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Show VVORR ACCOMPLISHED. The British war mission, headed by Foreign Minister Balfour, has crossed the border to Canada ou its way back to London. No doubt the visit of the English officials has directly influenced the administration at Washington in very many respects, for the members brought first-hand information regarding regard-ing every phase of the war and freely pointed out the mistakes made by their t own country in the early stages of the conflict. With the knowledge thus pained President Wilson and his chief advisers are no doubt honestly endeavoring endeav-oring to avoid similar errors to the best of their ability and have proposed pro-posed a programme which does not meet with general approbation and will be difficult to put through congress. In a free country like the United States there is bound to be much discussion before century-old precedents are overturned over-turned and all radical measures proposed pro-posed are subject to modification. In fact, it is highly improbable that any of the legislation proposed by the ad-ministrption ad-ministrption will be passed in the form ik-Mrpd. Nevertheless, the visit of the British war mission has undoubtedly had the effect of enlarging the perspective of the whole American people regarding the nature of the work to be aeeom-jdishrd aeeom-jdishrd before peace once more reigns on earth and the inhabitants of all countries ar'e free to enjoy life without with-out being in a constant state of alarm lest war is declared and a!l the able-bodied able-bodied men are called upon to make the supreme sacrifice. We 'now know that it is absolutely necessary to furnish fur-nish all the men, money and munitions possible and that we must endure some deprivation before the kaiser is conquered. con-quered. We know, too. that out of our surplus of food products it will be necessary for 113 to feed the entente allies and to ration the neutral countries, coun-tries, the people of which must undergo under-go great stiff eriiig unless the United States comes to the rescue. Everything Every-thing has been figured out along this liiip and the food control measure now bofore congress is the result. Senator Keed of Missouri, who hails from Kansas Kan-sas City, one of the principal grain and cattle markets of the country, leads the opposition to the measure in the senate. It is probable, however, that some power wil! be placed in the hands of the president to keep the cost of living from getting entirely out of bounds. Mr. Balfour and his colleagues were able to give the administration a true account of the experience of Great Britain Brit-ain in the matter of food control, but as England imports food, while the United States exports it, the same Conditions Con-ditions do not prevail and we do not need such drastic law? as thoe now in operation on the other side of the Atlantic, ocean. Vet there should be home sort of control- and we do not believe men like Senator Reed, who represents the grain and livestock speculators spec-ulators of Kansas City, without considering con-sidering the welfare of the people of the whole countiy, should be able to wield any great amount of influence when such an important piece of legislation legis-lation is under consideration. Perhaps the mission achieved its greatest success in arranging Tor the financing of the war by the United States. There is no opposition either in congress or out to the th rowi ng of billions of dollars into the cauldron, the only difference of opinion being as to how the, money shall be raised. Of course, the foreign missions had nothing to say regarding methods of taxation, being interested only in obtaining ob-taining the huge loans. The British visit or:? were a lso successful in inducing induc-ing the administration to restrain, if not prevent, the ex portal ion of the pi od nets of t his conn t ry to neutral nation?, suspected of furnishing supplies to Oennany, In many other ways Mr. Balfour and his associates were able - i - I to do effective work, according to the I viewpoint of their home government. I President Wilson, while willing to I co-operate to the fullest extent in over-i over-i throwing the central powers, went a i step farther by opening up a discussion j on the reconstruction of the world after I the war. This subject has been avoided ! in Europe for obvious reasons, but as I the president has a well-defined programme pro-gramme he took advantage of the occasion occa-sion to make known his plans for securing secur-ing the future peace, of the world and bringing freedom to the oppressed peoples peo-ples of Europe. As we entered the war to fight for democracy as against autocracy autoc-racy and all the entente allies have advauced similar reasons for fighting the central powers there should be no discord when peace negotiations are begun, and President Wilson was entirely en-tirely right when he brought the subject sub-ject to the attention of Mr. Balfour in order that there be no mistake as to the intentions of the United States. It is probably true, as the dispatches say, that this country and Great Brit-ian Brit-ian have been drawn closer together as one of the results of the visit of the mission and that some of the misunderstandings misun-derstandings of the past have been swept away. But we should not lose sight of the fact that when the war ends Great Britain will be "our greatest commercial rival and that our interests will be identical in but few respects. While the war lasts, however, every other consideration will be subordinated for the good of the world and we shall work in full harmony with Great Britain, Brit-ain, France and Italy. |