ring in the depths of the British soul as this has meant, for this has come in a time and to a people alive with social consciousness. Britain, giving its all for freedom, has taken time to ask what it means by freedom, and has adopted some new definitions. Freedom is not again to mean the liberty of the few to live in palaces and the many to live in hovels; of the many to pay with their toil for what the few consume at their ease. No, this is not Bolshevism. An ignorant peasantry might translate it into Bolshevism, but the English nation is translating it into terms of social and industrial democracy. If this be socialism, make the most of it. The Englishman, even the Englishman who a little time ago would have been called a Tory (though today he is apt to be the most liberal of his race), prefers to call it socialization. His notions about it are intensely practical. For example: HOW BRITAIN SOLVED THE MILK Before the war had even approached its climax, Britain discovered that it faced a shortage, among other things, of milk. The government guaranteed very high prices to induce production; but the sacrifice of herds, plowing up of grass lands, and deficiency of labor rendered stimulative efforts futile. There was not enough milk to go round in the old, easy way, and administration stepped in to insure first against profiteering and second that those who most needed it should have their share of the milk. Observe the results. Some months ago the British Medical Association discussed some remarkable vital statistics. It found that for the last preceding year the death rate among infants under five years old had been about one-half the rate in prewar times. It was a phenomenon beyond the comprehension of anything but common sense. The medical authorities applied that test and issued their verdict. For the first time in the modern history of Britain there had been milk enough for all the babies, and good milk. But if the adult patron of a public eating-house buys and drinks a glass of milk as a beverage, he is liable to a fine of five pounds, and the proprietor subjects himself to a like penalty. If anybody imagines that hereafter Britain will return to the customs of "the good old days," when for want of milk twice as many British babies enjoyed the privilege of dying, he is far from understanding what is going on in the English public mind today. GOUT AND HUNGER ALIKE BANISHED IN BRITAIN Britain, sending its merchant fleet through all the danger zones, transporting soldiers, munitions, supplies, keeping the blood circulating in the arteries of the commercial world, has lived month after month fairly on the brink of starvation; yet rationing has been for the greater part voluntary, accomplished through the coöperation of a willing public with patient food administration. w Never in Britain's history have so many people been amply fed; never have so few been hungry. Never, it may be added, has the population enjoyed so nearly unanimous immunity from those aristocratic digestive ailments which constitute the penalty of eating not wisely. but too well. A search warrant would hardly find a dozen respectable cases of gout in the entire Kingdom. Armies of people in Britain are for the first time wearing their old clothes, and glad to do it; other armies are for the first time wearing good clothes, and equally pleased. We have heard quite too much about the extravagances of the munitionettes who buy Astrakhan furs and impossible jewelry. After all, people associate more, and more intimately, with their clothes than with any other incident of life. To be decently clad is the first essential to self-respect. Other and more exalted tastes are presently induced. The factory girl who begins with dressing like a lady presently finds herself disposed to be a lady. And the community is making arrangements accordingly. In recognition of her services in shops and factories, in offices and on the farm, manufacturing explosives at Gretna and doing the work of tens of thousands of men just behind the firing lines in France, woman has been BRITISH IMPERIAL TROOPS IN THE STREETS OF DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the British Admiralty, is sponsor for the statement that since the beginning of the conflict the British navy has escorted overseas to and from all theaters of war some 16,000,000 men belonging to the armies of the British Empire, and the loss has been one-thousandth part of a man per hundred carried, from all causes-marine risks or enemy action. GOOD NEWS FROM THE FRONT, TO WHICH THEY MAY NOT RETURN These wounded soldiers on the steps of a London hospital have recovered sufficiently to be sent to a convalescent home, for which they are to leave in a few days given the ballot. The monarchic democracy of England has reached the goal of universal suffrage several laps ahead of America. TWO HISTORIC SESSIONS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS The organization-it can hardly be called a system-for public education in Britain is notoriously inadequate. Many people knew that before the war, and the war's shock aroused the nation to action. I have sat through two absorbingly interesting sessions of the House of Commons. One was on a day of political crisis, when some innocent souls thought Mr. Lloyd-George was in danger of being driven from power, and when, with the eyes of the world focused on Westminster, with the benches and galleries of the Commons packed, the Prime Minister in a great speech drove his enemies from the field in utter rout. The other was on the day when Mr. Fisher, Minister for Education, presented and explained in much detail an ambitious but dry-as-dust program for educational reforms. The one occasion saw a tremendously dramatic political spectacle; the other, a three hours' explanation of a complex piece of constructive legislation. Yet I am not sure that Mr. Lloyd-George's was the greater triumph. To a House of Commons that had already voted away something like a quarter of the national wealth in war appropriations, Mr. Fisher calmly made his demand for $75,000,000 to inaugurate a complete new educational organization- and was enthusiastically applauded! ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETE EDUCATIONAL SCHEMES EVER DEVISED That applause was the testimony that Britain intended to help the munition girl who aspires to be more like a lady; to help the farm boy who, while digging trenches in Flanders, has learned to see A GROUP OF WOUNDED AMERICAN SOLDIERS WHO HAVE BEEN SENT TO ENGLAND TO REGAIN THEIR HEALTH AND STRENGTH The scene is the lawn of Dartford Hospital, near London. Mrs. Walter Hines Page, wife of the former American Ambassador, is seen dispensing flowers and cheerfulness among the boys who have been sent from the front to recuperate in England. life with a wider vision than when plowing furrows in Kent. Like every other British reform, the educational act carefully utilizes the longlaid foundations, avoids unnecessary shock to tradition, saves and builds upon whatever has been found good. It has since become a law, and for its coördination of all grades from kindergarten to university, for its plans to make education compulsory, practical, and cultural; for its guarantees of the full measure of educational opportunity that every type of adolescent mind may justify, it seems fairly to justify the verdict of some educators, that it is the most complete and satisfactory educational scheme ever devised for any nation. If space would permit, a digest of this measure, which combines a scheme of universal education with new and necessary restrictions on child labor, would give an excellent idea of how the British have managed, while meeting the demands showered on them by a warring world, to find time for constructive reforms. Here in America a few people have just begun to study the amazing data about illiteracy, our 11,000,000 alien residents, use of foreign languages in great communities, and the physical degeneracy of great classes, which have been made available through the working of the universal military service act. Britain has studied its corresponding data, and has taken measures to end disgraceful conditions. Foreseeing the myriad problems of after the war, they have set up in Britain a Ministry of Reconstruction, headed by Dr. Charles Addison, which has produced a great mass of illuminating studies in existing conditions, with plans for their |