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Show WHAT WILL ENGLAND DO? England cannot feed herself. The gnawings of hunger grow more and more acute, as shown by the poverty parades that are becoming more frequent in London street?. In France these parades would merge into uprising up-rising and 'bread riots that would tax the military and the police. But the British workingman is not built that way. lie suffers, and murmurs not. Or he sends his women through the streets, making dumb show of his despair. England is dependent on her ships for food. Her real slate is shown by the parliamentary debates de-bates on the state of the country. It is seriously proposed to store up supplies in depots, to prevent starvation in case of war. The blockade of English ports of entry would bring on almost instant famine. Meanwhile the brawn and muscle of the country is pathetically stunted by pinching poverty. The fact was painfully apparent during the Boer war. Xino out of ten applicants for enlistment were refused re-fused because they did not come up to the physical standard a standard, be it noted, that was purposely pur-posely lowered because of the necessity. The strong yeomanry, once the Briton's pride, is slouching into the slums. What will England do What can she do? What ought she to do? She can and ought to give her people access to the broad acres of useless land. These lands are held for great public parks or used for vast game preserves or for the private pleasures of a rich nobility. no-bility. They ought to be opened to the plow. In this country the whole public domain belongs to the people, and tin; people go in to possess it. In England the people are shut out, largely, from ownership or operation of the land. Hundreds of thousands of acres that would support tens of thousands thou-sands of the worthy poor are given over to the landscape gardener or the gamekeeper ministering only to lordly pride and pleasure. An American fails to understand how a rich and titled nobility can be pampered at the expense of a starving populace. He cannot understand why men and women whose children suffer the pinch of hunger snd exposure will doff their hnts toking and nobility-and humbly petiflontlieir lords and ladies. Democracy would speedily solve the problem. The idle lands would be thrown open-for settlement settle-ment and production. And thus two pressing needs would be met: There would be healthful employment employ-ment for honest labor and the production of more' food for the people. There is a limit to human endurance and suffering. suf-fering. Has England reached that limit? There are signs that indicate that a crisis is near. Mere changes of ministry ripples on the surface sur-face cannot stop a flood. What will England dor St. Paul Daily Xev.-s. |