| Show W 1 MS NEW bork LETTER new york aug 21 1915 the dollar rules the world the pound sterling once the sovereign of finance has been deposed the pound the franc and the lire depreciated by tho the unbalanced condition of 0 international trade are at discount tile the sovereign Is worth about five per cent less than its face value while tile the dollar has correspondingly responding ly appreciated gold halt half a billion a billion probably will have to be hauled over the seas if such a thing is possible and poured into american coffers to lize trade and preserve great britaina Brit ains purchasing power otherwise conditi eions more humiliating may have to be imposed on the proud old nations the momentary situation reveals tile the real view ot of the bankers who are not swayed by sentimentality but by the hard facts affecting credit it throws a peculiar light on strategic condi eions at the front indicating that they may not be as fair as the published dispatches seem to show there is a deepening conviction here that the crisis that confront the nation in its foreign relations demand the subordination of pro british and pro german sentiment and the ascendancy of an intrinsically pro american spirit and there is unmistakably tile the der de of such an attitude with fuller consciousness of americas importance in international affairs which the war has made more evident than ever before the outward and visible sign of this pro american is seen in busy men of affairs going off to the camp at plattsburg Platts burg for military training and in the awakening of the people and the national administration to the necessity of military and naval pre pa redness it is seen too in the increasing insistence si of the public upon the preservation of all the nations neutral rights upon the high seas and the protection of american commerce from illegal interference as well as the defence of Amer american loan lives instead of two conflicting points of view cropping up irreconcilable in public discussions its noticeable more and more that there is only one point of view the american the acid test of 0 all propositions is how america will be affected not whether it will serve allied interest or interests te rests and it is this test that is being applied unsparingly to the efforts to win popular approval of the contentions conten tons of foreign powers A passing sensation has been created by imagining an organized propaganda and calling frantically for its suppression but america is not afraid to have any man mail or nation present its cause to the public feeling strong in fit the knowledge that the american public will decide all such questions from tile the patriotic pro american point of view not any newspaper however powerful it may seem or however clever in serving a cause could prevail against tile the sturdy pro american sentiment that permeates all the people regardless of 0 their individual origin new yorkers are trying to determine how tile the cut made by the interstate commerce Com merca commission in the freight rate on anthracite coal will affect them with pessimism born of long and costly experience they are quite prepared to find the coal trust figuring out that a reduction of fifteen cents a ton in freight charges is a valid reason for far an increase of cents in the retail price the constitutional Conven hes seriously attacked the tha scandal of the laws delays and has evolved a remedy it proposes to speed up the courts by creating more judges but nothing is said about three months vacations secretary landings Lan sings statement on exports of munitions of war has been accepted here not so much as an answer to Aus request foran embargo as an effort on the part of tile the administration to convince the american people in advance of tile the assembling of congress for it Is that body alone that has the power to define the policy of the nation and it is that body that will decide this momentous queston so it is only those who want to see the great cargoes of munitions shipped to the allies who regard the question as settled and the agitation is going goin on oil on the ground that it Is not a queston of neutrality or of leia legality lity but of morality whatever er may have been considered ethically permissible in the time of the doer boer war has to be judged now in the light of the terrible facts of the present slaughter and with due allowance for progress in the conscience of nations moreover the failure to appreciate a generation ago the wrong of supplying other nations instruments of death Is no reason why the conscience of the american people today should not break the bonds of unethical and inhuman precedents another phase of tile the munitions problem appears in the appeal rea reaching here from poland based on oil russia oppressor of weak peoples bombarding their own subjects with american shells the plea runs thus A fruitful rain of gold is faling on a land en golden peace thousands of thy most most loyal and industrious citizens come from towns beng destroyed by shells which thou art sending to supply the army of the czar thou divest iron for gold death tor for life The children are murdering their p prents parents rents we implore thee to listen to this appeal how would you like to rent a hotot hotel at a million a year some price yet that is what george C boldt has contracted to pay each year for tile the next decade for the use of the waldorf astoria do the captains of industry and the barons of high finance have any sense of humor their latest social function at newport they unblushingly ailed ailed the pi pirates rates ball soap and ana water what an lolled remedy against disease it has been at a diso discount these many years but health commissioner goldwater has had tho the courage to order its use in infecting disinfecting dis premises where there have been conta contagious gions diseases discarding the fumigating fumi gating method that has so long enslaved health officials cotton is the real trade issue between this country and great britain not that it is tile the only article that suf fers from the illegal blockade but because it is the biggest factor in tile the uncountable trade losses america has suffered As forecasted in these letters england Is insistent upon putting cotton on the contraband list flouting its own declaration of intentions and the legal rights of america yet amerian cotton seized and unpaid for is going to germany from england in large quan atles netting huge profits tor for english traders while american cotton interests are boing pushed to the wall by the seizure of their goods the excuse that this staple is used for making high explosives does not tally with this fact or with the other now well known fact that germany Is using wood fibre fabre in place of cotton for that purpose another fact is also ignored namely that large quantities of cotton are indispensable in making bandages and it is not customary among civilized nations to treat medical supplies as contraband mr barns of albany who failed to get damages from col roosevelt for being inked with air murphy of new york went gunning for progressive ideas in the constitutional convention I 1 this week i i he thought to bag the whole lot of the colonels social inaus tice remedies calling them immunity or privilege measures lie he sought to put a prohibition in the mw n lv constitution against the enactment of any of them but wary elihu root objected to this particular millstone being put around his neck so near to the dennial campaign and the barnes proposal was defeated 93 to 43 45 the jews are now organizing to formulate the measures which they want this country to propose when terms of peace are discussed for the liberation of their race n tile the countries now at war louis D brandeis Cran deis will be one of the guides in UA congress to be held liere here this week the movement embraces embrace not only jews of all ranks and walks in it life but prominent jus tice loving men of all races and creeds who are drawn together by the desire to see equal rights accorded an ancient people that has been so chogi closely ely identified with the progress of the w world 0 rid A case of 0 disproportion that led to a suit for divorce came up this week the defendant allowed his wife ty five cents a day for household epen ses but put up lor for a dowry for his daughter by his first marriage of new causes for divorce there is no end heres heras a case ot of domestic shipwreck that was caused the wife avers by having turkey for dinner on new years day but when her rela tives came around irs in the evening tile the I 1 husband refused to let her give them some ot of the cold bird not so says the husband the trouble was that slid he gave him stew too often the bureau of railway economics is telling us that the ownership of the american railroads is diffused among stockholders this is very interesting te no doubt but it does not do away with the fact that the american railroads are controlled by fewer than a hundred men there Is a sharp difference arence between ownership and control As a matter of fact it is the wide dis per sicil of the stock that makes it easy for a few small groups in wall street to control the transportation business of the country A fervid controversialist blackd til street by his argument ard cd when haled baled before magistrate ala strate carr ce rr gan g n lie pleaded the right of free speech dut but the streets are made to walk on not to talk on replied tile the judge and lie gave the man the choice of a fine or of ten dollars or ten days in the pen WM WIRT MILLS |
