The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1916-06-08
ENCLAND'S KITCHENER
Kitchener Was England's Pose-He
Was What England Can Never Be.

In Earl Kitchener's tragic taking
off there is a loss to England which
| has nothing to do with the services
of a great soldier. With Kitchener
England loses her pet hero, her most
cherished pose. The lesson of his
life was only half learned in the tur-
moil of the last two years. His death
makes him a sacrifice, not so much
! to England's laundering as for Eng
lands future.
The tragedy itself is bizarre, illogi-
cal, meaningless. The circumstances
! have few implications worth not
! ing, chief among them being the pre-
sumaole piercing of England's guard
| by a submarine to the very base of
the teet 1t also appears that Kit
chener was going to Russia to con-
| fer, ho doubt, on the offensive which
already gives signs of progress. For
overconfidence, England pays
+ dreadful price. She must learn from
her tragedy not only to guard, but to
divide her treasure.
Hero-worship in democracies al
most always leads to concentration.
1t is not only putting all the eggs in
one basket. Democracies expect one
hen to lay all the eggs and to hatch
them. The United States considers
Goethals for President because he
could build a canal or Mr.. Ford be-
cause he can build automobiles. The
connection between a landslide at
Gatup and a landslide on election daN
is not clear, but it is always assumed.
In England today Lloyd-George
passes from position to position, is
made Minister of Munitions because
his financing is good and pacifier of
Ireland because his work with Welsh
strikers is acceptable. 1t happens
that Lloyd-George is a man of con-
siderable versatility, but he is not
universal. And it was Kitchener's
private tragedy that he was compell-
I ed to be.
! England made an idol of Kitchen
er, and like many idol-worshipers
was ready to destroy him when he
| failed to bring fair weather. By
training he was a soldier and an or
ganizer of forces in the field. 1t was
generally held that at Omdurman and
at Paardeberg it was organization
which saved defective strategy and
gave Kitchener victory. Yet when
the Great War broke out he was put
/ in charge of recruiting one army
while directing the activities of an
other. At the time of his death
more than 100000 men were under
arms for England, an astonishing
feat. But the drive at Neuve Chap
pelle had failed because there were
htoh oynlnciync in tho fold For q
year, from May, 1915, Kitchener's
name grew dim. 1t flared up yester-
day like guttered candle
! Displaced and discredited, not Civ
en- even the just appreciation due
/ him for his extraordinary powers,
Kitchener had ceased to be essential
shattered idol, and Sir Douglas Haig,
Sir William Robertson and Lloyd
Geo. are in his place. The war
will 80 on without him without him
drance or difficulty And England,
| go on, a little saner of vision.
In Kitchener the English nation
worshipped exactly what it did not
possess hearL1ess efficiency, a
genius for organization, brutality,
ruthlessness, frigid calculation; the
Englishman, in a word, of foreign
fiction. The great English pose, of
being without sentiment, the actual
| fear of expressing emotion, was a
| reality with Kitchener, and every
Britisher saw in him what he imag-
ined he would like himself to be. He
was, in fact, precisely what the Brit
| ish call the Prussian Huns. "or fight
ing machine, because he could fight
without loving could fight with moth
| ing but the battle to inspire him.
Only in one thing was Kitchener de-
ficient. He was not perfect sport,
in the English sense. He did not
always play the game.
The worship of Kitchener was at
least one part cowardice. England
was weak and she sought strong men
for rulers, whereas nation which is
strong can be safe in the hands of
dreamers and visionaries. That will
pass with the war, for out of ii
England will come burned clean of
weakness. But the rest is a paradox,
not unusual. The heart of England,
of the middle class and the upper
class and the lowest classes of all, is
tender and gentle. Its very brutali
ties, In Dickens or In w nltecnapel,
have a touching spur of kindness and
of sentimentality. That was what no
Englishman would dare acknowledge
He thought that humanity was frail
The war has taught him that the SUI
perman is brittle. In this conflict
England has been compelled to fight
liquid fire with fire. With peace will
, come a return 20 the facts of com
mon life and the fire will burn on the
hearthstone. In it the frozen image
of Kitchener will eventually melt
away.-Philadelp Ledger.
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Removal Notice.
We have removed to our new Off
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