geon, the strengthening word of Chaplain or comrade, may heal and comfort the body and soul of the soldier or sailor who has poured out his life blood for me and my Country."

The Greatest Mother in the World

From the Cosmopolitan for May, 1918.
Used by permission.

If the world does not learn unselfishness from the horrible catastrophe of war, every drop of blood spilled and every agony suffered by those who are making the world a better place to live in will have been in vain. Out of good often comes evil, and apparent blessings are frequently not so beneficial as the blessings which come to us in disguise.

If the Great War is a blessing, it is well disguised, and all the good that the world will ever get from it will be a renewed spirit of self-sacrifice, by which the race of man for all time will be

ennobled.

To give and give freely that our cause may be prosecuted with the utmost energy is the duty of every patriotic American citizen.

But to give is not all and means little, if we do not also support with every means in our power the wonderful work which is being accomplished by the Red Cross.

How much this work means is realized only by those who are giving their services at the front, and by those to whom those services are given. If you but knew a tithe of what they know, if you but saw

with your own eyes the pain, the horror, and the suffering, you would forego every worldly pleasure to give give— give.

The Red Cross is to-day the greatest mother in the world.

It is the mother of millions, while millions of mothers wait and pray at home.

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When the world grows dark and the light of hope burns low when the groping hand of a grown man, become a child again, reaches forth to seek a mate - the name Mother" is murmured through hot, dry lips, and eyes that may never see again are once more brightened by a last, sweet vision of Her. It is then that, stretching forth her hands to all in need-to Jew or Gentile, black or white, knowing no favorite, yet favoring all the Red Cross takes the place of mother in so far as that place can ever be taken by any one but mother herself.

Ready and eager to comfort at a time when comfort is most needed. Helping the little home that's crushed beneath an iron hand by showing mercy in a healthy, human way; rebuilding it, in fact, with stone on stone; replenishing empty bins and empty cupboards; bringing warmth to hearts and hearths too long neglected.

Seeing all things with a mother's sixth sense that's blind to jealousy and meanness; seeing men in their true light as naughty children-snatching, biting, bitter but with a hidden side that's quickest touched by mercy.

Reaching out her hands across the sea to No

Man's Land; to cheer with warmer comforts thousands who must stand and wait in stenched and crawling holes and water-soaked entrenchments where cold and wet bite deeper, so they write, than boche steel or lead.

She's warming thousands, feeding thousands, healing thousands from her store-the Greatest Mother in the World - the RED CROSS.

America's Part

By Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior. The concluding part of an address at an educational conference in Washington, D. C.

FOR four years now we have been looking afar off at a series of unprecedented battles, in every one of which more men were killed than all the joint participants in either Waterloo or Gettysburg. There is hardly a stream in northeastern France, hardly a village, that has not been given a permanent name in history as the center of a great battle.

The determination of the Germans has been shown in their unprecedented recklessness of life. Amiens, the great railroad center leading from Calais to Paris, must be seized. There never has been greater courage shown by men than the Germans have shown in this advance. The men marched in solid ranks and are mowed down by rapid-fire guns. As the front line falls the rear advances. As it falls, too, another line appears to take its place. And so by increments of death the Kaiser wins his way.

This is the world's greatest battle. More men are

involved, more cannon they say there is a gun for every 40 feet along the western front more airplanes, more tanks, more lethal weapons of every kind, more poisonous gases, and more of hell is seen upon that 60-mile front than the eyes of the angels have ever looked upon before. We call it the world's greatest battle, but the last great battle of this war has not been fought and cannot be fought

now.

That line may bend, but it will not break. Remember, there are Scotchmen there - Scotchmen from Glasgow and from Edinburgh and from the far islands of the north, Scotchmen who never surrender; and Englishmen from Liverpool and Manchester and London, from the Soft Lake country and from Surrey; and Irishmen from Killarney, the gallant Irish, who are fighting that there may be an Ireland saved to which will come home rule; and men from Australia and New Zealand; Canadians, who love war no more than we do, but can make it just as well. There are Frenchmen there, the Frenchmen of Verdun. Need I say more? No more can be said.

Those men do not yield. They have not fought for nearly four years that they may crumple up now. It is a thin line that holds the Kaiser back, but it is a line in which there is more of spirit and more of resolution than in any line the world has seen, because it has more to live for and more to die for than any other group of men ever gathered together; and into this thin line we are weaving our men in khaki. These are but an assurance. More and still

more are to follow, until that thin line is made a thick line.

Von Hindenburg said after the first week of the offensive that the first act was over. It is never the first act that tells the story. The climax comes in the closing scene, and in that closing scene America will play her part; and it will be a noble part. It is my solemn conviction that when success comes to the Allied armies, under General Foch, it will come because of what we do, because of our men in the field, and the spirit and sacrifice of our men and women and our boys and girls at home.

America has never sought to be a world power. She does not now. But America has nothing to live for if Germany becomes the one dominant power of the world. And against that possible day your boys and my boy must give their lives, their ambitions, their dreams, if need be.

And we who are not permitted to fight, what shall be our part? Let it be our resolution that when our sons return they shall find a new spirit in America, a deeper insight into the problems of a striving people, a stronger, firmer, more positive and purposeful sense of nationality. We shall make America better worth while to Americans and of higher service to the world.