Part 20 (1/2)

Another of Bok'sin an unco old wine in new bottles and the public liked it His ideas were not new; he knew there were no new ideas, but he presented his ideas in such a way that they seee public will respond more quickly to an idea than it will to a naan so to shape themselves as directly to point to the entrance of the United States into the Great War, Edward Bok set himself to formulate a policy for _The Ladies' Home Journal_

He knew that he was in an ale edition necessitated going to press fully six weeks in advance of publication, and the preparation of material fully four weeks previous to that He could not, therefore, get much closer than ten weeks to the date when his readers received the azine And he knew that events, in war ti rapidly

Late in January he went to Washi+ngton, consulted those authorities who could indicate possibilities to him better than any one else, and found, as he had suspected, that the entry of the United States into the as a practical certainty; it was only a question of tiet ready for the fray, and in the saddle and on the golf links he formulated a policy The newspapers and weeklies would send innumerable correspondents to the front, and obviously, with the necessity for going to press so far in advance, _The Journal_ could not compete with them They would depict every activity in the field There was but one logical thing for hinore the ”front” entirely, refuse all the offers of correspondents, azine, and cover fully and practically the results of the war as they would affect the woround to see what these would be, along what particular lines woo, and then went back to Washi+ngton

It was now March He conferred with the President, had his fears confirovernnosis of the situation was verified in every detail by the authorities whom he consulted _The Ladies' Ho up theto meet the problems that would confront the women; as the President said: ”Give help in the second line of defense”

A year before, Bok had opened a separate editorial office in Washi+ngton and had secured Dudley Hannon, the Washi+ngton correspondent for the _New York Sun_, as his editor-in-charge The purpose was to bring the woovernment and a closer relation with it This work had been so successful as to necessitate a force of four offices and twenty stenographers Bok now placed this Washi+ngton office on a war-basis, bringing it into close relation with every departovernment that would be connected with the war activities By this anized force on the spot, devoting full time to the preparation of war material, with Mr Hannon in daily conference with the department chiefs to secure the newest developments

Bok learned that the country's first act would be to recruit for the navy, so as to get this branch of the service into a state of preparedness He therefore secured Franklin D Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, to write an article explaining to mothers why they should let their boys volunteer for the Navy and what it would ements at the American Red Cross Headquarters for an official depart women the first steps that would be taken by the Red Cross and how they could help He secured former President William Howard Taft, as chairman of the Central Committee of the Red Cross, for the editor of this department

He cabled to Viscount Northcliffe and Ian Hay for articles shohat the English women had done at the outbreak of the war, the mistakes they had ht lines along which English women had worked and how their American sisters could adapt these methods to trans-atlantic conditions

And so it happened that when the first war issue of _The Journal_ appeared on April 20th, only three weeks after the President's declaration, it was the only es had already begun to indicate practical lines along which women could help

The editor had been told that the question of food would come to be of paramount importance; he knew that Herbert Hoover had been asked to return to America as soon as he could close his work abroad, and he cabled over to his English representative to arrange that the proposed Food Adazine and its possibilities for the furtherance of the proposed Food Administration work

The Food Adements for an authoritative depart the plans and desires of the Food Administration, and Herbert Hoover's first public declaration to the women of America as food administrator was published in _The Ladies' Home Journal_ Bok now placed all the resources of his four-color press-work at Mr

Hoover's disposal; and the Food Administration's domestic experts, in conjunction with the full culinary staff of the azine, prepared the near dishes and presented thely in full colors under the personal endorsement of Mr Hoover and the Food Administration Fro from Mr Hoover's department alone

Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo interpreted the first Liberty Loan ”drive” to the woe to women, wrote in behalf of the subsequent Loan; Bernard Baruch, as chairman of the War Industries Board, made clear the need for war-time thrift; the recalled aenious plans resorted to by German women which American woians, explained the plight of the babies and children of Belgiuazine to help So straight to the point did the Queen write, and so well did she present her case that within six h _The Ladies'

Hoht thousand cans of condensed milk, seventy-two thousand cans of pork and beans, five thousand cans of infants' prepared food, eighty thousand cans of beef soup, and nearly four thousand bushels of wheat, purchased with thethe difficulties to be surmounted, due to the advance preparation ofthat, at the best, hest authorities, could only be in the nature of surmise, the comprehensive manner in which _The Ladies'

Ho the Great War, will always reazine's most note-worthy achievements

This can be said without reserve here, since the credit is due to no single person; it was the co every step before it was taken, looking as clearly into the future as circu the most authoritative sources of information

It was in the summer of 1918 that Edward Bok received froh its department of public information, of which Lord Beaverbrook was the minister, an invitation to join a party of thirteen American editors to visit Great Britain and France The British Government, not versed in publicity methods, was anxious that selected parties of American publicists should see, personally, what Great Britain had done, and was doing in the war; and it had decided to ask a few individuals to pay personal visits to its reat aerodromes, its Great Fleet, which then lay in the Firth of Forth, and to the battle-fields It was understood that no specific obligation rested upon any member of the party to write of what he saw: he was asked simply to observe and then, with discretion, use his observations for his own guidance and infor

In fact, each member was explicitly told that much of what he would see could not be revealed either personally or in print

The party eust amid all the attendant secrecy of war conditions The steah later it turned out to be the White Star liner, _Adriatic_ Preceded by a powerful United States cruiser, flanked by destroyers, guided overhead by observation balloons, the _Adriatic_ was found to be the first shi+p in a convoy of sixteen other shi+ps with thirty thousand United States troops on board

It was a veritable Armada that stea, headed straight into the rising sun But it was a voyage of unpleasant war reminders, with life-savers carried every ht, with everyand door as if hermetically sealed so that the stuffy cabins deprived of sleep those accustomed to fresh air, with over sixty arht, with life-drills each day, with lessons as to behavior in life-boats; and with a fleet of eighteen British destroyersthe convoy upon its approach to the Irish Coast after a thirteen days' voyage of constant anxiety No one could say he travelled across the Atlantic Ocean in war days for pleasure, and no one did

Once ashore, the party began a series of inspections of munition plants, shi+p-yards, aeroplane factories and of lish War Cabinet Luncheons and dinners were the order of each day until broken by a journey to Edinburgh to see the a Great Fleet, with the addition of six of the fore s at leash, awaiting an expected dash froht, perhaps never equalled: those lines of huge,down the river for ht of the power and extent of the British Navy and its for unit

[Illustration: Where Edward Bok is happiest: in his garden]