^lgn state 1* a nation, a people, a thing with distinctive soul and In dividuality entitled to full and equal consideration In the counsele of man kind. It Is to this we owe the Intolerable abaurdity that while auch highly In dividualized people aa the Scotch and \\ elsh have no voice ae auch In the world’s affairs, a trumped up state like the Hedjaz votes and speaks on in equality with Holland and Den mark. While one group of black bar barians Is solemnly welcomed as Abyssinia the far better educated Zu lu Basuto peoples tjiust be represent ed by a tenth of the coattails of Lord Cecil. If nations end races are all to be represented, then India le full of them. If sovereign Independence lei the standard, then India has no right ful place at Geneva Purpose for Mankind. If we recognize fully that tha league we need Is to servs the pur pose not of nations but of mankind, then we shall cease to be embarrassed by political oddities. , Should the league of nations to put upon a population basis? This would give undesirably heavy voting povyer” to the quasi representatives of great barbaric. Illiterate populations. But supposing voting power were given in proportion to the number of literates in the population, nr to the nutnlier of university students. Then we should at least get sonic sort of approximation of relative intelligence-. Suppose that, subject to this defini tlon of voting power, every state sent Just as few or just as many repre s»ntatlves to the assembly, appointed them or selected them, distributed its votes among them, as It thought fit. Suppose the council were appointed, not hv nations, but indifferently in vota of assembly. Then at Geneva we would be getting toward something like representation of the civilization of the world. We would have a body with au tborlty behind it capable of handling something more than petty arbitra tions. it is amazing how unable people seem to be to realize the danger of an asaembly dominated by the idea of competitive nationailam. the urgent necessity of getting away from that idea For suppose Mr MacDonald is successful In getting In Russia ami Germany; suppose the league begins to handle such larger questions as disarmament. Euroi>ean currency and tariffs. Then, just as the interest* involved become greater so much more nation alist will the spirit of the delegates and representative* become. League path ertngs under tiie present constitution will certainly become .the battle ground of great nationalist Interests The dear little smaller states will be drawn into groups and alliances j about the greater etates. They will ] not lie aide to help themselves. Their votes will be cowed, bullied and] bribed. So long as members go to Geneva to represent not mankind, but nation al government*, they will go there in diplomatic, bargaining, competitive spirit. There will develop a pro-French r pro-British group, an anti-French >■ anti-British group: alliances and ar, tagonisms of another great war tn«: early work themselves out That *li nations In Europe and und»r Europ can lnfUienco may meet in OetJev.r will in Itself be no more guarantee of peace than was the meeting of the United States congress before the election of President Lincoln a guar antee of peace in America. It is a matter of supreme impo: Lance to the world that before it s too late this body which we now call the league of nations should be dena tlonajiied, put upon a eosmopoiitr basis lOspTriiht. l#?4 ) Local Lafs are worth money. Th appear each week on the screen in On in I: a motion picture theaters. Pec-; your jokes to the I oca 1 Laf Editor. The Omaha Bee. —-——-—————— I mm f • nrn 1*7 y arr. SCOTT fitzgerald. fi/if* htt% ft Ivf AM f% M/ /ivll Authpr of "The Beautiful and Damned." "Thia Side of Par.. iriaRing itlonogamy w otr *«- j*« k_•. _ . ._ _j One* past the age of 30 all civilised person* realise that many of our In stitution* are no more than con spiracies of silence. When the clergyman assumes for the sake of hie eermon that there 4s a great body of men and women who “ICVe a moral life'* he does not mean, if he ie a man of any Intelligence, ipet every week and every year this b*dy Is composed of the same people. If* means rather that on any given dgts more people are ‘engaged In Keeping the rule* thart are engaged In breaking them. And he also means t 1st these people who are at the ifoment engaged In being virtuous will combine against the people who are outraging the morals of the time. The libertine site In the Jury bpx and votes against the divorce case defendant as heartily a* does the pilar of the church. Three days Inter, the pillar of the church may elope with the sexton's wife and BOO unfaithful husbands read the news aloud at breakfast in shocked and horrified tones. So in discussing the question as to whether we human beings ars really capable of a happy monogamy, I don’t want to start from tha angle that four-fifths of us are approxi mately Illy white and the other fifth a rather dingy shade of gray. 1 assume that at present there are a large majority of couples on this continent who are true to each other and a minority who are at present tangled up In some fascinating but entirely illegal affklr. Advantage* and Disadvantages. We believe, from our racial exper ience, that monogamy la the simplest solution of the mating Instinct. It tends to ktep people out of meesea and leee time la required to keep up a legal home than to aupport a chorus girl. There are disadvantages —marriage Is often dull for at least one of the partlee concerned and the very security of the bond tends, not infrequently, to make an unconscious bully of th# man or a shrew of the woman. But on tha whol# the ad vantages outweigh the disadvantages, and the only trouble la—that It Isn’t really monogamy because one party ia so frequently not true to th* other. Th* truth Is that monogamy la not (not yet at least) th* aimpl* natural way of human life. But w* ere of flelally pledged to It a* tha only pos sibl* system In th* western world and at present It Is kept working by a serlea of half artificial props—othei wise It may collapse and we may drift, quite naturally, into an age of tur moil and confusion. Two llappy Radicals. I know a man named Harry, a girl named Georirlanno (these, strange to gay, are their reaL.aamea, who mar ried In those happy radical daya be fore the war when experiment was In the air. The understanding was that, when the first flush was over, Harry and Georglanna were to be free to ramble. They were exceptionally well mated, exceptionally congenial, and the fascination endured well Into the foruth year of their marriage. Then they made two discoveries— that they were still In love wllh each other, and that they wera no longer completely unaware of the other men and women in the world. Just as they mad* these discoveries circum stances threw them suddenly Into gay est New Tork. Harry, through tha nature of Ills occupation, cam* Into al most dally contact with dozens of charming and foot-looee young women, and Georglanna began to receive tha attentions of half a dozen charming and footloose young men. If ever a marriage seemed bound for tha rocks this one did. We gave them six months—a year at the out side. It was too bnd, we felt, because fundamentally they loved each other, but circumstances bad undoubtedly doomed them—as a atter of fact, they are now In process of living happily together forever after. Relentless I/ogle of Jealousy. Did they deride that the beet way to hold each other wee to let falth tulneae be entirely voluntary? They did not. Did they come to an ar rangement by which neither waa to pry Into the other'* life? They did not. On tho contrary they tortured each other Into a state of wild, un reasoning Jealousy—and this solved the problem neatly In loea than • week. Despite the sentlmentnltsta, Jeal ousy I* the greatest proof of and prop to love. Harry and Qeorglanna, with the relentless loglo of Jealousy—poor, abused, old Jealousy—forced eonces slons out of each other. They de cided that the only sensible course was to remain always together. Harry never goes to see a woman alone nor does Qeorglanna ever re ceive a man when Harry Is not there. Women over 60 and men over 80 are excepted. Harry doe* not say: "You mind my taking Clara to the theater? What nonsense! Why, her husband la one of iny best friends.” Nor doe* Qeorglanna protest: "Are you tnad because I aat out with Augustus? What nonsense! Why, Augustus hasn’t got three hairs on top of his hsail.” • Who Will Hear Watching. They know that the wives of best friends stid the men with less than three halts on their head* are the most dangerous of all. Anyone can protect bla or her household against Apollo and Venus—It le the club footed man and the woman with hon est freckles who will bear watching. If Harry goes away on a trip Geor glanna goea with him. They go to no mixed parties unless both of them are able to go—and If there is any Jealousy In the air neither of them straya out of the other’s sight. At I write this It aounda like a self enforced slavery—a double pair of apron-strings—but In the case of Har ry and Georglanna, two highly strung and extremely attractive young peo ple, It had the Ineatlmable advantage of working admirably. I think they ara the happteet couple I know. The experience of the race (that stupid old man who every once in a while gets a few truths through his head) has found certain things violent ly unfavorable to a contented monog amy. Two of the most obvious things are a great disparity In age and a surrounding atmosphere of excessive alcoholic stimulation — two factors which occur chiefly among the well to-do classes. , Tlie Coventional "Petting” Party But there ere several essentials to successful monogamy that are nut talked about In the women's maga zines. A genius may some day arise who will find a way of presenting physlologlent farts to youth without shocking youth's sensibilities into an Infuriated disgust. The long list of current "sex books," while they mtiy have a certain value to married peo pie, have absolutely no effect on the young except to arouse pruriency and sometimes to kill the sense of ro inance. It la the toss of a coin which is the worst—knowledge so acquired or Ignorance Itaelf. And yet ahould auch knowledge be acquired liefore marriage rather than after? If ao, how? It la only recently that the "petting party" Has become almost a* con ventional a term as “afternoon recep tion" among the upper and middle classes, hut In some more primitive communities a sustained physical courtship has preceded marriage Such a courtship Is the natural not the vicious, the rrunantlo not the sordid, the ultra-ancient not the ultra modern preparation for married life. I have heard otherwise Intelligent people apeak of "petting parlies" as If they wera accidental and Immoral phenomena In ao entirely non physl cal jvorld Instead of an Introduction to life, Intended h.v nature to amellor ulo Ills change fielween the married und the unmarried slate. We have given them a new tug, lied them up In some curious way with cocktails, opium, "The Hhlek." and sheer per versity but they have always existed and, U la to be hoped, always will. On* of th* favorlt* question* of th* recent controversy was: "What kind of wlf* will th* girl inak* who has had numerous petting parties before marriage?'’ The answer Is that nobody knows what kind of wits sny girl will make. "But," they .continue, "won't she be Inclined to hav* petting parties after ah*'s martiedT" In on* sense she will. The girl who la a vstersn of many petting parties was probably amorously Inclined fiom birth. She’ll be mor* prone to af fair* after marriage than the girl who didn't want any paiilea. But why blame It on th* poor ItlaaT It I* a ques tlon of temperament. Th* alarmist believe* not In ratis* and effect but that one effect produces tb* other. It may even be true that petting parties tend to lessen a roving tend ency after marriage. A girl who knows befor* she marries that there Is more than one man In the world but that all men know very much the same names for love I* perhaps less liable after^marrlage to cruise here and there seeking a lover more ro mantic than her husband. She has discovered already that variety Is not half as various as It aounds. But If petting parties had been eo named In 191* we would have been assured that they caused the war. Here I* a more worthy scapegoat— tha one-child family. Because of our breathless economic struggle. It has become almost an American Instltu tlon. Women with on# child are somehow more restless, more miser able, more "nervous" anil more de termined to pay any price for the at tention of men, than women with aev eral children or no children at all. The child often becomes a pest and a bore and a continual subject for heated discussion at the dinner table. Knr some reason parents do not mind los ing both temper and dignity before one child. They will hesitate In the presence of two. Now T have discussed a n ttnber of things that war against a true and enduring marriage, rather than offer Ing remedies for making every hom< a paradise In 13 lessons. Believing as I do that all questions worth solv ing are entirely Insoluble, It Is the only angle from which I can sincerely npproaeh tha subject. On the con atructlss aids I can only say that I liellevs In early marriage, easy di vorce and several children. A11 In nil nothing cun tarnish the cheerful fact that n sincerely happy marriage under exclusive monogamy one marriage In five, In ten- some times one In a hundred—Is the most completely satisfactory state of being In tills somewhat depressing world. (Copyright. 1124:) 1 [WHEN IS A DRUG STORE? :: By 0. 0. McIntyre] The drug More used to be a place to loaf and have a prescription Ailed Today you can And almost anything In a drug store but a prescription counter. And there la no place at nil to loaf. Drug stores havs grown too reaplsndent for the average man. The pharmacist today must knot* ;.s much about slicing a chicken and* making a salad dressing as he does about pounding pills. The way to And a New York drug store la to look up what looks lika a department store except It has sn slectrio sign ■‘Drugs'" out front. The only pises you can And n red amt green light that heralded the apothecary' shop of JO yeare ago la on a tugboat In ths Nstv York har bor. It la hard to relinquish the old fashioned medicine shop. Even the pungent odor had a pleasant tang. It offered a breath of mystery. The druggist was a hero. He seemed somewhat of a master of necrnmance as lie took down bottles with strange I.atln labels and mixed their contents with Ills mortar and pestle. The night hell that once called him to duty to save aome midnight suf ferer Is gone. The drug store re mains open all night and midnight medicine loses much of Its potency. There wss something of a mental stimulus for ths patient In the Idea that ths pharmacist had to get out of tied to mix the concoction espc dally for him. Shrinking anil Retiring. These days you never know your druggist. lie Is hidden nw*y In some remote balcony. Its talks to the i lerk through the peepholes. In the old days the dngiglst was quits n figure. He passed the collection plate in church and marched In Pythian parades. If you step Into the drug store and ask to see the proprietor ypu lenrn tl»«t lie has an office downtown where he dlrerte a chain of stores and. Instead, you ere presented to the ‘'manager.*' It ts all progress and the modern drug store Is tietter than the one that lias gone. Htijl with many of us there Is too much progress The laiy man Is landing there Is no place to while away the dragging houra Amid the burly materialism of New York we ate too prone to forget the simpler graces that make for heart's ease. It la true we are living In an age of grandeur and wonder, but this triumphal regency of Industrial cm chncy lias nothing to do with the spirit. The art of making many blades of glass grow where one formerly grew Is aiming to many of ns. We are being standardised right down to the lest wlep and comfort vanishes. The new drug store te a marvel of y'X |t n#*i’ . ^ £kuyM**iy t g| no £ %| f»*4« $ ^W-~--- ie W'flAPoO imo«a*4 | Twru. havcN if Fi«eo { viP IH A wry iluK. V Itoyvillr took to liiin thrlr rut flnsrr* and amamhrd tor* and hr a|i|>iird hi* Ihrruprutlral knowlrdgr. efficiency. Yon can go there for a dime's worth of nux vomica and come away with a crate of applee. a dog collar, a lawn mower, a tennis racket, the latest novel, a ticket to the thea ter, a pair of carpet slippers, a set of 0rop earrings and the game of Mah Jong. Instead of the drug store being a place w here one may find an occasion nl hour of ralm one finds it a place of vast complicated mechanism. There are aisles blooming with almost every thing In the world—save drugs. Why, they've removed the spittoons. Isn't that priceless? Those (lend Olil Days. It U possible tha Victorian era was Insipid, but we have a vague nostalgia for It. We long for the Sunday Aft ernoon buggy ride Instead of the mad motor drive if the day. We would like to sec a show where the villain stilt pursues her Instead of the com plicated talk and puerile cynicism of a cycle play. We would tike to ail out on the front porch In the cool of the eve ning and watch the neighbor* go by . 1 Instead of being Jammed into a stuf fy cafe hearing shrieking Jaas and watching vaaelined cake-eatera Jelly rolling with cigarette smoking flap pers. <>, yes. thsre are many things we would Ilka to do that were a part of tha Victorian era. But our lament ts in vain. The modem drug store Is the shrieking symbol of the fact! that times have changed. We would like sometimes to f!eej all this organised grandeur. We would like to get beck to the little home town where supper ts not din ' tier and where at dusk the medley of meat hammers gava promise of tasty 10-cent round steaks. Afterward In shirt sleeves to stroll through ths peaceful streets to the public square and then back to the drug atore and Its group of friendly loafers. The druggist was our ft ••ml lie trusted u* for our cigars and nos i trums. There was no privacy about the prescription ftxse. We might sit tie hind It and chat whtla he mixed his enigmatical tinctures. It we got a cm cier in the eye we went to him. He re moved it without charge. Boyville took to him their stone bruise*, their cut fingers and mashed toes and lie applied hte therapeutical knowledge, bound up the injured parts—perhaps gave them a licorice drop to boot— and sent them scampering on their way rejoicing. He appeared to be everybody a friend. The village; doctor came, moved back of the prescription case and took his evening toddy and drove off again to answer the call of the sick. The drug store vvas a friendly club. It ts Indeed disheartening to see the polishing process that has come to tt. If we reduce the world to the terms of dollars, of course we get dollars, but money cannot buy re freshment of the spirit. The drug store, along with the Kar ber shop, has outgrown that peace ful halo of complaisance that every man needs to dust the soul of life 9 irritations. It is not my purpose to sniff at the modem drug store. It is a mar velous step forward materially—but the spirituality of its prototype has vanished. Wild tempo has became fortissimo in a .tangling age. The grandiloquence Is suffocating. Handsome floorwalkers now pilot you through magnificent labyrinths when all you wanted to buy. perhaps, wt»s a nickel's worth of moth balls You feel you are cheating the firm and so you probably buy a *10 bot tle of perfume and a doaen orange*. Kxolution of Kive-Ont S«U. lire soda fountain in the o!«t day* was a glorified villaire pump. We bought a 5 rent soda and sat at the counter in a comfortable chair for an hour discussing the light top ics of the day with the druggist or hie boy. Now at the drug etore soda foun tain you must stand up, pay 15 cents for a glass of soda and watch « worldly young man try to keep his looks out of his eyes. The old fashioned druggist never decorated his windows# save with * red bottle in one and a green bottle In the other. Nbw the successful drug store must have a doren win dows and offer everything from a beautiful lady demonstrator reveal Ing the merits of a mole remover to an urban counterfeit of Nlagv.n Vails in full gush. Aside from soiling a'most eve thing a man or woman wants, the modern drug store offer* a free show lo sidewalk pedes;> in*. It sit.oil that druggists are keen minded men and know how to keep pu.w with the times, but their gain is our lo*» We would like to go hark to tb* g.xxi old drug store tvcrrrtsht. i»n.|