down at night and get up in the morning. We are safe at home while others go down into the valley of the shadow to fight for us. The least we can do is to keep blazing the fires of courage and determination so that the light may flame across the sea into the very trenches.

To whine, to quarrel, to nag, to think in terms of selfishness, is not only to confess a yellow streak as broad as the Sahara, but it is a deliberate betrayal of the fighting forces for we fail them in faith.

This is the trying time for America, the irritating hour of preparation. Grief has not yet come to us in full agony, glory is not our portion for a while, and out of the sheer sweat and drudgery of getting ready to fight, a vast peevishness is in danger of possessing us. Trains are not running on time, this business is hurt or that business destroyed, the fuel situation is intolerable, some days are wheatless, and others meatless-how infinitely small these things are when considered in relation to the tragedy that menaces the world. Think of Belgium, Poland, Serbia and France, and come to the realization that unless we win this war their fate may be our own.

If I have spoken critically it is because I feel passionately. America must be thrilled into unity and projectile force, for only by standing together, without thought of party, race, creed or ancient prejudice, can we cry a message across the sea that shall shake the insolence of those who now find hope in our confusions.

In the preparation for war, there have been failures, neglects and inefficiencies, but as a whole, the great task has been greatly discharged, and in the record that has been made every true American has ground for faith and pride.

The Navy, our first line of defense, has leaped from a personnel of 83,000 to a fighting strength of 350,000. Over one thousand war vessels are in commission, 700 privately owned vessels have been purchased and chartered, and 950 vessels are being built. Our fleets patrol the ocean lanes in domestic and foreign waters, our destroyers are taking part in hunting down the submarine, and today, the Navy of the United States stands recognized

as a mighty force upon which full dependence can be placed. When it is remembered that for five years the Navy was shamed and derided, and that the man at its head was attacked as few men have been attacked, the full unfairness of partisan criticism can be appreciated by honest men. If I single out Josephus Daniels for particular mention, it is because the nation owes an apology to this faithful official whose courage has been vindicated by the results that he has achieved.

Within the year, the Army of the United States has grown from 9,000 officers and 200,000 men to 123,801 officers and 1,528,924 men. From thousands of factories, reorganized for war purposes, are pouring steady streams of what allied experts pronounce to be the "best" rifle, the "best" machine gun and the "best" motor truck.

Shipbuilding, an abandoned craft, had to be revived, but today the two billion programme is well under way, and there is every reason to believe that fundamental necessity of tonnage will be met fully.

It is assumed by many that there is a lack of enthusiasm for this war, and that the country is in the grip of a mysterious apathy for which some remedy should be found. Such as these are simply unable to distinguish between noise and action. Every call of the nation has been answered instantly and fully, and this effective acquiesence, after all, is a test of patriotism rather than mob-rioting and windowbreaking.

Almost within a month after the declaration of war, the traditional policy of America was reversed by the enactment of Selective Service Law. On June 5th, 10,000,000 men were registered, and in September, 90 days after the driving of the first nail, 32 great cities were ready for the occupancy of the selected men.

On June 15th, scarcely two months after the Presidents appearance before Congress, General Pershing and his staff arrived in France, and on July 3rd, the first division of American soldiers reached the land of Lafayette and Rochambeau. Each month has seen new thousands go across the sea. It is not simply an army that we are preparing, but an entire nation that we are putting into the fight.

Photo by Press Illustrating Service

U. S. Shipping Board Navigation is building to help win the war. tor D. L. Brown of Boston, Mass.

When one remembers the shames and scandals of 1898, a great pride may be taken in the honesty of 1918. No administrative scandal. has shamed our record, and greater proof of a people's devotion to declared ideals cannot be given than the expenditure of billions without such revelations of dishonesty as have humiliated every nation in every other war. Our satisfaction in these achievements, heightened as it may well be by the expressions of appreciation from those nations who await our aid in the great struggle, is fundamentally, however, not in the things done, but in the larger purpose for which they are done. It must not slacken our efforts in grappling with the greater tasks yet before us. It should not be diminished by the unthinking whose standards of military preparation and achievement are those of the predatory powers who have devoted the years of peace to the purposes of armed conquest.

Let us then enter the second year of war with a confidence born of achievement and sustained by high purpose. The path of peace now leads us to the fields of battle. But no purpose of conquest or revenge shall swerve us from that path, nor becloud our judgment as to the achievement of our purpose. Knowing ourselves and our cause we shall be sure footed where the lust of conquest makes irresponsible governments blind.

We shall face the issues of the future with the clear eye of a single purpose and with a full confidence born of national unity. God grant that we may see swiftly the full accomplishment of the work to which as a nation we have set our hand, and that victory may be soon and sure.

Let every man, woman and child in the United States realize that they are called to the colors as much as the soldier and the sailor.

A

REGION attracts attention either on account of its present interest or else through the fame of its past. Both features happen to be vividly combined in the whole stretch of that famous sea lane which unites the Aegean and Black Seas. The Dardanelles, the Marmora and the Bosporus are names which have forced themselves into the great history of humanity for over three thousand years. If they mean much to the inhabitants of their shores, they have still greater significance in the mind of civilized men everywhere. Upon their famous sites the weightiest problems of antiquity have been perpetuated to our very day. As we turn our thoughts to those classic spots the very soil and water become vocal in the widest sense and we realize why the region has always been so hotly contested.

It could not be otherwise for here we are at the crossing of two widely traveled roads. Between the straits of Gibraltar and the harbors of southern Russia, the most convenient line of communication lies by way of the Turkish straits. The shortest land route between the great centers of trade in Europe and India likewise passes over the straits region. In this direction the narrowness of the channel has never detained the traveler. Between Flanders and Mesopotamia the waterway was merely a short fording place. These circumstances favored the sea commerce of antiquity and of medieval days. In the future, they bid fair to benefit railway and aerial communication. The outstanding fact is that the Dardanelles-Bosporus waterway lies on the shortest line from European to Asiatic points. This fact has conferred fame on the history of the region and now singles it out with importance.

Every inch of those famous shores is hallowed by classic memories. Here was conceived one of the most notable maritime enterprises of antiquity, to wit, the Argonautic expedition which figures as the earliest attempt

of Europeans to navigate the Black Sea. This sea had then already earned its evil reputation. To the Greeks of Homer's time its coasts constituted the confines of the known world. The present day native of those parts can easily understand the terror entertained by early adventurers for he knows that the Black Sea is most often storm-tossed, particularly when the icy "bora" or north wind brings the shiver of the Russian steppe to the water. Little wonder then that the bold mariners who embarked on the good ship Argo-a mere cockleshell it must have been-were dignified with the qualities of heroes. But the venture was worth undertaking for Jason and many after him returned with valuable freight. The Golden Fleece is a mere legendary expression to indicate the wealth of natural resources of the easternmost Black Sea shores. There, in the far away Colchis, wheat and wine as well as wax and honey were found in abundance. The region was also renowned for its fine horses and cattle. To its natives the Greek navigators brought the fruits and olive oil of their native land, which they would exchange for the local products. Neither has the situation changed in our own times. Before the war the city of Novorossisk at the northeastern curve of the Black Sea was the outlet of the wheat producing great plains of Russia. Thither as well as to Odessa came the merchant vessels of foreign nations to load the food of Russia. But the road lay through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus and at the mercy of the masters of the straits.

At the fateful Black Sea outlet of the Bosporus stand the Dog Rocks or Symplegades of the ancients. They are well-worn cliffs of striking coloring which emerge at low heights out of the surrounding waters and seem purposely strewn as an obstacle to navigation. Lighthouses and buoys guide the modern mariner through their tangle, but there is no question that the place was regarded with con