Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-01
VAR

thpleS Ol COnIeTtS 90 not even mention war
tho Cosmopolitan, for instance. Others
mako only indirect and hurried references.
McClure's has an article on submarines, and
The Worlds Work makes n special number
OF "A Manual OF National Defense" which
ignores the European war as such, and de-
votes itself to special pleading for the Ameri-
can mllltarist group, presenting it's argu-
ments, which are based on the hypothetical
possibility Of this country's being drawn into
war.
In 20 Of the general magazines which pub
fish serious articles as well as fiction, there
is n decrease of about 25 per cent. in the
total number Of war articles. Against about
40 articles each month since last September,
there are about 30 this month.
The character of the war article has
changed noticeably. Men who wrote one or
two brilliant descriptions for the October
ana November magazines seem TO have about
written themselves out. Every one is look
ing for the bizarre and unusual. since all
the obvious things have been written and
rewritten. While famous war CORRESPONDENTS
uashed OF their first brilliant Impressions.
more subtle visions were appearing to some
OF our greater artists, and now are gradually
coming into print. John Galsworthv has
written a most fragile and tender tribute to
his country's ally in "A Love Letter to
France a.:
france! Beautiful word! Beautiful landl
What a proud soul lives In that France now
Facked and tortured! Francel The Land
LOT whom, when you are hard driven. the
meart most aches! Is 1t that you are a
woman, with a caress In your ewes and your
noatlng robe. with mystery in your clear,
woman's smile, and that promise of eternal
consistency which man never offers? Is 1t
that In you we feel, as in no other land. n
presence such as in some houses makes life
assured and lovely; n presence inhabiting
Its garniture?
France! When I think of you there comes
INTO my mind the image of a lime tree, in her
spring garb of buds, delicate, breaking to
her summer dress so full, so perfumed with
honey-colored blossoms; in her autumn
robe or few golden leaves, flat on the clear
ar and trembling, trembling with each
breath of the day, and in her pale winter
nakedness-ever the same essential goddess
or a tree, perfect in form.
France! 1t Is your power to see that
soul in things" which we cali ideals, to
bring to life the truths you have seen and so
becomes the rock spiritual on which nations
stand. Because you are the living incarna-
ton of your clear, unfinching spirit, we
others love you. France! You have sloughed
or the gross and vainglorious flesh OF
nations! You are the flame in the night! In
this hour we see and know you!
Great and touching comrade! Clear, in
vincible Francel Today in your grave
chivalry you were never SO high, so desirable,
SO true 10 france ana TO humanity.
C. B. S. The incompatible
Another great Englishman, Bernard Shaw,
has been the centre of floods and torrents of
controversy ever since the publication Of his
Common Sense About the War" In the
last number of the clever new English
weekly, the New Statesman, he replies to
some especially violent individual criticism
to the effect that he has accused Sir Edward
Grey of "a policy of incredible deceit and
treachery-in fatty denying the existence of
his fighting compact with France and Rus
sla against Germany and her Austrian and
Italian allies What else could Mr.. Asquith
have done?' asks Mr.. Shaw IN his title (2):
Now it is, of course. easy for the Germans
to call this a policy of incredible deceit and
treachery, and for Professor Ramsay Muir
to echo them under the impression that he
is only reducing me to absurdity. But the
aimed at me passes over my head
and hits MIR. Asquith, because the facts as
/ have stated them are now public and adj
mitted, not to say gloried in. The defence
/ take lift a thoroughly popular stroke
of diplomacy needs defence-is that every
thing Is fair in war (this is the fundamental
objection to war;, and that an armed peace
all the strategic devices of war. in
GLIDING the laying of ambushes and the de-
not only of the foreign enemy, but
of the domestic opponents of the war.
Something had to be done, and the i'm
have done 1t according to their
lights and subject to the conditions imposed
on them by our institutions, many of which
are rotten and obsolete, and our public
opinion, much Of which is ill informed. ro-
conceited, silly and incapable OF
grasping the problems Of foreign policy. |
have not wasted time calling Mr.. Asquith
and Sir Edward Grey offensive names for
doing what / must have done myself In their
places If | were, like them, an imperialIst
of the old dynastic, power balancing type.
1 have carefully explained what / should
have done, being what | am. l have ex-
planned what the Kaiser might have done
had he understood the democratic forces
now fermenting in the world. The professor
finds me dreary and foolish, though he seems
never to read any other author. l conclude
were to tell us what they are. Why should
I have to do all the building and he all the
stone throwing?
British stolidity. or If you prefer, reserve
has long been a by-word in this country.
Will Irwin delves into the psychology of 1t
in his England, the Puzzle" adding the sub
title, Are her people GoolmoE asleep R',9G, p.
80;
crises in this war with that same impertur-
babIe spirit. Father" said a young city
man at breakfast one morning, "PYe gone
into the London Scottish" Bob" said his
father, 'its time" An elderly Englishman
was concerning himself with a regiment of
home guards. His chauffeur, a blank faced,
mechanical English servant, drove him back
from the grounds one day. Sorry, sir, but
1 must leave tomorrow" said the chauffeur
as they drew up at the door. "Im going
with the Lancers'"
How IL Feels to Be a Target
English psychology is approached from an
other point of view by Frederic Palmer who,
in Bringing the War to England ca, takes
us among the people OF HartlepooI, after the
to hear their quaint, Ineonse-