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THE WEEK IN REVIEW

NATION-WIDE PROHIBITION IN SIGHT. The emphatic vote of 282 to 128 by which the House adopted the resolution for the submission of a prohibition constitutional amendment makes it extremely probable that, within three or four years at the farthest, the complete prohibition of the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors will be the policy of the United States. The Senate had already given the resolution the required two-thirds vote, and the differences in the form of the two resolu

tions were so trifling that their adjustment became an easy matter. What is now necessary is the ratification of the amendment by the legislatures of at least thirty-six states. Already, twenty-seven states are committed to the policy of state prohibition. It is unthinkable that the legislatures of any of these states should refuse to ratify the amendment. All that is needed, therefore, is to secure favorable action in the legislatures of nine other states and the thing is done.

A DRASTIC AMENDMENT.

The proposed amendment is so drastic in form that it leaves no loopholes for evasion if it is once ratified. It puts the lid on and shuts it tight. It forbids absolutely the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to its jurisdiction, for beverage purposes; and it gives to Congress and the several states concurrent power to enforce these provisions. One year after the ratification of the amendment is allowed before it becomes valid; this to give the breweries and distilleries time to close up, and all connected with the liquor business an opportunity to adjust their affairs. An entirely new feature of the amendment form is a clause which prescribes that the required number of legislatures shall take favorable action within seven years. Hitherto there has been no such limit. Favorable action by a legislature stood indefinitely; but unfavorable action might be reversed by any succeeding legislature.

PREMIER BORDEN'S VICTORY.

The Canadian elections resulted in an overwhelming victory for Premier Borden. In the new Parliament, which lasts for five years, the Union Government has a majority so large as to insure it against attack from any quarter or on any issue. Practically, the election was a plebiscite on the policy of conscription, for it was that, and not the personality or political affiliations of any of the candidates, which was the dominating issue. The French elements in the population, which have shown litt'e enthusiasm in volunteering for the war, bitterly opposed conscription, and rallied behind Sir Wilfred Laurier. The resu't was a drawing of sectional and racial lines, which may yet work mischief in some ways; but it leaves beyond. doubt the determination of Canada, as a whole, to see the war through to the end, at any

sacrifice. When the returns of the absent soldier vote are counted, the Unionist majority will be even larger.

THE COAL SHORTAGE.

The coal shortage is becoming increasingly a menace as the weeks go by. It was bad enough a month ago, before the cold weather. set in; but December has proved an exceptionally cold month, with the double result of increasing the demand and diminishing the supply, through the tying-up of navigation. The factories must be kept running; schoolhouses, churches, residences and shops must be heated; steamship lines and railways must have the r supplies, and to meet all of these pressing needs, under existing conditions, is no easy problem. Something can be done toward it by increased frugality on the part of the individual consumer-a measure prompted by personal interest as well as by public necessity; and the proposed curtailment of railway and street-car service, so far as it can be achieved without grave inconvenience to the public, is a wise step. The action of the United Mine Workers, in taking only a two-days' holiday in place of a week between Christmas and New Year's, is a patriotic act.

THE TEUTON-RUSSIAN TRUCE.

As officially announced from Berlin, the armistice agreement between the Bolsheviki Government in Russia and the Teutonic allies became effective at noon on December 17, and extends to January 14. Unless seven days' notice is given, it is to continue in force automatically. It extends to all the land, air and naval forces, and both parties bind themselves in the meantime not to carry on military transfers on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea. This is a feature of the agreement which the Germans are pretty certain to treat as "a scrap of paper" if it interferes with their plans. The Bolsheviki representatives are babes in the arts of diplomacy compared with the Teutons. Meanwhile the Bolsheviki government has forcibly prevented the meeting of the justelected Constituent Assembly; and in Petrograd an orgy of looting and drunkenness prevails.

"NOT INTERESTED."

The testimony which has been given before. the House Military Affairs Committee regarding war preparations is depressing to the average American, and must be humiliating to the officials directly concerned. The voluntary offers of machine gun and rifle manufacturers to rush their factories to top speed to equip the American army, before the United States went into the war, were rebuffed by the War Department; and, as late as last February, the head of the ordnance department replied curtly to such a proposal: "We're not interested." Had the Department then been "interested" it

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[From the New York Times.]

The board of education has transferred six teachers of the DeWitt Clinton High School, of whom the best that can be said is that they are imperfectly or "negatively loyal." That school, dishonoring a revered name. has been too long conspicuous as a seminary of sedition, anti-Americanism, Socialism. There, and not there alone, in many public schools, which should be a nursery of Americanism and patriotism, which should impress upon pupils, largely foreign in origin, the essential ideas of representative self-government and free democracy, which should train children to be good citizens, true to and proud of their country, the pestilential vaporings of half-baked Socialists, of preachers of disloyalty, have been constant.

The teacher's desk has been made a soap-box platform. Pacifism, opposition to the war, attacks upon the government, have prevailed. There has been a deliberate campaign of disorder; and the mutinous and violent demonstrations of so many public school pupils in the municipal campaign were only one crop of the seeds of treason sedulously scattered by teachers.

It is intolerable that the city should pay for its own demoralization, for the perversion of the children to false and fatal doctrines, for the denial and contemplated destruction of free government, for the education of traitors. It is intolerable that the schools should be turned into factories of internationalism; into annexes of Hohenzollernism; that, while our boys are fronting death for the United States, disloyalty should be a part of public education, and future citizens be taught to be enemies of their country.

It is said that the transferred teachers were not "actively disloyal." If they were not actively loyal they should have been dismissed. To allow them to carry to new districts the infection of their doubtful patriotism, of their neutrality, if they stopped at that, of their private opposition to Liberty Bonds, is to disseminate their doubtful patriotism; and is it even doubtful? The DeWitt Clinton High School has long been a notorious capital and centre of sedition. The board of education took a very mild view of the offenders. Henceforth, we are told. it will insist upon the thorough Americanization of the schools. That means the removal of teachers who are not thorough Americans.

[From the New York Herald.]

In this there is involved no question of freedom

of thought or freedom of speech, as some of the mollycoddles of patriotism would have us believe there is. If any teachers of New York's schools must speak disloyalty or think disloyalty they can go off and speak it or think it alone, in the privacy of private life. So long as they are part of the city government they must be loyal to the city. Loyalty to the city calls for loyalty to country, pure and undefiled.

PROTECT PATRIOTIC COLLECTIONS

BY J. W. CRABTREE

Secretary, N. E. A.

Teachers are patriotic. They are anxious to help our nation in this war. They see the value and the wisdom of using the school organization for this worthy purpose. The government itself has outlined too much for the children to do. Its various bureaus have mapped out work for the schools independently of each other. There has been duplication and much unnecessary work done. The government unintentionally placed an over heavy burden on the schools and teachers. An effort is being made at the present time to correct these government mistakes. An effort is being made to have all work to be done by the schools first submitted to an advisory committee of educators for approval.

The schools will continue to serve the Y. M. C. A. and the Red Cross, but what about the well-intentioned charitable organizations and individuals and the people who want to do good and who wish to do it through the schools? What about the one not so good who gains financially by using the schools under the guise of charity? Why not in every

school journal caution teachers taking hold of efforts to raise money for patriotic or other purposes, except as recommended by the superintendent, state superintendent or advisory committee at Washington, of which Dr. Hollis Godfrey is chairman? Pacifists and enemies are trying to influence the schools to discontinue all patriotic and other collections. They will succeed unless we protect the schools from those who, under the name of charity, are raising money, ninety-nine per cent. of which goes into their own pockets, and unless we reduce the patriotic coliection demands on the children by doing away with duplications and the less essential.

Is it not possible to avoid this waste of time, energy, and money and to have the schools continue to aid the government in a still more effective way by patting into force some such plan as has been suggested, that of doing only those things recommended by the advisory committee at Washington, by state, county and city superintendents?

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T. 1 Samuel ii, 12-19, 26-31, 34; Proverbs xii, 21-28. The Little Minister.

W. 1 Samuel iii, 1-13, 19, 20; iv, la; Psalms cxli. Samuel's "Vocation Day."

T. 1 Samuel iv, 1b-18; Proverbs xiii, 22-25. Eli's Untrained Sons bring Defeat to their Country.

F. Isaiah vi, 1-8; viii, 19, 20; x, 1-4; xii. Isaiah's "Vocation Day."

S. Jeremiah i, 1, 2, 6-12, 17-19; ii, 1-13. Jeremiah's “Vocation Day."

S. Ezekiel ii; iii, 10-19. Ezekiel's "Vocation Day."

23. HEROIC AGE. SAMUEL AND SAUL. M. 1 Samuel v, 1-12; vi, 2, 3a, 7-16; Psalms xlix. The Philistines Cursed for Capturing the Ark of God.

T. 1 Samuel vii; Psalms ix, 15-20. Samuel Defeats the Philistines.

W. 1 Samuel viii, 1-22; Psalms cvi, 15. Israel Unwisely Demands a King.

T. 1 Samuel ix, 1-16, 17-27; x, 1; Deuteronomy xvii, 1420. Hunting for a King.

F. 1 Samuel x, 2-13, 17-24; Psalms cxxxi. Saul Found and Anointed.

S. 1 Samuel x, 25-27; xi; Psalms lxii, 1-5. Saul Defeats the Ammonites.

S. 1 Samuel xii, 1-12; Psalms xliv. Samuel's Address at Saul's Coronation.

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The story of Samuel fits well into the month that brings celebrations of the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington. The call of Samuel and the birthdays of these modern leaders suggest the fitness of making some day in February "Vocation Day" when each individual will consider for what vocation in life he should fit himself. For this purpose we have grouped with Samuel's Call, those of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who were called to be leaders in later periods.

The selections for the first week of March are not only in chronoligical order, but appropriate to the week in which United States Presidents are inaugurated, and in which Congress closes up its important work every two years, when private citizens may have decisive influence, since Americans are themselves "Sovereign Citizens."

Those wishing to continue these readings may obtain them from Wilbur T. Crafts, 206 Pennsylvania Avenue, S. E., Washington, D. C.

T. 1 Samuel xvi, 14-23; Psalms xxiii; Isaiah xl, 9-11. David's Music Medicine for Saul's Madness.

F. Psalms lxxxix, 1-19. "I will sing of the loving kindness of the Lord."

S. Psalms lxxxix, 20-37; ix, 1-14. "I have found David, my servant."

S. Psalms lxiv; xvii. "Hide me from the secret counsel of evil-doers."

HEALTH PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION-(II) [From Report of Committee, Dr. Thomas D. Wood, chairman.]

Indications of health disorders in children for which parents should keep children at home and notify the school: Nausea or vomiting, chill, convulsions (fits), eruption (rash) of any kind, red or running eyes, sore or inflamed throat, fever, acutely swollen glands, cough, running nose, failure to eat the usual breakfast, dizziness, faintness or unusual pallor (alarming paleness of the face), any disturbing change from usual appearance or conduct of child.

The foregoing signs should be used also by teachers as a basis for excluding pupils from school for the day, or until signs have disappeared, or until the proper health officer has authorized the return of the pupil to school.

Contagious diseases, deadly enemies of children, too unpleasant for pictures.

No child should ever knowingly be exposed to a communicable disease. The older a child is before being exposed by accident to a communicable disease the less likely he is to take it. The older a child is before catching a contagious disease the less serious, on the average, it is likely to be. Protect the children from contagion!

Sneezing and coughing spread disease unless precautions are used.

Use your handkerchief to cover a sneeze or a cough.

Try to avoid sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose in front of others.

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I note a recent article published in your Journal entitled "Moving Pictures in Schools." Has not the time arrived for including the motion picture as a subject for discussion in the upper grades of grammar schools and in high schools? The drama and various other forms of art are not considered unsuitable for such purposes. The motion picture touches the lives of more people than any other art form. It is becoming more and more a family entertainment. Why should not young people learn something about the good qualities of motion pictures through discussion, in order that their tastes may be developed in the support of the better types of photo-plays? One of the valuable things about special performances of suitable films for young people is the re-action upon the production of good motion pictures. We are not going to be able to prevent people from going to see motion pictures. Therefore it is important that constructive means be devised and adopted of stimulating support of the better types.

A month ago a series of posters prepared for the National Committee for Better Films (a committee of the Nationa! Board of Review of Motion Pictures) was put on exhibition at the Hebrew Technical School for Girls, Second Avenue and 15th Street, New York City. The girls were taken by classes to look at the posters and voted upon their merits from their points of view. The teachers also conducted discussions of the question of motion pictures and the kinds of pictures which they liked. The exhibition was closed on October 19, when, upon invitation of the principal, a member of the staff of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures addressed several hundred of the students ranging from thirteen to fifteen years of age in the auditorium on the subject of motion pictures. A larger part of the half-hour occupied was given up to the asking of questions which would lead the girls to express their views regarding pictures the kind which chiefly interested them. The reasons for their interest were brought out as a basis for discussion of the question of what constituted good motion pictures. The answers to the questions as to why certain films were liked were very much to the point and while the exact term was not always used the idea was clearly expressed. Following the stimulating discussion, the speaker talked about the constructive attitude toward photo-plays and answered questions. A markedly wholesome and sane attitude toward motion pictures had been developed by their month's discussion of the subject. The students seemed to be very keen in their interest and enthusiasm.

I may add in connection with the article by Mr. Curtis, that the number of suitable films is increasing and that anyone who desires to know which may be included in a list of such photo-plays can write to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City, and obtain lists prepared from the comments noted on the ballots of

the members of the review committees of this organization. There is no charge for these lists. Cordially yours,

H. F. Sherwood.

A LOYAL SCHOOL

To the Editor of the New York Times: In the editorial columns of last Sunday's Times, appearing in an article upon the loyalty of teachers, are the following sentences: "The Teachers' Union at a meeting held in the Washington Irving High School, another centre of wild-tongued socialism, voted to give the accused teachers its 'legal, moral and financial support.' So it is the union of the teachers, of some teachers, that is, against the American Union.” I feel sure that in speaking of the Washington Irving High School as a "centre of wild-tongued socialism" you did not intend to criticise either its teachers or its students, but that you intended to censure the activities of some organizations that have been permitted by the board of education to use the school building when the school has not been in session. The distinction, however, is not clear to the minds of the reading public, and, consequently, your editorial, read as it is throughout the entire country where the Washington Irving High School is so generally known, has reflected upon the character of the teachings of a large and patriotic body of teachers.

It should be made known that responsibility for the use of school buildings by outside organizations is lodged exclusively with the board of education, which thus has absolute power to decline the use of such buildings for meetings not in positive support of the ideals of American citizenship.

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J. N. Hunt. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta: American Book Company. Cloth. 176 pp. Price, 24 cents.

The "New" Speller is always with us and presumably will be with our grandchildren's grandchildren. The spelling of the people, as a whole, has improved as greatly as has any phase of life, but it is due to the fact that we teach the non-speller much better than ever before and those born to spell well spell as well as did their kind a hundred years ago. It is not easy to explain why or how there have always been boys and girls and men and women who have never had to learn how to spell, but true it is and always was. It is equally true that without skilful training and persistent insistence most people would never spell difficult words correctly.

Fortunately we are in the midst of a new "drive" on spelling. and the Hunt "Elementary-School Speller, An Intensive Study of Common Words," is one of the most earnest attempts to achieve success in public school spelling. It plans to cover the formal work in spelling and word-study for the grades below the high school, beginning with the third. Its exercises are presented in six sections; each section is designed to cover the work of one school grade or year. The exercises are short, containing an average of six new words in each recitation assignment in the first part of the book, and eight new words in the latter part. In most cases these "new words" belong to the pupil's vernacular or to his reading vocabulary, and are new to him only so far as their written spelling is concerned. Hence, the pupil using this spelling book stants with

the advantage of having heard the words he now begins to study.

HOW CHILDREN LEARN. By Frank N. Freeman, Ph. D., University of Chicago. Boston, New York. Chicago: Houghton Miffiin Company. Cloth. 322 pp. Price, $1.60.

Professor Freeman has developed rare skill in professional bookmaking; and this, his fourth well known book, is the most scientific, the most informing of them, revealing a growth in resourcefulness which places him near the head of the group of makers of many books. The fear always is that each new member of the group will do as several of them have done, write themselves out early. hence the cause for professional gratification that Professor Freeman is still intensifying his mastery as he extends his aspiration. This is in every sense of the term a remarkable book. Its scope is the broadest; its vision is the clearest: its science is the truest; its psychology the wisest; its style the most attractive of any American work that has confined itself to this distinctive field.

The publishers continue their artistic devotion to the beauty and service of the Riverside Textbooks in Education, which is the highest praise that one can bestow.

SCIENCE AND LEARNING IN FRANCE. With a survey of opportunities for American students in French universities. The Society for American Fellowships in French Universities.

The dedication is noteworthy: "To the scholars of France, worthy custodians of their country's intellectual

greatness, this volume, prepared in a time when France has reached the heights of moral greatness, is offered with heartfelt admiration and sympathy in the name of the scholars of America."

Emeritus President of Harvard, Charles W. Eliot, introduces the book with a luminous article on "The Mind of France," and George E. Hale tells of "the intellectual inspiration of Paris" from personal knowledge.

Över a hundred distinguished men in science and in literature have united in preparing the book, and nine hundred and eighty-six scholars have signed their names as sponsors for its reliability. Two things are clearly shown in this wonderful story of French learning. First, its original research and, second, its wide scope. No college or lover of learning can afford to be without this remarkable volume.

THE LIBRARY, THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD. By J. W. Emery, Normal School, Stratford, Ontario. New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $1.25. The School Library has been taken seriously for only a little time. It would be comic, if it were not tragic, that the schools when they were exclusively bookish made no use of books.

Here is an efficient book which interlocks the libraries -public, school, and home libraries-the school and the child. It makes school work in books connect up with life use of books.

It is adequately historic and wholesomely advisory and suggestive to teachers and librarians.

SCOTT--QUENTIN_DURWARD II. Edited by Max J. Herzberg, A. B., Central High School, Newark, N. J. New York: Charles E. Merrill Company. Cloth. 764 pp. Price. 50 cents.

One of the pedagogical departures in which the Charles E. Merrill Company, in the old Maynard Merrill days, took a brilliant lead and which has per-> sisted until it is now as firmly a part of the high school curriculum as any special branch is the study of classics edited for effective use in school.

Scott's "Quentin Durward" has always been a particular favorite with young people. This fact has been taken advantage of in the editing of the book for high school pupils. An unusually large number of questions and exercises have been provided by means of which, it is hoped, the teacher will be able, if it is desired, to dispense, in whole or in part, with the use of a manual of composition for the term in which the text is read. An attempt has been made in the themes and rhetorical exercises suggested to reach every type of interest in pupils. The exercises will also provide a convenient introduction to the study of the novel as a literary form.

Price,

THE WAR-TIME TASKS OF EVERY CHURCH AND COMMUNITY. A practical manual of work for all churches during the war. 105 East Twentysecond Street, New York City: Published by The Commission on Inter-Church Federations. single copies, 10 cents; twelve copies, $1.00. America is now defending her Christian liberty by force of arms. Her dependence is in her young sons, who with noble gallantry are going to camps for training in arms. How shall parents and friends sustain them in the strength of character required by this great act and this national crisis? The government provides its chaplains and through its Commission on Training Camp Activities allows the Young Men's Christian Association in the camp, and the Recreation Association outside the camp. to serve our young men. Those are, of course, agencies of the church at large. Some camps are near great cities where many strong churches readily unite to assist; others are in rural communities utterly unequal to this demand. All the churches can join in nationwide moral service. The General War-time Commission of the Churches will unite the denominations therein.

For 2,000,000 young Christian citizen soldiers, 1,000 chaplains are wanted by the government and 3,000 Y. M. C. A secretaries are needed. France, Russia and Italy are asking us for 1,000 more. Such ab

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of a true realization of the present crisis by the church and the importance of practical suggestions for the church both as a great institution and as local units.

HISTORY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. By Cheesman A. Herrick, Ph.D., LL.D. Macmillan's Commercial Series. New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $1.30.

What best discloses the meaning and significance for the world of a race's growth and change is not yet known beyond question. The story of commerce and industry is fascinating, and is forcefully presented in this history for schools. There can be no doubt but history is always "in the making." It is also clear in these days that a nation as a whole, and not any one particular form of its life, fronts a great problem or a great struggle. This history is a fine illustration of careful and finished workmanship by the author, and equally so by the publisher.

THE SOUNDS OF SPOKEN ENGLISH WITH SPECIMEN PASSAGES. By Walter Ripman of London. New version, rewritten with many additions. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Cloth. 231 pp. Price, 90 cents, net.

The book is all that the title suggests. There are 130 pages devoted to a skilful and scientific study of sounds in spoken English. We know of nothing else at all comparable to this. Then follow twenty pages of Appendices, chief of which are devoted to the pronunciation of proper names, to the speech of children, and to Imperfect Rhymes. There are 144 pages of "Specimens of English, Spoken, Read and Recited," with Notes, and ninety pages Glossary and Index. Whoever seeks a book of this nature has here the masterpiece.

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"Elementary Economic Geography." By C. R. Dryer."Every-day Composition." By E. M. Bolenius.-"Elementary School Speller." By J. N. Hunt.-"The Science and the Art of Teaching." By D. W. LaRue. "Practical English for High Schools. By Lewis and Hosic. "New American History." By A. B. Hart.-"Second Book in English for Foreigners." By F. Houghton. York: American Book Company. "Altamirano's La Navidad en Las Montañas." With notes. By E. A. Hill and M. J. Lombard.-"American Patriotic Prose." By A. W. Long. "Das Erste Jahr Deutsch." By Schmidt and Glokke. Price, $1.20. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co.

New

Clute.

"Experimental General Science." By W. N. Price, $1.25. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Sons & Co. "Education for the Needs of Life." By I. E. Miller. Price, $1.25. New York: The Macmillan Company. "Abigail Adams and Her Times." By Laura Richards. Price, $1.35. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

"The Boys' Book of Scouts.' By P. K. Fitzhugh. Price, $1.25.-"The Book of Holidays." By J. W. McSpadden. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co.

"The Art of Teaching Arithmetic." By J. B. Thomson. Price, $1.35. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. "Examples in Magnetism." By F. E. Austin.-"How to Make High-Pressure Transformers." By F. E. Austin."How to Make Low-Pressure Transformers." By F. E. Hanover, N. H.: F. E. Austin.

Austin.

normal conditions for young men suddenly taken Since the Moving Pictures Came

away from home life might prove disastrous to their character and to their noble resolution. The camp should be made socially attractive for leisure times.

This report of the Committee on War-time Local Inter-Church Work grew out of the expressed need

it has become a custom among the thinking class of men and women to go home after the show and right away Murine their Eyes. Two drops to rest, rofresh and cleanse. Murine at Druggists, 50c. Ask MURINE EYE REMEDY CO., CHICAGO, för Book of the Eye free.

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