and rule.' So France and England are not yet willing to face a future restored Germany, with powerful allies in Austria and the Balkans. So anything we can do to promote the separatist spirit in enemy countries is fair in war. We hope to create a front in the interior of enemy lands. It was just in this way that the Federal Government encouraged in the '60's the formation of West Virginia out of the flank of the Old Dominion and received it into the Union."

But, the Tennessee daily continues:

"It must be frankly said that there is a danger in paying too much attention to racial aspirations. Problems will arise for

world in turmoil. The Balkans have displayed in our time, even as Italy did in the Middle Ages, the dangers of having a new nation every few leagues.

"America is heartily for the emancipation of the Czechs, the Hungarians, the South Slavs, the Poles, the Roumanians, the Italians, and the Ruthenians, on whom has been laid the heavy hand of Teutonism; but will the emancipation make for a durable peace? If from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Alps to the Dardanelles, come into being nearly a score of small nations, each one jealous of its place in the sun, it is not certain pacifism will-result. Call the roll of the proposed comminution: Livonia, Courland, Lithuania, the. Ukraine, Poland, Bohemia,

settlement which are insoluble. Take, for instance, the Balkans: races and religions are mixed there to an extent which can be described by no other term so well as 'scrambled eggs.'

"There is no more certain cause for a future war than the dismemberment of a country. The President has kept this idea before us. It was the wrong done France in 1871 which, as the President has said, kept Europe disturbed for fifty years, and in the case of Italy, the provinces for which she is fighting were given Austria in the time of Napoleon. That same ruler reduced Prussian territory by half, and in 1813, after his flight from Moscow, the Prussians fell on him. . .

"It will probably be found on investigation that not all these people, nor those of Transylvania, wish to desert their old allegiance. In Bohemia and in the Tyrol there is a large Teutonic population."

It is largely because it has been such "a singular and paradoxical dominion" that the breaking up of Austria presents such difficulties, the New York Globe thinks. It recalls certain facts:

"A steady war-maker, she has steadily been defeated, yet after each overthrow she has emerged substantially intact and often with gains of territory. France, Germany, and Italy have beaten her. Russia saved her when Hungary had brought the Hapsburgs to their knees. She has been the ward of Europe, whose efforts to commit suicide have been frustrated. The Hapsburg power was the reason Gladstone glanced at when he remarked, great liberal and friend of small nations tho he was, that if Austria-Hungary did not exist it would be necessary to invent her. Europe has felt, were the conglomerate populations of the upper Danubian Valley not artificially held together, that the bickerings of a multitude of petty states would keep the

Hungary, German Austria, JugoSlavia, Roumania, Servia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Albania, and Greece. "The influence of the big nations should go to making the aggregates as large as possible. The world has an interest in the reconstitution of Russia, a large Poland, a greater Roumania, a Jugo-Slavia that will bring together not merely Croatians, Dalmatians, Styrians, and the Servians of political Hungary and of Bosnia, but Servia and Montenegro. The big nations have grave faults, but the little ones, except they accumulate a tradition like that of seasoned Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, etc., have even graver ones. Think of а dozen new tariff frontiers!

"Something approximating to the Big Brother relation which this country would like to sustain to the nations of the western hemisphere seems a necessity of the worldsituation. It is doubtful if any league of peace will be successful which is strictly logical in its adherence to the principle of equality of national right."

The Memphis Commercial Appeal fears Austria will go "through the convulsions that marked the disintegration in Russia." Only

"The struggle in Austria will be greater, because there will be racial as well as class hatreds, and there is nothing more bitter than a racial hatred. So the very disintegration of Austria is fraught with danger to the Allies."

Since the visit of Kossuth, Americans have sympathized with Hungarian dreams of independence. To-day the Emperor of Austria-Hungary has given the Magyar state a complete independent cabinet, and Count Michael Karolyi, president of the Hungarian Independence party, promises the formation of an independent antidynastic state with a democratic constitution. But that Hungary is speaking too late to save herself is an opinion which has been formed by several of our editors. Hungary, the New York Evening Post observes, "wants to give the impression that she has broken loose from the Dual Monarchy, and hence has been relieved of all blood-guilt in the war, and should be allowed to go her way undisturbed; but the peace conference will not be deceived." Then there are the subject peoples of Hungary whose view-point, as the New York Sun notes, was strikingly revealed to the ruling Magyars "when the Croatian regiments at Fiume, Hungary's only seaport, revolted and took possession of the town in the name of the new CzechoSlovak state." The Boston Transcript points out that "the principle of the self-determination of nationalities will inevitably deprive Hungary, as she is now constituted, of all her Moravian counties in the north, of all Transylvania, of the Roumanian Banat in the southeast, and of Croatia and Slavonia in the southwest. Hungary will be reduced to her purely Magyar element." The Transcript concludes that:

"The truly great nation which will emerge from the Austro

Hungarian wreck will be Czecho-Slovakia, which will stand in middle-Europe as Mount Zion stood in Judea, beautiful for situation, and crowned with her ancient and cultured capital, Prague. Czecho-Slovakia, leading by the hand Jugo-Slavia, farther south, will possess a moral and intellectual hegemony among the Slavic races, and will by this means quite overshadow Hungary, which has made its choice for ill instead of for good." Austria's announced willingness to deal directly with the Czecho-Slovak National Council, the raising of the red and white flag in Prague, and the tearing down of the symbols of Hapsburg rule in the old Bohemian city, are first steps in the recovery of national independence by this state, whose armies have fought so valiantly thousands of miles from their homeland.

Somewhat less attention has been paid to the Jugo-Slavs. Slovenes, Croatians, and Servians recently declared upon certain fundamental principles through the executive committee of their national council. These were:

"First, to bring about a reunion of all the Slovenes, Croatians, and Servians on a racial basis, without reference to their present political frontiers.

"Secondly, to create a sovereign state on a democratic basis. "Thirdly, to see that the nationalities represented by the council have a delegate at the peace conference."

Who will lead in the new Slavonic state, the Servian, the Croatian, or the Slovene? This question is answered thus by such a distinguished Servian as Professor Michael Pupin:

"The ablest of them will be the leaders, and the others will follow. But the foundation on which the South Slavonic state is to be raised must be Servia, as was defined in the declaration of Corfu by representatives of the Government of Servia and the South Slav committee of London, the leaders of the South Slavs in Austria-Hungary. The real reason why Servia must be the foundation of the South Slavonic state is because Servia is a democracy and has been so for more than a century, and the Servian is well trained in a democratic form of government. The Slovene and the Croatian are not, but they will undoubtedly take to it rapidly, because, being Slavs, they have a natural inclination toward democracy, an inclination which has, how

ever, been dwarfed by the long subjection to the autocracy of Austria and of Hungary.

"The Servian of Servia has also made more sacrifices in blood, in treasure, and in suffering of every kind to win the independence of the Jugo-Slavs. The Allies know that the Servian of Servia is a brave and loyal ally and that they can trust him. There is no doubt in my mind that before many years have passed the Allies: will have found out that the Croatians, the Slovenes, and the Servians of Austria are just as brave and loyal as the Servians

be, then it is unthinkable to form it under any other basis than a constitutional monarchy, with the dynasty of Karageorgevitch at its head. Under the Karageorgevitch we can have a truly democratic Jugo-Slavia, in which the Servian, the Croatian, and the Slovene will enjoy absolutely equal rights and privileges."

The Poles, whose cause has been so ably led in this country by Mr. Paderewski, expect to form a united state from Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Poland, with access to the Baltic Sea, presumably by way of Danzig. A Polish army, which was brought to life by a decree of President Poincaré of France, was given the sanction of the United States and other Allied governments. Mr. Paderewski has recruited in this country a considerable force which is being trained in this country and Canada and being transported constantly by contingents to join the Polish army in France, writers in the press remind us. A free Poland with the boundaries now marked out for it would be a nation of twenty million inhabitants.

Italy, of course, will now receive her "Irredenta." There remains the great German population of the old Austrian duchies. German writers have suggested that these ten million Germans will join the German Empire as a new federal state. German-Austrian deputies in the Austrian Reichsrath have met to announce the creation of a "German state of Austria," which will represent Austria which will seek access to the Adriatic Sea, and will conduct its own separate peace negotiations. The Chicago Daily News thinks that the acquisition of the German provinces of Austria would far more than compensate Germany in territory and population if she loses Posen and Danzig to Poland, Alsace-Lorraine to France, and Schleswig to Denmark. But the New York Times points out that in the first place if German Austria should enter the German Empire, "it is quite conceivable that she might be a center of anti-Prussian feeling around which other South German states could rally." Moreover, "If the newly freed Slav peoples succeed in establishing the federation for which they hope, it is quite possible that the new center of gravity in Central Europe may be at Prague or Warsaw. The future holds difficulties, but it is far less promising for Germany than the old system by which Vienna and Budapest could force millions of Slavs and Latins to support Pan-German plans."

their way into the Verdun "hinge" of the whole German line northward to the Holland border, evidences increase that to our two new armies has been confided the "post of honor" on the Western Front. Testimony regarding our importance in the military scheme of things comes, as is fitting, largely from our Allies and from German sources. If Foch turns the present German retreat through Belgium and northern France into a rout, most critics are agreed that the cutting of the German communications north of Verdun by American soldiers will furnish the decisive blow.

Two recent events, so small in themselves as to be pretty well buried in the news of peace proposals and politics, take on vital significance when viewed together in the light of the deadliness to Germany of even a comparatively slight American advance. The first of these events, the shelling of the main line of the railroad in the region of Conflans by 16-inch American naval guns, marks the beginning of the rupture of German communications, which the second event, the capture of the little village of Aincreville on the following day, seems to make certain. As a correspondent points out in The World, the distinguished German General von Marwitz, called in the day before to stop the Americans, had ordered that the line of hills running westward from Dun-surMeuse to Buzancy were to be held "whatever the cost of holding them may be," since possession of them would give the American artillery a free sweep of the all-important trunk-line railroad from Metz to Lille. Another writer in this paper points out that "Aincreville is only three miles southwest of Dun and the hills taken are only eight miles south of the vital crossing of the Meuse at Stenay. The advance made by the Americans is about two miles."

Fighting on this front, where Germany has sent in "three times as many reenforcements to each division in the line as at Cambrai," resembles the old terrific pounding tactics of trench

warfare rather than the warfare of movement which has begun further north. A single town has been taken and lost fourteen times before becoming definitely American. Counter-attacks are frequent. Says a correspondent, writing after the last American advance:

"This form of resistance is accompanied by a concentric artillery-fire whose violence recalls the first battle before Verdun, and it is the most painful ordeal which the American troops have yet had to undergo. But where our infantry cede feet, under a Niagara of high explosives in Belleau Wood on the right, they gain yards in the center.

"Everywhere the fighting is incessant. Mostly it is dull, drab, and dirty; always it is bloody and heroic on the part of the enemy as well as by our own boys. The coming of the dove of peace is inaudible out here."

Another correspondent, writing to the New York Times, explains that the success of the American operations north of Verdun is not to be measured in kilometers gained, but in its effect on the whole situation:

"Since General Pershing's men launched their first attack, in the mist of the morning of September 26, they have fought and put out some twenty German divisions, among which are some of the best in the German Army, such as three of the five Guard divisions and the 28th, known as the Kaiser's Own. In front of us now there are some eighteen more divisions, and others are being brought up day by day to confront us.

"On the front of the First American Army the last four weeks have seen some of the fiercest fighting of the whole war, where the best soldiers the Kaiser has are fighting youthful Americans under orders to hold at all costs the line which protects the Luxemburg gateway, the most important artery of the German Army. Captured German officers explain: 'We have just got to hold north of Verdun.' A captured order of a German general says the fate of the Fatherland may hang on the fight north of Verdun. If the Mézières-Luxemburg railroad system is reached or put under easy gun-fire, all communication for the German front from in front of Laon to the Meuse falls."

In four weeks, announces a Headquarters statement covering operations between October 1 and October 28, the American forces on this front have passed through the Hindenburg line, the Volker line, the Kriemhilde line, and now face the Freya line, while the Germans are busy on further fortifications in the rear. In this time the Americans have captured more than 20,000 prisoners and 127 guns of all calibers. In addition, a large number of machine guns and antitank guns and much ammunition have been taken. American gunners have fired

more than 2,500,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, at times running as high as 150,000 a day. They have used more than 1,000 cannon of all calibers, not including captured guns, which, using their own ammunition, have been turned against the Germans. Since September 26, 230 airplanes have been brought down and 23 enemy observation-balloons have been shot down in flames. This record is regarded as remarkably good, in view of the fact that the weather has been adverse, with but three really good flying days. The American air-bombing service has made many successful sallies behind the enemy lines by day and night, dropping more than 80,000 pounds of high explosive bombs. On one of these expeditions more than 200 airplanes were used, making the largest airplane concentration on a single mission ever known. American engineers have done yeoman work in remaking roads ruined by four years of shelling and German mines. Over a fivekilometer zone ahead of the army's starting-off point no roads existed, and the Americans faced a formidable task to keep supplies, food, and ammunition moving steadily, as has to be done to run a great army. Forty thousand engineers, working day and night, rebuilt the needed roads, using stone from destroyed villages for a great part, and incidentally wiping off the map villages which for four years had existed only in dismal and scattered piles of moss - blanketed stones.

bad

Globe and other journals point

out, that the end of the war will mean an end of food shortage. Note is taken of the utterance of Mr. Pack, of the National War Garden Commission, that with every mile of land in France and Belgium recaptured from the Germans there will be so many more thousands of people dependent upon the United States and Canada for their food. And The Globe goes on to say that if peace comes within the year there will be enormous markets for food in Germany and Austria, and it thinks it will be the United States and Canada that will have to meet the needs of those starving populations, altho others may object to obeying the scriptural injunction that "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." We are told also that Russia is facing one of the worst famines in the history of the world, which will become acute in the spring of 1919. The Wall Street Journal admonishes us that if any one is disposed to think of himself first, "let him remember that the amount of wheat he usually consumes here at home will keep three children alive for the same length of time in the the severely strict rationing systems that now prevail almost everywhere in Europe "it would sustain two women in Allied countries." We are assured by the Federal Food Board, which outlines the program of the Food Administration, that altho details of this program change every day, almost every hour, the main outline has not been altered since the Inter-Allied Food Council agreed that America should provide this year 17,550,000 tons of food, an increase of fifty per cent. over last year's prodigious achievement. From the statement of the board as given to the press we quote the following informing and impressive observations:

"Before our men, whose task is the conquest of Alsace, lies that historic valley which runs between the Vosges and the Rhine from Altkirch to Frankenthal. May it not be haunted by the souls of some of its brave sons who fought for France? It is easy to believe that our soldiers may be led by the martial spirit of Kléber and the Kellermanns-one of the latter the savior of France at Valmy, and the other, his son, the leader whose impetuous charge turned Marengo into a victory. There, betwixt mountain range and river bank, with fortresses in front, there will be fierce fighting for possession of Alsace. And for Lorraine the fighting may be even fiercer a little way to the west in the sector where our aviators drop their compliments on Metz.

"The men who have already broken up thirty of his divisions there will keep him busy. They will see to it that he shall have no rest. And that is the all-inclusive purpose of the winter's work. The German armies must get no chance of recuperation and reconstruction, no time to manufacture fresh stores of guns and ammunition, no opportunity to fortify any new line of defense. These are just the things for which they wish to obtain an armistice, and we should be fools indeed if we let them have their wish. We are not prolonging the war by the determination to carry it right on through the winter without a pause. On the contrary, we are shortening it, by preventing the Germans from getting their breath for its prolongation."

"The largest item in the program of food exports is 10,400,000 tons of bread-making flour and grains-more than 400,000,000 bushels. Part of that is the surplus of one of the largest wheat crops ever harvested in this country-reduced again by a shortage of corn. A substantial part of this saving will come from the conscious, deliberate saving of 100,000,000 American citizens, male and female, big and little.

"Suppose that of the 400,000,000 bushels and over that we ship, 100,000,000 is to be accomplished by saving. So far as this account is concerned, the actual amount to be saved is not essential; an imaginary figure will do. For the total shipment will include bread grains all lumped together, wheat, rye, barley, and to some extent corn, and the proportions will vary as

the program works out. Say for the present we are to find 100,000,000 bushels by saving. Put that in the terms of the individual. It is the same as tho each one allowed himself four bushels of grain in his bread for the year in place of five bushels, which was the ordinary calculation in the bygone, wasteful days."

From Washington Mr. Judson C. Welliver, staff correspondent of the New York Globe, writes that it is startling to be assured by the Food Administration that this country has produced less foodstuffs this year than last, because most people believe the contrary, and that is "one of the bad features of the situation." He tells us further that

"The wheat crop of 1918 is not a record-breaker, but it is far ahead of last year's. The public has had that sole fact dinned into its ears till it has attached too much importance to it. While there is indeed an increase in wheat, there are deficits in many other crops, and in the aggregate a big and real shortage. Here is a balance-sheet of the essential crops made up for me by the Food Administration experts which I am assured gives an accurate impression of the real situation.

"Increases in production of the following crops for 1918, as against 1917, are:

Increase in
Bushels

267,000,000 26,000,000

16,000,000 2,000,000 5,000,000

3,000,000

319,000,000

"Thus, there is a net decrease of 227,000,000 bushels, which, taking thirty-three bushels to the ton, means well over 7,000,000 tons."

Mr. Welliver points out, however, that the deficit is not so serious as the bushelage figures make it appear, because of the immense importance of wheat, and he proceeds:

"The Food Administration's answer is-first, that with the world in its present scrape, food is food and bushels are bushels. People in Europe, and people here, are going to be compelled to eat whatever food can be given them. Europe must, for instance, take more corn than ever before, and learn how to use it. The alternative will be to go hungry.

"The second part of the answer is that there is no such immense concealed surplus of food in the country now as there was last winter."

T

A HEALTHIER, WEALTHIER, WISER LAND HE "EARLY TO BED and early to rise" theory was amply vindicated by the results of the seven months of "daylight-saving," observe the sagacious writers for the press as they note how much healthier, wealthier, and wiser we all are than we would have been if the clocks had not all been set ahead during the past spring and summer. Of course, the Providence Journal rises to remark, there were a few minor drawbacks connected with this national attempt "to rise with the lark and with the lark to bed." "Parents of small children will testify that there has been more trouble than usual about the going-to-bed hour, and it may be said that we have had less benefit than usual from summer moonlight evenings because Luna does not make her appearance as early as she used to do." But against all such trivial troubles are opposed the overwhelming advantages that have come to a hundred million people.

Are we healthier? "Outdoor life has been everywhere stimulated," replies this Providence daily; "we have lived nearer to nature, come closer to obeying her laws; we have abandoned in some measure our foolish habit of lying abed long after the sun got up." The New York Sun answers the same question by relating that "factory work of all kinds, which requires strong light and accurate eyesight, has been benefited to an extent which no one has been able to estimate in terms of money, and the health of working men and women in every line of employment has been improved through working in daylight," and by reporting the assertions of humanitarians "that the number of accidents in factories, on transportation-lines, and on the highways has been reduced greatly."

Of course we are wiser. We have learned, as the New York Globe notes, how to make "life more enjoyable for everybody." We have learned something of the beauties of that morning hour, others observe. We have not been deceiving ourselves, as some opponents of the plan used to say, but, like truly wise people, have, in the words of the Boston Transcript, "simply demonstrated our moral superiority to our mechanical arrangements."

But perhaps most people will judge of the success of the daylight-saving plan by the dollars and cents standard, and will ask, Has it made us wealthier, as well as healthier and wiser? Most editors agree that it has, and special authorities are both emphatic and specific on this point. President Marks, of the National Daylight Saving Association, has not yet compiled definite figures on the saving in gas and electricity, but cites his