TH THE CHURCH IN ACTION SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE HIS that was once a fair grounds is now a mobilization camp. It is a place accustomed to crowds, but an unusual crowd fills it now -of men bound on a great and grim questing. You can hear sharp cries about the grounds, but no longer are they those of the vender of "pop" or of peanuts, but of a stern-faced youth who wears the chevrons of a sergeant and who drills his charges on the badly trampled grass where once stood the tent of the bearded lady. The track, where the speediest trotters of the land contested for big purses, now witnesses the efforts of khaki-clad chauffeurs to gain that mastery of motors which will enable them by and by to pilot their loads of broken men among shell craters and twisted entanglements.. with all lights out and only the flicker of the star shell to show the way. For this is the camp of the United States Automobile Ambulance Corps, or the "Usaacs," if you please. They are training for a most perilous service, for when the battle-line moves out the automobile ambulance follows close behind. And because an ambulance is bigger than a man, and therefore easier to hit, and also because of the peculiar bent for brutality that possesses the German mind, the Ambulance Corps suffers terribly. Perhaps it is because, like Sir Galahad, they prefer the 'siege perilous to a safer place, or perhaps because the most straining task demands the finest material, for one reason or the other, or perhaps both, the Corps is made up of as fine men as are found in all the Army. "The very finest body of troops I have ever seen in one place," is the verdict of the grizzled Regular Army man in command. Eighty per cent of them are college men, and there are units here from the University of Maine to the University of Florida, and from Washington State to Leland Stanford. The officers are all medical men, from big specialists who have forgotten remunerative prac tices for their country's sake to youthful interns just out of hospital, all eager for their part in the constructive side of war. At the very heart of the camp stands the big tent of the Young Men's Christian Association. Through it the Church of Jesus Christ ministers to these men. During the week its ministry is a very practical service. Envelopes and paper are freely given for the letters home. Checks are cashed, express parcels are forwarded, entertainments are managed, athletic meets and ball games are promoted, and the busy staff of secretaries find time amid all this maze of "serving tables" to comfort the boy who has not heard from his sweetheart, and who thinks she does not care for him any longer; or to minister to the deeper problems that come in the night when lights are out in the barracks and the recruit lies still and thinks of the home he has left and the perils to : which he goes and the need he has never felt so keenly until class; and then the fourth congregation began to assemble. This now of a God who is strong and who will care. These must find time the minister was a Presbyterian, and his message was the answer in the day, and to the secretary he goes. same sort as that which the others had heard earlier in the moruing from the lips of the priest. But it is on a Sunday that the real purpose of the Association shines out. For the Young Men's Christian Association is the Christian Church in action, united here as some day it ought to be united everywhere. The tent holds four different congregations in the course of the morning. They are all dressed alike, in the uniform of the American soldier. They all look alike, with the fine, clean-cut features of our American youth. The only thing that differentiates them is the fashion of their worship. They are the same kind of men, in the same place, facing the same kind of need, and being ministered to by the one Church in several forms as the tradition has come from their fathers. This is the "Y. M. C. A. tent" on Sunday. The day began at 6:30 in the morning, when a priest of the Roman Catholic Church celebrated mass for a crowded throng. The altar was a table, one of the many which served for the writing of letters during the week. The sermon was simple and direct, urging that they should keep themselves pure and live up to the teaching of Jesus and the ideals of their land. The mystery and the awe that one feels in great cathedrals when the clear tones of the altar bell ring down the vaulted aisles and the hushed throng falls on its knees before the lifted Host were just as truly to be felt that morning among those soldier boys in that tent. At 7:30 the Episcopal rector took his place at the altar that had just been vacated, and the Sacrament after the fashion of Canterbury was offered to those who presented themselves for it in the very place where others had knelt but a little while before to receive it after the fashion of Rome. Nor was this service over and the tent vacated before it filled again with the third congregation, and the venerable Monsignor conducted the second mass of the morning for those who had been unable to attend the first. At ten one of the secretaries conducted a Bible The final service of the day was held in the twilight. Again it was the Sacrament, this time after the fashion of Geneva. The preacher of the morning was assisted by two pastors from the town, one from a Reformed and the other from a Presbyterian Church. I doubt if any one of these ministers will eve forget that solemn hour. The silver of the sacramental vessels gleamed on the white cloth that covered the same table that had served that day for two other communions. Beyond were the benches, and the lines of faces set and stern, faces that but a few weeks before had been those of "Careless boys at play," but now were men called to a task. One knew of what they were thinking-of the last time they took the Communion in the old church at home in the familiar pew; and one wondered when and where they would take it again, if indeed they would take it again. The twilight deepened as the service went on, and the silence deepened with it. Once above the murmur of the camp was heard the sound of a distant church bell. The rough boards creaked under the feet of those who bore the bread and wine, but the boys sat very still, just as the others had sat in the morning, until the benediction ended the hour. So under the "big top" of the Young Men's Christian Association Rome and Canterbury and Geneva had achieved the thing of which men had dreamed for centuries, and of which councils had talked, and had come together to serve the deeper needs of the boys who were going forth to serve their country's and the world's need. For first of all and best of all the Army Young Men's Christian Association is the Church in action. Allentown, Pennsylvania, August 10, 1917. WILLIAM E. BROOKS. E ASIA AFTER THE WAR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE VENTS are developing so fast and unexpectedly that any prediction about the war has become risky. The Revolution in Russia, for example, has upset all calculations about the after effects of the war. The area involved is every day increasing. From Europe and Asia and Africa the war has come to America, and the whole world is now engaged in the gigantic conflict. The man must be bold indeed who can confidently predict how it is going to end, and how the map of the world is going to be redrawn after it is over. That the war is going to make great changes in the political, economic, and social conditions of the world, in ethical values, and in moral standards, any fool can see. And it may also be safely said that the idea of democratic control is going to receive a tremendous impetus, and that Asiatic countries will witness momentous changes in their political status. Moreover, that Japan will be the greatest gainer goes without saying. She has made huge profits, and her army and navy are intact. She is building up a merchant marine which, after the havoc caused in the Allied marines by the German U-boats, might easily rank first among the marines of the world. The financial prosperity brought by the war is bound to give an impetus to domestic reform. What has so far stood in the way of domestic reform in Japan was its financial dependence, in the case of war, on foreign countries. The advocates of internal reforms could easily be silenced by the cry of danger from without and the necessity for unity against the foreign peril. With all her rivals weakened by this war, with Russia a republic, with the fear of foreign aggression almost removed, the Japanese reformer will be able to press his demands for internal improve ments more effectively than he could before. The proletariat will demand a share in the prosperity brought by the war, and, unless the Japanese Government creates a situation which will necessitate Japanese patriotism being concentrated on the foe outside, it will have to meet popular demands for change at least half-way. The Russian Revolution will also strengthen the hands of Japanese politicians who are opposed to a policy of aggression and annexation in China. With the fear of Russia eliminated, Japan can have no further justification for active and extended interference in China. China requires time for consolidation and reconstruction, and if the foreign Powers of the world will leave her alone, neither forcing her to take sides in the war nor compelling her to concentrate all her energies on the mere preservation of her national life, she probably will report good progress towards rehabilitation. Every time there is trouble in China it can be directly traced to foreign interference. China is not in a condition to take sides. She ought to be left to herself and allowed a breathing space to rebuild herself. Recent events all but confirm this view. Coming to India, we find that the war has affected the country immensely. Her contribution in man power was recently fixed at 1,100,000 men-at a meeting of the Indian Legislative Council at Delhi. Her money contribution to England during the war alone approximates $1,000,000,000. This is in addition to the other help which England has had from India in equip ment, labor, medical contingents, etc. The movement for the democratization of the government has advanced with rapi strides. All racial, social, religious, and caste differences have been sunk, and the demand for an autonomous form of government has been put forward with a unanimity and force which has compelled attention. A scheme for post-war reforms is said to have been drawn up, though it has not so far seen the light of day. A home defense force is being organized, in which the educated section of the country, hitherto denied enlistment in the army, has been invited to join. An industrial commission has been appointed to make inquiries as how best to develop the home industries. For the first time in the history of British rule in India was the latter allowed participation in the deliberations of an Imperial council sitting in London. This participation was in no way on democratic lines, as the delegates were not elected by the people or by the Legislative Councils of India, but nominated by the Government. Their reception in England and at the conference was, however, cordial. Promises of an autonomous form of government in the distant future are no doubt vague and more or less shadowy, but the importance of Indian participation in the Imperial councils of the future has been recognized in principle. A representative ruling prince who was selected to represent India at the Imperial War Conference has made it clear that the princes of India are not only not opposed to the British government of India being democratized, but that they are eager that the step be taken at an early date. The speeches made by the Maharajah of Bikanir in this connection have removed many misconceptions. Thus the wind has been taken out of the sails of the reactionary Jingo Imperialist, though nothing has been done to remove the fear of the nationalist that all this may only end in smoke, as it has so often done in the past. Yet one thing is certain-that after the war conditions in India cannot remain what they are now. The nationalists are active and the country is awake. An important section of the British politicians sympathize with their aspirations, and the movement has gone too far to be arbitrarily put down without risk and danger to the Government itself. The Russian Revolution has removed the incubus from Persia. If the British are true to their word and their declared policy of letting Persia develop on her own lines, she may be able to put her house in order and develop her government on democratic lines. So far one can read the future with a certain amount of probability-but no farther. What is going to hap pen to Turkey and Arabia is known only to the gods. The Allies will make a great mistake if they plan a complete and final extinction of Moslem power in the world. The Moslems are so unlike the "mild Hindu" (though even the Hindu is no longer so very mild) that a policy of extermination will rouse them to unity and consolidation, with almost certain disaster to European domination in Asia. If the Allies are true to their own aims, they should be willing to let the people of Asia organize their own governments on their own lines, with such restrictions only as may be absolutely necessary to impose in the interest of the orderly progress of the world. One thing, however, may be noted. Asia is awake, and will not submit to an arbitrary, despotic exploitation of herself by others, whether political or economic. The interests of world peace require that the legitimate aspirations of the Asiatics to manage their own affairs and live their own lives should be respected by all sincere democrats the world over. The United States has a noble part to play in making the world a universal democracy. It is not enough to make the world safe for existing democracies only. But what is necessary is a general rule of democracy all the world over. That is possible only if the present racial prejudices die out and the right of every people to live its own life and manage its own affairs is recognized more in practice than in theory. The world has had enough of theories. What is wanted, and wanted soon, is practice-righteousness in political relations at home, and righteousness in international relations abroad. New York City. LAJPAT RAI. SHALL WE CALL A CONSTITUENT AS PROVIDED BY THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION? Social revolution may, without too great a stretch of words, be called Mr. White's religion. His book "The Call of the Carpenter presents Jesus as a leader of workingmen in a social revolution. It was the Church of the Social Revolution of which Mr. White was pastor when he was first sent to prison because he had disturbed the peace of a service in a church on Fifth Avenue, New York City. It was because he participated in a ceremonial burning of the American flag, with those of other nations. in protest against what he believed to be social wrongs tolerated under capitalistic governments and in symbolic representation of the welding of all nations in internationalism, that he was sent to prison for a third time in three years. Beside his doctrines the views of many Americans who call themselves radicals are palely conservative. Whatever may be said of his opinions, it cannot be said of him that he is overcautious. His methods have at times been inconsistent with public order and have no sanction in the right of free speech; but they have provided him with an opportunity to be heard by a public that would otherwise not have listened to him, and for that opportunity he has paid the price of imprisonment. What some regard as his escapades and others as his sufferings for righteousness' sake have not only afforded publicity for his views, but have attested his right to be classed as a radical. At this time, when many social revolutionaries assuming to speak on behalf of the working people of the world have shown a tendency to compromise with the most powerful of military autocracies, the words which this radical social revolutionist addresses to his "fellow-malcontents are worth a wide hearing.-THE EDITORS. N asking my fellow-malcontents to support the war I shall not be accused of jingoism or faint-heartedness. The war has been going three years, and during it I have served three prison sentences. Now, however, on release from my last imprisonment, I find that America has entered the conflict. To any one trained to think in the thought forms of organized civilization this fact puts a quite new and different face to affairs. Whatever can be said of the rights of a minority in time of peace cannot be affirmed with equal truth for times of foreign war. It matters not by whose fault the accident happened; when the ship is off a lee shore with the anchors dragging and the officers are laboring to inch her away into an offing, mutiny by the crew is illogical, unsagacious, indefensible. My readings in the book of history show me not one instance of pacifist success after the howitzers had begun their bellowings. When the herd has once stampeded, there is nothing to do but ride along with them and let them run it off; defiance would be uselessly dangerous; and to withdraw in a fit of the sulks 'twould stamp one king of quitters. In time of war the word of the constituted authorities must be law. Nice distinctions are lost in moments of blood and thunder. How ideal soever be the motives of those Russians who have been giving way on the German front, not all the explainings through historic ages will rehabilitate them and their families in the estimation of the normal-minded. But it's for a deeper reason I decry the pin-prick policy that American radicalism is going off into. 'Tis the most wonderful moment, probably, since time began for remaking the social map. To fritter away an hour such as this in a campaign of splutter and nagging would be a crime against the human race. Washington is going to make-is making-abundant mistakes. Our form of government is not adapted to military operations. Unexperienced and unadjusted, we find ourselves headforemost in titanic warrior business. History teaches that the privations attendant upon a state of war are never borne cheerfully except the people are kept in a groggy frame of mind by the careering march of their conquering banners or else are terrorized by an enemy hammering at the gates. Both of these stimuli Americans will lack. We are going to have the miseries of war without its compensating excitements. A richer seed-plot for malcontentment to sprout in could scarcely be imagined. When the war taxes crush downwards and the war prices mount upwards, a fertile crop of complainings is sure to germinate. To mobilize these murmurings into demolitionist bands harassing the Government would be the easiest thing in the world. And already the radical forces are yielding to it; fomenting strikes, sabotage, flippant insurrec T tions, food riots, race antagonisms. These tactics are eminently adapted to cut furrows in the face of our President and put bags under his eyes. But it will not stay his hand. Twill but add needlessly to the distracted counsels, the darkness, the confused noise, the garments rolled in blood. In time of war the Government holds all the trump cards-and ought to. Any one who clogs the motion of the military arm invites terrible discomfiture. The mighty here in America have staked high in this war against Germany, and the industrial plant at their back is equipping them with an armament beyond describing for powerfulness and swift metallic onset. The foe is likewise multipotent, and is building a colossal rampart. The impact is like to be that of an irresistible force colliding with an immovable obstruction. Whoso gets in between these two while they are in their present mood will resemble Alpine daffodils in the path of an avalanche. But 'tis the pettiness of the attempt spurs my remonstrance. Radicalism, by its baptismal name, means getting at the root of the poison-upas tree. It pooh-poohs the reformer's notion that a snipping off of a leaf here or a twig there will avail; it insists New Testamentwise-in laying the ax at the root. God knows, the world needs root work to-day if it ever did. Never was a moment when vaster multitudes were ripe to take up a programme of Thorough in new-modeling our social edifice, provided the designers of that programme see life steadily and see it whole; beholding man to be a human being instead of merely a food-pipe. But if radicalism fails to rise to the bigness of the hour and proves herself naught but an aggregation of irresponsibles firing on American troops from behind, bushwhacker fashion, there will not be enough left of her when the war is finished to hold a wake over. I-am not unmindful of the rejoinder that will probably be made: "War prices require that the working class strike, in order to protect their standard of living." I say, the present standard of living of the working class is not worth protecting. And to barter away the present opportunity of social alteration in return for a mutton stew, would purchase a mess of pottage at an appalling price. Poor tacticians are they who haggle over pennies when bank notes are theirs for the asking. Hunger, I know, is a sharp lash. But there have been hungry men before now who refused to eat the calf while it was yet inside the cow. If it be objected that the workers cannot rise to this broader sky-line because they have been suckled in a short and trivial view of life, I answer that it is precisely in order to widen their visual angle that we must begin to talk in terms of fundamental reconstruction. Could destiny play us a more terrific April-fool than to bring us out of this cataclysmic era with nothing but our "standard of living protected"? In war time strikes have a treasonable squint. It may be the most justifiable strike ever pulled off. But 'twill be cartooned as a paidfor move to give aid and comfort to the enemy. America needs law-abiding desperadoes; men and women who are haggard at the stark materialism of the time and give their days and nights to a reshaping of Christendom's programme; but who, just because of the gravity of the situation, yield their loyalty to any government now in existence until a better one can be set up. The United States Constitution permits such a course. It foresaw a convulsive era like the present and provided for it. Along with the ordinary patchwork method of amending the Constitution it devised machinery for calling a constituent assembly when the tides of change should sweep in with a current too massive to be taken care of by the customary channel. A good many people are unaware that this second device is provided for in that instrument. At a dinner party the other night where were a college professor in sociology and the former editor of a New York daily I broached the matter. Both of them affirmed that this second method of amendment did not exist. Indeed, the professor of sociology-inclined, like not a few of his clan, to draw historical facts from his theories rather than his theories from historical facts-explained how such a provision could not possibly be in the instrument, because no Constitution could be expected to provide for its own hari-kiri. But it's there. Article V, after giving the ordinary formula of amendment, follows with a magnanimous Or: "Congress, on application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be valid when rafled by three-fourths of the several States." That is to say, we have two legal and detailed methods of altering the Social scheme of things: one, the reform method; the other, the revolution method. The first is applicable to patch up weather-beaten places in the edifice. The other was intended to come into play when, because of some far-going change in the environment, an alteration from turret to foundation is requisite, changing not this detail or that, but the ground plan itself and the very uses to which the building shall be put. This second method has never yet been employed; has remained a dead letter during all the years since 1787 because we have never before been in the swirl of a convulsion. But the framers-able-headed men-knew that such periods arrive. Literate in historic lore, they knew that there are epochs when the new wine comes so foamingly from the foamingly from the press of events that it's unsafe to pour it into the old bottle. Therefore, to the end that the new dispensation might be inaugurated soundly, in the majesty of a deliberative assembly-the people supporting the provisional government until the new can be established-they inserted the machinery I have quoted. If we are to improve this moment in history-a dearpurchased moment, bought with an infinite price-to get our constituent assembly, we have no time to lose to get the thing under way, so that mere guerrilla assaults on this method or that in the conduct of the war are a waste of golden moments. In order to get our constituent assembly we have to persuade the Legislatures in two-thirds of the States to demand it. Then Congress has got to call it. Then the members of the constitu ent assembly have got to be chosen. Then they must meet and decide upon the new form of government. Then their proposal must go to the several States and be ratified by three-fourths of them. Here is a job big enough to occupy all the energies of all of our social idealists. To talk constituent assembly will be in every way wholesome. Each malcontent converted to it will be that much fire drawn from under the boilers of sabotage, strikes, disloyalty of every species. Negation is ever a graceless employment. An affirmative note is what the times call for with groanings which cannot be uttered. At present we have only tearers-down or preservers of the status quo. The waging of the war will not of itself change anything; nor will a mere policy of snarl and grouch. If alteration is to come, there must organize itself a constructive band of idealists who will stop criticising what is and begin to put forward what ought to be. Merely to acquaint the people that "constituent assembly" is to be found in the United States Constitution would of itself be a work of wideextending import. At this moment ultra-radicals are contesting the "constitutionality" of the Draft Law. To win on such an issue, while a tactical victory, would be strategically a defeat, leaving the social regeneration gold-bricked and sand-bagged. Some very good sleuth-hounds have been known, under the stress of an unusual distraction, to lose the scent and deviate on a comparatively unimportant side trail. The framers of the Constitution were more radical than we. With liberal wisdom they inserted political machinery whereby we can call in question the constitutionality of the Constitution. To gospelize the city and the countryside with this good news would acclimate the minds of the people to the zone and temperature of fundamental change. The mere noise that a constituent assembly was in process of being called would start thousands of thousands of people dreaming out a nobler scheme of things. Further, it would weld the radicals together. In order to control the constituent assembly they would have to present a unified programme. In the constructing of such all schools from reddest red to palest pink would need to collabo rate. That discipline, that habitude of union, would work in radicalism a poise of spirit. Brought forth from its minings and underground routes into the sunlit day, it would take on a tone and complexion of healthfulness. It would face the world square-shouldered, its countenance winsome by reason of responsible sobriety, instead of the haphazard, higgledy-piggledy spectacle it now presents. There is a prodigious amount of unrest in this country. And among the great middle class even more than the artisan workers. Within four years ninety-nine amendments to the Constitution have been proposed on the floor of Congress. Those ninety |