The Washington herald., 1916-04-09
Cry for Peaceful Revolution
and Strong Man to Crush
Germany Echoes from End
to End of Empire.

w Aie Va L<Aiff(tC.
how CALLING British workmen fnd the
slightest measure of Industrial COM
oulsion. The very fact that a man
can't leave his job often is enough to
make him hate II, and the old sus-.
picion attaching to promises made by
employers extends in this case to those
OF Lloyd George.
Thousands of workmen do not be-
lieve the government will ever get the
profits their unprecedented toll is cre-
atfng. Only the spur of patriotism, the
constant appeal not to let their COM
rades in the trenches suffer for lack
of shells, prevents serious outbreaks.
With such trouble as has taken place
the government has not dealt in a
manner altogether tactful. The sup
preston of Socialist newspapers in
Glasgow, and in particular the suspen-
sion of a paper which dared to print
stenographic report showing how
group OF trade union delegates sue
cessfully heckled Lloyd George, has
caused much feeling. and the men dis
like intensely the inability to get their
grievances or demonstrations or even
strikes mentioned in the press. All re-
ports of labor trouble now come under
the ban of the censor.
1t is not only the laboring class
that feels aggrieved. Distrust and
alarm in the financial snd business
world seems to be on the increase.
Men ask how long this expenditure of
s25,000,000 a day can be continued
without national insolvency and the
government is accused of wanton ex-
trayagance. 5
The growing demand of labor for
''conscription of cspitar' is not calcu-
lated to soothe the feelings of the
moneyed classes, who demand retrench-
ment. 1t Is greatly to the credit of
Britons that despite this terrible finan-
cial strain there is little criticism of
money advances made to the allies, al
though 1t is known from the authority
OF the prime minister that the country
is paying more cash to France, Rus
sis- Italy and the Dominions than is
yielded by the whole revenue of the
United Kingdom, including the unpre-
cedented new taxes. Whether England's
allies will be in position even to
pay interest after the war on the
81. 500, 900 a day which John Bull is now
granting them appears to some ex-
tremely doubtful.
Criticism concerning the blockade
continues. It Is known that some neu-
trail goods, mostly coming from Amer
lea, filter through Scandinavian coun-
tries to Germany, and that fact Is
enough for the average man, who at
once demands that the government or
der the navy to stop such traffic, and
then when he finds that the leakage
continues, denounces ministers for
slackness.
The problem of the foreign office,
which is to keep on good terms with
neutrals. especially America and
Sweden, is imperfectly understood. and
the average man has little use for neu-
trails at present He mutters He who
is not with us is against us!' and
rails bitterly at a cabinet which per-
mits Hun feeding in order to please
America. He feels rather bitter that
America has not come into the war
on his side, comments that she Is get
ting rich out of the agony of Europe,
and refuses to consider the American
point of view at all. This attitude is
that of the average elector. the man
who will count most IL there is a po-
litical upheaval, not that of English
men who keep in touch with Ameri-
can sentiment and whom, many Of
them, 1 have found reasonable and
sympathetic.
No Direct Criticism.
Direct criticism of the army and
navy is not lndulged in, and whatever
shortcomings are observed are blamed
on the government. The lack of sue
cess that has attended the British
armies is blamed and 1 think quite
Justly, on the red tape methods and
the fayoritism which send incompetent
generals to important posts and have
made II almost impossible for men who
prove their ability under fire to rise
rapidly to high commands. The pres
ent excellence of the French army as
fighting machine is largely due. i
have heard many military men declare.
to Joffre's system of scrapping men of
whatever rank for single fault, and
replacing them with soldiers who have
distinguished themselves. This fault
! in the British war office, 1t is said. is
now being remedied since Sir William
Robertson, himself a ranker, has been
given practically supreme power as
chief of the imperial general staff.
Many changes in the higher commands
have been made, but until the next big
battt is fought and won the public
win Not forget the blunders at Suvla
| Bay and in Flanders.
| A vague feeling of discomfort that
the navy has not done more also ex-
lists. Sir John Jellicoe is a popular
idol, and the fleet Is religion to the
average Briton, so the blame for this
also goes on the government. It is
whispered that the complete inactivity
| OF the grand fleet for the past year Is
due to admiralty interference. Con-
cerning the truth of this know moth
Ing, but the belief that it is true, and
reports of "slackness" in building
operations have given rise to the de-
mand for the return OF Lord Fisher,
the seventy-fve-year-old naval wizard,
as first sea lord. =
Winston Churchill, who resigned as
head of. the admiralty because of his
row with Fisher and later entered the
army, Is believed by his political
enemies to be plotting to grab the die
/ tatorship when the chance comes, and
his spectacular, return from the
| trenches, attack on the admiralty. and
| demand that his old enemy Fisher be
brought back, are regarded as the first
moves in the campaign. For the mo-
ment, it completely miscarried. as Bal
four's defense of the government sent
4 winston scurrying back to France
with his prestige, in popular estima-
tion, considerably shattered.
A combination of all the causes of
discomfort mentioned above, coupled
with the bitter personal feeling that
cannot but exist between members of
a coalition who less than two years
ago were on the verge of civil war,
will bring about spectacular crash,
| in the opinion of disinterested obsery-
1