The Washington times., 1917-04-08
Continued from First Page.)


is ripped up and the rails hauled off
to France, where they are needed a
thousand times more.
Or is it a demand from the front
for timber to support the trenches?
Somebody else remembers that there
are forests, groves, wooded parks,
from end to end of England. True,
they are the pride and adornment of
the most beautifully manicured and
decorated countrysides in the world;
but what OF that? War demands
them; England's ally needs them:
and so a heartless platoon of Ca
madam timber cruisers and expert
foresters are turned loose among tie
glorious ancestral estates of England
to cut down forests that were ancient
when Charles Stuart saved his head
for a British crown by hiding in one
OF them.
Wars Demands IneXorable.
Stricken France must be fed, and much
OF her food must come from overseas !;
her gallant sons in the trenches have
no time to plow fields or build ships,
SO England takes a hitch at her belt,
and from a mercantile marine that has
been sorely depleted assigns million
tons to fetch and carry for France.
get wheat and corn from the Argentine
and from America. There are not ships
enough; but England can help-and
does!
1t is midwinter, the most wretchedly
bleak midwinter that a half-clad Eu-
rope has known since the Napoleonic
struggles Norway must have coal or
freeze. True. Norway is a neutral;
base from which overthrifty traders
are constantly forwarding. in virtue of
handsome profits to themselves, necessi-
ties to Germany. ENGLAND has no coal
to spare; certainly none to strengthen
a hand that may be serving Germany.
But Norway can't be allowed to freeze
better take a chance and hope that
Germany will not too greatly benefit. So
mattfrs are patched up. and out of its
Inadequate and diminishing store Eng
land sends a fleet Of coal carriers away
with the precious coal for Norway. II
there isn't enough left to go round at
honeywell. England in that case will
only do a part OF the shivering that
might all have fallen to Norway to do.
A shfvery Ride To London.
So we shivered along with the rest
OF England through i've hours in that
refrigerated train from Liverpool to
London OF course, the train was late
that's almost as much a matter OF
course as it was for English trains be-
fore the war to be On time. The sense
that. even IL -vicariously. we were con-
tributing something to the nations al
truism toward friends and allies was
not saltogether satisfying to an alien |
who had assimilated nothing more in
spring than frostbites.
My British friend was more cheerful. |
He was riding through his beloved ma
tive land and studying the landscape,
pointing out places OF interest, telling |
of tramps and cycle tours hereabout in
other years. his enthusiasm rising as
my temperature descended. At length |
he afforded am opening for a thrust |
which, with all the bitterness of demi-
congelation. 1 jammed home.
He waved his hand toward the pic
ture in the windows md, with a burst
Of apologetic sentiment which attested
the demoralizing effect Of American as
sociations on the characteristic British
insouciance. demanded:
DO you wonder that we English love
it?"
Between paroxysms l retorted:
No; 1 should think you'd find it a
Joy to die for such a country: you ought
to have a blamed good chance to go to a
much warmer one"
Right here let it be interpolated that
on that ride from Liverpool to London
was visible far less industrial evidence
of wars existence than one may note on
the ride from Boston to New York or
through industrial Pennsylvania or from
Washington to New York. / had seen
something of what war orders have
meant to the industrial Eastern section
of the States and had assumed that
England would be similarly a panorama
of mushroom factories, of vast plants
reared as by magic. Of cities and towns
built overnight TO turn out the enginery
Of war.
Little Evidence of Activity.
had pictured a succession of mill
tsry camps. interspersed with teeming
Industrial hives. There was nothing i
like that Rural England seemed un- ;
touched. The towns and villages were ,
just as sleepy as when | had last seen ,
them, long before the war
The fields were in browns and duns ,
instead Of the varying greens and yell .
lows l had known in English summer
times. The hedSerOws which marked
of the checkerboarded fields stood out
more sharply from a background that I
in winter. afforded more contrast of |
color. Their straight, Arm. clear cut
lines and hollow square formations gave .
the countryside the only touch that ,
could possibly suggest anything mill
tsry and that suggestion was accentu-
ated by the feeling that il had all been ,
polished and busted and inspected by a !
martinez drill master not longer ago [,
than the hour for guard mount. Liver d,
pool had been full of soldiers. but at :
the country towns there were not ,
enough Of them in sight TO impress one !
L LnIess one were diligently watching for
khaki and determined to appreciate II.
Not all England. OF course. is thus ,
devoid OF the evidence off wars pecu-
liar indUstrialsm. In other parts can !
be found the monuments TO that tre- t,
development that has made u
England the worlds center Of a new
and lUrid sort Of industry. / have seen :
some OF them since; but not on that
irst days trip.
In rather more than due course OF