IT SEEMS that recruiting is going on briskly, especially in the
last few days, but young men are not flocking to the colours with
the speed that apparently Lord Kitchener would wish. We do not
think, however, that this excuses either the newspapers or the
people who call them "skulkers". That the heart of the nation, as a
whole, is sound we are quite sure. The ones who have enlisted so
far have been the men who have a spice of adventure in their nature
and who want to go to the Front. The much larger non-adventurous
class has not yet volunteered. These young men have no wish for
active service; they do not feel that their training has in any way
fitted them for it, but they would enlist for the war if they were
convinced that the safety of England demanded it. Any day this
conviction might come, but it will not come until a psychological
wave of contagious enthusiasm passes over the country. For our own
part we do not think that young men who cannot in the nature of
things fully understand the peril of their country should be asked
to make the decision themselves. They are not in many cases old
enough to do so, nor strong enough to withstand the pressure from
relations and others in the opposite direction. If the men are
needed - and Lord Kitchener must be the judge of that - a short
bill should be rapidly passed through Parliament to give the
numbers desired. It is far better that there should be compulsion
of that kind than that they should be bullied into going by their
frightened elders. There are tens of thousands who are on the verge
of volunteering, but those who know the young men of the labouring
classes know also how very little initiative they possess. The
history of trades unions might have taught us this.