THE PROBLEM OF THE YOUNG MAN

The influence of any great upheaval of the normal round of life is inspiring or depressing according to the age of men. The more stable has a man's mode of living become, the more he fears to see that mode thrown out of use, usurped by newer events. So at the outbreak of war on old men falls the horror of war, on young men the need of war, and on younger men the excitement of war.

Those who are not yet of age to be eligible for commissions or for the draft feel nevertheless that they must find some service which will be worthy of their desire to serve. That impulse, to be frank, affects boys from the age of fourteen on. The old order has changed, and they seek the adventure of life in the new. As result there are many boys of seventeen who are attempting to enter the Navy, and others who are seeking in what way they may help their country, provided it be a way of excitement and romance.

A like impulse is admirable, and true to that everlasting spirit of youth, which in nations as in men leads to the accomplishment of stirring deeds, and the overleaping of the slow ways of commonsense. But in this war, which is one without romance and without chivalry, we have no resources of any kind to expend in a show of gallantry. Those boys, almost young men, who are not called on nor needed by our armies, will find the best way of helping their country in continuing the course of education they have begun, fitting themselves to be strong and honorable men.

This war is not horrible and a thing to be shunned as some old men, enwrapped in terror, would believe. Nor is it a youthful adventure, in which brave young men may aspire to the love-knots and golden spurs of knighthood. It is a hard and rather dirty business which must be carried out in the wisest way, with due attention to its quickest and complete accomplishment. It must be carried out by those who are most able to do so, by those who, having reached an age of manhood, assume the responsibility of defending the older and the younger generation. As not one of those who are of military age may shun the duty which falls on them be cause of their citizenship and their strength, so those who are not yet of military age should not strive to assume a burden they are not asked to bear.

France has summoned her boys for the defense of their native land against the impending national disaster. They have responded with the valor of men. Germany has summoned boys not so young, but still too young for the harsh work of war, that her divisions might be kept at full strength.

We do not yet need to call upon our boys nor our old men to defend the nation or to gain victory. The knowledge rests with us that should such bitter need arise, as we may trust it never will, they will come, not in the tumultuous desire for excitement, but in the strong desire for service, equally brave for war.

Until that need shall arise, it rests on those who lack two, or three or five years of the age for duty to continue to fit themselves for life that they may fill the place of those men who are taken by war, or to be ready in a more complete way to defend their country should she in a few years call again.