friend throughout a century; events which our implanted prejudice leads
us to ignore, or to forget; events which show that any one who says
England is our hereditary enemy might just about as well say twice two is
five.

What did England do in the war, anyhow?

They go on asking it. The propagandists, the prompted puppets, the paid
parrots of the press, go on saying these eight senseless words because
they are easy to say, since the man who can answer them is generally not
there: to every man who is a responsible master of facts we have--well,
how many?--irresponsible shouters in this country. What is your
experience? How often is it your luck--as it was mine in front of the
bulletin board--to see a fraud or a fool promptly and satisfactorily put
in his place? Make up your mind that wherever you hear any person
whatsoever, male or female, clean or unclean, dressed in jeans, or
dressed in silks and laces, inquire what England "did in the war, anyhow?
"such person either shirks knowledge, or else is a fraud or a fool. Tell
them what the man said in the street about the Kaiser and our front yard,
but don't stop there. Tell them that in May, 1918, England was sending
men of fifty and boys of eighteen and a half to the front; that in
August, 1918, every third male available between those years was
fighting, that eight and a half million men for army and navy were raised
by the British Empire, of which Ireland's share was two and three tenths
per cent, Wales three and seven tenths, Scotland's eight and three
tenths, and England's more than sixty per cent; and that this, taken
proportionately to our greater population would have amounted to about
thirteen million Americans, When the war started, the British Empire
maintained three soldiers out of every 2600 of the population; her entire
army, regular establishment, reserve and territorial forces, amounted to