Show I ENGLANDS WAR SPIRIT England is getting her war spirit up It is a fine one when it Is up and while not always invoked In behalf of I just causes it often has been That I pleasant writer Jerome K Jerome has been giving his views on what he terms the present crisis He says it I Is serious enough for silence that It may blow over On this point he is not quite sure It is his opinion that it may develop into the greatest war the world has ever seen and England may have to fight with her back against the sea for her own existence He seems to look upon all mankind as the enemy of England who would take the fruits of English energy and enterprise but declares that Englishmen will protect their heritage This will be no easy task but it will have to be faced sooner or later If he foresees clearly he Is right when he says it is time that England looked into herself and took counsel with herself The world is ruled by might and force is the weapon of the right as well as of the wrong Are we ready to throw our gold in the melting pot as young Germany Ger-many threw hers In 1S13 the year of her regeneration Are our shopboys and our plowboys ready to face the music of tne guns as the peasant lads of France faced it a hundred years ago for the sake of their motherland Are our women ready to weep in silence and our men ready to die If so England can go upon her way and no harm will come to her but only the good born of suffering and effort If not then It will be better to end all our difficulties without further waste of 1 words by simply hoisting the white flag and waiting to hear our fate I Peace may last this year it may last next but the war clouds ard gathering I as they ever have gather d after a I I > yearl summer of peace and befoflD long they will burst over us There is much sense in that and the world is beginning to realize that Eng lands rule of right has been the rule of might She has discovered to the world much of the secret of her success suc-cess But what a fine appeal to English Eng-lish manhood that is There is a virility in it that challenges admiration I admira-tion It will touch the English heart and the nation whose heart Is touched by such appeals is very far from being be-ing in a state of decadence |