THE STORY OF THE WAR:
THE TWO RUMANIAN FRONTS

Rumania followed her entrance into the war, reported last week, by energetic military movements. Her natural hostile fronts are at the north side of the western section of Rumania and at the south side, on the Bulgarian frontier. Her advance on the first of these fronts into Transylvania, the triangular section of Hungary which forms the southeastern corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was rapid and successful. Apparently she was all but through the passes before war was declared; she quickly seized Kronstadt, and almost as quickly another important town called Hermannstadt, later took the important town of Orsova, not far from the "Iron Gates" of the Danube, and apparently is already firmly established in Transylvania. What this means is evident in a glance at any map. Transylvania is the nut between the two halves of the nutcracker made by the northern boundary of western Rumania, on Transylvania's south, and the western boundary of northern Rumania, on Transylvania's east. When we remember that this latter half of the Rumanian nutcracker almost joins the great Russian advance in Galicia, the parlous state of Transylvania is obvious.

Russia and Rumania have every opportunity to act in concert. And not in one section only; for Russia is now free to send her troops south through eastern Rumania and Bulgaria in an advance on Constantinople-free, that is, except for the resistance which may be offered by Bulgaria and her allies. This resistance is evidently to be considerable, for large bodies of hostile forces are already reported as fighting against the Rumanian armies which aim to cross south from Rumania into Bulgaria. Fighting has taken place not very far from the port of Varna, on the Black Sea. What resistance may be made to the Rumanian and Russian advances for Russian troops are already in this vicinity-remains to be seen. If Russia has armies to send along this line and also, perhaps, through

Rumania to aid Rumania's other advance, already described, the position of the AustroBulgarian armies in the Near East is serious. As we said last week, Austria-Hungary is now obliged to fight on several frontsTrentino, Trieste, Kovel, Lemberg, Transylvania in two sections, and, finally, it faces the great army of the Allies now threatening to advance from Salonika. Moreover, the Teutonic Powers have to cope with the results of the Grand Duke Nicholas's advance in Asia Minor.

The situation in the Near East is such that it certainly lends coior to the argument of those who believe that either this year or next the decisive military results will be obtained in this field rather than on the western lines in France and Belgium.

GREECE AND THE ALLIES

Greece still remains in a confused political and international condition. The wildest rumors were afloat recently about the Kingthat he was dead, that he was ill, that he had abdicated, that the Crown Prince was to take his place, that he was ready to submit to that part of the Greek people under Venizelos's leadership who wished to enter the war on the side of the Allies. Almost anything might happen before these words are read, but as we write (September 6) the figment of neutrality is still maintained and Zaimis still remains Premier. Meanwhile the Allies in Greece have taken a firm stand to secure themselves from treachery and spying. They have seized several German merchant ships in the harbor of Athens, and they have caused the arrest and deportation of even diplomatic representatives of Germany and Austria who, as charged, have been guilty of underhanded agitation against the Allies. Greece seems to have accepted this action, and has insisted only that the actual work of arresting the wrong-doers should be made through Greek agents. To a neutral observer it would seem that Greece's only opportunity for undoing the ill-advised policy which has brought her into such a pitiable condition is to follow the

lead of Venizelos and the wish of the great majority of the Greek people. Revolutionary outbreaks have been reported from various parts of Greece.

OTHER WAR NEWS

The Russian drives toward Kovel and Lemberg appear also to have advanced during the week. On September 5 General Brusiloff reported that nearly twenty thousand prisoners had been taken in three days. General Brusiloff continues his policy of striking at one point and then at another. The chief object of immediate attack seems to be the town of Halicz, to take which would bring the Russians within good striking distance of Lemberg.

In the great western conflict in the region of the Somme River the fighting during the week here dealt with (August 30 to September 6) has been violent. Both the French and British have taken villages and positions of value in reaching their objectives. For instance, on September 5 the British are reported to have pushed a mile beyond the town of Guillemont and to have taken important German defenses at the Falfemont Farm, while the French wedge, which has been driven forward so as to outflank and command the town of Combles, has been enlarged and extended. The French have taken twenty-nine villages in all since they started their Somme offenses, and in three days last week reported the capture of over ten thousand prisoners.

Another Zeppelin raid on London and the eastern coast is to be reported. The usual result is indicated by English reports, namely, that a few civilians were killed and some small damage done to buildings.

The spectacular feature of this attack was the destruction, within full view of many thousands of people, of a Zeppelin by gunfire from an aeroplane. The sight of the burning dirigible, which became a mass of flame and glowing metal before it fell, was terrible and marvelous. English reports say that the total number of Zeppelins lost by Germany in the war is not very far from thirty.

CONGRESS AVERTS THE RAILWAY STRIKE

The news that Congress, at the earnest suggestion of the President, had passed a law dealing with the railway strike situation was undoubtedly received with a sigh of relief from immediate danger the country over. This

was so almost regardless of the widely varying opinions passed as to the justice of the law itself and the desirability of a settlement by Act of Congress. Some of these diverging views, as shown in the press of the country, will be found elsewhere in this issue, together with The Outlook's own expression of opinion on the matter.

The law, which had already passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 239 to 56, was assented to by the Senate Saturday evening, September 2, by a vote of 43 to 28, and was signed by President Wilson as soon as his temporary absence from Washington allowed. Only forty-eight hours were required for action by Congress on this important topic. Amendments offered by Senator Underwood, of Alabama, which gave the Inter-State Commerce Commission general power to fix hours of labor and wages, were defeated in the Senate by an overwhelming majority, as were also other amendments. The pressure of immediate action was everywhere evident. This also appears in the first provision of the law, which consists of a sentence of about two hundred and fifty words very clumsily expressed and without a single period from beginning to end. Briefly summarized. what the law accomplishes is to establish eight hours as the standard day in railway work; to direct that the pay for a day's work should remain as it has been, despite the change from ten hours to eight hours in the standard; to leave the pay for overtime as it has been (or, as it is called, pro rata), and not "time and a half," as the brotherhood demanded—that is, a man who works an hour overtime will now receive an eighth of a day's pay for that hour; to provide a commission of three to be appointed by the President to investigate the operation of the new system and report to Congress after ten months; and, finally, to fix penalties for violation of the provisions of the Act. The law goes into effect on January 1, 1917. It applies to all employees of railways doing an inter-State business, and also to employees of electric street railways and interurban railways the lines of which cross State lines. The commission to be appointed by the President is to carry on its observation for not less than six months or more than nine months. The law, of course, provides appropriation of funds for the expenses of the

commission.

The leaders of the railway unions at once took steps to countermand the call for a

Nation-wide strike which had been previously sent out fixing the day of the strike as Monday, September 4—that is, Labor Day.

It was made known almost at once that the railway companies will fight the law on the ground of unconstitutionality. This will be based, presumably, on the claim that the law is class legislation, and perhaps also on the question whether Congress has the right by legislation to fix hours and wages for labor in one industrial field and not in others. Railway officials assert that the new law will cost the railways something like $60,000,000 a year in increase of wages, while brotherhood officials put the actual increase at not over $20,000,000.

THE PRESIDENT SIGNS TWO BILLS

During the week ending September 6 the President signed two bills, the passage of which must stand very distinctly to the credit of the present Administration. Both bills had their genesis under Republican Administrations, but the Democrats can claim the honor of transmuting the hope of their enactment into law. Both bills have been repeatedly discussed and recommended in the pages of The Outlook; one, the Child Labor Law, provides adequately for the protection of children who are employed directly or indirectly in inter-State commerce. The other provides that compensation shall be paid for Federal employees disabled or killed in the course of their work for the Government. Under the new law, as The Outlook has already pointed out, thirty-five per cent of an employee's salary is to be paid to the heirs in case of death, within six years after the injury or the beginning of disability. Ten per cent is to be added for each dependent child of such employee, not to exceed a total of sixty-six and two-thirds per cent of his wages. Furthermore, this law, in addition to giving medical attendance for an injured employee, grants to the employee a monthly two-thirds of the wages during total disability, and during partial disability a monthly two-thirds of the difference between his monthly pay and his monthly wage-earning capacity. Finally, the law appropriates half a million dollars to be set aside as a separate fund in the Treasury, and to be known as the Employees' Compensation Fund. To administer it there is to be a United States Employees' Compensation Commission, to consist of three men drawing salaries of $5,000 each.

THE REVENUE BILL

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It is interesting to compare Mr. Wilson's statement of the Democratic attitude towards the tariff (made in his address formally accepting the Democratic nomination) with the attitude of the Democratic Congress on the question of the duty on dyestuffs. Mr. Wilson said of the Republican party that it "had framed tariff laws based upon a fear of foreign trade: a fundamental doubt as to American skill, enterprise, and capacity." Of the record of the Democratic party Mr. Wilson said: "The tariff has been revised, not on the principle of repelling foreign trade, but upon the principle of encouraging it."

Now, despite the President's words, the Democratic House and Senate have passed a revenue bill containing a protective duty on dyestuffs which, to quote Senator Underwood, of Alabama, one of only seven Democrats who voted against it, "makes Schedule K of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill blush with shame." Mr. Underwood said on the floor of the Senate: "This schedule deliberately proposes to give a special interest between two and three million dollars. You will not have any revenue from dyestuffs from the custom-houses after this war ends. The imposts on dyestuffs levied by the present law were bringing in more than $2,000,000 in revenue a year when the war broke out. You are drafting a prohibitive tariff, which will cut off all revenue from this source."

We believe that the provision for duty on dyestuffs is a protective measure which even the most ardent advocates of tariff for revenue only can afford to accept without undue qualms. The dye industry is so closely connected with the question of National defense and the production of high explosives that the country cannot certainly afford to remain dependent upon foreign nations for its supply, even at the cost of losing all our revenue from duties on foreign dyestuffs.

The Revenue Bill, of which this yestuff schedule is a part, has now been pasd by the Senate. It retains the provision for the tariff commission of six members, not more than three of whom shall be of one political party, which has been actively recommended by President Wilson, and also a section designed to prevent the "dumping" of foreign goods in the United States at cheap prices after the war. This section would make it unlawful to import goods at a price substantially less than the actual market value or

wholesale price in the principal markets in the country of their production.

The Senate has added three amendments designed to strike at the blacklists and the system of mail seizure established by the Allies. One amendment provides that the President may withhold clearance either from particular vessels that discriminate against any American citizen or firm, or from one or more vessels of any nation that restricts the commerce of American ships or citizens. Another amendment empowers the President to deny the use of the United States mails, telegraph, cables, wireless, and express service to foreign subjects or firms if their governments persist in measures restricting American mails or trade.

The third amendment is the result of the protest of our tobacco-growers. Great Britain had discriminated against so-called luxuries, tobacco included. The amendment provides that where a foreign belligerent, during the existence of a war in which the United States is not engaged, discriminates against the importation of any of our prod ucts, not injurious to health or morals, the President shall have power to prevent the importation into the United States of similar articles from the belligerent country, and if there are no similar articles exported to the United States, then he may prohibit the importation of other articles from the belligerent country or its dependencies.

THE COMMISSION ON MEXICO

The Mexican question is firmly fixed as an issue in the Presidential campaign, and it is proper that it should be so. But every American who puts his country above his party will agree that the sessions of the AmericanMexican Commission at New London ought to be unhampered by political entanglements. Republicans ought to unite with Democrats in insisting that the Commission be exempt from political attacks.

Attempts to work out a solution for the Mexican problem by conferences have failed in the past; little was accomplished by the so-called "A B C Conference" at Niagara Falls two years ago or by the recent conferences on the border between General Obregon and Generals Scott and Funston. There may be some ground for the pessimistic forecasts of political croakers who predict that the present Commission will accomplish nothing. But let us give the Commission the benefit of the

doubt. Perhaps the most plausible reason for disbelief in its ability is the apparently wellfounded suspicion that the Mexican delegates have not been given by their Government power commensurate with the importance of their duties. But there is good reason to hope with Secretary Lansing that their "sphere of discussion will widen from day to day." Secretary Lane, the first member appointed to the American Commission, has predicted that the conferences will last more than a month, and they may last two months. But in attacking this important problem, so vital to the welfare of both Mexico and the United States, the American Commissioners have a right to expect from their countrymen a free hand and no criticism until the conferences are ended.

MONGOLIA

Recently, in a brawl at Changchitung, on the border between Manchuria and Mongolia, some Chinese soldiers killed some Japanese. Japan hastened to send a couple of thousand of her soldiers to the district, and, according to the newspaper despatches, has now demanded as reparation :

1. The dismissal of the Chinese officers in command of the troops at the scene of trouble.

2. The withdrawal of the Chinese garrison. 3. The indemnification of the families of the Japanese killed.

4. The right of Japan to police Inner Mongolia.

The first three of these demands are perhaps not unreasonable. The trouble is as to the fourth. Mongolia is a huge country, an empire in itself, half desert, lying north of China proper, and forming one of the four great outlying provinces where the Chinese Government operates somewhat indefinitely, the other three being Manchuria, Tibet, and Chinese Turkestan.

History has shown that the five million. Mongols are not a race to trifle with. To-day they may seem simple enough, mostly stockbreeders and caravan drivers. The native princes of Outer Mongolia, however, along the Russian border, hold their heads high, and during the anti-Manchu revolution (1911) declared that their country had severed its connection with China. But as directly thereafter they requested help from Russia in framing a new government, it was natural to assume that Russia had instigated the change, hoping to gain control of the country.