justified in refraining from imposing further taxation. And here again he indulged in an essay in bookkeeping optimism, and also contrived to mislead the House rather seriously by maintaining that the "principle on which we had always hitherto gone" was that "at the end of the financial year there ought to be sufficient taxation, without counting excess profits duty, when peace comes to bear the normal expenditure of the country." He maintains that he examined the problem from this point of view, and that if he had found that this would not be so, he would have introduced a new Budget. It would be interesting to know on what figures Mr. Bonar Law based his estimate. If he is expecting that peace expenditure will be on anything like the old basis, he involves himself in a dilemma which was later pointed out by Mr. McKenna. Since the yield of taxation is based on the present level of prices, it is clear that if the Government of the country can be carried on on anything like the pre-war figures, the yield from taxation would not be on anything like the present level. Moreover, what did the Chancellor mean by saying that this principle which he laid down was the one "on which we had hitherto always gone"? Whom does he mean by "we"? If he means the present Government, no doubt he is right, but the present Government is the most profligate in extravagance and the most slipshod in finance that we have had since the war. To say nothing of our ancestors, who paid nearly half the cost of the Napoleonic War out of revenue, in April 1916, Mr. McKenna, who was by no means a Paladin in taxation, budgeted for a surplus "on the basis of peace expenditure after another year of war, and all its expenses,' of 85 millions. He was thus able to anticipate, if peace came, a considerable margin for relief. Yet Mr. Bonar

Law, so long as he can merely keep pace with service of the debt-and as Mr. McKenna showed, it is very doubtful whether he is so doing-not only feels satisfied himself, but misled the House by a statement which implies that this is the principle on which our war finance has all through been based.

In an interesting analysis of the position of the debt, he took the total National Debt at roughly £5,000 millions on September 29th, and having deducted from it loans to Allies of £1,100 millions, loans to Dominions £160 millions, responsibilities taken by the Indian Government £66,000,000, he makes a total of £1,326,000,000. He thus, again making the comfortable assumption that all our loans to Allies are as good as cash, brings down the total of our net debt to £3,674 millions, and having deducted the National Debt at the beginning of the war, which he puts at £645 millions, he leaves us with a net war debt of roughly £3,000 millions. From these figures he proceeded to the usual song of triumph based on a comparison between our finance and Germany's. The fact that German finance is very bad indeed is only comforting if it means that German staying power for the war is thereby weakened. But in view of German discipline and docility and readiness to believe official statements, it does not necessarily follow that this is so. Otherwise the fact that German war finance has been very bad indeed is no comfort to us because ours is very bad. Mr. McKenna endorsed Mr. Bonar Law's views that a supplementary budget was unnecessary. Nevertheless, the pace at which we are piling up debt, a considerable part of which has been raised abroad (a fact on which the Chancellor carefully laid no stress) is causing a good deal of concern among thinking men in the City, who are able to see more clearly than the Chancellor that this policy

has bad results during wartime, and may have still worse ones to be faced when the war is over.

In the subsequent very thinly attended debate perhaps the most illuminating remark fell from Sir J. Walton, who said that he had spent the recess in Scotland, and could tell "How many landowners there are chortling over the splendid bargains that they have made with this incompetent Government in finance." Such is our financial leadership in the fourth year of the costliest war ever fought. Surely it is high time to improve it.

The Economist.

AMERICA'S TASK.

It is impossible to study the reports from New York and Washington without becoming increasingly impressed by the skill which is being exercised in mobilizing the resources of the States for the financing of the war. Those who have the best knowledge of the American character and American methods were convinced that when the United States came to take part in the war her efforts would be of a very whole-hearted character. But there were some who were doubtful whether it would be possible to sufficiently liquefy the resources of the country to deal with the colossal figures represented by war expenditure, and particularly by America's grants to the Allies. Previous to 1914 the riches of America, though very great, were of an infinitely less liquid character than in some other countries, and notably our own. Three years ago, therefore, there would have been few who could have imagined that in the fourth year of the war America would be granting foreign loans to the extent of hundreds of millions annually, and, in addition, be financing unprecedented activity in her home industries at a time when the

financial facilities usually granted by Lombard Street were diverted for our own use and those of our Allies in meeting war expenditure. And yet the apparently impossible thing has become an accomplished fact. To a considerable extent, of course, the power of America to grasp the situation received its initial impetus from the huge purchases of the Allies in the United States during the first two years of the war, thus giving the country a favorable trade balance of unprecedented magnitude. This in itself, however, would not have been sufficient without the vast improvement effected in the banking system of the country and the wonderful ingenuity displayed by financiers and statesmen alike ever since America came into the war on the side of the Allies.

And now, according to the latest reports, it is clear that co-operation between Washington and bankers throughout the country is becoming increasingly close, though in Wall Street there seems to have been a passing disturbance in securities. The President has called for "the mobilization of the whole gold reserve of the nation under the supervision of the Federal Reserve Board." This is undoubtedly the right course to pursue, if, as we imagine, it is a prelude to employing such gold reserves in the most efficient manner, that is to say, giving those who control it the fullest power for the expansion and contraction of credit facilities as may be required. We mention "contraction" as well as expansion, though it is needless to add that, so long as present abnormal conditions continue, it is expansion rather than contraction which will be required. The time for contraction may come at a later period. Meanwhile, however, America may be assured that those who are watching her efforts at the present time, both friends and foes alike, are im

pressed not only with the energy displayed, but with the manifest signs of ever-improving organization. No one knows better than Germany that it is

The London Post.

organization as well as effort which spells victory, and of such organization there are abundant signs in America today.

Readers who, in the midst of all that is stern, practical and tragic in present-day existence, can still find pleasure in tales of nymphs and fauns, will enjoy Eden Phillpotts's quaint and imaginative tale of "The Girl and the Faun" (J. B. Lippincott Co.). Decorated borders on every page throw the story up in strong relief, and four colored illustrations by Frank Brangwyn interpret the text.

Under the title "Mystery Tales for Boys and Girls" (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.) Elva S. Smith, an expert librarian, has collected twenty-six selections in prose and verse, appealing to the youthful imagination. The collection opens with Poe's "The Gold-Bug"; there are four selections from Washington Irving, and three from Sir Walter Scott; and Macaulay, Moore, Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Alfred Noyes are among the other authors drawn upon. There are several selections also, in translation, from German, French and Swedish authors.

It is a beguiling and extremely slender figure which decorates the cover of Vance Thompson's "Eat and Grow Thin Calendar for 1918" (E. P. Dutton & Co.) and within, through page after page for each month, are given "Mahdah" menus, changing with the seasons and devised with a view to achieving the re ult indicated on the cover, yet by no means unattractive. The suggestions are adapted not only to those who have

obvious reasons for resorting to them, but to those who wish so to regulate their meals as to avoid dieting as a painful necessity.

Encased in a jacket, and decorated with end pieces which show a dainty and tranquil princess ruthlessly borne away on the shoulders of a most unprepossessing giant, Miss Frances Jenkins Olcott's "Tales of the Persian Genii" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) makes an instant appeal to young readers who have a yearning for wonder tales. Beguiled by these decorations, and by four highly-imaginative pictures in color by Willy Pogany, they will find a collection of Oriental tales, drawn from ancient Persian sources, and skillfully retold in such a way as to interest young readers of today without losing their Eastern flavor.

The distinguishing quality of the series of "Children of Other Lands Books" (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.) is that they are not mere descriptions written from the outside by chance travelers, but actual narratives of personal experiences by writers who describe their own childhood. As all roads once led to Rome, so the roads traversed by all of these writers led to America, and, out of full hearts and vivid memories, they tell the story of their early years. The latest volume is "When I Was a Girl in Holland" by Cornelia de Groot, and it is simply and directly written, in a style quite as likely to arrest the attention of young readers as the tales of the professional purveyors of young people's fiction,

and much more worth while. There are a dozen or more illustrations from photographs.

"A Maid of Old Manhattan," is a story of the Dutch colonists written by Arthur Knipe and illustrated by Emilie Knipe. The maid Annetje is a child who was discovered by the Indians in the arms of a dead negro slave and brought up by the Sachem and his squaw as the princess of the tribe until a Dutch trader came into possession of her. Annetje loves her Dutch foster-mother but is still loyal to the Indians and in a time of peril to the city of Nieuw Amsterdam is a successful peace messenger between old Peter Stuyvesant and the Sachem of the Indian tribe. The story is rich in local color and has an atmosphere of adventure and romance which should make it a highly satisfactory juvenile. Besides this the characterization is excellent and Annetje is a heroine with a distinct personality. The illustrations, moreover, have the rare quality of actually illuminating the text. The Macmillan

Co.

The Century Co. publishes an illustrated holiday edition of Irwin Russell's "Christmas Night in the Quarters and Other Poems" with an Introduction by Joel Chandler Harris, a biographical sketch by Maurice Garland Fulton, and twenty-nine penand-ink drawings by E. W. Kemble. Russell was one of the first poets to catch the negro dialect, and to reproduce the humor and sentiment which delight the negro mind. It is the real negro who tells his simple tales and rollicks through this verse, and it is the real life of the plantations that is represented in them. The operetta, which gives its title to the book, has the true negro flavor, and the prayer of "Brudder Brown," imploring a blessing upon the dance which was

about to begin, is perfect in its way. There are forty poems in all, most of them negro verse, though there are some in the Irish dialect. The pen-andink drawings are very clever, and excellent interpretations of the text. It is more than thirty years since Russell died, at what seemed the beginning of his literary career; but he will be long remembered for his dialect verse.

It would be quite superfluous to bespeak a welcome for Mildred Aldrich's "On the Edge of the War Zone" (Small, Maynard & Co.) for everyone who read her earlier book "A Hilltop on the Marne" will be eager to read the present volume, which takes up the narrative where the first book left it, after the Battle of the Marne, and carries it along to the joyous day last April, when the news that the United States had declared war upon Germany set the Stars and Stripes flying all over France. This book, like the earlier one, tells its story in letters, written to a friend in the United States, and, like that, it is vivid and poignant, with lighter touches here and there, and bits of personal experience and observation which make it very much alive. It was Miss Aldrich's fortune to live through these war years, as the title of her book indicates, on the edge of the war zone-often with the booming of the great guns in her ears -and she had unusual opportunities for studying the French character and watching the manifestations of the French spirit, through these years of stress and peril. It is well to have the records of operations on the different fronts supplemented by this intimate record of what has been going on in the hearts of the French people. Twelve full-page illustrations and a map add to the interest of the book.

Whoever follows Julian Street's "American Adventures" (The Century

Co.) from his departure from New York, where two beguiling friends seeing him off, cause him almost to miss his train, to his return, after leisurely studies and journeyings through Southern towns and cities, will find him one of the most delightful of travelers, keen yet sympathetic in observation, bubbling over with humor, and incapable of dulness. Through Baltimore, Washington, Richmond and Norfolk; through the "Heart of the South," Raleigh, Atlanta, Birmingham, Vicksburg and Memphis; to the "Farthest South"-Savannah, Palm Beach, Montgomery and New Orleans, Julian Street and his companion, Wallace Morgan, made their cheerful and observing way. Everywhere they had a good time; everywhere they saw things worth seeing and met people worth meeting; and everywhere they made notes and drawings which it is a delight to browse through. For the narrator was especially fortunate in his companion, the artist, who illustrates the text with eighty delicate and exquisite drawings. Altogether, the spell of the sprightly narrative and description, and of the diverting drawings will hold the reader, and anyone who takes up the book, thinking that he will merely glance through it, will find himself reading chapter after chapter, until he helps the author turn the latchkey again in his New York apartment.

"The Green Tree Mystery," by Roman Doubleday, describes the efforts of a charming heiress to discover the real murderer of her father, who is found dead in the library of his country house, and whose death the village coroner ascribes to the hand of a stranger who commits suicide the same night under a tree not far away. Dissatisfied with this verdict, since the stranger proves to be the father of a dear friend, Patty Kersey engages

a private detective. An admirer of hers whom her father has just rebuffed, and a Socialist who has a long-standing grudge against him, are among those on whom suspicion falls; an expert in hand-writing is called on, and the plot is so ingeniously developed that even the seasoned reader is surprised at the outcome. The writer has devoted his most detailed characterdrawing to the Socialist, whom he plainly detests with extreme cordiality, and who plays a very shabby part. D. Appleton & Co.

A sustained reading of "Under Fire" by Henri Barbusse is not possible as the book is so saturated with the actually experienced horrors of the war that, with each dip into it, one feels that one has stepped into bottomless slime where one must surely perish. These war experiences of a poilu include everyday life in the trenches, the taking of enemy trenches under fire, life in a French village when on leave, the entraining of troops, the official shops, hospitals, and red cross workers from the poilu's standpoint, in fact, every conceivable side of war life is touched upon. The recountal is almost too convincingly real and is unrelieved by any story woven into the narrative which, however, is filled with incidents that are the acme of life's drama. "Under Fire" is heaped-up, concentrated awfulness and all readers will be inclined to agree with the conclusion of the narrator that in the years to come, it is a question whether the deeds done in this war will be looked upon as those of the heroes of Corneille and Plutarch or of hooligans and Apaches. E. P. Dutton & Co.