igation. The United States is the only nation in the world where newspapers attempt to persuade their readers that this is merely taxing the many for the benefit of the few. In all other countries save our own, ocean shipowning is an especially honored industry. Its value to the nation is well understood. The greatest protectionist country in the world is the only country where for fifty years ocean shipowning has remained virtually unprotected. Is it strange, therefore, that of all industries, this alone has remained unprosperous? Let us learn from the experience of the past and from these recent encrimsoned years, that an efficient and prosperous shipbuilding and shipping industry is absolutely essential to national security and a most potent factor of commercial development. A RACE FOR STEEL TRADE AFTER WAR. England's Expanded Output Will Yield Surplus When Peace Comes. Financial and industrial England is giving thoughtful attention at the present time to the consideration of what is to be done after the war with the country's greatly increased iron and steel production. Output of these basic products has been enormously expanded since 1914, and it is realized that unless some outlet is found for a large portion of the surplus when war demands cease there is grave danger of the whole trade being thrown into a state of chaos. It is the opinion of The London Ironmonger that the conversion of blast furnaces to the production of basic iron is a predominant factor, and that if the production of this. class of iron is persevered with and the best use made of the ore which is obtainable in England, there will be a fair chance of the English taking considerable proportion of the trade in the cheaper grades of steel, which was formerly in the hands of Germany and Belgium. over a BELGIUM OUT of the Race. "Belgium," this authority says, "is not likely to export for a long time after the war, and the demand for steel from all quarters of the world will be so great that Germany, if she is again allowed to trade with her present enemies, and if her production should remain in excess of her own needs, may be in a position to step back at once into a large portion of her former ex port trade. That probability must be taken into account, for it is very doubtful if effective measures could be taken to prevent Germany from exporting commodities if people abroad are willing to buy them and shipping space is available. Much if not all, of her former export trade with this country, however, will perhaps be lost to her, and our home producers should then not only be able to satisfy most of the needs of the United Kingdom, but should have a good balance for export, and that branch will have to be very strongly their plants in a manner they could pushed. AMERICAN COMPETITION CERTAIN. "The American producers will have to be reckoned with, particularly in the South American, Indian and Australian markets, where they have already seized during the war a good deal of the business that formerly came to Europe, and on the question of quality of the goods we have little or no advantage over America. "The development of our rolling and other manufacturing plants during the war should give this country a sound foundation from which to work up the trade in plates, sheets and structural steel of all kinds. The cutting away of Continental supplies has been a blessing in that it has forced our manufacturers to develop never have hoped to attain in times of normal foreign competition. The United States is better placed now than before the war; Germany remains for the present a doubtful quantity, but British iron and steel plants, as a whole, are better now than they ever were, and it is for our manufacturers to see that the best use is made of them." ENGLAND'S OUTPUT TO INCREASE. The steel production capacity of England will be augmented by a further 20 per cent during the coming six to twelve months. The pressure of goods of foreign manufacture upon our market will be a question of serious import when the war ends. It is idle to think that Europe will be impotent industrially. If we are wise we will not delay our eonomic preparedness. WHEN POLITICS, NOT STATESMANSHIP With the closing of Mr. Wilson's first term there was issued from Washington on March 4, 1917, a statement of the achievements of his administration. Therein it was stated that "President Wilson's friends give first place to the fact that war has been averted." It will be noted that the statement did not say temporarily averted, but that "war has been averted." It was further declared in that statement that "two and a half years ago fourteen nations resorted to arms. Despite provocations and temptations the United States has been enabled to maintain a dignified position of neutrality." And among the things claimed in that statement as a marked achievement of the Administration was "legislation for building our army and navy to a point placing the country in condition of real preparedness." We call attention to these two claims not to express disapproval of subsequent development, but to show how hollow and unsupported in fact were the claims which were then put forth. It is true, war had been averted, but it is interesting to note that within a month from the day these claims were issued from Washington, presumably with the consent and approval of the President, Con gress was assembled in special session to hear a just and deserved ar raignment of Germany and a request for the passage of a resolution recognizing the existence of a state of war with the Imperial German Gov ernment. As to the second claim, that the legislation passed under Mr. Wilson's guilance had placed the country in a condition of real preparedness, it is also interesting and enlightening to put in juxtaposition to it, the recent statement attributed to Vice President Marshall and published in the New York Tribune of October 6, in which he said: "We did not prepare. We thought there was no danger. And in one year there comes upon us an outlay of extraordinary expense which might have been prevented had we exercised foresight and courage, little by little, to get ready." "It is futile, however," as Mr. Marshall also said, "to hold post mortems, for the past is dead," and the blunders against which repeated warnings were given but unheeded can only be regretted at this late date. Nevertheless, in this critical time it is entirely fair to call attention to the message sent by President Wilson to both Houses just before the recent special session was brought to a close. In this message he said, "the needs of the army and navy have been met in a way that assures the effectiveness of American arms and the war-making branch of the Government has been abundantly equipped with powers that were necessary to make the action of the nation effective." This scarcely supports the broad claim put forth early in March, when the critical nature of the dispute with the Imperial German Government was well known by all, that the country had been placed by the legislation passed in Mr. Wilson's first term and after the outbreak of war in August, 1914, "in position of real preparedness." Rather it seems to indicate that the claim had no real basis at all on which to rest. DEATH OF WILLIAM C. PLUNKETT. Mr. William Caldwell Plunkett of Adams, one of the prominent younger cotton manufacturers of Massachusetts and the son of the late William B. Plunkett, whose death occurred suddenly October 25 while returning from the South, died December 17 from peritonitis, resulting from an emergency operation for appendicitis. Mr. Plunkett was born in Adams, September 11, 1875. Preparing for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and Riverview Academy, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., he entered Williams College, from which he was graduated with the high regard of students and faculty. After graduating he entered the cotton manufacturing business under his father and was soon appointed superintendent of the Greylock Manufacturing Company, with mills in North Adams, Williamstown and North Pownal, Vermont, and also superintendent of the W. C. Plunkett & Sons' mills in Adams. Later he was made vice president and agent of the Greylock Manufacturing Company. After the death of his father he was made treasurer of the company and a director of the Greylock National Bank. He also served as a selectman of the town and had just been appointed superintendent of the Sunday School of the First Congregational Church, succeeding his father who had acted as such for forty years. Mr. Plunkett was elected a vice president of the Home Market Club at its recent annual meeting in November. He is survived by his wife, who was Miss Florence Canedy of North Adams, and by a daughter and a son, also by a brother, Theodore R. Plunkett, superintendent of the Berkshire Manufacturing Company. The funeral services were held in the spacious home from which his father's body had been borne only two months before. Besides the members of the family and relatives, friends and business associates from various parts of New England and New York were present. The great mills with which his family name is so intimately connected were closed and business in the town was suspended. The Rev. Percival H. Barker, who spoke feelingly of the high qualities of Mr. Plunkett and of the loss which the community suffered in his death, said: "Since his father's death eight weeks ago today we have watched with solemn pride this strong and coming man assuming the responsibilities laid down by his distinguished sire. He was a man of action rather than words. His clear, judicial mind, his quick and excellent judgment, his keen sense of justice, were among the elements of his power. As a manufacturer Mr. Plunkett was extraordinarily efficient and progressive, and his death brings an immeasurable loss to the great mills of which he was the treasurer." As an appreciative editorial said, "What a pity it all seems, this cutting off of so much promise that was solidly based on what this man had already done." RESOLUTION BY THE DIRECTORS OF THE HOME Market Club. At the meeting of the directors of the Home Market Club on December 26, the following resolution in memory of William Caldwell Plunkett. was adopted: Across the sea, "where death rides. on every passing breeze," men fall by the thousands, and not to die seems the only miracle, but here where we still cling to our common hopes and plans, death still comes with the shock of pain and surprise. To him whose years have been long in the land and whose task is completed, "Death is beautiful as feet of friend Coming with welcome at our journey's end." But when a man, like William C. Plunkett, in the full flush of manhood, as the door is opening to larger responsibilities and wider service, and the world's need of him seems greatest, is taken from our midst, it is much harder to say "Thy will be done." He was a man loved by his friends and needed by his town and by his State. "Here was a type of the true elder race"; the kind of man of whom America is proud, a man who builds, who leads, and who opens to others the way to a fuller and richer life. "He had the genius to be loved", and we render him "the justice to be honored in his grave." While the busy looms were stilled and the town mourned his sudden and untimely Into twilight soft and dim." Beyond the twilight and the parting our respect and affection go with him, as we record his virtues with pride, OUR SECURITY AND In the first annual report of the Tariff Commission no passage is of more interest to protectionists than the space devoted to the chemical industry. According to the Commis sion: "The European war has caused revolutionary changes in the chemical industries. Nearly all branches of chemical manufacture which at the beginning of the war were already well established in the United States, including such staple industries as the manufacture of soda ash, caustic soda ash, and bleaching powder, have greatly expanded. Many articles not made at all before the war, or made only on a small scale, are now being produced in substantial amounts. The manufacture of dyes, medicinals, and other products obtained from coal tar has had a great development in the United States as well as in England, France, and Japan. The most striking advances have been made in the production of explosives and all related commodities, such as sulphuric, nitric, and picric acids, benzol, toluol and acetone. The potash industry has considerably expanded. Marked advances have been made with projects for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen; these will be of great importance from a military point of view as well as for agriculture. "The industry as a whole, and especially those branches of it which DEVELOPMENT, have been most stimulated by the war, will have to face new conditions on the conclusion of peace. In some branches there will be surplus capacity and the probability of sharp international competition. The military problem will necessarily be considered from new points of view, and military and political considerations, as well as those of a strictly economic sort, will have to be borne in mind in any legislative readjustment." There is a delightful vagueness about "political considerations" because if the labor unions order the Democratic party to raise the entire tariff two hundred per cent, the order will be obeyed. Here and there an individual Congressman may say that he laments the necessity, but if the labor vote insists there will not be one Democrat in House or Senate who will dare to stand out against the pressure of 1920. While the Commission does not in plain words say that the anti-dumping law project is sheer nonsense, it comes very near to that point. Under the heading, "Tariff Information Catalogue," there is the admission, "At best, on some subjects it will not prove feasible to get anything that would be pertinent, more particularly as regards conditions in foreign countries." How short a time has passed since we were informed that "the United States government could force |