unpleasantly suggestive, it must be confessed, of the German cartel. The Department of Commerce, with its system of commercial attachés, has been engaged in gathering all possible information respecting opportunities for trade, economic conditions in foreign countries, and related matters; and this information is placed at the disposal of American business men in the form of carefully compiled bulletins. The Department of State (Foreign Affairs) has recently organised a Division of Economic Intelligence, the purpose of which is to investigate all matters affecting foreign trade, in order that the policies of the Department may be formulated in the light of full knowledge respecting the interests of American commerce.

A temporary measure for furnishing direct aid to commercial enterprises was adopted in March, when the War Finance Corporation was authorised to make loans, under certain conditions and upon proper security, to corporations engaged in foreign trade. The fields in which extension of trade seems to be most eagerly sought are South America and Asia. Early in June a panAmerican commercial congress was held in Washington for the purpose of promoting commercial relations; while about the same time announcement was made of the organisation of a large concern to be known as the American Foreign Trade Corporation, modelled somewhat after the Hudson's Bay Company, for the purpose of trading in the Near East with Constantinople as a base.

It is clear, however, that, whatever may be the development of foreign commerce, imports must constitute a relatively larger share of the total than during the last decade. Not only will the new American-owned vessels endeavour to bring back full cargoes on their return voyages, but the United States has become a creditor country to such a degree that imports must for many years be accepted in partial payment of capital and interest. In his message to Congress of May 20 the

President said:

"There are many points at which we can facilitate American enterprise in foreign trade by opportune legislation, and make it easy for American merchants to go where they will be welcomed as friends rather than dreaded as antagonists. America has a great and honourable service to perform in

ringing the commercial and industrial undertakings of the world back to their old scope and swing again, and putting solid structure of credit under them.'

In the field of industry the war has brought about ertain notable changes. In addition to the adoption f better methods of production and the growth of a pirit of co-operation among manufacturers, the most triking development has been the prodigious expansion f small or hitherto insignificant industries. Thus, to mention the most important cases, the production of erro-manganese and other ferro-alloys has tripled since 913; the chemical industries, especially the manuactures of dyestuffs, which in 1913 barely supplied ten er cent. of the domestic demand for artificial colours, ave developed to such an extent that in 1918 they upplied all domestic demand and contributed to the xport trade products to the value of $17,000,000. The rowth of shipbuilding has already been described. In 913 the United States produced no potash and imported 83,000 tons, mainly from Germany; in 1918 potash o the amount of 60,000 tons was recovered from the ust of blast furnaces and cement works, and the ventual output is estimated at 500,000 tons. The German omination of certain industries by means of patents or Cock-holding or infiltration, the extent of which had y no means been realised, has been shaken off through he operations of the Alien Property Custodian. Of new lans for the future, one of the most promising is for ne better utilisation of the sources of energy by means I a network of lines for the transmission of electric ower to all parts of the country, linking up the coal nd oil fields and the principal sources of water power. The problem immediately before Congress with reect to industrial development is the extent to which e new manufactures shall be protected by a customs riff. While it is hardly probable that the Republican ajority will endeavour to return to the high tariffs of rmer days, it is clearly the intention of Congress to llow the President's recommendation to favour the evelopment, by means of protective duties, of such dustries—especially the manufactures of dyestuffs and lied products-as are necessary to the life of the

country in times of emergency. The President has also asked that means be provided for defence, by the application of retaliatory duties, against hostile and discriminatory legislation on the part of other countries.

During the war the chief agricultural developments were, as in industry, expansion, adoption of better methods, and the growth of a spirit of co-operation. The outstanding fact at the present time is the prospect of a record crop of wheat, for which the Government has guaranteed a price of $2.26 per bushel. The most interesting proposal with respect to agriculture now before the country is the plan drawn up and laid before Congress by the Department of the Interior for co-operation between the national Government and the States to enable discharged soldiers and sailors to settle on reclaimed lands. With the expansion of the States from sea to sea there is no more free land to serve as a panacea for all ills; but it has been estimated that nearly 300,000,000 acres of unsettled land in all parts of the country are available for cultivation after reclamation by irrigation, drainage, stump-pulling, or soil treatment. It is proposed to employ returned soldiers and sailors in reclamation work until they have earned enough money to enable them to make the first payment for farms on the land which they have been reclaiming, and to facilitate their settlement in groups or colonies. The proposal is similar in its intent and general features to the plans already adopted in Canada and in other parts of the British Empire. Many of the States have already made provision for co-operation with the Federal Government; and it is expected that Congress will take favour. able action at an early date.

In the field of labour there have been many interesting and significant developments. The most important of these are: (1) the creation by the Government of effective administrative machinery, such as the Employment Service, the War Labour Board, the Committee on Vocational Education, the Working Conditions Service, and many other branches and services; (2) the general recognition, especially by the Federal Government, of the programme of organised labour as respects rights of organisation and of collective bargaining, hours and conditions of work, labour of women and children,

andards of wages, etc.; (3) the organisation in different rts of the country of local or State Labour Parties, nich include in their platforms such policies as State surance against disability, old age and unemployment, e Government ownership of public utilities, the proessive taxation of wealth, and the extension and mocratisation of education; (4) a well-defined moveent to secure for labour a greater part in the control d earnings of industry. Without entering into a disssion of these developments, it may be remarked that e position of organised labour in America has been eatly strengthened during the war. Always more nservative than British labour, it has come by many be regarded as the best defence against socialism and e more radical I.W.W.

Of the many other problems of a special character nfronting the people of the United States the two hich are perhaps most distinctly American are the ntrol of immigration and the effort to Americanise' e alien. It seems probable that immigration will be eatly restricted, perhaps altogether prohibited for a riod, and that thereafter the conditions of admission the country will be much more severe. 'Americanisaon,' or the process of education by which it is hoped at the aliens may be better assimilated, is rapidly king on the proportions of a campaign, the success of nich is vital to the welfare of the nation. It is clear at the American experiment' is not yet concluded; many it seems that it has only now reached its most itical stage; but the true American is optimistic by ture and faces the future with a confidence not greatly sturbed either by the shrieks of radical partisans or by e vehement protests of those who look only backward WALDO G. LELAND.

6

Vol. 232.-No. 460.

Art. 12.-MORE DOUBTS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE.

1. The Genealogist (new series), Vol. VII, pp. 205-8; Vol. VIII, pp. 8-15, and pp. 137-146; three papers by James Greenstreet, entitled, 'A Hitherto unknown writer of Elizabethan Comedies'; Further Notices of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, K.G.; and Testimonies against the accepted authorship of Shakespeare's Plays.' Bell, 1891, 1892.

2. Sous le Masque de William Shakespeare'; William Stanley VI Comte de Derby. By Abel Lefranc. Two vols. Paris: Payot, 1918-19.

THERE survive among the Domestic State Papers at the Public Record Office three news-letters, all in the handwriting of a London shipping merchant named George Fenner and bearing the same date, June 30, 1599. Al were addressed by the writer to his foreign agents, of whom one lived at Antwerp and two at Venice. Each of the three missives professedly supplies a substantially identical budget of miscellaneous political and socia gossip with some slight internal variations of detail The presence of the letters among the State Paper shows that, although they appear to read quite in nocuously, they were intercepted by the English Govern ment on a suspicion of unseasonable communicativenes or duplicity of meaning.

Into his letter to his Antwerp correspondent Fenner slipped, amid a crop of political and social rumours, thi isolated statement: Therle of Darby is busyed only in penning comedies for the commoun players.' The writer sent the same piece of abrupt irrelevance to one of his Venetian correspondents, merely substituting our Earle of Darby' for 'therle of Darby' and omitting the adverb only.' The sentence found no place in Fenner's third letter, which he addressed to his second Venetian agent on the same day.

In 1891 James Greenstreet, an industrious archivis and record-agent, first published in the 'Genealogist (in the earliest paper cited above) Fenner's twice retailed report that the Earl of Derby was in 1599 busy play writing for the 'common' or public stage. No referenc was given to Fenner's third news-letter which ignores