M%y.^m THE SATURDAY EVENING POST Novemberi 3.1920 Jaffa Gate and the Clock Tower Buitt by the Kaiser TO WHOM is the land of Palestine promised? That is what three sets of people in the country are ask- ing—Arabs, Jews and Christians — and they are asking it in tones clear though not clamorous. The British Gov- ernment believes that it has supplied the answer in its declaration that there will be, under the mandate, complete freedom and equaUty for all religions, equal justice for every person in the land, regardless of his station, Ms race or his creed. The day before and the day after I reached Palestine I met two claimants and savored their love for the coun- try. The first was a Jewish lad who had been born in Russia, brought up in the United States, and who had early become a Zionist. When the war broke out he had seen a chance of getting to Palestine by enlisting in Can- ada. He did finally reach Palestine with the British Army, and fought and advanced, in his rest camp taking a course in agriculture. When I met him he was wearing civiHan clothes for the first time in six years. "I am going back to Palestine," this boy said, "to work for the Jews in my country in whatever way I can. I want to be a farmer and I have enough money to buy a little land. Besides that my father owns some land there, though the Arabs are squatting on it, and the papers are in Bolshevikland. But I can rent land or go on one of the settlements. I am not going to make a choice. I will say to them: 'You choose for me.' What I am afraid of is that they will choose for me to be a soldier and make a part of the Jewish battalion now to be formed in Palestine. I hate soldiering worse than anything I ever tried, but if my country needs me that way I'll be a soldier. For years I have wanted to do just this; to come to Palestine and live and die for it without any thought of myself." ^ Sad Arab Bride ALL this he said while we coped in Port XXSaidwithEgyptiansoldierswho didn't want us to do anything we wanted to do, and with a pretty Turkish girl we were trsdng to look after. We would struggle fiercely, and this young Paul would be a man of action. Then would come a breathing spell, and he would turn into a poet, a patriot, a dreamer of dreams about the new Jerusalem. Some twenty-four hours later I was in an Arab village a few miles out of Jerusalem, attending an Arab wedding, with some members of the Amer- ican colony. We were sitting on carpets in the guest house watching a man make coffee, and remembering the Scriptures about thorns crack- ling under a pot, for that's just what the camel thorn was doing, making a big and brief blaze. Our hosts, all men, were showing us the perfect hospitality of the East. The bridegroom was not exactly the center of the party; it was the celebration itself, including especially the big feast he was paying for and that the women were getting ready. Being wishful to see the bride, we went to a place that was half a cavern and half a house, built over a cellar where the animals stayed. It was without doors and had rocky shelves for sleeping rooms. The little bride, a pretty girl of fourteen, kept her head down and looked sad, as is the custom. I wouldn't blame a Moslem woman for looking sad under the circumstances. We wished her happiness and gave her wedding presents; then took our way in the starlight down narrow winding alleys, escorted by half the village, listening to marriage cries uttered by an ancient lady with sheet-iron lungs, and helped over bad places by slender, lean hands with the thumbs curved out. Presently the tall Arab at my side said: "Cit"— which is "Lady" or "Madam," when a foreigner is addressed— "I spik English. I was in Chicago seven-eight years- Clark Street; I had the cart with oranges. I like it, living in Chicago." . Here I asked the obvious question. The Military Governor of Beersheba and His Sheiks JI Jerusalem Street —Tomb of David in the Distance " Cit, I came back because I have land and parents and a wife. I make more money in Chicago, but this is home here, and I am the only young man in the family. If stayed in Chicago maybe my father would get tired. He would have debts and some day they would make him to pay or do something to him. Then maybe he would sell his land to the Jews. The Jews would have that land outside the village where I was born. My father would look out and see them on his land. I am young and strong and I will not sell to Jews. So it is better I come back and help keep Arabs in this village that has never had Jews in it. Pales- tine is an Arab country, but they do not know it in Chicago." Things Not in the Lesson Leaf PALESTINE is claimedby all three of us — Arabs and Jew's and Christians. If the average American who has not been off his own continent were to be magically transported to Palestine it would seem vaguely familiar to him, and pres- ently he would understand where he was. He would recog- nize the stony hills, the sparsely wooded spaces, the little flat-roofed buildings, the stately sheiks in long robes with shawl-covered cinctured heads sitting on donkeys, the tall women by wells with water vessels on their heads, the lonely shepherds on long slopes beside their huddled sheep. He would know it all, because he has been taught it vaguely in the Bible stories of his childhood. He has hung over religious pictures on Sun- days, that being the main amusement al- lowed him; he has studied them in the lesson leaf in Sunday school, for want of other distraction, and what he has learned has remained in the hinterland of his mind, clothed with dignity and reverence. But there is a good deal that has been left out of his knowledge. He hasn't seen a couple of Orientals squabbling with un- utterable fierceness over the ownership of a measure of wheat, so that you'd think there'd be a murder presently. He has not seen them beating animals for no reason except habit. There aren't any Bible pictures that I recall which show the women carrying heavy bundles of thorn firewood, while the men ride beside them on donkeys. This, by the way, used very much to annoy the Australians, who were among the first troops to occupy Palestine. They used to take the inan off THE SATURDAY EVENING POST X He was, lingering, late for dinner; it had begun, and two cocktails were standing at his place. Mrs. Bassett smiled at him through half-closed eyes, poised in the consideration of a subject he had missed. Lynn Graves couldn't make up his mind about her — there were times when she looked positively lovely, the finest essence, of which women were compounded; and again she was white, dragged — dissipated was what he called her then. But her manner, her cordiality, was flawless; he had never before encountered such an invariable perfection of effortless hos- pitality — where her acquaintances, the people she ap- proved, were concerned! She reached, on occasion, with equal ease, remarkable heights of the disagreeable. All the Bassetts, with their friends, were snobs, in another sense from that suspected of himself; they looked down, while he gazed up, in a way not untouched with — with meanness. The conversation, he discovered, was about absinth. Martha Read had described its effects on her, Sanford had characterized it as a rotten smell, while Mrs. Bassett re- called the fact that, observed through her husband— now dead — she had found it both amusing and decidedly trying. Ettie repeated the assertion that she cared for nothing but rye whisky, and Graves admitted a small partiality for Scotch. "For the country at large — yes, for everyone," he ad- mitted with a trace of defiance — "I'm in favor of prohibi- tion." He didn't care if for once he had annoyed Ettie; he had a right, here as elsewhere, to his own opinions. • "I dare say you're right," Mrs. Bassett pleasantly re- plied; "drinking can be a terrific nuisance." The others were silent and regarded him with a scarcely masked curiosity. "It's a mistake certainly to give whisky to the Indians," Ettie put in when the pause had grown threatening. "I saw one fearfully drunk at the landing at Buckhorn yes- terday." She turned to Mrs. Bassett. "Didn't I see Margaret Tyler at the camp this evening?" The other nodded. "James William brought her to help me with some sewing; ridiculous little glass beads that had come off a sleeve. It's wonderful how she got them back; you'd never guess what patience and good taste. I want to keep her with me, but even if she is part Indian I couldn't think of Margaret in an inferior position; she might have absorbed all the dignity of the village." "That may be true," Sanford objected, "but if you're any Indian you are all Indian. You don't know them, or the village, as well as I do. You mustn't be sentimental about them; nothing but a lot of dirty loafers!" "My guide, Wesley Beaver, is as clean as anyone," Graves insisted, still on the defensive. "I'd like to know him better; and if I got through my responsibilities as well as he does I'd be very well satisfied." Sanford admitted that Beaver was, for an Ojibway, unusually satisfactory. "But you ought to see some of the older ones," he con- tinued. "Wesley's young now and an ambitious bird. He'll lose all that and get sloppy; they always do. In the woods, on the lake, it's right to be dirty; on our land- ing stage, though, it's quite different. When a dirty person comes in contact with a clean one the trouble's on. Per- haps it's just civilized dirt that's so impossible. Before we came through here the Indians were splendid. The funniest thing of all, the very funniest, is that they are prudish. I asked John Fish if his girls smoked or ever got a pull at the bottle, and he was almost eloquent ; he said no. I shouldn't be surprised if he'd refuse to paddle Ettie in that bathing suit of hers; he keeps her as far across the lake from the village as he can manage." THE morning following, into which Graves' canoe stole, was so still that the lake seemed held in a vacuum. The sunlight had the appearance not of one source but of enveloping the earth in an even bath of brilliancy; the water was so still that the insects above it had the look of brushing a solid blue surface. Hot glitters flashed far across the surface, and shadows lay as transparent and perceptible on the water as in the air, while the contracted tall islands had a green magical unreality. There was apparently no other world but the clear depths embracing wooded points and shores, covering stone and roots, over which young perch hung with wavering fins. Already, be- fore the heat of the day, the lake was drowsy; the meas- ured flash of Beaver's lifted paddle blade had a hypnotic effect. "Bad for flshing," he declared; "but we can keep in, put on a little lead and try down deep for bass." Even that failed; and when at noon they left the canoe there was nothing to eat but the bacon, the toasted bread and jam and tea from Oak Island. The Indian prepared lunch swiftly; a fire no larger than a handful of wood coals served for the bacon and boiUng water at once, while he peeled a forked stick for the toast. When Graves had finished, Wesley Beaver, sitting on his heels a short dis- tance away, drank his black tea and gathered tip, obliter- ated, every trace of cooking; then, chipping tobacco from a plug, he retired to the shore and left Graves uninterrupted in ease. He reviewed sleepily the conversation at dinner of the evening past, about the Ojibways; and the name Mar- garet Tyler . flashed through his mind, his imagination stirred at the image of her with an immemorial primitive skill sewing glass beads on Mrs. Bassett's filmy super- civilized sleeves. What Sanford had said about the In- dians, in spite of his own instinctive spirit of disagreement, struck him as probably true; there was, beyond a trivial occupation, nothing open to Beaver, nothing to which, signally, he was addressed. Guiding, fishing and trapping — pursuits in themselves of skill — were deadening to any larger ambition; the fact that Wesley was admittedly superior only served to make his ultimate disillusionment, his final surrender, more imminent and bitterly thorough. The other appeared after an hour more had been lost in the breathless hush and suggested an effort to catch a big 'nonge at the mouth of a stream filled with weed. It was a remote place, and as he drove the canoe forward a mat of sweat spread, glistening, over his broad dark face. Beaver ignored it, as he paid no attention to his cramped position. Lynn Graves studied this; no man could remain so long on his knees, with nothing softer between him and the bottom of the canoe than a piece of bagging, without discomfort and active pain. The other's knees were, like his own, fiesh and sinew and susceptible to aggravated cramping; but, while with him. Graves, the hurt would master the determined performance of paddling, Wesley Beaver, through a stoical inheritance, could disregard, to that extent anyhow, the flesh. Lynn Graves trolled at the entrance to the creek for a long period with no result. At times his spinners ceased playing and he reeled in the line, freed it from the weeds; twice he changed the lure; but no maskinonge struck. Then he was conscious of a sudden darkening of the air and, looking up, he saw a low bank of maroon cloud (Continued on Page 61) Ji New Feeling Stirred in Hitni It Enhanced the Still Lake and Gave the Sound of a Whippoorwill in the Evergreens a Fresh Throbbing Intensity THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 9 the donkey, put the thorns on his head, pressing them down firmly, then set the lady in what they called her rightful place. What happened to the lady, once the soldiers were out of sight, history saith not, but one hopes that for a little space she enjoyed herself; that it was worth the subsequent proceedings. Moreover, the average man has a vague idea that Palestine belongs to the Jews and that some day they must return to their old home. Ages ago the Israelites took Palestine by conquest frpm other races. Here they reached a magnificent state of spiritual development. The glories of Solomon still live, because the Jews have never let any of us forget them. But two thoiisand years ago the Jews lost by the sword what they had taken by the sword. Roman and Arab and Turk have ruled the land since those days and have dominated the remnant of the Jewish nation that remained faithful to Palestine; and yet in one sense the Jews have never lost the coun- try. They have certainly been able to make the average American forget who else has claims on Palestine. It is very hard to get statistics here— a relic of the terror the Turks inspired— but there is, roughly speaking, one Jew to every eight or nine other Palestinians. And the other Palestinians, mostly Arabs, care just as much about keeping the country as the Jews care about getting it. Palestine is a country to touch one's sense of romance, of mystery and reverence. In the spring, when the bare hills are alight with scarlet anemones and blue and lav- ender and white flowers, it is a dream of beauty. I have seen it under the moonlight or the starlight, wrapped in the same loveliness that called forth the awe of the Three Wise Men. It has a compelling allure. But to live here forever, to come from overseas and pledge per- petual allegiance— well, that makes me think of a remark a pretty American woman made to me the other day. We had traveled about eighty miles on a villainous road in a sort of tin can called a car to visit a friend, a military governor, who lives like a king among thousands of Bedouins, who adore him. I don't blame them, for he is the best, type of Englishman— generous, feudal perhaps in his feelings, but just and dependable. We saw everything, sheiks in their tents, sheiks holding court, the clubhouse originated by the governor, the market that has been held in the same place for three thousand years. We were given royal salutes by the police whenever we went outdoors. We saw avenues our host had laid out, gardens he had established. We saw perfect housekeeping in the desert. " My pretty companion didn't miss a thing. She saw all that could be done for the native women. Jerusalem the Golden AS WE strolled through the market I knew she was long- ■i^ ingto lay her hands on the babies and show their moth- ers how to care for them. When we set off on our journey again we were both regretful at going and both a little dreamy perhaps, because it had all been very romantic. Once on the road, romance fied from me very promptly. Never have I felt such heat or known such blaz- ing sunshine. Our tin can had to stop, so the sun beat on us unim- peded. I wore a topee, but my friend wore only a layer of straw over her head and a veil across her face. The sun faded her veil and tanned her face and blistered her neck. The dust swirled in on us and choked us. The hills were one glare of gray, staring rock and burnt grass. Don- keys and camels kept getting in our way, and more than once we were in danger — or thought so — of having a load of furniture shunted off a camel's back upon our heads. My friend's face lost its tender softness and stif- fened itself to en- dure. She closed her lips hard; she JI Sheik of the Temple Mrea^ Jerusalem looked with growing distaste at everything she saw; and at last, after two or three hours, she said tensely: "I can understand how people would be willing to live in almost any part of the United States, but as to this country— well, anyone can have it, so far as I'm concerned." It might be hard for the average American to adopt Palestine as a perihanent home, yet as Christians we have an interest in it, especially in Jerusalem. Indeed Jerusalem to-day shows signs of American enterprise. There is the American colony, a religious cooperative community, which does a great deal of good with its shops and stores and charities. There is the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. and the Near East Relief, all of which have made their mark on the city. The sewerage system in Jerusalem is due to the American Y. M. C. A. When the city was occupied neither the British military nor the civil organizations saw their way to appropriating money for a sewerage system. The American secretary at the head of the Y. M. C. A., who had had experience with the disease that comes from a city whose sewage is badly handled, acted promptly, sent Sir Herbert Samuel, High Commissioner of Palestine (Right), Colonel Starrs, Military Governor of Jerusalem, and Mrabs to Cairo and bought a secondhand outfit he knew of, a steam pump, sealed carts, and so on, which are still in use. If it had not been for the war we should have been lavishly represented in the oil business. But it is as tourists that we have shown an especial flair for Jeru- salem. How many of us have had our inspiration on the Mount of Olives, gazing at the slopes which those we have learned to revere used to see ! We have climbed to the Temple Rock and seen the Mosque of Omar; we have gone down the Street of Sorrows, passed through the Damascus Gate; we have perhaps felt with a fresh shock, as people do ten or twenty times during their three score years and ten, the strangeness of this com- mon thing called' hfe. We have felt the picturesqueness of the heterogeneous races in Jerusalem: Jews and Samaritans, Arabs and Christians of varying creeds — Jews with their pale faces and long curls and fur- brimmed hats; Bedouins in their striped yellow silk underrobes and long black abas, their fine, dark faces showing keen under their head coverings; other Arabs in European dress, some of them blinded in the right eye in childhood by their mothers that they might escape being conscripted by the Turks; still other Arabs on the road to European dress, wearing robes with coats and waistcoats; street venders and carriage drivers, don- keys and strings of camels, color and graceful motion, chatter and street cries, church bells, and in the back- ground the gaunt hills, the olive orchards and here and there the dark spires of the cypress trees. The Wailing Place of the Jews WHAT happens ultimately to Palestine is the concern of half the world, since every Moslem, Jew and Chris- tian sees in Palestine a holy land. We all have a claim, but in a sense the Jew's claim is the deepest, because he has never let Palestine go out of his soul. Throughout all the ages, since the Romans swept away the last traces of the Jewish nation, the Jews have turned to Jerusalem in their Feasts of the Passover, in their services and prayers. They beUeve in the promise of Jehovah: "Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers." The poets among them, from David down to some little East Side Jew crouched over his machine, making verses during the most mechanical moments of his toil— they all sing of the passion of the exile for his home, his Zion. Only yesterday I stood at the Wailing Place of the Jews, the foot of a wall which was probably once part of the temple. A magnificent structure it is, made of great stones, some sixty feet above where the road used to be. There are old nails pounded in between the courses to symbolize possession in accordance with the passage in Ezra, "to give us a nail in his holy place." The crevices are blackened where the Jews have set in candles which burned as they prayed. And such wailing as it was! They swayed back and forth, reading from their holy books of their bygone glories, tears streaming down their faces. "For the temple that is destroyed," they chanted, "we sit in solitude and mourn." Andmournthey did, hour after hour. There were two girls who sobbed and wept most appallingly. I couldn't help wondering if they were not unhappy over some per- sonal loss besides the loss of their kingdom. A regu- lar organized chance to wail might sometimes be a relief to women with a grief that must be hidden from the world. But no one could Hsten to the wailing without wishing that the Jews could some- how have what they want. On the other hand, as I walked home- ward, climbing in- numerable steps to get to the Street of David, I passed sixty Arab beggars also want- ing something, not only immedi- ate assistance, but (Continued on Page 130) 10 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST Novembj^ 13, /pgo ILLUSTRATED B r J. KEEFE GAINES sagged sadly in the doorway of his mortuary emporium, his habitually cheerful smile glaringly conspicuous by its absence. Florian Slap- pey, his pal of many years, lounged commiseratingly be- side the melancholy one. For fifteen minutes they carried on a wordless conversation, and then Keefe unleashed a profound sigh. "Dawg-gone!" Florian bestowed upon him a look of sympathy. " Feelin' punk, Keefe?" "Wuss'n that, Florian." "How come?" "They's a man in this town. Brother Slappey, which I is jes' nachelly got to meet up with." "Name which?" "Pluvius Jackson." "That cullud aviator which is been flyin' out to the Fair Grounds? Means him?" " Yassuh— I mos' suttinly does. That man " Suddenly Keefe stiffened and his eyes became fixed intently on a couple that rounded the corner of Eight- eenth Street and sauntered leisurely through the crowds and into the inviting portals of Champion Theater, where the thirteenth episode of The Gory Avenger was showing. "Yonder he went, Florian. Did you see him?" "Uh-huh! I done!" Nor was Florian the only gentleman of leisure who had been keenly interested in the exotic personality of Mr. Pluvius Jackson. As a pedestrian Pluvius was about as hard to miss as an undressed colored youth in a snowstorm. Being by pro- fession an aviator and by instinct an excellent publicity man," Pluvius wore his aviation costume at all hours- knee breeches, putties, olive-drab shirt and leather jacket "Jay* t is In a Pickle. I li Got to Jay, Wha's the Makin' That Twen'yFtve Dalian ? '• GOULD open down the front. As a sop to civilian con- vention he topped the pro- fessional effect with a low-flung derby, on the frontofwhichhe had sewed a pair of emblematic silver wings. Pluvius Jack- son was con- siderable man, and, though still a stranger to Birmingham's Darktown, he had been seized and clasped to its bosom. Prior to 1917 Pluvius had been an automobile me- ' chanic, and an unusually good one. The squabble with Germany and the ensuing draft law catapulted Pluvius into the Army, where his undoubted genius for gasoline motors placed him with the aviation section. There he had blossomed, even as seven or eight green bay trees. He qualified as a mechanician and eventually was taken up by his lieutenant as a passenger. Much to his surprise he returned to earth as whole as ever. A few days' careful thought convinced him that the experience of flying was not half bad. He besought a second flight, and was accommodated. He returned from that flight air-broke. He wanted more. He got it— in spirals, loops, falling leaves, Immelman turns and nose dives. The plane lighted and the lieutenant turned expectantly, anticipating much fun from his passenger. "How'd you like it, Pluvius?" But no terror shone from the eyes of the dusky me- chanician. "That sho' was fine, cap'n. When does you aim to do some regular stunts with me? " That won the pilot. Thereafter he tucked Pluvius under his official wings and taught him frequently and much. Within two months Pluvius was doing solo work, having his beloved lieutenant as a passenger. Of course the lieu- tenant was careful to ascend with Pluvius in train- ing planes only— planes that were equipped with duphcate controls. But never had he been given occasion to resort to this safety device. He pro- nounced Pluvius the best natural flyer he had ever seen. Pluvius went to France. He remained in France for many long months. His cap'n-lieutenaiit was designated an instructor, and Pluvius virtually had things his own way at the training school. Also, he received no pay. As a result, when the world fracas ended and Pluvius returned on an evil-smelling transport he found awaiting him much overdue salary and a sixty-dollar discharge bonus. Six months later he procured an army plane at auction. From then on things looked up for Pluvius. Billed as The Greatest, Dar- ingest, Death-Defyingest Colored Avi- ator in the World he became a red-letter attraction at colored fairs. All of which accounts for his presence in Birmingham. It explains also the reasons for his lionizing. To put it very mildly, Pluvius Jackson was in soft; very soft indeed. Florian Slappey turned his gaze again to the mournful face of Keefe Gaines. "You craves to meet up with Pluvius Jackson?" "I does, Florian." "Whaffo'?" " They's two reasons." "Specified which?" Keefe Gaines elevated a pudgy forefinger and designated the sign that hung over his place of busi- ness. Florian's gaze followed and Sis Caiiie Keened to the Scandai Scent. With Butterfly in the Society Spotlight .anything Someone Had Heard and Did Hot Believe Was Fraught With Interest he took in of trade. once again the gilt glories of the emblem WE Bim OTHERS, WHY NOT YOU? KEEFE GAINES Undertaker EMBALMfflG NEATLY DONE SATISFACTION GUARANTEED Matter With You "That," explained Keefe hopefully, "is one of the reasons." Florian shook his head in puzzlement. " Don' git you, Keefe." "Pluvius is a aviator," clarified Keefe. "Ise a under- taker. Business has been rotten lately." "H'm! Tha's on'y one reason. Wha's t'other? " "You seen Pluvius go into the Champeen Theater?" "Yeh?" "He wa'n't alone, was he?" " Not specially." "Does you know the name of the gal which was with him?" " I di'n't prezac'ly see her face. Who 'twas? " "Her," moaned Keefe, "was Miss Butterfly Gryson. I craves to make ma'iage with that gal, Florian." "Huh!" ejaculated Florian, the misogynist. "The mo' fool you! Not that I is got anything agin Butterfly, Keefe— she's 'bout as good as gals gits to be. But they ain't none of 'em wuth us men." "You ain't never be'n in love," gloomed Keefe dis- consolately. " I has ! " corrected Florian positively. " Tha's how come I to know!" "Anyway, Florian, I ain't got a chance with that gal now that Pluvius is come to Bummin'ham. But some day"— Keefe's face grew grim— "Ise gwine drive tkat feller on a ride he ain't gwine know nothin' 'bout." " Then they ain't nothin' f o' you to feel sad 'bout? " "You talks foolishment, Florian. I ain't aimin' to ma'y no aviator's widder. What I needs Flo'ian, is he'p. What I ain't got with Butterfly now, is no chance. What do she care 'bout a undertaker when they's a flyin' man hangin' roun' her? Specially when all the wimmin is chasin' him, too? What you reckon I c'n do? " Florian was flattered. "You is talkin' with the right feller, Keefe. Fixin' up things f o' other folks is 'bout the fondes' thing I is of." "You reckon " "When Florian Slappey stahts out to do sumthin', Keefe, he mos' usually does it. Or leastwise, he always does. You jes' leave things to me, an' in less'n no time a-tall Ise gwine have Butterfly Gryson eatin' out of yo' han'." Keefe sighed. "You reckon " "Reckon? I knows!" "When you aims to staht? " Florian turned away. "Ain't no time like the presence, Keefe. I travels ! " Florian traveled well, but with no startling display of wisdom. He bought his way into the Champion Theater and waited with infinite patience until the seat next the aviator and his fair companion was vacated. Into this 1303 Peaceful Future Predicted I felt the poetry and power of what they were doing— and thanked whatever gods there be that I didn't have to do it. Natu- rally I wanted to know on what terms they worked. They are divided into three groups, each with a certain area to take care of. The inspectors have decreed that so much is to be done in a given time. The workers may fix their own hours. 'They re- ceive eight pounds a month, of which they pay six for board. In about two years they will be producing crops of which they will have half the profits. The land is arranged for on a system of forty-nine-year leases. The law is elastic, so that in time_ leases may be renewed or land bought outright or the cooperative scheme may be changed into a scheme of individual farming. So far the leaders say they cannot tell which scheme will work out better, the individual-plantation scheme or the coop- erative plan. The plantations I saw near Ludd, little orange and almond farms, were in excellent condition and evidently mak- ing money. They have been running for about six years. I had almost decided for the individual plan when I met a Russian Jew who has been in this country for thirty years and who has one of the most thriving olive orchards and vineyards I ever saw. He introduced a particular sort of olive from Greece, and had such good results that his Moslem neighbors asked him to lecture to them. I sat on his porch and saw a Jewish picnic party having a good time on the front lawn, and an Arab on the back porch conversing amicably with the lady of the house. I saw awful crayon portraits of the owner and his wife, sure evidences of prosperity, and I admired his preserved apricots and peaches. I could not but be- lieve that he got on well with his Moslem neighbors. Some of the Zionists, men like Doctor Eder, one of the leaders who has come from England to give the rest of his life to Pales- tine, are sure that there need never be any trouble between the Jews and the Arabs. "There is room for us all just now," Doctor Eder said. "We will live our lives and they will live theirs. Labor is badly wanted in this country, and Jews will come in to supply it. But even if they would, they could not come in now in overpower- ing numbers. A Jew, rich in Poland with a hundred thousand marks, would find that he had just nothing if he tried to get his money exchanged into piasters and travel here. Prom Russia they cannot come at all on account of the Bolsheviks. Those who would like to come at once will find natural restrictions in their way; a man cannot always sell all he has and pack his bags and leave. It all takes time. The ones who will come in are those the country is badly in need of— technical people, engi- neers, doctors, and so on." Doctor Eder's Views "Then the Jew must prove himself over here. He must get back to the soil, must ■make the earth fruitful if he expects to re- cover his real value. I see no immediate danger. This land could support four or five million people, and there are not a mil- lion here. Jews and Arabs will probably live peaceably side by side until the whole country is ripe for self-government, when that government will be trusted to the whole population. The Arab who has a gift for farming will not use for some time our modern farm implements, but he will gradually learn from us and perhaps we can learn something from him. The antiquities of the Jews will not trouble; no Moslem need fear that. Of course there are your ' scientific Jews who would be glad to dig into sacred places to see what is to be found, but the older Jews would not allow it. Meanwhile everyone has his chance to work for the good of Palestine. There is a great deal to be done, and opportunity for all to help. Whatever problems there are won't arrive for a long time to come." But there are other Jews who speak differently. "This country used to be ours," a Jew said to me, "and we mean to have it again. Not now— the British would not let us, even if we were strong enough. We shall shed no blood, but because we are a better, a wiser and a stronger people, and because we have money behind us, one day Pales- tine will be ours, and the Arabs and the Christians will be but a small part of the population. They shall Kve beside us, justly treated, but Palestine will be a Jew- ish land, not a Moslem land. It will all be done without bloodshed, but we shall be the conquerors." "Oh, come!" I said. "You keep forget- ting the Arabs, who, you must admit, held this country longer than the Jews. There are eight hundred thousand of them, all loving their land. How are you to deal with them? " " Much," he said coolly, "as you dealt in the United States with the American In- dians." One couldn't make much of a reply to a remark like that. Arabs who fear too much might comfort themselves with the reflection that though the Jews have one great unity— their pas- sionate love for Palestine, still the dynamic force among them— the Zionists are people who have been educated in various coun- tries. The American Zionists are not like the English Zionists, and the American and English are not like the Russian Zionists. Here are some of the remarks I have heard from Jews about Jews: " Why are they letting in the scum of Eu- rope?" ( Contlnaecl on Page 132) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST (Concluded from Page 126) seventy-five per cent of the total output, with national distribution. Dad said there was plenty of room for a good device backed by selling energy, and that proved to be true. To-day the big handicap is that five- year setback in sales development. A cer- tain Pacific Coast city had been showing such demand that it was singled out for special sales development. Retail mer- chants carried the device, but could not be said really to sell it. When customers who had already made up their minds came in to buy, the dealers had the article in stock. But they did not back it up with service, instruction or repairs and made practically no eSort to interest new customers. A serv- ice branch was opened in that city and local advertising used to increase demand. This branch sold the device to the public at retail, but, being located in the wholesale section, its business amounted to that of another retail store and could hardly be considered competitive. On the contrary, ■ it backed the retailers with a handy supply of goods and parts and stood ready to handle any technical troubles that they might get into. The trust is strong in that territory and has a similar service branch. How far the constructive selling viewpoint has been eliminated from the average business man's make-up during our boom years was shown ivhen the retail merchants in this city, through their trade organization, inti- mated that unless the independent factory's service branch was closed they would stop selling its product. And the branch was closed, not through apprehension but be- cause the sales department of that factory is not yet strong enough to meet such a situation by systematic dealer education. Many organizations of that kind have come into existence, to control territory, parcel out ready-made demand, boost profits and create local monopolies more troublesome than trusts. Competition in a rehabilitated buyers' market will blow through them like a gale. "Everybody is preaching production, production!" says dad. "But always to the wage earner. He is producing. Over- production is in sight. But a hundred thousand salesmen and salaried men are playing golf. The national investment in golf links the past five years would make a hole in the national debt. These fellows who should be developing markets at home and abroad for the increased output of fac- tories enlarged during the war are taking exercise to prevent nervous breakdown, listening to warnings against the high ten- sion of American business, dodging work to keep well. It is time somebody preached production to them." Salesmen, Not Apologists "For five years the humble buyer, seek- ing goods, has pleaded for a moment of the salesman's time, apologized for talking business, offered to pay any price for any quantity, no matter how small — and inter- fered with the salesman's game. Just as though the salesman could take goods out of a hat ! Now the situation has changed, but instead of jumping in with a little real sales work to get business going again, he decides that business is sick, too, and is gloomy about it." The other day a New York executive called a meeting of salesmen in his Eastern territory. For three days they hstened to his explanation of a new policy and dis- cussed methods of applying it. Then they scattered and got busy. In a little two-by-four shop on Main Street in some factory town a small retailer selling this concern's products has been trying to survive boom times the past five years. AH his attention centered on getting enough goods to keep the store open and enough turnover to make a living. Be- fore the war salesmen from competitive manufacturers visited him every few days seeking orders. Since 1916 their visits have been rare. "What can I do for you to- day?" they used to ask. But this has become his own anxious question: "Is there any chance of doing something for me?" meaning: "I know I don't count among your big ciistomers, but could you get me some merchandise? " And the sales- man, doing little or nothing for the small retailer, who was once courted so assiduously, has not always taken pains even to conceal apathy. But now there is a change so far as the salesmen of this particular company are concerned. They visit the little retailer, discuss his difficulties, boost his quota of merchandise and outUne a schedule of steady increases. They are salesmen once more, not apologists. The boss made his new policy very definite. The Time to Create Goodwill "Now is the time to create goodwill," he announced. "Our line is competitive. It has been hampered only by lack of raw ma- terials. Production is creeping up. Inside of a year it will pass demand. Thousands of retailers are waiting for that situation, and what they will do to salesmen and manufacturers who have neglected them, ignored their problems, and even gone out of their way to step on them, will be plenty. We want them to look upon us as friends." Behind the counter, salesmanship is the retailer's chief means of meeting two diffi- culties — public lethargy in buying and the need for lower costs in doing biisiness. The public knows that prices for the raw ma- terials of industry are coming down. Wool, silk, hides, rubber, cotton, grain and live- stock are definitely dropping. There is only one way for the consumer to measure these changes — in retail prices. It may take a season or two for wool or cotton re- ductions to show up in the price of clothing. Lower prices for cattle on the hoof may be offset in the price of porterhouse steak or mutton chops because hides and wool are almost unsalable just now. The public is not wasting much time on complicated ex- planations. It wants results, not alibis, and unless the retail merchant can show results refuses to purchase all but bare necessities. The retailer has only two ways of show- ing results — by obtaining merchandise at lower prices and by reducing his own costs of doing business. In normal times there would be the third way of increasing his turnover, but turnover has dropped alarm- ingly, and it is necessary to change the public's psychology before it begins to rise again. Wholesale prices show reductions, indicating marked changes maybe a year hence. But for the present a ten or twenty per cent decrease in cheviot or percale makes an insignificant showing in the retail price of a suit of clothes or a shirt. Labor, distribution, overhead and profits are the real factors. So the retailer must shave his profits, weed out careless and incompetent clerks and coach his best sales people in selling and service. The real merchant now stands out above the passive storekeeper. Recognizing the demand of his customer for results and building upon the summer carnival of miscellaneous bargains, he announces a broad poUcy of abolishing his own profit on some staple line of goods. It may be suits, hats, shoes, but this line is honestly sold at the wholesale price plus his own cost of doing business. That makes a rallying point, brings the public into his store; and real salesmanship, concentrated on other lines of goods carrying reasonable profits, does the rest. In this situation, naturally, there is no place behind the counter for indifferent and incapable sales people. They are being dropped everywhere, and at the same time the real salesman and saleswoman are sought. The real article is distinguished by the simple process of measurement — results shown in sales compared with salary . Salesmanship and service are reappearing in places where they have almost become extinct. The railroads are a handy illus- tration. Under government operation the public stood in line at ticket windows, was glad to get any sleeper reservations and reduced travel to the minimum, both as a personal necessity and to relieve conges- tion. Salesmanship and service on the freight end disappeared with the abolition of traffic departments. When half a dozen railroads were competing for the hauling of fruit and vegetables from Florida, the ship- per had a choice of routes to Northern markets, and traffic men facilitated matters by diversion in transit, inspection of perish- ables en route, and similar service. Under government operation these refinements of service were often eliminated along with the traffic man. To-day, despite their inheritance of tan- gles and troubles, the railroads are actually encouraging travel and freight shipments ! Tickets are sold as though passengers meant something in the welfare of a railroad; ex- cursion rates are made to fill in valleys on traffic curves; alluring descriptions of fish- ing, hunting and pleasure regions fight up time-tables. The freight-traffic man comes round again with suggestions and assistance instead of apologies where congestion exists and with a forward look to more business a year hence. Salesmanship has the stiff job of reconciling the public and the shipper to higher rates, building the turnover for future reduction. It also has a stiff job in bringing back to the railroads freight and passenger traflBc which has been diverted to the motor truck, automobile, trolley, canal boat, coastwise steamer and other competitive forms of transportation. A Case of State of Mind Puzzled economists, baffled by stubborn refusal of the business situation to work itself out according to the apparent facts, have found a refuge in the explanation "state of mind." Careful predictions as to the course of prices after the war, based on the past, are amusing now in the light of what happened during 1919. Why? "State of mind." The world is short of goods, but factories shut down. " State of mind." The . merchant's shelves are nearly bare, yet he will not buy. " State of mind." The public should have saved its money, but spends it in reckless extravagance. " State of mind." "The public should be spending now to rehabilitate business, but is on a strike. "State of mind." "State of mind" slowed down the sales- man, turned him into a trouble shooter, forced him to run away from buyers and finally put him almost asleep. When Europe stopped producing and selling and poured billions of dollars' worth of orders for muni- tions, clothing, food and military supplies into this country, the salesman's occupa- tion was gone. Things sold themselves. Quality didn't matter, price didn't matter, service didn't matter. Nobody dreamed that there would be a reaction in this international sellers' market — that some day Europe would have to pay off her debts to us, and pay in goods that would compete with our own at home and abroad. This contingency is just be- ginning to dawn upon a good many business men responsible for the sales, distribution and service end of our industries. If salesmen render any service to busi- ness it is in the changing of states of mind, replacing wrong viewpoints with right ones, substituting good psychology for bad. "State of mind" is the unknown factor in business to-day, and the factor that must first be tackled and solved. The sales end is the place to tackle it — the place for resur- rections, revivals, resuscitations, reanima- tions. Over a half century ago, Daniel Low estab- lished the Daniel Low good-will for ABSO- LUTE SATISFACTION. 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"The British Jews needn't think they are going to run things just because Great Britain has the protectorate and an English Jew is high commissioner." "The American Jews behave as if the whole future of Zionism and Palestine de- pends on the American Zionist. They'd better watch themselves." And while we are on the subject, The Jewish "World says: "The American Zion- ists, like the American everything else, have set their minds to bossing the whole show, with make-believe that the whole concern is theirs. It is local patriotism dis- eased and gone putrid— the insatiable, vul- gar self-booming of the American Jew, a spirit he has assimilated from among the worst of Yankee characteristics." Birds in their little nests agree. Besides mere local bickering rising from the fact that, though the Jews may belong to Palestine in spirit, in body and in mind they have been brought up in other coun- tries, there is another danger. Certain of the European Zionists have learned, es- pecially in the last few years, to think radically— and more than;; radically. Un- less I am grievously mistaken, there will be a spirit of Bolshevism among Jews, which may spread to the harm of their work. But this is all in the future. Meantime the farming goes on successfully. Mean- time the Jewish Chamber of Commerce in Palestine is interested in all sorts of ques- tions which it has passed on to the author- ities concerned; not only questions of breakwaters and railroads but the granting of permits for restricted foodstuffs, direct shipping facilities, the thefts upon the Pal- estine military railways, an arbitration and disputes board, a telephone system, the Turkish paper currency, railway tariffs, tax on industrial salt, signboards on_ private houses, weights and measures, petitions to the rents commission, postal delays, trade relationships with other countries, vege- tables from the villages, commercial credits between Palestine and other countries, trade-marks, coin nomenclature and many other matters. It would really seem that the Jews are not missing much. For two thousand years the Jews have advertised themselves with signal success. They consider that no home should be with- out the conviction that Palestine belongs to them. To large masses of the world's population they have successfully sold themselves. N&w they are about to receive the returns on their investment. But the Arabs have no gift for advertisement. Once they fail by force of arms, they practice Oriental fatalism and sit down .^o wait the course of events. Leading Arabs to whom I have talked admit that there is no imme- diate danger of Palestine being occupied by the Jews, but they are afraid of the future. Wailing for a Mosqiue "If only Great Britain had waited," the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem said to me. " If she had waited fifteen or twenty years be- fore allowing the Jews to have a national home here the Arabs would have been able to cope with the situation. But see how we have been placed. We have been under the oppression of the Turks exactly as the Jews here have. We are free now, and are protected by the British, but we have not yet been able to organize delegations and commissions and propaganda departments. We wish to set our house in order,_but we are at a loss to know how to begin. We have no training, few of us are educated, there are not many wealthy men in the country. For them you must go to Bagdad. We do not object to the Jews having a home in Palestine, but we don't want so many of them to come that they will push us out of our homes." At this point someone— a Christian— re- marked that it had been a tactical blunder for the Moslems to refuse to the Jews any of their holy sites except the Place of Wail- ing and the Tomb of Rachel; that it was a pity they were not allowed on the Temple Rock, to which they have as much right as any other religious sect, while in Hebron they are not allowed to go up more_ than seven steps toward the mosque which is built over the tombs of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebecca. This was pretty plain talk to the Grand Mufti, who is the religious head of the Moslems in Jerusalem. But he seems to be a man of humor. He turned a slow, quiet smile upon us all, and then we understood and burst into peals of laughter. For on this matter of religious toleration no one's skirts are clear. The Jews would be burned before they would allow a Mos- lem to enter on the site of Rachel's tomb. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the property of several sects of Chris- tians, the Turks used to have to station guards to keep the Christians from infring- ing on each other's rights. Every Easter there is sure to be a fight between two sects in particular in the neighborhood of what is said to be the Sacred Tomb. The pot is always calling the kettle black in Jerusa- lem. No wonder the Grand Mufti Elfendi smiled. So we carried the discussion no further, and told stories such as these: A young newspaper man the other day went to the Place of Wailing and saw one of his friends weeping and mourning. He plucked him by the sleeve. "What is the matter with you?" he asked. "Me— I'm wailing." "What are you wailing for? Aren't there plenty of Jews in Jerusalem? And haven't you got a Jewish governor?" "Yes, I know, but I want the Mosque of Omar." One of the most interesting Arabs I met is the mayor of Jerusalem, a man educated mostly in Paris and married to a Christian, and yet very much of a Moslem and an Arab. He is said to be a very good mayor. On his council there is a representation of Christians and Jews. Jlrab Opinions "We all work well together," he told me, "and as I sometimes don't get home to lunch till four o'clock, you will see that there is a good deal to do in this munici- pahty in regard to license giving, road re- pairs, water taxes and all the rest of the routine. I think the average Arab would have no objection to the immigration of Jews if he could be sure that they would make their national home harmonious by living peaceably with their neighbors. If they want to take someone else's home they are going to find resistance. I believe that the British Government will keep its pledges, in which case all will go well. "A number of Arabs will sell their land to the Jews, because they are heavily in debt. They will sell to get clear and start over, and perhaps they will make a bad bargain for themselves. But there are countless others who won't sell, because they like to farm. They have a gift for it, even though they use primitive implements and farm wastefuUy. They are really drawn to the soil, much more than are the Jews. You will find only too many Arab fellahin in the employ of Jews. "On the other hand, if you will go to some of the little houses that were built for the Jewish colonists here years ago you won't find houses at all. You will find a jew looking out of his back window at his farm being farmed for him by an Arab fellah, and you will see that his front win- dows have been turned into the windows of a shop. He's not got specimens of his farm- ing on exhibition; he is selling a little dried fish and fruit and tinned stuff. He is by instinct a shopkeeper, a merchant. He has been warned by his leaders that he mustn't enter Palestine to become a mer- chant or a trader, but he can't help it any more than he can help wishing to get back to Palestine. I have faith first and last in the Arab's love for his own soil. It is that which will be his main reliance — that and the British Government." Not all Arabs talk in that way. I had an interview with an educated and brilliant man who mourned over the fate of Pales- tine just as much as the Jews mourn at the Place of Wailing. "It's hopeless," he said. "We are done for. The Jews mean to push us out, and they will. We did try armed resistance at Easter here and there, but it failed. Armed resistance is the only kind that we know anything about. We have no skill in propa- ganda, in organization. This is what will happen: The Jews, with all their organiza- tion and money behind them, will buy our land. There are three classes of Arabs who will sell. 'There is the Arab who feels that the Jews have come to stay, who can't bear their proximity, and who sells and moves to Syria or Mesopotamia. There is the Arab who will sell, spend a little of his money here and then get out. Then there is the Arab, ninety-five per cent of him, who will (Concluded on Page 135) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 131 ITT'S an easy task to have your table linens possess the fragrance of absolute cleanliness. And your dishes, glassware and silver can be hygienically clean — the com- plete setting a thing of beauty and satisfaction. To achieve this result always use THE SJITURDAY EVENING POST 135 (Concluded from Page 132) sell and spend all his money. Then what is left for him? Starve? Perhaps so. He rnay sit down and wait for God to redress his wrongs, as some of them are doing now, since military resistance is impossible. But he will be much more likely to turn bandit and rob the Jews. Already Jews have to pay people to sit up and watch the crops at night for fear they will be stolen. And what will happen to Arabs and Jews alike when so many of the nation turn bandits ? There's no use to say there's land enough for every- one; there won't be when the Jews get started, not unless they turn this into a manufacturing country. No, things are going to happen in the future to the Arab." Sometimes when I stroll about Jerusalem at night and see the wine shops full of ■young Arabs talking and talking and doing nothing else I wonder why they don't get a leader or two who would organize them peaceably against the Jews. The poorest Jew in Palestine will give till it hurts to the Jewish cause. When they take up a collec- tion for Zionism a woman will come in with her jewelry, a man will give his only cow. It's an inspiring sight to see how they give. But so far no Arab has been found who will be a Rothschild to his nation. If there were rich men so inclined they could make a great organization designed to keep Arabs on the land; they could subsidize the fel- lahin to keep them from selling or from working for Jews; they could send their brilliant youths out into the world to get technical training; they could enforce a new system of education, and in fifteen or twenty years, when the real danger from Zionism will rise, they could combat it. They need not be afraid of being overrun by Jews. With their own organization and the pledge of the British Government, their hold on Palestine would be invulnerable. Meantime here in Palestine the British mandate is working itself out. There are several thousand Indian troops in Palestine and a few British to keep order, and an easy time enough they have of it. One of my chief pleasures is to see Tommies walk- ing round with an American Y. M. C. A. guide who used to be with the First Divi- sion in Cantigny and such-like places, or else walking in the bazaars, buying souve- nirs — olive-wood eggs, on which to darn stockings, which they say are as holy as the city itself, candlesticks, mother-of-pearl beads and sometimes a heavy metal anklet. Tommy is having a good enough time in Palestine. The same may be said for the officials who are running the government. They work hard, especially the ones higher up, but they have their clubs and their polo, their tennis and teas and dinners. They say the hardest worker of all is the high com- missioner. Sir Herbert Samuel. Sir Herbert Samuel's Policy The other day I was driving luxuriously in the handsomest car in Jerusalem, owned by Arthur Dana, an American, enjoying the sensation of ease in Zion, which is not common in most of the cars I have tried here. I meant to get inside the walls to buy some of the exquisite lace made by the na- tive women and sold in the American col- ony shops, and I had chosen a hot hour of the day, when the shop wouldn't be too crowded. At the Joppa Gate a native policeman stopped me — very sorry, if I wanted to go on that street I'd have to walk. So I dismounted and walked, court- ing a sunstroke. The street was lined with spectators, Arabs and Jews. Presently there dashed by a puffy motorcycle bear- ing a big British flag and a little driver; then a big car full of British officers; and then another car almost as nice as the one I had been bereft of, in which sat Sir Her- bert Samuel, high commissioner of Pales- tine, and Colonel Storrs, military governor of Jerusalem. Sir Herbert was on his way to Cairo, this being the difficult time of the troubles in ■ Damascus and conferences with Lord Allenby being no doubt in order. Whether the meticulous manner in which Sir Her- bert's way is always cleared is carried out as a precautionary measure or to impress the natives I do not know. The high com- missioners of Mesopotamia and of Egypt drive about more inconspicuously. In any case I was sorry Sir Herbert Samuel was going to Cairo, for though it is said he never gives interviews, I hoped to persuade him to talk. During the war I met Sir Herbert Samuel at the hous^ of one of his relatives at a time when he was a good deal commended for his public services. I was struck with the impression of fair-mindedness he conveyed •and with a certain pleasant impenetrabil- ity. He does not seem like a man who could be easily swayed by argument or by en- treaty; he will do his work in the way in which he thinks it should be done. Though he was appointed, among other reasons, as a tribute to the Jewish race, nevertheless he will consider all of the races in his adminis- tration. He will see always as an English- man and not as a Palestinian Jew. Not all the Jews know this. The educated Arabs know it, but not the ignorant. How should they? The other day there came from the desert two handsome, slim, liquid-eyed lads, the sons of a Bedouin sheik. They came to the American colony, which always keeps a room for Bedouin guests. They made a beautiful figure as they strode across the cool green-hung courtyard in their long silk underrobes, dark brown abas, their silk handkerchiefs or shawls on their heads. After ceremonious salutations they said words to this effect: " Our father has sent us to see the sights of the world. We have come here to see the king of the Jews." Coming Changes for the Better The high commissioner, early in July, read the King's message to the people of Palestine, and his own declaration. Pales- tine, the north and east boundaries of which are not yet determined, is to consti- tute a separate administration in direct communication with the King's ministers in London. When the mandate has passed through its final stages the civil service will have security of employment, with pension rights for certain classes of officers. The higher ranks are to be British until fully qualified Palestinians are able to take a larger share in the conduct of the adminis- tration. The other ranks are to be open to Palestinians, irrespective of creed. Sir Her- bert Samuel is now choosing an advisory council, most of the members of which are government officials, but with a minority of ten unofficial members, chosen from varied sections of the people. This council will advise about the budget, drafts of ordi- nances and other such matters. One of the most important statements the high commissioner made was that in the draft treaty of peace an article is in- serted providing for the appointment by the British Government of a special com- mission to study and regulate all questions and claims relating to the different religious communities in Palestine, the chairman to be appointed by the council of the League of Nations, the religious interests con- cerned being taken into account in the composition of the commission. Further, the government, under the civil administration, takes over the railway's and will begin immediate improvements. There is also under consideration a large program of public works, including the construction and improvement of roads, the develop- ment of telegraphic and telephonic com- munication, the provision of electric power, drainage, afforestation and the early estab- lishment of banks for the granting of long-time credits to agricultural and urban workers. The high commissioner hopes to arrange for a loan, as soon as the status of the country is finally decided, of such an amount as will allow the plans to begin. The government particularly wants to as- sist promptly in the economic development of the country. Sir Herbert Samuel stated in his declaration that land sales would soon begin again, subject to restrictions bound to prevent speculation; that a land com- mission would beappointed ; that asurvey of the land would be undertaken, and in connec- tion with it a land court established to settle the boundaries and titles of properties. And faith, it is needed! Anyone trying to understand the land system of Palestine might as well inquire for the nearest mad- house. The taxation of city property, for example, is done on the scale of what it originally cost. Further, most property is registered at about one-tenth of what was originally paid for it. Under the Turks, natives who were in with the government could get a low rate of registration— at a price. Then suppose a man decided to sell his land; his neighbors could demand pri- ority rights and buy in the property at the price of registration. So a man does not always gain by trying to dodge his taxes. Then every piece of property is divided into twenty-four parts. A man may own all or part of them. Suppose he owns twenty parts of a house and lot; if he can- not come to an amicable financial agree- ment with the owner of the other . four parts, the latter has the right to move in beside him. Besides the land tax, an agriculturist must pay one-eighth of all his produce to the government. This tax was bad enough, but under the Turks the abuse of collec- tions was shocking. The job of collection was farmed out to the highest bidder of a district. Whoever wanted to bid must give good land security and pay cash down. When he began to collect he made his own estimates and got abundant interest on his investment. The farmer was lucky indeed who gave up only one-eighth of his crop. Nor was the bidding necessarily fair. If an effendi had great influence and wished to bid no one dared to bid against him. If anyone had opposed him that man would have regretted it for the rest of his life. But big men did not interfere with one an- other; they respected their neighbor's graft. Men have made thousands from the collec- tion of one year's taxation for a district. Under the British occupation the scheme of taking one-eighth of the crop prevails, but at least the assessment is honestly made. The government sends out men and villages send out men. Unless they come to an agreement the government sends out a commission. No doubt the British will revise this system. You'll feel sorry for the agriculturists when I tell you that merchants and other such people have no income tax to pay. More than that, except for a tax for street lighting and water, inside the city walls of Jerusalem there is no taxation whatever. You may have an ample house and lot and a thriving business, but they are yours to the last iota. Moreover, church properties are not taxed; not only are buildings within the walls free, but farms and orchards. If people choose to import goods they are taxed eleven per cent, with a one per cent municipality tax; they also pay an indirect tax in salt and fish. For the rest, citizens, so to speak, may rest their arms on the walls and look over at the fellah parting with at least an eighth of all he produces, from wheat to camels. Starvation Mmong Riches Palestine is rich potentially. During the Turkish occupation people made money only by illegal means, through the govern- ment. Jerusalem was a good place for officials who wished to profit. A man who wished to be governor of Jerusalem would go to Constantinople, pull wires and pay from three to four hundred pounds for the office. His salary was twenty-five or thirty pounds monthly, but he always made money — sometimes by arranging land sales for the Jews. The average officials received from four to ten pounds a month, but they, too, always made money. Not so the people. Not very much money was made in the bazaars. People were fleeced on every hand. They could not collect salt from the shores of the Dead Sea, because salt was a government monop- oly, and the Turks chose to import it from Saloniki. They couldn't get fish as cheap as they might, because fishing rights were — and are— farmed out, as the tax collecting used to be, to the highest bidder in a dis- trict. Each successful bidder has his own office where the fish is sold, the bidder tak- ing the tax from the fishermen. The sea- port town of Jaffa has but one fish office. No wonder many of the people in Pales- tine, particularly in Jerusalem, lived on the . tourists. After the war began all that stopped. The misery was great. Some of the wretchedness was alleviated by Amer- ican Relief money, but for all that deaths from hunger were numerous. Parents would sell a young daughter for a couple of tins of bully beef. Officers tell me they used to go out laden with tins of food to throw to the starving people by the road- side, and yet they never felt that they had lessened the want. But after British occu- pation the soldiers brought a great deal of prosperity to the people. A woman selling oranges might make two or three dollars a day. In a year and a half the country made as much as it generally does after four years of tourist seasons. Just now business is slack. People have the air of waiting. They need, particularly the Arabs, all that can be done for them in regard to public health and education. Their ideas of sanitation are sketchy; and as for education, not more than ten per cent can read and write. They need to have their country developed as promptly as possible. One British company has already come in with the intention of taking over some of the quarries in order to build houses for the inhabitants. The architect, who did not know I was a chiel amang 'em takin' notes, said they were not to be al- lowed to get as much percentage of profit as they could get in England, but that he thought the company had a long lease of prosperity and usefulness before it. Rough and Ready Justice If the country is to develop industrially as well as agriculturally it needs fuel. The Standard Oil Company about 1913 got a wide concession from the Turks — a conces- sion which the exigencies of war prevented it frorn using. When the war broke out it had miles and miles of piping of all sizes in Egypt. Great Britain bought some of it and used it to run the water supply up through Palestine; it is also said that some of the piping it bought was used in piping the present supply of water into Jerusalem. At present the Standard Oil men are wait- ing in Jerusalem to see if they are to resume their old concession. It appears that noth- ing definite will be told them till the peace tr.eaty is signed. Some people say they believe that they will have their old con- cessions, and others say not. No real pros- pecting of the country for oil has been carried out, but there are seepages on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea which seem to indicate its presence. It may not be any- thing like so promising as the oil supply in Persia and Mesopotamia. Fuel is scarce in Palestine. Without oil or coal they cannot institute manufactories. Some people believe that there is coal to be found about the Dead Sea. But the oil seems more certain. -If the oil could be found, and if the scheme talked of for a tunnel between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean could be carried out, then Palestine would have all the water power and all the fuel necessary to establish her as a big manufacturing center. Prosperity will come. I can shut my eyes and see great enterprises unrolling them- selves like moving-picture films, but some- how the leaders of them are Jews, when there should be a proportionate number of Arab leaders. When I think of the Arabs I see the young men in the wine shops, or else I see the Bedouins, magnificent with all sorts of qualities that fit them to survive in the desert, but unable to understand mod- ern organization. I see a court of sheiks which I visited in Southern Palestine. The military governor sat at his desk, the sheiks in their picturesque garments ar- ranged in a wide semicircle about him, each man resting his right hand on the silver hilt of his sword. The plaintiff and the defend- ant came forward. Mahmoud Ali, let us say, had unexpected guests for whom he must kill a sheep. His own fiock being afar pasturing, he annexed an adjacent ewe be- longing to Zaid Mahomet. Custom allowed this, but custom decreed that he must promptly pay for it, which Mahmoud Ali says he refuses to do. The disputants stand before the governor's desk; he hears their stories; then each man chooses a sheik, and the governor chooses one, to be the judges in the case. The disputants sit on the floor at the feet of the three judges and the case is discussed and decided. Rough justice, but doubtless sufficient, and certainly prac- tical, though not exactly modern. The British have the intention of dealing fairly with all parties till Palestine is ca- pable of more self-government. After that it is modern methods that are going to count in determining the balance of power. WaiKng at the wall or mourning or sitting down to wait on the will of Allah will not get immediate results. Quite a lot of map making and race moving in these days. The Monroe Doctrine, after all, is a pretty good sheet anchor for a nation. 136 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST Novembe^is.'^^o A Wonderful Tire— THE MASON MAXI-MILE For hard, rugged work it has no superior. Day-in-and-day-out driving over rough city streets, over rutty, bumpy roads — that's where Maxi-Mile makes its records for economy. Mileage? Here's the mileage made possible by the toughest rubber and finest fabric obtainable, built into a wonderful tire by skilled workmen — — and backed by a guarantee that knows no mile- age limit. No matter how long a Maxi-Mile has run, like every other Mason Tire, it is guaranteed against defects of workmanship and material. THE MASON TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY Factories and General Offices, Kent, Ohio Branches