Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-06
CLEAR. CRISP AND CLEAN
UNCLE victims BREAK

r rADERS of the unemployed in
L, England were allowed to address
Ia the Eton school boys last week.
The significance of this is that Etoh
stands for all that is priggish' snon-
bish. conservative. tory, caste worshlp-
ing and to sane minds generally oo-
noxious. The young Englishmen rep
resent families" Their forefathers
were irresponsible predatory continent
tai land grabbers who came over with
William the Conqueror. Our Mayhower
pilgrims are mot in it, so far as ances-
try worship is compared with young
Englishmen who believe that they nave
a claim to deferential treatment from
mere men because, S42 years ago,
gang of pirates, led by the most enter
prjsing thief of his day., landed at
Hastings, overwhelmed the Saxons ana
the Angles and took possession OF Eng
land. Little was known in England
about privilege and rank and caste
until the naughty Norman" came
along and introduced ideas to some OF
which we Americans are still deferrlng.
The Norman and his feudalism were a
shock and surprise TO the Saxon. He
has had plenty of time in which to re-
cover from his shock and get over his
surprise, and he has forgotten the con-
quest because he has absorbed the con-
aueror, whose language has peeh
merged i'm English so completely that
comparatively few people realize that
in talking English they use many words
taken from the language of the Nor
man. The democratic and plebeiah
Saxon adopted from the new neighbors
far more than language. William IN
order to make Norman interests secure
and permanent, introduced the teudal
system of land tenure and of employ
ment, and the English language became
acquainted with three new words,
'landlord. ." employer" and ''employe.
That there could be lord absolute IN
possession of the free soil of England
had never been imagined-had never
been dreamed of-by the SaXons. Thelr.
Scottish rivals in the north, who de-
feated a great Norman army at Ban
noclxburn, and with consequences still
discernible in some of the better
ASPECTS of American civilization, repu-
dated feudalism and asserted indi-
vidual liberty and the rights of man,
had a tribal or patriarchal system OF
society and government which after
years of arstocratic English influence
has only partly lost its identity. This
accounts for the peaceful co-eXistence
,.n6iaaIicr,1 mart <
of Scotland. But even there the Nor
man idea still from time to time gains
ascendency over the Saxon, with which
the Celtic sympathizes. The Sassenagh
is a badly libeled character. The
traits which make the word odious to
all the Irish and many of the Scots are
not Saxon at all, but Norman.
Edward G. Victim, king and emperor,
did not allow the unemployed to hold 4
demonstration on his grounds-the
grounds that We're stolen from the
Stuarts and handed over to the Dutch
man. But the Eton boys condescended
to listen to them, said they could not
sympathise with their VieWs-that is
what their parents and masters had
ordered lnell TO SdS-duu lllel IOON
UP A COLLECTION for them, giving
them all of their pocket money.
The young fellows who are being
trained to be conservatives, prigs,
snobs and despisers of the common"
people have not yet had the heart lee
tured and drilled out of them. If the
protectors of privilege in England
would let the boys alone England would
be republic within ten years. And
when a fat Dutchman who lives in a
stolen castle and is fed by the people
who were represented by the unem'
ployed says that he does not care to
have their grounds, which he is enjoy
ing, trampled ON by their feet, we are
inclined to believe that it would not
be a serious misfortune to English
speaking civilization If the kaiser's
Uncle Victim were pensioned off and
the property he enjoys restored to its
owners.