Balkan brigands are improving on the methods of the innkeepers of Oberammergan, shopkeepers of Berlin and Dresden, and restaurant keepers of Paris in the business of quick and complete annexation of American bankrolls which come within their reach. A cablegram tolls of the holdup and robbery of a party of Illinois tourists at a lonely spot in the Balkans.

This is more crude than the ordinary commercial transactions now going on in Europe to separate Americans from their dollars, but perhaps it has some compensation in the romantic Old World costumes of the brigands.

And still we flock abroad. The month of May this year has soon all American passport records broken with some 25,000 issued. The total number for the year to date is about 77,000. That means 77,000 persons have started for Europe to spend an average of about $1000 each. So $77,000,000 of American money is on its way into European pockets already, and more than likely the amount will be doubled in the course of the season.

That is quite all right so far as the individual travelers are concerned. We may assume that they came by the money honestly. Many of them have worked hard and saved carefully for the four. They will find in it much of educational and recreational value. They will enjoy themselves and complain bitterly at the profiteering methods of the innkeepers, the shopkeepers, the restaurant keepers, and the others whom they meet.

For such complaints there are several antidotal thoughts. There is no law compelling any American to go abroad to spend his money. He can be exploited with equal comfort if not equal speed at home. If he insists upon spending his money abroad he is contributing so called invisible exports to the balancing of trade and the reconstruction of Europe. One hundred and fifty million dollars a year is worth while to Europe. If Americans are "robbed" let them try to believe themselves "robbed" in a good cause and be sports about it. Otherwise, let them see America first. Chicago Tribune