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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S year or two ago, the principals would have been arrested. If, as we say, these extravagances are opposed, one’s criticism returns with compound interest upon his own head. His patriotism is questioned and it is even insinuated that he is playing into the hands of the enemy. Under such stress, many whose opinions are just as strong are refraining from giving expression thereto, desiring not even the faintest doubt to he raised against their loyalty. Nothing in the foregoing justifies a policy of silence. Those possessing pronounced convictions regarding the matters touched upon should yield no ground at this critical juncture.” A friend in Chicago, a very prominent man in the religious life of that city, recently told us that under the patronage of women in the highest social circles in Chicago, some of them prominent Christian women, an- entertainment was given of the most questionable character for the benefit of the soldiers, where soldiers who were merely boys were allowed to come into the closest association with very scantily attired theatrical women and where the effect upon these boys could not but be ruinous in the extreme. A large part of American society has seemed to go crazy on the subject of doing anything and everything to make life pleasant for the brave young fellows who are going to the front. But certainly it is not patriotism, it is treason, to give these fine young men and boys a good time at the expense of their morals. They are not thus being fitted to fight, they are being disqualified for the highest type of soldierly conduct. The people who are doing these things are playing into the hands of the enemy more effectively than all the spies and German propagandists in the country. The Literary Digest recently had an editorial with the suggestive and important title, “ Can a League of Nations Work?” ■Any one who is thor oughly familiar with human nature and with the history o f the human race, to say nothing about being acquainted with the teachings of the Word of God, knows that a league of nations cannot work permanently. Neverthe less, there are many in our own land and across, the water who think that the only solution of our present grave difficulties is in a “ ¡League of Nations,” which will bring about a reign of universal peace and perfect righteous ness. Viscount Grey, the British ex-Foreign Minister, has brought out a pamphlet on the subject strongly favoring such a league of nations. The London Daily Chronicle summarizes the positions of the book. In its sum mary it says, “ Lord Grey is strongly convinced of the League’s necessity. War, as he points out, has developed into a ruthless and unlimited applica tion of the resources and discoveries of science to the destruction of human life, non-combatant as well as combatant. If future wars remain possible after this war is ended, another generation of scientific work, whose results cannot be confined to any one nation, will bring us within sight of the destruction of the human race. There are only two working alternatives— to stop war by establishing the permanent domination of one nation over the others, or to stop it by uniting all the nations or, at any rate, all the lead ing ones) in a peace-preserving League.” Now, doubtless Lord Grey is right when he says that “ If future wars remain possible after this war is ended, another generation of scientific work, whose results cannot be con- / C A N A League of Nations Work ?
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