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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
t ATLANTA. GA„ 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.-
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter
of the Second Class.
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brought by special leased wires into our
It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with
strong departments of special value to the home
and the farm
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commission allowed. Outfit free. • W rite R
BRADLEY. Circulation Manager.
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6KMI WEEKI.Y JOVRJSAL. Atlanta. Ga.
*
A Time for Courage and Faith.
While it is important for the American people
to realize the serious import of the recent turn
of events in eastern Europe, it is equally im
portant for them to understand that it is fully
within the power of their nation, together with
their Allies, to overcome such advantages as Ger
many may derive from the present situation and
to press their cause to complete and glorious vic
tory. Pessimists there are who see only the German
side of the shield. They picture the massing
on the Western front, of a million and a half or
two million additional Huns, released as war pris
oners from Russia. They see la their mind's
frenzied eye vast avalanches of Hohenzollern
troops descending upon Italy and upon France as
well, burying the entire Allied force beneafii
them, or else sweating it straight into the At
lantic ocean. They see, too, measureless quanti
ties of foodstuffs pouring into Germany from the
newly established Ukraine republic; which com
prises what were Russia’s richest agricultural
lands and which has made a separate peace with
the Central Powers. This, they tell us, solves
Germany's food problem once for all, and so
makes her defeat a task of many more long years,
if indeed it ever can be accomplished.
Gloom-gatherers of this type are less harmful
than the rosy-visioned patriot who takes the sit
uation so lightly as never to mind about saving
food or buying Thrift Stamps or looking grim
facts in the face. Better an alarmist who cries
for harder fighting and higher devotion than an
optimist blind to the crucial needs and duties of
the hour. But the really serviceable patriotism,
jthe sort that is producing results today and that
will win the war, recognizes the dan
gers that fhrong ahead, without once failing to
see beyond them the certain victory that awaits
hn unresting and unflinching prosecution of our
cause.
• /Just what effect is Russia's quitting the fight
likely to have on the military status in the West?
Any answer, of course, is largely conjectural, but
no careful consideration will support the opinion
that a million and a half or two million additional
Huns will be made available for the Kaiser's ex
pected drive. As competent military observers at
Washington point out, the great majority of the
Teuton prisoners held by Russia are Austrians,
only small contingents of German troops having
been captured on the Eastern front. We may
waive for the time being the doubts, though they
are serious doubts, of large numbers of Austrian
soldiers being sent against the Franco-British-
American lines. Grant that a full million Aus
tro-Hungarian prisoners are released from the
Russian camps, where they have fared for long
months —many of them for years—as war pris
oners do in a half-famished land. Are we to sup
pose that all these, or the major portion of them,
can be thrown into the impending battle far away
in the 'West? They could be used for industrial
if not military needs, it is true. But Germany
has depended largely on her hordes of captured
Russians for labor, so that in a wholesale ex
change of prisoners she would gain in this respect,
little or nothing.
As for the Ukrainian food resources, now sup
posed to be available to the Central Powers, it
should be noted that in that region, as in nearly
all of Russia, transportation facilities are for the
most part worn out and are altogether inefficient.
What proved a fatal Russian weakness in military
.operations will prove a heavy German handicap in'
getting out such food supplies as Ukrainia affords.
Authorities point out, moreover, that “the best
wheat regions which may be opened to Germany
are in a remote section of the Ukraine and are in
such poor condition that the agricultural system
may have to be made over.” There is no denying
that in gaining access to this territory, Germany
has substantially improved her economic position
and thereby has rendered more arduous the work
ahead of the Allies. But it is equally apparent
that this wfll not solve her food problem so rapidly
or so thoroughly as materially to affect the events
of the next four or five critical months.
* But granting the utmost advantage that the
Huns themselves could claim from the Eastern
situation, granting that it will not be necessary
keep even a corporal’s guard on the long frontier
of Bolsheviki-betrayed Russia, granting that a mil
lion or more troops can be added to the Kaiser’s
forces in the West and that vast stores of food
will pour into him from Ukrainian granaries,
granting what is improbable if not, indeed, impos
sible. what does it all mean to us who are fight
ing for justice and freedom? That we shall grow
faint of heart, and hear to a peace that would
leave brutal Prussianism dominant? That may do
for the disciples of I<enine and Trotzky, but it
will not do for Americans. It will not do for the
English and the French. It will not do for valiant
Italy and Rumania, nor for any of our heroic
Allies. To every fresh German onset there can
be but one answer —a steeling of our wills, a
doubling of our blows. This is no hour for pes
simism. but for the high courage and faith that
have lighted this republic through its darkest
nights, and for the unswerving purpose that has
steered it through the wildest storms.
The old-fashioned man who brought his lunch
to the office is not to be despised.
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1918.
< A Nation of Gardens, .
Wisconsin is not to be judged by La Follette
alone. Far to the contrary, it is rich in patriotic
thoughts and deeds. Just now, for instance, the
Wisconsin high schools are centering their instruc
| tion on agriculture with a view to augmenting the
State's food output through the special efforts of
their ten thousand boy students. For the rest of
the winter, it seems, the boys will be taught the
a-b-c’s of farming and gardening, and then sent
forth to fight the Kaiser by producing food. In a
highly engaging account of the enterprise the Way
cross Journal-Herald says that the students have
not been deprived of opportunity to complete their
normal high school training. There was simply a
speeding up in the regular branches and the intro
duction of a laboratory course in agriculture. Fur
ther,
• Active and retired farmers of the
formed a Big Brothers’ organization. Its
members volunteered to take boys into their
homes for week-ends and to teach them ele
mentary farming. An educational campaign
is being conducted among farmers throughout
the State to make them willing to utilize boy
labor for the things the growing boy is able
to do about the farm and to give him an op
portunity for learning more about agriculture.
The rural schools are conducting a survey to
show the labor and seed-grain needs of the
State. ’
This is typical of the extraordinary inter
est which the entire nation is manifesting in
food production. The American people evident
ly are awakening to the truth that the win
ning of the war depends largely on the ear
nestness and efficiency of their efforts to
fill and overheap the country's larder. Every
thoughtful endeavor of the kind, whether on
the part of school children or grownups, is a valu
able contribution to the American and Allied
cause. It is of the utmost importance, however,
that the amateur gardener or farmer inform him
self as accurately and fully as possible concerning
the rudiments of his task. Otherwise, much time
and energy and precious material will be wasted.
It is largely for the purpose of supplying such in
formation and aid that The Journal is going to
operate its war garden, which will be located near
the center of the city and be conducted by experts.
In that garden, which we hope the public will con
sider its own, every stage and every process of veg
etable gardening will be demonstrated, while its
directors will be pleased to answer questions con
cerning particular problems.
Atlanta is uncommonly rich in garden enter
prises this season. The Federation of Women’s
Clubs is continuing the admirable work of the kind
which it inaugurated several years ago. The pub
lic school children, the Boy Scouts, the Telephone
and Telegraph Society, along with a number of
other drganizations and hundreds of individuals,
are all contributing invaluably to this highly help
ful and patriotic cause. The results of this
and other communities’ efforts will go far in
lightening the burdensome cost of living and in
providing that surplus of foodstuffs without which
wd should be unable to relieve the pressing food
needs of our Allies and win the war.
To Those at Home.
To those at home who have a wholehearted
desire to see America victorious, the Athens Her
ald offers this good counsel:
“You have a tremendous part to play in
the fight overseas, but your fight can be ma<je
simple by the application of thrift. Thrift
will make successful the two billion dollar
loan, which must be raised this year by the
war savings stamp program. Its success is
imperative. The burden of a part of this ob
ligation rests upon you. You can shoulder
yours by enrolling in Uncle Sam's army of
Thrift Stamp purchasers. You can not lose,
because the stamps you buy are redeemable
•at any time. You can gain, however, through
the compound interest the Government will
pay. Regard this in the light of the duty it
truly is, and act TODAY.” w
Not every American can buy Liberty bonds —
though many millions can, thanks to the easy
terms of payment which the banks provide. But
there are very few who cannot buy Thrift Stamps,
and none who cannot apply the patriotic prin
ciple of thrift in one way or another. Every
twenty-five cents put into Thrift Stamps is not
only a wise investment for the individual, but also
a direct contribution to the country’s cause. Each
man and woman and boy and® girl who buys
Thrift Stamps is helping to provide munitions and
supplies for our soldiers in France, is helping to
defeat the Huns, is helping to make America and
the wortd forever safe against brutal Prussianism.
We need not wait until we are able to do big
things for our country. Indeed, the service which
is most needed just now is the service of those
who can do only a little —the children who can
save pennies, the grownups who can save nickels
and dimes and lend them to the Government for
sinews of war. The school children of Atlanta
are rallying to the Thrift campaign *ith high
hearted patriotism and are achieving substantial
results. Their elders not only should encourage
them to the utmost but themselves should be lib
eral purchasers of Thrift Stamps and War Savings
Certificates.
♦
Salvation Army War Work.
In order that it may continue and expand its
useful war work activities, the Salvation Army has
undertaken to raise throughout the United States
a sum of one million dollars. Atlanta's quota of
this national fund, every penny of which will go
for cheer and comfort to our soldier boys, is ten
thousand dollars, an amount almost trivial com
pared with the greatness of the cause to be
served. The public will respond the more readily
because of the hearty indorsement which tne Sal
vation Army's efforts iu this connection ha\e re
ceived from President Wilson, Secretary Baker,
Chairman Mott, of the Y. M. C. A. War Work
Council, and other highly competent observers.
Among the American • expeditionary forces in
France as well as in the training camps in this
country the Salvation Army is patriotically at
work for the soldiers, its object being, as its own
leadership expresses it, “to make better and hap
pier men of them.’’ The continuance of this serv
ice and its extension to meet ever-increasing needs
depend on the success of the campaign now in
progress in Atlanta and other cities the nation
over. With the same unstinting loyalty that has
marked our response to all other appeals in our
soldiers' behalf, let us answer this one. and an
swer it to the overflowing brim.
‘ ‘ Unsinkable ’ ’ Ships.
The “unsinkable'’ ships to which responsible
spokesmen on our navy affairs confidently refer
will not be unsinkable, of course, to the extent that
no amount of enemy fire can send them down;
♦
that kind of craft sails only on fairy seas. It ap
pears certain, however, that we are to have a ship
that will remain seaworthy for long Jiours after
being torpedoed. That alone will mark a giant
stride in overcoming the U-boats. Those pirates
already have been greatly circumscribed in the
methods as well as in the zone of their operation.
They must rely, for the most part, upon a single
torpedo to accomplish their purpose, for if they
tarry to observe the outcome they are liable them
selves to be sunk by a well-aimed shot from the
intended victim’s guns or by the naval convoy
which accompanies all troop transports and many
of the cargo vessels. Submarine destroyers have
become efficient with depth bombs that destruction
almost inevitable awaits the U-boat, which lingers
anywhere near their pathway. If, then, wa get
ships which can safely withstand the first and. per
haps, even a second or third torpedo explosion, we
shall be fully assured as far as the transporting of
our troops is concerned and also further protected
a§ regards supply carriers.
But this in no wise lessens the necessity for
speeding our shipbuilding program to the utmost.
Though the submarine peril should be ended to
morrow, there still would be imperative need for
hundreds of additional ships to sustain our army
in France and to help provision our Allies. Per
fect security of the sea lanes will avail us little
unless we are able to use them. The vigilance of
the navy, together with the resourcefulness of in
ventors. can conquer the submarine, but only the
brawn and skill of American labor can finally
solve the all-important shipping problem.
MYSTICISM AND POWER
By H. Addington Bruce
THE modern man is altogether too apt to hold
in contempt mysticism and mystics. To say
that a person is mystical is, in his view, to
say that that person is a futile visionary, incapable
of useful accomplishment in the world of affairs.
Mysticism’s history does not bear out this com
mon belief.
There have been foolish, futile mystics, of
course, ’just as there have been foolish, futile peo
ple, without a drop of mysticism in their makeup.
But mysticism by and large is so far from be
ing synonymous with futility that to be a mystic is
to gain access to reservoirs of power untapped by
the great generality of mankind.
Mystics have a tendency to outlive other men.
They have a tendency to outwork other men. And
they have a tendency to become leaders of men.
Tolstoi was a mystic. Think of the work he
did. Think of the power in the many books he
wrote. Think of the profound impression he has
made on the world.
Contrast Tolstoi’s place in history with that
of the merely “practical’’ men of the Russia of his
day. Even the names of most of these are already
forgotten.
Joan of Arc was a mystic. So was “Chinese’*,
Gordon, admittedly one of England’s most illus
trious soldiers.
Can the adjective “futile” be justly applied to
their careers?
St. Ignatius was a mystic, but he also was “one
of the most powerfully practical human engines
that ever lived.” The same is true of St. Teresa,
St. Francis of Assissi, and other notable mystics of
the long ago.
Ponder, if you please, this description of St.
Teresa, given us by the psychologist William
James:
“She was one of the ablest women, in many
respects, of whose life we have the record. She
had a powerful intellect of the practical order.
“She wrote admirable descriptive psychology,
possessed a will equal to any emergency, great
talent for politics and business, a buoyant disposi
tion, and a first-rate literary style.”
St. Catherine, of Siena, one of the most mysti
cal of all mystics, was equally famous for her mys
ticism and for her ability to work for the public*
good. She had “an astonishingly practical genius
for affairs, and immense power of ruling men.”
Mysticism, clearly, is not so futile as is the
habit of uncritically assuming that it must be fu
tile. ‘
Actually it would seem to be a marvelous ener
gizer—an energizer so potent that it is hardly sur
prising to find one sympathetic historian of mys
ticism declaring:
“He who says the mystic is but half a man
states the exact opposite of the truth, 'p’uly the
mystic can be called a whole man, since in others
half the powers of the self always sleep.”
It is time that we stopped sneering at mysti
cism and begun to study it.
(Copyright, 1918, by the Associated Newspapers.)
Y. W. C. A.
Bv Dr. Frank Crane
The United States is the first nation in history
to plan deliberately to keep its army decent.
Other nations have supplied their fighting men
with arms, exercised a certain solicitude about
their health, and realized the importance of proper
food: but this country is the first to see clearly
the value of morality as an asset to victory.
Alcohol has slain its battalions in all armies.
The United States has cut that Gordian knot with
one swift blow. A hundred years of agitation,
education and moral effort were behind the order
of the government that no soldier or sailor shall
drink.
And now comes the Young Women’s Christian
association, and under the patronage and approval
of the government is organizing a great work to
keep the soldier decent.
It has opened thirty-one houses inside of
camps where soldiers may meet their sweethearts,
wives and sisters under clean conditions, and has
ten more houses building.
It has taken in hand the care of the laundry,
telephone and stenographer girls that work in the
cantonments.
It looks after the welfare of girls in the towns
that are in the neighborhood of camps. The mod
ern American woman is awake to her responsibil
ity toward these girls and their influence upon
the young men of the camp, and is meeting it
through the Y. W. C. A.
The Y. W. C. A. is also extending its beneficent
services to the workers in munition and
uniform factories, making provision for their hous
ing, food and entertainment.
Is is the tendency of war to magnify the ma
chine and disregard the individual. .Everything is
sacrificed to efficiency. Through such agencies as
the Young Women's Christian association this na
tion expresses its belief that we should not lose
sight of the human being.
The soldier is also a human soul. Most of the
soldiers' will not bo killed; they will come back
home and have their lives to live. It is the aim
of the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian
associations to see to it that these boys do not re
turn with diseased bodies and bankrup, charac
ters.
War is a fearful business, and its tendencies
are naturally brutalizing and degrading, for it is
essentially a struggle of brute force. Wise gen
erals understand the value of the “morale’’ of an
army.
And “morale” is very closely connected with
“morals.”
The work of the Young Women's-Christian as
sociation is of distinct patriotic and human value,
and should be enthusiastically supported.
(Copyright, 191$, by Frank
THE HIRED MAN A WORLD PROBLEM—By Frederic J. Haskin;
WASHINGTON, D. C„ Feb. 10.—Who is to
harvest next summer’s crops?
That is right now one of the biggest
problems in the world. It was a serious one last
year; this year it will be doubly so. Last year
the production of foodstuffs in Europe fell far
below normal because of the shortage of farm la
bor. while in this country the shortage was with
difficulty made tn> through strenuous and well
organized efforts bj' the departments of agricul
ture and labor. This year in Europe more men
are being called to the colors to resist the im
pending German drive, and in this country the
draft and the munitions industry have taken hun
dreds of thousands that worked in the fields last
year.
• t »
It is evident that the situation calls for the
most extreme measures, and in all of the allied
countries they are being taken. England is teach
ing women to work on the farms; France is con
templating the importation fronx her colonies of
dark men, who are not able to stand the climate
on the fighting line, for farm .work in her south
ern provinces. Our own department of agricul
ture is hard at work on the problem. It is be
ginning scientifically with a survey to find out
just what is needed in the way of farm labor and
where. It has already a system of finding and
distributing labor, as has the labor department,
but these excellent organizations had all they
4ould do to meet the situation last year. This
year calls for a more desperate remedy.
Undoubtedly one important measure is to make
the American people realize what they are up
against—that if labor Is not iorthcoming to har
vest the crops, there will not be enough to eat
for anyone. The situation could be improved if
patriotic citizens would volunteer to spend their
leisure, their vacations, in doing farm work. Some
did so last year. Seven hundred Boston street car
employes put in their vacations working for Mas
sachusetts farmers. Many retired farmers went
to work for their own tenants. If the urgency
of this need for volunteer hired men could be
driven borne through the newspapers, the need
might be met.
Secretary Houston has a number of plans for
relieving the situation. In addition to a survey of
the problem, he intends to make fuller use of
the boys of high school age, vb<? did sueb good
service in the working boys’ reserve last year;
he recommends that men be released for farm la
bor by employing more women in industry; that
the department of labor’s system for the transfer
of labor to the sections where it is most needed
be extended; that farmers ro-operate more fully
in the use of labor; that more labor-saving ma
chinery be made and used; that all able-bodied men
be compelled by law to do a full day’s work.
These are all recommendations for the im
provement of measures and agencies used last
year, except the last.
President Wilson has promised that soldiers in
cantonments will be given leave of absence to go
home and help harvest the crops.
Secretary Houston’s suggestion that the lazy
man and the man of leisure are potential assets
in this situation is a new and interesting one. He
points out that this a matter for state and munic
ipal rather than federal action. In Maryland a
law has already been passed providing that every
able-bodied man must do at least six hours’ work
per day. Such laws should certainly apply also to
“AMERICA MUST MAKE GOOD IN A HURRY IN A BIG WAY”
... - By Herbert Corey
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY, Jan. 4. —
Every now and then one meets an officer
with a false light of happiness shining in
his eye. He shakes one by the hand. He says:
“Well, old horse, I’m off for the states to
morrow.”
“And glad of it?”
That’s the conventional response. The come
back to which —it is as regulation as orange blos
soins at a wedling—is: 0
“Surest thing you know.”
But he isn’t. At least, he usually isn’t. Many
of the homegoers have been dumped because they
have not measured up. Those who have made
good and are sent home because they are good,
and can help the fellows back home, are as un
pleasant as catfish. They do not want to leave
the big show and go back to the training camps.
One man I know had the eagles of a colonel
pinned on his shoulders. He wanted to give up
that promotion and stay here as a major. He
wanted to “stay with the bunch.”
It is a hard job that has been handed to Gen
eral Pershing. He not only has to guide the im
mense business of putting an army on its feet in
a strange country, three thousand sea miles from
home, but he has to find the men who can help
him. It is as though Judge Gary had to turn from
the broader interests of the steel trust every
few minutes to find out why Kansas Mulligan
messed up his last batch of iron pigs at Smoke
town.
Just as Gary would, General Pershing works
the men when he finds them. Once a man has
made good, his reward is in making better for
longer hours each day and more days in the week.
No one complains. The worth-while sort did not
come over here for a vacation. Recent military
events have jammed it home to every one that
America must make good in a big way and in a
hurry. One does not hear that talk of a “blood
less war” over here any more.
THEY MUST MAKE GOOD
When a man fails to make good and General
Pershing finds it out the ultimate punishment is
what he gets, pronto. He has no time to fool with
his men or to give them another chance. Every
man starts for a new average whenever he goes
to bat. The other day a certain officer failed to
properly guard certain properties with which he
was entrusted.
“A spy could get at that stuff and blow it to
perdition,he was told.
“That will all be attended to in due time,”
said the officer.
I've seen that officer’s picture. He certainly is
a soldierly looking soldier when he faces a cam
era —stem, you know, and hard-faced and grim.
But he doesn’t hold the pose when he gets away
from the camera, because a few days afterward
some one at headquarters heard about it.
“Find out whether that stuff is being properly
guarded now,” some one ordered.
The stuff was not. ’ The “due time” bad not
arrived. The officer responsible tried to pass the
buck, but it was too late. He is now at home.
Another man was brought over here by General
Pershing himself. He did not make good. He went
home. Batches of them go home every little while.
But the percentage of pep in those that stay is
perceptibly increased.
Some of the hardest falls have been those taken
by regular army officers. To be fair to the regu
lar army, some of those making good in the finest
way also graduated from West Point. . It has been
solely a matter of the personal equation. The man
who has kept up with his profession is making
good. The man who has been content to live the
sheltered life in an army post is not. From one
viewpoint the regular is seriously handicapped by
comparison with the officer who was drawn from
the civilian ranks eight months ago.»
Most regular army colonels —many regular
army colonels —have not hall one-half the respon
sibility that is pm. on the shoulders of a depart
ment head in an average dry goods store. The of
ficer who is content not to display too much in
itiative and always to obey orders can get along
in any army in the world. He avoids mistakes
by obeying the blue-prints A department head in
a dry goods store must punch ahead all the time.
He must be right a sufficient percentage of the
time to pay the store a profit. If his mistake is
a big one he loses his job. If his right percentage
is big enough his salary is boosted. He mixes
with other people all the time. Too many offi
cers mix only with officers.
“The first thing you must learn is not to
able-bodied women. If they were really passed and
enforced in all of the states, they would reach the
two extremes of the social scale —the idle rich and
the idle poor. The idle rich would be forced into
some sort of more or less congenial and possibly A ,
useful form of activity. The idle poor would be
the net gain to farm labor. In effect it would be
a conscription of elderly hobos.
« • *
One serious difficulty in this country is that
American women have never leartied to do farm
work. Women have come forward in a great va
riety of other industries; their response to the
call of war has in general been admirable —and
sufficiently admired. But we have been unable to
learn of any considerable number of women going *
into farming. The woman's committee of the ,
Council of National Defense is known to be aware
of this need for women on farms, and to be work
ing on the problem. It may be that it will offer
a solution, although it will be difficult to train
women in time to be of use this year.
This is emphasized by the experience of Great
Britain. There women have gone a long way
toward saving the farming situation. Even before
the war, there had been some discussion of the *
advisability of training women for farm work, and
women farmers and farm laborers were not un
known. When the war broke out, after the first
rush of munition-making, England found that Its
production of foodstuffs was failing for lack of
labor. Then the question of women as farm work
ers was taken up in earnest. The government in
stituted a system of training them by periods of
apprenticeship to farmers. Women are now doing
an important share of the agricultural work in
England. In France and Germany they have done
an important share for many generations. It is •
safe to say that neither of these countries could
have gotten along without the women to take the
place of men on the farms. Thus it is seen that
women have saved the situation in every country
except the United States. It seems to be up to
American women.
Prof. W. J. Spillman, now of Cornell University,
who organized the farm labor work of the depart
ment of agriculture last year, prophesied that at
least thirty thousand women would have to take
the place of men in the fields this coming sum
mer. He also prophesied that they would do it
and were fully able to do it. He asserted that
farm labor with modern, machinery is not too
heavy a drudgery for women, that It is more
healthful than much of the industrial work into
which the war has called them.
Only recently the farmers of Tidewater, Md.,
served notice on the government that unless the
drain of Labor from the farms to the factories is
stopped, food production must decline. The gov
ernment replied, in effect, that it must have mu
nition workers; that the farmers would have £o
do the best they could. *
That situation is one that will surely spread,
will occur in many parts of the country as the
crops begin to ripen. Improving agencies for
gathering men and distributing them is all right
as far as it goes; but there are very few men to
gather and distribute. Urging further co-operation
between farmers, and the-'uge of more machinery
are good expedients, but they obviously do not
constitute a solution. The same may be said of
conscription for the lazy.
Everything seems to point to woman as the
hired man of the future. *
bother your superiors with suggestions,” a regu
lar army officer told an officer of the reserve
army the other day. The reserve officer had a
job on hand—unloading railroad ties, we’ll say,
because that va» not the job. The regular wanted
to be kind to the young fellow. /
“Just go along and obey orders and take it
easy,” he said. “That’s the way to get along in
the army.”
The reserve officer once held a job in a large
factory. His language-,is copious and direct. He
forgot all about the snbulder-strap differences and
told the regular officer what he thought of him
and dared him to make a fuss about it, and de
manded more help at once —
“Or I’ll make you hard to catch,” said the
reserve officer. “I got, by gosh, a wife and three
kids at home, and I want to finish up this de
scribed war as soon as I can and get back to ’em.
Don’t you get in my way.”
The day will come when he will ram his head
hard against army discipline, but this time he
won. He got the help he wanted. He got his *
ties unloaded. There are thousands of that sort
here, but they are not all undisciplined. Some of
them are getting discouraged. Also, as rapidly as
General Pershing is discovering the men who dis
courage men of that sort they are going home.
He wants to get the job over, too. The officer,
regular or national guard or reserve, whose am
bition is just to “get by” is in danger of a jar
every blessed day he lives. '
Os course, the “get by” delegates may win in
the end. They are going back home, and be
cause the censorship does not permit the corre
spondents to say that “Colonel Hokum was fired
because his head is full of glue,” and because the
correspondents say that “Colonel Hokum is re
turning to the United States on a special mission,”
the incompetents have all the best of it. They can
go home and attack the organization over here
and permit the impression to get out that they
were sent back because they knew too much and
were too energetic. The man who makes good and
the man who has failed reach the United States
on an equal footing. It is hardly a sQuare deal.
QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES
“I remember some years ago,” writes a corre
spondent, “while spending a day and a night in
a small Austrian village, not far westward from
Vienna, located on a delta formed by the conflu
ence of a lesser stream with the Danube, my at
tention was arrested while walking through the
settlement by a marble tablet, set in the brick
wall of a building, on one of the most important
street corners. I saw that the tablet bore an in
scription, but it was so high above the street that
I could not distinguish it; so I asked a man who
kept a wine shop opposite what the tablet signi
fied. * •
“ ‘lt was placed there.’ said the rotund pub
lican, ‘to mark the height of the water of the
Danube at the great freshet of a certain year.’
“‘Mercy!’ I said. ‘As high as that? Why, I
should have supposed your village would have been
swept away!’
* Oh,' replied the citizen, patronizingly, that
was not where the water was. The Baron Zwettej
gave us the beautiful tablet to mark the great
flood and it was put—there —where you see ?se
bricks disarranged by that lower window, and that
is where the flood was; but the wretched boys de
faced it and threw mud at it and made it a mark
for their arrows, so we put. it up there out of their
reach. Aha! They can not trouble it now.’
“And, truly, the man did not seem to see any
incongruity in the affair.”
, ♦ ♦ ♦
“Why.” said the woman suffragist, stepping ’
forward to the footlights, and commencing a lec
ture with a lofty flight of eloquence, ’ why was
I born ?”
She paused—a thrill ran through the audi
ence. Again the rich tones of the winsome wom
an's voice rolled over the expectant people as she
repeated the question.
“Why was 1 born?” and again she paused, that
the due impression might b r - made upon her hear
ers before she answered her own question.
“Why was I- born?” she asked once more, in
touching and almost painful accents, when a
wicked boy in the gallery shouted:
“We don t know. We give it up!
