esolve pervades our whole people, though every man between twenty
and forty-two stands in the field, and though the losses are frightful.
Economically we hold out easily; the expenses of war are defrayed by
inner loans, which give unexpected results; every bit of arable land is
tilled as in time of peace, the old, the women and the half-grown youths
doing the work of their absent supporters, neighbors assisting each
other in a spirit of brotherhood truly admirable. In cases of urgent
need we have the prisoners of war, whose number increased to nearly
300,000 (in Austria-Hungary alone) and to whom it is a real boon to find
employment in the sort of work they are accustomed to.

The manufacturing interest, of course, suffers severe losses; but the
number of the unemployed is rather less than usual, since a greater part
of the "hands" is absorbed by the army. In a word, though the sufferings
of war are keenly felt, they are less severe than had been expected, and
there is not the smallest indication of a break-down. The area of
Germany, Austria, and Hungary taken as a whole is self-supporting with
regard to foodstuffs. The English scheme of starving us is quite as
silly as it is abominable. England can, of course, inflict severe losses
on our manufacturers by closing the seas against their imports and
exports; but this is not a matter of life and death, such as the first
reprisals of Germany, if successful, may prove to England.

Generally speaking, it seems likely that England will be caught in the
net of her own intrigue. She did not scruple to enlist the services of
Japan against her white enemies, but this act of treachery will be
revenged upon herself. The latest proceedings of Japan against China can
have one meaning only--the wholesale expulsion of the white man from
Eastern Asia. The Japs do not care one straw who wins in Europe; they
seized upon their own opportunity for their own purposes. England only
gets her deserts; but how do Americans feel about it? Can America be
absolved from a certain amount of responsibility for what may soon prove
imminent danger to herself? Has not her partiality for England given
encouragement to methods of warfare unprecedented in the history of
civilized nations and fruitful of evil consequences to neutral nations?

To us, in our continental position, all this means much less than it
means to you. It does not endanger our prospects. We feel comparatively
stronger every day. Our lo