THE MILITARY CAMPS AND PATRIOTISM.

There is no one who has not felt the thrill, the horror of the European war. At first almost impossible of comprehension, we have gradually come to consider it not only a reality but a common-place. Yet at some time every American must have asked himself whether he too would give his life in case our country should ask it. If we have had near relatives and friends who have volunteered or have already fallen it may have been even harder to sit still as a mere spectator of the most tremendous and disastrous war in history.

Such patriotism as leads a man to lay down his life in defense of a cause in which he believes is deserving of all praise. But there is another patriotism which is harder to give because it has no drum beating accompaniment, because those who give their lives in its cause do not today die heroes. It is a patriotic sacrifice which is not merely the attempt to prevent an evil already done from going further, as is that of the volunteer soldier, but one which is at least a constructive beginning towards preventing the need for making such sacrifices at all. Why should not the inspiration of the present war call forth a practical patriotism on the part of the young men of the single great country not in the conflict to give at least a portion of their lives to the prevention of war itself?

In its broadest aspect the service which must be rendered is one of education, of enlightenment in self-interest. To the masses of the people the great truths that war between the civilized nations of the world is useless, that armaments are a perpetual threat of war, are still unheard.

At every point at which present education touches on the question of international relations there must be change. In the schools the successful soldier must cease to be a synonym for hero. History must be brought so as to show the true relation between military power and individual welfare. Even if his patriotism does not lead a man to devote his entire life to the real defense of his country, even to carrying the campaign of education into the more backward nations, wherever he does come into contact with the problem he must make his contribution along these lines. If we are ever to make progress we cannot begin by investing in Summer Military Camps. President Eliot has truly said that they are worse than a waste of time.