surveyed and charted down to the minutest detail. The maps of the General Staff indicate the artillery ranges from every hillside. Every bridge and ford and swamp and bypath is indicated, and its military significance noted.

In times of peace the standing army was maneuvered back and forth over all this frontier territory until the officers and men were familiar with every foot of it. The moment war was declared they dashed out of their barracks and advanced till they were stopped by the enemy, and then they "dug themselves in " on lines previously surveyed.

Inevitably we have heard most about the fighting in northwestern France, where the English contingent is engaged. They have been faced by stiff work and have added many a glorious page to the history of British arms. It is not their fault that their part in this war has been vastly over-advertised. It is possible that the English force actually engaged at present numbers 300,000. The 1,250,000 men whom Lord Kitchener referred to in his Guildhall speech are still in training at home. It is doubtful if there are more than a quarter of a million at the front. There are ten times as many Frenchmen. We hear very little about them, because our correspondents are not allowed at the front, and almost all the details we get come from the English papers.

But in this stupendous western campaign the French have been fighting desperately all along the battle front from the North Sea to

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the Swiss frontier. In only one place have the Germans been able to drive the French back to their line of barrier forts. At St. Mihiel they have forced their way across the Meuse. They have not been able to advance farther, but they have been able to bring up their great siege guns and demolish the French forts within range. With the exception of this one point, the French lines are on or near their own frontier. Their infantry and field artillery, with the help of these "semi-permanent field defenses," have checked the Germans. As far as we know, the heavy guns of Verdun, Toul, Épinal, and Belfort. have not fired a shot. The Germans have not yet been able to get within range. When the fog of war lifts, we shall probably find that the fighting and loss of life have been as severe here as anywhere else in the entire campaign.

The reason why the Germans did not enter France by the short routes from Metz and Strassburg was that they could not.

THE TENNESSEE AT SMYRNA

At the very end of the week included in this survey, in the afternoon of November 18, came the report from Captain Decker, of the United States cruiser Tennessee, that the vessel, or perhaps her launch, was fired upon the previous day by Turkish forts at Smyrna. The cause and significance of the fact were not reported, and until they are known it is useless to debate the various surmises sent out from Washington.

New York, November 18, 1914.

THE NEW BANKING SYSTEM

The new Central Bank of the United States began business on Monday of last week with apparent smoothness and efficiency. We are aware that it is neither technically nor sentimentally correct to call the new Federal Reserve Board and the affiliated twelve regional reserve banks under its jurisdiction a United States Central Bank. It is not technically correct, because the new bank is not so denominated in the Act of Con

gress which created it. And it is not sentimentally correct, because the people of the United States have been terrified at the bogey of a United States Bank, and have avoided the issue in an ostrich-with-its-head

in-the-sand sort of fashion by adopting the principle of a Central Bank and rejecting the name. As a matter of fact, the new Federal Reserve Board, together with its advisory council, constitutes a very real central bank. It has, to be sure, twelve self-governing or partly self-governing branches, but as time goes on, in our judgment, the tendency will be to strengthen the power, authority, and responsibility of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington so as to make it more and more a central bank.

As we have often said before, the ordinary bank depositor and the ordinary business man or merchant will not be aware, so far as his personal relations with his own bank are concerned, that there has been any change in

our National banking system. He will simply breathe in an easier financial atmosphere. The dangers of currency stringency and of financial panics (as distinguished from economic industrial bankruptcies) will be greatly lessened. This will be due partly to the larger amount of currency released for circulation, because the new law requires the banks to carry a smaller amount of cash reserve, and partly to the considerable volume of new "Federal Reserve " notes which can be issued as the proceeds of discounted commercial paper.

The twelve new regional banks are now open, and their opening has been celebrated in various ways by the cities in which they are situated. The newspapers announce that these banks are doing large amounts of business; and the facility with which they have begun their work is gratifying both to bankers and to the Administration. The new regional banks, however, will not do business with individuals, but only with member banks and with the Government; the deposits which they are receiving are deposits of the Government, reserve from other banks, and payments of subscriptions to their capital stock by member banks.

On

Some criticism has been made of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington because it has been too exacting in enforcing the discretionary rules and regulations which are within its power to make. It is true that at the opening of this new system it is the duty of the Federal Reserve Board to proceed cautiously and to guard against unknown and unseen dangers of administration. the other hand, it is equally its duty to make the new system as facile, simple, and useful as it can be made within the limits of reasonable safety. One of the valuable functions of the Federal Reserve Board at this time is to make the new system likable and welcome to the country. The unavoidable friction of new machinery is inevitably irritating, and those who are running it ought to apply the lubricant of common sense and human understanding.

THE WAR AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE

Suspecting that the republics of Ecuador and Colombia had failed to prevent violations of their neutrality, Great Britain is reported to have taken measures to protest and to have the failure rectified. Instead of dealing directly with the Governments of those two

countries, Great Britain has, according to a report in the New York "Sun," brought its charges to the notice of the United States. The reason for doing this, it is stated, is that under the Monroe Doctrine the United States has assumed responsibility for the fulfillment of obligations on the part of the republics in this hemisphere toward the nations of the Old World. Inasmuch as the United States does not regard as an act of friendliness any interposition on the part of European countries with the governments in this hemisphere for the purpose of "oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny," it is argued that the United States must see that such governments fulfill obligations so that their conduct will not invite such interposition. So in this case Great Britain, it is understood, has turned to us.

If reports can be believed, this alleged action on the part of Great Britain has not been welcome to the State Department. strong desire for peace naturally brings with it a desire for freedom from those problems that threaten controversy. Therefore, any new problem of this sort must be unwelcome to a Secretary of State who, like Mr. Bryan, has pledged himself to preserve a state of international tranquillity so far as he is concerned.

The Outlook has attempted to obtain confirmation or denial of these reports, but as yet we cannot inform our readers what measure of truth there is in these rumors. Secretary Bryan is quoted as applying the term "misrepresentation" to the view that the United States had no business to make any inquiries on the subject of the neutrality of Ecuador and Colombia.

Whether these charges have been made by Great Britain or not, the United States ought to be prepared to take up the question in case such charges should be made by any of the belligerent Powers. Mere allegations that Ecuador and Colombia have allowed to one belligerent privileges that neutral nations are not supposed to allow are not evidence, any more than the indictment of a grand jury is evidence for conviction. But if such allegations are responsibly made, the question remains whether it is the duty of the United States to inquire into their truth, and whether, if such allegations are supported by evidence, it is the duty of the United States to take any action in the matter.

The Outlook believes that in a situation like this the duty of the United States is to

do what it always ought to do when the Monroe Doctrine is involved: to invite the co-operation of the three great Republics of South America--Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The Monroe Doctrine, whatever it may have been in the past, is now no longer something that merely concerns the United States. It concerns as well these three South American republics. If the Western Hemisphere is to be freed from the consequences of the mutual jealousy and mistrust of European Powers, it is essential that the policy of the United States be one of co-operation between the stable governments of the New World. Every citizen of the United States must hope that in such a policy of co-operation the United States will be expected to lead. Leadership in that form can never be a source of jealousy.

The Parliament of Great Britain is again in session. Its great event so far has been the Prime Minister's request for a vote for another million soldiers, and $1,125,000,000. The House of Commons granted both of these requests without a dissenting voice.

As to the numbers of men engaged in the war, Mr. Asquith stated that since the outbreak of the war more than 700,000 recruits had joined the regular army and nearly 300,000 Territorials. Apart from the Territorials, about 1,100,000 men are under arms.

Together with the sum voted last August, the present demand brings the total up to an increase of more than fifty per cent in the national debt. The money is to be spent mostly for British army and navy expenditures in the war. They amount to nearly

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of the fighting in the long lines at the front in their own country, and who therefore rightly have the decisive vote as to what should be done in the way of the appointment of war correspondents.

The French Government is excluding all war correspondents, and in this apparently enjoys the entire sympathy of Lord Kitchener, British War Secretary. The papers are quoting, however, Lord Roberts's statement as he was leaving England for the Continent:

I naturally approve the proposition that all military movements, whatever they may be, should be kept absolutely secret from all our war correspondents; but it seems to me that they should be allowed to receive at least a fair modicum of information. Why not allow them to write, for instance, in detail, of the glorious action fought by our troops-several days, it goes without saying-after these actions have taken place?

Why not, indeed!

LORD ROBERTS

England has lost her most distinguished soldier. It was appropriate that he should die at the front. He died at the headquarters of the British Expeditionary Army in France, whither he had gone to visit the Indian troops. The day before he had viewed the fighting. It was a cold day, and Earl Roberts took a chill which developed quickly into pneumonia.

Frederick Roberts was an Irishman. So was Wellington. But there was a great difference between the two. Wellington did not sympathize with the land of his birth. Roberts, though born in India, was proud of the country which his ancestors had Imade their home since the Battle of the Boyne.

There was another difference between the two men. One was the embodiment of aristocratic reserve; the other, of warm-heartedness. One was the "Iron Duke;" the other, the idol of "Tommy Atkins."

But there was also a great likeness between the two; for both spared their men in war. And there was another more striking likeness; for each man came to the British Empire's aid at a critical moment.

Frederick Roberts had his education at a grammar school at Carrickmacross, in County Monaghan, Ireland, and his later education at Eton, where it is said of him that he was too small to take part in the games, although

he became a magnificent horseman. About
this Mr. Kipling wrote many, years later:
"There is a little red-faced man,
Which is Bobs.

Rides the tallest 'orse 'e can,
Our Bobs.

If it bucks or kicks or rears
'E can sit for twenty years,

With a smile round both 's ears-
Can't you, Bobs?"

Roberts went thence to Sandhurst, the training school for young officers, and thereafter to Addiscombe, the special training school for soldiers taking service under the East India Company. In 1852 he set sail for Calcutta with a second lieutenant's commission in his pocket.

The next forty-one years of his life, except for a few short leaves of absence, were spent in India, and Lord Roberts's description of them in his book 66 Forty-one Years in India" is probably as good a soldier's story as was ever written.

The lad was only nineteen years old then. He went to Peshawar, where his father was commanding a division, and the father's influence proved the best part of the son's education, for from the elder Roberts the boy learned the value of sympathy in dealing with savage races, and the importance of trying to control men by love rather than by fear. The young man was destined to be a type of the handful of Englishmen who are directing the administration of a country of nearly three hundred million inhabitants.

FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA

Young Roberts was still at Peshawar when the Indian Mutiny broke out. He immediately took the field, first on the staff of Neville Chamberlin, and then on that of John Nicholson. He joined the besieging force at Delhi. He had three horses shot or sabered under him, and was himself wounded. The British were enabled to enter Delhi, however, because Roberts had successfully brought up ammunition. Then Lucknow had to be relieved. Cawnpore had to be reoccupied. Young Roberts took a prominent part in the desperate fighting, and won the Victoria Cross.

Another achievement came when, while General Roberts was in command of the Punjab Frontier Force, the Afghan War broke out. He was sent to subdue the Amir. Though there were more than ten to one against his

force, he carried the enemy's strongholds, took Kabul, the capital, and relieved Kandahar.

He received the thanks of Parliament; he was loaded with degrees from English and Irish universities, made a baronet, and later a peer under the title Baron Roberts of Kandahar and Waterford.

In 1881 the South African Boers had utterly routed the English forces sent against them. Majuba Hill became a name of sinister meaning to Englishmen. England was humiliated. She turned to Lord Roberts and made him commander of the British troops in South Africa. But when he reached the Cape of Good Hope he found that the government of the day had already made peace with the Boers.

He was destined to return to South Africa under poignant circumstances. In 1899 England was again humiliated at the hands of the Boers. The British troops had met disaster after disaster. Lord Roberts, now a field marshal, was again placed in command of the forces, with General Kitchener as his Chief of Staff. Just as the commander-in-chief was about to sail, however, the news came that his only son had fallen at Colenso.

Lord Roberts was then sixty-seven years old. Staggering under his burden of intense private grief, he went again to serve his country. His sound strategy instantly proved its worth. Almost with the rapidity with which he had carried out the march from Kabul to Kandahar, he pressed on, relieving Kimberley, defeating Cronje at the Modder River, winning the fight at Poplar Grove, and then entering the capital of the Orange Free State. In twenty-nine days he had moved forty thousand men, twenty thousand horses, and a large convoy across a barren stretch of country seven hundred miles from his base. The entry into Pretoria followed. So did the thanks of Parliament, a grant of $500,000, and an earldom.

LORD ROBERTS AND THE PRESENT WAR

Owing to his great age Lord Roberts did not undertake active service in the present war. But he was constant and effective in his recruiting propaganda. This, together with his record of distinguished military service, called forth the following tribute from a foe. The Berlin "Lokalanzeiger " says:

On the occasion of the death of Lord Roberts the whole German press expresses itself alike,