The appalling explosion at Halifax today will help the American people to realize that they are at war, and that such events of terror, directly or indirectly due to military movements, may indeed take place.

At this writing, the details of the disaster are not known, nor is the precise cause of it. We do not know whether or not the hand of an enemy had anything to do with it. But it is evident that the loss is terrific; that thousands must suffer as well as mourn; and that the chief sally-port of the new world's war against the Central Empires of the old world has been virtually destroyed. And whether or not they had any hand in this calamity, how fiercely our enemies will rejoice at the sorrow and destruction that have befallen us!

Governor McCall has done well to communicate to the authorities at Halifax the expression of his keenest sympathy, with the assurance that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will go to the limit in extending to the stricken people every sort of succor or assistance that is open to us. The ties between Nova Scotia and its capital and our State and city are close and warm. The consequences of the disaster, in physical suffering and very likely in hunger, must be instant and terrible. Let us start our help at once. The railway and the sea should bear it even before set of sun. Boston Transcript.