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T-HE FATHERLAND 11
ENGLAND DECADENT
Fair-Minded Englishmen and Americans in Lon-
don Express Their Disgust
An American, Harvey L. Fenwick, valiantly takes up his pen
in defense of decency on the part of English blusterers in a
late issue of The New Age, an English publication which, with
the Manchester Labour Leader and the Scottish Forward, are
the only papers in England not lost to all sense of shame, like
the New York Royal press. In answering an attack upon him-
self, Mr. Fenwick, who describes himself an old friend of Eng-
land, says:
Another illusion is also becoming more and more conspicuous
under the mass- and ass-hypnotism of the war. It is the con-
viction that England has been ruthlessly attacked by Germany
and finds expression in the Kitsonian formula-“VVe are engaged
in a life and death struggle, etc." As one who believes that but
for Sir Edward Grey's deliberate declaration of war on Ger-
many, not only England, but the whole Western Continent might
have been spared slaughter and ruin, I find this view beyond
comprehension. , ,
I am upbraided because, as a foreigner, I “make a VlC10uS at-
tack upon those who-whatever their faults-are doing all in
their power to safeguard their own country." Has Mr. Kitson
thought of the application of his words to his antagonists-the
.ermans ?-an heroic people, muzzled and almost in a state of
“Se, yet fighting with one hand the entire British Empire, the
French and their Colonies, and most of the Belgian army; and
with the other the overwhelming, innumerable hordes of Russia?
Vc have once more the Britannia-cum-Kitson motif-the identifi-
cation of an attack upon him with a supposed attack upon Eng-
land. I'am suddenly reminded that (despite Mr. Kitson's doubts
of my Americanship) I am a “foreigner belonging to a neutral
power." Yet it has been the boast of such as he that America
is not neutral, but pro-British. Your Wellses, Bennets, Kiplings,
not to mention the yellow scurril-press, have done all they could
to destroy our neutrality. “Come over and help us," has been
their constant and valiant cry.
Another writer in The New Age, who says that his "name is
one that has been somewhat distinguished in Scotland for cen-
turies," expresses himself in a similar manner. He, too, has
been the victim of abuse for standing up for fair play. H6 53Y5=
There is a lamentable lack of originality among the‘ atrocity
mongtgrs. Each and all, when driven into a corner by plain facts,
0’ Plain questions, betake themselves to personal abuse. It grows
monotonous. Their opponents are always liars, with no claim to
t einname or nationality-obviously “Germans masquerading as
Englishmen-or Scotsmen.” ,
13' letters referred, nrstly, to the vileiiess and mendacitypf
t 6 Press campaign against Germany's method. of condilctmg
‘Val’; and, secondly, to the sorrowful fact that fairness, chivalry,
‘md Sportsmanship are practically dead in 9116 Englafld Of 10'd3Y-
also asked why it was worse for German soldiers to burn
ouses in Belgium and devastate the country than for English
soldiers to do the same thing in South Africa. I utterly refuse
to believe statements made upon no foundation; 1 should say
that it is obvious that some of the atrocity stories were invented
and written in the otiices of the papers which printed them. The
13901216 who have taken the trouble personally to investigate the
ones are unanimous in stating that they can find no authentic
9355- The latest to write on the point is Mr. James McKenzie
In the “Common use." . .
1,d0 not hate England, but I do hate the modern English spirit
asqnterpreted by the English gutter Press. I know that the
Splnt of chivalry and fairness survives in thousands of English-
ey are of no more account than the righteous in
men whom I know personally have written to
the Press, asking, as I have done, for decency and fair play; and
b C)’ have either had their letters dropped into the waste-paper
asket. or have been abused as I have been by the Harmsworth-
Garvin-Hulton-Blumenfeld Press; which is determined at all
Costs to put down chivalry- and common decency.
SUCII a sentence as the following: “The great mass of women
3" men in Germany are half mad with eagerness to set fire to
th? Streets of London, and to murder wholesale unarmed women,
C ‘ldfen. and men,"'is not only a disgrace to the Englishman
W o wrote it, and the English paper which published it; it dis-
graces England as a nation. ,
V After the Press, comes a flight of authors and rhymsters, spit-
mg Out venom, and incidentally destroying any literary reputa-
tion which they may possess; and even the leaders of the people
and the State are degrading the country by their currishness.
The correspondent of an American paper recently accused the
Press censor of deliberately erasing any news favorable to Ger-
mans, and inserting atrocity stories. I believe that the charge
has not been contradicted. The Archbishop of York is having
stones thrown at him because he has spoken of a personal friend-
ship with the Kaiser in the past. Because we are at war with
Germany it is improper to mention the head of the German
nation without a curse or a foul name. I emphatically hate such
things. In the long history of wars between England and Scot-
land the uppermost spirit was that of honor for the brave foe.
That same spirit of chivalry animated not only England and
Scotland, but France, Spain, and other countries. What in God's
name, have we got in its place? True, the Harmsworths poisoned
the source, but has England ever tried to eradicate that poison?
On the contrary, practically the whole Press is now infected
with it; and what was once poison has become the staff of. life
to the people. Manly war has now become wholesome murder;
no nation which is helping to pile horror upon horror on the
Continent of Europe has any right to call upon God-unlessthey
call upon Odin, or Thor the thunderer. It is truly the greatest
tragedy that the world has ever seen, but the degrading methods
used by the Eiiglirh Press add to its horror. To pile the whole
guilt upon the shoulders of one man, ignoring that of the whole
of the nations now at war, is an infamy. Future history will
distribute the guilt in its proper proportions, but that does not
excuse any fair-minded man remaining silent in face of the
Pharisaical attitude of Britain. The Government is using the
same method of obtaining surface unity in the country as a
steam-roller uses to smooth the top of a road; but at least British
people have always refused to give up their‘ birthright of free-
dom and free speech, and I trust they will continue to refuse.
And everything that the gutter-press of England prints is
daily reprinted in the New York Times, Tribune, World, H erald
and Sun. The reader may judge for himself how fair-minded
men in England and resident Americans judge this symptom of
national decadence. '
VV. Lanier VVashington, of New York City, received a letter
from a writer described by the Times, in whose columns it was
printed December 19, as “a well-known clergyman in England,"
who, writing December 4, says: , .
"It is just leaking out in the papers that a disaster happened
about a month ago to a ship [the Aitdactofc: torpedoed by .3 Ger-
man submarine Oct. 27], or some ships, in our navy, which the
Admiralty, under its unprincipled head, VVinston Churchill, is
keeping so far secret, but which American newspapers had ac-
counts of and discussed. I '
"For those of us here who have so many relatives in the navy,
this is painful enough. As you will have understood from my
letter written a few days ago, we cannot trust our Government
(except as its extreme partisans do). Can you do me the kind-
ness of telling me what this disaster was? I should feel grateful
if you would. ‘
“In the end a Government of England that carries out secret
methods and lives by unprincipled actions must come to an end.
But in the meantime those in the country whose kindred are in
the firing line have to suffer the anxieties of suspense, and the
fate of the Government brings no compensation for these
anxieties. . . ' .
“England's real heart is true still, .and has not lost its old
integrity, and I hope for a resurrection of all its good after
the shackles of the usurpers, Asquith and his gang, are broken."
DENOUNCES ENGLISH “FAIR PLAY”
EVEN the English humorist and playwright, Jerome K. Jerome,
author of “Three Men in a Boat" and “The Third Floor
Back," has entered a protest against the infamous treatment of
English citizens of German birth. He writes: “This press-
organized mobbing of harmless creatures, whose only offense
was that they accepted literally the declarations of fair play and
common decency which has been England's boast for a century,
and preferred to become Englishmen, has done us an irreparable
injury. While our brave lads in khaki are shedding their blood
for England's honor, certain English journalists are doing their
dirty best behind their backs to besmirch England's reputation
with filth.”