THE NEXT LIBERTY BOND ISSUE

reasons,

It is very important, both for patriotic and for material that the next Liberty Bond sale, which will begin some time next month, shall be a complete success. Its oversubscription will be a guarantee that the country has the kind of determination to win the war which General Grant so well expressed in his famous despatch, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.' Preparations are being made for a country-wide campaign, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, which shall surpass in its enthusiasm and efficiency the work of the two previous loans.

Volunteer committees are being formed and private citizens are preparing in their localities, but it must be frankly recognized that there are certain difficulties in the way of the new loan which did not present themselves in the two previous Liberty Bond campaigns. Heavy income tax payments are due this summer from the people who so enthusiastically subscribed for the previous issues, and those issues have in many instances depleted the ready cash of buyers. Therefore special inducements are likely to be necessary to persuade subscribers in many instances to make a supreme effort.

Two practical suggestions for making the coming loan especially attractive have come to our attention that appear worthy of favorable consideration. The first is made by Mr. Frank Seaman, which in an article on page 457 in this issue. Mr. appears Seaman is a well-known New York business man of large interests in merchandising and industry. His proposal is to make the new bonds of more than ordinary value to the merchant and business man by exempting them from liens or attachments in bankruptcy proceedings, provided that when they are bought the buyer is solvent. This would make these bonds a kind of insurance for the families of merchants against the inevitable risks of commercial business. We commend a careful reading of his article.

The second suggestion also comes from a New York business man, Mr. N. T. Pulsifer, the head of an important and well-known manufacturing concern. He makes it in a letter to a prominent investment banker of this city, from which we are permitted to quote:

I have read with interest your pamphlet on "How to Raise Money for a Third Liberty Bond."

I quite agree with you that the "Baby Bond" [that is to say, the fifty-dollar bond fappeals to a large number of small investors who would not be interested in the War Savings Stamps.

The chief objection I have heard to the "Baby Bonds" is that the people who buy them have no place to keep them.

It has occurred to me, and doubtless it has to others, that if the savings banks could be enlisted to become the custodians of the Liberty Bonds so purchased, so that they would keep them for their depositors, and cut off the coupons when due, and cash them, and carry the proceeds to the savings accounts of their depositors, two things would be accomplished: first, the safe keeping of the bonds themselves, and, second, the saving of the interest paid on the coupons.

If the savings banks and other banks with savings depart ments all over the country would unite on this plan, it would not only be a patriotic aid in the stimulation of Liberty Bond purchasers, but it would without doubt be of great benefit to the savings banks themselves. Small bondholders having savings bank accounts would augment those accounts, and bondholders not having savings bank accounts would be induced to open such accounts. The machinery would be simple.

Let us suppose that John Smith, of Cornwall, New York, has

three one-hundred-dollar bonds which he has bought in the three campaigns. He takes them to the savings bank, gets a receipt for them, and can get them back at any time on presentation of his receipt. The proceeds of the coupons clipped and cashed by the savings bank will be shown on his pass-book. The increase of deposits would doubtless pay the savings banks for any expense they are put to in taking care of the bonds and coupons. We do not see that there is any way in which the Gov. ernment can act in this matter, but the Savings Bank Associa tions in the various States or the American Bankers Association for the United States might well take the matter up and see if it cannot be universally adopted throughout the country.

A TRADE BOYCOTT OF GERMANY?
President Wilson has said:

The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is this-that if they should still, after the war is over. continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace.

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This defines the unvindictive spirit with which all men of good will regard this economic question. It defines in especial the spirit which animated the United States Chamber of Com. merce, which has now passed, by a vote of 1,204 to 154, a reso lution warning Germany that unless she abandons her militaristic policy an economic combination may be formed against her. The Chamber has wisely resolved to bring this to the atten tion of the business men of Germany," so that they may take steps to prevent a disastrous economic war," the kind of war which the overwhelming sentiment among a thousand of our local commercial organizations would visit upon Germany. Why should we aid economically in rebuilding a militaristi Germany?

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THE "GENERAL EYE"

President Wilson has appointed Mr. Bernard M. Baruci Chairman of the War Industries Board.

This Board is an outgrowth of the Council of Nationa Defense, and that Council is an outgrowth-though incomplete-of the popular demand for a body representing the best brainof industry, of the Army and Navy, of Congress and of the Federal Executive, to co-ordinate our industrial, military, and National resources and policies.

The functions of the War Industries Board are the seeking for additional sources of war supplies, the conversion of existing facilities to new uses, the conservation of resources, the giving of advice regarding prices, the determination of priorities of delivery, and now the supervision of purchases for the Allies.

The War Industries Board has developed especially along the lines of prices and priorities. This development the President further emphasizes in his letter to Mr. Baruch asking whether he would accept appointment. The new Chairman is to be at least a general surveyor if not a final arbiter, for, in fact, as the President says, he should act as the general eye in all supply departments in the field of industry."

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In the determination of prices, however, from the terms of

the President's letter, we assume that Mr. Baruch must be governed by the advice of the members of the Materials Board of the Council of National Defense, the Labor member of the Council, the Chairmen of the Trade and Tariff Commissions, and the Fuel Administrator.

In the determination of priorities Mr. Baruch will be assisted, we assume from the President's letter, in addition to the present priorities organization, by representatives of the Food, Fuel, and Railway Administrations and of the Shipping and War Trade Boards.

If competition for supplies among the Government departments and among the Allies is thus eliminated, the new order of things may materially contribute toward satisfying the demand for centralization of Governmental powers.

NEXT YEAR'S COAL

The regulations recently issued by the Fuel Administra tion at Washington are interesting in themselves and welcome because they show that a definite plan is already under way for handling next year's coal problem. It is none too soon to provide for this, even though this year's coal problem is not yet out of the

way.

The average citizen is most immediately interested in the question as to how he may and can get coal into his cellar for domestic use. He will find that after April 1, when he files his coal order, he must file with it a certified statement. In it he must tell how much coal he wants for the coming year, how much he used in the past year, how much he has on hand, what kind of heating plant he uses, what sort of house he has and how many rooms, what dealer he has bought from, and what he has paid. In the smaller places coal cards may be used instead of certificates.

The Fuel Administration urges consumers to put in their orders early, and suggests that April is none too early. Whether the consumer will find coal ready for delivery in April in quantity is another question. The plan is that the consumer shall receive only two-thirds of what seems to be a fair year's supply for him, and that after all the orders have been filled to the extent of two-thirds, then a second round, so to speak, shall supply the remaining third to each. In this way it is thought that a more equitable division of the coal will be made and that no shortage will occur.

The regulations provide that an average reduction of thirty cents a ton is to be made by all retailers on coal sold between April 1 and September 1. Penalties are to be inflicted upon the consumer who signs a false certificate and on the retailer who violates the law.

WANTED-A BUDGET

The Outlook has long favored a budget system for America similar to that used by England.

At present all our Governmental estimates are made by the heads of the executive departments and go to the Secretary of the Treasury, who transmits them to Congress. He has no power to change them, or even to review them.

What we need is, first, that these estimates should be reviewed at a Cabinet council in their relationship to each other and co-ordinated so as to save duplication and extravagance; and, second, that the Secretary of the Treasury should be empowered to act as a true financial head, supervising all estimates.

These reforms should have long since been undertaken by the Executive. Until they are, any reform undertaken by Congress in its treatment of the estimates is only one step in advance, although a desirable step.

In the Billion Dollar Urgent Deficiency Bill, now being debated by the House, Representative Sherley, of Kentucky, said that there was nothing really required except such executive action. In his Message last December President Wilson, ignoring the more elemental reform, recommended to Congress that all its committees now handling appropriations be merged into one. A joint committee of the two houses should be appointed, we think, so as to prevent unconsidered items being attached to appropriation bills in the Senate. If this cannot be done,

We have always been more or less under the tyranny of phrases. Many people speak about a budget without any contemplation of what is involved. . . . I have always favored a concentration of appropriating power.... I have not sought to press it at this time because of the tremendous tasks that are placed upon Congress in connection with the war. To undertake reform of that magnitude, and reform that did not meet with universal acquiescence of the House, would be simply to cripple and not to help in the presentation of great financial bills... The true duty of the budget is to consider expenditures in relationship not simply to the needs or desires of the Government, but to the ability of the country properly to stand the taxation necessary to pay for the expenditures. But. you make appropriations at this time, during a war, not with regard to the burden that it will place upon the people of America; you make it with regard to the sole requirements of prosecuting and winning the war... The need for a budget in a peace-time sense does not exist in war time.

We differ from Mr. Sherley. Doubtless there is a difference between peace time and war time. But we feel that the present war time is precisely the time when a budget is most needed. The urgent necessities of the war, the enormous growth of the National expenditure under present conditions, and the reduc tion of the Nation's power occasioned by extravagance and waste, give the matter an importance far greater than it ever had before.

We are also sure that there is something required besides exce utive action. Congress could, by a just rule, as President Butler of Columbia University recently pointed out, hold in abeyance its Constitutional power to increase or add to the items of the estimates for expenditures, leaving only the power to reduce or strike out the plan followed in Great Britain.

Nor is this all. In order to enjoy the benefits of the British system Congress should also enjoy the advantages of the British Parliament. In the House of Commons Cabinet members sit and answer questions concerning the estimates they have ree ommended. In this country, not only Cabinet members, but also such officials as the Governor of the Federal Reserve Board, the Chairmen of the Tariff and Trade Commissions, of the Shipping Board, and of the Civil Service Commission, together with the Food and Fuel Administrators, might well occupy seats in the Senate and House of Representatives, with the right to participate in debate on matters relating to the business of their respective departments.

By the daily reports in the papers of such discussions the man in the street might at last understand just how the growth in our expenditures has come about.

UNFORTUNATE

The March number of the "Metropolitan Magazine," with which Theodore Roosevelt is editorially affiliated, has been barred from the mails by the Postmaster of the City of New York. This issue of the "Metropolitan" contains two articles either or both of which may have led to its exclusion from the mails.

The first is an article by William Hard entitled "Is America Honest?" It reports an imaginary conversation between the Kaiser; President Wilson; Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece; and Evangelista, a bandit of Santo Domingo. In this article the Kaiser, the Greek Minister, and the Dominican revolutionary quote verbatim from the President's various addresses and messages during the last three years and attempt to show their inconsistency. The President, on his part, endeavors to interpret and reconcile his utterances. The article is a brilliant and often amusing one, and it must be said that the President is made to hold his own very well in the face of what are apparently some knock-down blows. But of course its manifest purpose is to satirize the variability and uncertainty of the President's war policy.

The other article is an editorial by Mr. Whigham, the editor-in-chief of the "Metropolitan." It is an attempt to "Put the Blame Where It Belongs" for our War Department and administrative blunders during the past winter-namely

on the shoulders of the President. The temper of the editorial is fairly indicated by the following quotation:

Under our form of government, Mr. Wilson is entirely responsible and solely responsible for the choice of his Cabinet and for the selection of administrative officers outside of the Cabinet. In no other country in the world, certainly not in Germany or in England or in France, is there a chief executive with so much power, power almost amounting to real dictatorship. For the lamentable failures of the present Administration, therefore, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Wilson alone is responsible. Therefore we may expect sooner or later that in spite of all the idolatry of the past Mr. Wilson will come in for a large share of the blame. ... Of course the President is to blame. But that is only a superficial view of the matter. We, the people, are infinitely more culpable. After all, Mr. Wilson is doing what his nature and accomplishments permit him to do. He is trying his best to be a good war President. But we . . . made the unpardonable mistake of electing Mr. Wilson President. There lies the real blame. . . . We voted for him because he was neutral about the ruin of Belgium and because he was worse than neutral about the sinking of the Lusitania. . . . We are sorry to say that a fairly large section of the public acts just like the New York "World." Having voted for Mr. Wilson in order to be allowed to go on profiting by the war, and having hedged Mr. Wilson round with a sanctity that few monarchs and fewer saints have ever enjoyed, they are now beginning to look for some one to blame, because they possibly have not enough coal to keep them warm and not enough sugar to sweeten their coffee. . . . Our only hope of real and permanent improvement is, first, that the Nation should realize its own culpability and put the blame where it belongs, on its own shoulders. For the Nation elected Mr. Wilson with its eyes open. Second, that every one, even if he is a Democrat, should cease to be an idolater and stop talking as if to criticise the Administration were blasphemy. No one in England thinks he is aiding the enemy simply because he ventures to suggest that Lloyd George might possibly be mistaken. Look at Northcliffe's utterances. It is a positive fact that if any American newspapers said about Mr. Wilson what tlie "Times" and Daily Mail" have said about Lloyd George and Asquith, Mr. Burleson would refuse to pass them through the mail.

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woman candidate on the Prohibition ticket, but her candidacy was evidently not taken seriously by the women voters, for she received only 382 votes out of the over 9,000 ballots cast by the women in that district. The Democrats won by a large plurality in all four districts, and the result is taken by political leaders as a vote of confidence in President Wilson's announced policy of carrying on the war vigorously.

All observers agree that the women voters showed intelligence, facility, and determination in their first appearance at the polls and in their handling of the technique of marking and casting their ballots. Their interest in their new civic function is indicated by the fact that ninety per cent of the registered women voted, while less than forty per cent of the men who were registered appeared at the polling-places. This is partly explained by the fact that the men registered last October for the Mayoralty election, while the women registered only recently for this special Congressional election. Nevertheless, making due allowance for this fact, it is clear that the women showed a more serious and determined purpose in the election than the men. The election did not appear to interfere with the housekeeping or maternal duties of the women voters, and many of them expressed themselves as finding the operation less difficult and confusing than they had anticipated.

That the men are beginning to feel that their jokes at the expense of the women voters are recoiling on their own heads is indicated by the following clever verses, signed "John O'Keefe " and entitled "The Missus's Vote," which we find in the New York "World:"

"And what frock will
you wear when
To the missus said I.
"Will you put on that marvelous coat
That it broke me to buy?

Will you dazzle the girls at the polls
With your
burden of boas and stoles

From the sables and foxes and moles ?"
To the missus said I.

you vote ?"

"You've another guess coming, old beau," Said the missus to me.

"This is not any Dressmakers' Show, Imitating Paree!

For the costume I'm putting on view (That is, figuratively) for you

Is composed of the Red-White-and-Blue," Said the missus to me.

"Will you vote just about as you shop?" To the missus said I.

"With a whirl at your cerebral top

And with fingers that fly?

Is candidate

a

for his airs?
yours
Or the color of necktie he wears?

Or the way that he brushes his hairs?"
To the missus said I.

"When your cheap little jesting is done,” Said the missus to me,

"I will vote for the Flag-and-the-Gun, And a world to be free;

For the triumph of Right in the fray,
And the Yankees' victorious way,
And a peace that shall evermore stay!"
Said the missus to me.

From results of the ballot-box fight,
It appears that she voted all right!

THE WISCONSIN SITUATION

A fortnight ago the upper house of the Wisconsin Legislature censured Senator La Follette for his attitude in the war. The lower house has, we are glad to say, confirmed this action. As one of the Assemblymen said, "The State of Wisconsin is on trial before the bar of public opinion." He continued:

The people of the Nation . . . expect us to condemn and rebuke those in high and representative places who have sought to quibble and question and hamper and obstruct our Government in the successful prosecution of the war. Senator La Follette has by his actions. . . brought the fair name of the State

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of Wisconsin into ili repute. The people of this Nation demand of us to rise to the occasions This much we must do; we can do no less.

The Legislature's action significant of the opinion in Wisconsin concerning one whose expulsion from the United States Senate is now being considered by a committee of that body. He has had great popularity with a certain element in his State. How much he has lost with those recent supporters who are now standing with the Federal Government is not yet known, but we are sure that there has been a great, and that there will be a greater, shrinkage.

The Legislature's action also clears the situation for immediate activity in the Senatorial primary campaign to fill the vacancy caused by Senator Husting's death. For the Republican primary nomination there have been three candidatesJames Thompson, a follower of La Follette; former Governor Francis E. McGovern, a man of high administrative ability and in the forefront among Wisconsin statesmen; and Irvine L. Lenroot, the able Wisconsin Representative in Congress. On March 11 Mr. McGovern announced his withdrawal from the race. Mr. McGovern's action, as stated, was based on the indictment, on the charge of violating the Espionage Act, of Victor Berger, the Socialist candidate. This indictment, as Mr. McGovern says, practically removing Berger from the list of candidates, may cause Berger's followers to go in a body to the support of James Thompson, the La Follette candidate, at the Republican primaries, and insure his nomination on the Republican ticket should both Lenroot and McGovern remain in the field to divide the patriotic vote of the party. The statement issued by Mr. McGovern concludes:

In the public interest, therefore, and so that my party may not be disgraced and discredited for years to come, as now seems inevitable unless the choice of the Republicans is narrowed down to one candidate on each side of the great, vital, and transcendent issue of loyal and patriotic Americanism, I now retire in Mr. Lenroot's favor and place my services at his disposal. Mr. McGovern's action will redound to his credit. Writing to The Outlook, Mr. Lenroot also takes this view of the coming onslaught on the Republican primaries. He says: The loyalty fight is in the Republican party; the pro-Germans and pacifists seem to think that because of La Follette's attitude they can make their best fight there. It is going to mean hard campaign, but I think we are going to win."

The principal Democratic candidate at the coming primaries Joseph E. Davies, a member of the Federal Trade Commision, who is said to enjoy the Federal Administration's support.

RUSSIA'S FATE IN SUSPENSE

To the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which met in Moscow on March 12, President Wilson sent the following

message:

May I not take advantage of the meeting of the Congress of the Soviets to express the sincere sympathy which the people of the United States feel for the Russian people at this moment when the German power has been thrust in to interrupt and turn back the whole struggle for freedom and substitute the wishes of Germany for the purpose of the people of Russia?

Although the Government of the United States is, unhappily, not now in a position to render the direct and effective aid it would wish to render, I beg to assure the people of Russia through the Congress that it will avail itself of every opportu nity to secure for Russia once more complete sovereignty and independence in her own affairs and full restoration to her great rôle in the life of Europe and the modern world. The whole heart of the people of the United States is with the people of Russia in the attempt to free themselves forever from autocratic government and become the masters of their own life.

The Moscow Congress has been called for the express purpose of ratifying the peace treaty signed by Germany and dele. gates representing Lenine. How far it is truly national and representative is doubtful; some reports state that it is made up solely, or nearly so, of delegates from the workmen's, soldiers', and peasants' committees.

Meanwhile Petrograd despatches speak of a split in purpose and feeling between Lenine and Trotsky, and the resignation of the latter as head of the Russian Foreign Office. The division

RUMANIA SUBMITS

Sympathy rather than condemnation is the universal feeling toward Rumania. From the time she entered the war she has been unfortunate, and she has also been betrayed. If there had been complete unity in the plans of the Allies, Rumania would not have been allowed to enter upon a widely extended offensive campaign without support. She did not receive at the time of her first defeat the support she should have had from Russia. Finally, the military dissolution of Russia left Rumania, or what was left of Rumania, open to hopeless defeat.

The treaties between Rumania and the Teuton Powers and between Rumania and Russia deprive Rumania not only of that part of the Dobrudja which Rumania received in 1913 after the second Balkan War, but of the older Dobrudja territory which Rumania took from Turkey under the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. This cuts Rumania off from the Black Sea, or at least from her best Black Sea port, Constanza. Presumably, in any distribution of Balkan territory which should follow a German victory in the war, the Dobrudja would go to Bulgaria, Bess arabia would go to Russia, under German control, and the main part of Rumania would be one of those nominally selfgoverning states which would in all but name be Teuton dependencies. Rumania undertakes to evacuate Bessarabia at once, and a common belief is that Germany has agreed that Russiathat is, a German-managed Russia-may re-enter Bessarabia.

THE AMERICAN ARMY IN ACTION

There is a stir of spring activity in the armies on the western front. In this activity the American troops are taking a constantly greater part. For instance, on March 11 came the reports of a raid on that day which is described as the first wholly American raid and reconnaissance. It was in the sector north of Toul, had been carefully rehearsed, and was a notable

success.

The accounts state that our American barrage fire was ad mirably managed. Under its cover the American force (the censor will not allow the number to be stated and provokingly cuts out other interesting details) advanced boldly, penetrated for three hundred yards the German first and second lines. inflicted many casualties on the enemy, captured munitions and supplies, and returned without the loss of a man.

Casualty lists just published give the names of thirty-one American soldiers killed in action, but before the raid just described. The new system of giving out casualty lists from Washington under which name, rank, and cause of death or character of wound alone are given, and the residence in this country, date, and place of action are withheld, has caused much criticism and anxiety here. It is said, however, that General Pershing thinks that any fuller report might be of value to the