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platform of refusing to do anything reasonable in providing for reparation payment and of maintaining a densely recalcitrant attitude.

The occupation of the three towns on the Rhine by the Allies took place without any untoward or hostile incident.

The Allies are now considering the best methods and rates of applying coercive measures of collecting revenue from German commerce to apply to reparation already overdue. As to this, Mr. Lloyd George stated in Parliament that "the Germans would lose sixty per cent of their export trade if they tried to evade payment under the export levy, while if they did not evade these payments the British collections alone would, under the scheme, be about 400,000,000 German marks a year."

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BUDDHISM COPIES CHRISTIANITY

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Y this time Outlook readers should be fairly familiar with the Daily Vacation Bible Schools. They were started twenty years ago on the East Side of New York to bring together idle children, idle churches, and idle students during the summer vacation. Manual work, organized play, and Bible study have gone on together. From the start the schools have been successful. From one school they have grown to over fourteen hundred. Canada has copied them and now has seven hundred and fifty. During the past two years Japan and China have in turn copied them. Japan has seventeen schools now and China no less than a hundred and forty. The Chinese schools are the result of the efforts of eight hundred native Christian students.

Some students who were not Christians also responded. These were Buddhists. They too established daily vacation schools. They followed the call to service in their own fashion. They adopted the general programme of the Daily Vacation Bible Schools, but substituted Buddhist ethics for the Gospels.

The rest of the programme was too good not to be taken up-the songs, the kindergarten work, the talks on health and patriotism, the vocal and breathing and calisthenic exercises, the stereopticon story, the manual work such as basketry, hammock-making, and other weaving and sewing, the Red Cross hospital and home work, the first aid and hygiene, and, finally, the afternoon hours devoted to open-air games and excursions.

If service is the test of religious faith, the Bible Vacation Schools in spreading the spirit of human service to those who bear another name have met that test successfully.

International

VIEW OF DUSSELDORF, ONE OF THE RHINE CITIES JUST OCCUPIED BY THE ALLIES

THE COLOMBIAN

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TREATY

O treaty with Colombia carrying the payment of $25,000,000 should be passed unless it contains a posi tive disclaimer of intention to pay reparation for wrong done. It is not enough to omit, as the Colombian Treaty in its present form does omit, the apology and admission of wrong-doing by the United States.

That the payment of this large sum of money without a corresponding and material quid pro quo would be taken as a tacit admission of guilt is proved by the fact that it is already so regarded. Thus Mr. Colby, late Secretary of State, is quoted as saying that delay to conclude the Treaty has "caused us to be represented to the Latin-American mind as indifferent to justice, insensible to ruthlessness, and callous to the recognition of payment of our debt." The New York "World" boldly asserts that it is "conceded in principle that the United States owed the South American Republic substantial compensation for the taking of Panama in defiance of solemn treaty obligations." A recent letter-writer in the New York "Sun" declares: "From the standpoint of our honor, this act of simple justice brooks no further delay." And other instances might be multiplied of the way the ratification of the Treaty will be regarded.

But, as the New York "Tribune" well says, our record in this matter was "one of honor, not of dishonor." Let us not allow it to be smirched; if we pay for good and sufficient reasons not based on alleged wrong-doing, let us state those reasons so plainly that his tory cannot misread them. To pay with out saying why we pay or to pay $25,000,000 for concessions every one knows are not worth $5,000,000 would be weak and would court misconstruction.

The present sentiment in favor of ratifying the Treaty follows a different line from that of reparation. Its argument runs something like this: "Some people think we did wrong. We know we didn't, but they honestly think we did. Anyway, Colombia lost a great opportunity, even if she did throw it away by greed and attempts at extortion. Marroquin and his fellow-plotters are long gone. The present Colombia is guiltless. Not only Colombia but all South America will recognize in the payment generosity and friendliness. The act will promote good feeling and it will also aid in establishing the cordial business relations we all want to see encouraged."

It need not be dented that there is point and persuasiveness in this argument. How much so, is indicated by the fact that ratification, it is understood, is not opposed by Senator Lodge, although he once joined in a minority report of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee which said: "We cannot afford to purchase cordial relations. We cannot afford to answer a blackmail demand. Once respond to such a demand, and we shall be held for every fancied wrong by other countries."

Whatever the force of the argument of good will and liberal treatment of a small republic by its big neighborand we do not disparage or minimize the argument-is it not elemental common sense that we should in this case say what we mean and mean what we say? Gentlemen at Washington, please do not leave too much to imagination; do not let future writers say, either that we committed a wrong and were ashamed to say so, or that we paid millions without knowing why.

One other adjuration to the Senate: Don't ratify this Treaty on anybody's false assumption as to history or inter national law. Read President Ro

velt's Messages to Congress in December, 1903, and January, 1904. Read his article in The Outlook of October 7, 1911, on "How we Acquired the Right to Dig the Panama Canal." Remember that we were no more bound to defend Colombia from revolution than Ecuador; that what we were bound to do was to keep transit across the Isthmus free and uninterrupted; that when, before 1903, we prevented insurrection on the Isthmus it was to that end, and that when in 1903 we refrained from preventing revolution it was to the same end. For the United States, after the crooked dealing of Marroquin and his tools, to insist on imposing Colombian rule on Panama would not have been justice; it was not required by treaty or law; it would have been infinite folly; it would have killed the Panama Canal.

THE VERNAL CHORUS

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EBRUARY and March are the months when the great spring tide of poetry begins to rise over editorial desks. Then it is that flowers of every shape and hue blossom in most unexpected places or so we are informed by poets whose minds are attuned to the coming of spring. Under their instruction, we learn that March hillsides are breaking into a ruddy glow of dog-roses and cyclamen. We learn that the pink and mignonette are not unknown to April meadows, and if we followed some of the metrical advice which we have recently received we would go a-Maying in an Indian Ocean of fringed gentian.

Though the poems in which these strange things occur return to their senders with what must seem like a surprising and grievous suddenness, we are not wholly unsympathetic with their authors.

We know the workings of their minds as clearly as though we had watched their poems a-borning. Spring is indeed a season of restless aspiration. It brings with it crowding hopes and eager dreams. For most of us these hopes and dreams are, and must remain, things of the mind. Confined within a routine of life from which we may not break, we cannot translate these intangible longings into action.

These hopes and dreams, however, know no allegiance to the law of labor which governs the world, They seethe beneath the surface as lava seethes within the heart of a volcano.

The thoughts which spring from these hopes and dreams seem incandescent with the glow of the emotion which sent them forth. They come into the conscious mind "trailing clouds of glory." But the magic radiance which they possess is a radiance visible only to the mind which gives them birth. The word,

the phrase, the revelation, which burns in the hopeful mind of the spring poet with the flaming glory of a newly created world appears to those who do not know its genesis as cold and lifeless as the ashes of a dead volcano. Sometimes it is even hard for the stranger to realize that such ashes were ever touched with fire.

Poets who are worth their salt learn to recognize the effect of the glamour of creation. They know that if there is any light in their poetry, other than this reflected radiance, time will render it visible. They are not afraid to put their work to the test.

It is only those poets whose absolute and uncritical faith in their work endures beyond the moment of creation who need utterly despair. Yet even if only to the rare poet is given the consummation of creating one enduring line or one memorable image, it is not for editors to laugh at those that fail. For to those who fail in the greater adventure remains the vital reward which comes from the effort to call forth beauty from her hiding-place among the stars.

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THE MESSAGE OF HOLY WEEK TO THOSE IN TROUBLE ERUSALEM was crowded with pilgrims who had come from near and far to celebrate the night when the death angel passed over the homes of Israel but took from every Egyptian home one captive. The Master and his twelve disciples sat down in an upper chamber to the supper of which every family partook on that memorable anniversary. Coming events cast their shadows before. Christ had forewarned his friends of the approaching tragedy. But they could not believe the unwelcome news. The time had come to be explicit. He told them that one of them would betray him, that Peter would deny him, that all would forsake him. If ever man needed strength from his companions for the crisis before him, comfort from human sympathy for the sorrow he was so soon to meet, truly Jesus needed both strength and comfort then.

of your Master, as you share my labors; in the world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And greater works than you have seen me do you will do.

Then they went out to his familiar resort, a garden or orchard in the vicinity of the city. To guard against surprise he asked three of his disciples to keep watch while he withdrew to take up once more the problem of his life. What did his Father wish him to

do? Should he escape to Galilee or the region beyond the Jordan? That would be to abandon his mission. Should he remain in Jerusalem? That would be to insure his arrest and probably his death. Could his mission survive that catastrophe? Could these timid, halfeducated fishermen carry on his work? His anguish was not dread of the tragedy of the morrow. Many a soldier in the late war has faced unhesitatingly greater physical pain and one longer continued. His was the greater dread of a greater tragedy-dread lest he fail to understand his father's will or fail in courage to achieve that will. His prayer was that this tragedy he might escape. "Thy will, not mine, be done," he cried. What Christian has not at times experienced the dread lest he fail to understand his Father's purpose and so prove a hindrance, not a help, to his Father's work?

When Jesus heard the tramp of the police in the valley of the Kidron and, going out, found his watchers asleep. he found the answer to his prayer. To escape now was to leave them to meet the wrath of enemies whom his escape would have foiled. That to him was unthinkable. He went forth to meet the guard, put himself between them and his followers, gave them the hint to flee, and when they had fled surrendered himself up to a mock trial and a certain death. When Peter offered a foolish resistance, Jesus bade him put up his sword, saying: "The cup which my Father gives me, shall I not drink it?" Judas, Caiaphas, and Pilate prepared the cup and brought it to him; but he accepted it as the cup which his Father gave him.

The next day when women weeping followed the funeral procession which ac

Comfort and strength he got by giving companied Jesus to the crucifixion, he them to others.

You can, he said in effect, no longer have faith in one another. Nevertheless let not your heart be troubled. Do not lose hope. Have faith in God; have faith in me. I am about to leave you. Whither I am going you cannot come. But I will come back to be with you, your intimate though invisible companion. Your mission is not ended by my death. As the Father hath sent me, so I send you. Love me; love Him; love one another. You will share the sorrow

turned to them, saying, "Weep not for me; weep for yourselves and your children." His personal sorrow he forgot in preparing them to meet their sorrows not far distant. Upon the cross, looking down upon the groups clustered at its foot, he saw not the soldiers gambling for his garment, he heard not the ironic triumph of the priests, "He trusted in God that he would deliver him." He saw the broken-hearted mother and the beloved disciple, and heard his mother's sobs; and almost his last words were

those of a thoughtful care for her: "Woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy mother!"

Seldom in the history of America has there been in the world a time of more widespread trouble and sorrow than the present. Statesmen confront new and perplexing problems with no precedent and no clearly perceived or clearly defined principles to guide them in the doubtful maze. Many merchants see the fabric reared by patient and painstaking toil for their children and their children's children swept away by no fault of theirs. Many workers know not which way to look for to-morrow's job, or perhaps even for to-morrow's meal. Many fathers and mothers sent their sons abroad to fight a foreign

foe in a foreign field for unknown friends and never again will see the faces of their loved ones. And the entire Nation is oppressed by the cries for bread borne across the sea from the hungry women and children of famished Europe.

For us in this time of widespread perplexity, trouble, and sorrow Holy Week seems to me to have two messages, to be here only suggested for the reader's quiet reflection.

I. The way to lighten our own burdens is to take on some one else's burden. The way to get comfort in our sorrow is to give comfort to others in their sorrow. Self-pity is always perilous. There is a selfishness in sorrow; let us beware of it. A time of fear is a time which calls for a ministry of courage;

a time of doubt, for a ministry of faith; a time of widespread trouble is an opportunity for widespread and varied service. In solving others' problems we solve our own; in caring for the troubles of others we forget our own.

II. Sorrow is a part of God's scheme of life. Our real problem is not, Why are there sin and suffering in the world? but, What can we do to cure the sin and alleviate the sorrow? Greed, ambition, and cowardice may mix the cup and bring it to us, and yet it may be the cup which our Father gives to us. To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge; to suffer the will of God is the greatest heroism; to do the will of God is the .greatest achievement. In work with God and for God our defeat is His victory. LYMAN ABBOTT.

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UPPER SILESIA AND POISON GAS

S this issue of The Outlook is being mailed to our readers an election or plebiscite is going on in Central Europe which illustrates in a very interesting and significant way how modern conditions have modified the principle, advocated by Washington, of non-entanglement in European affairs. Few Americans know very much about it or have any conception of how their own interests and welfare are involved in it. And yet perhaps no political event in Europe during the last hundred years, with the exception of the declaration of war by Germany in the summer of 1914, has been fraught with consequences so potentially momentous to the United States as this election which is now being held to determine whether Upper Silesia shall belong to Germany or Poland.

If the reader will turn to his atlas, he will see that the province of Prussian Silesia runs down in a southeasterly direction from Breslau towards Cracow like a peninsula or the toe of a great boot. It is bounded on one side by Poland and on the other by Bohemia, formerly a part of Austria, but now one of the states of the new Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Some centuries ago an important part of the province of Prussian Silesia belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, but on the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire it became the football of conquest, kicked about from one king to another until it finally fell permanently into the hands of Germany, where it remained until the armistice of 1918. Its great economic value consists of its very rich bituminous coal deposits. This coal, together with minerals such as iron, lead, and zinc, has made it one of the great and rich manufacturing districts of the German Empire. Owing to the character of its coal, it is one of the centers of the German dye industry.

When the German armies surrendered in November, 1918, and the new Repub

lic of Poland was erected, it was first proposed at the Paris Peace Conference to cede Upper Silesia outright to the Polish Republic, under the principle of making political and geographical boundaries correspond with racial lines, for the population of Upper Silesia is more than sixty per cent Polish. Germany, however, made a great outcry. Her protests were partly supported by American ideal ists at Paris who had been captivated by Mr. Wilson's doctrine of self-determination, and who therefore thought that the people of Upper Silesia ought to have something to say about it at the ballot-box. There was also a small but powerful party in Great Britain who objected to giving Upper Silesia outright to Poland, partly because they thought British commerce with Germany would be interfered with if the province were transferred to Poland, and partly be cause of a certain curiously narrowminded British sentiment against Roman Catholic countries, and Poland is a Roman Catholic country. So the Peace Conference compromised and left the matter to be determined by a plebiscite or election. The supervision of this elec tion was left in the hands of a Commission. It is not very clear what authority laid down the conditions of the election, but by some decision totally foreign to American ideas of self-determination that is, self-government through the ballot-box-all Germans who claim that they were born in Upper Silesia, no matter what may be their present residence, are allowed to vote.

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The result is that Germans are pouring into Upper Silesia by thousands, like the "carpetbaggers" in our own days of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Germans have even gone from the United States to participate in the vote and to save Upper Silesia, if possible, "for the Fatherland."

One of the greatest living authorities on Polish affairs has informed us that the Polish Government would have no

doubt about the result if the election were carried out honestly under the prescribed terms. But what Poland fears is that the Prussians, with the lack of scruple which led them to regard solemn agreements in the Great War as mere "scraps of paper," will try to carry the election by stuffing ballot-boxes in the best Tweed style or by voting in "blocks of five," after the manner of the political managers of the Grand Old Republican party of twenty-five or thirty years ago. The trouble is that the political machinery, the police, and the magistrates of Upper Silesia are in the control of the Prussians, who constitute only a small minority of the population. On the other hand, the Polish inhabitants are very largely wage-workers and farmers without means of organization and self-protection. The wealth, the intelligence, and the experience are on the side of the Prussians; numbers and unorganized desire are on the side of the Poles. What very often happens under these circumstances is now happening in Upper Silesia. The powerful Prussians are intimidating the Poles.

By this time the reader is doubtless asking himself how all this concerns the United States except as a matter of abstract justice. Let us, therefore, get at the practical aspects of the question.

As we have already said, Upper Silesia, owing to the character of its coal deposits, is one of the great centers of the German coal-tar industry. This industry has for its ostensible object the making of dyes, in which Germany has led the world. But the very chemical processes which produce coal-tar dyes also produce high explosives and poison gas, Germany was the originator of the use of poison gas in warfare. She employed it with terrible and disastrous effect in the great European war. So good an authority as Dr. Charles H. Herty, former President of the American Cher cal Society and now editor of "Journal of Industrial and Engine

Chemistry," in a recent address in Washington, D.C., delivered on the invitation of the National Research Council, declared that surplus German dye plants will breed future wars. "Germany has to-day," he says, "the greatest and most active dyestuff industry in the world, as evidenced by a production last month [January] of twelve thousand tons of dyes, seven hundred and fifty tons more than the average pre-war monthly output. From these dye plants came all of the poison gases used by Germany throughout the World War. Bolshevist Russia has to-day the largest standing army of the world-one million five hundred thousand men. If these two agencies of destruction are ever fully combined, the world will face a new struggle incomparably more tragic than that through which it has just passed. ready that union has begun, for it is known that in their successes against the forces of General Wrangel the Bolshevist armies were largely aided by poison gas. And Russia has now.no chemical industry!"

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The logical inference is that Germany, far from repentance, is already nursing the idea of a victorious war based upon aviation and poison gas. This is also the view of the eminent Polish authority to whom we have referred earlier in this article.

Dr. Herty further points out that provision against a future world war conducted by Germany is not merely the emanation of alarmist minds but is

calmly and definitely set forth by the Peace Treaty of Paris. For in that momentous document Articles 168, 169, and 172 provide for the closing down in Germany of all factories and other establishments for the manufacture, preparation, storage, or design of arms, munitions, or any war material whatever; and for the destruction or rendering useless of any special plant intended for the manufacture of military material except such as may be recognized as necessary for equipping the authorized strength of the German army; and the German Government is directed to disclose to the Allied and Associated Powers the nature and mode of manufacture of all explosives, toxic substances, and other like chemical preparations used by them, the Germans, in the war. Dr. Herty relates that when he was in Paris in 1919, as a member of the Conference on Reparation Dyes, he asked why the foregoing provisions of the Peace Treaty had not been carried out with respect to the coal-tar industry, which produces high explosives and poison gas. The reply was: "Europe wished to do so, but American influence was against it, and prevailed." Dr. Herty's explanation is that the Americans in authority at the Paris Peace Conference regarded the German dye industry as a peace industry and were either ignorant or refused to recognize that it was the basis of the manufacture of the most powerful explosives and the most deadly poison gas. Here we come to the point at which

the election in Upper Silesia may affect the life and existence of the United States. If that province goes to Poland, its dye factories will be used in the economic upbuilding of a new Republic the very basis of whose life is to prevent Germany from exploiting the vast natural resources of Russia in any new schemes for the domination of the world by force. If Upper Silesia goes to Prussia, the Prussian militarists of the Tirpitz and Hindenburg type, who have by no means given up their dreams of military power, will have at their command resources for preparing weapons of war of such terrible and mysterious power that the submarine in comparison will seem like an archaic weapon of the Middle Ages.

It will not do to say that this is inconceivable. In 1914 it would have seemed inconceivable to most decent Americans that Tirpitz could have sunk the Lusitania and its human cargo of women and children without warning.

The nations that sincerely desire the peace of the world have destroyed Germany's navy; they have abolished her standing army; they ought at least to control her poison-gas factories. One effective way to do the last would have been to give to Poland the administration of Upper Silesia. The great Polish patriot and statesman, Paderewski, urged this course upon the Peace Conference at Paris. Let us hope that in rejecting his plea the Conference did not make an irretrievable mistake.

MEET THE LADY BANKERS, GENTLEMEN!

TAY down in Tennessee, a woman

W

has changed the current of so

ciety into a sea of financial success, for Mrs. F. D. Runyon, a society leader of Clarksville, conceived the idea of establishing a bank for women, conducted entirely by women. The idea. ably assisted by other prominent women neighbors, evolved into the First Woman's Bank of Tennessee, and, as far as is known, the institution is the first of its kind in the United States.

Mrs. F. J. Runyon, president of the bank, is the wife of a prominent Clarksville physician, and the mother of two grown sons, one a lawyer, the other practicing medicine.

Mrs. Runyon has been closely identified with all moves for the betterment of Clarksville, and, desiring to continue active in civic matters, acted on advice given her by a banker, to establish a bank for women. Studying the matter closely, she decided that there was a reasonable chance for success, so went on with the venture, after enlisting other prominent women in the idea. A charter was applied for, and granted; then the bank became an assured fact, chartered under the State laws of Tenessee.

The bank has three officers. and nine

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE

MRS. F. J. RUNYON, PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST WOMAN'S BANK OF TENNESSEE

directors-president and vice-president the president and vice-president being also members of the directorate. An executive committee, whose duty consists of inspecting paper, passing upon loans, and giving general supervision, is constituted of three of the directors. City and county are both represented on the board.

The directors and officers are women prominent in church, civic, and social affairs, and they are all closely concerned in matters pertaining to definite progressive movements of the community. But, with all their executive ability, this organization of women is delightfully feminine. They one and all preside graciously over delightful homes, are exemplary wives and model mothers.

The capital stock of the bank is $15,000, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each. Only one share was sold to each person. The whole amount was subscribed in a single day. Now, with the bank but a few months old, its deposits amount to over $60,000. This is a record for a small, conservative Southern town. On the bank's opening day its deposits exceeded the capital amount by several thousand dollars. The gross earnings run to a twenty-five per cent basis, and clearings penetrate into figures carrying five ciphers.

Checking, savings, and Christmas savings are the three classes of accounts carried, and, judging by the way deposits have piled up, the purpose of the women founders of the bank is being realized; for the idea was to instill into the minds of the people thrift and saving-to help them help themselves by

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saving toward a rainy day, to enjoy the assurance that goes with a bank account, and to endeavor to help their townspeople in their financial difficulties as far as is consistent with dependable banking. The bank is doing a general, legitimate banking business, strictly in

accord with the Tennessee State laws. The men of the community cordially cooperate in the venture, and are proud of its success.

The First Woman's Bank of Tennessee is not a whimsical fancy, but a concrete fact, and, though petticoated from presi

dent to janitress, this institution has put Clarksville on the financial map and advertised to the world that women of the South are not mere butterflies of society, but leaders endowed with remarkable executive ability.

AGNES LOCKHART HUGHES.

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AFTER THE WAR IN ENGLAND

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE

I-GOLD, GAS, WOMEN, AND WIGS

ARGE American cities give one an impression of rush and hurry; hardly less do we feel it in LonIt is the street feature of world

don. capitals.

There are no outward signs of distress or disaster in England. Business is being conducted as usual in the same small, cold offices.

The financial and political conditions underlying the country have been warchanged out of all former recognition, but habits remain much the same.

LITTLE GOLD, RIG DEBTS, WHY WORRY? Although almost hopelessly in debt, and with continued national deficits pushing them on, God only knows where, the British speak confidently of London as the financial center to which the far-flung world enterprises must look. London was such a center before the war, by right of enterprise and integrity. If she can regain the place and redeem all financial promises, it will be a great thing for the world. America can gladly concede the honors, because it will mean a greater market for our cotton, corn, and copper. It will help to stabilize our commercial and social conditions. But when I remember that the British gold reserve is supposed to be kept in the Bank of England, and that that reserve fell recently to eight per cent of the bank's deposits, I feel uneasy. I have asked questions, but I find business men dodging. "Of course," they say, "the reserve is low, but there is plenty more gold in the country; and, besides, business is being done on quite a different basis than formerly." I wonder if inflation is a success. If the Bank of England, which before the war never allowed her gold reserve to drop below forty per cent of her deposits, can really get along on eight per cent, then why need it have any gold?

I have been asked about the British War Bonds which the United States holds-some four billions. When an Englishman contemplates the presentation of them for payment, he is "done up." I have said that the subject is hardly discussed in America, that we are receiving no interest and expecting none at present. "Why do you worry?” I asked. One man replied, "If in some way all these war debts could be gotten

out of the way, business would go on splendidly." I could not ask him if he had personal profits in mind or whether he was thinking of restoring order in a turbulent world, so I merely said I could not forecast our attitude toward the payment of the principal, but we had no thought of collecting interest under present world conditions.

I am a great admirer of the British, but I think, financially, they are in a little over their heads. They should get their feet on the ground and wade a bit toward the shore. If we canceled their debt to us, and the result was business expansion and advanced prices, to be followed by another collapse and depression, what would be the use?

CHEAP CLOTHING, DEAR GAS

The cost of living is less here than

in America. While food cost is about the same, the hotel and boarding-house charges are thirty per cent less, and clothing is forty per cent less. Neither hotels nor theaters are filled.

Taxi fares are about the same as in the States, but here they pay 65 cents for gasoline and $2 a gallon for engine oil. I haven't learned whether these prices are the result of import duties or profiteering, or both, but the cost of gasoline is a subject of Government inquiry. A recent report suggests "combined action by consuming nations," "aid from the economic section of the League of Nations," "the production of substitutes, and the development of other kinds of power." Necessity is still the mother of invention, and 65-cent "gas" has caused the production of a very good looking auto truck, coal burning, steam propelled. We see many of them on the streets running at about eight miles an hour.

The greatest burden on the automobile owner is a Government tax of £1 per horse power per annum. One man whom I interviewed paid about $200 last year for operating one machine. No wonder there are few private autos on the streets and very few traffic police are required. Life for pedestrians is correspondingly safer.

I gain the impression that England, instead of taking the oil leadership of the world away from the United States, finds herself at a great disadvantage.

THE DILEMMA

Women and girls are working everywhere. Business offices are full of them. They are also selling papers, acting as messengers, and occasionally we see a policewoman pacing her beat dressed in a dark-blue suit and an overawing helmet:

At the annual meeting of Barclay's Bank last week a shareholder protested against the bank employing women, saying that they should be laid off and unemployed ex-service men taken on. The chairman replied that the war record of the bank proved its loyalty to the men in uniform, but these women had been faithful during the war, and the bank would not desert them now. This puzzling situation reminds me of a dilemma in our works in New Jersey

just before I left home. Two men, among others, had been temporarily employed and, the work being about completed, one was to be laid off. Which one a single ex-soldier or a married man with two children? We really couldn't decide, and kept them both. But dull business cannot always "keep both." The lot of a conscientious business manager is not always a happy

one.

The British Government is paying an unemployment allowance of about four dollars a week to each of a million idle people at the present time, yet it seems difficult to get maids for domestic service.

One man protests in the papers that a maid asked £55 (about $250) a year. They seem to hire out by the year, but, if they are like their profession in the States, they quit daily.

"THREE IN THE FAMILY"

The status of women in England is worthy of a much deeper study than I am able to give it. With her vote and war-work experience she is a new social, political, and industrial element. I do not find any clash between the sexes, but the workingwoman has moved definitely away from domestic service. The wants of the English lady, however, are the same as before. She needs from three to seven servants to look after "three in the family, no children' cut the following "want" ads out o London "Times" this morning.

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