The

I have just read 66 editorial on your League of Nations in the Senate." Your argument has not convinced me that the Senate should ratify the present Covenant so far as we know it. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and the preservation of our free institutions, our sovereignty, and our Monroe Doctrine is the first duty of our Senate their sworn duty. It is true that our President has deserted the White House for six months and devoted his time to making a new map of Europe and weaving a Peace Treaty and League of Nations, which he will urge the Senate to ratify. The President's conduct in joining the Big Four in Paris at the Peace Conference and taking an active part in fixing the boundaries of the European nations is contrary to the principle of the Monroe Doctrine, and will tend to undermine this important principle of our foreign policy if our Senate ratifies his action. It is therefore important, at this critical time, that our Senate should show European nations that we will not support our President when he violates the Monroe Doctrine. The duty of the Senate is to keep within their Constitutional power, and to refuse to follow the President when he urges them to ratify a League made by and for Europe.

I hope our Senators will be wise enough at this time to do no more than ratify a treaty of peace with Germany.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

JOHN E. KUHN.

66

THE HAPPY VALLEY RAILWAY CORPORATION

IX per cent is certainly a fair return on an investment, propare all the shipper of commodities can ask for, so there is no argument there. Increased wages to all operators and finally an equal division of any surplus, after charges, with the lenders of capital, or with the public using the roads, sounds agreeable to those most concerned. With all further questions of differences eliminated and every one working in harmony, there would be Utopia, but probably the plan is too fabulous and visionary to be operative and practical.

However, we notice that commissions which shall "act as boards of conciliation" to settle wage disputes are of the first

essentials, and a corporation created to direct and operate all railways as a single system in an emergency must be formed at once, for it must be ready at all times to give expert advice to the sub-commissions and possess full powers over an equitable allocation of equipment and be able to continue such methods as have been found successful under Government control and to discard all forms and manners out of date, which it alone will be able to determine.

This plan does away with Government ownership of railways, which would have increased the public debt enormously, but still places the roads under Federal control and supervision. The problem seems to be solved. It is only a matter of much detail to put the plan into execution, and this should not take over

Financial Department (Continued). twenty years or so if the public as well as the operators and the investors will cooperate in harmony and sympathy with such patience as has not been known before. Let us hope that the vision of those who believe this matter to be simple may not be confused or distorted if upon closer inspection it evolves itself into a mirage. God speed!

"LIBERTY BONDS ACCEPTED AS CASH" Through the Liberty Loan campaigns a great effort has been made to teach people to invest their savings in small amounts at a fair interest return. Now much of the work of this thrift education is being undone by concerns which plead for patronage by agreeing to accept Liberty Bonds as cash. In many cases a long period of self-denial is quickly forgotten and investments are gladly exchanged for luxuries we could not other

When the time arrives that we feel justified in exchanging our hard-earned savings for merchandise or in hypothecating our Liberty Bonds as collateral for speculative possibilities, let us consider well if after all our weeks of saving in an attempt to learn the meaning of thrift we can with jaunty indifference forget our lesson and act the part of the spendthrift-if only for one purchase. If we decide that we can afford just this one time to revert to our old habits of extravagance, or if we feel that we can excuse ourselves by reason of that pressing need, we should not trade our bonds for articles of questionable value, but sell them

6% Investment Secured by Real Estate and 14-Story Steel Fireproof Building

Located in business center of large important city.

Cash cost of property nearly 21⁄2 times this loan.

Net earnings will be over 3 times interest.

Borrower is

entirely responsible.

First mortgage bonds of $500 and $1,000.

Maturities 2 to 10 years. Ask for Circular No. 1035-Z

Peabody, Houghteling & Co.

(ESTABLISHED 1865)

10 South La Salle Street Chicago, Ill.

Branch Offices: Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, St. Louis

ESTABLISHED 1865

Oils and Peace

Value of Oil.

Oil Production.
Recent Development.
Oil Consumption.
Market for Oil.

The Mexican Situation.
South American Fields.
Gasoline Yield.
Oil Securities.

Financial Department (Continued).

at current market prices through wellestablished banking houses or ask our local banker to sell them for us. If your bond is quoted 93.10 or 93.34, that means "and accrued interest," and you know you are getting value received in prices regulated by supply and demand, but if you accept a new oil security of questionable merit, or a clock, or imitation pearl necklace, or a piece of furniture absolutely unnecessary for your comfort except to satisfy your vanity, can you be at all reasonably certain that you obtain in exchange 93.34 and accrued interest?

The rich and provident will buy your bonds and lay them aside for old age, but you-the small investor-will be the possessor of some few articles, worn and out of date, and a remorseful sense of guilt and lack of foresight.

AMERICAN TELEPHONE

Satan certainly found mischief for idle minds in the promulgation of false reports of imminent financing by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

It is most regrettable that a true American should for the purpose of creating amusement circulate a false rumor in regard to the stock of an American enterprise. The American Telephone Company is not anticipating any new immediate financing, and there is little doubt that the directors will have declared the regular two dollars dividend before this issue of The Outlook reaches its readers.

STEEL PRODUCTION

A strike among steel employees is not feared by manufacturers. Wages have been more than doubled the past five years and many employees have been aided in acquiring stock of the companies over a period of some fifteen years, from which they now receive a fair income.

"A strike in this industry would tie up a large portion of this country's business, put an end to new construction, and force prices to a much higher level, and thus destroy the advantage we now enjoy over Europe in the matter of exports," is the well-expressed opinion of one of the heads of the largest steel companies.

In order that steel manufacturers shall not be hampered by a large tonnage of lowpriced future business, and owing to the belief of a probability of higher costs, the present tendency is not to place too far ahead orders for steel, in the belief that a waiting policy at the moment will not greatly interfere with current production, and future bookings may be made at a later date at more attractive prices to the manufacturer.