About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1916)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLAMTA. OL, 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of the Second Class. JAMES B. GRAT, and Editor. SUBSCBXPTXOV PRICE. Twelve months .Toe Six months 40c Three months -25 c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over tne world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents w.uited at every postoffice. Liberal commis sion allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRADLEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kimbrough, Chas. H. Woodliff and L. J. Farris. We will toe responsible only for money paid to the above-named traveling represent atives. — WOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used foe addrvsslog your paper snows the ttms your subecriptl v: erptrea. By renewing at least two weeks be fore the date on this label, you insure regular service. In order:ng paper changed, be sure to mentioa your old. as wen as your tew address. If on a route, please give the route ■ember. Wa canrot enter subacrlptloos to begin with back numbers. Remittance should be sent by postal order or registered mall. Address all orders and notices for this Department to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta. Ga. A Feeble and Evasive Answer. Germany’s answer to the American inquiry con cerning the attack on the Sussex and other unarmed ships is of the same evasive manner that has mark ed her course throughout the submarine con troversy. While admitting that a U boat did tor pedo a merchantman In the vicinity of the Sussex explosion, she contends that the Sussex was the victim of a floating mine; and her exquisite reason is that a sketch which the U boat commander made of the merchantman he torpedoed does not tally with photographs of the vessel now in question. A defense that resorts to such is indeed hard pressed. As to the attacks on the Englishman, the Man chester Engineer, the Eagle Point and the Berwin dale, in all of which American citizens were im periled, Germany declares that those vessels dis regarded signals to halt and that, therefore, her submarines were warranted in firing upon them. Neutral testimony in these cases is to the effect that the submarines attacked without warning; and it is hardly credible that all Your ships, defenseless as they were, would have courted destruction by Ignoring the command of a deadly war craft. Ger many's first plea In the Arabic case was that the passenger vessel tried to ram the submarine; and she contended at first that the Lusitania carried arms and ammunition. In both those instances, a full disclosure of the facts proved that her claims were groundless. Her record in this respect is not one to Inspire trust. It seems, indeed, that after fourteen months of controversy, in which the United States has been wonderfully patient and restrained, the submarine issue is no'nearer a just settlement than at the be ginning. Since March the first thirty neutral ships aad fifty-two peaceful ships of the Allies have been torpedoed, in most cases without warning and with no provision for the safety of the noncombatants aboard. Prussian ruthlessness is running amuck again. Berlin’s solemn pledges to the United States are being treated as scraps of paper. Con tinued argument with a Government pursuing such a course would be farcicial- The limit has been reached beyond which words will give way to action. Georgia Shippers io the Defense The campaign to protect Georgia industries against an exorbitant increase in intrastate freight rates is getting definitely and vigorously under way- Manufacturers and merchants and farmers are re alising more and more broadly that their inteests are in grave peril. The manufacturer sees that under the rate revision proposed by the railroads be cannot hope to compete, even in his own State, with giant corporations of the West and East. The merchant sees that the trade territory which natur ally belongs to him and his Georgia associates will be absorbed by far distant concerns, if the proposed rate advances are allowed. The farmer sees like wise that he will get less for the foodstuffs he sells and will pay more'for the necessaries he buys. The more clearly and widely these facts are brought to IfghL the more effectual will be the effort to avert the danger and damage which they indicate. That is the immediate purpose of the campaign which Georgia Shippers have undertaken. It is to be a campaign of education and warning. Just so soon as the producers and dealers in this State are fully aware of what the proposed rate increases signify to them, they will lose no time in organiz ing for their common defense. The more alert among them have sighted the danger already, and the rank and file will not be slow in awakening. It is simply a question of bringing the facts of the case definitely to their attention. Plans to that end were perfected Tuesday at the Atlanta meeting of the Executive committee of the Georgia Shippers Association. This committee represents each of the Congressional districts and practically every field of industrial and mercantile interests in the State. Furthermore, it represents in its personnel the highest standard of Georgia's business leadership- It is working to save the State’s native industries from misfortune and ruin. •It merits and undoubtedly will receive the earnest support of shippers and producers throughout the commonwealth. Regardless of Friend and Foe The torpedoing of the Spanish steamer Santan derino lengthens the list of neutral countries which have suffered from the lawlessness of German U boats. The owners of this vessel report that she was sunk by a submarine after the passengers and crew were given fifteen minutes to seek safety. Thai was an indulgence rather remarkable among disciples of von Tirpitz. Their custom is to fire without warning, regardless of the noncombatants and neutrals who are exposed. Holland and the Scandinavian countries have lost a hundred or more ships through Germany's undersea warfare. Americans think of their rights and interests as having been violated with unusual flagrance by the German submarines. But the ruth less warfare strikes neutrals everywhere, observ ing no difference between foe and friend. Germany doesn’t admit sinking*every ship, but intimates that it would have been legal even If she bad. In Mexico Then and Now. The punitive expedition against Villa has called into service more American troops than were em ployed by the United States during any period of the Mexican war seventy years ago. At that time, says the Detroit Free Press: "General Taylor went in from the north, and the greatest number of men he had was something less than seven thousand. He fought at Monterey with sixty-seven hundred. General Scott landed twelve thousand soldiers at Vera Cruz, and fought at Cerro Gordo with eight thousand, five hundred. The total num ber of regular troops actually used in the whole war was twenty-one thousand, five hundred and nine; there were twenty-two thousand volunteers.” The mobile army of the continental United States at the time of Villa’s raid on Columbus numbered between thirty and thirty-five thousand men. In one way or another, practically the en tire force is engaged in t*he task of bringing the bandit to justice—if not with General Pershing’s command in the field, then in the border patrol. The work now in hand is more difficult in some ♦ respects than was the invasion of seventy years ago; certainly its requirements are of a more delicate character. The Mexico of that time was rent with Internal dissension, and there were no diplomatic niceties to be observed. In the present instance we are trying to avoid the very things which then were a plain objective. The requirements of the punitive expedition, however, are none the less striking as evidence of how inadequately prepared our nation now would find Itself for a military task of far-reaching pro portions How to Save. A correspondent, who evidently is a practical saver, writes us regarding a recent editorial on “Thrift”: “You omit one idea which I have known to lead to success and prosperity. It is this: A young man on a moderte salary should begin saving by placing a certain fixed sum in the savings bank each pay day, no matter what his salary is. If necessary, he should start with ten cents, and, as advancement or salary increase comes, he should save in proportion. He should deprive himself, if need be, to meet the fixed amount determined upon. He should not depend on the plan of saving what is left over after meeting expenses; for then there may be nothing, and probably will be nothing, left to save. The great Gladstone once re marked: “Live within you^’income, no matter how small. If you can't save a dime, save a nickel, and you will be on the up grade.” This advice is valuable because it is coined from the mint of experience. The writer evidently had tried the plan of saving at random what was left from a month's or a week’s salary, and had failed. It was only by resolving upon some definite amount to lay by at regular intervals that he succeeded in practicing the virtues of thrift. What that amount may be is not so important as that it shall be definite and regular. Thus only can the principle of thrift be realized and the habit of thrift acquired. And thrift, like everything else worth while in human character and achievement, is a matter of principle and habit. To know what we want to do, what we can do and then to do it the best we can, over and over and over again— that is the secret of success. We never know what we can do until we try, and try systematically with a definite end in view. Effort of that kind will reveal to us unsuspected resources both within our selves and all about us. Efforts to save money, on this principle and by this method, will bring grati fying and oftentimes astonishing results- Now and then a war dispatch reminds us that the Italians haven't yet made a separate peace. German Gains and Losses. As the trophies of seventeen months of fight ing, Germany now holds in conquest the better part of Belgium, a slender strip of France and a comparatively small part of Russia. During the same time she has lost a colonial area nearly four times greater than her whole empire in Europe. The location and extent of those colonies are worth noting. They are: In Africa; Sq. Miles. Southwest Africa 322,450 Cameroons n* 300,000 Togoland * 33,700 In the Pacific: Samoa / 660 Upolu 340 Bismarck Archipelago 22,640 Kaiser Wilhelms-Land and Pacific Islands 70,000 Caroline, Pelew, Marianne and Mar- shall Islands 1,000 In Asia: Kiau-Chau 200 These oversea possessions were peculiarly dear to German diplomacy and commerce. They in cluded rich fields for economic expansion and trade development, and strategic bases of great impor tance to the Kaiser’s navy. Southwest Africa alone exceeds the area of European Germany by one hundred and twelve thousand square miles. The islands in the Pacific were valuable in sundry ways to R nation that aspired to become powerful on the seas. Kiau-Chau was the key point to German commerce in the Orient. It may not be assumed that all this territory is permanently lost any more than that Belgium and the parts of France and Russia now held by German troops is permanently gained. Certainly, however, the fact that the Allies are in possession of those great colonial areas will figure largelj’ in the terms of the war settlement; and It is doubtful that Ger many ever will recover the major portion of them unless she wins a victory' that is overwhelming. A doctor says that arsenic is really not a poison, but we are not going to try the experiment on our selves. The Republicans are going to put out a state ticket In Georgia. The political formalities must be complied with somehow. THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1916. The Superior Man BY DR. FRANK CRANE. The name of Confucius sounds vague and strange to western ears. Yet for 2,000 years his teachings have been accepted by a larger number of human beings than those of any other teacher. It would seem that all intelligent persons should know something of him and of the ideas he stood for. Confucius was not the founder of a religion, as were Jesus and Mahomet: he was a teacher of ethics; that is. of personal morals and political principles. He died in 479 B. C., unappreciated. As in the cases of Socrates and Jesus, a great cult grew up around his teachings after his death, and the real sense and beauty of the founder became obscured under the organization that soughs to make him the figurehead of authority. He was in reality an incarnation of common sense and clear intelligence. Here is the gist of his main teachings. First, the object of every man should be to be supe rior, not necessanily to others, but to his past, to him self. The superior man's aim in life is perfectly to ex press himself, to develop harmoniously all his faculties. Success means accomplishing this. Hence, if we understand why’ we are put here we understand that the difference in station or natural talents amounts to nothing; one man can succeed as well as another. Once we see this all complaint against the Injustice of fate and the special privileges of men disappear. In what is worth while none can have the advantage. Again, Intellectual honesty is the basis of any true morals. We must first know facts. No morality is possible that springs from ignorance. But, alas! he shrewdly remarks: "When a man’s fin ger is deformed he knows enough to be dissatisfied; but if his mind be deformed he does not know enough to be dissatisfied.” The superior man therefore loves the truth. “They who know the truth are not equal to them that love it.” In other words, a man’s first duty is not to follow his conscience, but to see to it that his conscience is conformed to the truth. The superior man is free from four evils: "fore gone conclusions, arbitrary predeterminations, obstinacy and egotism.” The superior man conceives living to be a<i art, a thing to be thought out and purposively followed. The superior man is catholic ana not partisan; the ordinary man is the opposite. Things have their root and their fruition; the supe rior man knows the root. The spirit of the superior man is open-mindedness and candid inquiry. Tfius Confucius anticipated the modern scientific mind. blind following oi authority does not characterize the superior man. “Hwuy," he said, "gives me no as sistance. There is nothing I say in which he does not delight.” In Confucius we get a similar picture of pure dem ocracy, of universal companionship, and of the essen tial humility of a great soul to that we see in Jesus, in Socrates, and in Epictetus. “There being instruc tion,” he said, “there will be no distinction of classes.” These and many more helpful things you may find In “The Ethics of Confucius” or "‘The Superior Man,” a book by M. M. Dawson, recently published by Putman. The advantage of this volume over any upon the sub ject I have ever seen is that it is clear, readlble, and well ordered. It is worth buying, keeping, reading, and re-reading, which is praise deserved by few books of any kind. It has an admirable introduction by Wu Ting-fang who reminds us of the great object of the sage which was to show one "how to get through life like ’a cour teous gentleman.” (Copyright, ,1916, by Frank Crane.) To Check Heart Disease BY H. ADDFNGTON BRUCE. IT is no exaggeration to say that the situation created by the increase during recent years of diseases of the heart is rapidly becoming as serious as the tuberculosis problem. Indeed it threatens to present the more serious problem of the two. While the death rate for tuberculosis has been getting lower and lower, that for heart disease has been steadily rising. In some communities today as many people are dying from heart disease as die from tuberculosis. Thus in New York City, according to statistics which I take from the authoritative Journal of the American Medical association, the death rate for tuberculosis in 1870 was 421 per 100,000 of pop ulation. By 1914 it had been reduced to 169 per 100,000. On the other hand, whereas the death rate in New York for diseases of the heart was only seven ty-tour per 100,000 in 1870, it had risen by 1914 to exactly the same.rate as that for deaths from tuberculosis—that is, 169 per 100,000. What does this mean? Is heart disease essen tially less preventable than tuberculosis? Can nothing be done to cope with it? . Medical authorities are agreed that even in comparatively advanced cases much can be done. This has been strikingly demonstrated by, for ex ample, some experimental work carried on in Bellevue hospital, New York. This work was in the nature of establishing classes in which heart patients could learn what precautions they ought to take to avoid bringing on acute attacks, thus rendering their heart action weaker and weaker. A social worker was enlisted to do follow-up work after the patients had been discharged from the hospital. Some remarkable results are reported. Six pa tients who had spent a total of 251 days in Bellevue before the opening of the class, did not have to spend a day in any hospital during the first year after the class was started. But prevention, of course, is better than ame lioration, and it is necessary both to detect heart cases in their incipiency, and to educate the public as to avoidable causes of heart trouble. To attain both these ends many agencies will have to co operate. 'No man, no matter how strong his heart may be, can afford to worry, or to lose emotional con trol. If* he persistently aljows his emotions to overwhelm him, he is almost certain to weaken his heart.* Editorially, the Journal of the American Med ical Association makes some important recommen dations. It urges more careful medical examinations for heart defects in school children, specialized school ing and vocational training for affected children, more emphasis on the control of those infectious diseases which have serious heart after-effects, and “widespread education regarding necessary precau tions and suitable occupations for cardiac patients.” To these well-considered suggestions, 1 wouia add the education of the general public tn develop ing emotional control. Medical science has yet a good deal to learn regarding the various factors which cause heart disease. But among other things that it definitely knows is that worry. Tear, anger, and simillar emo; tional states, if persisted in, have a damaging effect on the heart. This one fact alone, if kept in mind and acted on, will do much to check the increase in heart disease now viewed with real apprehension by med ical authorities. It is not only the man with the weak heart who should control his temper, avoid worry, and in gen eral curb excitement of any kind. Quips and Quiddities Really Mr. and Mrs. Wibbles were very happy to gether, except when an argument arose. Then Mrs. Wibbles contradicted her husband firmly and as a mat ter of principle. One eve'ning they were discussing the question of superiority of inan over woman, and the lady was get ting heated. “At any rate,” said her husband presently, “there is one good, sweet and perfect thing which a man can have, but which is barred to women.” "Never!” cried Mrs. Wibbles passionately. “I deny it!” Then she asked curiously, “What do you mean?” “A wife,” was the calm retort. EUROPE’S FUTURE POPULATION BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. * WASHINGTON, D. C., April 10.—The countries of Europe now at war may in future years be populated by a veritable race of dwarfs, if the war continues much longer, according to the specula tions of some scientists. Interest is now turning largely away from the war itself and toward its ulti mate effects, social and industrial. One of the most interesting questions presented is what changes the war will cause in the races of Europe, and this is of immediate importance to the American people, for by immigration we shall share whatever heritage the war leaves to the European nations. « • • Speculation as to the future size of Europeans is based largely upon the. well known fact that the Na poleonic wars reduced the average size of the French people. This is an opinion ccAnmonly held In France itself, and is adequately established by the records of the army. Napoleon had repeatedly to lower the standards of height which he had set for his soldiers. Furthermore the measurements of the young men who annually offered themselves for compulsory service shows that during the twenty-year period of the war the number of those rejected for insufficient size greatly increased. • • • A loss of size in Itself is not important, but it pret ty certainly implies a loss of other valuable physical qualities. Thus during the period of the great French wars, the number of conscripts who had to be rejected because of infirmities increased one-third. Now the scientists who argue that the present war Is to result in a physical degenerate European race point out that the present war is much worse than any preceding one. It is destroying men in unpre cedented numbers. The total losses of Europe in killed, wounded and missing have been estimated as high as 10,000,000 men. Furthermore, the number of men who have been taken from the battlefields as nerv ous wrecks or insane Is tremendous. The maddening monotony of trench warfare, the terrific shock of heavy artillery, the use of poison gases, all combine to render the war more destructive to human tissue than any that was ever waged before. • • • This side of the picture has of course been greatly emphasized in this country, while the other has been almost overlooked. There are a number of scientists who contend that war Is beneficial, and necessary. One of the most convincing of these is Dr. Otto Ammon, of Jena, who points out that the conflict between na tions is the most majestic form of the struggle for existence, and is really a w’orking out of the laws of natural selection. • • • The pacificists deny this categorically, asserting that the process of natural selection is reversed. Thus in the battle of wild animals In a wilderness, the weakest are always killed, the strong survive, and the breed is improved. In war, however, the strongest and Attest are forced to go to the front and be killed or maimed, while the unfit are carefully protected at home. The recruiting office says to the weakling citi zen, "You are not good enough to be a soldier; go home and be a father” • • • So those who assert that injures the race seem to have the best of it if the question is viewed from a biological standpoint The militarist philosophers claim that the proportion destroyed is not really large enough to have a great effect, and that the damage is in part compensated by an increased birth rate after war. They cannot, however, disprove the terrible loss of race-strength both by death and injury in a war like the present one. f They assert, however, that the greatest benefits of war are spiritual. During the war, they say the heroism and unselfishness of a people are stimulated. Persons who have devoted all their lives to gathering riches often freely give these to the cause. The men of the race learn how to face death, the women how to face sacrifice. In peace, heroism is possible only for a f ew —such as explorers and adventurers. In war, heroism becomes the common experience of the race. Nations often produce their greatest men after wars. The Germans, Goethe, Schiller and Kant came after the desolating Thirty Years war. Poland produced a wonderful crop of geniuses while she was being over run by the armies of Europe and torn to pieces by INCREDIBLE THINGS THE USUAL IN WAR j NEW YORK. —Not long ago a story of some un usual interest came over the cables from the war. An after-dinner speaker in a club that night referred to it with a laugh; “Os course,” said he, “the story is incredible. It was made up by some newspaperman.” The only thing incredible about the story was the folly of the man who would make such a comment. Nothing Is Incredible in this war. Anything may be true, and usually is. Stop and think for a moment. England and France and Germany and Belgium and Italy and Turkey—and so on distressingly—are at war. According to figures which, if not reliable are at least recent, France alone has lost in killed —in killed only—• 800,000 men. M. Longuet, a French deputy, is author ity for the statement that France’s total loss in all classes of casualties to date are 2,500,000. Pretty nearly every man of the 2,500,000 has figured In a story which to office-whitened, table-fattened men would seem Incredible. Here are some of them, taken at random from my notes. “My particular hero in this war is a young Aus tralian,” said Frederick Roy Martin. Mr. Martin is the war editor of the Associated Press. He has been stationed in London since the be ginning. His friends know him as a man of warm human sympathies, but in no case a victim of maverick emotion. He is a profound believer in the value of facts. The Australian is nineteen years old, six feet two inches tall, intelligent and manly. He was a mem ber of the ill-fated Dardanelles force. Four or five of the boats carrying landing forces were sunk before it was his turn to attempt to reach the shrapnel-lashed beach. One moment his boat was sweeping along under the urge of the oars. The Australian daredevils were laughing and cheering while the reddened sea about them swarmed'with the bodies of their comrades. “There came a flash,” said the Australian. “When I awakened I was in the hospital.” Every other man in that boat was dead. The Aus tralian was blinded and he had never seen an enemy. Both his arms and both his legs were gone. Now comes the incredible part. To this point the narrative has been almost a commonplace. "He is cheerful,” said Martin. “Genuinely cheerful. He is making brave plans for his future. When I last saw' him he was engaged in the task of breaking to his family the news of his mutilation, a little at a time. “ ’When they know I have neither arms nor legs,’ said he, 'I will tell them I am blind. Not until then. They could not stand it.’ ” There is the story of the German spy which Dr. Howard Gilchreest tells. Gilchreest is a Texas phy sician who for a time was connected with .the Red Cross service with the English army. One is accus tomed to think of the individual German as blinded to every other consideration by an almost fanatical patriotism. This man was captured in Flanders in the disguise of a peasant. The drumhead court-martial ordered him shot. The English are decent to their foes. They asked him if he had a last request to make. “An hour,” said he. “and plenty of good cigarettes. I've been without.” So that for an hour he smoked one cigarette after another and chatted pleasantly with the men who were soon to blindfold him and shoot him against a sunny wall. Some one asked him if he hated England. “Not at all,” said he. “I am very fond of England. This was a cold business proposition with me. If I had succeeded in what I tried I would have been on velvet all the rest of my.life. It was a game worth playing.” By and by his hour was up. He threw away his last cigarette, walked to the wall, and helped adjust the handkerchief over his eyes. He spoke to the officer who knotted it. “I might as well be conventional,” said he, calmly. “Hoch der kaiser.’ ” M. Frank Febvre. once the doyen of the Comedie Francals, received a letter from a poilu the other day. ■ them. The great American phychologist, William James, believed in this stimulating effect of war, and in his volume “The Will to Believe,” he gives an im pressive list of nations and peoples that have done great things in the face of threatened or partial oe struction. It is a striking fact that religious seats which have been persecuted and hounded about the earth nearly always are people of unusual qualities. The Huguenots, the,Puritans and the Waldenses, are well known examples. • • • This quickening of the spiritual life of a nation by war may be traced to some extent throughout history. In a short war, assert the militarists, a nation works on the fat and sloth accumulated by years of undisturbed industry; its spiritual qualities are awakened, and its nationalism intensified. The pacificists reply to this is that war has brutalizing as well as stimulating ef fects, and that above all, its rewards cannot possibly be worth the terriffic price being paid in the present struggle. f • • • There are many kinds of loss to the nations engaged besides those actually killed on the field of battle. The seriousness of this latter is probably exaggerated in the mind of the average American, as it has been in the utterances of a host of amateur and professional pacificists. Thus the losses of Germany have been placed as high as 3,000,000. This is an extreme esti mate in the first place. In the second place it includes wounded and prisoners. The wounded include many who are only slightly injured, and a comparatively small proportion who are injured for life. Many of the prisoners, of course, are not injured at all. Some military experts say that the actual loss of life to Germany is so far less than a million men. This is more than 6 or 7 per cent of the men of the nation. If more than 90 per cent remain to per petuate the race, it cannot suffer so immensely from this cause alone. • • • But it must also be taken into account that the race is meantime being propagated largely by the adoles cent, the aged, and the unfit who were left behind. These are enjoying the opportunities of marriage and family life while the strongest men are in the trenches. Then, too, many who come back from the war will be victims of what the scientists call traumatic neurosis—that is, the effect on the nervous system of the terrific shock of the modern machinery of battle. Several scientists of high standing have expressed the belief that this nervous shock will be apparent for many generations. • • • These are of course unknown factors in the situa tion, and it remains to be seen what effect they will have on the future of the European race. • • • Another difficult question to be faced after the war by all of the combatant nations will be a superfluity of women. Always a little more numerous than the man. they will soon be many millions tn excess. One Orien tal philosopher has suggested legalized polygamy as the solution of the difficulty. This of course is out of the question in Christian nations; but some scientists admit that it might be better than the unlegalized polygamy which is sure in some degree to result. Thus it Is believed by some observers that a large number of women unprotected by marriage' will be one of England’s great problems. Others, however, see a bright side to the picture. Arnold Bennett, the English novelist, believes that be cause of the keen competition for men, only the very finest women will achieve marriage. Thus the best of the race will be perpetuated, and the bad effect of a shortage of fit men will be somewhat ameliorated by a superfluity of fit women. • • • One gain for women already very noticeable 1® that they are taking a part in many occupations hitherto monopolized by men. The opportunity to work, whlcls is the fundamental need of modern woman, and th® lack of which is the basis of all her restlessness, has undoubtedly been broadened by war. • • • A canvass of all of the opinions of the learnedl leaves the conviction that the war will leave the Eu ropeans a people in many senses impaired, and will doubtless send to America a share of maimed and un fit, but also that it undoubtedly has spiritual and moral values; and .that these, too, will —in fact, already have been —felt across the Atlantic. The soldier had once been an actor, and often wrote to his old friend. He told of an incident at the front which by every rule of civilian life is incredible. At his sector of the front the opposing trenches were so near each other that the fighters could hear each other's voices. “The brother of my captain, M. de V wrote the poilu, “had been a scandal in Paris. Years ago he disappeared, and while we knew that he had joined the German army, we had no other information. In yes terday’s fighting I saw him in the German trenches I heard his voice. I could not be mistaken. - ’ That night a French mine was exploded. When the poilus rushed forward the writer devoted himself to a search. He gave a vivid description of his hunt through the charnel pit in the moonlight which need not be repeated. Finally he found the man he sought. He was dying. “I dragged him into our trenches," he wrote to Febvre, “and as I was bending over him Captain de V approached me. “ ‘This is singular— ’’ he began to say. “The dying man opened his eyes and the brothers recognized each other. While the battle raged the French brother sat upon a mound, his chin in his hand. At last the agony was over. My captain took off his capote and stretched it upon the body of his brother. “ 'At least,’ said he, ‘let him rest under the uniform of France.’ ” Finally is the story of the schoolmaster of Souchez. He was a quiet, slow thinking, unemotional man. He played his part well, but he was not satisfied. “It is nothing to me that iny town should be ruled by Frenchman or German,” said he. “I disapprove of our ardent nationalism. If I must fight, it should be for a better cause.” Thos4 sentiments won no approval in the trenches, and he learned to be silent. At Souchez he took part in a charge that was repulsed. On the retreat he was wounded and fell in a hole excavated by a shell. He was in plain view from the two trenches. Perhaps conviction had been coming to him slowly. Perhaps his approaching dissolution brought illumination. But as he lay in the crater, helpless from his hurt, he sud denly half raised his body. “Now I see, - ’ he shouted to his friends in the trench near by. “I know now why we are fighting. Vive la liberte!” And so he lay there throughout the day. Now and then a bullet from the German lines struck his body. From time to 'time his voice could be heard, constantly growing fainter: • “Vive la liberte!’’ Until at last the maddened Frenchmen swept out of their pits and took the Germaru line. They would have carried him to the rear, but he w’ould not permit them. \ “You are not fighting for me,” he whispered. “You are fighting for liberty. Go on.” The very air of France is vibrant with stories that are incredible. They tell of death met happily, and suffering bravely borne. The warmest smiles of French women are given to their husbands and lovers leaving for the front. Old men who have been ruined by the war work as servants in hospitals because that is all they can do for their country. Sacrifice has ceased to be sacrifice. Devotion is a commonplace. Things hap pen on every side every day that are incredible in a country which has been so long at peace that it hast forgotten what war is. But they are true. Copyright, 1916, by Herbert Corey.) At any rate, we gave Villa a run for his money. With the probable appointment of Meredith Nicholson as assistant secretary of war, it looks as if Indiana’s novelists would gradually become work aday high officials.
