piece. What we are contending for in this matter is of the very essence of the things that have made America a sovereign nation. She cannot yield them without conceding her own impotency as a nation, and making virtual surrender of her independent position among the nations of the world' ('Cong. Rec.,' vol. liii, p. 3807).

President Wilson's intervention promptly brought about the action in Congress that he desired. The parliamentary machinery necessary to bring the resolutions from the committees was soon in motion. The Senate responded to the President's request on March 3. The next day the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House reported the McLemore resolution with a recommendation that it be laid on the table; and after an exciting sitting, which was followed with intense interest all over the country, the House, by a vote of 276 to 142, adopted the recommendation of the Committee. In the Senate, Mr Stone moved that the Gore resolution be laid on the table. There can be no discussion on a motion to table; but, before the motion was made, Senator McCumber had proposed a substitute for the Gore resolution, a resolution which would have called on citizens of the United States to refrain from travel on armed merchantmen until an arrangement had been reached between this country and the warring nations, to the end that the endeavours of the President may not be jeopardised or halted, or this government forced into hostility with another country because of the unnecessary or reckless attitude of any citizen of the United States.' Senator Gore at this time also offered the amendment to his resolution of Feb. 25. He proposed to leave the preamble as it stood, but to substitute a new resolution which declared that:

'the sinking by a German submarine without notice or warning of an armed merchant vessel of her public enemy, resulting in the death of a citizen of the United States, would constitute a just and sufficient cause of war between the United States and the German Empire' ('Cong. Rec.', vol. liii, p. 3966).

Under the rules no opportunity was afforded at this stage to Mr McCumber to speak to his resolution; and Mr Gore had no opportunity to explain why he desired to make the proposed change. The motion made by Senator Stone to table the original Gore resolution was amended

to cover the substitute and amended resolutions; and on a division it was carried by 68 to 14. Two Democrats, usually supporters of the Wilson Administration, and twelve Republicans were in the minority against tabling the Gore resolution. With the exception of Senator O'Gorman, of New York, and Senator Gallinger, of New Hampshire, all these Senators are from western states, in which there are many German-Americans, and also large numbers of Swedish-Americans who, like many IrishAmericans in the large cities both in the East and the West, are pro-German in their sympathies.

A readiness to start movements which would embarrass the Allies was even more marked among groups in the House of Representatives than in the Senate. Senators since 1911 have been elected by direct popular vote. The term of a Senator is six years; and thirty-two Senators will be elected in November. The term of Representatives is two years; and all the members of the House who are seeking re-election must go before their constituents at the approaching election. This fact, and the organised political activity of the German-Americans, explain these movements in the House, and account for the fact that much more popular interest centred in the fate of the McLemore resolution than in proceedings in the Senate on the Gore and McCumber resolutions. Nearly forty members took part in the debate in the House. They represented every section of the United States-the Atlantic Coast, the South, the West, the Middle West and the Pacific Coast; for the debate was the only fullday debate in the House, from Dec. 7 to the time of the 'Sussex' crisis and President Wilson's note to Germany of May 10, on a question arising out of the war or out of any action either by Germany or the Allies.

Mr McLemore's argument for his resolution was that Germany would not swerve from the policy she had announced on Feb. 10; and that, if the United States insisted on the right of neutrals, it would become involved in the war with the Central Powers. The spirit which actuated him in introducing the resolution can be judged from one paragraph in his speech:

'If anyone seeks evidence of the denial of American rights at sea, let him examine why cotton is contraband; why milk

for starving babies and rubber gloves cannot go to Germany; why not a pound of American produce can move from any Atlantic or Gulf port to any neutral port in the world without the permission of an English consular spy; why hundreds of cargoes have been taken into English ports, confiscated or ruined; why not a single piece of mail can leave America for Europe with the assurance that it will reach its destination; why the American ships "Hocking" and "Genesee " and " Kankakee" are to-day impressed into English service, though they had not even attempted to cross the ocean, but only to sail along the coast of America. Let us learn why a distinguished American woman was stripped of every piece of her clothing by men in the presence of men-English "gentlemen" doubtless because she talked to a German on a Dutch ship! Let us look upon these matters, and we shall find plenty of stern business to do in the line of protecting the freedom of the seas!' ('Cong. Rec.', vol. liii, p. 4326.)

For American sympathisers with the Allies there were two disagreeable surprises in the division on the McLemore resolution. In the House the Democrats number 228; the Republicans 197. In addition there are six Progressives, and four members elected as independents or socialists. The Progressives are of the new party created in 1912, when Mr Roosevelt broke away from the Republicans and was nominated for the presidency in opposition to Mr Taft and Mr Wilson. The first disturbing surprise was that out of 435 members not more than 276 were willing to vote against the McLemore resolution. The second was that Mr Mann, of Illinois, the leader of the Republican party in the House, and 101 other Republicans, as well as five of the Progressives, were in the minority of 142 against the tabling of the resolution.

Twelve Republicans were in the minority of fourteen against the tabling of the Gore and McCumber resolutions in the Senate. The votes of these Republican Senators had made it obvious that Mr Root, who was then one of the prospective candidates for the nomination of the Republican National Convention, was not carrying the congressional leaders with him in the policy that he had announced at the New York State Republican Convention on Feb. 16. Mr Root had asked, in his speech delivered on that occasion, obviously with Germany in mind,

'How can we prevent the same principles of action, the same policy of conduct, the same forces of military power which are exhibited in Europe, from laying hold upon the vast territory and practically undefended wealth of the new world?' He had, moreover, complained that, in regard to the violation of Belgium, the Government at Washington had failed to rise to the demands of the great occasion, and lamented that 'gone were the old love of justice, the old passion for liberty, the old sympathy with the oppressed, the old ideals of an America helping the world towards a better future.'

With the then possibility that the nomination would go either to Mr Root or Mr Roosevelt, and with the certainty that the presidential election in November will turn on questions arising out of the war-and in particular on the attitude of the United States towards Germany -it was surprising to sympathisers with the Allies that there were twelve Republican votes in the Senate against tabling the Gore and McCumber resolutions. It was an even greater surprise that Mr Mann and 101 Republicans and five Progressives were in the minority in the House of Representatives against tabling the McLemore resolution. But Senators and Congressmen-Congressmen in particular-are much better acquainted with the numerical strength of the German-American vote, the IrishAmerican vote, and the Swedish-American vote in their constituencies than Mr Root or Mr Roosevelt; and their knowledge of the strength and organisation of these electors, and the support that these citizens of foreign origin can command in the German-American press, explain much that at first sight is surprising in the speeches and movements in Congress relating to those aspects of the war in which the interests of Germany, as opposed to the interests of the Allies, are immediately concerned.

EDWARD PORRITT.

Art. 12.-THE SOUND OF BIG GUNS.

FOR a century at least, it has been known that the sound of gun-firing may be heard to great distances. The conditions, especially the direction of the wind at the time, must be favourable; but, granted those conditions, there is no reason why the sound should not be heard more than a hundred miles from its source. The firing at Waterloo, it is reported, was heard in the eastern districts of Kent; and there are no reasons for discrediting the statement, though the distance traversed must be between 130 and 140 miles. There are not, indeed, observations forthcoming from the intermediate area occupied by sea; but the sound of very distant firing possesses a distinctive character of its own, and it is unlikely that, on this particular Sunday morning, heavy firing took place elsewhere than at Waterloo. Again, on another Sunday morning forty-nine years later (June 19, 1864), when the Alabama' was sunk by the Kearsarge' nine miles off Cherbourg, the sound of the guns was distinctly heard near Exeter (108 miles from Cherbourg) and near Bridgwater (125 miles). Similar observations have been made since the beginning of the present war, for there can be little doubt that the sounds of artillery actions in Flanders have been audible in the south of Holland and the south-eastern counties of England; the paths traversed by the sound-waves in these cases being, roughly, 100 and 120 miles in length. The interest revived by such observations may perhaps justify a more detailed reference to our knowledge of this subject and of the conditions which favour the transmission of sound-waves by the atmosphere.

It is evident that observations so sporadic as these are of little value for our purpose. They must in any case be far more numerous. They must come from places at many different distances and in various directions from the origin. The most distant places at which the sounds are heard should not be widely separated from others. It is not easy to fulfil these conditions unless preparations can be made beforehand; and the opportunities for this are infrequent. Towards the close of the last, and the beginning of the present century, there were, however, three occasions on which it was possible to