The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-20

Arnold Bennett in the New York Ameri-
can.
TNHERE are about LAO inhabitants in
our village. When the war began,
- and Lord Kitchener made his first
appeal on behalf of the empire, those who
frequent tea parties and places where
they sit in anguish over the general rot
tenness of Britain looked sadly out of the
curtained window and saw that no re-
cruiting whatever was going on in our
village, whereas in other villages close by
and all around recruiting was not UNI
known, was, indeed, rather brisk for
dead country. The bewailers always find
themselves thus in the very worst spot
of the realm. / have no doubt that SIM
liar people In all the other villages were
weeping the same tears. However when
our statistician came to look into the
affair, in mid-September, he discovered
that We had 70 men actually serving with
the colors.
! think there can be little doubt that
the villages of Britain. and not the towns,
are the strongholds of defense. Indeed,
the record of our village, unremarkable a
1t is, will stand comparison with that of
continental Europe. We must remember
that while on the continent man has to
be soldier whether he wants to be or
not, in our village man is soldier sim
ply because he has the martial spirit.
For every thousand persons of her total
poplation
Men.
Germany (conscription) sends to war, .S3
England voluntary sends to war;. ga
France (conscription) sends to war;. 80
Austria (estimated) (conscription) sends
10 war Observation-Disclosures? SO
Russia (conscription) sends to war;. SO
I ought to state that the above figures
are not founded upon the scare estimates
of foreign armies sent forth by interested
powers and accepted by scare mongers
In Britain. This particularly applies to.
Germany We have lately BEEN taught
(by Germany to believe that Germany
has from 100000 to 100000 men-equal
to about IL per cent of her population
with the colors. Knowing, as we do in our
village, the difference made by the alb
sence of a little over per cent of the
population. we do not swallow this tale.
In an article published in the Preussische
Jahrbuecher fortnight before the OPEN
ing OF the war, Carl Ballod, professor at
Berlin university. who should know some-
thing about the matter. said that the
German army would consist not of 3,O00-
900, as was generally supposed nor even
of 4172,000, as General Won Blume had
calculated. but of 100000 men. Four mil
lion nine hundred thousand was, therefore,
the very outside estimate. For the fore
going comparative calculation half mill
lion has been added to the very outside
estimate, making 100000.
OF our 70 defenders about fourteen have
left direct dependents behind them. This
does not mean that only IA families are
suffering loss by the absence Of bread
winners. 1t simply means that only II
families can claim against the state on
account of that loss. OF these IA cases
one man Joined on August IA. leaving a
wife and child. The marriage certificate
and birth certificate were duly forwarded
to the proper quarter on September Z, but
up to the present the wife has received not
one penny from the state. In another case
a main Joined on September 2, leaving a
wife and two children. The necessary pa
pers were furnished. and in seven weeks
only Dos was received from the state by
the wife-4s Sd a week for the keep of a
family. In third case man Joined on
September 2. leaving wife and two chill
dren. The necessary papers were fur
nished, but up to the present the wife has
been able to extract from the state an
allowance only for herself-the state ap-
pafently clinging hard to theory that
the children do not exist.
Thus in 21 per cent of the cases the
state has not managed to Keep even the
miserable bargain it originally made The