gests that future defense is to be inspired by compensation rather than consciousness of duty to flag and country.

Mr. Harding apparently believes that the passage of the Adjusted Compensation Act would not obviate the need, real or political, of a later passage of pension legislation similar to that which has followed all our wars in the past:

It is to be remembered that the United States played no self-seeking part in the World War and pursued an unselfish policy after the cause was won. We demanded no reparation for the cost involved, no payments out of which obligations to our soldiers could be met. I have not magnified the willing outlay in behalf of those to whom we have a sacred obligation. It is essential to remember that a more than $4,000,000,000 pledge to the able-bodied ex-service men now will not diminish the later obligations which will have to be met when the younger veterans of to-day shall contribute to the rolls of the aged, indigent, and dependent.

It is as inevitable as that the years will pass that pension provision for World War veterans will be made, as it had been made for those who served in previous wars. It will cost more billions than I venture to suggest. There will be justification when the need is apparent, and a rational financial policy to-day is necessary to make the nation ready for the expenditure which is certain to be required in the coming years. The contemplation of such a policy is in accord with the established practice of the nation, and puts the service men of the World War on the same plane as the millions of men who fought the previous battles of the Republic.

We trust that, with or without an adjusted compensation act, the country will never again witness such a pension scandal as followed the Civil War. Probably the President is right in saying that some form of pension system is

inevitable, but there have been abuses of our pension system in the past which should never be permitted to recur again. Indeed, the War Risk insurance plan, which the Government had the foresight to adopt, was supposed to obviate the need of an alms-like pension system.

THE VETO SUSTAINED

As readers of The Outlook know, the House voted to overrule the President's veto by a vote of 258 to 54. The Senate voted to sustain the veto by a margin of four votes. Among the Republican Sena

tors who voted to override the veto were Senators Capper, Cummins, Kellogg, La Follette, Lenroot, Lodge, and McCumber. Seventeen Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in an attempt to overrule the President. Among them were Senators Culberson, Heflin, Hitchcock, and Reed.

There were twenty-one Republicans who voted to sustain the veto, and they included Senators Borah, Calder, Moses, Newberry, Pepper, Smoot, and Wadsworth. Senators Williams, Glass, Owen, and Underwood were among the seven Democrats to vote to sustain the veto.

PEAKING before his organization a month or so ago, the President of the Bankers' Association of the State which has the highest per capita

wealth in the Union said, "To say that our country cannot afford to adjust in some small measure the difference in compensation between the man who went to war and the man who stayed at home is to indict us for incompetence and to impeach us for ingratitude." The offering of a man's life and his services with the colors at least should receive equal consideration with the services of contractors, manufacturers, railways, and shipping interests. These obligations have been or are being paid, and they are undoubtedly proper debts, but the obligation to the veteran still remains and will remain until some adjustment is made. The Nation stands behind us when we say that the economic handicap of the veteran is not the Nation's intention or wish.

Its rep

resentatives in Congress time and again have expressed this feeling by the passage of this legislation by large majori

ties. President Harding has prevented its enactment into law. Heretofore he has stated that he believed some such legislation should be passed. He asked that a revenue feature be part of the measure. He now suggests that a pension system in the future would be the proper solution.

The American Legion feels and always has felt that if benefit to the veterans concerned were provided now, no great pension system, except for the disabled, would be necessary during the coming years to meet their handicap. Not only would immediate adjustment save the Nation billions of dollars, but it would restore the faith of men sorely tried by what they feel to be National ingratitude and injustice.

The battle for adjusted compensation has only just begun. The President has made the task doubly hard, but no one can stand between the wish of the people and fulfillment of what they believe to be a just obligation. The first bills introduced in the next session of Congress will be for adjusted compensation. Postponement for a few months wil! only strengthen the measure, and we shall win this fight. We are right, and right always prevails in America. HANFORD MACNIDER.

T

HE seeds of the present trouble in the Middle East were sown be fore the Great War. The naval

and military aspects of a possible war with Germany were carefully studied in Great Britain in pre-war days by the Committee of Imperial Defense, but no special attention was devoted to conditions likely to arise out of a war against Turkey in alliance with Germany. The result was that, when Turkey came into the war, the Mesopotamian and Dardanelles campaigns were launched by inde pendent authorities without considering the war situation as a whole, the mili

tary resources available, or the probable aftermath of our war strategy. Our failures in the Dardanelles and in the early stages of the Mesopotamian campaign landed us in a difficult situation, which was retrieved, partly by General Maude in Mesopotamia, and finally by Allenby's brilliant campaign in Palestine and Syria. Turkey was knocked out, and ready to agree to any terms if they could be enforced without delay. The delays have been interminable, and we are still technically at war with Turkey. The situation is now serious.

The trouble began with the extension

of Greek territory over a large portion of Asia Minor under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres, which has never been ratified. It was chiefly on this account that the Nationalist Turks under Mustapha Kemal defied the Constantinople Government and started their campaign in Anatolia. This brings us to our own part in the matter. We accepted the military responsibility for keeping the Dardanelles and Bosphorus open to the sea-traffic of the whole world. There were heavy drains at the time upon our military resources to provide for contingencies in India, in Mesopotamia, in

Palestine, in Egypt, in the Rhinelands, and in Ireland, in addition to the normal demands upon our army to provide the usual oversea garrisons. The security of the Straits, as we were told by Mr. Lloyd George when the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres were published, was "our business." America was unwilling to accept the responsibility. Neither France nor Italy could spare the troops, so we undertook to provide them. We are still doing so.

Unfortunately, soon after we undertook the responsibility, we found that we could not, out of our own resources, provide a sufficiently strong force to secure both the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus against attacks by Kemalist National troops from the Asiatic side, and we were obliged to call in the aid of the Greeks, who responded with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the British public at the time was much occupied with home affairs and heartily sick of everything to do with warfare. The press and Parliament devoted scarcely any attention to a situation pregnant with possibilities. In pre-war days press correspondents of the first rank would have swooped down upon the spot, and we should have had constant and reliable information. As matters were we only received information tainted at the source by Greek, Turkish, and Bolshevik propagandists. We gathered that the Greek troops had helped to drive back the Kemalists and insure the security of the Bosphorus. The next thing we heard was that Greek troops were landing at various places in the Sea of Marmora under the guns of British war vessels. Then that the Greek army was undertaking a campaign on a large scale in Asia Minor, far beyond the limits of the territory assigned to Greece by the Sèvres Treaty. We heard of friction with Italian troops on their southern flank, and, later on, of the withdrawal of the Italians from Asia Minor. A definite statement was published, said to emanate from the Greek General Staff, that the Greek army was embarking on the campaign at the request of the British Commander-in-Chief at Constantinople. That statement I do not believe. Then came Greek successes, and a refusal to make peace. Then the French treaty with the Kemalists, affecting most seriously our military position in Mesopotamia by surrendering to the Turks territory forming a corridor to its frontiers. Then came the understanding between the Kemalists and the Bolsheviks, the betrayal of Armenia, and now the débâcle of the Greek armies in Asia Minor and the occupation of Smyrna by the Turks. Such, in brief terms, is the history of the policy which has led up to the present situation in the Asiatic side of the Straits, the defense of which has been proclaimed to be "our business."

From our point of view the situation is as it was before we called in the aid of the Greeks. The security of the

Straits may be threatened from the Asiatic side by Kemalist forces. What could they do to interfere with the free passage of merchant shipping through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus? The war, if there is to be one, will be an amphibious war if ever there was one: and this time let us hope that we shall not forget that war vessels cannot climb mountains. The land on both sides abounds in cover, in hills, underfeatures, and woody scrub. Communications, essential to the maintenance of armies of any appreciable size, are deficient on the Asiatic side. The railway from Ismid to Scutari, opposite to Constantinople, is the most important. It is exposed throughout its length to bombardment from the sea. There is also the short line from Brusa to Mudania on the coast, and the line from Smyrna to Panderma. Sea transport is easy, land transport is difficult. This fact, if intelligently applied, puts us on interior lines and enables us to make effective use of such troops as may be available. They can move faster by sea than by land. Responsibility for maintaining order in Constantinople is a handicap that must be accepted. The conditions of the problem are that we have sufficient naval forces on the spot to contro! the sea communications, but troops will be needed if there should be any attempts by hostile forces to approach the shores of the Straits to snipe at passing steamers, or to harass them with mobile gun, or howitzer fire. Former experience of gunfire from the sea against such pieces, if well concealed, is not encouraging, but, with aircraft available. air observation should greatly increase its effectiveness. Such are the conditions of the problem if (this seems inconceivable) we are to be left to guard the Straits without the aid of other countries in whose interests they are guarded.

So far allusion has been made only to

the Asiatic side. The Nationalist Turks are also credited with a determination to regain Turkish dominion in Thrace, especially over Adrianople, and to do away with foreign control over Constantinople and the belt of territory now administered by the Allies on each side of the Straits. Thrace is in occupation of a Greek army which only a few weeks ago was knocking at the gates of the Chataldja Lines covering Constantinople. There is at present no reason to suppose that the Greeks will be unable to deal with any situation that may arise. As regards ourselves, we have been given a peep into the enemy's brain. The policy both of the Kemalists and of their allies the Bolsheviks has been, and will be, to try to create trouble in other regions, in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, and in India, with a view to forcing us to use there the military resources needed to maintain "our business," the security of the Straits for the flags of all nations.

If the world is to have the longed-for peace, the essential condition is to secure united action between the countries most concerned, France, Italy, ourselves, and, let us hope, America. If this combination can once more be restored, then the abandonment, in the face of military defeat, of Greek ambitions for territorial expansion in Asia Minor may, after all, come to be a blessing in disguise. That statement is made solely from the point of view of naval and military (commonly called amphibious) strategy. I have not touched the urgent question of protecting the Christians in Asia Minor We have neither the financial nor the fighting resources to save them from what, judging from precedents, may mean wholesale massacre. We cannot, without the whole-hearted support of other nations, make their protection "our business."

Court House, Lower Woodford, Salisbury, England, September 13, 1922.

T is midnight. The steamy tropical air is fanned by Caribbean breezes. Their touch is velvety, like the tropical darkness through which they

move.

A long white ship, at rest alongside the enormous dock and loading-shed of Port Limon, rises and falls in languid rhythm with the drowsy motion of the

sea.

Suddenly dusky signalmen wave their lanterns, and a seemingly interminable string of freight cars is discovered pulling slowly toward the dock. It is a banana train from the fertile interior of Costa Rica. Workmen are swarming to the shed, fellows of every hue and shade -powerful African blacks, coffee-colored natives, Jamaicans with their peculiar subcutaneous glow, and muscular whites from heaven knows where.

By two A.M. the immense automatic loading machines have been wheeled into position, have been clamped to the side of the ship, and have begun to discharge the contents of the freight train into the enormous holds. Under the glare of the electric lights on the dock an unforgetable scene is being enacted. The polyglot swarm of men who were a few minutes ago loafing aimlessly about have suddenly been galvanized into action, and are now working together like orderly parts of one highly

perfected mechanism.

The color of jade dominates the strange nocturnal scene. Every loading machine is now connected with the broad side door of one of the freight cars by a continuously revolving chain of dock workers, carrying bunches of bananas as green as emerald. The loading goes on without a hitch, night and day, until the hold is full. Cargoes of 75,000 or even 80,000 bunches are loaded in twelve to fourteen hours; and directly the loading is completed, the big white ship sails for its northern port.

SCIENCE GRAPPLES WITH THE JUNGLE

Back of this drama of the dock there is a monumental drama of modern science and commerce that the traveler behind the rail of the ship does not see or guess. These arriving dunes of jungle-green fruit are fitting symbols of a conquest of the torrid wilderness by private enterprise that has done more for the territories concerned than their governments themselves.

A day or two before one of the big banana ships steams into its port of supply, news of its approach is flashed to the jungle by wireless. This flash of news through the drowsy tropical air is picked up by telegraph and telephone, and is at once transmitted to the plantions and their outposts.

Suddenly the waiting banana lands ree themselves into swift and orderly

action. Cutting orders are tersely issued. Glittering blades chop the fruitbunches from their trees. Ox-carts and

freight cars are made ready, and in a

few hours' time train-loads of bananas,

numbering twenty to forty cars, are winding their way to the waterfront to meet the approaching ship. Not a moment is permitted to be lost between the time the fruit is lopped off the trees and the time it goes aboard ship for its journey to the tables of the world.

Back of the voyages that scores of big, modern refrigerator ships are making to the tropics is a story of the conquest of obstacles that few enterprises have ever been compelled to face. It is the story of stupendous pioneer work in agriculture and commerce. These fruitgrowers have been compelled to enter some of the most forbidding jungles on the face of the earth and to tame them. They have had to devise their own methods as they fought their way in. They have had to become experts in hygiene, sanitation, and sociology itself.

These fruit-growers have penetrated regions where organized industry had never been known before. They have taught thousands of natives efficient team-work.

They have given steady

jobs to thousands of drowsy natives who were never on a pay-roll before. They have cleaned up jungles that used to be death-traps, have cleaned up mosquitobreeding swamps and marshes, and have sent forth an army of doctors to rout out disease. They have built houses, bakeries, laundries, water systems, and electric light plants for their

workmen, and have strung telephone wires through the wilderness.

The northern farmer can scarcely comprehend the terrific fertility of the tropical soil where the rays of the sun descend like swords, and the jungle harbors innumerable slinking foes. Here is the native habitat of deadly fevers. But to-day vast areas of Colombia, South America, Central America, and the West Indies have been made habitable as the result of a great quest for yellow treasure. But it is not the yellow treasure sought by Morgan and his pirates. It is the yellow treasure that you can buy at any fruit-stand or grocery store for a few cents.

HUMID SLOPES WHERE BANANAS GROW

The low, gradual slopes of the Caribbean coasts are ideal for banana-growing. From here the world gets most of its bananas, and its best bananas. Here the hot days and humid nights, with an annual rainfall of from 80 to 200 inches, brood over some of the greatest fruit farms in the world. Hundreds of millions of dollars of American capital have been poured into the development of these great tracts. Railways, tramways, docks, villages, and hospitals have sprung up.

The farmer of the temperate zone would gasp if he could see these enormous farming projects. A selected locality is first thoroughly explored as to its fitness for banana cultivation, with respect to climate, soil, rainfall, drainage, liability to damage by floods and hurricanes, and the feasibility of secur