advance nearest to Amiens, and even pushed the German lines back in some places. On the other hand, the greatest German gain was on April 8, against that part of the French lines in the extreme southeast of the territory gained by the German forces in their first onrush. Here a French salient bit sharply into the German lines. At this point on the date named the German generals concentrated a terrific assault and compelled a French withdrawal in the neighborhood of the Coucy Woods and toward the Ailette River. No extensive counter-offensive on the part of the Allies was developed up to April 10, and the general opinion of observers is that a renewed or second German offensive is more likely to develop than a large counter-offensive under General Foch's command. It is pointed out that the ground now occupied by the Allies, and particularly that which lies between the German advanced positions and Amiens, is far better suited for defense than the plains of Picardy through which the Allies retreated. Amiens is protected by a long row of hills which are understood to be extremely well fortified. If this line can be held and the Germans prevented from cutting the railway which leads from Amiens south to Paris through Clermont, the Germans' supreme effort will be balked, and their unquest ably enormous losses in killed, wounded, and missing (no said by some military critics to be in excess of three hundred thousand) will, to that extent, have been in vain. There is no doubt, however, that the situation is still grave. THE WISCONSIN ELECTION Wisconsin, the home State of Senator La Follette, who is still under charges in the Senate of disloyal utterances, has elected to the Senate as Mr. La Follette's colleague, to fill the late Senator Husting's unexpired term, Representative Irvine L. Lenroot. In former days Mr. Lenroot was associated with Mr. La Follette in reforms which made Wisconsin a progress ive State; but he has never been a follower, for he has the quality of leadership which has always made him an independent and distinctive force both in his State and in Congress. By the election of Mr. Lenroot the State has answered those who have questioned the loyalty of the people. Mr. Lenroot has explicitly announced himself as an advocate of the prosecution of the war. Wisconsin lent emphasis to its answer by giving a vote smaller than Mr. Lenroot's by hardly more than ten thousand to his Democratic opponent, Joseph E. Davies, who had the indorsement of President Wilson. The third candidate in the Senatorial election, Victor L. Berger, was an open advocate of immediate peace with Germany. The election was therefore a test of Wisconsin's loyalty to the principle for which America is fighting. The result is unmistakable: For the prosecution of the war (combined Lenroot and 275.000 For a Bolshevik peace with Germany (the Berger vote) 97,000 These figures, though not exact, roughly indicate what Wisconsin thinks about the war. In order to judge the significance of this election certain facts must be kept in mind. The dominant part of the citizenship of Wisconsin is of foreign extraction. There has been a constant pro-Kaiser propaganda among them. Senator La Follette's anti-war speeches have been widely distributed. The Socialists, who are strong in Wisconsin, and who are pacifistic and to a large degree pro-German, have kept up their campaign day in and day out. It has not been easy for even loyal Americans without German antecedents to escape the influence of the atmosphere created by the professional German. Even Mr. Len root voted for the McLemore resolution to warn Americans not to travel in the submarine zone, and thus voted to acquiesce in the demands of the German submarine pirates. During the campaign President Wilson wrote a letter indirectly calling attention to this fact; but Mr. Lenroot effectively countered by reminding the voters that Mr. Wilson himself once urged a "peace without victory." Some public men have been slower to learn the significance of this war than others; the real question is whether they understand it now. What causes uneasiness is the size of the Berger vote, even though it is proportionately small. Something is the matter GOOD NEWS FOR OIL AND STEEL WORKMEN For the first time in the history of the Standard Oil Com pany of New Jersey officers of the company and delegates (including two women) elected by the workers have dined together. The company held the dinner to celebrate and discuss three important announcements. The first was a wage increase. The second was the inauguration of a new system of labor relationships. The third was the inauguration of certain pension benefits. There is to be a ten per cent wage increase. As the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, with its subsidiaries, employs some thirty thousand men, this means a wage rise of about $3,000,000 a year. With this advance we note that in about two and one-half years the company has granted a total wage increase averaging seventy-nine per cent in all classes of labor, and ninety-eight per cent increase in common labor. But what may be a step toward industrial democracy is of more importance. In announcing this the company declares that it is in no sense to be regarded as a substitute for fair wages. For two years and a half the company has guaranteed an eight-hour day to most of its employees. It now institutes a joint council of employers and employees, with membership by secret ballot, following the plan already established in Colorado, and regular meetings. The diners approved the proposed regu lations as laid before them. In the first place, all applicants for service are to be medically examined, so as to determine that a man is in fit condition and is not assigned to a job to which he may be unequal. Furthermore, no discrimination among applicants is to be made on account of membership in any church. society, fraternity, or union. As to the discharge of employees. a list of offenses were agreed to for which a man shall be subject to dismissal; these include fighting, carrying concealed weapons, stealing, and violations of safety rules. The third announcement related to accidents, sickness, old age, and death. Accident disability is covered by the New Jersey Workmen's Compensation Law. Sick benefits go to employees of one year's service and over. They are to receive for disability of more than seven days half pay for periods ranging from six weeks to a year. As to old age, annuities are planned on the basis of a regular allowance of two per cent of the salary for each year of service for all employees at the age of sixty-five years or after twenty years of service. Other pro visions apply to employees less than sixty-five years old, retired after twenty and twenty-five years of service. As to the provision in case of death, the company proposes an arrangement by which all employees, after one year's service, without cost to themselves, shall be given an individual life insurance policy. One year's service carries a death benefit equal to three months' full pay; two years' service, five months' full pay; and so on pro gressively until five years and over carries the equivalent of twelve months' full pay. Moreover, these policies do not necessarily lapse when the employee leaves the service; he may continue the policy himself by paying the required premiums. In this broad, well-considered system of relationship between capital and labor the Standard Oil Company will take high rank among the truly progressive corporations. One of those is the United States Steel Corporation. It has just announced a wage increase, to take effect April 15, of fifteen per cent, to affect some two hundred thousand men, most of whom are day laborers at manufacturing plants. This wage rise will amount to about $45,000,000. Since January 1, 1916, the Steel Corporation has raised wages six times; the aggregate advance is eighty per cent in respect to unskilled labor, and more than seventy per cent as averaged among all employees. This is the more noteworthy as the Corporation itself has had a reduction in its net profits. 1 ate A AFTER A YEAR AT WAR Sa traveler stops to look back over the road he has followed, Its object has been stated by the President: "We shall fight for the thing which we have always carried itself at last free." 66 This is a people's war, a war for freedom and justice and self-government among all the nations of the world, a war to make the world safe for the peoples who live upon it and have made it their own.' What the President has said of our object in this war is true of the object of our allies. We entered this war to co-operate with the nations already engaged. We had therefore an immediate obligation, namely, to fulfill the reasonable expectations of our allies. What did we lead them to expect from us? Money, provisions, ships, and men. Let us recount here what we have done in the fulfillment of those expectations. In money we have loaned to the Allies more than four and a half billion dollars and have promised much more. In provisions we have supplied for the armies of the nations fighting Germany, including our own Nation, an amount of material quite inconceivable. We are producing rifles, for instance, at the rate of forty-five thousand per week. We have furnished from our Navy guns from the largest to the smallest caliber to the British, French, and Italian Governments, with ammunition for them; but, instead of supplying guns to our allies' armies, we are depending upon our allies for guns for our own Army. We have led our allies to expect a large contribution to their aircraft resources; but so far we have not made our resources begin to be felt in the air fighting. One of the principal needs of our allies is wheat. In the exportation of this we lag behind our promises. We have, of course, been sending fuel abroad, but we have failed to send the fuel our allies have needed. Our failure in this respect helped to bring disaster to Italy. But the fuel and the food that we have sent have been among the essentials which have kept our allies fed and their factories and ships moving. We might have done this as a neutral, but we have done it far more effectively as a belligerent. In addition, we have provided supplies for our own Army. What this has involved may be indicated by a few odd items: 20,000,000 woolen blankets, 75,009,000 yards of olive drab for uniforms, 31,000,000 pairs of light stockings and 50,000,000 pairs of heavy stockings, 40,000,000 yards of bobbinet for mosquito-bars. For supply, subsistence, and transportation alone the appropriation of the Quartermaster's Department during the year was nearly two billion dollars. Out of nothing we have had to create great supplies of an almost innumerable variety of articles, from rubber boots and tent pins to motor trucks. In the process mistakes have been inevitable and tradition and red tape have obstructed progress; but the general testimony has been that for a Nation unprepared we have done quite as well as could have been expected. In other words, it has been a great achievement for a million men to spring to arms, not in a night, but in a year. In ships we have been making huge blunders and huge suc cesses. The delay in the ship programme, due to quarrels that ought to be humiliating to every American, was little short of criminal. On the other hand, the creation out of marsh-land of huge shipyards (one of them five times as big as the largest elsewhere in the world), an undertaking that would require in ordinary times two years, but which in one case was accomplished in less than six months, was little short of magical. Already ships for which contracts were made after we entered the war have been launched. One hundred and fifty-one plants are engaged in building ships. The necessity for speed is obvious. German submarines are sinking ships faster than the world is yet building them. We have practically put into use the available supply of existing German ships. So far any enlargement of the world's ship supply is a matter, not of present fact, but of hope to be fulfilled. In ships, too-fighting ships and ships for the transportation of soldiers-we have made a great contribution to the Allied cause through our Navy. We have put vessels of war to the number of more than a thousand in commission-battleships, cruisers, submarines, destroyers, transports, colliers, and the smaller craft. Our destroyers in particular have been of great service; and we are now building new destroyers in onehalf or one-third of the time required under pre-war conditions. In men we have made the contribution that is most precious. From an Army of two hundred thousand we have expanded our forces into armies numbering over a million and a half. The greatest act of America in the war was the decision to secure our Army, not by depending on volunteers, but by selection. That decision stands to the everlasting credit of the Nation. It has made possible all that has followed or may follow. Out of ten million men subject to the process of selection we have sent over half a million into camp. Of about a million men in the Regular Army and National Guard we have sent several hundred thousand to France, and practically all the rest are mobilized in camp or at posts. While enlarging our Army, we have also enlarged our Navy by something like four hundred per cent. And we have not merely put these men in camp, but have built cities for them and have provided them not merely with military training but also with that recreation and those resources, bodily, mental, and moral, which the normal man requires. It has been a great achievement, an answer to the question as to whether democracy values only material things or whether it values also the things that are unseen and eternal. More than that, our Nation has summoned to its service men of brains, of wealth, of resource, and has put them to work in the public service on multitudinous tasks. More than that, our Nation has conscripted not merely its soldiers but also its public servants, for in taking the railways it has taken into the public employ the army of railway workers, who constitute with their families practically one-seventh of the wage-earning population of the country. There is no doubt that this country is in earnest and has been from the beginning; but Americans during this year have only begun to learn the size of their task. The United States is far from having made the world safe for democracy ; it is far from having made it safe for the peoples who live upon it. Since we set our hands to this task the menace to democracy has grown. The world has become more unsafe, not only for democracy but for all people who want to lead decent lives without having their manner of life imposed upon them. We have set our hands to establish the "rights and liberties of small nations," but since we entered the war the small nation of Rumania has been added to the small nation of Belgium and the small nation of Serbia as a victim of German greed and love of power. Since we entered the war, not only have small nations found their liberties and their rights curtailed or destroyed, but even the great nation of Russia has gone down before the massive power of the Germans. All our cantonments, our hundreds of thousands of men, our ships, our guns, our millions and billions of money, will be of no avail if they do not accomplish that which we set out to do. More than one Government official (the latest is George Creel, the head of the Committee on Public Information) has said that it was well that the country was unprepared. It has indeed proved well-for Germany. While we are preparing now, Germany has been rolling back the armies of France and Great Britain. There are thousands upon thousands of the finest men of Great Britain and France, there will be thousands of the finest men of America, killed because we were unprepared and because, therefore, we had to spend this first year of war in still incompleted preparation. In his Baltimore speech the other day the President said: "There is... but one response possible from us: Force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit." That is right. It is as true to-day as it was in 1914 that Germany can understand only one response. So far she has not had any such response from us. We have talked about force, we have gathered our force, but we have not yet delivered it. The force in the oil still in the strata of the earth cannot drive an automobile. The force in the men of America and in America's wealth cannot of itself beat Germany. That force will beat Germany only when it is delivered against Germany. During this year what we have achieved has been wholly in preparation. We have assembled our wealth, we have begun to organize our industries, we have created our armies, we are building our ships, and, best of all, we have saved ourselves from being a mere agglomeration and have become as never before a Nation. It is not a time for proud reflection, but for determination. The men who are going to die for this country must be made to understand that this is a country worth dying for, a country, in spite of all its faults, that is going to see this thing through, and that means what it says when it demands that this world be fit and safe for free people. CONCERNING THE DIFFICULTY OF DOING ONE'S DUTY IN SPRING The journey from the house to the little shack that was his study was brief, but it gave the eyes of the Happy Eremite the balm of a rolling field where the young rye shone palely green and his ears the music of the careless chorus that had of late been inhabiting the great hickory. He stopped midway. A week ago he had burned over the little triangle of lawn west of his study, and the new grass stood sharply outlined against the blackened soil, a vigorous armory of green spears. He grinned to see it. It was good for the soul to see grass again; it was good for the soul to see anything so clean and fresh and straight and ready for business. It was a full inch high. And last night not a sign of it. The mystery of the growth of things captured him, as it did every summer. No book on the science of farming ever had made him understand what under the sun made things grow; and he was quite sure that no book ever would. You planted a seed the shape and size of your thumb-nail, and before you knew it there was something green butting the earth away, and when you looked again it was a plant, and then it was a vine traveling about the garden and keeping the weeds away with its enormous leaves; and by and by one fruit of many which the vine produced kept a table of ten occupied. You planted a seed smaller than the other, and with only a little persuading suddenly it jumped and was fifteen feet high, a day's food for half a dozen chickens and an evening meal for a cow. It was all miraculous and amazing. The Happy Eremite, philosophizing amid the jubilant blades, recalled with an effort that he had work to do, took himself by the scruff of the neck and proceeded to his study. His desk was in disarray, with seed catalogues and garden books peering from among sober histories and pessimistic war pamphlets, like beautiful demon faces about the edges of a monk's prayer-book. He flirted with them, resisted, took one look backward, and was lost. He salved his conscience by telling himself that the study of books on gardening was nowadays, in a sense, a patriotic duty. A half-hour later he took himself by the scruff of the neck, gritted his teeth, and began the day's work. He was writing a biography of a certain Eminent Somebody, and was engaged in an examination of the causes of the Spanish-American War. On October 14, 1897," he wrote, "Sagasta took office as head of a Liberal Ministry pledged to reforms in Cuba—” A bird began to sing outside the window-the pleasantest song that a bird ever sang. It had nothing at all to do with Liberal Ministries or reform either in Cuba or elsewhere, but it deal to do with the armies of little green men that great a had had arisen overnight out of the blackened soil. The Happy Eremite felt friendly toward that singer. They had much in common, evidently. He was sure that when at dawn the bird had first seen the new grass that feathery Galli Curci had grinned also. He went to the window, thinking that the bird must be on the young maple close by, so near and clear the song was. He pushed out the casement. The air was warmer outside than within, and faintly touched with delicious odors. Across the narrow meadow on the top of a hickory was the bird, like twenty-year-old poet telling the world all he knew about himself and a great deal of what he half suspected. He did not sing like a bird who was in love. He sang like a bird who has seen green grass for the first time after a tough winter. The Happy Eremite felt like climbing the tree and shaking hands with him. But he did nothing so bizarre. He took himself by the scruff of the neck instead, and with a long sigh returned to the Spanish War. He heard light footsteps on the cement path outside his study, then a hand fumbling on the handle of the porch door, then steps on the porch, then that same uncertain fumbling at the inner door, then a voice. "Daddy!" That voice was always irresistible. "Hello!" he called. "I'm outside," she shouted, " and I haven't got anything on -no leggins, no rubbers, no swedder, no cap, no anything." Oh, grand!" he shouted back. "Now run along." "I want to show you." He opened the door, not at all reluctantly. "I'm going out to the swing," she announced. "Will you please come out and swing me, daddy?" He chuckled. "Is there anything else you'd like me to do?" he asked. "Oh, yes, daddy," she cried. "You can build me a house, and we'll crawl into it and hide from mother and Mary, and I haven't got anything on, not a single swedder." "Oh, you tempter!" he cried, and went with her. Duty and the Spanish War had the odds against them after that. For while he was swinging his little lady the Happy Eremite happened to glance toward the barn. He wondered what the new gardener was doing and whether the rhubarb was up. He decided to find out for himself. On the way it occurred to him that the young grass on the circle behind the house would be badly burned if he did not rake off the manure soon. Perhaps, he said to himself, it might be wise to give up work at his desk for the day and attend to this. "Wise the word he used. his was He raked all day. It was seven-thirty before he made his way once more up the winding path to the study. He stopped for an instant at the hedge that shut off his diminutive domain and looked westward. A great cloud was sailing with slow majesty toward the south, a purple cloud with stars like chip diamonds in a pale sky behind it. He began to study its shape, and it occurred to him suddenly that he had not thought of the shapes of clouds since he was a boy. He watched the spectral galleon drift silently on. The Happy Eremite took himself by the scruff of the neck. deposited himself at his desk, sharpened a pencil, and began to write. But he did not write about the Spanish War. He wrote instead "Concerning the Difficulty of Doing One's Duty in Spring.' THE UTMOST” that we possess. The loan we are met to discuss is one of the least parts of what we are called upon to give and to do, though in itself imperative." Declaring that he had come to give, if he could, a more vivid conception of what the loan was for, he pronounced that the reasons for this war, the need to fight it through, and the issues that hang upon its outcome, are more clearly disclosed now a than ever before." He called his fellow-countrymen to witness that at no stage of the war had he judged the purposes of Germany intemperately, but had sought to learn the objects Germany has in this war from the mouths of her own spokesmen. The President then went on to point out that her civilian representatives, the Chancellor, and the delegates to the peace conference in Russia had professed their desire to conclude a fair peace, but the military masters of Germany proclaimed a very different conclusion by their deeds. Briefly outlining what they had done to impose their power on a helpless people in Russia and to exploit everything for Germany's use, the President asked if we would not be justified in believing that they would do the same thing at the western front if they could. He went further and asked if these military masters of Germany are checked on the west, whether they might not offer favorable terms with regard to Belgium and France and Italy in order to assure themselves of a free hand in Russia and the East. The President answered his own question by this conclusion to his speech: Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to make all the Slavic peoples, all the free and ambitious nations of the Baltic Peninsula, all the lands that Turkey has dominated and misruled, subject to their will and ambition, and build upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they fancy that they can then erect an empire of gain and commercial supremacy—an empire as hostile to the Americas as to the Europe which it will overawe-an empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and the peoples of the Far East. In such a programme our ideals, the ideals of justice and humanity and liberty, the principle of the free self-determination of nations, upon which all the modern world insists, can play no part. They are rejected for the ideals of power, for the principle that the strong must rule the weak, that trade must follow the flag, whether those to whom it is taken welcome it or not, that the peoples of the world are to be made subject to the patronage and overlordship of those who have the power to enforce it. That programme once carried out, America and all who care or dare to stand with her must arm and prepare themselves to contest the mastery of the world-a mastery in which the rights of common men, the rights of women, and of all who are weak, must for the time being be trodden under foot and disregarded and the old, age-long struggle for freedom and right begin again at its beginning. Everything that America has lived for and loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glorious realization will have fallen in utter ruin and the gates of mercy once more pitilessly shut upon mankind! The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is not that what the whole course and action of the German armies has meant wherever they have moved? I do not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment, to judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what the German arms have accomplished with unpitying thoroughness throughout every fair region they have touched. What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, ready still, ready even now, to discuss a fair and just and honest peace at any time that it is sincerely proposed a peace in which the strong and the weak shall fare alike. But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from the German commanders in Russia, and I cannot mistake the meaning of the answer. I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. All the world shall know that you accept it. It shall appear in the utter sacrifice and self-forgetfulness with which we shall give all that we love and all that we have to redeem the world and make it fit for free men like ourselves to live in. This now is the meaning of all that we do. Let everything that we say, my fellow-countrymen, everything that we henceforth plan and accomplish, ring true to this response till the majesty and might of our concerted power shall fill the thought and utterly defeat the force of those who flout and misprize what we honor and hold dear. Germany has once more said that force, and force alone, shall decide whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, whether right as America conceives it or dominion as she conceives it shall determine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one response possible from us: Force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust. At a time when German power seems to be harder to resist than ever before these words of the President, showing that he realizes that the whole strength of this country is needed, have a most welcome sound. His acknowledgment that this is a moment of "utter disillusionment" is also welcome. It is not a moment of disillusionment for all Americans, for there have been some Americans, among them persons of eminence and influence, who have never had any illusions about Germany's purposes or methods or about the issues of the war or the need of the employment of all our powers to resist German aggression. Such men have been anxiously waiting for the moment of disillusionment of which the President speaks. Now that it has come, it is the business of us all, whether we have been under any illusions or not, to unite to help our allies with all our powers to destroy the monster that menaces the future of freedom throughout the world. KNOLL PAPERS BY LYMAN ABBOTT THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF DEMOCRACY HE President's declaration that the object of this war is to make the world safe for democracy," said my friend to me, "has been enthusiastically welcomed. But are we so sure that democracy is the best form of government, that it is worth what this war is costing us?" No, I am not sure that any form of government is worth fighting for. But democracy is much more than a form of government. France is a republic, Italy is a monarchy; but both are democracies. The United States is a republic, Great Britain is a monarchy; but in some respects Great Britain is more democratic than the United States. It has in its Imperial Government both referendum and recall; the United States has in its Federal Government neither. Democracy is not a mere form of government. It is a religious faith. It is a spirit of life-a spirit of mutual regard for each other's interest and mutual respect for each other's opinions; it is government by public opinion; it is liberty, equality, fraternity, in the institutions of religion, industry, and education as well as in the government; in a word, it is human brotherhood. It involves four fundamental liberties : We sometimes ought to forego our rights; we never ought to abandon our duties. 1. The prophet Ezekiel, overcome by the vision of Jehovah in the Temple, threw himself upon his face before his God. And the voice said unto him, "Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee." It is a fundamental right of man to stand upon his feet and face, unafraid, the Almighty. This is his right because this is his duty. It is not right for him to allow any priest, church, creed, or book to stand between him and his heavenly Father. The priest, the church, the creed, the book, may help him to find his way to God; they may help him to understand his God; but they never should be allowed to take the place of God. God is not an absentee, to be interpreted only by a messenger or a letter. He is man's "Great Companion." The messenger and the letter are useful only as they bring the soul into companionship with that Companion. It is the right of every man to give account of himself to God because it is the duty of every man to give account of himself to God. No substitute can do it for him. The recognition of this right and the fulfillment of this duty forbid all spiritual despotism, and are a sacred and solemn guaranty of spiritual liberty. This is Religious Democracy. 2. God made this world for the habitation of man and has And these liberties are not only rights; they are also duties. given it to him for his dwelling-place. It was not made for white men or for Anglo-Saxon men or for rich men or for wise men or for good men; it was made for all men. They are all his children. And they all have a right to a share in it. In the Father's house there is bread enough to spare; why should any one perish with hunger? That is the question which the hungry in every land are asking, and they have a right to ask it. Society is not divinely organized when some men have so much that they know not how to use it, and others so little that they know not how to live. Whether the twin evils of luxurious wealth and sordid poverty are due to the rich or to the poor or to neither but to a vicious organization of society we do not here consider. They are evils which democracy is endeavoring to cure by promoting a better distribution of wealth. And in doing this democracy is endeavoring not only to secure to all men their rights, but to enable all men to perform their duties. For it is the duty of every man to put into the world at least as much as he takes out of it, and the duty of society to make this possible for every man. I have met many skeptics, but never one so skeptical that he doubted the Biblical statement, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb." Coming into the world naked, it is clear that if we are to possess anything we must either produce it, accept it as a gift, steal it, or get it out of the common stock. Whoever does not by some service of hand or brain or heart, by what he does or what he endures, by what he makes or what he says or what he suffers, contribute his share to the world's welfare, must be classed with the beggars, whether he is clad in rags or in velvet. To make such contribution is the duty of every man. A fair opportunity to make such contribution is the right of every man. This is Industrial Democracy. 3. We are in this world in the making! The object of life is the development of men and women. It is therefore the duty of every one to make of himself, and of every parent to make of his children, the best product possible. The Northern radical affirms that the Negro can be made the peer of the white man, and therefore ought to have the same education. The Southern conservative declares that the Negro never can be made the peer of the white man, and therefore ought not to have the same education. Both are guessing. What the Negro race can become after an education like that of the Anglo-Saxon race no one can foretell. And the experiment can never be tried. For it is not within the power of man so to shape the world's destiny as to pass one race through the educational process through which other races have passed. It is neither possible nor desirable that the Africans or the East Indians or the Chinese or the Japanese should become replicas of the Anglo-Saxons. This truth democracy recognizes, and therefore wherever it has gone it has established the public school. The object of education should not be to run all pupils into the same mold. The school should not be a foundry. The object should be to give to every pupil a chance to grow. The school should be a garden. Education, therefore, should prepare for life, which is itself the larger education. It should be adapted to the present conditions and the prospective needs of the pupil. The growing recognition of this truth has created optionalism in education, has added industrial training to academic education, has provided, as never before, for woman's education. To enjoy an opportunity for education is the right of every individual; to make that opportunity so varied as to meet the varied needs of the members is the duty of society; to avail himself of the opportunity to make all of himself that he can make is the duty of every individual. This is Educational Democracy. 4. It is the right and duty of every man to govern himself. It is one object of education to prepare him to perform this duty. It is his right to determine his own destiny-his right because his duty. And as he must see with his own eyes, work with his own hands, and think with his own brain, so he must guide himself with his own judgment and rule himself with his own conscience. If he is blind, some one else must see for him; if he is paralyzed, some one else must work for him. So, if he has no judgment or no conscience, some one else must guide and rule him. But every normal man is furnished with eyes to see, hands to work, judgment to guide, conscience to rule. Such is the assumption of democracy, which holds that the object of all ... I think I need not fear any serious opposition if I designate self-possession as the cardinal American virtue. In contradiction to this fundamental American trait of self-possession, I designate the passion for self-surrender as perhaps the most sig nificant expression of national German character. He adds that, while this passion leads the German at times to surrender himself to a great cause or sacred task, it also leads him to surrender himself to whims and hysterias of all sorts. "Nobody," he 66 says, can be a more relentless destroyer of all that makes life beautiful and lovely, nobody can be a more savage hater of religious beliefs, of popular traditions, of patriotic instincts, than the German who has convinced himself that by the uprooting of all these things he performs the sacred task of saving society." The events which have occurred in Belgium, northern France Serbia, and Armenia since this essay of Professor Francke's was written furnish a tragic illustration of its truth as an interpretation of German character. Germany has not educational liberty. Its educational system is ingeniously framed to equip a few with boots and spurs to drive, and the many with saddle and bridle to be driven. Its teachers are appointed by the king in the provinces, by the Emperor in the Empire. Their function was declared by the Emperor of Austria in 1815, by the present Emperor of Germany in 1890, to be the creation of obedient subjects and loyal sup porters of the crown. Germany has not industrial liberty. All wealth is derived from the land. In America by our Homestead Law we threw open our agricultural lands to all the world, giving 160 acres to any individual who would live upon them and cultivate them; and, though we carelessly allowed our mines, forests, and water powers to fall into the hands of a few wealthy owners, we are attempting by our policy of conservation and of land taxation to correct that well-nigh fatal error. In Germany the ancient feudal system survives, which puts the control of the nation's wealth into the hands of a landed aristocracy, popularly known as Junkers. Peasant proprietorship is practically unknown. Germany has not religious liberty. "Perfect love casteth out fear." It is equally true that fear casteth out love. The religion inculcated by the leaders of German thought and life is the religion of fear. The reverence demanded is for a God who is the ally of the military power; the worship is of a God imaged by Odin, not by Jesus Christ. Its ethical effect is indicated by the following two sentences from a German pastor, in a paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive in merciful long. suffering each bullet and each blow which misses its mark! Lead us not into the temptation of letting our wrath be too tame in carrying out thy divine judgment!" 1 This pagan Power has, through its Emperor, declared its purpose to reorganize Europe, recall from the grave the buried Cæsars and re-establish them in this twentieth century. We are at war with this pagan Power in order to establish for all humall ity the right, and to maintain for all humanity the duty, of selfcontrol, self-development, self-support, and personal comradeship with the heavenly Father. This is what we mean by the saying: The world shall be safe for democracy. 1 The Emperor's address, October, 1900, on the dedication of the Museum of Roman Antiquities at Saalburg. १ |