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THE KING’S BUSINESS “Wishes have been expressed recently that the teachers in our schools should combat by suitable instruction the spread and deepening of national hate and pave the way for the future reconciliation of civilized nations. No opportuni ties may be permitted for such endeavors, which are inspired by the feelings of universal brotherhood and international peace-pifflë.” Dr. Hellwig in his book, in trying to account for the increase of crime, gives as one cause : “The excessive excitement of the childish imagination by the events of thé war, especially as they are depicted in trashy literature, is one of ' the brutalizing influences acting on our young people in war-time. To inoculate the children with hate would breed lust for revenge, and could only bear evil fruit.” In England the demoralizing effect of the war is seen in another way. Reynolds’ Newspaper says, “vice walks rampant in the London streets.” And says further,, “legislators spend long hours debating a remedy for the hideous, moral disease to be found everywhere.” Many of the soldiers from the col onies, demoralized by the conditions in which they find themselves in London when on furlough, are in the hospitals suffering from the most loathsome diseases. Some of ,the clergy and of the papers speak of these men who are suffering from their own causes as “victims.” Father Bernard Vaughan “writes as follows: “A poor Canadian came to me the other day and said that he could never have believed that the world was such a cesspool as he had found one side of London. Looking round, he told me that he had come to the conclusion that thé only way he could cleanse himself was by meafis of the Sacrament. As he was going to the front, he implored me to receive him into the church that day.” This quotation from Father Vaughan illustrates several things: First, how the sinner is pitied rather than blamed, second the awful moral condition resultant from the war, and third, the way in which converts to the Roman Catholic church are made. Father Vaughan goes on to tell how/in order to grant this soldier’s request, “it was necessary to obtain special faculties from Archbishop’s House. In the ordinary course,” he con tinues, “it is necessary for a convert to receive instruction, but, in order to meet the special circumtances of this man’s case, I immediately proceeded to instruct him myself. The result was that he was duly received, although the work prevented me from attending the funeral of the Duke of Norfolk.” With great naivete he continues, “Some people seem to think we plunge at them to obtain converts, and then drag them in. But before they are ready we .cannot take them in, and when they are ready we cannot keep them out.” A further quotation from Father Vaughan shows what, an intelligent Christian this Canadian was. He reports the matter thus : “ ‘Now,’ said the Canadian, when I had received him into the church, ‘if I have the misfortune to go wrong, the result of your teachings tonight will at least make me know how to go right again.’ ” In other words, if the Canadian was guilty of the grossest crimes he could go right by taking the Sacrament and then go commit the sin again. Ones officer is reported as saying, “We come home tired, and we go back exhausted.” When he was asked how this could be, he replied, “Well, • we are fed all day and run off our feet all night. People are awfully kind. They want to give us a good time, but they give us hell. No human contitu- tion yet built could stand the eating, and drinking, and dancing, and theater going that fill up every hour of our time on leave.” Father Vaughan reports further, to iise his own words: “It is not merely the demi-monde who take advantage of the khaki man come home, but it seems to me that women of
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