New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-05


ton arc subscribing $4,000 a week
Ksighley. in Yorkshire, Is the heart OF the
voollen trade n makes uniforms Tor tne
Russian army. II saves five thousand dollars
a week, an average Of shillings and pence
for every nhabitant. -
The domestic servants Of Gillingham' IN
Kent have united in = war savings AsSocis-
ton. This reminds me Of the touching gH'
OF 10 shillings which / once received from an
English housemsd for ambulance WORK III
Belgium. Let no one doubt the spirit m
which this money Of humble persons IS gwen.
II is given because little nation yas crusheG
and because their brothers and lovers are
fighting 10 free that little nation. NO high-
blown dreams Of empire, no lust for territory
no desire for power and wealth arc IN these
obscure gifts. They are conscience money
TO Belgium. They are the pitiful earnings OF
democracy passed over to a suffering peopie'
In Plymouth, with its docking and shipping
trade, $4,000 persons began to save IN one
week
At Preston. in Lancashire 100000 was
turned over TO the government by the work
ers in the period OF four months.
There is an elementary school FOR $50 boys
near Newcastle The boys brought in S4OOO
from their families in eight weeks, and then
kent I'D the average of $500 week.
In Battersea one Of the schooboys brought
in the sum OF $500 in pennies, collected IN
ponnies among the 300 boys and their working
families in ten months.
The thing that irrtates US about England
is the same thing that ofends us at nome.
Here is no well-oiled autocracy that runs on
a single track TO a visible goal. Instead Of
that clean. smooth. organized, docIle affair u
is a democracy with an immense rich variety
OF life. SPRAYING all over the place. ne ar
is full Of voices, because every one is allowed
10 sneak II you don't like il, remember what
il is that you don't like it is a free people
choosing to make its own mistakes, living ITS
own life, and lust now out on the warpath 10
chase some trespassers of from the premises.
Doubtless, if the critics were running the per
Torrance, they would give more unified and
polished proceeding But no group Of persons
are running this war. The people are running
it. So. instead Of losing strength as the pres
sure increases, they gather force and momen-
tum with each mistake. They teach them
selves by failure. The will OF the great Ger
man general staff can be snapped by deieat'
because the staff is a handful of men. But tne
will of 100000 people cannot be broken De
cause il is the will of these schoolooys ana
working girls, of domestic servants and mu-
milton workers, Of a democracy whose sense
Of pity and justice has been touched. Inc
mistake in estimating the English effort IS 10
measure it at any given time, because II IS q
continually growing effort. IL is Ike gain
orino Of waters from mountain streams and
the drift of hills and from ineXhaustloie,
rains. The confluence keeps widening and
deepening from thousand tributaries. Inc
pool can be emptied, and soon it is not only
- Ia than before
Sentimental Nations
The English are Sentimental nation !
ouote distinguished English ofhcer Wnen J
saw that, Captain Basil Williams. II is true.
They are as sentimental as Americans Az
appeal TO cold reason, to personal aggrandize-
ment. to a rainy day or shadowy future
does not move them in the slightest But
something that concerns the welfare Of help
less children, or of persons whom they love-
releases all that is best in the English race
7 know this, because 7 worked in Red Cross
London Office in the early weeks OF the war,
and found that the smallest appeal 20 the
English public for help in clothing Belgians
brought in a large RESPONSE response, IN
fact, so overwhelming that it stuffed the office
rooms with supplies. Personally, ! have
never dealt with a public that is so swiftly
generous. When the full facts Of Belgian re
lief are made public it will be found that II
is the English who have fed them and smell
tered them raised the greater part OF the
money, widened and adjusted their own home
life in order to absorb an army Of refugees,
and steadily continued TO provide funds with
out spurts and without fatigue.
No better proof Of this racial sentiment and
kindness can be had than by studying few
of the % million posters and leaflets OF re-
cruiting and the hundreds OF thousands OF
publications for war saving The appeal IS
rarely to self-interest. The appeal IS TO the
heart. to the great objects of the war, the
ideal Of liberty, the cause of freedom. This ma
tonal saving is not being done by obscure
Woodworking English men and women to
make their own old age cosey. 1t is being done
TO free Belgium and strengthen democracy.
II the evangelists who have gone about Brit
ain preaching war savings had spoken to a
commercial motive they would have whistled
in vain for the siXpences Of workers.