WAR NEWS NOT DIGESTED BY GREATER PART OF STUDENTS

Much has been said during the past year concerning the attention paid to the present European war by college students. The results obtained from a recent examination given in several colleges to test the knowledge of current history were surprising, and brought forth the following article in the Independent Magazine:

"The lamentable ignorance of this necessary minimum has been generally interpreted as indicating that our college students do not read the war news, and they have been scolded in many a chapel talk and editorial for neglect of the papers. To us, the results of this quiz seem to show that they are guilty of something far less excusable. We fear that they have been reading the war news, but have made no effort to understand it. Such diligence and complete absorption in the required studies as to prevent a student from looking at a daily, or even a weekly, would indeed be unwise, but not discouraging. But to think that students, of all people, should read day by day the narrative of the epoch-making events now occurring in Europe without knowing or caring what it meant, is most appalling, for it shows that they have not yet learned how to read. It is better not to read at all than to read without any effort at understanding, for this habit is not only a waste of time, but destructive to the intellect. These students may, indeed must, know how to read books, but reading newspapers is a different art. The first thing to learn is to skip the headlines, except as a guide as to what the topic is. The headlines of the dailies are often unreliable and sometimes intentionally misleading as to the nature of the news underneath. To compare the history of the war as, written in the headlines of certain American newspapers, with the actual course of events would be an amusing, though profitless, occupation. Second, it is impossible to understand the progress of a campaign without a map of the field of operations. Third, it must be remembered that the date and place at the head of the dispatches are often put on in the office and so cannot be relied upon to indicate the source. Fourth, nearly all the cablegrams coming to us from any part of the world are subjected to British censorship, and the wireless messages from Berlin are subjected to German censorship. Fifth, the various belligerents differ widely in the authenticity of their reports, but none of them is as prompt and candid in admitting its defeats as it is in announcing its victories. Sixth, sending out false rumors of intentions and even false news of its events is the custom of warfare.

"But making due allowance for these things, it is quite possible for anyone to gain from the news a tolerably correct idea of the course of the war. For those who cannot give the time necessary for reading critically the full dispatches day by day, the weekly periodicals provide a means for keeping well informed. There is no excuse for contemporary ignorance of one of the most tremendous periods in the world's history."