WEEKLY OUTLINE STUDY OF CURRENT HISTORY BY J. MADISON GATHANY, A.M. HOPE STREET HIGH SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE, R. I Based on The Outlook of August 21, 1918 Each week an Outline Study of Current History based on the preceding number of The Outlook will be printed for the benefit of current events classes, debating clubs, teachers of history and of English, and the like, and for use in the home and by such individual readers as may desire suggestions in the serious study of current history.-THE EDITORS. [Those who are using the weekly outline should not attempt to cover the whole of an outline in any one lesson or study. Assign for one lesson selected questions, one or two propositions for discussion, and only such words as are found in the material assigned. Or distribute selected questions among different members of the class or group and have them report their findings to all when assembled. Then have all discuss the questions together.] I-INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS A. Topic: The War on the Sea; The Reference: Pages 611-614. any are 1. What are the facts about the latest developments of Germany's submarine warfare as recorded in The Outlook? 2. Is there international law as to lightships, lighthouses, and Coast Guard stations? Suppose there was none, can you give several reasons why Germany should not destroy such property? 3. What is meant when it is said that lightship men on duty much like that of surgeons and chaplains? 4. Of Herr Harden's statements quoted in The Outlook which do you consider the most important and the most significant? Reasons. 5. Does Herr Harden's reasoning justify the belief that only when Germany has been beaten into a state of military helplessness can we expect her to be in a state of mind suitable for the conference table? Can the Allies do this? Explain why or why not. 6. What light do the references for this topic throw upon Goethe's statement: "The Prussians are naturally cruel; civilization will make them ferocious"? Comment on this remark. 7. Give several reasons why Germans in Germany by the thousands do not see the light as does Herr Harden. 8. How and when will the German people see "that America entered the war from idealistic motives," and that America and her allies are fighting for the freedom of Germany as well as for that of the world? 9. Discuss Kaiserism twenty years hence if the Allies do not end it now. 10. Read three valuable and inexpensive books, all published by Putnams: "The Guilt of Germany" (Lichnowsky's Memorandum); "Deutschland Über Alles," by J. J. Chap"Democracy and the War," by John man; F. Coar. B. Topic: Britain's Part in the War; Reference: Page 612; editorial, page 619. 1. The Outlook thinks that on August 7, 1918, Mr. Lloyd George delivered "one of the greatest and most effective speeches of his career." What points in The Outlook's summary of that speech would tend to lead one to think likewise? 2. In what respects and to what extent are America and the civilized nations of the world indebted to the British navy? Discuss liberally. 3. In 66 II-NATIONAL AFFAIRS Topic: The Vanishing Immigrant. 1. Who are immigrants? Distinguish between these and emigrants. Are there aliens who are not immigrants? immigrants who are not aliens? aliens who are emigrants? Explain. 2. What are the restrictions which have been placed by Congress upon immigrants? Do you think that these restrictions are just to all concerned? 3. By what authority has the Secretary of Labor the right to nullify the operation of laws passed by Congress? 4. Tell what you think of the change in our immigration policy. Would you advocate this as a permanent policy? 5. Discuss immigration as a political and as an economic question. III-PROPOSITIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Profiteering cannot be stopped. 2. IV-VOCABULARY BUILDING (All of the following words and expressions are found in The Outlook for August 21, 1918. Both before and after looking them up in the dictionary or elsewhere, give their meaning in your own words. The figures in parentheses refer to pages on which the words may be found.) Promulgate, altruism, foundations of civilized life (612); dynasty, incendiarism, fatalistic view, Frederick the Great (614); feats, strategic, Czechoslovaks (612); reticence, vernacular, Hohenzollerns (619), emulous (620). A booklet suggesting methods of using the Weekly Outline of Current History will be sent on application Others high in cro'nests gaze afar periscopes against the waves, And cook the food, Quietly they work upon the mighty deep. A hundred in quarters "WRITE TO THE CHAPLAINS" BY CLYDE F. ARMITAGE Secretary of the General Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America Write to the chaplain. He is huihah and likes to have your correspondence while. he cannot have your fellowship in person. He is usually a busy man, but is seldom too busy to read your letters and answer them. Sometimes he is homesick, and needs your letters more than you imagine. The following paragraph is quoted from a letter just received from one of the new chaplains at sea with one of our battle-ships: "I seldom hear from I hunger to hear from him once in a while, giving me some good advice as to work. I have hesitated to write him because I knew he was so busy. "From this letter, I imagine that you think I am homesick for something. Not that. Just hungering for some good news and some letters. Some good parson back in the pastoral work would do a great big favor to make a practice of writing us some good encouraging letters once in a while." We have seen much in the papers about the necessity of writing to the enlisted men, and we are doing it, but it is as necessary to write to the chaplains and we should be as glad to do it. Sometimes our letters will fill a real need, and often they will make it possible to open up other avenues through which the chaplain may fill his additional needs. On the other hand, your correspondence with the chaplain may give you information that you need, may hearten you because of the spiritual successes he is winning, and may open up ways through which your further needs may be supplied. If some one asks," What shall we write?" the question applies only to the first letter; the ensuing correspondence will care for itself. The first letter should be strong and brave, but should have no sob stuff; it should not be an encomium on the chaplain himself, nor on chaplains in general. It should be full of "pep" and manly, not overly pious. It should not tell the chaplain how soon the war will end now that America is really in it, but should, without mentioning the duration of the war, help put that spirit into the chaplain that will enable him to inspire his men to stay with it until the finish. In time of peace, the Church promptly forgot most of the ministers who went into the Army or Navy chaplaincy. Shall we let them think that we have forgotten them in time of war? A Quart a Day For a Child, They Say A Noted Food Authority Says: "No young person can be expected to thrive on less than Multiply Its Goodness By Floating Puffed Grains in It Milk is a cheap food. It is a complete food when whole-grain is served with it. It is an essential food for young folks. To all it is the one indispensable food. Here is the way to make the milk dish vastly more delightful-a way which millions use. Float Puffed Grains in it-sometimes Puffed Rice, sometimes Puffed Wheat, sometimes Corn Puffs. The Wheat and Rice are whole grains puffed to bubbles. They are steam exploded to eight times normal size. They are thin, airy, toasted morsels, with exquisite nut-like flavor. Corn Puffs are corn hearts puffed in a like way. All taste like food confections. But the purpose of puffing is to blast every food cell-to make digestion easy and complete. These are the best-cooked grain foods in existence. So the greatest food a child can have is some Puffed Grain in milk. And the proper daily allotment is all that a child will eat. FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT All legitimate questions from Outlook readers about investment securities will be answered either by personal letter or in these pages. The Outlook cannot, of course, undertake to guarantee against loss resulting from any specific investment. Therefore it will not advise the purchase of any specific security. But it will give to inquirers facts of record or information resulting from expert investigation, leaving the responsibility for final decision to the investor. And it will admit to its pages only those financial advertisements which after thorough expert scrutiny are believed to be worthy of confidence. All letters of inquiry regarding investment securities should be addressed to THE OUTLOOK FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York This Is Our Work F ULFILLING the vision of its founder, this institution Promoting thrift, encouraging systematic accumulations, pro- Safe 6% Bonds The first mortgage 6% bonds we offer are safe investments. Write today for our booklet, "Safety & 6%," describing how SAVING FOR THE FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN HOW WE CAN REMOVE AN OBSTACLE TO BY J. LAURENCE LAUGHLIN Mr. Laughlin is one of the foremost living political economists and has an international reputation as an authority in finance and political science. He was formerly Professor of Political Economy at Harvard from 1883 to 1887, at Cornell from 1890 to 1892, and at Chicago University from 1892 to 1916.— THE EDITORS. Ο NE of the first lessons from the war is that the enormous expenses for maintaining our rights cannot be met by multiplying the forms of money or by an undue expansion of credit. Money and credit are only the mechanism by which fundamental transfers of goods are carried through. To carry on the war the primary need is for goods produced by essential industries to meet the needs of our Army and Navy, for goods needed by the great civilian population for food and necessary consumption in a simple method of living. When our Government borrows, it must have transferred to it, not empty forms of money and credit based on artificial assets and claims that cannot be collected, but actual purchasing power over goods. Moreover, there must go with this purchasing power over goods such industrial conditions, such an attitude both of employers and employees, that production of goods may go on, not only at the old standard of efficiency, but at a higher rate of turnover than ever before. Since millions have gone to the front, those must work who have never before added to production. We can carry on the war only out of the productive power of our people. The more we can produce, the more we can divert to the purposes of war. What is the total fund on which we can draw? It is not the capital of to-day, which was the outcome of the saving of yesterday. It is the total product of the country by which it exceeds the main necessaries of life, and upon which surplus new incentives to save must be directed. The total volume of production in the United States in excess of the necessaries of life is almost incredibly large. There have entered into this result the accumulated forces of invention and progress for centuries, the combined efficiency of marvelous forms of new machinery, the development of new power such as gas and electricity, the rise of a new technique replacing hand labor, the gains of science and discovery. All these aids to the efforts of human labor have been applied to unequaled resources in coal, ores, and materials. The results have shown themselves in an increase of our National wealth from $43,000,000,000 in 1880 to $187,000,000,000 in 1912. We hardly realize what an enor mous force of labor, capital, managerial skill, and invention is to-day devoted to making articles which supply wants not essential to health and actual existencewants that could go unsatisfied without loss of physical energy. For instance, think of the millions accumulated merely in supplying feather-bone for stiffening ladies' stiffening ladies' collars or in providing articles of vanity. Nearly all this vast surplus of product over and above the necessaries of life-by some gradual process of adjustment to new industries could as a last resource be taken by the Government for war purposes. It is not likely that it will all be taken, but it could be, if needed to win the war. We have already taken a considerable step in this direction, as labor and capital have been directed into the making of shells, guns, ships, and munitions of all kinds; but as yet we have trenched very little on our great surplus. How does the Government get control of a part of this great surplus of wealth, and how is the country able to give it? There are only two ways by which the Government can get it: (1) by taxation, or (2) by loans. By the former the State takes outright, and never repays; by the latter the State borrows the purchasing power over goods and agrees to repay in the future. In either case, the outside limit to our power to pay taxes or to provide loans is the surplus of our production above necessaries. If the Government gets it, the former possessors of it have to forego their consumption over goods to that extent. It is obvious that the same wealth cannot be consumed in two ways at the same time. Hence the possibility of floating the Fourth Liberty Loan depends on the willingness of our people to restrict their consumption of goods and turn over the equivalent to the Treasury through subscriptions to National loans. First of all, they must cease buying luxuries or articles not absolutely necessary to daily comfort. But that is only another name for saving. Saving means foregoing of personal consumption for a future gain. Thus we see that loans on the enormous scale demanded by the war cannot be got from capital saved on antebellum conditions, but only by a newly stimulated, patriotic willingness to apply a restriction over consumption to the vast surplus of production over necessaries. That is, great new loans can come only from new saving applied to this enormous surplus. In a word, the Government can ESTABLISHED 1865 ESTABLISHED 1865 8% From Safe Investment for One, Two or Three Years Denominations of $100, $500 and $1,000 Abundant security and ample future earnings assured by longtime contracts. Company's product is of ut most importance in both peace and war times. ' Ownership one of the strongest in the West. Valuable conversion privilege already made, assuring prompt payment at maturity. Write for Circular No. 1012 Z Peabody, Houghteling & Co. 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So long as our total productive power is sufficient, not only to provide the fundamental necessities for our civilian population, but also to yield a great remainder out of our vast product to be devoted for a few years to carrying on the war, we can go on easily enough. Consequently we need not be disturbed by the size of the new loans demanded by the Treasury. Our resources are very great; and we can take up a vast loan out of such of our resources as have been in the past a part of our unnecessary consumption. The ability to subscribe for the new loan, therefore, is a matter of the spirit; it depends on the will to save. Are we at home willing to limit such pleasure as we derive from non-essential consumption in order that we may support the men who are offering their lives? There can be but one answer. BANKERS WASHINGTON Founded A.D. 1858 IOWA ILLINOIS NURSES TO THE FRONT Young women desiring to enlist in the United States Student Nurse Reserve, described in The Outlook for July 17, should enroll at the nearest recruiting station established by the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense. This Committee has a State Division in every State and a great number of local units. It expects to have at least twelve thousand recruiting stations all over the country. Young women who desire further information or who wish to make any particular inquiries are referred to their State Division of the Woman's Committee. BRING OUR WAR PRISONERS TO AMERICA Now, for the first time, we are taking prisoners in large numbers. What disposition will be made of them? Doubtless they can be used to advantage as laborers behind the lines. But there are many reasons why it would be well to bring them to America. In the first place, we have the returning transports, on which they could be brought with little or no expense. Secondly, their labor in America would be almost as directly tributary to the success of our Army as it would if expended there on the ground. Thirdly, it would greatly hearten the people of America to know that such and such consignments of prisoners had actually been received over here. The Germans are making much of their exhibits of unending lines of prisoners; they even move them about from one prison to another to let the people see them, throw stones at them, and spit upon them. It would be a good thing to bring directly home to us the question of how we shall treat our prisoners, assuming, of course, that we have enough of the grace of God to determine the question aright-to treat them kindly and well, regardless of the manner in which prisoners taken from us are treated. We might do a little missionary work among them-teach them the ideals of Christianity and of democracy. Finally, there is another and far greater good that would result it would very materially increase the number of prisoners taken. It is always difficult to view the other fellow's problems through his eyes; especially is it difficult for the well-nurtured, free American so to view the problems of the oppressed of Austria. The results of overwork and underfeeding, illiteracy, mental stagnation, and fear sink them beneath our ken. Their psychology is that which ours would be a couple of hundred years hence were Germany to win this war. There is just one bright hope that the future holds out to these people, and that is America. The mobilization order cut short the flood tide of their greatest emigration; almost two per cent of the entire population of the dual Kingdom came over in the three years preceding the war. And they who were so fortunate as to be able to come were but a small fraction of those who were dreaming, planning, and saving to follow. Many a time I have been told by Austrian immigrants that there is no Austria; there is a Bohemia, a Hungary, a Slavonia, a Croatia, and so on, but no Austria-" No, meester, Austria only a name." And these people of diverse races, forced into unnatural relations, hate one another intensely. The dual Kingdom is bound together, not by ties of cohesion, but by the sum of mutual repulsions. As sojourners in a con |