twelve corporals to his present estimate, we find that every regiment requires the horrendous total of 250 officers. Thus his final sum becomes no less than two million and a half of military officers in this country of ours so devoted to the arts of peace that it has never aroused the hostility of any foe and has endured in complete domestic tranquillity during the entire course of its history. How tragic it would have been indeed if any American had ever fired a shot in anger! We are glad to aid the author of the above statement in pointing out the true size of the overwhelming menace against which he has been so kind as to warn the American people.

On second thought, our kindly meant advice may not be as pertinent to the situation as we had fondly imagined. Perhaps the gentleman whom we have been attempting to assist believes that there is a great gulf fixed between corporals and sergeants, a gulf so great that while sergeants must be classed as menaces to our liberty, corporals may be safely ignored as beings quite as harmless as privates. If we have spoken too quickly, we beg forgiveness.

Inclosed with the leaflet from which we have just quoted is another, signed by the Western Humane Press Committee, which takes up the question of inculcating Miljtarism in our schools on much more fundamental grounds. It finds the embryo of that Moloch nurtured in the bosom of even our most carefully guarded American homes. Mark the trail of the serpent. We do not know what kind of track a Moloch leaves when he ventures abroad, so we are forced to substitute a serpent for a Moloch in our metaphor. We trust that this substitution will not be too harshly commented upon, for we do not wish to arouse thoughts of criticism in the minds of our readers, for criticism breeds hate, and hate breeds cruelty, and the arousing of cruelty might bring down upon us the wrath of the Western Humane Press Committee, and thereby begin all over again the whole vicious cycle of error.

But this is what the Western Humane Press Committee has to say on the subject of children and homes and cruelty :

Train up a child to be cruel, and when he is grown he will be cruel.

A rubber image of an animal, one that when pinched makes a noise like a cry of pain, is sometimes given to a child too young to know about live animals and pain. When later the child pinches the kitten or kicks the dog, he is

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putting into practice the lesson a careless parent taught him.

What an easy world it would be if by abolishing the names of things we could abolish the things themselves! The old custom of melting your enemy's image in wax could be so conveniently applied to all the evils of life. Does the polluted water in a neighboring river annoy you? Then take down your dictionary and draw your pen through the words "sewage" and "river." Does your neighbor's boy throw stones at your chickens? Do not spank him or threaten to tell his mother. If you train yourself to believe that boys do not exist and that stones are never thrown, you will endure to the end of your days in peace and tranquillity.

Let us by all means abandon the eagle as our National emblem. Let us create in its place a two-headed bird built somewhat on the lines of Austria's royal fowl, a bird with all the plumpness of a Thanksgiving turkey, one head adapted for the preening of feathers and the other built for perpetual burial in the sand.

Militarism has no more powerful friends than those who hope to destroy its terrible menace by the magic manipulation of empty words. While the idol of straw is being burned at the stake the idol of brass and iron stalks abroad through the world.

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CHARACTER FIRST

Safety first" is a sound maxim if the meaning of safety is clearly understood. Where the care of human life is the highest duty, the supreme responsibility, it must be taken at its face value. On railways, trolley cars, in the construction of buildings whether permanent or temporary, in steam navigation, in the protection of water supplies, in the regulation of traffic on the public highways, the guarding of life is paramount to all other duties, and the words "safety first," posted in places where life is in peril from many kinds of danger, form a sign that this happy-go-lucky country is beginning to awaken from its indolence and carelessness.

But in guarding the higher interests of life safety has a larger meaning than the protection of the body; it may, and often does, involve the utmost peril to the body. It has become to many people a maxim of spiritual degeneration.

Taken in an absolute sense, it becomes a shield for meanness of spirit and the coward

ice which eats the heart out of character. Too many Americans have changed the maxim to read "comfort first ;" they demand that the world shall let them alone in the endeavor to make life easy and pleasant; they resent any interruption of what has become, as the result of a great prosperity, an irresponsible "joy ride." So long as their business is not endangered, their homes threatened, their pleasures menaced, the rest of the world may starve and suffer the tortures of fire and the sword. Other peoples may pour out their blood like water and take up enormous burdens in defense of the principles which have made America prosperous, but these things do not concern the " safetyfirst" Americans. Nothing touches them until it disturbs their comfort. "Let us eat and drink and be merry," they seem to say, "for to-morrow we die." It is certain that we must all die, but shall death be the triumph of the spirit or the rotting of the body? The comfort-first Americans need not fear death, because they are already dead; they have sold themselves for the mess of pottage.

The history of the human race in this world has been one sweeping condemnation of the "safety-first" conception of life. In the sight of God, it is evident, the first principle of safety is contempt for comfort and readiness to lay down life for a hundred things that are a thousand times more important. As it is revealed in the structure of life the will of God is expressed in the maxim, "Character first." There is no limit

to the demands of the Christ when character is at stake; everything else is mere dross. Life itself does not count in the balance when character is in the other scale. There are great joys by the way in this life, but society will become safe only as it becomes just and merciful and self-sacrificing.

This is not a comfortable world in the sense that men may take their ease in it, and there is no prospect that it ever will be. Until all men understand that character is the end and the justification of the tremendous education which we call life, ease and comfort will be interrupted and destroyed by danger, by trouble, by peril of many kinds. To-day half the peoples of Europe are fighting for liberty and the privileges of spiritual manhood; they are dying by the hundreds of thousands and they are suffering 'calamities which leave the imagination aghast and helpless. It is a fearful price to pay for the things at stake, but it is not too great a price. Those who see in the struggle only blind fate and needless slaughter utterly fail to see the moral grandeur of it, the divine contempt which it pours on the safety-first rule of living, the overwhelming authority with which it asserts the "character-first " rule of living. Until men are ready to forget ease, to hold comfort subordinate to right, to be unselfish as well as just, the deeps of divine judgment will be broken up from time to time and great waves of disaster will roll over the fair landscape of material prosperity. Safety will come when character is attained, but not before.

S

COME people may think that too much

time is given to athletics in our colleges, but, however true this may be, I believe that athletics are being conducted today much more sanely than in the past. . . .

There can be no denying that once in a while a man will be injured in an athletic contest. But we must remember that in this country thousands upon thousands of men are competing, and that, in proportion to the

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number involved, injuries are very few, and that every precaution is being taken to lessen the number. . . .

Of course there are injuries in football; it is a rough game, and so is life. . .

You often hear football players say, "I wish the time would soon come when I must give up smoking and begin to eat apples." I do not know that apples are a good substitute for cigarettes, but it is a fact that the men do give up smoking and do eat apples. This is a good experience; having been through this season of training, and having observed the immense benefit that comes from it, the men see that it is a good plan to keep it up in after life. . . .

Before taking up football coaching I fortunately had some experience in the militia, where I was greatly impressed by the results of strict discipline. Until you have come in contact with military discipline you have no idea what discipline means. From a military point of view, it means instantaneous and instinctive obedience to the word of command.

. . This instantaneous and instinctive action is, in a large degree, responsible for the success of the Harvard football teams in recent years. The discipline is put on a military basis. . .

The instantaneous part is quite easy, but the instinctive part can be had only by getting a man thoroughly interested in the subject in hand. . . . I have talked with soldiers about the way in which they respond to the many commands which they receive. They admitted that they did not know just what they did when the command was given. . . . Instinctive action is a great asset; when you get it, the active part of the mind is free to cope with outside and unforeseen problems. . . .

Each man on the team is merely oneeleventh of the unit and is always considered as such, not as an individual. He cannot escape this influence in after life, for the first thing he discovers when he goes out into the world is the fact that he is one of a mighty host. He must take things in the spirit in which they are given him, and do them thoroughly..

I suppose I am right in saying that the reason a boy is taught algebra and geometry and the like is because such studies afford a real means of mental exercise. The same thing may be said of football training.

The signal system is very complicated; if I

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should show you a set of the simplest signals I doubt if you could learn them in a short space of time. It is a new phase of mental activity for most people. It is a sort of language in itself. Instead of saying, “It is my turn," a man says, "1-4-6-2."

It is often a great deal easier—and the results are much better-to take a bright student with a reasonably good physique and teach him the physical part of the game than it is to take a man who has all the physical equipment but is not mentally up to the task.

The coaches have to teach the men to do their work under a tremendous strain. When forty thousand people are yelling themselves hoarse, it is hard for a man to keep his mind on the work in hand; only those who have had the experience know how hard. If a man can do this, he will be more apt to be successful in after life. He learns to make decisions quickly and accurately, and to use his brains under the greatest stress. In the general experiences of life a man often fails at a critical moment because he lacks the power to pull himself through. For example, many a man cannot rise to the occasion of saying a few words in the form of an afterdinner speech. He is "rattled" and his brain goes back on him; he cannot think of anything to say.

I once had a chance to put through a big "deal" in business; my business friend and I struggled for four hours to reach a satisfactory arrangement, until finally, under the strain of the conference, my brain began to "go back on me," and I gave the thing up. A short time later I met the same gentleman, and, in discussing the matter, he remarked that if I had brought up a particular point in the situation and had presented it in the proper way he would have been won over to my way of thinking and his client would have accepted my terms. But my brain had refused to work; I failed on that point, and consequently I had a considerable financial loss. That sort of thing is what men are "up against" in life; there always comes a time when you must make a quick decision, and you must decide rightly.

The football player has not only to make his decisions quickly and correctly, but he must do so without effort, and to do this he must know the game.

The man who comes through successfully has gained great mental power that will stay with him through life.

N

EW YORK CITY papers proclaimed with one voice on Wednesday morning, November 8, that Mr. Hughes was elected. Not only that, but they dilated editorially on the meaning of the election. The Minneapolis "Journal " (Ind. Rep.) thus pokes fun at those papers :

The staid and soberly Democratic "Times" found dubious comfort in the fact that, since the" business interests "had insisted on electing Hughes, the hope might be cherished that "business will prosper."

The "World," bitterest of Hughes's opponents, cryptically promised "to give Mr. Hughes the strongest support that he makes it possible for us to give him."

The carefully balanced "Herald," explaining that its campaign interest had "centered in issues, not men," proceeded to give Mr. Hughes several columns of editorial advice, such as to "make a real Cabinet," to abjure a second term, and to separate Federal from State elections.

The Sun," enthusiastic for Hughes, discoursed on the "writ of ejectment" served on Wilson by the people, and indulged in some Sunny sarcasm at the expense of its contemporaries who had been so wrong in their preelection estimates.

The "Tribune," which had had difficulty in supporting Hughes because he was not sufficiently anti-German, expatiated on "The End of Wilsonism," and warned Mr. Hughes to be up and doing in the matter of "National rehabilitation."

The "American," which Mr. Hearst had switched to Wilson at the last minute, ascribed his defeat to his "bad foreign policies."

The recanting of these excellent sermonizings is now keeping the New York morning newspapers busy. They are digesting the astonishing fact that the State of New York is not the whole Union, and that the West has a share in the election of Presidents.

The Topeka, Kansas, "Capital" (Rep.) adds:

Western people are fond of saying that the most provincial place is New York, which doesn't know that anything exists west of the Alleghanies. Well, now it knows of something that exists west of Pittsburgh-the political power of the United States.

The Leavenworth, Kansas, "Times" (Rep.) asserts that the voters who elected Wilson were influenced by the plea that "He kept us out of war," the Adamson Law, the high price of farm products. "Eliminate these features from the campaign and there is no doubt that Hughes would have swept the country."

The Los Angeles "Express " (Ind.), a California Hughes supporter, declares: "We believe that Mr. Wilson's re-election in great degree is to be attributed to the horror and detestation the American people feel toward war;" and particularizes :

Other considerations, such as the President's manifest sympathy with projects for social and industrial justice, entered as factors into the political equation and swayed the sentiments and the votes of men and women, but we believe that the President's clear purpose to preserve the United States from embroilment in war was a controlling influence.

The Laredo, Texas, remarks:

"Record" (Dem.)

It has been erroneously supposed that the election of Hughes would have meant war. Few people would accept the responsibility of voting for a war. It would be a sad commentary on a nation for a majority of its people to vote for a war, and no political party would include a war plank in its platform. But many people have voted, as they supposed, against war and bloodshed, and, while their judgment may be questioned, their sentiment is true and wholesome, and their repugnance to war is a commendable trait that may be reckoned among the virtues of the American character.

Mr. William Allen White, editor of the Emporia, Kansas, "Gazette " (Rep.), says that the reason for the vote for Mr. Wilson is: "The opportunity to vote as they wished to vote was taken from the great body of men when the Progressive party quit business," but that they would not vote with those who disturbed the aspirations of the people. "Not even the issue of National honor swayed these Western political crusaders; disheartened and ashamed . . . these people voted for Wilson. Their leaders went to Hughes, but the folks in the West refused to follow. They would vote for a man and a party that they despised before voting for a party that they distrusted."

Says the New York "American" (Dem.): This election has not been decided by the farmers; it has not been decided by the women voters; it has been decided by the Progressives.

After showing that the Iowa farmers disagreed in their voting with the Ohio farmers, and the California women voted differently from the Illinois women, the "American" continues:

It was not the prevailing peace that elected Mr. Wilson. It was not the general prosperity. It was not the votes of the farmers, nor the votes of the women. It was not the ineffectiveness of the Hughes campaign, considerable as that was, nor the incompetence of the Willcox management, conspicuous as that was.

It was not the personal popularity of Mr. Wilson or the general record of the Democratic Administration, which was part good and part

bad.

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It was the failure of the Republicans to recognize the importance of the progressive movement and the extent of the progressive senti

ment.

WALL STREET

Mr. Vance McCormick, Democratic National Chairman, in his Harrisburg "Patriot " (Dem.) thus calls attention to another feature: "As the perspective of the election lengthens, the result lends itself to a very definite interpretation: the power of Wall Street in the East; its impotency in the West."

THE LABOR VOTE

In opposition to the views of some, the New York "Tribune" (Rep.) thus summarizes the views of many others:

There is no evidence that the union labor vote was the decisive element in carrying any State for Wilson. Mr. Gompers's noisy promises went for naught. As it turned out, the President's bid for the labor vote was more than fruitless. It was superfluous.

THE WOMAN VOTE

This is the way the Democrats feel about the woman vote. The Knoxville, Tennessee, "Sentinel" (Dem.) speaks for all :

The women of the West have nobly vindicated their qualification to exercise the ballot patriotically and intelligently. They refused to be herded and handed over to any candidate by their leaders, and by all evidences, and up to this writing, they gave the bulk of their votes to the man who has maintained peace with honor for the American people and helped to swell the Wilson tide in the West.

The Detroit" News " (Ind.) says:

It was the votes of women that re-elected President Wilson. The inference is inevitable when the returns are studied. Mr. Wilson carried ten of the twelve suffrage States, losing only Illinois and Oregon. His popular vote in the dozen States, according to the unofficial returns, was 2,416,000. Four years ago in the same States he polled but 1,212,000 votes.

MR. HUGHES

Another reason is found in the Republican candidate. The Boston "Journal" (Rep.) describes him thus:

There have been more imposing figures in defeat than Charles Evans Hughes. Mr. Hughes has all the courage, all the fine sportsmanship, that he needs, but his position is not a graceful

one.

There is a certain element of aloofness in Hughes; a natural trait, perhaps, and intensified by his six years in the cloistered atmosphere of the Supreme Court.