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parently put up very little resistance. Austrians advanced as far as Lublin. The concentration base for the Russian Center Army was at Brest-Litowsk, farther east than either of these raids was likely to go. The raids could do relatively little damage, and the more men who were employed on them, and so kept away from Galicia, the better.

While all the available Germans were busy in East Prussia and northwest Poland, and a large part of the Austrian force was working down the Vistula towards Lublin, the Russians shot their main bolt at the Austrians in Galicia. How many men they employed is not certain, but half a million ought to have been ample. It was the most successful campaign so far developed in the war. The right wing of the Austrians was smashed at Lemberg and that city was occupied. The Austrian center was defeated at Tomaszow and Rawaruska. The left, which had advanced to Lublin, was forced to a rapid retreat. It may have been involved with the center at Tomaszow. The Austrians were so shaken that, although the Russians gave them plenty of time, they were not able to reform on the San. The Russians forced a passage at the strongly fortified city of Jaroslav. The backbone of the Austrian military force seems to have been broken. It is reported that German staff officers are now in command of the remnants, and are trying to reorganize them for the defense of Cracow with some success, for the Russians seem to have been checked at Tarnow. But the Austrians, badly beaten in Galicia and having a desperate time with the Servians in the south, threatened by Italy and Rumania, are hardly likely to render much further assistance to Germany.

The Cossack raids over the Carpathians into Hungary can have little significance from a strictly military point of view. They may cut a few railways and hinder the recruiting of reserves, but their real explanation is probably political. Except for such side excursions and the siege of Przemysl this Russian Army of the Left has done its work in Galicia. It can be merged with the Central Army of Poland, which by now-with two months spent in preparation-ought to number over a million men and be ready for the main advance on Germany,

So the first stage of the war has passed with the honors to Russia. The second stage has already begun. The despatches tell of advance-guard actions in a number of places

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along the line from Cracow to Thorn. a much more serious problem than any the Russians have yet faced. The Germans have been in western Poland for two months now; just how far they have penetrated we do not know. Some time ago we heard that they were fortifying Kalisz. They have had ample time to pick out a favorable position and to throw up extensive field defenses-much -more time than they had to prepare their lines on the Aisne, which are holding so stubbornly. And they have had time to bring up all their available force. They will not be heavily outnumbered—at least at first.

It is to be in many respects like the battle now raging in France—the front is long, the number of men engaged is immense. And it will also be like the Battle of the Aisne in that a defeat for the Germans might well be decisive, but a victory for them cannot be. If the Russians win, the next battle will be perilously near the heart of Germany. If the Russians are annihilated, they will find a new army and the next battle will still be far from their vitals. Here, as in the West, the Germans must not only win, but go on winning.

This battle will be a test much more desperate than the Russians have yet faced. It is the first time they have met the Germans in a prepared position. It is in every way a more serious job than they had on their hands in Galicia. A German of my acquaintance is quite confident of the outcome. "So far, "he says, "" a third-class army has defeated a fourth-class army. Now it has to face a first-class one." Certainly the German army has proved its right to a place in the first class. Whether the Russian army will rank as third class—or first-depends on this battle which is just beginning.

RUMANIA

The explanation of the daring Cossack raids across the Carpathians is very probably to be found in the political effect of these operations on Rumania. This country is the best example of mediæval feudalism which is left in Europe. The Government is entirely dominated by a small group of landlords. They have always been wealthy -vastly so of late, since oil has begun to bubble up through their rich wheat-fields. Rumania now ranks fourth or fifth among the countries of the world for the export of petroleum. The position of the peasants is miserable, and the percentage of the recruits who are illiterate is larger than in any other

Christian country; in 1910 it was more than forty per cent. Probably over sixty per cent of the people above seven years of age can neither read nor write.

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In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8 the Rumanian army helped the Russians to win the Battle of Plevna, and felt themselves very badly used in the division of the spoils. It is hardly possible to speak of a "national sentiment" in Rumania, but the small ruling class became violently anti-Russian. The King is a Hohenzollern, and up till the second Balkan War Rumania was counted as a sure asset to the Triple Alliance. When, her neighbor Bulgaria was attacked on two sides, by Servia and Greece on the west and Turkey on the east, Rumania stepped in and-without a battle, as the Bulgars were already defeated-annexed a large strip of Bulgarian territory. Austria, who did not want to see Bulgaria annihilated, would not let Rumania take all she wanted. So, again feeling herself aggrieved, Rumania turned

PRAYER AND WAR

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against the Alliance. Russian diplomats have been busy in Bucharest, and it has been very hard for the Rumanians to make up their mind which side they are on. A great many of the peasants in Transylvania (Hungary) speak Rumanian, but so also do many in Bessarabia (Russia). If Rumania helps Russia to defeat Austria, she may get Transylvania; if she helps Austria defeat Russia, she may be given Bessarabia. She is between the devil and the deep-blue sea. The King is loyal to his family, but the ruling class of Rumania is loyal to the best chance. They would evidently like to do as they did in the Balkan War-wait till the victory is decided and then jump on the defeated.

But Russia is impatient. She has undoubtedly offered Transylvania to Rumania if she will help, but by sending her Cossacks into Hungary she is plainly saying: If you do not decide to take this province very quickly, I will take it myself.

New York, October 7, 1914.

Never before in the history of the world have the people of one continent, without respect to race or religion, united in special services of prayer for another continent. President Wilson's appeal to the people of the United States that they should observe scrupulous neutrality was made more impressive and significant by his appeal that the first Sunday in October should be observed as a day of special intercession for peace among the warring nations. To that appeal religious people of all churches and of no church responded; Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews were at one in their common spirit of sympathy with the sorrows and misery of the warring countries, and in their desire that the day of peace might not be long deferred. In many places out-ofdoor meetings were held; clergymen of denominations which do not often co-operate spoke from the same platform or the same pulpit.

The day was made significant by the character of the petitions offered. They were not, as a rule, prayers to a tribal God; they were not petitions for immediate peace; they were rather confessions of the existence of

conditions which invite war and make it still possible. They were confessions of sin; and they were prayers for such a change in the spirit and hearts of men as will make peace possible.

Dr. Hadley, speaking at Yale University, said: "Unless we follow up our prayers by intelligent help in promoting peace on earth they are but the 'vain repetitions of the heathen. They may have a certain use as a public recognition of the controlling, power of God over the affairs of men; otherwise they are no better than peace parades and, the children's peace cards and other similar manifestations of misdirected zeal with which we are now familiar. People think they are doing their duty when they are simply indulging the luxury of expressing their own emotions in public. To expect such prayer to be answered is folly on the part of the ignorant and blasphemy on the part of those who should be wiser. To pray effectually we must take thought. We must find what were the causes at work in men's minds which led them to forget themselves in their zeal for fighting."

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This lays the emphasis where it belongs. It is idle to pray for peace unless we work for it; and we do not work for it when we

simply express a desire that it may come. Peace cannot come until there is justice between nations; and while permanent peace ought to be held steadily before men, not only as an ideal, but as a necessary achievement of civilization, it ought to be worked for even more than prayed for. We must remove the obstacles to peace before we have a right to ask the God of Peace to establish it among the warring nations of the world.

It is a profanation of the great and sacred function of prayer to ask for peace and happiness and continue the habits and practices which make peace and happiness impossible. There is a legal maxim that he who comes into a court of equity must come with clean hands; it is a kind of blasphemy to ask for peace unless we make every effort to put hatred and greed out of the world.

EMBASSIES IN WAR TIME

Proper provision for the housing of American embassies and legations abroad and proper appropriations for salaries of ambas sadors and ministers have sometimes been opposed in Congress by members who have declared that the diplomatic service abroad is essentially un-American and undemocratic; that it is infected with snobbishness and that the necessary interchange of views between different governments can be carried on by correspondence. These arguments were always in the mouths of men without the experience of foreign travel. If any further refutation of them were necessary, it has been furnished by the experiences of the last two months.

Professor George P. Wilson, of Harvard, who has just returned from abroad, gives some account of the invaluable services rendered to Americans by Dr. van Dyke as Minister to the Netherlands and the Legation at The Hague.

The declaration of war caused a general financial panic. The majority of the banks temporarily stopped payment;, letters of credit and checks were for a time use less. This left an army of American travelers in real distress. Dr. van Dyke, who enjoyed the fullest confidence of the Dutch Government, at once conferred with the Dutch Foreign Minister and effected an arrangement between the two Governments under which checks, drafts, and letters of credit indorsed by Dr. van Dyke were cashed by the Netherlands Bank or by the Treasurer of the

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Netherlands; and on August 3, at the very beginning of the trouble, Dr. van Dyke was able to put into force an arrangement of his own devising which entirely relieved the financial strain and enabled him to give Americans all necessary money. After that date there never was an hour of financial distress; nor was there any cessation of the strenuous work of the Legation.

In the storm which swept Europe Holland was an island of refuge. Americans came there from all parts and immediately reported to the Legation. They went to the Legation for information, for addresses of places at which to stay, for advice, and for money; and the Legation was open night and day to aid them. Not only that, but the whereabouts of thousands of missing and wounded of several nations were investigated and ascertained. The Hague was a kind of postal exchange-all communications to Germany and Austria and from Germany and Austria were sent through that town; and the Legation was flooded with telegrams and letters from all parts of the world. A large fund was contributed by Americans and placed in the hands of Dr. van Dyke and spent in relieving special cases of distress. Under his tireless and zealous activity : the Legation, to quote the words of an American who was present at The Hague, became " an international bank, an inquiry bureau, a registry office, a diplomatic post, and a consolation agency for nervous and unhappy people."

Dr. Wilson says that it is impossible to praise too highly the work of Dr. van Dyke. All day long he was constantly giving words of encouragement and comfort to those who were distressed. No finer example of Christian comfort and sympathy could be given than the daily acts of our American Minister at The Hague. Dr. van Dyke enjoys the confidence of his colleagues of every nation represented at The Hague, and to the greatest degree of the Dutch people, who regard his appointment because of his Dutch ancestry as particularly pleasing, and a signal recognition on the part of the United States of the cordial relations existing between the Government of the Netherlands and that of the United States.

THE JAPANESE POSITION

The conditions under which Japan declared war against Germany are now very clear.

For a long time past the Japanese have gravely distrusted German aims in the Far East. They had not forgotten that after the arrangement of the terms of peace at the close of the war with China, by which Japan had secured the Liaoyang Peninsula, it was Germany that persuaded Russia and France to interfere and prevent the consummation of the treaty. Within three years these Powers had possessed themselves of large pieces of Chinese territory. Nor have they forgotten the famous "Yellow Peril" speech of the Kaiser, which, they believe, has done more than all other causes to prejudice the West against Japan. They believe that when they were engaged in a life-and-death struggle in Manchuria the German Government, in its attitude towards Russia, violated its neutrality and permitted a German steamship company to sell a number of steamships to the Russian navy, and helped the Russian Baltic Squadron to secure coal en route to the Japan Sea.

Before Japan had taken any action, last August, a German cruiser, disregarding Japanese sovereignty, seized a Russian steamer in Japanese waters, and British merchantmen in the same seas were repeatedly chased and seized. The Japanese declare that Japanese ships were intercepted and their cargoes taken. In answer to the statement that Japan took the occasion to declare war in advance of any request from England, it is stated that the day before England declared war on Germany the British Ambassador in Tokyo informed Baron Kato, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, that his Government was compelled to open hostilities, and asked whether Japan would aid England if British interests in the Far East were jeopardized. On the evening of the same day the Prime Minister convened a meeting of all the Cabinet members; and on the following day Baron Kato notified the British Ambassador that Japan would not shirk the responsibilities which the alliance with England put upon her shoulders. On August 7 the British Ambassador again waited upon the Foreign Minister and notified him that England asked for Japan's assistance without delay. Thereupon Japan sent her ultimatum to Germany, demanding the evacuation of Tsingtau, the disarming of the warships there, and the handing over of the territory to Japan, to be ultimately passed on to China. The time fixed in the ultimatum having passed, the German Ambassador's

passports were handed to him and war was formally declared.

In the Imperial decree it was stated that Germany was busy with warlike preparation at Kiaochau; that her armed vessels crossing the seas of eastern Asia were threatening Japanese and English commerce; that after full and frank communications with the English Government Japan had agreed to take such measures as might be deemed necessary for the protection of the general interests contemplated in the agreement of the Alliance. It is stated by trustworthy authority that, although there is a widespread feeling of gratitude among the Japanese for all that Japan has learned from Germany, there is also a conviction that most of Japan's troubles during the last few years have been the outcome of German influence in Europe and America, and that the war is immensely popular with all classes in Japan. These facts dispose of the charge that Japan has wantonly made war for her own purposes, and that she has obtruded herself, so to speak, among the European nations in the hope of advancing her own position.

THE DIRIGIBLE BALLOON
AND ITS USE IN WAR

Military aircraft have certainly not revolutionized warfare, nor have they done the tremendous amount of damage to life and property which some enthusiastic aeronauts prophesy and some impressionable civilians fear. Nevertheless, they have played a more successful and useful (if that word may be employed in connection with instruments of destruction) part in the European war than the newspaper correspondents have credited them with. While the French have devoted themselves largely to the heavier-than-air fly-.. ing-machines, the Germans have pinned their faith to the gas-filled balloon. In this respect the Germans, with their characteristic efficiency, are following the experimental history of a century.

When the Frenchman Montgolfier with his balloon filled with hot air rose for the first time in 1785, it was assumed that this great problem was solved and the possibility of navigation of the air was secured. Even then aeronauts tried to make such spherical balloons dirigible by providing them with sails and rudders. The trials were failures and cost many lives. The fundamental laws were not sufficiently known, and the experiments were given up. A century later the

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run over pulleys and ingeniously arranged so that it will remain level even when the balloon itself is tilted up or down at a decided angle.

The stability of the Parseval type has been conclusively demonstrated. Air-ships of this type are manufactured by a German stock company, the Luftfahrzeug-Gesellschaft in Berlin, which up to last year had built more than twenty dirigibles of different sizes not only for the German Government, but for Austria, Italy, Russia, England, Japan, and Turkey. The first ones built had a capacity of 1,500 to 2,000 cubic meters (about 55,000 to 73,000 cubic feet) and their speed was 40 to 50 kilometers (25 to 32 miles) per hour. They are now built with 8,800 to 10,000 cubic meters (about 300,000 to 360,000 cubic feet) capacity and capable of a speed of 70 to 80 kilometers (about 40 to 50 miles) per hour.

THE HALF-RIGID TYPE

A second class of dirigible air-ships are those built by the German Government after the plans of Major Gross. These are of the half-rigid type. Major Gross's air-ships have a metallic keel, above which the balloon is fastened and from which is hung the carrier. The keel, by giving a certain stiffness to the air-ship, guarantees its dirigibility. In a French experiment with an air-ship of a similar type the rigid part was bent and broken by the pressure of the wind, the balloon torn open, and a terrible accident was the result. The Gross dirigibles have special devices to provide against just such accidents. The vertical steering is chiefly done by movable weights running on rails along the keel. The stability of these balloons lengthwise as well as laterally is perfect.

The defects of both the Parseval and Gross systems are that dirigibles of these types are limited in carrying capacity, in radius of action, and in speed. High speed is a source of safety in bad weather and against head winds and gales. Their usefulness in warfare is therefore questionable. Their destructibility by shrapnel is also a great military defect.

THE ZEPPELIN

Count Zeppelin began his experiments on quite different principles. He proposed to create an air-ship to be sailed and controlled in the air as the giant ships are navigated in