Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-10-25
DARK DAYS.
Stead Predicts the Dire Distress
of British Empire.
PROUD NATIONS HUMILIATION.

Loss OF Commercial Prestige ~ =
The Bread Problem . Grave One.
Hunger and Want Likely to Drive
Englishmen to Disorder and Revo-
luton.
stormy times are coming for the
British empire" said William T. Stead,
the noted English journalist, to Walter
Wellman, correspondent of the Chica-
60 Record Herald, in a recent inter-
view. 'The darkest days in the his
tory Of our great people are almost
upon us. We have lost all South At
RIGA, irretrievably lost it. But that is
not the worst. 1t is question If we
can save the empire itself-if we are
not going to have revolution, famine,
civil war. God only knows what.
"You Americans are prime factor
In bringing these dark days upon our
country. You are in one way RESPONSE
BILE for the French revolution we are
living in the shadow of. No revolu-
tiOnary movement ever comes to the
explosive point until the common man
finds difficulty in getting at least two
full meals a day. Grievances there
may be. agitations, signs Of unrest,
threatened trouble. But there is safe
ty as long as the masses get their
three meals day. The difference be-
tween three meals and one meal or
one meal and hard hunt for the Sec
ond is the difference between agita-
ton and violence, between talking
about it and the use Of the gun and the
torch. That has been the psychology
of all revolutions. The empty belly
is more powerful than any sense Of
wrong or injustice.
Here is where you Americans come
In. where you are going to start the
revolutionary fires in England. Your
competition we are just beginning to
feel. 1t has not produced its full eco
nomic Or social effect as yet because II
ia in it's infancy. But wait little and
see what you shall see. Today you
could undersell us everywhere if your
manufacturers were content with small
profits. When circumstances compel
them to take small profits, they sweep
the market. and we retire. You live.
and we stGrve; you survive. we perish.
do you know what that means to
the people Of this United Kingdom?
Do you realize what it portends in a
country which has no agricultural pros
perity at the base of its industrial es-
adjustment. a country in which Is per
cent of the population lives in cities
and towns. country where already
one inhabitant of thirty-five Is pau
per, in country where of the remain
ing thirty-four at least fourteen are
dangerously near pauperism, in coun-
try where the industrial life depends
upon the steady prosperity Of manufac-
turing, mining and transportation?
Well. 1t means empty bellies among
our congested city populations.
I'm America you are self sustaining.
The ocean might become impossible,
and you would 60 on pretty much the
same. But we have a large congested
population to feed. We have bread
problem. Today our masses just man.
age to exc out the three scant meals a
day, and we have imperialism. When
America says the word with low
prices. it drops to one and one-half or
two meals day. Then we shall have
revolution.
1.-The worst Of it Is the English peo-
pie are in no fit moral condition to face
economic disaster with fortitude. The
masses have been raised too high or not
high enough. They have been enamel
pated but in the sad sense. They have
lost their moral ideals. The old Puritan
element has largely gone up the spout.
1t is to Il great extent particularly IN
the cities, new people we have now.
When the pinch of hunger comes, they
will not be surrounded by the old re-
strants. They are Il people given over
to sport, to drink. to gambling. to Jlngo-
ism. From simple, God fearing people
they have become self ndulgent. They
are pandered to by the popular press.
They are patted on the back for their
vices. Their vanity and arrogance are
added to year by year.
"Some day. when America gets ready,
we shall reap the whirlwind. Our mod
ern political leaders, our new press,
have done their best to sow the wind.
They have taught the masses of the
people that if any one stands In the way
of what they want they should 60 to
war with him and burn his house over
his head. They have borne In upon the
popular consciousness by example and
by precept the Legitimacy Of arson.
"Now, against trained troops and ma
chine guns no mob in the world can do
anything except rush to destruction.
But against the torch Of arson, darting
hither and thither in the night, oil the
armies in the world will be ineffective
in the next great revolution.
"Our English people have we'll learn
ed the responsibility of arson. 1t has
been taught them by their government.