The New
REPUBLIC
A Journal of Opinion
THE fall of Tsing-tao means that Japan holds the most important commercial center in China. It is not a mere fortress which has been taken, but the concentration point for railways which tap the richest parts of one of the great undeveloped empires of the world. The nation which controls Tsing-tao will in the end dominate the economic and consequently the political life of China. For the present, Japan holds the gateway. After the war Japan has promised to discuss with China what is to be done with it. In the meantime let there be no illusion about the nature of the conquest. By seizing not only the fortress but the railway from Tsing-tao to Tsinanfu, and, if the reports are true, the section of the Tientsin-Pukow line from Tsinanfu to Tientsin, Japan has taken possession of what is key to China's development. The question for the future is the terms on which Japan will relinquish this gigantic prize. She has sacrificed men to get it—will she abandon it without compensation? And what compensation will she ask? Will it be a clear title to South Manchuria, or will she act on the technical point raised recently that the restoration of Tsing-tao to China was promised on the condition that Germany would not resist and sacrifice Japanese lives? When the fate of four hundred million people and an economic empire are at stake, a clear statement from Japan would seem to be required.
IN the public schools of New York City there are about 18,000 women teachers. Of these about 1,300 are married. In recent years sixteen married teachers, fourteen in the elementary and two in the high schools, have either absented themselves or applied for leave of absence because they were soon to bear children. The Board of Education has refused to grant such applications. It has virtually said that New York cannot see its way to having any of its teaching done by mothers with babies. Mayor Mitchel has just taken the first step towards getting New York out of this unhappy position. He has put this question to the president of the Board of Education: "Would not a simple rule providing for leave of absence in this case for a suitable period put an end to all this discussion, and instead of working injury to the schools, be likely to do them a great deal of good?" In a remote future the mayor of some American city will probably put these questions to its board of education: "Have we not too many childless women teachers in our schools? At what age do pupils become too old to receive with profit most of their instruction from women without children?"
IN the Franco-Prussian War, as in the war of 1866, money played a minor rôle. The Prussians won at Sadowa, the Germans won at Sedan and Metz, long before any severe strain was felt upon the national finances. What happened in 1870 might also have happened in 1914. Had France been crushed by the great German drive through Belgium, had French armies surrendered and Paris capitulated, had Germany, with her second line troops holding France, been able to carry on a successful campaign against Russia, the war might conceivably have ended before Germany had suffered financially or economically. A prostrate France would have paid for her own conquest as well as for the war against Russia. But to-day these hopes of speedy conquest are gone. The French line stiffens from Alsace to the Channel; the fighting recedes from Paris to Flanders; the German armies stand on the defensive on two fronts, and the hope of a crushing blow first at France and then at Russia becomes every day fainter. The war has become a war of endurance. A war of endurance is a war of wealth, for men hold out longer than dollars. Germany has already lost about a million trained men in killed and wounded and missing, but she has millions to spare. Even though epidemics sweep through the camps and the strain upon the individual soldier increases, still the war goes on. Nor does national bankruptcy end war. A government may lose its credit, and its paper money be worth only its weight in paper, but it can fight as long as it has within in material resources. When wealth disappears, however,
