the public nothing, while the railroad company must make big construction works, which will not only make the people's part of it possible, but will also add to the attractiveness of the city, tremendously increase its transportation facilities and furnish labor for thousands. This is also true of the west side terminal plans. The creation of the great new passenger station on Canal street and the other public projects, such as the widening of Canal street and its connection with the north side, and new bridges and bridge approaches, must be paid for by the companies, although the public benefits are tremendous and accompanied by an attractive development of vast worth to the entire city. The same is true of the location of the postoffice on the two block Canal street site. This costs the people nothing: the governinent must buy the land and build the building, but an imposing structure, adequate for Chi cago's vast postal needs, will kill two birds with one stone-the government's needs will be cared for, Chicago's business will be facilitated and that of a large tributary territory and an attractive development will take place that will inure immeasurably to the west side and the whole city. Similar conditions apply to South Water street. Not only will this improvement not cost the people anything in actuality but it will save them more than $25,000,000 in the five years of the reconstruction period in waste of foodstuffs. This figure has been substantiated as conservative by federal government investigators. The west side streets to be improved are of such importance to Chicago that the people should rise up and demand action to insure their quickest and most adequate development. The improvement of Robey street and Ashland and Western avenues should be provided for iu the new traction ordinance. The Ogden avenue improvement will in time pay for itself over and over again in revenue from increased property values in a large area which it will importantly affect. Its actual cost will be small and will be in the nature of an investment upon which there will be a great return, and therefore it cannot be called an expense. Both the property owners and the city will benefit tremendously. The great 12th street improvement, which now terminates in a pocket at Canal street. must be completed to Michigan avenue, the railroad companies paying the larger cost as agreed. Its completion is of utmost importance and will produce incalculable benefits to that locality and the whole city. that a 10 year old school child can appreciate The Michigan avenue connection is so vital its importance. It will be a saving to everybody in time, money and convenience. are The other big questions in the Chicago plan commission's "reconstruction platform" largely legislative matters, but fundamental in importance and necessity. The people should co-operate as one person to hasten their accomplishment. This entire program demands the instant, intelligent, and hearty co-operation of every citizen. It is a matter of "One for all and all for one." Every one of these twenty-two projects can be realized in five years with intelligent and aggressive action as the medium to that end. The humanitarian, economic and hygienic benefits to the city will be so great as absolutely to defy calculation at this time. If the people of Chicago really want citywide prosperity, citywide public health, citywide pleasure and happiness, to be found in the parks and on the lake front, convenient and attractive streets, easy and adequate transportation, and if they want to see their city become the great and prosperous metropolis it is destined to be, they can do so. and very quickly: but they cannot obtain these advantages without quick; intelligent and hearty co-operation. CHARLES H. WACKER, Chairman. FRANK I. BENNETT, Vice-Chairman. WALTER D. MOODY, Director. BANK CREDITS AND DEBT SITUATION. The Federal Reserve Bulletin for the month of November, 1918, contained detailed studies of the debt situation in the United States and foreign countries, with special reference to the banking situation as affected by loans on war paper and the use of the purchasing power thereby created. This subject was fully discussed in the board's review of the month. which analyzed the effect on prices of the failure of our population to save, as evidenced by the increase in loans collateraled by government securities. As in former issues, the board urged a resort to more intensive saving in order to absorb the new bonds more rapidly, and in larger measure in order that the credit granted by the banks might not remain to long outstanding and thereby tend to increase prices. "In the last issue of the Federal Reserve Bulletin evidence was submitted to show that the belief in a great inflation of the currency has relatively little to support it. It is, in fact, not the issue of notes, but the creation of deposit credits on the books of the banks, for the purpose of enabling borrowers to buy and carry government bonds and rendered necessary because of the failure of the public to save sufficiently, that creates the buying power which advances prices.' After quoting figures to show in an approximate way the progressive increase in the deposits and investments of the banks, both member and federal reserve, as well as the declining ratio of reserve to outstanding liabilities of the latter, which is a consequence of borrowing instead of more intensive saying. the statement continued: Credit Expansion. "Precisely what effects may be expected from this process of credit expansion should be definitely understood in order that the nation as a whole may choose between the Dolicy of steadily adding to its outstanding bank obligations and that of curtailing them by regularly reducing its indebtedness through saving and the cancellation of its borrowing at the banks. The board, in former issues of the bulletin, has defined inflation as the increase of current purchasing power whether in the form of actual currency or in the form of credit-faster than the volume of available goods,' and this is manifestly the process which is now going on as a result of methods of subscribing and paying for government bonds. which are not based upon real savings. cial situation of the country which most re"Probably the feature of the present finanquires correction is this increase in disposition on the part of the public to rely too largely upon the banks as sources from which to obtain the necessary funds for use in financing the requirements of the government. In order to provide for the taking up of additional loans when offered. it will be inevitably necessary that the public address itself with greater earnestness to the problem of saving and applying its income to public requirements. Advices from many quarters show that while progress is being made in this matter, the mounting necessities of the government are equally conclusive evidence to the effect that what already has been done must be continued and added to, and that further and more successful efforts must be made if the banks are not to be obliged to take and hold an undue proportion of the obligations issued by the government." With reference to the question of prices and credit expansion, the following statement is made: The relation between prices and credit expansion has been frequently referred to by the board but may be restated somewhat as follows: Bank credit when granted by commercial institutions upon the strength of, or for the purposes of, liquidating commercial trans which they were extended. Credits based upon noncommercial operations or investment securities possess no such quick self-reducing quality. As they increase. therefore, they tend to make a more or less lasting addition to the outstanding volume of bank liabilities and thereby increase the superstructure of bank credits which rests upon the underlying reserve money of the country. actions of early maturities, serves as a means of facilitating the flow of commodities from producer to consumer and the return of purchasing power from the consumer to the producer through the various channels of circulation. This process enables goods to act as a means of purchase and payment for other goods, and when the maturity of the average loan granted (or 'credit' allowed) is no longer Ithan that of the productive processes in which the community is the effect of it is only that of facilitating and promoting production and distribution. When the loans granted or credit extended by the banks are in excess of the normal value of the goods offered for exchange. there is brought into ex-ings of the American banking system, which istence an additional or surplus volume of purchasing power which has the same effect upon the prices of commodities as does a corresponding addition to the money supply, inasmuch as it may be offered for commodities and may thus create a demand for them. Credit expansion becomes inflation when the increase of prices it produces brings no commensurate or offsetting increase of production.' Reserve Situation and Inflation. The relation between the reserve situation and inflation is discussed in the following passage: "The reason why the public, and especially the banking community. looks with so much interest to the reserves of the banks is understood when the nature of credit inflation is carefully considered. Ordinary extensions of credit made for the purpose of facilitating the exchange and circulation of goods require little or no addition to the reserve funds, of the banks. because the credits thus granted in the main offset and cancel one another, leaving an unimportant margin to be redeemed in cash. When the credit structure of the community is enlarged by the extension of bank loans not accompanied by a corresponding increase in production and the proceeds are employed in the way just described for the purchase of commodities or for buying them away from the consumers who would otherwise purchase them, the claims to the bank credit thus brought into existence keep on passing from hand to hand. The government transfers them to contractors who furnish it with goods and to persons who supply it with services. Both these classes pass on the credit claims to others in exchange for goods which they desire and they remain outstanding, representing in effect an addition to the purchasing media of the community. There is no means of permanently canceling or digesting such outstanding credits except one-their use by those into whose hands they come for the purchase of the securities against which the credits were extended. notably government bonds in our present situation. Ordinary commercial credits furnish their own means of cancellation through the maturing of the paper upon which they were based and the completion of the productive process to finance "During the last year there has been a decrease in the percentage of gold to cover the aggregate banking liabilities of the country, mainly the result of the process above outlined. This decline has not been occasioned by any falling off in the aggregate gold holdindeed have shown some increase. It is due altogether to the rapid increase in the outstanding volume of bank liabilities. It is this feature of the situation which gives to the decline of the gold percentage its significance. That is to say, the decline of this percentage is an important index of our changing position, not because of any inadequacy of gold, but because of undue or disproportionate expansion of the credit structure which the gold reserve of the nation is required to support and protect in consequence of inadequate saving by the people. coun "Decline of the reserve percentages of the central banking institutions has been a general phenomenon in all of the belligerent tries since the opening of the war and everywhere has been admitted to be undesirable. As shown in the studies of public debt and currency, published elsewhere in this issue of the Bulletin, it reflects the disposition of these necessary upon direct borrowing countries to rely upon borrowing and when from the banking institutions, the public being either too little able or too little willing to furnish out of its current consumption either in the form of taxes or of direct loans to the government the sums necessary to avoid credit inflation and to hold reserves at a normal percentage level. our Gold Strength of United States. "The great gold strength of the United States, largely due to the heavy accessions to national stock of gold in the two years prewar, has, it 18 ceding our entry into the true, placed this country in an exceptional and peculiar position; and to this extent the character of the credit inflation experienced in the United States differs from that existing in to other countries and has been less easy realize. But it would be a mistake for us to proceed on the assumption that inflation in the United States is therefore different in its essential character from what it is elsewhere. Here. as elsewhere, the decline in percentage of reserve holdings to outstanding liabilities reflects the relative increase of the latter as compared with the means of their direct conversion on demand, and the problem presented is the problem of controlling the growth of banking credits." CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF PEACE MOVEMENTS. New York Peace society, organized 1815, American Society of International Law orfirst in the world. ganized, 1906. Intercollegiate Peace association, 1905. 1907. Peace day, 18th of May (Hague day). Carnegie endowment for international peace, 1910. Palace of Peace at The Hague dedicated Aug. 28, 1913. INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONGRESSES. First series: 1. London, 1843; 2. Brussels, 1848; 3, Paris, 1849; 4. Frankfort, 1850; 5. London, 1851; 6, Edinburgh, 1853. Second series: 1, Geneva, 1867; 2, Paris, 1878; 3, Brussels, 1882; 4, Bern, 1884. Present series: 1, Paris, 1889: 2, London, 1890; 3, Rome, 1891; 4, Bern, 1892; 5, Chicago, 1893; 6, Antwerp, 1894; 7, Budapest, 1896; 8, Hamburg, 1897; 9, Paris, 1900; 10, Glasgow, 1901; 11, Monaco, 1902; 12, Rouen, 1903; 13, Boston, 1904; 14, Lucerne, 1905; 15, Milan, 1906; 16, Munich, 1907; 17, London, 1908; 18, Stockholm, 1910; 19. Geneva, 1912; 20, The Hague, 1913; 21, San Francisco, 1915. NATIONAL PEACE CONGRESSES IN THE First: New York in 1907. INTERGOVERNMENTAL PEACEMAKING. Central American High Court of Nations established. Pan-American congress, 1889, led to establishment of International Bureau of American Republics, 1890. Pacific settlement of over 600 international disputes. The statue of The Christ of the Andes, commemorating joint disarmament of Chile and Argentina, erected 1904. Nearly fifty public international unions (e. g., the Universal Postal union) already in operation. Hague Peace Conferences. First Hague conference, May 18, 1899, of twenty-six nations. Second Hague conference, June 15, 1907, of forty-four nations. The Hague Court of Arbitration. The permanent court of arbitration at The Hague, instituted July 29, 1899, consists of from one to four representatives of the governments participating in The Hague peace conference of 1899 or signing the convention providing for the court. The members of the court from the greater powers are as follows: France-Leon Bourgeois, A. Decrais, Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, Louis Renault. Germany-Herr Griege, Herr Herr von Staff. von Martitz, Great Britain-Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, Earl de Desart, James Bryce. Italy-Guido Fusinato, Victor E. Orlando, Tommaso Tittoni, Dr. Carlo Schanzer. Japan-Itchiro Metono. United States-Elihu Root, John W. Griggs, George Gray, Oscar S. Straus, John Bassett Moore. Secretary-Gen. Baron Michiels von Derduy MINERAL PRODUCTION OF ALASKA. In 1917 Alaska produced minerals valued at $40,700,195. The value of the mineral output of Alaska in 1917. although about $7.931,943 less than that in 1916, was greater than that in any other year. The most valuable mineral product in 1917 was copper, of which 88.793.400 pounds. valued at $24.240.596. was produced. This is less than the output of 1916. which was 119.602.028 pounds. valued at $29,480,291, but is greater than that of any other year. The reduction is due largely to labor troubles and is not necessarily permanent. The gold produced in 1917, $14,657.353. of which $9.810.000 was derived from placer mines. was also less than that produced in 1916. which was $17.241.713, and is the smallest since 1904. The reduction was due chiefly to curtailment of operations because of the scarcity of labor and the high cost of materials. but in part to the disaster at the Treadwell mine and the depletion of some of the richer placers. During the year Alaska also produced silver valued at $1,021,055, coal valued at $265,317, lead valued at $146,584, tin valued at $123,300, antimony valued at $28,000, and tungsten chromium. petroleum, marble, gypsum, graphite and platinum valued at $217.990. Since 1880 Alaska has produced $390.286.124 in gold, silver, copper and other minerals. Of this amount $292.758.000 represents the value of the gold and $88,644,468 that of the copper. ALASKA'S SALMON INDUSTRY. [From the report of Gov. Thomas Riggs, Jr.] As in previous years, the salmon industry remained the predominant factor in the fishThe value of eries of the territory in 1917. its output was several times that of all the All five other fishery products combined. species of salmon taken in Alaskan waters are The total used to the fullest possible extent. output in 1917 exceeded both in quantity and value that of any previous year. The commercial methods of preserving salmon in Alaska for future use are by canning, mild curing, pickling, freezing, dry salting. There is also a condrying and smoking. siderable trade in fresh salmon. In 1917 the total number of salmon taken The take in Alaska was 92,600,495. by species was as follows: Coho, or silver. 2,104,253: chum, or keta, 8,527,578; humpback, or pink, 44,875,241: king, or spring, 596,346; red, or sockeye, 36,497,047. The total take in 1916 was 72,055,971, or 20,544,524 less than in 1917. Comparing the take by species, more chums, humpbacks and reds were taken in 1917 than in 1916, while the take of cohoes and kings was greater in 1916. 1916. France vs. Ger 6. The boundary case. Norway vs. Sweden, Oct. 23, 1909. 7. The North Atlantic fisheries case. United States vs. Great Britain, Sept. 7, 1910. 8. The Orinoco Steamship company claims case. United States vs. Venezuela, Oct. 25 1910. 9. The Savarkar case. France vs. Great Britain, Feb. 24, 1911. 10. Arrears of indemnity case. Russia vs. Turkey, Feb. 24, 1911. 11. Canevaro claim. France vs. Italy, Feb. 24, 1911. The value of the output of canned salmon in 1917 represented about 97 per cent of the value of the total products of the salmon industry. The investment in the salmon canning industry amounted to $46,865,271, of which $19,929.055 was in southeast Alaska, $9,412.791 in central Alaska and $17,523.425 in western Alaska. The total investment in 1916 was $34,100,853, or $12,764,418 less than in 1917. In each of the three sections mentioned there was a larger investment in the salmon canning industry in 1917 than in The number of persons engaged in 1917 was 23,350, an increase of 4,110 over The output of canned salmon in 1917 1916. consisted of 5,947,286 cases, valued at $46.304.090, as compared with 4,900.627 cases in 1916, valued at $23,269,429, The pack and value, according to species, in 1917 were as follows: Coho, or silver, 193.231 cases, valued at $1,682,745; chum, or keta, 906,747 cases, valued at $5,572,047; humpback, or pink, 2.296.976 cases, valued at $14.794.062: king, or spring, 61.951 cases, valued at $644,447; red, or sockeye, 2.488.381 cases, valued at $23,610,789. In 1917 there were operated in the salmon industry 118 canneries, as compared with 100 in 1916. PRESIDENT WILSON'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. On Dec. 2., 1918. just before leaving for, Europe to take part in the peace conierence following the world war. President Wilson appeared before a joint session of congress and read the following message: "Gentlemen of the Congress: "The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfill my constitutional duty to give to the congress from time to time information on the state of the union has been so crowded with great_events, great processes and great results that I cannot hope to give you an adequate picture of its transactions or of the far reaching changes which have been wrought in the life of our nation and of the world. You have yourselves witnessed these things, as I have. It is too soon to assess them: and we who stand in the midst of them and are part of them are less qualified than men of another generation will be to say what they mean or even what they have been. "But some great outstanding facts are unmistakable and constitute in a sense part of the public business with which it is our duty to deal. To state them is to set the stage for the legislative and executive action which must grow out of them and which we have yet to shape and determine. "A year ago we had sent 143.918 men overseas. Since then we have sent 1.950,513, an average of 162,542 each month, the number in fact rising in May last to 245.951, in June to 278.760. in July to 307.182 and continuing to reach similar figures in August and September -in August 289.570 and in September 257.438. No such movement of troops ever took place before across 3,000 miles of sea, followed by adequate equipment and supplies, and carried safely through extraordinary dangers of attack -dangers which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard against. In all this movement only 758 men were lost by enemy attacks-630 of whom were upon a single British transport which was sunk near the Orkney islands. "I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of men and material. It is not invidious to say that back of it lay a supporting organization of the industries of the country and all its productive activities more complete, more thorough in method and effective in results. more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort. than any other great belligerent had ever been able to effect. "We profited greatly by the experience of the nations which had already been engaged for nearly three years in the exigent and exacting business, their every resource and every executive proficiency taxed to the utmost. We were the pupils. But we learned quickly and acted with a promptness and a readiness of co-operation that justify our great pride that we were able to serve the world with unparalleled energy and quick accomplishment. High Praise for Troops. "But it is not the physical scale and executive efficiency of preparation, supply. equipment and dispatch that. I would dwell upon, but the mettle and quality of the officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who kept the seas, and the spirit of the nation that stood behind them. No soldiers or sailors ever proved themselves more quickly ready for the test of battle or acquitted themselves with more splendid courage and achievement when put to the test. Those of us who played some part in directing the great processes by which the war was pushed irresistibly forward to the final triumph may now forget all that and delight our thoughts with the story of what our men did. "Their officers understood the grim and exacting task they had undertaken and performed with audacity, efficiency and unhesitating courage that touch the story of convoy and battle with imperishable distinction at every turn, whether the enterprise were great or small-from their chiefs. Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest lieutenant: and their men were worthy of them-such men as hardly need to be commanded and go to their terri ble adventure blithely and with the quick intelligence of those who know just what it is they would accomplish. am proud to be the fellow countryman of men of such stuff and valor. Those of us who stayed at home did our duty: the war could not have been won or the gallant men who fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise: but for many a long day we shall think ourselves 'accurs'd we were not there. and hold our manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought' with these at St. Mihiel or Thierry. umphant battle will go with these fortunate The memory of those days of trimen to their graves: and each will have his favorite memory. 'Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day.' "What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went in force into the line of battle just at the critical moment, when the whole fate of the world seemed to hang in the balance, and threw their fresh strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and sweep of the fateful struggle -turn it once for all, so that thenceforth it was back, back, back, for their enemies, always back, never again forward! After that it was only a scant four months before the commanders of the central empires knew themselves beaten: and now their very empires are in liquidation! "And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the nation was! What unity of purpose, what untiring zeal! What elevation of purpose ran through all its splendid display of I have strength, its untiring accomplishment! said that those of us who stayed at home to do the work of organization and supply will always wish that we had been with the men whom we sustained by our labor: but we It has been an incan, never be ashamed. spiring thing to be here in the midst of fine men who had turned aside from every private interest of their own and devoted the whole of their trained capacity to the tasks that supplied the sinews of the whole great The patriotism, the unselfishundertaking! thoroughgoing devotion and disness, the tinguished capacity that marked their toilsome labors, day after day, month after month, have made them fit mates and comrades of the men in the trenches and on the sea. "And not the men here in Washington only. They have but directed the vast achievement. Throughout innumerable factories, upon innumerable farms, in the depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, wherever the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in the shipyards, on the railways, at the docks. on the sea, in every labor that was needed to sustain the battle lines, men have vied with each other to do their part and do it well. They can look any man at arms in the face, and say we also strove to win and gave the best that was in us to make our fleets and armies sure of their triumph! Woman Suffrage. "And what shall we say of the womenof their instant intelligence, quickening every task that they, touched;, their capacity for organization and co-operation, which gave their action discipline and enhanced the effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks to which they had never before set their hands; their utter self-sacrifice alike in what they did and what they gave? Their contribu tion to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals of American womanhood. "The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed achievement would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense practical services they have rendered, the women of the country have been the moving spirits in the systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon every front with food and everything else that we had that might serve the common cause. The details of such a story can never be fully written. but we carry them at our hearts and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of such. Turn to Tasks of Peace. "And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every sacrifice was made. It has come. come in its completeness. and with the pride and inspiration of these days of achievement quick within us we turn to the tasks of peace again-peace secure against the violence of irresponsible monarchs and ambitious militory coteries-and make ready for a new order, for new foundations of justice and fair dealing. "We are about to give order and organization to this peace not only for ourselves but for the other peoples of the world as well, so far as they will suffer us to serve them. It i3 international justice that we seek, not domestic safety merely. Settlement with Colombia. "Our thoughts have dwelt of late upon Europe, upon Asia, upon the near and the far east, very little upon the acts of peace and accommodation that wait to be performed at our own doors. While we are adjusting our relations with the rest of the world, is it not of capital importance that we should clear away all grounds of misunderstanding with our immediate neighbors and give proof of the friendship we really feel? I hope that the members of the senate will permit me to speak Once more of the unratified treaty of friendship and adjustment with the republic of Colombia. I very earnestly urge upon them an early and favorable action upon that vital matter. I believe that they will feel with me that the stage of affairs is now set for such action as will be not only just but generous and in the spirit of the new age upon which we have so happily entered. Economic Readjustment. "So far as our domestic affairs are concerned, the problem of our return to peace is a problem of economic and industrial readjustment. That problem is less serious for us than it may turn out to be for the nations which have suffered the disarrangements and the losses of war longer than we. Our people, moreover, do not wait to be coached and led. They know their own business, are quick and resourceful at every readjustment, definite in purpose and self-reliant in action. "Any leading strings we might seek to put them in would speedily become hopelessly tangled, because they would pay no attention to them and go their own way. All that we can do as their legislative and executive servants is to mediate the process of change here, there and elsewhere as we may. I have heard much counsel as to the plans that should be formed and personally conducted to a happy consummation, but from no quarter have I seen any general scheme of 'reconstruction' emerge which I thought it likely we could force our spirited business men and self-reliant laborers to accept with due pliancy and obedience. "While the war lasted we set up many agencies by which to direct the industries of the country in the services it was necessary for them to render, by which to make sure of an abundant supply of the materials needed, by. which to check undertakings that could for the time be dispensed with and stimulate those that were most serviceable in war, by which to gain for the purchasing departments of the government a certain control over the prices of essential articles and materials, by which to restrain trade with alien enemies, make the most of the available shipping, and systematize financial transactions, both public and private. so that there would be no unnecessary conflict or confusion, by which, in short, to put every material energy of the country in harness to draw the common load and make of us one team in the accomplishment of a great task. "But the moment we knew the armistice to have been signed we took the harness off. Raw materials upon which the government had kept its hand for fear there should not be enough for the industries that supplied the armies have been released and put into the general market again. Great industrial plants taken over for the uses of the government whose whole output and machinery had been have been set free to return to the uses to not been possible to remove so readily or so which they were put before the war. It has quickly the control of foodstuffs and of shipping, because the world has still to be fed from our granaries and the ships needed to send supplies to our men overseas are still and to bring the men back as fast as the disturbed conditions on the other side of the water permit: but even these restraints are being relaxed as much as possible and more and more as the weeks go by. Return to Peace Basis. "Never before have there been agencies in existence in this country which knew so much of the field of supply. of labor and of industry as the war industries board. the war trade board. the labor department, the food administration and the fuel administration have known since their labors became thoroughly systematized: and they have not been isolated agencies; they have been directed by men who represented the permanent departments of the government and so have been the centers of unified and co-operative action. It has been the policy of the executive. therefore. since the armistice was assured (which is in effect a complete submission of the enemy) to put the knowledge of these bodies at the disposal of the business men of the country and to offer their intelligent mediation at every point is surprising how fast the process of return to and in every matter where it was desired. It a peace footing has moved in the three weeks since the fighting stopped. It promises to outrun any inquiry that may be instituted and any aid that may be offered. It will not be easy to direct it any better than it will direct itself. The American business man is of quick initiative. Employment for Soldiers. "The ordinary and normal processes of private initiative will not. however. provide immediate employment for all of the men of our returning armies. Those who are of trained capacity. those who are skilled workmen, those who have acquired familiarity with established businesses. those who are ready and willing to go to the farms. all those whose aptitudes are known or will be sought out by employers will find no difficulty. it is safe to say. in finding place and employment. But there will be others who will be at a loss where to gain a livelihood unless pains are taken to guide them and put them in the way of work. There will be a large floating residuum of labor which should not be left wholly to shift for itself. It seems to me important, therefore. that the development of public works of every sort should be promptly resumed. in order that opportunities should be created for unskilled labor in particular. and that plans should be made for such developments of our unused lands and our natural resources as we have hitherto lacked stimulation to undertake. Reclamation Plan Indorsed. "I particularly direct your attention to the interior has developed in his annual report very practical plans which the secretary of the and before your committees for the reclamation of arid, swamp and cut over lands which might, if the states were willing and able to co-operate, redeem some 300,000,000 acres of land for cultivation. There are said to be 15,000,000 or 20.000.000 acres of land in the west, at present arid. for whose reclamation water is available, if properly conserved. There are about 230.000.000 acres from which the forests have been cut, but which have |