many's willingness to talk about "no annexations and no indemnities" meant something. They now know that Germany defined the phrase so as to allow her grasping and greedy hand to seize immense and valuable territories. Whether the very capital of Russia will fall into German hands or not depends upon Germany's present willingness to make a peace even more favorable to itself than it proposed at the first Brest-Litovsk conference. A study of the accompanying map will give our readers an idea of the extent and possession of the territory over which the German shadow has fallen.

Germany's whole course forms an ironical comment on the statement of the Chancellor, Count von Hertling, on February 25. He declared: "I can fundamentally agree with the four principles which in President Wilson's view must be applied in a mutual exchange of views, and thus declare with President Wilson that a general peace can be discussed on such a basis."

But he insisted that first "all states and people must recognize these principles," and added, "When President Wilson incidentally says that the German Chancellor is speaking to the tribunal of the entire world, I must decline this tribunal as prejudiced, joyfully as I would greet it if an impartial court of arbitration existed, and gladly as I would co-operate to realize such ideals." Whether it be " no annexations and no indemnities" or a theoretical "mutual rapprochement," Germany's expressed willingness to discuss anything is meant to cover her military effort. A direct answer to President Wilson's "fourteen points" would be more to the purpose.

Elsewhere in this paper we comment editorially on Russia's position and its future. How the situation is regarded in America may be indicated by two extracts. The New York "Times" comments: "Of course there is no peace for Russia, no freedom for Russians, no future either for the state as a

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or for a federation of its parts, so long as Germany remains unconquered. They will be enslaved and Germany will take from them what she needs.” · And the New York “Sun” asks: "Will the vast and productive territory comprehended in the Kaiser's programme of 'rescue' become a possession of the German Empire, to be governed directly or indirectly from Berlin, to sustain perhaps the same relation to the imperial system which India sustains to Great Britain, or will the deposed Czar be restored to his throne for the safeguarding of world autocracy?"

THE FALL OF JERICHO

The occupation of Jericho by the British army operating in Palestine recalls many Biblical and historical associations. The ancient Jericho, whose site is near the modern Jericho, was the first city of Canaan to be reduced by the armies of Israel, and every child knows the famous story of its destruction by the blowing of Joshua's trumpets.

From the military point of view, the occupation of Jericho is a valuable asset. If the advance is pushed twenty-five miles eastward, the British will cut the railway from Damascus to Mecca. This would be of importance in more ways than one, but especially because it would establish communication with the Arab tribes which are fighting the Turks in that direction. The new position also helps in the control of the Dead Sea and in giving access to the rich agricultural country east of the Dead Sea and to that which borders the Jordan north of the Dead Sea. The actual occupation of Jericho by the Australian cavalry under General Allenby's command met with little resistance.

THE HOME CARD

The problem of saving food for our allies is growing daily more serious. By May 1 we must send abroad no less than one hundred million bushels of wheat. To do this, while not eating less than is necessary for good health, we must use food substitutes for wheat. Instead of white flour we could use rye flour or corn-meal. Incidentally, bread and muffins made from these are not only nourishing but extremely appetizing.

We must feed the Allies and our own soldiers by sending to them as much food as possible of the most concentrated and nutritive value in the least shipping space. These foods are wheat, beef, pork, butter, and sugar. As a programme of saving, the Food Administration asks that a "Home Card" be hung in every kitchen. We have already summarized the recommendations on this card, but it may be worth while to print them in full:

Have TWO WHEATLESS DAYS (Monday and Wednesday) in every week, and ONE WHEATLESS MEAL in every day.

EXPLANATION-On "Wheatless" days and in "Wheatless" meals of other days use no crackers, pastry, macaroni, breakfast food, or other cereal food containing wheat, and use no wheat flour in any form except the small amount that may be needed for thickening soups or gravies, or for a binder in corn bread and other cereal breads. As to bread, if you bake it at home, use other cereals than wheat, and if you buy it, buy only war bread. Our object is, that we should buy and consume one-third less wheat products than we did last year.

Have ONE MEATLESS DAY (Tuesday) in every week and ONE MEATLESS MEAL in every day. Have TWO PORKLESS DAYS (Tuesday and Saturday) in every week. EXPLANATION-"Meatless " means without any cattle, hog, or sheep products. On other days use mutton and lamb in preference to beef or pork. "Porkless" means without pork, bacon, ham, lard, or pork products, fresh or preserved. Use fish, poultry, and eggs. As a nation we eat and waste nearly twice as much meat as we need.

Make every day a FAT-SAVING DAY (Butter, lard, lard substitutes, etc.).

EXPLANATION-Fry less; bake, broil, boil, or stew foods instead. Save meat drippings; use these and vegetable oils for cooking instead of butter. Butter has food values vital to children; therefore give it to them. Use it only on the table. Waste no soap; it is made from fat. Be careful of all fats. We use and waste two and a half times as much fat as we need. Make every day a SUGAR-SAVING DAY.

EXPLANATION-Use less sugar. Less sweet drinks and candy containing sugar should be used in war time. As a nation we have used twice as much sugar as we need.

Let us remember that there is starvation in Belgium and privation elsewhere, that each pound of food saved by us is a pound

given to the support of our Army or our allied their pach pound wasted or eaten unnecessarily is a quand wifes from them.

WHEAT AT $2.20

The country is heeding the Food Administration's recommendations. One indication is that the prices of the most popular wheat substitutes have lately advanced, so we learn, about a cent a pound wholesale. They may go higher.

If the food problem of the Nation is to be successfully carried out, should not the price for these cereals be fixed? Why should not the Government take the same action regarding corn, rye, barley, and oats that it did with wheat? The answer is that, while normal distribution of all our farm products has been subject to great disturbances during the last three years because of war conditions, only two commodities, namely, wheat and sugar, have been so seriously affected as to require Governmental inter

vention.

In the attempt to prevent the farmers from holding back their grain, the minimum price for last year's crop was fixed at $2.20, or more than three times the average price of any wheat crop during the two decades before the war. The price of this year's crop was fixed at $2, but so great has been the reluctance to plant among certain classes of farmers, due to more costly labor, seed, and machinery, that bills have been introduced in Congress increasing that figure to $2.50 and even to $2.75.

The President has now taken matters into his own hand and has fixed a general price of $2.20 for this year's crop, establishing differential prices according to the place of delivery, as of course freight differences should be considered in the price fixed.

Two things have been said in adverse criticism of the President's latest price-fixing: First, that future laws having to do with price-fixing will lose all value if the public were to believe that they were subject to change at almost any moment; and, second, and curiously enough on the contrary, that the worst way to regulate prices is by statute, because such a price is regarded as a finality; instead it should be revised according to varying conditions. This disagreement indicates the difficulty inherent in any plan of price-fixing.

It is more comfortable to think that our farmers in general will loyally accept the present decision as an incentive to production, following their action last autumn when they planted an acreage larger than the record of any preceding year. As the President says: "The chief thing to be kept clearly in mind is that regulations of this sort are only a part of the great general plan of mobilization into which every element in the Nation enters in this war as in no other."

THE WISCONSIN SITUATION

Paul Husting, patriot, died last October. He was United States Senator from Wisconsin. He came from a pro-pacifist, pro-German region. But he was ruggedly loyal and militant in his principles and policies of war efficiency.

Wisconsin's living Senator, Robert M. La Follette, is in bad odor because of the speeches, provocative to disloyalty, he has made since the war began, and a Committee of the Senate is now considering a proposal recommending his expulsion from that body.

It is doubtful if Mr. Husting, a Democrat, would have been chosen had Mr. La Follette not bitterly opposed the Republican candidate, ex-Governor Francis E. McGovern. One of the problems now confronting Wisconsin is to determine how much of Senator La Follette's former prestige still remains. Of course Mr. La Follette will endeavor to dictate the selection of a successor to his departed colleague,

In providing for the election of the United States Senators and for the filling of vacancies due to death, resignations, or removal, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution directs the Governors to issue writs of election, but permits the Legislatures to empower the Governors, until elections shall be held, to make temporary appointments. Some States have already so empowered their Governors. But not Wisconsin.

Governor Philipp, who delayed action three months, called a

special session of the State Legislature to meet on February 19 to ask it to give him the power to make a temporary appointment. On the convening of the Legislature Governor Philipp attempted to obtain the passage of an enabling act so that he might fill the vacancy. But the Legislature defeated the bill. This apparently left matters just where they were before.

The Governor had opposed a special election on the alleged ground that it might give an opportunity for an undesirable candidate to succeed. With the loyalist vote divided between Republicans and Democrats, a pacifist candidate might be successful. The Hon. Irvine L. Lenroot, the well-known member of Congress from Wisconsin, told a representative of The Outlook in Washington recently that, if a special election were to be held, some candidate, he believed, could be agreed upon with sufficient non-partisan indorsement to win. While Governor Philipp intimated at the last moment that he wished to appoint Representative Lenroot to the Senatorship, the refusal of the Legislature to permit him to do so is really a victory for Mr. Lenroot, who has all along asked his friends to stand for a special election. At that election, for which the Governor has now issued a call for April 2, Mr. Lenroot has not yet decided whether he will himself be a candidate; if he does, he will represent a hundred per cent Americanism. Joseph E. Davies, Democrat, and member of the Federal Trade Commission, whose Americanism is also doubtless at par value, has announced his candidacy; he probably has the Administration's support. A third candidate is Victor Berger, Socialist and ex-member of Congress, who represents an ultra-pacifist element that is in effect pro-German.

In this exigency the safe plan would be for the Legislature to pass a law providing for a non-partisan primary, with no party candidates permitted, but open to every one who might desire to go upon the primary ballot. The names of the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes at this nonpartisan primary would be placed upon the election ballot, and no other candidates permitted thereon. This might insure a clear-cut issue between a loyalist candidate and a pacifist candidate. It is even possible that the pacifist candidate might be eliminated at the primary, leaving in the contest two loyalist candidates. In either event, Wisconsin would have an opportunity to declare her loyalty to the Government in the prosecution of the war.

Certainly some measure should and can be adopted to prevent a disloyal minority from getting into power by taking political advantage of partisan divisions among the loyal majority.

SPANISH SUPPLIES

For many months General Pershing has found it hard to get lumber, mules, blankets, and other materials from Spain. The reason given for failure to fill his orders was that the transportation system had broken down and that it was impossible to handle goods destined for export.

The Spanish showed more willingness to send supplies, however, when it became known that Spanish steamers were being held up in American ports for lack of fuel. Through the control of bunker coal by the United States and her allies we were in a position to stop the shipment of goods to Spain. But Spain needs our cotton, oils, and other commodities. She should now get them in return for the things General Pershing orders. His ability to buy supplies in Spain would not only save him— and us-ship tonnage, but would enable him to build up his reserve stores far more rapidly than otherwise would be the case. In truth, Spain's transportation system, as regards both land and sea, has partly broken down-on land because of labor strikes and at sea because of German submarine warfare. Spain has lost between forty and fifty ships in this way. Her patience has been sorely strained. She has sent repeated notes to Germany demanding that merchantmen be not sunk without warning, that Spain's right to regulate her coastwise traffic without reserve be recognized; in especial, that Spanish territorial waters be respected. Germany has flagrantly violated those rights. She has been giving Spain some of the cause for going to war that she gave us. Perhaps Spain will follow our example. We hope so.

While Germany keeps on expressing surprise that her sea deeds should be construed by Spain as violating international

law, she also keeps up a persistent flirtation with the Spanish Court, Church, and Army. According to the "Kreuz-Zeitung," the organ of the military party in Berlin, the recent revolution in Portugal was started by England with the double hope of ruling that country and of making trouble on Spain's borders in order to drive Spain into joining England and the Entente Allies. "New hopes have been created lately," says the "KreuzZeitung," "for the Spanish monarch. Thanks to the wise German diplomacy, the hopes that the Spaniards are beginning to recognize are not impossible of realization through German support." These "new hopes," it turns out, are Portugal, Gibraltar, and the French possessions in North Africa.

Be this as it may, we believe that Alphonso XIII, the business interests, and the people generally are anti-German. The combination of these three elements may ultimately prove to be more than an offset to the other three-the Court, the Church, and the Army.

THREE PALACES

According to the London "Daily News," King George has offered three palaces for national use. They are his London residence, which is Buckingham Palace, and also Kensington Palace, London, for public offices; and, for wounded soldiers, his Highland residence, Balmoral Castle.

Because of location, size, and equipment, Buckingham Palace is well adapted for public use. As all visitors to London will remember, it rises imposingly at the west end of St. James's Park, not so very far from the Houses of Parliament and close to various railway and underground stations. The present palace takes its name from Buckingham House, erected by the Duke of Buckingham over two centuries ago, and later bought by George III.

In comparison with the present modernized façade of Buckingham, Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens to the west of Hyde Park is indeed an unassuming brick structure. It was partly built by Sir Christopher Wren for William and Mary, and in historic note outranks the other palace. William and Mary died at Kensington, so did Queen Anne and her husband Prince George of Denmark. So did George II. Queen Victoria and the present Queen were both born in Kensington Palace.

The name "Balmoral" is Gaelic for "majestic dwelling." Balmoral Castle, built of granite in Scottish baronial style, with an eastern tower a hundred feet high, is near Perth in Scotland, and was acquired in 1848 by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort. He bequeathed it to his wife. As the location is nine hundred feet above the sea, as the estate comprises some forty thousand acres, and as the scenery is superb, Balmoral should prove an inspiring place for the wounded in which to get well.

IN THE DAYS OF THE MEDICI

Scores of letters written by Lorenzo the Magnificent were recently advertised to be sold at the famous Christie's London auction room. With them were hundreds of other autographed letters and historic documents relating to the days of the Medici, of whom this Lorenzo was the greatest. But the Italian Government intervened by injunction. Italy forbids works of art and objects of historical importance to be removed from the country without permission. It seems that ancient documents are included under the law.

The Medici papers have long been a mine of inestimable value to the historians and romancists. Thousands of Americans have visited the marvelous Certosa near Pavia, built and adorned by the Visconti and Sforza as a propitiation for their many bloody deeds. The letters are full of the story of these men and their times. A larger number still have read the delightful lives of Beatrice and Isabella d'Este by Julia Cartwright and have enjoyed the descriptions of the brilliant court life, the endless intrigue and plotting, and the personal feuds.

These letters are the mine from which modern knowledge of fifteenth-century Italian diplomatic secrets, mediæval customs and fashions, and social and ethical standards have been drawn. Public and private morals were, in the modern view, topsyturvy

in some points. Thus in one of them Cosimo, Duke of Florence, asks, in behalf of a friend, the privilege of seeing his son in prison. The son, he writes, "was exiled not for political reasons, but only for murder."

Equally naïve is Lorenzo's statement about Beatrice d'Este's wedding, that Lodovico il Moro, the bridegroom, realized that he might expect a request from his bride that he spare the life of one Luigi da Tezago; so, to save himself from any controversy, "he had him hanged a week ago in the prison at Pavia."

FRANCE IS NOT "BLED WHITE"

The following figures, given by Mr. Stéphane Lauzanne, editor-in-chief of the Paris "Matin," director of the Official Bureau of French Information, show better than any words that France is far from being exhausted or "bled white."

In 1914, at the battle of the Marne, France had in the field an army of 1,500,000 men; to-day, after more than three years of war, France has in the field an army of 2,700,000 men. In September, 1914, the French war plants were manufacturing 12,000 shells per day; to-day France is manufacturing 300,000 shells per day. According to an agreement signed by the French High Commissioner in Washington with the War Department, it is the French war industries which manufacture all the light artillery for the American Army.

In these war plants, which are the pride of the French nation and which no exhausted country could maintain, nearly half a million women are actually working, day and night. There also progress has been achieved: in 1914 only 25,000 women were working in these factories; on March 1, 1917, the number had increased to 375,582, and to-day it reaches nearly half a million.

Since the beginning of the war the French Parliament has voted credits for the war amounting to more than $20,000,000,000. Of these $20,000,000,000 only $2,000,000,000 have been borrowed from foreign countries. The whole difference was drawn on the savings of the French themselves; the whole balance was subscribed by loans or paid by taxes. Besides that, France has been able to loan $1,000,000,000 to her allies, and to give them 2,500 guns and 5,000 airplanes.

And to-day on the western front the French army is still holding two-thirds of the whole line. At the beginning of the present year 82 German divisions were facing the French army. As Mr. Lauzanne points out, to need 82 German divisions in order to hold an exhausted army is, indeed, out of proportion.

WHAT HAS BECOME OF RUSSIA?

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USSIA no longer exists. The nine million square miles of territory, three times as great in extent as the United States, is called in geographies Russia is still tically intact. The hundred and eighty millions of people whom we have been in the habit of somewhat loosely calling Russians still live in this vast area. But an empire or a nation is made, not by its territory nor by the size of its population, but by its unity of national feeling and action. In this sense of the word there is no longer any Russian nation. The population is broken up into geographical communities and political groups that suspect one another and struggle against each other. How far the Russian collapse is due to German intrigue, propaganda, and military power, and how far it is due to the long evolutionary process of despotism and injustice under the Romanoffs, is an interesting question, but one so complicated and with so many political and historical ramifications that it cannot be intelligently treated in a brief newspaper article. The fact that is of great moment to the world at the present time is the unquestionable and manifest fact that there is no Russian Government, no Russian nation, and therefore that the Russian people cannot be a factor in the war nor even in international politics for a long time to come.

The natural impulse of the Allies is to look upon Russia with distrust and bitterness. Russia has deserted them in their hour of trial, and their feeling of resentment is very strong. It would be surprising if we Americans did not share in this feeling. On sober second thought, however, we believe that the feeling of

resentment will give way to a more reasonable consideration of the Russian situation. In forming a reasonable estimate of the Russian collapse Americans will do well to bear three things in mind.

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First, the Russian people should be looked on, not with but with pity and sympathy. Modern Russia dates from Peter the Great, and for the two hundred years since his time Russia has been in bondage to a despotic and cruel autocracy unparal leled in the history of modern Europe. Is it surprising th when this autocracy was suddenly destroyed the Russian people in their new-found but long struggled for liberty should ha given themselves up rashly to visions and dreams and impre tical schemes of universal brotherhood, and should have reacted against any and all kinds of authority? Pity for them shou lead us to give them all the sympathetic and wise help that w can in getting back to a condition of liberty under law.

Second, we should bear in mind that the collapse of Russi is not an unmixed blessing for the military autocracy of Ge many. Doubtless the immediate result will be to provide t German military power with food, labor, and other resouros But Russia can no longer be used as a bogie by the Prussian Pan-Germans to terrify the German people into a support their plans for creating a Mittel Europa under German don nation. It has become a truism of historical psychology that t masses of people in any country are not imperialistic. The own domestic affairs are a hundred times more important t them than plans of conquest. The people follow their mil tary leaders only when they are persuaded that they must do in defense of their homes and personal interests. The workin class of Germany in the early days of the war followed the Kaiser and von Hindenburg because they were told that Rus was proposing to swallow them on the north and east and the England and France wanted to throttle them on the south are west. The military caste, represented by the Kaiser and ver Hindenburg, played upon their fear in this way in order to get their support for the Pan-German scheme of conquest, but th German people are no longer terrified by Russia. They see that Russia has ceased to be a menace, and thus it may be said that the disintegration of Russia takes away from the military party in Germany a very important prop. It may be questioned, the fore, whether Prussian militarism has not been far more weak ened than it has been strengthened by the removal of Russ from the fighting forces of the war. In any event, the destres tion of the Romanoff autocracy will in the long run be a great gain to the progress of democratic freedom and reasona international relations throughout the world.

Third, on the whole the most important lesson for us in th country from the Russian collapse is that it discloses, in a wa that the simplest mind can understand, the folly of attempti to negotiate a peace with the Prussian military autocracy. appeals to reason, fair words, and noble aspirations about huma: brotherhood could make any impression on German autocracy or even on the German people-Trotsky and Lenine we have succeeded. It is clear that the Kaiser and the Governmes group of Germany still believe that " Might makes Right," a that international treaties are "scraps of paper." If France ́ England or the United States were to-day to endeavor to ne tiate with the Kaiser as Trotsky and Lenine did, they w suffer, and would deserve to suffer, as they have suffered.

WOL

WHAT CRITICISM ACCOMPLISHES

The two articles about the National Administration wh our readers will find in this issue will help them, we think. understand what is happening in Washington, for the reason that each article is written from a distinct point of vie In locating a position engineers make observations from two more points. In examining a piece of sculpture it is alw desirable to see it from more than one side. So we believe the these two articles together give perhaps a juster view of ot Government than either would give alone.

Both Mr. Davenport, whose Special Correspondence is titled "Some Washington Impressions," and Dr. Odell, who article is entitled “Interpreting the People to the Presid are experienced observers. Both of them have had training whi