18 AUGUST 1928

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But there would be no certainty, if we judge by

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past history, that the Muscovite rulers would reduce their huge armed forces, or would cease to cry "War, War ! " where there is no war, in order to distract their unhappy...

We are glad to see that His Majesty's Government have

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sent to the League of Nations, for circulation, the correspondence that has passed with Washington since Mr. Kellogg made his proposals, and have drawn parti- cular attention to...

We regret that Sir Austen Chamberlain will not himself sign

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the Treaty in behalf of Great Britain. He has been ordered a complete rest, and we are not surprised at the nead for it. Lord Cushendun will naturally take his place. With Sir...

News of the Week

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N O cloud has arisen to threaten the prospects of the signature of the Treaty for Renunciation of War before the end of this month on behalf of the nations invited to sign....

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES: 13 York Street, Covent Garden, London,

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W.C. 2.—A Subscription to the SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The Postage on...

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The King has appointed a Royal Commission to consider the

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powers' and duties of police in England and Wales in the investigation of crimes and offences, including the functions of the Director " of Public Prosecutions, and to make...

We have now received the text of the letters exchanged

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on August 9th between H.M. Consul-General at Shanghai on behalf of the Minister at Peking and Dr. Wang on behalf of the Chinese Nationalist Government. The gist of them is that...

The officials recluiting miners and others for Canadian harvest work

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had to close their lists when 25,000 applica- tions had been received. So the success of the vent - ire is only qualified by regret that it should be of such obvious benefit to...

The Nationalist Party in South Africa has anaended its Constitution

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upon a proposal' of General ) ifertto4 that he which in effect embodies the statements that he made on his return from the Imperial Conference held here in 1020, namely that-the...

The recently appointed or transferred Ambassadors and Ministers to the

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Courts or Chanceries of Europe,bivre now taken up their duties. Lord Crewe has left Paris and Sir William Tyrrell has presented his credentials there. Sir Horace Rumbold has...

The unions of railwaymen, including the craft unions, have accepted

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the reduction of 2i per cent. in their wages. We have expressed admiration of the way in which Mr. J. H. Thomas, supported by Mr. Cramp, has negotiated with the directors and...

It is most disappointing to learn that Sir Gilbert Clayton

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left Jeddah ,last week and that there is . still no - satisfactory agreement with the King of the Hejaz. The Colonial Office on behalf of Iraq and the Foreign Office who sent...

Meanwhile the Kuomintang has great difficulty in hanging together. General

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Feng Yu-hsiang is still at Nanking, but the more surely his troops dominate Peking and the North, the less certainty there is that he will consent to a powerful Central...

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Mr. Robert Lyttelton's little book, published this sumrner' by Messrs.

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Longman, suggesting changes in the laws of cricket, has borne fruit. The M.C.C. have issued a circular to the county committees on the question of slightly altering the balance...

* * This week London has heard at night the

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droning of aircraft, engaged on mimic raids and their repulse. Reports from the Air Ministry are vague, for the lessons cannot yet be deduced from the reports coming in over a...

At these sports, as upon Bank Holiday and in the

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holiday season so far, we must be grateful for very good weather, not least for the breezes in the Solent, where the regattas, culminating in the Royal Yacht Squadron Regatta,...

The very friendly athletic match between representa- tives of the

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British Empire and the United States ended last Saturday in a narrow victory for the Americans. The teams that represented both sides had returned from Holland, where the...

The Colonial Office, too, has had to advise His Majesty

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upon several new appointments. Lord Plumer, after gallantly serving a valuable term in Palestine, has come home. As the first Christian High Commissioner under • our Mandate, he...

Bank Rate, 41 per cent., changed from 5 per cent.,

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on April 21st, 1927. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 102-1, ; on Wednesday week 102t, ; a year ago 10111, Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 891; on Wednesday...

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Europe: August, 1928

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A S another August passes, Europe has rightly remem- bered the dread decisions of August, 1914, and what they entailed. We recorded last week the scenes at Ypres and on the...

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Mr. Hoover's Campion Speech

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W HILE it is no concern of ours whether the American Presidential election ends in favour of the Republican or the Democratic candidate, it is of interest to watch the...

A Mine of Wealth A DECISION of incomparable' importance to

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all - 4 - 3 k- traffickers with the land in every part of the world is now awaiting decision by the British Govern- ment. Though questions have been asked in Parlia- ment,...

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Sleeping on the Embankment

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W HAT happens to the man or woman,--labourer, clerk, barrister, vagrant—who finds him or herself really " down-and-out " in London ? What is the official provision made for...

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Climbing in Norway

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ONOURING Balder, sun-god of Norsemen, I 1 - 1 - left Loen one morning wearing little but a pair of shorts, to climb Skola. Skola is five hours' climb from the loveliest of...

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Some Correspondence of Sir W : Robertson Nicoll S IR WILLIAM ROBERTSON

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NICOLL, for so many years Editor of the British Weekly, left behind him a mass of letters from readers and from literary men which have not hitherto been published. Here are a...

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The Younger Son

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[This is another of the stories submitted for our recent competi- tion. — En. Spectator.] F RAU SCHULTZ sat in her high-backed chair at the window, knitting. For twenty years...

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Music

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THE thirty-fourth season of Promenade Concerts, which opened last week, provides for forty-nine concerts, of which about twenty-five will be broadcast. The changes in the scheme...

Gramophone Notes The reverse of the record is devoted to

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"Bella figlia " from Rigoletlo, admirably sung by Galli-Curci, Homer, Gigli, and de Luca. The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra can be heard in a transcription of Bach's organ...

The Cinema

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" WARNING SHADOWS," AT THE AVENUE PAVILION. IT is comforting that, during this dead season, when cinema programmes are for the most part lamentably dull, there is at least one...

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Correspondence

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A LETTER FROM ICELAND. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is very hot ! To-day is the 25th of July and we are about half-way through our summer. In this room, with win-...

Poetry

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Two Poems of an Airman LOOP. STRAIGHTFLYING, I Drop downward rushing— The earth comes up to meet me : Swifter, swifter ; Till fields grow large And speed is still. . Lift...

Protean Love

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0 PROTEAN Love, thou com'st in every shape, Thou seekest me, and there is no escape ! Thou art at once the clear sun in the skies, And the thick cloud that hides him from mine...

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The League of Nations

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New Weapons Against Drug Traffickers SINCE the Spectator last dealt with the opium question, the problem, or rather the creation of machinery for dealing with it, has entered a...

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DRAINS AND POPULATION.

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Yet the population has not fallen here in anything approach- ing the proportion registered in some neighbouring villages. The biggest of them had over 800 forty years ago, and...

OUR ENGLISH HARVEST.

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For the second time this year a tour of East Anglian harvest fields has been arranged by the Norfolk Farmers' Union, in order to prove and preach the excellence of English...

RENT AND CAPITAL.

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Who is to supply the need ? Not the landlord. The value of Huntstead—of about 2,000 acres with five or six good farm- houses and nearly two score cottages—has yet further fallen...

THE HAMLET.

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The reduction of parsons is due to several causes. First, as I have said, the actual number available is insufficient. Secondly, the villages, with scarcely an exception, have...

VANISHING RECTORS.

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Where, then, are the changes ? First a great number of Rectories have clean vanished. One clergyman has the charge of several villages, coursing to and fro on a little car or a...

CHILDLESS SCHOOLS.

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The dwindling of the villages is most clearly expressed in the schools. Let me give Huntstead, so nicknamed, as example. In the old days a famous old Puritan presided over sixty...

Country Life

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ARCADIA REVISITED. Revisiting a very rural district in England, familiar to me many years ago in its most intimate details, I found changes almost startling in their social...

Yet, on the whole, the small men have withstood the

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depression better than the big. A really amazing example is emphasized in the current issue of the Ministry's Journal, a very excellent monthly. It is the tale of a man who took...

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REGIONAL PLANNING [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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SIR,—It is perhaps not sufficiently realized that regional planning is not a mere matter of taste, but that, like every other art, it must have a scientific basis in psychology....

Letters to the Editor

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NEW YORK'S HOUSING PROBLEM [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is sometimes useful to consider how other countries are faeing problems that are giving us cause for...

DR. VORONOFF'S VITAL INVERSION • [To the Edikr of the

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SPECTATOR.] have read with interest and surprise the letter of your correspondent, M. L. Johnson, on "Dr. Voronoff's Vital Inversion." Mr. Johnson begins :—" Darwin came to...

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READING AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of June 30th, Mr. Hamilton requested that the idea of public-school reform be taken up by somebody. My particular grievance...

BRITISH NOT UNPOPULAR IN WESTERN

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CANADA [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,--Several prominent people, among them the Bishop of London and Archbishop Lloyd of Saskatchewan, have recently been saying that...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The letter on Dr.

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Voronoff in this week's issue of the Spectator will be welcomed by all those who still believe that life is, above all things, a spiritual experience. May I add, as a...

THE FEDERATION OF LEAGUE OF NATIONS SOCIETIES [To the Editor

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of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your correspondent who signs himself " Tyrachus," in his letter printed in your issue of August 11th, takes me to task for some statements concerning...

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"EQUALITY OF INCOME" [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—Mr.

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Shaw's intensely interesting and instructive book, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, will undoubtedly have done much towards the virtual and...

BUSHEY PARK SCHOOL [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—While

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reading of the kindly thought of English monarchs of long ago, for the education of poor boys, of which Mr. Wilkins's book, Great English Schools, tells us, we might, I think,...

FLOWERS AND BRICKS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Lady

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Seton in her excellent article suggests that where long stretches of dead wall exist, enclosing railway depots, etc., creepers should be planted. The difficulty is the obvious...

PRESERVING RURAL ENGLAND [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In

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an address before the British Architects' Conference on the preservation of rural England, Mr. Guy Dawber lamented the fact that owners of wayside filling stations and petrol...

ALCOHOLIC POISONING IN MAMMALS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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Sta,—Mr. W. E. Lloyd in your last issue questions my statement that alcoholic poisoning is not inherited. In Yucatan, he says, the planters do not give the alcoholic residuum of...

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POINTS FROM LETTERS

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"MICE FED ON SUNLIGHT." Unusual interest attaches to the experiments now being conducted at the Lister InstitUte, where the effect of a diet of sun-vitalized foods upon rats is...

Lighter Lyrics

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Porth Caeriad PoRTH CAERIAD, the haunt of gorse and distant ocean gleams—. How shall I find Porth Caeriad, my little bay of dreams ? A trustful heart has sped me on To follow...

THE PULFORD STREET SITE

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,— Lady Walston and members of the Committee of the Westminster Housing Association appealed last month to your readers to give 232,000 with...

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* * (General Knowledge Questions will be found on page

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vi.)

Now that Mr. Jonathan Cape is publishing a Collected Edition

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of her works, it will be interesting to see whether the name of Mary Webb becomes as widely associated with her other stories as it has done with the novel which the Prime...

Although Mr. A. S. Wade is heretical about the gold

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standard we have no hesitation in recommending The Plnin Man and his Money (Nisbet, 2s. 6d.), which deald precisely and plainly with the subjects specified. The Financial Editor...

Some Books of the Week

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IN the Middle Ages, the attempt to draw spiritual meanings from the world of nature was continual ; unfortunately the world of nature was very much neglected in the process. The...

Suggestibility is a fact of our daily social intercourse. We

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live off one another's thoughts and react to one another's feelings. The man who sets himself to resist all the sugges- tions of his fellows is as much moved by them as anybody...

We always know where we.are with the " Little Guides: ,

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and motorist travellers will find in Mr. Gordon-Barrett's Motoring in Italy (Methuen, illustrated, 7s. 6d.), which is the latest addition to the series, a most excellent...

In his small book on The Beginnings of Man (Hodder

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and Stoughton, 2s. 6d.), Mr. E. 0. James attempts to give at the same time a scientific account of the evolutionary theory of the ancestry of man and a reconciliation of the...

Mr. G. E. R. Gedye's A Wayfarer in Austria (Methuen,

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7s. 6d.) claims to be the first travel-book on Austria published in the English language. It is more than a guide-book (though it is that too) ; it is an evangel of the charm of...

It is in the eighteenth century that the reputation of

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Shakespeare was finally consolidated. Dryden and Milton had previously set him upon a pinnacle in their view of him as one of the supreme writers of all ages, but the view was...

Anything about the great Doctor will lure us to a

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reading, especially when the book is as well printed and bound as Mr. Roscoe's Aspects of Dr. Johnson (Cambridge University Press, 6s.). We found some old stories well retold,...

Mr. Gordon S. Maxwell's The Road to Prance (Methuen, illustrated,

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75. 6d.) is an account of the thrice-told tale of Watling Street and of its associations and near surroundings from London, through Canterbury, to Dover. The book is pleasant...

The Competition

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THE Editor offers a prize of three guineas for the best descrip- tion in verse Of a popular English seaside resort at midday on August Bank Holiday. Entries should not be more...

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Towards Social Reform

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The Housing of the Poor. By T. Speak°. (Carden Cities and Town Planning Association. Is.) WHILE Dr. Churchill's book is an important contribution to sociological literature and...

The Unchangin g 0 . Path MESSRS. SIEEED AND WARD are rapidly

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enhancing their own reputation and our gratitude by the distinction and simplicity of formed which mark their publications, and by the character of the works which they select....

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The United States Constitution

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The Constitution of the United States, in some of its Funda- mental Aspects. By Gaspar G. Bacon, LL.B., Member of the Massachusetts Senate. (Harvard University Press. Os.) LORD...

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Witchcraft and Hysteria

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Malleus Maleficarum. Translated, with an Introduction, b3i the Rev. Montague Summers: (John- Rodker. 35s.) The Hammer of Witches had the blessing of Pope Innocent VIII., and...

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Art and Craft

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An Outline History of Painting. By S. C. Kaines Smith. (The Medici Society. 68.) Degas. An Intimate Portrait by Ambroise Vollard. Translated by R. T. Weaver. (Allen and Unwin....

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Answers to Sudan Questions 1. Mohammedanism-2. Bread baked from dura

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Sour, grotuld from dura, a grain grown in the country.-3. Dates.- 4 - Sakkiyeh.-5. Gyassa.-6. A village headman.-7. Th° Egyptian Army.-8. Omdurman ; Mr. Winston Churchill.--- -...

Fiction

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Old-Fashioned and New STANLEY WEYMAN'S swan song fills us with wonderment that its author could for so many years before his recent death have remained comparatively silent. It...

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Motors and Motoring

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The Modern Motor Car. III—Some Special Features I HAVE previously laid emphasis on the fact that the motor car is fast heed-Ming an "object of interest to all users. It is...

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Finance—Public and Private

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That Blessed Word— ALREADY there are signs in the United States of all financial matters being submerged in a stream of political oratory relative to the impending Presidential...

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INVESTMENT STOCKS STEADY.

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Meanwhile, British Funds and kindred stocks keep absolutely firm and in the main the explanation is no doubt to be found in the great extent of the genuine investment demand and...

IMPENDING GOVERNMENT MATURITIES.

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During the next five months there are exceptionally large amonpts in Government bonds maturing and at one time that circumstance would have been quite sufficient in itself to...

THE "TOTE."

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The Stock Exchange Committee is so greatly to be com- mended for its prompt action in the matter of issuing a warning to the investor this week with regard to risks attach- ing...

Financial Notes

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MARKETS FIRM. CONSIDERING that we are now at the height of the holiday season the stock markets are holding their own in excellent fashion. In a few instances, in some of the...

COLD ECONOMIES.

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A correspondent asks me to explain a little more fully how the various monetary centres can aid each other in economy in the use of gold. One obvious way in which there can be...