[Illustration:  Post-Card sent by Private Bromley from the Prison-Camp of Soltau, Germany, in July, 1918 / The crosses mark the graves of prisoners who have died at this camp]

All these things have helped to produce a type of mind that is not moved by argument or entreaty, a national character that has shown itself capable of deeds of grave dishonesty and of revolting cruelty; which cannot be forgotten—­or allowed to go unpunished!

But if their faith in the power of force can be broken—­and it may be broken very soon—­the end of the war will come suddenly.

* * *

The people at home are interested and speculative as to the returned soldiers’ point of view.  Personally, I believe that as the soldiers went away with diversity of opinions, so will they come home, though in a less degree.  There will be a tendency to fusion in some respects.  One will be in the matter of cooeperation; the civilian’s ideas are generally those of the individual—­he brags about his rights and resents any restriction of them.  He is strong on grand old traditions, and rejoices in any special privileges which have come to him.

The soldier learns to share his comforts with the man next him; in the army each man depends on the other—­and cannot do without him:  there is no competition there, but only cooeperation.  If loss comes to one man, or misfortune, it affects the others.  If one man is poorly trained, or uncontrolled, or foolish, all suffer.  If a badly trained bomber loses his head, pulls the pin of his bomb, and lets it drop instead of throwing it, the whole platoon is endangered.  In this way the soldier unconsciously absorbs some of the principles of, and can understand the reason for, discipline, and acquires a wholesome respect for the man who knows his job.

He sees the reason for stringent orders in regard to health and sanitation.  He does not like to get into a dirty bath himself, and so he leaves it clean for the next man.  In other words, the soldier, consciously or unconsciously, has learned that he is a part of a great mass of people, and that his own safety, both commercially and socially, depends on the proper disciplining of the whole people.

The returned soldier will take kindly to projects which tend to a better equalization of duties, responsibilities, and pleasures.  He will be a great stickler for this; if he has to work, every one else must work too.  He will be hard against special privileges.  He will be strong in his insistence that our natural resources be nationalized.  He will go after all lines of industry now in the hands of large corporations, and insist on national supervision if not actual ownership.

In religion, he will not care anything about form.  Denominationalism will bore him, but the vital element of religion, brotherly love and helping the other fellow, will attract him, wherever he finds it.  He knows that religion—­he believes in it.