The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1915-07-17
By C. K. Chesterton
The Famous English Essaylsh.


never get CONSUMPTION IL We don't get
II now" Personally. do not doubt she was
as patriotic as anybody else but what she said
was. par excellence. the essentially unpaTiotie
thing
IL is as antinatlonal as the similar sen.f
ment on the other political side" that Total
Prohibition should be enforced nov, simply be-
cause no sane people would ever dream OF ea-
forcing II at any other time. AT TINS moment
az patriot will not wish TO get Conscripuon r
TO get Teetotalism OF TO get anything else
except the better OF the Germans. Whether
ConscriptiOn will help OF hinder US In that Is
a matter for the authorities: and very diff
hcult matter even for them.
II they want Il we must give II them. not
because they are the best conceivable people
who could decide. but because they are the
only people who can decide. II We are always
whining for a man with "a genius for govern
ing" We are simply proving ourselves destitute
OF an equally noble giit-a genius Tor being
governed. II the doctor whom / have asked
20 save my life tells me he cannot save my
leg. II must be amputated. But II he enters
with a smile and large knife. and says You
will never have any amputation II you don't
have 10 now" my legs Will recover their
normal capacity either for kicking him down
stairs or for running away
Now amid all the current talk about Con-
scripuon there Is one human and historical
fact TO be remembered which millionaires OF
the hustling type do not remember simply ne.
cause they do not know. II Is always best in
emergency 10 rely upon habit. Custom does
not make people slow. u makes them quick.
People called upon suddenly to hght will fight
best IN some way that they know. as a nan
threatened with the blow OF a cudgei VIII
ward Il on with his arm and not with his
leg.
The English have done as much hghting as
any people In Europe. but they have always
done It IN a particular way OF their own. They
have always been represented by strong but
comparatively small body which, acting with
allies. has more than once turned the whole
In 81 he nnafffnm
Of the officer towards his men has not the
inhuman superiority OF the German. nor the
realistic utilitarianism Of the French.
% is. In its strength and weakness. the De-.
cuiiar English relation between the gentleman
and the man" The bond between them Is not
wilitirism. but rather sport To that relation
a certain iusuiar sense ~ freedom is quite
essential There may be snobbishness In q.
and not n little scntimentality. but avowed
and tiCketed slavery Is against rs very nature.
Sow The great Continental nations do not fell
that there is any slavery In coercion By ;he
state. and that for a very simple reason. The
peoples Who have great armies for great from.
tiers have again and again defended those
frontiers with "a universal valour which could
not be enforced. any more than u could be
purchased They have, therefore. heroic
memories % conscript armies
But the average English workman would not
understand compulsI0n n % were called compul.
si0n and ~ o. came from the correct officials Of
the State he would dislike % all the more. lie
does not care about the State. though he cares
n great neiI ABOUT INN county
To show that the point r. purely practical
being concerned with an alteration iu armies
actually In their fun activity. ] will take % az
affecting an ideal Of my own. believe that
pure democracy bel Che manifest government Tor
men ! think 10 has proved itself 500 in the
places where 30 has rooted already. Mere re-.
actl0narIes who say that dem0cracies cannot
severn or tight must explain a. best they can
the example OF modern France. where prac.
uriliy nobody is talking nonsense. simply be.
cause The whole French people does not want
any nonsense talked But 10 the British an.
t0rIties tried % turn Britain into a pure
democracy between the last German cannonade
and the NEXT one ] should think they had ken
leave Of their senses
Taken unaNarrs. with Oh her vuifaritiea and
Eenorusifiea. all her living instincts and dead
anomaIirs upon her This poor old country %
ours Dr. hgntne With such weapons as che can
handle AGAINST something whose Gins seem
scarcely human. We need an that history and
eocil. habit can give to steady us. The English
must simply BE- English. until England finds DE-.
NNrr1ncn. merely because they must be sane
ln'L this insane period has passed.