About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1917)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ' ATXUMTTA, GA., 5 NOBTK fOBSYTH ST. \ Enured at the Atlanta roatoffice as Mall Matter of the Second Clasa _____—- SUBSCRIPTION PKICE. Twelve months ..../T6c Six months -* Oc Three months asc The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tues day and Friday, and is mailed by tha shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from r.U over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong depart ments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com r<:s«i,n allowed, outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD LKI. ’.Circulation Manager. 781 only traveling representatives we have are B. a. Bolton. C.,C. Coyle. L. H. Kimbrough, Charles H. Wood 1 Iff and L. J. Fanis. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SCBSCkIBZMS. ? rue Label used for addresaiug yoor paper sbowa the time your aubscriptfoa expires, by renewing at least two weeks be fore the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sere to mention your old. as well as your new address. If on a route, please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Kemlitanees should be sent by portal order or registered mall. • Addreas all orders and notices for this Department to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOCKS AL, Atlrnta. Gt. The Selectmen. The mobilization of the first quota of Selectmen to be trained for the National army marks a shin ing epoch in the life of the Republic and in the lives of the men themselves. Never was democracy more truly exemplified than in the mustering of these sturdy young legions. Every man of them has been called and chosen under the same law, upon the same basis and for the same exalted pur pose. There are no distinctions of wealth or posi tion or family influence or any artificial standards amongst them. They stand, one and all, on the broad, high ground of Americanism, freemen and comrades In their country's cause. Theirs indeed is a national army and a democratic army. Its mem bers are drawn from every corner and every nook of the Union: from city and hamlet and country side: from shops and banks and farms and offices; from the homes the highest and the humblest. Into its making, go the whole nation’s hearj and sinew; a more united, more intensely loyal people will be the result. It is to the recruits themselves, however, that the prime interest and honor of the day belong. In entering the cantonments they are entering world history, as men especially chosen for the most mo mentous duty that ever summoned defenders of freedom. They are in deed and truth SELECTED men —selected as the hardiest, soundest, ablest of their fellow Americans for the chief work of thia heroic time: selected to fight alongside the soldiers of France in the supreme hour of human history; selected to bear aloft their nation's faith, to vindi cate their nation's rights and to make their home land forever secure against brutal Prussianism. Os all honors that men will covet in years to come, none will stand out so starlike as that of having fought for America and humanity in these world changing times. The Selectman of today is the hero of tomorrow. The friends and kindred of these gallant young men have good reason to feel proud of them, and good reason, too, to feel assured that every phase Os their camp life will be as wholesome and as happy as a resourceful and solicitous Government can make it. Considerations of efficiency alone would demand that the health of the men be scrup ously safeguarded and that the camp environment be kept purged of demoralizing influences. To this sound military policy, the Government adds a hearty, human interest in its soldiers' wellbeing. There is this vast difference between fighting for the Kaiser and fighting for Uncle Sam: the Kaiser regards his troops as so many machines; Uncle Sam regards his as so many MEN.—so many sons and brothers. Co-operating with the Government and supple menting its work in this connection are numbers of patriotic agencies, local and national. In Atlanta, for example, committees representative of the com munity's best citizenship and broadest sentiment have been busily engaged 1 for months past on plans looking to the interest and entertainment of the men who are to be trained at Camp Gordon. The city, keenly mindful of the honor of their presence and cordially concerned in their welfare, will do its utmost to make their leisure hours enjoyable. That is the American spirit, the American attitude toward the National army. The family and friends of every Selectman, therefore, may rest assured that his interests are at the country's heart and are vigilantly guarded. They have the satisfaction of knowing that the reg ularity and discipline and outdoor life of the can tonment are giving him new vigor of body and of character. They have the keen satisfaction of knowing that in the days ahead as well as now he will be under carefully trained, competent officers, and under a system which is by all odds the most efficient the world has known and at the same time the most solicitous of its human units. But their highest satisfaction is in the honor that he is earn ing for them and for himself as he answers his country’s call and proves how sublime a * thing is duty. ' / he Kaiser's Confidence. In permitting the full publication of the Pres ident’s reply to the Pope, the Kaiser gives the im pression of complete confidence in the loyalty of his subjects. Perhaps he calculated that inasmuch as the message would reach them eventually by one channel or another, he could best minimize its ef fect by tossing it over to them himself, along with the contemptuous and angry comments of the Jun ker-ridden press. It may be that the Kaiser will regret his decision, for there is a force and fair ness in the straightforward American message which, soon or late, ought to appeal to the war wearied German masses. But there is no reason to expect anything like a favorable response from them in the near future. People who have been bred to autocracy and taught from infancy to worship their tyrant are not likely to wax suddenly enthusiastic over hearing him de scribed as he really is. It is not especially flatter ing to be told that one has been bowing down to a lying despotism. Even those Germans who insist upon sweeping reforms in their Government are disposed to resent outside criticism. It will take time for the persuasive medicine of the President’s message to work with due efficacy on the German mind. The Chief significance of Southern Prosperity After a recent visit to the South and a study of its economic conditions. President C. H. Markham, of the Illinois Central Railroad, declared that this region offers extraordinary opportunities. Ampli fying his opinion, he said; “The value of the cotton crop last year amounted to $1,500,000,000. This year the value will be $2,000,000,000, and this $1,000,00/1,000 more than two years ago. Cotton prices continue high. The crop will equal a medium one, w’ith high pricey, which is most desired. Sugar, rice, tobacco and corn are all good crops and command good prices, suggar selling for double what it did three years ago. Cars are moving freer, and there will be no serious trouble moving crops this fall.” From whatever standpoint Southern conditions are viewed —whether that of the railroad executive, the banker, the merchant, the manufacturer or ftie farmer —the prospect is inspiriting. There is nothing one-sided about this prosperity, and noth ing of a mushroom nature. Cotton is but an inci dent in the South’s present good-fortune and happy outlook. Indeed, it is largely to the subor dination of cotton to food crops that the soundness of existing conditions is due. Had cotton been planted to the exclusion or neglect of food staples, the high prices of the for mer would have proved profitless, for the grower's earnings would have been consumed by provision bills. As it is, howqver, his abundant food- har vests, by far more valuable within themselves than the greatest cotton crop would be, will enable the Southern planter to keep as clear profit a large portion of his cotton money. Our agriculture be ing better balanced than ever before, our entire economic structure is more stable and all fields of business more flourishing. That the demand for Southern products will continue undiminished throughout the war period and on into the years of peace, is the judgment of most competent observers. Mr. Frank Hawkins, who has just returned from New’ York, where he conferred with bankers and business leaders, states that he found opinion to this effect virtually unani mous. “It was pointed out,” he says, “that the world must have our cotton, our turpentine and naval stores, our lumber, our foodstuffs, in fact, everything we grow and make. The demand for them after the w’ar will be. if anything, greater and stronger than today.” The chief significance of these prosperous con ditions are that they enable the South to play a sinewy and vigorous part in the great tasks w’hich confront the nation. It is a matter of patriotism as well as self interest to keep all of our productive sources uncommonly active and all of our economic processes uncommonly efficient during the w’ar stress and responsibility, for this is a war of eco nomic forces no less than of military strength. The South should rejoice, therefore, not simply because it is prosperous but because through its prosperity it can render a larger measure of service to the cause for which America and its liberty-loving allies are fighting. . ’■ - ' The small boy realizes that school offers no grounds of exemption. The Call for Cattle. For the entire country and particularly for the South, there is a vast deal of significance in Mr. Hoover’s figures showing a decrease of one hun dred and fifteen million head in the world’s supply of meat animals since the beginning of the war. Most of this enormous loss is in belligerent Europe and is attributed to “the necessity of killing breed ing and stock animals to keep up the current press ing needs for meat, the diversion of men from stock raising into the armies and to the impossibility of raising enough feedstuff in the w'arring countries to sustain normal beards.” But the live stock short age in Europe affects the whole world and will continue to affect it for years to come. The imme diate problem of feeding the armies will be fol lowed by the problem of restocking exhausted farms and of supplying the civil populations with the increased meat ration which they probably will demand upon the return of peace. It is largely to America that the vitally inter ested nations, particularly our allies, look for sup port in this matter. Fortunately, our resources are equal to the demand if we duly develop them. But there must be an unprecedented increase in our production of food animals. At the beginning of the war the United States lacked a great deal of producing enough meat for its own needs much less supplying those of other countries. The rewards of efficient animal husbandry are now so rich, however, and so well assured for many years to come, that we may expect it to be prosecuted with extraordinary vigor wherever natural and economic conditions permit. Nowhere are those conditions more favorable to live stock industries than in the South. It is to States like Georgia that the na tion-wide and world-wide needs described by Mr< Jteover present the greatest opportunity and the greatest obligation. Argentine should know by now that German promises, like glass, should be handled with care. Winter Food Crops. The Augusta Chronicle directs attention to the timely and very Important fact that we are now at the point "where we can begin to prepare most ef fectively for wheat planting.” Agricultural author ities. as the Chronicle recalls, have repeatedly urged better soil preparation as the chief need of wheat growing tn the South. Therefore, This is the logical time to begin to plan for fall and winter farming. It is not only our duty to contribute our share toward feeding the armies at the front by planting as large an acreage of wheat as possible, but we shall also be well pleased with the direct results ob tained therefrom for ourselves. Georgia and its neighboring States have made a magnificent showing in food production during the past spring and closing summer. But if they are to meet their own needs affd contribute duly to the country’s urgent needs, it is essential that they continue the planting of food crops with un flagging vigor. THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1917. WASPS AND COPPERHEADS. By Dr.. Frank Crane. I WOULD like to serve notice right now upon the various ladies and gentlemen who are burdentug my mail with appeals to help them cripple the government, discredit the presi dent and members of his cabinet and arouse senti ment against one or another of our allies in this war that their letters go straight to the omnivorous wastebasket. 1 am a pacifist. That does not mean I am pas sive, much as the two words sounds alike. It means I am for peace. And the only way to get peace is to put out of business the German military govern ment, which has broken the peace of the world and will menace it as long as it continues its present personnel and policies. lam for this war. We are in it. We have ad vertised our ultimatum, that the w’orld must be, made safe for democracy, and if we go back on that in any way, if we do not make good, even to our last man and our last dollar, I should be disgusted with and* ashamed of my country, and be tempted to exclaim: “Then bear me from the harbor’s mouth, wild wave; I’ll seek another shore.” I believe in orderly representative government. We elected our rulers and I’m in favor of standing by them, and I don’t want to join any Cave of Adullam group of malcontents whose activities are employed in heckling our lawfully elected gover nors and accusing them of incompetency or treason if they do not listen to every wild advice. I have no use for slackers and do not want to join any society for defending them. I have nothing but anger and contempt for the buzzards that are hovering around Washington trying to make fortunes out of the government’s necessity. I don’t want any of their literature nor to listen to their slanders of government officials. I don’t want to hear diatribes" against England. She has her faults, but she’s the bulwark today that has saved the world from overflow by the hideousness of the Hun invasion. I don’t want to hear anything about a peace that does not imply that w’e first lick Germany and lick her thoroughly. Uncle Sam has his hands full now. He’s got his coat off and is in the fight. His quarrel is just. His heart is sound. He’s my Uncle Sam and is fighting for me and my children’s children. And I want no part nor lot with the damned nasty wasps and copperheads that are trying to get profit or notoriety by bedevilling the old gentle man while he’s busy. (Copyright, 1917, by Frank Crane.) ♦ y GEORGIA’S PATRIOTIC PRESS INCENDIARY”PUBLICATIONS. (Griffin News and Sun.) The mails are at last to be absolved from the fearful responsibility ,of transmitting such incendi ary publications as the Appeal to Reason, more ac curately called by many\“The Appeal to Treason,” and other publications, which revel in filth and thrive on falsehood. A number of these publica tions seldom contain a line of news or word of wholesome truth, but concentrate their endeavors in lambasting a real or imaginary evil in an en deavor to create untimely strife. The postoffie’e » department cannot deal too severely with the editors, who, just at this time, are specializing in abusing the administration and selective draft law. Men who possess neither loy alty or judgment should be compelled to respect the laws of the land and it is gratifying to know that relief is in sight. These eternal agitators care Ititle for the issues involved and much for the money and personal aggrandizement derived from campaigns of slime and muck raking. The News and Sun has always stood four-square for free speech and the freedom of the press, pulpit and individual, but desires to register an objection against the fellow who criti cises everybody and everythnig not in accord with his jaundiced views. The law guarantees freedom of speech and legal action, but that is no reason why a man should de • generate into a common scold, liar and public nuisance. In perilous times or war traitors should be guarded against, and any man who opposes and strives to defeat the operations of a necessary law. is to say the least, an undesirable citizen. He may not be a traitor in the accepted definition of the word, but he is traveling in that direction. «. The Old Roman Valor. The Italians’ capture of Monte San Gabrielle marks another stride in one of the war’s most ar duous and most heroic offensives. General Cador na's men now hold the entire chain of mountains dominating Gorizia and thus are well situated to drive a wedge into the enemy’s lines. They have won this vantage ground like that of Monte Santo against almost immeasurable odds. Fighting along a frontier which afforded the enemy a veritable Gibraltar of natural defense and which moreover had been skillfully fortified, the Italians have man ifested anew the hardihood and valor of their Ro man forbears. Nothing less than those stalwart virtues could have sustained them through their grim, soul-trying task. The crest of the long, uphill adventure having been won, the weeks ahead should yield them truly decisive results. The cap ture of Trieste is now among the clear probabili ties. Every effective blow against Austria weakens the Teuton armor at the spot where it is likely first to crack. Thus the Italian offensive is a pecu liarly important part of the Allied plan. a • Cows and Cowcatchers. The Thomasville Times-Enterprise calls season able attention to the food losses caused by cattle straying on railroad tracks. Quoting reliable esti mates to the effect that some seven million dollars’ worth of cattle are thus killed every year, the Times-Enterprise remarks that "if owners would take more precautions to keep their live stock from the railroad right of way, they would save that much food for the country at a time when it is most needed.” The fact that these losses are widely scattered does not lessen their significance in the nor does the fact that the rail roads pay out large sums to the owners restore the lost food value to the country’s sorely taxed supply. QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES A brisk young Irishman entered a jeweler’s shop in Belfast last week to buy a ring for his wife-to-be. After waiting until he could obtain the ear of the polite assistant he whispered hoarsely. “Give me the best ring you have in the shop.” "Eighteen carats?” queried the assistant. “No,” snapped the customer, drawing back in an offended manner. “ ’Atin’ onions, if it’s any of your business. ' • • • * • A had borrowed a kettle from B and upon re turning it was sued by B because it had a large hole which rendered it unserviceable. His defense was this; “In the first place, I never borrowed any kettle from B; secondly, the kettle had a hole in it when I borrowed it; thirdly, the kettle was in perfect condition when I returned it.” THE CHILD LABOR LAW—By Frederic J. Haskin WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 3.—On September 1 the child labor law went into effect. The United States government has consti tuted itself the guardian of all children under four teen years of age and some children under sixteen years of age, depending on certain circumstances. It will not permit any child under fourteen to work in a cannery, workshop or cotton mill, and it 1 forbids any child under sixteen to work in a mine or quarry. , t * * Many parents who for years have enjoyed a comfortable income by the hire of their progeny, as well as many employers who have enjoyed an even more comfortable income by the same circum stanace, are indignant. In many places parents are constructing clever plans for evading it, and in North Carolina the matter has already been taken to court on the grounds that the law is unconsti tutional. A visit to the United States children’s bureau, which has been charged with the execution of the law, might prove enlightening to the North Caro lina agitators and save rebellious parents a great deal of useless thinking. The children’s bureau has added a whole new department to its organization for the sole purpose of seeing that the child labor law is enforced. There are professional investiga tors, detectives, lawyers, doctors and sociologists in this department, all trained specialists in child welfare work. The chief is a Chicago women, Miss Grace Abbot, who w r as associated with Jane Addams at Hull House for several years. “I am very glad the matter has been taken to court,” she asserted when asked what she thought of the North Carolina ac tion. “The sooner it is fought through the courts, the sooner we will get a decision.” Obviously, Miss Abbot is not kept awake nights • worrying about an adverse decision. Miss Julia Lathrop, head of the children’s bureau, deserves great credit for the law. She has long been investigating the question of infant mor tality in various parts of the country wjjth an idea to improving, if possible, some of the alarming con ditions that impair child life. In this investigation Miss Lathrop soon discov ered that the great secret of infant mortality was economic conditions. She found hundreds of homes where fathers made such low -wages that mothers were compelled to work too. The babies were left at home alone all day and at infrequent inter vals; the homes themselves were naturally un kempt, the ventilation Inadequate and the flies prolific. Consequently, many babies die, -which is fortunate, for those who remain are escorted to the industrial market at the earliest age at which they can be smuggled in—usually under twelve —and are forced to become a part of the Industrial routine. In some states this means—or meant up to Septem ber I—workingl—working ten hours a day, or ten hours a night, according to the shift. The new federal law establishes eight hours as the maximum working day. , Now, of course, the great responsibility for child labor rests upon the parents. They are usual ly quite willing to exploit their children for the sake of Increasing the family income. Many of them are immigrants who can neither read nor write, and hence they do not see the necessity of educa tion for the younger generation. The one thing they recognize the value of is money, and their sole problem is earning it in the swiftest and surest way possible. In this one particular the lower classes and the upper classes meet on common ground. It is the parents of the middle class who put the value of children above money, who bring them into the world deliberately, and afterwards struggle and sacrifice to make them sturdy and well-educated citizens. Nevertheless, many children of this class also are in urgent need of governmental protection, it has recently been shown. s While the parents are primarily responsible, however, it is only through the employers that the government can control the exploitation of children. Parents even in the face of a law to the contrary would doubtless invent and connive ways of work- | POWERFUL GERMAN PROPAGANDA—By Herbert Corey ADRID. —German propaganda in Spain has M been intelligent and successful. It has cost the German government and well-to do German individuals several mints full bf money. It has employed practically the entire time of the 80,000 Germans who are marooned in Spain. It has been direct, cynical and brutal. But it can not be denied that the propagandists have ac complished their objects. These seem to have been three in number; To keep Spain from joining the war on- the side of the allies; To establish such firm relations of personal friendship and of commercial understanding that the financial exploitation of Spain by Germany will be an easy matter after the w’ar; To keep Spain’s politics in such a state of tur moil as to make the country an embarrassment to the allies, and under cover of this “active” neutral ity to conduct such overt games as provisioning submarines from harbors along Spain’s coast. German drummers are even now making their regular calls upon the trade and showing samples. They cannot deliver goods, of course, but they can take orders to be placed after the war, and they can and do compare their own goods to the dis favor of the merchandise being shown by the allies. The prices they are quoting for after-the-war de livery are ridiculously low as compared to those being obtained under present conditions. The 8,000 Germans who were in Spain at the beginning of the war have Increased to 80,000 by the arrival of homeward-bound Germans who could get no further and of a recent flood of new arrivals from Germany, posing as Swiss, who have managed to get through Switzerland and France. A good part of the homeward-bound ones were hard up, if not penniless, shortly after getting to Spain. Every man who proved his worth went on the German payroll as a spy; it is said here. The Ger man government is not a charitable institution. Those who got on the payroll had to produce some thing besides the need of money to stay there. They spied around Madrid like a set of mountain engines going through a railroad yard. They were just as noiseless and Inconspicuous—and efficient. "It was rough stuff,” said an American, “but they made it work. They got the vital statistics about every newcomer in town, if they had to go through his baggage. If they suspected him of possessing interesting Information they fairly hung over his shoulders if he had a conversation in a public place I don’t know how much real good they did, but they certainly w’orked at it.” Bribing Newspapers ♦ In the propaganda department they were as open as if they had been buying wood. Spanish newspapers are frequently approachable, through the business office. In normal times the advertis ing is scanty and not well paid for, and the top most circulation of any paper is 100,000. The average of the more prosperous is from 6,000 to 30,000 circulation. When war came the circula tion fell for a time and the advertising almost dis appeared. It was the Germans’ chance. < “This paper received so much and that one so much.” one is told here. The names and_sums are freely hawked about. In consequence there were some astounding changes of front. Papers which had been wramly pro-ally one day appeared quite as warmly pro-German the next. At one time it is stated there were but eleven papers of any stand ing in Spain which remained pro-ally. This is the more remarkable, as observers agree that the country was warmly French in sympathy before the war, and the papers were very generally pro ally in tone immediately after the war began. These sums were not all disbursed by the Ger man government. Gomez Carrillo, a Spanish writer of violently pro-ally sympathies, comments admir ingly on the trained disciplined manner in which the German companies and individuals here spent money to further their national cause. A German who is said to have done the largest business with ing their children. But when employers are sub ject to fine and imprisonment every time they em ploy a child under fourteen years old, it is prac tically certain that they are not going to take any chances. Thus the child labor law places the responsiblity upon the employers. It reads: “That no producer, manufacturer, or dealer t shall ship or deliver for shipment in interstate or foreign commerce any article or commodity, the \ product of any mine or quarry, situated in the United States, in which within thirty days prior to the time of removal of such product therefrom, children under the age of sixteen have been em ployed or permilted to work; or any article or commodity the product of any mill, cannery, work situated in the United States, etc.” But in enforcing this law, Miss Lathrop and Miss Abbot of the children’s bureau intend to leave no loophole uncovered. They are going to investigate the registration of* children by parents as well as their employment. Birth certificates or other absolute evidence must be produced by to show that their children are of employ ment age, and these will be closely scrutinized by public inspectors. Only the other day a parental fraud was disclosed by a vigilant inspector in a small manufacturing town. The parents had brought an old decrepit family bible as evidence that their little daughter was fourteen. On the M fly-leaf was the neat inscription, “Martha Le jowsky—or some such name —Born July 24, 1903.” The child was rather large, and the inspector would have passed her except that it occurred to > her strange that the birth of only one child should be recorded on the fly-leaf—and that in a. fine Spencerian hand —when there were eight, children in the family. Besides, the ink looked exceedingly fresh. She decided to do a little third degree work. “What did you say your daughter’s name was— Martha?” she asked. “Ya,” replied the mother. “Well, I am sorry, but there is some mistake. The name here is not Martha.” She pushed the bible towards them, but they made no effort to look at the name. As she sus pected, they could neither read nor write English. And they were so angry with the Americanized friend who had made the mistake for them, that they confessed the whole thing quite naively. The need for such a restriction as the present child labor law has been felt for many years. One by one states themselves took the matter into their own hands and prohibited the employment of children under fourteen, in various occupations, and in some states even greater restrictions have been placed upon the employment of children than are contained in the new federal law. California, ( for example, has an age limit of ten years for boys i and eighteen years for girls engaged in any street occupation; of fifteen years for both if employed by a mercantile,’ manufacturing or mechanical es- ■ tablishment, workshop, office, laundry, place of amusement, restaurant, hotel, apartment house, er rand, delivery and messenger service, and of six- i teen years if engaged in any dangerous occupa tion. Moreover, the eight-hour day, forty-eight] hour week, is sustained by law. On the other hand, North Carolina sets the age limit for employment in mines at twelve years; at thirteen years for employment in factories, and sustains an eleven-hour day, or a sixty-hour week. The state objected to the federal law on the ground that the work of children was necessary to the support of their families, yet an investigation made of one mill district disclosed the fact that the av erage family income was $25.50 a week. In one family where the father was a roving hauler, the mother stayed at home, and four girls and one boy worked In the mill, the weekly Income was $47.98 a week. Which goes to show that child labor is not an economic necessity in most cases, and where it is, It is up to the Associated Charities to lend a hand. For from now on the children’s bureau is pledged to keep every child under fourteen in school, and give him his chance, no matter what may be the ideas of his parents. Spanish Morocco before the war Is reputed to have spent millions from his own pocket. A German manufacturer of clocks and watches in Madrid is said to have bankrupted himself in the same man ner. Scores of others have Injured their financial standing through their expenditures is enterprises calculated to aid Germany or embarrass the allies. “The extent of the provisioning of German sub marines off the coast of Spain will never be known,” said one man. “Spain has a coast line 2,000 miles long, largely deserted and in some sections hardly guarded at all. The provisioning of the U-boats was for a time an open matter, although this has been put an end to in large part. It is reported that the expenses of these enterprises were paid entirely by the Germans resident in Spain, and that the German government was not put to a peseta of cost.” There is a strong church party in Spain, too, although the church does not enter into Spanish politics to the extent westerners have been taught to believe. Its influence is mostly among the wom en. and the Spanish man very often holds the cyn ical view that the church “is a place to be mar ried in and burled from.” Nevertheless the church Influence is not to be scoffed at, and the clericals stirred up feeling among their adherents against France, because of the disestablishment of the church in France some years ago. “The kaiser is an instrument raised up by God to punish the atheists who laid impious hands upon the holy vessels,” the clericals declared for a time. This has very largely been put an end to. The clergy in Spain have been notified by authority to let secular affairs alone during the war, It is re ported. At all events, their activity has abated. Close observers discount the effectiveness of the clericals’ campaign. One man who is in a posi tion to .very accurately assess the value of the clericals’ efforts said: “I know many families in which all the women are pro-German, and every man pro-ally. A strong sentiment has grown up in Spain of recent years against the Intrusion of the church in politics.” The net result of the German propagnada is not to be underestimated. Pro-ally Spain at the 1 beginning of the war is not now nearly so pro ally. Spain has been phenomenally prosperous dur- > ing the w r ar. This statement rests not only upon the common testimony of business men but on the explicit declarations of Count Romanones, the former premier, and Senor Dato, who is premier today—and tnrough the widespread investments made by the Germans the moneyed classes are almost uanimously with Germany. One oonsequence was that Romanones fell from power when he rebuked Germany for her submarine attacks on Spanish boats. Another was ‘.hat while it was thought possible at one time that Spain would join thje allies it is not now con sidered at all probable. The allies have wanted Spain in the conflict, not only for the sake of the man-reserves that could be drawn upon, and for the moral effect of the last great European na tion declaring against the central powers, but in order that Spain may become a party to the trade compact which is to hold Germany in check after the war. It is this lattdr item which is of the greatest importance to Germany, on the opinion of observ ers here. German}" has succeeded in a “peaceful penetration” of Spain commercially during the war to an extent not realized until recently by the allies. Germans have invested not less than $400,-- 000.000 in Spain during the war. and they plan a vigorous commercial campaiari in the only great neutral market left to them after the war. “Unless effective action is taken,” according to 3 business man of high standing here, “the end of the war will find Germany practically in posses sion of one of the great undeveloped markets of Europe. To make sure of this they need only to maintain their present position of commercial * friendship and to keep Spain out of the war-”
