FROM THE NEUTRAL NATIONS.
Reading edition
[The recent boom in the export of copper from America to the neutral nations is very significant. If the enemy's supplies of this article—an essential in the manufacture of cartridges, etc.—were cut off, the war would come to a speedy end. The figures for September and October, 1914, show an increase of nearly 400 per cent. over the corresponding figures for 1913.]
O Britain, guardian of the seas, Whose gallant ships (may Heaven speed 'em) Defend the wide world's liberties Against the common foe of Freedom; Doubt not where our true feelings lie; We would not have you come a cropper, Although it suits us to supply That common foe with copper. Dear Land of Hope, in which we trust, Beneath whose ample wings we snuggle, Safe from the Kaiser's culture-lust And free to live and smile—and smuggle; Devoted to the peaceful arts, We keep our conduct strictly proper, Yet all the time you have our hearts (And Germany our copper). Although the crown is theirs alone Who crush the tyrant's bold ambitions, Peace hath her profits, all her own, Derived from contraband munitions; And you who fight for Freedom's aims Will surely shrink to put a stopper Upon our bagmen's righteous claims And burst the boom in copper. Once more we swear our hearts are true And, like the tar's connubial token, "It doesn't matter what we do" If we but keep that pledge unbroken; So while we pray for Prussia's fall, And look to your stout arm to whop her, We mean to answer every call She makes on us for copper.
O. S.