Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, February 19, 1918, Page 4, Image 4
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL / ATLANTA. GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST "7 Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Mattei of the Second Class. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months - * ' Six months ’ J Three months L"2i*\n The. Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shor est routes for early delivery. . It contains news from all over the wor . brought by special leased wires into our o < . It has a staff of distinguished contributors, witn strong departments of special value to the horn and the farm Agents wanted at every postoffice. b,^ er ®‘ commission allowed. Outfit free. M rite BRADLEY, Circulation Manager. The onlv traveling representatives we nay are R F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle. Charles H. TVood Uff, J. M. Patten. W. H. Reinhardt, M. H. Bevil and John Mac Jennings. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named travei- * ing representatives , NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Tbr label used for your paper the time your sntwertption expire*. By renewing at least two weeks lor the date on tbts label, you ineure „ In ordering paper <-Mnged. be sure to “ennonyooroi well a* jour new address. If on a route, please glee the route ° W, carnot enter »v.b«ripUcns to begin wlth b * r * ''JT’.V*"' Remittances should be sent by postal order or re<‘stered m • . Address dll orders and notices for this Department to THE SEMI WEEKLY JOVRKAL. 'Atlanta. Ga. ServiceFlag In Honor’of the Sixty Atlanta*Journal Men in the Service of Their Country. Stop the Food H aste! The food situation in the United States is a great deal more serious than the people are aware. Strict regulations are being enforced on all food dealers, wholesale and retail. Practically all of them are doing their best to carry out the .wishes of the Food Administration. Those who refuse are promptly punished by suspension of their business. One suspension usually suffices in any case. But the best they can do will never relieve the food situation unless the people pay attention to the Government’s urgent appeals for voluntary co-operation. “Food will win the war—don’t waste it!” is more than an advertising slogan. It is the most serious and stupendously important fact in the life of this Nation. The man or woman who disregards the Gov ernment’s appeal for food conservation Is fight ing for the Kaiser, contributing as much to Ger ’ man victory as a German soldier obeying orders to hold tha line at any cost. The farmer who can produce food, but fails vor refuses to do so, not only endangers himself and his family, but subjects his State to the risk of an embargo against the shipment of food from other sections. Senator Hoke Smith gives the farmers of Georgia and other Southern States very sound advice when he urges reduction of cot ton acreage and increase of food crop acreage. Our Government will not resort to compulsory food conservation unless it is forced to take that step by the failure of its appeals. We have al ways enjoyed such boundless plenty in this country that we find it difficult to realize the solemn im port of warnings from Washington. Wasteful America must take heed and stop waste. “They Are Coming.'' “The Americans are coming. It is use less for Germany to hide from that fact. As a certain percentage of provision ships are torpedoed, so may a certain percentage of the American troop transports be torpedoed. But they are coming. It is better to look things squarely in the face than to cling to pleasing self-deception.’’—from the Breslauer Volks wacht. To those Americans who feared that “the mil itary establishment of the United States had fallen down” as well as to the Germans who were confi dent that we would never wage anything more than a. dollar war. these admonitory words from a Prussian newspaper should be peculiarly interest ing. The enemy is at least beginning to take no tice of our military existence. Heretofore he left us out of account, as far as the battle front was concerned. With characteristic contemptuousness for all things non-German, he considered it certain that Americans (“the Fatheads.” be calls them) could be either wheedled or intimidated into stay ing on this side of the water while he disposed of their fighting Allies. Then it would be time enough to deal with America, he reasoned. As a captured German officer calmly expressed it, “When this war is over we can whip the United States over night.” It needs no word from Prussian scribes to let us know that a marked change has come over this cavalier contempt. Hindenburg’s heavy concen tration of troops opposite those sectors of the Al lied front on which American contingents have ap peared is evidence enough that the German rulers are no longer wholly deceiving themselves. But a warning like that in the Breslauer Volkswacht is particularly significant in that it betokens an awakening on the part of the German people themselves. Hoodwinked as they are, it is not to be assumed that they yet realize the full earnest ness and power which the United States is pouring into the war. They probably still believe, as Ber lin tells them, that our fighting force in France numbers only thirty or forty thousand and that the U-boats are preventing anything like .a.for midable movement of troops across the Atlantic. Nevertheless, it is being borne gradually in upon the German public, despite the iron censorship, that the United States is effectively in the fight, not merely with money and supplies but, above all. with man-power. That there are now some five hundred thousand American soldiers at the front and upwards of a million more in this country training to go, with additional millions ready to THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA. TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 19, 1918. till the training camps as fast as the need arises, of this, the German public is not aware. But it does realize, at last, that “the Americans are coming.” And that is the one argument which either the Government or the people of Germany will heed; it is the only argument they can under stand. War weariness and elements of discontent in Germany, there doubtless are; but if we depend upon that to do the work of our own blows against the Hohenzollern war machine, we shall find peace further off than even the pessimistic now imagine. The German people will not forswear .Prussianism as long as Prussianism, unbowed in battle, offers them kingdoms and empires for loot and world domination for their self-glory. The Kaiser’s country has its sprinkling of Liberals and its demo cratic twinges, which some day no doubt will leap into a mastering impulse. But for the present, among the majority of the people, that “sinister ego,” which always has marked the German na tional character is predominant. The German pub lic thinks no differently from the German Govern ment over the invasion of Belgium, the sinking of the Lusitania, the breaking of solemn pledges to America, the defiance of international* law, the trampling down of civilized usage, the abandon ment of honor and humanity. In essential ideas and aims of foreign policy, the people and the rulers are at one; and they will' continue so until those ideas are repudiated at the cannon’s mouth and those aims are rendered forever unachievable. It is through the coming of the Americans that the defeat of Prussianism, which is as essential to Germany’s real freedom as to the world’s perma nent peace, will be accomplished. The defection of Russia, relieving and virtually removing all pressure on the Huns’ eastern border, gave them a new chance on the decisive Western front, gave them an equality if not a positive advantage which only the continued inpouring of American power can overcome. The worst thing that could happen to the world’s common interests and to the par ticular interests of the United States, short of a downright German victory, would be the failure to accomplish a downright German defeat. An in conclusive peace, such as probably would -result if American strength were not thrown decisively into this critical stage of the conflict, would serve but as prologue and preparation to another and more terrible war. The noblest message, therefore*, that ever swept eastward from our shores, the gladdest tidings our democracy ever gave the world since the.first Independence Day ft just this —"The Americans are coming.” Without vain glory, with reverent gratitude, indeed, for all that their brave Allies have done, but with the glorious strength of morning in their sinews and with love of freedom in their souls, they are coming, these soldier boys of ours, to win an everlatsing triumph for the Right. Who of us that stay behind could fail to support in every thought and in every deed of our lives? Our Training Camps. To spread crazy rumors about conditions in the training camps is to render free of charge a valuable service for the Kaiser, which he would gladly pay for if he could not get it another way. German propagandists in this country start these rumors, and good American men and women spread them broadcast, never stopping to think that when they do it they aid the enemy. Spreading rumors about the camps is one of the subtle methods chosen by Germany to under mine the confidence and enthusiasm of the Ameri ican people. The German government knows that a weakening of the morale of the people at home will inevitably reflect itself in a weakening of the morale of American troops on the firing line. Conditions in the training camps are enough to make any man proud that he is an American citizen. They are the product of the most mar velous plan that was ever launched in the history of the world to develop men's bodies and morals and minds. None but millionaires can give their sons the benefits of a training so perfect and com plete as that which the humblest private is now receiving every day at every cantonment. The Government stopped all lumber in south ern sawmills and took its pick of best selected heart yellow pine to build the barracks. It lined the walls with thick tar paper, and lined the floors and lined the roofs. It constructed complete waterworks and sewerage systems in every canton ment. It built snower baths for officers and men. It scoured the country for the finest cooks to run the kitchens. It buys an abundance of the most nourishing and finest foods that money can com mand. It enforces the most rigid sanitation and cleanliness in kitchens and dining rooms. Every where in every cantonment, overlooking not the smallest corner, it compels continual and contin uous cleanup of trash. It is cutting down all other uses of woolen goods to insure an abun dance of the very best grade oDuniforms and over coats. It gives every man a pair of shoes so good that thousands of men in civil life are wearing army shoes for economy and comfort. To prepare the men for the gruelling test of physical strength and physical endurance, which presently the trenches will impose upon them, the Government is daily giving them a course in phys ical culture the like of which no other men get except the members of a football squad. To see the results of this wonderful training, one has only to examine the first man he meets whom he knew before the training commenced. One lad out of The Journal’s business office went into camp a few months, ago weighing 116 pounds. Today he tips the beam at 151. He is as hard as nails, as brown as a nut. and out of his eye beams that level look of a man who has a task to per form and is upon doing it to the utmost of his manhood. In previous wars it was taken for granted that an army of men meant aq army of undesirable women, an army of blind tigers and an army of gamblers. It was taken for granted that an army of men meant epidemics of every kind of contagious disease. Behold this Government at the outset announcing the proposition that our training camps would have no undesirable women, have no liquor, have no gamblers; that it would create a clean environment in which to train its men if it had to resort to martial law; that if it couldn’t possibly get a clean environment in one place, it would move that camp to some other location where it could. As late as the Spanish-American War. Y. M. C. A. workers in a camp were there on sufferance. They were neither recognized by the Government nor welcomed by the army officers. The Y. M. C. A. secretary had one little, miserable tent pitched in a place unfit for other use, had no assistance from the army, and worked twenty-four hours a day because he was the lone man on the job. Be- hold our Government at the outset providing in its plans for cantonment cities a flock of Y. M. C. A. buildings, and a building for the Knights of Columbus, and a building for the Jewish boys, and later buildings for Masons. Behold our Govern ment providing a place where the Young Women’s Christian Association should erect a Hostess House for mothers and wives and sweethearts to meet their soldier boys in camp under perfectly refined and pleasant conditions. Behold our Gov ernment organizing the 'National Commission on Training (’amp Activities, which should go into community adjoining a camp and organize all the citizens who wanted to help in one grand movement for entertaining soldier boys. Behold our Government building theaters in the camps and letting citizens pay the cost of theatrical per formances by purchasing Smileage Books and sending them to soldiers. There neve* was a German soldier, and there never will be a German soldier, for whom the Ger man government spent as much money and as much scientific care and as much human sympathy as our Government is spending today for EVERY ONE of our soldiers. Yet to hear the crazy ru mors going the rounds about the training camps, you would think our boys in khaki were half-fed, half-clothed, disease-weakened, neglected, un trained roustabouts, soon to go against the most magnificently pampered army of favorite sons tha* the world has ever seen. A Call for Georgia Shipbuilders. To the Government’s appeal tor two hundred and fifty thousand competent workmen to serve as shipbuilders and thereby materially hasten the winning of the war, Atlanta in company with other Georgia communities has made an initial response that is highly encouraging. But the* number of men thus far registered as volunteers for this im portant service must be greatly increased if Geor gia is to furnish her full quota of the required quarter of a million. It is to be hoped, therefore, that all who can see their way clear to enter this field of war work will enroll at once. It will be weeks or months, perhaps, before they will be definitely called, but it Is essential that the Gov ernment know on just how many patriotic volun teers of this class it can depend. The vital relationship between the production of shipping tonnage and the winning of the war is so plain as scarcely to call for comment. Even though the submarine menace should be oblit erated tomorrow, the need of vessels for trans-At lantic cargo service would be urgent as ever: for after we have overcome the Prussian pirates, there remain three thousand miles of ocean to be mas tered before we can supply our ever-increasing army in France, or help to provision our low-ra tioned Allies. Thus the man who helps to build ships is welding a vital link of victory. He is seiv ing the hundreds of thousands of gallant Ameri can soldier boys now on the French front, and the additional hundreds of thousands who soon will be there. And through them he is serving his country. The Government has all the necessary equip ment and material for producing ships at a gigan tic rate, but lacks the men. Most of its ship yards are working only one shift of eight hours a day; all ought to be working three eight-hour shifts every day. It is to meet this critical need that the call .for two hundred and fifty thousand volunteers has been issued. Let Georgia's re sponse be a worthy one. t PLAIN TALK BY DR. FRANK CRANE THE official journal of the British national war savings committee recently proceeded to castigate the British public for their slackness in helping win the war. “The task which we have to accomplish is to break and change the habits of the majority of the people of this country,” it declares. “The bat tleship Britain is in the thick of a hot fight and yet people insist on being carried as passengers and on being clothed and treated generally as well as, or better than, in times of peace. The legend of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning is a story of dignified and noble conduct compared with the people of Britain endeavoring to live as usual while the soldiers are in the trenches, while 'the fleet is at sea, and while the fate of civilization hangs in the balance.” Two fallacious 'excuses, the journal says, are continually advanced in justification of this per sistence in peace time modes of living. To the first of these, that what any individual can do in the way of economy does not count, the journal retorts: “What ene individual does has its effect in setting an example, and creating a fashion or a custom.” Extravagance on the part of a host in his club or home invites extravagance in return hospitality extended by his guests. One extravagance pro- k duces many extravagances, and, just as surely, orfe economy produces many economies. The American people do not yet realize what this war means. We are still buying luxurious purple and fine linen, giving banquets at too many dollars a plate, hellroaring and dancing in cab arets, and flinging away our money in the profli gate paths of dalliance. Cutting down expenses is hard, but we will have to dp it. If we have any money to spare, Uncle Sam needs it. To be sure, a general spasm of economy will injure certain lines of business. Pandering to the “softness and needless self-indulgence” of folks is immensely profitable, as the motto of prosperous Americans has been “Give us the luxuries of life and we’ll dispense with the necessities.” But it’s time we pulled up. There’s no sense in our prating patriotism and damning the Ger mans and cheering for our army, when we squan der our wherewithal in things we do not need. Buy Liberty bonds. There will be more to buy pretty soon. Get ready! And, if you can’t buy Liberty bonds, buy War Savings Certificates and Thrift Stamps. Fall in! And look pleasant! (Copyright, 1918, by Frank Crane.) QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES Irving Fletcher said at the club, apropos of the failure of one of those expensive, exclusive sort of tailors who do not even display their wares in their windows: “The trend of modern business proves that if a man won’t advertise his goods the sheriff will step in and do it for him.” • • • The wrathful visaged dame was cuffing the small boy so vigorously that the benevolent old lady interpoesd. “Surely he has done nothing to deserve such a thrashing,” she remonstrated; “a sweet child like that!” “Sweet child is right,” shouted the virago. “He’s been and swallowfid our sugar ticket!” The scene showed a miser counting his money and refusing to give his wife enough for supper. “That man is certainly stingy,” remarked a girl to her father. “Yes,” he replied; “he couldn’t lose his step without missing it* THE COTTON MENACE A Vigorous Campaign Must Be Waged Against the Pink 801 l Worm Which Threat ens the Whole American Cotton Industry BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 15.—The coming year will see a trial of strength between the forces of science and the forces of de struction. The deadly pink cotton boll-worm has invaded the United States. One of our greatest industries, a principal source of the clothing of the world, is threatened. The pink boll-worm ex acts an annual toll of at least ten per cent of the Egyptian cotton crop, and usually much more. It threatens to make cotton-growing in Brazil im possible. It has completely eliminated the rais ing of cotton from Hawaii. The first live pink boll-worm to be found in an .American cotton field was discovered as recently as September 8, 1917. The gravity of the menace was realized at once by American scientists and cotton-raisers. Preparations were made for a war of extermination. It will be one of those wars that are truly characteristic of modern times —a war not lacking in drama, in color, in strategy, a war between humanity and the malign forces of nature, with patience, intelligence and scientific knowledge pitted against a foe who makes his en try in the heart of a single cotton-seed and multi plies until a field of ten thousand acres is left ravaged* diseased and drooping. Said Mr. Lever, chairman of the house com mittee on agriculture in a debate in the house: “If we are to be Invaded by another pest, which they say is worse than the boll weevil, I foresee that the cotton industry is practically doomed.” This is not an exaggeration in the opinion of scien tists, but luckily the invasion of the boll-worm can and will be checked. If the most vigorous measures are taken at once to prevent further importations, and to stamp out the pest wherever it appears, the boll-worm will be eradicated. If the nation had taken sim ilar measures against file boll-weevil when that pest first made its appearance years ago, the value of the American cotton crop would have been in creased by many millions annually. We have learn ed our lesson. At the last session, congress ap propriated $300,000 to fight the boll-worm, and a pending appropriation of $500,000 additional has passed the house and is regarded as certain to pass the senate. The boll-worm peril has its international an gles. The pest comes to us from Mexico. It came to Mexico from Egypt. The exact place of its origin is uncertain, but like most destructive plant and animal and human plagues, it probably orig inated in the ancient civilizations of the Far East. The boll-worm takes a terrible toll of the cotton crop in every country where cotton is raised, ex cept the United States and Mexico. Japan, India, China, Egypt and Brazil all pay it an annual tribute. It has come to the American continent principally from .Egypt. In 1913, the Brazilian government, with a view of improving the quality of their cotton, imported a large quantity of Egyptian seed. The seed was infected, and its wide distribution in Brazil was an ideal method fpr spreading the infection. The worm came to the United States, indirect ly, in the same way. Certain Mexican cotton-plant ers bought Egyptian seed with a view of raising the long-staple Egyptian cotton. Some time be fore, American agents had investigated the situa tion in Mexico, and as they found no cotton para sites there which we did not have already in this country, the quarantine regulations were not strict. The Mexican revolutions made it imprac ticable for the cottonseed qil mills of Mexico to press the oil from the seed. As a result, they ac cumulated a three-years’ seed surplus, which they INSIDE STORY OF ITALIAN RETREAT' V.—By Herbert Corey PARIS, Dec. 16. (By Mail.) —One factor in thr Italian situation that must not be forgotten is that Italy, alone of the European still has a great available man-power reserve. There are very few soldiers over thirty-six years of age serving tn the Italian armies. There are thousands upon thousands of men from twenty to thirty years old in the cities who have never been called. It must likewise be understood that these men are of high military quality. There are few better soldiers when they are well led. These facts are of prime importance at this time, when, in spite of their military successes, Germany and Austria are approaching the end of their man and material resources. They will as suredly be able now to reprovision their armies to some extent from Russia and to release many di visions from the extreme eastern front. Nevertheless, the central powers are in that same condition of moral and material deterioration of which I wrote from Switzerland. This encour aging fact has been somewhat overshadowed by the gloom of the last few weeks, but it remains a fact. The central powers will undoubtedly stake every thing on the events of the next few months. The ability to draw on this man-power reserve of Italy is of immense value to the allies now. In view of the recent debacle my statement that the Italian troops are of high military value will certainly be challenged by the uninformed. Yet the manner in which they have fought since the great retreat should be convincing. I have tried to show some of the moral reasons whieh brought that retreat about. There are plenty more. Not only were the men kept in darkness by the government, but they were most inconsiderately treated by the high command. Italy . Had Good Army The reason was the same in both instances. To a medieval conception of the autocratic functions of a government was added a complete failure to realize that Italy in feeling, if not in form, is es sentially a democracy. The government and the great beadquarters alike feared to trust the army. The Italian government very properly postponed entrance upon the conflict to the last possible mo ment. This was due primarily to the financial con dition of the country. At the outbreak *of war Italy was “broke.” The preceding war had emptied her coffers. It was realized that a war of six to eight months was all that the country could stand without allied aid, and the Italian government then believed the war would last no longer. Like the rest of the world, Italy was deceived by a propa ganda which wholly misrepresented the essential strength and solidarity of the central empires. If the war had proved to be a short one, Italy would have gone through it with flying colors: At the outset her troops were magnificently equipped. They were well armed, clothed and fed. I saw them in 1916 and a portion of them again in the *arly months of 1917, and at that time the organ ization was still excellent. But as time went on the equipment deteriorated. Os late the men have not been fed as they should have been, nor clothed as they should have been. But the Italian peasant soldier is a brave and patient creature. If he had been properly treated in other respects he would have fought on. Always back of the lines has been the socialist propaganda for peace and the German propaganda for defeat. The government felt itself on unsafe ground. It sought to keep the army out of contact. In the effort to keep disaffection from spread ing in the army, leave has been practically refused. This is not to say that no leave has been granted, but not upon the scale demanded. Men were kept at the front for month after month. A large part of the army, too, are “elderly” men from the Italian viewpoint. Called originally because they had mil itary training, they were kept in line. Most of these men had families. When they heard from their families, which was none too often, the news was depressing. Food was scarce. The boys and girls were running wild for lack of paternal authority. Things were going wrong. offered to American mills at a very tow price. Sev eral hundred cars were imported, and with them came the pink boll-worm. The fact that the seed was infected was discov ered before the planting season began. Every effort was made to check distribution. Sellers were urged not to distribute suspicious seed, and legal measures were taken. Only one instance is k known, where a distributor, in the face of advice to the contrary, persisted in selling suspected Mex ican seed. This seed was traced, and all through the growing season, scientists watched the cotton plants for the appearance of the boll-worm. In September it was found, and later other infesta tions were reported. The way the situation at Hearne, Tex., was dealt with is characteristic. Five hundred labor ers were set to work. Every cotton plant in the infected fields was cut down. The ground was raked, and men on their hands and knees were’ sent down every cotton-row to pick up with thumb and finger every scrap of plant remaining* The whole was saturated with kerosene and destroyed utterly. It is a curious fact that the boll-worm plague probably reached the United States at least a year before it came in with the Mexican seed above mentioned. Its presence was not suspected, and it probably would have gone undiscovered for some time except for the campaign started by the importation of infected seed. During the hurricane of 1915, several bales of cotton were blown from the docks at Galveston to the shores of Trinity Bay. t After the storm, the cotton was salvaged, and in tlje process the bales were broken open. This cotton is believed to have introduced the worm into five counties. Stringent quarantine measures against infected foreign cotton importations have prevailed for some years. Foreign lint is fumigated at ports of ( entry. Thefie measures did not apply to Mexico until recently, however. Now a very strict quar antine is being maintained along the Mexican bor der. The importation of cotton is absolutely pro hibited, and all suspicious shipments of whatever nature are disinfected. This is, however, mani-« festly an Inadequate way to meet the problem. In order to make the cotton industry safe in the United States, it is necessary to eliminate the boll-worm completely from the North American continent. Infection in northern Mexico is al most as bad as infection in some American strfte. Hence the scientists in charge of the work asked, and congress after some debate granted, an ap propriation, which is available for expenditure in Mexico as well as in the United States. American experts and American money will be used to clean up the cotton fields of Mexico. The Mexican planters, many of whom . are Americans, have shown themselves willing to co operate in every way. and the Mexican govern ment, so far as is known, has made no objection. This is a rather significant step forward In pur friendly relations wtih Mexico. Both countries seem to take the eminently sane viewpoint that this struggle against the boll-worm is a struggle between man and nature, and that to hamper it by a religious observance of artificial boundary lines would be In the nature of treason to the hu-. man race. The appearance of the boll-worm In the United States has in it the elements of economic tragedy. There is, however, a practical certainty that this tragedy will be averted by quick action, a liberal use of men and money, and a cheerful acquiescence in whatever measures science deems advisable. Men Could Not Go Home When the men were released from the front too, they did not go into rest camps, as do the men ft the French-and British-armies. There was a reason for that, for the Italians have been forced to build thousands of miles of military roads — many hundreds of these miles being unfortunately now in the possession of the enemy. But the man whose nerves were torn by months of constant fighting and harassing anxiety for the folks at home did not relish the idea of dropping a rifle only to take up a pick. Yet that was the rule. The military alternation was from the front line and fighting to the rear and road-making. They became tired, disgusted, stale. Meanwhile they saw for themselves that there was a dispro portionately small number of young men in their ranks, except the young men taken from the coun try districts. If they passed through a small town back of the line they saw that town filled with youngsters going to cinemas, eating ices in front of cases, flirting. The peasant soldier began to feel that he was being sacrificed unfairly. Rome reeks with young men of military age who should be in the army—and who it may be hoped will be put there* * What is of hardly less importance Is the fact that the Italian officer of today is the weak ele ment in the Italian army. This was not the case with the officers of the first days of the war. These men were of the old regular army, and had been trained not merely to command, but to lead. The peasant soldier has a pathetically childlike at titude toward his officer. He expects that indi vidual to care for him in camp and to lead him in action. To the efficient officer he gives a wholly childlike devotion. But as the old regulars were killed or invalided out of service or detached for the Important work of organization, their places in the'expanding army were filled by a new class. New Officers Inefficient In her need of officers Italy hit upon the ex pedient of summoning for that purpose men who held university degrees. No doubt she had no op tion. Men of intelligence and education are imper atively demanded for such positions. Unfortunately, the educated classes of Italy are precisely the ones in which pro-Germ an ism is strongest. The peasant is loyal to his country to the backbone. The mer chants and bankers and professors lack that loy alty as classes. Many of these men who were loyal enough in spirit were would-be embusques. They did not want to fight. They had no comprehension of their task. t , “Too many of the ‘new’ officers look upon the soldiers as mere peasants.” I was told by a man who had been in close* observation from the begin ning. “As though they were hardly better than oxen.” To this lack of care for and comprehension of their men may be charged the spread of the dis affection which flowered in the collapse of October and early November. I do not wish to be under stood as bringing these charges against the ‘new’ officers en masse. Thousands of them are of the highest quality. Unfortunately there were other thousands who were not, and a certain proportion who were actively disloyal. Some of these are from the borders and are Austrian in blood and feeling though Italian in speech and residence. To these causes for disaffection may be added the folly of the government after the Turin riots of August last. At that time the socialist workmen, of Turin organized a demonstration which was only quelled by the use of the machine guns against the crowds in the streets. Wholly unofficial —for there are no official statements of reliability—reports are that from 400 to 500 persons were then wound ed. The Turin regiments refused to fire and troops were brought in from elsewhere. The ringleaders were taken and incorporated in the army as a pun ishment. • Then, to put the cap on a history of ineptitude these m?n were sent to the regiments at the front in which conditions were the most threatening. Ii was adding fuel to live flame. It was these regi ments which led the “strike” which resulted in the military collapse. Yet some of the very regiments have fought well since then, thanks to the birth of a new national spirit by reason of the German invasion.