< .

November 6,19291

fun. Somebody elsewhispered back thatit was allright,

they hadntmeant to play Myersanyvay.
So itwasall
arranged and would have passed off quietly without any fuss
except thatthe newspapersheardabout
i t andthoughtit
was news. Andin
a sense it wasnews;foron
several
other occasions inwhich a Northern footballteamwith
a
Negro player has scheduled Southern team, the latter has
been told politely but firmly that if it did not care to play a
Negroit
need not play at all. ApparentlyMr.
Chick
Meehan did not think of that, which is a great pity.
-

OORFIELD STOREYS death removes one of the

finest figures in American life, one of the few remaining men who embodied the best A,mericantraditionsand
lived up to them. Upon his gravestoneshould be written:
He wasthefriend
of all oppressed. Beginninglife
as
privatesecretarytoSenatorCharlesSumner,henaturally
acquiredaninterest
inthe colored people which he maintained until his death. Repeatedly
he gave his legal services
-of the
withoutchargetocarrytotheSupremeCourt
UnitedStates cases uponwhichthe
economic andpolitical
freedom of the Negro depended. O n e of the founders and
formany years the head of theNational Association for
theAdvancement of ColoredPeople,he
is surelyentitled
tothegratitude
of everycoloredAmerican.
T o the cause
of theIndianand
eto civil service reform his service was
likewise of utmostvalue.
Duringthe days of oursubjugation of the Philippines his voice, togetherwith those of
CarlSchurz,George- S. Boutwell,CharlesEliot
.Nortin,
spoke forthe conscience
William G. Sumner,andothers
andthemoralintegrity
of theAmerican people. One of
Harvards most distinguishedgraduates,he
wasfar
too
outspoken, as in his protestagainstthefootball
evil, and
too dissentient in his political views to be really popular in
that institution. But his profession honored him.

Wall Streets Crisis

511

The Nation

N five hours of hysterical trading on October 24 nearly

thirteenmillionshareswere
sold on theNewYork
Stock Exchange-four million more than had ever been
handledinasingle
day-and
oversixmilliononthe
New
York Curb; an amazing total of ,over nineteen million shares
with an estimated loss of several billions of dollars. It was
record day in the history of the Stock Exchange and, coming
a climax to more-than-three weeks ofdeclining prices,
it wasmostdisastrous
inhammeringdownsecurity
values.
N o r did it stop withone days trading. W e havenot yet
seen bhe end of the ,decline. How narrowlythemarket
escaped catastrophe one can only conjecture, for at a crucial
moment in the days trading the combined support of J. P.
M,organ & Company, theNationalCityBank,theChase
National Bank, and the Guaranty Trust Company came to
enough four days
its aid, But even thisquartetwasnot
later. Every great New York bank then
pledged its help.
It was a combination of fear and mob psychology that
carriedthe debacle to theabsurdlengths
it reached;but
obvi5uslythe marketmust have been extremelyvulnerable
this sudden
to offer so little resistance. Forwhyshould
hysteria,this utter-lack of confidence, spread like wild-fire

into every important -financial centerat atimewhenthe

country as a whole is enjoying at least a normal prosperity?
T h e explanation lies, of course, inthe speculativemania
that has so longdominatedthethinking
of the financial
community and in that time has jockeyed the prices of certain securit,ies uptoextravagant
levels. This speculative
spirithaslong
assumed that nothingcould ever interrupt
the greatest bull market on record.
Careful observersrepeatedly
point,ed outthatmany
stocks weresellingat
prices ridiculouslyhighandwholly
prospective earnings. I t is no
unwarranted by presentor
exaggeration to say that anumber of the issues selling at
from 30 to 50 times annual earnings thoroughly discounted
prospects and income for a decade ahead. Of course these
highsellingratiosandhigh
hopes were inspired fur some
split-ups, and
time by rumors of mergers,stockdividends,
sirmilar stunts, but after a while when the hoped-for profits
not materializetheillusion
began t o pale. W e have
already commented on the action of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities in -issuing a sweeping decision
disapproving the plan of the Edison Electric Illuminating
Company of Boston tosplitits
stock andchangeits
value. As a result the stock dropped about a hundred ,points
andupset thewholeutility list. T h e undeniablejustice of
theMassachusetts
Commissions decision andits probable
application to a great many other grossly inflated stocks were
factors influencing the market just before the break.
It needs no profound analysis to reveal what ,part was
flooded
played bythe deluge of new securitieswhichhas
the market this year. During the first nine months of 1929
nearly ten billions of dollars in new securities were floated,
while in September alone these totaled $1,615,000,000-125
per centmorethan
inanypreviousSeptember
on record.
And of lthis enormous total over one billion was made up
of-issues of investment trusts-making
a total of more than
$2,200,000,000 of thisnature issued in 1929. N o wonder
thenthat
brokers loansadvancedabout
$600,000,000
September, during a decline in stock prices that should have
broughtthemdownabout
$600,000,000! ThustheGargantuanfare since January 1 has created a large
of
undigested-possibly
indigestible-securities.
The.. newera speculabor; of course, hada much morebullishtheory
aboutthis
hugefinancing
of investment companies. His
contention was that these investment trusts would constitute
great force f o r stabilizationinthemarkets.
H o w disappointedhe must -have been at theapparent
disposition of
the investment trusts in the present instance to stand aloof
and let the market shift for itself.
Together with these more or less definite andfundamental-weaknesses in the markets position wasthe unsettlingsituationwhich
Colonel Leonard .-P. Ayrestermed
the creeping bearmarket. As he pointed out,.more stocks
on the New York Exchange have declined since the first of
the year than haveadvanced,andalthoughthe
factwas
somewhat concealed in the averages, the situation was none
the less apparent in the repeated periods of uncertainty and
irregularityintrading.
Undoubtedly this so-called healthy reaction will do
much toward sobering W a l l Streets specuIative enthusiasm
and establishing more realistic
standards of stock values. It
is a costly process, however, for the thousands, wise or unwise, who have had their accounts wiped o~;.
~

512

The Nation

CVd 129, No. 3357

The Romance of the Waterwavs

d

adignity,acertain

epic quality,about
upon
the opening of itsnew
nine-foot channel that is
lacking atthe usualPresidentialcornerstone.layings
monument dedications. La BelleRivikre of theFrench,
theIndiansRiver
of ManyWhitecaps, did its bit.
T h e PresidentialpartyleftCincinnati
in z drivingrain,
which became almost a gale as their flat-nosed, stern-wheeled
craft steamed downthedarkriver
by nightandfinally
was made fast against the mud
banks of the Indiana shore
to await the dawn. Nobody in the party
couldhavefailed
to catch some of the spirit of the early pioneers who paddled
the tayny river in
canoes or poled ungainly flatboats down
the infancy of American history, halting for the night along
the same mud banks of theinterminably flowinghighway.
Mr.Hoover himself was at his best. Less thePresident
andmore
the engineer, he talkedwith ease of thingsfamiliar to him, and spread the -enthusiasm for inland waterways which has long been part of his creed.
a riverwhich
T h e r e is amysteriousintimacyabout
gives a special quality of lifetothecommunitiesalongits
banks. A seaport touches only a crumbling edge of the
ocean;allthejoyandterror,theromanceandreality
of
the wide waters lie somewhere beyond the horizon. Men go
out and come back with strange tales, or go out and never
come back at all, but most of a seaports inhabitantslive
their lives ashore and know the ocean only at second hand.
A rivercommunity is different. I t is a part of the stream
it touches. 1st sees all of the Rowing pageant; it knows all
of the rivers moods and changes. T o the seaport the ocian
is a t best a distant stepfather; t o the inland community
river is afosteringmother,gathering-herchildrento
her
bosom and making their life inseparable from her
Not
without reason are some riversworshiped
by the people
of life.
alongtheir banks ; the flow is intruththewater
Nor is any river in our country more closely associated
with American history, more intimately connected
with the
growth of the soil, thantheOhio.
T h e name Mississippi
River has been bestowedin
anarbitraryand
misleading
the Ohio
way.
Historically,
and
perhaps
geographically,
andthe Mississippi areonestream,
t o whichotherwaters
are tributaries. T h e OhioRiver
the means above all
others by which the Middle West was explored and settled.
As Sherwood Andersonputs it: In its youth the Middle
West had breathed with the breathing
of a river. In 1800
a seagoing vessel, the110-tonbrig
St. Clair,
builtat
Marietta, Ohio. Itsowners sent i t downstreamtoNew
Orleans, thence to Havana, and fram there to Philadelphia]
haddewhereitwas
sold. A fewyearslaterPittsburgh
veloped athrivingindustryinthebuilding
of seagoing
vessels. T h e firstcommercially successful steamboat on the
OhioRiverwastheNewOrleans,builtatPittsburgh
in
1811. Thiscraft made a trip t o Natchez,whereit
sold for use onthelower
river. It was doubtedthen
if
a steamboatcouldreturnagainstthecurrent,but
in 1816
t h e steamboat
Enterprise
made
the
round
trip
between
Louisville and New Orleans.

Mr. Hoovers passage down theOhiaRiver

T h e just-completedimprovement
of the
River
goesback
totheappointment
of theInlandWaterways
Commission by PresidentRoosevelt
1907. T h r e e years
later Congress passed the act under which the
dredging, the
havefinally been completed that indams, and the
sure anine-fuotchannelintheriver
allthe yeararound.
Thiswillnot
bring back theoldsteamboating
days, but
it will open a 2,000 mile waterway between Pittsburgh and
New Orleans to motor barges which can
carry bulk freight
at less than half
cost when shipped by rail.
arenothopeful
of the revival of canals inthis
country in the near future,
successful as they are
be abroad. T h e railroadskilled
the canals andtheyare
sucprobably strong enough to preventtheir revival on
cessful basis. T h e impossibility of obtainingfavorableroutis probably the chief
ingarrangementswiththerailroads
cause of thefailure of NewYork Statesbarge canalto
live up to the expectations of its sponsors, although Governor Rooseveltpointed outtheotherdaythatthetonnage
on that waterway had increased 60 per cent
the last five
years. Butalthoughcanals
themselves donot
presentahappyprospect,theoutlook
is more hopeful for the
development of our great river and lake systems, which are
extensiveenoughto
have a great measure of independence.
Mr. Hoover looks totheeventual
improvement of 9,000
miles in the Mississippi River system and proposes to add
$20,000,000 ayear t o our presentappropriation of $8.5,000,000 for inland waterways.
Of this, $10,000,000 would
be for the ,improvement of the St. Lawrence River, in conjunction with Canada,
that large-sized ocean vessels might
have access totheGreat
Lakes. I n his Louisville speech
Mr. Hoover was apparently inspired t o say on the moment
(the remark did not appear
in the text sent irr advance t o
thepress) thattheannual
increasewhichhe
proposed for
waterways amounted to only half of the cost of one battleship, and we might be happyenough to save the sum as a
r e s d t of theforthcoming conference in January on navaI
limitation.
As Secretary of Commerce and chairman of the United
States St. Lawrence Commission, Mr. Hooverwent
on
record in 1926 as favoringtheimprovement
of the St.
Lawrence. H e has
placed the weight of the WashingtonAdministration
behind that proposal as againstthe
scheme forconverting the New York bargecanal into a
deep waterway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great
Lakes. As far as the Mississippi River system goes, the
outlook is already good. Common-carrier transportation on
the Mississippi was takenover by thefederalgovernment
when the United States entered the
War, but proved
a failure under the Inland and Coastwise Waterways
Service. T h e job was then given to the Army Engineer Corps,
and has been successfully reorganized under Major-General
T.
Ashburn. T h e w o r k of thefuture seems to be to
obtainandmaintaintherightkind
of boats and develop
satisfactoryfeedersforcargo.
Naturemay
be depended
upon to supply the water, for so far as we can see 0 1 &$an
River is destined to keep right on rullin along.

November 6. 19291

T h e Nation

513

Destroy the Stadiums!

-

ES, tearthem

down!Formorethan
twenty-five
HE decline of the road is a topic of perennial but
years college athleticsandthe
forcesbehind
them
desultory discussion intheatrical
circles. Recently,
have been making college education progressively imhowever, our enterprisingcontemporarythe
Billpossible forath1etesoranybady
else ; and today those board made a seriouseffort to discover just why this prosforces aremorestronglyintrenchedthan
ever. Everyreal
perous and allegedly amusement mad
land of oprs is rapeducator in the colleges knows it, and by the thousands they
idly becoming one in which the theater
does not exist outhave struggled manfhlly against these forces that have been side a few large cities. I t sentaquestionnaire
to thedratransforming
colleges from educational institutions into
matic editors of newspapers in all the towns having between
factories for the production not only of high-powered ama25,000 and half a million inhabitants, and
it has
pubteur athletes but of competent bond salesmen and glib Ro- lished a summary of the replies which is well worth pondertarian
commentators
on current happenings. Eagerstuwell as by the general public.
ing by theatricalinterestsas
dents, withthe aid of no-lesseager teachers, still succeed
Naturally various
causes
forthe
decline are cited,
in educating themselves, it is true-and
in increasingnumprominentamongthembeingthehigh
cost of tickets, the
bers, we believe. But to a large extent the American college demands of unionized stage hands, andthe competition of
the movies-which
latter, by the way,have put vaudeville
machine today serves no important educational purpose.
Among the fat defenders of that machine, who inhabit in aconditi,on quilte as precarious as that of thelegitimate
largely the offices of presidents and deans and alumni secre- stage. T h e cinema interests have been accused of deliberately
of this, that, and theother,theCartariesandchairmen
buyingupregulartheaters
in orderto
keep themdark,
negie Foundation report on athletics fell like a sixteen-inch and there is no doubt that they put great difiiculties in the
shell, scatteringdeath anddestruction.Smallwonderthat
way af any manager whoattemptstosolve
his financial
theyrushedto
cover. With fhe details of thatreport,improblem by playingpictures
on nightswhennotheatrical
portant though they are, we donotconcernourselves.
W e bookings are available. But there is obviously something
arenotinterested
in thecomparative righttness of the way
wrong with an institution which
succumbs so easily to the
in which various colleges do things that are wrong in thementerprise of a competitor, and it is interesting to note that
selves because theypreventthe
colleges fromdoingtheir
themajority of thedramaticeditorsputthe
blame on the
proper
Lily-whilte Yale,for
example, with
clean theatrical
magnates
themselves. These
latter
have not
bill of healthonrecruitingand
subsidizing, pleases us no played fairlywiththeir
public. T h e y havechargedfirstbetterthanGeorgia
and Fordham,withtheir
professional- rate prices for second-rate companies, theyhavemisrepreism unashamed; for Yale is just a particularly happy examsented factsintheir
publicity,andtheyhave,ingeneral,
ple of a bigger and better way of doing what ought not to
acted as thoughthe good name of themanagerandthe
be done, and the better it is done theworsefor
rhe only good-will of the customer were worth nothing. Again and
&ing that really matters, namely, the quiet meeting of mind againthosewhoansweredthequestionnairesaidinvarious
i t ways the same thing: The people of my town have -been
andmind
that leads to education. W e do notthink
greatly important if, as the report points out, college prac- fooled once too often.
tice in respect to most of the abuses cited has improved durWhatever the artistic sins of the moving-pictureining thepasttwenty
years. W h a t does matter is thatthe
dustry may be, it has for a long time been conducted upon
commercialinvestment in athletics, with its attendant pub- business principles far moreenligthenedthan
those adopted
licity,itsexploitation
of youngmen of brawn, andits re- by the legitimate theater. For fifty or seventy-five cents one
sultantdemoralization
of collegelife,
has enormously in- may have a more comfortable seat in a cleaner theater than
creased.
one is likely togetforfour.timesthe
pricein a regular
T h e most important sentenceintheCarnegie
report playhouse, andone
may be reasonably assured of politer
we have not yet seen quoted: It is not ,the affair of the col- treatmentwhile
one has been buyingit.Muchfun
has
lege or the university to reflect modern
It is its affair been poked at the regimented ushers and the ornate lobbies
to help its students understand and, as
as possible, ameli- of the movie palaces but theyrepresenta
shrewdly calcuoratethat life. I n themadrushto
succeed, the colleges lated reaction against the general indifference of the theater
have become largely reflectors. As far as athletics go, athe manager tothecomfort
of his public. There is somereport placesresponsibilitysquarely
whereit belongs, on thingironic intheadjectivelegitimatewhen
it is used
the shoulders of our faculties;atthe
last,theycanhave
todistinguish the stage from the
screen, for as a matter of
the institutions they want. But the athletic
problem is only factthe business of theformer has been conductedupon
be met by com- farfromlegitimate
a part of a larger questionwhichcannot
the battlelines. Hey, Rube!
promise, because it requires a flat and courageous choice cry of the old-time circus, and it still expresses the spirit of
betweenincompatible
ends. There is a fresheducational
manymanagers of traveling companies. They come into a
interest among students. Haveour
faculties the courage towntoget
as much as they can as quickly as they can,
andintelligence
to rededicate our colleges tothe age-old andwhentheyhaveworkedthesuckerstheydepart.
No
purpose of education, putting athleticsinto
their proper wonder they have lost o u t to the local movie.
bottom it
minor place in such a scheme,~though itinvolve, as it doubt- is a matter of what the trade journals call showmanship,
less would,tearingdownthestadiums?
I t is some such andthere is no doubtwhich of thecqntending forces best
question that thousands of college teachers are asking.
understands what th2t means.