NOTES OF THE WEEK . MORE LETTERS TO MY NEPHEW. By Anthony Farley CURRENTCANT . LESYA UKRAINKA’S “BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.” FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad . (Trans. by S. Wolska and C. E. Bechhofer) MILITARY NOTES. By Romney . PROBLEMS OF CONFLICT. By Everard G. Gilbert- TOWARDSNATIONAL GUILDS. By “National Guildsmen" Cooper . . VIEWS AND REVIEWS: BACK TO THE VEDAS. By A. E. R. ASPECTS OF THE GUILDIDEA-IV. By Ivor Brown PASTICHE. By J. A. M. A., 1’. V. C., P. Selver, South AFRICAN ECHOES . Ruth Pitter, B. M., Vectis . WAR ANDSOLIDARITY. By Ramiro de Maeztu . LETTERS TO THE EDITOR from A. E. R., Evan IMPRESSIONSOF PARIS. By Alice Morning . Morgan, S. Reeve, A. Stratton, Fred H. READERS AND WRITERS. By R. H. C. . Gorle, F. W. O’Connor .

NOTES OF THE WEEK. revolutionaryreconstruction of it? It certainly seems to us insufficient, and, what is more, we do not believe that THE worst of having no House of Commons is that a soul in the country will believe it. Even supposing except for the Front Benches and their favoured Press that this quartette of men should be so unpatriotic as to and City men, nobody in the country knows what is continue their personal quarrels at the cost of the lives going on. We are like the crowd on the outermost of thousands of their countrymen-to say nothing of edges of a fight on the issue of which, nevertheless, our the country itself-it is inconceivable that a Cabinet, very lives depend. Now and then a rift in the throng having no worse troubles on its hands, could find no pressing about the combatants reveals us something. means of putting the criminal lunatics into straight. At other times some privileged spectator from the waistcoats without itself committing suicide. It is middle of The ring passes back a piece of news which obvious, we think, that more is being concealed than sounds authentic until it is as confidently denied. But revealed. It is against reason to suppose that between such revelations are really worse than total ignorance, Wednesday on which day Mr. Asquith declared a and help us in no sense either to forecast our fate or to Coalition Government was not in contemplation, and decide the questions of etiquette which are occasionally Thursday when he announced that a Coalition Government referred to us from the inner ring. In the darkness was in process of formation, nothing more serious and in the confusion of tongues we simply do not know than old-standing personal quarrels had been at work. what or whom to believe. All we know is that the There was, in our opinion, something more, and game-whatever it is-appears to be always going somethingworse. And it is plain that Lord Northcliffe and against us. We are always paying and losing, losing the Unionist Party knew what it was. It was certainly and paying. In the present crisis our case is particularly not the “industrial inefficiency” of the Northern workmen tragic. We are at war with the most powerful, involving our Army in a shortage of shells. The the most desperate, and the most ambitious nation in “Times” correspondent who alleges this as an excuse the world. For once the cry of Wolf, Wolf has not is simply a common newspaper reporter. Nor was it, been raised without a cause. As well as the ideals for we think, the inefficiency of the Government as a whole in which England stands in the world, England itself is respect of war legislation, for have not all their measures, in the most deadly peril. And we are naturally much and particularly their no-measures, had the consent and concerned about it. Yet this is the moment chosen by even the initiation of Lord Northcliffe and his Unionist the governors of the ring, not only to conceal more from friends? No, it was some knowledge possessed by us than ever, but to exchange sides, to sink the old these latter which enabled them to hold up the Government distinctions, to break through constitutional customs, to to ransom and by means of which they extorted present a disunited front to the enemy, to swap horses admission to the Cabinet with the double object of crossing a stream; in fact, to do everything we have saving the Government from scandal and holding office always been advised never to permit in a time of crisis. themselves. What it was we once more do not profess e** to know. Time will show, however, whether our What the reasons arc we do not profess to know. surmises of worse reasons than the alleged reasons are But if, as we surmise, the real reasons are more true or unfounded. discreditable to everybody concerned than the reasons *** publicly alleged, they are bad enough to put an end to On the Press that has, for its own reasons, brought England’s primacy in the world. For the alleged about a Coalition in the midst of the war we cannot reasons are personal squabbles between members of the forbear to retort in its own terms. When we urged the Cabinet and leaders of our Army and Navy respectively, necessity of substituting a national industrial organisation between Lord Kitchener and Sir John French and for the chaos of profiteering, on the ground that between Lord Fisher and Mr. Churchill. But is it such a change was not only advisable in itself but conceivablethat affairs such as these should necessitate not immediately expedient, it was said that we ought not to merely a couple of changes in the Cabinet but a demand a revolution in time of war. Who is making a revolution now? In a single week, for reasons on the one side, and of the worst class of profiteer on concealed from the public and without any intelligible the other. We have said from the outbreak of the war excuse in expediency, the whole party system has been (and long before) that men like Lord Northcliffe and swept by the board and a constitutional revolution Mr. Bottomley would ruin the country. The spectacle effected. Nor is it in the least likely to be undone when of such men leading England in a war for culture was the war is over, and the old system restored without pitiable on the face of it. They and their Press are damage. As the Tories and Liberal Unionists, from worse than merely illiterate and stupid ; they have made acting together as one, became in the end one in fact, of ignorance a culture in itself. Yet, tu everybody’s the two Front Benches. now become publicly united, amazement, one or other had only to open his mouth are married for life. There is a revolution to bring and bray to bring the Cabinet to its knees. Is the about in a time of crisis ! And the curious thing is conclusionnot forced on us that they held political or other that for years the self-same people, responsible for the secrets with which they blackmailed the Ministry into change, have done nothing but resist it. When Mr. the surrender of a Minister’s head a week? In the Belloc and others advocated the abolition of the Party- earliest days of the war, Lord Haldane was dismissed system and the open co-operation instead of the secret by them with every mark of contumely for his despatch collusion of the two Front Benches, we were told that of the Expeditionary Force. Nearly every Minister in the maintenance of the Party-system was essential to turn, for reasons best known to themselves, they daily- England’s greatness, arid that, above all, England does mailed and bull-baited until it would not have been not love Coalitions. Now, however, it appears that the surprising if the Cabinet had resigned. They ruined abolition and not the maintenance of the Party-system the Government’s drink legislation, and made impossible is essential to England’s preservation ; and that Coalitions any whole sal c transformation of the existing wasteful are the form of government England loves. system of industry. Finally, they hounded the Government *** on to a Herods’ campaign upon innocent women and children, the wives and daughters of quiet aliens. Without speculatingfurther on these unrpofitable To whatever knowledge they owed their power over the matters, let us enumerate some of the more obvious Cabinet, it was not only not in the national interest, implications of the Coalition. In the first place it but it was contrary to the national desire that it should cannot be pretended that there was any popular demand be continued. When the nation wishes to be governed for it or that the public is anything but bewildered by by Lord Northcliffe and Mr. Bottomley the nation will its appearance. Its very neccssity. is completely obscure, know where to find and how to appoint them. But to and so far from expecting or welcoming it, public have elected Mr. Asquith and to find ourselves ruled by opinion heard the first news with incredulity, and the Lord Bottomley was a translation the nation could not report. of the fact with consternation. It may be long endure. concluded from this whether the new Camera Obscura is *** likely to be more representative of national opinion than the old Cabinet of all the Wits’ end. Except ostensibly, On the other side, arid perhaps for the same the new Camera, we venture to say, will prove to be undivulged reason, the Government was no less easily. more out of touch with the nation than even its influenced by profiteers than by the squalid Press. We predecessor.Even of the fresh personnel-to say nothing have frequently remarked-and the observation is open of the influences behind them-we think it just to say to be verified by anybody-that the nation was and still that their worst fault is not that they are untried men, is ripe to get rid of profiteers for ever. Early in the war but that they have mostly all been tried and all found these exploiting parasites proved their quality by being wanting. What public opinion has called the the first, as they always are, to get into a panic and to septuagenarian Lord Lansdowne from his semi-retirement squeal for State aid, and then by using the security thus to repeat his sage absurdities of the pre-Boer war obtained to bolster up themselves against the public period? How much safer will the country feel for welfare. It is the measure of our national unity and of having Messrs. Walter Long, Austen Chamberlain and the influence profiteers have had upon the Government’s Bonar Law directing the national defence against the policy that the wretched class is wealthier now than proposed German Conquest ? What new advantage is ever. Several millionaires, we affirm, will have been it to have Mr. Balfour nominally in the same office he made in England by the war, but not one will be has actually been filling? We have heard no shouts in unmade.Thanks to them, against a national spirit not the street for the services of Mr. Arthur Henderson. dissimilar in character and in potentiality from the *** communism of the early Christians, every form of property We have not many political dogmas in an remains as exclusively the monopoly of the few as ever experimentalconstitution like ours. Expediency and common- it was in the noonday of the Manchester School. And sense are usually our best guides. But to one rock we they have employed it to some purpose too ! It is an cling as the foundation of our very policy of expediency indubitable fact that our naval blockade of Germany has and commonsense : it is that an Executive without an not succeeded in raising prices and profits there to the alternative government is absolutely certain to be first height that both have reached in England blockaded by despotic, then incompetent, and finally unpopular. This, our own profiteers. Surely the comparison is conclusive, and not some rare metaphysical reason, is the real scandalous and damning. Yet even so it can be objection to a Coalition; a Coalition has no heir. made still worse. We have not heard that the German And it is not, as we have many times urged, for the Government welcomes our blockade or honours our nation’s sake alone that an alternative government is as admirals for maintaining it. But our own Government, necessary as a second string to a bow. The Executive since the early days of the war, have not lifted a finger itself has a most vital interest in it. What, for to break our blockade. On innumerable occasions they example, will happen if (and when) the present Coalition have raised their hands to bless its authors. becomes extremely unpopular? Despair for us, but it *** may be something worse than despair for them We may say at once that the first of these two defects individually. For us there is left only the alternative of will certainly be remedied by the Coalition. Lords a popular revolution, but for the Ministers there is a Northcliffe and Bottomley (we have anticipated the sinister end possible to their careers. latter’s peerage for merit) counted no doubt on having *** more power than ever when once their nominees as well Setting aside the aIleged reasons for the change, and as their victims were installed in office. The very also what may be called the efficient cause (with which, contrary, however, will be the case. No man is really strange to say, certain American trusts are rumoured to grateful to the evil means by which lie ascends to power ; have some concern), the defects of the passing Cabinet, he does his best to forget them. Lord Kitchener refused making some rearrangement desirable, were that it to play conscription as the “Daily Mail” expected him was under the influence of the worst section of the Press to in return for having thrust him into office; and for this the “Daily Mail” has now turned upon him, but to will arise and put an end to all this foolery. A South its own discomfiture. The burning of the “Daily Mail” American thinker has observed that the sequence in on Friday was the best public act the Stock Exchange times like these is the absolutism of the Executive, has ever performed; it is the only one within our knowledge. followed by the absolutism of the mob (Mr. Bottomley, to But as Lord Kitchener had the manliness to wit), resolved in the combination of the men of sense. despise the means by which he rose, we may be sure There are, we do not deny, even in the Camera elements that the new Camera: once safe, will look unfavourably of good; and in the nation as a whole there is, of on their electors. Lord Northcliffe in particular is the course, a preponderance of good. If the latter feel pig that has cut its own throat while swimming. Playing stirred they can, by the process of trial and error often for more power, he has ensured himself less. His enough repeated, get a Cabinet at last representative of Mrs. Harris with whom he used to frighten the Government the real nation. All we have to do is to continue has now been produced; and he has placed her in hopefullyto superannuate the incompetents and to impeach the bosom of his erstwhile victims. One of the first the treacherous. Thirdly, it stands to reason that the effects, we say, of the Coalition will be the decline of Coalition, ramshackle as it is, will commit blunders the power of Lord Northcliffe. The man has only now which will soon shake it to pieces. If a Cabinet selected two courses open. Either he must declare in his Press by Mr. Asquith could not work together, a Camera of that everything is now all right (whether it is or not), promiscuous origin may he expected to be at loggerheads since his advice has been taken; or, having forced his in a month. Assuredly they will between them own Party to join the Executive, and no longer commit some political crime which will bring the public representinganybody in particular, he must be reduced to about their ears. And we believe we know what it will crying for a revolution in the wilderness. In either be: the institution of Conscription. event his power is at an end; for his Polonian *** obsequiousness to his nominees would be but an echo; and his attempt to raise a revolution would hang him We have already indicated our opinion that the first of all. attack on Lord Kitchener in the “Daily Mail” was *** inspired by revenge for his refusal to walk the plank of Rut that is the only good we can see coming from Conscription. And it seems possible that the new the Coalition. The other defect of the Cabinet, its Camera will venture where Lord Kitchener rightly pandering to profiteers, is likely rather to be intensified feared to tread. The verdict, we confidently predict, than diminished. Look well, we beg our readers, at the will be death by misadventure. For we are not going to persons extruded from the old Cabinet and at the have Conscription ! If our ruling classes, in obdurate persons likely to be intruded into the new Camera. A imitation of the Prussian, refuse to listen to our Government, after all, is not an abstraction, but a reasoned protests, our representations, our supplications, committee of men. As the sum of innumerable zeros is there is nothing for it but war. An army of zero, the sum of profiteers’ mouthpieces is only a nearer four than two million men has been obtained by profiteer’s mouthpiece. Compare in their substance voluntary means; at least another million or more can some of the reported new members with some of the be had for the asking by a Government in the nation’s deported old : Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Mr. Bonar confidence; yet for the remnant still needed we are to Law, Lord Lansdowne, Mr. F. E. Smith, with Lord undo the tradition of England, forgo our moral Haldane, Mr. Birrell, Mr. Harcourt and Lord superiority to Prussia which lies in Liberty, and to Beauchamp.We do not suppose that anybody outside the become Prussians ourselves. Never, never ! If there inner ring knows anything particularly good about the remains a spark of English feeling in the country, the first four or anything particularly bad about the second. attempt to impose Conscription, connoting, as it will, Rut ignorance for ignorance, what prejudiced sensible either an Executive incapable of making a national man mould not prefer the latter to the former to rule appeal, or, more insulting, a people incapable of over him? How, then, we ask again, can the new responding to one, will be opposed in every town, in Camera be said to inspire more confidence than the old every vilIage, in every household. The Coalition that Cabinet? Above all, how can it have, with less public sets foot upon this plank is doomed; and its members confidence, greater boldness in treating with those public may be congratulated if they appear in public life again. enemies, the profiteers? If a Cabinet containing Lord *** Haldane and the rest shivered at the threats of a couple There is a last alternative which, from many points of Irish whisky-distillers, or of a group of engineering of view, ought to be placed first. It is the holding of a employers, or of any of the other gangs of public General Election. Having agreed to the abrogation of thieves (all of whom, if they were only in Germany, we all the usual counsels in time of war against swapping should be calling Huns and hogs), the new Camera may horses, etc., there is not the least reason why, in the be expected to climb down before even they level their anticipated event of the failure of the new Coalition, and guns. Farewell, we say, to any hope from the change in the absence from the present House of Commons of of a change in our industrial system for the better. any alternative government, a General Election should The Germans, it is clear, will become gentlemen before riot be held. The “Star” reported that Mr. Asquith we English cease to be fools. threatened his resignation last week as a means of *** inducing his followers to accept the Coalition proposals. However, we are not disposed to despair. It is the Had they refused-as they might and ought to have way of England to muddle first and then to muddle refused-an Election would have been inevitable. What through. To begin with, it is not to be supposed that Mr. Asquith was not afraid to risk for the sake of a the whole of both sections of the party Press will walk Coalition Government the nation ought not to be afraid delicately behind the combination of their friends and to risk for the sake of a NationaI Government. True opponents. While their parties were divided, the two there are many difficulties in the way-the number of Presses could nicely divide their daily lies between electors on service, the waste of time involved, the them; but under the new circumstances, they must interregnum of control, the sorting out and settling down share the news and combine in criticism, each of a wing of the new Government. Rut these are less of the Coalition. Now for once we shall see the insurmountablethan the difficulties in which the continuance unaided power of the Press. With no homogeneous of the Coalition may land us, as we shall show Party in power to damn or praise indiscriminately, and next week. The question is whether our dark with no Party to bring in, the Press must turn to its days will be shorter under a Coalition which may become readers and for once represent them. Its new function, hateful, or under a new-created Government, the price in short, is that of the obsolete House of Commons : to of which will he a General Election in the early criticise the Executive in the name of its constituents. autumn. For ourselves, we have no doubt of the wiser Rut, secondly, there is the chance that the hitherto choice; it is to have patience, but to shuffle the cards silent mass of the nation, the English of the English, for a fresh deal, Current Cant. Foreign Affairs “Strikes aredegrading.”-W. W. RETFORD. By S. Verdad. AT the present juncture no one who wishes his country “Oh for a strong man and London under Martial Law.” well will desire to northcliffe, that is to say, no one will --J. COATS. desire to add to the difficulties of the Cabinet for the sake of gratifying personal ambition and spite. Too “The greatest asset of this country is the common sense many papers have been northcliffing for weeks, with the of the common people.”-“Evening News.” only result of disquieting our Allies and raising the hopes of the enemy. It is therefore with great “Steady boys, Steady.”-ARNOLD WHITE. diffidencethat I shall venture to make one or two remarks on the Foreign Office; but they are called for and will “Wages still rising.”-“Star and Echo.” do no harm. *** “Shem, Ham and Japeth.”-“Daily Mirror.” On previous occasions I have pointed out that the Foreign Office did not pay sufficient attention to the views of neutral countries. America is not a case in “Is your conscience clear?”-“Evening News.” point;for with the grave scandal of the relations existing between the Government as a whole and a financial “Awake.”-“Daily Mail.” group in the United States I shall have to deal later on. But Italy is decidedly a case in point. Everybody is “The Soul of Satan.’’--HORATIO BOTTOMLEY. glad to think, so far as my experience goes, that the war is likely to be shortened by the participation of yet “Hickey’s Circus is quite the topic of conversation another Power. Italy joins us at the end of May; but around West London.”-“Herald.” there is no reason why she should not have done so at the end of January. Her intervention at that time “You can’t see the War unless you buy the War would have resulted in her sending eighty thousand men Budget.”-“Star and Echo.” to the Dardanelles-as she will perhaps still do-and the first attempt at forcing the Straits would have been “Come into the light. The greatest light. The light successful. As it is, it was a fiasco, and it was a of the Cinematograph.”-HEPWORTH Co. fiasco because the information conveyed to the Foreign Office was again at fault. Greece was to join us in “The function of the Press, nowadays, is to inform, February; but M. Venizelos found it necessary to sustain,stimulate and inspire the Nation.’’-LLOYD GEORGE. resigninstead. And Italy’s intervention was delayed for four months, not because the Government was “Spoils of War in Poplar. Women’s only chance of unwilling, not because Signor Giolitti could not have been showing their hatred of German barbarity.”--”Daily got out of the way as easily in January as last week, Sketch.’’ not because the army and navy were unprepared; but because sufficient attention had not been given to the “The halfpenny paper is far and away a better paper Vatican. than the old fivepenny and sixpenny journal.”--RICHARD *** WHITEING. On the great importance of the Vatican I have already insisted. The French Government could not atone in “Art aids recruiting. Lure of the well-dressed Shop Window.”-“Daily Express.” a day for the injustice of ten years and more; and the English Mission must have felt just a shade bewildered. Prince Buelow, ably assisted by his brother-in-law, “To destroy militarism-by John Scurr. Treats of the atrocity-question in an authoritative manner.”-“Herald.’’ Prince di Capo Reale, made admirable use of his opportunities at the Vatican, and his efforts were well supported by the well-known German Catholic Deputy. “What all Shakespeare’s plays do to represent to us Herr Erzberger. Herr Erzberger was summoned to Elizabethan England, Bernard Shaw’s ‘Man and Superman' Rome as a last resort; and he managed to stave off does with the England of the twentieth century.”-- ARTHUR J. STATHAMin “Everyman. ” Italy’s intervention for at least a few weeks-just time enough to enable the Germans and Austrians to strengthen their forces on the Italian frontier. ‘‘Lord Fisher has brought down the Government. ”-- Whateverwe may say of the recent behaviour of Germany, “Pall Mall Gazette.” we must admit that her diplomacy in the last six or eight months has been extraordinarily good. Ours has “This War is the last flicker ofMediaevalism.”-- not. “Marmaduke”in the “Evening News.” *** A parallel to the lack of care we took in regard to the “Harry Lauder-Recruiter.”-“News and Leader.” Vatican is to be found in the attitude taken up by the Foreign Office and the India Office towards Mohammedans. “Germany has been a master in deception, in hypocrisy, Mr. Pickthall and Mr. Hossain have already and Preparation for War.”-Major-General Sir ALFRED shown us that we might have been, shall I say, more E. TURNER. tactful? It was necessary, let us admit, to “regularise" our position in Egypt; but it was wholly unnecessary “In this democratic age.”--SELFRIDGE & Co. to let the papers talk sillily about deposing the Caliph. We know that the Aga Khan went to Cairo to “Rubber goods. Ring up City 3588.”-“The Gypsy.” sound the ‘‘natives” about the possible proclamation of the new Sultan of Egypt as Caliph, and we know that “Mr. Coulson Kernahan has served his country nobly the “natives” did not respond very affably. We were as a recruiting officer.”-“British Weekly.” then told that the Aga Khan had returned to India; but his subsequent movements remained mysteriously “Blatchford asks for explanations.’’-.“Weekly hidden. Facts which have been brought to my Dispatch.” knowledgetend to indicate that he was employed on another cock-and-bull mission, further particulars of which may “The country is ripe for conscription.”--“Evening be obtained, in his unguarded moments, from the Nizam News.” of Hyderabad. The Nizam’s loyalty has never been doubted; but it was too much to ask him to see that no prayers for the Sultan were said in the mosques in his Military Notes. dominions-and Hyderabad is one of the most important Moslem States in the world. It was absurd to put By Romney. forward a suggestion like this in a country where one half THE failure of the recent British attacks in Flanders the Moslem population resents the attack on Turkey. to do more than contain the enemy has been officially Here, as in the case of the Vatican, too little regard attributed to insufficient shells ; which shows that, in was paid to religious convictions. It does not appear to spite of all that Mr. Asquith may say, the supply of have occurred to any Foreign Office official of importance shells is neither so constant nor so large as the that most Moslems arc Moslems first of all, and circumstancesdemand. Why, heaven knows. The French, Indians or Egyptians or something else afterwards;and with resources of money and machinery that are, so far the attempt to bring the Caliph into disrepute was inevitably as an outsider can see, much smaller than our own, are destined to have only one ending. I am surprised apparently able to provide for a force many times as that even the Aga Khan allowed himself to be large. The Germans, shut off from the rest of the persuaded to undertake the work of crushing Turkey in world by a strict blockade, appear to suffer no vital Hyderabad by the simple expedient of sending out a inconvenience at present, though we have been many secret circular to the priests. Little less than a miracle times assured that it is coming. The Russians are said can have prevented the Nizam from joining his fathers to be, and might reasonably be expected to be, most prematurely-and all because Downing Street was ill hampered of all, but they are not thereby prevented informed. You cannot ride with Prussian boots over a from causing the Germans constant and terrible trouble. religion. Only ourselves-who, by the way, are supposed to be *** manufacturing for the rest of Europe--are unable to We are now called upon to deal with Greece again. advance because we have no shells or cartridges. The What precautions has the Foreign Office taken on this Dardanelles are to be forced in order that the supplies occasion? Apart from the religious question, the of arms and munitions may trickle through to Russia- Germaninfluences there must be combated, and they are but how are they to trickle to Russia when they cannot strong. Does the Foreign Office know, for instance, trickle as far as Calais? I have no doubt that all this how many banks throughout Greece (or Italy, has a reason, and a reason which it may be impolitic for that matter) are supported by German funds? to avow; but in the meantime we are puzzled, and, Or how many German financial concerns have in plain English, not over-confident. a direct and indirect interest in Greek Constant readers of THE NEW AGE may remember business houses and financial establishments? Or to that a few months ago I had a little conti-overs:; with what extent the Germans are socially important in “A. E. R.” upon the subject of the Russians and Athens? Or what the interests are of the men who Freud’s theory of dreams. It appears that a person form such a close pro-German group round the King called Freud has started a theory in psychology whose and Queen? The Foreign Office, to my knowledge, gist, to my unsophisticated sense, would appear to be is not well informed on all these matters, though that when you haven’t got a thing which it is your information, of a kind, is at its disposal. Expert opinion nature to desire, you start to dream that you have got has not been sought, and it has not been brought to it. Possibly this is so-I haven’t remarked it in the notice of the Foreign Office. It is almost useless, myself, but as the psychologists tell us, we don’t really Jet it be remembered, for anybody to bring good know about ourselves, and what we do is not information to any Government department, unless the what we think we do, but what they think we circumstances are altogether exceptional. It has not yet do-although, indeed, one might imagine that any been forgotten in diplomatic circles in London, and in defects of perception common to humanity were governmental circles in Rome, that when three or four also shared by them. Anyhow, at the beginning of the Italian aviation engineers came over here last autumn war, as everybody knows, the talc want all round to bring- a new form of aeroplane to the attention of Englandthat a Russian Army Corps had been landed at the War Office they met with a very listless reception Aberdeen and transported by rail to France. The in Whitehall. The aeroplane in question carried, in rumours were circumstantial and believed and circulated addition to the pilot and two officers, half a ton of by numerous well-informed persons, and individuals shells and ammunition. It ran at seventy-five miles an were not wanting who had actually seen and conversed hour, and could remain in the air for at least forty with the Russian troops. The rumour was officially hours at a stretch. These men went from one department denied and ultimately proved untrue, and the question of the War Office to another, but in the end they then arose, How did a tale so baseless obtain such wide had to return home, without having had an opportunity belief? How was it that respectable citizens not only of displaying their plans and specifications. We are heard of the imaginary Russians but actually saw and now experimenting with an aeroplane of this type at spoke to them? Woolwich. *** “A. E. R.,” of course, seized this as an excellent opportunity to advertise Freud’s theory of dreams. This story was not confined to Italy when the persons .His idea was that England at the time was full of concerned returned to Rome and began to talk. It persons who passionately desired that a Russian army spread to the Balkan States, together with one or two or some similar deus ex machina should appear to save other examples of England’s diplomatic vacillation and the situation-and that accordingly they dreamed it. hesitancy; and it is in consequence of mistakes such as He proceeded from two assumptions-firstly that there these that certain negotiations which have been were no Russians and that there was no ground for proceeding for several weeks now have been prolonged and supposing their presence, and secondly that the all but suspended. Some time ago I referred to the witnesses were of such integrity and veracity that they intervention on our side of Italy, Roumania, and could not be suspected of deliberately lying about the Greece, and also of the Scandinavian countries. Italy Russian passage. They must have seen it somewhere, has joined us, and we have lent Roumania five millions. and therefore in one of Freud’s dreams. It may be taken for granted that other countries will My reference on the contrary was to Romney’s follow; for, slow though the passage of the Dardanelles theory of common sense, which postulated that there is is, it has reached a point at which Bulgaria must begin very rarely smoke without fire. I admitted that there to consider a seat on the fence as by no means safe. had been no Russian Army Corps, but I maintained that But no satisfactory results will be achieved until our on the other hand, Freud or no Freud, whole populations negotiators know more about the internal conditions of do not dream Army Corps in broad daylight without the countries with which they are attempting to having some grounds for that belief-grounds bargain. which, if not sufficient, must at any rate have appeared sufficient. In other words men do not, when awake, of the criminals responsible. I hope that when that believe in things for which they have not, at any rate, day comes we shall not forget the good old Indian some passable intellectual justification. I said that it custom of blowing from the guns. It is a death which, was impossible to say exactly how the rumour started, whilst less than usually lingering, is more than usually but that the transport of large bodies of troops through terrible, and it carries with it associations from the England and the simultaneous appearance of a mysterious torturers, robbers, and murderers upon whom it was army on Von Kluck’s flank probably had something originally inflicted, that make it specially suited to to do with it, and that as regards its spread, that was Germans. probably accounted for by the natural tendency to lying or romancing which is inherent in every human man. I also suggested an explanation which has since, Towards National I believe, obtained considerable credence among the Guilds. troops in France-that the rumour was deliberately IN our European States patriotism is lusty enough, and “put about” by the War Office €or the purpose of while this is all very well in its wholesale way, it is increasingthe already great anxiety of the Germans with only one side of liberty, for the desires for freedom regard to their exposed left flank. inside the State are yet in their infancy. It is poor Such was my explanation. “A. E. R.”labours under consolationto a wage-slave fully conscious of his lot to be the disadvantage of not being a Christian, and was told that his is a free country, not to be trampled on accordingly unable to see the plain fact that all men, by the invader. ‘To him the democratisation of industry and more particularly respectable men, lie when they is a cause as sacred as national existence itself, are quite sure that they will not be found out. He and, indeed, it might be said to justify the continuance wasted his controversial energy on attempting to show of the nation. Feeling in this way, it is not easy for from the harbour records of Archangel, the state of the the Guildsman to desert the Trade Union trenches for British railways, and so forth, that it was quite the national arms, unless he is convinced that the integrity impossible for Russian Army Corps to have passed of the State as a whole is not to be defended and through England at that time. What of course he had maintained at the final expense of those other liberties. to show was, not that it was actually impossible (which Of course, it may be argued that the defeat of England one may grant), but that it was so patently impossible would mean the end of all chances of industrial freedom as to be unworthy of sane popular credence without a for Englishmen, to which there is a ready reply- Freudian dream theory to help it-a very different that the victory of England may possibly mean the same matter. As a matter of fact to the ordinary layman, thing. But to believe this is wholly depressing, bringing uninstructed in the passages of troops by sea and land- down one’s idealism with a bump. So we are a difficult and abstruse subject-there could not have driven by Fate, no less than by Logic, to watch and appeared any reason why the Russians should not have work for both eventualities, the integrity of the nation passed through England at that time, in face of the and the freedom of industry. universal consensus of opinion that they had. *** To- this, of course, “A. E. R.” would not agree. And The movement towards National Guilds depends so now the truth appears. I see that a Mr. H. B. Steele, largely on Trade Union education that we shall make Hon. Secretary of the Press Representatives Committee no apology for returning to the subject. Until the at the Press Bureau, has explained how the Russian Unions concern themselves far more extensively with myth arose. Many Russian officers in uniform and the problem of future development the motion will be accompanied by retinues of orderlies, landed in Scotland slow indeed. There will be little more than mere from Archangel and travelled south. Some of the conservationofforms. In general the Trade Unionist goes public saw and conversed with these men, many of to his branch meeting (or he does not go) and listens whom no doubt spoke English. Others of the public, with more or less boredom to the routine business necessary wishing to earn a cheap notoriety and thinking for Trade Union governance. Too often his horizon themselves quite safe, lied and said that they hac! seen is limited by the minutes of the last meeting, and his and conversed with them. It is satisfactory to know perspicacity wasted on the disentangling of rules and that they must have paid for their lack of scruple by clauses. Sometimes a question arises which provokes great subsequent discredit. Such was the root of the a clash of principles; then members become keen and rumours, and they grew and spread from the fact that interested. But this interest awakens only spasmodically, large bodies of Territorials were at this same time being and comes as an intruder on the dull routine of moved about the country in darkened carriages with branch business. Now, it is in the branches of the the blinds drawn. I submit to any reasonable person Unions that one must seek knowledge of the real that here is quite sufficient cause to account for the thought and feeling of the organised worker. Our Russian myth without having recourse to Freud and imaginary seeker after such knowledge would learn his theory of dreams. Of course the excited state of little by flying straight to national headquarters. One popular opinion aided the spread of the story. It branch meeting would teach him more in a night than always does. But we do not want a Freud to tell us an eternity of delving into central accounts. that. *** I have not. yet been able to see last week’s NEWAGE, This matter is so important that we would have so cannot say whether my last contribution has every Trade Unionist concentrate on it. Once the appearedor whether it includes some remarks I made demandis felt the means of such education will not be concerningthe employment of poisonous gas. These wanting. There are many possible ways of meeting affirmed that the employment of asphyxiating gas was this need, and in THE NEW AGE the suggestion has not inhuman in itself, but was only discreditable as already been made that the movement has members who being contrary to the Hague Convention. When would be glad to give their services as leaders of writing this I believed that the gas was not particularly classes in their several districts. Where this fails painful or horrible in its effects, and that, when outsidehelp might be sought, for to our national credit comparedto the effects of a shell or a bayonet, it was, if there is a growing number of men, not themselves of anything, humane. Since then I have read, in common the wage-working class, who realise that the Trade with the rest of England, about the unnecessarily dreadful Unions alone stand between England and an efficient effect of this latest German device. It is a maxim kind of slavery. No doubt the Unions would at first not only of Christian but of civilised warfare, that begrudge expense on educational work, or would be nothing more be done than is necessary to incapacitate content with the very minimum, but this would only your foe, and that wanton torture is in all circumstances serve to throw the onus of pioneering on those willing indefensible. When we have terminated this war we to give themselves in service. And that such are the shall have liberty to devote ourselves to the punishment best pioneers can hardly be doubted. The first thing, then, is for Trade Unionists to introduce education into the curriculum of branch activities. Once afoot, this Aspects of the Guild Idea. education will go hot-speed to the position of importance which is its due. By Ivor Brown. *** IV. As to the substance of this teaching and learning, ONE of the greatest and perhaps one of the least soluble the labour world has not yet been fully charted, though problems of history has centred round the question “TO many Columbuses have made famous discoveries. Still, what extent does human nature make its social the Unionist can profitably study the geography of machinery and to what extent does social machinery, the wage-system. Dropping the metaphor, and taking once made, mould human nature for the future? Did up the burden of definition, we might suggest the man make the capitalist system or has the capitalist considerationof the freedom or unfreedom of wagery, system made man?” Unfair, impossible alternatives, it its efficiency or slackness, and the careful examination may be argued. True, but it is just in the answer that of the many suggested means of industrial regeneration. we give to these and similar dilemmas that we shall be The Guildsman will press his case, as will the reformist, found to differ from the Collectivists. It is just in the while the good sense of the members shall decide. respective weights attached to the factors of human Whatever impression is made at first, the Guildsman depravity and unfortunate machinery that we shall be can be sure that, thought being stirred, the victory in revealed as faithful, they as faint-hearts never likely the end will be his. By full and open discussion of all to win fair lady. the alternatives will grow a familiarity with the view What, then, is this difference of judgment and outlook? that the free democracy with which they govern their Simply this. The Collectivist has long been angry with Trade Unions might be extended by the workers to the waste and overlapping and stupid squalor of their trades. Once the Unionistglimpses the practicability individualism and wants it cleared up, not so much of self-government in industry, his love of becausehe is interested in human life and human work democraticliberty will dothe rest. So the study of Trade and the expression of human desire through life and Union history and the study of modern industrial problemsin all their multiplexity would sharpen the work, but because the muddle angers him. He attacks the Liberals in much the same spirit as a man writes perceptionand quicken the spirit as would nothing else. *** to the papers to complain of a timetable error or the nuisance of bad roads. In Mr. Wells’ novels this Trade Unionists who detest the Insurance Act may cry well be suspicious of anything which emanates from the of revolt for order’s sake is insistent. What is wanted brains of the parties responsible for that infamous is a dictator to smooth out the way and clean up the mess. The Collectivist wants a man : the Guildsman measure of compulsion. And so we find some strong wants men. I do not refer merely to the contrast suspicion of the Government plans for the temporary financial relief of the Trade Unions. It is unfortunate, betweenthe political bureaucracy of collectivism and the democracy (elective bureaucracy, if prefers to say no more, that these measures should be ‘‘A. E. R.” associatedwith the Insurance Act, that the new wine should the term) of the Guilds. Our difference is more have been put in the old and ugly vessel. Yet we are fundamental.Mr. Wells despises democracy because he is by no means sure that the Government’s action can a New Statesman : he and his kind like telling the be waved away with easy contempt. That there is a people what they ought to want. They honestly think priori reason for suspicion of anything which the present they know better and can cram the public mind. I am Government may do in the field of industry is true for the Old Statesmen who, like Plato, believe that enough, but, bearing this in mind, let us briefly human desire and will are fundamentally right and need considerthe new methods. The most striking difference purging rather than stuffing. Capitalism to them is between them and the Insurance Act lies obviously in the fruit of man’s villainy and, man being a villain, the the fact that, while the latter compels the workers to only thing to do is to take the sting out of the beast by register themselves as wage-slaves, the former invite making capitalism collective not private. To me capitalism Trade Unions to accept the means of tiding over a is more an accident than a crime. The men are difficult time. The Government is, shall we say, in not so bad as the system under which they are crushed. the position of a friend returning to another a little of The Fabian motto of “The suspect” is not yet justified. what he owes to him. Even this degree of friendliness, Capitalism is an accident. Without accepting in the though not exactly heroic, is better than hostility. fullest form the doctrine of economic determinism one While Guildsmen and Trade Unionists have no can say that, granted a dispossessed proletariate, the immediateoccasion to sing psalms of thanksgiving, they sudden discovery of modern industrial power and might spare their denunciation for the thousand and methods, and a certain amount of self-interest the one things which better deserve it. system was certain to be initiated. Once started it was *** bound to go on without undue “frightfulness” to help We see that the Government cannot ignore the it. Nothing could stop it then because the new national importanceof the Trade Unions in our national economy. and world economy involved men in commercial While this is so, it is urged that the tardy act of relationsover which political and social control were grace above referred to is not due to momentary impossible.One employer was not a particularly cruel anxiety for the continuance of the Unions, but rather or selfish individual, but the Germans or the Americans to their Machiavellian pursuit of an ultimate control or even the men in the next town were undercutting him. over the Unions which might possibly please “The Therefore he had, not altogether willingly yet not of Nation,” though it would certainly not satisfy the course against his will, to cut down expenses, sweat his nation. Since, however, the Insurance Act’s machinery men, and employ women. The process was regarded of coercion is not here accompanied by the spirit of as inevitable and the Victorian insistence on the coercionthese fears had better be left until the iron hand completeseparation of ethics and economics does not prove is revealed. Then, if the suspected attempt to extend that the Victorians were devils but merely that they the Unemployment part of the Insurance Act becomes were overcome by the huge weight of circumstance. a reality, let resistance live. As this is not yet proved, The stone had been set rolling and people said vaguely, the Government relief can be taken as neither strengthening “How can I stop it?’’ When they found they couldn’t nor weakening the Act, and the duty of critics stop it they took to saying, “Well, let’s make the best is to see that the flavour of benevolence is not credited of it.” Hence the popularity of Gradgrind economists in any way to that measure itself. No, it should be and hence the lazy acceptance of an accomplished fact taken for what it is worth as a recognition that, after which, pace the Socialist street orator, is far more all, the State does in some degree depend on the typicalof modern capitalism than any conscious devilry. Trade Unions, while the Trade Unions have a right When the United States Commission appointed to when they will it to some association with the State. discussthe social problem (recently discovered by American professors) asked Mr. Rockefeller what were his views on the relation of capital and labour, he naively South African Echoes. answered, “I have never considered the question.” We ceased long ago to expect anything from Government Surely that reply speaks for itself. Itis torpid tolerance Labour Commissions except the restatement of and hatred of reflection and not a deep-rooted orthodox opinions based upon official lies. It is in the conspiracyof cruelty that has made the world what it is. nature of the thing that representative bodies, even when Capitalism was a crime which nobody planned and masquerading in the dress of investigators, must nobody could prevent. expressthe sentiments of the interests they represent ; In this merciless machinery of capitalism man, and, as present-day Government interests are almost exploitingand exploited, was caught up and impotently exclusively capitalist interests, Government Commissions tossed. The commercial relations involved were far must find that the economics, the political ideas, too strong to be checked and ordered by national and the aspirations of the representatives of capitalism are local governments. Of necessity industrialism swept just and wise. Even when the Commission is dealing all before it : the rolling stone careered irresistibly with affairs pertaining to nationalised industries, the forward. Scoundrels there have been and will be, but same view will be taken and pretty much the same to indict humanity for being as bad as its own accretion conclusionswill be arrived at as when it deals with private of accidental machinery is madness. In private enterprise. It must be so. National industries to-day relations,a petty and easily controlled sphere of activity, are based upon wagery and profiteering; most of them it is easy to blunder with good motives. How much have been nationalised to further profiteering in some more, then, in the political and economic worlds where other field ; consequently, when considering the claims the results of our actions go too far to be traceable, and of labour in such industries, the economics of wagery the whole skein of relations is too tangled to be lightly and profiteering will be used. This is fully exemplified unravelled by an act of individual will, may bad in the Blue Book that now lies before us; the Report resultsbe produced from normally decent motives. Naturally to the South African Houses of Parliament of the Railway I do not claim that the petty greed of man has not Commission of Enquiry, November, 1914. It deals helped to give the bounding stone of international with the Eight Hour Day, the Minimum Wage, Piece capitalisma downward push : at the same time it is manifest Work, Overtime, and a few other labour matters which that chance as well as choice has brought upon the luckless the Great Strike of 1913, when the Botha Government head of man the industrial avalanche. so signally distinguished itself by the wholesale murder If that is the case, then general indictments of of South African citizens, brought to the notice of the humanity such as that behind the doctrine of the economic civilised world. Now, we have no intention of wading man are futile. Modern Collectivism does not go through the whole dreary record of the labours of this as far as Victorian Individualism in the gospel of hate Commission; it is merely one of the usual kind, similar and distrust, but it is certainly tainted with the view. to a thousand others-except in one particular, with There is possibly truth, and certainly probability, in the which we shall deal in a moment-but we do want to remark attributed to a Fabian notable, “Give everyone consider one or two of the points raised. their own way ! Why if they had, the streets of London First, then, let us take the question of the attitude of wouldn’t be fit to walk in!” It is this idea that the Commission with regard to the problem of special commonhumanity is bubbling over with vice which superior treatment of State servants. Here, as might be people have got to repress, this constantly expressed expected,the Commission, not caring to register its own notion that the workers cannot be trusted to run their views, quotes with approval Symes’ “Political own business but must be watched by guardians of Economy,’’ to the effect that the State must base its superior intelligence, that is so common and so paymentsupon the price ruling in the open market. To unjustifiable. The Collectivist seems to take man as pay more would be “a most fruitful source of jobbery, he is under capitalism, and says, “There you are. Look and this again would impair the industrial efficiency of at him. We can keep him in order and clear up the the work.” To raise wages or shorten hours of labour remains of Liberal mismanagement. But trust him ? on a nationalised railway, beyond what would be Not much!”Political liberty may be granted because it practicableand desirable under a system of private means nothing without economic power. Hence Mr. enterprise,might well cost more than “the State would or Webb’s braggadocio, “I must not be taken as going should be willing to pay.” In other words, the State back upon democracy. ” About industrial democracy, railways of South Africa must be run on the basis of which matters, he has another tale to tell. profiteering, by employees whose labour is bought as a My argument, then, is that to judge man by his social commodity in the cheapest market. and economic behaviour under capitalism is unfair, Turn now to the demand for an eight hour day for becausecapitalism was more the product of accident than all employees. The request was accompanied by one of conscious wickedness. It is an interesting fact that that overtime should be gradually abolished until as the Collectivists always use against Guildsmen identically many as possible of the unemployed were absorbed. the same arguments that the Individualists used The idea being, of course, to relieve unemployment and to employ against the orthodox Socialist, thus revealing distress by giving all reasonable hours of toil. The a community of outlook. Commission could not recommend this because of the To my mind, their attitude errs on the side of opposite opinion held by eminent economists; for has it distrust,just as the Communist-Anarchist errs on the side not been found that “by shortening the hours of labour of confidence. The one says man is all wrong, but the within certain limits the labourer has been enabled to machinery maybe altered ; the other says man is all right put such extra effort into the shorter hours as to if only you scrap all the pestilent machinery and get produceas much as he did in longer hours”? With rid of civilisation. I believe that it is possible here regard to the minimum wage, the factor of the for the Guildsman to make the best of both worlds. permanencyof the work must be taken into account, and It is partly the accident of machinery, partly human then, “the first question to be decided is the size of the limitations, that have made the world what it is. Hence family.” Not, what is the value of a man’s work?- we cannot afford to smash all machinery, hut we need that is not to be the point-but, what is the subsistence not, on the other hand, despair of the republic. The level of labour? Recommended: “That statistics be whole question of the relation of human character to kept showing the cost of living of the humbler classes social machinery is vast and demands careful consideration. of worker, and when data have been obtained the question But I would like to throw out the suggestion that of a minimum wage be again considered.” Naturally the Guild compromise of national ownership and -poor old humbler classes of worker! But there producers’ control, of Socialism and Trade Unionism, are some recommendations to show that the members of affords a far more satisfactory solution than the excessive the Commission were not utterly bowelless. Indeed, optimism of the Anarchist or the excessive distrust beings bearing but the semblance of men would have of the Collectivist. had to suggest some improvements on the conditions laid bare in the evidence; as, for instance, that, “The lacking in status. Said the spokesmen of one deputation running staff (drivers, firemen, and guards) worked from the salaried staffs, “We are not in the position during 1913, in overtime and Sunday time over and above of having axes to grind by representing purely the normal working days of twenty-six per month, at personal cases; indeed, two of our number already draw nine hours per day for drivers and firemen, and ten salaries much above the minimum we desire to see laid hours per day for guards, no less than 2,833,572 hours, down. . . We sincerely believe we shall do the country or 314,841 days, or a little over 86 days per man. This a service if we can indicate a way to allay the irritation means that every running man in the service has and despair which prevent the staff taking a lively and worked over seven days’ overtime per month right wholesome interest in the affairs of the Administration.” through the year.” To bring this down to terms Surely that speech in itself should point the way to of employment, there was work, reckoned on the basis the line of development. The salaried staffs of the of the standard day of the artisan, for 1,131 more men. railways must be persuaded to come into line with the One-third of the total work done is performed as working staffs. The latter object to the commodity overtime.And yet, in face of these figures of “systematic” theory of labour; the former want to take a more lively overwork, the general manager had the infernal and wholesome interest in administrative affairs. impudenceto suggest as an explanation that it saved them Neither can move very far without the other. They from the necessity for periodical retrenchment caused should seek to unite their forces, not for an eight-hour by fluctuations of traffic ! strike, but for a strike for status. Both must escape we mentioned an exceptional part of this Report ; from wagery; they can only do it by ceasing to sell that part is the Minority Report signed by J. NI. Nield, their labour individually. If ever the railways are to who took Dr. H. J. Poutsma’s place when the latter have a wholesome administration, it must be an was deported. The Minority Report is exceptionable administrationby the railwaymen of all classes and grades, by because it does go to the root of certain matters, and a Guild of manual workers and salariat working in for this, we understand, thanks are also due to Mr. J. union and in harmony. We have written somewhat Conolly, editor of the men’s organ, “The Railways and contemptuously of this Report (Majority), but what Harbours Gazette,” who stated in his evidence that could we or anyone else expect from such a majority “We (the workers) refuse to accept the policy that but a contemptible piece of work when viewed from our frankly regards our labour-without which we cannot standpoint. Viewed from ordinary standpoints the exist-as a commodity that may be purchased in open Report is, of course, quite all right. If profiteering is to market, at the lowest possible price; and in the sale of go on labour must be kept in its place. Minimum wages which we are forced to compete with our starving must he based on the subsistence level of the humbler comrades.. . . We honestly believe that in making these classes. Strikes must be suppressed. A reserve of demands we are not only fighting for our own preservation, unemployed wretches must he kept hanging around but for that of civilisation itself in South Africa.” somewhere. And that is why we declare that the old, That, we suggest, is an excellent start for South old palliatives can never be of much use. Collectivism African labour. To attack the commodity theory of resulted in street murder inJohannesburg-is Collectivism labour is to strike at the roots of the thraldom of labour. to solve labour problems? We suggest, then, that To the suggestion that labour should strive harder so the first work of the railway workers’ leaders is to as to produce more wealth, out of which its share make the Union as nearly blackleg-proof as is humanly would come, the reply is made that, “Whatever possible, the next is to approach the salaried staffs and relationship wages bear to the product of the labourer show them clearly that the interests of both are must be wholly accidental and indefinite. The wages of identical,and in face of the evidence before us we cannot the labourer, that is, the price of the commodity labour, believe that the latter proposal is impossible of is determined, as is the price of every other commodity, accomplishment;and then, when full Union is achieved, to partly by its cost of production and partly by what strike for status. The Guild to he must first refuse to Adam Smith called the ‘higgling of the market.’” “higgle in the market” on the matter of individual With all Mr. Nield’s arguments we have not the advancement of wages; it must supply the whole labour space to deal, and, indeed, we fear they are too power for the railways to the State, and itself arrange voluminous to receive the attention they deserve, even for the pay of its members. And when such a stage is among those most interested ; certainly “His reached-we shall have considerably more to say on the Excellencythe Right Honourable Viscount Buxton,” to subject. In the meantime, if our South African readers whom they are addressed, will never read them; but are tempted to tell us that we are asking for too much, we must point certain morals from them. let us reply in advance that we ask for all-for them. Now we start with the South African Railways in To ask for less than all will bring them-Government the hands of the State. On these State railways we Commissioners’ Reports. have precisely the same grievances that exist on privately owned railways; but amongst these State servants in South Africa we have a realisation of the fact War and Solidarity. that their labour is something more than a mere commodity.Their strike against retrenchment showed that By Ramiro De Maeztu. they had some idea of the need for, at any rate, partial WHEN the war is over Europe will be poor. It is control. The frenzied way in which they were attacked possible that the privileged classes will still possess a must have also demonstrated to them the soundness large proportion of the capital they have invested in of the idea and the necessity for victory. Agitation was countries which, though independent from the political allowed so long as it confined itself to questions of point of view, are really colonies, economically speaking. half-pennies, but when it turned to a demand for a voice Another part of this capital invested in foreign in staffing arrangements then it had to be suppressed countries will have been converted into government with all the brutality of which a particularly brutalised bonds for the debts contracted by the belligerent States bureaucracy was capable. When he had finished with to cover the cost of the war. The colonial countries, them, declared Botha, “There would be no more strikes by supplying materials to the countries at war, will for a hundred years.” Violence had to be expected have discharged a fair proportion of their own debts. from a Government of mine owners and mine owners’ But European countries will see their own liabilities pimps in a country of mines. But the men were well multiply to such a point that, even if a universal reduction organised and sound. What was needed, then? The of armaments follows the peace, their taxes will not first thing that was needed was more complete organisation. be lowered. Unless the economic system of Europe is Right through this report it is evident that not revolutionised, the belligerent countries will have to pay only are the working staffs suffering from intolerable interest on their debts and on armaments to an even grievances, but that the clerical, administrative, and greater extent than has been the case hitherto. If salaried staffs are likewise underpaid, overworked, and England, for instance, could save, at the end of the war, thirty millions sterling annually on what she has at the time of the French Revolution, denied to nations been paying towards the upkeep of her army and navy, the right to choose their own rulers: “That which a she would, on the other hand, have to pay a hundred whole nation chooses to do, it has a right to do. Mr. millions a year (assuming that the war lasts until the Burke says, No. Where, then, does the right exist:’ end of next year) as interest on the debts she has I am contending for the rights of the living and against contracted with the object of bringing the campaign to a their being willed away, and controlled ana contracted happy termination. And in this respect England would for, by the manuscript assumed authority of the dead; not differ from the other belligerents. and Mr. Burke is contending for the authority of the Hence the plight of the European democracies will be dead over the rights and freedom of the living.” The worse. At present the labouring classes of Europe do fact that Paine was a pamphleteer rather than a thinker not bear more than a part of the burden of the luxuries does not make his argument the less right; it is for the of the privileged classes. The other part is borne by living and not the dead to honour the services of each the colonial countries in the form of interest on the citizen according to his merits, and to pay for them European capital invested in them. But when the war according to the needs of the function he fulfils. ends the maintenance of the parasitic classes will But this principle was recognised by the conscience depend wholly, or almost wholly, on the working men of humanity long before the war. Why, then, did of Europe. This cannot and will not be. Politicians people tolerate the continuance of the principle whereby will endeavour to bring this state of things about, wealth was distributed according to contracts which nevertheless; and will even try to justify it. They will perpetuated the parasitism of a few social classes and the say, for example, that the new taxes will be felt servitude of the majority? At bottom, simply because particularly by the wealthy classes, whose incomes and experience had not yet refuted with the necessary estates they will chiefly affect. They will add that emphasis the argument that property was the greatest taxes in the hands of social reformers of the type of stimulus to industry. But the war has made clear the Mr. Lloyd George are not only a means of paying the falsity of this argument. Before it broke out it was expenses of the State, hut that they are, in addition, a thought right that the railways should be managed by means of distributing wealth according to the principles their owners, or by directors nominated by them. Since of economic justice. They will appeal to the sense of the war the railways have been managed by the governments. equity of the working classes by asking them to put up No doubt the owners of the lines will share in with the deterioration of their position, seeing that the the dividends as usual; but they cannot justify their wealthy classes will also be suffering. dividends by saying that their shareholders participated And it is true that the position of the wealthy classes in the administration of the national transport services. will not be what it was, since their taxes will be heavily Before the war it seemed to be right that the wealthy increased; but it is probable that the politicians will classes should invest their superfluous money wherever hardly succeed in convincing the people of the necessity they liked. Now the Government has prohibited the for maintaining the same type of social order, or export of capital, since it is wanted for the war. disorder,as prevailed in Europe up to the outbreak of war. Before the war merchants traded freely; now, under And they will not succeed because the conscience of severe penalties, they are forbidden to trade with enemy Europe will have definitely risen superior to the ideas countries. Further, the Government has assumed which governed the world in August last. Up to that powers for taking over whatever factories it deems time economic society was based on the principle of advisable for the manufacture of war munitions ; and contract. By virtue of this principle the world’s wealth it is considering the question of imposing a special tax belonged to those individuals who could show by legal on war profits. Public utility comes first, contract or documents or contracts that they had a right to it, no no contract. Even individuals cannot escape from the matter what their merits or their social services might range of this principle. The belligerent nations soon be. And, although the moral spirit of man has always learned that it was not moral, and in certain cases denied to individuals the right to own wealth not indeed not lawful, for individuals to deny their aid to the conferred upon them by society as payment for their work of the whole. The universal mobilisation of services, the principle of contract was maintained for labour is being discussed in England. The rumour will reasons of expediency or metaphysical reasons. For become a reality if the necessities of the war render it reasons of expediency it is maintained by those who essential for every citizen to play his part. Then we say that the stimulus of property “transforms sand into gold,” and that men work, above all, that their shall see established the principle that every man and woman, rich or poor, must take his share in the children may not be poor. It is useless to say that sand is not transformed into gold, that the spirit of commontask, fulfilling such functions as may be thought necessary. And this principle will have triumphed, not work is not founded on property, but on hunger, and only because it is moral, but also because it is more that the industry of the fathers does not justify the parasitism of the sons. For metaphysical reasons this advantageous to the State than the principle which principle of property is defended not only by those who permitsindividual contracts to decide the wealth and status see in it a divine institution, like Grotius, or a natural of people. right, like Hegel; but also, though unconsciously, by The war, however, will not only have proved that the those socialistic masses who, deceived by the fatalistic principle of contract, beneficial though it may be for and fantastic philosophy of history of Karl Marx, see some individuals, is not the most advantageous for in capitalism a fact which is above and external to the society, but it will in addition have created the spirit consent of the human conscience. of solidarity necessary for effecting, without excessive Metaphysics aside, the principle of property based violence, the transformation of a society, founded on on contract can call to its defence only reasons of the false right of a few individuals to parasitism, into expediency. From a moral point of view it cannot be another society, a society based on the recognition of the justified; and the only people who can defend it are those principle of solidarity, by virtue of which no one can lawyers whose moral spirit is buried in the letter of have rights who has not fulfilled his duties. Many men their legal texts. The law may swear to us that a who, in times of peace, did nothing but sign cheques, certain group of shareholders are the proprietors of a play bridge and go on motor tours, are now rubbing manufactory. But our reason tells us that the only down horses in camp or acting as sentries and exposing people who have a right to it are those who work there themselves to the enemy’s shrapnel in the trenches. with their heads or hands. No lawyers could be found to Many society women, the Countess of Warwick tells defend property in the name of the rights possessed by us, are now spending their time in hospitals or in dead fathers to transmit to their children the wealth workshops,working even harder than they would expect society allowed them to accumulate; and, if there were their own maids to do. Most of these people are satisfied such lawyers, they would be answered in the words used with their new life. They have found in social by Thomas Paine to Edmund Burke when the latter, service what they lacked in their former existence : the feeling of reality. And, now that they have once felt Babylonian dies to be of- interest only to Assyriologists, themselves ennobled by work, would not they blush if, but the Israelite remains for its ethical spirit in all Islam after the peace, they were condemned to do nothing and Christendom. Necessity gives to the human more than impose upon the poor the unnecessary task consciousnessthe situation of fact in which it must find its of’ attending to their luxuries? basis for its expediencies; but it is only when these It would be too much, nevertheless, to hope that a expediencies are permanent values that they endure social transformation could be effected by the spontaneous when they have ceased to be strict necessities. The conversion of the privileged classes. Social economic spirit is brought into existence by penury, but changes are carried out when the oppressed realise that does not die with it. Nor does the solidarity which war they can become strong by union and enthusiasm. And enkindles die with war. Solidarity was an ethical value the democracies of Europe have not lost consciousness long before the war; it is the war which has made it of their power during the war. The fact that the war expedient. But it is its positive and permanent value has blown to the winds the international pacifism of the which will make it survive the necessity that has brought older Socialist does not mean that it has destroyed the it forth. principle of social solidarity which is the essential part of Socialism. It has strengthened it. The consciousness of power is never so intense among the people as Impressions of Paris. when they defend by force of arms a cause which is dear to them; and the cause of nationality is dear to ONEwas saying how much more charming, more civilised each of the countries fighting for it; and the cause of the city seems under half its ordinary evening humanity to those who are going to win. In peace glare and with none of the rush and roar of pre-war time the workman in a factory sees no more meaning in days : “Why Russian roar?” he objected in Russian his labour than that he is earning his wages. He now English-“Everybody roars!” knows that with every shell he makes he is helping to Paris is almost lovely just now. All the trees on the maintain the immortality of his nation, as much as the boulevards have leafed; and the enormous wagons of man who faces the enemy’s fire. And both learn, in war time, the great lesson that success depends upon the hay or something which are drawn along by handsome co-ordination of the effort of each individual in the fawn oxen look quite in place. The picturesque is common effort. returningto its own after a decade of denunciation. I War is a lesson in solidarity. Rich and poor saw a market cart worn moss-green with a red pony, a disappearin the brotherhood of arms. In the organisation man in a blue blouse and a red cap and a woman wearing of armies the position of individuals is not fixed a coif which came stark out of the ages. The by contracts but by the function they fulfil. The weather affects people. I suppose they are those with rewardsof war are not based on contracts but on services rendered. The separation of governors and governed the moon afflicted in Sagittarius who think of something is not effected in war in fulfilment of the will of the and dart off like the proverbial arrows across the roads. dead, as is the separation of rich and poor in times of I take no more notice of ants. Let them walk on my peace; but by the differentiation of functions which very pen ! We are moving on towards Brussels ! (That everybody realises as necessary. In this sense war is sounds like one of the comic hymns of my Protestant a lesson in discipline; but the discipline is founded on infancy.) The Russian retreat is quite lost sight of, the evidence that the ruled fulfils less difficult and the Dardanelles seem more fabulous than ever. functionsthan the ruler. War teaches men to respect merit more profoundly-and not merely the merits of soldiers, With the news of advance, we appear to grow more but all technical abilities. Before the war there was a prosperous in Paris; though we are not really. But great deal of talk in England of protecting research and the restaurants dine out of doors now, at least when it inventions more carefully. But it is the war which has does not rain; and one hears a lot of Americans rushed shown the need of increasing the number of chemists, up from Italy. I heard two midinettes laughing over electricians, civil engineers. The competent “captain of the adventure of one of them who had successfully industry” is not less respected than before, but more. War has cured the workmen of their old exclusivism. applied to the Mairie. “He wanted to pretend that I Gut the idle rich man is no longer admired as of old; was not French. I laid my hand on my stomach and and the same remark applies to the cosmopolitan financier, showed him its flatness. “There’s no breakfast there, the clever lawyer, and the intellectual who devotes Monsieur,’ I said, ‘Now-am I not French?’” his ingenuity to confusing truth with falsehood. Enthusiasm, it is said, over the London loots, led It is not conceivable that, after having learned in some idlers in the Champs Elysee to follow a Russian war to face death and to exert their will, the workmen singer “with hostility.” Outside the police-station they of Europe can return to the apathy which resigned them to economic injustice perpetrated by stamped paper, at were reduced to scream “Long live Russia!” by way a time when their reason had been won over to the of expiating their imbecility. If you would only follow principle of social solidarity. It is not likely that, after the “Daily Mail’s” advice and send all the police to the a shock so deep as war, the workmen will return to front, the photographed ladies who point the way for their factories and pay for the campaign out of their the looters could conduct these patriotic inquiries much reduced wages in order that shareholders may come more thoroughly. They might even attain to a free quietly back to their old idle existence. The war is hand at Lord Haldane’s mansion-or even higher ! awakening, in millions of brains, nervous cells which had long been asleep. Men are learning in the Army, Our utmost amusement is a very occasional unorganised for example, that the greatest efforts and sacrifices of spy-hunt. An English girl, a violinist, whom I know, which men are capable are not called forth by love of had an adventure. She is very tall and has abnormally money, but by the spirit of honour and by the Guild large hands. These hands excited two females in a spirit. Every army is a guild in which, in the hour of restaurant, who followed her, and at last growing quite danger, the whole nation incorporates itself. out of self-control, began to cry names, calIed a man, Every human expedient is born of necessity. Some and denounced the girl for a German in woman’s dress. disappear with necessity, others remain. Those that The girl, although thoroughly outraged, kept her head, remainare the permancat values of culture. The splints smacked both their faces with her passport and dragged for a broken arm are discarded when the arm is healed ; one of them along until she found a gendarme. The but the stopping of a broken tooth is retained. Every police are still occasionally bothered by these wretches religion is probably born as a necessity of tribal coherence, of spy-hunters, who are as wicked as they are foolish that of Babylon as well as that of Israel. The and prepared to swear to anything, as any innocent person who has had to do with them knows. If the the soil of their presence (Tallien).’’ “In three days Germans got here by any chance, one would certainly the enemy may be at Paris,” and so on; but when the be sold very readily by these panic-struck liars. riots were got fairly into working order, then every I have taken to haunting our cemetery, which is the villain dragged his favourite enemy to the shambles, healthiest one in all Paris, being open to the great air and his lady took her seat on the benches provided as conduits of the Avenue du Maine, Saint Jacques, and the at a spectacle. In this account by Viscount Walsh one Orleans. Quaint are human beings ! The quarter comes across the now familiar expression “incendiary known as “Health” here is occupied mainly by press.’’ Paris, to-day, has her incendiary press under cmeteries, the gigantic Prison, St. Ann’s madhouse, the control, and not only under police control ! It is as colossal statue of the Lion de Belfort, the Station for greatly controlled by the better journals as by the Sceaux, a tramway junction and several electric plants. Censor. ‘These journals set the tone of public comment It is a fact that when you descend from a tram on the on events, and although as journalists they dutifully height occupied by the statue of the Lion, you literally grumble from time to time at the censorship, yet as breathe health, but you have only pour choice between publicists they closed ranks when the scribbling canaille a seat in a tiny public garden, and the cemetery. I looked like getting out of hand. They have kept Paris prefer the cemetery. After two or three promenades, in a state of order with the enemy almost within sound. however, I fancied that the keepers eyed me with If we wanted to loot here, we also have any number of aversion. Happily, I had once been in with a man who German and Austrian houses full of tempting things; showed me the tomb of his frightful Uncle, whose or if we merely wanted to break and burn, or-if we decease had released a whole family from tyranny. I wanted to beat someone-we need not go very far seeking. re-discovered the tomb, and now, every fen- days, a And as for legitimate provocation, why the Huns beautiful bunch of flowers may be seen to refresh his are actually eating the very bread we put in the ground memory. Not a speck of Girt remains upon the cheap last year ; they have annihilated our towns and villages old marble, and the two tin wreaths are respectfully and wiped out whole families. The sinking of the hung above his execrated name. “Lusitania” is nothing to what has happened. But A sad discovery : the French language contains (I here we are, with nobody to push us on, and with a nearly said boasts!) 12,000 Hunnish words ! I wouldn’t police force stronger than usual. And in fact we have give this on any less authority that Hachette, the school- become so accustomed to controlling ourselves that the book man. Out of 42,000 words, 20,000 are foreign; incendiary press sadly keeps as a stereotype : “Needless and 12,000 of these are bare-faced Hun, mainly brought to say the population behaved with its habitual calm.” in by marines and other sportsmen. By the way, “My Someone asks me how to begin a study of French Lady Nicotine” was a Frenchman, Monsieur Nicot, an literature. I should begin again as I began before, opium-lover, who travelled back here from China in the namely, by buying the “Bibliothteque Populaire,” all the seventeenth century. I am not the only person who volumes of which are sold here at a penny each. It is takes uncommon tracks in these times. I met a published by Henri Gautier at 55, Quai des Grands Norwegian just arrived after an exciting adventure with Augustins. Send for any fifty volumes (there are a German submarine, but whose object in life is to get several hundred) and you cannot go wrong. Of course Louis Charles Philippe translated into Norwegian. And most of these books should have been translated long the “New York Herald” publishes the desire of an since, certainly all those in prose. Some of the works Old Philadelphia lady that someone will please tell her are greatly abridged, bur then one buys the full book how to “figure” Fahrenheit into something else, I of any which interests one especially. One can never forget what. I suppose Fahrenheit must bs Hun, and read the whole of a foreign literature, in any case. The nothing Hun may be countenanced. I’ve been reading Library contains all the best novels, dramas, poetry, about the emancipation of negroes and the September histories, memoirs, travels, belles lettres, pamphlets, massacres. They’re incredible, the massacres, sermons, philosophies and biographies of French literature; considering what we say now about Germans ! It would and many translations From the German, English, be no use me telling you how many priests, nobles, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Scandinavian, Oriental, etc., civilians and women were chopped to death in Paris in as well as from the Greek and Roman. The collection two days, or how many chained criminals, madmen and complete of five hundred and twelve volumes in thirty- invalids were beaten out of life at Bicetre-you would nine tomes, in an elegant binding, says the advertisement, never believe me. The “Massacres,” by Viscount sells itself for 85 francs, or each tome separately Walsh, are bound up with my copy of the “Cid”-and for two francs fifty. There, can I say more? My that is how I came to read them. In the short intervals friend the poet who adores Ronsard is furious with me, between the massacres, “our most important occupation," and has brought me a very special edition of Ronsard’s says Saint-Medard who escaped, “was to find sonnets. They are very pretty. But I still cannot find out what position to take in order to die as easily as out anything famous inside them. However, he will possible. From time to time we sent one or other of never mind what I think. I find unsupportable so many our comrades to the window to instruct us as to what and so many roses, such gangs of nightingales, and position was taken by the poor souls being massacred so oft-foresworn vows to die of love in the same old little in the court. They told us that those who stretched wood. It all makes me wonder if Ronsard really had out their hands suffered terribly, the hands and arms time from writing either to fall in love or to smell the often falling before the body . . . and that those who roses. The birds we know that he could not hear, poor placed their hands behind the back went easier.” Of man. ALICE MORNING. course, all that is the Past, and we no longer do these things! There is no Danton now in Paris, or in HOME AGAIN. London,to hold a great protest meeting for denouncing The mists of the morning lay heavily folded conspirators and for recommending in their treatment- Across the still ocean, as silent we stole To pick up our moorings where hungry gulls scolded “De l’audace, encore de l’audace, et toujours de l’audace.” But Danton might be abroad again to- A welcome to hasty ships home from patrol. morrow if some patriotic newspapers and delicate ladies We made the striped buoys and the channel lay free; could have their way. “The enemy approaches; death We slipped by the gloomy pier scarcely in sight. to traitors ! they will betray us.” It doesn’t sound so The seamen made fast with a bustle of glee; very antique after all. It was easier to start the Our ships lay at ease in the slow-coming light. Septembermob than to stop it. Its leaders did not stop short of the King and the Queen who had done no I stand on the quarter-deck mournful and listening To rant of machinery borne on the breeze- offence whatever. The massacres were cleverly A thick scum of oil on the river face glistening- arranged to begin with nobodies, little curates and The price of wage-slavery, Cleveland by Tees. others accused of spying, and the cries were : “Purge J. A. M. A. opinion, relatively unimportant ! Love in its tragedy is Readers and Writers. very well understood by Puritans ; it is so much and so exclusively a tragedy to them that, as in the similar Mr. Ivor BROWN’S novel “Years of Plenty” (Secker, case of Conflict or War, they would wish io eliminate it. has, at last, come into my hands and I have read *** There is no doubt that Mr. Brown can write, and it. Professor Gilbert Murray’s translation of “Alcestis’’ naturally in a first novel his care as well is obvious. (Allen and Unwin, IS. net) about completes, I suppose, Cut, in the first place, the form is the veiled auto- the English edition of Eurjpides. I am not of the biographical, and, in the second place, the novel from opinion of Philemon, who said that if he were certain beginning to end does not contain a hint of romance. that the dead had consciousness he would hang himself I would not say, without further consideration (though to see Euripides. Nor do the translations of Professor I think it), that novels are bad in proportion as they Murray persuade me. Euripides appears to me to have are autobiographic ; but it is certain that such novels begun the very movement of decadence in Greece that are not only the easiest to write. but usually the most the Puritan of the foregoing paragraph exemplified in tedious to read. As Johnson said of “Hudibras,” that modern literature : he began to reason with the gods it was so much easier to invent dialogues than to instead of for them ! The effect may be, as Mrs. imagine adventures-a remark, by the way, that settles Browning said, that his touches of things common a good many modern plays-it may as well be said raised them until they touched the spheres; but his that autobiography requires neither invention nor predecessors had more divine way; they brought the imagination, and still less creation. The writer is here a spheres down to common things. Instead of the supremely at his ease and has LIS at every disadvantage. immemorialtask of the greatest artists of justifying the ways We cannot check him, unless he deals with matters of of God to man, Euripides all unconsciously set himself pubIic interest, but we must needs accept every word to justifying the ways of man to God. Concerning the he says. Does anything strange occur in his play “Alcestis,” I confess I find little that is moving in narrative-wehave his word alone for it that it is true. Does it. Professor Murray calls it delightful and charming- he appear to involve his hero in contradictions of and interesting and lovely ; but Schone’s opinion seems character-he can always reply that the truth was so. It to me nearer the truth, that it is “a parody and (not) is all as absolute as a dream, and about as valuable as a very funny one.” Alcestis herself, with her the record of the ascent of one of the mountains of the unquestioningwifely sense of duty, is a pretty enough figure moon. A first novel, however, is permitted to be of for farce, but Admetus is comedy pure and simple. He this character; it need not, though published, be counted is Meredith’s “Egoist” (and a great many more of us) against the author, but, on the other hand, may be in his eternal type. But with such notions as Professor regarded as his preliminary canter. Murray has formed of Euripides, the high comedy of *** “Alcestis” is scarcely. discernible. Without questioning By the absence of romance I do not necessarily mean his Greek, which I take on my knees, I may still that there is only no love interest in “Years of Plenty.” exercise my reason and declare that Euripides at forty, Passion, as I have very often said, ought no more to in a play professedly Satyric or pro-Satyric, could not be identified exclusively with love than sensuality with have so sentimentalised his comedy as to leave the sexuality. Passion is any command of the soul that impression of the translation, which makes the comedy subordinates reason to itself; and is great or small as a matter of doubt. How would Meredith have the reason that thus willingly serves it is itself great translatedit, I ask; or Browning? The hints of epic or small. But in “Years of Plenty” not only is there language mingled with slang, which Professor Murray tells no passion in the confined sense of love, but there is us are to be found in the original, probably conveyed no passion at all. The hero is under no god more to the Athenians than is conveyed to us. They whatever,serves no muse, but is apparently an end in his were Euripides’ nods and winks to his audience that a personal self. This has the effect of levelling the comedy was afoot. But, except in his Introduction, interest to a sort of Sahara, mile succeeding mile without Professor Murray would almost persuade us that the wen the variety of a mirage or an oasis. No wonder play was a tragedy. the hero turns Philistine and concludes that to make *** five thousand a year is the end of man. No wonder England as well as Germany may be recommended to also that he is warned that he will become sentimental- skip Hegel for a while and to return to Kant. In his for sentimentality is merely regret for lost romance. “Perpetual Peace,” written in 1795, first translated into This absence of romance in ‘‘Years of Plenty” is a English in 1903, and now republished-by Messrs. Allen more serious defect than the presence of autobiography. and Unwin (2s. net), Kant made an excursion into *** internationalpolitics from which he brought back some fine In an essay upon the Novels of Mark Rutherford, clusters of sense. Assuming that only a commonwealth Mr. A. E. Taylor, in Vol. V of the English Association of republics or a federation of free States could ensure Studies (Oxford Press, 5s. net), indicates this as the universal and perpetual peace, and being aware that secret of Rutherford’s unattractiveness. ‘‘As to romantic this condition of things is remote, he devoted some love,” he says, “. . . like all Puritans he misunderstands thought to the conduct of war and diplomacy. His sixth it and is afraid of it. His treatment of it, when article is as follows : ‘‘No State at war with another it is allowed to make its appearance at all, notably in shall countenance such modes of hostility as would make ‘Clara Hopgood,’ is, to my thinking, nearly as mutual confidence impossible in a subsequent state of unpleasant as Thomas Hardy’s, and that is to say a great peace.” And his comment upon this is that “some kind deal.” It is, so far as Hardy is concerned, to say a of confidence in the disposition of the enemy must exist great deal too much; for the treatment of romantic love even in the midst of war, or otherwise peace could not is none the worse for being “unpleasant,” that is, be concluded.’? A State, he further says, “cannot be uncomfortable. Hardy certainly does not avoid romantic asked to give up its constitution, even although that be love; and if he makes it unpIeasant for his characters, a despotism, so long as it runs the risk of being it is in part due to his pessimism and in part to his immediatelyswallowed up by other States.” The old Brahman experience. The value, nevertheless, remains ; for had likewise a good opinion of himself. “The Hardy, like Nature in Goethe’s saying, still “holds a possession of power,” he says, “is inevitably fatal to couple of draughts from the cup of love to be fair the free exercise of reason’’--which disposes of Plato’s payment for the pains of a lifetime.” Rutherford, it is plea For philosophers as kings. But this was not to quite true, avoided the subject when he could, and for affirm the converse that the free exercise of reason is the reason already given, that as a Puritan he was afraid fatal to the possession of power; for his “secret article‘’ of it. Not, as Mr. Taylor inconsistently adds, that he of government is that “the opinion of philosophers . . . “misunderstood” it, or that he was so “alive to wider shall always be taken into consideration by States armed and graver issues” that romantic love was, in his for war. ” R. H. C. the assumption of perpetual war is degenerate and in More Letters to My Nephew. a fair way to savagery-polished and highly efficient savagery, if you will, but essential savagery. Reason- I.-Industry. able preparation for war, yes; beyond that-look out ! MY DEARGEORGE,-Have you noticed that the Even I, man of peace that I am, always, when on the manufacturershave arrogantly seized the word “industry” Estate, have firearms ready loaded. I never know the and applied it to their own use? It is true that we still moment that some Waika Indian, Carib or Spanish half- occasionally speak of the agricultural industry--the breed won’t run amok. Indeed, last year, I shot a natural meaning of the word in this instance persisting man. Didn’t I tell you about it? Then forgive another -but nowadays, if a man ‘‘goes into industry,” we divagation. take it to mean that he is concerned with factory At the far end of the Estate, where the river runs from production. Hogarth’s “industrious apprentice” was, I the north and suddenly bends round to the east, there think, a linen mercer. But we should not say that he is a bluff upon which are two cottages and a rough was in the retail, or even the wholesale, “industry,” no shack. In one of these lived Tomaso Lopez with his matter how “industrious” he might be. No; he was woman Marcella, socially known as “Chella. ” Her in the linen trade-a trader. I suspect that the surname is long since lost in the mists of antiquity. manufacturersstole the word, believing that it was only in Probably she herself has forgotten it in the long mill and factory that men-and incidentally women and succession of men with whom she has cohabited. She is children-were really industrious, in sharp contrast with of surpassing ugliness; she is fat and lazy and her agriculture, which is apparently a lazy and pedestrian tongue is the tongue of a viper. But she exudes sex occupation. Look at the Stock Exchange quotations. like a veritable Cleopatra, and, at each hiring season, “Government Bonds,” “Railways,” “Industrials” and she has apparently found no difficulty in securing a map.. “Miscellaneous.” You will find no agricultural Certain it is that no man has ever endured her for undertakingincluded in "Industrials.” The political more than a year. Tomaso was a half-breed, lean as a economistsnaturally took their cue from their masters. They greyhound, a small square head covered with closely wrote about the “great industry.” They were fools. cropped brown hair, long sharp nose, throwing into They really meant industrial elephantiasis. This bold relief a receding chin upon which grew a stubbly disease is quite common in Central America. beard. His moustache bristled like an exhausted tooth- And yet, praise to the Holiest in the Heights, the brush. In the other cottage lived Alfonso Burgos with world’s great industry is still agriculture. Look at a his girl Violeta. Burgos was a dandy after his kind, map of the globe. Everywhere, save in the Midlands curly black hair, parted in the middle, a little pointed and the North, in the Rhenish provinces, in the Eastern moustache, eyes dark and amorous. Violeta is young, States, mankind is engaged in minding the flocks and slender and harmless. To Alfonso she was submissive tilling the land. In France, agriculture still reigns as a spaniel. In the shack roofed with palm leaves supreme. It is from the peasantry that its gold flows, lived, alone, Thomas Smithson, a Jamaican negro gold that is now commingled with the blood of its sons. voluble, a mischief-maker. Some years ago a section of the American people tried At sunrise Tomaso mould go into the banana plantation to establish a ratio between gold and silver. Little to clean and clear the land, whilst on Wednesdays they recked that the real ratio is between gold and and Thursdays he would, in company with Alfonso, cut blood-a ratio that in the war is gradually increasing the bananas for the tramp steamer that comes up about in favour of gold. And everywhere, save in England, midnight on each ’Thursday. By half-past eleven his do agriculture and science co-operate. Only last week, task was generally done. He would then return to the on the Estate, we blew up with dynamite thirty acres of cottage ready for the breakfast of pork and beans pre- caked land. It is now almost as good as new. One pared by Chella. Then he would take his gun in search catch-crop of beans to give it more nitrogen and once of deer or peccary, or paddle the dory in the river look- again we shall plant bananas. We dig in little sticks ing for fish. Or, if the sun struck hard from a cloud- of dynamite over a radius of one hundred yards; we less sky, he would sit in the shade idly fingering his link them up with electric wires; the magnetos are guitar and occasionally twanging a lilting Spanish love- sparked and the job is done. Nothing lazy or song. I can see him now, as I write, head thrown back, pedestrianabout that ! his long nose in the air keeping time with his thickly I never return to England without renewingmy padded feet, for he seldom wore either boots or moc- conviction that the problem there is not only economic but casins. And, curiously enough, I most vividly remember psychological. The landowners of England are as his thin neck with an Adam’s apple that moved up and blindly obtuse, as foolishly proud, as the Spanish Dons down like a pressure gauge. or the Hungarian Magyars. They have created a tradition The morning of May-day breaks without a cloud. In of dignified inertia. They are too proud to till their the sky can only be seen a merciless hard light blue and own soil; they lay burdens upon those who would that a sun that seems to move by leaps out of the horizon. are too heavy to be borne. The landed gentry of It is already sweltering hot before Chella rolls from Englanddeserve, every man-jack of them, to be shot out of under her fly-net. She sleeps in a chemise and her hand. These burdens are, of course, the economic side stockings. She throws on an old loose cotton dress, of the problem ; but, psychologically considered, they and looks out upon the river that cheerfully ripples its are the predisposing cause of this dreadful industrial way over sand and pebbles, scintiIlating in the sun’s elephantiasis. Without ceremony. these soi-disant rays-this river that, in the rainy season, will suddenly seigneurs have driven English brains off the soil and rise thirty or forty feet and angrily sweep everything into the factory towns. “You are too clever for farming, before it, banks and trees and human habitations, some- my lad; try your luck in some go-ahead town.” times changing its course for a mile or more in a few Is that an exaggeration? I heard a Suffolk farmer say short hours. Some embers gleam in the brazier which ‘it to a promising youth. And he started the boy with Tomaso had lighted for his morning coffee. Chella a five-pound note. He felt he had done a kindly act. kneels down and blows them into flame and is soon As things are, perhaps he had. But the tragic fact sipping her coffee and munching a “Johnny-cake.” As remains, whether you ascribe it to economics or she throws her own and Tomaso’s fly-nets up over the psychology, British brains are concentrated in trade strings she puffs and grunts. Dios ? What heat ! She and industry when they ought to be equally distributed sits on a box beside the door, grunting like an over-fed over town and country. I tremble for England’s future sow. Every ten minutes or so she steps into the unless the balance is redressed. cottage, fills a calabash with water and greedily drinks. Do not mistake me. I am not arguing “wheat The heat grows more intense. Often and yet oftener supply in time of war,” or other flapdoodle of a similar can you hear a gurgling in Chella’s throat. No good! kind. No, no ! A nation that bases its economy upon She fills the calabash, holds it up to her neck, then pours the water down over her breasts. It is good ! She faced chit, that he should preach about conduct towards grunts with satisfaction as the cool stream moves down women? And Smithson, who is too surly or too over her protuberant belly. But, look ! The sun (her miserly even to keep a woman? A sense of intolerable only time-keeper) is now high up in the sky. Mid-day grievance steals over him. He at length sees the is near; Tomaso will soon be back and hungry for his bottle of aniseed. He drains it; once again, his brain breakfast. The thought has but found form in Chella’s revolves in a hot vapour. At this evil moment Alfonso slow-moving brain when Tomaso lopes his way into goes down to the river. Ha ! He would wash himself view. He steps into the cottage, throws his machete before going to his Violeta. Drunk Tomaso seizes the into a corner, drinks from the alluring calabash and is axe, stealthily steps into the shadow of a palm-tree and again standing before Chella. He sees the dead embers waits. Alfonso, clean and refreshed, soon re-appears in the brazier and promptly senses the situation. With and, on his way to the cottage, comesclose. The axe an angry bound he is on the woman. He grabs her by falls with a sickening thud. Alfonso, his head split her loose dress, belabouring her with blows. “You open, will never more coo like a dove to Violeta. lazy bitch! My breakfast! I’ll kill you!” he hisses. Tomaso drags the dead body and hides it under the Chella struggles to release herself from the man’s grip. wood-pile. The dress tears asunder, remaining in Tomaso’s hand. In a few short hours, from the Eastern horizon, shoot Fat and unwieldy though she be, she rushes into the up shafts and spears and delicate tendrils of golden bush, her only protection the chemise, the stockings and light. They are the morning sun’s avants couriers. a pair of carpet slippers. Tomaso glances contemptuously Another day has begun; but Tomaso’s vengeance at her retreating figure. In a moment he is busy remainsinsatiate. There is Smithson ; he wiil make short with the brazier. work of Smithson! At night, after Tomaso has put out his light, Chella On this day, having breakfasted, I go down the steps knocks at Alfonso’s door. Poor Chella ! The flies and of the Estate House on my way to the office. I hear a bush pests have done their worst; her body is covered frightened shout, and, looking down the cocoa-nut with itching blotches. Who can help being sorry for walk, I see Smithson running in frenzied fear, Tomaso Chella, gross and sensual though she be? Certainly close behind, brandishing his machete. No joke this ! slot Violeta, who bestirs herself. She prepares food and I rush back for a weapon. (Out here it is wise to keep rubs the woman’s skin with cocoa-nut oil. Chella your Mauser sighted at one hundred yards; for close groans, then swears, then utters wild imprecations range, a Colt’s automatic.) I seize the Colt, click the against Tomaso. Then she betrays the source of her magazine into position, and quickly return to the verandah greatest anxiety. Tomaso, beast that he is, has surely stairs. They are very near. I catch a glimpse of burnt or destroyed her silk petticoat that is so richly Smithson’s bulging eyes ; Tomaso’s machete is raised lace-embroidered. If that be gone; then how will she and ready. I sight him and fire. His machete falls to fare at the next hiring season? For (Chella knows!) the ground. Again the revolver spits; this time Tomaso it is at petticoats that men look. . . They soothe her to falls, pinked in the leg. In a trice I am kneeling over sleep and soon she snores so loudly that Violeta fears the wounded man. His lips move, but I can only hear the sharp ears of Tomaso. the inarticulate burblings of a soul in pain. We carry The next day Tomaso goes hunting. Me brings back him into a cottage. I cut away his cotton tunic and his an armadillo and a givnut (of the pig species, but striped shirt. There is an ugly red wound just under the like a zebra). Smithson goes fishing and catches three shoulder. We remove his trousers. The bullet has toothsome machaka (a kind of salmon-trout). They call ploughed its way through flesh and bone and passed to Alfonso and Violeta : “Come ! Here is good eating!” out at the back. I cleanse his leg with warm water and They prepare for a Gargantuan meal. Violeta kindles Condy’s fluid; I probe for the bullet in the shoulder. a big fire, Alfonso skins the armadillo, Smithson scales I find it embedded in a network of muscles. I am very the fish, Tomaso cuts up the givnut. Quick ! We will much annoyed; this means a police inquiry unless I make merry. Curses on “the chief” who keeps good can keep this fool of a Tomaso quirt. I know nothing liquor from us. Smithson winks knowingly at Tomaso. of Alfonso’s death, nor of Chella, sitting in his cottage The Chief is not so clever as he thinks. He steps over shaking with fear. But events move quickly. Violeta, to his shack and brings back a large bottle of fermented tear- and terror-stricken, comes hastening up. She has aniseed, most potent and fiery. They sit round on found the dead Alfonso under the wood-pile. I patch boxes, dispensing with forks-jack-knives suffice. The together the facts. Not a doubt about it; Tomaso is bottle passes round and soon tongues are loosed. the man. In due course he is in the hands of the law Alfonso reproaches Tomaso for his treatment of Chella. and the care of the prison doctor. Tomaso says that he will do what he likes with his own The day after the trial, conviction and sentence of woman. Alfonso differs. He says that one should this unhappy piece of human drift-wood, possibly ‘treat a woman well for a year at least. After that! descendedfrom some Spanish grandee (mixing the breed He shrugs his shoulders and looks meaningly at Violeta, is a dangerous deed) I meet the defending lawyer. “I who cowers under his glance. Smithson laughs. He suppose an appeal would be useless?” “Quite. says that men are fools with women. The bottle passes Besides,between ourselves, he told me that Alfonso Lopez with speedier recurrence. The men soon reach differing was his fifth, and that, if he ever gets out, Smithson will degrees of drunkenness. Alfonso, leaning on Violeta, be his sixth.” ‘‘Nuff said.” “He’s not so lucky as a moves unsteadily to their cottage ; Smithson lurches ruffian I knew down in the Petend District,” says the over to his shack ; Tomaso lies on the floor in sleep and lawyer. “He had had a lurid life. Finally he fell in stupor. love with a pious Catholic girl. Went before the priest When Tomaso comes to his senses the moon is already with her. When the D.C. paid an official visit, the flooding the river gap with a pale silver light. The fellow marches up bold as brass. Says he has trees are gently rustled by the land-breeze, which has committedseven murders, of which there is now no been slightly chilled as it passes over the Western evidence,but that he is a reformed character. The D.C. mountains. He hears the birds pecking on the trees; says he is glad to hear it. ‘Of course,’ the ruffian a green paraquet flies to its mate-he hears its wings added, ‘if my girl, Olive, turns me down for somebody flapping as they beat the air. His forehead burns, so he else, I shall kill her too, and that will make eight.’” sits at the door that it may he cooled. He gradually At the point where I divagated into the story of the calls to mind the events of the past two days. He unhappy Chella I was about to remark that we must regretsthe flight of Chella. After all, she could cook establish a true counterpoise between town and country. and knew the knack of spices and hot seasoning. He But I must close here, resuming the subject some other remembers sensual orgies much to his liking, Gradually time. I hear the syren of the mail-steamer and the he calls to mind Alfonso’s reproaches and Smithson's motor-boat waits for me to close the letter-bag.-Your scornful gibes. Who is Alfonso, with his pasty- affectionate Uncle, ANTHONYFARLEY. 1st LEVITE (to another) : Why hast not been at prayers? Lesya Ukrainka's "Babylonian 2nd LEVITE : The master sent me to the reckonings. The workmen from Haram are now paid for their Captivity''* labour at the king's palace. (Translated by S. Wolska and C.E. Bechhofer.) 1st LEVITE : Couldst not find one of the scribes to take thy place? (A WIDE plain. the red sunset turns the waters of the 2nd LEVITE : Slavery, brother! The master says no Euphrates to blood. Scattered on the plain are seen the men are so skilled at reckoning as the Hebrews. tents of the Hebrew captives. Naked children seek 1st LEVITE : True. shells in the mud and gather brushwood for the fires. 2nd LEVITE (aside to him) : For my good help the chief Weary women, mostly old, in rags, are busied preparing gave me this ring. supper, each at her own hearth, for the men that 1st LEVITE: Glory to the Lord, that He hath have just returned from the town after their toil, and distinguished His people by wisdom above the nations are sitting silently under the willows neat the water. A of all the world. (Aside.) Is there no need of little farther off, also under the willows, stand two another to help? (They whisper.! groups, the Levites and the prophets. On the willows, A SAMARIAN PROPHET: Thus spake the Lord : On over the prophets' heads, harps hang; quivering from Garisim I have builded an abode, on its summit I time to time, they jingle in the evening wind. Far made Mine altar, but ye forsook it and knew not away are seen the walls and towers of Babylon and the house of My glory, as the foolish bibbing son sometimes there conies the noise of the city.) knoweth not his father's abode and wandereth in A WOMAN (at her fire) : Husband, come to supper. (A outer darkness, a butt for strangers' children. man, still young, leaves a group and silently sits A JEWISH PROPHET: Thus spake the Lord : In down to sup.) Jerusalem I made Mine abode among the people, that, WOM. : Why dost not eat bread? (The man is silent.) as bees come together to one hive, to one queen, Surely it is bitter? There is nought to be done, so ye would come together unto Me, to the only poor thing, thou must eat. Temple; but, as a wild swarm, ye flew away, and THE Man (mumbling like an old man) : I cannot eat. for it I sent evil hornets against you. Wom. : Misery ! Hast no teeth? Where- SAM. PROPHET: The lion of Judah ravished Israel and MAN : There ! (Points to Babylon.) dispersed his sheep. WOM.: Misery, misery, misery ! Jew. PROPHET: Saul's descendants are fit to be keepers AN OLD MAN (approaches an old woman sitting by the of flocks, but not of the people. extinguished fire of another hearth, motionless, her SAM. PROPHET: The Lord of Israel shall reach thee, head bowed down) : Give me supper! (The and through me. (Raises his staff against the woman is silent and motionless.) Why hast not Jewish Prophet.) prepared it? (The woman is silent.) Why hast JEW. PROPHET: Lord, remember Thy servant David, ashes on thy hair? (The woman is silent, and (Raises a stone to cast at the Samarian Prophet. bows still lower.) Where is our daughter? Eleazar, a young prophet and singer, just come THE OLD WOMAN : There ! (Points to Babylon and from Babylon, throws himself between the two.) pours ashes upon her head.) ELEAZAT : Refrain ! Cover not with shame the names OLD MAN : Adonai! (Tears his garments and falls of Israel and judah. down. At a third fire sit only men, mostly old. Sam. PROPHET: Ah ! is it thou, prophet of shame? And A woman approaches timidly ; ragged children hang how hast thou glorified Israel and Judah ? at her garments.) JEW. PROPHET: Vile serpent, why camest from that THE WOMAN : My fathers, pardon that I ask you ; have nest? There is thy God and thy people, begone ye not seen my husband? and glorify them ! AN OLD MAN : How- is he called? 1st LEVITE : May the Lord vomit thee out of His mouth, THE WOMAN: Ebenezer of Ossia. may thy name disappear as spittle! (The people ANOTHER OLD MAN: Was he so called before thou wert gather round.) a widow? 2ND LEVITE (catching a harp from the willows) : I will THE WOMAN : What hast said? break this cursed vessel. A THIRD OLD MAN : Do not kill thyself ! Foes do not ELEA. (catching his hand) : Touch not my harp, for it torment the dead. is innocent of my sins ! Curse me, if thou thinkest THE Woman : What shall I do, miserable, with my I am worthy, but call not the holy harp a cursed little children ? vessel. THE CHILDREN: Mother, mother, mother ! 3rd LEVITE : And how has it sanctified itself? A MAD WOMAN(wandering among the fires): Happy ELEA. : That never from the first rang a string the womb that did not bear; happy the breast that insincerely. gave not suck. Hey? rejoice not, Babylonian A BOY: Aha! Therefore thou didst hang it there. woman! Hey! be not glad, mother of vipers' ELEA. (to the Boy, sadly) : Wherefore, youth, sayst sons ! thou so? A GIRL (whispers to her companion, pointing at the mad BOY: Pretend not thou dost not understand! woman): 'Tis from the time her child was killed in AN OLD MAN: This youth told thee, Eleazar, what thy Jerusalem. conscience would have told thee-but a mute cannot COMP. : How terrible ! speak. GIRL: And I saw it with mine own eyes, when the A MAN: And it is a vanity to talk to the deaf. (A soldier seized her boy by his feet and struck at- child stretches out its arms to the harp.) COMP. : Be silent, say nought ? THE CHILD : Uncle, give me the toy. THE Levites (under the willows) : For our fathers' sin ITS MOTHER: I told thee, dare not to. come to this the Lord took from us the tempIe; for our ancestors' UncIe. dishonour He took away His church. And AN OLD Woman (to a girI standing near) : I see there now, as a spendthrift's children, innocent we is no more shame in Israel, when a girl stands expiate our fathers' debt. uncovered and looks upon a traitor. THE PROPHETS: Jerusalem smote us with stones, and THE GIRL: But I- for it the wrath of the Lord smote her. The 1st WOMAN: Look, poor thing, it is a great woe when daughter of Zion despised us, and for it the son of one cursed by God steals a girl's heart. Baal subdued her. THE GIRL: If he be cursed, I also curse him. (Veils herself and goes away.) * Lesya Ukrainka was born in 1872 and died in 1913. ELEA. (to all) : Fathers and brothers, mothers and The Ukraine lost its autonomy in 1709. sisters, since when is it a custom among us to con- demn without judging? Truly, clearly tell me, why The cold drop pierces the stone, why would not am I become as a leper among you? hot tears touch even the wicked heart? THE OLD MAN: Thou becamest leprous in Babylon, ELEA. : The Lord set pride in my soul. Never have I singing for money in the courts to the sons of wept before strangers. Baal. A MAN : Pride befits not slaves. ELEA. : Are ye not all gathered here for labour in Babylon? 1ST PROPHET : The horn of pride in thee rose above grief and holy love ! 1STMAN: Labourers do not serve Moloch. ELEA. : Measue not the measureless with the endless, ELEA. : Whom then do their arms and vessels serve? for thyself wilt not see what shall come of it. Have they not built such an abode for Moloch, as A YOUTH: Eloquent is Eleazar among the captives! never had our Lord in Jerusalem? Why in the Babylonian courts do his love and 1ST PROPHET: Taunt not captives with their slavery ! grief and pride hold their peace? Surely the space is too small? ELEA. : Am I not a captive? Why chasten ye me for ELEA. : And thou didst think it were enough? O youth, my forced labour? I have measured all those Babylonian courts and PROPHET: The cord, the spade, the plough and axe 2ND know their space. It happened I was crossing that in men’s hands are men’s slaves; hut the word in court where our people builds a tower for Moloch. a prophet’s mouth must serve God only, and none I stopped and gazed at it. The marble is white as other. bones in the field, the porphyry grey as shed blood, The OLD MAN: Yet wilt thou ask for judgment, the gold shines as a bright fire. It stands Eleazar ? unfinished, like to ruins; the calling of our conquerors ELEA.: I will, though the judgment end with stones. is heard, and are heard the groans of our people. The Lord liveth ! Ye must judge by truth; an I know not how, with a great voice I shouted over unjust curse shall turn against you. the whole place, “Jerusalem!” With a cry Let it not be said we THE OLD MAN : Let us hear him. answered the captives from the wall, and with forsook truth on the ruins of Jerusalem. Tell us laughter answered the guards. ‘‘Is that ruin called what constrained thee to sell the word in any wise, has that desert still a name?” I went ELEA. : That none bought my hands. My father did not away to the market where they sell captives into teach me to labour, and weak my mother bred me. slavery. There a rich merchant was choosing the Though the harp obey my hands, nor plough nor most lovely captives. axe obeys them. I fell under a burden, at once the WOMEN : Misery, misery, misery ! overseer drove me from the labour. ELEA. : I said, “Think, lord, these girls have fathers The OLD MAN: Let then thy father and mother feed and brothers. Were thy sister or daughter taken thee, who have not taught thee to earn bread. captive, would the foe sell her?” He answered, ELEA. : In Jerusalem I earned honourably by the means “’Tis the fate of captives.” I went farther and they taught me, and here-and yet the bread burns saw a small, weak slave, and a tall, strong that my father brings from Babylon; hard it is to Babylonianloaded him with wares, as a mule, and drove eat from a father’s slavery. him with a stick. I cried, “Stay ! So to torment 1ST LEVITE : Not only bread thy father brings, but also such a small boy!” “For this he is a slave,” he golden rings. answered, arrogant. “And were thy son sold,” ELEA. (to all) : Teach this Levite that gold burns also, said I, “he too would be a slave?” “Surely; not and not only shines. otherwise,” said the rich man, and laughed aloud, 1ST LEVITE (slyly) : Why does thy father’s work burn “hut I do not sell my sons, and thine, thou seest, so ? I buy.” Who or what will touch such hearts? ELEA. : Am I judged here or my father? Bring then all Once only with my songs I got a tear from a fathers to judgment, that for their family lose their stranger; the king himself wept at the end of Saul souls. an d Jonathan’s death. 1ST LEVITE : Why didst not cry to the nation to feed A VOICE FROM THE PEOPLE: Long live the merciful thee with the bread wherewith it feeds Levites and king ! In him only is our hope. cripples ? ELEA. : The merciful king wished to reward me ELEA. : I am nor Levite nor cripple. generously A LITTLE BOY (to his father) : Daddy, give me bread ! 1ST LEVITE : What gave he thee, Eleazar? THE FATHER: I have none, my son. ELEA. : He gave me a chamber in his palace and Jewish A MAN : Dost see? He heard talk of bread and eating, captives, as many as I would. From that moment and says too, give me bread. I cursed the songs that get tears from conquerors; ELEA. : Rightly says the boy. He answered for me they are the tears of the Nile’s crocodiles. better than I could know. Ye all heard these few THE YOUTH : Thou shouldst have sung them of the fame words “Daddy, give me bread,” “I have none, of our ancestors, that they might know the strength my son.” While in Israel they speak thus, Eleazar of our people. will not share bread with Levites and cripples. He ELEA. : I sang. that has bread, let him give to the child; I will THE YOUTH : And what ? (Eleazar is silent.) take from captives stones. He that has fish, let THE OLD MAN: Say, Eleazar, how the strangers heard him feed the children, and give me the slave’s viper the song of fame. that drinks all the blood from the heart. I will ELEA. (slowly, as with difficulty) : One of them whistled take it and bear it with me unto the courts; it will and, smiling, shook his head. Another said, “Not give sting to my words and its hissing they will all that is true.” A third bade me join the military hear in Babylon. singers, and all, one after the other, said, “Is there A YOUTH : Much wilt thou earn for such songs in Babylon! only that in the world which is in Jerusalem? Surely less than thou hast earned for the Knowest thou no songs of Edom, of Misraim? hymns of Zion. Was not the fame of Amalek, Ammon and Amareus ELEA. : Unwisely, boy, hast spoken. I sang them not as the past fame of Israel?” hymns of Zion. The hymn of Zion, of all songs 1ST PROPHET: O Lord, chastise the hostile lips with the the ornament, was as a bride in Jerusalem, as a dumbness of death. wife in the holy city; here it were as a concubine, ELEA. : I began to sing them of Edom, of Misraim, of for who taketh a captive as a lawful wife? (The foreign speeches in a foreign speech. They heard people sigh. Eleazar holds his peace and bows his how treacherous Edom’s crooked sword broke head. ) against Ashur’s armour ; how Amalek, Ammon and A MAN : Why didst not sing the songs of captivity? Amareus from ravishers became slaves; how Why hast not poured the hitter tears of slavery? Misraim,master of half the world, once the lord of the tribes of Israel, had to submit to the eternal might; ELEA.: Ye do not curse me. I forgive all the words. how horse and rider fell into the sea, and all the But still I am cursed with that dreadful curse of Pharaoh’s might, whenas was voided the abhorred blood. The blood of our fathers, shed in vain for house of toil and the cursed place of slavery was our lost liberty, weighs upon my head and yours, devastated. and bows down our foreheads to the earth, to the THE YOUTH : And what did the listeners? stone that the hand of my people hurled not against ELEA. : There were those who paled. me. A man’s son fell and cut himself on a sharp 2ND PROPHET: May they grow pale and cold for ever ! stone; in despair he rent his garments of honour THE YOUTH : Why didst not say then that also for these and strewed ashes of disgrace upon his head. O, as shall come a day of judgment? the temple I fell, as Jerusalem we fell all, and, as ELEA. : For that word there is no room in Babylon ! it is hard to rebuild our temple, so hard it is for us Today I sang them of Ophir, Sidon and Tyre, their to rise out of the dust of slavery’s dishonour. Shame power and wisdom and treasures, as are not and fell upon our arms that rose not to take the lives of never will be in the Babylonian treasuries. of us conquered, but rose to labour for the 1st LEVITE: Didst gain much for this song? enemies. Leprosy covered the bodies of the girIs ELEA. : Thinkest, the treasures of Canaan? See, I have of Zion, that they drowned not themselves in the bread for this day’s supper. Euphrates, but went to entertain the sons of THE YOUTH : Surely, for songs that praised Babylon’s lasciviousness and nurse the fruit of their shame. power, thou hast earned more than one golden And shame covered my lips that from hunger these ring ? lips grew not still, but spake the strange speech in ELEA. : The vile speaks only with poison, but poison those courts cursed by God where all songs sound- seizes not every man. When heardest me sing and only that which bursts from the heart must songs of Babylonian glory and might? (The youth die. Infamy oppresses us worse than chains, it is silent and ashamed.) Thou hast judged thyself bites worse than iron fetters. To suffer chains is by thy silence. inhuman shame, to forget them unbroken yet THE OLD MAN : Eleazar, it may be thy songs are good greater ignominy-. Two paths we have, death or in Babylon, but Misraim and Edom and all the disgrace, till we find a way to Jerusalem. Brothers, tongues will not bring Palestine io mind and awake let us look for a way to the temple as the gazelle the thought of Jerusalem. seeks water in the desert, that the mighty foe may ELEA. : Is there need already to bring it to our minds? not say, “Now have I slain Israel; it is dead!” THE OLD MAN : Not to us, but to those that among foes And ere we find it, let us fight for life as the have used to speak the foreign speech. wounded badger in the hunt; let it not be said ELEA.: How will they understand the inborn song? among men, “The Lord of Israel fell asleep in How sing it in a foreign speech? Heaven.” O Babylon, too early it is to rejoice! THE OLD MAN: With thy foreign words thou wilt forget Still our harps sound among the willows, still tears to say, “Jerusalem!” (Eleazar stands thoughtfully. flow into the Babylonian rivers, still the daughter His hand begins to touch the strings of his of Zion burns with shame, still the lion of Judah harp, and his voice, as that of one talking in his roars with fury. The Lord liveth, my soul liveth, sleep, sounds, neither singing, nor wailing.) Israel liveth, even in Babylon ! ELEA. : My right hand was strong ; who could overcome THEVOICE OF an OVERSEER FROM THE CAMP: TO the it? Did I then say to myself: “Happy am I; I tents, Israel; the night cometh. (The people have my right arm’’? Spake I ever to it thus : separates and goes to its tents. On the distant “Right arm, know thou art mine!” But the evil towers are seen the Babylonian magicians, foretelling foe wounded my hand and cut off my right arm. from the stars. The camp grows still. From Whom shall I overcome now? Who will not Babylon scarcely there reaches the sound of overcomeme. Day and night I say to myself, “ O nocturnalrevels. The solemn night trembles over the misery, where is my hand? I look upon my captive camp and Babylon. Here and there shoulder and weep, “Right arm, how forget thee?” quicken the overseers’ fires. Silence.) (He quietly touches the strings. The people weep.) My father had a rich vineyard, my mother a green garden. I walked in it, plucked the berries and trampled the leaves with my feet. An evil Problems of Conflict. neighbour set fire to our vineyard and devastated “Unless we expel God from His universe and revert the green garden. The vine was burned, the to the dualism of the Scholastics, we are almost bound berries dropped and its glorious beauty fell to tu believe that His full thought for man cannot come to ashes. Shall I find beneath my feet, be it only one perfect fruition without the awful discipline of war; and leaf, I shall press it to my heart. Dear brothers, hence within the bosom of the Only Perfect, hardness say, has none of you, be it only one leaf from my and softness, mercy and force are reconciled.” vine? (The strings sound still more sadly, and the IN these words Miss Evelyn Underhill sums up the weeping becomes louder.) mystical explanation of the existence of disease, misery I dreamed a dread dream-who shall divine it? and war in the world. Especially she applies them to ’Twas as if I fell into the hands of the enemies. the crisis through which Europe is now passing. That What have they done to me, the terrible enemies? My arms still are mighty, my legs still are strong, some endeavour to explain the existence of evil on the my eyes still are clear, and my body is not hurt. part of those who believe in a conscious power behind Only my tongue, my tongue was fit for their the Universe, called God, or the Great First Cause, is vengeance. I wished to speak a word; I wished at necessary no one will deny. Nor can it in truth be least to raise my voice. But my lips spake with affirmed that those whose faith is rooted in such a blood and cried with silence. (A long pause. The doctrine, or hypothesis, have been backward in offering harp falls from Eleazar’s hands and the sigh of its us a reconciliation of perfect love and diabolical ferocity. strings dies away. The people’s cries cease abruptly. Silence. He speaks with respect, but The essay of Miss Evelyn Underhill in the April firmly and distinctly.) Fathers and brothers, number of the “Hibbert Journal’’ satisfies us no more mothers and sisters ! I await for a stone or a word than the many others we have read of a like nature. from you. (Silence.) What curse is more awful Miss Underhill is the best known expositor in this than silence ? country of mysticism; we know her explanation THE OLD MAN : We do not curse thee, Eleazar. of events will be coloured by her doctrines, and unless THE YOUTH : Forgive me my hard word, brother. she were to become an apostate they must be made to harmonise with her a priori conceptions. This does not performedby a group of individuals associated either as a mean that she, and those who follow her example, are community or as a nation they may be perfectly moral? intellectually insincere. It merely allows for the almost That for a man in a private quarrel to kill another is ineradicable tendency of thehuman mind tothink otherwise immoral, while to shoot a foe as a unit of a regiment than within the limits of its special bent. is moral? We are omitting of course from this question ’The question we have to ask is : Does Miss Underhill's the purely. judicial side and consider it solely in the relation attempt really convince us that there is a feasible of God to man. If to slay a fellow creature divorces explanation of the conception of a perfect all-loving man from the “Spirit of God” is any mitigation possible Spirit, who guides and controls the universe and the because the act is concerted? To assert that there is a tornado of war and barbarism now engulfing Europe? difference in reality is only to shift the problem from Any secondary consideration as to the Divine Immanence the act to the motive, from the effect to the cause. And of such Spirit only confuses the issue. that way lies inevitably and logically the denial of In times of peace, she says, the eternal struggle for individualresponsibility. life proceeds to a great extent unnoticed by us. “We In spite, however, of sophisms, Miss Underhill feels cannot shut our eyes,” she writes, “to the fact that the instinctively the “wrongness” of war. “War is brutal, whole creative process, as we know it, involves conflict cruel, real, and our deepest spiritual experience-also and tension. Peaceful progress is only possible in the real-assures us that the final and conquering reality is, garden and the stud farm, and only there because a must be, goodness and love.” And we can only benevolent despotism keeps all enemies away. . . Those harmonisethese facts“by a realisation of the wide difference who believe in the Divine Immanence must acknowledge between spiritual and material peace, and a return that the Spirit of God animates a warring world, achieving to the old and only really religious attitude of adoration its goal by conflict with resistances and quickening and humility.” Let us put the phraseology of mysticism most the lives of those who struggle best.” Now, no into plain words and say that Miss Underhill feels one will dispute this proposition except the reference intuitivelythe disharmony between the world she knows to the “Spirit of God,” the perfect all-loving Creator, and the world as she conceives it ought to be, and in who animates sentient beings. To me, at all events, it the face of the problem is powerless to attempt an seems equally rational to assume that this perpetual explanation.So she eschews reason and logic and falls struggle, this race in which only the fittest survive, is back on the old, old attitude: “I feel there must be not animated and controlled by a perfect all-loving some explanation, although I cannot now find it.” Creator; but it is, as far as we can see, the sole process And Miss Underhill proceeds to develop this theme. by which evolution can be accomplished. And we ask, Only by such an act of transcendence, i.e., giving up if the force behind matter ever pressing it forward in the problem as insoluble and having faith in an ultimate the struggle is conscious, why it may not be the work of solution can we possibly reconcile the “tiger” and a being neither perfect nor benevolent but selfish and “lamb” element in nature. It is part of the Divine cruel? On a superficial examination at least this last Will, not merely to build up, but also to break down. hypothesis is not utterly untenable. Hindu thought, she explains, has ever insisted on this We are told that the struggle for existence does not aspect of life. Quite true; but the Indian conception differ in kind from the struggle between rival nations. of the Deity is scarcely consonant with the Christian. Let us clarify the issue by admitting at once that a “The Master is one,” she quotes, “and life and death, struggle between the organism of one nation and that union and separation, are all His plays of joy.’’ There of another for mere room for expansion or for food is is no idea here of the “Only Perfect.” The Deity, it not impossible to imagine, but have we any evidence seems to me, in this sentence is conceived as using that the war in Europe to-day is such an effort? If it matter, animate and inanimate, just as a child uses his is, and I have heard few make that claim, then Miss bricks, to build up, to fashion into any shape he fancies, Underhill does not attempt to prove it. She assumes and when he is tired to sweep the whole edifice to the the analogy between the evolutionary process and our ground. This conception of the Creating Will may be present crisis when it is that proposition which needs correct, but it is difficult to reconcile it with the idea of careful elaboration. No thesis is difficult to maintain “All Loving.” if the objections to it are assumed either to be non- War, Miss Underhill admits, would be unendurable existent or taken to be unworthy of consideration. save for the quickening effect it has upon our spiritual The inconsistency of this attitude is, however, carried life. “A vigorous spiritual life is most often associated still further. After expatiating on the ultimate benefits with hard and warlike rather than with prosperous resulting from war, disease and suffering, she says, times.” This proposition admits of wide dissent and “Yet we know that we must work against them with an is too vast to be debated here, but one may mention unrelaxed tension, must take care that our voluntary that the Hindus, while among the most spiritual of all actions, our self-seeking heedlessness or stupidity, do races, are not warlike. The crux of the matter is, she nothing to increase their sum.” Why? If war and says, the effect war has on character. Not only, she disease are the means through which the “Spirit of contends, does war bring out in the individual the qualities God’’ is working to consummate the perfection of the of self-sacrifice and heroism, but, more usefully still, human race, surely we should rather strive to intensify it creates a national consciousness, a real organic them? Is the individual opposed necessarily to God? national life; it sets a stamp upon the personality and Are we to work on directly different lines? The divine value of the Nation. Let us €or a moment accept this plan as far as we can see it surely should be our copy not hypothesis to inquire if that is entirely good. our bogey ! The introduction of the idea of the Divine No doubt for the individual to realise that he is a Immanence at this stage would merely render palpably member of an organic community and that he has duties absurd the entire conception by showing It operating to perform in that capacity is excellent and necessary against Itself. if he is to be a useful citizen. But as Nations are How is this attitude justified? “Christian theologians composedof individuals, so mankind is made up of nations, hold that the death of Christ was both inevitable and and it is just as deplorable a spectacle, and just as salutary for the race; but they do not on that account fraught with suffering and sorrow, to see civil war excuse Judas Iscariot. ” Therefore, because theologians among the corporate aggregates of men we call hold a doctrine which, to state it mildly, requires a deal Nations, as civil war among individuals. Miss of explanation to rescue it from absurdity, we who Underhill has not taken her argument far enough, possibly stand outside are to be compelled to accept an and until she can prove that civic strife is exegesis either grossly apologetic or repugnant to conduciveto a spiritual state we must decline to ordinarylogic. believe that international strife evokes high moral But perhaps Miss Underhill will maintain that acts benefits and results. committed by an individual may be wrong but when EVERARDG. GILBERT-COOPER. Vedas ; but the disputations of the Arya Samajists Views and Reviews. seem to follow a Christian course, and in 1892 the Arya Samaj split on the question of meat-eating. The ten Back to the Vedas. principles which alone are binding on the members say MR. LAJPATRAI has written a clear and concise account nothing on the question; indeed, they are as vague and of what is the most forinidable Nationalist movement”; general as are those of the Theosophical Society; but in India. He devotes a considerable portion of his book the dispute really turned on the question whether to a biographical sketch of the founder of the Arya membersshould use Dayananda’s method or follow his Samaj, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a man who does example. If they used his method, practically everythingwould be left to private judgment; if they followed not impress an English reader quite in the same way his example, the Arya Samaj would have a rule of as he seems to have impressed some Hindus. Of his exclusion which would make its propaganda more scholarship I do not pretend to speak; but if he were definite while it increased its difficulty, except among no more patient in his investigation of Sanscrit literature the Chandals. What was, perhaps, of more importance than he was in some other matters, his translation was the development of a new educational ideal and interpretation of the Vedas would have little value. and instituion. The original college seems to have A man who, without proper tools or any knowledge of degenerated into a training ground for the Indian Civil Service, its Nationalism mellowed into Officialism. The dissection, will open a corpse, and, because he fails more ardent members seceded, and founded a college to find certain things described in the test-books, will for the purpose of trying Dayananda’s system of pitch the books and the corpse into the river, can education. “High proficiency in Vedic Sanscrit and scarcely be called a patient seeker after knowledge. character-building on Vedic lines are the objects of the Anatomy cannot be learned by one dissection, made by scheme.’’ a man without knowledge of or skill in surgical This Gurukula is probably the most important of the demonstration; and such an incident invalidates anything activities of the Arya Samaj. Its monastic discipline that Dayananda may have said about the superiority of at the most impressionable age (from seven to twenty- the Vedas in scientific knowledge to modern text- five) may have a powerful effect on the characters of books. Whatever may be the value of the Vedas to the students. The boys take a vow of poverty, science, Dayananda was not qualified to determine it. chastity, and obedience for sixteen years, and the vow For the rest, he seems to have devoted himself to the is renewed at the end of the tenth year; they are not study and translation of the Vedas, to disputation of a allowed to visit their homes during the whole period, singularly fruitless kind, and to what we should call except under special circumstances, nor can their an evangelising mission to the people. On the relativesvisit them more often than once a month. Usually questionof caste, he denied that its hereditary succession they come only about twice a year. Of the school had any Vedic authority. The four castes were, in his routine I have not space to speak; but it seems to be opinion, only four types of man organised into guilds admirably calculated to keep the boys in good health by the State for the better accomplishment of its work; and thoroughly occupied during the whole day. The and the State had the power of elevating or degrading curriculum is most varied, and is wisely not confined to the members of every caste according to their fitness. the infallible Vedas, although these form the basis of But he did not suggest that the State could or would the moral training of the students. “The curriculum concern itself to-day with the regulation of the castes; includes Plato, Mill, Herbert Spencer, Jevons, Fowler, he left to the spontaneous action of society the Stock, and Welton, in logic; James and Ladd, in redistributionof the four types. It followed from his psychology; Flint’s Theism ; Muirhead’s Ethics; interpretation that, in practice, he ignored the caste Marshall,Nicholson, Keynes and Seligman, in economics ; distinction; like another Christ, he said what he had to Seeley, Gardiner, and Oman, in English history ; say, “He that can receive it, let him receive it”; and Bluntschli’s S tat e and Alston’s Constitution.’’ There the Arya Samaj has followed his teaching even to the seems to be an intolerable amount of logic; but science extent of teaching “the untouchables” and investing is not forgotten and is much more patiently considered them with the sacred thread previously reserved to the than it was by Dayananda. Indeed, it is the aim of the twice-born. management to make the Gurukula a first-class This is a typical instance of his interpretation of the institutionfor the study of Western literature and modern Vedas. He seems to have read for the spirit, not for science. The Gurukula was established in 1902 so that the word; perhaps it would be more accurate to say it is too early yet to judge of its results, for none of its that, like most people who deal with documents rather pupils has completed the course. But it seems clear than with institutions (particularly when neither the that, mentally and physically, its pupils should be grammatical construction nor the meanings of words superior to the ordinary Indian student; and should be have been definitely determined), he found them plastic well-nigh perfect inorally, if theory and cloistered and pliable to his handling. Certainly, no low-caste or training have any value. But the test of character is no-caste people will ever object to a teaching that temptation, and the Gurukula has no means of providing opens to them a way of improving their social status; it ; so we must wait until its pupils mingle with the but it has to be remembered that the improvement of world before judging the value of “character-building social status is itself conditional on the maintenance of on Vedic lines.” respect for caste. If the Brahmins are not respected, the “untouchables” have gained nothing by being When that happens, when India is flooded with admitted to their ranks; and it remains to be seen Christs who have received a college education, we shalt whether the Brahmins will be respected when the be confronted only with the everlasting problem of Chandals are elevated in any numbers. For an government. Mr. Lajpat Rai mentions the fact that evangelist, such fingent interpretation is a practical tolerant treatment by the Government of the Arya necessity; but we may legitimately doubt that Samaj leaves it free to develop its internal dissensions; Dayananda would have read the Vedas in this way if he deprecates the spirit of hyper-criticism that keeps its Christian missionaries had not introduced their members eternally at logger-heads, and begs them not doctrines of deliquescence to India. to multiply their institutions beyond their resources. But it is not so much Dayananda as the Arya Samaj Whatever may be the political value of this movement, that concerns us; for the man is dead, and the longer the Government would be wise not to increase it by he remains dead the more disputable becomes his persecution or suspicion ; the revolting spirit of influence. He certainly asserted the infallibility of the Dayananda, which is so much admired and copied by the Arya Samajists, may be trusted to produce * “The Arya Samaj.” By Lajpat Rai. (Longmans. 5s. individuals incompatible with each other and innocuous net.) to everyone else. A. E. R. Thou of faith the radiant dayspring, unto me amid my Pastiche. durance Be thy mercy unabated, I am powerless, be my succour. THE TEUTOPHOBE LEAGUE. (With no apologies to the Anti-German League). I saw a mighty eagle take wing and cleave the air, This League has been founded to combat a terrible peril And basking in the shadow two doves, a cooing pair. -the peril of reconciliation after the war is over. The idea that peace and goodwill should ever be restored I saw the flocks of cloudlets adrift before the wind, in Europe is unthinkable to all patriotic Englishmen, to And lambkins on the meadows fain of the herdsman’s care. all who are not sentimentalists or pro-Germans. We can never trust any member of that lying, treacherous, I heard the stars that questioned : When shall we rise to lecherous and homicidal nation again. We must remember birth ? this apparent paradox : that the Germans are groaning And buds in their concealment : Shall we awaken e’er? under the iron heel of despotism, and yet that every individual German is entirely responsible for this war I saw a grass-blade blossom and fade ’twixt morn and and for each and all of its accompanying miseries and eve ; brutalities. Hence, even when the war is over, we must I saw a cedar thriving, that years of tempest spare. continue the noble principle of private vendetta. Let it be carefully understood that we do NOT hate I saw the ocean’s billows like monarchs crowned with the Germans. We are incapable of such an emotion. We foam, cannot sing hymns of hate or call on the Almighty to Before a rock prostrate them, like worshippers at prayer. punish Germany. It may be our magnanimity; it may be our exquisite sense of humour; but we are, and shall I saw a droplet sparkle, a jewel in the sun, always be, utter strangers to that peculiar virus which It shrank not from the peril of waning in the glare. has infested the whole Fatherland. It. is our sincere hope that, when the Allies have finally I saw how throngs of mortals abodes and towns upraised. wiped the floor with this accursed race, there will be no And swarms of ants with travail a sorry heap prepare. German man, woman, child, horse or dog left alive in the Central Empires. In case, however, a few miscreants I saw the winter weaving apparel wrought of flakes should escape the just vengence of God, England, To deck the earth whose seeming was desolate and bare. France, Belgium, Russia, Servia and Japan, and in view of the fact that we shall still have many alien enemies I heard the loom whose whirring doth fashion sun-lit veils, who have been in our country during the war, me pledge I saw an insect spinning its slender-threaded lair. our members to carry out or further the following objects after the conclusion of hostilities:-- I saw both small and mighty, and mighty was the small, I. To shoot any German at sight. For I could see God’s image, God’s image everywhere. 2. To train their dogs to bite any German at sight (in case they cannot shoot straight). I ani the sunlit atom, I am the sun aglow, 3. To boycott all descendants of Germans unto the third I hid the atom tarry, I bid the sun to go. and fourth generation. (This will jnclude H.M. King George V : it is hard lines on His Majesty, perhaps, but I am the gleam of morning, I ani the breath of eve, he should have chosen his grandfather more carefully.) I am the hedge’s rustling, the billow’s ebb and flow. 4. To boycott any Englishman who has ever employed a German, spoken to a German, learned the German I am the bird, the fowler, the net wherewith he snares, language,travelled in Germany, drunk hock or lager beer, The image and the mirror, the echo to and fro. or eaten German sausage (pah!). 5. To eliminate all Teutonic words from our language. I ani the tree of knowledge, I am the bird thereon, A list of new Latin equivalents for the articles, pronouns, The silence and the brooding, the tongue, the cry of woe. prepositions, and more common nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs may be obtained from the Secretary, post I am the flute’s allurement, I am the soul of man, free, on application. I am the stone-hid sparkle, the metal’s golden show. 6. To intermarry, as far as possible, with Celts, Latins, Slavs, Jews, Mongols, or negroes, in order that the Anglo- I ani the vine, the vintage, the goblet and the grape, Saxon blood may be more and more diluted. The servant, the carouser, the bliss his cups bestow. 7. To avoid playing or hearing the compositions of Edward German. The taper that enticeth, the moth that is enticed, 8. To kill any of their children who are unpatriotic The rose-bush and the songster that flies where roses grow. enough to contract German measles. 9. To ensure that peerages are bestowed on Messrs. I am the peace, the contest, the field where fights are Robert Blatchford, Horatio Bottomley, and Austin Harrison, gained, for their public-spirited attempt to undermine the The town and its defenders, the rampart and the foe, sanity of the English people. As soon as the funds of the League permit, a statue of I am the lime, the trowel, the mason and the gap, Attila will be erected, to show the League’s sense of his The keystone and the gable, the house, its overthrow. marked superiority to the Kaiser. The League has already commissioned Mr. John I am the chain of being, I am the ring of worlds, Masefield,the well-known scatologist and Billingsgate expert, The ladder of creation, that reaches high and low. to write a Hymnof-, well, er, not a Hymn of Hate, P. SELVER but a Hymn expressing what we feel about the Germans. Further particulars may be had from the secretary, HOSPITALITY. P. H. Arisee, Esq., 737, Acacia Road, Brixton, S.W. (From the French of Fabre d’Eglantine). P. v. C. 1750-1793. Pretty shepherdess, it rains : From the Divan of Mevlana Djelal-ed-din, called Rumi Call your white sheep hastily- the Greek. (1217-73). Leave your pastures and the lanes, Seven heavens hast thou created, I am powerless, he my In my cottage keep you dry. succour. On the forest leaves I hear Thou all-cherished, thou unhated, I am powerless, he my Heavy raindrops, pattering loud ; succour Now the storm is very near, Thou, to whom the spirit yieldeth, thou with time and See the lightning in the cloud ! space for vassals, Lord of all that yet is fated, I am powerless, be my succour. Heard’st thou how the thunder spoke, Thou enricher of the needy, thou companion of the outcast, Marching over Heaven’s floor? By thine alms the just are sated : I am powerless, he my Shelter thee beneath my cloak, succour. Till we reach the cottage door. Heart and lips unite to praise thee, day and night my voice Through the tempest’s misty van proclaimeth : I can see its warming- fire, “Thou by whom all flesh is mated, I am powerless, be my My mother, and my sister Anne, succour.’’ Who are opening the byre. Dear my mother, how fare you? Behold, I show a picture, grand and fine : Anne my sister, how dost fare? A scramble. for the mighty Northcliffe’s gold. Welcome, my beloved, too- No pearls are thrown away; there are no swine ; Go to the fire, and dry you there. But Blatchford ream on ream has nom unrolled. Dry your pretty finery And Bottomley and Arnold White make bold At our chimney warm and wide; To jostle Austin Harrison. It’s clear Sister, keep her company : That while their souls are cast in Honour’s mould, Enter, little sheep, and bide. The working man has drowned his soul in beer. ENVOI. Mother, let us teiid her sheep, Snowy ewe and horned ram : O “Times” (0 mores!) Gild the bankers’ gold ! Give more hay, whereon to sleep, Bless every move of every profiteer ! To her little pretty lamb : Hut curse the workmen who the land have sold! It is done-to her draw near. The working man has drowned his soul in beer. There thou art, my only love ! VECTIS She’s too fair for me, I fear- Mother, see my pretty dove ! LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Let us sup; this is thy chair. Thou must sit, beloved, by me; DEMOCRACY AND THE GUILDS. Torch of larch perfumes the air Sir,-The “National Guildsman” who is “at present On the board in front of thee : abroad” is also all at sea. He tells us that “when we Drink of milk, to soothe thy rest. speak of the Athenians as a democracy, we exclude the What, beloved, wilt not eat? helots from consideration.” Quite rightly, too ; there By the storm thou art oppressed, were no helots at Athens. His comparison of our wage- Heavy move those little feet. earners with the slaves of Athens will not bear consideration. Our wage-earners are citizens, precisely because Here is made, dear lore, thy bed : they are enfranchised; the slaves of Athens were not. Shepherdess, sleep there till day; Our wage-earners are proprietors of their own labour- From thy pleasant lips of red power; the slaves of Athens were not. Our wage- Let me steal one kiss away; earners have the right of association in bodies that are Blush not, for the morrow morn, legally privileged by the State; the slaves of Athens had On the kindly pasture-land, not. Our wage-earners do not correspond to the slaves, With my mother, at the dawn, hut to the citizens of Athens. Therefore, in discussing Of thy sire 1’11 ask thy hand. modern democracy, we ought not to exclude the wage- RUTH PITTER. earners ; the Guild Writers theinselves admitted the citizenship of the wage earners, but drew a distinction THINGS THAT DON’T MATTER IN THE LEAST TO between “active” and “passive” citizenship. “Wage- ANYONE RUT MR. FULSOM TONGUE IN THE slave” is a rhetorical term ; the "passive citizenship” of “TALL-GALL GAZETTE.” the wage-earlier expresses a fact. It was a murky spring afternoon with a more than Nor ani I much concerned with the statement that this usually unspringlike and uninspiring nip in the air. I “National Guildsman” once described Mr. Balfour as “an put on my hat (it was a silk hat) and took a stroll. There Athenian democrat.” Mr. Balfour has been called many was a dearth of lilac on the hushes, and if a nightingale things in the course of his life, and might more justly be was chirping anywhere within a radius of Charing Cross called a Brahmin than a democrat. The fact remains that I did not hear it. Before I had sauntered very far, I saw he does not resemble an Athenian democrat, of whom one of those commonplace, everyday little things that are Cleon, not Pericles, is the type; and what this “National so pregnant with profound significance for the languid Guildsman” means when he says that Mr. Balfour “adopts journalist who is out on the quest of adding seven and the tone of a democrat ” only himself knows. Mr. sixpence to his balance at the bank with the least possible Balfour’s exquisite courtesy is a distinction, not a effort. What I saw indeed was not actually seven hard resemblance; and there is probably no more lonely mind in bright shillings and a dear little new sixpence lying in England than that of Mr. Balfour. gallant array in the gutter urging me to pick them up. As for the wage-earners “becoming a democracy,” I SO, the things that matter are not quite so simple and prefer Rousseau to this “National Guildsman." “Were blatantly obvious as all that. But a faint prognostication, there a people of gods,” said he, “their government would a charming elusive hint vaguely suggested that an acute be democratic. So perfect a government is not for men.” observer like myself might capture that paltry small In the circumstances, I can quite understand that incident and by treating it in my approved dry, terse this “National Guildsman” finds the discussion style evolve it eventually into the compact little sum of "premature”; hut if I may make a suggestion, it is that seven and sixpence. One compact seven and sixpence “National Guildsmen should not divide into persons added to many other seven and sixpences is not to be each writing “for himself.” The title should reveal despised. It soon mounts steadily into a pile and makes unity, and the authority that has attached to it is likely a more appreciable mark on one’s banking account than to be lessened by division. I care enough for the aristocratic the proceeds of publishing an immortal bawdy, disjointed principle of esprit de corps to accept the correction novel recording the experiences of verdant youth among of “National Guildsmen” whether I agree or disagree the manicured nails and lace petticoats of Parisian with them; but no one of them singly can claim to speak cocottes. After all, the incident of the spring afternoon with any authority. This one, in particular, lacks has eluded me, but that is not a thing that matters. The accuracy in all his statements. A. E. R. thing that matters is that I have earned the compact sum of seven and sixpence without mentioning the War. *** B. M. FOREIGNERS IN ENGLAND. A BALLADE OF THE TIMES. Sir,-I heartily condone with Mr. Sorabji over the utter The workers on the Tees and Clyde and Tyne nonsense written in “M. F. E.’s” letter, and cannot Work when it pleases them, I have been told. imagine why Mr. Sorabji took the trouble to reply to it. The pitmen hewing coal within the mine, One is always led to expect great calm and dignity from Their labour very selfishly withhold. one of India’s inhabitants, especially from anyone of Mr. The price goes up, and so the poor go cold, Sorabji’s education and high intelligence; and I hope I And blame the owners that the stuff is clear. am not venturing too far when I mention that such a From Belfast and the South to Yorkshire Wold reply as Mr. Sorabji’s last letter is almost trespassing The working man has drowned his soul in beer. upon the preserves of the back answer, tu quoque form of argument. “M. F. E.’s” letter should not, I feel sure, They say that floating loans is Rothschild’s line. be taken in earnest; it is merely, I should suggest, the Lloyd George a million ninepences has doled. outcome of a too healthy and exuberant dinner, moistened The timber deals of Mr. Meyer shine. to no small degree with the grape of Bacchus. Such a The Army Ordnance Corps a tale unfold letter one might pass over altogether were it not that Of Messrs. X’s boots--not too well soled. some unknowing persons might possibly mistake it for the At Nietzsche all our honest pressmen sneer. true feeling of the average Englishman. I am sure that And Messrs. Lyons’ meat is good --hut old. should “M. F. E.” again deign to enlighten us with his the working man has drowned his soul in beer. knowledge of good manners and social etiquette, he will append an apology for so untutored an epistle, and for combatantshas Sir Percy Scott’s approval. He also assumes expressing such vulgar and unwarrantedly stupid advice. that Germany did not begin to attack merchantmen until EVANMORGAN. the merchantmen began to attack them. Both those *** assumptions are wrong, and with them goes Mr. Norman’s GERMANY. only reputable witness. Mr. Norman’s evidence is always of this selected Sir,--I do not know whether your correspondent, Otto character,and is very rarely based upon official documents. Bucht, whose letter, “Berlin in War Time,’’ appears in lf he quotes from official documents he is not averse to your last issue, is a simpleton, or whether he thinks we leaving out a material paragraph. on this side of the North Sea are simpletons. He is a peculiar person who takes a peculiar delight No one here who has given the matter any thought in imputing- bad motives to his own countrymen, and good fancies for a moment that the ordinary German reads ones to the men of any enemy country. In ordinary times philosophical or military books, but we do think that the he does not matter. At the moment, however, any fool, works of Nietzsche, Treitschke, and Bernhardi have been especially if he is a clever fool, can do his country an read and accepted by German intellectuals, that is, by infinity of harm. the university professors and the teachers of the Real It may please Mr. Norman and his like to believe that Schule (Upper Schools), and that through them the the Germans are angels, but they have no right to say so Germans,as a nation, have been taught to believe in these here. They can go abroad and say it-France, for theories and to accept them as the proper outlook on Life. example, or even Italy. But when we are in the midst of a I can tell you a story which will illustrate this, and can struggle which demands the full exercise of all our faculties, give the name and address of the lady concerned. we cannot afford to allow treachery. It is an ugly (Privately,ofcourse.) word, but it is absolutely justifiable. Mr. Norman and I know a German lady, resident in London, who made a his like are quite ignorant of the fact that we are engaged practice of visiting her relatives in Germany every in this terrific struggle. If they remain ignorant and summer. The outbreak of war prevented her going last show it, they may have our pity, but they will not have summer; but the year before, in 1913, to be exact, she our love, when the awakening strikes rudely upon them. made her usual visit ; and when the time for leave-taking To-day even, it is dangerous to play the devil’s advocate. came, her young nephew, a youth of some 16 years, said to To-morrow Mr. Norman may find it suicidal. her, “By the time we see you again, Aunt, India will be Meanwhile,I suggest that he should read the Report of Lord ours.’’ Bryce’s Commission on Belgian atrocities and the This lad may never have heard the names of the three evidence. If our military authorities are as bad as the worthies given above-but what of that ! German, Mr. Norman’s education may receive considerable s. REEVE. extension. FRED H. GORLE. *** *** MALTHUSIANISM. JAROSLAV. Sir,---In his treatment of Malthusianism your correspondent, Sir,---In my reading I came across a French translation “G. D.,” is more interesting than convincing. of an old legend of Bohemia, which, both as it gives a Germany’s birth-rate has certainly declined, but is still clue to the origin of the name Jaroslav, a Galician town considerably higher than in this country, where the of much importance during the present war, and, owing population is increasing by about I per cent. per annum. to the intrinsic merit of the legend itself, I thought it Effectively to relieve the pressure exerted by over-population might be of interest. However, not being an exponent of the birth-rate must be such as to lead to a reduction style in the sense of your contributor, “R. H. C.,” I am in population. giving you the original French version, which could be The fact that the condition of our masses to-day is no rendered into better English than mine would be by Mr. worse than sixty years ago may be easily explained. In Selver or Miss Alice Morning :- this country we have enormous economic resources which, Le chef frappe de son eppeson bouclier d’argent et agite however they may be exploited by capitalists for au-dessus de sa tete son etendard. La voix des cors capitalists, must incidentally contribute to national retentit et se mele au son tambours bruyants; un nuage prosperity.For instance, our annual production of coal far de poussiere s’eleve : c’est le combat supreme. On entend exceeds that of any other country in the world except the le cliquetis des epees, le sifflement affreux des fleches United States of America. This plentiful supply of coal, d’acier, le craquement les lances, le choc des coups added to the great mechanical skill which has been rapides. Le sang coule comme un torrent de acquired by long experience, gives us a great advantage pluie; les morts gisent a terre comme les arbres in the production of manufactured goods. While our dans la foret. Les chretiens fuinent clans l’epouvante : population has been increasing, so has that of other countries, les Tartares les poursuivent, les pressent avec which, consequently, order from us increasing fureur. Mais voici que Jaroslav arrive comme un aigle. quantities of manufactured goods. To produce these we Il s’elance terrible comme le lion qui voit couler son sang can afford a larger population than that of sixty years ago. tiede, et que blesse fond sur le chasseur; tel en sa colere But it must be borne in mind that our present population il se precipite sur les ennemis et les Bohemes les suivent maintains itself only indirectly, that is, by exchanging avec l’impetuosite de la grele . . . Le combat a ete manufactured produce for food and raw materials. gigantesque. Dans la steppe solitaire, les barbares creusent As Malthus claimed, population tends to increase in avec leur epee les fosses des heros au son des flutes et geometric ratio, a term not yet grasped by your des trompes de guerre et ils se reunissent pour le festin correspondent. It means that population tends to double des funerailles. itself regularly, that is, every 50, 60, or 70 years, as the Puis trois siecles auparavant c’est le souvenir des Saxons case may be, although in actual fact the rate of increase de Charlemagne venant mepriser les dieux des Slaves et may vary with circumstances. If the population of this chassant les eperviers de leur forets ; c’est le victorieux elan country doubled itself seven times the inhabitants would de Zaboi et de Slavoi. Deux freres dont la voix est deja number ten times the population of virile China. The celle des hommes faits allaient souvent dans la foret; la ratio would be I person per 40 square yards, and I pity avec la hache d’armes et la lance, ils exercaient souvent the happy anti-Malthusian who attempts to fill his leur jeunes bras ; ils y restaient caches, puis ils revenaient stomach with the produce of so small an area. secretement dans leur pays. Quand leur bras, quand “G. D.” appears to mistake fecundity for virility, but leur ames se furent affermis, quand leur autres freres it is a well-known fact that creatures of great fecundity eurent grandis, ils coururent A l’ennemi. Leur colere live very short lives. Let us hope that the Chinese birthrate eclata comme la tempete des cieux, et bonheur revint increases to such an extent that Mr. Chinaman will dans la contree. fail to attain military age. A. STRATTON. Zaboi prend son varito harmonieux: “Hommes aux *** coeurs fraternels, aux yeux etincelants, c’est pour vous que je chante au fond du ravin. Le chant jaillit de mon THE SAD CASE OF MR. C. H. NORMAN. coeur abime dans la douleur. . . . Ah Zaboi ! tes chants vont Sir,-By a combination of utterances taken from their du coeur au coeur ! ils jaillissent d’un abime de douleur!” context and arranged in a suitable Teutonic mosaic Mr. Zaboi contemple les yeux enflammes de Slavoi et ses C. H. Norman attempts to make a case for Germany chants continuent a captiver les cceurs. . . . Les guerriers against the Allies. We proceeds, for his purpose, to such s’elancent vers Zaboi ; ils le pressent dans leur bras varied experts as Lord Charles Beresford, W. T. Stead, vigoreux;ils se serrent les mains, poitrine contre poitrine. . . . an anonymous officer, an eighteenth century scribe, and Such are the lines about which the French translator Sir Percy Scott. His use of Sir Percy Scott’s quotation remarked, “the epic character of the legend, and the is characteristic. He assumes that the sinking without homeric simplicity of the images.” F. W. O’CONNOR. notice and the drowning in large numbers of non-