Editorials 



325 



The interests common to Alpinists and explorers of the Arctic regions 

 receive new recognition in the fact that Mr. Macmillan has been invited 

 to give an account of his explorations at the annual dinner of the Amer- 

 ican Alpine Club. W. F. B. 



Mountaineers More than fifty of our members are now in the army 

 AND War or navy or in hospital service. Nearly as many again 



have sacrificed their business interests to devote them- 

 selves to civilian work directly related to the war. Still others, un- 

 counted numbers of them, whose names will never appear on war-ser- 

 vice records, are doubling already heavy burdens of work and respon- 

 sibility in order that home enterprises of far-reaching importance may 

 still be carried on. 



In their mountain life mountaineers gain a democratic simplicity, a 

 vigorous hardihood, that should stand them in good stead now. They 

 learn there to respect discipline, to sacrifice individual desires to the good 

 of the communal whole, to live cheerfully with little besides the three 

 B's of mountaineering — bed, boots and bread. Indispensable knowledge 

 this for a soldier. It is not surprising, therefore, to hear that high hon- 

 or already has been paid one of our new officers. A group of drafted 

 men training under him, given the opportunity to enter a reserve offi- 

 cer's training camp, declared that if they could be assured of going to 

 France and fighting with him, they would prefer to remain in the ranks. 

 This officer had learned, like the French officers, that leadership and 

 comradeship may go hand in hand. We believe that when the war is 

 over we shall be able to point with pride to more than one of our trail 

 comrades, who in his hours of recreation amid the peace and beauty of 

 our mountains has gained the strength, the self denial and the resource- 

 fulness that will make him a gallant and trusted leader in the grim bus- 

 iness of war. M. R. P. 



