Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-07
ENGLAND's KITCHENER
Kitchener was England's nose. II
was what England can never be.

Kitchener was England's nose. He
was what England can never be.
; TN EARL KITCIIENER's tragic takinl
4 off there is a loss to England whicl
has nothing to do with the services of
. great soldier. with Kitchener Englan,
loses her pet hero, her most cherished
pose. The lesson of his life was only hal
learned in the turmoil of the last tive
years. His death makes him sacrifice
not so much to England's laundering as
for England's future.
The tragedy itself Is bizarre, Illogical
meaningless. The circumstances have a
few implications worth noting, chief
among them being the presumable pierre
ing of England's guard by a submarine to
the very base of the fleet II also ap.
pears that Kitchener was going to Russia
| to confer, no 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.
Heroworship in democraces almost al
ways 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 because he can build automobiles.
The connection between a landslide at
Gatun and landslide on election day Is
not clear, but II Is always assumed. In
England today Lloyd George passes from
position tO npsitinn fg do Mipictar ~
Munitions because his financing is good
and pacifier of ireland because his work
with Welsh strikers is acceptable. 1t
happens that Lloyd George is man of
considerable versatility, but he is not uni.
versal. And it was Kitcheners private
tragedy that he was compelled to be.
England made an idol of Kitchener,
anu like many idol.worshipers, was
ready to destroy him when he failed to
bring fair weather By training he was |
a soldier and an organizer of forces in |
the field. 1t was generally held that at
Omdurman and at Paardeberg It was or
ganization 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 di-
'oShiilb lit ACTIVITIES Ol dHOIneT. AT tne
time of his death more than 1000, 900 men
were under arms for England, an aston
ishing feat. But the drive at Neuve
Chappelle had failed because there were
no high explosives in the field. For a
year, from May 1915, Kltcheners name
grew dim. 1t flared up yesterday like a
guttered candle.
Displaced and discredited, not given
'ven the just appreciation due him for his
powers, Kitchener had
leased to be essential to British conf.
ience. He was shattered idol, and Sir
Douglas Haig, Sir William Robertson and
Lloyd-George are in his place. The war
will go on without him without hindranee
n difficulty. And England, for the shock
The has received, will go on, little saner
# vision.
In Kitchener the English nation wor-
hiped exactly what it did not possess
heartless efficiency, genius for organ
zation, brutality, ruthlessness, frigid cal,
ulation; the Englishman, in word, of
oreign fiction. The great English pose,
being without sentiment the actual
ear of expressing emotion, was a reality
nth Kitchener, and every Britisher saw
1 him what he imagined he would like
imself to be. He was, in fact, precisely
that the British call the Prussian
Huns" fighting machine because he
ould fight without loving, could fight
nth nothing but the battle to inspire
i'm. Only in one thing was Kitchener
Efficient. He was not a perfect sport,
! the English sense. He did not always
lay the game,
The worship of Kitchener was at least
ne part cowardice, England was weak
nd she sought strong men for rulers,
hereas nation which is strong can be
Ife in the hands of dreameFs and vision.
'ies. That will pass with the war for D
1t of 1t England viii come burned clean
weakness. But the rest is a paradox,
ot unusual, The heart OF England, of -
le middle class and the upper class and h
le lowest classes of all, is tender and
entle, It's very brutalities. in Dickens or
Whitechapel, have touching spur of
ndness and of sentimentality. That was
hat no Englishman would dare acknowl-
lge. He thought that humanity was
all. The war has taught him that the
lperman is brittle In this conflict Eng,
nd has been compelled TO fight liquid
e with fire. With peace will come a re-
rn TO the facts of common life and the ai
e will burn on the hearthstone. In 1t Cr
e frozen image of Kitchener will even m
ally melt away W