SW Mail for War Prisoners 725. The world's tonnage is 50,000,000, hence the loss is a little over 6 per cent. The chief sufferers are tabulated as follows: WITZERLAND handles all mail to and from prisoners of war free of cost. In April of this year the Swiss Post Office forwarded to prisoners of war 326,241 letters daily and 102,209 parcels, weighing up to twelve pounds; it also handled an average of 7,994 money orders a day. From the beginning of the war to the end of 1915 the Berne Transit Bureau forwarded to the belligerent countries 74,256,858 letters and postcards addressed to prisoners of war, besides 19,028,192 large and small parcels. During the same period the Swiss Post Office transmitted 3,066,597 money orders aggregating $8,654,336. All this was done free of charge and cost the Swiss Government over $2,000,000. Letters and parcels from prisoners to correspondents in the United States are handled by our Post Office free of charge, but postage is required for forwarding from this country. Mercantile Marine Losses THE Bureau Veritas, an authoritative THE French marine publication, has collated statistics of the war losses of the mercantile marine, which differ widely from the figures given out by German authorities. The losses from Aug. 1, 1914, to May 1, 1916, as reported by the French publication represents a total of 1,475 vessels with gross tonnage of 3,324, The German losses represent 18 per cent. of Germany's total at the outbreak of the war; England's loss is 7 per cent. The Germans seized in their ports sixtythree vessels with a tonnage of 142,936. Great Britain's seizures total 490,032 tons. Portugal seized German vessels with a total of 196,407 tons. The seizures are not included in the reports of losses. The Hamburg-American Company alone has lost during the war 48 vessels out of 205; the Hansa Line of Bremen 36 ships out of 74; the Kosmos Line 29 out of 59; the North German Lloyd 28 out of 142. The losses from May 1, 1916, to Sept. 1, 1916, which were quite heavy among the Allies, are not included in the above. In August, 1916, alone the German Admiralty claims its submarines destroyed 126 hostile ships, totaling 170,679 gross tons; also thirty-five neutral ships carrying contraband, totaling 38,568 tons. WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH and cost us (in 1803) $15,440,000. We paid Mexico in 1848 $15,000,000 for the 529,189 square miles in which California was included, and in 1867 we paid Russia for Alaska $7,200,000. In 1853 we paid $10,000,000 for the Gadsden Purchase, lands in Arizona and New Mexico, 45,000 square miles, and in 1898 we paid Spain $20,000,000 when we took over the Philippines, Guam, and Porto Rico. For Florida, in 1819, the price was $5,000,000, and that recently paid for Panama was $10,000,000 down and $250,000 annually for the Canal Zone. In the purchase of these islands the amount of territory acquired evidently had no bearing on the price. Our Government paid the exorbitant amount asked not only to secure the islands, but to prevent their going to any other power. The discussion leading up to this purchase reopened questions concerning the Monroe Doctrine. The enlarged interpretation given to Monroe's dictum in our own day had raised the question whether the acquirement of these Danish islands by any other European power would not be an intolerable violation of the principle at stake. The event, therefore, lends timeliness to an article elsewhere in this issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE, in which the historic development of the Monroe Doctrine is traced. * OUR NEW NAVAL PROGRAM THE United States Congress which ad journed Sept. 8, after a session lasting nearly ten months, made the largest naval appropriation ever passed by any legislative body in time of peace. The bill provides for the construction of 157 new vessels of all classes, and will put the United States second among the naval powers of the world. Provision is made for 10 battleships, 6 battle cruisers, 10 scout cruisers, 50 destroyers, 9 fleet submarines, 58 coast submarines, and 13 auxiliary vessels, all having a total displacement of 813,000 tons. The program covers three years. The cost of the vessels authorized, plus the 20 per cent. additional for expediting the construction, amounts to $654,000,000; the total cost of vessels from 1883 to 1915, inclusive, was $700,000,000. The bill also carries these important provisions: $13,700,000 for a Government armor plant, projectile plant, and laboratories, and $3,500,000 for naval aeronautics and a naval flying corps. The commissioned personnel of the navy is increased by 1,525; 900 in the line, 330 in the Medical Corps, 130 in the pay corps, 70 in the construction, 20 in the engineers, 25 in the Chaplains, 50 in the dental surgeons. The enlisted force of the navy will be increased by 24,000 men, of whom 25 are annually appointed by the Secretary of the Navy to be midshipmen; he is also to appoint annually from civil life 30 Ensigns for engineering duties, graduates of engineering institutions. The Marine Corps is increased about 5,000, with 300 new commissions. The Secretary of the Navy expects that the construction of all the vessels provided for in the program will be under way by March 1, 1917, and that all will be completed well within the three-year period. A AVIATION IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY FEATURE of the new Army bill enacted at the recent session of Congress is the provision for aviation. It provides for the training of 1,000 aviators, half of 'whom will be active and half in the reserve service. The plans call for an equipment which will include aeroplanes of all the various military types, for a thorough system of training, for the mobilization, and so far as possible the standardization, of the various industries which can be utilized in the manufacture of aeroplanes or their equipment for military purposes, and, lastly, for means by which any young man who can pass the mental, physical, and moral test of the regular service may obtain the practical and theoretical instruction necessary to equip him for a commission as an officer of the aerial reserve service. There will be established a system of training schools, which are expected to be second to none in the world. The machines manufactured especially for training purposes will be of types to fly from thirty-eight to sixty miles an hour, and designed with the idea of obtaining a machine easy for a novice to operate. the existing stamp taxes are abolished. There is a tax of 50 cents on each $1,000 stock (market value) of corporations in excess of $99,000. A 30 per cent. duty is assessed on dyestuffs to begin at once, also on medicinals and flavors, the duty to be reduced A 35 per gradually after five years. cent. tax is put on blended wines and 10 cents a gallon on brandy spirits. The law also provides for a Federal inheritance tax beginning at 1 per cent. on estates up to $50,000, 9 per cent between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000, 10 per cent. over $5,000,000. A tariff commission is authorized, the President to appoint and designate the Chairman. Salaries are fixed at $7,500 a year. The commission's duties are to investigate trade conditions and changes in case of production and to report its findings from time to time to Congress; it has no executive authority; $300,000 is appropriated annually for the work of the commission. Copper smelters, under the new law, are to pay a tax of 1 per cent. on gross receipts up to $1,000,000, 2 per cent. up to $10,000,000, 3 per cent. in excess of $10,000,000. GREAT BRITAIN'S WONDERFUL WEALTH ACCORDING to British Treasury ex perts, Great Britain has provided for the interest and sinking fund of its colossal war debt twice over by the imposition of new taxes. The total debt July 29, 1916, was, in round numbers, $14,000,000,000; if the war continues to March, 1917, it is estimated the debt will be $17,000,000,000. The present debt averages 41⁄2 per cent. interest; add 1 per cent. sinking fund, and the total annual charge on the debt now is $745,000,000. Prior to the war the expenses, Including interest charges, was $1,000,500,000 per annum. The revenue for the current year, due to the imposition of extraordinary income and excise taxes, will be $2,500,000,000. Deducting one billion dollars as the normal rate of expenditure, there still remains one and one-half billions for new interest and sinking fund, which is twice the amount now required. Even if the national debt reaches twenty billions, with interest at 5 per cent. and 1 per cent. sinking fund, the present revenue will meet all current expenditures, as well as the colossal war drain, and will still leave a comfortable surplus. * * * OUR TRADE WITH HOLLAND ENGLAND has become so aroused over the extraordinary increase of Holland's importations of food products, a large proportion of which find their way into Germany, that she has laid a virtual embargo on all food products from the United States to Holland. On Sept. 14 notice was given that she refused to allow the Netherlands Oversea Trust to accept any further American consignments and declined to grant assurance for American shipments destined for either Holland or Scandinavian countries. Under this order only cargoes for Scandinavia and Holland, when accompanied by assurances of their innocent destination, will be allowed by the Allies to proceed. The embargo on Holland doubtless arises from the following statistics recently procured by Great Britain: In the first six months of 1914 the shipments of butter to Germany from Holland were 7,671 tons, in the same period of 1916 19,026 tons; cheese jumped from 6,312 tons to 45,969 tons, cocoa from 1,025 tons to 3,302 tons, eggs from 7,868 tons to 20,328 tons, meat from 5,820 tons to 40,248 tons, potato flour from 20,985 tons to 52,298 tons, spirits from 447 hectoliters to 37,638. The shipments to England from Holland in the same period showed enormous reductions as compared with the same period in 1914. Dr. John R. Mott of New York, General Secretary of the World's Student Christian Federation. Luis Cabrera, Minister of Finance in the Carranza Cabinet. Alberto J. Pani, President of the Mexican National Railways. Ignacio Bonillas, Sub-Secretary in the Mexican Department of Communications. The first two weeks of the conference have been devoted to a broad discussion of the economic and political problems that underlie the whole question of the Carranza Government's ability to restore security of life and property in Mexico as well as along the border. At this the production of sugar has increased 10 to 12 per cent., and will easily meet the requirements without any importations. The blockade on importations of cattle feed has rendered difficult, he says, the keeping of live stock and limited meat and milk products, but this deficiency is being met by economies. He states that the 1916 harvest is much better than in 1915, and that the increase in breadstuffs over 1915 will amount to several million tons. DRUNKENNESS AND WAR a decided decrease of drunkenness in London. During the first eight months of this year the total convictions for drunkenness in the London district were 20,477, against 37,570 in the same period in 1915 and 45,540 in the corresponding period of 1914. Some decrease is attributed to the absence of men at the front, but the decrease in convictions of women is almost in the same proportions; the statistics of female convictions are, respectively, for the first eight months of 1914, 1915, and 1916, 12,164, 11,231, and 6,797. writing (Sept. 20) a plan to guard the THE official reports show that there is border by a mixed American and Mexican patrol operating within a restricted neutral zone is under consideration. The fact of chief significance thus far, however, is that the members of the commission have met in a spirit of accord and mutual respect, and that both countries are confidently expecting a workable program at their hands, in which the early withdrawal of General Pershing's expedition from Mexican soil and the recall of most of our National Guard regiments from the Rio Grande will be the salient features. It is expected that an American loan will figure indirectly in the effort to increase the efficiency of the Mexican Government. DR. * GERMANY'S FOOD PROBLEM R. HELFFERICH, Germany's Secretary of the Interior, states that Germany, notwithstanding her industrial progress prior to 1914, did not neglect food production; hence he scoffs at the idea that the nation can be starved. In consequence of scientific cultivation agricultural schools, irrigation, drainage, rotation of crops, and artificial fertilization, the harvests from 1909 to 1912 compared with the period of 1883-86 show an increase in area cultivated of 5.8 per cent., but the increase in crops was 87.7 per cent., making the increase in the net return per hectare 77.7 per cent. says without any imports whatsoever Germany's breadstuffs are more plentiful per capita than they were thirty years ago, also that the imports of meat and butter were comparatively light, and that He The average weekly number of convictions for drunkenness from January to June last was 835 in England and 454 in Scotland, as compared with 1,558 and 754, respectively, from January to June, 1915. Beer charged with duty for home consumption in England and Wales during the first six months of 1915 totaled 11,439,306 barrels, against 10,782,533 in the first six months of this year, and in Scotland 676,381, against 651,209. Whisky cleared for home consumption in England and Wales for the first six months of 1915 amounted to 13,258,158 gallons, compared with 11,254,933 in the first half of this year, and in Scotland 3,685,935 gallons, against 2,688,915. while no troops fight more loyally and gallantly at the front in France than those recruited in Ireland, (and the official army reports fully bear this out,) there is still much unrest in the southwest of Ireland, in the regions about Cork and Killarney in particular. He ONE of the effects of the war through adds, and this is ominous, that a new rebellion is to be financed from the United States. Charles Stuart Parnell, by far the ablest leader Nationalist Ireland has produced in our days, a man who united passionate patriotism with a dry, scientific intellect, once said that Ireland was almost ideally unfitted for guerrilla warfare (and that is what a "rebellion " means) because it is like a basin, with a rim of mountains near the edge, but with the whole centre of the country an open plain. The entire coast is dominated by the English Navy, and must continue to be, so long as that navy is in possession of the sea; the whole centre of the country is indefensible by guerrillas; therefore any attempted military operations are foredoomed to fail. The "rebellion" of 1798 demonstrated this. Foreign aid had been promised; because of England's command of the sea, even before Trafalgar seven years later, no effective foreign aid could be sent. Guerrilla warfare broke out at different points along the "rim" of the basin, (Wexford, Down, Mayo,) but these efforts were neither correlated nor simultaneous, and ended in early disaster. Today such a "rebellion" is even more certain to fail; no foreign aid, except, perhaps, a submarine crew or two, can possibly be sent; English garrisons, using railroads, can reach any point in the country within a few hours. Their possession of modern artillery would make the result of armed conflict a mathematical certainty. Only disaster and misery could result to Ireland, as was the case with the recent uprising in Dublin. It is quite clear that any one financing or otherwise abetting a rebellion" in Ireland is not seeking the well-being of Ireland, which could not conceivably come from it, but is seeking to embarrass England; to help, not Ireland, but the nations fighting England. For the sake of Ireland every one must hope that 66 out the civilized world has been the unparalleled intensity of relief work carried on by diverse social bodies both in belligerent and neutral countries. While the full extent of such work can never be measured with any degree of accuracy, the statistics based on the activities of the major organizations in a certain country are instructive in themselves. Thus we find that in the first two years of war the people of England have voluntarily contributed more than $250,000,000 to the work of the various British organizations engaged in relief activities at home and at the front. The leading fund in England is the Prince of Wales Relief Fund, the receipts of which now total more than $30,000,000. Russia's relief work is more astounding than that of England. This is partly due to the fact that the Russian social bodies are engaged in certain activitiessuch as supplying clothes to the soldiers at the front-which in England or France are the work of the Government exclusively. Russia's leading social orthe All-Russian Zemstvo ganization, Union, has handled in the first two years of the war the enormous sum of 2,500,000,000 rubles. On July 16, 1916, the Zemstvo Union had on its hands 1,500,000 pieces of underwear, while all supplies on hand were insured at the sum of 23,000,000 rubles. In the two years the union has supplied the Government (for the army) with 78,000,000 pieces of underwear, while it expended for its own relief work 50,000,000 more such pieces. All other items included, the union supplied the Government with 131,000,000 articles. The union's order department is now turning out for the Government 5,000,000 pairs of warm boots, 4,000,000 Winter coats, 5,000,000 pairs of gloves, and 10,000,000 pairs of socks. From Aug. 3, 1915, to Aug. 10, 1916, the union manufactured for its own activities goods worth 36,000,000 rubles. Up to Jan. 14, |