66 quotation from his volume of "Essays on Nature and Culture" will probably interpret to the reader my meaning. He writes: About every man's feet there lies this wonderland of force, life, law, and beauty which has ministered so mysteriously and so vitally to the unfolding life of his race; and that wonderland is open to every one who is willing to give the eye and the mind the training of observation. In the order of growth it is written that each man must discover the world for himself; he enters into the heritage of knowledge which humanity has slowly and painfully accumulated; but if he would educate himself, he too must discover with his own eyes the world about him." This human sympathy also gave to his writings on religious themes a unique attractiveness. In reading his religious meditations I have often been reminded of Jeremy Taylor. As it was the life, not the science, of nature which interested him, so it was the life, not the science, of the soul of man. He was more interested in reverence than in definitions of God, in kindliness than in definitions of brotherhood. Not the anatomy of religion, but its pulsating, inspiring life, appealed to him. His religious articles, therefore, were not articulated, but impressionistic. They were sometimes almost feminine in their combination of gentleness and power. He did not reach religious conclusions by an argument, and rarely used argument to commend them to others. He perceived them as a human experience and interpreted them as a phase of human life. Yet I wish not to misinterpret him. A churchman, and in the latter years of his life an active and influential member of the Episcopal Church, he thought more highly of the institutions of religion than I do and attached_more value to its historic creeds. It is not easy to say why. Institutions and creeds have been both helps and hindrances to human progress, and perhaps the hindrance impressed me more and the help more impressed him. Perhaps it was only because he was brought up in a highly organized church and I in one all of whose tendencies are toward individualism in the religious life. Temperamentally Mr. Mabie had nothing of the ascetic in him. He was fond of society, and society was fond of him. His rare adaptability made him many friends and gave him the pass-key to very varied social circles. It endowed him with a sympathetic understanding of all sorts and conditions of men. It was this breadth of sympathy, interpreting to him the inner H life of men of all nationalities, that crowned his visit to Japan with success, and enabled him to return endowed with power to interpret the Japanese thought and life to unsympathetic and often unintelligent Americans. But it did not prevent him from feeling a fine indignation against any and every form of injustice, and especially of cowardice. His counsels, though generally conservative, were never reactionary or timid, and what sometimes seemed to others like caution in times of radical reform was due to his better, because more charitable, comprehension of those opposed to him. With time-serving and double-dealing he had no patience. A letter which I received from him, dictated from his sick-bed, March 6, 1916, just after the Congressional debate on the McLemore resolution, contained these sentences, quite characteristic of his virile nature : When I can go to New York twice a week and write as much as I want to, I shall be very happy. I wrote L. the other day that it was great discipline to stay at home, half the time in bed, when one's strong natural impulse was to get out of bed and swear. Congress has left me pretty nearly speechless with indignation. It has often been short-sighted; but was it ever more stupid and cowardly than during the last two weeks? In this purely personal tribute I have said nothing of Mr. Mabie's education, of his home life, of the many and varied academic honors which have been bestowed upon him, of his authorship outside of The Outlook, and of his success as a public speaker, and especially as a popular lecturer. For I have wished it to be simply an appreciative portrait of the friend as I have known and loved him. I bring it to its appropriate end by quoting as an expression of his faith, as it is of mine, this closing paragraph of an Easter editorial written by him and published in The Outlook at Easter time, 1915: "The open door of the empty tomb is a symbol of that escape from sin and death, that present entrance into life eternal, which makes every pure and noble life an assurance of immortality. There are those about us whose lives exhale a sweetness not of this world, and whose spirits have no kinship with death. In them the immortal has subdued the mortal, and they have already entered into the peace and rest that are the fruits of the final victory." LYMAN ABBOTT. MR. MABIE'S LIFE AND WORK AMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, for thirty-seven years a member of the editorial staff of The Outlook and for thirty-two years Associate Editor, died at his residence in Summit, New Jersey, early on the morning of Sunday, the last day of the old year. During the entire preceding year Mr. Mabie had been either seriously ill or (in the latter half) very slowly gaining ground, so that his friends and associates did not despair of his return to strength and a measure of activity. In fact, he had been able of late to go out, with caution, and even to return on several occasions for a few hours at a time to his desk at the office. The immediate cause of his death was the effect of an attack of asthma, incurred about two weeks before, on a system already weakened by the earlier attacks. About a year ago, while in Philadelphia to deliver an address, Mr. Mabie was stricken down by what was then pronounced an attack of indigestion, but later it became evident that the great nerve centers, and perhaps the heart, were involved. An estimate of the work, life, and character of Mr. Mabie (his editorial associates rarely called him Dr. Mabie, although he was more than doubly entitled to that designation) precedes this account of his life. He was born in Cold Spring, New York, in 1846, and was therefore seventy years of age at the time of his death. On his father's side Mr. Mabie was of Huguenot descent. The ancestor who founded the family in this country was an officer named Mabille, who was on the staff of Admiral Coligny, who escaped to America through Holland after the massacre of St. Bartholomew. On the other side Mr. Mabie was of Scotch descent. He was graduated at Williams College in 1867, and later received from his Alma Mater the degree of L.H.D. He studied law at Columbia, practiced for a short time, but soon found that his natural bent and ability were in the direction of literature and writing. The honorary degrees received by Mr. Mabie from colleges and universities were: L.H.D., from Williams College, received in 1890; LL.D., from Union College in 1899, from Western Reserve in 1904, and from Washington and Lee College in 1906. He was a trustee of Williams College, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, was President of the Grenfell Association at the time of his death, and had been President of the New York Kindergarten Association. He was a member of the Authors Club, of the Century Association, of the Japan Society, and of the Aldine Club, and at one time was President of the Alpha Delta Phi Society. In 1879 Mr. Mabie joined the staff of The Outlook, then known as The Christian Union. His contributions to this journal were from the first, and continued to be to the end, almost equally divided between the field of literature and that of social and ethical discussion. Hundreds of reviews and literary articles, hundreds of editorials on social topics, have appeared in this journal from his pen. Many of these were later included in books which have had a wide reading and appreciation. The titles of half a dozen out of a much larger list of titles will illustrate the range already suggested: "Norse Stories Retold" was his earliest book; "My Study Fire" (two series), "Parables of Life," "Backgrounds of Literature," "William Shakespeare-Poet, Dramatist, and Man," and "American Ideals" are among the best known of Mr. Mabie's books. Only those who followed Mr. Mabie closely in his daily work know how large a part of his time and effort were gladly expended in encouraging young writers and others in need of advice and incitement toward success and character-building. As a speaker before college audiences and on educational and anniversary occasions few men of our day have been more honored and appreciated. Of still a different type and character was Mr. Mabie's "Japan To-Day and To-Morrow." This appeared in 1914, after his return from Japan. He visited that country under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and, we believe, after the warm invitation of the Japanese Government. He went as an American "exchange professor" to deliver lectures in the Japanese universities and cities on the spirit and ideals of the American people. Mr. Mabie was delighted with his reception in Japan. He was cordially received by Japanese officials, and especially by the Japanese Premier, Mr. Okuma, who accorded him a notable and important interview, which appeared in these pages. This interview and Mr. Mabie's own firm conviction that talk of war between Japan and America was "mischievous nonsense," had distinct influence in improving the friendly feeling and cordial relations between the two countries. Mr. Mabie was known in many parts of the country not only as a writer, but as a lecturer. His addresses on literature abounded in personal reminiscences of famous men he had known, such as Lowell and Oliver Wendell Holmes, and also in apt anecdotes W of famous writers gleaned by him from his wide reading. In conversation also he had a fund of humorous and dramatic incident, and it has more than once been urged that a volume of reminiscences from his experience would have been unique and immensely readable. He was very deeply interested in the work and organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was more than once a delegate to the great official meetings of that Church. Bishop Lines, of the Newark Diocese, and other distinguished clergymen took part in the funeral ceremonies, which took place at Calvary Church in Summit on January 3. It is understood that a memorial meeting will be held later in Summit. A famous French critic, writing about one of Mr. Mabie's books, said: "Mr. Mabie ranks as one of the foremost of American essayists for his intellectuality as well as his delicacy of feeling. In this work he brings home to us vividly the harmony that may exist between nature and that genius that gives it birth, and which in its fruitfulness in turn reflects nature herself." Among the many tributes to Mr. Mabie we will here quote only one, that of Theodore Roosevelt, who, after speaking of his association in editorial work with Mr. Mabie and the pleasure to him of that association, said: "He was one of the sweetest-tempered and highest-minded men I ever met.' ESSAYS OLD AND NEW BY HAMILTON W. MABIE Indian summer; now is the time to get in your Early Vedas." In that sentence Emerson's simple rusticity and his affinity with the Far East are clearly put. Lowell makes many excursions from the highway along which he is leading us, but they are generally to outlooks which broaden the view of the landscape. He will live by his humor, which many readers of a logical turn of mind have regarded as incidental to his scholarship and critical divination; as a matter of fact, it was his distinctive gift, and his learning and judgment were incidental. But his humor was not levity; it was the effective weapon of an indignant righteousness. This article was written only recently by Mr. Mabie, and is the last literary contribution from his pen received by his editorial associates. TISDOM literature began a long time ago, but it has reversed the usual order of development; as it has grown older it has grown not only in grace but in vivacity and variety. There is essay writing of immense weight and dignity in the Old Testament, but the knowledge of life which it conveys and in the light of three thousand years of additional observation the depth and vitality of that knowledge is astounding-is invested with the solemnity which Bacon associated with affairs of state. Montaigne's egotism, to say nothing of his devouring curiosity, put him on easier terms with his readers; he was concerned to record the fact as he saw it, but he kept well in view and told us pretty nearly all he knew about himself. Bacon's greatness will save him from the Baconians, and his grasp of the principles of conduct and the organ roll of his noble style put him safely with the masters, but one reads him in evening dress, with the feeling that he is dining with an ambassador. Charles Lamb is as unconventional as Whitman, but far more companionable and better bred. His manner is so intimate and easy that in his hands the wisdom of life is so happily humanized that it loses its solemnity without loss of substance. He makes his readers so comfortable that they forget at the moment how much wisdom is mixed with the playfulness of his mind. He often teaches, but he never instructs. And this is characteristic of the modern essay in the hands of its masters. Matthew Arnold was a teacher by instinct and intention; he even kept a switch in his desk and used at it times with stinging effect; but it was like going to a sparkling comedy to sit in his classes. He was as far from solemnity as Bernard Shaw, but the dignity of literature was as secure in his hands as in the hands of Bacon. His essays are free from the air of the school-room, but the wisdom of life in conduct and art is in them. When one recalls that happy phrase, “full weight of thought without any weight of expression," he thinks of the masters of French prose, who write as if clearness, precision, and charm of diction came by nature, like seeing and hearing, and are not matters of rigorous achievement; but American writing has survived the German influence, and, outside the field of scholarship, has quietly assumed that humor is part of the wisdom of life, and that truth in jest is as true as truth in heavy-handed didacticism. 66 Judged by the most exacting standards and in the international field, Mr. Brownell holds a foremost place as an essayist of critical temper and analytical method broadened and enriched by vital human interests. His books on French art and life show dispassionate observation and a resolute grasp of the vital relations between life and its arts, which make not only poetry but all the arts rich in the wisdom of life. The audience which heard with joy his recent address on Standards were impressed by the prophetic note which ran through his comments on recent literature; for prophecy, it must be remembered, is not an excursion into the future, but an enforcement of present righteousness. In the welter of lawlessness, extravagance, and crude self-exposure through which the practice of the arts is passing at the moment, Mr. Brownell has spoken with the authority not only of the great tradition of art, but of clear thinking and the integrity of reason. In the hands of this able and courageous writer the essay in America has reached its highest level of penetrating intelligence and intellectual vigor. The gold medal for distinguished achievement in the field of essay writing was given to John Burroughs at the recent joint meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in New York; a choice by his fellow-craftsmen which will be confirmed by the judg ment of all Americans who love transparent simplicity, sincerity, and the vital quality in work that speaks not only to us but for us. The farm is the background of American life, and it has long been the pastime of statisticians to prove that the great majority of the men who invest the wealth of the Nation from city offices were farm born and farm bred. Many of us are several generations removed from the farm, but its sights, sounds, and smells are part of our patrimony, and Mr. Burroughs has been putting us in possession of our own for two 66 generations. The very titles of his books are redolent of old houses and ancient orchards. "Wake Robin," "Locusts and Wild Honey," keep our windows open to the spring; we take refuge from the passing shower in English meadows under the canopy-like foliage of English trees in "Fresh Fields;" and we read " Indoor Studies and Literary Values" with the blessed sense of peace that flows from sound and sweet English prose. All honor to the fine craftsmanship and the noble health of mind and spirit of John Burroughs, farmer, poet, and essayist! Dr. van Dyke is equally at home in the pulpit and the choir, and, best of all, he has the freedom of the great out-of-doors. "Au large," the stirring call of the voyageur as he pushes his canoe into the stream, might be written over all his books in prose and verse. Nobody has celebrated domestic happiness, the loyalties of friendship, and the joy of the book by the fire more happily than he, but he always takes us into the larger landscape, physical and spiritual, which enfolds our individual tasks and joys. "Little Rivers and "Days Off" are such easy reading that their solid substances of observation and reflection are almost obscured, but let no ingenuous reader be deceived by their high spirits, their contagious ease of mood, their companionable temper. They are work of a high order by a writer who is not afraid to be intimate with his readers, and whose various gifts are unified by a deep sense of the community of all the arts in the service of humanity. The country at large has yet to discover one of its most acute and vivacious essayists. Mr. John Jay Chapman cannot say with Landor that he will dine late, that his guests, though few, will be of the best, and that they will linger long at the table. The author of "Emerson, and Other Essays," "Neptune's Isle, and Other Plays for Children," and a dozen other books has a group of readers who delight in his keen insight, his disdain of the conventional, his occasional willfulness, and his gayety of mood in the presence of oppressive traditions and popular idols. He is American to the heart, but not in the obvious and easy ways of the vender of democracy in packages for the cure of all the ills of society. He comes of an ancestry distinguished for public service, and he has had the great honor of giving a gallant son to France in the great war for the liberation of the world from the domination of a ruthless autocracy. Victor Chapman has been ranked by France among her heroes, and, recalling his generous heroism, we may say with Emerson, "We shall not again disparage America, now that we have seen what men it will bear." Mr. Chapman's "larky" manner gives the acuteness of his literary perceptions greater effectiveness. No one has touched Emerson's nobility with a more reverent hand than he, nor has any one defined his limitations with franker precision. In "Greek Genius, and Other Essays" he is sportive in dealing with the two great schools of scholarship in the presence of the Greek perfection-the German and the English; but the common sense which he brings to the interpretation of Greek genius and of Shakespeare makes us aware of that human quality in great works of art which is their very substance. 66 Wisdom literature has always existed in solution in New England, where every native has his own opinion, and expresses it in a dialect curiously adapted to convey shrewd judgment and witty comment in homely and telling phrase. The unawed mind of New England, which described the Alps as some risin' ground" and Emerson as a man of "consid❜able proppity," speaks in the country store and in its best literature. Lowell, who was in his day our most representative man of letters, said that he would go a long way to overhear the talk of two Yankees ; rustic, often uncouth, but witty, and with a razor edge. Mr. Norton once said that in the crisis of the Civil War Lowell's clarion voice had the value of an army corps; and that voice found the Yankee dialect a powerful polemic. The Yankee who asked his friend if he believed we should know one another in the next world drew out the pithy reply: "We know each other here, and I dunno as we shall be any bigger fools there than we be here." Mr. Bliss Perry, who teaches literature in Harvard Univer@sity, in the chair which Lowell once held, is a type of the writer who has kept the flavor of the soil in his academic occupations 'Greek Genius, and Other Essays. By John Jay Chapman. Moffat, Yard & Co., New York. $1.25. and surroundings. No American essayist writes with a pleas anter pen or a more unforced humor. He has a way of think. ing for us so companionable that we seem to be thinking for ourselves, and his manner is so unobtrusively friendly that we forget his professorship. To wear a gown and forget it is an art that involves something fine in the man as well as in his sense of literary manner. Whether he talks about "The American Mind," "The Amateur Spirit," or the joy of "Fishing with a Worm," Mr. Perry never loses the natural tone which is produced by the practice of simplicity and sincerity. This is, of course, the open secret of art, but there are many who never discover it. No American has taken the work of the critic more seriously than Mr. Paul Elmer More, whose "Shelburne Essays " embody a disinterested devotion to the criticism of life and of literature as consistent and concentrated as Thoreau's devotion to the practice of living on the simplest terms with nature. Mr. More's scholarship in various fields, his wide knowledge of other literatures, and his study of philosophy have given his criticism the solidity of substance and weight of judgment which belong to criticism pursued as a profession and not as an avocation. The essays of Mr. Frank J. Mather, Jr., have not been many, but they have been of a quality not common in American writing a ripeness of tone, an urbanity of spirit, and a lightness of touch which the word culture in its English sense expresses. A scholar in literature and an accomplished critic of art, Mr. Mather's work is penetrated by literary feeling, and the civilizing quality of what he has done is especially valuable at a time when education is in danger of sacrificing spiritual ends to practical efficiency. In this group of men, whose detachment from the tumult and hurry of the age is due not so much to lack of sympathy as to loyalty to older and larger ideals of art and life, Mr. Harry D. Sedgwick is a writer from whom much may be expected. His historical spirit and intellectual temper reveal their influence in the meditative quality of his essays, which show an academic bent modified by generous culture and the love of soundly constructed English prose. In a time of much hasty writing Mr. Sedgwick's work stands for the adequacy which is born of leisure, knowledge, and thoroughness. The dozen books of essays which stand to the credit of Mr. Brander Matthews form what the newspapers would call the "literary output " of a tireless expert craftsman who understands his métier and writes about it with refreshing directness. Many of those essays are sublimated "shop talk," and, like all expert "shop talk," they are both interesting and entertaining. They are concerned mainly with the English language, with the theater, with French literature, with fiction. The "shop,' therefore, has to do with the making of things of vital importance by some of the most original men who have done creative work. The more elaborate books on Shakespeare and Molière show us men of genius in their working clothes and with their tools in their hands, and are rich in illuminating comments on the art of the drama and the technique of the theater. Mr. Matthews possesses the fine qualities which come from the discipline of study of French literature-clearness, simplicity, feeling for sound form, and illuminating intelligence. Many Americans are at the moment so bent on being amused that they resent a novel or play that makes them think, and are not content unless the film presents a succession of breathless escapes or the stage evokes volleys of uproarious laughter. Emerson was of the opinion that much laughter shows an empty mind; and a distinguished foreign novelist who was taken by his American host to a public dinner was greatly amused by the first three or four after-dinner stories, but was obviously distressed as story ran on the heels of story for two hours. Later he said to his host," After forty, three stories are enough." Mr. Matthews says that a writer pays heavily for the gift of humor, and this has certainly been true of Mark Twain. It is true, however, only in a limited way of two essayists who are widely read in this country, and the reason is not far to seek. Neither Dr. Crothers nor Miss Repplier is a fun-maker; both are serious writers who are able to see the humorous aspects of serious matters; and at the moment most matters are serious to the verge of tragedy. In the essay which gives its title to Dr. Crothers's latest book, "The Pleasures of an Absentee Landlord,"1 there The Pleasures of an Absentee Landlord, and Other Essays. By Samuel McChord Crothers. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $1.25. is a strong infusion of wisdom literature which is condensed rather than diluted by witty suggestion and humorous illustration. No man goes to sleep while this shrewd judge of men is speaking, but the reader who thinks he is merely entertained is like the boy who thinks he has eaten the pudding when he has taken out the plums. The fact is that Dr. Crothers is a pastmaster of the art of driving vital truths into indifferent minds without the sound of the mallet. He is immensely entertaining, but he is always invigorating; he brings freshness of perception even to a discussion of education; and with wide interests and ample knowledge he has the shrewdness of judgment of the Yankee who has kept an eye on his neighbors in the country village for half a century. And let no one be deceived by Miss Repplier's genius for entertaining her readers. The sentimentality, excess of emotion, extravagance of statement, and tendency to rash generalization which form the "lunatic fringe" of the reforming zeal of this stirring age have no more caustic or effective critic than she. A clear brain, a solid education in an atmosphere in which religion and history calm the nerves and keep the head cool, and a conservative temperament, qualify the author of "Counter-Currents "1 and half a dozen earlier volumes of essays to be the censor of her time without losing her sense of humor. The atmosphere of culture pervades her work and stamps her as a woman who has been educated as well as trained. Her latest volume betrays her deep interest in the moral and social conditions of the hour, her ardent patriotism, her passionate abhorrence of a neutrality which denies the deep instincts of normal humanity. She emphasizes courage, discipline, decency in art and life, with ringing frankness; and, as always, enriches her own comment with apt literary allusion and historical illustration. Her work is full of the wisdom of life, set in historical perspective and expressed in terms of literature rather than of philosophy or science. 1Counter-Currents. By Agnes Repplier. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $1.25. THE STORY OF THE WAR: THE WEEK The one event of large importance in the news of the week ending January 3 was the publication of the joint reply of the ten Entente Allies to Germany's proposal for a peace conference. Elsewhere we comment at some length upon the reply. 66 The Allies begin with a protest against the German assertions, first, that the Allies are responsible for the war, and, secondly, that the Central Powers are victorious. These claims are concisely termed "an affirmation doubly inexact, and which suffices to render sterile all tentative negotiations." The suggestion of peace negotiations without a statement of terms is, they say, "not an offer of peace," but a sham proposal," and really "a war maneuver." To prove this the reply reviews the history of the days just before the war, showing that the Central Powers rejected attempts by the Allies to settle the disputes; and that Belgium was invaded " by an Empire which had guaranteed her neutrality" and then had proclaimed its treaties to be " scraps of paper." 66 66 A peace which should rest on the war map of Europe alone, it is said, would represent "nothing more than a superficial and passing phase of the situation." Therefore the Allies reject the empty and insincere offer," and declare that no peace is possible until there shall be secured "reparation for violated rights and liberties, and the recognition of the principle of nationalities and of the free existence of small states.' The reply concludes with a moving and striking special statement in behalf of Belgium. It rehearses the wrongs and outrages known to all the world and ends with these vigorous words: "Belgium, before the war, asked for nothing but to live in harmony with her neighbors. Her King and her Government have but one aim-the re-establishment of peace and justice. But they only desire peace which would assure to the country legitimate reparation, guarantees and safeguards for the future." IN THE BALKANS The offensive of the Bulgarian and German forces against the Rumanian and Russian fronts (practically the Russians hold the line, the Rumanians having gone to their rear) continued to be pushed energetically during the week. It is increasingly evident that a permanent defensive line cannot be established south of the Sereth River. It is true that Braila, which is near the angle where the Danube turns sharply from flowing north to flowing east, has not yet fallen, but its fall may be expected any day. The Teuton attack is being made through the Carpathian Mountains as well as from the south, and it is obvious that nothing can be held by the Russians south of the east-andwest line running through the Danube north of the Dobrudja, nor perhaps for some distance beyond that. Probably the conquest of Rumania has reached its climax. In this connection an interesting and perhaps significant fact has been pointed out-that is, that the peace talk which has come from time to time from Berlin (lately officially, before this unofficially) has in each case followed a German push forward at the very moment when that push had reached its limit. The two most notable cases are the present one and that when Germany had reached its extreme limit in pushing Russia back. Many believe that this shows that Germany deliberately talks peace whenever she wants a period of comparative rest in order to prepare a new dash forward. The Allies have made a specific demand on the Greek Government, amounting to an ultimatum. It calls for the reduction of the Greek army outside of the southern isthmus known as the Peloponnesus, the giving up of large quantities of arms, the release of persons now imprisoned because of their favoring the Venizelist party, and reparation to the Allies' flags and minis ters to be made publicly in Athens. Turkey has, it is reported, officially repudiated the partial control or guardianship of Turkey by the Great Powers estab lished by the Treaties of Paris (1856) and Berlin (1878). The object is to permit Turkey to enter any peace conference as an absolutely independent Power and to prevent also any claims by neutral citizens in Turkey from being presented except to purely Turkish authorities. WAR STATISTICS The end of the year brought various claims by the several Powers engaged in the war. It need not be pointed out that figures proceeding from one belligerent are usually unreliable. A few of these figures, however, may be quoted for what they are worth. Thus Berlin asserts officially that in November 138 hostile merchant ships were sunk, two-thirds of the tonnage being British, and that since the beginning of the war the Allies have lost 3,636,500 tonnage, of which again about two-thirds was British. The Allies are said, by a despatch from France, to have captured during 1916, 582,723 Teutonic prisoners, and of these Russia is said to have taken about 400,000. Italy asserts that since the beginning of the war she has taken 1,200 square miles of enemy territory and has now 85,000 Austrian prisoners. Her own war front has been shortened, it is said, from 500 to 375 miles. She has over two thousand factories making war material and employing 469,000 workers, including 72,000 women. THE RAILWAY LABOR SITUATION On the first of January the Adamson Law establishing eight hours as the unit for a day's wage for every man engaged in operating trains in inter-State commerce went nominally into effect. As a matter of fact, however, the law was not put into effect because it was called into question in the courts, and injunction proceedings suspended its operation until legal questions could be decided. If the Adamson Law is unconstitutional, then it is no law at all. If it is constitutional, it is valid and effective. What the railway employees have feared is that questions as to the constitutionality of the law would require such slow proceedings that the law would expire by its own provision before it could be decided whether it was constitutional or not. There was an intimation pretty effectively circulated a by the proposed Nation-wide strike last summer-the enlargement in the size and power of the Inter-State Commerce Commission; the provision enabling the President to take over railway, telegraph, and telephone lines for military purposes; and, above all, the practical repetition in this country of the Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation. Act, prohibiting strikes pending investigation, which in the nine years of its history has settled peacefully one hundred and seventy-one out of one hundred and ninety-one cases of threatened strike. Besides these measures there are the conservation bills, which few weeks ago, that if the railways did not put the principit, have long been awaiting proper consideration—the bills provid of the law into effect whether the law was suspended or not, the men would strike. It is apparent now, however, that the men are not going to strike, and one reason-of itself apparently sufficient is that if they should precipitate a strike now they would hasten the pending legislation in Congress. Now the railways are perfectly willing that Congress should enact a law making investigation of any dispute compulsory, and prohibiting any strike or lockout during such investiga tion. The men, however, are not ready for such legislation, and they do not wish to do anything to hasten it. It is understood that the railway brotherhoods will oppose any legislation which would punish organizations calling a strike while an investigation is being conducted. The American Federation of Labor, through its Secretary, Mr. Frank Morrison, announced last week at a Congressional hearing that the Federation desired to be heard " in opposition to any measure that carries with it compulsion of any character." A strike would be almost certain to bring such legislation about. The leaders of the men are therefore apparently now readier than they were last fall to enter into negotiations with the railway managers. Having forced the railways into a position of having to accept from Congress an eight-hour law, they are now confronting a position where they may themselves have to accept a law they do not want. In addition to the question as to the constitutionality of the Adamson Law, grave questions have been raised as to the meaning of the law, and those questions have to be settled also in the courts. If the United States Supreme Court, which has the law now under consideration, finally decides that the law is constitutional and determines its meaning, of course the railways will comply with it; and then there will be an opportunity for the first time afforded to the so-called Eight-Hour Commission established by Congress to study the effects of this law, to find out what increased financial burden it will place upon the railways, and thus get a basis for what the Inter-State Commerce Commission should do to determine whether rates should be advanced in order to meet the increase. If rates are increased because of the increase in wages, the public will, of course, have to bear the added cost of transportation. Then will arise the question in the public mind whether Congress should not keep down wages in order to keep down rates. The railway, employees are thus facing the very same question of regulation which the railway managers have had to face, and have now come cordially, on the whole, to accept. If railway regulation is good for the managers, it will be good also for the men. CONGRESS On Tuesday of last week Congress reconvened. It should not have had to reconvene. When one thinks of the programme before it, a two weeks' Christmas recess was an absurdity. On that programme are, first, the appropriation bills, some fifteen in number. In view of the extraordinary riders on some of them, the proper consideration of these supply bills alone would seem to need all of the time at the disposal of Congress before noon of March 4, when it will expire by the limitation of the law. Yet the session of a little less than nine weeks is actually proposed to cover consideration of many other matters--some of them of vital moment.. Second in importance to the passage of the necessary supply bills comes the legislation providing for our National defensein particular, the proposed repeal or amendment of the legislation for the Federalization of the militia, and a measure providing for universal military training. There is also the railway legislation, the fulfillment of President Wilson's desires in the settlement of the difficulties evoked ing for the regulation of water power on navigable streams and on the public domain, and the bill conserving the National oil supply, especially in the interests of its increased use by the navy. To these there may be added another bill which may not seem a measure of conservation at all, but rather the reverse, a bill increasing the amount of water which may be taken from the American Falls at Niagara for power purposes. This bill, however, has been called by some really a conservation bill because it will increase the supply of electric power! Of great importance also are the bills which have particularly to do with the diversion of large sums of the public money for certain good purposes, among which, however, are others involving unwise and extravagant use of money. We refer to the Public Buildings Bill, the Rivers and Harbors Bill, the Flood Waste Reclamation Bill, and the Federal Employees' Salary Bill. There is also coming up for immediate consideration the Corrupt Practices Act, limiting campaign contributions and the powers of party committees. Of greater prominence is the Immigration Bill. It has passed both houses, and conferees have been appointed to consider the amendments adopted by the Senate. The illiteracy provision is still a feature, a provision which properly caused the veto of previous bills by Presidents Cleveland, Taft, and Wilson. Another bill which has been before one Congress or another ever since 1890 is the Porto Rican Bill, granting citizenship to the Porto Ricans in a body instead of individually by a process analogous to naturalization. It will thus be seen that any proper attention to be paid to this programme will involve more than nine weeks, and hence the prospect for an extra session ought to be rather bright. THE POPULAR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT Even in a close election such as that of last November the decision as between Presidential candidates is known within a few hours after the closing of the polls-and in ordinary elections even before the last polls are closed. The completed returns, however, showing the popular vote for the various candidates, are very slow to come in. These have now been compiled by the Associated Press. They show that in 1916 there were over three and a half million more votes cast last November than were cast four years ago. In 1912 the total vote was 15,045,322; in 1916 it was 18,638,871. This increase is accounted for, it is said, by the increase in population and by the addition of the women's votes in new suffrage States. President Wilson received the largest number of votes ever given a Presidential candidate-namely, 9,116,296—and had a plurality over Mr. Hughes of nearly 569,000, and over 2,800,000 more votes than he himself received in 1912. It is interesting to note, however, that Mr. Hughes received more than half a million more votes than the combined votes for Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt in 1912. Each candidate, moreover, made a new record for his party. The Wilson vote was two and a half million larger than the Bryan vote in 1896, and the Hughes vote was nearly a million larger than the Roosevelt vote of 1904. The popular plurality for Mr. Wilson is the largest ever received by a Democratic candidate. It is a plurality, however, not a majority. The combined vote cast for Mr. Wilson's opponents is larger than that cast for Mr. Wilson. The Socialist vote alone of 750,000 (the vote of eight States being estimated) exceeds Mr. Wilson's plurality. The Socialist vote, by the way, is less by 150,000 than it was in 1912. The Prohibition vote of 225,000, on the other hand, is a few thousand larger than the Prohibition vote of four years ago. The largest State plurality was that of Texas-221,000 for |