for ammunition; neither from Japan nor from any pro-German source were they getting importations of this wasteful commodity. But for five months now the embargo has been off, and Carranza has been free to get ammunition from the United States. At the time this is being written none of the major bandits have been caught, but at least one source of irritation at us, one handle for Germany to use against us, is removed.

At Tampico, the plants, docks, refineries, tanks the whole terminal investment-is in plain sight along the Panuco River, where it can be easily protected by United States gunboats. The plants themselves are also built on such a scale that it would take a very effective organization with possession of the region to destroy or even seriously to affect the war supply of oil through this port. In the jungle hinterland where the pipe lines run and the oil wells spout are 1,500 husky Americans, armed and sincerely pro-oil and antiGerman, not to speak of My Lord Pelaez with his 5,000 thane-men equally pro-oil, fervidly anti-everything which might or could interfere with the princely insurance premiums they are regularly drawing from the foreign producing companies. In that territory no German and no group of Germans would have a chance of success.

But-German influence is at work in Tampico. Among the seventy-five Germans cooped up there is a German consul by the name of Eversbusch. He is also the employer and the patron of the stevedores along the Tampico wharves. These stevedores once in a while go out on strike and successfully incite some of the other guilds of Tampico, employed by American and British oil producers and refiners, to strike for a 25 per cent. raise and a seven-hour day. During such times money in small denominations is distributed from Consul Eversbusch's office to the strike leaders, who deal it out among the striking workmen-those of four companies, the Aguila, Pierce Corporation, Standard, and Texas.

German money and influence will be back of recurrent strikes or attempts to strike at Tampico and Tuxpam and Minatitlan and Puerta Mexico. The point to remember about this menace to the oil supply is the indirect character of it. We need not fear any direct acts of violence on the wells or the pipe lines or the terminal plants. The new Mexican Constitution enunciates in Article 27 a policy

of nationalization of natural resources which in the case of the oil wells would, if carried out, amount to confiscation. German influence in Mexico is very naturally being brought to bear toward a realization of this new policy. But with or without German influence, the Carranzista Government will not carry out this policy. this policy. With or without German influence, the Carranzista Government cannot carry out this policy. As was said at the beginning of this article, we—the twenty-odd Governments now allied against the Central Powers, including those of Latin Europe and Latin Central and South America-hold all the cards.

Unless something happens to change the face of nature the British and American fleets will continue to get their fuel oil from Mexico. And then, never forget that Carranza and his advisers, slipping behind two and a half million gold dollars every month, are beginning to comprehend clearly that their only hope for financial salvation lies in a loan of one hundred millions from a friendly United States.

In spite of their dislike of us, in spite of the German influence in the army, in the oil fields, and elsewhere, Carranza and his advisers are beginning to see that they must turn to us. But Carranza and his advisers do not hold Mexico in the hollow of their hand. They may know that a continued proGermanism means ruin, but can they lead Mexico away from it?

THE REAL GERMAN MENACE

The presentation of these facts ought to help emphasize the truth that the German menace on our southern flank is not an obvious thing. The Tampico situation is exactly in point. German influence in Mexico, as in other neutral countries, never works in the open. It is subtle, working underground to disorganize business, poison public opinion, and hamstring independent action. This continuing influence, in spite of the popular conviction to the contrary, is not particularly devoted to plotting acts of violence. Instead, it moves in a hundred different ways to agitate, to arouse race hatred, religious prejudice, and political discontent. In Mexico, exactly what does this subtle influence amount to?

In brief, it is devoted to cutting off the raw products, chiefly minerals, of the country necessary or helpful to the enemies of Ger

many in the conduct of the war, and to the forcing of a break between Mexico and the United States with the idea of embarrassing this country when all its resources and energies are devoted to the stupendous task of carrying on offensive warfare in Europe.

The material threat comes down practicany to oil. It is really less of a German than a Mexican menace. Now as to the immaterial working of the German contagion.

For many years before the war began Germany had perfected a thorough organization in Mexico for the extension of their trade interests and the furtherance of their political influence. This is called the Verband Deutscher Reichsangehöriger (Union of Subjects of the German Empire). It has headquarters in the Boker Building in Mexico City, with branches established in thirty-one Mexican towns and cities, including all the principal commercial centres. The First Chief of the Deutscher Verband is an energetic German subject by the name of R. von Lubeck, who lives at 28 Calle Berlin and has his own offices also in the Boker Building. He is a retired merchant, formerly of the firm of Boker & Company, the leading hardware company of Mexico City. Last May one Fritz Sommer, the son of E. Sommer, leading jeweler of Mexico, was traveling around the country organizing and perfecting the work of this society.

When the war came to Mexico the whole of the Deutscher Verband shifted, from a commercial to a war footing. They have ever since continued to function on a war basis. A committee under the chairmanship of Lubeck is actively working with the forty German officers in the Mexican army. They are also closely associated with Colonel del Campo of the Corps of Engineers and with an able anti-American Spaniard named Guardiola, the editor of La Regeneración, of Saltillo. Left to itself, the Mexican army would be proGerman. It is easy to see why much of it is keenly pro-German.

The press of the country is an increasingly active force in literate Mexico. The United Reichsangehöriger works through the Mexican press. It furnishes inspiration and financial backing for the Boletin de la Guerra, Informaciones Inalambricos, Crónica Alemania, and Deutsche Zeitung von Mexico. Two other newspapers in Mexico City, El Demócrata and El Defensa, are directly subsidized by German funds through the Deutscher Verband. In

Monterey it subsidizes El Heraldo Europeo and furnishes, gratis, pro-German news for papers all over Mexico. In conjunction with La Sociedad Ebero Americana of Hamburg and the Transocean of Berlin, it publishes and distributes broadcast in Spanish wellwritten pamphlets on the German side of all current questions arising out of the war.

GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN MEXICO

Efficient and shrewd are the United Subjects of the Empire. They back up their news in the practical way of encouraging their own and other business men to advertise in the Mexican papers which print their propaganda. The movies work for them, and they hire lecturers. In May, Manuel Ugarte, the well-known anti-American agitator, a Portuguese mulatto from Buenos Aires, was giving a series of "conferences" in Mexico City under the academic auspices of the University and the financial management of the Deutscher Verband. In Vera Cruz, Cordoba, Puebla, Mexico, Querétaro, and San Luis Potosí, I found Deutscher posters plastered over the walls of gardens and buildings, abusing the United States in vigorous Spanish and interpreting events in bright German colors. Every Mexican town is similarly plastered. You wonder where they get the money, but even in your wrath you can't help admiring the effective way in which the money is spent. Mexico has Boy Scouts, several thousand of them, but they are all of the German variety, drilled in German style. It is very amusing to see the little rascals pounding their native soil with the German goose step. German influence is felt all through the Department of Public Education and, as in the case of the press, it is effectively backed up by practical advantages in the form of free courses in the German language, in calisthenics, and some forms of industrial teaching. One morning all the papers recorded the munificent gift of ten thousand pesos ($5,000) donated by the German Minister, Von Eckhardt, for the founding of a good hospital. The papers did not record that he collected that fund by levying tribute on his hard-pressed nationals.

All through the strained relations which have existed between Mexico and the United States, even before our declaration of war against Germany, this unseen, subtle working of German influence kept up an active and

helpful sympathy with Mexico. They promised money, they spoke of alliance, they hinted at the gift of territory. This sympathy paved the way for the diplomatic blunder of the Zimmerman note which, however fatal in other respects, did unquestionably have the effect of flattering Carranza and the 5 per cent. of Mexico which he represents by the international notice it gave them. It made the task of Ambassador Fletcher more difficult in winning the nominal accession of Mexico to our cause, or at least a proclaimed neutrality. Carranza, up to the first of November, had not proclaimed the neutrality of Mexico, although he mentioned it in his address to the Mexican Congress at its extraordinary session on April 15th, and "reaffirmed" it in an interview with a representative of the New York American on April 28th. In November, 1916, however, when Carranza got out his amazing note proposing that all neutral Governments unite in cutting off food and fuel supplies from all the Allies, the nominal neutrality of Mexico was necessarily therein implied, but it is helpful to know that this interesting document was issued within a week after the return of Zubaran, the Mexican Minister to and from Germany. In its English form, this note will not go back into idiomatic Spanish. It will re-translate into perfect German.

A TYPICAL INCIDENT

At the extraordinary session of the Mexican Congress, on April 15th last, already referred to, an incident, that was variously and incorrectly reported at the time, occurred which was so characteristic of German machinations that this brief exposition of German influence in Mexico would be incomplete without a mention of it.

The session was convened in order that the Primer Jefe might read before it an account of his stewardship and officially chronicle events which had taken place since the beginning of the revolution four years before. It was-Ladies and Gentlemen, and Outsiders, Venustiano Carranza presents Mexico. A big crowd gathered in front of the doorways and greeted arrivals with varying degrees of approval and insult. The German Minister was one of the first to arrive. He was enthusiastically applauded and viva'd outside-indeed, the crowd made more noise than they did on the arrival of the First Chief himself and as he entered the building and

appeared in the gallery assigned to him he became the object of a demonstration by the spectators and by several Germanophile members on the floor of Congress. The applause was quickly suppressed by General Hay, the presiding officer, who announced that demonstrations for or against foreign representatives would not be permitted.

Nevertheless, when the American Ambassador arrived with the members of his staff he was received with a little perfunctory handclapping and a lot of vigorous booing and whistling. In Mexico they don't hiss except to attract attention in a friendly way; to express disapproval or insult they whistle. For five mortal hours the First Chief read his interpretative report. Shorn of its departmental summaries, it is an extremely able and interesting State paper. At the end of the reading, as Congress adjourned, another demonstration took place in the building and outside.

It was now eleven o'clock at night, but a crowd larger than that which had greeted the opening of the session at 6 P. M. gathered about the steps, shouting, Viva Alemania! Viva el Emperador de Alemania! Not a solitary policeman or a soldier was on hand to preserve order or control the crowd, as the American Ambassador, followed by his staff, made his way as best he could through the press to his motor car. The crowd whistled and hooted, but there was no violence. A particularly vigorous Viva Alemania! stopped Mr. Fletcher for a moment. Viva Mejico! he replied, with a good-natured smile, so that all near by heard him. The German Minister, following closely behind, was viva'd enthusiastically and escorted by a cheering crowd to his car.

This whole performance was staged and paid for by German agents and sympathizers. Manuel Ugarte took a hand in it by providing a great many students from the University who were his supporters in his anti-American conferences.

That same night a telegram was sent to the German consuls at Guadalajara, San Luis Potosí, and Monterey, and to German agents in other Mexican towns. The telegram was signed "Von Lubeck." In the towns where it was received, not more than twenty-four hours after its receipt the walls were plastered with posters recounting the episode in Mexico City on the opening of Congress. In spite of all their trouble, the German trick fell rather flat. The undisturbed composure and the

S

HORT rations of sugar here in the United States have made even the stay-at-homes realize the physical discomforts of war, but a letter from an American who gives his address as "Somewhere in Greece" carries a suggestion of compensations that may accompany even greater restrictions upon diet. His rhapsody upon the aroma and taste of plain white bread after its absence from the table for months recalls a famous dissertation upon roast pig:

"SOMEWHERE in Greece."

I salute you (with a letter that may never get there):

What funny things you are like to come up with if you just nose around this old world long enough. Now, I was brought up to a sort of fine contempt for what is sometimes known as "the staff of life," but more vulgarly called "bread." But Lo! yesterday was a red-letter day in this house, because, forsooth! there was a loaf of white bread brought to the board -brought in a sort of solemn state-and served to five watering mouths that consumed it with all the avidity of hungry wolves.

And why? Well, that is a bit of story-and withal a bit of history as well. For, you see, there has been a strict blockade of all these coasts since high noon on the Eighth Day of December, Nineteen Hundred and Sixteen (as the high officer commanding the blockading fleet writes it in his official proclamation, thinking the matter of sufficient note to set it all down in good round words instead of leaving it to the treacherous hands of mere ciphers). And since that fateful hour nothing has passed in or out along these coasts-except it might be some late-flying bird that found its way in beneath the dark. No, not so much as a fishing boat with its orange sail has been granted leave to put out into the Bay nor a row boat to bring a brace of duck from the farther shore where game is said to abound.

And as a result of this isolation, the stock of wheat and flour in the land, never at high-water mark, has sunk and sunk till at last the bottom of the bin is in sight. Long since has good white bread passed from market and home. When it had ebbed low, the authorities tried to come to the rescue by ordering the public bakers to mix wheat and barley flour in proportion-with a result that what the bakeries turned out was not an article of food at all, but more in the nature of a

weapon of offense such as primal man might have hurled at his prey to bring it down. Later, under strict police supervision, some advance was made in the quality. But always the output of the bakeries was wholly beyond the power of delicate baked, and was of about the same specific gravity. digestion. It resembled dark chocolate mud hardTaking wisdom to be the better part of valor, this house has refrained for the past month and more from partaking at all of the bread the market offered. And as Greek houses are never so appointed in their kitchen premises as to make possible the baking of bread at home, the family has been entirely without "the staff of life" for that length of time save such poor hoe-cakes as could be cooked now and then over a slow heap of coke embers— not much to boast of in the way of bread, it must be confessed in all frankness. Rice, potatoes, and beans-when they could be got-have been made to take the place of bread as best they might; and withal those who sat at table did not go away with appetites unappeased.

But on a day to be remembered, the old scrubwoman affirmed that if she had flour she could make bread herself and take it to be baked in the public oven. A modest sack of flour was stored in the pantry, the outcome of an appeal made by the head of the house to the Governor of the Province before the doors of the country were closed (for even then the authorities were controlling foodstuffs). This treasure, veritably worth its weight in gold, was brought forth. The scrub-woman posted off to the baker's for yeast. Was back like the witch in the story. Made the dough. Set it by the fire to rise. And next day made good her promise by bringing from the bakery four long, creamy loaves of pure wheat bread that made you fairly drivel at the mouth to look at, much less to smell.

How the bread was fallen upon and carved to pieces it were vain to narrate for you would have to see the eyes of the youngsters (and older ones, too, for that) as the good work of demolition went on, to get the least apprehension of the epochmaking event.

Ah, you fortunate ones, who never know whether you eat bread at meal or not-you utterly miss the meaning of those simple words we trip from our lips, "the staff of life." And may you never have to learn their meaning in the school of Jean Valjean.

A side-light upon Lord Northcliffe's recent declaration that the submarine is still the