WHY THIS DELAY IN THE SOLDIERS' MAIL?

A well-known observer of affairs, returning from France the other day, reported that the mail service from the United States to its soldiers in France has broken down and that our soldiers are deprived of the encouragement which comes with letters from home.

Another observer, a man connected with our National defenses, returning from France reported that just before he left he received letters which should have reached him two or three weeks before, and that letters were now coming back to him which arrived in France several weeks before he left.

Still another observer returning from France permits us to print his personal first-hand notes:

1. In an artillery camp of 12,000 men there was only one trained postal clerk.

2. Lieutenant M. landed in France in the last days of October and received no letters for twelve weeks, although his mother, for one, was writing him frequently. Part of this time he was lying ill in a hospital.

3. Private McC. received a letter from his mother early in the winter saying his father was very ill. The next letter he received said: "As I have already written you about your father, I will say no more about it." Since then (three months) McC. has had no letter and does not know whether his father is dead or what has happened to his mother.

4. Private J. on April 1 had had only one letter since he left home in December.

5. Private W. never heard from his people about his mother's death. He learned of it only through a reference to it in a letter received from an outsider.

6. Private Z. said that after a long period of receiving no letters he received fifty in one delivery.

No wonder that under these circumstances some soldiers get discouraged. We have just received a letter dated April 23 from a soldier's mother. She says that she has not heard from her son since early last November, and asks: "Why didn't I receive any letters from him? I have written him a great many times. Is he discouraged because he does not receive my letters?" An eye-witness of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 reports that when the Japanese were going into battle he saw postmen running hither and yon among the soldiers in the endeavor to get each letter delivered though at the last instant, so that every man possible might be cheered up by the definite knowledge of just how things were going at home.

If there is one thing that our soldiers want, it is the prompt delivery of the mail. There is no reason why they should not

have it.

Yet there is and has been a great and, as we believe, unnecessary delay. Letters sent by the ordinary French post arrive on an average of two or three weeks earlier than letters sent through the military postal channel. Complaints are increasing as the number of soldiers in France grows larger.

THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT'S EXPLANATION

Replying to The Outlook's request for information as to why persons receiving their letters through the French Postal Administration should receive them more or less promptly, while letters sent through the service established for our Expeditionary Forces have been delayed, the Second Assistant Postmaster-General writes as follows: "All letters for our soldiers abroad are handled and despatched without any avoidable delay. In no case and under no circumstances is less careful or prompt

attention given to letters for our soldiers than to any other mail, domestic or foreign.

"Letters for our soldiers abroad are made up in packages or sacks to the various military units, just as letters for the French Postal Administration are made up in packages or sacks, in conformity with the distribution scheme furnished by the French Postal Administration. Upon receipt on the other side, mail for our soldiers is handed over at the places designated by the military authorities just as mails for the French Postal Administration are delivered at the places designated by said Administration.

"However, while mail for persons residing in France is delivered by the French Postal Administration under the routine of an old-established postal system and in permanent communities, at permanent addresses, mail for our Expeditionary Forces is delivered to the individual soldiers by the military authorities under an improvised system established by them for the delivery of mail coming into their custody to persons that are frequently changing location and address.

"In some cases, of course, there has been delay in the transit of mail for our Expeditionary Forces, owing to present conditions of traffic. Any further delay is no doubt due to circumstances attending the delivery of such mail after it has been turned over to the military authorities and passed out of the jurisdiction of this Department."

To some this may seem like "passing the buck." But whether so or not, it is high time for the War Department to "get busy."

CRITICISM IN WAR TIME

As an authority on the criticism of public officials no one is in a position to speak out of fuller experience than Secretary Daniels. For years he was active as the editor and proprietor of a Democratic paper under Republican Administrations; and for the past five years he has been Secretary of the Navy in a Democratic Administration, and has been the subject himself of a considerable amount of attention from the newspapers of the country. He has both bestowed criticism on others and received it himself. "For twenty-five years," he said in addressing the American Newspaper Publishers' Association at its annual dinner in New York recently, “I gave as much to public men as any man in the country, and for some time I have received a good deal of my own medicine. But there was never a time when I did not realize that it was the very life of our Republic that public men should be adequately criticised."

Likening the press to a department of the Government, ranking with the executive, legislative, and the judicial, Secretary Daniels impressed upon his hearers the responsibility of their calling. It was to the press that fell the duty of so recording the history of this war that when Germany, presuming upon America's love of peace, undertook to dictate to this country its course of conduct, American public opinion was ready to back up the President and Congress in declaring war. So, explained Secretary Daniels, it remains the duty of the press to continue telling its readers of the meaning and purpose of every blow that is struck. “One of the most serious menaces to the successful conduct of war by a democracy," said Secretary Daniels, "would be lethargy and lack of imagination in newspaper offices. The supreme duty of the press, he added, was "to print the truth, to give constructive criticism, to grasp and properly interpret intellectually the tremendous import of movements in

thought as well as in action." He paid a tribute to the splendid spirit of the press of America, summing it up in saying, "News has been secondary to service." From the hour in which war was declared, "whether it was in support of the selective draft, the recruiting campaign, propaganda for the Liberty Loan, food and fuel conservation, the drives for the Red Cross and the Y. M. C. A., or leading in community honors paid to youths going to war-whatever the call," declared Secretary Daniels, "the press has responded with a cheerful Aye, aye, sir,' and has led in the enthusiastic support of every measure for National unity and National victory.”

On the same occasion former Justice Hughes, the Republican candidate in the last Presidential election, likewise upheld the right of public criticism. The line of his thought may be indicated by the following sentences from his address: "The defense and preservation of the Nation is a fundamental principle of the Constitution. There is no Constitutional privilege for disloyalty or for efforts to obstruct the enforcement of the law, or to interfere with the war plans adopted by authority. But, with due recognition of the difficulty of exact definition and close distinction, it is quite obvious that there is a field for honest criticism which cannot be surrendered without imperiling the essentials of liberty and the preservation of the Nation itself. Our officers of government are not a privileged class. . . . When we are in the throes of war, .. there is no place for partisanship with respect to the conduct of the war.... Of course it is just as easy to be a partisan in assailing criticism as in criticism itself. The man who defends everything that is done by his party or his party leaders is just as partisan as the man who assails everything that the opposing party does or plans. . . . It is a commonplace that a public officer learns more from his critics than he does from his admirers. . . . Plainly, there are matters which for military reasons must be concealed so as not to aid the enemy. But any one who conceals facts even in war time has a heavy burden of proof as to the necessity for such concealment. Furnishing material for criticism is by no means the same thing as giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Let the truth be known. Publish the facts and disarm the critics. Or publish the facts and make amends, if there are amends to be made."

PERIODICALS AND THE POSTAL RATES

The Outlook is proud to be associated with such a group as the periodical publishers of the country. A few months ago there was passed a law changing the whole method of charging postage on the transmission of newspapers and periodicals through the mails. In their comment on this law many newspapers have treated it as a matter merely affecting their special interest, and the Newspaper Publishers' Association has unfortunately also assumed the attitude of a special interest under attack. As a consequence, the newspapers have requested that the law be changed as it is applied to newspapers, and have failed to deal with it from the point of view of its effect on the Nation. On the other hand, the periodical publishers have uniformly in all their joint statements on the subject considered the law from one point of view-its effect on the Nation as a whole. This fact lends special weight to the following resolution adopted by the Periodical Publishers' Association on April 27:

Whereas, The increased second-class postage rates, as provided in Section 3 of the Act of Congress approved October 3, 1917, which becomes effective July 1, 1918, will be most unfair and oppressive to the periodicals of the country and the reading public; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, By the Periodical Publishers' Association of America, that Congress be urgently requested to suspend the provisions of said law in so far as they apply to increased second-class postage rates until one year after the close of the present war. This resolution requests the suspension of the law, not only as relating to periodicals, but also as relating to newspapers. The reason why the periodical publishers include the newspapers in their request is that they take their action from principle. The new law divides the country into zones or sections. Periodicals and newspapers mailed from one section to another will have to pay higher rates of postage than those mailed to

addresses within any one section. This amounts to levying a tariff on the circulation of periodicals and newspapers between different sections of the Nation. Perhaps the chief provision in the Constitution to insure the unity of the United States has been that which puts all the States on a level of equality in trade. It was in the spirit of that provision that Congress years ago applied a uniform rate of postage to letters throughout the country, and later extended that principle of uniform postage to regular communication by printed matter in the form of periodicals and newspapers. This uniform postage has been a powerful contribution to the development of National unity.

Now, just at the time of this great crisis, when National unity is valued as it has never been before, it seems ironical that Congress should have adopted a postal law that tends to seetionalism.

In doing this Congress has, moreover, put a burden upon periodicals which some can bear but many cannot. And at the same time the Government is calling upon the publications of this country for their assistance in giving the widest publicity to Government propaganda that is of the most vital importance. Through the press the people are urged to buy Liberty Bonds, to buy War Savings Stamps and Thrift Stamps, to contribute to the Red Cross, to conserve the Nation's supply of food and fuel; and the publishers are devoting a very large amount of valuable space for this purpose, with no reward or compensation other than the consciousness of doing their best patriotically to serve the Nation. And at this time, when the Post Office has a profit, when the needs of the country call for the utilization of every channel of public information, Congress chooses to do extensive and lasting injury to those channels of information, to the detriment of the Government's own objects and to the unity of the Nation.

From every standpoint, the public welfare demands that the taking effect of this law shall at least be postponed until the war has been won by the United States and its allies, and that even then its sectionalizing provisions should be permanently eliminated.

THE THIRD SERVICE IN OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE

President Wilson has, we are glad to say, appointed John D. Ryan as Director of Aircraft Production for the Army. Mr. Ryan is fifty-six years old. He was born in the mining region of Michigan. He is President of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, of the United Metals Selling Company, and of the Montana Power Company, the last named being a concern to utilize the waterfalls of Montana to supply electric power to many mining companies and to the four hundred and fifty miles of electrified road of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway system, of which Mr. Ryan is a director.

The appointment has been received with favor throughout the country. It should be. It adds one more to the recent appointments of business men to control the business side of the war-of Charles M. Schwab, President of the Bethlehem Steel Company, now at the head of our ship-building; of Edward R. Stettinius, of J. P. Morgan & Co., now Assistant Secretary of War; of Guy E. Tripp, Chairman of the Board of the Westinghouse Electric Company, as Chief of the Production Division of the Ordnance Department; of Samuel McRoberts, Vice-President of the National City Bank, also in the War Department; of William C. Potter, Vice-President of the Guaranty Trust Company, and of H. B. Thayer, President of the Western Electric Company, who are now in the Air Production Board; finally, of J. L. Replogle, President of the Cambria Steel Company, now in charge of all Government steel orders. Nor is this an entire list.

The question arises, however, as to whether Mr. Ryan is going to have full authority or a half-way authority. He is placed at .the head of a division of the War Department whose business it will be to supervise the production of aircraft and aircraft material (aircraft operation being otherwise provided for), and by virtue of this position he will be subordinate to the Assistant Secretaries of War and to the Secretary of War himself.

What the country wants in this position is a strong, independent, single-headed executive. It will be remembered that, after a very exhaustive investigation of the aircraft situation, the

Senate Committee on Military Affairs recommended that the production of aircraft and aircraft materials be placed under a single executive head, responsible only to the President.

In making this recommendation the Committee followed the example of more than one foreign Government-the most prominent of which is, of course, Great Britain, which has now separated the entire air service from that of land and water defenses, so that the third service in the country's fighting forces is definitely recognized and separated from the others. To make this distinction all the more emphatic, the head of the British Aircraft Service is made a Cabinet officer, and not only that, but is enrolled with the few Cabinet officers who have the right to call themselves Secretaries of State."

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In making its recommendation the Senate Committee on Military Affairs also followed its own opinion early in this year, when it reported the Director of Munitions Bill, which authorized the President to create a Directorship of Munitions and to transfer to that office the production and manufacture of munitions of war.

The country therefore expected that when the" shake-up" in our air service occurred the entire aircraft administration would be placed under the control of one man. This has not been realized. Gratifying as is the appointment of a person of Mr. Ryan's qualifications, he is to be chief only of production, not of operation; and he is not to be a real chief even of production. Perhaps the Overman Bill, if it becomes law, as now seems certain, may give to the President the authority to make Mr. Ryan a real head, with power

As to operation, the Secretary of War announces that a reorganization of the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps has been made by directing Major-General George O. Squier, as Chief Signal Officer, to devote his attention to the administration of signals and by creating a division of military aeronautics, under the direction of Brigadier-General William L. Kenly.

The Aircraft Board remains an advisory body, as it has been in the past, and Mr. Howard Coffin, who has been its head, will render assistance and counsel to it. He remains a member of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense.

THE END OF A FAMOUS FLIER

With the death of Rittmeister Freiherr von Richthofen there closed the career of one of Germany's most famous aviators. When the list of aviation aces and their victories was published in The Outlook for January 30, Captain Baron von Richthofen was credited with sixty-three victories. When he was killed the other day, the number of victories to his credit had risen to eighty. The highest number credited to any French aviator is fifty-three credited to the late Captain Guynemer. On January 30 there were only four French aces (that is, aviators with a record of five or more victories) who had brought down more than twenty enemy planes apiece, and only three British aces with a like record, while there were twenty-one German aces with a record of over a score apiece. Richthofen seems, therefore, to have been not only pre-eminent, but super-pre-eminent.

It is to be remembered, however, that the German tactics in air fighting are primarily group tactics, and the victories ascribed to the individual German are really the achievement of a group. The Germans fly in squadrons, and the leader of each squadron remains in a safe position. The German squadron rarely, if ever, attacks a superior number of the enemy. When attacking a smaller group or a single enemy aviator, the German squadron maneuvers until it gets the enemy at a disadvantage, and then the German leader swoops down upon the victim and disposes of him at small risk to himself. On the other hand, each victory of a French or British or American ace is due to the skill and prowess of the individual.

It might be said that in their tactics the Germans follow a sound military principle of waiting until they themselves are at an advantage of numbers or position at the point of attack. Mr. Driggs, in his article accompanying the list of aces to which we have referred, points out that we might learn something from the German air tactics, and so we might. But it is to be remembered also that aviation is not exactly ordinary military combat. Its success cannot be measured altogether by victories. It is very largely a service of scouting; and it often happens that a

scouting expedition is highly successful though only a small fraction of the scouting party return to their own lines alive. It is the high value of individual prowess and skill and daring that has fostered, in the Allied aviation services at least, the spirit of chivalry.

When Richthofen was killed, Allied aviators buried him with military honors, and expressed regret that they could not have captured him alive. It is a mistake to attribute a very high degree of chivalry to the German aviators; for we must never forget that it is German aviators who have spattered the streets of London with the pieces of children's bodies. Of German vindictiveness and malice the German aviation service has its full share. Nevertheless, in spite of the bombing of civilians, there are German aviators who are chivalrous, just as in spite of the submarine there have been gallant German naval officers like the captain of the Emden, though his kind is almost if not quite extinct. There is no doubt that among the Allies the aviators have preserved the chivalric spirit.

A recent report gives the following as the record of victories of America's aces: Major Raoul Lufbery, 18; Major William Thaw, 5; Lieutenant Frank Baer, 5; Sergeant Baylies, 5.

THE WESTERN FRONT: DESPERATE
ATTACKS AND STRONG DEFENSE

As we write, the great double offensive of Germany's concentrated and enormous forces has entered upon its sixth week. Amiens still remains untaken, and its approaches are being defended with determination by the combined armies of Great Britain, France, and America. Hazebrouck, a main German objective on the Flanders front, is untouched; Ypres, although it has been in the utmost danger and has almost been despaired of, is, on April 30, still in possession of the Allies. While it would be folly to minimize the seriousness of the situation, competent authorities hold that, even if the Germans by unexampled sacrifice and slaughter gain their immediate objectives, it would be an extravagant and groundless assumption to conclude that the roads to the Channel ports are open. There are tenable positions beyond the immediate objectives, and into the country west of the immediate field of fighting have been poured in abundance reinforcements and artillery.

The passing of time is justifying the wisdom of General Foeh. It was natural for the non-military mind to hope for a lightninglike counter-stroke in force by the Allies. But it was necessary, as now appears, to make first such a resolute defense, such a deadly contest over every inch of ground attacked, that the two deep salients of the Germans shall cease to be an advantage and be come an imminent danger as are almost all salients, if they are too deep and too thinly held. If it is true that Germany has thrown a million and three-quarters of her men into these two offensives, and if her losses continue day after day to be as heavy as is usual in such sustained assaults, the time may come, and quickly, when General Foch will see the minute and the point for a startling counter-attack. At present the word is to "hold fast" wherever possible, and to sell every foot of ground dearly.

No one recent report has been more encouraging and heartening than the news published on April 30 that in the Ypres section the Germans in vain hurled vast masses of men in its effort to crush the British, French, and Belgian troops on the line running southwest from Ypres about twelve miles to the town of Locre. Other news of April 30 speaks of British advances and successful counter-attacks by the French. The capture of Mont Kemmel by the Germans seemed at first to open to them an opportunity partly to encircle Ypres, so that the famous standing-ground of the British would have to be abandoned. But all along the line from Locre and Mont Rouge to Zillebeke the Allies have fought with dogged resolution. Locre itself has been occupied in part two or three times by the Germans, but always they have been dislodged, and the regaining of the whole of Locre by the French on April 30 after frightfully violent fighting showed a stiffness and solidarity of the Allies' defense which, under the circumstances, is astonishing. The same is true of the fighting around the village of Voormezeele, which is on the other, or northeastern, extremity of this twelve-mile line. The fact that French forces have been

fighting in just this section in considerable numbers is a significant indication of the way in which General Foch is using units without regard to their nationality. In the fierce actions on April 29 and 30 Belgians, French, and British fought side by side and foot to foot against superior numbers hurled with absolutely no regard for immediate losses.

WHAT WILL THE OUTCOME BE?

There are indications that the German people are becoming disturbed at the frightful losses occurring in the western offensive. One German paper prints a long article by an officer, written with the express purpose of reassuring the public on this point, but containing such statements as these: "Our losses have been enormous. The offensive in the west has arrived at a deadlock. The enemy is much stronger than the supreme command assumed. . . . The people have begun to lose their nerve.'

The military situation in its large aspect has been summed up concisely by General Radcliffe, the new British Chief Director of Military Operations, who takes the place of General Maurice. In an admirably worded, calm, and instructive report which might well be a model for the loosely written and not very informative statements made by our War Department, General Radcliffe "The Germans are going on with this hammering process, and we have got to make up our minds that it is not this week, or next week, or next month, that this fight is coming to a decision. We are going to fight the whole summer, and in the end it is a question of who holds the last reserves."

says:

AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN ACTION

Definite news has been received that American battalions interspersed with French, and perhaps British, battalions have been actively engaged in the defense of Amiens. They took their places, say the despatches, under heavy shrapnel fire and after marching fifty miles in the rain. They stand opposite the very apex of the German salient in Picardy, and they are carrying the American flag into the thick of the fight. Meanwhile the American detachments in the Toul sector are doing valuable and active work, as they have done before.

An impressive tribute to the courage of American soldiers at the front, and one of which this Nation may well be proud, is seen in the decoration of one hundred and twenty-two officers and soldiers of the 104th Massachusetts Regiment with the French War Cross. The French general who conferred the decorations, which commemorated the action in the Forest of Apremont on April 12, declared that the conduct of the regiment on that day "showed the greatest audacity and a fine spirit of sacrifice." Not only did captains, lieutenants, sergeants, corporals, and many privates receive this decoration, but we note among the names that of the Rev. John des Valles and that of a "Chief Musician," Ralph N. Dawes, who is specially mentioned as having exhibited "the finest qualities of courage, bravery, and devotedness while commanding the regiment's litter-bearers and exposed constantly to enemy fire, running through the open terrain to the first-line trenches seeking the wounded." Such a deed, if performed by a British soldier, would have entitled him to the Victoria Cross.

A DASHING EXPLOIT

The British naval raid of April 23 on the German submarine bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge was one of those daring and spirited incidents which have so often in the past made Englishmen proud of their sailors' enterprise and intrepidity. The military effect was also considerable proportionately to the force involved. Aircraft, motor boats, destroyers, and convertible steel ferry-boats joined in the attack. A landing was effected under heavy fire on the Zeebrugge mole. A clear break in the mole twenty yards wide, made by a British torpedo, was observed. The main object was the sinking of concrete-laden ships in the channel used by the submarines in issuing from their home harbors. Canals and sea channels connect both Ostend and Zeebrugge with Bruges, so that the submarines

have been in the position of rats with two widely distant holes which lead to the same nest.

Whether the concrete ships completely blocked both passages is not known, but two of them at least were so placed as to constitute an obstruction which it may take many weeks to remove, and German submarine activities have been to just that extent interfered with. Two German destroyers and several submarines were sunk. The fight on the Zeebrugge mole was a fierce encounter. The landing was an audacious act, and as bold in its execution as in its plan.

The British navy is exercising a tremendous though largely silent force in this war. Such an episode as this is a cheering evidence of the dash and courage of its men and officers.

HOLLAND'S DANGER

From time to time Germany threatens Holland, in accordance with her usual practice of coercing and browbeating all small nations within her reach. Recently the situation seemed critical and it was understood that something like an ultimatum had been served upon Holland. As we write, there is indication of improvement, but the quarrel may easily be fanned into flame if and when Germany wishes.

The sincere desire of the Dutch people is above everything to maintain their country's independence. Holland's situation has been trying in the extreme. She has been obliged to swallow her resentment at outrageous and brutal offenses against her national rights. She has even endangered her standing with the Allies simply because the Allies were not in position to sustain her in resistance to German arrogance.

The present controversy sounds very prosaic because on the surface it relates largely to "sand and gravel." What it really involves is Germany's desire to ship military supplies through Holland to the German front. Mr. Balfour, in the House of Commons some months ago, said that Dutch territory was being used by the Germans to forward to Belgium enormous quantities of supplies. The sand, gravel, and metal thus sent are used to construct military defenses. There is a pretense that this is not so, but the amount is ridiculously beyond any possible civilian use.

Great Britain realizes the hardships of Holland's situation and has been moderate in its demands that the practice cease. But instead of ceasing it has increased. Not content with destroying more than a hundred and fifty Dutch vessels and killing not a few Dutch citizens, Germany has more and more encroached on Dutch industrial freedom, and has made the neutral nation a cover for some of her own warlike activities. If Germany sees her way to overrun Holland, she will have no difficulty in finding a pretense. The Dutch army is brave; it is, perhaps, half a million in number; and it has well-known advantages in the ancient practice of flooding sections of the

country.

At present Germany may be too much occupied with her other war efforts to make an attack on Holland profitable; but if she refrains it is from motives of expediency and not of honor. The compromise which seems to have been reached between Germany and Holland is one that yields a great deal on the part of the Dutch Government. Road-making material is to be admitted to transport across Dutch territory, but in limited quantities and with some kind of a guarantee by Germany that it will not be used for war purposes. What such a guarantee amounts to is known to all who remember how many times Germany has broken her pledged word to smaller nations.

A REPLY WHICH IS A CONFESSION

The revelations made by Prince Lichnowsky's "memorandum" gain force the more they are studied and analyzed. A formal reply has been made by Herr von Jagow, who was Germany's Foreign Minister before and at the outbreak of war. It plunges into diplomatic details and tries to confuse the real issues. But through all its involutions one reads the admission that Germany's dominance was to be assured and enforced at all hazards and at any cost. Not again would she submit, as in the Moroccan affair, to the imputation of yielding. Therefore, Herr von Jagow says, she "could not agree to the English