The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1918-08-10
Chesterton Flags
Adoption of The
Russian Methods

to fear from British aeroplanes?"
Brigadier General McCalmont is evil
IDENTIFY of the same mystical temper
as that early medieval fanatic who
cried, "God will know His own!" He
would go blind for any casual crowd
of men, women and children, with the
firm conviction that each bomb would
be divinely directed towards the head
that was harboring at that moment
the most incorrect political opinions.
This, at least, is the only logical and
consistent inference to be drawn from
his remarks; but perhaps it is lit
tie unfair to the general to subject
them to so harsh a test. AS a matter
of fact, of course, he does not want
to kill any child, whether the child's
! conscience is clear or clouded, and
however deep the child may have
plunged in Sim Fein propaganda at
! the age of eight or nine. He talks
like that because he is excited; and
he is excited because he suffers old
| and strange influences in this matter,
which have long been source of
morbidity and weakness. There is a
| small group of Englishmen, and a
Slightly larger group of Irishmen, who
have in an utterly diseased degree a
detestation of Ireland. The reasons of
it are in certain reactions of human
emotion which have often rotted the
human mind; and the simplest form
| of which has been summed up for
ever by a great satirist:
| Forgiveness to the injured does be-
long,
But they ne'er pardon who have done
| the wrong.
If silence upon such things could
serve even the practical purpose of
preserving unity at this mortal mo-
ment of our military fate, we should
be disposed to be silent. But the eff
feet is precisely the opposite and the
argument is precisely the other way.
Nothing can now save us from reac-
ton and revolt, not only in Ireland
but in many other places, except the
public proof that there is still an
opinion in England which is really
against Prussia because it is against
of man who can now do us any kind
of good in Ireland; and that is speci
fically the sort of man who does not
!, justify the government and does jus
} tify the war. We are lost unless we
can convince large numbers of re
mote and miscellaneous people of one
vital fact: that it is precisely those
who do realize that our own govern
ment is bad who also realize that ou1
, enemy's government is worse. Any
attempt to whitewash our own car
: now only mean whitewashing the en-
J emy's. What we have to convey
somehow, to Irish Nationalist and
J American Democrats is that nothing
, more than the English governing class
, is in the government; but that the
English nation is in the war. There
| are many quaint things that might be
| said about the English governing
, class, including the fact that nearly
| half of it is not English What we
} have to drive home to doubtful PEG
| pie is that the English nation is very
, English; that it is very patriotic, very
: united, very resolute and convinced
} in defending it's present cause and de
flying it's present peril. For the Irisf
must realize about the truth we have
: tried to state here, that the converse
, is also true. If we ourselves do mo-
: permit the rights of men to concea
: the wrongs of Irishmen, still less viii
. we ever consent to let the wrongs O.
Irishmen ruin the rights of men.
l Every day makes us more certain
7 that the defeat of Prussia, however
long delayed, is essential to the
: cleansing of Europe and quite espe
; cially to the cleansing of England
l We have held it better to have the
!, war before the revolutions; but the
, worst would only mean having thu
, revolution before the war. Upon NJ
} argument or arrangement could We
l escape from the war. The case O.
: Russia is a colossal proof of how lit
tie the largest revolution can come
: to, If the rigid enemy of all revolu
t tionary idealism has not first beer
) disarmed. However furious or funda
mental was our attack on our owl
, institutions, they would eventually be
l come German institutions. England
r might be a trampled enemy like Rou
t mania and Ireland a trampled all,
like the Ukraine; but the two Prus
, sian boots that did it would be pair
n01InI ro1AAHlE IN