• PRIDE OF COUNTRY [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The concluding sentence in Dean Inge's England reminds me of the Irishman who,- being asked what he would like to be if he were not an Irishman, quickly answered : " Why, Sir, I would be ashamed of myself." Dean Inge's words read : " This much I can avow, that never, even when the storm-clouds appear blackest, have I been tempted to wish that I was other than an Englishman."
That's noble. I have always admired in the citizen of any land his pride of country, within reason; ofcourse—everything within reason. Pride of country must be based upon a sense of national solidarity to begin with. It is the fitful loosening of the community feeling which is at .the root of England's present troubles. Class consciousness seems to control the actions of many. The coal strike would have been settled in no
time once the feeling had prevailed.: the State first. Always the whole must goyern the parts, else an organism degenerates into a mechanism, held together by pressure.—I ari, Sir, &c., 145 West 57th Street, New York. GABRIEL WELLS.
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