Tur Rep Cross Society has had a large task on its 
hands with the European situation to meet, the work in 
the Chinese flooded districts and in Mexico, but consid- 
ering the obstacles that have had to be surmounted the 
work has been done well. On Sunday the Essex County 
Red Cross society made a report through Dr. Strong and 
Miss May Gladwin at a Beverly mass meeing. The ad- 
dresses were thrilling in their description of the work 
done abroad. Miss Louisa P. Loring, secretary for 
Essex County, has been indefatigable in her work for 
the society since the war began and the meeting was ar- 
ranged under her direction. The society should have 
the generous support of the public financially and mor- 
ally. 
THe Pusiic Liprary building commission appointe:l 
to build the Beverly Farms Public Library has nearly 
completed its work and soon the building will be turned 
over to the Library Commissioners. The work has been 
well done, the plans well executed and the building is a 
credit to the city and to the commission. Beverly Farms 
has long needed a library building, for the facilities pre- 
sented in the old building were inadequate to meet the 
demands of so important a centre. The new building 
will be used much more than the old. It is a wise city 
that plans its expenditures to provide adequate library 
facilities. 
PROSPERITY 18 APPARENT everywhere. In a decade 
there has not been such a demand for summer homes on 
the Shore. Most of the regular summer visitors are 
planning to open their own homes and such as are plan- 
ning trips have had no trouble in renting their property 
readily at good prices Everything points to a good 
season and a long one. Already the shore cottagers are 
beginning to open and the season is now begun. 
BEVERLY RAN‘TOUL OF SALEM and Beverly Farms has 
had an interesting experience as a volunteer ambulance 
driver. Driving on an open road under peace conditions 
and driving an ambulance over a road fired upon regulariy 
by German guns present different experiences. He well 
deserves the Croix de Guerre, for which he has been 
recommended. 
THe COMMENCEMENT SEASON is coming on rapidly. 
Many schools have already ended their work and the 
examination periods have begun. Boston University 1s 
planning a gala season, Technology will dedicate its new 
buildings and Harvard will have the yard replanted and 
the Commencement exercises will be held in the open air. 
Tut War Has Dong More for New England's 
sumer industry than it has for the motor trade or the 
munition makers. Americans are learning to see America 
first; no one has seen America who has not seen the 
North Shore. 
CAMBRIDGE BY DiLAtTory Tactics has lost the Tab- 
ernacle. But then, Billy Sunday will be more at home 
on the ball grounds, 
Tue Leacur to ENrorck Prace, which is holding its 
annual convention in the: city of Washington, has had a 
remarkable development during the past year because of 
the sane appeal which has been made. It would be folly 
to consider for a moment that any public movement 1n 
America could in any way meet the demands of the pres- 
ent war situation. ‘The nations at war alone can meet 
this problem. The League is looking far into the future 
when the war is ended and order begins to come out of 
chaos. Progress is being made slowly, but it is not un- 
reasonable to believe that before the next fifty years 
have passed some better way will have been devised to 
avoid war, settle international problems, to formulate 
international laws, to solve problems of international 
trade and to throw international diplomacy into the open. 
The league’s program is not perfect, but it is blazing a 
trail. It required many years to solve the governmental 
problem which has made a republic possible, but the re- 
publican form of government is an accomplished fact. 
The republican form of government has many faults, but 
it is an advance over monarchies or limited and constitu- 
tional monarchies. The League to Enfore Peace may be 
cbliged to change its policy, but its purpose leads for- 
ward. It is to be hoped that here is the seed, which once 
well planted will grow. 
Tue Laror TRouBLES ON THE RAILROADS do not 
seem to end. Early in the week the clerks made repre- 
sentations to the New Haven road and a strike was 
averted. On the Boston & Maine railroad the track 
workers and foremen presented a grievance which is now 
being considered. Everyone wishes labor to have its just 
rewards. ‘The unfortunate element in the situation is 
that the railroad business has been such as to make it 
impossible forthe roads to make ends meet. financially. 
The railroads have been having hard times and it is to 
be hoped that the prosperty which is apparently coming 
will tend to develop the prosperity of roads to such a 
degree as to make it possible for them to correct any in- 
justices to their employees and deal justly with their 
stockholders by the payment of a reasonable return on 
their investment. The railroads have had ten trying 
years, but there is a turn in the road and the future shou'd 
be brighter than the immediate past. 
Tuer GAsoninE War continues despite the agitation 
of news journals and the investigations of legislatures. 
The people need the fuel, the great companies have the 
supply and the public pays the bill. No real reason has 
been advanced yet to explain the abnormal increases in 
the price of gasoline. If the price of gasoline will only 
inspire some genius to discover a cheap substitute the 
rise will have not been without good results. 
WueEn Forcep By THE ‘CIRCUMSTANCES of life to 
put up with erratic self-willed people who persist in an- 
noying the work you are endeavoring to do, it will be well 
to remember that of the 275,000 feeble-minded people in 
the United States only twenty-eight thousand of them are 
confined in institutions. Someone has to put up with the 
rest of them. 
