ports from Japan, those which increased yearly during 1915-'16 are flannelette, gray shirtings and sheetings, match sticks, chip braid for match boxes, sake, beer, silk, cotton, satin, printing paper and porcelain. Among other Japanese products which are being pushed vigorously in North China are petroleum and artificial fertilizeres. The oil market. in North China has hitherto been held by the British Asiatic Company and the Standard Oil Company of New York.

WHEELER'S INTERESTING

BIOGRAPHY.

THE AMERICAN MARKET AND BRITISH MANUFACTURERS.

In the recent autobiography of Everett P. Wheeler there is much of interest. A man who has lived so long as he, who has known so many of his contemporaries, and who has been so active in public life cannot fail to have in his memory a store of things worth telling.

But when he expresses his opinion that British manufacturers took only a languid interest in our tariff, and that many of them freely declared that our high duties were prejudicial to Our trade and beneficial to theirs, he is at issue with the majority of Americans and of Englishmen. He quotes an expert who has come to this conclusion as if his own reasonings had led him to the same goal.

For more than a hundred years British manufacturers have been trying to evade or break down our tariff barriers. No one has described their

dumping process better than Lord Brougham. Men who have not a tenth of Lord Brougham's power of statement can remember the Cobden club pamphlets and the various attempts of Englishmen to get into our markets. When a banquet was spread in honor of William L. Wilson for his services in throwing the American market open to British traders, there was no pretence that the British were not interested in our tariff system.

On this subject the minds of the American people ought to be decided. There are evidences, clear enough for the average man, to show that British exporters look on the American market as something desirable in the extreme.

SUFFRAGE DEFEATED IN

MAINE.

The

On Monday, September 10, the voters of Maine were asked to pass upon an amendment to the constitution giving suffrage to women. amendment, in a vote that was not more than 50 per cent of normal was defeated two to one. Of the twentyone cities in the state only two, Auburn and Rockland, and only three out of the sixteen counties, voted favorably, although it had been endorsed by the Legislature by an overwhelming majority and approved by the platforms of both political parties. President Wilson telegraphed his personal endorsement urging Democrats to vote yes. Colonel Roosevelt also approved. Governo Milliken issued a letter urging publicans to support suffrage and all

Re

six members of Congress, except Senator Hale, supported the cause, but it was beaten decisively. Writing in the Boston Transcript of the result, a Maine newspaper man brought out the fact that at least sixty-seven per cent of the voters were too indifferent as to the result to take the trouble to vote.

"Maine," he said, "wasn't interested in woman suffrage. That is the only explanation of the voting at Monday's special election. The suffragists polled slightly more than 17,000 votes in a total of approximately 50,000. It is doubtful if they could have polled many more votes in an ordinarily heavy poll for the State. One year ago at the State election preceding a presidential election, the State polled 150,999 votes for United States senator, or more than three times as many as were cast in the important referendum on woman suffrage. The State has had polls considerably heavier than 150,000, but last year's figure is a fair criterion of the number of active rather than passive voters. Approximately eleven per cent of that number were interested enough in the suffragist cause to go to the polls and vote for it, while twenty-one per cent were opposed to it in sufficient degree to exert themselves to go and vote against it. And sixty-seven to sixty-eight per cent were so indifferent that they didn't bother to vote at all.

"It has been claimed that woman suffrage would help in the suppression of the liquor traffic, and this argument was freely used both for and against the cause in Maine. It doesn't seem to have had much weight. Ox

ford and Somerset are strong prohibition counties. On the basis of incomplete returns, Oxford was carried by the suffragists by so narrow a margin that complete returns may show a reversal of the figures. Somerset shows a poll considerably lighter than the State's average, but goes for suffrage by a good, though not overwhelming, plurality. Knox County is reckoned as anti-prohibition, but Knox voted for suffrage in a poll that was heavier than the State's average. The majority of the sixteen counties are dominated by the prohibition sentiment, but thirteen of the sixteen voted against letting the

women vote.

"The Grange is probably the most powerful organization that Maine has, and this association of farmers and their women folks exercises a tremendous political influence. The Grange indorsed woman suffrage, but the farming sections of the State voted against it in only slighter degree than did the cities. This was predicted by a former high official in the Granges of Maine, who said that the Grange indorsement of suffrage meant nothing more than that the opposition had not thought it worth while to enter into any controversy with the women who advocated it, for it was a delicate subject to bring up for debate in Grange meetings and would very likely wreck the harmony within the society. It looks as if he knew what he was talking about.

"Governor Milliken and most of the political leaders of Maine, both Republican and Democratic, advocated woman suffrage, United States Senator Frederick Hale being reck

oned as opposed. The result is to strengthen the belief that Senator Hale is not merely the son of former United States Senator Eugene Hale and the grandson of the late United States Senator Zachariah Chandler of Michigan, but is himself an astute politician.

"One element which has been largely overlooked is the indifference of the women themselves. A dressmaker in one of the larger Maine villages, a woman who meets the other women and knows what they have on their minds, summed up the situation last year in the remark: 'I don't know any women who want to vote except a few who make a lot of talk about it. The most of us find other things more interesting.'

"That was an essentially feminine observation, but in the light of Monday's vote it reads like a prophecy by one who knew. The women are more interested in something else. No man who knows the people of Maine has any idea that the husbands and sons and fathers and brothers will deny the ballots to their wives and mothers and daughters and sisters when those women ask for it. When that time comes the men will exercise discretion and let the women vote.

"The suffragists made a a great campaign, and have been at it for years. The opposition has been comparatively inactive, though not absolutely so. The suffragists had the advantage of an immense amount of newspaper argument in their favor. Leaders in church, grange, temperance societies and political parties advocated woman suffrage. In spite of all this the suffragists were able

to get a poll of only eleven per cent of what is a normal good vote in the State, while more than two-thirds of that normal vote stayed away from the polls. The people were not interested. It is possible to draw no other conclusion from the returns.

"Remarks of two Maine persons have been quoted in this article. The remarks of two others may be similarly used. The late United States Senator Edwin C. Burleigh of Maine once told me that the voters are more interested in men and candidates than in issues and politics. He based his political fortunes, evidently, on the principle that a concrete object, like a man and a candidate, is of more value in a campaign than issues and ideals. His political position was always definitely known as being that of his party, but his campaigns for office were handled along the line of appeals for men to vote for Burleigh rather than on appeals for them to vote for the representative of an issue. William R. Pattangall, former Democratic attorney general of Maine, has expressed a similar idea in saying that the only stump speaker who will draw a crowd is the candidate himself.

"Opponents of the initiative and referendum will see in this Maine referendum a warning against the submission of issues to voters, and will set up the claim that the people are so little interested in such things. that a system of referenda is a system of government by a minority. And that argument seems to fit with the facts presented by the indifference of Maine voters on so important an issue."

"And for your country, boy, and for that Flag, never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids you, even though the service carry you through a thousand hells. No matter what happens to you, no matter who flatters you or who abuses you, never look at another flag, never let a night pass but you pray God to bless that Flag. Remember, boy, that behind officers and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself; your Country, and that you belong to Her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by Her, boy, as you would stand by your mother."

-Edward Everett Hale.

Our war expenditures already amount to more than $8,000,000 a day, and loans to the Allies account for $12,000,000 every twenty-four hours.

Whether American soldiers in Europe shall have an opportunity to vote will depend entirely upon

state laws. Any state desiring to do so may provide the manner in which the ballots of absentees may be marked, collected, transmitted and counted.

There is now in circulation in this country, $4,783,154,509 of ten kinds of money, and the per capita circulation is $45.80, against $32.32 ten years ago. Only a year ago, it was $35.59. No other nation ever had so much money in circulation, nor so great a per capita.

"Keep the ideal of patriotism ever before you in whatever place you may be filling," says the National Association of Credit Men's Bulletin, "making sure all the time that what you are doing is worth while, fits into the scheme which takes precedence today over all else, and that you will do all in your power in all your working hours unselfishly to advance the day when war shall end and permanent peace shall be restored."

A statement issued by the Department of Labor shows that iron and steel workers' per capita earnings increased 53 per cent and woolen manufacturing workers 45 per cent, while the cost of foodstuffs increased 42 per cent. This is for the three-year period July, 1914, to July, 1917. Per capita earnings of boot and shoe workers increased 31 per cent, cotton manufacturing employes and cotton finishing workers 38 per cent, hosiery and underwear workers 37 per cent, and silk workers 25 per cent.

An agreement has been reached between American seamen and their employers by which the following wages are to be paid: Sailors and firemen, $60 a month; coal passers, $50; oilers and water tenders, $65; boatswains, $70; carpenters, $75. Overtime pay for cargo work will be paid for at 50 cents an hour and for ship work at 40 cents A fifty per cent bonus will be paid to crews entering the war zone, and employers will pay seamen $100 each as compensation for loss of personal effects when ships are sunk.

The sugar men who were singled out to be the victims of the revised tariff devised by Mr. Underwood and his associates, counseled and commanded by President Wilson, have splendidly met the heavy responsibility resting on their shoulders because of the war. They have steadfastly protected the American people from the start of the war against excessive prices for sugar. In fact, the price in the United States has been lower during this period than in any large sugar consuming country except Brazil, where the difference has been a small fraction in favor of the latter.

Germany's war credits from the beginning of the war to September 1 amounted to $22,000,000,000, not including grants of credit to AustriaHungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. Germany's aggregate capital wealth before the war was approximately $80,000,000,000, and the aggregate of individual incomes was approximately $12,000,000,000. Were the

war to end today, interest on the war debt alone would absorb 10 per cent of all incomes, big and little, a too heavy burden for the comfort of the people. Every month the war continues adds a half billion dollars to Germany's war debt.

A good deal of American machinery and construction material has gone into the district of Stayanger, Norway. It is regarded as first class, but the consul writes that it is doubtful whether the United States can hold the market in this line after the war. Norwegians having greatly increased their national wealth and realizing the value of their unused hydroelectric power and the necessity of making their country more independent economically, intend to develop their resources; but "it seems likely," the news item states, "that as soon as the war is over the greater part of the orders will go to Germany."

To incur liabilities of $20,000,000,000 before a shot has been fired almost staggers the imagination. Yet that is the position in which people of this country find themselves within six months of the inauguration as President of a man whose election was achieved by a claim that he had kept us out of war. With that immense sum to face the first year of our participation in the conflict, what resources of the country will not be tapped and tapped hard to raise the funds which will be badly needed in the approaching years? Already we are obligated for a sum