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steamship-lines on both the Atlantic and the Pacific; and last,
but not least, its operation should be kept absolutely free from
party political interference."

WORSE ANARCHY DUE IN RUSSIA

A

N INCREASE OF ANARCHY must ensue on the crumbling of the Bolshevik Government in Russia, because there is nobody ready to take its place; but meanwhile the Allied expeditionary forces act as centers of crystallization of the next stable Government, which almost certainly will be Socialist, according to a Russian correspondent of The New Statesman (London). The reason for this is that the greatest factor in Russian political life is the peasant, and the peasant has good reason for refusing to support any bourgeois Government or party. The peasant has helped himself to much land during the last year and destroyed a vast amount of landowners' property, we are told, and no party which dares to include compensation in its program will receive his support. What is more, the peasant is to be reckoned with very seriously in these days, for he has brought rifles and machine guns back with him from the front and has learned from experience that "the world does not come to an end when you shoot your former social superiors and that the village priest can not change you into a rabbit." It is possible that some one may attempt a monarchist restoration, but it is unlikely that it will succeed, for the "next Czars of Russia will be shot-early and often." The New Statesman's correspondent adds:

"The third phase of the Russian Revolution will be marked by plague, famine, and anarchy. From a military point of view, however, it will be more satisfactory than its predecessors. Before 1917 the Russian front was a simple thing. You could see it (if you were the German Army), and if you fired at it, it either withdrew or came out and chased you. The Russian front is now less tangible, but far deadlier. It mocks at the German troops, putting them at the disadvantage of men who are trying to fight shadows. Germany is in the position of a man who, knocking down the wall into his neighbor's garden, finds that he has let a swamp drain into his own."

Political history in Russia has been such a whirligig since the downfall of the Czar that one notes with interest the recollection that the first phase of the revolution was the period of Provisional Governments-"five of them, each more provisional than its predecessor." This phase lasted less than eight months, and the Bolsheviki were able to carry through their revolution because by the end of the Kerensky régime nobody quite knew what its intentions were with regard to the war and the land questions, and "nobody, consequently, thought it worth defending." The weakness of the Bolsheviki lay in their personnel, and it was a fatal weakness. The departments of State were crowded with ex-police officials, criminals, monarchists who came to work sabotage, and German agents. Our informant relates that-

"Dibenko, a sailor of bad character, who became First Lord of the Leninite Admiralty, bolted with the cash-box and a lady Commissioner of the People. The few just Bolsheviki who sincerely strove to elevate the life of their times were completely swamped by those unjust adherents who were satisfied with having the time of their lives.

"That the Bolsheviki should have been able, in these circumstances, to have a longer innings than the Provisional Governments is explicable on psychological rather than on physical grounds. Perhaps the simplest way of putting it is that the Russian Slav-particularly when uneducated is generally a Bolshevik (or an Anarchist) at the bottom of his heart. He is still in that pseudo-childish state of development when sport is synonymous with smashing things up."

Such were the people who sold Russia to the Germans. Yet"With all their corruption, the fall of the Bolsheviki is not altogether inglorious. In spite of the fact that Trotzky completely lost his nerve at Brest-Litovsk, and has since behaved, so far as one can judge from his reported utterances, as if he

were completely under the thumb of Germany, it is clear that the Soviet Government might have gained a new lease of life by accepting the 'protection' of the Central Powers. If the Bolsheviki had allowed the enemy to reorganize Russian industry in order to make the commercial clauses of the Brest Treaty effective, the Germans would have defended the Bolsheviki against all comers. It can not be too strongly insisted upon that these clauses represent the greater part of Germany's hopes of Russia. But the Bolsheviki, altho prepared to do almost anything for a quiet life, nevertheless laid considerable emphasis on the quietness. Germany could have anything she

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THE END OF A CHAPTER.
MADAME BOLSHEVIK-" Well, it has been grand while it lasted. Now
the game is up, the only thing to do is to desert him as I betrayed
Russia."
-Passing Show (London).

liked, but Moscow and the other large towns must remain
Russian and Bolshevik. If the Germans came and began re-
constructing-well, Bolshevism might as well subside straight
off into tame, constitutional monarchy. This, in substance,
appears to have been the chief point at issue between Moscow
and Berlin during the last few months."

Always with a view to a commercial exploitation of Russia, we are told, the Germans began months ago to seek elements of a more manageable government. The Social Revolutionaries were the obvious successors of the Bolsheviki, and by all the laws of gravitation and equilibrium they stood to gain by whatever the Bolsheviki lost, but-

"The Social Revolutionaries, apparently largely forsaking the differences which divided them into Right, Center, and Left, replied to the German suggestion by killing Mirbach and Eichhorn. The Mensheviki do not count nowadays. The Germans had to go outside the Socialist parties, and approached the Cadets. The Central Committee of the party was given to understand that it might appoint a government, so long as it accepted German protection. The majority of the party indignantly refused to accept the offer. Miliukoff, wearied by many months spent in hiding, impatient of the slowness of Allied intervention, furious with the Bolsheviki (the murderers of his best friends), a bitter opponent of the Soviet idea and of the Socialist parties in general, led the Cadet Minority. Here. according to him, was a mess to be cleared up, and only Germany could clear it up. By going over to the Germans, and by asking them for support against the Socialists, Miliukoff naturally has done much to bring the Socialists over to the Allied side."

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made by the United States Department of Agriculture's Weekly News Letter in an article that gives first attention to a former Chicago official who "is cooperating, in a very personal and intimate degree, with entomologists of the Department" by serving as a host for "cooties":

"This man formerly served the city of Chicago in a public capacity. He has a son with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and when he volunteered to be a subject in the experimental work of the entomologists he said he was willing to do anything that would help out the boys over there. Valuable data in regard to the control of the 'cootie' have been obtained from the parasites living on his body, and moving pictures of them have been taken through a microscope. The pictures are to be magnified and shown at army camps before scientists and army officers engaged in delousing work."

But the Chicago man is not the only volunteer entertainer for the pests that annoy, irritate, and spread trench-fever and other diseases among American soldiers. As we read:

"One of the scientists of the Bureau of Entomology also is serving as a host for the parasites, but in a more restricted sense. His 'cooties' are confined under the glass top of a wristlet, much like a wrist-watch, and they pass their existence, from the egg stage to the dead adult, on the skin of his arm, and can not move to any other spot. Through the glass cover the entomologist can watch the 'cooties' as they emerge from their shells and go through all the stages of their life cycle."

It required the war, according to The Weekly News Letter, to get for these pests as much attention "as scientists believe they deserve." The Department of Agriculture entomologists are "testing chemicals to learn their destructive action on lice, their effect on human bodies, and their penetration of clothing. Also, they are cooperating with army officers in testing laundering and delousing processes." True,

"The 'cootie' has not yet appeared in numbers at the camps in this country, but if it should do so military authorities expect to be ready to deal with it. Men serving for long periods in the trenches, or at other places where bathing and disinfecting facilities are not available, are the principal sufferers. Delousing stations, where thorough bathing, hair-clipping, and disinfection can be done, have been established in the war-zone."

POWDERED FUEL TO RELIEVE THE COAL

R

SHORTAGE

ELIEF from the threatened coal shortage may be largely obtained by making use of the low-grade fuels hitherto regarded as too poor to burn; and these may be utilized to advantage by using them in pulverized form. This is, in effect, the conclusion reached by W. G. Wilcox in a paper read before the American Chemical Society (Western New York Section) and printed in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering (New York). There are only three ways to combat fuel shortage, he says stimulation of production and transportation, utilization of low-grade fuels, and increase in the efficiency of combustion. The use of powdered fuel, he points out, will meet the second and third of these requirements; for pulverizing the coal will so greatly increase efficiency in burning that fuel hitherto discarded may be made to fill all reasonable requirements. The efficiency of powdered coal is largely due, it appears, to the ability of the fireman to maintain at will the particular length of flame and type of combustion for which the design of his furnace is best suited. The saving in coal, Mr. Wilcox asserts, is 30 to 40 per cent. He says:

"The simplest way to regard the combustion of coal is that it is a reaction between solid fuel and oxygen. . . . The velocity of the reaction and its completeness will depend upon the surface exposed by the solid, the pressure of the reacting gas, and the intimacy of the mixture. By grinding an inch cube of coal so fine that 85 per cent. will pass a 200-mesh screen, we have increased the surface exposure from 6 square inches to approximately 1,800 square inches. We have, therefore, increased the velocity of combustion approximately three-hundredfold. By doing so we have immediately changed the characteristics of the fuel. We now have a fuel relatively three hundred times more active than the inch cube of coal, a new type of fuel which has in it inherent possibilities not met in lump or slack fuel. By increasing the surface exposure three-hundredfold, we have speeded up combus

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increased velocity due to greater surface exposure and that due
to temperature rise are superimposed on each other so that we
have with pulverized fuel a combustion which is hundreds of
times faster than when burning lump coal.

"Having a finely divided fuel, it is possible to form a mixture
of fuel and air so intimate that each small particle of coal is
surrounded by the proper amount of air. In this condition, by
maintaining the proper velocity of the air-current, the fuel can
be carried into the furnace in suspension and there burned com-
pletely, efficiently, and rapidly.

"It is of course a simple matter to control mechanically the
amount of powdered coal delivered to the furnace in a given
time. It is also quite possible to control the amount of air
delivered with the coal. If, then, we deliver to the furnace an
intimate mixture of air and

powdered coal and have control
of the amount of coal-dust and
air delivered, we have the prime
essentials for highest combus-
tion efficiency. These are the
possibilities in utilizing coal in
powdered form. The degree to
which they are attained depends
entirely upon how carefully we
study the characteristics
the fuel before and during
combustion.

KEEPING TAB ON SLACKING TRUCKS

T

HE WORK A MAN DOES and the time he takes to do it sometimes show a sad discrepancy. Motor-trucks, too, have this regrettable failing. The foreman in charge of a gang can estimate the faithfulness of his men by results, but there is no device that will report to him their busy and lazy periods, seriatim. The owner of a motor-truck is now in a vastly better position for the boss. Using a recent device, described and illustrated in The Scientific American (New York), he can read off a record of the truck's daily performance and can tell whether it was busy or idle at any given

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THE MOTOR-TRUCK METER, WHAT IT WROTE, AND WHAT THE BOSS WROTE.

"A study of the methods for making such a mixture immediately shows that the methods commonly used in making uniform mixture of two miscible liquids or a uniform solution of a solid in a liquid, or the methods used in mixing finely ground solids, are not only useless in this case, but will actually separate the coal-dust from the air. Ordinary mixing is done by agitation. . . . Any mixing device along these lines must necessarily fail to give an intimate, perfect mixture."

Mr. Wilcox devotes much attention to recent improvements in mixing-devices, which are now made and operated, he says, on new principles, with such success that the rapidity of combustion in a furnace using powdered fuel may be perfectly controlled. He goes on to say:

"We have changed entirely the characteristics of coal as commonly known. Powdered coal is a fuel of extreme flexibility in that the amount burned can be varied within wide limits. It is a fuel which develops a flame the length of which can be adjusted. The character of the flame can be altered to suit the metallurgical operation. In short, the basic fuel, coal, has acquired the characteristics of oil or gas, but with better and closer control than in the case of oil or gas. Furthermore, the possibilities of this fuel are not only capable of realization, but are actually being utilized in commercial practise to-day. To the flame characteristics of a rich fuel, developing a flame like oil or gas, is added a degree of control not yet obtainable in burning either oil or gas. This statement is made advisedly. The possibilities of such combustion for the improvement of processes, for fuel economy, for increasing output, through its ease of control and elimination of heavy labor, are to-day realized by few. Due to the psychological attitude of labor and the scarcity of skilled operatives, it is far more difficult than ever before to secure high efficiency and good operation in hand-firing, stokerfiring, or in producers-in short, wherever such efficiency depends upon constant watchfulness and hot, heavy, disagreeable work. For these conditions powdered coal substitutes an ease of control such that the equipment can be handled by an old man or a boy, while it is so simple that a man of ordinary intelligence can soon be taught all that is necessary for good efficiency in operation. The possibilities of such control in the place of present-day combustion methods is certain of great importance to us at the present time."

moment, and for how long. If the driver stops to refresh himself at a corner saloon and remains thirty minutes, the record reports the stoppage and the boss may infer the cause. Says the writer:

"The principle involved is the familiar one of side-sway in moving vehicles. It is a well-known fact that even a Pullman car traveling over a relatively smooth and straight stretch of track exhibits a certain amount of side-sway. In a trolley-car approaching along a straight track an almost regular lurching from side to side can be detected, amounting often to as much as three or four inches. In the motion of the motor-truck this side-sway is very pronounced, and is present no matter how smooth the road or how straight the line of travel. It is entirely distinct from vibration, and should not be confounded with the latter.

"This side-sway, then, tells us that a vehicle, whether motortruck, horse-drawn wagon, locomotive, or even motor-cycle, is in travel motion; absence of side-sway indicates that the vehicle is standing. The problem suggested by this is then to make an instrument which will record side-sway and record when it occurs.

"The device pictured consists fundamentally of but two elements: a pendulum mass which will swing from side to side in response to this side sway of the moving vehicle, and a chart rotating at clock speed, upon which the pendulum can mark a record which indicates that side-sway, and hence travel, is going on. Of course, the absence of this record means that the vehicle is standing. The pendulum itself records its oscillations on the chart, by means of a stylus set in it near the point of suspension.

"An idea of the record which is made by this device may be obtained from the fragment of the circular dial pictured. To a person not acquainted with the truck or vehicle in question, a chart of this kind seems to present merely a succession of periods of running and standing time. But the truck superintendent or dispatcher knows in advance the work which the truck has had to do, and finds no difficulty in identifying the various trips and stops, and describing them as shown in the chart already referred to. The next and obvious step is to cut down those delays which are not warranted, and thus increase the running time of the truck to a maximum.

"While the commercial utility of this device is very apparent,

it is possible that, during the war, its military use may be even more important. Any one who is acquainted with military affairs knows that the average officer spends an important part of his time in making out reports of various kinds, giving a timerecord of his activities during the day. Officers in charge of motor-vehicles are generally required to make reports covering the movements of those vehicles, with special reference to the exact periods of time in which the trucks, passenger-cars, motorcycles, etc., are running and standing, when they started and stopt, and the total running and standing time for the day and night. To assemble this information by human means is laborious and often inaccurate. This recording device, on the other hand, gives all this information accurate to the minute, and not only relieves the officer of the burden of getting the data together, but enables him to render accurate and complete reports of his operations."

U. S. A. POTASH TO ROUT GERMANY'S

T

HAT ENOUGH POTASH to make us forever independent of Germany in this important particular may be obtained as a by-product of our present manufacture of Portland cement, and that our Government should encourage the cement men to put in plants for this purpose, or possibly take up this branch of industry itself in some way, are the theses of an open letter to President Wilson written by Richard H. Edmonds and printed in The Manufacturers' Record (Baltimore, August 29), of which he is the editor. Mr. Edmonds tells us that the cement industry is, in fact, the longed-for source of potash for which Government

heavy taxation on profits until their net profits enabled them to amortize their capital thus invested. The suggestion is certainly a wise one.

"It can hardly be expected that new capital will go into enterprises of this kind, taking the chances of the uncertainties of after-war conditions, unless there is some assurance that the capital thus invested can be amortized before heavy taxation is laid upon its earnings, or unless assurance can be given that industries such, for instance, as that of potash will after the war be protected against the inroads which Germany would seek to make by breaking down the market for American potash.

"It is possible to bring about the development of a potash industry which would make us entirely independent of German potash, and thus take from Germany the club which it now holds over the agricultural world in the possession of vast potash resources. The matter is one of such tremendous moment, involving our agricultural independence, our freedom from any power of the German potash monopoly, and our ability to make peace terms without for a moment having to consider German potash, that I feel justified in bringing this matter directly to your attention in this way.

"If assurance could be given by you to all of the Portlandcement makers and to the iron-producers of the country that the establishment of by-product potash plants would have the heartiest encouragement by the Administration and would be regarded as vitally important to the United States now and hereafter, I am sure you would be rendering a service of inestimable value to all civilization.

GERMAN DEVICE ON OUR CHEMICAL SERVICE UNIFORMS.

It has now

and private experts have been seeking for years. been found, but not in a way that was expected. He goes on: "We have not found any great bed of potash from which we can draw our supplies, but we have found that potash can be produced as a by-product in the manufacture of Portland cement, in the making of pig iron, and in a number of other industries.

"A few years ago a Portland-cement company in California found that it was feasible to save a considerable amount of potash as a by-product in the making of cement. A Maryland company sent experts to California, and their investigations were so satisfactory that this company spent $100,000 in putting up a byproduct potash plant. This has now been in operation for several years and has been so successful in making potash that a large number of other cement companies are preparing to establish by-product potash plants in connection with cement-making. It has also been proved that potash can be recovered as a byproduct in the manufacture of pig iron.

"If every Portland-cement plant and every pig-iron furnace in the country could establish, in connection with their present plants, potash-recovery systems, we would be able to make ourselves entirely independent forever of Germany's potash. In doing this we would give new impetus to all the agricultural interests of the country and fundamentally stimulate the production of foodstuffs.

"In thus becoming absolutely independent of Germany's potash we would take from that country the power which it thinks it now holds to trade and barter in the final peace terms, with its potash as a dominant power.

"We would be able to make ourselves wholly independent, as I have said, of German potash and forever establish an industry which would increase in proportion as we increased our output of cement and iron. The establishment of this industry on so large a scale would at the same time stimulate the utilization of the waste materials in other industries for potash production.

"But there are difficulties in the way. A few days ago Secretary Lane, in a letter to Congressman Kitchin, pointed out that one cement plant which had expected to spend $100,000 on the establishment of a potash by-product system had been unable to do so because the proposed income-tax bill would make the margin of safety too narrow to justify the investment of new capital. Mr. Lane very strongly urged that in the creation of new industries of this kind they should be free from

"It is quite possible that the Government itself should take hold of this potash development, and on some satisfactory basis establish by-product plants at all the Portland-cement plants and all the iron furnaces, or at least at every furnace where the test of the raw materials shows that potash can be recovered as a by-product. In the aggregate, an immense amount of capital would be involved, but the Government could well afford to cooperate with individual concerns in establishing such plants on a basis which would be fair to the Government, fair to the owners of existing plants. and which would give to the farmers of America an abundant supply of potash and forever protect them and this country from the power of the German potash industry."

The

GERMAN SYMBOLS ON AMERICAN UNIFORMS collar insignia for the Chemical Service Section of the National Army consists of two retorts and a graphic structure known as the "benzol ring," a hexagonal device proposed by Kekule, a German chemist, to represent the structural relationship of the atoms forming the benzin molecule, and to account for the chemical properties and reactions of benzin. In a letter to The Manufacturers' Record (Baltimore, September 5), Prof. Townes R. Leigh, of Georgetown College, Kentucky, protests against the use of what he considers a German device upon the collar insignia of our soldiers of chemistry. He says, among other things:

"The structure which the German, Kekule, assigned to benzin does not account for all of the reactions and properties of that compound. . . . There are upward of twenty structures for benzin, and I would not object to any one of them being used, even if it did not account for all of the reactions, if it were not the one proposed by a German chemist.

"To my mind it would be a distinct travesty upon our patriotism for some of our soldiers of chemistry to fall into the hands of the Huns and let the latter see upon the insignia of the former the well-known German device.

"Now, for the newly organized Chemical Warfare Service, with which the Chemical Service Section has been merged, it has been proposed to adopt the insignia of the latter. This must not be done. American chemists have too much to their credit and we despise the mental attitude of the German too much to allow a German device to be imprest upon our insignia. Let us use something American and something worth while."

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AMERICAN MACHINERY FOR RUSSIA

A

GRICULTURAL TOOLS AND MACHINES are needed in Russia to prevent the most terrible famine in history, which she is now facing, according to Sterling H. Bunnell, a New York engineer, who writes on the subject in The American Machinist (New York). To manufacturers of machinery no country offers such opportunities as are now presented by Russia. Besides her need of it for agricultural purposes, she has even now immense quantities of raw material without the equipment to manufacture them. Are we to leave these opportunities for Germany to exploit? She has already begun; and after the war, if the field is left open to her, she will control Russia industrially, whatever treaties may say about political organization and administration. Mr. Bunnell writes:

fore, not unfamiliar with American machine tools and manufacturing equipment, tho they suppose much of it to be German. "While Russian industries are largely undeveloped, and meager and primitive equipment is common, a good deal of the introduction work has already been done, and many proprietors and managers of factories have decided to install modern machinery as soon as they can get it. As these plans are carried out, the newly equipped industries will naturally follow the practises of the nations making machinery. We and our Allies must not allow the industries of nearly two hundred million people to be dominated by Germany and directed toward the support of a mighty German-Austrian-Russian empire in that 'next war' which the Prussian leaders openly plan and discuss to-day."

"Russia is in desperate need of supplies for the civilian population. The necessities begin with clothes and boots and continue with farm and trade tools, mining equipment, railway locomotives and cars, machine tools and every kind of industrial and factory machinery. The quantities required to refit the population of 170,000,000 will tax our utmost production for several years to come. These things can not be supplied by the Germans until the pressure of war is removed. But if in the interval before our final victory we should refuse to the Russians the supplies which the Germans profess to be ready to furnish, we should find at the close of the war a pro-German sentiment in Russia so strong as to make Russia nothing but a huge extension of Germany, in spite of any power we may then possess to dictate forms of government or annul German-Russian treaties. We might win the war and yet leave the world absolutely powerless to resist German commercial domination supported by Russian coal, oil, metals, and agriculture.

A GRENADE-TESTER-An exhaustive test of grenades, says Rudolf C. Lang in The American Machinist (New York), must be made before adopting any specific type, and even after one has been passed on it is tried from time to time to insure a uniform product. He goes on:

"The usual procedure in testing these grenades is first for penetration; secondly, for distribution of fragments, and last, if both the former warrant further investigation, the jolt test.

"The figure shows one of the chambers used at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation for testing grenades. It is a steel chamber approximately 10 feet square, 15 feet high, with wall 12 inches thick and a square opening on top used as a vent for the gases that have been developed. A narrow door opening from a short passageway leading from the chamber completes the entire structure, which is anchored on a heavy reenforced concrete foundation; covering the entire interior is a layer of heavy coarse wood, over which are placed large sheets of paper. These sheets are renewed after each test, as the following will explain. The reason for all these is to ascertain the true fraction, both as to the number of pieces or slugs as well as their scattering effect. The penetration is then clearly seen in the wooden lining, which also prevents the pieces, or slugs, from rebounding through the paper, on which the scattering effect is clearly shown. When the grenades have thus far proved satisfactory they are submitted to a jolt test, which is nothing more than putting a few of them in a box to which is fastened at one end a long pole. The examiner then places himself behind a barricade and grasps the other end of the pole which passes through a small aperture of the barricade. He then shakes the box vigorously, subjecting the grenades to a severe jolting not only against the wood, but also against one another. When he has shaken them in this manner about a dozen times they are then passed as safe for delivery."

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STEEL ROOM FOR TESTING GRENADES.
It is 10 feet square and 15 feet high.

"We hear and think much about the importance of export trade and the profit it brings to a nation. The greatest opportunity ever offered is now ready for us. Russia possesses even now immense quantities of raw material without the equipment to manufacture them. These materials, comprising hides, flax, bristles, furs, minerals, and agricultural products, are at present in the hands of individuals and corporative societies wanting to sell them and buy manufactured goods from abroad. The shortage of these raw materials is acute, and it only needs that working arrangements be made between financial groups in Russia and America in order that these materials may be shipped here and sold for dollars in our markets, and those dollars used to purchase the machinery and supplies needed in Russia. The Russian materials are to be delivered by their owners at seaports, consigned to an American agent. The American machinery and supplies are to be bought with the money received from selling the Russian materials here. The details of the plan are being worked out by those interested, in connection with representatives of machinery and other houses concerned in sales to Russia. Care will of course be taken to ship goods only to such parts of Russia as are able to maintain their rights in their purchases and keep them out of German hands and free of military seizure.

"To manufacturers of machinery no country in the world presents such enormous opportunities as the lands of the former Russian Empire. Under the Imperial Government it was the policy of the ruling class to trade with foreign countries for the major part of the manufactured goods required and pay in grain raised by cheap labor at small cost. The trade was profitable, and the leaders therefore saw no object in improving their own country by education and the introduction of better methods of work. Germany was situated in a position to take full advantage of the opportunity. Most of the machinery bought by Russia came from Germany. Not all, however, was made in Germany; large numbers of American-made machines were bought by German firms and supplied with German trade-marks in place of the American names. In many cases when such machines sold well in Russia they were copied in Germany by the German selling agents, who continued to buy a few in America so as to keep the original manufacturers from suspecting that their trade was being stolen. The Russians are, there

MAKING OUR OWN CASTOR OIL-The scarcity of castoroil, which for a time threatened to block our airplane program and also the production of important leather substitutes, has been successfully overcome, according to a recent government announcement. Says a press bulletin of the Du Pont Company:

"When the insufficiency of the castor-oil supply became apparent, 6,000 tons of castor-beans were imported and planted last spring in sections of eight Southern States, California, Cuba, Haiti, and Santo Domingo on government contracts. The result has been exceedingly gratifying, as the crop to be harvested next month will net more than 2,000,000 gallons of first-grade oil. This amount added to the supply on hand will fill all industrial and medicinal needs for a year. Castor-oil is an essential factor in the building of airplanes equipped with rotary motors. Hundreds of such machines are on the building schedule and motors of this type must have castor-oil for a lubricant. Thousands of gallons of castor-oil are used yearly in the making of leather substitutes of the pyroxylin-coated type, which, since the outbreak of the war, have performed invaluable service in releasing leather for the country's vital military requirements. The success of the experiment of planting castor-beans in this country adds another paying crop to the list in the sections named and, in all probability, in adjoining areas. It also relieves the United States of the necessity of depending on imports for its supply of castor-oil."

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