We left the Verdun sector early in January, 1917, for a much needed rest in a quieter sector. At T——, I found my opportunity to leave and return to America. The homeward trip on the Espagne was uneventful for us, although we heard through the wireless that Mr. Wilson had broken off diplomatic relations with Germany. The passenger list was smaller than was expected, as fifteen persons cancelled their passage on the report that two coal steamers had been sunk the day previous to our departure in the Bay of Biscay.

This hasty and superficial sketch of a year's service in the Ambulance Corps does not even attempt to touch on some of the greatest influences which surround the American volunteer who devotes himself to this work. The personal equation, for example, is almost entirely lacking in this article, though undoubtedly a whole volume could be written on the inspiring effect of working with such people as the French, under such trying circumstances. Everywhere one meets nothing but sincere sympathy and appreciation, coupled with an indomitable cheerfulness, which combine to transform the hardest work into a pleasure and to make drudgery almost negligible.

In conclusion I wish to say that over here it is impossible to acquire any conception of the human energy which is daily being expended in this war. This energy is represented by all the resources of the nation and the loss of human life is only a part of the general economic waste. If one could picture the acres and acres of barbed wire entanglements, the endless miles of communicating trenches, and the magnitude of first, second and third line fortifications, he would appreciate in some measure the duties of the engineer corps. Again, one would have to picture an endless flow of automobiles of all makes and sizes from the heaviest tractor to the lightest staff car and one would have to visit the many automobile repair parcs, to form any conception of the extent and magnitude of the automobile service. So, too, one should see a battery of 75's in action, or watch some big monster on a freight car belching forth its cumbrous load and then disappearing down the track on its recoil, to understand the use of modern artillery. Watching the manoeuvres of the world's fastest aeroplanes, which, on clear days, may be seen to come and go from their respective aviation fields like so many bees from their hives, helps one to feel more than ever what a crime it is that all this human energy is not being turned into productive channels instead of being

used solely as a destructive force. If we could mobilize our nation's efforts and resources in times of peace as effectively as we should have to do in order to wage successfully a modern war, I am sure that such tasks as the construction of a Panama canal would become the merest incident.

IMPRESSIONS OF THE PUGET SOUND COUNTRY

BY EDWIN S. WEBSTER

Some of the members of our organization, recalling that I was in the Puget Sound Country for a short time early this year, and remembering that a number of years had elapsed since I was last there, have asked me for a few impressions of my trip. The thing that interested me most was the change that had taken place in Seattle. At the time of my previous visit one could see the unutilized flats stretching several miles south of the city, with the car line crossing them on a trestle. Today this region is dry land, covered with ship-yards and other industrial plants, and lined with vessels.

The shipbuilding industry, in fact, has assumed large proportions in Seattle, and as labor conditions are, at the moment at least, easier in this locality than in other parts of the country, the yards are able to work at their full capacity. So long as the demand for tonnage continues on anything like the present scale, shipbuilding is likely to be a boon to Seattle. Today the big payrolls at the yards are contributing materially to an enhanced prosperity throughout the whole community. A heavy fall in ocean freight rates after the war might of course materially impair this particular industry, but on the other hand it would be likely to work very much to the advantage of the lumber industry.

Since my return I have learned that the new Ames Shipbuilding plant closed contracts on March 3 for nine Cunard boats at a price of approximately eleven million dollars, and that the same week the Skinner and Eddy people took a contract for one 9400 ton boat for the Standard Oil Company. It is reported that the total value for boats under contract in Seattle yards is sixty-four million dollars, comprising fortyeight steel steamships and fifteen large wooden boats, in addition to numerous small ones, and also one cruiser and several submarines and torpedo boat destroyers for the government.

The lumber industry has not been in as good condition lately as in previous years, owing to the great advance in ocean freight rates and the great scarcity of railroad cars. When these disadvantages are overcome the movement of lumber from the Puget Sound Country should be very heavy and the effect upon the general business activity of that community pro