II--_England Awake_
Meantime, regardless of how the economic pact works out, England's
policy is "Deeds, not Words," as she prepares for the time when normal
life and business succeed the strain and frenzy of fighting days.
No man can range up and down the British Isles to-day without catching
the thrill of a galvanic awakening, or feeling an imperial heartbeat
that proclaims a people roused and alive to what the future holds and
means. The kingdom is a mighty crucible out of which will emerge a new
England determined to come back to her old industrial authority. It is
with England that our commerce must reckon; it is English competition
that will grapple with Yankee enterprise wherever the trade winds blow.
There are many reasons why. "For England," as one man has put it,
"victory must mean prosperity. However triumphant she may be in arms,
her future lies in a preeminence in world industries. Through it she
will rise as an empire or sink to a second-rate nation."
In the second place, as all hope of indemnity fades, England realises
that she will not only have to pay all her own bills but likewise some
of the bills of her allies. Already her millions have been poured into
the allied defence; many more must follow.
Hence, the relentless energy of her throbbing mills; the searching
appraisal of her resources; the marshalling of all her genius of trade
conquest. Dominating all this is the kindling idea of a self-contained
empire, linked with the slogan: "Home Patronage of Home Product.
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