Answer to Miss Macphail

Description
Créateur
A.H.L., Correspondent
Médias
Text
Type d'élément
Clippings
Description
Letter to the Editor expressing a counter opinion to Agnes Macphail's ideas about "militarists", and her speaking out against the war; the author of the letter had been in World War One.
Inscriptions
ANSWER TO MISS MACPHAIL.
To the Editor of The Globe: Miss Agnes Macphail has never been at any pains to conceal her contempt for the mentality of the men who during the years 1914 to 1918 permitted themselves to be duped by the "militarists" into saving the rest of the civilized world from the fate of Belgium. In her speech at the Labor Temple on Sunday last, however, she has, if correctly reported in today's Globe, quite excelled herself. So slighting were her remarks that, as a returned soldier, I feel called upon to protest against the utterance on a public platform, of what falls little short of an insult to the intelligence of my former comrades and the motives which induced them to take up arms.
While referring in laudatory terms to the recent speech of the Boy Premier of Ontario, in which he commended to the youth of this country a policy of cowardice and treason in the event of another crisis such as that of 1914, Miss Macphail is reported as saying: "It is easy enough for any one to follow a band, to run with the crowd, and to don a uniform and ribbons."
"It is easy to follow a band"—when one knows that it leads one far from home and loved ones to a probable and horrible death in a foreign land. Perhaps so. Many of us found it far otherwise.
"It is easy to run with the crowd"—when the crowd is running over the crest of Vimy Ridge or through the mud of Passchendaele, when the machine guns are chattering, and the man in front sprawls suddenly spread-eagled on the ground, and the thing on your right was a minute ago your pal. Oh, yes, easy enough—according to Miss Macphail.
"Easy to don a uniform.” No, Miss Macphail. In 1914 it was not easy to don a uniform, nor in the years that followed was it easy to earn the right to wear the ribbons to which you so disparagingly refer.
It is an astounding thing that the Agnes Macphails and Boy Premiers of the world of today appear to take it for granted that they have a monopoly in hatred of war. They appear to think that we, who experienced the ghastly reality of modern warfare, acquired in some mysterious way a liking for it. I assure you, Miss Macphail, and you, Mr. Earl Lautenslager, that your dislike is as nothing to our loathing of the foul thing; but I admit that we are not “brave enough to be cowards," nor are we "too proud to fight," and should a similar occasion arise we will don that despised uniform again to defend a people and a country of which, thank God, you are in no way representative.
Oakville, March 14.
A. H. L.
Éditeur
Globe & Mail
Lieu de publication
Toronto, On
Date d'événement
March 14 [n.y.]
Dimensions
Largeur: 16.5 cm
Hauteur: 5.5 cm
Sujet(s)
Cadets
Pacifism
War
Macphail, Agnes
Identifiant local
X977.945.1
Langage de l'élément
English
Couverture géographique
  • Oakville
    Ontario, Canada
    Latitude: 43.4473682625124 Longitude: -79.6665048808289
Déclaration de droit d'auteur
Public domain: Copyright has expired according to Canadian law. No restrictions on use.
Conditions d'utilisation
Reproduction of digital objects is restricted to fair use for personal study or research, any other use must be done with permission of copyright holder.
Contacter
South Grey Museum
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