WERE IT NOT FOR THE SOBER testimony of our expert witnesses, it would seem fantastically unreal to talk of educating a soldier for peace when the drumming guns proclaim that there is no peace. First we call the Emperor Napoleon to the stand: "There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind."

War is not really hell; it is merely a hell of a teacher to men and nations unwilling, afraid, or too lazy to learn what it is all about.

This is an excellent series of lectures, and the most excellent thing about it, for the present reviewer, is the simple- conviction it fosters in him that inter-American solidarity for American purposes only is a snare and a delusion. The Americas must attain solidarity in order to help the world attain it. Hemispheric solidarity for the sake of a hemisphere alone is disservice to the hemisphere.

IT SEEMS TO US THAT THE MAJORITY statement calls for immediate entry of this country Into war. We find ourselves flatly at variance with this point of view, but not because we have any prejudice against armed force in itself. We do not hate war any more than we hate internal-combustion engines or any other instruments, which men may use for a variety of purposes.We do not wish to have war or any other instrument employed except for good purposes. In this respect we feel that we are in full agreement with the majority of the editorial board.

How are the leaders of our troops educated? Most of the future division, corps and army commanders (although a considerably smaller proportion of company and field officers) are taken directly from secondary schools during their late adolescence and cloistered during the next four years of their lives in a college where drill, tactics, rote memorization of mathematics, science and engineering subjects, and a fantastically aristocratic notion of society form a large part of their education. The percentage of the instruction in this institution which is given by its own recent graduates is incredible to any one who has ever observed the concern over faculty in-breeding evidenced by such organizations as the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

THE PUBLISHERS CLAIM THAT THIS IS A BOOK ON WORLD politics, and the author has chosen to present his materials in seeming historical form, but the product is neither a history nor a treatise on government. It is rather the expression of a faith in democracy as an instrument of world peace, progress and order.

DEMOCRACY IS POSSIBLY A MUCH concept than some of its supporters believe. It may indeed be so simple that certain of its evangelists are forced, no doubt unconsciously, to enhance its apparent complexity that they may have something sufficiently abstract and difficult of comprehension to warrant a long period of careful study and prayerful analysis. Thus they are protected from the pain of actually doing something about it.

IN A MODEST FASHION the author of this work apologizes for being neither a Public School man nor an Englishman. Considering the nature of his task and the quality of his achievement in carrying it out, he should thank God for denying him both these distinctions. Simon Bolivar, greatest of revolutionists in an era and on a continent famed for violent overturns of government, once remarked, "To judge the worth of revolutions and revolutionists, it is necessary to observe the former at close range and the latter at a considerable distance."

THE place of history of education in the professional preparation of teachers has probably never been so high as its true importance warrants, yet more time has been allotted to it than the general quality of instruction in that field has ever warranted. There are recent signs, however, that both its status and its admitted value will be improved markedly in the near future. Elsbree's The American Teacher is not the least of these signs.