Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-11-13
THE MESSAGE OF THE WAR

We were not in any sense military.
We laughed at the Algies and Berries
of Piccadilly. We opposed in every
way We could any men who sought
to promote war.
To-day Poplar, for many years the
center of anti-war propaganda, is ac-
lively supporting the government in
many. The men who stood by me in
the peace demonstrations in Hyde
Park and Trafalgar Square in the
days OF the Boer war, nave sent their
sons to fight for England. The
younger men among them are are in
khaki themselves. Odr lads have
volunteered by the thousand, and
trenches. Our women cheer the lads
as they leave, and welcome them as
they return.
II myself, the man Of peace, have
undertaken big recruiting compaigns.
1 have visited, lived among and en-
couraged the men in the trenches. I
AVE taken the message of the men
making the guns to the men using
the guns and coming back l have TAX
en- the message from the men in the
trenches to those in the workshops.
Why did we working men of East
London, the men who fought for
peace in 1900, act and speak in this
way in 1914? The reason is simple.
In the days of the Boer war we were
pro-Boer because we thought that
the liberty of the Boer was in danger.
Today, we stand by our country be-
cause we know that the liberty of
u people is threatened. Our fam
lily is in trouble. Our family is stand
ing together.
1T is a question of prosperity, of
conquest, of trade. We are fighting
for liberty and for our homes. /
have said many times that rather
than give in to the barbarian who
could do brutal murders such as the
kaiser has sanctioned, I would see
my own family wiped out and every
member Of the British empire perish.
II had laughed sometimes at the
Algies and Berries of Piccadilly. But
when I found these Algies and Ber-
ties, possessing all that could yield
ease. luxury n id1eness; throwing
everything up to fight for their coun-
try, and dying by the side of our lads
of Poplar in the trenches, I loved
and respected them for it.
This is not a government war: it
Is a peoples a We are all in it,
the man at the village pump and in
the fields, the blacksmith, the car
penter and joiner, the shipWtright and
the man of leisure. s*s
THE men are SO fine. They vol
unteered in their thousands, long be-
fore CONSUMPTION was talked of. And
they are taking what comes to them
without a whimper. : The example
Of these lads has had a wonderful
effect on the people left behind. I
know men who were drunkards and
loafers. Their dear mes have gone-to
war. and I have seen the men at home
pull up. They have cut drinking.
They come home early at nights.
They settle down to their work.
But" say some folk, you are Civ
ing up liberty. You are P%russiarizs
ing yourselves" =
I'VE have temporarily made a sac
rifce Of u individual freedom in
order to secure 1t permanently, We
are paying a price. but we are paw
ing it Of our W free will. You can
not get anything except for a price.
You cannot have any spiritual gain
without material sacrifice. 800
But il anyone supposes that the
British people. who for hundreds Of
years have been pioneers in the fight
Tor liberty. are goin~ to allow them
selves to be permanently deprived Of
freedom because of this, he is wrong
Our people : are willingly sac