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Press, Volume LV, Issue 16418, 11 January 1919, Page 8

In his splendid praise of the infantry on the West front, Sir Douglas Haig was referring, of course, to the men from nil parts of tho Empire. But whilo we rejoice in his testimony to the patience and valour of tho New Zealanders as part of his fighting force, we should remember that the bulk of tho fighting men were men from Britain. "At no time," Sir Douglas says, '"has the reputation of the British infantryman boon higher, or his achievement more worthy of renown." There :s an impression, widely spread, and not illfounded, that "the English Tommy" has never had full justice done to him in this war. Too often ho has been kept in tho background of public notice, far more attention having boe n given in the newspapers (in Britain as well as elsewhere) to the performances of tho troops from the Dominions, let it was tho English Tommy who boro tho heaviest burden. Early in November Iloutor's correspondent at British Headquarters gave somo very interesting figures by way of reply to tho oftrepeated German allegation that the oversea troops were employed very much iroro than the troops of the United Kingdom. The general offect of his figures was that tho tJnited Kingdom divisions averaged fewer days out of the lino than the colonial divisions, and that tho casualty rate in the former case was higher than in the case of tho colonial trOops.

The figures and comments of Reuter's correspondent were not widely printod in Britain, and this was regretted by "Truth" in some mucli-needod paragraphs. The delusion which was shattered by the figures givon was, according to "Truth," fairly common in Britain. It was partly due, no doubt, to the English habit of self-depreciation, but mainly it was due to sheer montal incapacity to see and remember things in a true perspective. "Suppose," "Truth" observes, "that Mr Perry Robinson or Mr Philip Gibbs has written a dospatch of which, say, ono-fourth is given up to the feats of Canadians or Australians. Many readers, if subsequently asked what t.he report contained, would have a more vivid recollection of the Canadian or Australian part in tho battle than of anything else, simply because references to Canadians or Australians usually make a more definite impression on tho mind than references to armies, corps, or divisions distinguished only by a numeral, or perhaps vaguely described as 'British troops.' And the process is, of course, helped by tho fact that the papers publish special independent reports of the doings of tho Dominion forces, who, unlike English. or Scotch troops, have their own official correspondents."

Ia the posthumous praise of Mr Roosevelt, a striking note was the testimony—endorsed by Mr Wilson —that he had awakened the nation to the danger of private control of great industries and undertakings. This is a very just estimate of the result of the late President's fight for clean government. He did not destroy the Trusts; indeed, there are Americans who hold, or who held at the time, that he inflicted some injury upon the spirit of the Sherman Law by drawing a distinction between "good" and "bad" Trusts. No such distinction, it was urged, could rightly be maintained; !f a large trade combination was not injurious it was not a Trust of the kind aimed at by the Sherman Law. Actually the anti-Trust activities of the Roosevelt Administration were not very successful so far as curbing the Trusts was concerned. Mr Taft accomplished more when he set his Attorney-General to work on tho principle that combinations in restraint of trade aro b&d in themselves.

But Mr Roosevelt's substantial the awakening of the publiq conscience. The. evils to be dealt with when he took McKinley's place were large and numerous. "Some time before the death, of President McKinley," it has been said by a judicious writer on American affairs, "the peoplo had begun to grumble at the rottenness of local and national politics. Evil methods were so ppenly adopted, corruption was so rampant, the plutocracy was apparently so securely in the saddle that the public became cynical. In the cartoons of the day the public was represented as a small, weak, and helpless person, who was buffetod about, robbed, and imposed upon at will by the magnates who controlled the sources of political power. There was a vast public sentiment opposed to all this, but it lackcd a formula, and it had no leaders of national importance." Mr Roosevelt arrived as a leader of the reform sentiment, and when he opened hostilities with on attack on illegal railway re-, bates "the nation applauded and clamoured for even more radical measures" : "From railways to industrial combinations, from these to judicial and election reforms the movement 6pread; and the nation for the first time realising its power to put an end to its own shame took matters largely out of the hands of the President, and started a national house-cleaning that has gone far, but is not yet finished, and probably will not be so long as ideals remain to be worked towards."