Un

there was unrest there. Britain has never been able or anxious to curb criticism, and in Hyde Park, near to the doors of Buckingham Palace, every kind of religious and political heresy is permitted freely to open its mouth. The unrest in India had in like manner been allowed to find voice, and Germany undoubtedly thought that through her secret agencies she could ferment enough trouble in India to keep England busy should war be declared. Here again her view-point was faulty-she saw the facts in wrong juxtaposition. rest and criticism did not mean all that Germany thought they meant. She noted the foam caused by the breakers of free speech, and failed absolutely to understand the strong foundations upon which British institutions and Indian loyalty rest. A state of mind incapable of comprehending the spirit of the British colonies ought not to be called efficient. A philosophy which undervalues the war strength stored up in loyalty and which acts as though sentiment and honor have no military value is proved false by the test of facts, and forever discredits the German point of view.

But can

Possibly the greatest blunder Germany has made in the actual conduct of the war has been her alliance with Turkey. She gained strength in numbers when she admitted the Turkish Empire into partnership. Such an alliance strengthened the German war plan, brought much needed food into Germany, and prolonged the war indefinitely. Germany ever recover from the stain of the Armenian atrocities? The good will of the world was of more value than a dozen Turkish Empires. If Germany expected the call to the Holy War to succeed, what a terrible apostasy for a Christian nation! and what a delusion! If, on the other hand, she thought the call to the Holy War would fail, then she deliberately played with the most dangerous fire the world has ever known. No one knew what might have been the result, and for the sake of victory Germany was willing to take the risk of touching the Mohammedan barrel of gunpowder with the fuse of a Holy War. Whatever was expected to happen, the fact remains that Mohammedan is fighting Mohammedan, a thing not thought possible in the scheme of German efficiency.

As a fighting machine the German army has not lived up to its reputation. What would have happened if the Allies had been prepared for war? Outnumbered as they

were, lacking ammunition, short of big guns, and with only green reserves to take the field, what a wonderful showing they made and are still making! The men of fifty years ago in this Nation remember how long it took the North to raise a fighting army and discover winning generals. Think, then, of the superb showing of the Allies in defending themselves from an enemy that was armed to the teeth! Germany expected to win the war a year ago. The idea was magnificent, but it failed. In spite of its preparedness, the much-boasted German army is really being held at bay by nations who at the beginning of the conflict were not prepared for war. If an amateur boxer can obtain an even draw against a much-heralded champion, who at the ringside would call the encounter a victory for efficiency?

What has Germany accomplished by her policy of "frightfulness"? Undoubtedly she has gained many miles of trenches by the use of poisonous gas. Without question liquid fire has accomplished like results. Perhaps the burning of Louvain was a lesson the world will never forget. Much destruction has resulted from the use of Zeppelins, an occasional chance shot having destroyed a soldier's life, wrecked a railway, or hit a munition factory. But from a military point of view the results cannot be said to justify the means. The Lusitania was a splendid prize, and the destruction of much ammunition had a value. But will not the cry of horror which escaped the lips of the civilized world forever offset every advantage gained by such a frightful policy? Of course, if might is right, then the more terrible the might, the more glorious the right. But on the grounds of efficiency alone such a policy is calculated to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The world has progressed too far for such a policy to succeed.

Germany has sought for world leadership and has sadly failed at the very door of suc

cess.

Had her leadership been for good will and international co-operation, she could have played her part, and played it well. But she asked for the throne of Hannibal and Cæsar; and in her blundering inefficiency she did not realize that those thrones are reserved for the dead. She has borne and trained her children, not for life, but for death on the fields of battle. For generations her people will be loaded with huge war debts, and because of her militarism all the world will have to carry a share of the staggering load.

A

LTHOUGH the English, with characteristic tenacity, are doing their fighting in true British bulldog spirit, they have time to appreciate the humor and pathos of the war. If war were all tragedy, mankind would go mad. Pure tragegy has nothing to relieve it. But pathos often has mingled with it an element of humor. Sympathy is a smiling virtue, pity a tearful one; and even in war the world longs to smile.

Perhaps that is the reason why, when a friend showed us recently some war letters which had been sent to him by an English correspondent, we asked permission to pass them along to our readers.

The first batch of letters is purely humorous, tinged but slightly, if at all, by a faint coloring of the pathos of ignorance. They are extracts from the correspondence received by the secretary of a bureau which, under the National Insurance Act of Great Britain, has charge of assigning the "maternity benefits " given to the wives of enlisted workingmen :

Respected Sir, Dear Sir,

Though I take the liberty as it leaves me at present I beg to ask if you will be good enough to let me know where is my husbin. Though he is not my legeble husbin as he has got a wife though he says she is dead but I do not think he knows for sure but we are not married though I am getting my allotment reglar which is not fault of Mr. Lloyd George who would stop it if he could and MR. Makena but if you know where he is as he belongs to the Royal Fling [Flying] Corps for ever since he joined in January when he was sacked from his work for talking back to his boss which was a woman at laundry where he worked. I have not had any money from him since he joined though

he told Mrs. Jones what lives on the ground floor that he was a pretty ossifer [petty officer] for six shillings a week and plenty of underclothes for bad weather and I have three children what he has been the father of them. Hoping you will write to me soon and you are quite well as it leaves me at present I must close now hoping you are quite well.

Dear Sir:

My husband has been away three weeks at the Crystal Police [Palace] and got four days furlong' [furlough] and has now gone back to the mind sweeper.

If the work of the mine-sweepers in the English Channel and the North Sea could only result in the invention of a "mind sweeper"! Many a man would like to have his mind swept clear at times of regrets for the past and anxieties for the future. After all, there not a very effective mind sweeper? Is not the nearest duty simply done, with its consequences accepted whatever they may be, a natural and telling way by which to clarify and oxidize the atmosphere of the mind? The writer of the following letter has a wellswept, antiseptic, sun-lighted, and breezefreshened mind. He is a younger partner in a long-established and well-known British firm of large interests, and is writing to one of his colleagues in the business :

My dear D- :

I have been meaning to write to you for a long time, but somehow never did it. I suppose you got the letter I wrote to you at S.

Well, we are a couple of almighty cripples now, and shall have to start a tuberculosis and new limb home. The Hun, not satisfied with compound fracturing my left arm, gangrened my left leg at the same time, with the result it had to come off above the knee. However, don't waste sympathy on me, as I am busy thanking Heaven I am still alive, and, taking things all round, prospects aren't so glum.

I can still do my work easy enough, play billiards, and I fancy I shall be able to wangle up a sort of golf game with the aid of a couple of sticks and a clear course. Hand-controlled motor cars, and in fact most things, can be coped with, bar tennis. My! and sha'n't I get fat!

Had a wonderful escape, as a 5.9 burst right up against me. Hope to be back in England in about ten days or so, and as these things are so

satisfactorily done have no doubt that I shall be placed in a private hospital, say in the Shetlands, nice and handy for every one. Personally should prefer to go to a real hospital, and not to Lady V. de V.'s private house, as, for the next few weeks, I shall be much too much out of action to appreciate amateurs.

Don't tell B [his wife] too much, as I have left it at the arm at present, and she can find out about the leg when I am back in England, as she will only worry if she knows too much.

Cheer oh! and I trust that at an early date

we shall be bringing our united massive brains to bear on the problem of X. Y. & Co. Hope you are as fit as a fiddle now. Yours,

BILL. Don't answer this, as I shall be on the move. With all its horrors, the war has had a fine side. It has revealed to the world, not merely the courage and self-sacrifice of man in action, but his capacity for turning pathos into humor, tears into laughter, and disaster into a stepping-stone towards new achievements and a new zest for life.

W

HAT may be one of the most serious epidemics in the recent history of the city is threatening New York. It is the contagious disease known as infantile paralysis, or, in scientific nomenclature, acute anterior poliomyelitis.

The cause of the disease is an exceedingly minute organism. This is supposed to find its first entrance into the body through the mucous membranes of the nose and throat, although there are no signs of sore throat to indicate that the germ is there. The disease acts upon the spinal nerves, and thus causes the paralysis from which the disease gets its name. The degree of the paralysis varies very greatly, and the results of the disease can be alleviated in many cases by proper treatment.

Just how the disease is conveyed is not definitely established. It is probably chiefly spread by those persons who are so mildly ill that they are unrecognized and by "carriers." The term "carriers is applied to those persons who, though they are themselves not ill, harbor the disease germs. For instance, diphtheria may be transmitted by a person having virulent diphtheria bacilli in the throat, though the person himself may be perfectly well. This is different from a person so mildly ill with diphtheria that it is not recognized. Both classes of cases are dangerous to others. The person who is ill with infantile paralysis, but so mildly ill that the disease is unrecognized, and the person who carries the disease germs, though he may not be ill himself, are both the means of spreading the disease to others.

To this disease adults are not immune, but children are especially susceptible. The older the child, the less susceptible he is. The fact that a child is generally well is

no protection. Though there are diseases which have a larger proportion of fatal cases, the effects of poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis, are sometimes more to be dreaded than death. A very large percentage are crippled or in some degree injured for life, and many of those who survive are rendered helpless.

To combat such a disease as this it is necessary that the public should know what to do. Doctors and nurses alone cannot check it.

During such an epidemic children should be kept away from all public gatheringssuch as moving-picture shows, Sunday-school, entertainments, and crowded trolley cars and other conveyances. So far it has not been deemed necessary to close the recreation piers, because children must have some place to play in the crowded sections of the great city. Those parents who can take their children away from the locality in which the epidemic exists and into the country should do so; but there are thousands upon thousands who cannot. These parents can help to protect their own children and to protect the community by keeping their children away from public gatherings and by restricting their play as far as possible to open parks and other places where children are not confined indoors and which they can reach without going in crowded conveyances. They can help, too, by watching their own children and seeing that any one child that shows signs of illness is at once isolated and a doctor called in. This applies not merely to New York, of course, but to other communities to which the disease may spread. In any household where there is such a case gargles and sprays should be used to help prevent infection, and compliance in every

point should be made with the medical requirements.

The Board of Health of New York is making a great effort to discover all cases and to secure isolation for those who are discovered to be ill. The staff of nurses and doctors

of the Board of Health is being increased by special appropriations. The first duty of citizens in this exigency is to comply promptly and thoroughly with the rules of the Board of Health, and in every possible way to co-operate with its officers.

A

S The Outlook has already noted, the work of Arthur Woods, the present Police Commissioner of New York City, has been that of prevention rather than of punishment.

As he looks about, the Commissioner notes immense and unrestful districts. They seem almost over-populated by children. In those children one sees, not only the New York of to-day, but the New York of to-morrow, lawabiding or not law-abiding. How can it be made law-abiding? By instilling, as soon as possible and as far as possible, a respect for law and order in the minds and hearts of the children of the city. To this end the symbol of law and order must be specially prominent in those districts in which disturbances might otherwise be expected.

Commissioner Woods recognizes in the child the first and primal factor in good government. Children go wrong not because they are inherently bad; they are not. They are bad at least they are unruly generally through no fault of their own. They go wrong chiefly because their attention is not absorbed by the good.

In pursuance of his work of prevention Mr. Woods has been seeking to supply these boys with enough recreation, instruction, and employment to occupy, if possible, all their spare time. Above all, he is trying to develop in them a feeling of responsibility.

First he attempted to absorb their attention by play. For instance, in co-operation with others, he obtained the use of vacant lots so that boys might have their baseball there. But there are crowded sections of the city where no vacant lots are available. Hence, together with the Parks and Playgrounds Association and the People's Institute, Mr. Woods has striven to have certain streets closed to traffic a few hours each day, in order that they may be given up to games. In the second place, he attempted to absorb the attention of young lads by workand in the work he knew best, that of the

police. Together with his police officers, the Commissioner collected some willing boys from eleven to fifteen years old, mostly from the East Side. He organized them into a force of Junior Policemen. Assisted by citizens of their districts, they bought suits, caps, and badges something like those worn by members of the " grown-up "force. The badges are of nickel and cost fifteen cents apiece. They are not worn on the outside of the boys' coats except at meetings and drills, and no Junior Policeman may "sport" a badge except after reciting and swearing to the Pledge, Motto, and Duties while standing at attention before the precinct leader.

The Pledge, the Motto, and the Duties above mentioned constitute what might be called a boys' Magna Charta of good Amer ican citizenship. The Pledge reads as fol lows:

THE JUNIOR POLICE

CITY OF NEW YORK

I promise on my honor:

1. To do my duty to God and my Country and to obey the Law.

2. To obey the Motto and the Rules and the Regulations of the Junior Police Force of the City of New York.

3. To keep and never to misuse my Junior Police Badge, and to surrender it upon demand to the Chief of the Force.

Be Trustworthy
Be Honest
Be Loyal

1. Use clean and decent language at home, in the school, and in all public places.

2. Never hitch on wagons or street cars. 3. Always cross the street at the corners, and never in the middle of the block.

4. Do not build bonfires in the street.

(Continued on page following illustrations)