THE

A WEEKLY REVIEW OF POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND ART.

No*761 [series Vol. IV. No. 24 THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1909. [registered G.P.O.]ONE PENNY CONTENTS. PAGE Page NOTES OF THE WEEK ...... 473 BOOKS AND PERSONS. By Jacob Tonson ...... 483 THE RISING FLOOD AT CROYDON. By G. R. S. Taylor . . . 476 BOOK OF THE WEEK: Lessons in Revolution. By M. D. A WORD OF REMEMBRANCE AND CAUTION TO I.L.P. DELE- Eder ...... 484 GATES ...... REVIEWS : The Wander Years ...... 485 477 Eliza Brightwen ...... THE ECONOMIC TEST OF UNEMPLOYED POLICY. By J. A. 485 The New Word ...... 487 Hobson ...... 479 DRAMA : East and West. By Arnold Bennett 1:: 1:: ENGLAND-THE FOREIGNERS' HOME. By F. H. Minett... 487 479 MUSIC : To Mr. Hubert Bath. By Herbert Hughes . . . 488 THE DESIRE TO OWN. By Cecil Chesterton ...... 480 CORRESPONDENCE:‘ A. C. Fifield, Cecil Chesterton, C. THE POST : A Story. By Anton Tchekhov 481 Brown, Russell Smart, Clifford Sharp, C. J. Whitby, THE COLONIST AT HOME. By E. L. Allhusen :: :: 483 Marion Crook, J. T. Harris, J. Lindsley, H. Hughes . . . 489

advised them that as a Labour Party their business NOTES OF THE WEEK. was less to see that the cost of the Navy was reduced EVEN if we were disposed to let the subject of the Navy than to see that the cost fell on the right shoulders. drop, there is no chance of our being allowed. In addi- There is indeed considerable fear that the unpopularity tion, we are not disposed to let it drop. We have, as of the cry for a small Navy may be used to discredit we believe, an overwhelmingly clear case against the the proposal to graduate the tax on unearned incomes, panic-mongers, both Socialist and Jingo ; and every day which issues from the same party. After all, a pro- that passes brings confirmation of our view. There is gramme is no more popular than its most unpopular no doubt whatever that the panic is being most skilfully feature ; and if the Labour Party favours a little Navy, employed by Mr. Balfour and his party ; and we can their other proposals will fall under the same suspicion only stand in admiration while the hosts of triumphant of anti-patriotism and what not. Now, we cannot repeat lies go galloping by. On Monday, on Tuesday, and on too often that as Socialists we. have nothing to gain Wednesday Mr. Balfour spoke at length and with all from a small Navy, either now or at any time. The the external marks of real concern. Yet we are con- reduction of expenditure on the Navy will not put a vinced that in his heart there is not the smallest glimmer penny more into the pockets of the workers or advance of a genuine terror nor the smallest spark of more than the cause of Social Reform a single step. What we political apprehension. In spite of this, his incompar- want is not a little Navy or, for the matter of that, a able eye seizes the opportunity of party advantage, and big Navy. We want an efficient Navy. And as soon on the great wave of popular feeling, for which Mr. as may be we want that Navy internationalised. We Asquith is mainly to blame, Mr. Balfour and his party are told, of course,. that there are insuperable difficulties -with all their reactionary cargo-will be swept into in the way of an international Navy, and that Germany the port of power. in particular intends no such thing. We do not believe * * * it, and even if we did, we should still think it the busi- ness of Socialists to press the idea forward. As a The line was taken by Mr. Roberts, of the Labour matter of fact, the occasion for pressing it was never Party, during the Vote of Censure in the Commons on more opportune than at this moment. Only a few Monday that the whole panic was engineered for poli- weeks ago the first international arbitration court the tical purposes. This is true, but the statement should world has ever seen was set up by the Declaration of not be left in all its nakedness. Not only is it a party London ; and already people are beginning to see, as device, but we can conclusively prove that it is a party even the “Times " remarked, that an international device, and Mr. Roberts should have attempted that arbitration court without an international force to sup- proof. We are very glad indeed that the Labour Party port its decisions is comparatively useless. The logical made up its mind to follow the lead of Jaurès, whose and necessary sequel to the Declaration of London is words on the occasion of a threatened war between the establishment of an international navy, and, later France and Germany we have quoted before. Speaking on, an international army, or, at least, permanent on behalf of the Labour Parties of Germany and Eng- alliances among the leading Powers in these directions. land, Mr. Roberts said “that there should be friendly And we are convinced that the common sense, not to relations between the two countries, and they were pre- say the humanity, of the vast majority of civilised pared to say, should ‘the occasion demand it, that there persons would welcome the proposal, which could easily must be peace between them.” These were the right be made as popular as the now popular cry for bigger words to use, and we are glad the Labour Party used navies and armies. At any rate, however unpopular the them. But they must be followed up by deeds, and we cry might unfortunately be to begin with, it would have hope that the occasion of the forthcoming visit of the the great moral forces on its side, and would finally Labour members to Germany will be employed for wear down the interested opposition of obsolete sabre- the purpose. Mr. Seddon also spoke to excellent effect rattlers. Our advice to the Labour Party is therefore during the same debate. to stick to its guns on the question of joint action with * * * the German party, and to substitute the Socialist’ We confess we do not see, however, the compatibility demand for an international Navy for the Radical cry of this strong and sensible attitude with the attitude of for a small Navy. the Labour Party, both at Croydon and, to judge from + + * the Agenda, at the forthcoming Conference. Mr. Frank We observe that a number of Socialists, including Smith at Croydon was allowed to boast himself a Little Mr. Cecil Chesterton, whose letter to us appears on Navy man, and the official resolution to be proposed another page, are hoping to make capital out of the at the Conference likewise approves of the reduction of present panic by attributing the present state of the armaments. NOW, in this we think they would have Navy (which, by the way, Sir Percy Scott has just been wiser to accept our advice and the advice tendered declared perfect) to the failure of class rule in England. them on Monday by Mr. Chiozza Money. Mr. Money It is an unfortunate argument to employ, since it So THE NEW AGE APRIL 8, 1909

obviously cuts both ways. If the inefficiency of the to whimper that the Germans would one day catch us British Navy demonstrates the failure of class-rule in like “rats in a trap.” Is it credible that a nation that England, the presumably efficient navy of Germany perceives this threatening fate and‘ has the means in its must demonstrate the success of class-rule in Germany. hands to escape it at once-in a single week-by a Both countries are capitalist countries, and both, there- not very bold or dangerous stroke, would remain pas- fore fall under the ban of the Socialist reformer. It IS sive while the trap is being set? If we could believe curious that capitalism should be so incompetent in that the present Government were capable of such in- England and so competent in Germany. That, conceivable folly, not to say treachery, we certainly however, is precisely one of the points that has could not believe that the Opposition would be content never so much as been mentioned in all the oratory to make the subject a party question and win a of the last few weeks. Lieutenant Bilse threw trumpery bye-election on it. The fact is, of course, a strong light on the real state of affairs in the German that whatever the “Observer ” may say, neither Mr. army : so strong that, while it enabled the rest of Asquith nor Mr. Balfour believes any such nonsense. If Europe to realise the folly of attempting to create a they did we may be pretty sure that even in the interests machine out of human beings, mostly fools, it blinded of their class, not to say the nation, the issue of the the German bureaucracy to everything but the need for instant would be not Eight or Four Dreadnoughts to even greater official darkness. Who knows whether the be laid down this year ; but War with Germany this German navy is not as hollow as the German army? week or next. Why are we to suppose that the German bureaucracy * * * are all supermen, and our own oligarchy nincompoops? But we will be infinitely patient with the fools who The assumption is not patriotic, whatever else it are taken in by sound and fury, and concede that no may be: and we strongly suspect that if revelations civilised Power can decently make war merely on the were allowed, we should discover that, oligarchy for excuse of safeguarding a distant future. Que les mes- oligarchy, the German is not a whit better than our sieurs les assassins commencent ! This pinkness of own. propriety would be all very well if in the first place it * * * were consistently maintained ; and if, in the second However, we do not rely upon this for our contention place, no colourable excuse for war could be found. that Germany neither intends the invasion of England But on the one hand, our most prominent politicians do nor would succeed in it if she tried. We have already not hesitate to call German statesmen liars in the House in previous numbers adumbrated the line of policy which of Commons and to employ language against Germany Germany is intending to pursue ; and we emphatically compared with which Mr. Chamberlain’s celebrated repeat that neither the invasion of England nor the “ long-spoon ” speech was an amiable jeu d’esprit. humiliation of England is part of that policy. The And, on the other hand, if an excuse be wanted, there case was put very well in the highly official “Cologne is an excuse of the best colour and warranted to wear Gazette ” of last week. Discussing the question of the well throughout future history in the conduct of Ger- naval rivalry, the “Cologne Gazette ” expressed the many in the European negotiations over Servia. As intention of Germany of pursuing the “straight path,” everybody knows by this time, the Treaty of Berlin, and of increasing her navy to such a degree as to which all the Great Powers of Europe swore solemnly “make war so assuredly a matter of life and death that to observe, has been torn to shreds by Austria-Hungary statesmen would not dare to engage in it.” On the with not only the connivance but with the employment ‘supposition that, as the world is, the best security for of threats of force by Germany. There are, we happen peace is to be prepared for war, we know nothing better to know, excellent reasons for supposing that Germany calculated to make war impossible than the reasonable has done precisely what any other Power in her place certainty that one of the parties shall be irretrievably would have done ; and we frankly dissent from the ruined. Now if Germany’s navy remains small and in- general view of the “Times ” and our prejudiced Press effective, the damage she could inflict upon England that Germany, or Austria either, has behaved more un- would be comparatively slight, while the damage scrupulously than is the habit of all the European England could inflict upon Germany would be crushing. Powers, including England. However, that is only our But with a powerful navy of reasonably equal dimen- view, and we admit and claim that the contrary view sions with our Home Fleet, Germany might hope to prevails not only in Russia, whose head is still sore make war between the two countries almost, if not from Germany’s threatening pistol, and in France, still quite, as dangerous for England as for herself. And absorbed by her criminally idiotic occupation of such a prospect would ensure a sufficiently long pause Morocco, but in England where presumably, as we say, on both sides in taking the possibly fatal leap as to a pretext for an immediate war with Germany is exactly enable intelligent diplomacy and better counsels to what is needed. -* * * prevail. * * * Is there any indication that England is going to Now we will go further, and declare that not only is jump at this chance of laying the ghost of 1912 ; this the view held in the minds of German statesmen laying it, too, with the approval of the public con- (we exclude the professors who there, as well as here, sciences of all three partners in the triple Entente? mostly have a bee in their bonnet), but it is the view Not the least. Despite the fact that now or never, of German policy that prevails in the best diplomatic according to the alarmists, should be the time for and political circles in England. Not only does Ger- action, when we have 40 first-rate ships to Germany’s many not intend invasion, but Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward 20, and four Dreadnoughts to Germany’s none, and Grey and Mr. Balfour know that she does not. We all our bold newspaper and platform admirals are Strain- are in a position to declare this on the most positive ing at the leash-despite all this, England takes the evidence open to anybody who will put a little ice on his outrage of Germany on the Treaty of Berlin positively head and think steadily for a moment or two while the lying down. We sought in vain in the “Times,” in the panic is on. For let us suppose that the contrary is “ Daily Mail,” in the “Daily Express,” and in all the true, and that Germany intends invasion and is merely patriotic organs for some shadow of a suggestion that waiting until she is strong enough before attempting it. now was the time for the “rats ” to escape the trap. That surely is the well-nigh universal supposition, and But no, neither there nor in Mr. Balfour’s trinity of we do not deny that the superficial evidence for this speeches this week, was there a single word even hint- belief is very strong. Well, what in that case would ing that war should be declared forthwith. On the be the proper course for our politicians to pursue? contrary, the olive trees of Lebanon were stripped of. Obviously an immediate war while Germany is still branches to be held out to the Power that had just inferior. chewed up an International Treaty, and was preparing * * to chew up the British Empire itself. Next, in fact, We see no possible escape from this solution of a to the malediction of Germany nothing has been more problem that states that Germany intends war ; nor do nauseating than the adulation to which she has been we believe that there is any other solution. The subjected at the direction of our Press and politicians. ‘Observer ” of a fortnight ago was cowardly enough And what is the explanation of it all? Simply this, that APRIL 8, 1909 The NEW AGE 475

save and except perhaps one neurotic member of the railway lines were constructed last year. Mr. Churchill Cabinet, not a single person really in the know believes should have taken a firmer stand, that Germany ever intends the invasion of England. * + * * * * We will put the matter still more plainly, if possible, All sorts of rumours are current both as to the con- and declare now that if a quarter of what Mr. Balfour tents and the prospects of Mr. Lloyd George’s Budget. and his party (including, we grieve to say, the venerable Everybody realises that Free Trade finance is on its Mr. Frederic Harrison, the almost equally venerable trial : and part at least of the Naval scare was due to Mr. Hyndman and Mr. Blatchford) is true, then we the natural desire of Tariff Reformers to make the Socialists are prepared not only to demand eight Dread- Estimates for the coming year as high as possible. The noughts, but eighty or eight hundred (more, even, if deficit has turned out to be *disappointingly low for that is not enough), and, since one never knows these gentlemen. Instead of three or four it is only whether delay might not be utilised by Krupps to create one million. On the other hand the increase for the in a single night Dreadnoughts like mushrooms in the coming year of expenditure is certain to be 11 or 12 Channel, to compel the Government instantly to declare millions, and may, if eight Dreadnoughts are laid down, war, on pain of being shot at sight as traitors in the be 17 or 18. The “Times ” suggests that this amount pay of the German Emperor. If any further assurance will be obtained by (a) suspending the Sinking Fund of our profound disbelief in the whole silly panic is (4 millions) ; (b) putting 2d. on the income tax (4 mil- required, we will willingly give it, and hereby as an lions) ; and (c) increased Brewers Licences (3 millions). earnest affirm that if war is not declared on Germany The “Times ” further suggests what ought to be done, within the next fortnight (we cannot wait any longer) and we draw attention to the suggestion ; since it con- we shall thereafter confine ourselves to a single com- firms our forecast of last week that the man in the street ment on the panic-mongers : Rats ! who consented to the Naval scare might be called upon * * + to pay the bill. The suggestion is that the exemption line for income tax should be lowered to admit incomes The Second Reading of the Bill for Amalgamating of £50 per annum ! This is broadening the basis of the G.N., G.C., and G.E. Railway Companies was taxation with a vengeance ; but we do not expect that begun on Wednesday, when it was -discovered, some- Mr. Lloyd George will fall into a trap spread in his what to everybody’s surprise, that Mr. Churchill had sight. There are rumours, indeed, that a graduation of undertaken the office of special pleader for the railway income tax will be effected ; and the transfer of the magnates. True he had previously bargained with the Excise to the Customs appears to indicate that Somer- directors and extracted from them, as we are informed set House is being made clear for action. by Lord George Hamilton, the last ounce of concession. + * * But we cannot believe that the five clauses for which Mr. Churchill sold his right to criticise the Bill are any- The first reading of the Indian Councils Bill was thing like either what the traders and the employees taken in the House of Commons on Thursday. We note have the right to expect or the Companies the necessity that Lord MacDonnell still maintains (in a letter to the to concede. We may be pretty sure that the Companies “Times ” on the eve of the Commons’ debate) that would not seek Parliamentary sanction for joint action Lord Lawrence’s dictum of one-man government is if they could secure themselves in any other way. Con- perennially applicable to Indian provinces. If all the sequently they must be prepared to pay for their new Lieutenant-Governors were Lord Lawrences ‘we could privileges. Mr. Churchill committed the error of tak- assent to it perhaps, but Lord Lawrence was unique. ing nobody else’s advice on the matter but his own. He It should be observed, too, that the statement that consulted no association of traders, who certainly had a carried so much weight in the House of Lords against claim to be considered in any new arrangement ; nor Clause III. of the Bill turns out to be false. It was did he consult any of the men’s representatives. His said that Mr. Gokhale was the onlie begetter of the safeguarding clauses naturally, therefore, prove quite Clause. Lord Minto in Council on March 29 speci- capable of having a locomotive driven through them. fically repudiated this allegation, declaring that he and 3c * + his Council alone were the “first framers of the Clause five, for example, provides that the Railway scheme. ” Companies shall not dismiss any of their present em- * * + ployees on account of the amalgamation. On this we Mr. W. L. George, in the March issues of “Pages have simply to remark that the Companies will have Libres,” no need to do so. All they need do is to continue what has an admirable series of articles outlining they have already begun, namely, refrain from filling the whole political situation in India. We commend vacancies as they arise. Against this reduction of the them to our readers. One illuminating sentence we wages’ bill Mr. Churchill’s clause is obviously no translate and copy here : “We must therefore affirm remedy. There is no provision whatever that the ex- that Indian reforms will come not from Anglo-Indians, cessive hours of labour shall be reduced or that the but from the English themselves.” This, in fact, is our wages of those employed will be increased ; nor is there chief argument for the discussion of Indian affairs in the smallest additional security against traders being Parliament. We do not believe that Members of Par- fleeced in railway rates to the bare of their backs. In liament are better informed about India than Anglo- short, to use a homely phrase, the Railway Companies Indians ; but we believe that they are better informed are to continue having it all their own way. about humanity. * * * * * * Now there is not the smallest excuse for Mr. Churchill We understand that a Liberal, Member of Parlia- allowing this. Plainly he, and he alone, stands as the ment, Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, is standing as a candi- -representative of the people against the predatory in- date for the Executive Committee of the Fabian stincts and activities of the gigantic companies, with Society. We have often wondered how Mr: Wedgwood their 2,400 miles of railway. With the Companies in ever came to be a member of the Society at all. As the position of beggars he had a unique opportunity for far as we can learn from his public acts and speeches, bargaining : and if the Companies refused his terms there is nothing whatever to distinguish him from the they might be allowed either to dispense with their Bill ordinary intelligent rank and file of semi - advanced or to assent to nationalisation. Nationalisation is Liberalism. He is a Single-taxer, it is true ; but a bound to come sooner or later, if only as a means of Single-taxer is more often an anti-Socialist than a national revenue (Prussia makes a profit of 36 millions Socialist. And this is confirmed in Mr. Wedgwood’s annually on her State railways). There are also more instance by a pamphlet of his now lying before us serious reasons. Competition has practically ceased : written within the last six months, in which he strongly there are 150 expensive and useless Boards of Direc- deprecates the taxation of capital on the ground that it tors ; and thousands of square miles of the country would make capital dearer ! The Fabian Society has stand no chance of ever being opened up by private had queer people on its Executive ; but to its credit, enterprise. It is significant that towards the still in- they have hitherto been Socialists. And we hope that complete colonisation of England only 45 miles of new this precedent will be maintained. 476 THE NEW AGE APRIL 8, 1909

Labour poll went down over 75 per cent. because the The Rising Flood at Croydon. bulk of the intelligent wage-earners of Croydon do not consider that the Labour Party is worth their support THE Croydon election is not a very dainty morsel for a in Parliament. That is the disagreeable truth. Socialist journal to handle. One’s first impulse was to The Labour Party haughtily refused to listen to the leave the Labour Party and its broken candidate dis- criticism which said that the electors would despise creetly alone- it seemed the fit time to let the dead men who were afraid to advance on the enemy either bury their dead, with as short a ceremony as possible. in the House of Commons or at the polls. Now the To criticise the Croydon result is unpleasantly like con- party has the opinion of the electors expressed concisely ducting a post-mortem examination. However, as in plain figures. 4,009 men in Croydon thought the Labour Party worth their vote in 1906 : 886 think so more or less official explanations are being published in 1909. by the medical attendants appointed to minister at the Why should the workers support the candidate of a Labour Party’s death-bed, the subject is now open for party which accepts Mr. Asquith’s policy and pro- general discussion ; and, what is more, the fatal cause gramme with gentle resignation? We heard, at the must be discovered, for the sake of the future health beginning of this Session, of the valiant things the of the Socialist movement. Labour members would do if the Cabinet did not come The facts are quite simple. The Labour Party put to the assistance of the unemployed. The Government has done practically nothing ; and the Labour Party up a candidate, who has been simply wiped out of has not carried out one threat. The party goes about existence. With a far weaker candidate at the General the country in valiant support of Free Trade, the Taxa- Election of 1906, the Party polled over 4,000 votes in a tion of Land Values, Temperance Reform, and heaven similar threecornered fight against both Tory and Radi- knows what other old wives’ remedies for poverty ; cal opponents. Mr. Frank Smith has not been able to which would do as much for the starved and houseless find 900 supporters. Further, at the General Election as the building of another dozen Dreadnoughts. Little wonder the workers of Croydon could not distinguish the Labour and Socialist candidates were busy in their between a Labour and a Liberal candidate, and decided own divisions, and Croydon had mainly to rely on its it was better to support the man of the more powerful own efforts. Last week, the Labour Party poured its party in the House. If Free Trade, Licensing Bills and best speakers into the town ; the I.L.P. concentrated Nonconformist education are really important ; and if its efforts on the man who had been chosen from all the Labour Party is, apparently, too paralysed to force the fighters at its disposal. Again, at the General its more radical measures, an Unemployed Bill, a Com- Election the helpless wage-earner was justified in think- pulsory School Meals Bill, then the workers will natur- ally vote for the Liberals. ing that an independent political party of his own To come to the fine point. The Labour Party is be- making, and devised to work for his own interests, was ing led in the direction of an alliance with the Liberals. after all, an impossible dream, Since the almost Therefore, the whole case for an independent Labour miraculous return of over thirty Labour members to Party falls to the ground ; and when it comes to a the House of Commons, it is hopefully apparent that fight with its future ally, the battle becomes a farce, this independent workers’ party can be a substantial and the weaker party goes down. The compromise be- certainty. In other words, Mr. Frank Smith could gan with the attempt to prevent a contest at Dundee ; then at Newcastle. Then came the reluctance to press point to accomplished facts, where the former candidate the Government on the unemployed question in the could speak only of valiant hopes. _ House. Mr. Grayson disturbed the peaceful course of With all these things in his favour, the recent Labour events, and, to deaden the effect, the Labour members Party’s man has gone to his political grave ; leaving made a wriggling attempt to fight at the beginning of only one-quarter of the previous Labour vote to survive this Session. It, of course, came to nothing ; and they him. That result has not astonished anyone with once more have been lulled to sleep. The bulk of the knowledge of the trend of things during the last year. members would, I firmly believe, maintain the fighting Without the slightest desire to rub salt into the raw independence of their party ; but they are in the grip of wound which every earnest Labour supporter must feel leaders who apparently have other ends in view-a since the Croydon slaughter, it is right to point out political understanding with the Liberals. I have too that this journal, at least, told the Labour Party that much respect for Mr. Ramsay MacDonald’s capacity the policy it began at Dundee must inevitably end in to say that he is going his way unconsciously. annihilation. We candidly admit we were wrong in one Now, it is idle for Mr. MacDonald to obscure the part of our prophecy. We said the doom would come issue by replying that this is an accusation of treachery. at the next General Election. It has come far sooner. It is nothing of the sort. It is a perfectly legitimate For what is the real truth about the Labour Party’s ambition to desire to hold office in a Cabinet, if one has defeat at Croydon ? The explanation is being offered convinced oneself that the best way to help Labour is that the candidate was submerged in a tumult of voices to take office in a Radical Ministry. Mr. Burns was shouting for more and more Dreadnoughts. It may be honestly of that opinion. After the result in his case, it perfectly true that the empty-headed youths of Croydon is, however, more difficult to believe in the success of the allowed their affection for Mr. Raphael as a champion experiment. We are not discussing personal motives ; of the sports’ field to be outrun by their admiration for it is entirely a matter of deciding which is the better Sir Hermon-Hedge as the apostle of the real battle- policy. An independent Labour Party or an alliance field. There were plenty of wild, thoughtless politicians with the Radicals? in the constituency, as the strength of the Liberal and Mr. MacDonald and his friends need not reply by a Conservative poll conclusively shows. But to assert reference to the Bloc system, adopted for a short time that the men who supported the Labour Candidate at by M. Jaurès in France. Jaurès was endeavouring to the General Election had gone over to the Mafficking save the Republic from a Monarchical rebellion. All rabble who exposed their folly in the streets last week, that Mr. MacDonald is doing in England is to save is, perhaps, the most gratuitous insult to the Labour Mr. Asquith, Free Trade, and Welsh Disestablishment. voters which it has been my lot to hear. None of which important things are of the slightest The men who, with a free choice between Labour, concern to the working classes. Tory, and Radical candidates, deliberately pick the first, One thing is clear after Croydon. It is little advan- are the very cream of the wage-earners. I venture to tage for a Socialist candidate to have the support of assert that not one of Mr. Stranks’ supporters at the the Labour Party. Indeed, for the moment, it seems General Election was to be found last week shouting for a positive drawhack. The moral of this is, that the‘ Dreadnoughts instead of supporting Mr. Smith. The I.L.P. must insist on its freedom to run candidates, men who voted Labour at the General Election have when it pleases, outside the party control. The I.L.P. not lost their heads, as Mr. Asquith and Mr. Balfour must not go down with the sinking ship. and their sentimental followers have lost theirs. The G. R. S. TAYLOR. APRIL 8, 1909

of Free Trade as our national policy. It was the out- A Word of Remembrance and ward and visible sign of the triumph of the manufac- turer and shipper over the landed interests. Cobden Caution to the I.L.P. was its prophet. We have been trying to forget Cobden. Alas ! the Labour Party won’t let US. Just Delegates. mention Free Trade, and every member of that party DELEGATES, -the I.L.P. section included-will submerge you in mid-Victorian formulae, and argue violently that Free On the eve of the Seventeenth Conference of the Trade is still the predominant issue. It is our deliberate I.L.P., we send greetings. opinion that the Labour Party would quite contentedly We write this under a sense of urgency, in all unite with the Liberal Party in defence of that thread- friendliness, and with a single eye to the healthy growth bare shibboleth. Yet Socialism points the only right and prosperity of Socialism. THE NEW AGE has no axe way in fiscal as in social affairs. We cannot conceive to grind ; its circulation does not depend upon your why your leaders do not tell their followers and goodwill, and is independent of the I.L.P. ; it is not listeners the real truth. Are they incompetent? Or concerned either with the personalities that so danger- are they afraid of losing Liberal votes? ously dominate your proceedings or with the vexed Whiggery is always the enemy ; when it masquerades problems of internal organisation upon which you will in Socialist garments, it is the devil. waste most of your time. Ladies and gentlemen, this is no time for smooth You meet in Edinburgh at a critical moment in the phrases in a fool’s paradise. If you cannot appreciate history of Socialism. We take leave, therefore, to the significance and true inwardness of these incidents remind you that the main question to be decided is not (we can quote dozens similar), then you are not equal the Labour Alliance, nor Mr. Grayson’s position, nor to your task, It would be better that you go home. the intellectual sterility of your leaders, nor the jour- We sincerely believe, however, that you really are nalistic futility of the “ Labour Leader “-these, no equal to the situation,. or we should not now be address- doubt, demand your anxious consideration-but whether ing you. as a body of men and women you may safely be en- Before you take your seats in the Synod Hall, please trusted with the tremendous responsibility and honour ask yourselves two imperative questions. Mr. Keir of voicing and fighting the Socialist cause in Great Hardie has told you in the “Labour Leader ” that you Britain. Can you rise to the height of the great argu- are not a political party, but only a propagandist body. ment? All other questions are subsidiary and relatively It is a convenient proposition for a politician situated unimportant. as he is : but do you agree with him? Are you a In short, you are on your trial. You ; not your political party or merely a fifth wheel to the Labour leaders. They have already been weighed and found coach? If you are not a political party, then the scores wanting. of political resolutions on ‘your agenda are irrelevant. We write advisedly that this is a critical time in the Propaganda has nothing to say to them. But we trust history of Socialism in this country. Owing to various that with no uncertain voice you will tell Mr. Keir causes, the British Socialist movement is to-day side- Hardie that most emphatically you do constitute the tracked. Political issues are predominant with which nucleus of a political party with all the sovereign rights your leaders are impotent to deal. Instead of grasping of a political party. If you fail to do this, you-you the single fact that Socialism has its own distinctive abdicate. You will then find time to read Ibsen’s play, criticism upon every social and political problem, they “When We Dead Awaken.” have stampeded back to mid - Victorian Liberalism. A more searching query is whether you take the Every day brings overwhelming proof of this. We will long view or the short view. If the short view, then cite three recent illustrations : the Croydon election, why not join the Liberal Party? You can get from Temperance, and Free Trade. Out of 21,000 votes, Mr. Asquith much that comes within the short view- Mr. Frank Smith obtained less than 900 ! Why? Be- you have already obtained the Trades Disputes Act -and cause he completely failed to distinguish his views from Old -Age Pensions-and he will welcome you to the Mr. Raphael’s. So vague and indistinct were they fold. Many Labour members will also be glad. There that the electors were not sufficiently interested to is much to be said for it. Indeed-who can say ?- attend the Labour meetings, the average audience being perhaps the present Government may legislate on the less than thirty, including the stars on the platform. lines of the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commis- This has never before happened to a Socialist candi- sion. For ourselves, we take the long view, and there- date. Many a time has the poll been disappointing, but fore strenuously advocate and patiently await the forma- the meetings have always hitherto been crowded and tion of a Socialist Party, urging as a first step the inspiring. constitution of Socialist Representation Committees. Mr. Frank Smith may conceivably have failed to We entreat you also to take the long view. We make his meaning clear from sheer fatigue or in- solemnly warn you that in grasping at immediate capacity, even though he personally may not have things, you may bankrupt your future. reverted to mid-Victorian Liberalism. But what must “Oh, if we draw a circle premature, we infer from the Labour Party’s adulatory support of Heedless of far gain, the Licensing Bill? The arguments advanced were Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure, precisely those of two eminent Whigs, the late Sir Bad is our bargain.” Wilfrid Lawson and Sir Thomas Whittaker. Had the Because of your vision (“ where there is no vision, the Labour Party simply voted for the measure as (perhaps) people perisheth “) it is your imperishable heritage to the lesser of two evils and at the same time clearly think not in days, but in decades ; not in segments, stated the Socialist solution-a solution common to but in the full circle of a consecrated creed. every Socialist organisation-we could possibly sym- Apart, too, from the spiritual value of idealism in pathise. But your Parliamentary representatives out- politics, we hold it to be abundantly proved by history Stigginsed Stiggins, the egregious Snowden arrogantly that the consistent revolutionary is in fact the most describing the democracy as “drink sodden “-a de- practical politician. Mazzini did more for Italy than mocracy, by the way, which financially supports him Cavour ; Kossuth influenced the Austro-Hungarian- considerably beyond his deserts. The truth is that Empire more than Metternich ; we remember John these gentlemen are still the victims of the Gladstonian Ball and forget his contemporary statesmen. Of all tradition-in, other words, mid-Victorian Liberalism. political principles, the most debased is that known as Mr. Henderson and Mr. Shackleton are perfectly con- “the half-loaf.” It is the eternal apology of degraded sistent, for this is essentially their creed ; most em- politicians, who by compromise have damned their phatically it is not the creed of the Socialist. Our immortal souls. criticism is that the Socialist section of the Labour Having, in the forum of your own conscience Party has capitulated to old-fashioned Whiggery. answered these questions, you will proceed to consider Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 ; in 1846 the N.A.C. report. It is a curious document. Read began the repeal of the Corn Laws and the adoption the second sentence of the first paragraph : “Although, this year, not able to record a profit as in late years, ous clap-trap? What vitally concerns us is that your yet this is mainly due to the greater activity of the members of Parliament shall have freedom to act-and party. ” Until we came to the last word we thought the capacity to act. we were reading the directors’ report of a trading We cannot, however, leave this part of the problem concern. A profit ! Of course, it does not mean what on a note of destructive criticism. We are not blind it says ; it is a gaucherie. Yet does it not all uncon- to the practical advantages of the Alliance. We sciously betray the mind of the official? Thus at the readily grant that as things are it possesses many outset of your deliberations you inadvertently stumble enticements. In the rough and tumble of politics it may upon the besetting sin of the I.L.P. The official mind prove beneficial to have organised Labour as your ally IS uppermost-and that way lies destruction. It will -particularly when it pays you handsomely for your be for you to determine whether Socialism is to be services. Nor have we ever contemplated any sort of subordinated to effective organisation or whether the antagonism to Labour. On the contrary, we believe organisation is merely a means to achieve Socialism. that a strong Labour Party is second only in importance Follow the lead of your officials, adopt their tone, and to an equally strong Socialist Party. It is inconceiv- the end of the I.L.P. as a’ Socialist force is within able that Socialists and Labourists can ever be far measurable distance. We earnestly beg you to remem- apart. We believe that both groups would be vastly ber that mere organisation is futile unless it is inspired stronger if each could develop along its own lines un- with living ideas. Truly may it be said, in this con- hampered by iron-clad constitutions and agreements. nection, that “it is the spirit which quickeneth.” Nevertheless there is a way out which we invite you to Two closely related problems are necessarily raised adopt. Your N.A.C. definitely advises you to stand by in this report : the position in the I.L.P. of Mr. Gray- the Alliance. If you are so minded, then do so. But son, and your future attitude towards the Labour Party. what is there to prevent the I.L.P. from running Consider, then, the case of Mr. Grayson. You do Socialist candidates in addition to orthodox Labour can- not doubt his bona fides as a Socialist, do you? We didates ? Let the local branches decide whether their know that long before he reached full manhood he was candidates shall run as Socialist or Labour. Socialist an ardent Socialist propagandist. We know that he candidatures, in these circumstances, would be at a gave up a promising career in another sphere that he financial disadvantage as compared with properly en- might the more effectively preach Socialism. To-day dorsed Labour candidates. Yes ; but you may assume he is the most popular platform speaker in the move- that if the local Socialists are keen enough to run their ment. Yet your official leaders do not disguise- their own candidates, they will be keen enough to do their fear and dislike of him. Is it not odd? He is not own financing. For our part, make the way easy for cantankerous ; on the contrary, he is lovable, com- independent Socialist candidates, and you may depend panionable, and given to generous impulses. Yet round upon the loyal support of THE NEW AGE. his person is waged a bitter conflict the end of which Has it ever struck you what a false value is attached is not yet. What is his offence? It is simply this : by the I.L.P. to platformatory ? Carlyle’s “ strong, that having won a seat in Parliament. as a Socialist, silent man ” would never be heard of in your organisa- and with the veiled hostility of your leaders and officials, tion. Look at the names of your Council. The one he retains his independence, declining to submit himself silent member of it is your treasurer. Yet in efficiency to the yoke of an outside, non-Socialist party. Is he he stands head and shoulders above the others. The worth retaining in your ranks? It is for you to decide. only way to graduate in the I.L.P. hierarchy is to leave If you drive him out, rest assured that the loss will be fruitful work and spend one’s strength on platform yours and not his. Nor will he go out alone. platitudes. So much is this the case to-day that I.L.P. It is an easy transition to the vital issue of your lecturing has become a vested interest. Lecturing fees are delicately graduated according to the political posi- alliance with the Labour Party. Is it not time to count the cost? The N.A.C. assure you that the Labour tion achieved by the vocal organs. It is not, therefore, Party “stands more firmly embedded in the confidence surprising that your lecturers keep a sharp weather eye on what is primarily popular, and (not unnaturally) they of its supporters than ever before.” If so, then why enter a defence of it in this report? As a matter of covet every office of prominence and influence. Mark ‘fact, the days of the Alliance are numbered. But let the result. On the agenda before you will be found a mass of resolutions seeking to restrict popular men us consider the defence offered by the N.A.C. Here are the exact words :- from occupying too many offices. One resolution de- It cannot be too often repeated that Socialist members of precates “the N.A.C. fee of £2 for national speakers “; the Labour Party are as free to expound Socialism, not only another “protests against the exorbitant fees charged on the I.L.P. platform, but also at elections and in Parlia- by the M.P.‘s for their services as speakers “; yet an- mentary debates, as they would be were there no Labour other that M.P.‘s should be content with railway and Party; not only are they free to do so, but they take full hotel expenses ” (O sancta simplicitas !) ; yet again, advantage of every occasion for doing so, as press reports of “ that no member of the I.L.P. shall hold two offices “; meetings and Hansard’s reports of the Parliamentary debates again, that “no more than one member of Parliament prove beyond question. This being so, your Council depre- shall be selected to represent the I.L.P. on the Labour cates that uninformed criticism of the party and its work, which represents the alliance as a hindrance to the growth Party Executive “; no less than thirty-seven branches of a Socialist Party, and declares anew its belief that any- move “that no Member of Parliament shall be eligible thing which tends to discredit the party, or to engender for election to the N.A.C.” It would be amusing were suspicion concerning it in the minds of the workers, is a real it not so humiliating. Is this the fine flower of popu- hurt to the growth of Socialism. lar election? And what do you gain, if you replace a We respectfully urge your Council to read one of popular platformer by one only slightly less popular? Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads entitled “ Tomlin- Altogether, ladies and gentlemen, delegates and com- son. ” You may remember that there was no room in rades, you have your work cut out. Heaven or Hell for poor Tomlinson. His intentions We can only hope that in the turmoil of these domes- were excellent. He was most tremendously generous tic wranglings, you may remember the prayer of in intention ; he was never slow to speak what he Francis Adams :- thought ; but strangely enough neither Almighty God Give us weariless faith nor his Satanic vis-à-vis deemed this to be sufficient. In our cause, pure, passionate, “ What ha’ ye done? ” was the question thundered at Dearer than life and death, the shivering wretch who bad just crossed the chilly Dear as the love that’s it ! Styx. You will observe that the defence of the Alliance If you forget, there are untold thousands who- will is based entirely upon platform freedom of speech- remember and will know what to do. Tomlinson’s defence. In plain terms, it is not good And so, to quote a well-known public document, “we enough. We have never doubted the freedom of any commend you to the guidance of Almighty God,” ask- member of the Labour Party “to expound Socialism “; ing you to remember that two of the most efficient poli- it is a freedom equally freely exercised by Mr. Chiozza- tical organisations in the world are Tammany and the Money, who is a member of the Liberal Party. Plat- I.L.P. Faithfully yours, form freedom ! Pish! Are you deluded by such obvi- THE NEW AGE. APRIL 8, 1909 The NEW AGE

and more regular employment and some rise of wages The Economic mill ensue in the trades in which they were casual hangers-on. Not only would the labour market by such Test of Unemployed Policy .* measures be relieved-of the less effective portion- of its own supply, but the increased cost of -keeping and 1. educating these classes devolving on the public purse No remedies for “ unemployment ” can be effective, so would, following the line of our analysis, cause some far as the whole industrial system is concerned, which net increase of Consumption, and thus ‘Involve increased do not correct the normal tendency of production to employment for capital-and labour. outrun consumption, evidenced to the ordinary business Since large numbers of efficient and skilled workers man by the greater difficulty in selling than in buying. suffer both from seasonal and cyclical unemployment. it Local or even national remedies such as technical in- is not obvious that improved teaching, general ‘or struction, improved machinery of manufacture or of technical, will increase the volume of employment. transport, enabling a particular district, trade, or Though individuals, by training, will get a better nation to out-compete others by better or cheaper pro- chance of obtaining work, they will do so at the expense duction, may secure a larger share of the volume of of other individuals, unless at times when, and in trades employment, shifting more unemployment on to less where, the demand for trained labour exceeds the cur- efficient trade’s, localities, or nations. But, treating the rent supply. During periods of general depression industrial system as a whole, it is evident that improve- there are no considerable trades prepared to take on ments of productive power cannot remedy a generally more trained workers, so that the training. of unem- prevalent unemployment which attests an existing ployed persons cannot at such times be -deemed an excess of productive power. efficacious remedy. Taking a more general view of the Indeed, we may go further, and affirm that the most effects of improved general and technical education real and injurious check upon the progressive efficiency upon the volume of employment, I should be disposed of industry, whether in the shape of inventions, invest- to distinguish the direct from the indirect consequences. ment, and the education of labour, is furnished by the So far as such education enables workers to increase recurrence of long periods of trade in which ability, the quantity, as distinguished from the skill or quality, capital, and labour-power stand idle or half employed. of their output it cannot contribute to alleviate unem- Though in a progressive system of industry a certain ployment : on the contrary, it would appear to increase margin of waste, tolerably constant, must’ be incurred the sum of the excess of the supply of labour at such through misapplication of industrial power and mis- times. Any improvement in the skill of individual calculations of future demand, there is no reason in the workers, or even of the nation as a whole, resulting nature of industry why these great oscillations of the from better training, would enable these individuals or volume of production and employment should recur. this nation to keep-a better hold upon employment than To say that the modern system of industry will not other individuals or other nations in world-industry at work without a margin is merely to assert that what- times of general trade depression. But since large ever is is inevitable. No other adequate explanation is numbers of workers whose efficiency is adequate to given than that of a normal failure of consumption to secure them regular employment in good times are un- keep pace with productive power, and a consequent employed when times are bad, it cannot be argued that periodic: accumulation of materials and goods in the any raising of the general level of efficiency, or any productive system which congest that system and cause increase of the numbers of efficient workers would in injurious stoppages. The financial machinery of adjust- itself secure an increase in the aggregate demand for ment thrown out of gear fails to act with rapidity and skilled labour. As a local, or even as a national policy, precision, and the equilibrium between the rate of pro- such technical training might of course be efficacious in duction and of consumption which is eventually brought procuring for one town or one nation a larger share of about is always effected upon an unstable basis which employment at the expense of another town or another under-estimates the increasing power of production nation. But when a cyclical depression in the industrial shortly disclosed when business has resumed a normal world exhibits an excess of competent workers in the course. various trades, to furnish a large? supply of equally or No remedy for unemployment is valid unless it is more competent workers is no remedy. This rigorous seen to stimulate the current of consumption by con- application of a quantitative doctrine of supply requires, verting surplus income, either into wages spent in however, this not unimportant qualification. A general raising the standard of comfort of the workers, or into rise in education and technical training among the public revenue spent in raising the standard of public workers will stimulate among them an increased desire life. Surplus income, by its excessive saving and by and capacity for organisation, economic and political. its irregular spending, impairs the volume and the and may thus incidentally produce a considerable effect regularity of employment : its diversion either directly upon wages and the standard of consumption. Just in into wages or into public expenditure for steady pur- proportion as it conduces thus to increase the share of poses of popular support and progress is the only the product which comes to labour, and to reduce-the method of securing full and regular employment. unproductive surplus, does it enlarge the total volume It is only by the application of this principle that we of employment. can test the utility of concrete palliatives for unemploy- By no other economic reasoning is it possible to ment which modern governments devise. Proposals defend the policy of public expenditure upon unem- which, for educational or other purposes, aim at remov- ployed relief works or unemployed insurance, to which ing from the labour market certain classes of super- most modern States have committed themselves. abundant labourers are genuine correctives of the over- J. A. HOBSON. supply of current productive power. If the large (To be concluded.) employment of young boys and girls can be curtailed by the abolition of half-time and the compulsory attend- ance at continuation and technical schools, their removal England-The Foreigner’s Home. from the labour market will furnish some increased em- ployment of adults at higher wages, and will generally MR. ASQUITH, on the departure of English capital for strengthen the power of low-skilled adult labour to foreign shores, shares the optimism of the priestly organise and to obtain higher pay. The same result fraternity at times of bereavement. Capital has left US will attend any removal from the competitive labour for a better land (the land of 6 per cent.), but he market of inefficients and weaklings, and semi-invalids assures us that we shall meet it again, resplendent as incapable of any sort of hard, regular work. If they can be placed in hospitals or training colonies, fuller a demand for British labour. It is a pretty story, and has the merit of exceeding plausibility. An investing * From a forthcoming work : “The Industrial System: An Enquiry into Earned and Unearned Income.” By John patriot, ill-content with 4 per cent., discovers a little A. Hobson. (Longmans.) more surplus value in the rice-fed labour of the Eastern APRIL 8, 1909 ascetic, for whom the pork chops and beer of Britain’s navvy are the devil and the deep’ sea. Of course the The Desire to Own. patriotic capitalist does not send his shekels to the A Reply to MT. Hilaire Belloc, M.P. enterprising missionary of Commercialism in China. He merely transfers to him a demand for British I NOW approach the central dogma upon which the new goods which the enterprising missionary speedily attack upon Socialism is based-the assertion that men materialises into English steel rails and rolling stock desire to own. for the railway project which he is promoting, Then Now, if I ask “What do men desire to own? ” Mr. when the railway has been built the Chinese porter Belloc will call me a professor. So, instead, I will ask develops a pretty taste in linen collars and “bowler ” hats, and there you have a new market for British “ Why do men desire to own? ” Let us analyse this goods, and everything is for the best in the best of all alleged human passion, resolve it into its elements, and possible worlds ! see how far Socialism would satisfy it. Mr. Chiozza Money, in the “Daily News,” while Whatever the desire really is, it is certainly not a showing that the gain to the people would be im- mere craving to be recognised as an absolute owner. measurably greater if the investor put his money into This I can prove on Mr. Belloc’s own testimony, for he the County Council, for an extension of the tramway is always pointing to the Middle Ages as a time when service, is yet suffering from a similar obsession. He asserts without any reservation that when we say that men lived under a stable and happy economic system. a man invests his money in a Mexican tramways com- And, however much he may minimise the practical im- pany “we mean that British exports, the result of portance of the fact, he cannot deny that it is a fact British labour, will leave this country and go either to that there was no such thing as absolute ownership of Mexico or to some other country from which Mexico land under the Feudal system. Our very words “free- exports goods.” hold ” and “fee simple ” ought to remind us that, in The. contention can easily be reduced to an absurdity theory at least, all the land of England belonged to the by supposing that capital found its way abroad until all productive industry in England was supplanted by King of England and that all Englishmen were his the industries established in those countries where tenants. And this remained the case until the oligarchy cheap and efficient labour is available, and where the which had robbed the Church and the people com- essential raw materials are abundant. And suppose all pleted its work in 1660 by abolishing feudal tenure, and the capitalists of the world, agreeing with William so established for the first time absolute ownership of Waldorf Astor that England is the only fit place for a the earth. It is obvious, therefore, that if the mediaeval “ gentleman ” to live in, decided to take up their abode in this country. Then, with the low cost of living peasant was really happy, it was not because his under a Free Trade régime, they might still have some absolute ownership of land was recognised ; it was not. unspent income, and could still invest it abroad, It must have been something else which made the although all directly productive industry had ceased difference between him and the modern proletarian. here ; and there being nothing produced for export, Nor is it very difficult to see what that thing was. Mr. Asquith’s “demand for British goods ” would have Though the land did not technically belong to him, he to die unheard. The fact of the matter is, that the investment of belonged to the land, could not be turned off it, could capital abroad does not necessarily establish a demand cultivate it in peace, and hand it on to his children. for British goods ; it may merely represent a transfer In a word, he was secure. of the lien upon produce, represented by the interest due I believe that quite nine-tenths of the desire to own to English capitalists upon their investments abroad, to the means of production at the present time is simply the country where the new investment is made. a desire for security. So long as the means of pro- The picture of England as a country without any duction are the private property of some people, it is directly productive industries, with huge imports and obvious that those who do not own them must be no exports, is by no means so fanciful as at first appears. We only need a few more multi-millionaires dependent for the very permission to live on those that to take up their residence here, and by their expendi- do. The only way to get out of this degrading depend- ture to divert the industry of the country into unpro- ence with all its horrible consequences of insecurity, ductive channels, and it might become an accomplished chronic unemployment, penury in old age, and ghastly fact. The capitalists resident in the country would then anxiety for the future of your wife and children, is to have a lien upon foreign produce as interest upon their become yourself owner or part-owner of the means of investments, sufficient to enable England to subsist as a parasite upon the industry of the rest of the world. production either as landowner, independent craftsman, Meanwhile Englishmen would be employed in catering shareholder, or (under a Collectivist system) citizen. for the desires of their over-rich guests-building more Therefore, now that the capitalist system has practi- Hotel Cecils, Brooklands motor tracks, etc. Of course cally squeezed out the independent craftsman, and while distribution would still employ a considerable section a Collectivist State is still in the remote distance, of the people, and the professional classes would to a everyone who has saved a little money is eager to large extent remain undisturbed. Mr. Smith, the invest it in order to secure for himself some minimum doctor, would be medical attendant to a grocer, who of independence. I utterly refuse to believe that he served a bootmaker who made shoes for a tailor who ever gets at all sentimental about these investments, made the liveries of a plutocrat’s footmen. Until they or that he feels that they have become “a part of his are connected up, it is not obvious that we have a personality. ” He is simply insuring against the risks string of parasites all dependent upon the foreign of life. capitalist, himself a parasite upon the foreigner’s I will even venture to doubt whether this does not labour. As a nation we might even be a great deal apply to the French and Irish peasant proprietors about better off than we are now. The railways might be whose “desire to own”Mr. Belloc and G. K. C. get so nationalised, municipal enterprise much extended, the rhetorical. If Land Nationalisation were proposed in right to live recognised, and yet still we should be a rance to-day, the bulk of the peasantry would no nation of parasites -little fleas living on the big fleas ! And of course we should have a magnificent Navy to protect our interests abroad. And how very awkward NEW LINES OF THOUGHT,’ INTERESTING TO it would be if the nations upon whose surplus labour SOCIAL REFORMERS, we thrived became infected with Socialistic doctrines, are opened up by Dr. EILOART’S Essay, ‘ Shakspere and Tolstoy,’ and combined to repudiate their obligations to our pluto- which touches on Property, Marriage, and Political Relations cratic masters. The bubble would burst, and England Published by GARDEN CITY PRESS, LTD., Printers, etc., as a nation would go under. F. H. MINETT. Letchworth, Herts, 1909 47 pages. Price 4d. APRIL 8, 1909 THE NEW AGE 481 doubt resist it, but I suspect that they would do so on strictly commercial grounds, because, having their The Post. farms free of charge, they would not see the fun of By Anton Tchekhov. paying rent for them. But, if they could be convinced that the small rent the State would charge them would (Translated by Fanny Stepniak and Rochelle S. Townsend.) be nothing to the service it could render them in IT was three o’clock in the morning. The postman, ready organising the distribution of their product, guiding for his journey in his great-coat and peaked cap, a rusty it to the best market, improving facilities for Trade sword in his hand, stood by the door and waited for the and Transit, and increasing the purchasing power of driver to finish packing the mail bags into the coach. The their customers, I firmly believe that they would close sleepy postmaster was sitting at a table, which resembled a with the offer. Indeed, some of them must even now counter, and, while signing a paper, remarked :-. be willing to do so, for many Socialist deputies sit for “My nephew, a student, asks me to allow him to go to agricultural constituencies, and must be elected largely the station with you. Well ! Igniateff, you had better give by the votes of petty proprietors. him a lift in the coach. I know it’s against the rules for Now, Mr. Belloc will hardly deny that, whatever strangers to drive with the mail ; still, what’s to be done ! else Socialism might give or withhold, it would give Give him a lift; it will save hiring horses.” security, security as complete as that possessed by the “ Ready ! ” A shout was heard from without. mediaeval peasant, security far more complete than his “Go, now. God bless you,” said the postmaster. “Who own system of widely distributed capital could promise. is the driver? ” So far, therefore, as the desire to own is a desire for “ Simeon Glasoff.” security, Socialism would satisfy it. “ Sign the papers.” Let me anticipate Mr. Belloc’s answer. I admit that The postman signed the papers, and went out. the desire to own is not wholly a desire for security. At the entrance to the post office stood the mail coach; Slavery gives a measure of security, penal servitude two of the horses were standing motionless, but the off-side and the workhouse give still greater security. Yet they horse kept pawing the ground impatiently, and every now are found intolerable by free men. and again would shake its head so that the bell jingled. In ‘its second aspect the desire to own is a desire The coach, filled with mail bags, appeared like a dark spot, for liberty and for the extension of the personality. and next to it two figures were silhouetted: the student, Every man wishes to surround himself with an environ- with a portmanteau in his hand, and the driver. The ment which he can change at will. He wishes to latter was smoking a pipe, the light of which shone in the choose his own clothes, furniture, pictures, dinner, darkness. It kept going out and flickering up again, and drink, tobacco without having to ask the permission of for a second would throw its light now upon a sleeve, now anyone. These are the things to which the sense of upon a nose and thick moustache, and now upon a scowling property most naturally and humanly attaches itself. brow. The postman patted the mail bags, placed his sword For they are things really “proper ” to the individual on the top, and jumped into the coach. Mr. man, existing solely for his own use or pleasure. The student hesitatingly followed, and accidentally Belloc and Mr. Chesterton have in no way exaggerated knocked the postman with his elbow, for which he timidly the strength and universality of this sentiment. As apologised. G. K. C. has pointed out, children develop it almost at The pipe went out. once. But they develop it in regard to things that they The postmaster came out in his shirt-sleeves and slippers, see and use. It is easy enough to make a child under- groaning and shivering in the night air. stand that the box of tin soldiers with which he plays “ Michailo, remember belongs to him, while the arm-chair in which his father “Well ! God be with you,” he said. sits belongs to his father. But it would, I suspect, be me to your mother, and to everybody. Igniateff, don’t for- difficult to explain to him how it comes about that his get to deliver the packet to Bistretzov. Be off! ” father, who has never been out of England, has “pro- The driver took the reins, blew his nose, arranged his perty ” in a Peruvian railway. seat, and smacked his lips. I altogether deny that this feeling of property is ap- ‘ Don’t forget ! ” repeated the postmaster. plicable, except in the most far-fetched and unnatural The big bell, in A sonorous voice, began speaking to the manner, to investments. No man really feels a human little bells, and they replied caressingly. The coach moved, affection for the bricks and mortar of the row of shops the big bell sobbed, and the little bells laughed; the driver in Tottenham, which he has never seen, but the ground- stood up, slashed his whip twice near the restless side horse, rents of which he bought on the advice of his surveyor and the coach rolled along the dusty road. from another man, who also had never seen them. The little town was asleep, and the lights were out. On No man really thinks that the rails and rolling stock either side of the wide street the dark forms of houses and of a ‘Peruvian railway are “proper ” to him. The trees could be seen. The sky was covered with stars, and object of the men who buy these things is simply to in certain places long, narrow clouds were visible. In the make money out of other people’s work-a quite human east, just where the sun would rise, appeared the crescent and intelligible desire, but not an exalted one. Any- moon ; but neither the numerous stars nor the pale moon how, it has nothing whatever to do with “the extension could pierce through, the darkness. It was cold, damp, and of the personality.” there was a smell of autumn in the air. The “ Liberty and Property Defence League ’ would The student, wishing to be amiable to the postman, who be an excellent title for a Socialist society. With SO kindly gave him a seat in the coach, tried to enter into liberty I shall perhaps deal later, but I certainly main- conversation with him. tain that one of the functions of Socialism is the de- ‘( In the summer, at this time in the morning, it is quite fence of property-public and private. light,” he remarked. Socialism will secure to the individual man a fuller “But now there is, as yet, no sign of the dawn. The control of the things which are really “proper ” to summer is over.” him, and will give him more of these things. But there The student gazed at the sky, and continued, “Even the are other things-the great means of production- sky has an autumnal look. Just look to the right. DO you see those three stars standing in a line? It is Orion’s Belt, which are not “proper ” to any individual or group of which appears on our hemisphere in September.” individuals, since they are necessary to the life of all. The postman, with his hands tucked away in his sleeves, These things are “proper ” to the community ; they and muffled up to the ‘ears in his coat collar, did not look ought to be the property of the community. Render, at the stars, and did not stir. therefore, to the individual the things which are the Evidently Orion had no interest for him. He was accus- individual’s, and to the Nation the things which are tomed to seeing the stars, and was probably tired of them. the Nation’s. After a brief silence the student began again. Next week I propose to-discuss the stability of Mr. " It is cold ! It’s quite time for the day to break. Do Belloc’s alternative to Socialism, and I shall then go you know at what hour the sun rises ? ” on to show how Socialism alone can realise Mr. Belloc’s ‘(What ? ” asked the postman. own ideal. CECIL CHESTERTON. ((When does the sun rise? ” 482, THE NEW AGE APRIL 8, 1909

‘(A little after five o’clock,” interposed the driver. and didn’t even notice when you went down. I can now The coach left the little town behind.. On either side of imagine what journeys are like in the autumn ! ” the road were now visible the wattle fences of kitchen The ‘postman was silent. gardens, and lonely willows. Ahead, everything was " How long have you been travelling with the mail ? ” obscured in a mist. ” Eleven years. ” In the open country the moon appeared larger and the “What! Every day? ” stars brighter. Suddenly a wave of dampness swept over “Yes, every day. Where’s the wonder? ” them; the postman muffled himself still deeper in his coat During the eleven years he had travelled daily, he must, collar, and the student felt the unpleasant cold rushing surely, have experienced many interesting adventures. On around his feet, over the mail bags, and over his hands bright summer nights, on severe autumn nights, on howling and face. winter nights, with the snow whirling round the coach. It The coach slackened pace. The sound of the big bell must have been difficult to keep proof against fear, and an became fainter, as if it also felt the cold. uncanny feeling which sometimes creeps over one. No A sound of splashing water reached them; around the doubt the horses have bolted on other occasions, and the wheels of the coach and the horses’ hoofs reflections of coach got stuck in a bog. He may have been attacked by stars could be seen jumping about in the water. In about highwaymen and lost his way in the snow-drift. ten minutes it became so dark that neither the moon nor ‘I can imagine the many ‘experiences you must have had the stars could be seen. The coach had entered a wood. during the eleven years, ‘) continued the student. Prickly branches of fir trees constantly hit against the (’ On the whole, are you nervous on your journeys? ” student’s cap, and his face became covered with cobwebs. He waited for the postman to reply, and perhaps tell him The wheels and the horses’ hoofs crunched over the roots something about his adventures, but he maintained a sullen of old trees, and the coach swayed to and fro like a silence, and muffled himself still deeper in the collar of his drunken man. coat. “Drive in the middle of the road ! ” said the postman, The dawn was beginning to appear, so gradually that the angrily. change in the colour of the sky was scarcely discernible. “My face is all scratched by the branches ! keep to the It still seemed dark, but the horses and the driver were right ! ” becoming more distinct. An accident nearly happened; the coach jerked suddenly, The crescent moon became paler and paler, and a cloud as if overcome by a violent fit, shook, and with a shriek, spreading beneath it, in shape like a gun on its carriage, swayed, first to the right, and then to the left, made a assumed a faint golden tint. tremendous effort, and rushed through a clearing in the Soon the face of the postman became visible-it was wet wood. The horses got frightened, and bolted. from the dew, and looked grey and stony, like the face of “Whoa ! Whoa ! ” the driver shouted, alarmed. a dead man. He retained a stolid expression of brusque “Whoa! devils ! ” and gloomy anger, as if he still felt the pain from his fill, The student was being terribly jolted. In order to keep and was still annoyed with the driver. his balance and not fall out of the coach, he bent forward " Thank God, it’s getting light ! ‘) said the student, gazing and tried to clutch at something, but the mail bags were into the cross and chilly face of the postman. slippery, and the driver, at whose belt he was trying to hold ‘I feel quite frozen ! The September nights are cold, but on, was also being jolted to such an extent that every moment the cold disappears as soon as the sun rises. Are we he might have been thrown from the box. getting near the station ?” Through the noise of the wheels and the screeching of The postman scowled, and drew a wry face. the coach was heard the sound of the sword falling out, and (‘How you like to talk, to be sure ! ” he said. " Can’t you in a little while a dull thud reached them from the back drive in a coach without speaking? " of the coach. The student felt snubbed, and did not address the post- ‘(Whoa! ” shouted the driver. man during the rest of the journey. ‘(Stop! ” The dawn was rapidly approaching. The moon grew paler The student fell forwards on to the seat in front and hurt and melted into the grey sky. The cloud became golden, his forehead ; a moment later he fell backwards and hurt the stars went out, but the east still looked cold and grey, himself very much by being knocked against the back of like the rest of the sky, and it seemed impossible to the coach. imagine that the sun was hidden just behind it. “I am falling,” flew across his mind ; but at this moment The morning cold and the postman’s sullenness gradu- the coach rushed out of the wood into the open country, ally communicated themselves to the student. He gazed turned sharply to the right, and with a crashing noise rolled indifferently at the country, longing for the warmth of the on to a wooden bridge, and stopped as if rooted to the sun, and thinking how wretchedly uncomfortable the trees ground. The sudden stop again jerked the student and the grass must feel during the cold nights. violently forward. At last the sun rose, cold, dim, and sleepy. The tree The driver and the student were breathless; the postman tops did not assume a golden tint, borrowed from the rising was nowhere to be seen. He had fallen out, together with sun, as they are usually described. The rays of the sun the sword, the student’s portmanteau, and one of the did not reach the earth, and there was no expression of mail bags. joy and gladness in the flight of the sleepy birds. “Stop ! Stop, you scoundrel ! ” his voice was heard crying The cold remained just as intense as during the night. from the wood. They passed a country house, and the student, sleepy "You cursed beast ! ” he shouted, running up to the and sulky, looked at the drawn blinds, and thought, coach. “Behind the windows they are probably in a sound early His plaintive voice was full of pain and anger. “Curse morning sleep, and do not hear the bells of the mail coach. it! To Hell with you. ! ” he shouted, rushing at the driver They do not feel the cold, and are not confronted with the with outstretched fist. angry face of the postman. Even if the bell were to awaken a young lady, she would probably turn over, smile in her ‘(What a misfortune ! Lord, have mercy! ” mumbled comfortable, warm bed, huddle together snugly under the the driver, in a guilty tone of voice, arranging the harness bed clothes, lay her hand under her cheek, and fall asleep on the horses. “And it’s all the fault of that side horse ! again.” The devil ! She is young, damn her! and has only been He gazed at a pond which glittered near by, and wondered in harness a week. She trots well enough, but when it how carp and pike manage to live in cold water, comes to going down-hill’ there is sure to be trouble ! A ‘( Strangers are not allowed to drive with the mail !” the few good beatings would knock this nonsense cut of her. postman said, suddenly. (! It’s against the rules. . . , Stop ! You devil ! ” And since it’s forbidden’ one mustn’t do it. . . . Yes; it’s While the driver was putting the horses to rights and just the same to me, but I don’t like it, and don’t want it.” searching on the road for the portmanteau and mail bag, (‘Why didn’t you say so before if you didn’t approve? ” the postman continued to shower abuse upon him in a The postman was silent, and continued unfriendly and whining, squeeky, and angry voice. angry. In a little while they reached the station; the The driver found the missing luggage, arranged it com- student thanked him, and left the coach. fortably in the coach, walked the horses (without the The express had not yet arrived. On a side line there slightest necessity) for a few paces, grumbled at the restless stood a goods train, on the tender of which were standing horse, and jumped on to the box. the engine driver and the stoker, their faces wet from the Now that the anxiety was over, the student felt amused dew, drinking ‘tea out of a dirty tin pot. The carriages, and gay. the platform, the seats were all wet and cold. The student, For the first time in his life he was travelling by night while waiting for the train in the refreshment room, was on a mail coach. The bolting of the horses, the fall of the drinking tea. The postman, his hands thrust up the sleeves postman, the pain in his back, the whole exciting incident of his coat, and with an expression of anger on his face, appeared to him as an interesting adventure. He lit a was marching up and down the platform gazing at his cigarette, and remarked, laughingly, “Well, this is the way boots. What angered him? The people, poverty, or the to break one’s neck ! I was just, just on the point of falling, autumn nights ? APRIL 8, 1909 .-THE NEW AGE 483 --- THE COLONIST AT HOME. eyes of my soul, Fitz. running away from Thack. like anything. You may love a fellow creature deeply and I will go back to the bush-to the scent of the wattle-tree still not be ready to fall on his neck at all seasons and bloom ; in all crises. You may love literature, and you may To the land of labour and heat, and restless, torturing flies ; adore talking literary shop, and still prefer as a general Where the ragged gum-trees gape and droop in a silence like that of the tomb, rule the society of persons who are less acutely self- And the sun glares down relentlessly from cloudless, brazen conscious than a good author is ‘bound to be. And pro- skies. bably all that Mr. Birrell meant was that real literary men are not “ literary.” They are not. I will go back into exile, and forget the things I have * * * known : Forget forever the scented grass of England’s summer It is impossible to be sure, but I do not think that days- Mr. Gosse convinced the majority of his hearers. He Forget my hours of leisure and rest, and happiness long lacked robustness. He seemed to be rather remote since outgrown, from life, away in the hushed atmosphere of club And search once again for peace of mind along more libraries. He was, indeed, somewhat Bensonian-that strenuous ways. is to say, A. C. Bensonian. I was glad to hear Mr. Clement Shorter administer a rough and uminced re- And there, it may be, I shall forget a vision of golden hair- buke to Mr. A. C. Benson for his attitude towards Fitz- Of soft blue eyes suffused with tears, and lips that said gerald and Omar Khayyam. Whenever I read Mr. ‘( Don’t go ” ; Benson I feel that vulgarity, of which he is so afraid, is But the voice of the Bush croons peace to my mind ‘mid a most precious quality. After a dose of Mr. Benson the din of the city square, on Walter Pater or Fitzgerald, I want to go to Gatti’s, And the cry of the bell-bird rings in my ear when the order a beefsteak, and eat it soaked in Worcester sauce, evening sun is low. with Boswell propped up against the cruet in front of me. I wonder what Fitzgerald would have said about Back to the land of the Southern Cross--to spinifex, she-oak, “The Upton Letters,” “The Altar Fire,” and “At and sand, Large ” ? Even if the Omar Khayyam Club fulfilled To the country of mullega-scrub -the land of the kangaroo- no function beyond simply keeping Fitzgerald out of the To the land of the bluey and billy- -the swagman’s, the lilywhite hands of literary Bunthornes, and setting him sundowner’s land, down fair and square in the middle of a street-crowd, Never again to forsake its shores and its skies of miraculous it would richly justify its existence. * * * blue ! E. L. ALLHUSEN. The other day I received from an American firm of publishers one of those little monthly private periodicals in which publishers like to mirror their souls. There is Books and Persons. no reason why I should conceal the name of the firm- (AN OCCASIONAL CAUSERIE) Messrs. Moffat, Yard, and Co., a rising New York I PASSED an agreeable evening, last week, at the dinner house. The star of the house is apparently Mr. John Trevena, the author of “Furze the Cruel,” and the more of the Omar Khayyam Club, held to celebrate the cen- recent “ Dartmoor House that Jack Built “; and some tenary of the birth of Fitzgerald. There was a interesting details of Mr. Trevena are given. “ When gathering of about ninety people, most of them in working he often retires to a lonely little cottage on the “ Who’s Who,” and quite half of them-I should say-- top of a hill with a fine view of the tors. There he connected with letters or journalism. To my keen lives absolutely alone with his dogs, doing his own cook- regret, “Claudius Clear ” was represented only by an ing and housework for months together. Often he does not speak to anyone for over a week. He seems empty chair and a name printed on a programme. Mr. to be a source of some terror to the nearest village, as Birrell was also absent. The toast of Fitzgerald’s im- the people, who are still superstitious, regard him as a mortal memory was proposed by Mr. Edmund Gosse in magician. He has one peculiarity, which it may be a speech distinguished by a certain elegance of form, worth while to mention, and that is, he never reads a considerable knowledge, and an entire failure to under- modern book. He cannot see how any novelist can stand the human nature of Fitzgerald. It was in listen- hope to be original if he reads the works of his con- ing to such a speech that one saw, as in a vision, why temporaries.” I would not willingly let this passage die in the columns of a foreign periodical. My only Mr. Gosse, with his gifts and his graces, has never comment is that, while I admit the usefulness of wash- happened to do anything truly masterful in either crea- ing-up as an exercise helpful to the production of great tive or critical literature. He does not understand. literature, I am really a little surprised at those dogs. He took as his test a recent utterance of Mr. Birrell’s How can Mr. Trevena hope to be original when he is to the effect that Fitzgerald would have preferred the always going about with a set of dogs? Mr. Trevena, company of a motor-cyclist to the company of literary if he has a genuine desire for utter originality, ought to bury his dogs in Cranmere Pool, and buy himself an men ; and he actually sought to disprove this ! In the owl and a pussy cat. The lamentable fact is that the first place, being jocular, it was not meant -to be taken trail of dog is over all his books. They are doggy too seriously. And, in the second place, being at books, sometimes mastiff and sometimes toy-terrier ; bottom serious, it was so obviously and profoundly true uncouth as dogs, wistful as dogs, mad as mad dogs, as to defy any serious denial. and with a dog’s rather rocky sense of construction. * + Mr. Gosse, to my astonishment, tried to prove by I was, of course, prepared for Messrs. Moffat, Yard and Co.‘s statement that Mr. Trevena’s knowledge of argument that Fitzgerald was “a literary man.” The Dartmoor is ‘( probably unique. ” But I regret the fol- enormous humour of the attempt did not seem to strike lowing : “ All other writers have described Dartmoor him. He abruptly dismissed as apocryphal the story and its people from the impressions gained by a few that Fitzgerald, once seeing Thackeray afar off, fled short summer visits.” It is a pity that authors have from the autocrat of the Garrick Club. He brought not some legal power to prevent such silly and malicious evidence to show that Fitzgerald loved Thackeray be- lying on the part of their publishers. It comes with yond all men. It did not occur to him that Fitzgerald peculiar foolishness from Messrs. Moffat, Yard, and Co., for the mere reason that they are the publishers in might love Thackeray, and yet upon occasion run America of Mr. Eden Phillpotts’s novel, “The Virgin in swiftly to avoid him. Personally I can see, with the Judgment.” Jacob TONSON, THE NEW AGE APRIL 8, 1909

Revolution deserved greater credit than the rest. “Yes, he BOOK OF THE WEEK. did very well ; he did quite as much as the others.” “Yes, the work in Macedonia was very slow and arduous, but those First Lessons in Revolution.* who were working in Asia Minor ran greater dangers than IT was in Derna on Sunday morning, July 26th, whilst we,” Enver Bey said : “We had studied other revolutions. We saw that, time after time, they had been wrecked by I was chaffering with Ramadan Freitis for the hire of men who stroke to put themselves at the head of their fellow;, some camels to take us across Cyrenaica, that news saying that a leader was the one thing needed. . . We came to me of the most successful revolution in history. asked ourselves, why have any leaders at all? Working The young electrician of the wireless telegraphy station together, that is our idea. We considered that essential.‘* at Derna pounced upon me, wildly excited with the If I dwell on this point it is not because of its novelty information brought him through the air. “ A chamber as a theory-Kropotkin has shown us the necessity of of deputies is to be summoned ; all exiles may return.” this common working- but because, of its successful And then it ended. Owing to disturbances (atmo- practice, which should endear it to the English. spheric, not political), not another word was to be When we have thoroughly assimilated this real sub- wrung out of the air, and we were left wondering as ordination of all in the common good, this absence of all to how it had all come about, and what exactly had playing to the gallery on the part of anyone, the next happened. The electrician, a youth, the doctor in lesson is the application of Wentworth’s “Thorough.” charge of the troops, an adult, the commandant of the One can imagine that many of the Committee must have district, a military grey-beard, were all Young Turks ; been sorely tempted to get what reforms were offered indeed, every Ottoman in the place belonged to the them knowing how dangerous was the game they party, and for many this meant years of expatriation played. Mr. Buxton writes : “ Force proving ineffec- and of neglect. Many knew more or less of the trend tive, conciliation is tried on a magnificent scale. Five of affairs up till within the last few months. “ But the hundred and fifty officers receive promotion in a single Army is ours,” Nissim Bey had at once exclaimed, but day. . . . . The 38 imprisoned officers are pardoned none, of course, knew how Niazi Bey had first raised and released. On the 22nd the Grand Vizier, Ferir, is the standard of revolt just three weeks earlier. We dismissed, and the semi-liberal Said put in his place.” adjourned to the inevitable coffee and cigarettes, whilst A Fabian Committee would have accepted all this as a I listened to my friends’ recital of their faith, hope, great victory, beyond their wildest dreams. The Otto- and charity -faith in themselves, hope for the future, man Committee was framed of other stuff. They had and charity for the past. made up their minds as to what they were out for, and Here lies before me the 1908 impression of Lane- would accept nothing: less than the maximum. “ But Poole’s Turkey (with a chapter on the New Era) ; this the tumult- is not delayed ; the determination of the short history, the first edition of which was published Committee is growing. ” in 1888, concludes thus : “Till Carlyle’s great man “On the 31st four members of the Committee de- comes, the hero who can lead a nation back to valour manded an audience of the Sultan. They entered the and righteousness, to dream of the regeneration of Palace with loaded revolvers in their pockets, prepared, Turkey is but a bootless speculation.” if the Sultan refused their request, to take his life on the The regeneration is no longer a dream ; it is in spot, and sell their own as dearly as might be. The actual process at this moment. And it became a reality Sultan signed readily and took the oath.” without any Carlylean great man to lead the nation. “But the Committee was not satisfied. In the grant That, to my thinking, is the one outstanding feature of the constitution, he retained in his own hands the that it behoves us who are Democrats and Socialists to appointment of the Ministers of War, of Marine, and of grip hold of, to understand-and to imitate. Here is the Interior. He was quickly given to understand that the first lesson in Revolution. It is a lesson that one this would not be tolerated.” And the Sultan yielded would like the I.L.P. delegates at the Easter Confer- -the Revolutionary Party gained every point they had ence to take to heart-the subordination of all leader- demanded and of which demands they would not abate ship, the suppression of all attempt at individual domi- one tittle ; because they were not satisfied to have the nance, the swamping of the ego in collective leadership. Sultan’s company for just as far as he would go. The Until this is learned, we shall not have profited by the policy of No Compromise was successful. example of “The Ottoman Committee of Union and There is a good deal more to be extracted from Mr. Progress.” Buxton’s book than I have space for. The propaganda I should like to quote the whole of chapters 4, 8, and among the army, for instance. We Socialists have not 9 from Mr. Buxton’s sketch of the Turkish movement. carried our propaganda sufficiently among the officers Perhaps the inner meaning may be judged from Mr. and men of the Navy, which is, after all, one of the Buxton’s words : “ Acting in the spirit of the Committee oldest of our collectivist institutions. There is a big itself, I shall conceal some, at least, of the names ” of harvest to be reaped there among all ranks of this those who most impressed him. “The men of whom I skilled profession. These intelligent men are not mis- am thinking refuse to speak of their exploits, and it is led by Mr. Balfour’s plutocratic claptrap, or Sir Edward most difficult even now to ascertain how the revolution Grey’s dangerous entanglements. came about. Of one who accidentally got into the Mr. Buxton gives a pictureque and moving sketch lime-light Mr. Buxton writes :“ What is more admir- of the Turkish revolutionary movement, to which I feel able than his courage and promptness is his scrupulous I have not done justice by drawing so much attention avoidance of all self - advertisement and his firmness to our English needs. The story is, need I say, splen- didly worth reading for its own sake, and Mr. C. N. in refusing the high place to which he might justly Buxton is a graphic and impartial guide. He does not have expected to rise.” And so it is with every member pretend to know whether the new order will be perma- of that wonderful Committee which bound together nent. And so I may hazard my conjecture that it will 30,000 men. be permanent if the peoples are successful in other Perhaps the main secret of their success has been their self-effacement, their deliberate determination, from the first lands ; it will fail if the ruling oligarchies of England, to subordinate their private gain or ambition to the common Germany, Austria and Russia continue long in posses- cause. . . The have avoided being photographed as far sion. M. D. EDER. as they could, and no accounts of their individual perform- __ ances have appeared in the papers. The first excitement has waned, and yet the spirit of conceit has not yet begun to PICTURE-FRAMING show itself. No one has claimed any superiority over the (Wholesale & RETAIL), rest. There are no leaders. . . In the course of our acquaintance I must admit that I tried very persistently to elicit some information of this kind; but, though I often put a question in an unguarded moment, I was never allowed to receive the impression that any one of the authors of the * “Turkey in Revolution.” By C. N. Buxton. (Unwin. 7s. 6d. net). " Turkey.” By Stanley Lane-Poole. (Unwin). J. EDGE,155, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. APRIL 8, 1909 THE NEW AGE 485

REVIEWS. Read the following books by The Wander Years. By J. H. Yoxall. (Smith Elder. CHARLES GRANVILLE. 7s. 6d.) ” Both a clever and an original writer” Westminster Review), whose work has been frequently noticed for its likeness to TOLSTOI'S. It may be said at once that Mr. Yoxall has written an unusual work, both for its ambition ‘and its matter GOD'SABYSS AND A WOMAN. (whose quantity and variety must astonish even him- 1/- nett. self), and if we are compelled to say we do not alto- ’ A remarkable romance, told in such a convincing style as makes it really enjoyable ” (Notts Guardian).--” A clever original story ” gether like it, then Mr. Yoxall has only himself to (Bookseller, Scotsman, Dundee Advertiser). blame. In the first place, he pretends to a Flaubert EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK. use of words. “Landor said he hated false words. SO " Then the heart-breaking search fur work, till the little savings give did Flaubert. So indeed do I, even I.” Then he writes out, and he stares hopelessly at a starving family.” a book to contradict it. Thus the title-page tells us THEPLAINT of the WANDERINGJEW. “The Wander Years ” are an account of journeys into 2/- nett. -among other regions-Art (whatever this may mean). ( A vigorously written prose allegory ” (Scotsman).--” A great In another place he informs us, “I have studied wise truth looks out from the pages of this little book. , . . . He has words,” but offers no proof. Perhaps the best instances the courage of his conviction, and a heart full of love for the of his careless and slovenly use of words and terms are poor and suffering” (Dundee COURIER). EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK. to be found in the chapter on “The Roving Brush.” ” The man her husband had had no labour . . . eight weeks. , , , And to Here you have such gems as “a peaceful and dis- him his wife and their child were dear as the morning light.” tinctively British Art grew into lusty youth.” There is LONDON: OPEN ROAD PUBLISHING COMPANY, no suchthing as a peaceful and distinctively British All Booksellers, and Messrs. Smith’s Bookstalls Art. “The mystery of landscape painting ” (whatever this may mean). He takes up “the bayonet pen ” on NOW READY. I behalf of the British Water Colour School, whose work, BOUND IN ART CLOTH. unlike that of the “opaque brown varnishy Old Masters, A SECOND REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION OF is not smudged nor scumbled, nor thick with layer on REGENERATIVE FOOD layer of stratified pigments, etc.” (this is painful non- AND COOKERY. sense). He discovers that “till Girtin broke with tradi- By W. A. and E. WILLIAMS. tion” there were no water-colour works worth mention- With chapters on-The qualityof Food, and the Right Combination of Foods ;. the Art of Bread and Cake Making without Yeast, Barm, or Chemi- ing. This is ignorance. He speaks of the Water cal Risings ; the Food Value of Nuts, with formulae for the preparation of Colour School exhausting our small island of its all kinds of Nut Cakes, Nut Meats, Soups, etc. ; How to Prepare all kinds of Fruit Dishes, Salads and Drinks, etc. ” views ” (a guide-book term). He refers to the mem- In its review of the first edition " The Crank*’ (now ” The Open Road ‘ says :-’ To conclude, I may say that I have read through nearly every bers of this School as being John Bulls to the core (a Food Reform Cookery Book published. and I have no hesitation in saying horrible statement, seeing that no artist can be a John that I think it to be the most satisfactory so far.” L. N. FOWLER & CO., LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. Bull to the core). “Modern improvements, that foe to Or through your bookseller, at 1s. 6d. net. Post free, 1s. 9d. fine effect,” is another of his unconsidered trifles. “Are the colours of high art best mixed with misery? ” he asks. HATED BECAUSE DREADED.JUST EXPELLED As we have no acquaintance with high, low, or middle- From Camberwell Free Library Reading Rooms, By Order of the class art, we are not sure whether their colours are Borough Council with the applause and assistance of the Free mixed with Mafeking or the Lord Mayor’s Show. It is Churches Council. needless to multiply these examples. On every page “ THE FREETHINKER,” Edited by G. W. FOOTE the author exhibits his passion for careless statement ; Published Thursdays TWOPENCE on every other page he treats his reader as though he PIONEER PRESS, 2, NEWCASTLE STREET, E.C. were a fool. Says he, “I fear the great English Water Colour School is gone ” (we fear that Queen Anne is dead). II SECOND-HANDBOOKS AT HALFPRICES ! These faults aside, the book compels attention. Its NEWBOOKS AT 25PER CENT.DISCOUNT author traverses a wide realm of Art passing easily Books on all Subjects and for all Examinations (Elementary and Advanced) supplied. from earth to heaven, from the soul of porcelain to that STATE WANTS. SEND FORLISTS BOOKSSENT ON APPROVAL. of a cathedral (viewing the latter not altogether in a BOOKSSOUGHT. good PRICESgiven. Viollet de Duc sense). His passing is curiously meteoric, and the sort of people who will like this sort W.& G. FOYLE, 135 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C. of thing will be curio-hunters, students of Chaffers, admirers of Borrow, and all who have not read Whistler. COOMBE HILL SCHOOL, WESTERHAM, FOR GIRLS AND BOYS. Eliza Brightwen. (T. Fisher Unwin. 5s.) An attempt to secure proper scope for the play Eliza Brightwen was not one of the ablest writers of of instincts and impulses, and to provide a series the day. She was a cultivated, charming, sympathetic, of purposes by the performance of which ideas shy, and gentle lady who appears to have had a “re- may grow into clearness and freedom. markable gift of natural magic which enabled her to Principal, MISS CLARK. win the confidence of beasts and birds and bees and butterflies.” A simple charm, touched with a rare SUNDAY EVENING LECTURES. uniting force, is the keynote of her writings, as it is of ST. JAMES'S HALL, GREAT PORTLAND STREET, W. her character. Her book recalls the picture of an old- BY world manor house set in romantic human and nature scenery. You see it as a veritable sanctuary of wild life, at once a home, a house of call, a hotel, and a Mr. G. W. FOOTE., hospital for everything. “in fur and feather.” There is April 11th.- ‘ If Christ be not Risen. a billiard-room, which the “pets ” have transformed ,, 18th.--” God and Humanity.” into a crowded menagerie. There are wide chimneys, ,, 25th.--” The Religion of Shakespeare.” down which bats come to gnaw, unmolested, the cured Doors open at 7 p.m. chair taken 7.30 p.m. bacon. There’s an ivy-grown barn, where owls hoot in Discussion Invited at all Meetings. RESERVED SEATS. 1/-. SECOND SEATS, 6d. BALCONY FREE. different keys, achieving a Wagnerian discord in F sharps, B flats, and G flats. There’s a garden full of BEAUTIFULHEALTH AND HOLIDAY HOME, flowers, where colonies of bees sip nectar from gorgeous Altitude 600ft. snap - dragons. There’s a pond, where brilliantly- Magnificent scenery of Dean Forest, Severn and Wye Valleys, Spacious House. 25 bedrooms, grounds 5 acres, billiard and bath coloured insects float in ecstasy, and there’s the figure rooms, tennis, conveyance. Vegetarians accommodated. Socialist of one who, in sickness and in health, moves among this rendezvous. Board-Residence from 29/- Photos, particulars. glow of colour, this feast of form, seeing, hearing, CHAS. HALLAM, Littledean House, Newnham, Glos. THE NEW AGE APRIL 8, 1909

noting all the curious ways of birds, mammals, or the supposed amputated finger of a kidnapped child is insects. In her dying moments she is attended by those shown to her (a situation more skilfully used in the wild creatures who have long been accustomed to her Calendon kidnapping case). If this recurrent amnesia presence. Her last conscious moments “are gladdened and the consequent thrice remarrying is a little im- by the sudden cry of the cuckoo calling from the bough probable, the tale is simply told. Its characters are of the great tree opposite her bedroom window.” congenial with a natural background touched in with Thus Mr. Gosse in an epilogue brings to a close a local colour. A despondent view of the future marks book of extraordinary interest. As Gilbert White’s “The Last Persecution.” We are not sure what is the book immortalises Selborne, so Eliza Brightwen’s com- origin of this religious novel, but we imagine it to be pound of autobiography and diary will immortalise the result of a course of Karl Pearson’s “National Stanmore. Character ” acting upon a weak digestion. Out of the failure to assimilate the doctrine of the probable pro- “Olive in Italy.” By Moray Dalton. (Unwin. 6s.) gress of the yellow race has arisen this further unholy “ An Incompleat Etonian.” By Frank Danby. note of persistency with which the unpreparedness (Heinemann. 6s.) of this blessed country is being boomed. Briefly, the “My Lady of Shadows.” By John Oxenham. book surveys the moral and religious life of London (Methuen. 6s.) under Chinese occupation in 1924, what time Ping “The Last Persecution.” By S. N. Sedgwick. Wang carries on the traditions of Nero, Diocletian, and (Grant Richards. 6s.) Julian. The cover illustration of the Boxer beheading "Wax.” By G. S. Layard. (George Allen. 6s.) the Bishop, or metaphorically, Confucianism decapitat- “ Chip. ” By F. E. Mills Young. (Lane. 6s.) ing Christianity, assists the imagination. In this way Chance opportunities, says Rochefoucauld, make us the Celestials are shown as serving as a sort of reli- known to others, and still more to ourselves. This is gious disinfectant, and thus the Yellow Peril is made equivalent to saying that temperament, like murder, to put an end to the Religious Peril, and doubtless to will out. Temperament is indeed a thing that will the Rat Peril, also. Decidedly despondent but power- reveal itself even in the best regulated novelist. It ful. The gay temperament reveals itself in “Wax.” usually speaks within the limit of its geographical area. The story is a typical example of comedy intrigue. In- But this area has very little to do with the quality of cidents and characters lend themselves to humorous its voice. The fact is, though temperament affects treatment. The plot deals with Christabel, aged 17, topography, topography is not the cause of tempera- engaged to be married to Sir Cornelius Santler, age 50, ment. Just as it is a fact that though genius affects the benefactor of George Bellairs, age 30. The long hair, long hair is not the cause of genius. As an heroine’s adventures at Tussaud’s are those a Cruick- instance of this tendency of temperament to give an shank or a Keene would welcome ; and the use of the account of itself in geographical terms you have the eccentric habits of the spirit world to separate her from latest addition to Mr. Unwin’s worthy speculative Santler and unite her to Bellairs, adds to the joy of a enterprise, The First Novel Library. Romance looks clever book which reveals a Meredithan love of classical out from the pages of Mr. Dalton’s book. Like most allusion, metaphor, and aphorism. The grave tempera- novelists, the author is evidently under the impression ment is apparent “Chip.” It is shown in the prin- that Italy is the sea of all the romantic passions. So cipal character- a misogynist Legree-like planter who you have a strong drama of temptation and crime, but lives on the verge of a South African swamp-and no inexorable retribution, taking place in the Siena of static melancholia. To him comes a new overseer with the Renaissance, Florence of theMedici, and Rome of no vices, a respect for truth, and a secret. The secret the Wandering Brush. You see passing amid such is that Chip is a woman, and we are asked to believe scenes the romantic-minded Olive, tempted by one that she preserves the secret of her sex for some lover and accepting the other after his wife has died- months, although living alone with the planter, and in for the occasion. You also notice that the characters spite of a decided. inclination to betray herself in talk, use foreign idioms with the wonted prodigality of a walk, prejudice, and passion. There is something first novel. These may be quite dispensed with in a about this naive but interest-compelling story that re- readable book of the Romola-Tarquisara-Corinne kind. minds one of the Taming of the Shrew. Its title should The stern, unrelenting realism of Mr. “ Frank rightly be The Taming of the Misogynist. Danby‘s ” new book is no less strongly marked. From A History of the English Agricultural Labourer. the dedication “An Incompleat Etonian ” would seem By Dr. W. Harbach. Translated by Ruth Ken)-on, to be something of a personal document. It offers a with preface by Sidney Webb. (P. S. King. 7s. 6d. very original and telling study of a megalomaniac youth, net.) whose development, as traced by the author, would It is very clear that the problems of agriculture afford much material for a scientific work like Stanley cannot much longer be neglected by our statesmen as Hall’s “ Adolescence.” The moving story turns upon they have been during the last fifty years. Professor the aim of a woman of genius to model her son of Harbach’s book comes at a very opportune moment ; genius on the lines of a great scholar, and the son’s for it lays a sound historical foundation of the facts successful aim to model himself as a great tradesman. which we shall have to consider before a policy for the Its scenes are realistic, and its unwholesome men and future can be drawn up. He has taken a broad view corrupt women are in harmony-all save one who is, of the ground, and his book, despite a certain heavi- oddly enough, a tradesman. A ‘sanguine outlook on ness of literary style, is yet of extraordinary interest to life characterises Mr. Oxenham’s work. He apparently anyone who takes an economic or humanitarian delight writes novels for the joy of the thing. He does more ; in the study of his fellows. Agriculture, even in this he writes to please, and evidently succeeds. “I de- age of factories, still employs more inhabitants of the liberately choose the pen as my world-opener-, and I United Kingdom than any other single occupation. We have never had reason to regret my choice,” he seems do not always agree with Dr. Harbach’s conclusions. to say in the opening words of his present hero. For example, we profoundly distrust the solution by Accordingly, “ My Lady of Shadows ” is pleasant and peasant proprietorship. But the facts are given for the sometimes exciting reading. It is unusual to meet a reader to draw his own conclusions. The pages on the lady who on two occasions forgets she is married : earlier Poor Law have an interest to-day beyond their once when she shoots a bad Italian, and secondly when immediate reference to the agricultural population.

). The high reputation of these pens has been maintained since their introduction in 1890. They are the best value for money ever given. En- gineer Commander G. A. Haggerty, R.N., 14, South Parade, Southsea, writes on “ The ‘ Neptune ’ Pen (a 10s. 6d. one) has scarcely had a day’s rest during the sixteen years I have had it.” (Hundreds of testimonials can be seen at our office). hasbeen tested with ink and found perfect. PRICES: 2/6, 5/-, 7/6, 10/6, 16/6. Obtain of your stationer or send P.O. direct to the Manufacturers: Burge. Warren Ridgley. Ltd., 91 & 92. Great Saffron APRIL 8, 1909 THE NEW AGE 487

The whole volume is, indeed, a very interesting contri- a much larger percentage. The book aptly illustrates bution to the history of this country in the broadest how the monied class gets a hold upon the working sense ; and of particular interest as a valuable guide class, through the latter’s ignorance of simple arith- towards the formation of intelligent opinions on a sub- metic, and unconsciously emphasises the need of the ject which so urgently demands the attention of respon- working man knowing how to calculate his loan in sible citizens. terms of the money market. When he has learnt to do Lord Windlesham’s Tenant’. By Farquhar Palliser. this, he will drop money-lenders, and solve the borrow- (Sealey, Bryers, and Walker. 3s. 6d.) ing problem by an exchange of products by a system of Maturin (Ld. W.‘s half demented brother) : There counters, and use no money except, perhaps, to settle was once upon a time-Hah? balances. Nan (M.‘s daughter, and heiress to the W.) : A great and good man whose virtuous and only daugh- ter, rich beyond all want, was sought in marriage- DRAMA. Mat. : Stay, child, how named you this man? East End and West End. Nan : Hardred the Good. THE two performances which the Stage Society gives Mat. : ‘Tis strange, methought it should have been Maturin. Pray thee, more ! of each of its productions are quite different in “feel.” Nan :. And sought in marriage by one she loved not: The one on Sunday night is usually at worst rather a Then there was another ‘youth whose love she re- lark, but the one on Monday afternoon has often the turned--- solemnity of a religious rite. At the back of the mind Mat. : Thou art she? . . . Thou hast my blessing, is a notion that you are there because you ought to be (Epilogue.) Nan. ‘there. I was present last Monday afternoon, and I In the end Nan marries the man she loves, who proves to be Lord Windlesham’s eldest son by a pre- may say that the extraordinary and abundant wit dis- vious marriage, and the younger wastrel son, finding played in Mr. George Calderon’s three-act play, “The himself dispossessed thereby of girl, titles, and estate, Fountain,” entirely dispelled the religious feeling. We promptly emigrates. Thus, as always, the dear, de- laughed constantly, and for the sole reason that we lightful colonies are made the dusthole of melodrama. couldn’t help it. Yet “The Fountain ” is a play of the A novel of the old-fashioned sort, containing some East End, and I am sick of East End plays. More- strong moments, and providing a change from the over, it contains about enough dramatic material for a problem novel. one-act piece, and even its dramatic moments are not The New Word. By Allen Upward. New Edition. very dramatic. And in tone it wavers between comedy (Fifield. 5s. net.) and knock-about farce. And the lesson which emerges When some months ago a now extinct publisher -namely, that the West End can help the East End, issued a strangely printed volume by an anonymous not by going to the East End and being sympathetic, writer under the above title, its early discriminating but only by going to the House’ of Commons and being readers,. though perturbed by the form of the new just-is a lesson which I should have thought every arrival, were nevertheless aware that a new thinker had intellectually honest person had learnt long ago. swum into their ken. Outside a small circle from which Despite all these things, “The Fountain ” was worth we and all OUR acquaintances were excluded, nobody doing and worth seeing. Its pictures were very true knew the name of the author. And it is certain that and very amusing, and the wind of a fine, sound none of us could have guessed that the writer of one of common sense blew through it. The crowd of char- the most remarkable books of the last half century was acters was manoeuvred on the stage with skill, and for no other than our old friend, Mr. Allen Upward. As this, no doubt, credit is due to Mr. Norman Page, “the may be seen by a reference to “Who’s Who,” Mr. producer. ” (Strange, how the producer is generally Allen Upward’s previous record had not prepared the ignored at the praise-giving !) The acting was excel- world for his appearance as a thinker of enormous lent, especially that of Miss Alice Mansfield and Miss power. Nancy Price. + * + A penchant for the secrets of the Courts of Europe, the Secret History of To-day might, it is true, have led “The Fountain ” was preceded by “ Unemployed,” us to suspect something of a Cagliostro nature con- in one act, by Miss Margaret Mack. This trifle was cealed behind the popular writer, but not even Mr. utterly devoid of any interest or merit of any kind. The Upward’s plays would have given us any clue to his members of the Managing Committee of the Stage mastery of intellectualised occult lore. In short, we are Society are astute and experienced persons, and they absolutely taken by surprise at Mr. Fifield’s announce- have taste. They must have had some reasons for ment of the name of the author of the “Last Word.” accepting “ Unemployed. ” I think that one of them However, we shall stick to our opinion that the book, might write, to this paper or some other, and state though it were written by Miss Marie Corelli, is a those reasons. I think that some such statement is due masterpiece of provocative thought, a mine of diamonds, to the Society and to those critics whose attitude and a book to buy and keep. towards the Society is friendly and helpful. Some critics, it is notorious, seldom conceal their detestation People’s Co-operative Banks. By Henry Devine. of the Society. (Cassell and Co. 1S.) * * Implying a desire promote thrift among the neces- to There occurred a great triumph of what in the Ibsen sitous poor, this excellent exposition of the P.C.B. days would have been called “cynical realism ” a few system by one who thoroughly understands it gives an days later at the Haymarket, when Mr. Hubert Henry account of its principles, working, extent, methods Davies’ new comedy, “ Bevis,” was produced. I, who of organisation ; recommends its methods of raising money at low rates of interest in poor localities where The “Christian Commonwealth ” for next week will a person’s character is a guarantee of security ; points be a special I.L.P. number, and will contain an im- to the advantage of being able to borrow money at portant interview with Mr. J. Keir Hardie, M.P., on about 5 per cent., and the disadvantages of other sys- the Movement, and an article by Mr. Philip Snowden, tems under which 300 per cent. would be considered M.P., on the situation in which the Conference meets. quite an ordinary rate of interest, and instances of The Rev. R. J. Campbell, M.A., deals with “The De- going UP to 1500 per cent. are common. The fault of mocratic Spirit in Religion,” and the Rev. T. Rhondda this system, in common with others, is that it is based Williams, whose work for Socialism in. Bradford is upon the ignorance of the borrower. This is shown in well known, writes on “The Labour Party.” A valu- Mr. Devine’s book, which carefully avoids reducing its able feature will be a portrait gallery of leading So- calculations in terms of so much per cent. per annum, cialists, including Mr. J. Keir Hardie, M.P., Mr. J. by which means the borrower could see at a glance Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., Mr. Philip Snowden, M.P., what he really pays. As it is, he is led to believe that Mr. Robert Blatchford, Mr. Bernard Shaw, Mr. Sidney he is only paying a 1d. a shilling, whereas he is paying Webb, Mr. H. G. Wells, and Mr. Victor Grayson, THE NEW AGE April 8, 1909

am an out-and-out realist, was of course delighted. I they will only take formal measures towards a rescue, was more than -delighted, I was startled. I am because they both want him to be dead. Rachel dis- thoroughly accustomed to the “worst excesses ” of the covers his cap, and Bevis, who has been, hiding behind Parisian stage. I have also a sort of gift for writing a bush, catches her weeping over it. And then these novels which the managers of municipal libraries refuse two crouch down on the grass together, entwined in one to circulate. And it is within my memory that I once another’s arms, and remain there while their elders produced a comedy of provincial manners which, by its creep forward and stare at them enraptured. And utter “ sordidness,” infuriated and shocked the dramatic birds sing, for it is Sunday morning. critic of the “Times ” for the space of over one column. * * * I never thought to be startled by any spectacle on The thing was carried out with unflinching bitter- the licensed English stage. And yet I was, on Thurs- ness. Nobody once relented. Miss Lottie Venne was day night. And I say that not Octave Mirbeau, not enormously fine as Mrs. Pym (I discovered a remarkable Maurice Donnay, not Tristan Bernard, and assuredly similarity between her talent and that of the celebrated neither Ibsen nor Sudermann, has ever contrived to Jeanne Bloch.) Miss Lottie Venne understood the play. present such a crude picture of a corrupt, vicious, and She knew that to shrink from anything whatever would vile society as Mr. Davies gives in “ Bevis.” The only ruin its chances. And she shrank from nothing. No- apparently decent people in the play are the servants- body else counted beside her. She carried them all on of whom, happily, there are quite a number. her shoulders. The audience was shocked by nothing. * * * The author’s remorseless exposure of the vulgarity, the rapacity, the stupidity, the insolence, the ignorance, Bevis, the Marquis of Bewdley, is the young head of and the immorality which (I suppose) characterise our an impoverished and haughty family. His mother, the governing classes, was accepted with smiles, with Marchioness, wants- him to marry’ a lot of money in laughter, and with joy. I was staggered to find myself order that she may lay hold of a proportion of that behind the times. I thought Mr. Davies had overdone money for her own extravagances. His uncle, Lord it. But no! Nobody seemed to think so. And pre- Herbert Penrose, wants him to marry so that he may sumably the British public is now quite prepared to “ touch ” the father-in-law for a couple of hundred a listen to the truth, and plenty of it, provided it is put year ; but Lord Herbert would much prefer Bevis to before them cynically. But you must go far enough. die, as he is the next heir.. Bevis engages himself to Half measures might fail. Now that realism has thus Rachel, daughter of Mr. Hopkins, a millionaire brewer. triumphed, I have a mind to leave my business and try There is also in the “set ” a Mrs. Pym, a waning the idyllic. I was told in the foyer that the piece was widow, who is insulted by the suggestion that she a farce, but this could not have been so, for the author accepts coin from Mr. Hopkins for chaperoning his distinctly calls it a comedy, and a new one. Anyhow, girl, but rather tickled by the suggestion that Mr. it was a success, and it charmed me. I had not hoped Hopkins is generous to her because she is his mistress. to live to see such a night. ARNOLD BENNETT. Her heart and body, by the way, belong to Lord Herbert. They can’t wed, because she would lose her income if she married again, and Lord Herbert is so Recent Music. poor. Their desires are so little under control that even ’ The Wedding of Shon Maclean ” : an open in another person’s drawing-room he will chase her round the table for the purpose of achieving physical letter to Hubert Bath. contacts. Bevis knows of their aged amour, but both he My DEAR BATH,- and they regard it as a matter of course. Everything is Congratulations ! Your “wedding ” at the Queen’s regarded as a matter of course. And everybody insults Hall was a most convivial affair. Everybody was there everybody. The mere lack of manners displayed would to witness it, so you must now consider yourself as a appal cabmen. The whole play is one unceasing responsible citizen of the world with a full consciousness caddish rudeness from end to end. The Bewdleys of your many obligations. I enjoyed your music tre- quarrel loudly and boorishly with Mr. Hopkins instantly mendously-that is to say, I enjoyed myself ; for I am they see him. Lady Bewdley flatly asks him for money never so happy as when, without any particular hurry for herself, Lord Herbert flatly asks him for two hun- to get “Copy ” in by eleven o’clock the same evening, dred a year, and Bevis flatly asks him for a thousand I may scribble whatever I like on the margin of my pounds to pay for a motor-car-all this before he has programme. And I scribbled some unrepeatably pro- been in the Bewdley mansion ten minutes. There is no fane reflections that evening ; some that even in the deception, no beating about the bush, no expense of encouraging and congenial atmosphere of Gambrino’s words. It is “How d’ye do. Glad to meet you. Your I dare not quote to you. cheque -book, and hurry up ! ” Still Mr. Hopkins + * * doesn’t seem to mind much. Rachel, by means of a Robert Buchanan’s ballad is, of its sort, a fairly good direct lie, breaks off the match, and is immediately ballad, but where it just misses excellent fun on the one insulted by everybody. hand and fine sentiment on the other you have curiously * * * imposed yourself. You are boisterous and exuberant In the second act we have Mrs. Pym’s small country when the characteristic Scotsman’s humour is generally cottage at Maidenhead- so few beds that only married a little cautious ; and then at moments intended for couples can be invited-but there are a butler and two romance you have really allowed yourself to drift into laced footmen all the same. Mrs. Pym, in the hope of something perilously approaching sentimentality. Not repairing the broken match, and touching Mr. Hopkins maudlin sentimentality, mind you, but merely a slight, for a bit on her own (this is how they talk), has had almost imperceptible, weakening of intellectual dignity the execrable taste to invite the Bewdleys and the and consciousness. This tendency has not been so Hopkinses together, without warning either party. A noticeable, I think, in your more serious work, but some perfect orgie of vulgar incivility ensues, and lasts of us are a little anxious. Be as boisterous and noisy. throughout the act. The match is repaired, Mrs. Pym as you like by all means, but for goodness sake keep gets a kiss and five thousand pounds ; marchionesses away that horror of the musician’s middle-aged pros- and courtesy lords let themselves go in greedy glee ; perity, sentimentality. and then Rachel, breaking faith with her father, spits out a series of inconceivable insults at the man she has accepted and his family, and the entire fat is in the fire DUNCAN MACDOUGALL, again. TEACHER OF VOICE PRODUCTION, NATURAL * * + ELOCUTION, AND DRAMATIC ART. Special attention given to the training of Public Speakers. Schools visited Lovely banks of the Thames in the third act ! Lord and coached for ” break-ups.” Individual Tuition, £2 2s., £3 3s. and £5 5s. per Term. Herbert and his enamoured find one shoe, one sock, one Dates open for Lectures on Public Speaking, Literature, and the Drama. towel, one jacket, one cap, undoubtedly belonging to Elocution and Dramatic Classes. Pupils may join new. 10s. 6d. and £1 1s. per Term. write for Prospectus. Bevis ; and with characteristic common sense, conclude Studios at the Gouin School of Languages, 185, Oxford Street, W., and that he is drowned. They decide, quite calmly, that 54, Gloucester Crescent, Gloucester Gate, Regent’s Park, N.W. APRIL 8, 1909 THE NEW AGE 489

I am writing this in the train, and as I have not the some new stationery, would probably come by return. Well, analytical notes of your cantata in my pocket, I cannot I wrote those two letters straightaway,’ and waited. But nary a number nor electrician did I see. My week went past, give you chapter and verse for this little accusation, but and then a man called., to see the office. (‘Get the instru- I will return to the subject soon. By the way, I am ment ? Well, perhaps in a fortnight's time.” Another fort- thoroughly glad that you have had the courage and the night, and then only perhaps ! I put on. my hat. and went honesty to avoid using actual folk-tunes for the purpose forth to interview the ‘Manager in Carter Lane. The official of suggesting local colour. This is my pettest aversion. I saw there nearly had a fit when I said I wanted to see the I know of no method so generally successful in defeat- Manager. That high and holy personage, it seems, is too ing its own ends as the employment of folk-tunes in sacrosanct for mortal eyes. If I had any complaint it must be put into writing. “But cannot I see any one respon- orchestral music. And for this very reason there is sible,‘, I said ; no, I must putit into writing. As I refused to infinitely more hope for you, Bath, as an individual go away, however, a pleasant and soothing official was writer than for many of your “promising ” contem- finally called, heard my story, agreed I had been badly poraries. No theory is so ill-founded, so preposterously treated, because “it generally takes a month for the Post wrong, as the theory that you can build up a national Office to fit up a telephone-we are so busy” ! A month, art on the conscious basis (i.e., by the deliberate use) of now ? “But, surely,” I protested, “if you are taking over the nation’s telephones you should be better equipped than national folk-song. Let the composers wallow as much this ! Why don’t you get more men and hustle your jobs as they like in folk-song-they will find it a healing through?” Ah, that was not his province. There are diffi- thing ; but once they employ definite traditional tunes, culties, too. “Very well, then,‘, I said, ‘(kindly cancel my and proceed to develop those tunes orchestrally in the agreement. I can’t wait a month, and if you are so busy manner of the greatest symphonic stylists, they are you can afford to lose one redundant customer.” But that doomed to failure. I have known too many instances of wouldn’t do either, it seemed. Finally I was given an abso- the kind in the work of living Irish musicians to have lutely definite promise of completion within seven days, on his honour; and I went away. Nine days later, as nothing any doubt or diffidence in setting forth this dogma. had happened’ I called again. No, my official could not be The Cambridge professor, for example, sank any indivi- seen this time, but another came, who kept me half an hour duality he ever had a quarter of a century ago by this while he rang some one else up, and then on his honour, accommodating nationalism. promised the installation for the next morning. Well, an- * * * other honour has gone, for I am still telephoneless, three I wonder what you thought of Paul Puget’s “Ulysses days later-and three weeks after my application. Now, fancy all our business being carried through in this and the Sirens ” -the piece that was performed before way-promises, promises, promises., and no fulfilment. Under yours on Tuesday evening ? In all my life I never felt officials to ward off enquirers, juniors who have no power to so inclined to blow up any orchestra ; such a piece of carry out their promises, shielding the responsible heads, and abandoned melodrama has seldom been heard in the heads refusing to be seen. Imagine this going on with London. I wonder will it ever be heard again? the nation’s manufacturing and transporting departments, * * * paralysing activity, setting up endless friction between one Something was radically wrong with your new or- section and another ! For years to come this nation has got to depend on the world outside for most of its food and raw chestral accompaniment to “ Evoë ” at the Strolling materials, and it will have to pay for these by its exports, Players’ Amateur Orchestral Society on Thursday. whether it is socialised or not. And imagine its export work Miss Grainger Kerr sang all three songs too slowly, getting done under these conditions ! The excuse of this which was bad enough ; but it was the manes of the particular department at this particular moment is that it sea-horses I missed. When Mr. Cecil Pearson sang it has too much work to do--but why in the name of all that IS at the Bechstein a few evenings previously with the sensible doesn’t it increase its working staff, if it has more to do than the present men can accomplish? As a matter of original pianoforte accompaniment one could actually observation, however, Sir, I affirm that at least in the clerical taste the salt of the water and see the white manes of department it is not over-work but slackness that is the the horses flying over the accompanist’s head. matter. During the two half hours I spent in the Carter Yours very obediently, Lane offices, so far from a rush of work being present, it HERBERT HUGHES. seemed to me that the business was, how to drag through the day ! Young men and women leisurely strolling in and out, yawning, stretching, chatting, lingering, with apparently the CORRESPONDENCE. least amount of work to do that could be given them. Slack- ness. That’s the word. And that, it seems to me, is the rock For the opinions expressed by correspondents, the Editor does not State business is going to split on. Here are these young hold himself responsible. people with fixed hours of work, fixed and decent salaries Correspondence intended for Publication should be addressed to (generally much more than they could earn in the competi- the Editor and written on one side of the paper only. tive world), decent holidays, security of tenure, and a pen- SPECIAL NOTICE.-Correspondents are requested to be brief. sion at the end. And if these conditions lead to slackness, Many letters weekly are omitted on account of their length. dilatoriness, and pie-crust promises in the green wood of State ownership, what will it lead to in the dry, when all are THE P.O. TELEPHONE DEPARTMENT. under the same conditions? This is not a party matter, nor To THE EDITOR OF “THE NEW AGE.” indeed a class matter. These men are drawn from the Will you let me work off in a letter to the Socialist NEW people, by open competitive examination; and I, at any AGE the spleen and exasperation produced in me by contact rate, feel pretty sick at the thought of ever living under a with one State enterprise- the Post Office Telephone Depart- full dose of the sort of thing I am swearing at now. ment ? A. C. FIFIELD. As you are of course aware, the State is taking over the * * telephone monopoly shortly, and meanwhile is a competitor of SOCIALISM AND THE NAVY. the National Telephone Company, which has only eighteen To THE EDITOR OF "THE NEW AGE.” months to run. I wanted an installation in my office, THE NEW AGE is always worth arguing with on those rare and thought it was the duty of a would be good citizen to occasions when it is wrong, because there are always brains encourage State action by applying to the State Department, behind its mistakes, and because the moral and intellectual although I was warned by business friends against doing so. But I made my application, on March 8, and on the 10th a gentleman appeared with an agreement form. This I signed at once and handed to him, with a request that the instru- ment might be put in as quickly as possible. The N.T. Company, I have been told by two friends who have just had CREMATION. installations, fit you up in three days after the application, and I was rather taken aback when the Government official REDUCED CHARGES. told me it would take his department seven days to do the CHEAPER THAN EARTH BURIAL. job-especially as he had said (before I signed) that the electrician would probably call the next day. I now found that he meant only a visit to find out where I wanted the PARTICULARS FREE. instrument placed. " Well, you can tell him that,” I said. But no, these things must be done in order it seems, and the JOHN R. WILDMAN, Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. However, if I was in very much of a hurry, by writing the Manager of the 40 MARCHMONTSTREET, LONDON W.C. Department and also the Chief Electrician, I might get Telephone: HOLBORN 5049. Telegrams: EARTHBORN, LONDON.' fixed within a week; and the number, which I wanted for character of its editorship saves it from the possibility of matter, or admit the possibility of their having made mistakes, imitating the blackguardism of the “Labour Leader,” would be derogatory to their ‘dignity. which this week accuses Mr. Hyndman of being "financially The position of the official mind seems to be that of the interested in the manufacture of guns,“-a taunt which is schoolboy with the large cake, who remarked to the other directed with peculiar inaptness against a man who has boys, “Them as don’t ask don’t want, them as asks shan’t probably made more personal sacrifices for the Socialist have. ” Unless a more reasonable frame of mind prevails at movement than any man in Europe. I think you are wrong the coming Conference, I am sadly afraid there will be dis- about the Navy, and, if you will afford me the space, I will ruption and withdrawals from the Federation, as I have tell you why. already heard of several branches who have seriously con- Panics are bad-bad for Socialism, bad for democracy, sidered whether they should not sever their connection and bad in the long run for national defence. There are only start independent branches under other names. This would two ways of avoiding these recurrent panics. One is by a be most deplorable and ruinous, as we have in the I.L.P. a binding agreement among all nations to use their fleets and large, enthusiastic, and hard-working body of men and armies to enforce the decisions of Arbitration Courts. That women, anxious and ready to do good work for the cause would be excellent if it could be done, but it has not been they love. C. BROWN. done yet, and personally I do not believe that it ever will * * * be done while every Government in Europe is controlled by a small wealthy class. The other way is quietly, steadily, THE I.L.P. CONFERENCE MUZZLE. unostentatiously to lay down two keels to Germany’s one. To THE EDITOR OF of THE NEW AGE.“. Had that been done consistently for the last three years, I shall be glad if you will allow me the opportunity of there would have been no panic, no partizan scare-monger- drawing the attention of branches of the I.L.P. and delegates ing, no set-back to Socialism. It was not done, because to the Conference to a most insidious attempt to muzzle the the governing class was, as usual, selfish, lazy, and incom- discussions on the constitution of the party. The N.A.C., petent. It did not want to work and it did not want to pay. acting under the following rule, have appointed an Agenda Does not that suggest the true strategy for Socialists? Committee :- At the present moment the Tories are working the “Navy ” The N.A.C. shall be empowered to appoint a Committee Scare )’ for all it is worth against the Liberals. It is our to revise and classify the resolutions sent in by business to remind the people that as regards national branches, and to place resolution dealing with important efficiency there is not a pin to choose between the two parties. matters on the agenda.” The Tories landed us in the South African War, and when The “important matters ” have always been understood war came they were as little prepared for it as the Liberals to mean political matters, on which it is desirable for Con- are to-day. Mr. Asquith and Mr. McKenna did not know ference to express an opinion. But the Agenda Committee that the Germans had dockyards, just as Mr. Balfour and is endeavouring to deflect this clear and definite intention Lord Lansdowne did not know that the Boers had horses. to matters dealing with the constitution itself. It submits The failure, as Mr. Blatchford truly says, is not a party the following resolution :---” The constitution shall not be failure, but a class failure. The governing class is not equal altered or amended except every third year.” to the job for which it gets such extravagant remuneration. This will be put as one of the first proceedings, and, if The situation is too serious for trifling. It is, to say the passed, the chairman will immediately rule out of order the least, exceedingly probable that the German Government fifty resolutions and amendments sent in and supported by contemplates an attack upon this country. And, if it does 160 branches of the party. For, the constitution having contemplate such a thing, it is pure folly to trust to a com- been amended last year, the questions could not be re-opened bination of British and German Socialists to avert it. If till 1911. the governing class wants a war it will have its war, and it The Agenda Committee, I would point out, contains two will have the overwhelming majority of the workers them- members of the N.A.C., and is entirely Scotch. One may selves on its side. If we protest we shall be howled down almost trace the Machiavellian hand from which the reso- and stoned in the streets; if our German comrades protest, lution emanates. they will be pretty nearly lynched. If we have not learned I would point out that if the resolution be accepted from that lesson by this time, then, indeed, we are past teaching the chair, it places in the hands of the Agenda Committee The Jingoes swept the country in 1900, and the Kaiser ‘rode (that is, a body appointed for purposes of classification only, down " the German Socialists at the last election by appeal- not by the party, but by the N.A.C.) a power that neither the ing to the country on a patriotic cry. Yet, in these cases, N.A.C. nor the Conference itself possesses. Every resolu- it was only remote colonial wars that were in question. How tion has to be proposed by a branch, and must be in the would it be if the war was one involving, in case of defeat, hands of the N.A.C. by January 3, yet here is a purely formal the utter and final downfall of the nation? body which arrogates to itself the right to propose the most Another aspect of the question with which I have not space important resolutions dealing with the constitution, and to to deal at length is the reaction of our unpreparedness upon stifle the discussion on those questions for which an extra our foreign policy. Because we are weak we have entered day has been set apart, but which are not acceptable by the into a degrading and immoral bargain with the infamous Government of Russia, and we shall go on making such bargains so long as self-preservation is our final object. I THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE! want to see Great Britain live honourably, and I know that a nation can, no more than a man, live honourably unless it is secure. Let us Socialists come forward boldly and declare that we alone can guarantee the nation against attack. A free people can always defend itself; witness what the French did after the Revolution, without money, without organisation, with- out an army or a civil service. Moreover, we know where the necessary money can be found. Let the workers claim the £700,000,000 which they hand over annually to the idlers, and they can pay for eight, sixteen, or, if need be, thirty-two PURE (’ Dreadnoughts ” without feeling the inch. CONCENTRATED CECIL CHESTERTON. [Our comments on the main point of Mr. Chesterton’s letter appear in ((Notes of the Week.- ED. N. A. +i- * *

MR. KEIR HARDIE AND THE CONFERENCE. In the homes of rich and poor throughout the land, doing To THE EDITOR OF (( THE NEW ‘AGE. Yeoman Service to the Constitution. What strikes me particularly in the attitude of Keir Hardie and the N.A.C. is the remarkable resemblance between their attitude and that of the bureaucrats of our Anglo-Indian Government, almost approaching that of Russia. When any of the rank and file criticise their actions, they, the officials, loftily inform them that the officials know best what is in the best interests of the movement. This sort of thing necessarily intensifies and extends the dissatisfaction. All PERSONS SUFFERING from EPILEPSY or HYSTERIA The official mind then becomes pained and disgusted that should namesend and address to JAMES OSBORNE, Medical anyone should be dissatisfied, and immediately attributes it Pharmacy, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, who will forward, free of charge, to contumacy. particulars (with Testimonials, and, on receipt of 4d. for postage, full. size FREE TRIAL BOTTLE), of the most successfulremedy ever That their own actions could possibly cause the dissatisfac- discovered for these distressing maladies. Sent to all parts of the world tion never seems to enter their heads, and to inquire into the APRIL 8, 1909 THE NEW AGE narrow oligarchy which is endeavouring in this unscrupulous DR. WALLACE’S SCHEME FOR UNEMPLOYMENT, manner to gather all the wires into its own hands. To THE EDITOR OF “ THE NEW AGE. " That the interpretation of the intention I have given is Although the question of unemployment must ultimately correct is evidenced by reference to the time table, from be dealt with on a National scale, it seems to me there is no which all the constitutional questions are deliberately reason why something should not be done at once on the omitted. lines of Dr. Wallace’s scheme. The question is urgent. I I trust the delegates will not only reject the resolution, write to say that some of us have already made a small start, but censure the Agenda Committee for its impudence. and have been collecting a fund for the purchase of land by H. RUSSELL SMART. + * + a simple method. A portion of this fund has already been used and a few acres bought. There is room for one or two PANIC v. PANIC. small holders, with a little capital, to start on the land and To THE EDITOR OF " THE NEW AGE.” make themselves self-supporting. I should be pleased to The spectacle of Mr. C. H. Norman accusing other people hear from any who would like to know more of the scheme. of “panic ” has always been one of the most diverting occa- J. THEODORE HARRIS. sional features of THE NEW AGE, and, had his last week’s 4, Graham Road, Dalston, London, N.E. article been the usual display of harmless fireworks, I should * * * not trouble you with this letter. But it contained-amidst a THE S.R.C. -ANOTHER. lot of panic-stricken piffle about (‘ secret machinations ” and (‘Jingo-Imperialist conspiracies,” etc., ad nauseam -an To THE EDITOR OF " THE NEW AGE.) extraordinary charge against some of the more prominent I observe the case of the Harrow S.R.C. instanced in THE of our political opponents. Messrs. Chamberlain, Balfour, NEW AGE. I shall not dispute the honour of its being the Rosebery, and Grey, says Mr. Norman, “would be terrified first;, but will merely say it is not alone. Selby Socialist out of their lives if they were within a hundred miles of a Society is the pioneer body of an S.R.C. at Barkston Ash, battlefield.” What evidence has Mr. Norman, for this state- of which I am the Secretary. ment ? I know next to nothing of the personal qualities of JOHN LINDSLEY. these gentlemen, no more, at least, than can be gathered * * + from their public actions, but I venture to assert that a man WEBER AND DEBUSSY. of Mr. Norman’s jaundiced perceptions knows still less. In. To THE EDITOR OF " THE NEW AGE.” any case, such unfounded personal allegations are not only unworthy of a serious campaign against the " Dreadnought ” Mrs. Franz Liebich probably knows a great deal more scare, but seem to me to deserve the strongest condemnation about Weber’s life than I do. But it is rather beside the of all who care for the preservation of the elementary point to describe his personal habits, who his intimate friends decencies of political controversy. As for the statement re- were, and how landscapes and “waving fields of corn ” garding the behaviour of Cecil Rhodes in Kimberley, no appealed to him. I have no doubt that he derived many nice doubt Mr. Norman believes it to be true’ since he is consti- qualities from his dreamy mother. I merely do not see any tutionally credulous in regard to every statement which inherent analogy between Weber’s music and Debussy’s, nor contradicts the accepted view; but, in making such an do I see that the quotation from Debussy’s article on Weber assertion without substantiating it, he lays himself open to proves anything except his professional admiration for the charge of preserving his own safety by choosing dead Weber. I do not dispute Weber’s sincere intention. to evoke men as the objects of his more definite charges. all kinds of supernatural phenomena, but I do dispute the As a most sedulous purveyor of political scandals, Mr. achievement. So that, while they may be legitimately Norman doubtless has his place in this queer world, but is it brought together on paper from the point of view of intention, worth while for you to allow him to discredit the anti-Jingo in actual achievement there is too wide a difference between cause in the columns of THE NEW AGE ? the two artists for them to be brought satisfactorily together CLIFFORD SHARP. on the same programme. * * + HERBERT HUGHES. THE WISDOM OF PLOTINUS. To THE EDITOR OF “THE NEW AGE.” MISCELLANEOUS ADVERTISEMENTS, ‘ On the whole,” as who should say, “by stretching a point or two,” “ the present work may be described as nearly Advertisementsare inserted in this column at the following cheapPrepaid rates :- useless. ” So, writing from the point of view of the textual pedant, your reviewer, in his malicious little notice of my modest book. I claim the right to protest against such nonsense, and I shall prove the justice of my complaint by quoting the opinion of an authority expressly recognised by not later your contributor. Mr. Mead, in the “Theosophical Review,“’ writes : “We are delighted to see that Dr. Whitby’s admir- Trade Advertisementsare not inserted at theserates. able study has at length seen the light, and can confidently Remittances andOrders should be Sent to the manager, the New Age recommend it to lovers of the greatest intellect of the first 12-14, Red Lion Court, Fleets Street, London. Platonic renascence. . . . A very good book to serve as A LADY, fluently acquainted with French, German, Dutch an introduction to a first-hand study of the immortal Enneads Italian, Spanish, and some Oriental languages, earnestly desires some -such is our judgment.” C. J. WHITBY. immediatework either of translation or teaching. Write Box 50 c.o. New Age. * * * ALL SUMMER OUTDOORS FOR LONDONERS !-Waterloo ON NIKISCH. (54ss quarterly), twenty minutes.--FAMILYCAMP, Ditton Surbiton, Particulars free. To THE EDITOR OF "THE NEW AGE.” BOARD AND EDUCATION FOR girls Home in Nikisch, he seems to stand on a crag ! He commands with B connection with Classes for Day-pupils. Vacancies. Healthful diet on the indirectness of a small rock that leans over a space, and humanitarianprinciples.-The Misses MESSIEUX,Oak Dene, Hayward’s Heath, Sussex. dominates the horizon. CHELTENHAM. Board-Residence, Comfortable, Moderate. His audience well knows the suggestiveness of the human -3 Royal Well Terrace. back-of repose’ of restraint, of watchfulness, of knowledge. ESPERANTO- The International Language, Students Complete Is it in Eastern figures that still bent head is sometimes Set of Books, 7d. P.O. PIONIRA LIBREJO ESPERANTA, 46b, Hackford Road, seen, or have the sculptured thoughts of Rodin anticipated Brixton, S.W. it for us? The grace of controlled, intense movement is a FRENCH RlVIERA.- Boarders received for winter, sunny comfortable house. Terms moderate .--Les Charmettes-Ermigate Antibes rare and great gain in musical expression, and leads the Alp-Mar.). imagination over details to the inward pulse of thought and W. GOTT, Wholesale Tailor, 28, Church Bank, Bradford, emotion. J l Who makes suits for thousands of Socialist Comrades in all parts of the So the hand of Nikisch may vary and waver as the spiral Country will gladly send samples and self measurement form of his famous “NEW AGE SUITS" to measure price 42s. All made under Trade Union threads of a floating line of blue candle-smoke-intricate, conditions. (Spare time Agents Wanted.) never grasped, yet telling of some half-guessed beauty which HOUSING QUESTION SOLVED.-Why not enter your own has always escaped us. “Onward, like thistle-down . . . house, in an district, at once? NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED. Repre- no bar, blocked by no friendly star.” Yet, very soon, the sentatives may receive deeds without further payment in case of death.- write strong, leading right hand guides on and on. Loiterers left for particulars, J. C., 177a, Longley Road, Tooting, S.W. behind; they lea to follow, to clamber or fly to unimagined SOCIALISM.-- J. POINTER, 47. Lown Street, Attercliffe, heights, unearthly-hardly to be endured. Sheffield, asks for Week-night Lecturing Engagements during the Winter- THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE BIBLE PROVED BY THE The Master’s bent head suggests experienced safety and SPIRIT OF TRUTH. glorious indifference, but an occasional fierce half-menace, ZION’S WORKS, with Catalogue, in Free Libraries. half-prayer, a passionately jerked wrist, catches the very UNITARIANISM AN AFFIRMATIVE FAITH,” ’ The breath of Music ! Then the firm ground is reached, and U Unitarian Argument” (Biss), " Eternal Punishment ’ (Stopford Brooke) " Atonement ” (Page Hopps), given post free,- Miss BARMBY, MountPleasant fame and clear faith, without bitterness, without regret. Sidmouth. At last, with surprise, the melancholy eyes of Nikisch are YOUNG MAN, 31, SOCIALIST, Discharged for Principles, turned to our praises. needs Employment ; used to Warehouse, etc. C. GILES, 25, Comet MARION E. CROOK. Street, Cardiff. 492 THE NEW AGE APRIL 8,

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