The Blood of the Nation 



v and who, so long as history lasts, can 

 never be. 



Against this view is urged the state- 

 ment that the soldier is not the best, but 

 the worst, product of the blood of the 

 English nation. Tommy Atkins comes 

 from the streets, the wharves, the gradu- 

 ate of the London slums, and if the em- 

 pire is " blue with his bones," it is, after 

 all, to the gain of England that her better 

 blood is saved for home consumption, 

 and that, as matters are, the wars of 

 England make no real drain of English 

 blood. 



In so far as this is true, of course the 

 present argument fails. If war in Eng- 

 land is a means of race improvement, 

 the lesson I would read does not apply 

 to her. If England's best do not fall 

 on the field of battle, then we may not 

 accuse war of their destruction. The 

 fact could be shown by statistics. If 

 the men who have fallen in England's 



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