diplomatic branch of the government has done anything for the merchants.

Namm & Singer own the goods, which were bought and paid for before they were sent out of Germany. The goods are not contraband. They play no part in warfare. They are needed in this country. The holdThe holdup has entailed a heavy loss to the firm and threatens to bring on one still more burdensome.

What aggravates the matter is that tobacco from the United States is going through Rotterdam in large volume into Germany, Austria Hungary and Bulgaria at the request of the United States government and by leave of England. The State department, it appears, has used its influence for the benefit of Kentuckians, but it ignores the affairs of New Yorkers.

Here is a copy of a letter the firm, tired of its long pleading with Washington, has sent to the Secretary of State:

Letter to Lansing

have been filed in Washington previous to November 1st.

"On my return to New York, which was some time in December, 1915, I immediately took this matter up with my attorney, who in turn made application to both the State department and our foreign department at Washington. We were advised at that time by a Mr. Holder, foreign trade adviser, that our case was a very good one and a meritorious one, and that he would suggest that we do not present our case at the present moment, but leave matters stand for the time being. We have followed the advice of our foreign department and let matters rest for fully six to eight months. We then again attempted to present our case, but the British authorities refused to entertain it.

"We understood a Mr. Wyvall, of the foreign department, contemplated leaving for London with a number of cases, and we called on Mr. Wyvall and arranged to have him take our case to London. Mr. Wyvall now returns our papers, stat

"Honorable Sir.-On December 3, 1915, I personally filed before the American consul in Berlin an application for relief of some sort to release goods which have been lying at Rotterdam and had been purchased and paid for previous to March 1, 1915, as per documents attached. I was told by our Berlin representative to call and see the American attaché at The Hague, which I did, and was told there that according to the English idea and their way of procedure, my papers should have been filed not on the other side, but owing to changes made in London my papers should

case was not presented to the British embassy in Washington, he cannot entertain it, as per his letter inclosed.

"The fact is, firstly, the foreign department advised us not to present our case and then they tell us that they cannot do anything for us because our case was not presented. All in all, we are the victims of circumstance. My attorney, Mr. Edward Lazansky, former Secretary of State of New York, and I made a special trip to our foreign department regarding this matter and they again told me my case was a just one, but since it was not filed

through their office when the British

embassy was in Washington, they could not do anything for us.

"We feel that something should be done. We were asked to have patience, which truly is a virtue, but when it has gone so far as to the collapse of our entire business and nearing our ruin, you will admit that patience does come to an end.

"Our Mr. Namm, who is president of the Button Importers' Association, has decided to have the association and the different individuals connected with it who are affected by such as the above, who feel there is a lack of activity and lack of forcefulness on the part of the different departments in Washington, contribute to a fund for the purpose of advocating retaliation of some form or other. I personally would like to avoid the above and believe that a personal letter of appeal to you might save lots of time and embarrassment and also assist us in our efforts. Up to now we have simply been told in diplomatic language our departments could not bother with us.

Other Appeals Vain

"We have taken this matter up before and addressed our letters to the attention of the Honorable Mr. Lansing, but we find that our letters were always called to the attention of a gentleman by the name of Marion Lechter, acting foreign trade adviser. Since Mr. Lechter seems to be helpless, we trust this letter will be handled by some one who will not have to work by routine, but will handle this matter in such a way that we may find the relief we are entitled to as American citizens.

"We are inclosing to you papers in detail showing you where goods were bought and paid for previous to

March 1st, along with proofs from our bankers confirming payment of merchandise in question.

"Trusting that your honorable self will be able to assist us in the above, we are, dear sir,

"Very respectfully,

"NAMM & SINGER."
-Sept. 14, 1916.

"BY LEAVE OF ENGLAND"

Will Secretary of State Lansing ever find time to give attention to the case of Namm & Singer, of 24 and 26 East Twenty-first street? Probably not.

It's only a matter of buttons. For seventeen months a shipment of buttons has been held up on the wharves in Rotterdam because the British refuse to permit it to come to America. The buttons were made in Germany and Austria, were bought and paid for by Namm & Singer, but England puts up its protesting hand and for nearly a year and a half the State Department at Washington has done not a thing to aid these American merchants.

Is it possible Mr. Lansing cannot see that every branch of American industry is concerned in matters af fecting our commerce? The man who raises corn or he who raises hogs is interested. Of our 3,000,000,000 bushels of corn the surplus goes abroad to lands where grain crops are insufficient, or it goes in the shape of lard from hogs corn fed in this country. The pay comes back in goods manufactured in European countries where labor is cheap. Buttons and other products of her industries maek it possible for Europe to buy our agricultural products.

Namm & Singer merely are merchants, so the State Department gives scant attention to them, although they may be ruined by Great Britain's act. With the tobacco raisers of Kentucky it is different. When their staple was shut out of Europe's markets they turned loose the senators and representatives of Kentucky in Congress, insistent, influential men, who argued and threatened to such good purpose that now all Europe is open to American tobacco. Shipments from America destined for Germany and Austria go over the wharf on which for seventeen months the buttons bought by Namm & Singer are detained.

The State Department can open the gates of continental Europe for the Senators of Kentucky, it seems, but it cannot spare time to consider the affairs of merchants of New York.

Possibly Namm & Singer would do better by appealing to London. A statement of the facts might get the buttons here by inducing England to give her leave.-Sept. 14,

1916.

CENSORING OUR EXPORTS

The latest British measure restricting our trade is a logical continuation of the course long followed. The innovation is the plan of "rationing" Holland and Scandinavia; that is, the plan of allowing them to import from us no more than in peace years. They have been importing from us too much to suit Great Britain; so our exports to them of certain commodities are to stop until Great Britain thinks it proper for us to resume.

Great Britain's reason for this

action is said to be the fear that some of our goods are going through these neutral countries to Germany. That may be true. If it is, such transit trade is wholly within our rights. Our State Department denies that the allies are maintaining a lawful blockade of Germany. The main ground for the denial is the fact that the allies cannot interpose a blockade on the seas between Sweden and Germany; and if Sweden cannot be barred, we must not be.

Therefore, our diplomacy contends, we have the right to ship to Germany, direct, everything but contraband of war. Mr. Lansing further says that, even were it to be admitted that the present blockade were lawful, effective and impartial, still Great Britain may not lawfully stop our noncontraband shipments to Germany via neutral countries. Neutral countries cannot be blockaded, under international law, which further provides that Great Britain has no right to apply the law of "ultimate destination" to anything but contraband shipments moving through a neutral to a blockaded belligerent country.

However, it is unlikely that any of our supernormal exports to European neutrals were destined to Germany. Discouraged by our refusal to act jointly with them to prevent British violations of international law, all those countries have placed re-export embargoes on everything imported from us. All these countries, but Sweden, have also had to consent to the establishment of British-led companies like the Netherlands Overseas Trust, the sole allowable consignee for Dutch exports, outside the Dutch government itself. Finally no steamship line running to a neutral European country will ac

cept any shipment not approved by the British ambassador at Washington, the regulator of our foreign. trade. This permission is granted after a long cable correspondence between the British ambassador here and the British authorities in the neutral country that wants to buy from us. All of these measures make it fairly certain that nothing can get through to Germany.

More likely the British action is directed against us rather than against Germany. Those neutral countries are deprived of their usual sources of supply in Russia and the Balkan states, and Germany cannot spare them many exports she formerly sent-for example, sugar, coal and wheat and flour sent from east Germany to Scandinavia. Therefore, the neutrals naturally try to buy more from us. This tendency is accentuated because they are rich and prosperous, and will be for years after the war. The common people there are living as they never did before.

England would be blind to her own interest if she did not use her sea power to prevent us, in her hour of trial, from getting a stranglehold on the rich new markets of Holland and Scandinavia. That the British know how to use their power to hold down our trade has been amply demonstrated. Witness the use made of our business letters rifled from United States mail sacks on the seas. Witness the black list. Witness the action action of of British steamers from New York to South America which, according to our Department of Commerce, have destroyed the established equality of freight rates that formerly applied to South American ports both from Liverpool and New York. For

merly the same rates were charged from New York to Buenos Ayres as from Liverpool to Buenos Ayres. Now the rates from New York are twice as high as those from Liverpool.

England is nobody's fool. She dominated the world's trade before the war and she intends to dominate it after the war is over. Any one in this country who dreams that England will sit idly by and see us occupy her throne, is demented. England will go just as far as she can in suppressing us. So would we if we were in her place.

Her attempt has been by no means without success. For the year ending June 30, 1915, our exports to Holland and Scandinavia amounted to $340,000,000; for 1916 this total dropped to $260,000,000. That was a drop of $80,000,000, somewhat more than a drop in the bucket.

How would it do to ration Great Britain? If abnormal war conditions do not justify neutral countries in buying from us more than their normal peace supplies, then what of our exports to the United Kingdom of $1,518,000,000 for the year ending June 30, 1916, compared with $594,000,000 in 1914? We can stop these exports or any part of them, and give Great Britain a taste of her own medicine. For example, in the two years since the war began Great Britain has taken from us 400,000,000 pounds of copper, while her normal consumption in two peace years is 300,000,000 pounds. She is eight months ahead of her quota. Our exports of iron and steel articles, mainly to England and her allies, amounted to $621,000,000 in 1916, compared with $251,000,000 in 1914. This last year Great Britain and her

friends took over two years' supplies. Suppose now that we were to apply to them the yardstick they apply to our neutral trade, and require Great Britain to wait eight months for copper and two years for steel?

Of course there are many things that Washington can do. But it could have done them at any time. -Sept. 19, 1916.

DANGER ON THE CANADIAN LINE

The bulk of the iron ore that supplies our many great steel mills comes from the beds near Lake Superior. The ships that transport this ore for the mills in the Lake Michigan territory pass through the locks of Sault Ste. Marie. The ships that carry the ore for the mills in the Lake Erie territory pass through the Sault Ste. Marie locks and the long strait connecting Lake Erie and Lake Huron. The locks and the strait have Canada on one side and the United States on the other.

It is difficult in the present activity to keep the mills stocked with sufficient raw material. For months the ore carriers of the great lakes have been worked to the limit, yet it is feared that when navigation closes on the lakes there will not be enough ore at the mills to keep them going until spring.

Before the war Canada was

a

pledge of peace. It was a matter of

pride to the United States, Great Britain and Canada that the line between the United States and Canada was unfortified; that the feeling of confidence and good will between the United States and Great Britain was so well established that Canada, with no military establishment,

could be left with its doors open to the United States, and that the United States, with little of a military establishment, could leave its doors open to Canada.

Time and the war have made changes. Canada has sent many men to the battle fronts in Europe. When the war ends several hundred thousand fighting men, trained to the highest state of efficiency in the use of guns and in all branches of military service, will return to Canada.

The war has not improved our relations with Great Britain or Canada. When, all appeals to reason failing, we threatened reprisals for British violation of America's trade rights, the attitude of Great Britain was defiant, bitter, almost truculent.

Great Britain is not insensible to America's weak points. Possibly she considers that, with the European war ended and Canada's fighting men back in Canada, several hundred thousand trained men sweeping over the border could seize the ore beds of Lake Superior, paralyze the steel industry, capture or destroy the locks of the Sault Ste. Marie, and command the strait at Detroit.

Canada does not appear at this moment much like a pledge of peace. -Sept. 20, 1916.

THE BRITISH JOKEBOOK There is a proverbial saying. in this country, that Englishmen have no sense of humor. The truth is that Englishmen either have no sense of humor or are convinced that we have none. Otherwise they would not perpetrate upon us the ridiculous solemnities which come across the cables.