disheartened at the reaction evident in the House of Representatives. Hardly had it put itself on enviable record by choosing an admirable man as Speaker than it reversed such action by adopting a rule which, in the language of Mr. Longworth, Representative from Ohio, is a return to Cannonism" and then some." As Mr. Longworth added:

Despite the hope... that it would be possible to build up the more important committees. by adding strong and well-qualified men, the action

will

not only fix chairmanships upon men who, in some cases, are not the best fitted for their duties, but will prevent the Republican majority from appointing new and well-qualified members from States where there may be a number of candidates and where the candidate of longest service in the House may not be best fitted for membership on the particular committee involved. The action of the Committee on Committees means the adoption of the seniority rule in its most obnoxious form.

...

The seniority rule requires that when a man is once put on a committee he shall stay there until he voluntarily withdraws; also that he must be promoted as fast as those above him fall out. The result of this rule has given us such an inefficient military man as Mr. Dent, of Alabama, to head the Committee on Military Affairs and such an inexperienced financier as Mr. Kitchin, of North Carolina, as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

But the Republicans who are to control the next Congress have adopted and made worse the rule of seniority-a rule which in effect will now put the control of the House into the hands of the Republican members of four great States, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio. As in the past, the choice of committee chairmen and the routine of legislation will be controlled by two groups known as the Committee on Committees and the Steering Committee, but, with a concentration of power unknown even in the days of Cannonism, it is now proposed to put the control of both these powerful committees with one man. This person is Congressman Mann, of Illinois, who was defeated by Mr. Gillett for the Speakership because of the popular indignation against his un-American record.

Doubtless Mr. Mann considers Mr. Gillett's only a Pyrrhic victory and foresees himself as real leader. It is fortunate, however, that among the new chair

cases

mittee on Military Affairs, and Mr. Esch, of Wisconsin, as head of the Inter-State Commerce Committee. In these seniority coincides with fitness. But it does not in others, and the unfitness of the men in question will emphasize the regrettable readoption of a system which violates the fundamental principles of efficient government.

THE BOLSHEVIST HORROR

The most important recent witnesses before the Senate committee to investigate Bolshevism in Russia have been Colonel Raymond Robins, of Chicago, who has been representing the American Red Cross in Russia, and the Hon. David R. Francis, of St. Louis, American Ambassador.

As reported, Colonel Robins's testimony sounds somewhat like that of a man who had been pro-Bolshevist in Russia and who is trying to be anti-Bolshevist in America. A prominent Russian now visiting this country said of this attitude:

Neilza! Neilza! Neilza!" (It is impossible! It is impossible! It is impossible!). According to the report of the inquiry Colonel Robins admitted that he would give the Bolsheviki a chance in Russia-but not in America; he thought that our Government could have recognized the Bolshevik Government in industrial and transportation matters. Later Colonel Robins denied that he approved Bolshevik principles.

Mr. Francis declared that some who approved Bolshevist principles did not approve of Bolshevist excesses. Having received instructions from the State Department that no American should have any official connection with the Bolshevist Government, and knowing that Colonel Robins had visited Soviet headquarters, the Ambassador cabled for information as to whether its prohibition included Red Cross men. The answer said it did. Colonel Robins also received a cablegram to discontinue his relations with the Soviet, asserted the Ambassador. Senator Nelson, of Minnesota, one of the committee, inquired: "Did Robins urge you to recognize the Bolshevist Government?" The Ambassador replied:

I thought Robins was importuning me to recommend that the Bolshevist Government_be_recognized by the United States. I told Robins I would not make such a recommendation. The Bolshevists don't even merit recognition to the

extent of entering into business relations with them; they are killing everybody who wears a white collar.

66

In various provinces the Bolshevists have nationalized " women, the Ambassador asserted, adding that while, so far as he knew, the Central Soviet had not issued "nationalization" decrees, it had decreed that a mere notification of intention to the Soviet is sufficient to establish either marriage or divorce. (The New York "Times " has published a provincial decree ordering the commandeering "for the needs of the artillery regiment of sixty young women and girls of the bourgeois classes and to deliver them at the barracks.") Moreover, Mr. Francis added, the Bolsheviki have been getting Russians into their Red Guard by means of arresting women members of the families of such Russians and holding them as hostages for loyal service.

WHAT MR. FRANCIS WOULD DO

Most observers have described the Bolsheviki as having but one aim-the rule of the proletariat. Mr. Francis asserted that they had two: one was to establish such a rule, and the other was to help Germany by forcing Russia out of the war.

As to the connection of Germany with Bolshevism, the Ambassador had no doubt that from the very beginning Lenine was the German Government's agent, and added that Kerensky's great mistake was his failure to arrest and try for treason both Lenine and Trotsky when the pair first appeared as factors in the political situation. Both, he said, were usurpers, and did not represent ten per cent of the Russian people.

As to any American persuasive influence, Mr. Francis instanced the head of the Soviet of Petrograd, who, at the AllRussian Soviet which ratified the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, when he heard President Wilson's message to the delegates read, said: "We slapped the President of the United States in the face."

Under all these circumstances, our Ambassador of course established no relations with the Bolshevist Government; but, on the contrary, constantly advised the State Department that it should not be recognized.

At the end of the long hearing Mr. Francis was asked: 66 Do you think the Allies should leave Russia ?"

evacuated territory. In conclusion, gentlemen," he continued:

I will say that if this Bolshevist Government remains in control of Russia peace in Europe is, in my opinion, impossible. Germany will exploit Russia if this disorder continues, and instead of having lost the war Germany will win, and in ten years she will be stronger than she was in August, 1914.

Once and for all, the Ambassador declared that he was against recognition in any form or shape of a Government whose practices and theories, as he said, all lead to terror and barbarism.

Yet has not President Wilson practically recognized these criminals and traitors by naming special American representatives to confer with them at Princes' Islands?

The question remains: What are we going to do for the real Russia, nine-tenths of which is not Bolshevist? This question was put to our Government by the Russian general commanding in Siberia a year ago last month. It has been put to our Government many times since. During the year which has elapsed the Administration has also received counsel from men who have known about Russia and

Russian affairs all their lives. Had the Administration listened to the recommendations of those men and acted at the inception of Bolshevism at the close of the Kerensky régime, we might have freed the world from its menace.

SEVERITY IN THE ARMY

The office of the Judge-Advocate General in the Army is an extremely important one. It has been filled by General Enoch H. Crowder; during General Crowder's absence by General Samuel T. Ansell. In General Ansell's recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs he gave evidence that excessively severe sentences had been imposed. Hence he recommended wider powers of review for the Judge-Advocate General's office, as, owing to the present system, it is impossible for it to review, revise, or mitigate the sentences. While Executive clemency may undo some of the wrong done by unjust sentences, fully to cleanse the record of a man unjustly convicted would require a specific extension of power by Congress. In this connection the recent case of a soldier has been cited; he had been tried, found guilty of desertion, and sentenced at first to be shot. (As a matter of fact, no soldier has been shot for desertion, it is affirmed.) In this case there had been no crime of desertion. The offense was only that of absence without leave. The young man had absented himself to go to the assistance of his poverty-stricken father, who was critically ill. When the emer

gency was over, the soldier voluntarily returned. He had never had the slightest intention of deserting. Now the President might grant a pardon, but to do the soldier full justice there should be a judicial decision to the effect that his conviction was an error and a miscarriage of justice.

Of course the Secretary of War is as anxious as any one to humanize the service; indeed, he is now making an effort through a special commission to review all cases, with a view of having them relieved by the exercise of the President's pardoning power. The Secretary's intentions in this direction have unfortunately been clouded by the fact that General Ansell has now been ordered back to his former rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Regular Army, despite Secretary Baker's statement that the action "has no relation to the controversy which has existed with regard to the administration of military justice and clemency."

Certainly, as we contrast some of the sentences for offenses committed under extenuating circumstances with the recent release from prison of those who had refused to do any soldier's duty at all, it is not easy to resist the suspicion that something is lacking in the War Department.

DAYLIGHT SAVING

The Sixty-fifth Congress made a name for itself by its omissions as well as by its commissions. It omitted to pass the Agricultural Appropriation Bill with its rider repealing the Daylight Saving Law. The rider was the result of protest by farmers, who have to rise very early in the morning, anyway. The situation of the farmers is peculiar, they contend, because much of their work cannot begin until a certain time has elapsed after the sun is up and the ground dry. Agricultural workers, therefore, cannot, under the daylight saving plan, begin and end their work at the same time as the workers in other industries. And to begin and end work later also interferes with these workers' leisure time-that is, they cannot go to the movies or theaters, to social or religious gatherings, at the same time that other workers do.

The vast majority of workers in all the countries which have tried the daylight saving plan have found its result to be an enormous saving in fuel, gas and electric light, gardening, transportation, industrial accidents, eye wear-and-tear, and health.

In this country last summer the daylight saving plan resulted in the conservation of at least a million tons of coal and of about one-fourth in the amount of our artificial light bills. The extra hour of daylight gave home gardeners a chance they never had before-indeed, it gave

some men and women the first chance they ever had to have a garden. The advantage of daylight for recreation to office, store, and factory workers was also found last summer to be very great. Indeed, the overwhelming sentiment of the country is for a continuance of the plan. If the Agricultural Bill had passed with the provision attached for the abolition of daylight saving, there would have been another ground for popular indignation against the practice of legislation by rider. For a rider is simply a clause introduced at the last moment in a necessary appropriation bill and not essential to the bill itself. Such riders, while often objected to by members, cannot be voted against without destroying appro priations in which those members are vitally interested.

THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE

During the second week of March at Washington, at the President's invitation, there assembled the representatives of forty-three States and many cities to discuss post-war labor problems.

The testimonies as to various conditions were interesting. For instance, Governor Coolidge, of Massachusetts, reported that his State was having little difficulty in taking care of the returned soldiers and sailors, that more than ninety per cent of them were not asking for assistance, nor had any difficulty yet developed in looking out for the men in the industries. sented Governor Smith, of New York Mr. George Foster Peabody, who repreState, in reporting the complex situation in that State, declared that the Federal Government should set an example by proceeding with all possible work which it may have in contemplation. Governor Catts, of Florida, said:

We need labor. We could use, sir, two million laborers in the truck gardens, orange groves, and fisheries of Florida. But they must come down to commonsense business, every-day business, everyday United States of America talk, before the people are going to turn their money loose on them."

Mayor Baker, of Portland, Oregon, who has had some first-hand experience with the American Bolsheviki, declared:

Out in our Western country there is an element working underground. ... You had better work out a programme to meet that condition. Do not think you will meet it by building roads.

Mayor Rolfe, of San Francisco, remarked:

We have traveled three thousand miles, not to hear that good roads ought to be built, but to find out how that poor American hero is going to get a job now. Most of the trouble with the labor situation is right here in Washington, and we want to know what's going to be done. Yet the President is

The resolutions were as follows:

Condemnation of doctrines which inveigh against God and government.

Recommendation to the Government of a programme of railway improvement. Suggestion of reduction of freight rates on all building and road material. Sanctioning Government approval of price schedules.

Declaration that reduction of wages should come only as a result of reduced living cost.

Recommendation that Governmental restrictions on industry and materials shall be lifted as soon as possible.

Request that the Federal survey of natural resources started during the war shall be continued.

Discontinuance of Federal employment agencies deplored.

Demobilization of the Army by local draft boards urged.

THE NEW ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Alexander Mitchell Palmer, whose portrait appears on another page, is the new Attorney-General of the United States.

He is only forty-six years old. He was educated at Swarthmore College, admitted to the bar, and after a period of professional practice at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, went as Representative to Wash ington and served in three Congresses. In 1915 he was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Claims, but resigned some months later to take the position of Alien Property Custodian under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The property under his custodianship proved to be prodigious; he took from enemy control physical property and enterprises of a value of no less than $700,000,000, and his office is still administering more than thirty-three thousand

trust estates.

One of the first interpretations to be given by the new Attorney-General will, we hope, be that concerning the rider in the Census Bill passed by both houses of Congress in its closing hours and signed by the President, despite arguments from the Civil Service Reform League in favor of a veto and arguments from various organizations of women who see in this rider the definite closing of the Federal Civil Service to them. The text of the rider is as follows:

Hereafter in making appointments to clerical and other positions in executive departments and independent Governmental establishments preference shall be given to honorably discharged soldiers, sailors, or marines, and the widows of such, if they are qualified to hold such positions.

An Attorney-General, it seems to us, ought to suppose that Congress did not intend to wreck the merit system and ruin

the efficiency of the Civil Service. If we grant that there was no such intention, then we must construe this preference rider as being limited only to a case where the ratings are equal, or at most to a case where a veteran is certified as one of three names for an appointment.

CIVIL SERVICE AND THE SOLDIER

Our home-coming soldiers and sailors should have every possible advantage in getting employment.

Some of them may want to enter the Federal Civil Service, and there would be direct benefit for certain branches of that Service in results to be obtained from the intensive training and special aptitudes developed in military and naval life. There are at present some six hundred thousand Federal positions; about twothirds of these are under the competitive system.

We want in our Federal service only those most qualified by expert knowledge and experience. Of what use will the Civil Service be if such men are to be outdistanced in obtaining appointments by those far beneath them in requisite knowledge and experience, simply because they have worn the uniform of our Army or Navy? Indeed, some of the "veterans " may turn out to be S. A. T. C. boys from college with but a few months' training. Again, will it not deter good men from applying for examination if they know that, in any case, the war veterans are to have the preference? And there are some four millions of such veterans!

In order to equalize the opportunities of our soldiers and sailors with those of other applicants for positions, the National tional Civil Service Reform League makes two sensible recommendations. First, it would extend for one year after the war ends the eligibility period of all persons on the Civil Service lists who have been prevented from taking appointments through their employment in our military or naval services or in essential war industries. Secondly, priority over all others of the same rating would be given honorably discharged soldiers and sailors who served in the war and persons employed for not less than six months in an essential war industry.

Under all the circumstances, these recommendations seem to us wise and fair.

CONTINUED REVOLT IN
GERMANY

The Ebert Government at Weimar is evidently disturbed by the industrial element involved in the repeated revolts of the radicals. A striking instance of this appears in the fact that it is now proposed in the National Assembly to give the so-called soviets of workmen special

representation in national affairs through the constitution now under debate. It appears also in the reports of the renewed fighting in Berlin. This was not merely an expression of the discontent of the destitute and of the radical or Bolshevik element, but was upheld by a general strike of workmen in industrial establishments. The revolt was put down with a strong hand through merciless use of the loyal part of the army, but only after street fighting of a serious character, marked, so the reports state, by cruelty and savage destruction of life by the Spartacans and their supporters. One account of the recent fighting in Berlin alleges that shops and houses were looted in large numbers, and that damage was inflicted amounting perhaps to ten million dollars.

Elsewhere in Germany industrial and revolutionary troubles have lately occurred. It seems far from certain that the end, on March 10, of the fighting in Berlin means that the outbreak is completely and finally quelled. The despatches assert that General Ludendorff is again in Germany, whence he fled to escape the storm of hatred which followed his total failure to push through the final German assault. With Ludendorff and Hindenburg in control of the army, and Ebert and other formerly "Kaiser-minded" Socialists in control of the National Assembly, the prospects of a real overturning of Germany's old political methods are not of the best.

AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE

It is evident that the question of amending the draft of the proposed constitution of a League of Nations was held in abeyance during President Wilson's return to Paris from America. It is said that the delegates have been closely studying the amendments suggested by exPresident Taft, and that it is probable that other proposals for amendment will be made by France and Italy.

In the meanwhile a report has been made to the Supreme War Council by its committee having in charge the question of military conditions to be embodied in the preliminary Peace Treaty. The recommendations made by Marshal Foch were accepted by the Supreme Council, and the Council even went beyond his recommendation on one point. The terms as agreed upon would fix the future strength of the German army at 100,000 men, would forbid conscription, would make the period for voluntary enlistment twelve years, would abolish the Imperial General Staff, and would fix the number of German officers at 4,000. Under this plan it is believed that it would be impossible for Germany to do as Prussia did after its defeat by Napoleon-that is

to arm a small force for a short term, then to send it back to civil life, replacing it by new men, and so on repeatedly until a large body of trained soldiers was. ready to be called into the field. The limitations to be imposed upon Germany under the Supreme War Council plan are certainly drastic, and with Germany's military force reduced to the point proposed the military burden upon other countries would be rendered less heavy.

Another question under animated discussion during the week was that of the merchant ships to be furnished by Germany under the armistice. The plan has been that these ships should be used for returning soldiers to this country and for the bringing of food supplies back to Europe. The delegates of the Allies and Germany at Spa were unable to come to an agreement on the matter. Germany insisted that a very large part of the food brought over should be handed over to Germany, and resentfully rejected the proposal of the Allies on this point. The attitude taken by Germany is inconsistent with her claim that she is starving for lack of food. Her resistance postpones immediate relief in order to secure excessive advantages in food importations in the future. The result will be, unless Germany recedes from her obstinate resistance, that the mutual advantage to the Allies and Germany of this arrangement must be postponed until either the preliminary Peace Treaty is signed or new armistice terms. are put in force.

CHINA AND THE
PEACE CONFERENCE

In view of the famous twenty-one demands made upon China by Japan in 1915 and the suspicion of other and unpublished agreements and demands, the delegates at the Peace Conference have felt that all the treaties between the two countries should be published and any disputes settled openly. The Chinese National Defense League, the Chinese Democratic Committee, and the Union of Chinese Students have prepared a memorial to the Conference declaring that by the twenty-one demands, the majority of which China had been compelled to sign, Japan would control, not only economically but also militarily, all northern China, and that if such control should continue the whole of China would be absorbed by Japan. Hence China demands the abolition of the agreements which she had been forced to conclude with Japan. The present publication of the treaties and agreements between Japan and China indicates the immense control obtained by Japanese, financiers in making loans to China for railway building.

But the Chinese societies above men

tioned did not stop with a reminder to Japan that China expected gentler treatment; they also gave the same reminder to all the Entente Allies.

First, they told the Allies that, while the conditions which gave rise to the existence of the right of extra-jurisdiction for foreigners in China will soon disappear, the Allies show no signs of renouncing this privilege. Such an immunity, ing this privilege. Such an immunity, the memorial recites, from the laws of the land "gives shelter to dangerous groups of foreigners, and causes ill feeling between natives and foreigners." Above all, it detracts from Chinese sovereignty. Hence, "on the principle of equal rights for every nation, and in order to promote the welfare of all inhabitants, foreign and native, China asks her allies to fix a definite date-four or five years hence-at which extra-jurisdiction shall terminate."

China next appeals to the Allies to restore the freedom of regulating her tariffs and custom rates, the present system of foreign control also encroaching on her sovereignty.

The third appeal to the Allies suggests the removal of the foreign garrisons at Peking and elsewhere.

Finally, China indicates that the Allies might allow the already suspended Boxer Indemnity to be completely canceled-as America has done, and as Japan has promised to do.

While present security of life and property in China may not justify the granting of all these requests, the Peace Conference will, we feel sure, give just and generous treatment to that country.

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH RETURNS

New York City and New York State have given the warmest and most enthu siastic of welcomes to their own Twentyseventh Division-a division made up at least originally of New York National Guard units, and still essentially a New York military organization. This welcome will reach its culmination in the great parade of the Twenty-seventh Division down Fifth Avenue on March 25. An indication of the size and interest of the crowds which will throng the avenue on that day is seen in the fact that a single stand has been erected two miles and a half in length along the eastern side of Central Park; this stand alone will accommodate over seventy-five thousand people, but that is not a tenth, or anything like a tenth, of the number of people who are expected to fill sidewalks and stands and windows to see the parade.

There is more than local interest and importance in the return of the Twentyseventh Division. It is the first combat division to be brought back from the front as a unit. It is also one of the most distinguished of all the American divisions.

in its fighting record. It is not possible or desirable to compare and rank the military achievements of our forces. The fighting divisions at the Argonne, where the hinge of the German line was broken, at Château Thierry, where the advance on Paris was stopped, at the St. Mihiel salient, and elsewhere-all these also were beyond question elements of consequence in reaching the final decision, and in all American soldiers proved themselves stanch.

The one victory of the Twenty-seventh which will longest remain in men's minds is that in which they broke through the supposedly impregnable Hindenburg line. The fighting of the Twenty-seventh Division from September 27 to September 29 not only cut through the German defenses after attacks by others had failed, but shattered those defenses at their strongest point. This is evident when it is remembered that behind the German trenches and on the line from Nauroy to Vendheuil, where the Twenty-seventh attacked, lay the almost invincible tunnel of the St. Quentin Canal. This added a difficulty and a danger which were peculiar to this section. The famous tunnel, built by Napoleon in 1811, and about a mile in length, has been thus described by Lieutenant-Colonel Kincaid, of the Twentyseventh:

It was dug straight through a hill, and constructed of arched brick walls with a broad towpath running along the side. The Boche had filled the canal within the tunnel with canal boats, in which men were quartered, and had sealed both ends with ferro-concrete walls four feet thick. The tunnel lay from ten to fifty meters underground. Access to the fighting lines was had through passages and galleries cut from the tunnel to the trenches. These had the appearance of underground galleries or avenues. Reinforcements could be brought to the trenches without having them subjected to shell-fire or airplane observation. In the same manner the wounded and exhausted troops could be rushed back to the areas behind the fighting lines without suffering additional casualties.

But the American forces broke into and around the tunnel and inflicted crushing defeat on the enemy. The valor of the two American divisions (the Twentyseventh and the Thirtieth) which were fighting with the British armies in this sector has been praised in unstinting words by the British commander, General Haig, by Marshal Foch, and by General Pershing. In a message from General Haig received by the Twentyseventh since its return he says: “ You can tell those who to-day welcome you in your own homes that countless homes in Europe are the happier for what you have done, and that the Old World will never forget her debt of gratitude to America."

In Flanders the Twenty-seventh Divis