Middletown transcript., 1915-05-29
ENCLAND'S SHAME

No, never so long as there's a single
Frenchman left on the firing line P'
Though Tommy Atkins, his great
general French and a number more,
have given accounts of themselves right
worthy the stoutest traditions of En-
glish officers and English soldiers, an
cient or modern, from Agincourt to
Khartoum, not few military experts
doubt that England in this supreme hour
has round million of men on the Con-
tinent when she rightly should have
double that number.
Certain it is, though, that during the
crucial early days of this war she coolly
permitted the Belgians and the French
to bear the brunt of that ferocious
Germanic onslaught until the scandal of
the slow enlistments of Englishmen
drew bitter criticisms from Lord Kitche-
ner, he openly sneering at the indiffer-
ence of the tennis and cricket playing
young menl
Look at the ignoble situation in En-
gland this moment. Mr.. Pinchot, just
home from months stay there, says
the people after ten months of bitter
conflict that is threatening the nations
very life, are just beginning to awake
to the fact that the country has seri-
Gus war on its hands A like peril
would not need ten days to arouse
America from Maine to California But,
we suppose, that is English phlegm of
it.
To the credit of the nobility, it must
be admitted, that they, impelled by the
proud maxim of their rank, 'noblesse
obAge" have creditably risen to meet
the grave issue, and are pouring forth
with patriotic lavish both money and
blood as becomes 1.-THE caste of We're de
We're" So, too, the very lowest
stratum of society is honorably mount
ing to keep company with these aristo-
cratic defenders of "Old England;
whereas the great middle class whose
praises we have so often heard sung in
verse and eulogized in prose as those
upon whose broad shoulders rested Sc
curely the great British Empire they,
have paid little heed to the nations cry
to her sons for help
Tens of thousands of able-bodied
young men Throughout the realm are
dawdling over polo or tennis, racing in
their shells or on the turf at Derby OF
Ascot, or in some other idle fashion
amusing themselves like that royal
manikin, George V, with his stud at
the races, Willing away the tedium OF
his kingly job-another Nero ''fiddling'
meanwhile his "Rome is burning!
What an ignoble figure-hesd this
Anticipated royal puppet makes thus
idly amusing himself at such a time
If you would realize to the full hi.
Lilliputian measurements, compare hin
for but moment with that truly rega
leader of his heroic people, King Alber
of Belgium, at the front winning war
rior scars and laurels-"a king, aye
every inch king ''
But worse still than all this, is thu
stolid national sottishness that bids al
England from it's sleek Archbishop o
Canterbury slipping his champagne, t.
its poorest laborer sucking his smal
beer, rise en- masse and overwhelm witt
protests the ministry that suggested
temperance reformation in furtheranc
of the nations defence, although it wa
shown that the drunkenness of the
workmen engaged in building and re
pairing England's warships was serious
ly interfering with their work, an
actually endangering the navy's efici
ency !
From pursy prelate to lowest dock
walloper, Englishmen refuse to sacrific
their fond ''lickker," no, not thoug
their country's safety is thereby i'm
perilled Could national pride an
patriotism sink lower than this besotte
preference of Rum to the nation
honor!
Babaric Russia at yearly cost of
thousand millions of revenue, gladl
banned vodka for the nations good; a
Frenchmen cheerfully surrendered thei
absinthe to help beloved France-bu
your Englishman of the twentieth Ger
tury, high and low, clings fondly to hi
wine glass and to his ale pot-prizin
his drunken vices above Home an
, Country