the question of Metropolitan locomotion. [Footnote: The Fortnightly
Review, Jan. 1, 1902.]

2. TIMELINESS OF THE SUBJECT. To show that a subject is timely is
another effective device for arousing interest. As most people wish to
keep pace with the times and face the issues of the day, it is natural
and forceful to introduce an argument by showing that the subject is
being discussed elsewhere, or by showing how an event or sequence of
events places the problem before the public. The arguer calls
attention to the fact that the question does not belong to the past or
to the distant future, but is of immediate interest and must be
settled at once.

As the day of the Cuban Convention for the framing and adoption of a
constitution approaches, the question of Cuban independence assumes
greater, and still greater, proportions, and the eyes of the American
people are beginning to turn anxiously toward the Pearl of the
Antilles. By the time this article appears in print, delegates to the
convention will have been elected, and interest in the convention
itself will have become widespread. The task I have set before me is
briefly to review the situation, and to discuss the probable results
to be expected from a number of causes, remote as well as
proximate.[Footnote: Charles Warren Currier. The Forum, October,
1900.]

The recent objection made in Germany that American prestige might
suffer should there be diminution in our Berlin Embassy's social
brilliancy has stirred Congress from apathy regarding American
representatives abroad. Congressmen are coming to realize that brains,
not money, ought to form the first passport to a candidate's favor,