value. The scarcity of labor is seriously affecting American industry, and it seems not unlikely that here, as in France and England, women must replace men in many lines of work. Already women have been used in this country in many occupations usually regarded as the exclusive province of men, and the report of the Merchants' Association summarizes the experience of manufacturers who have so employed them.

It is found that women are as efficient as or more so than men in many kinds of labor. They are peculiarly capable at anything which requires dexterity of hand, mind, or eye. On the other hand, they are less efficient on work which calls for mechanical ability, control over other people, particularly men, or-as one would suspect-physical endurance. Yet many women do light machine work very well and they make excellent bookkeepers, timekeepers, and assemblers. The always puzzling question of women's wages and the question of equal pay for equal work will naturally cause much trouble, in case this source of supply is pressed into our factories. The substitution of woman labor for men will necessitate radical changes in organization, such as the appointment of female superintendents, provision for rest periods and lunch rooms, and certain innovations to comply with many state laws concerning factory conditions. Many changes in equipment must be made, such as conveyors for heavy parts, protection from accidents due to women's style of dress, proper rest rooms, and separate entrances. But employers must not assume that there is a great surplus of women workers, especially for factory work; the fact that many will probably be taken from other factories will seriously disarrange the employment situation in other industries. High wages, however, will probably attract many women to war work as it is attracting men.

principle of the separation of Church and State. Since such grants are made to all denominations, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, any attempt at ending the abuse can hardly be regarded as an attack on any particular faith. Yet such attempts always inspire the bitterest hostility. Perhaps the one single act of Mayor Mitchel in New York that aroused the strongest feeling was his insistence on the right to investigate charitable institutions that received public money and his refusal to make grants to institutions that did not maintain the proper standards. In the convention which is now revising the constitution of Massachusetts this "anti-aid" amendment, has caused more trouble than any other question. It seems impossible to touch, even remotely, upon any matter involving religion without immediately starting a flow of intemperate language and arousing most un-Christianlike recrimination. Yet the discussion in Massachusetts for the most part reached a high plane. There is a popular impression that Roman Catholics are most active in fighting proposals to eliminate sectarianism from education and charity. Yet 75 per cent. of the Catholic members of this convention voted for the "anti-aid" amendment. They were the most vigorous of all in supporting it, both in the convention and in the public discussion that followed. It was due largely to their activities that the amendment passed the convention by the huge majority of 275 to 25.

The section in question provides that "no public funds shall be appropriated for privately controlled institutions, colleges, or hospitals." It was submitted separately to the voters at the recent elections. High dignitaries in both the Protestant and Catholic churches opposed it vehemently and called upon their followers to defeat it, but the voters swept aside these ecclesiastical appeals like so much chaff and adopted the amendment by an overwhelming vote. Even the city of Boston, a stronghold of Catholicism, gave this new regulation a great majority. This genuinely American principle, therefore, is now permanently fixed in the constitution of this great commonwealth. It is a wholesome thing not only for the State but for the Church. Religion flourishes in the United States and accomplishes its great purposes mainly owing to the fact that it is separated from the State. Any attempt to bring State and Church together

will merely reproduce all the religious and clerical troubles that have in the past distracted most European countries.

What the Universities are Losing and

T

ance.

Gaining by the War

HOUGH American colleges and universities are losing in certain definite. ways as a result of the war, they are gaining in others. The losses are all material, whereas the benefits may be regarded as spiritual. Plenty of figures are now available that show the great falling off in attendThere are now about 20 per cent. fewer young men attending our higher institutions than last year. At first it might seem that hard times, the increasing cost of living, and great war taxes had something to do with this falling off, but the fact that attendance shows a material increase at the women's colleges rather disposes of this explanation. No, the fact remains that at least one college man in every four is rendering some military service. Yale's service flag contains almost 1,400 stars --all representing members of the student body or the faculty who are enrolled in the war, while 235 members of the Harvard faculty alone have dropped their professorial activities for the camp. The financial losses many institutions are suffering will last for a considerable period, since a small freshman class this year means a small sophomore class next and

so on.

Yet the universities are not complaining. In fact, most have found that the war is conferring inestimable benefits of another kind. The present generation of students presents an encouraging contrast with those who have gone before, and college atmosphere has taken on a new seriousness and a real devotion to work. Thus the gain from the present tragedy is chiefly in matters that concern discipline. Problems which have vexed the trustees for years, and which have seemed unsolvable in times of easy-going peace, have practically vanished under the sobering influence of war. There has been a great decrease in drinking, in generally riotous behavior, and an increasing interest in the business immediately at handthat of honest preparation for life in the new world which is forming. The fact that the Government is depending so extensively upon our educational plant for indispensable war work has given the colleges a new self-respect,

and a new knowledge of their value. This in itself may have something to do in creating this new type of college man.

D

Canada Also Building Ships

ESPITE the Province of Quebec, Canada is still loyally doing her part in the war. The Victory Loan of $350,000,000 has had almost as great a success as have the Liberty Loans in this country. Canada is also increasing her shipbuilding facilities, and in such cities as Vancouver, Toronto, Kingston, Montreal, and Halifax, the shipyards are as busy as they are in Maine or on our own Pacific Coast. Old yards, which have been practically abandoned for years, have been reopened, modernized, and manufacturers are giving up their regular business to engage in this new enterprise. At present Canada has under construction seventyfour steel vessels and a large number of wooden ships.

Though the new impetus in shipbuilding has not gained the same force in Canada as in this country, there seems every likelihood that the Dominion will make substantial contributions to that immense Anglo-American fleet which will render futile the efforts of the German submarines. Like the United States, Canada is also looking to the future, and is laying the foundation of a maritime industry that is expected to last long after the war.

Moral Conditions Around Training Camps

A

TYPE of sensational report to which the American people might as well accustom themselves is the tendency to spread alarmist rumors concerning moral conditions surrounding training camps. Inasmuch as the wildest stories are already circulated concerning the extent to which young women are being preyed upon by the soldiers who are commonly regarded as their protectors and defenders, the recent report of the Children's Bureau has a particular value. Naturally there is no subject which has a greater interest for the Bureau which is so capably presided over by Miss Julia C. Lathrop, and, when so many hysterical women are circulating reports of this kind, it is refreshing to have Miss Lathrop's sane analysis of the situation.

The same stories were widely published concerning the training camps in England. Yet

the investigation conducted by the Children's Bureau discloses that there were actually fewer illegitimate births in England and Wales in 1916 than in 1913. There was only an infinitesimal increase in the rate-it was 4.3 in 1913 and only 4.8 in 1916.

"Absolutely no foundation," says Miss Lathrop, "could be found in any one of the three towns for the statements made about the girls there." "It was a case of rumors added to rumors equalling facts," was the report made by one investigator who was assigned to run down these reports. No one is so absurd as to insist that the assembling of thousands of young men in cantonments does not present a problem of this sort. But the intelligent thing to do is to take safeguards, not to spread wild statements. The War Department is keenly alive to the situation and there is every likelihood that it will succeed, at least as well as England has, in dealing with it.

P

Patriotic New York Hotels

ROBABLY the last place in which one would look for a successful campaign of food economy is the hotel district of New York City. Yet these headquarters of extravagance, according to the Food Administration, are furnishing an example to all the homes and restaurants in the country. Should all American hotels and restaurants follow the example of New York's gilded palaces, they could furnish several shiploads of wheat and meat a week to our own armies and our Allies.

Many a weary frequenter at hotels has wondered precisely what these wheatless and meatless days have been accomplishing. The experience of the great New York establishments furnishes the answer. They are saving a thousand tons of wheat and a thousand tons of meat every seven days. Just take the latter item, which amounts to 2,000,000 pounds. At the rate of a pound of meat a day per soldier, the small privations to which the gay New York public subjects itself are furnishing the meat ration for two days per week of an army of one million soldiers-the number we hope to have in France next summer. At the same time these same reckless and expensive eaters are saving two million pounds of wheat a week. At the time these statistics were compiled, reports from only the largest New York hotels had been received;

enough information had been obtained, however, to show the great success of wheatless and meatless days, as well as of the generally careful policy that obtains conserving of foods.

F

New Way to Finance Business

OR the manufacturer, the merchant, and every other business man in the United States who buys or sells goods, there is now open a way to increase the efficiency of his business. It is provided in the Federal Reserve Act as now amended. In the past, when the merchant bought from the manufacturer, he either paid cash, taking the discount offered, or took advantage of the time allowed in which to make payment. That was the "open account" method, and the seller had to make allowance in his price for some accounts that were paid only after long delay.

Under the Federal Reserve Law there is provided a new way for doing business by which the financing of such transactions can be placed on the banks, whose function it is to finance business. When goods are received, if the purchaser does not wish to pay cash, he simply signs a time draft sent by the seller. This is in effect a note falling due on a certain date; it is furthermore an acknowledgment of receipt of the goods and of the validity of the debt. It puts the transaction on a business basis, and is known as an "acceptance." seller, by endorsing this acceptance, can discount it at the banks at a lower rate of discount than any other commercial paper. This method of financing business has been in use in Europe for many years. It has been growing rapidly here since the machinery for it was established.

T

"Germany's Plots Exposed"

The

HE editors regret that it has been impossible to publish Mr. Rathom's first article in the January number of the WORLD'S WORK, as they had expected to do.

Ordinarily the change in a schedule of an article from one month to another would call for no editorial explanation, but Mr. Rathom's article having been announced extensively, the editors wish to apologize to the readers of the WORLD'S WORK for their inability to meet the schedule which they had set for themselves and had announced to the public.

T IS a simple matter to lay down rules. for investment, but an exceedingly difficult matter to follow them sensibly and rationally." This is the view of Mr.

Waldo Newcomer, president of the National Exchange Bank of Baltimore, and vice-president of the Atlantic Coast Line Company, which company owns a large amount of the stock of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which in turn owns 51 per cent. of the capital stock of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

"In making investments," Mr. Newcomer said, "the chief things to be considered are safety of principal, rate of investment return, regularity of interest payment, and marketability. This order of their enumeration is entirely without reference to order of importance, for the relative importance of these considerations varies according to circumstances. If a person is dependent on a small salary and is investing out of small savings, safety of principal must outweigh everything else.

If such a person is not really dependent on the income from the securities, but is regarding it purely as a savings fund, he can disregard the regularity of interest, and endeavor to secure a slightly greater return in the long run. He is also not particularly concerned with marketability.

"If the purchaser is entirely dependent on an income from an investment, as in the case of a widow of small means investing the proceeds of her late husband's life insurance, it becomes of great importance that the interest should come in regularly, and it may be that in order to receive an adequate return she will have to take some slight risk of the principal being always safe in the full amount. A man of wealth can frequently take a 'flyer' for a moderate amount, feeling that the high interest return justifies a certain speculative

chance in the principal where he would not be seriously hurt if he should lose it. The widow should not take such a chance.

"In investing for a banking institution, or when investing funds belonging to an individual who is likely to have sudden demands. upon him for considerable amounts of money, it is frequently necessary to place the question of marketability somewhat higher in the list than the other considerations. Thus it is seen that the weight which should be given to the different points varies with the circumstances surrounding the investment. The individual should be sure he understands his own requirements before he invests.

"Now, as I remarked at the outset, it is difficult to follow the principles laid down. Assume for a moment that one has determined that he is going to require, first, absolute safety of principal; second, regularity of interest return; third, marketability, and pay very little attention to the amount of interest return. It now becomes the duty of the investor to satisfy himself that the principal is absolutely safe. How is he to do that? Outside of such extremely standard things as government bonds and municipals of the highest class, is there any way on earth that a man can be sure the principal is safe over a long period of years?

66

'A little consideration along this line will surely show that none of the principles outlined above can be absolutely and positively settled by any one short of an expert, and frequently not by him. Under the best circumstances, the real worth of an investment, I believe, is determined to a great extent by two elements-hard common sense on the part of the investor, a quality which is possessed by comparatively few; and secondly, by luck, which fails to strike a great many in an acceptable manner."

GEN. SIR JULIAN BYNG

Ο

IN THIS side of the Atlantic the name of General Byng first reached the public in the afternoon of November 21, 1917, when the papers announced he was in command of the Third British Army, which in the Battle of the Tanks was driving a hole in the German line in front of Cambrai. Whether or not he devised the tank-led attack without artillery, at any rate he carried it out to a brilliant success, and the people here and in every Allied country were immediately interested in a general of such a vigorous name and actions to match.

In the British Army he was pretty well known before this exploit. Like most of the other British Generals he was an officer of long standing in the old British Army. He had been in the army thirty years when he landed in Belgium in October, 1914, as commander of the Third Cavalry Division. Along with the Seventh Cavalry Division under General Rawlinson he covered the Belgian retreat from Antwerp to Ypres.

Byng's Third Division was part of Allenby's cavalry that held the southern half of the salient during the First Battle of Ypres. In May of 1915 General Byng succeeded General Allenby (now in Palestine) in command of the Cavalry Corps and in this position fought through the second battle of Ypres. In the summer of 1915 he was given the Ninth Corps at the Dardanelles, where he stayed until the expedition was withdrawn. In February, 1916 he came back to France and a few weeks before the battle of the Somme opened he was given command of the Canadian Corps, which then formed part of Sir Hubert Gough's Fifth Army, and which figured continuously in the desperate fighting on Thiepval Ridge. In the fall of 1916 General Byng and the Canadians were moved north to the neighborhood of Vimy Ridge as part of the Third Army under General Horne. It was Byng's Canadian Corps that took Vimy.

GEN. SIR HENRY HORNE

W

HILE the battle of the Somme was still in progress Sir Henry Horne, then commander of the Fifteenth Corps of the British Army, was given command of the First Army. His headquarters were in an unpretentious house in a French village a very little way from the front lines opposite Lens and opposite Vimy Ridge. The Canadians moved up to this general area from the Somme about the same time. Six months later the Canadians under General Horne's direction went over Vimy Ridge and into the suburb of Lens. The Canadians-one of their corps commanders being the recently become famous General Byng-were a part of General Horne's first army which was the left of the British attack in what was known as the Battle of Arras.

The commander of the First British Army is a Scotchman from Caithness, fifty-seven years old, the son of a soldier schooled for a soldier's career, and he has been in active service, including the South African War, for twenty-eight of his fifty-seven years. He landed in France in August, 1914, with the first British Expeditionary Force as brigadiergeneral in command of artillery of the First Corps under Sir Douglas Haig. He like the rest retreated from Mons to the Marne, then advanced to the Aisne, and fought there until transferred to Flanders, where he took part in the desperate first battle of Ypres. Next spring he commanded the Second Division in the first British offensive at Neuve Chapelle.

From November, 1915, to April, 1916, General Horne was away from the western front, part of the time with Lord Kitchener on his trip to Gallipoli, and later in command of the Fifteenth Corps in Egypt which he brought back to France to enter the Battle of the Somme. There his corps, serving as part of the Fourth Army under Sir Henry Rawlinson, captured Fricourt, Mametz, helped in taking Contalmaison and Bazentin le Petit, and on September 15th triumphantly entered Flers.

In command of the artillery of a corps on the retreat from Mons, at the Marne and the Aisne, in command of a Division at Neuve Chapelle and Loos, a corps commander at the Somme, and commander of an army at Vimy Ridge and Arras is the best criterion of the rather silent Scotch artillery general who now commands the British First Army.