to the owners of the properties escaped the notice of the very men demanding "justice." Even Mr. Herbert Hoover, who urged the election in 1918 of a Wilson Congress, told a Baltimore audience when he received a degree from Johns Hopkins University that he favored "Americanizing reservations to the League of Nations covenant which would make that instrument a safeguard of human liberties through the preserved integrity of peculiarly American institutions and not through the hybrid denationalizing compact from Paris as a charter for the salvation of the world." Mr. Mr. Wilson's compact, like a sinking ship, is being deserted by its former friends. The recent award of 14 per cent increase in wages to the soft coal miners will add millions annually to the cost of coal to consumers. Under the old scale some men were paid as high as $3500 per year, while the average was about $1682. The hard coal miners, not to be outdone by their soft coal brethren, have demanded a 60 per cent wage increase for contract miners and $2 a day increase, a six-hour day, and five-day week for day-workers. The socialistic policy of making conditions so irksome for owners that they will be glad to surrender their properties to the workers is being followed persistently. It seems to be near the point of confiscation-the goal of the endeavor. The piano factory of John Brens mead & Sons in Grafton Road, near London, was recently closed because "the factory wages alone per piano exceeded the selling price." For each piano sent off there were 26 employes against 12 in 1918, and six immediately before the war. The cost of polishing alone was said to equal the pre-war cost of the completed instrument, including the materials. In a week before the final shut-down the output fell to 10 pianos, compared with 50 or 60 per week before the war. They are paying more than double the pre-war wages, although the hours of labor had been reduced from 56 to 44 per week. Such was the result of under-production and high wages upon one English firm near London. No doubt that is only an example of many others not yet heard of by the public. Senator Owen protests against the prevailing high rates for money. The Senator, who sponsored the Federal Reserve Board and asserted that all squeezes in the money markets would be prevented by it, now practically admits that the Board has not succeeded in preventing burdensome taxation and extremely high prices, brought about by the war's destruction and governmental extravagance. Responsible as a Senator, who was an echo of the man in the White House, for much of the legislation asked and urged by Mr. Wilson, Senator Owen is now vainly crying out against the results which have followed his support of the policies of the President. He cannot successfully shift the burden, but should stand up and be counted as one of many who regarded Mr. Wilson as a man whose every whim was to be gratified and every demand granted. President William M. Wood of the American Woolen Company says that the company, in the last year for which their accounts are made up, paid the Government in taxes more than five times the amount of the dividends and an amount nearly equal to two-thirds the sum paid to employes in wages which were the highest ever distributed. The experience of the American Woolen Company is that of every other corporation in the country, and in it we find one of the most potent causes for the prevailing high prices which the Department of Justice is vainly attempting to reduce by bluster and threats. Of course, taxes are just as much an item of expense as are wages and dividends, which must be borne by consumers as a portion of the manufacturing costs. As long as taxes remain where they are, there seems to be little hope of materially reduced cost of living, and attempts to reduce them by departmental officers will result in failure. The world is flooded with paper money, and the people wonder why prices are so high. When the war was begun in 1914 the paper currency of thirty principal countries was a little over $7,000,000,000. In November, 1918, it was $40,000,000,000 and in December, 1919, it was ten billion more, all exclusive of the bolshevik currency of Russia. In 1914 the gold reserves of the same countries was a little less than $5,000,000,000, and in 1918 a little more than $7,000,000,000. The ratio of gold reserve to outstand ing notes dropped from 70 per cent in 1914 to 18.4 per cent in 1918 and to 13.7 per cent in December, 1919. The plight of the Central Powers was even worse. At the outbreak of the war they had $600,000,000 of gold and $1,200,000,000 of paper. At its close they had $686,000,000 of gold and $12,305,000,000 of paper, while a year later their gold was $227,000,000 and their paper was $18,771,000,000. Their ratio of gold to notes was 49.7 per cent at the beginning of the war, 5.5 per cent at the close, and 1.7 per cent a year later. If Ger Mr. Irving T. Bush of New York City, who recently returned from a tour of Germany, says that the country where the currency is most depreciated will command the markets if she can get the raw materials needed for her industries. many succeeds in getting raw materials, and rival steamship companies eager for cargoes, will strive to transport them to her ports, her ability to compete successfully in the world's market will be increased tremendously, because her labor costs have not risen as have those of rival countries, and wage earners working already, to some extent each day, for the good of the Fatherland. The United States can compete successfully in raw materials and specialties; but in other things she will find the "going" very difficult in the export markets of the world. Under such conditions are we willing to furnish the largest and best market in the world for Germany's manufactured products, with which her war indemnities will be paid? If we are not willing to make the sacrifice to are put the defeated and unregenerated enemy on her way to the conquest of the world's trade, then the Underwood-Simmons tariff law which was designed to open our markets to foreign goods, must be superseded by a protective measure. The Merchants National Bank of Boston says that says that competition in American foreign trade is gradually growing keener. The circular of the First National Bank of Boston says that our export trade with Europe is declining, and President Daniel G. Wing of the First National, who has just returned from a three months' trip to South America, says that "the English are very active in trying to hold what trade they had before the war, and they are holding fairly well. If we don't pay more attention and put on better transportation they'll get a large share of our business." Two things are apparent from these quotations: first, that our exports with Europe are dropping and theirs to us are increasing rapidly, and, second, that while their exports are expanding to the United States, they are making desperate efforts to take away in neutral markets the trade this country secured during the war. Already it is plain that foreign trade boomed by Mr. Redfield and Mr. Wilson's administration is an illusive element in our industrial life. That the value of foreign exchange has an important influence upon imports into this country is shown by the large increase of English exports to the United States in the month of January as compared with December, the previous month. In January, Great Britain sent to us 141,500 pounds of worsted yarn as compared with 47,946 pounds in December, and 14,493 pounds in November. The worsted tissues in January were valued at £187,000, compared with £51,804 in December. The value of the woolen tissues in January was £417,007, compared with £172,800 in December, and it is stated on high authority that "the exports would have been much greater had it not been for the fact that the United States requires the finer grades of tops, yarns and piece goods which are the most difficult to obtain." It is needless to say that with gains in one month so tremendous as are shown in January, the British wool manufacturers will, if they can keep up the pace set in the first month of this year, not object to the rates of the Underwood-Simmons law. What our domestic manufacturers and our wage earners may have to say in the near future is another matter; but one thing is certain, they must be prepared to encounter in our own markets the stiffest kind of competition, not to speak of foreign markets, that mirage which has lured many into the belief that they are to be preferred to the one at home, the biggest and best in the world. From all appearances, some rainbows which have been painted by enthusiasts are destined to lose the brightness of their colors before many months. CANADIAN FISCAL PROBLEMS. The Tariff as a Revenue Producer and an Encouragement To Industry. From Our Canadian Correspondent. Analysis of Canada's Federal tax returns reveals that out of direct taxation aggregating $83,768,110 during the four fiscal years 1915-19, the agricultural half of the population of the Dominion paid only $389,011, or less than one-half of one per cent. This situation has an important bearing upon the present tariff controversy. Not only are the customs duties the most dependable item in the Canadian revenue estimates; they are also practically the only charge which reaches all classes of the population. Indirect payments resulting from the imposition of import levies is the sole substantial contribution which the farmers of the Dominion are making to the Federal revenues. Supplemented by income taxes, the tariff distributes the burden easily and with a close approximation to equity. In no sense can it be construed as class legislation, although other revenue expedients too often are of that character. The wide distribution in incidence of the customs tariff, in so far as it is an indirect tax upon Canadian users of imported commodities, constitutes a strong argument in its favor as a fiscal measure even if its other important national benefits were disregarded. There is abundant evidence that in practical administration direct taxation largely exempts not only agriculturists but wage earners as well, and falls as an unduly heavy burden upon the professional and business classes. The Canadian Department of Finance recently secured a conviction of a foreigner employed in a steel plant at Welland, Ontario, whose wages in 1918 amounted to well in excess of $5000, but failed to make a return as required by law. This was an extreme case, but there are tens of thousands of wage earners in Canada as well as a great number of agriculturists who are liable under the income tax law, but are escaping, and no matter how the income tax administration may be improved, are likely to continue to escape, payment of their legal and rightful share of the expenses of the Government. INCREASING BRITISH IMPORTS. Manufactures from the British Isles are again appearing in rapidly increasing volume in the Canadian market. They include a wide range of commodities, of which some of the more important are textiles (especially woolen fabrics and knitted goods), boots and shoes, leather, glass, clay products, sanitary equipment, soap, toilet preparations, dyeing and tanning materials, rubber products, and aluminum manufactures. Considerable increases are reported also in imports into Canada of British jams, jellies and preserves, biscuits, confectionery, sauces and catsups and whiskey. At least one Canadian sole leather manufacturing company, with con nections in the United States, is importing British oak-tanned leather in bond and reselling it across the international boundary. Retail shoe dealers in Canada have been visited recently by representatives of British companies, showing high grade samples built on American lasts, embodying the very best in style and finish, and offered at prices much below current quotations in the Canadian market. Indeed, persons closely in touch with the boot and shoe industry express the opinion that increasingly severe British competition must be faced by the Canadian manufacturers, and the competition from the United States will be relatively unimportant, on account of the higher protection under Canada's general tariff. The upward trend in the value of imports into the Dominion from the British Isles is indicated by official trade returns, showing imports for consumption as follows: in 1916-17, $8,930,932; in 1917-18, $6,775,200; in 1918-19, $6,085,335. For the current fiscal year the monthly average promises to be over $8,000,000 and a rapid increase seems certain. In this connection, however, the value figures may be misleading. Not only have prices advanced, but the Canadian Department of Customs is still reckoning the pound sterling at the mint par of exchange, instead of at the market rate. Nevertheless, after allowance for these factors the returns show a rapid recovery of British export trade to the Dominion. CANADIAN MONETARY SITUATION. The discount on Canadian money in the United States has caused the people of Canada to study trade figures as never before, and the degree of Canada's economic independence upon her neighbor is being more seriously recognized. Many who do not understand the underlying causes of an exchange discount protest with more vehemence than intelligence that the Canadian dollar is as good as the United States dollar. The situation is resulting in a more conscious striving for a larger measure of national economic independence, but there is danger that in seeking to cut down imports from the United States the Dominion may be flooded with commodities from overseas. Canada's preferential customs duties applicable to imports from the United Kingdom are in general low, and in some cases British competition was preventing development of needed Canadian industries. Not only do the British preferential schedules of the Canadian tariff offer an attractive opportunity for British manufacturers, |