Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-19
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trenches, and the battle and the wouna,,
But it is the people left behind, goink abom
their prosaic round of daily duties whom
Walter Weyl describes in the New Renuhl.
90:
England has made the transition from Z.
peace to war footing with q minimum n
suffering. The cost of living has risen II
or 20 per cent, and the burden is heavy
upon those who are on fixed salaries ans
those whose wages cannot be increased In
many cases, however, wages have been
raised, and in all cases employment has been
more steady. Two million men taken from
industry at time when the demand fuf
boots, clothes, guns and ships Is a maxi.
mum means that all with industrial capacity
even the semi i-empoyables-can get jobs
If they want them. The sign boy Wanted
is almost as conspicuous in London as that
othcr sign, England expects every man 10
do his duty"
The situation of working women is much
worse. These is no need for them in the
trenches, and the industries benefited by the
war have not always been those in which
women are predominant. There Is still
much unemployment among women In
many places women are taking the places Of
men, though to less extent than believe
is the case in France and Germany.
With all limitations however, it is un-
doubtedly true that on the whole the masses
of the British people feel the war but slight
ly. 1t is a prosperous war. The tobaccons
around the corner from whom l buy cga-
rettes, tells me that business was never bet.
ter, and the grocer and the butcher and
others tell me much the same story. The
real burden of the war will come ater-afts
peace has been declared.
"Up Against the Real Thing"
The present mental attitude of the thought
full Englishman is we'll presented in an art.
Gle by l.. P. Jacks in the Yale Review ~
Mr.. Jacks is professor of philosophy at OK
ford, and edits the HILBERT Journal:
1--WE are up against the real thing" This
familiar Colloquialism sums up better tnaa
any other statement | can think OF the whols
mentality of Great Britain at the presem
moment. 1t is frequently used in soldier.
letters written from the front; nave healu
1t in sermons and political speeches, In con
Versations with working men on the cars
and in the comments of distinguished PM
osophers. l do not mean that there is panls
for there Is none England Is calm resou's
and prepared. Her teeth are set ana sns
has braced herself to meet tremenaow
shock, And the need so to brace herse. "a
acted as a stimulus to every faculty OF ~
soul. We are feeling more deeply thlnklns
more clearly, willing more vigorously aa usa
we do in normal times. There Is exaltan0a
in the national mind. One can even una !,
truth In the strange remark recehty nns ss
by Mr.. Harold Begbie that England W.
hind 1t all there is the sense OF pre''A'
threat.
Another professor, J. S. Schapiro' ~, =
writes appreciatively in the Forum l0l y
England's individuallsm:
The Englishman is an inveterate lnalIss ~
ualist. During the last decade theIe "
developed among Englishmen an a lusai hs
social reconstruction which differs from L.aes IN
Socialism of Karl Marx in matter az m1
as 1t does from the State paternaillss, NV
Bismarck in spirit. This ideal. Which -Ss n-
be termed the New Individualsm, rsS1I n.
society as an organization composed q 4. 10
diYduals whose economic wen-peihs ~
be promoted by the State. The latter m,
longer a sort of referee that merely Wa Ns
the struggle and crowns the VICTOR ~
Old Individualism. on the eonlra.y, u,,.oms
State is intensely interested in the ous~g ousrSsg.
of the struggle, and busies itsell III tar .ss h
ing the handicaps of those VINO snss my hs
Bernard Shaw and II. G.. Wells "a az ~.
prophets of this new ideal Sidney anu ,osd.
trice Webb its formulators ana .a.snsa
George and Winston Churchill IT'S s.stsisfon
The enormous amount of soclal ~ dscsda
enacted in England during the pas. svoIi
largely self administered In order orde.osy ~ a
bureaucracy-is an eloquent testinousa asaong
the strength of the new movement
the rising generation of Englishneh