prising, but a belief confirmed is more gratifying than almost anything else.

The newspapers have announced that the First Field Army is now being formed and that it may be able to hold over a hundred miles of French line, and that, by January 1, 1919, we shall be holding more than the British did after two years of war. Length of line held means very little, for some parts of the line take four or five times as many men to hold as other parts, but if these despatches mean that we can begin a great and sustained offensive in less than two years of war they are encouraging.

There is beyond this, too, reason for a sober optimism. Most of our part of the war is still on this side of the water. We are still largely in the preparatory stage, and the machinery of preparation has been improved. The public criticism and the Congressional investigations considerably increased both the vision and the effectiveness of the War Department. It has been pretty thoroughly reorganized and in large part the important posts have been filled by men with executive ability. Moreover, Mr. Baker has gone abroad to get a nearer view of the pressing problems of the war. The machinery for coördinating all the war work of the Government has not been greatly improved, but the Administration has had ample evidence that there was a lack of coördination and there is reason to hope that it will do everything in its power to prevent another such general breakdown as the transportation crisis brought on this past winter. If there was not the foresight to forestall that breakdown there is now the experience of that one to use in preventing another. This does not mean that either in manufacture of munitions, in transportation, shipping, or ship building we are in a satisfactory condition. But there is more prospect of becoming so than there was six months ago. The public dissatisfaction has stirred the Government to greater efforts and the fact that public dissatisfaction has acted once and might at any time act again will have a continuing, stimulating effect. In the meanwhile, having got in a reasonable degree what it wanted in the shape of a reorganization of the War Department and also an enlarged and invigorated conception of our part in the war, there is little to be gained in any further campaign of criticism. There is every reason to give the new order a fair chance even though it

is not as thoroughly new and revised as many hoped it would be. The compromise between the Administration and its critics is practically effected. If the new order of things works, everyone, especially those who have been critical of the old régime, should be satisfied. If, after a reasonable trial, it does not work, the public will have to try again and try harder. The public wants to fight this war to the utmost of its strength, and one way or another in the long run it is going to get an organization through which it can do it.

but this general statement, is modified by the fact that certainly up to the first of March the sinkings were still greater than the new tonnage put into commission. In other words, the policy of attrition was still working against us and our merchant fleets were growing smaller.

The first method, of course, to rectify this situation is the offensive method of destroying the submarines. In this, the British Admiralty's chart again shows an encouraging tendency and Sir Eric Geddes, the British First Sea Lord, said early in March: "For some months we believe that we and the Americans have been sinking submarines as fast as they are built."

There is other encouragement beside this in the fact that the increasing facilities for anti-submarine work have enabled the Allies to improve the campaign in the Mediterranean without relaxing the work off the French and British coasts. Sir Eric Geddes said of this situation:

convoy system has been greatly developed and is a real success. Since it was adopted 35,000 ships have been convoyed with very low losses. Additional protection is afforded by the fact that the ships in convoys closely follow the Admiralty instructions.

"On many occasions the enemy has been assisted by negligence. Unless the ship is completely darkened in accordance with the Admiralty orders, night is no help against the submarine. In fact, the slightest visible light is an excellent target. We know this not only from unfortunate sinkings, but from the reports of our own submarine commanders and coast watchers who have observed unconvoyed ships. I appeal to the shipowners and shipmasters to heed three points: First, obey instructions; second, keep a good lookout; third, thoroughly darken the ship.

"One result of the convoy system has been to drive the enemy closer to the shore, thus rendering the open sea safer for navigation.

submarine war 50 per cent. of the losses occurred more than fifty miles from land and only 21 per cent. within ten miles of the shore. To-day, the losses outside the fifty-mile line have fallen to 1 per cent., while the losses close to land have risen to 61 per cent.

"This transfer of attacks nearer the coast gives increasing opportunities for attacking the enemy by patrolling surface craft and airplanes, and enables us to save many vessels which would otherwise have been lost. The improved salvage arrangements have made tremendous demands on labor and material. Repairs are to-day occupying more men than new mercantile construction.

"The salving is so efficient that of all British armed ships damaged last year only eight were abandoned."

The protection of ships and the destruction of submarines are, therefore, both improving. The necessary further improvement depends, as the anti-submarine campaign so far has depended, on destroyers. More destroyers is the crying need. The destroyer's shallow draft and great speed make it nearly immune against torpedo attack. At thirty knots an hour it can go 1,200 yards, about the limit of accurate torpedo range, in a little more than a minute, which means that a periscope once sighted within range to torpedo a ship will have to dive extremely rapidly to get away from the convoying destroyer with its depth bomb.

Ships with a proper destroyer convoy can be pretty well protected against submarine attacks. If there were sufficient destroyers, convoys could even be carried through infested waters with comparative safety no matter how many submarines were built by Germany. But at present there are not sufficient destroyers. We are building a great number, and new names for destroyers are announced from time to time, but exactly how many beyond our original flotilla we have in commission is a secret of the Navy Department's.

However, the protection of the present shipping has at best but a negative effect on the situation. Even if no ships were sunk, without new construction there could be only the positive improvement in the situation effected by better handling. To make any significant addition to our shipping facilities we need both the improved use of what we have and large additions to it. These large additions are not coming with the hoped for rapidity. We have known for some time that the original estimates of construction here would not be fulfilled, and while there is good reason to hope that our progress in building is now improving, we have to face the fact that the British building has been disappointing. Sir Eric Geddes stated in Parliament that the construction in January and February was below the estimates.

Altogether, while there is much evidence to prove that by defence and construction we can increase the tonnage at work, the fact is that so far it has been decreasing, though of late at a diminishing rate. The two vital points of this campaign to protect our lines of communication at sea are both on shore. They are the construction of merchant ships and the building of destroyers. We can not have too many of either or have them too quickly.

ment of a sound public sentiment that will lead to the prompt and certain enforcement of existing laws for the prevention and punishment of crime. To aid in the preparation and enactment of whatever new laws may be necessary for securing early and effective punishment of crime and maintenance of law and order.

"To create and arouse a more active public sentiment in the young and old in favor of enforcement of law and to combat the evils of lawlessness.

"To cultivate a spirit of higher respect for the majesty of the law, for the officers by whom and the agencies by which it is administered, and to uphold the officers of the law in the proper performance of their duties.

"To hold public meetings, prepare and distribute literature, provide lectures, and to urge the pulpit, press, and schools to stress the necessity for the suppression of crime and the maintenance of law and order, to the end that mob violence, at least the more serious crimes, shall be condemned by public sentiment and certainly punished by the established process of the law."

One of the most encouraging things about the formation of this organization is the support which it is receiving from the press, not only in Tennessee but also in other states where lynchings occur practically every year.

Even under the difficult conditions which the presence of the Negro creates in a large section of the country the toleration of the number of lynchings which occur annually is a terrible commentary on our management of the race problem. It is not only a terrible commentary but a fearful bar to progress in managing the problem. Every lynching degrades the white men engaged in it, lowers the morality and lawfulness of the community in which it occurs, and embitters the Negroes as far as the news of it reaches. There is every reason based on law, humanity, and civilization for the Law and Order League's programme. And there is the added incentive that may make some people support its efforts in the fact that every lynching is likely to increase the already large exodus of Negroes from the South where the labor supply is already greatly depleted.

The programme of the League is based on the fundamental basis of public education,

which, continued in, must be successful. But like most fundamental processes it is at best slow. There is a more immediate remedy that could properly and profitably be applied in the meanwhile-a mounted state police. If the founders of the League will study the records of Pennsylvania before and after the formation of the state police there they will find a cogent argument for the formation of a similar force in Tennessee. The recent action of New York in following in Pennsylvania's footsteps is an encouraging sign that the record of the Pennsylvania force is not lost on the rest of the country. New Jersey also has been discussing the creation of a similar organization. In all these states the mounted police are needed and greatly needed, but in none can their usefulness be as great as it could be in the rural states which have large Negro populations and where the forces of law and order have been weakened by successive and unpunished lynchings.

Mo

Mr. Hays's Slogan

R. WILL H. HAYS, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, has announced as the slogan of that party, "Win the War Now." This phrase, in its expression of an intention and a wish, belongs to Republicans and Democrats alike. To make it distinctively Republican Mr. Hays will have to add to it a bill of particulars explaining how it is to be translated into fact.

The Republican party broke up in 1912 because part of it was progressive and part reactionary. It failed again in 1916 because the split was only patched up-in so far as it was patched up for the purpose of getting into power. It had no issue. Its programme, like the Democratic programme, was much peace and little preparedness. There was a large body of opinion in 1916 in favor of real preparedness, but the President did not believe in it and the Republican party was afraid to force the issue. Had it done so then, it would have had a firm foundation for its war cry now. But in 1916 neither party had a very clear idea of the significance of the war, nor any genuine interest in preparing for our inevitable participation.

Mr. Hays may, of course, build a successful Congressional campaign next fall on the Democratic Administration's failures in the conduct

of the war. of the war. Attacking the other party's record is a big part of every campaign of the outs against the ins. Such a campaign may deprive some Democratic Congressmen of their seats next fall, but it will not remake the Republican party into a cohesive organization with power and purpose.

At present the party stands for nothing definite in the conduct of the war or in the readjustment afterward. We do not know what improvements the Republican party would try to make if it had a majority in Congress. There is, then, little in Mr. Hays's slogan except an attempt to capitalize the failures of the Administration. At the present time that might be quite effective, but if the vigorous criticism to which the Administration has lately been subjected bears fruit, as all sincere critics hope, that issue will not amount to a great deal later.

In any case, the Republican party needs a constructive programme, for no party can be of great service to the country, that merely awaits its rival's mistakes.

A

Russia

MONTH or two ago there was everywhere the talk of a great German drive. If it was a German idea to spread this talk abroad it was very successfully executed, for it permeated every Allied country and was disseminated here as a warning issued by the Secretary of War in one of his weekly communiqués.

While we were all discussing this drive the Germans were working their fake promise and real threat combination on the over-trustful or corrupt Lenine and Trotzky, with the final result of the German military penetration of Russia.

This gives to Germany a tremendous potential store of resources, of food, raw materials, and, in the long run, of men, if the release of the Russian pressure and the new food supplies enable Germany to reconstitute the somewhat demoralized Austro-Hungarian army. The reorganization of the production and transportation of Russia so that it can supply all the material deficiencies of Germany can not be done instantaneously, but the Germans can do that kind of thing quicker in Russia than we have done it here because they are not to be limited by any scruples about the after effects of their operations. They are just as ready to

bleed one country white as another so long as it suits their needs. Our entrance into the war gave Germany's enemies a vast preponderance of material resources which would sometime appear on the front in the shape of guns, ammunition, airplanes, etc. The conquest of Russia will open great stores of material to the Germans which will ultimately appear on their front in warlike form. It is a question with the German now how soon he can get his material reinforcements to the front to offset ours. Every day that we are ahead of him makes the task of beating the German army cost us fewer lives, and anything that delays heavy fighting on the western front gives him a better chance to shape affairs in Russia to his liking. When we have an advantage of the enemy in material, beating him costs us fewer men. When his material equipment equals ours we have to pay higher in life.

TH

HE American Library Association has started a campaign to collect books for our soldiers and sailors, and this campaign is to be continued during the period of the war.

Two million or more books are needed to stock the libraries and recreation buildings at our various camps in this country and in France, and the American Library Association is to keep an increasing number of books on hand to fill the need for new stocks, to replace worn out volumes, and to maintain a sufficient supply wherever it is possible for our men to use them to advantage.

In order that no more money be spent than is absolutely necessary, it is the desire of the Association to secure as gifts a large portion of the needed books. Already a comprehensive organization has started the work. In every state there is an agency, and practically every city and town in the country will be

reached in the effort to collect the hundreds of thousands of books that the Association hopes to secure.

Many books, of course, will not appeal to the readers at the camps and cantonments. The Association suggests books along the following lines as being those most liable to be of

use:

Fiction: Adventure, Western stories, detective stories, love stories of the best sort, stories of business, and historical novels.

Non-fiction: Military science, airoplanes, engineering, agriculture, business, automobiles, electricity, mechanics, horses, drawing, war books, especially "tales from the trenches," wireless telegraphy and telephony, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, poetry, biography and autobiography, travel, history, French conversation books, and popular books in foreign languages.

Out-of-date text-books are not wanted, and worn-out books will be of no use. Neither will the Association find use for books that appeal especially to women.

Further information concerning suggested methods for local collection, persons in charge of the work in each state, and instructions for local organizations in collecting the books, can be secured from Mr. Herbert Putnam, General Director of the American Library Association, The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

In everyone's collection of books there are some that can readily be spared, and they could not go to serve a better purpose than to fill the shelves of the soldiers' and sailors' reading rooms.

Ε

The Bitter Enders

ACH new turn which the war takes, each new German offensive, whether by arms or talk or printed matter, adds evidence to the two most certain facts in the whole war situation. The first is that it is not safe to believe any German promise which we have not the force to compel her to fulfil, and the second fact that follows from this is that no promise or peace or bargain of any kind with Germany is worth more than a scrap of paper as long as the German army is intact. And what applies to Germany applies equally to Austria and Turkey.

To face these facts means fighting until Germany and Austria are defeated. There