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Good Silverware
To appreciate good
Silverware you must
consider its weight
in silver, its worth
in workmanship, its
value as a decoration,
its immunity from
breakage, its resis-
tance to wear, and
its everlasting
serviceability.

GORHAM STERLING SILVERWARE

is sold everywhere by

leading jewelers and 6

bears this trade-mark

STERLING

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THE VICTORY LOAN AN AMAZING SUCCESS

NEW doubted that the four and one

Falf billion dollars' worth of Victory

Loan Notes offered by the Government
would be taken up, but there was doubt
whether the new loan, like its four prede-
cessors, would be taken up in large pro-
portion by small subscribers. While exact
figures are not yet available, it is esti
mated as we write that at least fifteen
million separate persons purchased the
new securities. This, to be sure, is a
smaller number than subscribed in the
preceding loan, but that loan was for six
billions and was raised under the imme-
diate stress of actual war. It is a triumph
also that the new loan was very much
over-subscribed-probably a billion and
a half dollars above the amount asked
for. The Government had in advance de-
clared its intention not to accept over-
subscriptions, it will scale down only the
large amounts subscribed-those over
$10,000 each. Every district in the coun-
try exceeded its quota of subscription. In
every respect the placing of the loan was
not merely successful, but exceeded even
sanguine expectations.

It is evident that the great body of the American people felt both a duty and a desire to stand behind the Government's war debts. It is evident also that there was a large amount of accumulated profits and income available for the purchase of National securities—a greater amount and more widely subdivided than most people thought. That such a loan should be negotiated without disturbing the market values of other securities and in a sound and hopeful condition of the country's money and stock markets is decidedly gratifying as an indication of actual business prosperity.

One important element in the success of the loan was its exceeding attractiveness as an investment. The small investor saw the advantage of that form of the notes which bears interest at 434 per cent and is exempt from any taxation with the exception of the super-income tax, which does not largely affect the small investor; on the other hand, the big investor or company saw the advantage of the form of the bond which bears interest at 334 per cent and involves no income

tax even on the super-income.

The total amount which the people of the country have loaned to the Government in the five great drives and in the purchase of War Stamps may be roughly stated to be a little over twenty-two billion dollars. But about ten billion dollars

MAY 21, 1919

of this was not expended by the United States in war but loaned to our allies, and on that portion our Government does not, of course, pay interest. It would be too sanguine to assume, because the loan just completed is understood to be the last to be raised by a "drive," that the expenditure of the Government in war has been entirely provided for, and that it has nothing else to do but to pay interest on the loans. There are still a good many outstanding obligations, and necessary expenditure must be incurred in the future but growing out of the war. No doubt the period of high taxation must continue for some time to come.

It would be impossible to praise too highly the efficiency and energy of the publicity managers in all the great public loans; they have done remarkable work, and very largely purely through patriotism and without compensation. In one way or another they have brought home to every one in the country the opportunity and the patriotic obligation involved. The people have become partners with the Government in making it possible to carry out the stupendous undertaking upon which we entered when we joined the Allies in the effort to overthrow PanGermanism and ruthlessness.

TWO AMERICAN WITNESSES

Thomas W. Lamont is one of the best known and most competent of American financiers. He is a member of the permanent Armistice Commission, and has been visiting Luxemburg, Trèves, and Coblenz. In an interview with Mr. Grasty, of the New York "Times," he has given a picture of the contrast between Germany and France that ought to be kept in the mind of all Americans. "The steep heights above the Moselle, which enters the Rhine at Coblenz," said Mr. Lamont, "are crowded with hops and grapes. Nowhere is there a sign of war and the countryside is untouched and smiling." And he adds:

The interior of Germany shows suffering and hunger, but not the Rhine towns. The children there are robust and stoutly clad.

It was Easter morning when I was there, and the whole German population swarmed on the streets bound for churches. The German burghers with bell-crowned stovepipe hats, the Hausfrauen in black with their lace collars, little children in their best dresses, seemed happy and content, already forgetting that they were ruled by a victorious foe.

The contrast between this scene and those in northern France or Belgium

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rouses one's ire. Here was ease and plenty, even if the enemy's flag waves over them. Back in northern France were blackened waste, desolation, want, distress, and misery. Agricultural implements had been stolen to cultivate the vineyards of Coblenz. There the little children are pinched and ill-clad, but in Coblenz even the dogs are fat.

Mr. Lamont furthermore testifies that Alsace, even in six months, has "melted completely into France." And he gives these picturesque specifications:

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The old men with their long, square beards, who were youths of twenty-one when the Treaty of Frankfort was signed, are now coming back into their own. They are already forgetting how to speak German. The German imperial arms, etched in marble on the fronts of all public buildings, have been chiseled off, and the Fleur de Lis of France in fresh white marble is taking their place. . . . These are but outward symbols, but they are significant. As to the inward industrial life the change is more significant. The case of important mines near Colmar is typical.... The Germans were supposed to be efficient, but already under French management the output of potash mines has almost doubled and will continue to in

crease.

The bridges which the Germans destroyed for no military purpose will take years to rebuild, Mr. Lamont said. Meanwhile southern Alsace-Lorraine will be crippled and her industries held back. "That is what Germany wanted," was Mr. Lamont's comment. "That is what Germany planned. That was the scheme of permanent deviltry. That is what she must pay for, and to the limit. Those are the acts the remembrance of which will make the Chiefs of State stern and obdurate when at Versailles German delegates plead their incapacity to pay full reparation for the damage done."

And Dr. Vernon L. Kellogg, who served first with the Belgian Relief Commission and then in the service of the American Food Commission in investigating food conditions in several European countries, has just returned and given his testimony. According to him, as to almost all the other witnesses who have been in Germany, the people of Germany are still unvanquished in their own opinion. Although he recognizes the need of sending food to Germany to minimize the danger of Bolshevism, he says that the Ebert Government is "capitalizing Bolshevism" and is "deliberately painting a false background to the events of the war." Mr. Kellogg is quoted as saying that "it is clear to every foreigner in Germany that the armistice

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CROSS-OCEAN AIR-FLIGHTS

Whatever plane and whatever aviator may win the honor of first crossing the Atlantic, or even if the attempt fails, the public at large has had a valuable course of aeronautical education through the preparation for the proposed flights. What one type or another is best suited for, what are the respective advantages and disadvantages of airplane, seaplane, and dirigible, what practical value attends the air-crossing of the Atlantic-these and other questions have lately taken up a large part of current discussion. Perhaps the greatest actual benefit to the cause of aviation comes from just this incitement of popular interest. That the airplane is useful for other things than war and sport is shown by the year's report of the New York and Washington air mail service just issued. In the year it has carried 7,720,840 letters between the two cities.

Naturally, Americans have watched with most attention the progress of our own gigantic seaplanes. Two of them have made two "legs" of their route (Rockaway Beach-Halifax - Newfoundland Azores - Portugal), and, as we write, may start for the Azores any minute or may await their comrade, the NC-4, which illustrated the comparative security of the seaplane over the airplane by driving, partly under her own power, over a long expanse of sea surface into the port of Chatham, Massachusetts, after mishaps in the air had interrupted her flight. The seaplanes, owned and manned by our Navy, are not competing for the money prize and are not taking foolishly reckless risks; for their route is watched by American war vessels; they are quite capable of sustaining themselves for a long time in the water; and they have each four Liberty engines. Each carried 25,000 pounds weight in the flight from Rockaway to Halifax, and it is planned to increase this to 28,000 on the actual, ocean flight.

At the other extreme as to type are the two British airplanes which have been waiting several weeks in Newfoundland for favorable weather. Their proposed dash across the whole Atlantic is daring in the extreme, not because of the distance, but because of the always considerable danger of engine trouble, the impos

sibility of making repairs, and the slight chance of safety if a descent in mid-ocean is necessary. On the other hand, the airplane is much speedier than the seaplane ; it might make the voyage in less than a day; thus the danger from sudden weather change is less. The layman is, on the whole, inclined to say that success by an airplane would prove nothing new and is inexcusably dangerous, while that of the seaplane would be a demonstration of the right way to cope with air problems and a triumph of wise planning and thorough preparation. The seaplane is an American achievement both as to invention and development.

CONSUMERS IN CO-OPERATION

Every one knows of the successful and extensive associations in England under which wholesale and retail distribution of goods is carried on by cooperative societies. Few know how much has been done in this direction in the United States. We are not particularly surprised when we are told that the British co-operative. societies now do a business of about a billion dollars a year and save their members about one hundred million dollars. But we are surprised when we read that there are now not far from twenty-five hundred consumers' cooperative associations in the United States.

This fact, and others equally interesting, we find stated in a well-informed and encouraging editorial in the New York

Evening Post." The number of such societies in this country has been multiplied by three within the last two years, and it is not improbable, one surmises, that this growth may be due to the pressure of high prices, which has driven people to combine against them. The associations which have come into prominence lately are largely among the industrial centers, and they have been encouraged by organized labor. The article to which we have referred states, for instance, that the Illinois miners have sixty-five such societies, doing a yearly business of about four million dollars, and entirely managed by workingmen. In Seattle the expansion of co-operation has been remarkable. It started in a strike of butchers, which led consumers to establish a shop of their own, which later took over the city market, and now, it is reported, does a monthly business in meat of seventy thousand dollars and has its own slaughterhouse. Many other co-operative shops managed by consumers for themselves are to be found in Seattle. In California the movement has made great progress, and a "Union of Producers and Consumers "has been formed which combines many of the local enterprises. Last year a National convention of co-operative

enterprises was held in Springfield, Illinois, and it is thought that a National wholesale enterprise will be the result.

It would not be at all astonishing (in view of what has been done in Great Britain, and in view of the fact that in Russia ten thousand co-operative societies existed in. 1914 and that the number has since largely increased) if one method of relief from economic distress and the evil of excessive profits for middlemen may ultimately be found in just this direction of intelligent, mutual business helpfulness of consumers by consumers and for con

sumers.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

CONGRESS

The Episcopal Church Congress, which held its sessions in New York early this month, was notable for the topics selected for consideration and for the frank and fearless way in which the subjects were handled by the clerical and lay writers. The need for an American Labor party was strongly argued by the Rev. Percy Grant and Mrs. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, head of the Greenwich House, New York, who agreed that there was no hope for labor in either of the existing political parties, and contended that the formation of a Labor party is the only security against revolutionary Socialism. The opposite view was forcefully presented in a most able paper written by Mr. B. Preston Clark, of Boston, who asserted that such a step would emphasize class distinctions and inevitably invite a counterorganization of capital.

On the obligation of the Church to support a League of Nations a sharp difference of opinion revealed itself. The Rev. Dr. Roland Cotton Smith, rector of the historic St. John's Church, Washington, D. C., took the unpopular view and stoutly denied any such obligation.

Next to these topics the subject which attracted most attention was the Effect of War on Religion, which was introduced by a brilliant paper written by the Rev. Dr. William Austin Smith, editor of the "Churchman," who said that the war had forced organized religion to define its enthusiasms and revealed the fact that many of its enthusiasms are not edifying.

On purely Church matters the mind of the Congress was manifestly in favor of a radical change in the seminary training of candidates for the ministry, putting the emphasis not so much on theology as on the application of religion to life. Under the head of Essentials of Prayer-Book Revision, the need for modernizing the Prayer-Book was strongly urged and greater flexibility in its use advocated. Bishop Johnson closed the sessions with a forceful and amazingly frank paper on "The Place of the Episcopate in a Democ

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