use her opportunities, then unrealized. No, Venice had something more-a strategic commercial position between east and west which she had the wit to use. Her position was originally the point where ship and caravan met. She became the connecting link between Europe and Asia, the portal to the mainland from the Levant, the open doorway for the westward movement of civilization; and the wealth of the world, its trade, its art, its thought, all paid tribute to her and added their monuments to her treasures.

This is precisely the position occupied by the United States today nor does the similarity end here. Venice found herself in command of the route to the Holy Land and in a position to supply the transports to the Crusaders, from which she reaped great benefits. In the Fourth Crusade it was Venice who aided the French and English knights in their effort to win Jerusalem, which has but now been accomplished, just as this country is now aiding the modern French and English knights with ships. It was the task of Venice to provide transports for an army of 4,500 horses, 9,000 knights, 20,000 foot soldiers and provisions for one year. And because of this service Venice gained a predominant position and became a world power, just as our own participation in the present crusade is placing us within instead of without the world powers. She acquired "a half and a quarter" of the Roman Empire, the command of the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Islands, the Sea of Marmora and the Black Sea and the trade routes between Asia Minor and Europe.

One thing only seemed to be needed to make the Venetian command of the sea paramount. That was the inevitable struggle with her rivals, Naples, Florence, and Genoa but principally the latter. Over very much the same ground as that now occupied by the Italians, including Genoese and Venetians alike against the Teutons, the Venetians and the Genoese fought for supremacy with the final result of the crushing of Genoa and the undisputed es

tablishment of Venice as Mistress of the Sea.

The final fall of Venice from her high estate in the world of commerce did not come until after she had become so well established as the world's treasure house of art that this pre-eminence has always remained to her. Just six years before Columbus discovered America, Diaz made the passage from the Far East to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope. At once the currents of commerce were deflected to new channels. No longer was it necessary to break bulk for trans-shipment at some point, which point had come to be Venice, since the direct water route was by far the cheaper, and the supremacy of Venice as a commercial center fled. Had there been behind her a united and co-operating hinterland a different story might be told, but the wars with Genoa and the jealousies of the Italian ports, then separate states, so split the commerce that Venice ceased to be a factor in the trade of the world.

To her remained her treasures and her industries, built up by her trade, by her attraction of men of commercial and artistic genius and by her commercially favored position to obtain the raw materials from which to establish herself in her manufactures of embroideries and textiles, of jewelry and glass, laces and iron-working, bronze casting and now steam engines, machinery and clocks.

Again the whirligig of time spins merrily, and what the rounding of Cape of Good Hope took away from Venice the opening of the Suez Canal in part brought back. Never again, perhaps, can Venice dominate the trade routes of the world, for those routes now touch other shores. The sceptre of maritime supremacy passed from her to Portugal and thence to Holland where again the failure of the hinterland to support the sea traffickers resulted in a further passing to England which has retained her position save for the slight interval during which we exerted our manifest right and for a time dominated.

The time is pregnant with possibilities. His

The Baptistry Protected from the
Threatened Invasion

tory has repeated itself in many instances as between Venice and the United States. It was in Venice that the first income tax was levied, one per cent on all incomes for war purposes, and in Venice that the first Liberty Loan was floated, four per cent and negotiable, as is ours. Like Venice, we occupy a strategic commercial position between east and west, and like Venice we have been called upon to furnish the transports and the provisions for the French and English crusaders who were fighting against the powers that held the Holy Land, the present allies of Germany. Out of a similar service to the world, Venice rose supreme.

Unlike Venice the United States is not built on a mud flat. Unlike Venice we have not a disunited and jealous hinterland. It is apathetic or has been-but the events of the world

The Companile with its Barricade of Sandbags
beneath the Sheathing

are moving with an awakening force. We have tasted the cup of foreign trade and we find its flavor good.

Already this foreign trade has built a wonder city of the New World. Built on a rock, rather than on a mud flat, its spires tower to Heaven and pulse with a vitality that is akin to that which throbbed through Venice when Shylock bargained with Antonio on the Rialto. We may have no Ca' D'Oro, but Venice had no Woolworth building; and though the Cathedral of St. Mark's will stand unrivalled, perhaps, and unique in the world's architecture, we have in our own generation; based upon the same foreign trade activity, begun to build as wonderfully as the Venetians. Have we anything further to learn from the lesson of Venice?

T

HE newspapers print regularly two items

of news, the full significance of which, seemingly, is not appreciated by the great mass of our people. We read that American troops are fighting upon the battlefields of France, and that labor unrest is seriously curtailing the output of our greatest industries. Placed in juxtaposition, these two statements reveal in a stratling manner how true is the contention that the people of the country do not realize either the gravity of the present situation or the necessity for the subordination of all personal considerations for the sake of giving their whole-hearted support to our government in this great crisis of our national existence.

Distasteful as the truth may be, we must bring ourselves to realize that unless every man, woman and child in this country does his or her utmost to increase the efficiency of our fighting forces Germany is going to win this war and become the dominant power of the world. This is not the cry of an alarmist, it is a plain statement of fact. War, as it is waged to-day, calls upon the united energies of the entire nation. Copper and steel, food and ships must be produced in quantities hitherto believed impossible, for this is as much a war of things as it is of men. Our factories, farms, and shipyards must be driven to their utmost capacity and every worker in these essential industries must realize that the outcome of every battle depends as much upon him as upon the man in the field. In Germany the people realize these facts, and the nation is organized so as to throw the full weight of its resources into the struggle. Every worker is made to feel personally responsible for the nation's success, and to look with as much contempt upon the industrial shirker as upon the

soldier who refuses to fight.

We in this country recognize that, in time. of peace, the worker may refuse employment whenever the conditions of labor are unsuited to his liking, but in time of war, when the safety of the nation is at stake, the whole situation is altered. Our one objective now must be to defeat the enemy, and upon this problem the entire attention of our people must be concentrated. It is, therefore, evident that whoever, at the present time, attempts to advance his personal interests at the risk of reducing the productivity of those industries which are engaged in the production of supplies necessary for the prosecution of the war is guilty of treasonable conduct as well as directly responsible for the useless sacrifice of many lives. All of us know that the British troops were slaughtered by thousands during the early part of the war because of their shortage of munitions, and we have no reason to doubt that our troops will fare no better unless they are plentifully supplied with the means to defend themselves. The lesson which Britain's experience can teach us is that personal interests must be subordinated to the nation's necessity, otherwise the young men in our armies will pay for our neglect with their lives.

Let there be no misunderstanding regarding this matter. We have demanded of our young men that they put aside the question of personal gain and shed their blood that this world may be made safe for us to live in, but success is impossible if we are unwilling to cooperate with them to the limit of our ability. Unless we throw our whole energy into this business of producing supplies, it is certain that Germany will win and our troops will have sacrificed their lives in vain.