200 THE KING’S BUSINESS a decrease in educational efficiency caused by the fact that larger classes are necessitated because of a lack of teachers and then only part-time sessions, and scholars are leaving school at an earlier age. One authority states, “Between 150,000 and 200,000 children between the ages of 11 and 13 have been released from school to do war-time work.” This work has brought wages to the children, and the earning of large wages in this work has led to “impatience of control, unwillingness to learn how to do things in the best possible way, and a rush to amusements which have the same general tendency.” It is also said that there has been an “unsettled state of mind among the ypung, leading to a desire for adventure, for excitement, with the attendant impatience with ordinary tasks and with true discipline, accompanied by a great increase in truancy.” But not only is there this demoralization among the young, but the entire higher educational work of England is upset. Both Oxford and Cam bridge have been depleted. The best men in both universities have gone to the front. It is reported of one college in Oxford, “before the last vacation only thirteen were left as students, they' being six Orientals, two Rhodes scholars, one candidate for the ministry,” and only four others. One young man, a recent graduate of Cambridge University, is quoted as saying: “All the best men have been killed—all my friends haye been killed.” This is doubtless an over-statement, but there is a sad measure of truth in it. the letter of Rev. J. B. Cambrell, Secretary of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention, regarding the matter. Major General funston hasxseen fit to rush into print in the New York World regarding the matter, with an attempt at defense of his conduct, but the defense is more extraordinary and more unwise, if possible, than the original pffense. It is humiliating to think that a Major General in the United States Army could stoop to the methods employed by General Funston in his letter. The matter was of altogether too serious a character for any one of any judgment to attempt to be funny, but General Funston has fallen into a puerile and bullying attempt at. ridicule that is certainly unworthy of any officer in the United States Army. We hesitate to give a specimen, and yet the Christian public ought to know. In his letter General Funston imagines the Rev. J. B. Cambrell saying to himself, “Why, the idea of that obstinate little cuss not letting me do as I please, and presuming that he knows more about what soldiers like than I do; I will warm his jacket and make it just as disagreeable for him as I can!” One can hardly believe his own eyes when he sees a Major General of the United States Army condescending to this sort of public discussion. He does not s6ern to have any realization of the seriousness of the matter, nor of the Conduct becoming an officer, especially a high officer in the United States Army. General Funston tries 'to explain what he said about not wishing the men to be taught that they were “lost,” by saying that the actual case was that he “resented the implication that because a man had put on'his country’s uniform he was necessarily lost, or worse than other men.” But to any. man of ordinary intelligence the. fact that it was desired to prdach the Gospel to the soldiers We made reference in a recent number of T he K ing ’ s B usiness , to the extraordinary conduct of General Funston in regard to permission to preach the Gospel among the soldiers, on the Mexican frontier, and to A Foolish General.
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