About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (May 11, 1917)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL — ATLAMTA, GA.. 5 MOITH FOBau'B ST. -> Entered at the Atlanta Pontofllee as Mail Matter of the Second Class JAMES B. GBAY, President and Editor. SUBSCBJPTXOB FBXCE- Twelve months ‘& c Six months *® c Three months . .........25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tues day and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. » It contains news front all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong depart ments of special value to the home and the farm. Kgents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal coin- I mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LET. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are R F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle. L, H. Kimbrough. Charles H. Woodllff and L. .1. Farris. We w ill be responsible only for motet ps <1 t*> the above named traveling representatives. k f MOTICE TO SUBSCBXBEBS. The label u»ed oar addressing year paper shoe* the lime senr •übwnprkm evpirea. By renewing at leaar tarn weeta be fore tbe date cn this label, yen insure regular serrice. In nrdenng paper . hanged, be sure re mention your old. aa well an year new address. If on a route, please give tbe route tratubw. , . . . . We ran nor -nter schaeriptious to begin with hack numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders end notices for this department to THE SEMI WEEKLY JOURNAL Atlanta. Ua. Tightening the Embargo. The Senate acted wisely in voting the President broad powers of embargo on American exports to neutral countries. Through Sweden, ‘Norway, Den mark. Hollafid and Switzerland, particularly the latter two. Germany has been getting large quanti ties of food and other necessaries. Those countries depend on imports, chiefly from the United States, for the very commodities which they sell to the Central Powers. Thus in shipping unrestrictedly to them we are helping to feed and sustain the monarchy with which we are at war. It is to meet this situation that the President has been author ized to use the embargo power. These neutrals have an unquestionable right to their enriching traffic. It would be as foolish for us to- censure them for selling to German' as it was for Germany to censure us. when we were neu trals. for selling to the Entente nations But sim ply because we recognize and respect their legal rights in the case we are in no wise bound to go on supplying them with the merchandise which constitutes their stock in trade witl\ Germany. On the contrary, we are constrained by every consid eration of self-defense and of loyalty to our cause to put a stop to all American exports which are likely to reach an enemy destination. To what an extent the embargo must be em ployed for this purpose depends on the readiness of the interested neutrals to cease exporting to Ger many. Their position, it must be admitted, is a deli cate one. and our Government will treat them with the broad sympathy of a nation which stood for two and a half years as a champion of neutral rights. Rut we cannot countenance for a moment any course which results In our own. food products and mil itary supplies reaching the armies of the Hohenzol iern. We shall do a willing part to keep Holland or Denmark or any other neutral from famine., but we must draw a rigid line against keeping up the Kaiser s forces and thereby prolonging the war. It is a problem to determine just what quanti ties and what kinds of Imports the countries bor dering Germany need for their subsistence. Official figures show that in a number of instances the ship ments which have reached them from the United States have been out of all proportion to their necessities. It is natural that their purchases from us should be heavier than before the war. because they must look to us for many things which they formerly got from Germany; but this can not ac count for all the extraordinary increases The Brit ish blockade has done much to keep supplies from reaching Germany byway of Holland and Scandi navia. and it will be still more effective now that the United States is one of the Allies instead of a neutral asserting its rights to trade with other neu rals But the only way to stop entirely Germany’s American sources of supply is to see to It that no American goods reaches any country which sells those goods to Germany. For that purpose the embargo should be used as broadly and as rigidly as conditions may require. We can act the more freely and unhesitatingly upon this line because it is our own commerce that we are controlling. We need for ourselves and our allies every pound of foodstuffs which we can produce. We shall willingly spare the neutrals enough for their own needs, but we cannot to let a single ounce slip through to the support of Prussian mil itarism When this policy Is enforced as string ently as it can be. Germany will feel the difference and the«war will be appreciably nearer an end. < In Praise of Corn Meal. Those to the manor born in the land of "buck wheat cakes and Indian batter” need no reminder that even though the wheat crop turns out short again, the country can fare well if there is a plenty of corn. But other parts of America evi dently need enlightenment on the nutritions and delectable dishes into which corn can he made. The national Department of Agriculture has under taken an educational, or we might say missionary, campaign to that end. Mr. Carl Vroornan, Assist ant Secretary of the Department, says that a pound of corn meal provides five times aa much energy and tissue-building protein as does a pound of raw potatoes; and as prices now run,a pound of «orn meal coats from .one-third to one-sixth what a pound of potatoes costs. Mr. Vroornan adds: "There are dozens of corn meal dishes in addition to corn bread. What is known in the North as Boston brown bread is composed of about one-half rye meal and half corn meal. Polenta is another corn meal dish which is ex tremely popular throughout southern Europe and in certain parts of the United States. The tainale also is In high favor when well made.” This may seem faint praise or entirely super fluous to mouths that have watered at a morning vision of corn meal batter cakes and to hearts that have beat faster at the evening incense of corn muffins. But we of Dixie must remember that there are those who dwell in darkness—untutored palates that knew aS little of the rich delights of corn cookery as the poor Indian knew of the civil ization heyond his wilderness. Let us rejoice that the Government is awake to its duty and oppor tunity in this respect us see to It that the South raises enough corn to meet the stupendous demand which is certain to come. • IHE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL,’ ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1917. A Statewide Local School Tax. Georgia's pronounced need of more schools and longer school terms, its need of more teachers and better salaries for them, its need of free text books and a thoroughgoing enforcement of the compulsory school attendance law all point to one stubbornly practical question—where is the money coming from? We cannot expect an increase in the legisla tive appropriation for common school purposes, certainly not in many years to come. The state already provides two and a quarter mills direct tax for common schools out of the five mills al lowed for taxation, besides something like half a million dollars* in‘‘"permanent”’funds. In actual amount of state appropriations for schools, only ten states give more than Georgia, and in percent age of state funds to local funds, Georgia stands third. Evidently, then, it would be neither rea sonable or just to demand more from the state treasury until the local school funds are nearer what they ought to be. It is to the individual county and district that we must look for the money needed to provide more and better schools. F ( or the United States, as a whole, approximately 76 per cent of the com mon school fund is raised through local tax. but for Georgia less than 40 per cent is thus raised. Only forty-three Georgia counties have a county-w’ide local tax for the maintenance of schools. Many counties continue to draw from the state treasury in school funds more than they pay into the treasury for all purposes. We are running counter to the policy of almost every other state in the union and counter to the judgment of our own educational leaders. Dr. Joseph S Stewart well observes that elsewhere the responsi bility of the school is placed ‘‘primarily upon the local area, where the administration exists, to be supplemented by the state funds.” but in the great majority of Georgia counties it is just the reverse, with the exception of the towns and a few dis tricts: "The other states say the local area • SHALL levy a school tax. Georgia says tbe local area MAY, if one-fourth of the qualified voters petition and two-thirds vote for it in the election. Most of the other states' local tax is compulsory; Georgia puts a hindrance in the way of its its adoption. The other states say that schools are just as much a local matter as courthouses, roads, almshouses and jails. Georgia says the schools are. first, a state affair, but may be supplemented by local funds, if you can get a two-thirds favorable vote. We have reversed the usual custom, and we have demonstrated the folly of our plan.” North Dakota spends nine dollars and sixty two cents per capita for the support of common schools as compared with only one dollar and nine ty-eight cents per capita spent by Georgia, and numbers of states far less rich in resources than ours are raising more for schools simply because every community within their borders shoulders Its rightful share of responsibility. If all the Geor gia counties did their duty in this respect, our school fund will he ample to establish excellept schools throughout the state and to extend the average school term to seven or nine months, where it is now only one hundred and forty days; we could pay the teachers well and promptly; we could build up a system under which there would be a desk for every child and a child at every desk. The more progressive counties are voluntarily adopting the local tax plan, and in every county the more thoughtful people favor it. But why wait years longer for the plan to be adopted one county at a time Why not follow the example of virtually all the rest of the nation and make the levying of local taxes for schools a state law? We be lieve that a constitutional amendment to this ef fect would be ratified by the people if its wisdom and justice were duly explained. Superintendent Brittain speaks advisedly when he says; •'All other laws which could be passed for* * the benefit of education are far less important than this one single measure.” This measure is fundamentally important be cause it touches the fundamental need of an ade quate system of school finance. Not until the money is provided can we make our school sys tem what we wish it: and not until the local tax is made state-wide will the money be forthcoming. Plant Corn. "With cotton at twenty-five cents and corn at two dollars, it takes ten pounds of cotton to buy a bushel of corn. Yet it. takes infinitely more care, work and time to produce ten pounds of cotton.” —Augusta Herald. The least the Georgia farmer can afford to do Is to raise corn enough to supply his own needs, for if he has to buy it along with other necessaries at prevailing prices, which probably will go still higher, he will have a beggarly winter, no mat ter what cotton brings. Rut the more prudent and patriotic fanners will not rest content with plant ing only enough corn to meet their own neces sities. They will produce as liberal a surplus as possible, and they will find a ready, profitable mar ket for all they have to offer. It is very largely to the corn crop that the country as a whole and particularly the South must look to make up the great deficit in wheat and other small grains. The time for planting corn is still season able. The acreage should be unprecedentedly large. Good Conduct of Aliens. The Junker who boasted to Ambassador Gerard that war between Germany and the United States would find half a million Germans in this country ready to take up arms against the American Gov ernment would be Interested in the report of the Department of Justice concerning the conduct* of enemy aliens. Since the beginning of hostilities, reports the Attorney General, only one hundred and twenty-five arrests of these aliens have been necessary, and the great majority of those were made for minor offenses. There are upwards of two and a half million foreign-born Germans in the -United States, a considerable percentage of whom are still unnaturalized subjects of the Kaiser. But they have learned the difference, most of them, between despotism and democracy; and they will not play dupes to the Hohenzollerns. As for Ger mans who are citizens of the United States, they of course are Americans stanch and true. BANK ON ENVIRONMENT By H. Addington Bruce tODAY I address myself particularly to those responsible for the upbringing of children, and more particularly to those aware that T the chiklren in their charge have what doctors call a bad family history. When the immediate ancestry of any child in cludes one or more relatives who were consump tive. insane, criminal, or otherwise physically, mentally, or morally diseased, the belief is widely held that that child may be foredoomed to be sim ilarly afflicted. It is important for the child's sake to appreciate that this belief in the fatality of heredity is erroneous. What may happen, undeniably, is that the child inherits a tendency to consumption, insanity, or criminality. But whether this tendency will result in the threatened affliction depends altogether on the manner of the child's rearing and the condi tions of the environment in which he is reared. Always environment is the chief factor in de termining the fate of a human life. This is some thing that parents and guardians must clearly un derstand. To quote Dr. Arthur Holmes, the well known clinical psychologist: “No inherited element can develop without its appropriate environment. Neither the inherited potentialities of a chick hidden in the germ of an egg nor the innate martial talents of a Napoleon can come to their fruition without favorable ex ternal conditions. . . . “In all borderland cases, where there is rea sonable doubt, the environment is such a controlling and controllable factor that, rightly adjusted, it may become decisive in arresting Inherited im pulses or guiding them into channels useful for the individual and the community.” What this means to parents and guardians of children having unfavorable heredity is surely ob vious. It means that their great aim. knowing the particular tendency their child may have inherited, should be to surround him with influences which will arrest the tendency and prevent it from ever developing. Whatever the tendency, the child's training and environment must be specially ad justed to cope with it. To this end consultation with experts is most desirable. The physician can point out to the parent the preventive measures that ought to be take i in the case of a child with a family history of ..tbcr culosis. or with inhc.rited liability to any other physical disease. The psychologist, and particularly the clinical psychologist, can give helpful advice if it is a ques tion of a possible tendency to insanity or crim inality. Physicians and psychologist can also recom mend to the parents of such specially predisposed children health manuals giving further informa tion as to action desirable for maintaining phys ical. mental, and moral health. If. then, you are anxious about the future of a child because of what you know of his heredity, do not fall into the error of thinking that the fate of his ancestors must unfailingly be his. Remember the superior power of environment. Rank on environment, arid draw from its resources for the saving of the child. (Copyright. 1917, by the Associated Newspapers.) QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES “It would save us much needed floor space and con siderable money if more of our women customers would use the stairway when going up only one flight," said the department store manager. ■•‘l wish I knew of some way to make ’em do it.' "Why not take the mirrors out of the elevators and put ’em on the stairs?” suggested hts bright assistant. He had proposed and been rejected. ■Very well,” he said, coldly, “there will come a time when your treatment of me will be regretted. “I shall never regret it,” she replied. “Oh. 1 don’t mean you.” he returned. ”1 refer to the man whom you will Anally accept.” • • • George Ade was recently talking about tbe intrica cies of the English language "There's the word ‘smart.’ for instance,” he said. “The word may mean ‘highly intellectual, or again it may mean ‘fashionable,’ ‘chic.’ or ‘elegant.’ "A man wanted to present me to a lady the other day. “ ‘She’s very, very smart,' he said. ■ But I asked cautiously: “ Smart —humph! Highbrow or low-neck type?’” The Kaiser's Peace Trick. in his well reasoned warning against German peace proposals Minister Eagan, our diplomatic representative in Denmark, confirms the opinion prevalent among all the allies: no overtures from the Prussian autocracy could be taken as sincere. Far from being ready to quit, the Kaiser and his accomplices are determined to fight to the last trench if they can continue deceiving the people. There is no likelihood, thinks Minister Eagan, of a dethronement of the Hohenzollerns. Constitu tional reforms are to be expected, perhaps in the near future; but “there is not the slightest reason for believing that such reforms will impose the Czar's fate on the Kaiser and fiis line.” Though the food problem is critical, the mass of the Ger mrf’n people, whom a subservient press has imbued with the belief that victory is merely a question of time, “are still sanguine and ready to make fur ther sacrifices.” These are the Impressions of a trained listener stationed almost within earshot of the German border. No doubt there is much political and so cial unrest in Germany, but the grip of the Junk ers is still far from broken. . Hopes that Kaiser ism might be crushed frqm within are vain, at least for the present. Any relaxation of the ham mering from without would merely strengthen the Hohenzollern despots; and any inconclusive peace would make them more than ever a menace to the world’s concord and freedom. They are schem ing for time —time in which to repair, if possible, the disastrous blows upon their western front, time in which to build more submarines, time in which to allay or stamp out such discontent as there is among their snbjects. A parley at this crucial juncture might save the Kaiser's cause from the defeat which inevitably will befall it if the Allies keep fighting ceaselessly and with unbending reso lution. Minister Eagan is eminently right in saying that priace talk in America would .serve merely to prolong the war. But there is no peace talk in this country and there will be none, certainly none of a responsible or representative character, until the principles for which we entered the war have been wholly vindicated and made forever secure. If there is one thing above all else which the American government and the American people have learned concerning the German autocracy, it is that no reliance can be placed on its pledges and that its fairest promises are but masks to its black est designs. The United States is planning, as re gards both military and economic operations, on the basis of a three-year war. That is the safe plan, the plan that is most likely to foreshorten the con flict and the one that is sure to win. — ? I HE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Vlll.—Animal Friends and Enemies. -e By Frederi J. Haskin. ASHINGTON, April 10.—Few people would re gard the alligator as a friend of man after a casual .glance at him. but there is a law in w Louisiana which authorizes the different parishes of tlie state to enact such measures as they deem best to protect the alligator. The reason for this law is the fact that the alligator is regarded as an enemy of the muskrat, and the muskrat is an enemy of the rice planter, because of his habit of burrowing in the banks and dikes of the rice field and flooding the crop at the wrong time. Thus man and ;.lligator, who may be regarded as natural enemies between whom there exists little spontaneous cordiality, ally themselves against the muskrat. • • • This alligator protection is an instance of one angle of a great national agricultural problem—the wild animal problem. By taking possession of the continent, man has disturbed and destroyed the delicate balance or nature, and it is now his task to work out and set up a new balance that shall be favorable to the greatest possible food production. Many an’mals that seem at first to be the enemies of man are really his best fi-fends. and when they are trapped out and killed as a result of a hasty and short-sighted policy, a new and Far more destructive species multiplies out of all bounds, because the first species, its natural enemies, have been destroyed. • • • It is necessary that every bird and animal species in tha United States should be carefully investigated, tried in a court of equity as it were, to determine whether it is on the whole Injurious or beneficial to agriculture, before the human inhabitants of the country decide how that species shall be treated. This trial is technically called determining its economic status, and the court which tries each species to decide whether it shall live or die is the biological survey of the department of agriculture. • • • In the natural balance of animal life, each species of bird and insect and mammal has its natural enemies, not sufficiently numerous to kill it out completely, but strong enough to keep it in bounds. When man steps In and exterminates a species, he often lets loose upon himself and his crops the unchecked multitudes of another one that work ten times as much harm. Thera is a certain southern state where a bounty has been placed upon hawks and owls, because of the damage they were supposed to do to poultry. In consequence of the bounty, the hawks and owi« have been killed out, and as a result of the killing, the orchard industiy of the state, which might be worth millions of dollars, hag been practically ruined. The orchards are ruined by the field mice that girdle the trees, and field mice have .ncreased enormously because the hawks and owls, their natural enemies, have been killed by man. • • • This sort of delicate balance runs all through nature, and it is part of the work of the biological survey to study each bird and animal exhaustively, weigh the harm it does against the good, and pronounce a verdict for or against, which shall be reflected in local or national protective legislation. This sort of work has already been carried out very extensively. Even such relatively unimportant creatures as the humming birds have had to stand an Investigation, and scores of their tiny stomachs were examined to determine what they fed on. In this case. It Is welcome to learn, the verdict was "Not guilty.” When a species of animal is plainly destructive and injurious to man, the survey takes up the work of exterminating it. or at least of bringing it within limits. The biggest job of this kind on hand is the campaign on predatory wild animals that is being waged in twelve of the big western stock-raising states. These animals include such species as the gray wolves, the coyotes, the mountain lions, the bob cats, and thp bears; the annual damage they do to stock Is estimated at $12,000,000. Even here the question of the balance of nature enters to some -extent, and the interests of farmers and cattlemen are not identical. The coyotes are the natural enemies of the jack rabbits, for in stance, and where the survey has carried out an interi- WAR NEARS CRITICAL STAGE—By Herbert Corey ASHINGTON. —Suppose we look our war square in the face. What follows is intended aa a presentation w of the blackest elements in the situation. It is all gloom. The sun still shines, but it isn’t shining here. Some members of the general staff feel that these things should be known. The members of the French and British commissions have assuredly not tried to temper the unpleasant wind to the shorn iamb of American optimism. What is the worst of the situation today? Russia may go out. Rumania will go with her. If the suggested separate peace is signed with Austria by Russia; it means that Germany will be provisioned by Russia through the Austrian door. The peasant private is gaining control of the Russian army. Already hundreds of officers have been forced out and hundreds of others have resigned. The Russian peasant is of sound material, but it is to be doubted if there is much officer miterial in the ranks. The peasant s eyes are turned on internal tutestions. He demands a distribution of land. He has been assured that the land will not be distributed until he comes home. If he can vote himself home it is probable that he will do so. In that way the land distribution will be hastened. There is at least no indication that the Russian army will become an efficient factor soon. If the present government does not evolve stability out of turmoil there is a chance of civil war. The monarchical, pro- German, land-holding, 'reactionary classes may find strength in the desire of all Russia for internal peace. I am told the Macedonian campaign may be aban doned. It is militarily useless and economically impos sible. Its abandonment points to a centering of the allied strength in the west. That might coax King Constantine of Greece into taking the German side. He, has always believed the kaiser would win. There is no information at hand justifying the fondly held American opinion that Germany may starve out, that strikes may cripple her munition production, or that revolution will overturn the government. To meet the allied strength in the west von Hinden burg will undoubtedly retire to the Rhine line of fortresses. The Germans have always believed that they can hold this line until Satan begins to burn ice in perdition s furnaces. As long as she can hold on, her U-boat campaign promises to be increasingly formidable. The allies and neutrals have been censored and cheered about the U-boats until lately. Now Admiral Beresford, in Lon don, and Lord Eustace Percy, in Washington, are being frank So are others. The Scientific American says Germany can build a thousand U-boats a year. At the present rate, vessel destruction exceeds that of vessel construction. A mathematical formula is created that he may work out who will.. If the U-boats starve Italy for coal. Italy may be forced out. Not out, perhaps, but at least to greatly decrease her efforts. France will never But she cannot maintain the present rate of man expenditure for more than a year. The members of the French commission in Washington say she ought not be asked to keep it up for more than six months. "The crisis,” they have said, "will come in six months." If Germany holds her Rhine line and the central Europe she has gained, she has won the war. She can be defeated by American troops added to the allied troops now on the western front The time has come when we should look at the black aide only. Only in that way can we visualize what we may have to face. Reliance on luck and the other fellow s efforts and belief in sunshiny stories make war into a gamble. There is nothing speculative about war It is a busi ness Other elements being* equal, in the long run the best business man will win. Americans have always believed they are business men. In ten days Washington—that part of Washington one meets in clubs and-lobbies and which reflects official and congressional opinios—has changed its tune. One no longer hears the "we'll never fire a shot” sort of talk. Washington is gradually reaching an appreciation of the sive .campaign of coyote extermination to control the outbreak of rabies, the jack rabbits have increased to a point where they do serious damage to crops, and it is necessary to start a new war on the jack rabbits by means of poison. There is no question, however, that the predatory wild animals do vastly more harm than good: they form, in fact, one of the leading sources of loss to the western stock grower. • • • There are some sections in the southwest where it Is not possible to raise horses beedise of the ravages of the mountain lions. Gray wolves do great damage to the cattle herds. In a glass case at the headquarters of the biological survey there is kept the skull of an old gray wolf whieh ate $3,000 worth of cattle before he was trapped. This wolf had only two toes on one forefoot, so it was possible to recognize his work fey the tracks around each kill. There are doubtless numerous other wolves on the range whose, meat bills run as high. • • • The western states have been fighting the predatory animals without success for many* years. Most of the work has been done on the bounty system, which offers a reward for the scalp of each wolf or coyote. In some states this system has been in operation for twenty-five years, and the relative losses today are greater than they were in the beginning. In the last year the biological survey has started work on a new co-opera tive method which promises to solve the problem. The new system calls for the trapping and poisoning of wild animals by salaried hunters using the beat meth ods, and doing away with the bounty system. • • • The great drawback to the bounty system is the fact that the trapper makes his living from the wild animals, and if toe kills them out he destroys his source of profit. Also, he wants to kill the greatest possible number of animals in the least possible time. So he works against the young and unsophisticated animals, which probably do not kill many cattle anyw’ay, and leaves the old and wary cattle killers alone, because it takes too much time and trouble to catch them. These old animals bring forth litters of young each year, and thus furnish the trapper with fresh sources of bounty season after season. As an official of the sur vey puts it. it is more like stock raising than animal killing • • • The survey has divided the twelve big western stock-raising states into nine districts, each under th* supervision of an inspector, and worked by salaried trappers, who draw no bounty money, and who are judged solely by the results they get. The catching of one wise old wolf may be a harder job. and worth more to the cattle business than the trapping of a dosen young ones, and the inspector in charge knows it, and gives credit accordingly. Wherever possible, the states are being induced to revoke their bounty laws and make an appropriation to co-operate with the survey instead. Three states are already working on this system, and others are expected to follow shortly. In Montana In the last Ave years SBOO,OOO has been spent on the old system, and the losses are as big as ever. Dr. Fisher, who is in charge of the wild animal work for the survey, told the Montana stockmen that if the survey had that amount of money to spend in Ave years, they would guarantee to kill out all the wolves and most of the coyotes. It seems to be only a matter of time until the survey plan will be adopted all through the west, and tt promises to solve the problem. • • • , The larger predatory animals are only one side of the question of animal control. Prairie dogs and ground squirrels do hundreds of thousands of dollars of dam age to crops every year. The survey has worked out a system of poisoning them at a cost of 5 cents an aero. ‘ Methods of destroying such species as the gophers and the field mice and the land crabs have been developed. The survey is working toward that balance of nature which shall be the most favorable for the works of M man: but one of the most effective methods, and the one that calls for nation-wide co-operation, is the preservation of the species that prey on the species that do the damage. *~f siae of the job ahead. Impatience is being shown with the fid-faddling of* congress. Any suggestion that politics of the old personal sort may be permitted to hamper the effectiveness of our arms arouses genuine anger. Balfour waked us up. Bridges helped. Vfvianl and Hovelacque assisted. Above all. Marshal Joffre brought home to Washington that we are now at war, that our help is sorely needed, and that when a nation goes to war it is expected to fight. I*, is not what these men have said that has brought about this change. They have been almost meticulously careful not to overstep the strictest limits of propriety. It is the atmosphere that surrounds them. The correspondents who have interviewed them have carried away the impression that we have been cheerily optimistic without the best of reasons. These men have shown confidence that the allies will wtn. But they do not suggest that tbe allies will win In a hurry. They do not disguise the probability that there mly be bad times ahead. t One gains the impression that they.were somewhat styprised on arrival by the prevalence of the opinion that the end of- the war is near. They have not mini* mized the difficulties in which the German submarine campaign has plunged the allies. _ They have not attempted to encourage a hope which might prove false that Russia will soon become an effective factor in the eastern fighting. They have not suggested that starva tion or revolution may bring down the central powers, although this has been widely received in the rfhited 1 States. I believe the men who have intervlewd them might epitomize such words as these in the mouths of the two commissions: “We are deeply grateful for what the United States has done already. But our war is now your war. It is absolutely essential that you do all you can—aa soon’s* you can.” » Many correspondents here report a growing warmth of conviction that we should eend troops to France at* once—as nearly at once as is humanly possible. This has no particular relation to Colonel Roosevelt and his ambition. Roosevelt is the great man of America to the French people, and bis coming at the head of American troops would buck up France as nothing else would, I am convinced. But a feeling here Is growing’ that, x.oosevelt or no Roosevelt, the troops should be sent. Marshal Joffre’s recent interview added weight to It. Officials and congressmen who are suspected of having permitted personal or political bias to sway their* action would be surprised to know of the bitterness of the criticism. Little of this has been voiced as yet, for there is a disposition to recognize that confusion has , reigned. The threads cannot be picked out of the tangle in a hurry. Men who are agreed as to the end to be gained may honestly differ as to methods. But men who seem to obstruct progress out of mere crankiness or partisan feeling may wake up‘some morning to find themselves crucified. If Champ Clark had his ear to the ground the day after he referred to "bloodthirsty volunteers” it is probably tingling. Correspondents here report from their homes that if there is no particular enthusiasm for the war, as shown by flag waving and red tire burning, there is a growing determination to ‘go through with it.” Uncle Sam is putting his back into the stroke. An announcement that we will send troops across as rapidly as they can be made fit would be welcomed. This change in the Wash- < ington attitude would have come about in time, of course. That it came within the last ten days seems wholly due to the presence of the British and French commissioners. The Washington correspondents, on their part, have been particularly careful to abide by the strictest rules of interviewing. There is no suggestion thaX courtesy, not to say confidence, has ever been violated. There is no suggestion in that sentence that any one of the commissioners has ever made a statement of signifi cance and has sheltered himself behind the "do not quote me” barricade to which political correspondents are accustomed. It is merely that the commission* have been far more candid than anyone here anticipated, and that the effect of this candor has been heightened by tone and glance The commissioners have created an atmosphere.
