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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1918)
TITE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, rORTLAXD, OCTOBER G, 1913. Wit (Dmnnnnn PORTLAND. OREGON. Entered at Portland (Oregon) Postoffice as second-class majl matter.. Subscription rates invariably in advance: (By Mail.) Iaily, Sunday included, one year ....-.$8.00 iJaily. Sunday included, six months . -4.23 Ially. Sunday included, three month.. 2.5 laiiy. Sunday included, one month H Jjaily, without Sunday, one year 6.0U iJaiiy. without Sunday, six months .... U.-J iJaiiy. without Sunday, one month ..... .00 "Weekly, one year 1.00 Sunday, one year ..................... 2.50 jbunday and weekly 3.50 (By Carrier.) Daily, Sunday included, one year ...... S9.O0 laily, Sunday included, one month .... .15 IJaily, Sunday included, three mouths.. 2.115 Llaily. without Sunday, on year 7.&0 lJaily, without Sunday, three months... 1.95 Xaiiv. without Sunday, one month t5 How to Remit Send postoffice money or der, express or personal check on your local hwUc stamps, coin or currency are at own risk. Give postoffice address in lull, in cluding county and state. Postage Kates 12 to 16 pages, 1 cent: 18 to 3- payes. 2 cents; 3-4 to 48 pases. 3 cents; 50 to 00 paKes, 4 cents; 62 to 76 pages. 5 cents; 78 to S2 pages, v cents. Foreign post age, double rates. fcostern Business Office Verree & Conk lin, Brunswick building. New York: Verree Ac Conklin, Steger building, Chicago; Verree & Conklin, Free Press building, Detroit. Mich.; ban Francisco representative, R. J. BidwelL MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press is exclusively enti tled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited to this paper, and also the local news published herein. All rights of republication of special dis patches herein are also reserved. PORTLAND, SUNDAY, OCT. 1918. THE FUTURE RULERS OF THE NATION. What a knowledge of Europe this generation of Americans is acquiring! The American Army in France is not confined to the war zone. It has a rest zone in Savoy, has just been given another on the coast of Brittany and Is to have a third in the shadow of the Pyrenees. Unlike the tourists, our soldiers . will kn'ow Prance from end to end, and will have lived in close, friendly intercourse with the people of remote towns and villages who never saw a tourist. An Intimate acquaintance is growing which will influence the thoughts and actions of both nations. That same mutual knowledge by two nations is being gained through the American contingent in Italy, and by those which have been sent to North ern Russia and Siberia. Coming as allies and friends, American soldiers are welcomed to the people's homes and learn their thoughts and senti ments by being received Into their confidence. They will shed a new light on our relations with other na tions, which will have a place of first importance in our politics. These sol diers, of whom there will be millions, will control our affairs in the next twenty years as surely as the Union veterans controlled in the twenty years following the Civil War, and their political course will be steered by the knowledge which they will have gained abroad and by the friend ships and sympathies which will have been formed while fighting side by side with Frenchmen, Britons, Italians, Russians, Czechs and the many other allied nations. Their knowledge will soon extend to Belgium, and tl.en to Germany and Austria, and they will become ac quainted with our enemies. They will see the difference between the land of liberty and the land of "verboten," between the land where one language Is spoken across the breadth of a con tinent and the land where the train conductor changes his language every time he crosses the boundary of a province. They will see German effi ciency when it is at its worst, out at elbows, and Austrian backwardness as the result of the Hapsburg blight. They will see the Russian peasant groping his way into the light of lib- erty, having no sooner escaped from the terror of the Czar than he fell under that of the Bolsheviki. The soldier will return with his mind full of contrasts between one foreign country and another, and between all those countries and Amer-ca. He wilt return a more ardent but a broader minded patriot, fit to direct the affairs of his country as a member of that commonwealth of nations which will compose the League of Peace. CASUALTIES. The total number of casualties. In cluding the killed, the seriously wounded, the missing and prisoners in the hands of the enemy, had reached the total of 33,987 when the official statement dated September 21 was given out at Washington. To this, for the purposes of comparison, may be added about 20,000 of slightly wounded, making a grand total of more than 53,000. Large as this total is, it will sur prise most persons to learn that it is far exceeded by the number of. casualties on railroads in the same period. Hiram W. Belknap, manager of the Safety Section of the United States Railroad Administration, said recently in an address that in the five-year period ended December 31, 1917, there was a total casualty list on American railroads of 980,565. This was an average of 198,113 a year. It is almost four times the number of casualties, ' including slightly wounded and prisoners, which we have in curred in nearly a year and a half of war. Yet the railroad casualties have attracted hardly any 'attention. The number of killed in the mili tary forces since the war began is given as 11,207. The number of killed on railroads in five years was 4 8,802, or at the rate of approximately 14,640 for the year and a half of war. This' also has received only passing notice. Development of modern methods of accident prevention, adoption of safety devices of every description, and extension of monetary compensa tion to victims to the point where it is literally cheaper to prevent ac cidents if possible than to permit them, warrant the conclusion that further progress along this line must depend upon yie training of the human element concerned. The most improved mechanical devices have not served to reduce accidents to the zero point which all would desire. A con siderable proportion of present casual ties are traceable to lack of skill on the part of workmen, to carelessness and to lack of discipline. It would be a curious, but not" un thinkable, sequel of the war if it should result in further reduction of the number of casualties of peace. Notwithstanding that war is a bus iness of killing, the soldier is highly trained in the art of self-preservation. He is taught not to sacrifice himself "needlessly: he is not put in charge of a dangerous mechanism until he has mastered its intricacies: he is made physically fit for emergencies because his life is valuable to the Nation. The implicit obedience to orders which is part of his code is Insisted upon no less because it makes him efficient against the enemy than , because it increases his own margin of safety. When the spirit of the discipline of the soldier Imbues workers In vast civil industries, and above all when they begin to understand that rules and regulations are made for their own good, there will be marked di minution of accidents which we now attribute to the "human factor." The man who learns as a soldier that discipline has this distinct value will be a desirable addition to the safety first industrial army of the future. . ADDING TO THE SPOILS. In the census bill now before Con gress a further attempt is made to break down the merit system and to restore the spoils system. Certain higher officials are to be appointed without examination by the Secretary of Commerce on recommendation of the Director of the Census, but the worst provision is that governing ap pointment of 4500 temporary clerks and employes. They are to be sub ject to such special test examination by the Civil Service Commission as the Director may prescribe, but there is no requirement that appointments be made in the order of rating. Hence the Director may make selections from the eligible list for political and personal reasons. The 400 super visors are to be appointed by the Di rector, who is a political appointee. Instead of by the President with the approval of the Senate, and these politicians are to appoint the 85,000 enumerators without competition, so that politics will rule down the line. The result will surely be repetition of the frauds perpetrated in 1890 and 1900, when all appointments were ap portioned among Senators and Repre sentatives and when population of certain districts was padded for the purpose of increasing representation in Congress and state legislatures. An attempt was made to continue the spoils system in the census of 1910, but President Roosevelt vetoed the bill In 1908 and President Taft an nounced that, if it came to him in the same shape, he too would veto it. Consequently the bill as finally passed provided for examination by the Civil Service Commission and for selection in the order of rating. The bill now before Congress makes a step back ward to the evil practices which for merly prevailed -and wh'.ch were con demned by both Director Porter in 1890 and Director Merriam In 1900. If Congress should pass and if President Wilson should approve the bill In Its present shape, they will strengthen the argument against ex tension of Government into new fields, that it would add to the spoils and consequent waste and corruption which the people for many years have tried to have rooted out of the Civil Service. THE GERMAN SOLDIER'S IDEAL. In their effort to Germanize Fin land the Germans publish a newspa per in that country which commends to the Finns the German "Soldiers' Ideal." Study of that ideal is com mended to those Finns in the United States who reject the opportunity to become American citizens in order to escape the duty of fighting for Amer ican ideals. "Between the soldier and his su perior officer," this article reads, "there yawns a tremendous gulf. The latter is always right, the former never. The duty of a soldier is to obey blindly, without reflection. He himself can have no will or wish of his own." He "must not speak, he must not even think." . Then comes this deification of the officer: The recruit is not a man: he is merely des tined to become a man under the command of his superior officer. . . . He must first lie mother-naked in the dust and feel about his head the whistle of his officer's knout; only after weeks and months does his superior officer, by his grace and help, raise him up out of the dust, wash him, clothe him and make of him a man and a soldier. The Image of the superior offi cer must bear not the slightest flaw it is perfection; if the soldier imagines that he perceives a fault In him, this is merely a proof of the incompetence and incapacity of his own faculties. . . . The officer is the soldier's Lord God. . . . The soldier's God is never satisfied, he never returns thanks even for the best of work; but his punishment for transgression and disobe dience is cruel. For in the hands of the superior officer are the keys of hell upon earth. There follows a description of the soldier's hell, "filled with wailing and gnashing of teeth, full of evil-smelling filth," from which the superior officer can help him up again "only when he has plunged about in it suf ficiently." Then it will have "purged the wretched fellow of his sins, rooted out the passionate, mutinous spirit of his own will" and "transformed him into wax soft and pure, which the su perior officer can knead to his heart's delight until he produces that master piece, a proper, thorough and obedi ent soldier." The Finns have the reputation of being one of the most democratic peo pie on earth, and it remains to be seen how readily they will submit to being plunged into hell and pulled out again by "the soldier's Lord God," then to be kneaded into "proper, thorough and obedient soldiers" with no will of their own. It is highly probable that the experience they are now having will cause the Finns to welcome al lied troops as deliverers. Continuous defeat of these perfect soldiers and their surrender by thou sands are ominous, for they indicate that the Prussian system produces in ferior soldiers to those of democracy and that its serfs have recovered their will and are using it to escape from ,the Prussian ideal. VACANT CITY LOTS. There is food for reflection in the achievements of war gardeners in the two greatest cities of the world. Man hattan borough, which is the most congested part of Greater New York and is situated upon the most crowded island in the world, has recently taken a census of the year's vacant lot gar dens and found that they numbered 1590. They produced $22,385 worth of vegetables. This does not include the. 300 lots which were leased by professional truck gardeners and pro duced far more in proportion to their acreage. But London, in a somewhat different situation as to land and cer tainly under greater pressure, far out did this performance. . Its Vacant Land Company, organized among the cultivators of city land, has 50.000 members, and it has produced so much food that reduction of consump tion of non-garden staples has been distinctly visible. Both New York and London ha-e recognized the principle that there are two points of advantage in the city garden. It not only produces the ac tual food with which it is credited, but it also automatically creates an army of conservationists. The war gardener is bound to eat his, own. produce, if he can. and also to make it go as far as possible. The man who has sweated over a row of potatoes is not likely to tolerate peeling them thickly, and he will find use for the culls. He knows what they cost in labor and he has pride In making a good showing. His potatoes also re duce bread consumption and his beans and peas cut down the meat bills. All this is quite apart from the improve ment to his health brought about by exercise In the open air. The venture in London has also re sulted in a different viewpoint as to the use of vacant city lots in general. Parliament passed in 1916 a law per mitting the commandeering of all such property not used for growing crops.' This expires one year after the war, but there already is talk of its re-enactment. In this country it may not be necessary to pass legisla tion on the subject, but there are in dications that home gardens will con tinue to be popular. It is seen that in any event the unemployed city lot represents a high degree of economic waste. REGULATION OF LUXURY. The universality of the automobile is assumed by a letter writer who complains to the Indianapolis Star that the working people are making the greatest sacrifice in conforming with the gasolineless Sunday. This writer, a stenographer, points out that she works six days a week from 8 A. M. to 6 P. M-, and that Sunday Is the only day on which she has opportunity to get out into the country, whereas so ciety women can go six days in the week. . It is quite generally the assumption of those who own motor cars that everybody else Is equally fortunate, but that impression is not entertained by the majority of the people, for the majority have not yet acquired cars, numberless as cars now seem to be. In Oregon there are about 55,000 pas senger cars for one million people. If every one were put to capacity service for a trip to the country about 200,000 would ride and 800,000 would remain at home. The rationing system, which is sug gested by those persons In the Eastern states who object to the Sunday in hibition, it is explained by Government officials, would entail a vast expense and the utilization of clerical and other labor that can be better em ployed. The burden of this expense and non-essential use of labor would fall on the whole population. The motor car has not yet become a universal necessity such "as sugar, wheat or fuel. When used for pleasure purposes It is. In fact, a luxury, and luxury ought to support its own regu lation, sk OUR NEW ALLIES, THE DRUSES. Invaluable aid rendered by the Druses in the subjugation of the Turk ish armies in Asia Minor brings into the war a new element which derives especial interest from the fact that these people are noted as a religious entity rather than as a separate race. They add a new romantic aspect to an already highly complex situation and a new sect to the large number engaged in fighting. There are, per haps, not more than 150,000 of them in the world, but the branch of them wlych has made its appearance on the battle front has probably rendered service far out of proportion to its numbers, because of a singular fixity of character which it has preserved through the centuries, and because hatred of the Turks has steeled the arms of the people. The Druses and the Ottomans are traditional enemies. It is the religion of the Druses which will command greatest atten tion from the philosophically inclined. Theirs is a secret faith, which fact is responsible for the paucity of litera ture on the subject. It probably is the outgrowth of that period of the world's development In which men liked to divide themselves into groups of self appointed elect and non-elect for the special study 'of the mysteries of na ture. There were nature-worshipers before the Druses, so that it is im possible to estimate the time of their beginning as a sect. Some historians place this, however, in the neighbor hood of the year 1017. The origin and meaning of the name are disputed. .We know now with reasonable cer tainty that the Druses believe in the existence of only one God, "indefinable, incomprehensible and passionless." They are reincarnationists. Jesus Is accepted as one incarnation, but it is held perfection was reached in the Fatimite caliph. Hakim. The door is now closed, the final appeal having been made through Hakim, but Hakim is to return when the tribulations of man are at their height, will conquer the world and make his religion su preme. It is possible that the Druses saw in the present war the tribula tions which were to signal the coming of their chieftain, and that they are now awaiting the great gathering of the clans in Syria. They believe that they are going to capture Mecca, and also Jerusalem. Hakim is not God, in the belief of the Druse, but the "personification of the universal intelligence." The four ministers supporting the throne are the soul, the word, the right wing and the left wing. There is a long succession of ranks of ministerial agents. The material world to the Druses Is an emanation from the divine intelligence. The number of human beings is always the same. Metempsychosis is going on all the time. The Druses are haunted by no such fears as beset the philosopher Malthus. Overpopulation is incon ceivable to them; consequently there is little incentive for race suicide. There are reincarnations in two direc tions. The spirits which have at tained perfection may be reabsorbed into deity; those which degenerate are re-embodied in camels or dogs. It is an interesting speculation which would be the worse fate. Most other religionists will fail to understand the Druses' theory of ex clusiveness, their entire lack of what we term . the missionary spirit. The faithful keep the secret of their faith. It is permitted to them to make out ward profession of any religion. They join the Moslems or the Maronites in differently. A sect within the sect is known as Akil, in contrast to which all others are designated as Jahel, or Ignorant. About 15 per cent of the adults are Akils. Admission to the inner circle is granted to any who prove their sincerity by a year of pro bation. Their religion requires all to abstain from wine and tobacco. Celib acy is not customary, but acetlcism is held in high respect. Their Sabbath begins on Thursday evening. They regard prayer as an impertinence. The revenues of the church are entirely expended in extending hospitality to the stranger and in the relief of the poor, but they are forbidden to proselyte. Both the Christian gospels and the Koran are held to be inspired books, but the. sole religious guide is the Druse scripture. This is never exhibited in the presence of strangers. The latter are admitted freely to the sanctuaries, but so long as they are present the regular ceremonies are neglected. This curious religion, which owes so much of its outward form to Chris tianity but wholly misses the spirit of Christianity, is held by this handful of fighting men who are making com mon cause with the allies in further ance of their desire for revenge upon their hated enemy, the Turk. They have at various times shown friend ship for the British, and in 1799 took sides with them against Napoleon. Efforts to unite them with the Maron ites for purposes of civil administra tion have invariably failed. They are treacherous according to standards of civilization. They are virtually un conquered, although to gain their own ends they frequently have given the Impression of being subdued. Their friendship for the British has been traditional and consistent, but at one time and another they have had war with their various neighbors. In its very nature the Druse re ligion cannot exert any influence over the rest of the world, and it is not easy to understand the basis of their belief that eome day they will rule the world. Their conception of truth, as stated in their seven commandments, is that reverence for it is necessary only as between Druse and Druse. They are pledged to watch over their brethren, to hold no other faith, to keep separate from those in error, but no obligation is binding in deal ings with the profane. They are al most incredibly industrious, as evi denced by their feats in carrying the nil a V. n ..n II . . . . 1 . .1 on me musiaes, dui mcir virtues would seem upon the whole to be out weighed by their vices. The Damascus massacres which are laid at their door are too fresh in memory, even after the lapse of many years, to warrant trusting them without reserve. THE PENALTY OF INDECISION. Nicholas II owed the loss of his throne and ultimately of his life to the same Indecision which marked other unfortunate monarchs. The absorbing story of the last days of the Czardom told by Countess Can tacuzene in the Saturday Evening Post reveals that shortly before the revolution the Czar was persuaded by some of his patriotic and liberal minded advisers to agree to a ltberal constitution, but that he reversed his decision at the instigation of his wife and her occult counselors. From that day events moved on rapidly to the catastrophe which cost him the throne and finally his life, and which reduced Russia to bloody chaos. Had he fol lowed the advice of the liberals, he might now have been on the throne, he might have rescued his empire from the disorder into which he was sink ing and his army might have been a powerful participant In the decisive campaigns of the war. But he could not have adhered to a right decision without a radical change of character. It was much the same with other deposed monarchs. Charles I of Eng land fell through both indecision and duplicity, for he seems to have been false to every pledge he gave and to have been firm In adherence to any purpose only when it was the wrong one. Similar weakness of character marked his son, James II, and cost him the throne, though not his life, for of this sovereign it is said that "he often showed firmness when con cilfation was needful, and weakness when resolution alone could have saved the day." The same fallings caused Louis XVI of France to end his days on the scaffold. Somewhat kindred weaknesses led President Buchanan into fatal com promises and changes of front when sound judgment and firm adherence to it could have prevented the Civil War in this country, if anything could. He lacked these qualities, adopted po sitions in. regard to slavery and seces sion which could not possibly have been maintained, and so changed his policy In Kansas as to hasten the Na tional crisis. Although Napoleon usually displayed decision In great crises, his will power failed him at some critical times. When on November 9, 1799. the Council of Five Hundred resisted the violent change of the constitution to estab lish the consulate and proposed to outlaw him, the Britannica says of Napoleon: He lost his nerve, stammered, nearly faint ed and was dragged out by the soldiers in a state of mental and physicnl collapse. The situation was saved soieiy jy trie sKill or his brother Lucien, then prcsi-leut of the council. Yet Napoleon recovered his nerve and became master of Europe, while whatever abilities Lucien had were overshadowed by those of his brother. A ROMANCE OF INVENTION. A biography of a noted American who manifested his genius by making practical application of an Idea which to another would have seemed wholly foreign to his purpose is especially in teresting at this time, when the world is under the spell of big things and the creative impulse Is at a premium. It is this which makes the life of George Westinghouse something more than just a current book. Francis Leupp, who has written the biography, makes it plain that the genius of Westinghouse was not unlike that of Shakespeare, who made living things from the old bones of forgotten plays, and he starts in motion again the old discussion of the germinal growth of ideas, which is always so fascinating. The airbrake is the Invention, of course, for which Westinghouse is fa mous. It is an odd fact that we owe it to Littell's Living Age. or rather to the fact that a copy of this staid old magazine fell into the hands of West inghouse. And there are those , who will contend that the Italian engineers who built the Mont Cenis tunnel were the real airbrake inventors, because it was from an account of their work in the Living Age that Westinghouse ob tained his inspiration. It is an inter esting pastime, trying to find the birthplace of a big idea. It was a big idea because it made high speed possible as a routine of transportation. It probably Is not ex aggeration to say that no other inven tion did so much for the development of the science of railroading as we know it now. One Is lost in a maze of speculation when he tries to consider how far the railroad would have de veloped if it had not been for this device. The combination of high speed and high tonnage would have been unsafe without it: it is doubtful, therefore, whether there would have been any stimulus for the develop ment of high speed. We would still be holding the pace of half a century ago. What this would mean in such a matter as, for instance, our present mobilization. gives us food for thought. Our entire social progress in that time has revolved around transportatien, upon which manufac turing has been built and around which great cities are centered. The change of a nation from primitive ag riculture to highly complicated arti sanshlp may be said to have resulted from the act of a man of inventive bent in picking up the copy of a pe riodical from which the American public used to derive its intellectual pabulum a pabulum, by the way, taken mostly from foreign sources. But it was Westinghouse whose active mind seized upon the idea and was quick to adapt it to his purpose, and so it was he, and not the editors of the magazine nor the Italian engineers, who did all that was done toward the development of the airbrake and all that it implies. We are spared the familiar anec dote of the great financier who dis missed the inventor with the dogmatic statement that "you can't stop a train with wind." but the story of hard ships endured and opposition over come is inspiration enough for any young American. Going back farther than the magazine incident, it is dis covered that the real genesis of the airbrake idea was a train wreck be tween Troy and Schenectady, New York, which put the inventor to the inconvenience of considerable delay. Two freight trains had been in col lision: The dar was clear, the roadbed at that point was level, the track was well railed and smooth and straight: it seemed as if a collision could hardly have occurred ex cept through grots carelessness. Westing house suggested as much to one of the com pany's employes who was standing near supervising the clearing of the track. "No." answered the man, "the engineers saw each other, and both tried their best to Tp. but thev couldn't." "Vi'hy not? Wouldn't the brakes work?" "oh. yes; but there wasn't time. You can't stop a train In a moment." The remark rang in the young man's ears the rest of the day. Fortunately, no lives had been lost in the wreck, but his train was delayed so long that he missed his ap pointment, and the annoyance gave pungency li Questions which keot nslnz In his mindr They hadn't time? Why not? Suppose one of those trains had been full of passengers Instead of freight? Various suggested remedies were studied but seemed impractical. One scheme was to connect the brakes with the coupling device In such a manner that when the steam was shut off the closing up of, the cars would set the brakes automatically. Another contemplated a series of cylinders, fed with steam from the engine, but it was found that steam would grow cold in passing through a long train. Numerous chain and windlass schemes were eliminated. Then came the incident of the reading how the engineers in the Alps had conveyed compressed air through a pipe 3000 feet long, so that it still retained enough efficiency to drive a drill and at the same time supply the workmen with air to breathe. That which to the everyday reader was only an in teresting event in the month's news was to the mind of a Westinghouse the germ of an idea which, as has been suggested, probably revolution ized the social life of the world. As with other indentions, perfec tion of the mechanism was the rela tively easy part of it. It was more difficult to overcome skepticism, as the lamented Professor Langley and the Wright brothers found out after ward. Even after the device had been installed on the Panhandle Railroad and had proved itself, the way was not clear. The passage from the prin ciple of the "straight" airbrake to that which reverses the original idea was a matter of routine and has passed Into history. The phases of Mr. Westinghouse's character which most challenge ad miration are his energy, his persist ence, and. above all, his receptivity. Without this last-named peculiar quality, which so marks some men and which is the foundation of genius, nothing would have resulted in all probability from energy applied in conventional ways. The story of the life of Westinghouse is Interesting for the obvious moral wrrich it conveys, and it and others like it can well be read with profit by young Americans. Nowhere has there been a greater change in the economic position than in France, where before the war girls worked as clerks at 4 0 cents a day. as seamstresses at even less, or married the man of their parents' choice as an alternative. War having increased their earning capacity to $2 or more a day, it is regarded as quite natural that a period of shopping revelry should have followed, but it is encour aging: to note that this is passing and that financiers attribute the increase in savings bank deposits since 1914 almost entirely to Increased savings by women. The conclusion of Stephen Lauzanne. editor of Le Matin, is that women will never return to the old order of things, that when peace comes they will enter the trades and profes sions in large numbers, and that a complete revolution in the social sys tem will take place. When the allies get through with a tank they make a bridge of it and get their armies across the canals. But it is a safe bet that if the fighting in the low countries continues long we shall hear of portable bridges, all set up and ready for use, and with wheels under them to get them to the place of business. Demolition of the Austrian fleet at Durazzo is the first naval battle in which the American Navy has par ticipated, and it shows fine co-operation with the British and Italians. It is a good preliminary to the big battle by which we hope to Join in destruc tion of the German fleet. "Morally, penally and pecuniarily' just about covers the limit of respon sibility, as suggested by the French warning to Germany, but how are you going to hold a Hun morally respon sible? Considering the importance of high ways In the National scheme, it would seem that the least our jail prisoners could do would be to go to work on them, authorities permitting. One after another we read of promi nent young men enlisting as privates, in order to get a chance to work up. Thus the extreme of democratization in our Army is reached. North Dakota wants Hun prisoners sent there to work on the farms, but if it proposes to keep them all Winter, is there not danger of our being ac cused of cruelty? Someone tried to disperse a crowd the other day by passing the hat, but the American people have become so used to giving that they only crowded closer. . Chewing gum Is to be supplied to the Yank. Gum relieves thirst when water is scarce or bad. A wad of gum is handy in the repair kit, too. Those brewers who are closing down for the war emergency will show, they are forehanded if they will prepare to stay closed down. The German strategical retreat con tinues, and the allies' advance is im pelled by precisely the same considera tions. Belgium is showing remarkable powers of coming back, for so little a nation. Jack Frost is merciful to the war gardener whowent in heavily for to matoes. Welcome, Bohemia, to the sisterhood of nations! THE! TANK I am the tank: I am the composite energy Of the unified forces of Democracy, The dynamo of allied intelligence, 1-evlathan in the hands of genii. Set to subdue a monster Who makes barbarism look like civ ilisation. I am no flyer, and I scorn the air. But I creep, and my pace is resistless. My lumbering; gait terrifies; My joints- creak as I amble along. And the earth quakes under me While I continue my nonchalant way. Machine guns patter feebly on my mailed sides: Barb-wire entanglements are cobwebs in my path. I do not even halt to note their clever intricacies. I am the apotheosis of modern warfare. The difference between victory and defeat. Hungering for battle. I dare not bonk my horn. But my cables are tense, my steel thews quiver with Joy At the word of command; And when I crawl up into rank forma tion It is a Fight for gods and men. My advance Into battle is gravitation In motion. And spells doom for them that oppose me. Implacable as fate. I crush machine guns and gunners alike. Crumpling their defences like ant-hills. I am the forerunner of Peace, And a miKhty guarantor of Liberty Agaln5t the assaults of autocracy. I AM THE TANK. C. H. SHOLES. THE CASUALTV LIST. They were so younc strong and fair they who died: How some aching hearts must be filled with pride! Proud that they heard at once their Nation's call. Though in Rlorious youth they were first to fall. One was the blue-eyed lad who lived next door. Peaceful. home-loving, hating and loathing war. But answered the call when the sum mons came To do his duty not for rain or fame. Another a boy who bad won Captain's bars. Who jested of death on the field of Mars. As he led a charge with his plucky bud. Now lies buried in a strange and dis tant land. There were nameu of those sprung from many races. On whom their fatherlands have left no traces Germans. Latins, Slavs. Poles, Greeks. Norse and Swede? Joined as one to defend their Demo cracy's creeds. And who Is to blame for those who are dead? Who shall answer for the tears that are shed? Who shall suffer for the maimed, the blind. Ruins and wrecks. when treaties of peace axe stsrr.ed? PRIVATE 2.276,037. IN CLASS ONE. We're golntc to forget those fine feath ers and furs. For we're not afraid to look a. bit nlain. While bleeding Prance in anguish stirs And ravished Belgium writhes in pain. We'll wear the old things and feel no discrace. For we're not ashamed to look a mite poor. When we think of what England has to face And the loyal of Russia have to endura. Yes. a great many things we Intended to buy Will remain unbought till we win this war. For we picture the trenches where our men die And remember what they are dying for. What's been the matter? Were we selfish, unkind? Hm-m Just a bit cowardly, that was the hitch; But we're buying bonds now, for we actually find That till this war's won, we're actuallv ashamed to look rich! MARY HESTER FORCE. UNCLE J ABE'S ADVICE. Look hyah. Rastus. tell me true You gwine flcht foh de ole flag, too? lat so. dahkey? Lat am fine! Glad you Is a son ob mine! Hut lemme tell you foh you goes Cross dat sea foh to smash dem foes Bodies, dey is mighty dumb. Or else won't "mit dat de l'anks m come. Deir papas say. dar ain't no Yanks Iey ain't in de air, in de fiel', in de tanks; Dey ain't no flag dat display de stars. An' de red an' white ob her glorious bars: An' dey ain't nothln can lick a Hun. An' dey all am on de retreat foh fun. But you Jus' grin at de German lie. An" when you chases 'em bye and bye. An" dey spouts up 'bout de Yankee flag , But keeps on runnln' an nebber lag W"y, you Jus' han' 'em some mighty swipes. An' mebby de fools will feel de stripes! Run ober 'em. Ran. lak a train ob cars; An' I bet you. honey, dey'll see de stars! MINA HALL, EPLEY. Philomath. Or. EXODUS. I have' looked in the face of Winter The geeae went south today. High over my head I saw them flying, Small, dim. gray shapes in a narrow I heard the sound of their lone, weird crylnB. And suddenly found it was hard to smile. For you know what it means. And I know what it means. When that long lone file from the north sky streams. I have looked in the face of Winter The geese went south today. Oh this Is the end of Summer! The geese went south today. But Just as they went In their long file flying. Thev shall return. With their lone, weird crying. And we who watched their exodus flight Shall lift our faces In poignant delight When that long, lone file comes again tnto sight. Oh. heart tho' the geese went south this morning. They shall fly back in the Spring! MRS. DAVID HARVEY. IK YOU GO. If you go. dear. If you go. If the plan of life be ao, I shall hear your voice a-rlnglng ' When the first woods flowers are springing. And my heart to you'll be alnglng. Sweet and low if you go. Jf you go, dear, tr you go Through the deepest of my woe I shall hear you calling, cabling. When the Autumn leaves are Tailing. And the forest streams are brawling If you go. If you go. dear. If you go. I shall miss you mlsa you so! But I'll, listen for your coming. With the bands' triumphant drumming And the whole world pladly humming With the drum when you come! GRACE E. HALL. Ravings of a Recruit. 11 7 Private, I B. Cirora. Spr.ce durtloa lMvlaloa. Army life is not complete without a few rounds of Guard Duty. I was honored with more than my share. Two hours on and four off for S4 hours. Outside of that you have the day to yourself. At night it took me three hours and fifty minutes to get to sleep, and then hey would yank me out to do two hours' more duty. Then I would try it all over again. Same result. Walking your post ia not so bad. only they extended my post all over the Cantonment. "Walk your post in a military man ner." reads the Drill Regulations. I wore out a perfectly good pair of shoes walking mine. I passed so many officers, I was al ways at attention. It seemed to me that they had more officers In camp that day than they did privates. One night I saw a man In uniform approach my post. 'Hall! Who goes there?" said T, "Chaplain." said the man In uniform. "Advance Charley and be recog nized," was my reply. Then I received a "sermon." Think of beinpr in the Army and not knowing of an Army chaplain. However there's lots of things one never gets to know in the Army. For Instance, rd like to know how some of the officers got their com missions? It's no use asking the officers. They don't know any more about It than we do. . One soldier who had been Issued legglnRS five sizes too large for him entered the Orderly Tent to request a better fit of the Lieutenant In Com mand. In his haste he forgot to salute the Lieutenant who gave him an Icey stare and In a stiff tone aald: "Young man. don't you respect these leather leggings I have on?" "Indeed 1 do sir." rep'.led the private. "Look at the pair they handed to me." The next day he was scrubbing the kitchen floor. e There's one fellow In camp rd like to murder. That's the bugler. He sleeps In my tent. He has an alarm clock to wake him at 4:30 A. M. so he can wake the rest of us at S. The alarm clock, however, enables me to have one foot out of bed when he blows Reveille. . The other morning we stood Reveille by moonlight. The sun must have gone down late the night before. If you fail to turn out at the first notes of Reveille you are confined to Camp for a week. Some of the boya never get out of Camp. rd just like to run into the fellow that composed Reveille. It's the sweetest call In the Army If you like to- get up In the morning. If they held a popularity contest in camp the Bugler wouldn't get a vote. He mTght get a vote or two if we voted about meal time. Mess call Is real music. It's a funny thing that when the Bugler blows "Retreat" we don't re treat a foot. Every man stands fast. Then he blows "To the Colors." but we don't go to the colors. They bring the colors around to us. Army life is just like civilian life upside down. It also has its ups and downs. Seems like someone is always taking the joy out of life. Sunday mornings we can sleep late. But if you sleep you don't eat, so there you are. "Taps" sounded nightly at 11 meana lights out. But then you ought to see us "light out" In the morning. Another bugle call is "Recall." There Is nothing In the Army for me to recall. I'll never forget it. e A soldier is called up In the morn ing, ir he fails to get up. he is called down by the C. O. and then he is called upon to do K. P. If Spanish influenza ever strikes this camp, I hope it hits the bugler first. THE KAISER. The dragon haa lifted up his head, Hla horns full grown and his milk teeth shed. There is horror and death In the touch of his breath. And his bellowing shakes the earth with, dread. Millions of victims fill hla maw. Enslaved are the helpless under his claw, Crushed to death in his iron Jaw Are love and honor and life and law. The starving mother, the dying child. Field of the dead And the rivers red. The shattered town and the maid de filed Are the tracks of the dragen fierce and wild. But ah! at last he has gone too far! Out in the sea. Where men are free. He has thrown his gage at the evening star. And startled the coasts where the free men are. And the world Is awaking to hew him down. They will cut him asunder. And trample tlra under. They will tear toe gems from Bls brazen crown And silence forever his voice of thun- GRACE BESW1CK LUCE. Aberdeen, Wash. Muscle lie V rgr-. Baltimore American. "Do you believe in the good effects of castigation In bringing: up your children?" "No, 1 don't believe In none of these new-fangled fads. I think nothing so good as a regular old-taan-loned licking."