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Show POT AND KETTLE Excellent is ithe motive which animates an-imates the periodical agitations anent the morals of the members of our fighting forces. There is a hardy tradition that soldiers and sailors are licentious, and neither novelists, poets nor dramatists would have it otherwise. Since Virgil sang the sack of Troy the epic and the romance have always depicted victorious soldiers as ravish-ers, ravish-ers, lechers and libertines. War stories would lose half their pep and punch if these elegant characteristics were removed from the legionaries that people the pages. And more of us get our ideas from story-books than from compiled statistics. Statistics, however, have recently shown that diseases resulting from immorality are not as prevalent in the army as among men in civil life It will, therefore, be more logical to start worrying about the morals of the soldiers now that the armistice has been signed and the armies disband. dis-band. The members will then be scattered among dissolute civilians like ourselves, and will learn all our bad habits. Or they might and quite justifiably justifi-ably decline to associate with vicious vic-ious reprobates like us until we promise pro-mise to reform. Nothing is more necessary to the effectiveness of our forces than the maintenance of high moral standards and the authorities, aided by the Y. M. C. A. and other stalwart institutions, institu-tions, are devoting ceaseless vigilance to this essential. It is therefore incumbent in-cumbent upon those of us who are not with the colors to keep our own house clean, and to avoid the scandle of standing disgraced by comparison with thosewhom we would presume to edify by pontifical attitudes and apostolic posturing. w s s |