The Washington herald., 1917-04-30
How the Editors Are Viewing
America and the World War

manity and democracy. With the be-
ginning OF the operation OF the law, mil
lions Of the inhabitants of this coun-
try. who until now have looked upon the
war as something apart from their daily
lives, will have realizing sense OF what
modern warfare means. The war Is here
now.
New York Evening Post.
In defeating the Roosevelt plan for
the prompt dispatch OF a division Of
volunteers to France by a vote Of 10
to lO6, the House expressed its dissent
from one OF the vagaries of the think
ing on conscription. The Colonel de-
clared yesterday that he endorses most
earnestly and heartily the principle of
obligatory military service" that be only
wishes that "a very much longer step
had been taken in its direction. and that
he wishes merely 20 supplement con-
scrlption. Admittedly, the principal ar
gument for conscriptiUn is that il Will
save our levying on men needed at
home, and save US from sending a hope
iessly heterogeneous and fll-adap'eI set
OF men to suffer from the hardsnips OF
camp and trench. Our whole-hear,e ed
conscriptlon, the Colonel goes on 10 ar
que for this supplementary scheme thst
II would Jake only men exempt under
the Rdm inistration's bill" In ether
words, 1t will take men above the age
at which conscription stops, men ;r IN
exempted Industries, men with special
reason for staying a, home; and acc nd
ing to the Colonel would hurry them
abroad-"half the training should be
given on the other side of the water"
Neither advocates of the conscription
nor volunteer system could well vote for
the amendment. 1t was well seen by the
former that It violated the principle Of
the selective draft. Those who wish
volunteers, wish them from the classes
which the draft bill would declare nom
exempt-the young, sturdy, unhampered.
But the latter may be grateful to the
Colonel for his demonstration Of faith in
the moral value of the dispatch Of even
a small volunteer force.
Gustave Herve ON Russian RevOIu-
tion.
tChnstiAn Science Monitorl
II there is one man to whom recent
events in Russia might be depended on
to make special appeal, that man is the
great French Socialist. Gustave Herve.
It is not. therefore, surprising to find that
in his paper, La Victoire, he has cele-
brated the event in an article which
has justly been termed enthusiastic, but
which, none the less, displays all that
wonderful breadth of view which those
who are familiar with his writings are
coming to expect from NJ. Herve. GUS
tave Herve does not long rest content
with consideration OF the effect of the
event in Russia itself. He returns TO
that, but first he carries his readers
back to the French revolution. and,
from this high place, as It were, in his
tory, bids them see how the idea of
freedom and democracy. then given fresh
wings, has shaken every stronghold Of
autocracy from Lisbon to Pekin. until IL
has, at last, assailed and overthrown the
great intrenched camp on the banks OF
the Neva, thus giving freedom to the
Russian millions, from the Baltic to the
Yellow Sea.
Gustave Herve has a remarkable IA
cility for presenting a picture in a few
lines. Ended" he says. 'is the regime
of the knout; ended is the regime of
the gag for the Russian giant, the mild
est and most idealistic OF the peoples of
Europe; ended the slavery OF the great
intellectual Russian middle class; ended
your servitude. Firms and Poles: ended
your sufferings: c.osed Is the era OF
pogrom on Russian Jews. penned like
cattle in their ghettos." And so he goes
on. filling in the picture with a master
hand, until, by those who know any
thing about the sufferings and strug-
giles OF Russia. during the past nifty
years, an impression is gained Of the
great liberation such as they never
had before