Such thoughts bring us within sight of an important fact, a truth that in future will make us see a quite new meaning to that word "patriotism," so loved by the politicians and all who live comfortable lives.
And what is this new, very simple truth?
It is this: the English army is not kept because of the danger that England may be taken possession of by the Germans or some other foreign power, but it is kept most of all lest this island should be taken possession of by the English. That would be the disaster of all disasters.
If those who today spend their lives in toil and service, were to turn "patriotic" in a new sense of the word, and were to tell each other that the love of their country was so great that in future they themselves meant to possess it, then indeed we should see how far goes the patriotism of those rich people who today are asking us to fight in their quarrel.
Suppose that the worker lifted his head as high as does the warlike spirit of the present day. Suppose he argued thus: The factories have been built by us and the machinery constructed by us. The factory gates have been made by us, the lock has been manufactured in our workshops, and it was we who shaped the key to fit it. What then remains for the master-class to claim? Then no longer will we work within on the terms dictated by a class who construct nothing and only can destroy.
Suppose they argued thus, and further, did something must greater than mere argument, and began to wage this real war—the war of the poor against the few who own the country and its wealth. This indeed would be the conquest of England by the English people, and that is the foe whom our present landlords and war lords would most of all hate.
Now the position of the Britisher, which we are beginning to understand, is not peculiar. The German is in the same plight, as we have already seen. The Russian, the Spaniard—it makes no difference where you
