2 4 i ! 'PHE SITUATION IN EUROPE. Special Correspondence of the Daily News, Toronto. No. 1, Mr. Lloyd-George said some time ago that the war would be settled by "silver bullets.' As the war goes on it becomes more and more apparent that this is not an empty phrase of rhetoric, but contains the truth of the matter. Victory er defeat will be de- termined not by brilliant strokes of generalship, d not by endrance on the part of the fighting men so much as by the en- durance of whole nations, and by the way they are able to adapt their in- ternal economy so as to supply the fighting men with what they need. Success or failure in the war depends on that. It is the economic weakness of the Allies--or their slowness in making use of their strength--that is responsible for the defeat of the Rus- sians and the loss of Poland. Russia herself is economically undeveloped, ahd for that reason cannot supply her army with munitions. Great Britain is economically strong, but, owing to past mismanagement, has not yet been able to use her strength for the help of her Ally. So the Germans have Warsaw. ees | "Silver Bullets." When Mr. Lloyd-George made his speech, it was generally assumed by the press in English-speaking coun- tries that the "silver bullets" were_on our side; that the material resources of the Allies were overwhelmingly greater than those of our opponents. It is true that the material resources of the Allies are greater, though the difference is not so much as is gen- erally supposed. But up to the pre- sent the Germans have more than made up for the deficiency by a bet- ter organization of their resources, and by skill and economy in using them. The present superiority of the Germans in the field is not a Super- iority of fighting men, whether in numbers or in quality. It is a super- iority of material. The war of "sil- ver bullets" so far has gone in their favor. It is useless for us to have more "silver bullets" than the enemy if we fire half of them in the air; and that is what they were doing in Great Britain until lately. Now they have seen' their mistake. Two or three months ago the British people recog- nized what they had not recognized before; that it would not help Great Britain to be richer than Germany if : riches carrying on life and business as usual, while in Germany every possible pen- ny was saved for the service of the war. Germany's Example. In2Germany, since the war began, strict economy has been the order of the day. The whole population has cut dewn its living expenses, and has stopped all unnecessary work, so as to devote the greatest possible part of its labor to supplying the fighting men with material. By the Allied command of the sea, German foreign trade has been mostly stopped. But the German people have managed to do without their imported luxuries. The absolute necessities they have managed to produce at home. At the same time the stoppage of imports has relieved Germany, from the neces- sity of sending out exports to pay for them. This has set free a great mass of labor and productive capacity, which has become available, firstly, to produce such goods as will replace the absolutely necessary imports; secondly, to produce war material. In consequence, after a year of war Ger- many is abie to supply her people with the necessities of life out of the fruits of their own labor; and in ad- dition, to keep her armies in the field plentifully supplied with munitions-- and this while*the has at least five or six million men in the fighting line. Slowness In Britain. In Great Britain, on the other hand, until the other day the need for economy was not recognized. was nothing to complain of in the spirit of the people. Men volunteered for active service as fast as they could be taken, faster than they could be armed and equipped. F many months the supply of arms and ammunition was short, partly because Great Britain had not the huge fac- tories equipped for their manufacture, which already existed in Germany be- fore the war. But gradually the old factories were extended and new ones were equipped. The deficiency is not yet made good, but it will be made good before long. Moreover, having command of the sea, Great Britain is able to import munitions from abroad. The Vital Test. But something more than this is needed. It is not enough to build fac- tories to make munitions and to keep the seas open to import them. The munitions must be paid for, and at the same time the civil population must be fed and clothed. the British population consumes each year the greater part of what it pro- duces. There is a surplus which it invests. This surplus is estimated at different figures, but at the highest figure it is not sufficient to provide for one-half % the anmaal war expen- diture. It is m2 solution to say that r serves In time of peace, | properly supplied, they will be beaten in the war of "silver bullets," what- ever thei latent material resources m is has now ter, they saw that this was the vital test of the whole war,-and: that it could only be met successfully in one way, that is, by the practice of strict national economy. we GREAT LESSON OF THE WAR. British Dreadnoughts Remain the Final Arbiter. One year has passed 'since Ger- many's battleships abandoned the sea and withdrew into the seclision of their country's inner harbors. Un- confirmed reports state that British submarines have sought them even to the entrance of the Kiel Canal, only to find that the ships of the High Sea fleet had found refuge inside the canal itself, the entrances of which were ef- fectively blocked, says the New York Herald. In the meantime the Allies have reaped every advantage that an.over- whelming victory could have yielded. While German colonies have disap- peared and German commerce has been swept from the ocean, the Allies continue to transport their troops and supplies and carry on their over- sea commerce almost as in peace. The guerrilla warfare practiced by German submarines has as yet yield- ed no military results of value. The complete failure of their naval aspirations. can be nothing less than a crushing disappointment to the Ger- man people, and particularly to the 1,000,000 members of the German Navy League. had announced the policy that Ger- man sea power would be so strong that the greatest navy would not dare meet it without imperilling its own supremacy. Pan-American lecturers had extolled the superiority of the Krupp guns, which would make their fleet superior to the British fleet when "the day" arrived to engage in battle. Will the 26 dreadnoughts lie in the Kiel Cana] throughout this greatest of wars without firing a gun? , It seems incredible. But it is clear that German naval policy has for the first year accepted the principle that "a fleet in being" is more valuable than a fleet at the bottom of the sea, while Germany, besieged, clings to her submarine campaign with desper- rests, as ever, with its navy. Some- where in the North Sea the grand fleet of Admiral Jellicoe keeps its cease- less watch, content with the knowl- edge that each day is a new disaster for the beleagured enemy and another victory for the Allies. The submar- ines are helpless to restore the Ger- man flag to the seas; the British dreadnoughts remain the fina] arbiter of the war. In this fact lies the greatest lesson of the war. a HOW BRITAIN FEEDS HER ARMY An Idea of the Gigantic Task of the Army Service Corps. When it is mentioned that 2,000 tons of goods--food and other neces- sities--are sent every day from the base depots to the firing line of the | British army, some idea of the gigan- | tic task of the Army. Service Corps j will be gathered. This enormous | weight of goods comes almost entire- {ly from the British Isles, for the Gov- | ernment is not buying in France even {so perishable a necessity as milk. | All day by motor lorry and railway ' truck supplies for the troops are sent j out from these base depots to stores |as near as possible to the firing line. | And just as reserves are accumulated | in the docks, so reserves are accumu- | lated near the front, since an accident |to the railways might cut off the | fighting soldiers' supplies. : n one oceasion there was a delay . | on the railways of 36 hours, but not | only did the soldier at the front get | all his food and ammunition, but he did not even have to draw on the re- just mentioned; regimental stores were sufficient for his need Everything goes by clockwork. There js no room for accident. ------ British Volcanoes. ° Within the British Isles are num- erous extinct volcanoes. The island of Skye is the wreck of a once gigan- tic voleano. Ben Nevis, the Sidlaws, the Pentlands, the Ochils, Arthur's Seat, just outside Edinburgh, are rem- nants of very ancient volcanoes, 50,- 000,000 years or so in age, which once 'made Scotland a veritable "reign of 'fire.' In North and South Wales | there are similar wrecks of what were once gigantic volcanoes, and among them may be mentioned Snowden and 'Cader Idris. | Many of the higher peaks of the Lake district, of the Wrekin Chain in Shropshire, of Charnwood Forest and of Dartmoor, in Devonshire, are the silent remnants of British volcanoes that must once have exhibited volcanic activity on the grandest scale, and have rivalled in size and extent the _mighty giants of Cotopaxi, Etna and she British Gsyernment can borrow, , Ten The navy law of 1907! ae atin The safety of the British Empire| from the aN Y} qt ( Ay Ht vi 6 GOTT STRAFE DOT CANADIAN SHELL COMMISSION! GREAT WORK OF _ BRITISH "MINERS SAY A PRAYER AND BLOW UP FOE'S_ TRENCH. No Slackers Allowed in the Trades Unions Now--Nobody Need Be Idle. makes the other. A button is pressed and there is a flash and an explosion. . . » A German trench is blown sky- wards, writes Jemes Sherliker, The man who has done it turns away with a prayer for the repose of the departing souls; his sense of duty has not affected his fine, sympathetic} nature. Until a few weeks ago his life had been spent down a coal mine not far from Birmingham, and, like most men who work in the hiding- place of Death, his thoughts are often of the hereafter. Hence the whis- pered prayer and the love for an en- emy. : are on ful work in the war. They are men of the mysterious underworld. "Eye- witness" never describes their doings, and I don't suppose he will until. the strugéle is ended. Then he will tell how eagerly they came forward, how valuable in trench warfare was their knowledge of drilling and biasting, how they wormed their way to the Germans as they had wormed their way to the black diamonds at home, ow unerring was their sense of hear- ing and of locality deep down beneath the surface of the battlefield. I hope he will give us a little of the human side, a little about the collier soldier who sings in the Midland chapel at home, and who lays his wire of de- struction all the better for humming a hymn; a little about the man who blesses himself as he plants his pow- der and who sends men to the Beyond with a prayer for their salvation. For colliers, I am told, are far from being all cursers and atheists, and out there the men who do the best work are the ; men who find comfort in the unseen ,and the unknown. Saving Tommy Atkins. Many a German trench has_ been ; blown up by these coal miners from | the Midlands; many soldiers in the | British trenches have been saved by | the same men. When that strange | underground rumbling is heard and | Tommy Atkins turns to his pal and | mutters, "Did you hear that?" and thinks hard about his wife and his kid- dies at home, the miner from the Mid- lands lies down on his side with his ear to the ground. He listens. Very) soon he knows where the drilling is to within a few yards. And our are saved. Yes, a clever man is the' miner from the Midlands. He looks! funny in his khaki because he is not | as upright as a man who works where there is plenty of space. But he is a great fighting man, and he is sorry to} have to kill, but duty has called him. | Success to his wriggling and his drill-| ing and his exploding. I am _ proud that I gave his little terrier a bone. | The Midland district is doing well. | It has sent.a large proportion of*men_ to the front. A terribly large num-, ber have laid down their lives. Wid- | dows and orphans.afe in nearly every | street, and a few minutes ago I wit- { nessed the funeral of a slum hero; who died here after returning from' the war. Nobody-is. idle here. The' great munition works are busy night and day, and I am assured that much. of the extra money earned is being devoted to the war loan. I have been if I want work. "You can do a bit of laborin' if no- thin' else," a man remarked kindly me. No Slackers Now. He took 'me. firmly by -the wrist. ' arguing with me." "Look 'ere, mister, if you could see the stock of shells in just one place you'd swear there was enough to blow up all Europe. We all thought so, but, as a matter of fact, our boys at the front can use up a lot like that in a week. . . . It war a bit of a shock to us, but when we were told it there was no slackin'. . . . Now, what do you say? .. . Good wages wait- in', mind." I reminded -thim that a man _ had been proceeded against in court for neglecting his work in a munition fac- to: ry. "They should hang every one of them," he said, grimly. I told him that at one place in the north a trade unionist workman d objected to a fellow-worker earning more than a certain sum. "Ere. . . . Look 'ere," he said, "cum along o' me and I'll show you in' " He took me to his home and pro- duced an old report of the engineers' trade union and opened it at a page giving a list of members who were expelled for offences like drunkenness, chronic laziness, immorality, neglect of work, etc. "Do you do the-same thing, to- day?" I asked. "Certainly. union, This Munitions Bill to do slackness is very good, indeed, but it isn't needed as far as the skilled workers are concerned." WELLINGTON'S HEIGHT. Claimed to Have Been Five Feet Nine Inches or More. To think of the Duke of Wellington as a little man is almost as difficult as to think of Napoleon as a big one, says the Manchester Guardian. Yet a heated controversy occupies the cor> respondence columns of the London Spectator as to whether there was much to choose in height between the two. "The Duke was very little, if at all, taller than Napoleon," says the writer of an article in a_ late issue, and recently a surprising number of people who knew the Duke, or lived as children with someone who was his intimate friend, hasten to rebut the attack on his inches. The belittling, and, of course, school quotes Thomas Carlyle, whose eye for physical characteristics was a keen one, and who described the! Duke in 1850 as "a shortish, slightish | man." But the Duke was getting old; then and the stoop that marked him even as a young man may have _in- creased. The people who will not have him less than medium height have better evidence to go on. One! of them lived in "constant association | with him" till she was 18; at the house of the parents of another he was a "constant visitor'; a third frequently saw him riding in the park, and all claim five feet nine inches or more for him. It is a curious thing that while the stature of Julius Casar, for instance, is not in dispute, we should be in doubt about that of so compara- tively recent a hero as Wellington. }. Never Wrong. The home life of the Smiths was not always one of roses and sweet singing. One afternoon the elder Smith, on calling at his son's house, found his daughter-in-law in tears, and on asking why was told the us- ual story. "John," sternly remarked the elder Smith some time later, "why are you always quarreling with your wife?" "Because," was the prompt response of son John, "she is always i "I see," returned the father. "You make the mistake of getting angry. Why don't you ex- plain to her in a calm, gentle tone of voice wherein she is wrong." "That's just the trouble," answered John, | with a prolonged sigh. "She is never} n ee asked half a dozen times in one day | WTOnE tioallcs es 2 Wife (with newspaper)--"What next! Here's a woman mate o ship. Fancy a woman sailor!" Hub-- "That's nothing. Wasn't Lot's wife a female salt?" | AMONG THE RUBBER TREES. The Workers in the Forest Have a Very High Mortality. . In a recent address to the Royal Geographical Societ¥, Commander Herbert A. Edwards, member of the Bolivia-Brazil Boundary Commission, said that the life of the seringeiro, or native rubber collector, in the interior of Bolivia and Brazil is particularly hard and comfortless. Living alone or with one companion in the depths of the forest, he begins his day short- ly after four o'clock in the morning. At that hour he rises, lights his own fire with wood that he gathered the night before, boils and drinks a cup of coffee, shoulders a rifle, and taking a small hatchet, and some little tin cups, starts out on his morning round. He visits each rubber tree in his strada in turn, makes little incisions in the bark of each, and fixes a little tin cup to catch the white sap, or rub- ber milk, that flows therefrom. After all his trees have been tapped, he re- turns to his hut, cooks his midday meal of xarque (dried meat) an beans, and at once, if he is alone, starts out to collect the milk from the cups. For that purpose he carries across his shoulders a rubber bag that holds from three to four gallons. Returning home, he goes to his little rubber hut, starts th in his fur- ith.a. special fuel, which, of puts the milk into a pan, and slowly beats it. When it is hot enough, he pours it over his "rubber ball," which is mounted on a_ long stick; he must hold the ball in the smoke of the furnace and must keep it revolving. This process is known as "smoke-drying." As the furnace chimney discharges its smoke inside the hut, and as the fumes of the sim- mering milk are particularly pungent, the atmosphere in which he has_ to work becomes indescribably stifling and nauseating. By the time he has dried all his milk it is dark, and he eats his supper and goes to bed. Day in and day out, that is his life, varied only too certainly with attacks of fever, rheumatism, and ptomaine pois- oning caused by bad food. The sanita- tion of the little communities in which he lives is bad, and the water is often unwholesome; typhoid, dysentery, and kindred diseases often kill hi Everywhere beriberi, tuberculosis, malarial fever an ague are prevalent. Without exag- geration, it may be said that every man, woman, and child living in the forest is subject to periodic attacks of deadly malaria, with consequent en- largement of the spleen and liver com- plaints. Occasionally the seringeiro 3 shoots some animal or bird, or if he! is near a stream catches fish; but they are his only fresh food. Ii] nour- ished, hard worked in a fever-haunt- ed country, improperly clothed, and often wet from morning until night, the rubber workers have a very high mortality. Small wonder is it that every isolated barraca has its own cemetery, in which is nearly always a newly made grave. ae. UNITED STATES CITIES. Philadelphia's death rate is in- creasing. St. Paul grass rug factories yearly pay out $300,000 in wages. Des Moines imposes such drastic regulations that jitneys cannot oper- ate Meadville, Pa., man toppled over dead in his seat while driving his auto the other day. New York doctors have formed a society to study methods for staying the advance of old age. Norristown, Pa., drunken chaffeur raws a fine of $100 and 60 days in jail for driving an auto while intoxi- ated ¢ i | Chicago merchants are quite gen- erally observing summer Saturday half-holiday. Hollis, Okla., is the home of quad- ruplets. Mrs. Flake Keys, mother. Girls. Joliet, Il., board of health rigid scarlet fever quarantine has been up- held by the courts. '| led a busy life, ALBERT THOMAS IS THE LLOYD. GEORGE OF OUR ALLY. ---- He Has Done Fine Work in Reorgan-| izing the Munitions F Output. What Mr. Lloyd George is to Great Britain M. Albert Thomas is to! France, " Both are the men behind the guns.! In other words both have to see that! our gallant soldiers have a plentiful! supply of ammunition to hurl at the German hordes. \ Like his British friend, Mr. Thomas is a man of the people. His father, was a baker. Even as a_ schoolboy. young Thomas showed marked talents' particularly in history and philosophy,! which won for him many money, prizes. He devoted these to gratifying his ambition for travel. First he went through Siberia, then visited Ger- many, where he took a course of lec- tures at Berlin University, and after- wards he went to Smyrna and Con- stantinople, adding largely to his knowledge of men and matters. M. Thomas is one of the many, great men the war has "discovered." When it broke out he was attached to the staff of a famous general.! rance recognized that somewhere there was a weak spot in her organiz-! ation. To M. Thomas was entrusted' the task of finding it. He was given' an absolutely free hand. And in a' short time he had, as the result of keen observation, organized the work of thousands of willing hands in making shot, shell, guns, and the like, just as Lloyd George is doing in Britain. ; Under his push and go the output in French factories went up tenfold.' "There cannot be two kinds of treat- ment for Frenchmen to-day," he re- marked recently; "they are all fight- ing." A delicate compliment, imply- ing that the makers of shot and shell are doing as much, in another way, as the men in the trenches. An Inventions Board. To look after one of his departments M. Thomas selected three officers just back from the firing line. They were the men who knew exactly what was wanted, and it is their duty to exam- ine every new German-killing device and idea sent in and pick out the best! for use. ' Another big department M. Thomas already been sent in, Perhaps a! former cardboard-box making factory can be turned into a shell factory. If so, the French Government take pos- session of it. At the head of this im- portant branch, M. Thomas has placed a former workman who has risen from the ranks by sheer personal merits. He believes in the man who, like him- self, has won through by his own ability. % A third important branch is con- trolled by a military officer, who tact- fly settles any little dispute that may arise between masters and men, keeps tally of the number of men employed, sends them to the factory where they will do the most good, and has complete control over the centres, where shot, shell, and guns are turn- ed out. France's Lloyd George is loved by the French people. He has always and, among other: things, he is a journalist, author, so- cialist, and a deputy, whilst at one time he was Mayor of Champegny. 0 a ateaamsties -- ALL A DREAM. How a Young Diplomat Fared fer His Curiosity. There is an amusing example of Or- iental subtlety in an anecdote that Mr, Sidney Whitman tells in "Turkish Memories." The story is of a young diplomat who was sent to Constanti- nople to be trained for his profession. One day the diplomat met a_ car: riage, guarded by a eunuch, that con- tained some ladies of the Sultan's harem. The young man endeavored to peep in at the window, and got a blow across the face from the vigi- lant eunuch. He made a great uproar and lodged a complaint with the Sul- tan himself. He was received in pri- vate audience, and Abdul Hamid lis- tened patiently to his story of the outrage. i On its conclusion the Sultan'replied, "My-dear sir, I have gone carefully into the case and see exactly how if stands.. You are a gentleman, there fore you could never have committed such a breach of good manners as is alleged to have taken place; and con- sequently no eunuch could possibly have presumed to strike you. The whole affair must be the product of your fancy; pray let us dismiss it." - Very Wicked. A certain little girl wagdiscovered by her mother engaged in a spiri encounter with a small friend, who had -got considerably worsted in the engagement. "Don't know, dear," said the mother, very wicked to behave so? It Satan that put it into your head to pull Elsie's hair." "Well, perliapr if was," 'the child admitted, "but kic her shins was tntirely my own idea.' = : ies Pebiitigyy cbs i etc t res