VALENTINE'S Val-Ename An American product vastly superior to the finest imported enamels. It starts white and stays white. Val-Enamel is very economical. A small quantity covers a great deal of surface, enabling the painter to furnish a superior job at a reasonable cost. It is washable. For dining-room, livingroom or bedroom, for kitchen, pantry or bathroom, for interior or exterior work, use Val-Enamel. Ask the Valspar dealer for it. On account of the war and the consequent delays in the mails, both in New York City and on the railways, this copy of THE REGULATION OF WAGES Every now and then a new fact comes up which shows to what a startling degree we have departed in this country from the old industrial philosophy of the Manchester school of political economists. The theory of those economists was that all trade activities, including the relations of wage-workers to employers, should be governed by what they called the law of supply and demand. They contended that the sole function of government was to protect life and property, but that it was not to meddle in business or commerce, that the rule of industry was laissez faire, or let things alone. Occasionally to-day some loyal supporter of the Manchester philosophy struggles to make himself heard, but for all practical purposes the doctrine is obsolete, and the war has rapidly hastened its obsolescence. The United States Government is now regulating our coal, our food, our income, is fixing the prices we may receive for our wheat, and in England the Government is even telling manufacturers what they may make and what they may not make. The United States Government has already fixed eight hours as the legal length of a day's work for all laborers employed by it or by contractors working for it. It has now, by an Act just introduced into Congress, taken up the question of fixing wages. Twelve States in the past six years have established Minimum Wage Commissions, and as a result of the reports of these Commissions seven States have fixed the minimum rate of wages in certain employments. A bill providing for the fixing of minimum wage rates for women in the various trades and occupations in the District of Columbia, known as the Trammell-Keating Bill, was introduced in the Senate and the House on March 1. Senator Park Trammell, formerly Governor of Florida, is a progressive Southerner who is regarded as an exponent of the new industry era in the South. Representative Keating, of Colorado, has been a consistent advocate of measures in the interest of wage-earners, especially of women and children. He was one of the leading supporters in Congress of the Federal Child Labor Bill, the constitutionality of which law is now before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Trammell-Keating Bill for minimum wage-fixing cannot affect many women, for there are not many women wage-workers in the District of Columbia. But it is believed by those actively interested in improving factory conditions for women and children that, if passed, the bill will have great moral influence upon the country at large. It will put the Federal Government on record as to the District of Columbia, over which it has complete control, it will establish certain Federal boards of inquiry, it will afford a means of collecting and arranging statistics as to working and living conditions of women throughout the country. For this reason the National Consumers' League, which has done so much for the improvement of the conditions of wage-working women, and which has been an influential factor in certain great Constitutional decisions of the Supreme Court in labor questions, is watching the progress of the Trammell-Keating Bill with keen interest and an earnest desire for its passage. THE RAILWAY CONTROL BILL Though the railways of the country have been for several weeks operated by the Federal Government, and have therefore ceased for the time being to be private enterprises, except that they are privately owned, they cannot be run without money, and they cannot be taken without compensation for their use. Besides, there are a good many questions raised by Govern. ment operation that have to be settled by law. For example. how shall freight rates now be determined? So it was inevi table that a bill should be introduced and debated in Congress to provide the necessary legislation. Such a bill has passed both houses of Congress. It was prepared in its original form in accord with the policy of the Administration that is now operating the railways. Such amendments as have been made to the bill in Congress have not materially changed its main purpose. In its passage through each house it has been accepted as a war measure. There are many men in both houses of Congress who believe that Government operation of railways has come to stay; but these men, as well as those who believe or hope that the railways will go back to private operation, agree that the provisions of this bill should be regarded as temporary. Of course those who hope for the return to private management are emphatic on this point, but the believers in Government operation are equally emphatic, though on other grounds. We and we cannot stop to debate and discuss and modify and are in the midst of the war, say the Government operationists, perfect a measure suitable to provide for permanent Govern ment operation. We must recognize that emergency legislation legislation quickly than it is to get it in the best possible form. is necessarily imperfect. and that it is more important to get Both those who approve and those who disapprove Government operation as a permanent policy can agree on a measure that will provide for the Government operation necessary for length the provisions necessary for Government operation as a the prosecution of the war. Afterwards we can discuss at great permanent policy. There are some men in Congress who are determined to use every effort to bring about permanent Government operation who would oppose this measure if they had these regard, for example, the compensation for the use of the to accept it as a precedent for permanent operation. Some of railways as provided in this bill to be unscientifically deter mined, and, though acceptable enough for a limited period, not at all acceptable as a permanent policy. Others hold that the transfer of the railways to the control of the President is tolerable and perhaps necessary in war time, but that for permanent operation the railways should be transferred to a distinctively determined administrative body. When, therefore, in the Senate the proposal to remove the large majority it was decided that the provisions of this bill time limit from the bill was overwheimingly defeated, and by a should expire eighteen months after the close of the war, the is against permanent Government operation. vote was no indication that the prevailing opinion in Congress THE HOUSING BILLS The first of the two Housing Bills has passed Congress and has been signed by the President. It makes a beginning of providing for housing the army of men who are flocking to yards where the new boats for Government use are being built. The other bill, if it becomes law, will make a beginning of providing for housing the army of men who are flocking to munitions and other plants where Government contracts are in progress. Each bill appropriates $50,000,000. The total sum is one-tenth of what Great Britain has already spent for a similar purpose. 395 And she is ready to spend a billion dollars more. The English are wiser in this respect than we are. What they have done was described in an article in last week's Outlook. We are making but a deferred beginning at the problem; but it is better than the past delay. Senator Fletcher's bill, now law, authorizes the Emergency Fleet Corporation, acting under the Federal Shipping Board, to purchase land and houses for the use of employees in the shipyards in which there are now being constructed ships for the United States, to build and lease houses, to acquire land or houses by condemnation, and to make loans to corporations to provide houses. The Federal Shipping Board, which was established by law late in 1916, operates and repairs ships already in existence. It does not build ships itself, but has created the Emergency Fleet Corporation to take over, with a capital of $50,000,000, the mapping out of the ship-building programme, the commandeering of ships already built or being built, the adjustment of the differences between capital and labor, and the building of new boats. Since, therefore, the Emergency Fleet Corporation builds ships, it is the natural agency to use in building the houses for the ship-builders. Most workmen do not want to live at such barracks as the four at Hog Island, each with a capacity of 500 men; they are really big frame hotels. What they can now anticipate will be two thousand homes at that point. The workman wants to be near his work, but, as a rule, he does not want to live in a temporary kind of lodging. Hence we trust and expect that the Government will build in the best way the ultimately economical way. If it does, the slums of Philadelphia may be emptied in favor of the homes at Hog Island. The Director of Housing under the Federal Shipping Board is to be Mr. J. Rogers Flannery, a capable and earnest man, fully aware of the importance of his work. AN HOUR OF LIGHT FOR AN HOUR OF NIGHT Germany, Austria, Australia, Bermuda, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden have adopted the daylight saving plan, which consists in setting the clock forward one hour during certain of the spring, summer, and autumn months, and setting it back to standard time in the winter. The practical working of this plan is very simple. If at midnight at the close of April 30 next every clock and watch in the United States were set forward one hour, the man who rises at seven and breakfasts at 7:30 would still pursue his accustomed habits by the watch, but by standard or solar time he would rise at six and breakfast at 6:30. He would apparently be getting up, taking his breakfast, going to the office or store, and eating his midday and evening meals at just the hour he always had been, but he would actually have an hour more of the clear and refreshing daylight of the morning and a longer evening of sunlight after his day's work was done. The countries that have tried this plan are completely satisfied with it. It not only gives more time for daylight work and pleasure, but it is of distinct economic value. It has led to the annual saving in fuel last year of $35,000,000 in Germany, $12,000,000 in England, and $10,000,000 in France. A British Parliamentary commission has reported, moreover, that this simple device for providing more daylight hours has resulted in a manifest saving of light and health. Last April bills were introduced into Congress providing for setting the clock forward on the last Sunday of April and setting it back the last Sunday in September. The Senate passed this legislation last June, but the House has debated and discussed it until about a month ago. A compromise has been reached between the Senate and House Committees, and the two bodies have now agreed, we believe, on legislation which, if passed, will make the period of daylight saving in this country to extend from the last of March to the last of October, a period of seven months. It is believed that if the daylight saving plan is adopted it will have a very beneficial effect on the production of food in this country during the coming summer. It has been said that many farmers, no matter what the clock may indicate, get up at dawn and work until dusk. This cannot be said of gardeners, especially of the amateur sort, and there was an unprecedented number of them last summer-about three million. If there should be three million gardeners this summer, an extra hour of daylight for each one after the evening meal on the twenty-six working days of each of the seven months would add 546,000,000 working hours to the garden work of the country. Writing to The Outlook, Representative Borland, of Missouri, who is sponsor for the bill in the House, calls attention to the fact that the abovementioned stimulus to home gardens will help the transportation situation, for the nearer food is grown to the kitchen door the less demand there will be for cars to haul produce from distant points. He believes that the saving in coal thus effected will free many cars for use in other directions. There has been some discussion as to why the daylight sav ing plan should not be made to cover the entire twelve months. The United States Chamber of Commerce and the American Railway Association are among some of the important organizations that want to see the plan adopted throughout the year. But the main thing is the saving of daylight in summer. One summer has gone by already since the plan was introduced into Congress because of debates and discussions. Is it not evident that the thing to do now is to adopt the daylight saving plan for the coming summer and reserve debates regarding its extension until the winter months? If such a debate in favor of an annual extension of the plan should come up next winter, we should vote strongly in the negative. It seems to us that the whole merit of the plan consists in applying it only to the summer months. Its merit consists in the fact that it gets people to do things earlier in the day under an agreement that they shall profess to deceive themselves into a belief that they are doing things just as they have always done them. This professed selfdeception can be solely accomplished by setting the clock for ward in the spring and setting it back in the autumn. There is, after all, so much of the children in us "grown-ups" that we have occasionally to sugar-coat our reforms by this kind of make-believe self-deception. The element of self-deception will be entirely taken out if we set the clock forward perma nently. Some of our readers have asked us by what authority Con gress can impose upon the individual citizen the necessity of setting his watch forward on a given date in March? The reply is that Congress has no such authority and is not endeavoring legally to compel any private citizen to follow the daylight saving plan. Under the Inter-State Commerce Law, however, Congress can regulate the railways, and the bill now in Congress provides that "all common carriers engaged in commerce between the several States, or between a State and any of the Territories of the United States, or between a State or the Territory of Alaska and any of the insular possessions of the United States or any foreign country," shall arrange their movements and time-tables in accordance with the new standard time established by moving the clock forward one hour. When all the railways and steamship lines do this, every price citizen will have to follow, for, as a matter of fact, every citizen of the United States must set his watch in accordance with the railway time of his immediate neighborhood. THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE The reports from France of the courage and skill of the American forces actually in the fighting line are good reading for all American patriots. It is now no secret that sections of the line are held by Americans, stationed between French bodies of troops but acting independently. This state exists in three, perhaps four, sectors of the general line. Our troops have aided in raids made by French contingents in which prisoners were taken and losses inflicted on the enemy, they have suf fered from vicious gas attacks directed solely at the American line, and they have withstood by themselves attacks, one of which was so stubbornly continued that the experts doubt whether it was a simple raid or had as its ultimate object the capture and retention of a part of our line. In this particular action, which took place to the north of Toul on March 1. Lieutenant Eadie, Lieutenant Hoover, and thirteen men were killed, while about ten men were wounded. The story of the fight shows that the Americans used their automatic pistol with notable success, wounded many of their assailants, some of whom died in No Man's Land, and took several prisoners. This was a violent and hard-fought engagement, although, of course, on a comparatively small scale. The German raid was a failure. The French Premier, M. Clemenceau, in person decorated and praised several American officers and privates for courage shown in this fight. The anxiety and interest of Americans on this side quickens day by day as our soldiers' activity increases. It is natural, then, that fuller accounts are urgently desired. The Government is allowing specific statements as to engagements, the names of officers and men killed; but it is carrying on an annoying censorship in matters which could not embarrass military effort. If this is regarded as a civilian view, it may be pointed out that the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, as reported in the papers, himself uses the phrase "muzzling censorship." Major-General Peyton C. March, the new Chief of Staff, who recently arrived from France, explained what he meant by the phrase when he said, as reported, "American officers in France could not understand why the censorship lid had been clamped on so tight." He added that the people at home were entitled to know what happened, and that one of the first things he intended to do after reporting at Washington was to advocate a change in the censorship, making it less rigorous. THE NEW MACHINE GUN It is encouraging and hopeful to learn from Washington reports that at the end of last month satisfactory and promising results were obtained at a test before experts of the new Browning machine gun and machine rifle. The reports state that army officers were enthusiastic and that some declared that the Browning was superior to any existing weapon of its kind for the uses to which American soldiers will put it. The small number of parts and the ease of assembling the machine gun, together with its comparatively light weight, are the points upon which stress is laid. The machine rifle needs no water-cooling system, it can be carried almost as readily as an ordinary rifle, and is said to be hardly distinguishable from the rifle at a distance. It will fire twenty rounds without reloading and with only one pull of the trigger. There seems to have been a basic misconception of the criticism of the War Department as regards machine guns. For instance, one writer on scientific topics, whose opinion is of real value, writes to The Outlook at length to prove that the Browning machine gun is as good as, or better than, the Lewis gun. He seems to think that the contrary was asserted by The Outlook and in Dr. Odell's article on the subject. No such assertion has been made. The criticism on General Crozier and the War Department was not on a point of gun-making, but one of policy. In a word, it was that the Department should not have stood still while the Browning gun, untested in war, was being manufactured and tested. There was at least a possibility that the test would fail. It was perfectly practical and easy in the meantime to purchase other forms of machine gun which had been tested and used in immense numbers in actual warfare. The Navy did this without a moment's delay; the Army delayed until forced into inadequate purchases by public opinion and the example of the Navy. In short, there were two policies possible. One was to wait until the perfect gun was designed, turned out in a factory, standardized, made interchangeable, and then produced in quantity. The other policy was to devise and design and turn out better and better all the time; but meanwhile to use the best motors and best guns available. FOR THE WORLD'S LIBERTY The spirited art poster by Mr. Howard Chandler Christy which we have the pleasure of presenting to our readers on another page admirably catches the feeling and enthusiasm which should and will inspire the Third Liberty Loan campaign. America has so far responded, not merely generously but with overflowing measure, to the demands made upon her for men, for money, and for relief. There is no more doubt that she will now again pour forth her treasure to win the war than there is that the sun will rise. The exact details of the new loan are not finally fixed. To some extent they depend upon Congressional legislation. It is planned, however, if possible, to open the campaign upon April 6 -a most fitting date, for it is that of the entrance of the United States into the war against. German greed and tyranny. As has been pointed out repeatedly, the Liberty Loan bonds are sound and safe investments for the future, and will increase in value after we win the war, if not before. Their purchase, however, emphatically represents patriotism and the will to help the Government. Every dollar so invested which might otherwise be used for folly or extravagance or speculation stands for a blow against world autocracy and for the triumph of liberty and international law and order. We must both lend and give in this war. The first we do through Liberty Loans and War Stamps; for the second, there is always recurring need. If the total given for the relief of wounded soldiers or to clothe and feed the helpless war victims abroad or to restore devastated homes and villages were to be put into one sum, its aggregate would be amazing. The Young Men's Christian Association, the Red Cross, the Knights of Columbus, and numerous other relief agencies must continue to expend money like water to carry on their humane work. When one reads that the American Red Cross proposes at the beginning of May to institute its second campaign for a hundred million dollars, one gasps at first at the knowledge that the hundred million dollars raised last summer has already nearly been expended and must be replaced; but one also feels confident that the twenty-two million members of the Red Cross and their friends and neighbors will make their gifts equal to the need, and that this second intensive drive will be carried as easily as was the first. And any one who will study for half an hour the wonderfully graphic account of the work done up to November 1 last, as told in the pamphlet report then issued by the American Red Cross, will have no doubt left as to the extent, variety, and value of the efforts of the American Red Cross. MR. BRYAN REAPS When William Jennings Bryan, former Secretary of State, rose to convey the greeting of great temperance organizations in the United States to a monster prohibition convention in Toronto on the last day of February, he was met by hoots, catcalls, and shouted remarks of derision. "What about the Lusitania?" 66 There were answering shouts of "Put them out" and "Where's your fair play?" but the disturbers kept up the noise. They sang Over There," " Rule, Britannia," and "The Maple Leaf Forever." The chairman tried to restore order, but was met with shouts : "Put Bryan off the platform and we'll be quiet." "Put him out and we'll go out too." Then a wounded veteran, Major Nasmith, appealed to the disturbers. "Boys," he said, "our men are fighting for liberty and freedom in Europe. Let us have it here." But many of the men who were making the disturbance had themselves been in the trenches and fighting for liberty; and the sight of Mr. Bryan as he started to speak set them off again. Nothing that Mr. Bryan said could be heard twenty-five feet from the platform. The great majority in the assemblage wanted him to have a hearing, but the disturbers could not be quieted; and Mr. Bryan himself requested that no force be used by the police, for he said that he was not willing that any one should be hurt in an effort to make it possible for him to speak. So Mr. Bryan had to content himself with dictating a statement to reporters. After he had stood his ground for an hour and departed, many expressed their regret at such an occurrence; but the feeling of the men on the street was that "Bryan got what was coming to him," and that the convention made a great mistake in putting such a speaker upon a Canadian platform just now. A Canadian correspondent writes to us: Four years ago no more popular visitor of the United States to Canada could be found than Mr. W. J. Bryan. But it is not so now. His actions since the war began have filled Canadians with the keenest bitterness, and that feeling is not to be easily allayed. He was Secretary of State when the Lusitania was sunk and when both the honor of the United States and the cause of the Allies demanded that the United States enter the war. The subsequent disasters of the war and the entailed deaths of thousands of Allied troops and civilians are laid at his door. The fact that the United States is now in the war is in spite of his every effort; and the fact that he speaks so loyally now is credited to the fact that he has so to speak. Scores of distinguished Americans have been welcomed and listened to with the keenest interest in Toronto, but the appearance of Mr. Bryan called forth memories too fresh and wounds too severe to be easily forgotten and forgiven. Hence occurred the demonstration that is regretted by all liberty-loving people. The memories of Americans are proverbially short, but they cannot be so short as to allow Americans to forget the associa tion of Mr. Bryan's name since the invasion of Belgium and the Lusitania massacre with pacifists and pro-Germans, and his personal association with them in public meetings. Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. In a world struggle between those who are willing to fight for liberty and those who either fight against it or will not fight at all, Mr. Bryan chose at the outset to take his stand against those who were fighting for liberty. It is not surprising that those who have fought for liberty do not find him a welcome visitor. The feelings of the majority of Canadians are most probably expressed by those disturbers, but their judgment is probably better represented by the majority in that meeting who would have suffered Mr. Bryan to speak. THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Of the eighty-nine men who have during the centuries been Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang is the first to visit this country. He is fifty-three years old. A portrait of him in his archiepiscopal robes was printed in The Outlook two weeks ago. His father was one of the Moderators of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The son went to Glasgow University, thence to Oxford, where he entered Balliol, and, together with Viscount Grey and Earl Curzon, became part of that brilliant set of men who, under Dr. Jowett, added to the scholarly renown of the ancient College. Young Lang devoted himself to football and athletics as much as he did to his studies. He also became President of that famous debating society the Oxford Union, and secretary of the committee formed to promote university interest in Toynbee Hall, the London social settlement. Lang had determined on a political career as affording the best opportunity of helping his fellow-men, and to this end began to read law, meanwhile lecturing frequently in the East End of London at Toynbee Hall and Oxford House. This led to his conviction that the ministry was, after all, the place for him. He prepared for it, was ordained, and after occupying minor positions became Vicar of St. Mary's, the Oxford University church, relinquishing this congenial responsibility in two years, however, to accept the charge of a great church at Portsea, the Portsmouth suburb which contains the immense naval dockyard. This populous parish afforded full scope for any man's energy. Lang gathered a dozen curates about him and organized an elaborate and successful machinery of social service. Right across from Portsea is the Isle of Wight, and on that island is the royal Palace of Osborne. Queen Victoria, who made him her chaplain, called Lang thither, so the story goes, and said: "I hear excellent reports of your work at Portsea, and I find that you actually keep a staff of twelve curates. You should take to yourself a wife. I believe you would be able to do with two curates less." curate who does not suit, I can get rid of him; but I could not do the same with a wife." Five years of Portsea work was an appropriate preparation for the Bishopric of Stepney, one of the poorer London districts, where Lang remained seven years. Then, in 1908, he was called to archiepiscopal honors. As he said in his sermon on Sunday of last week, York brings memories of the Roman legions. Do we recall that in 79 A. D. Agricola established a Roman station there, that the Emperor Severus died at York (211), that it was there also that the Emperor Constantius died, and that Constantine the Great, his son, was proclaimed Emperor there (306)? The see sent repre sentatives to the Church Councils of Arles (314) and Nicæa (325). Hundreds of people in New York City who attempted to hear the Archbishop were unable to find room either in Trinity Church or even in the Cathedral of St. John, where he spoke. Dr. Lang has a well-modulated voice. He speaks in simple, unemotional language, but with great depth of feeling. Perhaps his greatest charm lies in his modest manner. In the House of Lords he is preceded only by the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord High Chancellor. The Archbishop's message to America was also delivered at Camp Upton, where, in the auditorium of the Y. M. C. A., on Monday, March 4, he spoke with such obvious purpose of avoiding the dramatic that his words, like those of the preceding day, had all the greater directness and force. His message is the tremendous urgency of our bringing all that we can to the ser vice of the Allies at the present moment. It is not too much to say, affirmed the Archbishop, that on the coming of American man power to Europe depend for many years the foundations of civilization. WHAT MR. MCADOES Readers of Mr. Davenport's "Washington Portraits" in this issue may be interested in some account of the multitu dinous duties which one of the men he portrays is called upon to perform. Most of these have been compactly recorded in some verses by Alvah Bushnell, Jr., of the Alvah Bushnell Company, of Philadelphia, to which is attached what may be called an envoi by E. B. Seymour, of the Bushnell staff. We find both the poem and the envoi in the February number of "Office Appliances," whose editor has courteously given us permission to reprint them. Mr. Bushnell's ballad is as follows: POOR MISTER_McADOO! Think of the jobs he's hitched up to!— He stretches out each day to two To which Mr. Seymour adds: STILL MCADOOING Leaving aside all jokes and fun, STOPPING THE OUTLOOK The mysterious reactions of the human mind sometimes strike the newspaper editor very forcibly. Americans are apt to refer with amiable tolerance to the superstition and traditional ism of the Oriental. We congratulate ourselves that there is something in the American atmosphere that develops our native intelligence so that it becomes accurate and acute in making sound deductions from any given facts. We like to think that |