"SAVE EXCEPTIONAL CASES"

To those who had hoped for better things, the events of the past weeks have been dark ones upon the Western Front. Where yesterday the battle raged around Cambrai and far east of the Somme, the opposing armies are now aligned upon the Messines Ridge. That the tide of battle has meant a serious reversal for the Allies, no explanation or expression of hope may minimize. The Allies have been driven back and even now are struggling at a point beyond which the German hordes may possibly pour to the sea. The war has been indefinitely prolonged, and its final verdict has been pressed into an indefinite future. The most hopeful of us must stop to ponder over so dark an outlook of the world's affairs.

At such a time as this it behooves every one of us to find the way to some active support of our cause. This war has come to mean force until life seems a hell on earth and all human relations appear unbearable. To consider its all embracing terror is to shudder. To find one's proper place in its cauldron of sacrifice and suffering is to find life and death worth experiencing. The whole world is a flaming building which we must extinguish. It calls, as nothing in history has called, for the aid of every available person who believes it worth the saving.

There are those, and they number the leaders of our country and college, who believe that the young and able must remain in academic study. They coolly point out that the great need of officers can most effectively be met by a combination of R. O. T. C. training and college education. We bow to them as to wise men who can forget the enthusiasm of the moment in a cold calculation of what tomorrow may bring as well as today. But we oppose to them the pressing need for men now. The college man makes an able officer and in such a place every man should seek opportunity. But the college man is bred of the stuff that will make good in any capacity and which will soon rise to the top. Let the very young who are as yet unaffected by college training remain behind that they may prepare. But, let every man who has feil college influence over a period, of several years, no matter what his age may now be, answer the call. Those who are animated by the spirit and enthusiasm of youth and yet who have come to a mature decision, believe that the exceptional cases to those who must remain are becoming more and more numerous. The man who has passed his Junior year and still finds himself under age may well consider his obligation.

We have come to a crisis in the prosecution of the war. When a great confiagration breaks out, it is no time to train carpenters for rebuilding the devastated area. In the same way all men must discard thoughts of the future when they may turn their energies to the present. When those who are of real potential aid to their country have enlisted their lives in its service, they will have assured the future as no college training can ever do. The duty of every red-blooded man is clear. When Harvard enrolment is drained to but a spectre of its normal standing, it in some measure have been met.