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Vol. XII. No. 17. THURSDAY,FEB. 27, 1913. PAGE. FA<?b NOTESOF THE WEEK ............... .*- 393 PRESENT-DAYCRITICISM .................. 405 A BALLADEOF BALLADES.By J.F. Horrabin ...... .** 395 MODERN POLISHPOETRY. By P. Selver ......... 406 CURRENT CANT .................. ... 396 VIEWSAND REVIEWS.By A. E. R. ............ 409 FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad ......... ... 396 DRAMA.By John Francis Hope ............... 410 MILITARYNOTES. By Romney ............ .-. 397 ART. By Anthony M. Ludovici ............... 411 THE ROOTOF ALL EVIL. By Arthur Kitson ...... ... 398 REVIEWS ............ ............ 412 IMPREGNABLECAPITAL. JosephBy Firm ...... ... 400 PASTICHE By A. W. N. Gillingham and Anton Tchekov ... 412 NOTESON THE PRESENTKALPA. By J. M. Kennedy ... ... 401 LETTERSTO THE EDITORfrom E. Limouzin, Uncertificated THE CHRONICLESOF PALMERSTOWN.By Peter Fanning ... 402 Guildist, Hamilton T. Smith, Beatrice Hastings, Oom LETTERSFROM ITALY. By Richard Aldington ... ... 404 Roomslang, James Wardropper, and An Actor ...... 413 ~ ~~~ -_- than tp the suffragists. We do not so much intend to criticise recent aspects of the women’s movement as en- deavour to show the futility of force, whether exercised on the part of the suffragists against the Government, or onthe part of theGovernment against the suffra- gists and against strikers. We havealready had occa- sion to condemn Mr. McKenna's forcefulmethods of treating a form of disease as if it were a form of crime ; and the events of theintervening period since August last have certainly not encouraged us to expect greater intelligence from theHome Secretary's Department. Militantoutrages have increased withincreased sen- tences and heavier fines ; though it is satisfactory to note thatthe actual number of so-called militants would NOTES OF THE WEEK. appearto have decreased. Our observations of the movementduring the past six months, however, have A NEW series of suffragist outrages, culminating in the ,convinced us that the agitation is more than ever a form attemptto blow up Mr. Lloyd George's new country of nervous trouble; and that it is, with every successive house at Walton Heath, Epsom, has once more drawn outrage, becoming morepathological. All the more attention to thewomen's miovement. We haveMrs. ridiculous,therefore, is the ill-conceived: plan of fine and imprisonment adopted by the Government for deal- Drummond giving the attempt her approval, and Mrs. ing withit. If a doctor in the course of his ordinary Pankhurstnot merely approvingbut also expressing practiceis calledin to prescribefor a woman who her willingness to assume responsibility and threatening showssigns of incipientneuritis orhysteria, it would to "hungerstrike" if sheis sent to gaol. We will, never occur to him that she should be bundled off to a therefore,take this opportunity of supplementing our solitary cell and fed there forcibly with a rubber tube. remarks on the woman’s 1mlovem.ent which appeared in He would be more likely to order immediate change of air, of diet, and of companionship, the latter being by THE NEW AGEof August 22 and 29 06 last year. In no means the least important. those Notes weshowed, and showed conclusively we think, to any person whose mind was open to reason- * '* * able conviction, that the movement was largely a move- When we saythat the militant women are simply ment of fallacies, that the ends pursued by the agitators suffering from aform of neuropathy,and that they wereobscure, even to themselves,and that those should be dealt with by a neurologist ratherthan by obscure ends were being pursued by improper means, magistrates, policemen, andwarders, we are not thatthe movement bore no relation tothe Labour making an offensive accusation; we are merely stating movement, thatthe attempts to burn theatres and to a scientific fact. Our assertion will be upheld by any break windowswere as disagreeable to the agents as experienced observer who has witnessed recent women's demonstrations at close handand noted thecharac- to the sufferers; and that, in short the women thus en- teristics of thefemale participants-the strained, glaring gaged, were suffering from such nervous disorders that eyes, the quick gasps, of excitement, the spasmodic theiractions were quite beyondtheir control. The throbbingand convulsilon of every visible nerve and treatment for such disorders, as we pointed out, was a muscle, the quivering,high-strung voices, and, worst sanatorium or a hydro rather than a prison. of all, perhaps. that occasional peculiar giggling of the neuropathicpatient which at once setsthe medical *** attendant on the alert. In lending their countenance to So faras the women’s movementin its relation to forms of agitation which necessarily encourage and Labour and to society is concerned, we have nothing to develop these symptoms, it seems to us that the elderly leaders of the women's suffrage movement are incurring add to or retract from what we wrote NEW AGE in THE a responsibility, the full extent and grave character of sixmonths ago,; and our ,remarks this week may be which they do notappear to haverealised If the taken as having reference to the Government even more veterans of the Socialistic movement were to insist on 394 ~~ their youngerfollowers drinking a gallon of badgin blem that demands a spiritual solution ; and it is use- andsmoking a hundredcheap cigarettes and half .a less as well as dangerous to try to solve it by an appeal pound of opium a day, we do not see that they would toforce or to the crude, second-rate opinions of the begiving any more deleterious encouragement to the average man and woman. Indeed, the irresponsible dolts physical andmental qualities of their supporters than whorecommend such plans as theducking-stool for the encouragement now being given by the older leaders militant women andtransportation for labour “agita- of the women’s movement to the young women who are, tors,” would be the last to venture to put into practice in a very definite sense, under their control and in their the very remedies they suggest, if they were ever called charge. We sumup the mostserious tactical defect upon todo so. We must haveintelligence, andnot of the women’s agitation when we assert, as we do stupidity. that the non-catamenial women in it do not make any- *** thing like sufficient allowance for the neuropathic effects Here, however, we leave the women’s movement and of the campaign on their weaker followers ; andwith enter upon a broader field. Our complaint againstthe these words we leave this purely scientific aspect of the members of theCabinet, individuallyand collectively, movement to other pens. is that theyhave never yet shown any signs of being *** able to deal with unrest, no matter whence it sprang, What, however, are we to say of the attitude of the in a properly spiritual way. Murder has been met with Government?It is useless to speak seriously of the hanging,exactly as the hunger strike has been met employment of “force” in connection with the feminine with forciblefeeding ; andboth forms of treatment agitation for votes No class in England, no sex, ever merely differ in degree of barbaric severityand .ineffi- had a “right” to the vote as. all classes have in France, cacy.Similarly, Labour unrest has been met with the .and .as all classes and a large proportion of the female truncheons of policemen, and, where the truncheons of sexhave in the UnitedStates. Here the vote has in- policemen did not suffice, withthe loaded rifles of the variablybeen conceded as aprivilege by thoseabove regular Army Time after time wehave had occasion to those bellow; andthere are stillsome five or six to complain of the intellectual bankruptcy of the million adult men in Englandwaiting for the favour Cabinet Almostexactly a year ago,for example, in Emphatically we act up to Bluntschli’s dictum : “The THE NEWAGE of February 29, 1912,we found it neces- elector derives his right to vote, not from nature but sary to criticise Sir Edward Grey’s bland assurance that film the State.” To think that the women can secure the three enemies which the country had to combat- this favour by breaking windows and exploding bombs oldage, accident, and sickness-had been conquered is grotesque; not even the Russian revolutionaries, who respectively by old age pensions the Workmen’s Com- know their business much better than the women know pensation Act, and national insurance. And just as Sir theirs, have made any progress in that way, as we have Edward Grey could, notsee, or professed notto see, pointed out once or twice before. Strength for strength, thatPoverty was the realenemy, the enemy that woman is hopelessly inferior to man; and, as things are brought these minor evils in its train, so to-day we have at present, the forces at th,e disposal of the State are to complain of the spiritual ineptitude of a Cabinet that easily capable of dealing with thesuffragists, even if supportsthe Insurance Act,still punishes murder by every one of them.became a militantto-morrow. But banging, and still ‘regards the rubber tube as adequate this very fact, we apprehend, does not mean that, the treatment for neuricity turned ‘sour. We thought,and Government is at liberty to employ the powerful forces still maintain,that the women’s demands werefan- of the State to combat thepuny forces of the suffragists; tastic, useless and unnecessary ; but we are willing to we have not yet begun to use steam-hammers to crack admit at once that, in theearlier stages of thecam- nuts. We saidsix months agothat militant methods paign, they were put forward with some show of argu- were a profound mistake; but Mr. McKenna’s stupidity ment in manybooks, periodicals pamphlets, and in dealing with them is, if anything, evenmore repre- speechesThe arguments wereusually silly, the logic hensible. For heis, after all,a member of theruling defective, and the analogies strainedto the breaking- forces of thecountry, and, sincehe is such, it ishis point ; but the mere extension of the suffrage campaign, duty to set an intellectual and spiritual example in deal- if nothing else, indicated that theywere at least suffi- ing with disorders that demand intellectual and spiritual ciently plausible to deservean adequate reply.

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