The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-04-14
The Two EngIands

The Star concludes from the tenor
of some of the letters that reach this
Office that the spectacle of the United
States fighting side by side with Eng
/ land is not pleasing to all Americans.
The objections made to such an ALI
ance, are various but none of them upon
close examination, appears to be re-
mote from a coTnomn basic one, and
one Is that England was an unjust
and oppressive ruler of the colonies
and that even after we have shaken
ourselves loose from her grip she
Kept on nectoring US through the years
of our infancy and only quit when We
got so big II made her nervous to see
US get white IN the face.
The England of 1776 and of many
succeeding years was not q friendly
England to young America. The Eng
/ land of those years was a Tory Eng
land, or more properly, the English
government, was Tory government
1t did not care for democracy and
was quite open about 1t. It was against
the French Revolution, 1t was against
parliamentary reform at home, and
It's principal idea of government was
that 1t was a convenient arrangement
by which few powerful families
were able to hold all the jobs and col
lect all the taxes.
But there was another England
that held very different views. It had
almost as great grievances against
the Tory government as the Ameri-
cans had. 1t was that liberal Eng
land that spoke with the voice of Cha
thab, of Fox, and of Burke and that
some time was to make its voice heard
and respected.
If Americans who picked up from
early school textbooks an unfavorable
opinion of the England that spoke
through the HeSsian muSketS of the
Revolution could keep that distinc-
ton in mind that they might see the
Injustice of cOnfOunding the England
of Lord North with that of LLOYD
George. There was a revolution in
England too, following that IN Amer
lea and France. 1t was slow and
bloOdless one, but its results were no
less certain. It overturned the rotten
borough system by which the power
full Tory families held Parliament in
their grip. it made ministers response
bic to parliament and not to crown
and it curbed the power of the lords
until their house became g mere
ornamental appendage to the COM
mons.
This revolution was not accomplish
ed all at once. It was not fully ac-
cOmplished at the time of the Amer
lean Civil War, and again the govern
ing and privileged classes were rang
ed against democracy and would
gladly have seen the Republic dis
membered. But by this time liberal
England was on more even terms with
Tory England and it spoke with q
voice the government dared not
ignore. Privileged England, acting
under the eye of liberal England.
could be little more than ANNOYING
The United States patiently kept a
record, and after the war the English
government, with what grace IL could
paid for the indulgence it had al
lowed its feelings to the tune of fif-
teen million dollars.
Have you forgotten Bunker HIP"
one correspondent asks Indignantly
Why yes, we should hope so. And
we have forgotten George III, and so
have most Englishmen. We have for
gotten the Alabama too. The sta
tue of limitations has run against
them all
But what we have not forgotten is
that liberal and democratic England
is now in the saddle at Westminster,
and IS fighting the battle of world
liberalism and democracy against
world tOryism and autocracy. That
IS the battle America is going into
war to fight, and it ought to be glad
to find in the ranks with it as an ally
the England that tried to speak in
1776, and was put down by the same
England that tried to put down liberty
II America.-Kansas City Star.