
I expect you are plagued with a good many letters, so I want to explain why all the same I mean to write this & ask you to do something for us.
Shd. I care in yr. place to be plagued by "sympathizers" wanting things? Probably
not. But yet it cheers one to think one's words are welcome & have borne fruit
in distant lands. So anyway I thought you wd. like to know that we here (my boys
& we masters) had been reading yr. "Gospel of Comradeship,"—yes in our
School Chapel too, not caring for brother Grundy & old wifes talk of
"Inspiration" & "Canons of Scripture; but reading that Gospel with many more. This we
thought would cheer you up, & hoped, knowing how "Leaves of Grass" had cheered
up us English, men & boys.
Now our fellows here have taken the Gospel to heart & have wished "The Love of Comrades" for their School Song. And one boy has tried to give it an English & school dress, to suit our case. I enclose the result.
Now I don't believe you will be offended at his presumption. Yr. song is for
Americans, & this one here like most good Englishmen today feel America more
than a cousin, yet we want a song more suited to our purpose.
Now it wd. be a swell thing to have a song straight from yr. fingers, or a least a line from you about this. So I write, this feeling it an intrusion when you have so many to think of, to ask if you will not write us a few lines.
We are using the music written by a friend of mine for that comrade song in Edward
Carpenter's Chants of Labour, no. 35, which book I send.
We are trying
to educate our boys to be men. For English Education has
been & is too much a function of neat trousers a mere tiny affair.
We want them to have something rousing for their song—not merely English but world-wide. England is having queer times, but the juice is still here. Give us a Battle Cry; we will get music & lungs & hearts. And whether you feel well enough to do this for us accept our love & gratitude for yr life & example.
For my boys & colleagues truly yours Cecil Reddie.