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Americans; and the third most important thing was to secure opportunity for their

return.

The only vessels flying the American flag which could be used for the transportation of passengers across the Atlantic were six steamships in the transatlantic service and certain ships engaged in coastwise trade, small in size and mainly devoted to the carrying of cargoes. Two naval vessels were made ready to sail, and twenty-five or more army officers, headed by the Assistant Secretary of War, were detailed to go upon these vessels to lend their aid wherever necessary. Arrangements were made for the sending of $5,000,000 in gold by bankers, and $1,500,000 was sent by the Government. In addition there was money sent by individuals which was placed in the charge of these representatives of the Government. Moreover, a half-million dollars was sent to a designated English bank in Ottawa, and thus a credit to that amount was obtained at the Bank of England. The gold sent on the naval vessels, the Tennessee and North Carolina, has since reached Europe. The Board believes that with the resumption of sailings that had been suspended it is now "a mere matter of a comparatively short time" before Americans in Europe can secure transportation home. The Board adds that "wherever it was evident that there would not be a resumption of regular sailings sufficient to take care of the Americans, the consulate agencies were directed to secure ships for this purpose."

We are informed by the Chairman of the Relief Board, Secretary McAdoo, in reply to our request for information, that Americans in Europe who are without means and need help can obtain assistance by applying to American diplomatic and consular officers; that through these officers the Board endeavors, when so requested, to ascertain the whereabouts and welfare of Americans, make arrangements for their transportation, and arrange for such other help as may be needed; that under the Board's direction the Treasurer of the United States, as custodian, receives deposits from individuals for transmission to Americans in Europe; that the relief expedition sent with the gold from the Government is stationing officials at points in Europe with funds from the Tennessee for relief work and for payments to individuals of money deposited for them; and that communications for the Relief Board

may be addressed to its Chairman, the Secretary of the Treasury, at Washington, D. C.

NEGRO BUSINESS

Every year Negroes engaged in bus ness. assemble to exchange accounts of their experience, and to get the encouragement that comes from knowing one another's success. This year the annual session of this National Negro Business League was held at Muskogee, Oklahoma.

The stories of struggle and success which were told there will be retold again and again by the delegates to Negro youth in the South and elsewhere, and will be the means of starting into new life many who find conditions hard. Negroes who had started with nothing but their bare hands and their ambition to achieve and had succeeded were cross-questioned by their hearers. They told of hardship, but also of persistence; of privation, but also of thrift. They told also of the willingness of good white men to stand behind the struggling Negro and give him advice and help.

Oklahoma and the five adjacent StatesKansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas-offer their two million Negroes remarkable opportunities in cattle raising, general farming, truck gardening, and poultry raising. These six States have one hundred and thirty million acres of unimproved land. To one who has seen the fields of France, where every inch seems to be utilized, this statement is full of significance for the future of this country, and for the future of the poor of all races here. In those six States there is, as Dr. Booker T. Washington said in his address before the League, room for "a thousand more grocery stores owned by Negroes, five hundred additional dry-goods stores, three hundred more shoe stores, two hundred more good restaurants and hotels, three hundred additional millinery stores, two hundred additional drug stores, and forty more banks." Dr. Washington's address was, in fact, a convincing statement of the opportunities that lie before the colored people of that region, and a summons to the Negroes to overcome their evils with good works and with a constructive policy in business, industry, education, moral and religious life, and conduct generally.

In connection with this meeting there was a spectacular industrial parade to show the Negroes' progress in Oklahoma. Decorated floats carrying men, women, and children

showed the Negroes' progress in the home, school, church, and various organizations fine specimens of horses, mules, and cattle, and wagons containing cotton, grains, fruits, and vegetables, showed what the Negro is doing in agriculture; and demonstrations by Negro artisans showed what the Negroes were doing in industry.

"SANITATION FIRST"

FOR RAILWAYS

At the Convention of the American Medical Association in Atlantic City recently emphasis was laid on the importance of securing a higher standard of "railroad sanitation" in the United States. The railways offer a comparatively new field for the efforts of the sanitary expert.

Some of the precautionary measures which the Association urges are the ventilation and fumigation of cars, the examination of railway employees for contagious and infectious diseases, the examination of all food and water offered to the traveling public, the abolition of the common drinking-cup and the roller-towel-which have already been abolished by many State Legislatures-the sanitation of railway lavatories, and the adoption of ordinary health measures in railway camps.

The Treasury Department has already established a regulation that on trains only ice and water shall be used for drinking purposes which have been certified by the State or municipal health authority within whose jurisdiction they are obtained; and as far as some of the other reforms urged by the convention of physicians are concerned, many of them have already been adopted by some railways -much to the credit of the wisdom and humanity of the officers controlling these lines. For instance, the Illinois Central, the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy, the Chicago and Northwestern Railways, and the Pullman Company each already employ a man called a sanitarian," who serves as general health officer for each of these corporations. For some time dining-car employees on the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, the Pennsylvania, and other large systems have been subjected to periodical examinations for signs of tuberculosis or other diseases that might be communicated to diners, and the Lehigh Valley-which has been a pioneer so far as health measures are concerned-employs a physician whose sole duty it is to examine employees for indications of disease.

Some of the signs indicating that "sanita

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as principal, a position which he held until his retirement from active life two years ago. He was knighted in 1909 in recognition of what he had done for the men and women who, like himself, lived in constant shadow.

The great contribution of Sir Francis Campbell to the education of the blind lay in his insistence on the principle that the sightless should have a training at least equal to, and if possible better than, that given to the seeing. An athlete himself, he realized the importance of physical training in getting the usually poor physique of the blind up to par, and at the Royal Normal College to-day, where preparation is given for several vocations, the importance of physical training is constantly emphasized.

LOUVAIN

The destruction of Louvain by an unknown German military commander is an act of brutality absolutely unjustified by the rules of war. Nor is it any excuse for this act of brutality to say that war is brutal. Civilized war is cruel, but not brutal. The difference between a man and a brute is that the brute acts under impulse, guided only by his instincts, while the man guides his action by intelligence. The cruelty of civilized war is an intelligent cruelty-that is, it is cruelty directed by intelligence to a definite purpose. Any cruelty in war not so directed is justly termed brutal. We do not attempt in this article to judge acts in war by the ethical standards accepted in times of peace. We judge warlike actions by war standards. all Americans familiar with military literature the volume of General W. E. Birkhimer, of the United States General Staff, on Military Government and Martial Law" will be recognized as an authority. The principles assumed in this editorial are derived from and based on this volume.

To

The object in war is the destruction of the enemy's army. Any military acts necessary for the destruction of the enemy's army are in general justified by military lawthat is, by the customs of civilized nations. Any acts not directly tending to aid in the destruction of the enemy's army are unjustified.

The destruction of Louvain had no tendency to promote the objects which the German army has in view. It was an unin

telligent act of vandalism. an act of brutality.

Therefore it was

The destruction of Louvain did nothing to aid the army of invasion. For Louvain was not a strategic point which might be of advantage to the armies of the Allies if it was left intact.

The destruction of Louvain did nothing to weaken the army of the Allies. It added strength to them; for it has filled the Belgians and the French with an enthusiasm of wrath, and enthusiasm of wrath adds greatly to the fighting force of an army.

The destruction of Louvain did nothing to protect European civilization from the Slav. On the contrary, it has aroused in the Slav a spirit of revenge, and Germans are fleeing from Berlin in fear of Russia's retaliation.

The destruction of Louvain has done nothing to aid Germany to make herself a world power. By that destruction she has aroused the indignation of the civilized world, an indignation which will outlast this terrible war. This is not the way to secure a world power.

The destruction of Louvain has done nothing to unite Germany against a united Europe. On the contrary, it has brought from the Berlin Socialist" Vorwaerts " a protest which warns the Germans against putting the struggle in a wrong light in the eyes of all the world and which calls upon the working class who are fighting at the front to remember their brethren on the other side and behave toward them in chivalrous manner. It is safe to assume that no paper in Germany would venture to suggest such a protest if it did not voice the sentiment of a considerable section of the German people.

The defense offered for this act of vandalism is that civilians, after Louvain was occupied by the German army, shot German soldiers, and the city was destroyed as an act of reprisal. The shooting of soldiers in an occupied town by unorganized civilians is an act of murder, and should be treated accordingly. But the criminal acts of a few individuals do not justify the destruction of a city. Says the Hague Conventions (Section 3, Article I): "No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, can be inflicted on the population on account of the acts of individuals, for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible." And in this declaration the Hague Conventions simply affirmed concisely a principle recognized by the customs of civilized nations in warfare.

The wave of indignation which has swept over America because of this criminal act cannot be regarded as an anti-German prejudice. Our soldiers when in occupation of Vera Cruz were shot at and killed by civilians. By vigorous police measures this 'sniping was speedily stopped. If the American troops had burned Vera Cruz, the American indignation would have far exceeded any indignation which Americans have thus far expressed at the act of the German troops in Louvain, and yet the loss to the world in the destruction of the beautiful city of Louvain far exceeds any loss that would have been suffered by the destruction of Vera Cruz. And if the Russians should reach Berlin and should do work of destruction in that city in any respect resembling the work done by the unknown commander in Louvain, The Outlook would condemn such act of reprisal as vigorously as it here condemns the destruction of Louvain, and we believe it would be equally condemned by all ċivilized peoples throughout the world.

GERMANY'S OBJECT IN THE WAR

AS INTERPRETED BY A PRUSSIAN MILITARY OFFICER

Mr. Wile, in his interesting article in last week's Outlook, told us that sixty-five million of the sixty-six million Germans did not want war; but that the other one million not only wanted war but got it. Among the names of the leaders of this war party given by him is that of General Bernhardi. General Bernhardi wrote in 1911 a volume entitled "Germany and the Next War.” The forecasts of this volume have been so singularly fulfilled by the action of Germany under the leadership of the war party that the book may properly be regarded as an authoritative interpretation of that party's spirit and purpose.

As an

1914

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tered struggle in the markets of the world, and war is required to enable the nation to create colonies which will take the products of its industries.

War is also a moral necessity. It is political idealism which calls for war, while materialism in theory, at least-repudiates it. It is only the State which strives after an enlarged sphere of influence that creates the conditions under which mankind develops into the most splendid perfection. When the State recoils from every war which is necessary for its expansion, each individual becomes cramped, selfishness and intrigue run riot, and luxury obliterates idealism. Wars are terrible but necessary, for they save the State from social petrifaction and stagnation.

War is also a Christian necessity. It demands the exercise of constancy, pity, magnanimity, heroism, and absolute selfforgetful devotion to one's country. "Christian morality is based, indeed, on the law of love. Love God above all things, and thy neighbor as thyself." But "this law can claim no significance for the relations of one country to another, since its application to politics would lead to a conflict of duties. The love which a man showed to another country as such would imply a want of love for his own countrymen. Such a system of politics must inevitably lead men astray. Thus, according to Christianity, we cannot disapprove of war in itself, but must admit that it is justified morally and historically." Any action in favor of collective humanity outside the limits of the State and nationality is impossible. ity is impossible. Such conceptions belong to the wide domain of Utopias.'

...

Arbitration treaties are detrimental to an aspiring people which is bent on extending its power in order to play its part honorably in the civilized world. "The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must be stigmatized as unworthy of the human race. . . A one-sided, restricted, formal law is to be established in the place of the decisions of history. The weak nation is to have the same right to life as the powerful nation. The whole idea represents a presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws of development, which can only lead to the most disastrous consequences for humanity generally."

War is a peculiar necessity for Germany at the present time. It is necessary to