Mr. Cobb speaks in a most significant and welcome manner about industrial conditions in Turkey:
In methods of industry and business the medieval form holds sway.... Their hours are long, but their labor dignifies instead of degrading them. Now and then they stop work, light a cigarette and dream. There is a chance for a bit of meditation, a broadening of the vision of life.... Compare all that with the feverish activity of our modern industrial system with its soul-racking machines and unhumanizing servitude to work.... Poor East! Little does it dream, in its silent, meditative happiness, that it will one day have to face the industrial system—the age of machinery and iron. Already this is creeping upon them—already factories are being established, and labor is being chained to the loom....
Let us hope it will profit by the bitter experience of the West, and keep the good things it has. The Turkish craftsman
makes a living—he is happy, he lives near to God.... Will you undertake to show him the possibilities of combination, of fierce competition, of ostentatious wealth? Will you take away his soul and give him a few millions in return? Pray do not! Leave us some distant corner of the earth where we can flee when the shadows of industrialism oppress us; when the soullessness of human faces arouses our despair.... The East is yet a land where one can seek the eternal solitudes of the spirit.... The despotism of the East is over. No more can its rulers consign to death at their whim.... Will the East be able to keep its characteristic of peace?
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The Irish-language demonstration held in Dublin on September 17 was impressive and successful; indeed the citizens appear to celebrate this annual event as a festival day. A considerable number of those taking part wore the ancient national costume. The first part of the procession, consisting of branches of the Gaelic League, occupied half an hour in passing a given point. Then came various schools. Next the National Foresters formed a picturesque element, an innovation being the attire of two branches of the lady Foresters, who appeared in green velvet cloaks and hoods which imparted a very realistic Celtic touch. Numerous labor organizations brought up the rear.
At the subsequent mass meeting Dr. Douglas Hyde, the energetic President of the Gaelic League, presented resolutions dealing with the education question in connexion with the preservation of the Irish language and industrial development. He said the National Board of Education had informed him that the managers of the schools and the parents of the children were colder towards the Irish language than the Board itself. "The priests of Ireland are the managers of the schools," he went on to say, "and if it was true that the priests are colder than the Board it is a sad state of affairs. I do not believe it, but I will leave this question because it does not touch us." He concluded by asking the Gaelic League members to have a welcome for every person who was an Irishman, and to apply no tests except that when members came in they should leave religion and politics outside the door.
One cannot but admire the optimism of Dr. Douglas Hyde, and if the course he outlined be followed many will soon realize that the words unsectarian and non-political, sound a keynote of progress. And the Gaelic League is surely for progress! There is an eastern book called The Arabian Night's Entertainments. It contains the Story of Es-Sindibâd, who had the ill-luck to encounter trying adventures, among which was the task of carrying an Old-Man-of-the-Sea on his back. Perhaps the parents, the National Board, and Dr. Douglas Hyde might think of an Irish version. Meanwhile the children suffer most.
Talking of translations, we wonder whether some Gaelic League member will think of putting Atlantis, by Ignatius Donnelly, into Irish. To be sure, it would give young folk a wider outlook on life, but this might not be an insuperable objection.