New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-01

purblind eyes, their elegant phrases and
exquisite verbal regard for the moralities
Of life. England will end the war in worse
shape than a beaten Germany, than
France ravaged from the Marine to the
Mosele and numbering her dead by the
hundred thousand.
The French expect to win the war, but
they expect to win it by hard fighting by
terrible sacrifices. and they recognize at
all times that the Germans are skllful
brave. strong. But the British press and
the British public seem still TO believe that
the war will be won by miracle because
the Germans are wicked that God will do
for the English what they have not done
for themselves; that Germany Is going to
curl up and go generally to deep danna-
ton Of a sudden because Of the wlckedness,
the essential sinfulncss Of "the Hun.
Kut-el-Amara is sign and symbol
blazing Dublin is an evidence and reve-
laton. They are equally evidences of the
utter failure Of Great Britain TO deal with
things as they are, 10 face the facts. TO nc-
cent the stern. the terrible material out OF
which human life must be made to-day,
and TO deal with the material. TO 60 from
London to Paris is TO go from nightmare
to a world Of hard. terrible but splendid
reality. 1t is 10 go from og-ridden
city. literally and fguratively. to city
where the lights are bright. the air clear
and men and women see their fate as 1t Is
and look upon il without misapprehension
or misgiving.
BIZ always in England yoI have the
sense of these little men. these empty pol
iticians. this eternal talk, the words that
disguise the truth, these words of the men
who told England that no enemy was In
sight when the German army was already
on the road and could be seen not alone
from the watch tower but from the streets.
These little men who fight among them
selves for office and for influence, who
cling to salaries and TO prominence and
answer each other with words that are as
empty as the very ashes of Belgium
ruined cities. They cannot understand.
Nothing of all that has happened since
this terrible world tragedy began has af-
fectcd them. They denied that it could
come. they deny that it has come.
Over there in France a million British
arc under arms. All over the world men
Of English race and tradition have re
sponded to the call. There has been some
thing Of commanding splendor in the re
Spouse of the men of Australia and Can
ada and South Africa. Never in the long
story of British history have men died
more splendidly or lived more nobly. But
to show for it you have just the shambles
and the shame Of the failures, those un-
necessary failures, the waste and the sac
rifice; you have the loss Of prestige, the
decline Of that tradition which since
Waterloo has been the real force Of the
British Empire. The men who yesterday
felt themselves competent 10 rule the
world cannot manage England or Ireland
or even Wales at the hour Of supreme
crisis.
The tragedy that is contemporary Great
Britain has a meaning for Americans that
should not. cannot be mistaken. Our lead
crs have lied TO US as the British have
lied to them They have hidden the truth,
they have fed the facts and suppressed
the truth. They have made US feel safe
when we were in peril, they have taught
us TO be selfish and to forget what our
fathers and our grandfathers died TO make
enduring. When our crisis comes, and
that day is not distant, we shall have the
same defeats in the field. the same revolts
at home, the same wanton waste Of Ill
that is best. It, too, will be thrown in the
ditch and wasted in the swamp by lead
ers who cannot lead, and a people which
cannot foresee will not then be able 10
rescue itself from the body Of its own
death
Democracy has failed in England as It
is failing in the United States II has
failed because it has not bred up men who
can lead. who have courage, faith or
vision. II has not failed in France be-
cause the nation has taken over its own
leadership and the men who are in Office
weak men for the most, tool march TO the
command of people who are facing the
facts without illusion and without dsmay.
Such hope as there is for democracy must
be found in France, not in England or
America; it must be found in the fact that
the people have proven themselves TO be
brave and sound. In the ultimate analysis
the same will probably be true in Great
Britain and America; but how much of
terrible sacrifice there is to come before
the people are at last able TO understand
and to act, the British history of recent
months is a plain evidence.
What Mexico Wa, Once.
Prom The Philadelphia E,,rin9 LedoerI