Strike. by George Raffalovich
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE NEW AGE, THURSDAYJune IO, 1909. BUFFALO HARDIE & BABY WELLS. THE NEW AGE A WEEKLY REVIEW OF POLITICS, LITERATURE AND ART. No. 770] [New Series] Vol. V. No. 7] THURSDAY,JUNE IO, 1909. ONE PENNY CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE NOTESOF THE WEEK ... ... ... ... ... 129 BOOKOF THE WEEK : Tom Paine. By Huntly Carter ... 140 THE GREATCABLE SCANDAL.--II. By ”N.” ... ... 132 REVIEWS: Confessions of a Beachcomber ... ... 141 MR. BUFFALOHARDIE, M.P. ... ... ... ... 133 Ten PersonalStudies ... ... ... ... ... 142 Ma. WELLS’SPOLITY OF BABIES. By C. H. Norman ... 135 Junius Unveiled ... ... ... ... ... 143 America AND THE CHINESE PROBLEM.By Francis Grierson 137 DRAMA : Some PlayS. By N. C. ... ... ... ... 144 BEFORETHE STRIKE. By George Raffalovich ... ... 138 CORRESPONDENCE: JOS. Reeves, Wm. Temple and others, WHITEDSEPULCHRES. By Beatrice Tina ... ... ... I39 Frederick Rhodes, Expert, C., F. H. Burlingham ... 145 The EDITORIALADDRESS is 4, Verulam Buildings, thegreat civilisingchannels of the world ; and were Gray’s Inn, W.C. theynot, as theyunfortunately are, confined in use AU BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS should be ad- practically to trading purposes, their influence for good dressed to the Manager, 12-14Red Lion Court,Fleet St., London might be enormous. At no time during the Conference, ADVERTISEMENTS: The latest time for receiving however, wasthe obvious suggestion seriously made advertisements is first post Monday for the same week’s issue. that the cables should belong to the Empire whose well- SUBSCRIPTION RATES for England and Abroad : beingdepends upon them. Suchan idea appearsto, Three months .....IS. 9d. Six months .....3s. 3d. haveentered no head orto havebeen scouted on Twelve months ....6s. 6d. appearance.Yet plainly an Imperialcable service, is All remittances should be made payable to THE NEW AGE as necessary as an Imperial Navy. PRESS,LTD., and sent to 12-14,Red Lion Court, Fleet *** Street. London Or take another bond, the bond of ships. We have seen what the railways have done for England : every NOTES OF THE WEEK. line of privatelyowned railway in England is the ten- THE news thatthe GermanEmperor and the Tsar, tacle of a blood-suckerwhose legalised voracity has eachwith a retinue of Ministers, areto meetfor a at length succeeded in converting a rural into an urban threedays’ conference some time thismonth must be population. A similarprocess is going on in the Em- disquietingto the alarmists. Believing as we dothat pire at large ; the great shipping lines while ostensibly there will beno more greatEuropean wars our own theyexist to facilitate international trade, in reality withersare unwrung : andthis in spite of the melo- existto exploit it. By means of “conferences,”better dramatic attempts of Lord Roberts, caricatured by Lord named “rings,” competitionis rendered generally in- Esher, to persuade us that England probably has not a operative among the big lines : and by means of “de- Navy,and certainly has not an Army. At therisk of ferred rebates ” theshipping merchants are bound by being called Little Englanders, we refuse to believe it : cashnexus to their first choice. Thetotal effect of and in any event we put our money on the forces that boththese systems is to procure the minimum service makefor peace ratherthan theforces that make for tothe Empire at themaximum expense : a formula war. which holds good of every capitalist undertaking in the *** world. Amongthe former we areafraid, however, we can *** no longer count greatly upon the English Labour Party. TheReport of the RoyalCommission on Shipping Obviously its strength in international affairs is just as Rings, which has been sitting for two years, has just strong as its international bonds : and it must be con- been published.Nothing, perhaps, in recentCommis- -fessed that thesehave been strained by the impolitic sionwork is so feeble as theReport of theMajority, conduct of theLabour delegates in their choice of a unlessit be the Report of the Minority.Both Reports Berlin ReceptionCommittee. Among that Committee havepractically nothingto recommend, the difference was, to namethe most glaring instance, Herr Karl being that the Minority Reporters have the courage to. Goldschmidt,the president of whatcorresponds in admittheir intellectualdestitution. To what is such: Englandto a Workman’s Anti-Socialist League. Is awretched result due?We can onlysuppose either thereany wonder thatthe German Socialists-who that the terms of reference were badly drafted or that are indeed Socialists--should object to receiving in such theywere fearfully interpreted. A bolderCommission company : even thoughtheir visitors were, by decree would haveworried somehow to the root of the prob- of theInternational Bureau, Socialists sans phrase? lem ; which in thiscase, as in thecase of cables, is We can only regret that our political compatriots have nationalisation.Until the Empire owns its means of’ been so unfortunate intheir blunders. inter-communication theEmpire will notown its own: *** Soul. The ImperialPress (Limited) Conference, at which **** Lord Rosebery made on Saturday an eloquent speech, A useful Review of Fifty Years of Social “ Progress “ amounting as usual to nothing, has drawn attention to has been prepared under the direction of Mr Burns and another kind of bond of Empire : the prosaic bond that issued by the Local Government Board as a Blue-book, reallybinds. Undoubtedly the cables areor might be under the title : “Public HeaLh and Social Conditions.’* 130 THE NEW AGE JUNE IO, 1909 Notthe most optimistic of the Midas-mindedcitizens We cannotwork upany enthusiasm over the of to-daywill beable to find init much material for “saving ” bythe nation of the Duke of Norfolk’s congratulation.Itis true that slight improvements Holbein. No pictureinthe world was ever worth have taken place in various respects during the last half £71,000 ; and only collector maniacs would ever- think century : but they are both so small in themselves and , so. An anonymous donor has contributed 40 out of the so small in comparison with the progress of mechanical 71 thousand pounds required to supplement the Duke of invention that we are entitled to repeat the dread for- Norfolk’sSheffield andStrand rent-rolls. If the sale mula : wagesalways tend to subsistence level. For were any proof of genuine interest in art we could find example, the Report informs us that since 1860 wages some satisfaction in the sordid transaction ; but art does haverisen absolutely some 40 percent., ,while prices not flourish on fancy prices. The fact is that England generallyhave decreased by 24 percent. But these isaesthetically at a lowebb ; herplutocrats, old and figures,miserable enough in themselves considering new,are impervious to beauty as toideas ; andthe the condition of the wage-earners 40 years ago, need to drain of art works from the country merely follows in be compared with the increase in wealth over the same thewake of ourdeparting intelligence. Nothing short period due to mechanical invention and social organisa- of a bonfire of the National Gallery will now save Art. tion. Thus compared,we find that while wageshave ** risen some fifty or sixty per cent., profits, interest and As an example of the folly of conjoining high prices rent bave risen some three or four hundred per cent. : withgenuine appreciation we print the following withthe final result that, as wehave always main- circular,issued in despair by a young English painter tained,the rich are growing richer about five times whosework was recently exhibited at the Goupiland faster than the poor are growing less poor. The plain, praised without exaggeration in THENEW AGE by Mr. staring fact is that the poor have now to be fed at the G. R. S. Taylor. publicexpense when young, and maintained atthe 132, CheyneWalk, Chelsea, SW. Withthe purpose of facilitating my return toMorocco public expense when old ; and that after fifty years of and continuing mywork I propose tohold a lottery or strenuous. progress ! sweepstake of my unsold pictures, andbeing anxious to *** secure theirimmediate disposal, I am willing tosacrifice Someother facts are stated by a frankCanadian them at far lower prices than I shouldotherwise accept. There are 18 pictures, and provided that I can obtain 18 writingto the “Times ” ofSaturday last his impres- people, I propose to fix thestakes at 8 guineas a ticket. sions of England. “A Canadianvisiting your indus- In this wayevery holder wouldbe certain of securing a trial centres,” he says, “does not need any statistics at picture, and would havethe chance of gaining the most important. all, for he sees only too much evidence of physical de- Of course, the pictures vary in value, but as will’ be seen cline in the majority of the men whom he sees on the from the catalogue, 8 guineas is far lower than the nominal streets.”’Nevertheless, he gives some figures which prices of even thesmaller pictures thus offered. My sole object, as before stated, is to realise a round sum to enable me reproduce :- me to return tomy work in Morocco. Half ,a century ago the minimum standard of height for I am desirous of holdingthe lottery at a date not later your ’infantry was 5ft 6in. During theensuing quarter of than June 16th, provided, of course, that I obtain the neces- a century that standard was reduced to 5ft 3in. During sary number of subscribers. the Boer war it was further reduced to 5ft 2in ; and before The sweepstake will be conducted in the following manner : theend of that war it was reducedto 5ft. More than 50 Eighteennumbers willbe placed in a box and the person per cent. of the soldiers in South Africa werebelow the drawing No. I willbe entitled to the first choice fromthe minimum standard required of the recruits for the Crimean whole 18 pictures ; No. 2, the second ; and so on, in warhalf a century previously.About go per cent. of the numerical order. HENRYBISHOP. recruits in the Boer war failed to reach the former minimum *** standard of chest girth, which had been34in.