cretion. It tolerated no interference with its sales, and adopted various underhand and even official measures to limit the quantity received by France. The British first took all the petroleum they needed for their own purposes, and gave us any surplus which might be left over.

On the other hand, while refusing to recognize the agreement made between Walter Long and Bérenger regarding the allotment of petroleum beyond our boundaries, England insists on enjoying all the rights that agreement would give it in our colonies. For instance, the Royal Dutch Company is behind a nominal French corporation which proposes to explore and develop petroleum lands in Madagascar. Perhaps we should add here that American prospectors chance to be operating already in our African colony.

What has France done to liberate itself from the embraces of these two rival trusts? Are we forced either to submit to the Draconic demands of the Standard Oil Company or to the equally insistent pressure of the English, who are so liberal with pleasant words and so grasping when it comes to deeds? Were the French government to adopt a resolute, clearly defined petroleum policy conforming to our national needs and worthy of our national standing, we should not be in our present humiliating position, and we might speedily become independent in the matter of oil supplies.

First of all, Germany is now prostrate and we have an excellent opportunity to take its place among Euro

pean nations. Just before the war that country was planning to monopolize its petroleum business. France ought to conclude an agreement with the Polish government, guaranteeing it the entire Galician surplus for a long period. It might obtain in the same manner an important share at least one-quarter and perhaps one-thirdof the Roumanian output. We should do the same in the Caucasus and elsewhere. However, our diplomats must learn to speak with resolution and assurance. We must treat with England and America as equals with equals. How is French capital being invested at present? It is invested in British enterprises, like the Royal Dutch Shell Company, and the Mexican Eagle Company, but it does not exercise the slightest influence upon the policies of those great corporations. There is no great petroleum company which is entirely French, controlling a great capital and capable with the encouragement of our Foreign Office of imitating the Standard Oil Trust and the Royal Dutch Shell Company.

Furthermore, we ought to develop the petroleum resources within our own territories and colonies, particularly those of Alsace, Auvergne, Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Madagascar. We ought also to build our own tank vessels, to provide our own supply stations at every important French port; to erect our own pipe lines, and to found a school for petroleum engineers. The future of our merchant marine and our navy is at stake. We must at all costs find enough petroleum of our own to supply our needs.

VOL. 20-NO. 1034

LAST year, when Monsignor Cerretti made his trip to the United States, a rumor started, only to be suppressed immediately, that the Vatican's representative would endeavor to raise a loan of a million dollars there.

It was hardly necessary to deny this rumor because it was so obviously false. Since the Holy See has ceased to be a temporal power, it has not contracted foreign loans. Its last effort to do so occurred in July 1870, when it applied to the house of Rothchild for two hundred thousand scudi. As soon as its political sovereignty ceased, the Church received sufficient revenue, even for its large and imperative expenses, from the voluntary offerings of the faithful. When a deficit seemed likely, it curtailed expenses instead of borrowing. The pontifical budget, indeed, is an elastic one and does not contain those fixed charges which are irreducible in the budget of a secular state. The necessity for any item in the appropriation of the Holy See is always relative, and no emergency has yet arisen which has made borrowing necessary or expedient.

However, like many other rumors, even the least plausible, the one we mention had a basis of fact. Monsignor Cerretti's mission was partly to procure money, and the sum was, as specified in the report, a million dollars.

As everyone knows, the principal function of the nuncios is now to procure money. Theoretically, these emissaries represent a sovereign government, and consequently their func

tions are secular and not religious. The latter, by law, belong exclusively to bishops, archbishops, and primates. Nuncios are supposed to deal mainly with political questions-political questions of a humanitarian character, of course and among the principal of these is to insure adequate revenues for the church they represent. The ability of a nuncio, his success in his career, is measured mainly by his accomplishments in this particular line. Bear in mind, I do not say exclusively, but mainly. His purpose is to impress upon the bishops and the officers of Catholic societies the fact that the Holy See cannot get along with the modest revenue from its patrimonial estates, and that Peter's pence must make up the deficit.

When the World War deprived the Church almost completely of its former revenue from Bavaria, Austria, and Belgium, and lessened its receipts from France, urgent appeals were sent to Spain, Latin America, and the United States for aid. Monsignor Cerretti had previously visited North America, and had already shown proof of exceptional ability as a Vatican official, when he was chosen for an important and delicate mission, which included increasing the papal revenues. An opportunity was presented by the great gathering of American Catholics at the time of Cardinal Gibbons' jubilee. Monsignor Cerretti was commissioned to carry the blessing and congratulations of the Pope to His Eminence. All will recall that his trip was broken by a consider

able stay in Paris, where he conferred with the Entente Premiers regarding the German Catholic missions. His success in these negotiations added to his already growing prestige. During his sojourn in America, Monsignor Cerretti, knowing local conditions and speaking the language fluently, speedily got in touch with the leading people of the Catholic world. His relations were not confined to high ecclesiastics, but included leading Catholic laymen, especially the higher officers of the Knights of Columbus.

This institution is an organization formed along the same lines as the Catholic societies of Italy. It has no political objects, but is exclusively devoted to religious and humanitarian work. Its membership is about a million. It seemed not too optimistic to hope a million organized and devoted Catholics would raise a fund amounting to a dollar a head for the papal treasury. The Vatican's representative explained the financial difficulties of the Holy See- rendered more acute by the war and made no secret of his wish that the prosperous church in America might come to its relief. Perhaps he mentioned the Pope's confident hope of seeing the United States in the not-distant future a predominantly Catholic country. At that time, the pilgrimage of the Knights of Columbus to Rome was suggested. It occurred last August.

The public at large in Italy paid little attention to this group of two hundred and fifty people; but it received an extraordinary welcome at the Vatican, and significant addresses were delivered. The Head Knight was decorated by the Pope, and the Holy Pontiff permitted himself to be photographed in the midst of his visitors.

These incidents revealed the special importance to the mission. Catholic newspapers mentioned a liberal gift re

ceived from the Knights, but discreetly refrained from naming the exact sum. It is now known that it amounted to about a quarter of a million dollars. However, the Knights gave the assurance that the total sum requested would be ready shortly; and those who know how generous the Americans are, naturally anticipate that the promise will be fulfilled, and probably will be exceeded. Officials of the Vatican treasury can now sleep undisturbed by financial cares. A contribution of a million dollars to the treasury at the present rate of exchange will mean in lire a most munificent gift. Perhaps Monsignor Cerretti, as some assert, employed as a persuasive argument the unhappy possibility, from the standpoint of the Church, of having to accept sooner or later the subsidy voted by the Italian government-which, with the five-year arrears, would represent a little over eighteen million lire. In any case, the response of the American Catholics was prompt and liberal.

However, the hopes which the Vatican now sets upon the great and generous North American Republic are not limited to this. Thought is being given to the not-distant possibility that the Catholic population of the Republic will increase, until this faith becomes the prevalent religion. In this case, at utmost, there is still another possibility in view. We do not know whether it is being pondered more deeply by the faithful or by their head. But America is regarded as the ideal land, where in its days of trial the Church of Rome may find protection and hospitality.

A very significant expression was used by the Supreme Knight in his address to the Pope on August 29. The fact that it was not commentell upon more widely in Italy is doubtless explained by our ignorance of what had previously occurred in America. That gentleman said:

Holy Father, your present situation is a difficult one. Perhaps there has never been a time in the history of the world when the loyalty and devotion of your sons were more needed than now. Black clouds are gathering on the horizon, and it is not the will of God that the tempest shall wreak its wrath too near your sacred person.

When we consider that this was an official address, destined for the public ear, the suggestion it conveys is sufficiently explicit. Obviously the American press had truer information of the precarious state of affairs in Italy than was afforded by the occasional timid observations of our ambassador. 'It is not the will of God that the tempest shall wreak its wrath too near your sacred person.' In other words, the suggestion was conveyed that, if the Pope were forced to seek a refuge elsewhere, America would be happy to offer him asylum.

On several occasions, the Vatican has considered the possibility of leaving Rome. That was the case in 1870, in 1879, in 1881, and the last time, if we are not in error, in 1887. Malta, Switzerland, and Fulda were all discussed. Perhaps these were merely soundings taken to learn the intentions of the Italian government; perhaps they were serious precautions. If such a migration were contemplated again, its destination would not be a subject of debate. The Vatican looks to America.

We do not know for certain what the actual barometer readings are in the political and diplomatic seclusion of the Holy See. But independently of such weather indications, which we are not allowed to read, unhappy conditions exist in Italy, which honest and unbiased men may well interpret as predicting our approaching ruin.

On former occasions, when the departure of the Pope was discussed, rather than seriously contemplated, the project was used as a diplomatic

argument, designed to react through our embassies abroad upon the Italian foreign office. To-day conditions are entirely different. The Vatican is far from wishing to embarrass the Italian government. To-day the transfer of the Holy See is not talked about, but it is thought about.

There is not waiting now at Civitavecchia a French vessel like the Oronoco, which tarried there a whole year at the order of Thiers and MacMahon, so as to be at the service of the head of the Church if he wished to leave a dominion no longer his own. But we can say now, with many good reasons to support our assertion, that at the first invitation, an American vessel would cast anchor in that harbor. This is the actual state of sentiment to-day both across the Tiber and across the Atlantic.

[Vossische Zeitung (Berlin Francophile Liberal Daily), October 20] BULGARIA'S COMPULSORY LABOR LAW

1. ALL Bulgarian subjects of either sex, who are above the age of twenty years (if men), and above the age of sixteen years (if women), are subject to compulsory labor.

2. Labor service shall be for the purpose: (a) Of organizing and utilizing the human resources of the nation to increase production and general welfare; (b) to raise the standard of civilization of all citizens, irrespective of their social and financial condition, to increase the citizen's sense of obligation to the community, and to cultivate respect for physical labor.

3. Compulsory labor will be utilized in all branches of production; for example, upon public buildings, roads, railways, in draining marshes, for installing telephones, for raising silkworms, in mining, manufacturing, the

public health and hospital service, and n other directions. These labors will e performed under the supervision nd control of the departments of the overnment under which these fields of ndeavor come.

4. Compulsory labor must be perormed in person. It is not legal to mploy a substitute. The only individuals not subject to the law are those ncapacitated for physical or mental abor, married women, and men who re serving in the army or the constablary. Persons exempted from compulsory labor on account of invalidity hall pay a special tax hereafter to be rovided.

5. No Bulgarian shall be permitted o renounce his citizenship or to leave he country until he shall have served he legal period of compulsory labor.

6. The period of compulsory labor ervice shall be twelve months for men nd six months for women.

7. One half of the period of compulory labor service shall be remitted in ase of persons who are the sole suport of their family. This exemption, Lowever, shall apply only in case of oor families having no property, vhose yearly income does not exceed ifteen hundred leva (three hundred Mollars at par exchange). The date vhen compulsory labor service shall be bendered may be postponed up to the ge of twenty-four years in case of invalids, and until the conclusion of all heir high school or university courses in case of students.

porary compulsory labor for a period not to exceed four weeks.

10. In case of such extraordinary labor service, invalids, persons who are the sole support of their families, and indispensable public officials shall be exempted.

11. All males who have completed their nineteenth year, and all females who have completed their fifteenth year, shall be registered upon a fixed date for public labor service.

12. Male citizens shall be employed in compulsory labor only in the township or village district where they reside, or the township or district next adjoining, except in an emergency which necessitates mobilizing labor at a more remote point. Women shall be employed only at their place of residence. These provisions do not apply to persons engaged in training workers.

[The Act contains seventeen other sections relating to the distribution, supervision, and general administration of the labor forces; to their technical training, and to the penalties to be imposed upon officials or other citizens for violating the law.]