The Washington herald., 1915-08-29

Id1Be u uoNs
she has blundered mt the strange bust
ness and still Is cropping her way out
Of a military and Industrial chses.
There will he smother article next
Sunday in this series OF sketches OF the
backgrounds and sideIights of war.
tCopyusht. 1915. BY Mcclure Newspaper syndiata.)
Where is England asked the re.
treating Russians as they anxiously
glanced over their shoulders and watched
IN vain for their western ally to rise
from the trenches in Flanders and drag
the Germans away from the gates of
Warsaw.
What is England DOING" ask the
French. struggling desperately to hold
their long. hard-pressed line from the
Vosges to the Flemish lowlands, where
the British are holding front Of only
thirty-five or forty miles.
What is the matter with England" ?"
the English themselves are demanding of
one another-and an Englishman may
be trusted to find three faults in his own
government to every one that foreigner
may detect.
It is diffcult for critics at home and
abroad to make due allowance for Eng
lands military inexperience. But this
really is her first great war on land.
Compared with her allies and her ene-
mics. she is a mere rocky on the training
field. a raw recruit of Mars. And al
though she is not so old but she may
learn, the lesson takes time.
The stones of London.
An answer to the question which
people are asking about England in
this war may be read in the very
stones of London. Go to Paris and you
will find that the shrines of the French
capital is the tomb of the great cap
tain at the Hotel des Invalides and
that you can hardly turn around with
out seeing arches and columns OF mil
itary triumph and monuments of war
riors All France. indeed. is biv-
ouac of sculptured men at arms.
In Berlin bronze men on horseback
brandish their swards and threaten to
run you down wherever you go. So it
is with the capitals of the lesser
German States. where on every hand.
helmeted soldiers of the past mount
their pedestals.
Rome is strewn with the wreckage
of sculptured boasts of martial con-
quests and the war horse prances in
the chief piazza of nearly every ltal-
ian city Even the capital of the great
democracy of the West is Uttered with
statues of men in spurs. A stranger
to American history we'll might argue
from a visit to Washington that war
was the ruling passion of the republic,
and evidence would be correlated by
the monumental art of New York and
Boston.
But 20 to the seat of the richest and
mightiest of the worlds empires and
YOU will find that London pays a far
smaller tribute to triumphs of arms
than to victories of peace. To be sure.
there is Trafalgar square, with its Nell
son column and its lions, and at the
top of Waterloo steps rises the column
of the incompetent Duke of York. Be-
fore his commonplace house at Hyde
Park Corner the Duke of Wellington
rides Copenhagen And there is an
other equestrian statue of him down in
the city" where the Iron Duke mounts
guard over the timid Old Lady of
Threadneedle street, just in front of
the Royal Exchange. from whose steps
England proclaims her wars. But all
told, hardly a dozen soldiers in Eng
lish history. and they mostly leaders
of Indian campaigns. have received
sculptural honors in the metropolis.
London sculptures generally are ded-
icated to monarchs. statesmen, scien-
fists. and artists. or even to tinker
like John Bunyan. or to a mere story
teller like Daniel Defoe. or to a simple
singer like Chaucer. or to a cloistered
student like Charles Darwin. or to a
philanthr ropist like George Peabody.
or to a teacher and reformer like
Rowland Hill. or to a conqueror OF dis
ease like Edward Jenner, or to a war
rior against the elements. like Sir John
Franklin-all soldiers Of peace.
Though. as Webster said. England's
morning drumbeat encircles the earth
with her martial airs. you hear no
echo of it in the imperial capital. The
one military spectacle London offers
in normal times are the two cuirassed
and helmeted soldiers. who sit their
mounts motionless beside the gate of
the Horse Guards in Whitehall.
Conquerins without an Army.
The greatness Of England is a stand
ing challenge to the assumption that
nations rise and prosper by the. sword
Indeed. the four vastest empires of the
modern world-Britain. Russia, Amer
lea, China-are the least militant
.