The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-11-23

AAoS AoSI Has UcCu UIllIduIly StdC
ed by Will Crooks in an article he
has just written.
Although he is today the right
Honorable W. Crooks, Member of
the Kings Privy Council and
Member Of Parliament, he is and
always will remain to the people
among whom he lives and to whom
he has devoted his life-just plain
viii Crooks. Born in one-room
house in East London and started at
hard toll when eleven years old, his
success has not changed his allie
glance. He still lives among his own
pie in little two-storied house
in East London. Most of the famil-
les in his neighborhood live in one
or two rooms. The average earn
ings of his neighbors before the war
was less than ten dollars a week per
man. How they acted in their coun-
try's hour Of peril must be known
Of al men. Would to heaven it
would inspire in the twisted intel
lects in our Congress and Senate
and Peoples Council a realization of
their infamy!
1--WE were strongly anti-war be-
fore the war with Germany began,
says Mr.. Crooks. Eve were so
strongly for peace that we were
willing to fight any man for it,
We stood for peace, for liberty and
for friendship among nations. On
one occasion, on public visit to
Germany, l proposed the health of
the Kaiser. 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 centre of anti-war propaganda,
is actively supporting the Govern
ment in its conduct of the war
against Germany. The men who
stood by me in the peace demonstra-
tons in Hyde Park and Trafalgar
Square in the days of the Boer War,
have sent their sons to fight for En-
gland. The younger men among
them are in khaki themselves. Our
lads have volunteered by the thou
sand, and many of them have died
in the 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 cam
paigns. I have visited, lived among
and encouraged the men in the
trenches. have taken the message
Of the men making the guns to the
men using the guns and coming back
l have taken the message from the
men in the trenches to those in the
workshops.
"Why did we working men of
East London, the men who founght
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 because we know that
the liberty Of our people is threat
ened. Our family is in trouble. Our
family is standing together.
1T is not a question Of prosper
ity, of conquest, of trade. We are
fighting for liberty and for our
homes. l 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
Berries, possessing all that could
yield ease, luxury and idleness,
throwing everything up to fight for
their country, and dying by the side
Of our lads Of Poplar in the trench
e, / loved and respected them for
IL
This 10 not . Government war;
1t is = peoples war. We are all in
It, the man at the village pump and
in the fields, the blacksmith, the
carpenter and joiner, the shipwright