Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-29
ENGLAND's CROSSROADS

| COMPROMISE and cajolery alike have
! ~ failed in England. Conscription re-
mains. While inspired publicists have In
quired, with covert sneer why the United
! states has not entered the war, serious mem
bers of England's own Cabinet have asked
the more pertinent question, why England
has not Joined, and they have answered
their own question. England cannot do her
share without conscriptlon.
The ballot act of 1850 which is still on the
statute books of the United Kingdom pro-
vides for military service on the part of
every qualified male between the ages of is
and 30 years. It is, in truth an act COM
parable to the Continental provisions which
have supplied the other begerents with
trained armies. The act is, however. sus-
pended annually by special legislation.
Should the Asduith Ministry fall, or be pre-
vailed upon by Lloyd-George TO accept uni
versal Conscrlptlon, the terms of the new
legislation would necessarily surpass in in
clusiveness the ballot act itself, because
conscription in England now must mean
more than supplying soldiers. It means the
mobilization of every item of national force.
the extension, TO the utmost, of every nation
al fibre, the summoning of every brain and
work for every hand.
The preponderant power OF England's
navy has been, up to this time, the great
obstacle to conscription. 1t has not been
possible to persuade Engllshmen that in
vason Is probability, and now. when Eng
land is compelled to send soldiers abroad it Is
stil difficult to persuade stay-at-homes that
their lives and safety are in peril The
Englishman. Complacent professional man
or surly worker does not understand that
the measure of his felicity is guaranteed
by the long years of conquest. of chicanery
of brutality and Of fnesse, OF heroism and
sacrifice which have made England the
dominating commercial Power of the world.
The average Englishman is deplorably like
the average man in this crisis. His imagi-
nation does not yet perceive that England
has a frontier, which is the Franco German
boundary. 1t is, so far. not ingratitude. but
the lack of understanding, that has made
the English fighting force and the English
munition force tragic follies in a crisis
when any folly is n crime.
The objection 10 conscription, which is
Oftenest heard in England, is that conscrlp-
tion is undemocratic and that it would en-
graft on the English body social the
menace OF military caste. In America
democrats find it hard to believe that a sys-
TEN which applies to every man. regardless
ocratic.
Since August the trades unions in Eng
land have been sending memorials to the
Cabinet, threatening general strike if con-
scripton pass the House of Commons The
menace is not universal, but the disaffec-
tion of labor in England is sufficiently
marked to deter the neutral members of
the Cabinet from acting with the conscrp-
tionists. Nor is the reason hidden thing
The speech of Lloyd-George which gave
the final tillip to his asCendent progress
was not on conscription, but on the neces-
sity of providing $4,000 additional munition
workers and on the inevitable suspension of
trades union rules and regulations until the
war is won. In short, conscription will
close its powerful hand on the workers
even before II deals with the slackers. 1t
Will send men TO the forge and TO the fac
tory before 1t sends them to the front
II cannot be out of place here 10 consider
the opportunity which presents itself to
British labor In his Glasgow speech Lloyd
George cried out You cannot haggle with an
earthquake, and beg the skilled workmen of
this country, in whose keeping are the doc
trines Of labor, 10 lift up their eyes above the
mists Of distrust and suspicion and ascend TO
the heights OF the greatest opportunity which
ever opened before their class!"
Like most of the great opportunities of
life, it is an opportunity for self sacrifice
In that word the fate of England is sealed
For the question of conscription is not for
parties nor for leaders TO solve. 1t is not
a matter Of democracy or of caste Tt is a
questions OF human beings, whether they
'an walk through the dreadful valley Of the
fear Of death and fear no evil. That is
why Americans need to study this problem
Df England and need TO pray for its issue
Like England, America may be compelled, in
the course of time. TO meet an enemy organ
zed and disciplined for conquest. We shall
be then great democratic country, almost
chaotic. In comparison with our
10 come. England is a terrible object les
son; terrible only because of the heavy price
which each days delay brings upon her
She must show us whether the freedom OF
men is incompatible with their service to
he state which leaves them free. She must
prove to us that a government can organ
lie itself, can compel the adhesion of it's
citizens, pass through terror to tri-
lmph" without the established brutality OF
nlitarism.
It is hard to think of England as disinte-
grating. The luxury Of peace, the comfort
of security, have corrupted her. but not
rretrievably. Before her lies the greatest
duty of centuries, and 1t is not unlikely that
he assumption OF that duty will prove the
electric shock which will make England her
lelf again.