Beating the Tom-Tom

Senator Medill McCormick, cadaverous-looking publisher of the " World's Greatest Newspaper " (Chicago Tribune), will be unhappy until America is possessed of the British West Indies and is dispossessed of the Philippines. He wanted Secretary Mellon to insist that Great Britain cede the West Indies as part of the debt settlement. The Secretary, who is certainly richer and possibly as powerful as the publisher, did nothing of the kind. The publisher then proposed that the two island realms be " swapped."

Mr. McCormick regards the West Indies as a menace to the Panama Canal and the Philippines as a military liability.