The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-09-18
Sir Gilbert Parker on the War

we1l-known San franciscan:
Believe me, the Indifference of the English people has
been grossly exaggerated and cruelty misrepresented. vi
course great numbers OF people do not realize, as the peoo-
pie OF France, who have the enemy on their own SOIL, real
ize. the exact meaning and extent OF the war, and the ire
mendous issues involved. So the papers like the London
Times and the Daily Mail exaggerated the situation in
order 20 arouse all classes, and make the most apatietlc in
the most distant corner of these islands wake up. Eng
land is working now as she never worked before IN all her
history; but we have been up against a proposition as
colossal as ever faced any nation. We were unprepared
Tor it, and nothing ought to tell more in our favor than the
tact that we did not foresee and did not prepare for so
CHASTITY a crime against humanity.
only say this to you to give my feelings vent, be-
cause l have received a great many letters which have
stirred me greatly. | replied to one yesterday which was
written to me by a correspondent in Michigan, and am
sending you herewith an extract from my reply:
must make a firm protest against the wicked charge
made against the working classes of this country. Be-
lieve me, they are not more unpatriotic than any other
people in the world. They are not commanded and con-
lrolled, ~dragooncd and conscribed as the working classes
arc il other European countries, and perhaps they have
not the same national ambitions, since they have been
brought up with the idea of fulfilling themselves rather
than upbuilding a state; but since this war began, they
have contributed enormously in numbers to the three mil
lions and a quarter of soldiers who have voluntarily en-
listed to serve king and country. If they have not made
the same vocal demonstration as have people in other
countries at war, it is only because they have not been in
cited SO to do, and because it is not on the whole their ma
ture SO to do. Also it is in some degree caused by the
fact that the true and deep significance of the whole bust
ness does not sink swiftly into the minds of people who
a insular, separate and have always been considered safe
DCtIlu ucD " VI Sod. IIdl tlCy Tx dlC, luC
battlefields of France and Belgium have disproved. They
are recruiting now in enormous numbers and will recruit
more and more as the staggering necessity gets into their
minds. But please remember that in a country like Eng
land, where the individual is supreme, where all action is
OF its own vohtion, and not the will of the state, that he
must first understand and be convinced before he conse-
crates his endeavor and his life. Believe me, in the over
whelming majority of the homes of England conviction is
n wv encamped. There is no more degeneracy in Glasgow
VI ondon than there is III Pittsburg or New York. have
read the grossest lbels in American newspapers on So
called British apathy and lack of patriotism. There is a
percentage of SlaCkerS and of non patriots; so there was in
the civil war of the United States among the peace loving
people, and it was only CONSUMPTION that produced the
army which finally ended with the surrender at Appomat-
tOX.
have not seen the articles in the Century for June,
but will get it at once. 1t is wonderful how France inn
presses everybody who goes there, but it must be remem-
ocrc1 that all the men of France are in the field, and all
the men of England can not be in the field until we have
sufficient equipment, and how could we have sufficient
equipment when our army was organized upon a basis of
100000 men? 10 have got an army of three million men
and organized for three million men in a year is a stu
pendOus piece OF work, and if the equipment is not com
plete, we'll, no nation on earth could have produced ade-
qtate equipment for so many men in that time. Also the
war is carried on within French territory, and the terrible
significance of it is t brought home to a most impression
able people but the records of this war will show, before
we have finished, that the people of this island are what
tlicir fathers were, who broke Napoleon's power.
The government is now engaged in the construction
Of 4O5 miles OF good roads in thirteen states under the new
law by which the government superintends the road con
str:ltuOn while the states and counties pay two-thirds of