RELATIONS BETWEEN THE;
UNITED STATES AND GERMANY

Since the break in diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany no serious clash has occurred, although there have been not a few critical points of danger. The question of the men taken to Germany on the Yarrowdale is still one such dangerous point. It was announced that Germany had promised to release the men, but they have not yet been allowed to leave Germany. It is said that our Government has forwarded a protest and demand for information on this point. It has been rumored from day to day that the President was about to go before Congress again (as indicated in his Message) to ask for powers to protect American rights at sea. To the non-diplomat there would seem to be no reason why special power should be required for the President of this country to protect American lives, ships, and rights.

It is understood that the Administration proposes to ignore the German request that the Prussian-American Treaty of 1799 should be revived with certain changes. To do this would be practically to make a new treaty, and this is not a time to make new treaties with a foreign country with which we are not, as one may say, on speaking terms. Moreover, it is quite evident that Germany's intention in this proposal is to commit this country to a tacit pledge not even in case of war to take possession of German ships in this country and to establish a drastic and wide-reaching rule as to the treatment of German subjects in the United States. In case of war the United States will, and should, act generously in such matters, but this is not a time to fix terms with a country that does not esteem highly its own pledged word.

On February 15 it was announced that for the present the American Relief Commission for Belgium would be allowed to continue its activities in the occupied territory of Belgium and northern France.

Germany is evidently doing everything possible to keep the United States pacified and yet to get all possible profit from a ruthless mode of warfare.

THE SUBMARINE WARFARE

Up to February 21 the losses of the Allies and neutras in shipping since February 1, when the new piratical German submarine warfare began, is reported as 128 ships, of 252,621 tonnage. Of these ships 80 were British, 40 neutrals, and 8 belligerents other than British. The record for the last week of this period was very much smaller than for the earlier part of the period; the total tonnage as compared with that previously reported in The Outlook last week increased by only about 45,000 tons. The deduction is drawn from this that the German submarines have not by any means had things their own way, and the inference is also extremely strong that new methods of dealing with submarines by Great Britain have resulted in a large loss to the German submarine fleet. It will be remembered that uncensored despatches from Germany declared at the outset of this warfare that the Germans expected to sink about a million tons a month. They will not sink anything like half of this amount in the first month if the present rate of destruction is maintained.

Interesting official figures have been published regarding the status of British shipping. These show that since the beginning of the war shipping to the amount of four million tons has been destroyed, while three million tons of shipping has been built, making a relative loss of about one million tons. Great Britain has still nearly sixteen million tons of shipping, and the impres

sion made by the present rate of submarine warfare on this vast tonnage is comparatively slight.

Meanwhile the American Line ships in our ports stand idle. Proper guns cannot be obtained from our Government, which also refuses to protect American ships on the prohibited high seas by convoy. There is a straight issue between the United States and Germany as to the right of American ships to arm themselves for defense, but evidently our Government does not wish to force this issue. It is said that the cost to the American Line alone for keeping her steamships idle in [dock is at least $1,000,000 a week. A few American ships bound for ports in France or for London have sailed unarmed. They cross into "forbidden waters," but not in the more dangerous areas. These areas would be crossed by ships bound to Liverpool. The Dutch ships now in American ports are being held on orders from Holland. Like little Holland, the great Nation of the United States is still subject to the Blockade of Fear.

MILITARY ACTIVITY

The slowly advancing offensive of the British army in the Somme sector, which began over seven months ago, has been resumed. It has often been halted, but never has receded. The recent capture of the town of Grandcourt, south of the Ancre River (which here runs from east to west), has been followed by a forward British movement eastward on the north side of the Ancre. The object of this offensive is the town of Miraumont. Once well established on both sides of the Ancre, the British have a promising line of approach toward Bapaume, which has always been the distant objective of the British Somme campaign. From Albert, the center of the beginning of the British movement, to Bapaume is about ten or twelve miles over a perfectly straight road. At least two-thirds of this distance has been covered, but the real gain is larger than this statement shows, for the British line alone has extended far to both sides of this highway.

There have been German waves of attack in the Champagne district, and some slight German successes have been made here. Reports state that the German Commander-in-Chief, General von Hindenburg, has gathered a new striking force of perhaps four hundred thousand men, and that when the roads become dry this is to be hurled at some selected and now unknown point. This is one of those reports which are interesting but not to be received implicitly.

NATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH

On February 14 a meeting of members of the Progressive party was held in Atlanta, Georgia, to prepare for the National conference which is announced for April 12 next at St. Louis. The chief speaker at Atlanta was John M. Parker, of New Orleans, who was candidate for Vice-President on the Progressive ticket of 1916. In his address Mr. Parker reaffirmed his belief and that of his associates in the general principles of "social justice" enunciated in the Progressive platform of 1912. Among these principles he included the abolition of child labor, the shortening of the working hours of the laboring man, the budget system in National finance, woman suffrage, National prohibition, and universal training and service for National defense. Perhaps the most significant passage in Mr. Parker's speech was the following:

Our ancestors endured untold hardships and fought for and died for their convictions; their heroic sacrifices made America what it is to-day, and the present generation owe a solemn debt

to those who will follow us to fight for American ideals and to maintain the highest standard of American honor.

America is for Americans and is no place for the hyphen citizen. Those foreigners who seek our shores to better their condition and give their families opportunities they cannot get in the old country must be absolutely loyal to the land of adoption, or should be deported as undesirable citizens.

In this dark hour and great crisis every true American will loyally support our President, and should it become necessary, the fortune and life of every American should be cheerfully given to uphold American honor.

Dollar blindness threatens to be a National curse and blunt the finer instincts of our people.

A member of the staff of The Outlook who is now traveling in the South, and who sends us the speech by Mr. Parker from which we make the above quotation, makes the following comment on the general attitude of thinking Southerners with regard to the present crisis in our National affairs: "Most of those with whom I have talked have agreed that the South has been misrepresented by some of its newspapers and Congressmen. Several have told me that they were heartily sick of the emphasis placed on cotton rather than on human rights. How general this opinion is, of course, I do not know. I certainly believe that the educated people of New Orleans are thinking very seriously of National unity and responsibility. The effective Red Cross campaign to establish a base hospital is carried on entirely from the National view-point. Included in it, for instance, was a Flag Day, with addresses and flag-raisings all over the city. In all the schools the oath of allegiance to the flag was repeated by over fifty thousand school-children. In a city still so close to the reconstruction era, and its heritage of graft and thievery which still scars present political conditions, I think that such a demonstration is noteworthy."

Similar testimony comes from the West. The materialists and visionary pacifists are at the moment more in evidence than the Nationalists of the fine type of John M. Parker. But there is much evidence to sustain the conviction that with the right kind of leadership the mass of Americans are in favor of sustaining National rights, National honor, and the National duty to aid those peoples and nations that are suffering martyrdom because of their belief in democracy.

NATIONALISM AND GERMAN-AMERICANS

The attitude of the South, which is sometimes in these days unjustly, we are convinced-accused of sectionalism, naturally suggests the attitude of the great body of GermanAmericans in the United States. In this connection we think a letter just received from a reader who is the minister of a Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania is significant. He writes as follows:

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As an American of German descent, whose parents were both born abroad, who speaks and reads the German language, I wish to state that your position with reference to the war, especially in criticism of Germany, is exactly right. I agree most cordially with the substance of the important paper drawn recently by a company of representative preachers [printed in full in The Outlook of January 10]. It is a document that will no doubt figure in the finished history of the great war. It is my continual hope that Germany will be finally and decisively defeated. My individual convictions on this subject are of course not very important; but they at least represent a very small fraction of that not inconsiderable element of so-called German-Americans whose minds have not been befogged concerning the great issue of true democracy, which cannot triumph until Germany is conquered.

This is by no means the only letter of this spirit which we have received from Americans of German ancestry during the last two years. This Pennsylvania pastor confirms the belief that we have expressed frequently in these pages-namely, the belief that the American people are not opposed to the German people, but believe in them and sympathize with them. What America is opposed to is that philosophy of society and government which the present aristocratic, military, and agrarian rulers of Germany are imposing on the German people on the German people and trying to impose upon the rest of the world. It is as logical and appropriate for liberty-loving Americans of German

birth or relationship to fight Kaiserism now as it was for liberty-loving Americans of English birth or ancestry to fight George-the-Thirdism in the days of the American Revolution.

THE BOY SCOUTS IN WAR

"Boy Scouts Will Mobilize for War." Headlines of this type in the newspapers have alarmed many parents whose boys are enrolled as Boy Scouts. But the alarm is needless. If you are a father or a mother of a Boy Scout, you need have no fear, for your boy will not be called upon for any sort of fighting whatsoever.

An official statement published in "Scouting," the organ of the Boy Scout movement, tells just what the Boy Scouts will do in case we have war with Germany. First, it is said, whatever service Boy Scouts may render to the country will be entirely voluntary on the part of the individual. Second, no Boy Scouts will take part in any military operations; none of them will carry a gun. But in a National crisis there is much work in which the Boy Scouts can be very useful-such work as the following:

Rendering first aid to the sick or injured.

Sending messages by wire, wireless, or semaphore.

Co-operating in the protection of property by accepting defi nite assignments for the purpose of giving alarm in the case of danger.

Acting as messengers and co-operating with agencies organ. ized for relief work, such as the Red Cross.

There are one hundred and ninety-seven thousand officially enrolled Boy Scouts available for such work if they should vol unteer. There are also about three hundred and fifty thousand boys or young men who have had the Boy Scout training, but who are no longer officially enrolled. No doubt thousands of these youths would offer to serve their country in a crisis, and some of them are now old enough to fight. Finally, there are about fifty thousand men, ten thousand scout masters, ten thousand assistant scout masters, and thirty thousand other adult advisers of the Boy Scouts who have had some training of a sort that would make them useful to their country if war comes. Thus the Boy Scout movement has already provided a great reservoir of human resources whose value might be incalculable if we go to war.

BASEBALL PLAYERS AND NATIONAL DEFENSE

Those who were in England during the early months of the war were struck by the persistence of the contests in football and cricket, without any indication that Englishmen had been summoned to the colors. Little by little this was changed and the athletes became more and more a part of the country's national defense.

Though this country is not at war, we are glad to note a sign of a similar change in our own athletes. It is a cheering indication of American manhood and self-respect, war or no war.

The other day, on the motion of Captain Huston, of the "Yankees," the American League baseball players, at a meeting held at the Hotel Wolcott in New York City, adopted resolu tions of significance. Their preamble should be read by all. It is as follows:

Whereas a lack of military preparedness now confronts our Nation, the American League feels it appropriate that baseball should do its part in a movement looking toward the country's protection and to demonstrate the fact that our National game is a genuine National institution;

Whereas, to set an example by which the youth of our land may be impressed with the need of physical preparedness and of military training;

Whereas, these major League players are looked upon as heroes by the boys and young men of America, and their appearance upon a field, trained in military tactics, we believe, would arouse in the hearts of our boys an ambition to emulate their example in doing something for the country;

The League comes, therefore, to the following conclusions : (1) that the ball-players be given an opportunity to become civilian soldiers; (2) that in each spring training camp one

hour be devoted to military instruction and that the travel from hotel to grounds be executed in military formation; (3) that military drill be continued during the season at morning practice; and (4) that immediately following the World's Series a military training camp of the Plattsburg type be estab lished.

That these resolutions will be carried out no one who saw the rugged, vigorous, resolute body of men at the Hotel Wolcott can doubt. Their action should spur other men to similar activity.

IS HESITATION SAFE?

In Turkey there are still many Americans. Most of these are there because they feel themselves under great responsibility for others. They cannot, in many cases, leave without accusing themselves of being false to duty, unfaithful to a trust. In one institution, or group of institutions, founded and conducted by Americans there are now quartered many Turkish soldiers, and in the neighborhood other soldiers and a community of refugees. Of the ten buildings, seven houses are controlled by Ottoman officials. There are typhus, syphilis, smallpox, and cholera among the soldiers. There has been a death list of forty a day. All vaccine was long ago exhausted. It is a question whether some of the structures can be wholly disinfected. The girls of the school have been most helpful in nursing.

One of the men associated with this institution has informed us that there are Americans still there, explaining that each one who remains does so as a volunteer; and his comment on their conduct is that "the eleventh chapter of Hebrews ought to be lengthened to include the name of these heroes."

What those experiences are may be imagined in part from what happened when an official called at the institution with three officers, placed armed guards at all gates and patrols in the open spaces of the campus, and gave those in charge of the institution half an hour in which to turn over all the grounds and buildings to the officials and to get ready to leave. The pretext was friction between the American and German Governments. The censor of telegrams told the party of Americans that they might send as many telegrams as they pleased, but they could be assured that no message would get out of town and no message intended for them would be delivered.

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From this American connected with the institution we have received the following words in relation to this situation :

As for the policy that ought to be followed by our Government, it is difficult to urge an opinion. In general, it is certain that strength and steadiness are always better than any policy of hesitation or fear. In April it will be three full years since Turkey began to mobilize, and her leaders have pursued a very high-handed course all this time. It is a question how far American methods should change in the crossing of such a torrent. More than once last year I heard our city Governor speak in this strain: "We Turks are in the midst of a life and death struggle. We must and shall do what we think necessary to our national welfare. If you Americans don't like it—well, we did not invite you here; you might go home. Suppose your Government takes issue with what we do. What will happen? Will you send a fleet over here? Send it right along. Send it to the Dardanelles, and we will give it just the same reception we gave the British fleet in those waters. You don't think your American fleet better than the British, do you? Or will you send an army? Send it right along. Send it by the Gallipoli Peninsula, as the British did, and your army will meet just the same fortune that overtook the British there." Once this challenge was addressed to an American consular agent in a conversation at which I was present, and the Governor boasted of it to other Ottoman officials in another conversation at a later time.

This American representative of those who have been spend ing their lives in the service of the people of the Ottoman Empire gave it as his opinion that the surest way to bring danger to those Americans who are still in Turkey would be by hesitation and wavering; and he has added as his conclusion: "Certainly in the present grave crisis our American officials need a combination of wisdom, strength, and tact in dealing with the Turkish situation, if ever in our history men needed these high and delicate qualities.'

THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

The insurrection in Cuba is something like a kettle of water which bubbles and threatens to boil. There have been innumerable small acts of demonstration against the Government. Whether these will coalesce into a revolution or not is uncertain, as we write.

Our Government, mindful of its right and duty under the Platt Amendment, has indicated a second time that it will support the constituted government and laws of Cuba against the insurrection, and under the amendment we can, of course, land troops for that purpose whenever our Government believes it necessary. The second elections, which were held according to the order of the Cuban Supreme Court in Santa Clara Province, resulted in a victory for the Menocal or Conservative party, but soldiers were at the polls, and the Liberals, of course, say that the election means nothing. President Menocal has postponed the elections which were to be held in the Province of Oriente because of disturbed conditions, and this is taken as a sign that the crisis is serious.

As the disturbance proceeds it is evident that it is headed, not by Dr. Zayas, the Liberal candidate for the Presidency, but by ex-President Gomez. It is believed that the insurgents pro pose to put, not Zayas, but Gomez at the head of the Govern ment. It is not likely that our Government would accept such a revolutionary action, even if it succeeded. Gomez is an energetic man, but all through his term as President accusations were rife against him both for demagogic political action to please the Cuban "old soldier " vote and for doubtful financial methods.

ANOTHER RAID

There is little encouragement to be found in the fact that less than a week before our Ambassador to Mexico, Mr. Henry P. Fletcher, was received by Carranza, Mexican bandits were able to raid an American ranch at Ojitos, New Mexico, and carry off four American citizens, one of them a Negro. The bodies of the three white Americans were found the next day in Mexico three miles from the international boundary. The Negro, who was a ranch foreman, was allowed to return to the border with a demand from José Ynez Salazar, a lieutenant of Villa, for five thousand dollars as a ransom for himself and his wife, who was held as a hostage by the Mexicans. Judging from this raid, and from advices received by the War Department from the American forces on the border, Salazar's men have taken over much of the territory formerly held by the Pershing expedition.

The order for the return of all National Guard units from the border to their homes and for them to be immediately mus tered out of the Federal service affects more than fifty thousand men. The moving of these men will be the largest feat of transportation attempted since the Guardsmen were sent to the border last summer.

A FIGHTING GENERAL

The sudden death of Major-General Frederick Funston removes one of the most brilliant and aggressive of American soldiers. He had a striking personality, was skilled with the pen as well as with the sword, and was foremost in every gallant and stirring incident of warfare. The one thing that tried him sorely was inaction.

Few episodes of our time-perhaps none except Dewey's victory-will so long remain in the popular mind as General Funston's adventurous campaign in the Philippines which culminated in the capture of Aguinaldo. He was wont to throw himself in the forefront of the fight in a way not scientifically approved by military critics, but which inspired his men mightily. Major-General Otis has described Funston at that time as "the greatest daredevil in the army, a man who would rather fight than eat." In one of his campaigns, in reply to a question by his superior officer as to how long Funston's regiment could hold its position, he replied: "Until it is mustered out.'

At the time of his death General Funston was in command of the Southern Department of the United States army, and in

the attempt to capture Villa the strain upon him, restricted as he was by civil as well as military necessities, was very great. His early life was varied and adventurous in its activities, and many stories are told of his courage and independence in difficulties.

The country will fully agree with Major-General Leonard Wood's comment on General Funston: "The country has lost one of its most efficient and valuable officers at a time when he can ill be spared. He won his way to the highest rank in our army through the gallant and efficient performance of duty wherever assigned. The army will mourn his loss very deeply.'

COMMERCIALIZED VICE AND PUBLIC VIGILANCE

It is significant that three organizations, all engaged in combating commercialized vice in New York City, almost simultaneously have reported a noteworthy decrease in the extent of one form of such vice—that is, the exploiting of women. These three organizations are the Committee of Fourteen, the Society for the Prevention of Crime, and the Bureau of Social Hygiene.

It seems evident that the investigation of the so-called "vice ring" which followed the exposures brought about by the murder of the gambler Herman Rosenthal by Police-Lieutenant Becker and four gunmen was the beginning of a campaign which has steadily decreased the power of the promoters of commercialized prostitution. Says the report of the Bureau of Social Hygiene: "Vice still exists; but its amount has been greatly reduced, and the damage caused has been immensely lessened. In 1912 prostitution was open, organized, aggressive, and prosperous; in 1916 it is furtive, disorganized, precarious, unsuccessful. This improvement is shown in the statistics, but as a matter of fact the real improvement is far greater than the statistics show."

...

The report of the Committee of Fourteen contains several striking findings. For instance, it is said: "Most amazing perhaps to the outside world has been the co-operation of those engaged in the liquor trade, and particularly of the brewers,. in the effort to improve conditions in saloons and hotels." In the second place, the Committee feels that it has exploded the theory that the great department stores of the city are "breedinggrounds for prostitution," and reports that it has had great assistance from some of the department stores in investigating this matter. Another improvement is the reorganization of the courts and the increased co-operation of the courts with one another, with the police, and with the district attorneys in handling prostitution. The Committee has also found the New York City police to be increasingly helpful, but regrets that it cannot say the same thing of the State Excise Department.

All three of these organizations whose reports we have quoted from emphasize the importance of unremitting vigilance on the part of the public. They attribute much of their success in the elimination of commercialized vice to the support of the public. It is largely as a result of this widespread determination to suppress a hideous evil that some of the leaders of the "vice ring have been led to remark: "We have weathered all reforms from the Lexow investigation and the Low administration down to the one now in power, and the reformers always got tired and quit. But this one still keeps up after three years. We cannot understand it."

THE CHASE EXHIBITION

Those who mourn the premature death of William Merritt Chase have hoped that, especially to benefit the men and women who are not well acquainted with his works, a memorial exhibition would be held. This hope has now been realized in the opening of such an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; it will continue until March 18. It affords a welcome opportunity to become acquainted with all phases of Chase's career, particularly of its early part his student days in Munich and his successes upon his return to this country in 1878.

To make the exhibition as appealing as possible, paintings have been borrowed, not from the public galleries in Philadel phia, Chicago, and other cities where, happily, are some of

Chase's best canvases, but from private owners who had been asked to loan their treasures. The result, therefore, is an exhibition of special import. We look upon such pictures as “The Apprentice" and "The Dowager Apprentice" and "The Dowager" as showing what the young American did in Munich, when, apparently preoccupied with the old masters, he was specially somber as to color, a contrast to his later gayer tones. Then comes an American vivacity, as in the delineation of the Tenth Street Studio in New York City, recalling the Society of American Artists, which held many meetings in Chase's studio from the time of its foundation until the erection of the American Fine Arts Building in Fiftyseventh Street. Then we have the portraits of the man's maturity, especially those of his own family-the "Mrs. Chase in Spanish Dress," for instance, and the quaint portrait of little Helen Chase dressed as a Velasquez Infanta. Then come the landscapes, and, lastly, we have some of the fish and other still life subjects for which Chase was famous, and in which, among Americans, he was without a rival.

In this last-named class of subjects we discern Chase's lesson to every man, and that is, the finding of beauty in all things. To him there was nothing without beauty-a battered tin pan, the iridescence of a fish's back, the variegated patches of clothes hung out to dry, an old post rotting on the wharf-for him these things and everything, no matter how humble, had beauties which generally escape the rest of us.

And this was the reason why Chase's work was so versatile, this the reason why, his landscapes, still life, figure pieces, and portraits, whether painted in Munich or New York, at Shinnecock Hills or in London, Florence, Madrid, Haarlem, betray the comprehensiveness of one to whom nothing paintable was foreign. With his buoyant, dashing, infectious gusto he seized upon everything; he delighted in it; he rendered it with marvelous deftness and accuracy. He loved painting for its own sake, as the pictures at this exhibition show. They betray an unexcelled brilliancy and facility of handling, and these qualities we like to think peculiarly American.

Yet let no one look at the Chase pictures for something they do not possess. Let no one seek to find in them the tonality of a Whistler or the spiritual fire of a Watts. Chase was so occupied in reproducing the actual life before him that he did not paint with the eye of the imagination. We have subtler and more imaginative artists. But, this aside, what American has done so much to transform American art from the old Hudson River school into a Barbizon realism as did he; who has done more to put American portraiture alongside that of Rembrandt and Hals; finally, who has ever better asserted the vigor and dignity of sound craftsmanship?

CAROLUS-DURAN

Last week, in his eightieth year, died the President of the French Société des Beaux-Arts, a man of international reputation as a portrait-painter and teacher of painting-Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran.

He was born in Lille, that city of northeastern France now temporarily in German possession. He was the son of a horse dealer whose name was Durand. Now, in that part of France there are many Durands. As the boy grew older he wanted to be known by a more individual name, so he changed it to Duran, to which he prefixed by a hyphen the name Carolus. The boy also had no notion of himself becoming a horse dealer, or engaging in the mercantile and agricultural pursuits of most of the people about him. From the start he wanted to paint, and when very young became a pupil in the Lille Municipal Art School, going thence to Paris and studying under the best. masters. There his life was singularly varied. He was noted for fencing and riding and had a record as a duelist. He wrote several volumes of short stories and one long novel. More than all, he married Sophie Croizette, the actress, who was accustomed to say of her husband: "No woman could help falling in love with him even if he were a hunchback."

The homes of Carolus were in Paris and on the Riviera. Any one who saw him basking in the sunlight in his garden on that picturesque Provençal shore knew that there he obtained his inspiration and was confirmed in his passion for color. Notable among his portraits-now in general regarded as too conven