Members of Congress and Progressive Senators, but in order to get rid of Frear and at the same time to be consistent, they were compelled to expel from Republican councils all the so-called Progressive Senators and Representatives. Frear has been removed from the Ways and Means Committee. He knows too much and is too energetic and capable. "Members of the Ways and Means Committee, both Democrats and Republicans, have already been notified that they will be called back to Washington by the chairman of the committee, probably on October 15 next, to prepare a revenue bill for presentation at the convening of the first session of the Sixty-ninth Congress the first Monday in December next. This call means, of course, that there will be no extra session, and it means the Mellon Plan is to be the bill which will be reported out, and supporting it we can expect a renewal of the tremendous publicity which characterized the attempt to pass it in the Congress which has just drawn to a close; and, of course, with the 'Mellon Plan,' in addition to its relief of the 'very rich,' who pay the high surtaxes, goes the repeal of the gift tax and the repeal of the estate tax."

A

Julius Caesar Seeks a Job

MEMBER of "The Street Corner Club," of Main Street, California, has addressed an open letter to "The President of the United States, and the Congress, too, if they want to get in on it," as follows:

"Respected President and Gentlemen:

The "Street Corner Club" is not a real Club; but just a lot of us fellows that stand around there and talk politics and religion and some other things. There are so darn many things that looks wrong to us, that we sometimes get excited. For instance: Bill says, "Who is this bird Weeks and why didn't General Mitchell see Weeks and have him say what he wanted testified to; then there wouldn't be no fuss like there seems to be. Everythin' had ought to be done decently and in order; so the Country would not think a First Class War Flyer was called to testify and then fired for doin' it. It don't look good to us!"

It was while we was milling around over this, that one fellow nudged me and says: Why don't YOU do somethin'? You can write, even if you can't spell! So here I am, obeyin' orders and testifying to what I don't know and liable to be fired for doin' it. The only thing what saves me, is that I haven't got any job, except writing.

Orators always tells a story; so, if I'm goin' to orate like this, I better tell one too. This one blew in the other evening, over the radio; a crystal set and quite reliable occasionally. Any way; there was a negro and his mule ran away and smashed his cart and butted his head into a tree and was standin' there kind o' dazed and waiting for another inspiration. Second negro come runnin' up and says, "What's the matter wi'dat ole mule o' yours? Is he blind or is he crazy?" Then the owner of that mule spoke up, Dat kinda slow and sorrowful and he says, "No Sah! mule aint blind and he aint crazy! He just don't give a dam!"

When I told this at the Club they just larfed and agreed"Aint that like us Americans?" What do you think of it, Mr. President and Congressional Statesmen? Aint it just? You bet it is. It's the only way to account for us lettin' somebody get away with hundreds of millions of dollars to build Airplanes to send to the fighting lines in France and then not a blame one of them planes ever gets there. Perhaps they were sent by parcel post C. O. D. and wasn't sufficiently stamped and went to the Dead Letter Office. It would be just like the P. O. to do a thing like that.

There was another thing we had quite an argument about. Several years ago there was a man named Heinie, Frank Heinie or some such name, and he was lambasting everybody about stealing Government timber reserves and re

sources. But, says Frank, you can't do nothing. They are keeping within the law. He says it's a rotten law and was known to be rotten when they passed it; but certain interests wanted it that way and they didn't care how putrid it was so long as it worked.

Then one of the boys who used to clean windows outside of a Law Office, up and says, "There's a lot of rotten things about laws framed to take care of the Nation's wealth of raw material. The material isn't half as raw as some of the deals they put through to get it into private control. There's a whole lot of fellers as doesn't believe in Government Ownership of anything loose and valuable.

He tells us that anybody can go and file on anything Uncle Sam's got. You pay a dollar down and take your choice. Of course you are supposed to do something for the money, in the way of assessment work; but do they ever do it? Not four bits worth in most cases. Then this guy tells us of something he knowed for a fact and it took place in President Taft's time.

A man came here from Kansas; bright and keen like they all are; but he hadn't much money; which was unusual. One of the boys says, "They wouldn't let him bring his money out of Kansas." However, he was sparrin' for an openin' and somebody put him wise to the California Oil Game. So he goes down to Kern County and locates Oil Claims and Gypsum Claims and any other old claim he could think of and he only stopped locatin' 'em because his dollars give out.

He was tellin' about this and somebody says: "How are you going to do your assessment work on all them claims?" So the Claimant says he don't figure on doing any assessment work and he don't intend to spend any more money on them, because he hasn't got any more. Well, says they, they'll jump your claims! Let 'em says he! I got so many they can't jump them all; also, I can go and file on some more, when I get some more money. Don't know as they are worth much anyway. I'm just taking a chance and if anybody wants to take another chance and jump my claims, let him go to it!

Now this guy, bein' from Kansas, knew a thing or two; so he concealed his location notices so that the ordinary traveller would not notice them. So time went on and, although some people did jump some of his claims, their filings was made after his and it didn't do them no good. Anyway, there came a little Oil excitement and President Taft declared the whole district closed to entry. Suits me, says Johnny! There can't nobody jump any of my claims now! And so they couldn't. Even the United States Government couldn't jump them; though they needed some of his claims. Finally the Government compromised the matter by taking him into a sort of limited partnership. They made him an Admiral or something and put him on the pay-roll. This is the story was told to me and all the boys believed it. That's what I wanted to ask you about.

Is it true that when a Prospector or anyone else files on any part of the Public Domain, the property filed upon is gone forever from the Public Domain and never goes back? Somebody else may jump it; but if a dozen fellows jumped it, all the same it would not revert to the Public Domain? If that is the case I see the Public Domain slowly-not so very slowly-but fading away so surely that those who come after us will find mighty few leavings. The boys all agree that something ought to be done and they leave it to me to say what. Here is my ideas:

Appoint me the First and Only OFFICIAL CLAIM JUMPER. I'll have a Deputy at every Land Office, going through the records and picking out all the Filers that hasn't done their assessment work. Then my Deputies will file on every one of them, in my name, as O. C. J., charging the fees to the Government U. S. or State as the case may be. Then they send the list to me and I execute a Quit Claim Deed to the Government interested. That would clean up the whole mess.

My Deputies would be paid so much a jump and I would be suitably rewarded on the Pay-roll and, perhaps, made an Admiral of the Air. Then I could swear to anything Weeks wanted; as I wouldn't know what it was all about anyway. Trouble with most fellows is they know too much but not enough. They can't pin that one on me! I would like to come again, re Oil Land entries, other than Tea-pot Dome.

JULIUS KALLEDAFTER CAESAR.

That's a Devil of a second name for my Godfathers and Grandmothers to fasten on me! But I only use it on legal occasions like this. I mostly sign like my ancestor did— only he couldn't write. JULIUS CAESAR.

The Evolution of the Politician. By R. B. Bowden. The Stratford Co., Boston, 1924. (248 pp.).

Defining as "politician" the office-holder who is corrupt, little-minded or selfish and who bends to his own account the emoluments and perquisites of such services as the office calls for, Mr. Bowden traces the evolution of this type from the days of Aaron Burr to the present time. Jackson's popularity and his introduction of the principle of party spoils brought on the era of the politician. The development of the party convention and party primary "which welded the party into that great extra-legal and extra-constitutional power, which, when in office, has come to be the government," paved the way for the boss and the party machine. Through the medium of these extra-legal forms and the corrupt personnel administering them, private enterprises-the railroads and the industrial trusts-joined hands with the government.

The politician "is_the_instrument used to defeat popular control"; he is developed not by majority rule but in spite of it. His chief concern is to defeat any popular attack on those features of the system which are the real source of the great power which the political-business minority is able to exert. Searchlight readers will find this a valuable and timely book.

Parties, Politics and Procedure

An Introduction to Political Parties and Practical Politics. By P. Orman Ray. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1924. Third edition (691 pp.). (With over 125 pp. of bibliography).

This book, adapted to college and university courses in the practical workings of our governmental machinery, will be found invaluable to our readers. We are happy to say, however, that Professor Ray's volume will be in part reminiscent to readers of this magazine, for the author in several phases of his subject quotes from The Searchlight and from the writings of its editor. The treatment is almost encyclopedic and aims to give an exact understanding of the laws, rules and practices of political and legislative machinery.

Those interested in bringing about popular control of party and governmental procedure should get and study this book.

Uncle Sam Needs a Wife

Uncle Sam Needs a Wife. By Ida Clyde Clarke, Contributing Editor "Pictorial Review." John C. Winston Company, Philadelphia and Chicago, 1925. Illustrated. (279 pp.). This book will perform a wide service. It treats with verve, insight and practicality one of the most important civic and political subjects of this generation-the influence that the maternal instinct of women will have upon government.

Unique is the idea of illustrating a book like this with cartoons. A strain of vivid humor makes the idea fit. "Has Man a Swivel Chair Soul?" for example.

The dedication-"To Lynn and Dora Haines, whose brilliant, brave and lonely advocacy through The Searchlight of cleaner, saner government deserves the recognition and the appreciation of every true American"-is a generous tribute from the author, who has long been a reader of this magazine.

Origin of Partisanship

Party Battles of the Jackson Period. By Claude G. Bowers. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1922. (506 pp.).

This fascinating work by Mr. Bowers, dealing with the Jackson period in a stirring, concrete style, is a volume well worth going back to in connection with Professor Ray's book just reviewed. It features Jackson's rise to power as the emergence of actual democracy, out of which grew party government with the attendant spoils system, and eventually,

in later times, demagogy, class hatreds, corrupt corporate control of elections, and modern "practical politics."

Mr. Bowers portrays vividly the brilliant, dramatic and epochal party battles and the fascinating personalities of Jackson's time. Great historical figures such as Clay, Calhoun and Webster are pictured "warts and all," and their triumphant opponents of the Jacksonian "Kitchen Cabinet" once more stalk the political stage in very human and intimate fashion.

Statesmen-Washington to Wilson

Famous American Statesmen. By Sarah K. Bolton. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Revised and Enlarged Edition, Illustrated. New York, 1925. (375 pp.).

This is a timely bringing up to date of a book that has been a popular favorite for nearly three and a half decades. Chapters on John Hay, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson have been added to the original series of great figures from Washington to Lincoln. Not deeply critical, Mrs. Bolton deftly touches most of the vital points in the statesmanship of the fourteen great Americans chosen for her work, and with this combines very charming accounts of the personal side of their lives.

How to Prevent "Panics"

Economics of Business Cycles. By Arthur B. Adams, Dean of the School of Business, University of Oklahoma. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1925. (268 pp.).

Dr. Adams is remarkably clear in thinking and style. First setting out concisely the basic statistical data on the recurrent booms and panics of our economic history, he then moves to his own contribution. This lies in his analysis of the causes and effects of the great inflations and deflations of national prosperity and his suggestions for stabilization and control. He opposes the theory that these disastrous ups and downs are inevitable, each cycle generated by its predecessor and in turn generating another, in a "charmed circle"; instead, he points out the specific forces superimposed upon the business world from the outside, which generate fluctuations. His remedy for control of these generating forces is two-fold: control of investment credit by the Federal Trade Commission, requiring approval, under a scientifically drawn statute, before corporations engaged in interstate commerce can issue securities; and control of commercial credit by the Federal Reserve Board under a law providing automatic adjustment of credit to the price level. Written for a college text, the book will appeal to every intelligent reader interested in these fundamental problems of economic welfare.

As Experience Shall Determine

Public Ownership. By Carl D. Thompson, Secretary of the Public Ownership League of America. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1925. (445 pp. with bibliography and index.).

Especially timely in his brief chapter on Public SuperPower, Mr. Thompson has written a condensed and well documented discussion of the whole range of public enterprises from the postal service, the roads, bridges, schools and libraries up to the most modern forms of public enterprise, including the Alaska Railroad and the Ontario HydroElectric. In the closing chapter stock criticisms of public ownership are considered by the question and answer method.

The purpose of the book is to give facts about the extent and results of public ownership in actual practice. Asserting a personal belief, in the least amount of state interference consistent with the greatest good of all, Mr. Thompson brushes theory aside, with this statement: "We believe that each city, each state and each nation will settle the questions with reference to each particular utility or enterprise, as they arise, wholly in the light of its own practical experience and its knowledge of the practical experience of others, regardless of anybody's theories."