of relatively recent formation, whereas, the like features that existed in Australia and are said to have once matched the Himalayas are denuded to their chines, with an elevation now of less than eight thousand feet. Still, in richness and fertility of soil the areas are comparable, and also in ranges of climate. The west coast of the United States, from Washington territory to lower California, enjoys a climate which in its variety resembles that to be found in the most populous parts of Australia, say from Melbourne to Moreton Bay. The clear atmosphere of New South Wales, and its fruits and vegetable products, have caused it to be mentioned in comparison with California, and Sydney has been cited as the San Francisco of the south, the wondrous harbor of Port Jackson finding its parallel in the Golden Gate.

It is when one comes to population that one realizes that, whereas, the great Republic of America is a matron with a large family and many mansions, her younger cousin in the South Pacific is like a young mother with as yet a small brood, and that her larger hope lies in the future. Five million to one hundred million! That is about the proportion to-day, and of that five million the younger country has nearly a full half gathered together in the environs of the capital cities of its six states.

In fact, important as Australia is as a contributor to the world's wealth in animal, vegetable, and mineral produce, the country is but at the beginning of its possibilities even in respect of primary products, and has extensive rural areas within easy reach of existing settlements, of which nothing like full use is now being made. There is abundant room even in the more temperate zones for a population of treble the present number, and if it

were settled there to-day the financial burdens imposed by the world war would rest lightly on Australia's

shoulders.

But if this great and unexpected responsibility does for a commonwealth that has no wish to haul down the Union Jack, what, in a former century, its start on an independent career and the adoption of 'Old Glory' did for the United States,makes her rise to the occasion, exert her strength, and develop her capabilities,- no less may be predicted for the younger than for the elder of these two free and great confederations. And nothing would please the States of Australia more than to maintain close and cordial relations with the United States of America, on whose federal constitution they have in some respects modeled their own.

Australia at present is a sparsely populated continent, practically able to produce anything, which has been content or constrained by force of circumstances to lie largely fallow. It has great cities where professional and commercial life flourishes, and a wellto-do people whose daily round and common task is not so exacting as to deprive them of the opportunity and ability to get a fair amount of entertainment out of life. Great fortunes have been made, but yet it cannot be called a plutocratic country. It has adult suffrage, and the vote of the working classes is in the majority in its electorates. It is a land where the problems of democracy, and of responsible government controlled by those classes which in English-speaking communities are the most numerous, are being practically evolved. In no other country, except possibly Switzerland, is the saying vox populi, vox Dei more true than in Australia.

Its politics are strenuous but clean. Every shade of opinion and every

brand of economic theory find free and sometimes forceful expression; yet the life of the individual proceeds under conditions as favorable as any obtaining in the habitable world.

Speaking generally of the people, it may be said that they are openhanded, generous, and buoyant-inclined to esteem a man by what he is rather than by what he has, or by the avocation he follows. The terms 'gentleman' and 'lady' connote character and good-fellowship rather than birth or possessions. Subservience is not the mark of any Australian-born, but in social life good will is always met with a return of good will pressed down and flowing over. The Australian is a good fighter, but he can try conclusions without rancor in a fair field with opponents whom he can oppose and at the same time respect.

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In the literature of America, from Hawthorne, Poe, and Longfellow to Owen Wister and Winston Churchill, from Bret Harte to O. Henry, there is a strong link of interest between the two countries. The late Mark Twain a personal friend is a household word to the whole reading public of the south. If Tom Sawyer represents all the American boy Mark could think of, he reflects much that is characteristic of his Australian coeval. Mark and Max Adeler, Frank Stockton, the one and only Artemus Ward, and 'Mr. Dooley' have contributed to innumerable bookshelves, and have delighted several generations in the commonwealth.

The first-named, and greatest of these, came to see and to write upon us, and if he had done no more than describe Woolloomooloo as 'a noted pleasure resort near Sydney,' he would have been taken to the heart of every Australian with a sense of fun as a humorist of the first rank. When The Landmark

Australia produces anyone to compare with S. L. Clemens, with Edgar Allan Poe, and with Nathaniel Hawthorne, she will know she has cut her wisdom teeth a thing that in spite of Geoffrey Hamlyn and For the Term of His Natural Life, she has not done yet, though there are some signs of a stirring in her gums.

In mother wit and racy phrase the Australian emulates, if he cannot equal, the invention of the American, and that is why the literature of the States makes so strong an appeal to him.

Australia has two great and prosperous cities in Sydney and Melbourne. An American will probably like both of them. The evidence of 'hustle' may not be so prominent as in the metropolitan cities of his own country, but he will find comfort, reasonable prices, and an up-to-date civilization that serves all ordinary purposes. He will also find outdoor and indoor sport and entertainment in abundance, in which there are crowds of well-dressed people participating.

The first-named city is unrivaled for its site and its port. It grew. Melbourne was built to plan, on the square.

Inland, he will enter a world of vast and varied interest, ranging from scenes of grandeur in their natural beauty to productive acres, whose charm is due to the cultivating hand of

A BUSINESS LETTER FROM GERMANY

GERMANY is moving toward two crises, one immediate, the other remote, the perils of which all know, but for which no one has discovered remedies. The first is the coal crisis; the second is the widespread involuntary dumping abroad of commodities at a fraction of their world-market value, a practice which causes panic only to such foreigners as are producers in threatened branches, but which with good reason causes panic to all Germans. On both these matters conferences and newspapers daily enlarge, agreeing that if remedies are not soon found Germany will, through the second crisis, be cleared out of everything worth selling to foreigners, and through the first crisis will be prevented producing anything more for foreigners to buy.

The coal shortage has grown steadily worse since the attempt made to remedy it between the 5th and 15th of last month by suspending the whole railway passenger service. This measure had very limited success; South Germany, whose industries feel the lack of fuel most, got largely increased supplies, but elsewhere there was no great change, and in Berlin there was no change at all. Heavy snowfalls hampered traffic. A second complete or partial stoppage of the passenger service is now under consideration, and meantime only fifteen express and thirty-five slow long-distance trains a day leave Berlin.

A very heavy coal shortage will be experienced during the rest of the winter. In a statement to the Prussian

National Assembly, Herr Fischbeck, Minister of Trade, put the expected shortage during the five months, November-March, at 36,800,000 tons. The total output in these months, after deducting the consumption of the mines, would be 83,200,000 tons (39,700,000 tons of the amount being brown coal), while for consumption and fulfillment of the Peace Treaty provisions will be needed at least 66,500,000 tons of hard coal and 53,000,000 of brown coal.

Measured by past labor conditions, coal mining is proceeding satisfactorily. The Ruhr daily output has risen to 245,000 tons, which is 60 per cent of the peace figure. The Upper Silesian output has also increased, and is now 100,000 tons a day. In the brown coal districts the output is 90 per cent of that of the later war period, and the bricket production is over 80 per cent of that of 1918. The number of miners working in the Ruhr district is 440,000 men, against 390,000 before the war; in Upper Silesia 150,000 men, against 124,000, and in the brown coal district is also registered an increase.

Now that the men are beginning to work- and it is noteworthy that even the Independent Socialists have declared for more intensive production the chief local obstacle is lack of dwellings. About 150,000 houses, costing 3,500,000,000 marks, have to be built, and for this work the Reichswirtschaftsministerium has published a comprehensive plan. The insuperable obstacle is the inadequacy of the railway rolling stock. In Upper Silesia the supply of cars increased last month, when it reached 98 per cent of the number needed; but in general the insufficiency

of cars is so marked that the adequate distribution of coal for the railways themselves is often in doubt. For domestic heating and lighting the cities have at most a few days' supply, and as precedence has to be given to this need the wholesale refusal of coal to industry is inevitable.

During the past few weeks a very large number of important industrial works have closed down. A day after the passenger service was restored it was announced by the Coal Department that all the industries of Hamburg, Altona, and Wandsbeck, which depend upon electric power, must close. Since then have come in daily reports of complete or partial stoppage of iron and chemical works, of textile mills, and potteries. The Krupp works, which since the armistice have been extending the scope of their pre-war peace production, announce that a complete stoppage of work is imminent. The small iron and hardware industry of Rhenish-Westphalia is particularly badly hit. This industry, being largely export, suffered severely during the war, but of late, owing to a large home demand and to very heavy orders from foreigners, it has had more work than it could do the Solingen steel concerns have had a boom without record.

For a time these concerns overcame their fuel troubles by sending their own motor trucks to the pits; but many of them are now threatened with the cutting off of the electric power upon which they depend. The domestic supply is falling rapidly. Houses are supposed to get 90 per cent of last year's consumption, but in practice they are getting only 50 per cent, and many towns get little over 30 per cent. The Coal Commissary reports that the average domestic consumption is not more than one bricket per person per day. As no improvement - so an official statement declares can be

effected in the utilization of railways, rivers, and canals, it seems certain that a very large part of the industries, particularly the vital iron and steel branches, will be more or less completely closed down during the winter.

With such conditions the widespread fear of any considerable dumping by Germany seems baseless. The dumping is limited, and it is taking forms and dimensions which injure chiefly Germany. On the 18th of last month began a conference between the committee of states and the interested ministries, with the aim of finding means to prevent it. The whole question of Germany's foreign trade relations is primarily an exchange question; Germany's own price level has risen very much more than that of any other important belligerent country except Russia; and it is only the unprecedented collapse of the mark which makes German goods cheap to foreigners.

The Reichsbank has appealed to retail traders to compel foreigners to pay a supplement upon listed prices, a measure which in most cases would be futile, as foreigners can do their buying through German intermediaries. The great open question of principle is whether Germany, seeing attempts to raise the mark's exchange price impracticable, should aim at raising her domestic price level until it equals on exchange that of the world market, and in that way prevent the selling abroad of her goods for a trifle. Such a solution is undesirable. It raises impossible prospects for the German consumer, who finds even present prices very high. But no artificial measures would probably be needed to bring it about; because prices in marks are all the time rising with extraordinary speed. Thus the pig-iron producers who on October 10 raised their prices (for hematite) to 735 marks a ton, the price in 1914 being 79.50 marks, are now demanding an

extra 400-500 marks a ton; and it no longer excites comment when any branch of the finishing metal industries raises its prices 50, 100, or even 200 per cent in a few weeks.

But as German experts hope for a rise in the exchange until it represents roughly the difference between German and foreign price levels (the most detailed calculation I have seen puts the value of the mark, which sells under 112d., at about 8d.), the obvious expedient is to fight 'exchange dumping' by temporary measures; and this, it seems, will be done.

One measure unofficially announced is a 25 per cent export duty. This percentage will be hardly felt by foreign buyers as long as the better foreign exchanges are 800 per cent up. The only real advantage would be the increase of revenue for the state. The plan has already aroused protests; the Union of German Industries declares that export must at all cost be fostered. Another suggestion made is that in selling for export prices should be fixed according to the exchange of the day. This suggestion presents difficulties; calculation shows that goods priced at 545 marks on July 7 would have fluctuated to 1,150,839, and 1074 before October 17. The plan is not more impracticable than the present system of exacting payment of import duties in gold; in this case, too, the exchange fluctuations compel the government to issue every week a scale of the price of gold in paper. A fully satisfactory remedy is hard to find. The present condition satisfies nobody; Germany is doubly drained of her wealth by importing goods at world market prices while she is paid for her exports at her own price level; foreign manufacturers are frightened; and as a rule the profit is reaped not by foreign consumers, but by foreign importers, middlemen, and retailers. A table has been published

here showing that certain Germanmade goods are being sold in Sweden for as many crowns as they cost marks; as the crown's exchange was then over ten marks, the importers and middlemen between them reaped 900 per cent profit.

In addition to income tax will be levied a dividend and interest tax of 20 per cent on dividends from stocks and shares, and of 10 per cent on interest from bonds, bank deposits, and foreign investments. The states will receive a share of the income-tax yield (but not of the dividends and interest tax), on the principle that revenue from small incomes mostly goes to them, and revenue from large incomes to the republic. They will receive 90 per cent of the taxation of incomes under 15,000 marks, and so on in inverse ratio until of taxation from incomes over 400,000 marks they will receive only 20 per cent. The states are to be obliged to tax income from land; and the municipalities to levy amusement taxes. The property tax, as in its present stage before the National Assembly Committee, is fixed at 10 per cent on the first 50,000 marks; 12 per cent on the second 50,000 marks; and so on until 65 per cent on all property over 2,000,000 marks is reached. Religious communities, non-profit-making economical associations, and political parties are tax-free. The new luxury tax, in its present condition before the Assembly, is 10 per cent on sale prices of luxury wares, to be paid by the manufacturer. Among the listed luxuries are articles in precious metals, precious stones, jewelry, furs, textiles, pictures, pianos, weapons, sweets, glass and china, furniture, clocks, and toys. Luxuries sold retail, such as works of art, carriage and saddle horses, and flowers, which cannot be taxed at time of production, pay on sale a 15 per cent tax.

The Economist