THE AWAKENING OF THE NORTH.
[To Tax EDITOR OF TEl "SrECTITOR.'1 Sin,—I live in a district of colliers and ironworkers, very Radical and very Trade Unionist. Up to the early part of last week we had certainly not done our share towards Lord Kitchener's half-million. The upper class, which carries in its head a detailed map of Europe and the political history of the last fifty years, cannot understand this. Nor can the dwellers in great cities and in the Home Counties, where the military ingredient is stronger and the imagination perhaps quicker and more versatile, conceive the slow appreciation by the men of our industrial districts of the seriousness of the present situation. Well, all that is over, I sincerely believe. I listened on Friday week to the impassioned patriotism of a prominent Trade Union leader, stirring his fellow-colliers to enlist, and standing by the side of the chairman of our great local industrial concern. The huge democratic crowd below roared in complete acquiescence. Nor is it all shouting. Men are joining in crowds now, and they will join as long as they
are needed, even if Lord Kitchener should want every one of them. Yorkshire yields to none in love of freedom and in determination to fight for freedom.—I am, Sir, &c., Beindiffie, Ecclesfield, near Sheffield. W. NEWTON DREW.
Previous page
