We have urged, and shall never cease to urge, in
these columns that men of family, wealth, position, and education who want to serve their country should not, unless they have special qualifications, wait about in the hope of getting a commission, but should at once join the ranks. Happily, this is now being done in a very large number of eases, and we are sure that the men who do it will never regret it. Quite apart from the satisfaction of doing their duty, they will pass six or seven months, or whatever the time may be, in work of absorbing interest. They will be permitted to see a phase of life which they could not have seen under any other conditions, and, further, they will have got in touch with the bulk of their countrymen in a way possible to few men in our highly specialized and graded society. Though many, unfor- tunately, hang back, we are glad to know that hundreds of young men are realizing this, and are recognizing that no man is too good to serve his country in the ranks. We heard only the other day of six youthful poets who had enlisted in Lord Kitchener's Second Army. They were most anxious to do their country service, but, curiously enough, it did not at first occur to them that plain enlistment was the right way. When, however, the suggestion was made to them, they at once eagerly fell in with it.
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