Dulles. He is a foreign service officer, has been on diplomatic duty in the Near East, and will be again when his three or four years of service in the home office is ended. But he does not rely on his own knowledge of the region, which may be somewhat general. He punches the buzzer for George Wadsworth, one of the half-dozen foreign service men in the Division of Far Eastern Affairs. Wadsworth used to be, for a number of years, a teacher in the Syrian Protestant College at Beirût. Later, he was ConsulGeneral there. He knows those Druses, and the Christians, and the Moslems of the Lebanon better than you know the Syrian rug merchant around the cor

ner.

Dulles and Wadsworth, with whatever assistance they need from others of their kind, work out the problem and present it to the Secretary-solved. Probably they secured assistance from men not of

known the far corners of the earth, and will know them again after a few years of administrative work in the Depart

ment.

These are the two legs on which the Department of State stands the Geographical Divisions, of which there are six, and the offices of Assistant Secretaries, of which there are five, counting taries, of which there are five, counting the office of Under-Secretary as one, though it outranks the other four. In the Geographical Divisions are the specialists on all the countries of the globe. In the offices of the Assistant Secretaries are the expert advisers on the important phases of foreign relations. When the two have done their work, with some technical aid from other divisions, it is not difficult for the Secretary of State to act promptly. What remains for him is the final decision on the big question of policy.

been involved a question of commercial policy on which they needed the advice. of Assistant Secretary Harrison, or possibly a question of ceremonial on which they needed the counsel of Assistant Secretary Wright. But these men, too, are foreign service officers. They have

recognized by those who know only the old familiar photograph of the Department of State as a political agency for sending loyal party men to good diplomatic posts abroad or giving them comfortable jobs in the Department at home. The Department of State has

been made over on a service basis-on a career basis, if that is clearer. Almost without public knowledge of the fact, there actually has been constructed a foreign office manned, both in the offices in Washington and in the missions and consulates abroad, by persons trained in the foreign service.

The Rogers Act. That is the law by which authority for the make-over is conferred. But the plain fact is that the work of making over was largely done before ever the Rogers Act was passed. Cleveland began it a full generation ago. Roosevelt and Taft and Wilson contributed largely to it, all without authority of law. And it was brought fairly near to completion, still without authority of law, by Charles Evans Hughes when, as Secretary of State under Harding, he had a free hand to work out the foreign policies of the Nation. When the Rogers Act became law, a great many of the adjustments to its provisions had already been made. Of course, some important ones were made after the passage of the act. Equally of course, there are others still to make. There is still overmuch political influence in the Department of State, but the work of putting it on a solid career basis has gone a great deal further than the public has realized.

H

ERE are a few indications of how it has progressed.

Joseph C. Grew, Under-Secretary of State, next in rank to Secretary Kellogg, is a service man. He began his career twenty-one years ago as a clerk in the American Consulate-General in Cairo, Egypt. Two of the four Assistant Secretaries are service men-three of the four were until recently, when John Van A. McMurray returned to foreign service as Minister to China. Of the two remaining service men who are Assistant Secretaries, Leland Harrison started in the service nearly twenty years ago as private secretary to the Ambassador to Japan, and J. Butler Wright started sixteen years ago in the legation at Tegucigalpa.

There are nearly fifty service men occupying positions only slightly less important in the offices in Washington. Some of these are constantly filtering back into foreign service; constantly others are coming in from foreign posts to places in Washington. They may remain four years, but most of them do not remain more than three years.

In our missions abroad the political appointees still outnumber the career men. Perhaps they always will. sibly they always should. Certainly it will ordinarily be advisable to take men

Pos

ment of our Eighteenth Amendment. Here are the words of Dr. Shadwell in his book "Drink in 1914-22:" "Restrictions, when first imposed, act with great effect; but presently, when they have grown familiar and persons given to excess begin to find their way about in the new conditions, the hold is loosened. Evasion is practiced here and there, and, unless checked, it gradually extends. Administration grows lax, and hard grows lax, and hard drinkers find new channels of gratification."

Also in the last ten years the prices of liquor have been advanced a great deal by increased taxation.

reduced. But it is also true that for every public-house closed a "club" selling liquor has been opened. The official figures show a decrease of 2,558 pubs and an increase of 3,077 clubs for the last three years recorded (1919-23). These clubs are simply unlicensed publichouses, and, as they are not bound by the restrictions put on the pubs, a new and unregulated system of drink distribution is rapidly growing up. About six per cent of the national drink bill is now spent in these clubs. This may lead, unless curbed, to practical free trade in liquor.

The clubs range from workingmen's The number of pubs has been greatly organizations to the type of "night club"

T

now so famous on Broadway, New York City. In these hide-aways (in London as well as New York) bad liquor is sold at exorbitant prices. One particular night club in London is run by a woman of noble title. She provides private rooms with a bar in every room. The Soho section of London seems to be full of vile little dens selling poor liquor, where the wretched drag themselves and wait until the pubs open.

In my next article I shall tell of the measures which "the Trade" is taking to protect its business against dry propaganda and will try to answer the question, "What chance is there for prohibition in England?"

HE opening of the Sixty-ninth Congress, on December 7, finds that body, as usual, theoretically buried by a veritable tidal wave of prospective legislation. The wave has been rising since the demise of the Sixty-eighth Congress. Bills by the score will be introduced, and supported by organized agencies. Some will be received with acclaim, some with lukewarmness; some will meet outright antagonism; others will die in committee, and more will meet death gamely on the floors of the House and the Senate. Certain it is that of this mass of bills, affecting as they will almost every phase of our daily lives, none will be given greater consideration or bring out a larger following than the legislation which will be sought by the world's largest organization of war veterans.

Representing as it does, not only the view of the former service man as it pertains to his own and dependents' welfare, but giving his opinion on questions of National policy, the American Legion's legislative program has grown in interest, not only to the members of the House and Senate, but to the general public.

The Legion's program in the past has met with wonderful success; a success which it merited by reason of the mature thought given it prior to presentation and because the American Legion has become known in the halls of Congress as being trustworthy and reliable. It has never in its history advocated the passing of any bill which could be construed to be a selfish measure. Its legis

the first has to do with Legion policy affecting the welfare of World War veterans and their dependents, particularly the disabled and their close kin; the second has to do with questions of National policy.

Under the first heading is the unqualified support of the Disabled Emergency Army Officers Bill. During the last war each branch of the military service (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) had three classes of officers-regular, provisional, and emergency. The privileges of retirement have been extended to all but the emergency officers of the Army.

The bill to retire these officers has been hanging fire in Congress for four years. Twice it has passed the Senate. Never has it reached the House. The bill will be presented again at the coming session, and will be pressed for enactment with full Legion support. Only the most biased person will deny one class of disabled officers the rights enjoyed by brother officers in other branches of the service.

Time has proved the Adjusted Compensation measure to be faulty in one or two instances as it applies to the dependents of men who have died. The Legion will seek to correct these faults, that the dependents of deceased soldiers, sailors, and Marines may not pay an added price for the war service of their loved ones. As the law now stands, it is required that lengthy and objectionable affidavits be filed by dependents of deceased veterans in order that dependency may be proved. The law also requires that the $60 bonus paid veterans on dis

charge be deducted from the amount paid dependents of men who were killed in action. This last was clearly an oversight by those who drew the bill. The Comptroller-General has held in a recent decision that if a veteran dies after mailing his adjusted compensation application, but before it reaches the United States Veterans' Bureau, his dependents are not entitled to the full amount of the certificate. The Legion will urge Congress to remedy these defects, that justice may be done.

The situation concerning the care of the sick and maimed veterans of the World War has never been satisfactory. It has steadily improved, until the United States to-day is undoubtedly providing the best care ever given the disabled war veterans of any country. The number of beds in modern fireproof Government hospitals, however, is still inadequate. The hospital load of caring for veterans has constantly increased, and, after a Nation-wide survey of hospital conditions, the Legion is prepared and will go before Congress asking that these additional hospital facilities be authorized:

The Legion will also ask that United States Veterans' Bureau hospitals at Tucson, Arizona, and Alexandria, Louisiana, be replaced by modern plants; that the American Legion hospital at Battle Creek, Michigan, be placed on an equal footing with the Veterans' Bureau hospitals, and that the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers be transferred to the Veterans' Bureau.

The Legion will request that twentytwo amendments be made to the World War Veterans Act of 1924. These, in many instances, are highly technical subjects. Suffice it to say that each one has to do with assisting the disabled man or allowing the veteran, disabled or otherwise, broader privileges in connection with his war risk insurance.

These are the main objectives the Legion seeks for the World War veteran.

right way to carry on a war, and that it will prove in time to be the greatest peace measure this country or the world has ever known.

In fine, the bill prepared by the Legion and on which hearings have been held in the Military Affairs Committee of both the House and the Senate for three years, provides the President with the power, in time of war, to take the necessary steps to stabilize prices of commodities; to draft into the service of the United States all persons between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, or such other limits as may be fixed, without exemption on account of the industrial occupation; and to determine and proclaim the material resources and industrial organizations of the country to be under Government control during the period of the emergency. period of the emergency. This means that, not only the man-power of the country, but its entire resources of every description, will be mobilized and under description, will be mobilized and under the control of the Government.

President Coolidge spoke approvingly of such a measure at the last National Convention of the American Legion, held in Omaha, Nebraska, in October. He said:

Undoubtedly, one of the most important provisions in the preparation for National defense is a proper and sound selective service act. Such a law ought to give authority for a very broad mobilization of all the resources of the country, both persons and materials. I can see some difficulties in the application of the principle, for it is the payment of a higher price that stimulates an increased production, but whenever it can be done without economic dislocation such limits ought to be established in time of war as would prevent so far as possible all kinds of profiteering. There is little. defense which can be made of a system which puts some men in the ranks on very small pay and leaves others undisturbed to reap very large profits. Even the income tax, which recaptured for the benefit of the National Treasury alone about seventy-five per cent of such profits, while local governments took part of the remainder, is not a complete answer. The laying of taxes is, of course, in itself a conscription of whatever is necessary of the wealth of the country for National defense, but taxation does not meet the full requirements of the situation. In the advent of war, power should be lodged somewhere for the stabilization of prices as far as that might be possible in justice to the country and its defenders.

On the question of aeronautics, the Legion, in the opinion of the many thou

sands who watched it closely, acted sanely and wisely when the consideration of its last National Convention was given to the report of its Aeronautics Committee. The Legion will ask Congress for the development of a strong air force, believing that the security of the National defense largely depends on this being accomplished. It will also request a complete study of our National defense and urge the immediate establishment of an air mail service between the United States, Central American countries, and the Panama Canal.

THE Legion, as always, is interested in

the immigration problem. It opposes any measure tending to weaken the present Immigration Act or allow to enter the United States any immigrants ineligible for American citizenship. It deplores the smuggling of aliens into the country, and requests action that this may be eliminated. Certain preferences are asked for the next of kin of men who served during the war who are kept out under the present law, and request I will also be made that the time limit be extended for the naturalization of honorably discharged World War veterans.

Any organization composed solely of men who served together in war would be ignoring the lessons of the past if it did not keep in touch with the military and naval affairs of its country. The Legion has recommended and is prepared again to recommend to the Congress, among other things, a Regular Army of 12,000 officers and 125,000 enlisted men; a National Guard of 190,000, increased yearly until in 1936 it shall be 250,000; the extension of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps to provide for the graduation each year of 5,000 qualified officers; Citizen Military Training Camps of 50,000; voluntary retirement of enlisted men of the Army after sixteen years' service; approval of Defense Test Day; the creation of a strong merchant marine carrying the American flag and manned by American citizens; the maintenance of the Naval Reserve at the highest possible standard; the strongest possible fortification of the Hawaiian Islands. It opposes the proposed reduction in the enlisted personnel of the Navy from 86,000 to 81,700, and urges that provision be made for an increase instead of a decrease.

These, in brief, are the items in the legislative program on which the Legion stands before the Nation. They will be actively supported by the organization on the convening of Congress and will, the Legion hopes, be received with approval.

E

XCEPT those towns that are hanging by their eyelids to the ragged edge of the coastline or, like Nogales, Arizona, dropped down across an international boundary, the United States surrounds all its cities. But St. Louis thought of it first.

It's a good phrase, and it means something. Several star-like American cities approximate the meridian of the United States, their several claims to distinction depending upon just what you mean by "meridian," anyway. There is, for example, the midday of the sun's course from Sandy Hook to the Golden Gate; then there is the midday of success. The Census fixes a center of population and the Geodetic Survey marks a geographical center; cotton has its focal point down-stream on the Mississippi and cattlemen plot their National bull's-eye not far from its up-stream banks. Corn, wheat, oats-even so self-effacing a commodity as zinc-each and all have some point on the map where their interests and their money and their talk converge in the form of convenient statistics.

A multitude of sizable towns, each voicing its claim to one or another kind of centrality, swell a mighty chorus going up from the broad central portion of this country which is drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. If you will look at the map, you will see that this region is, geographically, no more "Middle West" than it is Middle East. And if you will visit it carefully, you will find in this year of grace and standardization that it is far more Middle than it

is distinctively either East or West. It can't help being more or less central, and, patriotically, the several cities in this central region make a virtue of their necessity. Their separate proclamations swell a mighty chorus. Kansas City, for example, growing almost as near as Topeka to the National geographical center in north-central Kansas, goes on record as the "Heart of America." The center of population, lying over in Indiana, becomes incorporated in the trade slogan of Indianapolis. Memphis tells the world it is its cotton center. Dominating these lesser discordant voices as the bass rides the harmony in Greek choral

singing, St. Louis comes booming in with its basso profundo. It makes an extra big noise because, in addition to being "surrounded by the United States," it really is surrounded by most of the other "centers."

St. Louis is building its bigness primarily on centrality. Los Angeles "develops," Seattle booms, Atlanta boosts, Miami busts. The great city may experience all of these artificial excitements. Fundamentally it grows. It does not grow by chance, or by assertion, or merely by advertising except in so far as advertising tells the simple truth about the basic and incontestable facts from which the city actually does grow. Back of every honestly important municipality in the world loom the reasons why. If the tree is visibly healthy, there must be nourishing roots. Underneath the growth of St. Louis lies the big tap-root of centrality: the reason of the hub for the rim and its spokes, the availability of the web to the spider.

Hitherto St. Louis has not grown "by leaps and bounds." It has grown normally and naturally, a much more comfortable process, one would suppose, than the former acrobatic method so widely recorded by articulate chambers. of commerce. It began to grow in 1763, when two Frenchmen, Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau, staked out there on the bank of the river, near the present intersection of Walnut Street with Main, the site of a trading post. Like St. Paul, at the head of Mississippi River navigation, St. Louis was founded