The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-10

gotten by England. She will not again make the mistake of sending raw vol unteers to be moved down by ma chine guns without ever having come in sight of the enemy. Her army now is an excellent fighting machine and the units she adds to it from time to time will be equally well trained.
 Great work was done on the Eng fish downs and in training camps dur ing the twelve months preceding the big push" Its effects are now being felt by the Germans who have thrown huge reserves into battle, hoping to check the British advance.
 T HERE are no more loyal demo- 1 crats in this country than those in old Maine, and no campaign, state or national, ever finds them apathetic. The republicans have had way of outnumbering the democrats but the
 latter are never Politics in the daunted. They work State of Maine with as much vim as
 if their chance of victory was always roseate.
 Maine has gone republican in every presidential election since the civil war, except that of 1912, when Wilson boiled a plurality of 2620 over Roose- welt. But now and then the democrats have elected their state ticket. It was so the last time and there is. reason to believe that the democrats will repeat their victory in September next, the month in which the state election is held
 Vance Mccormick, chairman of the democratic national committee, is now turning his attention to Maine. He predicts a sweeping victory for the democratic candidate and is hopeful of democratic victory in November. The present democratic governor, Oakley c. Curtis, has given the state a clean, economic and popular admin and each of the two demo- cratic candidates for the United States Senate, the present incumbent, Charles F. Johnson, and Dean Stills of Bowdoin college, is greatly esteemed. Two senators are to be elected.
 If the democrats carry Maine in thus encouraged they will work all the harder to carry it in Mo- vember; and so will the republicans put forth mighty efforts to carry it for Hughes. The republicans are plain ly worried over the democratic pros poets in one of their oldset strong holds.
 ~ EN. LEONARD WOODS address VI before the teachers assembled in Madison Square Garden was, like most of the speeches on the pro- gramme of the National Education as- sociation, brief, as speeches go, but
 the rugged soldier ut- An Obligation tered many homely to the State truths which should
 offset some of the half backed assertions made by pacifi- ,ists and other impractical people. It was on the subject of military train ing in the public schools, and the speaker insisted that every boy should be taught that he has an obligation to the state-"that it is not the state alone that has an obligation to him."
 General Wood told his auditors that he was lover of peace and that every one who knew something about war hated war. He wanted the mem- bers of the National Education asso- citation to take clear, practical view of the military question and teach the real facts of history. The general gave a deserved rap at certain distinguished publicists and lecturers who in Fourth of July addresses picture million men springing to arms between sun- rise and sunset. That kind of talk IS 'wickedly dangerous" he said.
 The census bureau issued state- ment a few days ago showing that approximately twenty-one million men in the United States were avail able for military duty. Such statistics are important in reckoning with na- tion's resources, but they are mis- leading to the multitude. It takes long time to train big army.
 The best thing for this country in a military way, beyond a standing army of 150,0O0 or 100000 and we'll equipped National Guard would be a citizen soldiery trained in youth at school, such as General Wood sug- gests.