20 
LAND & WATER 
August 10, 1016 
over thirty miles, ^^■as it to save this extra amount of 
railway transport that the German staff gave up what was 
an assvued victory ? 
And ?t,'rts // not necessary, adds the author of the legend, 
to take preventive measures afiainst the Russians ? This is 
just the great point of the German strategy, for at the moment 
of discovering that the Russians had already started their 
mobilisation during the previous spring (this being the reason 
of their successful invasion of East Prussia) the German 
Staff decided to press no further their advantage in France* 
To this, again, a complete answer is given by the Battle 
of Flanders, which shows that, far from turning their 
strength against the Russians in H)I4, the Cicrmans sent 
•This is another Clfriiian logcnil. according to whicli the Russians 
had started the war, which is proved by the fact that they had started 
mobihsation in the spring. This was. however, only discovered at 
the time of the battle of tlie Marne, whence the need for the strategic 
withdrawal ! 
their first reserves to the Western front ; after their defeat 
on the Marne they were able to- constitute their corps of 
marines and volunteers. To this new and rapidly trained 
force of 6| Army Corps was gi\en the task of regaining 
the victory which had slipped from their grasp on the 
jMarne, and for more than a month these men were sacri- 
ficed on the Yser and before Yprcs in a \ain effort to 
that end. 
The legend of iqi6 will be no more lasting than that of 
1914. It may yet assist in deceiving the German public 
in whom the long duration of the war begins to awaken 
doubts, and who are beginning to wonder why their un- 
surpassably brilliant military leaders have not yet crushed 
so inferior an enemy. History, however, willnot fail to 
have the last word, and hers will be the true victory, 
even in Germany, over all ofticial legends, however 
ingenious. 
The Future and the Women 
By Lady Frances Balfour 
WE often find people wondering what changes 
will bo brought about by the war in our social 
and domestic life. It is a natural line of 
speculation, though perhaps a not ^"erJ' pro- 
ductive one. Individuals are not much altered by the 
events around them. It is notorious how soon we have 
got accustomed to a state of anxiety and of loss, to the 
" changes and chances," in everything which we have 
been accustomed to consider as the fixed stars, in our 
outlook. 
The people who cannot exist without pleasurable 
excitements have continued to promote and seek after 
them. They have given new names to the society gather- 
ings. The benefit matinees are for war charities. The 
dance is for the pleasure of young officers back from the 
front. Ostentatious display and rivalry in extravagance 
is only hiding its head till the tax gatherer is less im- , 
portmiate, and the American millionaire returns to the 
hotels of European capitals. The war has shaken 
domesticity even more than in the golden age of 
peace. The heads of the households in all classes are 
away, The footmen, the chauffeurs, the pillars of house- 
hold stability have been withdrawn, and it becomes 
more than ever a necessity to dine at the restaurant 
and end the evening with a dance. These are the same 
people who before the war filled the pleasure boat for a 
midnight excursion on the river, and watched one of 
their party, for a foolish bet, drowTi himself before their 
eyes. And, after the inquest they danced and went to 
the theatre " lest we remember." If that social group 
were in the war zone to-day they would dance, and feed 
amid the scenes of carnage as they do on the everyday 
battle field of life, for the Ethiopian changes not his 
skin, nor the leopard his spots, whatever their surround- 
ings. There is nothing in their nature to change or alter. 
They have lived for the day and its pleasures, and So 
long as any day will bring them these, they ask no more 
of its twenty-four hours. Every age has had its revellers. 
History, sacred and profane, is full of them, and neither 
war conditions, nor the exhaustion that follows war, will 
destroy either the social moth, or the sensualist. 
One real question is whether humanity after the war 
will seek more arduously after the luxury of amusement, 
or whether its ideals wiD be changed, or its means so 
limited as to prevent profusion and display. The 
standard of comfort has risen throughout the whole 
community. The love of an easy luxurious life is not 
confined to the leisured and upper classes. The fashion 
of expenditure is set by the idle rich, but it is eagerly 
followed by the professional and industrial classes, 
whenever their circumstances improve. To keep motor 
cars, and to spend on dress was quite as evident in the 
one class, as increased drunkenness, attendance at 
picture palac es, and neglect of all thrift, was in the wage- 
earners of b>oth sexes. 
The desine to put on the State — that vote-catching 
rich and indiscriminate parent, the care of the children, 
and to abandon the old self-supporting integrity of the 
home, has grown \*ith the increased prosperity of the 
industrial classes. The fruit of this State interference 
in the lowered standard of household responsibility 
has been obvious during the war. Industry has passed 
through a time of profitable labour. It has been stated 
" the war has brought the working classes a wave of 
unexampled prosperity." We know it cannot last, and 
that preparation should be made for the depression 
which will follow. So far, the women who are experienc- 
ing this " abnormal prosperity," have followed the 
example set them. The money they have earned in new 
industrial openings, or in war allowances, has gone in a 
heightened expenditure on clothes, alcohol and amuse- 
ment. It is notorious that the homes are more neglected. 
School inspection reports the children are better fed 
and clothed, but less cleanly in their persons and less 
controlled in their manners and morals. The State for 
good or for evil has taught dependence on its paternal 
interference, and it has done nothing to raise in the 
masses the sense of a community of interest, nor the 
belief that our women are the wealth and security of 
the race that must inherit the fruits of this war. 
Men in the educated and leisured classes have looked 
on women as the purveyors of their amusement and 
social elegancies. Incidentally, they have been their 
partners in creating the homes, but there has been very 
little consideration as to the atmosphere of the homs 
life. The number of children has been welcomed or 
discouraged, according to the views of the social class to 
which the parents belong. The large household, that 
" quiverful " which is holding the; enemy away from our 
ports, and is fighting wherever the banner of England 
flies, has not been found, in the centres where life is most 
luxurious and the difficulty of rearing a large family is 
least felt. Women have come out of the ordeal of 
battle better than might have been expected from their 
social or State education. By nature, and the grace 
of God, they are in themselves " true to the kindred 
points of heaven and home," and even the most utterly 
pleasure seeking have not disowned the cares of mother- 
hood. In these days when the sword has pierced so 
many hearts, it is with the agony of love, not the bitter- 
ness of shame. If the women of our country and its 
dominions are to be judged by the sons they have borne 
for this day when the test of true manhood is the ordeal 
by fire and sword, they have no need to be ashamed. 
The bitterest grief to the sohtary in the family, is that 
no son has been reared at her side to give to her country's 
cause. Many a woman has been made a widow and 
childless, but if the joy and crowns of her life were restored 
to her here, she would again send them forth to fulfil 
their high calling and vocation. The women who have 
of necessity stayed at home and seen the sons of the 
nation filling the league long battle lines, must have had 
many thoughts as to what these men will ask on their 
return, of their homes and of that society created 
by the home. Will the same old round of " babble 
and dance and wine " still satisfy ? Will the vision 
fade, the high endeavour slacken ? Will the energies 
brought into such disciplined power grow weak and 
