OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS
BY THE EDITOR
MEETING OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION
The annual meeting of the American
Historical
Association to which the attention of
the members of
the Society was invited by a circular
letter under date
of December 17, 1923, enclosing a
detailed program of
the meeting, was held on schedule time
in Columbus,
December 27-29, 1923. The sessions of
the Associa-
tion and the related societies that
held their meetings
on the same dates fully realized our
prediction that
this meeting would afford "an
opportunity for instruc-
tion, inspiration and rational
entertainment never be-
fore presented to Ohioans interested in
American his-
tory."
A detailed account of the sessions of
the Associa-
tion and other organizations meeting at
the same time
would fill a volume and cannot be
attempted here.
These proceedings will later be
published elsewhere and
will be available to all interested in
them. The pub-
lication of the report of the American
Historical Asso-
ciation by the United States
Government, like other
government printing, national and
local, is much delayed.
In answer to a letter of inquiry we
have learned direct
(95)
96 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications
from Washington that the report for the
year 1919
has not yet been published. These
reports are of great
value, however, and are well worth
waiting for.
In the meantime valuable papers read at
the dif-
ferent sessions of the Association,
many of them, will
be available through other channels
before they are
published by the government four or
five years hence.
The meeting on Thursday evening,
December 27, in
the First Congregational Church was
largely attended
and the speakers were heard with
closest attention and
evident appreciation. Honorable James E. Campbell,
former Governor of Ohio and President
of the Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Society, presided
in his usual felicitous manner. In introducing Dr.
Harry A. Garfield, son of President
James A. Garfield,
Governor Campbell paid a brief but
sincere tribute to
the distinguished father of the speaker
and his sons
who have themselves won honorable
position in the
service of their country. Dr. Garfield had chosen as
the subject of his address,
"Recent Political Develop-
ment:
Progress or Change?" a subject entirely ap-
propriate but one that did not give
definite intimation
of the treat in store for the audience. The Columbus
Evening Dispatch editorially fittingly characterized this
address which was delivered in a
pleasing voice and
reached everyone in the audience:
Dr. Garfield, of the Political Scientist
Group, argued the
advisability of handling problems such
as the coal distribution
through the agency of two special
commissions, in addition to
the finally responsible government
officials -- one, a fact-finding
commission, the other an advisory
commission. The fact-finders
should have no power or responsibility
whatever except to find
out facts and arrange them in
intelligible form for use. The
Reviews, Notes and Comments 97
advisory commission should study these
facts and to the best
of its ability interpret their meaning, suggesting any
govern-
ment action which might seem advisable
as a result of that study,
but it should have power only to
advise, not to act. Our
ordinary constitutional agencies should
not have their powers
and responsibilities lessened in any
way whatever by the setting
up of these commissions. The argument
was put with clearness
and force and is well worthy of serious
consideration by Con-
gress and our state legislatures, which
would have to furnish
the legal authorization and financial
provision for such a plan.
The annual addresses by the Presidents
of the
American Historical Association have
almost without
exception been notable contributions to
history. So
true has this been that they are looked
forward to with
assured anticipation of a message of
more than ordi-
nary merit. Those who came to hear Dr.
Edward P.
Cheyney, President of the Association,
expected much
and they were not disappointed. The long continued
applause at the conclusion of his
address was a real
tribute from a discriminating audience.
Dr. Cheyney's subject was "Law in
History." He
began by pointing out a number of
incidents: a south-
west wind increasing to a gale on
August 10, 1588,
which drove the Spanish Armada through
the North
Sea to destruction; the advent of Anne
Boleyn, "black-
eyed, vivacious, charming," in the
reign of Henry VIII;
the incursion of Attila, King of the
Huns, into Gaul in
the middle of the fifth century; the
appearance of the
bubonic plague, the "black
death" in Europe in 1345,
"more devastating than the armies
of Attila"; the per-
sonality of Washington as a decisive influence
in the
American Revolution -- all these were
cited as super-
ficial indications that general laws do
not control the
course of history; that much is left to
chance influences
Vol. XXXIII -- 7.
98
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
and personalities outside of any
general law controlling
the course of events. "My allotted
time this evening,"
said the speaker, "could easily be
filled with a mere
enumeration of instances where great
and general
effects are asserted to have followed
upon certain ac-
cidental or personal causes. But are
these statements
of cause and effect true, or are the
appearances decep-
tive?
Have these events and personalities really had
the influence on the course of history
so easily and
naturally attributed to them? A hasty
reexamination of
the instances I have taken may suggest
the need of a
more adequate explanation. Although the
wind blew
from the southwest on the tenth of
August, 1588, it
did not blow adversely for the
Spaniards through the
whole twenty years of the Elizabethan
war. * * *
Can anyone believe that there would
have been no
Reformation in England in the sixteenth
century if
Henry VIII had not fallen in love with
Anne Boleyn?
* * * American independence as we look
on it now
was not the creation of Washington and
the 'Fathers'
but a necessary result of the
divergence of the two
countries. So it is with the other instances." The
speaker then led up to the conclusion
that "history, like
the stars, has been controlled by
immutable, self-existent
law, by what Mr. Gladstone in his
sonorous eloquence
once described in Parliament 'as those
great social
forces which move on in their might and
majesty, and
which the tumult of our debates does
not for a moment
impede or disturb.'"
Mr. Cheyney then proceeded to the
enumeration of
what he conceived to be some of the
laws of history.
Reviews, Notes and Comments 99
"Laws of history there must
be," said he, "and my
guesses at some of them are
these."
The laws that he suggests in the order
presented
were as follows:
1. "The law of continuity * * *
The con-
tinuity of history is not merely a
fact; it is a law. By
no voluntary action can any great
breach of historic
continuity be accomplished."
2. "A law of impermanence, of
mutability * * *.
Perhaps an America scornful of a League
of Nations,
wedded to isolation, struggling to keep
her life separate,
unconformable to a world that has been
made essentially
one by economic and intellectual
changes, may not be
able to survive. Thus the law of
mutability, of insta-
bility of nations, will receive one
more illustration."
3. "A law of interdependence --
interdependence
of individuals, of classes, of tribes,
of nations. The
human race seems to be essentially an
organism, a unit.
* * * No part of the human race in
history has
really progressed by the injury of
another. We have
all risen or fallen together. Conquests of one people
by another have always demoralized the
conquerors.
* * * Who shall say that France and
Italy, England and
the United States, are freer and better
countries since
the Great War than before? The fruits
of victory in
war have often proved to be apples of
Sodom, turning
to dust in the mouth."
4. "A law of democracy, a tendency
for all gov-
ernment to come under the control of
all the people.
* * * Who would not trust, if he may,
the instincts
and aspirations of the mass of the
people in the passage
100
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
perilous of the next few years, rather
than the vagaries
of a Mussolini, the obstinacy of a
Poincare, the
pedantry of a Lenin, or the narrow
vision and restricted
interests of any one class of the
people?"
5. "A law of necessity for free
consent. Human
beings are free agents in their
relations to other human
beings; they cannot permanently be
compelled. Not
only should all government be by the
consent of the
governed but all government has been by
the consent of
the governed. * * * The effects of
force in his-
tory have been temporary and partial
and illusory; vol-
untary acceptance alone has been
permanent and ade-
quate and substantial."
6. "A law of moral progress."
The speaker de-
clared that there seemed, "so far
as this groping search
extends," such a law. "Obscurely and slowly, yet vis-
ibly and measurably, moral influences
in human affairs
have become stronger and more fittingly
extended than
material influences."
After a recapitulation of these laws
which were
each appropriately set forth with
references not only
to past history but present conditions
the speaker said:
May I repeat that I do not conceive of
these generalizations
as principles which it would be well for
us to accept, or as
ideals which we may hope to attain; but
as natural laws, which
we must accept whether we want to or
not, whose workings
we cannot obviate, however much we may
thwart them to our
own failure and disadvantage; laws to be
accepted and reckoned
with as much as the laws of gravitation,
or of chemical affinity,
or of organic evolution, or of human
psychology.
Near the close of his address Dr.
Cheyney gave this
as his judgment of the practical use of
history:
Reviews, Notes and Comments 101
For practical uses, if history is to
have a practical use,
what we need is a clue to the future.
This a knowledge of the
laws of history might give us. If we
knew the laws of history
we might reason and act with the same
intelligence and precision
and anticipation of success with which
the engineer acts in con-
formity with the known laws of physics,
or the astronomer with
the laws of astronomy, or the cattle
breeder with the Mendelian
law of inheritance.
While there are doubtless those who
would not agree
with all of Dr. Cheyney's conclusions,
it will be gener-
ally admitted that his address, here
all too briefly re-
viewed, is timely and
thought-stimulating.
At the conference of Patriotic
Societies on Satur-
day afternoon, December 29, Professor
Carl Wittke of
the Ohio State University spoke on
"What the Patriotic
Societies can do to aid the
Organization of Work in
Ohio History." He reviewed briefly some of the
program adopted by the Ohio History
Commission and
made an appeal to the Patriotic
Societies to aid in the
collection and preservation of the
sources of local Ohio
history.
The business meeting of the Association
on Friday
afternoon lasted so late that but few
members found
time to inspect the collection of the
Ohio State Archaeo-
logical and Historical Society at 5:30
P. M., the hour
fixed in the program for this
inspection. In the course
of the three days' session, however,
many members at
other times visited the Museum and
Library Building
of the Society. The reception and
smoker given under
the auspices of the Society in the
Deshler at 9:30 Fri-
day evening was a great success -- a
most enjoyable
affair in every way. Practically all those in attend-
102
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
ance at the meeting were present and
expressions of
appreciation of this function were
frequently heard.
The program closed with the session of
the Con-
ference of State Historical Societies
at the Hotel
Deshler Saturday afternoon. Though this meeting
came at the end of the series when a
number of mem-
bers had to leave on early afternoon
trains, it was well
attended and there was a profitable
interchange of
views among those present.
Professor Wilbur H. Siebert of the Ohio
State Uni-
versity was accorded unstinted praise
for his very suc-
cessful arrangements for the
conference. He was
chairman of the Committee on Local
Arrangements,
and a number of delegates assured the
writer that at
no previous meeting of the Association
had the ar-
rangements been in every way more
satisfactory.
Woodrow Wilson, former President of the
United
States, was elected President of the
Association. Other
officers chosen are: Charles M. Andrews
and Dana C.
Monro, Vice-Presidents; John Spencer
Bassett, Secre-
tary; Charles Moore, Treasurer. Among
the members
of the council chosen were Professor A.
M. Schlesinger,
formerly of the Ohio State
University. Professor A.
C. Cole of the University was a member
of the nomi-
nating committee.
OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS
BY THE EDITOR
MEETING OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION
The annual meeting of the American
Historical
Association to which the attention of
the members of
the Society was invited by a circular
letter under date
of December 17, 1923, enclosing a
detailed program of
the meeting, was held on schedule time
in Columbus,
December 27-29, 1923. The sessions of
the Associa-
tion and the related societies that
held their meetings
on the same dates fully realized our
prediction that
this meeting would afford "an
opportunity for instruc-
tion, inspiration and rational
entertainment never be-
fore presented to Ohioans interested in
American his-
tory."
A detailed account of the sessions of
the Associa-
tion and other organizations meeting at
the same time
would fill a volume and cannot be
attempted here.
These proceedings will later be
published elsewhere and
will be available to all interested in
them. The pub-
lication of the report of the American
Historical Asso-
ciation by the United States
Government, like other
government printing, national and
local, is much delayed.
In answer to a letter of inquiry we
have learned direct
(95)