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Then came shelter-tent practice for the battalion. The night before the officers in command had erected on the company street a model shelter tent. The cadets were not expected to ask questions. All their questions were already answered by that model. The day before lines had not been straight at the company practice. "They'll be straight to-day," the officer in command of that company told me this morning-and they were. The boys had learned that when they were shown a thing once that was enough. And when those boys carried their packs they learned-in their own comfort or discomfortwhy they had been ordered to fold and roll their blankets and ponchos just so and lay their tent pegs and poles in just such a position on them. They were expected to obey first and learn the reason afterwards, and in three weeks they had found out that that, too, is part of the straight way and the best way. And two or three fathers who walked along with the company back to the camp, and heard the officer ask the boys sharply if they didn't know what forty inches were yet, agreed that it was the best way

too.

There were to be nearly two weeks more of such training when I left. What that training meant I am going to let one of the cadets tell for himself. I take his words from letters he wrote to a friend of mine, who gives me permission to print them here:

If ever I was for compulsory military training, I am twice as much for it now. I think it is splendid for mind and body.

Now that we are on the last week, it is interesting to look back. Our first parade was, I think, without guns or equipment. Our lines must have been terribly crooked, our officers bawled out loud and long. To-night we paraded with regular army guns and cartridge belts. Our officers stood in a line back of the commanding officer. We kept the lines straight ourselves, and I think they were pretty straight.

When we started, kicks and grumbles arose at every march to the parade grounds, and yet we walked along without anything to carry. To-day we walked twice to the parade ground with equipment. The other day with packs we trudged along and no words of complaint did I hear. Yes, we have changed.

I think personally I have acquired certain things which I am terribly glad to have. I have found obedience easy, which is a compliment to those who have brought me up. I have a much greater feeling for the flag and my country than ever before. I always feel a sort of thrill at retreat every night, when every man

and officer of the regiment stand up like soldiers and do honor to their flag.

I know I have a finer sense of neatness and orderliness than before. When it comes to picking up straws and pebbles off the street, folding your blankets, etc., just the same way every day and keeping your body clean, why, it's second nature to be neat in all things.

I have more respect for myself than before, simply because I feel that I am beginning to do my part in a duty which should draw us all together. I am taking my place in line with others in preparation for defense of our country, and as I respect my officers, so that respect goes out also to those who are with me in that respect for country and those people in authority.

Another thing-perhaps not so important, but still something-I have gained in appreciation for friends and school, and, more than that, for those at home. Perhaps it may seem strange to you that I should get that feeling now, but I can only maintain that, if I loved my home before, I love it twice as much now. As for friends, I don't know what I should have done without school friends and the Young Men's Christian Association men who gave themselves up to our service.

Naturally I have benefited physically and mentally; but I think those benefits are minor compared with those I have mentioned above.

To keep such education for a few is to deny the fundamentals of democracy. The benefit of Camp Washington at Plum Island is of course directly received by the boys who went there, their families, and the schools to which they return; but its value is much greater than that. What has made it, above all, worth all that it has cost to those who have given time and thought and money for its success is the fact that it is an object lesson in behalf of universal military training. What the boys of Plum Island have received ought to be the inheritance of every boy in America.

And what these boys have received this country needs. Chief among the faults of the American people are lawlessness (witness, for example, our homicide rate), love of ease, and willingness to avoid trouble at the cost of duty. Chief among the virtues inculcated at Plum Island are the opposites of these faults-prompt observance of law; acceptance without complaint, and even with enjoyment, of hardship and simple living; and willingness in the course of duty to face danger and act the man in its presUniversal military training would develop these qualities in the boys of the Nation, and therefore in time in the Nation itself. ERNEST HAMLIN ABBOTT.

ence.

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MR. HUGHES OPENING HIS CAMPAIGN AT DETROIT, MICHIGAN

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G. W. W. HANGAR

MARTIN A. KNAPP
W. L. CHAMBERS
THE FEDERAL BOARD OF MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION

The Federal Board of Mediation and Conciliation endeavored to persuade the railway managers and the brotherhoods of railway employees to adjust their
differences and avoid the calamity of a general strike on the part of the railway men. Their efforts were followed by the submission of the dispute to President
Wilson. See editorial comment

HERBERT QUICK of West Virginia

W. S. A. SMITH of Iowa

See the articles by Mr. Clarence Ousley and Mr. Paul

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W. G. MCADO0
Secretary of the Treasury
THE NATIONAL FARM LOAN BOARD

This Board has been appointed by the President to carry out the provisions of the Federal Farm Loan Act. V. Collins in the issues of The Outlook for June 28 and August 2 last

COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

AUSTRIAN PRISONERS CAPTURED BY THE RUSSIANS IN THEIR GREAT NEW OFFENSIVE

The tide of war has turned, and it is now the Russians who are taking vast numbers of prisoners. This picture, which has recently come from the front, shows but one of many similar scenes that have lately been witnessed in the disputed territory

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