Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-04-30
TIGHTENING
GRIP OF WAR
1t Is Showing Itself in the
Changed Attitude of English
men in the Last Six
Months
BY GILBERT VIVIAN SELDES

Special Correspondence Ercrin0 Ledger
LONDON, April 12.
TT is exactly six months since ] came to
England to report on conditions here for
the EVENING LEDGER. In that time so
many changes have taken place that I look
back upon the England I came 10 very
much as ! look back on the Philadelphia
left behind-as another country Since
the changes which have come here are
destined to be reproduced in some degree
in every part of the United states, / am
setting down the more striking of them.
The first must be the increased severity
Of living. | do not mean that there is suf-
ferIng or privation to any notable extent
but that life Is considerably more rigid now.
more ordered from above and decidedly
moro directed to winning the war Sep
tember, 1916 n foreigner might have landed
here, as | did and hardly be conscious Of
the war a all. People talked of II and
there were soldiers on the streets, but on
the surface life went along easily and gayly
there we're few regulations. few restrictions
and the ordinary man or woman. who was
Ineligible for war work or did not go into
il, lived the days without contributing posi-
lively or negatively to shortening the war
one bit
That Is charged. do not know house.
hold today which is not compelled to do
something. Usually it is in the form OF
denying itself something. There is a short
age of sugar in some districts largely a
fault of distribution. because on the days
,,.ttI I,tt
my friends can orfer me tea with plenty.
or It may be a question of not getting quite
so gorging a meal at the Italian rcstau-
rants in Soho, since meals are limited to
two or three courses. For the poor it is
a question of getting along without po-
tatoes, and since the poor of England live
on vegetables, which they call "veggcs,
that is a privation. These things are all
exceedingly superficial but the thing to be
remembered is that it took nearly three
years Of war to bring them into force. Six
months ago there was not whisper of
these things.
German Invasion Still Feared
At that time the lighting of London was
a difficulty. Today you cannot get "A bus
been discontinued II is hard to travel
beyond the suburbs, because trains have
been taken off. AS an alien | was com
PEELED to go to the police station and reg.
| lister, in addition to the perfunctory reg.s-
tration at landing In thousand little
ways the war closes in about the island
| Englishman.
| ua is arn,ror,l,. T., foor ~ i,, ,,o,,,i,r
much rlngar ho,re.'onatbar o,,d dan,,ar
change Iaet Son,o,,Lnr ,,a .Gnr,,,i,, j,,
| vasin,," ~ - AZ, - 80, ,'''''' " a. ~
ono ahout tho Dm.si,,. hoinr, ,ro,,,..aJ "o .nJ
thro,,gh Scn,i.nd Az 1t'S l'Spor s .eu
has been so persistcntIy occuniod with Scot.
| land again that MIR. Bouar Taw was com.
| PEELED to dispel the fog nv ,oaliro a stoto
ment i'm the House ia the effect that thoro
| was not a word of truth in tho who'll etor,
| But the story is stiIl holio,.od. I, t. lii
crcumstantialIv described A t;er,,,r in.
| vason of scotland onnarerti,. Md. ,to
| ,r,,r. 90 A. ,...,...,., a - l''' 49, '"'