ists make no such accusation, but appeal to their fellow-Frenchmen to aid those Germans who are struggling for the peace with justice for which France stands. Both protests are alike in this that they both condemn Germany. It is also significant of the state of free speech in France and Germany that the French Socialists spoke openly in Parliament while the German Socialists were forced to adopt a secret manifesto which the German Government has tried by every means in its power to suppress.

A THREATENED DUEL

A correspondent of the "Journal de Genève" gives an interesting account of the political struggle that is going on between the German Imperial Chancellor, Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, and the Prussian landed aristocracy, or "Junkers." The gulf that exists between the political standards of Germany and those of England and the United States is indicated by the fact that a controversy between the Chancellor and the spokesman of the Prussian "Junkers" nearly resulted in a duel. The correspondent of the "Journal de Genève " writes as follows:

The situation in the domestic politics of Germany grows more and more complicated. The unexpected length of the war, the shortage of food, the growing discontent of the working classes, are breaking down little by little the national unity of which the German people displayed such signal proofs at the beginning of the conflict. Germany is forgetting that appeal for harmony which the Kaiser made at the outbreak of hostilities. Partisan quarrels are taking on their old-time bitterness.

This explains the extreme irritability of the last speech which the Chancellor made in the Reichstag and the pains which he took to condemn the pamphleteers of the day. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg is struggling with difficulties both without and within the Empire, and, although the Emperor has again given him signal manifestations of his confidence, the Chancellor's position is seriously threatened. The Prussian landed gentry are maintaining against him an incessant and irrepressible opposition. This clannish group, to whose machinations we owe the war, seems neither to have forgotten anything nor to have learned anything. Every German Chancellor has had trouble with them. Bismarck himself was too broad-minded in the eyes of the "Junkers." Nowhere in the world is there a social class more narrow, more selfish, or more egotistical.

There are two things that the "Junkers' cannot forgive in the policy of Herr von Bethmann Hollweg: First, that he is too sympa

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thetic with the Liberals and too gentle in his dealings with the Social Democrats; and, second, that he was too conciliatory in his efforts to avoid a rupture with the United States on the question of submarine warfare. In the eyes of the landholding gentry in Prussia, who want the war carried on mercilessly, the last was an unpardonable weakness. .

The spokesman of the "Junker" party is an official named Kapp, who exercises the functions of Generallandschaftsdirektor-that is to say, the administrative chief of all the provincial agricultural associations. He is an indefatigable and capable administrator. Before the war he established throughout Prussia insurance societies which greatly aided the progress of agriculture.

Herr Kapp, continues the correspondent from whom the foregoing quotation is made, is the author of one of the pamphlets against which the Chancellor made his attack. Believing that he was insulted by some of the phraseology employed by the Chancellor, he sent his seconds to the latter demanding the satisfaction of a duel. The representatives of the Chancellor decided that he had not gone beyond his rights in replying to the attacks in the pamphlet by Herr. Kapp, and that he did not need, therefore, to pay any attention to the latter's demands.

The Journal de Genève " publishes the complete text of the official statement which Director Kapp has made of his quarrel with the Chancellor. In it he says, in effect: "I accused the Chancellor of pursuing a weak and inefficient policy. He replied in terms that I considered personally insulting. He refused to regard his words as falling within the domain of personal discussion. I therefore reserve the right to demand satisfaction when the Chancellor can no longer hide behind the protection which is given him by the war, by his office, and by his muzzling of the newspapers."

Fancy Secretary Houston challenging Secretary Lansing to fight a duel because of some political disagreement !

UNIVERSITY FREEDOM

The same correspondent goes on to point out other indications of the fact that public opinion in Germany is far from being a unit. "In spite of the severity of the censorship," he says, "the truth about the war is filtering into Germany little by little and is spreading. When they can express themselves freely in private conversations, many cultivated Germans to-day recognize that the Central Teu

tonic Powers desired and provoked the war." One of the most outspoken advocates of this view is Professor Foerster, of the University of Munich. In lectures to his students he has declared himself as having become radically opposed to the traditions of Bismarck and of Treitschke. And he insists that these questions may be discussed even in time of war, and in spite of the bitter denunciations that have been poured upon him as a traitor to his country. In one of his lectures he read some of the insulting letters that had been sent to him and also some of the approving testimony that had come to him personally from soldiers actually at the front. "Precisely," said Professor Foerster in a lecture on June 19, "because I wish to respect my opponents and to submit myself to the principles for which I stand, namely, absolute truth combined with a respect for the feelings of others-precisely for this reason I am bound to declare without

ambiguity that I protest with all my might against every attempt to restrict my liberty of teaching. The time has come when we must make an examination of our consciences. We must absolutely recognize the rights of critical thought, above all in our universities, and in every domain of knowledge, including that of German history, in order that the youth of Germany may understand every point of view."

The correspondent of the "Journal de Genève" believes that Professor Foerster has taken an impregnable position, for freedom of university teaching has always in the past been considered in Germany to be an inviolable principle-even in Prussia in periods when the Government was absolutist in the extreme.

"Voices like that of Professor Foerster continue to be heard," says this writer. "More than that, they are listened to. They form a significant sign of the times."

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[One of the most interesting student orations delivered during the recent college Commencement season was that of a coalblack young Negro at Hampton Institute. Those who attended the Commencement or Anniversary" exercises at Hampton this year will remember the scene. On the floor of the large but simple auditorium sat the audience. At the right, on a great tier of seats rising like an athletic grand stand, were massed the thousand or more young men and women students of the institution in their neat and simple uniforras. Their wonderful singing of Negro "spirituals" and plantation songs was one of the deeply moving features of the occasion.

On the platform were grouped the distinguished speakers and visitors of the day, including Governor Stuart, of the old and deservedly proud State of Virginia; the rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, which during the war was the church of the highest intellectual and political aristocracy of the Southern Confederacy; and President Alderman, of the University of Virginia, which in history, tradition, and personal asso

ciations is one of the most distinguished of all American universities. The rector, the University President, and the Governor, among others, made addresses full of respect and admiration for the profound and efficient educational work which Hampton is doing. The Governor, with that tact and skill to be expected from a Virginia gentleman in his position, referred to the somewhat pathetic fact that the American Negro has always been intensely loyal to his country, which has not always been loyal to him. "You will find," he said, “no hyphenated Americans among the Negroes."

It is significant of the respect which Hampton commands among the leading white people of the South that upon the stage where these distinguished white Southern gentlemen spoke and sat there came four graduating students to speak their Commencement parts-a young Negro woman, a young Indian, and two young Negro men. The addresses of all four were excellent and were full of interest because they came from the actual life and experiences of the speakers. We reproduce here one of the addresses

1916

that by George E. Coles, of the graduating class of 1916, which he entitled "From Newsboy to Machinist."

Cold type cannot reveal the humor, the pathos, and the deep personal appeal of this Commencement speech. Bullet-headed, kinky-haired, black as the ace of spades, with gleaming white teeth and eyeballs, and an irresistible smile of good humor at the allusions which he frankly made to the joys and sorrows of his "pickaninny youth," the speaker captivated his audience. We doubt if there was a more effective, genuine, and human "Commencement part" spoken on any college or university stage in any part of the country during the recent graduating

season.

We are glad to print this address because it is typical of the remarkable educational work which Hampton is doing in a spirit and by methods that ought to be more largely adopted by white educational institutions throughout the country.

This, perhaps, is the place to say that Hampton Institute needs a new auditorium, to be used, among other things, for its Commencement exercises, and that the Institute is endeavoring to raise one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the erection of a memo

O

FTTIMES I have heard ante-bellum people say with great pride, “I was born before the war." I, too, can say that I was born before the war, but the war in question was the SpanishAmerican War. In Petersburg, Virginia, only a few miles from the historic site of the Battle of the Crater, I first perceived this sinful world. I was born one hot Sunday afternoon in August; it was the day after the unlucky thirteen in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred ninety-two. There were no hosts of people waiting outside to get a peep at the infant; there were no sounds of stringed instruments and clanging cymbals; but the steady drone of the bees on that still, hot air was music enough for the proud parents.

When I was quite young, I thought that life was a regular bed of roses; but before I finished my schooling I was to realize that beneath that rose-bed were many sharp thorns that could and would prick when one least expected them to do so. I spent the first six years of my life waxing strong and enjoying myself with my playmates in this rose-bed; as yet the thorns had not begun to prick.

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rial building in honor of the life and work of the late Robert C. Ogden, who did so much for Hampton. The corner-stone of this building was laid during Hampton Commencement week. The committee in charge has already raised ninety thousand dollars, and needs sixty thousand dollars more to complete the work. The General Education Board, in order to show its appreciation of the life and work of Mr. Ogden, and of the notable achievements of Hampton Institute under the direction of its modest but distinguished Principal, Dr. H. B. Frissell, has promised twenty-five thousand dollars. The interest of this sum is to be used towards the maintenance of the Ogden Memorial Building when completed. Those Americans who recognize that the so-called Negro problem is one of the greatest of the social problems of this country and who believe, as we do, that Hampton Institute is perhaps the most important factor in the solution of that problem, will be glad, we are assured, to come promptly to the aid of Dr. Frissell in raising the sum which is necessary to provide Hampton with this appropriate memorial and much-needed modern auditorium.—THE EDITORS.]

I was six years old when my mother hustled me off to school, and, like all small children, I loathed to strike into the unknown. I didn't want to be educated; for didn't it mean to my youthful mind absence from the open air with my playmates, absence from my mother's sight and from the bread which I used to run in for every half-hour? Of course it did, and I resented this new move most strongly.

I was carried to school and placed in a room with some more of my kind. All were crying, and I promptly joined them and cried and cried; but soon I weighed the matter in my little mind and came to the conclusion that it was useless to cry. I desisted and began laughing at the other unfortunates; but when the autocrat of the class-room reminded me in a strong tone that I was in a class-room and not in the streets, I began sitting up and taking notice; and I have been trying to do the same thing ever since.

I remained in the public school at home for two terms, and then my mother, who had preceded me North, sent for me. I traveled to Cranford, New Jersey, with a little tag