The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-07-21
NO HALT IN EDUCATION.

NO HALL LIN EDUCAllON
Commissioner of Education Claxton has is
sued bulletin protesting against the shorten
ing of school terms because of the war; he notes
with apprehension the proposal by many edu-
cation boards particularly those in rural COM
munities, to lessen expenses by offering a
shorter term and reduced teaching corps. Dr.
Claxton says these economies are not necessary
and should never be allowed to become neces-
sary. He is quite right and his protest should
be needed in time to be effective. This war
is bound to lay burdens on the future. One
burden it must not entail it must not belitte
the opportunity given our boys and girls to pre-
pare for that future. Against the havoc Of
this war in men and material wealth the prin-
lcipal bulwark is a new generation well equip
ped in head and hand to replace what is lost
This equipment must be given by our schools
and we must fit our schools to give it. The
whole plane Of intelligence of this nation must
|be lifted if we are to realize the duties and the
Opportunities which this war provides. We
must think more honestly about ourselves and
Iothers; we must work together more com
Ipletely; we must make citizenship real bust
ness; we must get more out of life and put
more into it. If we do not, we shall not keep
step with nations who see the vision of new
and larger life after the war.
In estimating how much Importance should
be attached to the evident unrest in Germany
as it affects the war, it is safe to give much
weight to the element of time. The staying
powers of Germany cannot be without limit
and the limit, while perhaps not yet nearly APP
preached, must be in the thought of the peo-
lple. The U-boat campaign was promised
means of Fastening the victorious conclusion
of the war by Germany; German publicists did
not hesitate to lay stress on finding a means to
win quickly. The means adopted has not filed
the expectations aroused in the minds of the
German people; the immense damage done by
the ULboats has not brought the end of the
war in sight, but it has brought to view other
and disquieting visions. Little sympathy exists
in the world today for Germany, and the Ger
man people who are informed realize this.
This country is fairly well known to intelligent
Germans and despite the belttling publicity
given our war moves, the fact that we are
moving against Germany has great influence
among many German thinkers. Time of con-
tinuance is a vital factor in Germanys war
stamina Her forty years of preparation may
now be shattered in month, year. With
this country in the war the entente has much
greater resources than have Germany and her
allies. Another year of the war may seem en-.
durable to even the militarists who surround
the kaiser and who temper their ambitions and
with sense of results.
Russia has surprised the world at least twice
in the last few months. Just how far the sue
cess of the Russian democrats will affect
Austria-Hungary it is impossible to say now.
''It remains to be SEEM best expresses the
case. But it is plain to all the world outside
of the Teutonic alliance that peace would follow
quickly and surely the rising of the people in
central Europe to the full control of their own
affairs.
All that Bethmann-Hollweg has to comfort
him in his retirement to private life is ''a scrap
of paper" expressing the kaiser's "heavy
haart