body's business, workman and aristocrat alike. Everybody must help, and every class is helping. We are going to see this thing through. And we are willing to sacrifice everything.

THE ATTACK ON MR. ROOT'S PARTY IN RUSSIA

We recently referred to a press despatch from Tokyo d which summarized very briefly an account of an attempt by Russian Anarchists to destroy the train upon which Mr. Elihu Root and members of his Mission were passing through Siberia on their return to this country.

The account came from Mrs. Gregory Mason, the wife of The Outlook's Staff Correspondent in Russia. Mrs. Mason had just reached Japan on her way from Russia. The full account appeared in the "Japan Advertiser" of July 27, and a copy of it has just reached us from Mr. Mason.

The story is a thrilling one, and it is particularly noteworthy that in it Mrs. Mason twice definitely states that German agents as well as Russian Anarchists were concerned in the attempts-for there were two. The first resulted in the burning of a bridge across the river Tchetsa, at Viatka. The act was wrongly timed, and only for this reason, says Mrs. Mason, did the train carrying the American Mission escape being dashed into the river Thus baffled, "the Anarchists and German spies" fired railway cars and rolled them toward the train carrying the Root party. The train was obliged to back five miles away in order to reach safety. Mrs. Mason was crossing Siberia in a train following the Root special train, and reached the spot at this critical point. She says that Mr. Root, Mr. Russell, and Major Stanley Washburn all displayed the utmost coolness, even though a crowd of ill-disposed persons used abusive and hostile language. A freight storehouse and several empty passenger trains were destroyed and a number of Anarchistic soldiers and workmen pushed blazing cars down the tracks in an effort to destroy the Root train. Finally the train proceeded over a new stone bridge which was being completed to take the place of the wooden bridge which had been burned.

The whole account is a stirring narrative, and significant as showing the dangerous, confused condition of affairs in Russia.

AMATEUR WIRELESS OPERATORS

At the outbreak of the war the Government wisely ordered the dismantling of all amateur wireless outfits for the transmission of messages. There have been many who felt, however, that while it was wise to stop the sending of wireless messages by amateurs, the Government could very well utilize the services of the army of amateur wireless operators of the country in the detection of spies. In a recent interview in the New York "World," Mr. Louis Gerard Pacent, one of the organizers of the Radio Club of America and a member of the Committee on National Defense of the Institute of Radio Engineers, lends his support to this proposal. Mr. Pacent says:

There is scarcely any doubt that wireless messages are being sent regularly to Germany from spies in this country and in Mexico or South America. It is quite simple to send such messages undetected by the Government's listeners. All that is necessary is one powerful sending station using great wave lengths, and several small sending stations using undamped short wave lengths. The latter would relay the messages to the former, and this would send them across the Atlantic.

Mr. Pacent believes that there are more than one hundred thousand skilled amateur operators in the country who could be organized to "listen in" on wireless messages of short and very long wave lengths which are not now caught by the Government stations. This army of operators, properly organized, could secure a complete record of every message sent from and received in America. By the aid of such men it would be entirely possible to detect the relaying of code messages across the continent and to determine the location of their senders. Not only would the organization of amateur wireless operators assist in the detection of spies, but it would serve to develop a reserve of experts for the use of our air service, our artillery, and our ships. The proposal is one which deserves serious consideration. The cost of organizing the loyal amateur wireless operators of the country would appear to be negligible in view of the benefits to be derived from such a plan.

T

A BALANCE-SHEET

HREE years ago Germany began this war for the conquest of Middle Europe. What has she gained? What has this gain cost her?

She has gained by her arms the territories of Belgium, Luxemburg, Serbia, a small but rich section of northern France, and parts of Lithuania, Poland, and Rumania-a total of a little less than 204,000 square miles.

She has lost:

Except for an insignificant corner in southern Africa all her colonies, over a million square miles.

Practically all her shipping not bottled up in Bremen and Hamburg, a loss estimated in tonnage as 3,600,000. Of the flower of her youth, over 2,000,000.

In cash, nearly $20,000,000,000 to be added to her national debt.

Before the war, though unpopular as a people, Germany was honored among all nations for her intellectual scholarship and her industrial efficiency. She has lost irretrievably this respect and won in its place the mingled hatred and contempt of the civilized world. Scarcely a considerable neutral nation is left except those whose safety compels their neutrality.

No one thinks Germany can retain her gains. No one imagines that she can recover her losses. It is not strange that some of the German people are seriously discussing among themselves the question whether it is not time to change their business

managers.

THE POPE'S PROPOSAL OF PEACE

Though no official text has appeared as this issue of The Outlook goes to press, despatches apparently based on authentic information have told the world that Pope Benedict has delivered to all the belligerent Governments proposals of peace. The comment that we here make must be regarded as appli cable to the official statement only as that coincides with the unofficial despatches.

If these unofficial despatches can be trusted, the Pope has addressed to the nations at war an appeal to cease hostilities, and has proposed the restoration of Belgium, Serbia, and Rumania; the submission to peaceful negotiation of the questions of Alsace-Lorraine, Trent, Trieste, and Poland; the restoration to Germany of her colonies in exchange for the occupied regions of France; no annexations and no indemnities except in special cases, such as Belgium and Serbia; the freedom of the seas, disarmament, and the formation of a supreme court of arbitration for the settlement of future international disputes.

For three years the Vatican has watched the world war as a neutral. The power of the Church of Rome has either been too feeble or has been in the hands of prelates indisposed to put any restraint upon the barbarity of those men who have planned and executed such crimes as the invasion of Belgium, the terrorizing of civil populations, the murder of women and children on the high seas by acts of piracy, the slaughter of the Armenians, and the avowed disregard for moral law as superior to the will or the alleged necessities of a predatory state. Now that the men who have planned and directed these acts have been foiled of their purpose and have shown signs of willingness to make terms, provided they are not punished for their enormities or prevented from planning new enormities, it is not strange that proposals of a compromise coming from the Church of Rome should be received by the enemies of Germany without enthusiasm.

as a

So far as the preliminary descriptions of those proposals indicate, there is nothing in the list of peace terms which might not have emanated from a German or Austrian source. Indeed, according to a despatch printed in the New York "Sun," the peace proposals are regarded in Government circles in London " relayed message from Berlin." It is supposed by some that Cardinal Gasparri, the Papal Secretary of State, has been proGerman in his sympathies if not in his active service. It is also well known that the Vatican has been on especially intimate terms with Austria. There is nothing essentially incredible in the supposition that these peace proposals have been suggested by Germany and Austria, in order to let the world know that

606

PUBLIC LIBRAR

they are ready to stop fighting if they can be allowed to resume the position that they had at the beginning of the war, and to weaken their opponents, if possible, by the injection of a new occasion for discussion and possible dissension. If this is Germany's object, we believe that it is likely to fail. Even if, however, these proposals do not come from Germany or Austria, but are the result of the Pope's own thinking on the subject of the war, they will be regarded with the respect due to their author, but they can hardly be regarded with anything more than that. When the Pope speaks of the restoration of Belgium and Serbia, we and our allies should be told what he means by that. If he means merely the evacuation of those territories by Germany and her allies, we should not be willing to consider that as a basis of peace at all. Restoration, to be adequate, must be approximately commensurate with the wanton damage wickedly inflicted. When the Pope proposes that Alsace-Lorraine, Trent, Trieste, and Poland be submitted to peaceful negotiations, we and our allies should be told with whom the Pope proposes that we negotiate. If he proposes that we negotiate on these or any other subjects with the German Government, that has been faithless from first to last, that regards treaties as scraps of paper, that has been treacherous not only as an enemy but even as a pretended friend, that engaged in amiable talk with this country, whose citizens she was at the same time murdering and whose territory she was at the same time plotting to dismember; if the Pope proposes that we accept this German Government, this Prussian state, this double dealer, this moral bankrupt, as a worthy member of a group of conferees, we ought to reject the Pope's proposal in such terms as to insure against its repetition. And if, in suggesting the restoration to Germany of the colonies which the Allies have taken from her, he proposes to turn back helpless and defenseless people to German rule, we should reject that proposal, for we have no right to surrender those people to a nation that has shown her brutal and evil disregard of helpless and defenseless people in Belgium, in Serbia, in Rumania, and in Poland.

Whatever the Pope may have in mind when he speaks of freedom of the seas, of disarmament, and of the establishment of a court of arbitration for the settlement of future international disputes, nothing of the sort can be established until Germany, which has tried by its submarines to destroy the freedom of the seas, which has been the chief builder of armaments, and which has flouted the one practical suggestion for submitting the issues of this war to an international tribunal, has been disarmed and rendered powerless to repeat her offenses.

When the Roman Catholic Church excommunicates an offender, she declines to restore him to his status in the Church until he is repentant and proves his repentance by acts of penitence. Germany has been excommunicated by the whole civilized world. Until she is repentant and has proved her repentance by acts of full restoration, repudiating in every particular the policies which she has maintained by arms and for which she has attempted to impose her will on others, she cannot be restored to the family of nations; and no proposal, whether from the Church of Rome or from any other source, ought to be considered which does not put in the first place repentance and restitution.

THE FOOD CONTROL BILL

The Food Control Bill has been passed and is now a Federal law. Mr. H. C. Hoover has been appointed as Food Administrator and has issued two statements which can be regarded as official interpretations of the plans and purposes of the Administration in the matter of food control. Our report of this announced policy falls naturally under three heads.

Reasons for Food Control. Present conditions have made inoperative those commercial forces which ordinarily control the ebb and flow of commerce and the consequent prices of food products. The Allied Governments have placed the whole purchase of their supplies in the hands of one buyer, and the European neutrals are also buying their wheat through single government agents. Competition between foreign buyers no longer operates to affect prices. Ordinarily American wheat

22 August

is exported in the fall. This year the shortage of shipping requires the distribution of exports throughout the year, increas ing the necessity for warehouse storage. The demand for wheat abroad has increased, but at the same time the means of transporting it are lessened. Before the war we exported 80,000,000 bushels of wheat per annum. This year we ought to find for our allies 225,000,000 bushels. These considerations have entirely destroyed for the time being the normal price-making machinery, and made necessary Government action to stabilize prices and prevent speculation, disastrous alike to ourselves and to our foreign comrades in this war.

Methods of Food Control. To meet these abnormal conditions the Government has given Mr. Hoover large powers of control over food production and exportation, and those powers he proposes to use. All elevators and mills of over one hundred barrels daily capacity will be required to take out a Government license, to make only reasonable charges for warehouse service, and to store no wheat for more than thirty days without the approval of the Food Administration. Agencies for the purchase of our wheat at the principal terminals will be opened by the Government, which is prepared to take the whole harvest, if necessary, in order to maintain a fair price, and to resell wheat for export only in such quantities as we can afford to part with while protecting our own people. A committee will be appointed under the chairmanship of President Garfield, of Williams College, whose duty it will be to determine a fair price for the harvest of this fall. The Administration promises to prosecute under the Food Control Act the holding of wheat or flour contracts by persons not engaged in the trade, or even by persons in the trade in larger quantities than are necessary for the ordinary course of their business. Mr. Hoover does not, however, wholly depend on these compulsory powers with which he is intrusted. He holds them in reserve to be employed if necessary. He has secured the co-operation of the leading millers of the country, who for that purpose have organized a committee to represent the entire trade. He will seek, with their co-operation, to export flour instead of wheat, as far as possible, and thus retain the employment of our mills and prevent the curtailment of the supply of feed for our dairy cattle. And he asks the co-operation of the hotels and the homes in the endeavor to secure the greatest practical economies in consump tion, and for this purpose declares his intention to "invite all classes and all trades to sign a volunteer pledge to co-operate with us in the undertaking, and so become as much members of the Food Administration as we ourselves are." His request to householders is so brief, so clear, and so vital that we reproduce it for the benefit of our readers:

Because of the shortage of shipping only the most concentrated of foods, wheat, grain, beef, pork, and dairy products and sugar, can be sent across the seas. Fortunately, we have for our own use a superabundance of foodstuffs of other kinds-the perishables, fish, corn, and other cereals-and surely our first manifest duty is to substitute these for those other products which are of greater use to our fellow-fighters. Our second duty is to eliminate wastes to the last degree. Seventy per cent of our people are well known to be as thrifty and careful as any in the world, and they consume but little or no more than is necessary to maintain their physical strength.

Co-operation versus Compulsion. There is a great difference between the act of an imperial government prescribing the amount of food which its citizens may purchase and consume, requiring them to obtain tickets of the government in order to get the food they require from the markets, the hotels, and the restaurants, and the act of a government in inviting the cooperation of all its citizens in a policy of regulation and retrenchment for the purpose of equalizing prices and promoting the successful prosecution of the war. The first is the German policy, the second is the American policy. If Mr. Hoover uses the powers which are conferred upon him by the methods and in the spirit foreshadowed by his official declaration, the country has no occasion to share in the fears of Senator Reed, of Missouri, that the liberty of the people will be destroyed by the despotic power of a centralized government. It is quite safe to say that of the 100,000,000 people in the United States 99,990,000 will welcome any action of the Government which will put an end to speculation in food

are exclusively used for the Dutch population and farm stock; are we not really exporting our grain to Germany just the same if Holland, after using it to feed live stock, exports the live stock to Germany? That is what has been called exporting "grain on four legs." Germany thus obtains food from the United States. That this is so is tacitly admitted by the "Gazette de Hollande" of The Hague, which states that, "should our imports of fodder be stopped or further restricted, the inevitable result would be a big exportation of cattle on a wholesale scale, which is undesirable from the Allies' point of view." On the other hand, writing to The Outlook, Mr. J. W. W. MacDonald, of the Nederlandsche Overzee Trustmaatschappij, or the Dutch Oversea Trust Company, protests that the Dutch Government buys all the grain shipped to Holland from abroad, has it ground by Dutch millers, distributes it under rigid control to Dutch bakers, and rations it at two-thirds a pound daily per head of population. This, as he adds, is less than a laborer or a growing boy needs. Moreover, we would note, the Dutch population now includes thousands of interned soldiers and very many more Belgian refugees. It is impossible to import enough grain to fill even this requirement, affirms Mr. MacDonald.

Doubtless, as Mr. MacDonald contends, "few Americans realize the delicate and difficult position of Holland during the . . Holland does not ask for charity; she asks for fair treatment. Surely America will accord her no less."

war.

Our Government, having taken up the burden of the British blockade, to be enforced by controlling supplies at their source, can now realize the British position of a year and of two years ago, and have a greater sympathy with it. The British official statements, quoted in The Outlook a year or more ago, showed that some neutrals had abused their trade privileges.

DENMARK

With regard to the Scandinavian Powers the case is equally clear. It was emphasized the other day by a refusal of the appli cation for permission for the clearance of ten ships laden with oil-cake and other fodder consigned to Denmark. Since the war began the exports of cattle fodder to neutral countries has greatly increased. Germany obtained, it is said, tons of fat from cattle fed by the products of America. Some of the fodder given to "neutral" cattle goes indirectly to Germany in the form of meat, fat, milk, butter, and cheese. From all the neutrals Germany, it is said, has obtained meat enough to supply all of her armies for two hundred and seventy-five days.

NORWAY

Norway, which needs many million bushels of our grain, and says she will not permit the shipment of any part of it to Germany, has been supposed to present the simplest case, as, according to the Norwegian Mission now in this country, there have been no exports from Norway to Germany except fish, and this is carried in German ships. And yet we read in the New York "Times:" "Until a few weeks ago Norway was supplying Germany with the nickel used in making the torpedoes by which Germany was sinking Norwegian ships." And to the statement that Norway could only protest against the sinking of 537 ships and the murder of 600 sailors, there are some on this side of the Atlantic, comments the "Times," who think Norway might, and should, have done something more than protest.

SWEDEN

During the past two years, according to the reports from American agents, in addition to pig iron and other war-supply shipments to Germany, Sweden has exported thither a total of some nine million tons of iron ore, all of it of the high grade required in producing fine steel-an amount, it is contended, equal to Sweden's entire pre-war output. As Sweden has supplanted those shipments with similar imports from the United States, our Government has now forbidden the shipment of some twentyeight hundred tons of pig iron to Sweden.

SWITZERLAND

Special attention was called the other day to the case of Switzerland, when the French Government refused to permit a large shipment to her of American wheat which must needs pass through France. Though Switzerland, like Holland, depends on others for grain, hers is a case apart. Unlike other neutrals,

she has no access to the sea, and her neutrality has been peculiarly precious to the Entente Powers. We are not surprised to note in the Swiss papers a proportionate sensitiveness concerning any prospective check to her ability to import what she needs.

What has been our own record with regard to exports in general? Let us take two examples-breadstuffs and cotton. For the past twelvemonth our exports of breadstuffs have been a fifth more than for the preceding twelvemonth. The imports from us by European neutrals have given cause for anxiety. t

Of cotton, which is used not only in clothing but also in the manufacture of explosives, and is therefore greatly needed by Germany, the European neutrals are believed to have taken from us since the war began no less than a hundred million pounds above normal requirements.

Steel and iron products, coal, coke, oils, and fertilizers are also liable to find their way to Germany, and are of particular importance to her. But, whether of less or greater importance, not an ounce of our exports in any form should get into Germany. We do not want to become unpopular with our neutral friends, but we are at war with Germany. Do we want to win the war or not?

Under any circumstances, our first thought must be the sup plying of necessaries to our own people and to the people of our allies. Shipments diverted to the neutral peoples are already shortening the supplies needed by us and our allies. And when our friendliness for a neutral people is used to help our enemy, that neutral people becomes for the time the ally of our enemy.

Such a condition deserved drastic treatment long since by our Government, but it did not receive such treatment until a

special Embargo Bill was passed by Congress, and on June 15 was signed by the President. That embargo legislation gave more concern to Germany than all the rest of our legislation then pending.

The section empowered the President, when public safety demanded it, to prohibit the export of any commodity to any imprisonment for not over two years, or both. Whenever country, the penalty for violation being not over $10,000 or there is cause to believe that any vessel is about to carry out of the United States any article in violation of the prohibition proclaimed by the President, the Collector of Customs may refuse clearance papers. The President has also created an Exports Council to direct exports, so that they will go first where they are most needed, and temporarily be withheld, if necessary, where they can best be spared. By the exercise of these powers Mr. Wilson can control all of the exports from this country.

This policy is to be further pursued by a system of export licenses. Our agents abroad are charged with keeping the Government informed of the movement of our exports after they reach foreign shores. To this end agents have been stationed in the neutral countries to see that no supplies imported from America, or their equivalent, go to the enemy.

Doubtless the neutrals will object to some of this prohibition and supervision. Some of them have already sent missions here to emphasize their objection. To all our reply should be: If you want to get the benefits of neutrality, then take the limitations of neutrality. But do not ask us to let you feed our enemies. If you want to feed them, you may do so only from your own amplitude, not from ours.

Our action may make the neutrals' position still more uncomfortable, even threatening them with the perils of a German invasion. But let them reflect that their position is far from being as uncomfortable as that of Belgium has been. Until it is Belgium been fighting the fight for them as well as for herself? uncomfortable, have they much real right to complain? Has not

In all the history of America's Presidents we find no prece dent for the power Mr. Wilson now enjoys. But we also find no precedent for the present trade exigency. The power granted is potentially more far-reaching than as relates merely to the actual economic matter in hand; it is also political. May it hasten the day when certain states, still neutral, will join the Powers arrayed on the side of democracy and freedom!

Die ganze Welt, fie foll es heute hören,
Das gleiche Kriegsziel strahlt aus hehrer Höh'!
Wir halten treu zusammen, und mir schworen
Auf das gemeinschaftliche Portemonnaie!

(The whole wide world shall hear to-day The same high purpose points our way! And plight for better or for worse

Our faith upon this common purse.)

goorands

HROUGH the London correspondent of the Vigilantes, Mr. Frederic William Wile, author of " Men Around the Kaiser and of the article on "The People and the Kriegspartei," published in The Outlook a month after the outbreak of the war, we have received a group of cartoons which have been printed in German papers in recent months.

on

Mr. Hermann Hagedorn, of the Vigilantes, whose article "The Menace of the German-Language Press " was published in last week's issue of The Outlook, has translated the rhymed captions of some of these cartoons into English verse. German verse even of the newspaper variety has a terseness and force which it is difficult to imitate in a foreign tongue. We publish the German verses together with Mr. Hagedorn's translation in order that our readers may see how well he has caught the spirit and sense of the original.

These cartoons from the leading German weeklies will repay more than a casual study, for they reflect an attitude towards America which must influence largely any expectation which we may have of convincing Germany of the justice of our aims in entering the war and of our moral reprobation of her acts. Before we are in a position to discuss with Germany the issues of the war she must be in a position to respect either the power of the United States or its aims, or both. The whole course of. Germany since the outbreak of the world war is conclusive proof that at present she respects neither. The cartoons which we publish on these pages supply evidence of the truth of this statement.

Die Hochinang trout Wilson zum Selbstherrscher Ameritas.

(High Finance crowns Wilson as Autocrat of America)

To judge from these cartoons, Germany regards the United States as the home of sordid commercialism and of bluster and bluff. She even professes to believe that America distrusts and fears its own allies. That the United States can have any other motives in entering the war than a desire to increase its wealth (or, rather, the wealth of a class of industrial autocrats) does not appear to have entered the minds of the German cartoonists whose works we republish. Even the simple fact that the United States by entering the war has renounced a vast share of that profit which it might have amassed with the present sacrifice of only a few lives does not seem to have occurred to the artists responsible for these lampoons.

This contempt both for the power and the motives of America finds its parallel in the interpretation of the motives of our allies recorded in the cartoon called "Protectors" from "Fliegende Blätter." It is a huge joke to "Fliegende Blätter" to find that any one relies on the good faith of treaties and international law. The artist who drew this cartoon can conceive of no loftier reason for the defense which the Belgians have made of their country than a desire to protect their money-bags and those of their allies. German officers and governors responsible for the unheard-of exactions made upon the Belgian people are, of course, in a position to realize the futility and absurdity of attempting such a defense. That the defense failed is doubtless in their eyes ample justification for pointing out the stupidity of attempting it.

Until those responsible for the Imperial policies of Germany