ROUND PEGS AND SQUARE HOLES

From the two great branches of national service and from half a score of other organizations for defence the call now comes insistently for men. It is vain and contrary to the needs of the hour to point out that the demand for men might have been in part forestalled by a more vigilant or more far seeing national legislature. We cannot supply the present with the failure of the past.

It is the first impulse of young men to seek action wherever there is possibility of service with danger or excitement to give it zest. The ultimate uselessness of such early service is patent. The lessons of England, the lessons of our past, our own wisdom in the true needs of national security, all show that such hasty enlistment means in the end only weakness.

Wars are not now fought in a summer; nor can a nation readily and unthinkingly prepare itself. It must use its utmost resources, no matter how magnificent those resources are. And it must use them to the best advantage.

The nation's resources are not being used to the best advantage when men who might make good officers enlist as privates, where they serve no greater purpose than other men without the qualifications of leadership. Nor is it conservation of resources when good landsmen from the inland country volunteer for patrol boat work because they have always had a vague yearning towards the sea; and when men who can walk with equilibrium essay to fly. It does the nation small good to grow seasick for patriotism, or to wreck a delicate machine with unskilled, though ready loyalty. The nation needs sailors on the seas and aviators in the air.

It is no knight errant game we go to play. We do not make war by tourneys and by jousts while courtly ladies look on. We do not make war by tourneys and by jousts while courtly ladies look on. We must prepare ourselves in terrible earnestness for the fierce efficiency of war. Each man who is truly and wisely patriotic will fit himself for that work in which he is proficient, and accept whatever place needs his special abilities. We may not all be captains in the company. But we should prove to ourselves what we may do, then accept our duty.

The work of the hour for most of us is to learn to be good officers that we may train good privates. We should be faithful to that work, however slow, which we have to do.