New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-06


comfortable power Of the second rank but for
It's northern and western counties It's recent
history would have been the history of Hol-
land if it had not been for the storehouse OF
coal and iron in the industrial provinces. 1t
was out of them and out Of the people bred
,hore that she has derived her vast strength
IN meeting the new world created by the IN
dustrial revolution that came in one century
ago. on the invention Of machinery Those
northern and western sections OF Britain
have won the fight Of democracy and estab-
Hshcd the principle of democratic control.
What we used to mean by England was the
England of Oxford, Cambridge and London
The genius and the vitality OF the kingdom
were gathered there and the radiations went
out from those centres to make the impress
Of what the world knew as English influence.
Imperccptby the change has come. The
governing class has ceased to govern. The
tyne Of Fnglishman who was born to rule IS
left without a Job. Power and virtue have
departed from the old order. The OXFORD and
Cambridge hierarchy exist in vacuum.
IafTldrChdl
ties. impervous to modern ideas, Indifferent
to alien points OF view, unconsciously AFRO
cant. heavily stupid, kindly, cultured and
honorable. was untitled to the modern world
of quick thinking, swift action, sympathetic
cooperation II is dying in our sight. In
the first weeks of war the shell OF that little
England collapsed; the organism itself had
long since weakened In its place has arisen
a far more formidable, far more democratic,
state the British Commonwealth.
Swifter Order of Men Prevails
As fast as power shifts a psychological
change takes place. The English nature and
character are visibly altering. swifter
order of men arc in control. The men of
power show Celtic characteristics. Under
the touch of the new influence, which is in
dustrial and democratic. there is brighten
ing and quickening. The old inarticulateness
passes The race grows laxative. 1t re-
spends to excitement.
Public opinion as it reverberates in Lon
don. is no longer tho public opinion of Great
Britain. 1t is not the public opinion of the
Cornwall miners, Of the South Wales miners,
/ of the industrial centres of Liverpool, Bir-
mngham Manchester and Glasgow. 1t is
not the public opinion OF Montreal and Sid
rey. London and the south Of England do
not speak for the commonwealth. "The
Manchester Guardian" understands the SEN
timent of Glasgow and Montreal, as certain
London papers do not. Old England has lost
its grip on imperial affairs.
New York is outside the channel Of in
nuence, not because it is filled with strange
tongues and foreign-born races, but because
it thinks in terms of the old financial regime.
The new America is q nation which does
not know New York. Yale and Harvard. 1t
/ is a nation that knows Henry Ford, the
Wrights and Mayos, "The Kansas City Star"
and the universities of Wisconsin and Michi-
San. 1t wasn't the movement of population
alone that shifted the centre of power. Peo-
/ pie are always willing to be led by men that
can show the way. It was the movement of
/ modern American democratic thought
/ Old England Declines
/ So it has been with the decline of the Eng
land of oxford and Cambridge and London.
/ Northern and western industrial England has
| learned to think in terms Of the modern
/ democracy trades unionlsm, universal suf-
/ frace. workers control, popular education.
/ Modern universities have sprung up.
When Lloyd George struck out his brilliant
suggestion for Ireland-a suggestion which
will bring the solution of a question seven
( hundred years old he spoke the requiem of
the England known 10 us in memoirs, novels
and etters-the England of our college lit
crary course, OF the historic tradition, the
caste system, the landed gentry, the noble
lady, the faithful servitor the hackney
coachman, the genial vicar, and the Oxford
don. lie proposed that the matter of Ireland
be handed over TO the Imperial Conference
the congress OF the hve demoeracies. Eng
lands time had gone. She couldn't solve the
ancient wrong, but the new commonwealth
could solve il. Take it away from the tired
| kingdom and give it to the young democracy.