As I say, the young are high-strung, nervous, ex
citable; the middle-aged are empty-headed, stolid,
and stupid. It is absurd to think for an instant that
they can compete with the workers of the New
World. Brutalized, degraded, and dull, the Ghetto
folk will be unable to render efficient service to
England in the world struggle for industrial suprem
acy which economists declare has already begun.
Neither as workers nor as soldiers can they come
up to the mark when England, in her need, calls
upon them, her forgotten ones; and if England be
flung out of the world s industrial orbit, they will
perish like flies at the end of summer. Or, with
England critically situated, and with them made
desperate as wild beasts are made desperate, they
may become a menace and go swelling down to
the West End to return the slumming the West
End has done in the East. In which case, before
rapid-fire guns and the modern machinery of war
fare, they will perish the more swiftly and easily.

[[231]]

p230 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p231w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p232

v?