'Austria is in very bad shape. The little republic has a population of a little over seven million, of which two and one-quarter are in Vienna. Of these, however, one and onequarter million are non-Germans, and these may be expected to emigrate to the surrounding national states to which they belong. But with a population of six million and a capital of one million, Austria will not be self-supporting agriculturally.

'Austria has been fed since Christmas, to the extent of three-quarters of her food supply, on credits extended by the United Kingdom, France and Italy. She will have to be fed during the next year on credits extended by somebody.

"The present Hungary with a population of nine or ten millions represents practically all of the Magyars of the previous Hungary, living in a concentrated area and needs assistance after its disastrous experiment with Bolshevism.

“Bulgaria has remained outside of the field of relief, politically, economically and in every other way. Bulgaria, like ‘Brer Fox,' is lying low, in the hope of escaping as lightly as possible the penalty for her responsibility and conduct in the war.

"There are nearly one hundred million of people in Central Europe. The armistice left these in political chaos, divided into new states struggling with inexperienced governments, their transportation disorganized, with scarcity of coal, great depreciation of currency, acute struggles between labor and capital, and over all the pall of war fatigue. The problem of food was the immediate problem. If they could be carried into the new harvest, this would afford time in part for their governments to become stabilized, their communications to be restored, their railways reorganized, their supply of fuel stabilized.

"This would give six months for the study of their problems of currency and for the re-establishment of industry in order that interstate commerce might be resumed. All hung upon food. The feeding of Central Europe was under the control of the Supreme Economic Council, in theory; in fact, it was organized by Herbert Hoover and executed through the American Relief Administration. The United

States has supplied three-fourths of the credit and fourfifths of the food. The amount of food supplied has represented practically a third of the food supply of the peoples concerned and has meant the difference between life and death. The food supplied was sufficient to check physical deterioration, allay social unrest, restore the confidence of the people in their future and enable the beginnings of industrial productions to be undertaken.

"In addition, the American Relief Administration has undertaken a child feeding program the same year, this representing an outright gift.'

HIGH COST OF LIVING

The advance of prices was not confined to the United States or to the countries which participated in the war. It was world wide. Nor did it occur exclusively in the products required for war purposes, nor for the use of the millions engaged in the war. Practically every article entering international trade advanced in price in the country in which produced, irrespective of their proximity to the war area. Nor were prices reduced to a perceptible degree in any part of the world after the close of the war. There were, of course, a few exceptions to this general rule, but they were so few and so plainly due to peculiar conditions that they "proved the rule" that the advance was world wide and that the termination of the war did not reverse the movement or at least cause any material decline in any considerable proportion of the important articles of world production and world consumption.

The extent of the increases in world prices and their distribution to all parts of the globe irrespective of relation to the war area is illustrated by a compilation showing the 1919 prices in the country of production of the principal articles forming the international trade of the world and comparing these 1919 prices with those of the month preceding the war. In the distant Orient, in the tropical world, in the interior of Africa, Australia and South America, and in the islands of the Pacific, the prices demanded for the articles offered for exportation were far above those of the pre-war

A PLENARY SESSION OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE The full Conference in session at the Quai d'Orsay, Paris. In the right foreground is Marshal Foch and in the left background are Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Balfour. In the right center is Orlando and seated under the clock is Colonel House.

TRANSATLANTIC FLIERS

Top: American Navy Seaplane NC-4 which crossed the ocean with one stop at the Azores reaching Portugal, May 27, 1919. Center: The British Vickers-Vimy bombing plane which made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic, June 16, 1919. Bottom: The British dirigible R-34 which flew across the Atlantic, July 6, 1919.

period, the advances ranging from 50 per cent to 100 per cent and sometimes 150 per cent.

Rice, for example, of which the United States imported about four hundred million pounds from China and Japan in 1918, cost in the country of production 7.2 cents per pound for that imported in December, 1918, as against 2.6 cents per pound for that imported in the month preceding the war, July, 1914. Nitrate of soda, drawn chiefly from Chile, for which the war demands ceased at the date of the armistice, cost in the country of production $57.40 per ton for that imported in May, 1919, against $26.65 per ton for that Raw silk, of imported in the month preceding the war. which we obtain our entire supply from China and Japan, cost in those countries an average of $6.12 per pound for the imports of the closing month of the war, and $3.84 per pound in the month preceding the war. Wood pulp bleached, chiefly from Canada and not produced in the war countries, cost in the country of production $160 per ton for the quantity imported into the United States in January, 1919, against $49 per ton for that imported in the month preceding the war. Goat skins imported from China, India, Mexico, and South America cost in those countries an average of 62.8 cents per pound for those reaching the United States in May, 1919, against 24.5 cents per pound for those imported from the same countries in the month preceding the war. Flaxseed, imported chiefly from Argentina and not an article demanded for war purposes, cost in the country of production $3 per bushel for that reaching us in January, 1919, against $1.47 per bushel for that imported in July, 1914. Mattings for floors, imported chiefly from Japan and China, cost in the countries of production 26.4 cents per square yard for the quantities reaching the United States in May, 1919, against 9.1 cents per square yard for the quantities which reached us in July, 1914. Jute, imported from India, cost in that country $172.75 per ton for the quantity imported into the United States in March, 1919, against $49.56 per ton for that imported in the month preceding the opening of the war.

Curiously too, the prices of many articles advanced without reference to the fact that the war terminated. Of the