tribute to the welfare of mankind and enter in large measure into the trade and commerce of the world. Our debt is smaller than that of any allied nation's except Italy's. It is about half that of Great Britain; it is $9,000,000,000 less than that of France; $6,000,000,000 less than that of Russia, and $9,000,000,000 more than that of Italy. But our debt of $21,000,000,000-as of January, 1919-is only 8.4 per cent of our national wealth, whereas Great Britain's is 44.4 per cent; France's 45 per cent; Russia's 45 per cent, and Italy's 40 per cent. But these figures tell only a part of the story, for in France, Italy and Russia there has been enormous destruction of wealth and an appalling death roll. In France a million and a half of men have been killed; 57 per cent of the men under thirty-one years of age have offered their lives on the altar of their country. Cities have been burned, lands laid waste, mines destroyed, and machinery ruined. We have been spared these frightful ravages of war. Our farms are producing more than ever; our manufacturing output has greatly increased; our shipping has multiplied many fold, and our man power has not been seriously impaired. We are in a position to aid and to befriend the world. It is not necessary to delve into the reasons why America became a nation of such strength, power and usefulness. It is the simple, but magnificent, outcome of national policies, adopted over a century and a quarter ago, with the special purpose and design of developing our resources and diversifying our indus trial activities. Our power as a nation is not due to chance; it is due to wise, broadminded and farseeing statesmanship, and to the enterprise of industrial leaders and the skill of American workmen to whom these policies gave the opportunity that they needed. And today when we consider the ways and means of helping to repair the ravages of war and restore the normal life of the world, we must not lose sight of the fundamental policies underlying our power, our prosperity and our possibilities for helpfulness. In our efforts to aid the recovery of the war-ravaged countries of Europe we must not sacrifice the welfare of our own country. The world would be a loser, not a gainer, if in our effort to save Europe we should ruin America. It is a mistake to think of the countries that have suffered so much because of the war as lacking all power of recovery. Crippled, bruised and broken as they are they have still within themselves means of redemption and reconstruction. Since 1816 France has many times poured out its blood and treasure in bitterly contested wars, and yet since that time the wealth of France has increased six fold. From 1814 to 1916 England's population increased two and one-half times, and its wealth increased seven times. In 1814 England's per capita wealth was $660; in 1914 it was $1,915. France's per capita wealth has increased in the same time from $345 to $1,625. The British debt at the end of the Napoleonic wars was 800 millions sterling, calling for yearly interest payments of $200,000, 000. Macauley called it "a gigantic debt" and spoke of "the cry of despair" that it occasioned. But this debt did not crush England, it spurred the British Government and the British people to renewed exertions which opened the way to tremendous commercial and territorial expansion. It is a mistake to think that Great Britain and France will not strive with equal energy, wisdom and courage to repair the ravages of the last great war and recover their position in industry and commerce. Both countries are beginning right. They are taking steps to assure employment for their people. To meet conditions immediately following the war both countries enforced embargoes against a long list of imports. England is planning to protect its "key industries" and to take stringent measures to prevent “dumping.” France, by a presidential decree, issued last July, has doubled and trebled many of the customs duties. By these measures England and France hope to re-establish domestic industries, supply in as large part as possible the home demand for goods, keep labor and capital employed at home and again produce a surplus for export. It is in recovering a fair share of the world's foreign trade that England and France must place their main dependence for early recovery from the losses of the war. For Great Britain this is a prime necessity, for the development of her leading industries, cotton and wool manufacture, has proceeded to such an extent that nearly 80 per cent of these products must find a foreign market, as the home demand. absorbs only about 20 per cent. It is in this field that the United States can, if the occasion requires, show friendliness and consideration to England and to France. The world's international trade in 1913 amounted to $40,000,000,000; in 1916 to $45,000,000,000, and in 1918 to $50,000,000,000. England's share in the world's foreign trade in 1913 was $5,764,000,000; France $2,953,000,000. The United States, with its tremendous resources, might easily gain a lion's share of the world's trade, but in so doing it would seriously retard the financial and industrial recovery of Great Britain and of France. It would seem to be a wise, a friendly and a generous course on the part of America to seek foreign markets for such of our products as will help and not retard the return of normal conditions in the war-ravaged countries of Europe, and not to enter into bitter competition for foreign markets with those products of England and of France upon whose sale in world markets they must depend for an outlet for surplus products. The United States needs foreign markets less than any of the other great nations. We absorb ourselves ninety to ninety-five per cent of our manufactured products, and with our domestic market reasonably secured to us we can find employment for our wage earners and ample opportunities for the investment of capital. Of course business cannot thrive as it might in America until our foreign trade increases enough to absorb the surplus of our marvelously developed industries, but in the present emergency America's contribution to the recovery of normal conditions can best be directed toward a careful nurture of foreign trade instead of an irresistible rush to seize all possible markets and wisely planned safeguards of the home market. Unless our labor is given full opportunity of remunerative employment, the United States would face conditions as serious, perhaps, as those in Russia. With American labor employed and our country prosperous we will be in the best possible position to aid and befriend the world. The industrial collapse of the United States would drag the whole world down into misery. and would overthrow stable government throughout Europe. The hope of the world is in America in peace, as it was in war. A strong, self-reliant and prosperous America is essential to world recov ery. Our only way to provide a profitable market for the product of England is to keep our own people so prosperous that they can afford to buy some of the surplus products of Europe. The records show that when American industries are most carefully safeguarded and American labor most fully employed our purchases of foreign goods reach maximum fig ures. We cannot look upon the needs of the world with narrow and selfish vision, but we cannot aid the world to the fullest measure if we, ourselves, are weakened, crippled and disorganized. The world needs a strong America to aid it. We should try to keep America strong and powerful by a wise application of those policies that have in the past demonstrated their efficiency. WORDS OF SOLEMN WARNING. A special committee of the American Bar Association, which has been making an investigation of the subject of judicial recall and its relation to the socialist movement in this country, has submitted a report to the organization which will direct public attention to the progress of radicalism. The eminent lawyers who compose this committee have studied their subject thoroughly and have become impressed with the national danger which impends. Their report says: "Socialism feeds and fattens upon the disorganization, famine and unrest necessarily following war conditions. The destructive doctrines of socialism were never more widely advocated than at the present time and there was never so much danger as now that its converts might become for a time. at least a majority of the voters in many States and communities or even in the nation as a whole." The report further declares that the judicial recall, which has been adopted by several of the States, is a measure of socialism, the object of which is "the destruction of the judiciary and thereby a step to the elimination of the safeguards vouchsafed by constitutional limitations upon the legislative powers of government." The warning contained in this report will not pass unheeded, but will tend to arouse the stanch citizenry of America to the necessity of fighting the sinister influences with every weapon in their power. The loyal and patriotic people of this nation must be alert and on guard. Whatever label they may bear--socialists, communists, bolsheviki or I. W. W.-the forces of radicalism constitute a living menace to free institutions and stable government. They declare for a general strike throughout the country with the purpose of forcing the release from prison of Mooney the convicted bomb-thrower. They demand that the penitentiary doors shall open to release Debs, who defied the Federal statutes and obstructed the draft. They cry for the seating of Berger in the House of Representatives while he is under conviction and sentence for violations of the espionage act, and the approaching release from prison of Emma Goldman, queen of the American anarchists, now serving a term also for draft obstruction, arouses their enthusiasm. A motley crew and a dangerous one, ripe for mutiny and ready to scuttle the ship of state. The communist labor party has just been organized in Chicago. A platform was adopted declaring in favor of the overthrow of the present system of production, and saying: "To this end we ask the workers to unite with the communist labor party of America industrially and politically in the struggle for the conquest of the state and the powers of government in the establishment of a cooperative commonwealth." This new party, at least, does not conceal its real object. With amazing frankness it declares its purpose to tear down the present form of government in the United States and in place of it set up a co-operative commonwealth, after the form of the soviet republic of Russia. In short, the program reported to the Chicago convention for its consideration was copied almost verbatim from the program of the Russian bolsheviki. Thus the issue is laid and it rests with the loyalty and intelligence of the American people whether the disciples of Trotzky and Lenine shall gain the ascendancy in this country and tear down the constitutional government now known throughout the world as the symbol of liberty. What is the most effective weapon to use in combating radicalism? The American Bar Association's committee answers this query by stating that in its opinion "the only protection against the doctrines and schools of treason, sedition and revolution lies in a widespread and persistent campaign of education." And this suggestion will commend itself generally to the public. Education has been efficacious in the past and it may be relied upon in the future. The American Bar Association has done the nation a distinct service in bringing this subject so forcibly to its notice and in impressing it with the dangers which lurk, too often unheeded, in the activities of the proselyting radicals who seek to tear down constitutional government and set up mob rule. The people must be rallied to the defense of the law. Every agency of the government should be directed against the machinations of the socialists, communists and their ilk and the hand of the law should be laid heavily upon all who transgress it. But the greatest measure of protection will come from the ranks of the loyal, alert citizens, stirred to action by an appreciation of the impending danger and ready, at any sacrifice, to stand by the government. Upon such a sturdy phalanx anarchy will make but slight impression. Already the patriotic citizens of this country are displaying the cohesive force of Americanism. Wage earners show a willingness to defer making demands for increases; capitalists are permitting to pass opportunities for profit of which they might ordinarily avail themselves-and all in the public interest. They realize that to pursue their individual interest they must forego some personal advantages, and they are ready to make the sacrifice. So when the crucial test comes, if it ever should come, the nation may rely upon the loyalty and good sense of its citizens to stand by the ship and resist the piratical boarders who seek to wreck her. Abiding faith in the constancy of the American people I will not be in vain. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN. The Trend Towards Protection-The War Has Brought a Crop Of Combines-Home Trade Safer For United States Manufacturers Than Foreign Trade. From Our London Correspondent. September 10, 1919. The trend of events is still further towards the final adoption of some form of protection. A meeting of a government committee has just been held to inquire into the condition of the paper industry in Britain, and it has recommended the restriction on paper. It is, they say, a "Key" industry of national importance and is entitled to a proper degree of sheltering during a period of transition. Orders will be difficult to obtain un less imports of manufactured paper are restricted. Shortage of orders is due to the trade policy of the government, instability of prices, and possibility of unlimited competition of foreign paper, and the committee therefore urge the reduction of all paper imports. There is more unemployment in the industry today than at any time during the last twenty years. A decision has been reached to increase the minimum wages paid to |