About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1918)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL / ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.- I Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Mattei I of the Second Class. SVBSCRIPTION PRICK Twelve months Six months J? c Three months •• 2 c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday. and is mailed by the short est routes for early delivery. ! It contains news from all over the brought by special leased wires into our It has-a staff of distinguished contributors, witn strong departments of special value to the home ' the farm Agents wanted at every postoffice. allowed. Outfit free. Write R BRAjI>LEY. Circulation Manager. The onlv traveling representatives we have are R F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle. Charles H. Wood liff. J. M. Patten. W. H. Reinhardt. M. H. Bern and John Mac Jennings. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named travel ing representatives V, .i NOTICE TO SHISCRIBEIU*. T>»» Übd ased foe aSdreosttss your paper afcowa U>* ti»* war •abwrtptJ-D expUw. By rrwenj at hot two weeke De fer the date oa tbta latx-l. you tnairr regular aerriee. la ordering paper rbaaged. be sure to rrventton your OKI. w«fl u yocrnew addrear. If ue a route. r’eaae gtre the roots W» cxßßot enter tTtwertpttraa to begin with Mefc nnmUn. tofttux.-i jtionM be sent by postal order er reg’etened mail. Aldreoa all orders an-’, notlwo for tb* Department to THE mt! WEEKLY JOURNAL. Atlanta. Ga. Remember the Tuscantd. Mourning as they do the gallant men who want down with the Tuscania. the American peo ple are at the same time profoundly grateful that the loss of life was comparatively so small, and are stirred with an intense determination to see that these fallen heroes shall not have died for their country in vain. This is the first effective blow the Huns have struck against the United States troops en route to France, It is remarkable, indeed, that hun dreds of thousands of our soldiers have been transported across the vast ocean leagues without one serious misadventure until the attack on the Tuscania Repeatedly the German ptrates have tried to destroy American troop ships, stabbing as is their wont from beneath or behind. Re peatedly, they have succeeded in sinking unarmed passenger vessels, and have gloried in their slaughter of American citizens. women and chil dren as well as men. But heretofore their blows have fallen harmlessly against our military expedi tions. Even the present instance, the fact that more than ninety per cent of those aboard were saved bears eloquent witness to the work of the British warships by whom the transport was being convoyed. We cannot expect, however, to go through this Hear without losses and disasters. We are fight ing a ruthless and brutal foe—the most brutal that civilisation ever faced; wherefore, we must stand in constant fortitude and go forward with an un flinching will to avenge the humanity which Ger man barbarism has trampled down and to vindi cate the cause for which our soldiers and sailors are giving their lives. us remember the Tuscania, as we remem bered the Maine. • Be a gardener. The Way of the Huns. One of the characteristically inhumane methods by which the Huns replenish their man-power is illustrated in an Austro-German proclamation is sued a few weeks ago in Italy. “Every citizen.” runs the edict, referring to the Italians of the invaded territory, "must obey our labor regulation. All workmen and children over fifteen years of age must work in the fields every day, Sun day ineluded, from four o'clock tn the morn- L ing until eight o’clock in the evening. Lazy [ workmen will be accompanied at the work and watched by Germans. After the harvest they will be imprisoned for six months and every third day be given nothing but bread end water. Lazy women will be obliged to work, and after harvest will receive six months' imprisonment. Lazy children will be punistied by beating. *nie Oommandant re k * aerroe the right to punish lazy workmen with twenty lashes daily." This it is true, seems merely a minor bit of astership as compared with the common ran of Got in ti brutalities. It is notable, how- TW <r l as an example of the way Prusslanism is using enemy civilian populations for military nrwU virtually enslaving them and forcing them to torn their hands against their own countries. Axrtbmti-' figures are presented by the Wall Qtiact Journal showing that, ecreiustve of Arme nians end Syrians, upwards of forty-three million people have thus been put in bondage and lashed on to labors beyond human endurance. In nu merous instances, moreover, the men of conquered territories are forced into the German ranks and used tor what the Hohenzollerns call “cannon "fodder." These are factors to be reckoned with serious ly tn oar war against the Huns. We are not fight ing Germany's sixty-eight millions only; we are not fighting the Quadruple alliance only, with its aggregate population of some one hundred and forty-seven millions. But we are fighting a ruth lees Power that had added to Rs own human re sources Between forty and fifty million people of lands, whom It has made its slaves. Ac cordingly, those authorities were not far wrong who estimated Germany’s man-power as being in the neighborhood of two hundred million, with a possibilty of twenty-five million men for the field. It should be remembered, moreover, that Germany fights in utter disregard of humanity t and ctvlMsation. Practices from which the peo ples of the Allied countries would instinctively recoil, seem to come quite naturally to the Huns. The Kaiser's swinish officers and troops show no respect for the Red Cross flag, no difference in treatment of civilians and combatants, no rever ence for womanhood, no pity for children, no re gard tor those simplest laws of conscience and heart that lift man above the brute. Being what they are and fighting as they do. the task of bringing them to terms is necessarily slow and costly. It is a battle between the powers of law and order, the powers of humanity and civilization on tne one hand, and, on the other, a desperately criminal and barbarous force. This battle, how ever long and hard it may be. we must win at any cost, for on the issue depends all that makes the world fit to Itve in. The war bread looks as if it might have been made Dy tbs old-time cook who used too much soda. THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1917?. Costly, Bid Worth It. Some idea ot the extent to which the United States is at war may be gathered from the Treas ury report showing that to date tho struggle has cost us approximately seven billion dollars, or al most twenty-four millions a day. Only about three billions ot this, however, can be counted as an outlay for our own fighting equipment and related needs. The remainder represents loans to our Allies, though essentially, of course, that ex penditure is as much in our Interest as in theirs. Henceforward we may expect the amounts spent on our particular part in the war to grow propor tionately larger. The money toll is increasing at the rate of more than one hundred million dol lars a month, with indications that by the time we have rounded out our first year as a belliger ent the cost will approximate ten billion dollars, half of which will represent allotments to our army, navy, shipbuilding activities and other war concerns. How readily the country has responded to the Government’s call for support in bearing these stupendous burdens is evidenced in the fact that Liberty loans have paid four-fifths of the war’s cost. It is likely that future needs will be sup plied more largely through taxation, though it is to be hoped that there will be no abandonment of the wise policy of avoiding taxation so exces sive as to cripple industry and discourage enter prise. The American people have subscribed free-heartedly to two great Liberty loans; they will subscribe just as loyally to the third Liberty loan which, it is expected, will be launched in the near future; they are buying Thrift Stamps at a rate which attests the earnestness of the masses: and they will pay their v. .r taxes in the same spirit of ungrudging patriotism. They could not do otherwise and be Americans. They could not do otherwise and be a sane and honorable peo ple, for all that they have, all that they are and all that they hope to be depends on winning this war against brutal Prusslanism A Year of Prussian Piracy. Noting that it was just a year ago this month that Germany launched her campaign of submarine ruthlessness, the Albany Herald argues that the essential objects of that murderous effort are as far from attained today as at the beginning of last February. There is no denying that the pirates have made themselves felt and have shown Prus sia* barbarity at its blackest. As the Herald sum marizes it: “Hundreds of thousands of tons of shipping have been sunk; thousands of lives have been lost; women and children have not escaped, nor have hospital ships on which those wounded in battle were homeward bound been spared; life boats In which passengers and crew from torpedoed vessels sought safety have been shelled by subma rine guns, and men taken from sinking ships and placed on the decks of U-boats have been left struggling helplessly in the water when the vessels on which they thought they were being carried to safety suddenly submerged.” Loving cruelties and horrors as they do, the Hohenzollerns doubtless draw keen satisfaction from this record. But, after all, has it paid? The most striking result of U-boat ruthless ness with its defiance of law and its challenge to civilization was the entrance of the United States into the war. This was the outstanding event of the year 1917; Russia’s breakdown and fiasco, heavily unfortunate though it was to the Allies and cheering to the Teutons, does not compare in ultimate importance with America’s coming into the field. Germany expected, in compensation for having made a new and powerful enemy, to maim and demoralize ocean shipping to such an extent that the Entente countries would be virtually iso lated. Her particular objective was to starve out England; and the Kaiser promised that it should be done within six months at the outermost, if not in three. Twelve months find the threat a long, long way from its goal. While the food problem in England. Franoe and Italy is admittedly seri ous, and would prove eventually disastrous if American aid should fall short, the lines of com munication between those countries and the out side world are still freely open. A distressing amount of Allied tonnage, ft is true, has been de stroyed, but not enough to give the Huns a reason able hope of breaking up their enemies' sea com merce. During the last stx months, indeed, the U-boats have fallen so far short of their earlier record of tdnkings that British shipyards have been able to launch virtually as much tonnage as was destroyed. Furthermore, during the ten months the United States has been in the war. our Government has requisitioned four hundred and twenty-six vessels, aggregating upwards of two million tons, which were building in American ship yards, has taken over some four hundred vessels of more than twenty-five hundred tons each, which were already afloat, and has placed contracts for eight hun dred and eighty additional vessels, on many of which work is speedfly progressing. The Shipping Board sees a prospect of securing six million tons of new shipping in the course of the present year. This is one of America’s answers to the sub marine threat, and rather a formidable answer it is. What the new undersea offensive now expected from the Germans will accomplish, only the event of course can show. The Allies look for a final and desperate effort to cut the transport lines on which the United States depends in getting troops, food and other basic supplies across the Atlantic. But as far as the first year of submarine ruth lessness is concerned, the results by no means have balanced the cost; indeed, they have brought Prussian ism nearer to defeat than to victory. As for the future, we have the assurance of a vigilant navy and an ever-increasing power of shin pro duction. ♦ Don't Grumble; Give Thanks. The Augusta Chronicle seasonably reminds those persons who are disposed to grumble over the few war requirements thus far laid upon Them that while on this side of the Atlantic we have wheatiess and meatless days, on the other side there are eatless days as w’ell. An American woman re cently returned from Paris, tells of having paid seventy-five dollars for a ton of coal, a dollar a pound for butter, and of meat prices being vir tually prohibitive. “Our prices are high.” com ments the Chronicle, **but our supplies are abun dant compared with those of our Allies, and it is a poor friend who is not willing to share with his comrades in arms.” The fact is, the inconven iences and sacrifices which the American people have been called upon to make so far are incon siderable beside those which our Allies have borne for three and a half soul-trying years. Far from conrplafning. we should thank Heaven for the mercies and bounties vouchsafed us and for the glorious privilege of helping our nation and its co-defenders of freedom in thia heroic hour. The Perils of Thriftlessness And the Patriotism of Thrift The American peopi«» need of thrift is strik ingly evidenced by certain figures presented in the current Leslie’s showing that per cent of the men who die in this country leave no tangi ble assets. It appears further that at fifty-five years of age forty-six per cent of American men, having saved little or nothing, find it needful to work as hard and steadily as ever, while thirty per cent are dependent on others. At sixty-five years of age fifty-four per cent are entirely de pendent. The surprising thing about this record is that it should occur in a land of unexampled oppor tunity. In the over-crowded, tax-burdened coun tries of the Old World, we might expect to find the majority of men taken unprepared by “the infirm and choleric years,” and leaving behind them no material legacy. As a fact, however, the average of economic security as a result of savings was comparatively much higher in those countries, be fore the war, than in the United States. Here where land is abundant and cheap, where taxes in normal times are inconsiderable as compared with those regularly paid in many parts of Europe, hire where freedom is universal birth right and where the golden opportunities of the explorer and pioneer still await those who coura geously seek them, it seems well-nigh incredible that eighty-two per cent of the men should die almost penniless and, that old age should find the majority of them wholly dependent. A part of this lamentable record —though a very small part—is attributable to personal mis fortunes and to certain inequities in our economic and social order. But by far the larger portion is chargeable to simple thriftlessness —the character istic American folly. It is not the money which Americans SPEND that puts so many millions of them into more or less respectable poverty, it is the money they WASTE. Not money only, but goods of all kinds and resources of every nature are wasted in this country with prodigal unconcern; at least, it has been so up to our present war ex perience. We have wasted daily in our kitchens and at our tables enough food to save many a cor ner of famished Europe from starvation. We have wasted the fertility of the soil by short-sighted, laggardly methods of farming. We have wasted immeasurable quantities of coal and oil by care’ess methods of extracting them, and invaluable treas ures of forests through recklessness in cutting tim ber. Waste has become an American habit, an American trait, reducing to a great extent the blessings which naturally should prevail in so free and bounteous a land. We have reached a in the nation’s affairs, 'and for the most part in (he affairs of individuals as well, where this perilous habit must be shaken off and replaced by foresighted, forehanded thrift, or we shall fail as a nation in the herculean ahead and as individuals in the responsibilities which press upon us. Especially is it important to impress upon the rising generation the value and virtue of thrift. Atlanta’s schools never rendered a more substantial or more truly educational serv ice than in organizing War-Savings societies among the pupils. Had such a movement been inaugu rated fifty or even twenty-five years ago and pressed vigorously forward, the distressing figures of indigence to which we have directed attention would never have arisen. By teaching the children of today the wisdom and patriotism of thrift, we shall make happier men and women and more use ful citizens for the nation of tomorrow. For the people as a whole, there are more in centives, as well as a greater necessity, to save now than ever before. Loyalty and self-interest alike demand of everyone a faithful effort to turn a portion of one’s earnings into Thrift stamps or Liberty bonds and to guard vigilantly against waste in any form. Money spent for things of value is not wasted, it is truly invested. But the coins, little or large, that slip away without yielding real values in return —these are the ones to be saved and laid up against the uncertain future. No less imperative Is the duty of conservation, which is but another name for thrift, in every household’s food supplies. This, indeed, is for the present the most urgent duty resting upon the American peo ple, for without great savings in food staples wherewith to provision our Allies, we shall have no prospect of shortening or winning the war. In all things and at every turn, let Americans re member how perilous a thing is thriftlessness and how truly patriotic is thrift. IF YOU ARE FORTY-FIVE. By H. Addington Bruce. IF you are forty-five and out of work. If you feel that you have passed the success-winning age. If you fear that the door of opportunity will be dosed to you forever. Take fresh heart. Here is an item of news that ought to be of very special interest to you. In Chicago there is an organization known as the Employers’ Association of Chicago. Twelve months ago it opened an employment bureau. The first annual report of this bureau was published the other day. From this report it appears that the bureau last year secured positions for more than 9,000 men over the age of forty-five. The total of sal aries paid' to these men during the year was in excess of $2,000,000. Os the men sent by the bureau to prospective employers during the closing month of the year, 90 per cent were taken on at salaries ranging from $45 to $350 a month. If there are good opportunities for middle-aged and elderly jobless men in Chicago, you may de pend on it there are good opportunities for them in other cities. Gray hairs are not the obstacle to profitable employment that you have Imagined them. You still have a chance. One thing, though, you should seriously ask yourself. Why have you not made more of the chances that must have come to you before you were forty-five? I don’t want to discourage you. but T do want yon to take stqck of yourself so that you can surely benefit from whatever new position .you obtain. Has drjnk been responsible for your present jobless state? Have you been short in earnest ness? Have you wasted all your leisure time in fool ish. perhaps vicious, amusements? Have you per chance wasted time that belonged to your former employers? How do you rate in point of will power, initia tive. loyalty, politeness, everyday common sense? Take these questions kindly, for they are meant kindly. Above all, don’t try to excuse yourself to yourself. Try to see your own faults as clearly as you see the faults of others. Something must be the matter with yoo, or you would not be in the plight you are today. For your own good, make an honest effort to determine what that something is. •’ Rooting it out, you can go to work again with a real hope of holding as well as securing employ ment. Whereas if you do not root it out, you will be worse off at fifty-five, and'far worse off at sixty five, than you are now at forty-five. Your future is in your own hands. Ijearn how to shape it well. A WOMAN’S PRAYER FOR THE MAN OVER THERE By Dr. Frank Crane O God, I make this prayer for HIM. He has gone into the war. Let HIM find the higher meanings of war, and not the lower; war’s beauty, and not to ugliness. Let HIM find such things as self-surrender for the common good, self-sacrifice for an ideal, such devotion to a cause as shall develop heroism, such patience under hardship as shall create strength of soul, such courage in peril as shall bring out all that is noble and Godlike in HIM. Let this war be. to HIM, an adventure fine and wonderful, an education wherein HE shall learn life’s deepest lessons, an apprenticeship for ulti mate manliness, a training- that shall provide HIM a perfect body, a spiritual opportunity that shall enable HIS soul to come to its due stature. Keep HIM from war’s debasements; from ex cess that loosens life; from cruelty and brutality that harden life; from lust and drunkenness that rot life; from dishonor, cowardice, and all things that make life coarse and common. If HE shall have good fortune, favor and ad vancement, give HIM modesty and the greatness of spirit that shall leave HIM unspoiled. If it be deemed by destiny that HE shall be wounded, or taken prisoner, or be in anywise un- WEIGH YOUR BABY —By Frederic J. Haskin WASHINGTON, D. C.» Feb. 4.—Returns from the physical examination of drafted men show that 2 9 per cent were physically un fit, and the children’s bureau has been able to show that a large percentage of this physical un fitness was directly due to diseases of childhood; bad hearing, defective eyesight, even flat feet have been declared by the child experts to be traceable to the nursery. Then, too, 300,000 babies die annually in this country, although health authori ties agree that one-half of these deaths are pre ventable. Here is a national waste that strikes at the root of our man power. Beginning April 6, a nation-wide campaign to improve the health of American babies will be started by the children’s bureau and the woman s committee of the Council of National Defense. Un der the direction of Dr. Jessica Peixotto, of the University of California, who is on leave of absence from the university for the purpose of taking charge of this work, the women of every state will be organized into child welfare committees dedi cated to the conservation of infants. The wholesale weighing of babies will be the first step in this campaign, and in this the co operation of parents is requested. A survey must be made of our infant resources such as was re cently undertaken by the department of agricul ture in regard to food. For, like food, our infant resources may also be rated in pounds. Weight, In other words, is a definite index to a child’s health. If an infant a year old, for example, is far be low the normal weight of his age, he is usually badly in need of the services of a doctor. The chil dren’s bureau is now preparing a baby card show ing the normal weight of each age, which will be distributed to parents all over the country. On and after April 6 physicians will co-operats with the government by weighing babies and children under five years old free of charge; infant welfare sta tions, maternity clinics, day nurseries will do the same, and grocers, apothecaries and other mer chants owning large scales will also be asked to oblige parents. Parents who find that their children are under weight should immediately procure medical advice. Parents who fail to do this when they can afford it are guilty of criminal negligence in the opinion of the children’s bureau and the woman’s committee. For those who are poor, assistance will be provided. That is the chief purpose of the campaign. The greatest need in combating infant mortality is an adequate supply of doctors and nurses, but inasmuch as doctors and nurses are usually hard working bread-winners and not ladies and gentle men of leisure, they must receive salaries. Hence, funds must be raised. Every community which has any pride in reducing its infant mortality should be able to raise the necessary money to hire doctors .and nurses. In many small communities all that will be needed is one visiting nurse with a salary of $1,500: others will require many visiting nurses working under the direction of able physicians. The expense of such service will be borne in vari ous ways—by state legislatures, by improvement clubs, by chambers of commerce and by private sub scriptions. In the state of Illinois, the Elizabeth B. McCormick memorial fund for child welfare work will be used to raise the standard of health of Illi nois children. In time of war, however, when the demands on state and individuals are already very great, the expense of such a children’s campaign must be kept at the very lowest margin. Hence, the woman's committee will have to rely to a great extent on volunteer workers. A meeting of public health doctors and nurses has just been called to consult with the woman’s committee and the children’s bureau on the question of raising a volunteer corps of nurses’ assistants who will be known as “H. H. V.’B,” or Home Health Volunteers. These volunteers will not be nurses, and never will be nurses, unless they take a regular nurses’ training GLAMIS CASTLE. Glamis Castle ij an ancient stronghold on the heather-covered mills of Sidlaw in Forfarshire, Scotland. The castle keep is built of roughly quarried blocks of red sandstone, mellowed by time and weather to a soft gray pink. The tall ivy-grown turrets tower above the rest of the cas tle, keeping watch over the rolling Strathmore valley. In the thick walls narrow irregular win dows look across the valley to the Graqip-an Hills. The chief entrance is a low doorway with a great oaken door studded with huge nails. Over the en trance niche, is a bust of Patrick, one of the first earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Mail-clad and grim-visaged he stares flown on the visitor to the castle, like a specter. To the right and left of the doorway steep flights of steps lead down to the dungeons and servants’ hall. Glamis was the scene of the murder of Dun can by his host and kinsman, Macbeth. The ghosts of the murderer and his interesting wife as well as their victim are said to haunt the an cient scene of the crime. In fact Glamis is the favorite haunt of any number of restless spirits. Mysterious doors open and shut; veiled damsels wail and wring their hands from the turret tops; armoured knights stalk through the caAtle halls and beckon. The Lady Glamis. burnt as a witch in James the Fifth’s time, glides through the dimly lit passages, her little son clasped in her arms. Bnt the favo*rit& mastery of the castle is the an cestral secret handed down from father to son. Only the earl and his eldest son hold the key to the mystery. Perhaps it is the secret of the hidden chamber, where three knights of Glamis play an eternal game of chance that will last until Dooms day as a punishment for their lack of piety. * « * THE HERMIT’S SHRINE. Sightseeing in Bnrma is apt to be one pagoda after another, and at that the tourist misses most of them. One that he usually does not see unless he is especially energetic or has an insatiable taste for pagodas, is the Kyaik-hto-yo pagoda, one of the most holy spots in Burma in th'fe eyes of the Buddhist Burmese. The Burmese say that the builder of this pagoda was a hermit, a theory which seems probable enough, for it is built on the top of a steep hill* in a location which could appeal only to one ot sol itary Inclination. Even the crest of the hill must have been too close to the world for the holy man, for he located his shrine on a huge boulder, which may have been steady enough in his day, but TRAVELETTE—By Niksah fortunate, may HE show that noble spirit which redeems disaster. And if HE fall, if HIS life be among those lives that are to pay the penalty of the world s misgovernment, may HE die as a hero, leaving to me the memory of HIS sacrifice as an undying in spiration. O God, let HIM ever feel that m’ lovfrg thoughts hover about him night and day, as guard ian angels. Make HIM a help and not a hindrance to HIS comrades. Make HIM the pride and not the shame of HIS country. And keep HIM the hope of my heart, the nest of my dreams, the chosen one of my love, my treasure of treasures, that I give to my God and my country. Let me be in every way worthy of HIM. And bring us, in Thy divine mercy, some sweet day to a blessed reunion, where all these severed, bleeding heart-strings shall be healed and knitted up. Thou, who are all compassion, hear this cry Os a woman’s soul for one she loves more than her own life. (Copyright, 1918, by Frank Crane.) course. They will be patriotic women who are willing to devote their leisure to saving the lives of American babies. In many American cities child welfare work ts already going forward with encouraging success. There are state and municipal departments of hygiene, infant welfare centers, maternity clinics, day nurseries and milk stations. The state of Kansas has a confidential register of prospective mothers which is used as a basis for the protection of mothers and infants. It is the boast of Kansas women that no baby dies in their state for lack of medical attention. The majority of states now provide medical service for the schools; others district nurses, and a few others have mothers’ pensions, which permit mothers to stay at home and care for their young children instead of leaving them to the care ot others while they go out to work. Everywhere, public opinion is gradually becoming aroused to conditions that kill so many babies every year, and. cause an even greater number to grow up in reform schools, institutions for the feeble-minded and schools for the backward. Tn a large eastern city recently a committee ot child welfare workers decided to try an experiment. They selected a group of the thinnest, most anaemic-looking children from a certain school and, with the permission of their parents, put them on a diet of simple nourishing food. Within a month these children presented a changed appear ance. They had gained In weight, energy, mental capacity and initiative. They were healthy. One of the most important features of this new child welfare drive will be to educate parents, for, in spite of all the literature that has appeared on food during the past year, it seems that there are still many parents who don’t know what to feed their children. Johnny, aged two and a half, must not be allowed to subsist on bananas; Antonio, with a digestive tract of only eight months* development, should not be fed spaghetti and onions, and Mary, aged eleven weeks, with an alarming case of croup, should not be dosed with patent medicines —things like these which so many mothers know, and so many other mothers don’t know. Ignorance and carelessness in this regard are often to be found in the most unexpected places. Thus it often happens that the poor immigrant woman is found scrimping and sacrificing to give her children the best food and care, while wealthy* and presumably well-educated women are found grumbling about the high prices, and cutting down their children’s supply of food. The other day a child welfare expert, after listening to a rich woman mourn the high price of beets and the fact that her children had to have them, finally became impa tient. “Why don’t you take one of the pearls off your necklace and buy some beets?” she asked. Curiously enough, most child welfare workers will tell you that their hardest work does not al ways lie in the foreign colonies of the large cities. Here the women will accept any new suggestions as a part of the Americanization process. They want to be Americans, and so they care for their babies the way the Americans tell them to. The woman who presents the great difficulties is usually the American woman of the type that works hard, reads little and believes that the ways of her grand mother are good enough for her. She is always slow to adopt new suggestions. Even this woman will not be able to escape the information disseminated on the care of children during the next year if the plans of the woman s committee of the Council of National Defense are carried out. It is now a matter of national pride. Great Britain, last year, by consistent efforts, nearly cut its infant mortality rate in two, while New Zealand already has an Infant mortality rate only half as large in proportion as that of the United States. We no longer have any excuse for lagging behind. If we can conserve food, we can conserve babies. which now seems ready at any time to slip off into the valley several thousand feet below. Assured by the Burmese guide that the rock has rested at this critical angle for many centu ries, the visitor, already breathless from the reck less ascent of a Burmese hill, climbs a swaying bamboo ladder to view better the old pagoda. The great rock with its shrine forming a tiny pointed cap seems even more unsteady from here, but the guide feels no uneasiness. He is confident that somewhere below the pagoda is a lock of Buddha’s hair, and this alone stays the boulder from its fall. In the early* spring prigrims from an Burma journey to this forsaken spot to place flow ers on the rock and offer their prayers and gifts. Jewels and other-offerings are tossed with an in vocation to Buddha into the chasm below the rock. As they leave, they place lighted candles outside the shrine and as they cross the plain in the evening they can still see tiny points of flame marking the sacred spot for other pilgrims who may follow them. QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES An American walked into a barber shop on the other side of the “herring pond” for a shave. He began forthwith to criticize British business methods and to declare that they were behind the times. . “Why, in America.” be declared, “we ell spe cialize. You should stick to one thing and master it completely*.’* The barber, who meanwhile had been lathering his customer’s face, nodded assent, but said noth ing. He then left the American and sat down to enjoy his newspaper. “Why don’t you shave me?” inquired the American. “Oh, we only lather here,” coolly replied ♦>« barber. “You must go next door to be shaved.” • • • Balfour Browne. K. €., tells a story of Justin Martin, a bluff lawyer, who was noted for his “bulls.” One of these is still remembered as prob ably the best example ever uttered by a judge in his official capacity. He was sentencing a man who Sad been convicted of sheep stealing, and ’ after treating the unfortunate prisoner to a lengthy lecture on the enormity of his offense he • wound up as follows: . “My man. if you bad been tried for this eighty years ago you would have been hung tomorrow morning.”
