The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-22
WAR ECHOES

remarkable self-restraint of the French
 people under great temptation to excite
 ment The advance of the Germans, the
 possibility of serious invasion of French
 territory, the tentative effect on the for
 tunes of the Third Republic. all these
 claims were met with calmness despite
 the reputation of the people in the past
 for mental volatility and excess.
 As was pointed out at the time, great | change has come over the French nation ,sThe war of ls70-71 chastened it. In a sense the succeeding 40 years have done
 more for it than they have done for the
 German conquerors. Defeat opens na-
 tions eyes as it does those of an individ-
 ual. It forces rigorous self-inventory.
 It compels an impartial inquiry into sources of strength and weakness. l Every friend of France was reioeed
 to see how we'll it bore the strain of the 1 first days of the war Now. with the
 enemy repuIsed and the final victory of the allies foreshadowed, the temper of the .la
 tion is unchanged. A dispatch from Paris says "rhe people have always been ex- pected to exhibit excitement and impul- siveness on momentous occa sions, but they accepted the victory in the battle of the Marne with the same calm self-pos- session as that with which they faced the possibilities of defeat and the rigors of d siege"
 It is easier to restain ones self in mis- fortune than in prosperity. Success un- hinges many man, because it tends to justify whatever extravagant estimates of himself he may have indulged in The French now see, their army driving back the invaders. Their long deferred hope seems in prospect of fulfllment. The stolen provinces may be returned and the billion-dollar indemnity restored. And yet says the Paris correspondent just
 quoted, it is true that their countenances ! were less grave today, but there was a total lack of jubilation.''
 Happy Is the nation as well as the in- dividual whose head is not turned by sue cess.
 Christian Work: Nowhere is the effect
 of war more immediately felt than in the schools and colleges The first thing Ger many did when war was declared was to
 order every public school closed and the
 children put into the fields to do the work
 of the men called into military service. France will, no doubt, do the same thing. This means not only will the boys and girls of Europe have to do mems work and break their little backs with heavy
 burdens and tire their uniformed limbs with weary hours, but that for year,
 two years, three years-no one knows how | long-they will have to go without school ing or education of any sort. This means depleted universities five and ten years hence. It also means more ignorant generation of men and women after the war.
 Another effect is seen in the universi- ties. Already the famous German uni versailles are depleted of students. The German students are at the front Put the foreign students make up a consd-
 erable part of the large numbers at these famous institutions and they have all been compelled to flee to their homes in differ ent countries. In some instances they will have to bear arms against fellow students who have become dearest friends and comrades. Thus the whole university system of Europe will be broken up. Europe is full of students of art and
 music from America. Dresden, Berlin, Leipsic, Paris Rome have hundreds of
 these young men and women. Their SUI
 dies have been rudely broken in upon and they are on their way back to America. There have also been a good many Amer i<o,
 man schools, put there that they may
 learn the modern languages. They must also leave their schools.
 This means that the American conserv- atories and private schools will doubtless have an unusual influx of pupils this fall so that poor Europe's loss will be our gain in this regard
 The moral damage of this war to the school child is theme we shall take up in a later issue. It will be incalculable It fills his head with daily stories of bloodshed, fightings, passions, revenge. Religion is so overshadowed by the daily story of Christians blowing each others brains out that it is hard to make it even a reality to him, and as to human brotherhood-there is no such word in OUT vocabulary at present except as we Aner- jeans can exemplify It.
 Frances Frear in Leslie's: In Europe women are demonstrating how success fully they can take on the industrial du- ties of men. With all the able bodied men of Germany. Austria, France, Russia, Bel gium, Servia and Montenegro, and nearly all of Great Britain. Switzerland IIol- land, Italy and Portugal entirely removed from their usual labors, the activities of peace would come to an abrupt stop if it were not for the women. But now, as heretofore, they are stepping into the places of the men who have gone to the war, and crops will be harvested and planted, too. if the war should last until next seeding time-and factories are kept open Shops are doing business and trans porttaion remains in operation. All this is largely possible through the efforts of the women who aid old men and boys in keep ing the great industrial machine moving.
 In France it is reported that women are acting as conductors on street cars and omnibuses, that they are replacing men as walters, factory operatives, heads of shops and in short in all the walks of life. The same is true in Germany. Bel