VOl. xII1. NO. 24. THURSDAY,OCT. 9, 1913.

I I NOTESOF THE WEEK ...... THE STEAMCloud By Arthur F. Thorn ...... CURRENTCANT ...... VIEWSAND REVIEWS.By A E. R...... FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad ...... FROM“MULTATULI.” Trans. from the Dutch by 1’. Selver THE SOLEMNFARCE AND COVENANT ...... ARISTOPHANES OR TAILHARDE? Fy T. K. L...... !h EXAMINATIONOF THE NATIONALGUILD SYSTEM-11. By H. Belloc ...... ART. By Anthony M. Ludovici ...... DRAMA.By John FrancisHope ...... TOWARDS A NATIONALRAILWAY GUILD-XI AND XIJ. By Henry Lascelles ...... PASTICHE.By J. A. M. A, C. H. C., Charles Cunningham LETTERS TO THE EDITOR from Frederick Taylor,John .A PILGRIMAGE TO TURKEYIN WARTIME--V By Marmaduke J. Pickthall ...... Hereford, Welsh Noncomformist,Press-cutter, S. WHATDOES LITTLE BABU SAY? By C. E. Bechhofer ...... Verdad, Otway M’Cannell, National Guildsman, Ed- ward Stafford, Bilmen Kim A. E.R., Sydney Walton THE APPROACHTO PARIS-VI.By Ezra Pound ...... Anti-Caxton ...... READERSAND WRITERS.By R. H. C...... steed and other economists), the personal element in the factory is of much more concern than any material ele- mentwhatever. The conclusion,therefore, in this Beehive affair is that on the merits of the case alone and apartaltogether from any principle, the men are fully justified in strikingagainst a manager underwhom, they say, theysimply cannotdo their bestwork. The strike, however, calls in question by reason of the per- UNLESSthe cotton employers have some private reason sonalelement in it, a principle of ahigher degree of for pushing their threat of a general lock-out into exe- concern to everybody thanthe principle of mere cution, we do not believe that the present dispute will mechanicaladministration. Men maystrike for higher arrive at crisis. It is true that from one point of view wages or for shorter hours without arousing any feeling thecause of thedispute is sufficient tojustify any beyond irritation in theiremployers. They are even extreme measure upon either side; but the importance cynically expected to do this as the established method of asking fortheir share in bettertrade. But in strik- of the principleinvolved is notyet clearly enough ingagainst the managerial personnel, they are touch- recognised to make an immediate fightupon it probable. ing uponnot administrationmerely, or uponconcerns The principle involved is no less than the right of the individually important to themselves, but upon the sanc- trade unions to“interfere” with the management of tity of their employers’ property. Themagic of pro- the businesses in which their members are employed as perty we may say in the case of the cotton employers hey havehitherto exercised theright to “interfere” is not so much in possession as in the sense of power. withthe wages paid. It isonly naturalthat the em- They enjoy the feeling of beingable to do what they pleasewithout consulting their workmen. lhe latter ployers,being for the most part mereschoolboys, may grumbleand finally bethrown a bone on such shouldresent this claim and shouldeven prepareto triflingmatters aswages and hours ; but when they .arm themselves against the very shadow of it upon the aspireto criticise the management theymust be told horizon. Nevertheless, we are convinced thatit must thatthe directors admit no right of criticism to their comein time, for on its affirmation and establishment men, and regard their position as being as far removed depends the whole future of Trade Unionism. For the from trade union control as the Stuarts believed thcm- selvesabove thecontrol of Parliament. present, it is clear, the Trade Unions themselves are less *** aware of what is involved in the dispute than are several Thatthis divine right o.f employers is disputable in of the employers-Sir CharlesMacara, for example. theory is obvious; and thatit will he more and more Butthey will becomeclearer under constant instruc- disputedin practice is certain. For we now know as tion ; and in no verylong time we prophesy that the absolutely as we can know anything that by no other .unions everywhere will be demanding explicitly the very means than by “interfering” in management can trade rightto “interfere” in management whichthey now unions ever raise wages. A priori it might be supposed appear to disclaim. thatwages could be raised withoutdisturbing the *** whole system of existingindustry; as easily as the Norse hero believed he could lift thewitch’s cat; hut We need not enter into the details of the affair at the actually it is no more possible than his feat for in both Beehive factory, for, apart from the principle at stake, casesthe thing to be lifted is practically theworld the incident is of smallimportance. On the face of it, We have seen in fact, that successive generations of if it is conceded that workmen have the right to refuse cunning men have tried to raise wages without revolution $0 work under distasteful mechanical circumstances, it revolutionising industry;cunning men are at thetask still. shouldalso be conceded that they havethe right to Rutfor all past effortsand for all the efforts o,f the :refuse to work under distasteful personal circumstances. same kind that have been or can be made, wages will An unpopularmanager, in otherwords, is quite as remainprecisely what they are by nature,the market legitimate a ground of offence and hence of a strike on price of labour as a commodity. It follows from this- :the part of theworkman as a dangerousmachine or andthe fact is demonstrable-that wages in England overlonghours or bad ventilation or low wages. In have really notrisen very muchsince theFeudal sys- fact,remembering the supreme importance of psycho- temfirst created a proletarian class. Wages have not, logy in industry(recently dwelt upon by Mr. Wick- in fact,risen in all that time. It took so much to 682 support a workman and to induce him to breed in those labour troubles within limits are good for profits. The:, days; relatively and perhaps absolutely it takes no more clear the bile of the workman ; they sharpen his wits ;, to-day;and that is all theproletariat get. Nor can they provide him with a kind of emotional holiday and this detail of the capitalist system be changed without sendhim back to workwith a newzest. Thelabour changing the whole system itself. To raise wages it is troubles on the Rand, for example, have puta new spirit necessaryto revolutionise industry; and sinceto revolutionise- into the men, with the result that the gold returns since industry will require theabrogation of the the strike have been the greatest ever known in South principle of th’e divine right of capitalism,th,e sooner Africanindustry. And notonly hasthe output in- this is challenged ,the better. The men on strike at thle creased, but the wages-bill, owing to economies and to Beehive mill certainly donot know what they are increasedefficiency, has beenreduced. The same, in striking for. Their Association is even more completely perhapseven a greaterdegree, is true of industryat in thedark. A fewmasters know, but the rest are home. The iron and steel companies, in particular, are probably ignorant. Nevertheless, everybody has th’e having the time of their lives. The profits ofnineteen feeling thatthings are getting down to the nerves of of the largest companies for the past year were nearly industry. double those of the previous year ; and in three cases, *** theywere treble.Nobody will attemptto maintain let US hope, that wages have risen with profits. On the Numerous,are the attempts of economistsand poli- contrary,wages have fallenwhile profits havebeen ticians to prove by theory or by practice that within the booming. And in thatfact, for anybody with eyes to ambit of the wage-system wages can be raised. On this see, is the crux of the whole labour problem. supposition, indeed, the most extraordinary propositions *** are advanced by peoplewho ought to knowbetter. Messrs. Webb andShaw, for instance, of the “New We state as conclusions to be drawn from the fore Statesman,”propound as their latest device the more going facts, in the first place, that wages have practi-. equitable division of the returns of industry as between cally no relation with profits ; in the second, that while thesalariat and the wage-earners. Th,eywould, it labour remains a commodity, its wages cannot by any seems, leave Rent and Interest untouched ; in fact, if we device whatever be raised above its market value ; a:d understandthem, they are prepared to guarantee the in thethird, that no amount of trade unionorganisa- payment of Profit as well. Butwhat occurs to them tiondirected solely to raisingwages will havemore as afair means of raising wages is to reducesalaries thanthe smallest effect. What, we ask, has been the and to distribute the savings among the wage-earners. net economic effect of all thestrikes of thelast few There’s a proposal, if you please, to come fromthe years? Profitshave beenincreased while wages have so-much-advertised “representative Socialists” of to- been fallingor stable. But that, be it noted, is not to, day ! It does not seem tto have struck them that apart condemnstrikes, or to declaretrade unionism to be from the ridiculous impossibility of the plan, the sugges- ineffective. It is only to condemn the objective hitherto. tion is a counsel of despair. If Rent,Interest and assumedfor strikes, and the theories on which trade Profitsare not to be touched butare to be held as unionsproceed. For example, itis assumed that by sacred,the whole of the remainder of thereturns to striking a union can actually raise its wages relatively industry, even if dividedequally, would not amount to to profits. Well,itcannot. Itis similarlyassumed more than about a shilling a week in addition to present that by collective bargaining a trade union can induce wages. A morescientific conception of thenature of its employers topay more than they need pay.And wages is to be found in the letter of Professor Spooner that also is impossible, To raise wages, we repeat, it is. to the “Times” of Saturday last. Like the rest of the necessary to revolutionise the existing system of indus- reigning school of ‘economists-Marshall, Pigou, Chap- try. The commodity theory of labour must be exploded man, etc.-ProfessorSpooner acceptsthe commodity in practice no lessthan in theory. Itmust be chal- theory of labour asan unchallengeable axiom. His lenged as a principle, struckagainst as a procedure contribution to th,esubject of theraising of wagesis and repudiated as a doctrine wherever it now operates. thesuggestion that the yield of labour,like the yield Only by breaking down this axiom of capitalist industry ofany other commodity, obeys the laws of increasing can the smallest real change in wages be brought about, anddiminishing returns. Up tlo a certainamount the But how, it may be asked, is this to be done? It is to be done by organising labour to form monopolies in its higher the wages the proportionately higher the profits from its labour. But beyond that point each successive unionsand by thenteaching it to demand, not more wages, but a partnership in the responsibility and pro- increment of wages yields a lessand less return to ceeds of management.To demand merely an increase profit. ProfessorSpooner does not specifically assert, of wages is tacitly to accept the capitalist axiom that though he leavesit to be assumed, that wages in in- labour is a commodity ; it is to connive at the continued dustry generally have reached their maximum economic existence of the wage-system. But to demand the right level. On the other hand, he is of opinion that the rais- to“interfere” in management,and to be prepared to ing of agricultural wages would for some time to come enforce the claim by strikes with blackleg-proof unions, prove profitable. Hencehis conclusion thatwages are the first conditions of succeeding even in the appa- should be raised by employers themselves as a wise form rently easy object of raising wages by a few shillings ip of capitalisation in agriculture, while elsewherethey week. The Beehive incident, we agree with Sir Charles can beleft without muchharm. Assuming the com- Macara, is grave ; we wish to God it could be made 8 modity theory of labour there is, we admit, no objection thousandtimes graver. to be takento this economic. Itresults, ,however, in *** completehopelessness for labour and in ruling out of practicabilityevery proposal forraising wages above Mr. Ure has announced that the next General Elec- the subsistence level of the proletariat. tion, will be fought on the land question. But we believe *** we know better; it will be fought on the Insurance Act On thesubject of LandReform with the best will in But while wages,speaking roundly, have not risen the world we can detect no difference of principle since the Flood, profits, it is plain, have gone up mira- betweenthe programmes as adumbrated sufficiently culously. Withlnthe last twelve months,indeed, clearly of allthree parties. The Labour Party, as we profits have been raised at a record rate. The “Times” saw some weeks ago, was kindenough to instruct 8 cannot conceal its jubilation at the fact that everywhere Committeeto discover what .Mr. Lloyd George was profitshave been risingin the verymidst of labour likely to do and to recommend his programme as their unrest, strikesand lock-outs,and all the rest of the own in advance of him. That, in political phraseology, squabblings of the live-stocklabour commodity. What is for Labour to take the wind out of the Liberal sails these oxen say to each other in their stalls apparently itis also aconfession of intellectual bankruptcy, The has no effect on either their provender or upon their out- Unionists,too, have beensmelling round Mr. Lloyd put in industry.On thecontrary, strange to say, George’s Commissioners with the idea of stealing his- 633

thunder for their party;, with the result that by the time thefact uponwhich Capitalism rests. Nor dowe Mr. George isready withhis programmeeverybody deny that “public sympathy”-that is, the sympathy of will familiar with it. As a matter of fact, we should be the readers of the “Times”-would beagainst the not find itdificult-Nonconformist snuffles. andthe postal servants if they went on strike. But before the Kingdom of God touch’ apart-to give a fair summary postal servants strike it is the duty of the “Times” to of Mr.George’s speech next week. It will contain proposals to establish wages-boards for thle agricultural hear; and the truth is that the million pounds so con-. veniently summarised in the Holt Reportis not only industry;to set up a few thousand wretchedlittle unattainable within a period of ten or twenty years, but gombeen-bound smallholders; to taxthe values of vacantsites inor near towns; to make loans to local while itis being granted nominally, an even greater authorities for housing; tmo encourage co-operative pro- sum is being abstracted actually from wages by means duction and marketing; and to provide for the purchase of re-organisation and increased efficiency. In other at highprices of thesurplus land of thelarge land- words, to obtain a million pounds’ increase in the wages owners All these items we arepretty sure, will be of a quarter of a million postal servants, the latter must found in Mr. Lloyd George’sspeech trimmed and workmore efficiently by two million pounds’worth of garnished toattract the attention of thegreedy and labour, and suffer at the same time a reduction of wages ignorantWe can also offer our criticism in antici- by another million or thereabouts. A moredespicable pation of what we must say whlen the great speech has piece of thimble-rigging, in fact, was nevertried by a been dulydelivered. Not one of allMr. George’s Department than by the postal management under Mr. proposals will have the smallest effect upon wages as a HerbertSamuel. For Marconi directorsand share- whole, upon agriculture as a use-industry, upon rent or holders his heart is full of sympathy. He posed among upon the rural districts for good. On the contrary, we them as the ideal State servant, just, straightforward, are assured tha.t their only effect will be to bring agri- fair and even generous. No little tricks of theirs could culture, now only in part a regular profiteering industry move hmim from the straight path of George Washing- into the definite category of urbanised industry and to ton. He scorned to tella lie; he would notstoop to import into it all the horrors of commercial efficiency. sleight of pen. But withmere wage-slaves what did it Butthat, we fear,is Mr. Lloyd George’s role as the matter? Gentlemen are absolved fromtheir morality Statesman of Jesus. whendealing with canaille. Their Jumbo will not re- *** quire a reckoningfor treachery, fraud and deceit WE should be gladto know precisely what thle practised againstthe proletariat. Hence the Holt Re- port. We areglad the postal servants have seen this employers and their clients mean when’ they f.profess to approve sf what they call legitimatetrade unionism. Report in itstrue light. We are stillmore gladthat Sir Charles Macara is full of sympathy, so he tells us, they arepreparing to strike a lightfor the public to for trade unions properly conducted. In explaining his see it by. But Mr. Samuel, even from Canada, has seen reasons for joining the Employers’ Defence Union Lord it in advance of the“Times.” He has cabled thathe Dysart also announces that his sympathy with the prin- will meet the Postal Unions and confer with them upon ciple of trade unionism is profound. Mr. Gamage like- thesubject. He should, if wewere there, remember that Conference to the day of his damnation. wise, that successful shopkeeper,announces that his *** sympathies are all with the trade unions so far as they unite in a straightforward way and do not resort to in- Anotherlittle party that saw by reasonalone no timidation. The only meaningwe can attach to these grounds for raising wages is the Herefordshire County expressions is that the sympathy of these employers is EducationCommittee. This body haslong prided confined to theunions that do not interfere with the itself, not, of course, upon paying the lowest wages in supply of blacklegsduring strikes. In fact, both Lord theelementary teaching profession, but uponlevying Dysart and Mr. Gamage say as much ; the latter in his thesmallest rate in thecountry for educational pur- phrase about intimidation, and the former in his remark poses. The education rate in Herefordshire is 64d., the to the “Times’’ that “we, the employers, must protect price of shoddy goods atthe proletariat bazaars. For free labour.” But if the principle of trade unionism is yearsas wereported a fortnight ago, the teachers’ the solidarity sf the workmenin any industry,every Parliamentaryrepresentatives and union officials have “free” labourer in it is not only a blackleg, but he is a been runningto and fro and up and downlike the contradiction of trade unionism ; the more numerous the devil in scripture, seeking to make an incision by argu- blacklegsthe weaker the union. As we have said ‘be- ment in the minds of the Herefordshire authority ; but fore, the strength of a union is not to be measured by withno more effect than if theywere simple Labour thenumber of its members, butits weakness is to be Members. At theserious threat of a strike,however, measured by thenumber of its non-members. In the Education Committee have atonce seen reason ; and approving, therefore, only of unions that tolerate non- attheir meeting last week passed a resolution to ap- members in their industry, Lord Dysart and his friends point a sub-committee to inquire into the matter and to are really approving only of weak unionsThat, in- report. It is, of course, a foregone conclusion what the deed,for an honest man, would, bethe truthful and report must be and what the recommendations will con- proper thing to say. tain. Both, in fact, have already been written ; and the *** teachershave won. We would suggest now tothe Union thathaving foundeconomic meanssuperior to It is fortunate that Mr.Samuel, though in Canada, political means,their business is to employeconomic hastaken a more serious view of thePostal trouble means for higher purposes than merely raising wages. thaneither the “Times’’ or the Liberal journals. The Wagesare important, but even moreimportant are “Times” last week published an article which even for both.the status of theteaching professionand the a stupidjournal was exceptionally ignorant.The Holt wefare of education. In status, we affirm, the teachers Report, it is well known, recommended for postal’ em- as a profession, are below, any other body of workers ployees advances in wages amounting in the aggregate whatever; a they are in that plight because in useful to a million pounds per annum. The “Times,” seizing service to society they are, and know th,ey are, of the upon this figure, and hearing the continued complaints leastaccount. To remedy thisit is necessary that of thePostal unions that it was not enough, declared they should not only accept but take responsibility for that itwas not only enough,but too much. “If,” the elementary education. When theyhave informed Mr. “Times”continued, “the postal servants choose to Pease, the Education Department, and local authorities strike theymay rest assured that for everyindividual that henceforth tbey mean to assume the management who ‘downs tools’’ a dozen persons will be forthcoming Of their own; profession, their status will at once begin to pick them up, and not a glimmer of public sympathy to rise. So also will th,e level of education. wouldbe forthcoming.” We havenothing tosay *** against the assumption that blacklegs are as numerous Theremarks of ProfessorGriffiths at theBritish as blackberries. They are ; andit is in the last resort Association on the rottenness .of our elementary educa- tion have aroused Mr. Pease to a defence The teachers 684

-the worms-have apparently seen no offence in them. To be publicly told that they are a disappointing failure Current Cant. rathergratifies their humility thanstirs their indigna- tion.But with Mr. Peaseit is different. A reflection I‘ The artistand the public. ”-ARNOLD BENNETT. upon the elementary system is a reflection upon himself. --- Beingpermitted by somehundreds of thousands of “ Music forthe unmusical. HOW to listen to music employees imagineto himself solely responsible and what to enjoy.”--“ Brastias ” in ‘‘ T. p.’s weekly criticism of his output comeshome to his bosom ‘‘-4 people cannotlive without religion. . . . Men may Briefly, he is up in armsagainst Professor Griffiths he comfortablywithout religion.”--“ Daily Express Tacitlyadmitting that business men, parents, socio- logists, the public generally are unanimous in con- ad “ Those of US who are older remember what severe demningour elementary system, he asks if Professor tests ourreligious beliefs have undergone inthe past, Griffiths isaware of what Mr. Sadlerhas said of it. owing tothe doubtful, if notsceptical, utterances pro- Mr. Sadler, it appears, in an unguarded or sentimental ceedingfrom thelips of ourmost eminent scientists momentwrote that “so farfrom having to hangour - - . But we haveheld to ourfaith, and have lived to heads in th,e educational world wemight claim that see theday when it has been confirmed by Sir Oliver thepe was no country that during the last ten years had Lodge, one of thegreatest thinkers of theland, and we can say, ‘ God’s in His heaven ; all’s right with the taken more trouble over education than England had.” world.’ ”-DR. COWARD. Atbest this testimonial strikes us as beingnegative rather than positive, for it may be that other countries “ Churchmen mill decide the ideal sex relationship.” have taken no trouble at all and less than none is im- -“ London Budge!.” possible It is alsoto be considered that comparisons in the matter of educational methods ar,e absurd; it is “ I approach my Lord throned in glory, but as I walk only theresults that concern us. Though Mr. Pease up to Him I walk through a line of saints and angels.” should lie awake 0’ nightstroubling himself when -THE BISHOPOF LONDON. educationalministers abroad are asleep, if tberesults in education are nil he troubles himself to no purpose. “ If we can get out of this unholy mess without civil The trouble we take in fact is noguarantee of th,e war, OUT gratitude under Almighty God is partly due to resultsThat in answer to thegeneral complaint Mr. Bonar Law’s unflinchingandintrepid wisdom.”- Pease is disposed to point to tbe work he has done- ARNOLDWHITE. much as the Indian ass pointed to the sun-dried plains a.s evidence that itself must be fat sinceall the grass ‘‘ For better or worse, our generation seeks for illu- was gone-is evidentfrom his further remark : “By mination.”-DEAN INGE. all means in ourpower as a Board of Education,, throughour regulations, through our circulars, and ‘‘ Men are alwaysstronger than money, because men throughthe advice given to teachers-both oraland are voters.”-DR. RUSSELLWAKEFIELD. written-we do everything we can to prevent uniformity “To-day, more than ever, the world clingsto faith. andto encourage experiment.” We believe you, Mr. . . . The world comes tothe Church for aid. . . . Hap Pease. We believe that Mr. Peasehas done his best. pily the Church, sensible of the responsibility of leader- But we also believe that his best is not as god as the ship, respondsto thespirit of the age.”-“ Daily worst the National Union of Teachers could do if they Express.” were given equal authority and responsibility ‘‘ The English theatre audience is not only intelligent, *** butdisplays the saving quality of common sense REV. JOHN C. HILT,. Elsewhere will be found our viewscarefully arrived at after a close examination of the facts on the situation ‘I King Manoel is toreturn to England without his in Ulster. If anything beyondsimple laissez-aller on bride.”-‘* Evening News.” the part of the Government is necessary to bring Car- Carsonism tothe ground our suggestion of someweeks 6‘ In order tobring aboutthose ideal circumstances ago, now servilelyrepeated as itsown by the“New necessary forthe birth of theperfect baby, Mrs. Bolce Statesman,” should be sufficient-arrange for strike went to hear George Robey, Wilkie Bard, and Harry a Lauder sing.”--“ Daily Sketch.” or a lock-outin Belfast on the eve of “war.” We undertake to say that Sir Edward Carson and Mr. F. E. - St The bishop was, as usual, in splendid voice, clear, Smith would be leftin no doubt which their friends steady,slightly enthusiastic, and always well under fearmore, Home Rule or Higher Wages. Against control.”-“ Daily Mail.” higher wages Irish capitalists of all beliefs and of none combinewithout anyeffort to enlistthem. Unneces- ‘‘ Religion has never been so real and genuine as to- sary in Dublin to secure the unity of Mr. Murphy and day. It has never so entirelypermeated the whole com his class are anyof the tricks of the recruiting sergeant. munityas it does now.”-SIR HERBERTTREE. By instinctand in theirown interests Catholic and c___ Protestant combine almostto a man.For our part, ‘‘ ‘ Sealed Orders ’ goes with a swing.”-JOH~ PALMER, however, we are sure that Dublin has already struck a in the “ Saturday Review.’’ fatal blow at Belfast-in Englishopinion, that is. Though confidence in anytalk of rebellion is a plant 6‘ THE REV. ARTHUR BOURCHIER, M.A.! - MI-. of slow growth in the aged bosom of England, the din Bourchier thinks it will interest you and those interested of thePress was, not so longago, in some slight inthings theatricalto learn that on Sundaynext, at St. Anne’s Church, Manchester, the lessons will be read danger of persuading publicopinion totake Ulster by himself, and the sermon preached by Canon Hannay, seriously. Thedanger exists no longer. In Ireland better known to theatre-goers as ‘ George A. Birming- as in England, in Dublin and Belfast as in Birmingham ham,’ the author of ‘ General John Regan ’-a veritable and Liverpool, the same powers are seen to exist with combination of ‘ Churchand Stage.’ Mr. Bourchier the same implacable hatred of wage-slaves a_nd determi- having played many clerical roles his appearance at the nation to keep them in the state to which it has pleased lecternsounds tempting to cinema hunters !-Believe their parents to bring them. Economic power, in short, me,yours very truly, H. A. FROST,Garrick Theatre, rules in Ireland as in England ; and since it is economic W.C.” dominion that is now the national grievanceof England, Ulster’sfear of merely a politicaldominion strikes US “ Maiden Erlagh is said to be a runner, but I much as belatedand alittle infantile. Dublin, for all the doubt whether Mr. S. B. Joel will allow him to run, for display of Sir Edward Carson, is more popular in Eng- Thursday is the Jewish New Year. Thatand the Day of Atonement arethe most sacred daysin the Jewish land thanBelfast, and a thousandtimes more to be year. Moreover, it wasreported that Maiden Erlagh pitied. was coughingon Saturday.”--“ LiverpoolExpress.” 685

Turkeyor to Greecedoes not much matter,though Foreign Affairs. France would like to see Turkey in possession of it. *** By S. Verdad. This naval cruise is of special interest because of the strainedrelations between Franceand Italy. The ill- A THIRD Balkan war is in sight, and, with the exception of the two small States liable to be attackedand de- feeling is not of very recent date-a fact which, though spoiled-Greece and Servia-nobody is particularly in- both newspapers refrained from laying any stress upon terested in stavingit off. Certainlythe Great Powers it, became clear in last month’s controversy between the donot propose to interfere atthis earlystage. Two leader-writers on the “Tribuna” and the “Temps.” In wars have been fought out to decide who should have 191I, when French patriotism had been thoroughly re- (thoughnot necessarilyhold) theBalkan Peninsula. vived, the outbreak of the Tripoli war led to the seizure The third, if it is fought, may perhaps decide who shall by the Italian fleet of two French mail boats, the “Car- have the Aegean Islands; and if it is not fought there thage”and the “Manouba.” The incident wasex- will be a period of uncertainty which will have just as plained away officially, but the French Press has seldom bad an effect on the financial houses and the Chanceries. passed by the opportunity of commenting upon it ; and *** tothis day, evenin official circles, the incidentis re- garded as a pretext forFrench interference in Tripoli, Turkey, having as usual taken a long time to prepare if necessary. for war, nowfinds herself the strongest Power in the * -x- x Balkans,with more than 300,000 trainedmen ather As theresult of the visit of President Poincare to command, while the calling up of reserves is still going Spain, we, may shortly hear the general details of the on in Asia Minor. The opportunityis too good tobe scheme mentioned in these columns several weeks ago. lost. ThePorte doesnot see why the Italians should A Spanish loan is almost inevitable ; but, in view of the not now-in view of theundoubted differences of largesums of money requiredfor Turkey and the opinion amongthe Powers-be induced togive up BalkanStates, its issue may be postponed for a few islands,like Rhodes and Stampaglia, and why the months. The mainpoint, however, is that there is to Greeks should not part with islands such as Chios and be, asfar as possible, a workingnaval and military Mitylene. A determinedattempt isbeing made by agreement between thetwo countries, so thatthe Turkey to thrust her opinion on Greece, to start with ; FrenchGovernment will, if necessary,be able to land and claims have been put forward to Lemnos, Imbros its troops from Northern Africa on the coast of Spain, Samothrace,Samos, Chios, Mityleneand, in fact, all and have them thence conveyed overland to some con- theislands of importance of which theGreek troops venient centre in France.Although I say that we may have taken possession. hear all about thesematters shortly-and suchis the * *- + present arrangement-there is just a possibility that the This claim is calm and daring enough ; but it has not announcement will be deferred for a little while in order the significance of anotherannouncement for which that it maynot appearto follow too closely upon the readers of theseNotes last week will havebeen pre- President’s visit pared. So close has been thearrangement reached be- *** tweenBulgaria and Turkey that the Bulgarians are Thereare somephilosophical contributors tothis going to help the Turks, and by way of making a good journal who would, if I may venture to say so, be doing beginning they have mobilised threedivisions l‘he us a good service if they were to devote themselves to Bulgar is pertinacious, if notparticularly far-sighted ; thequestion of leadershipin the modern world ; and and he undoubtedly sees his opportunity now, or rather especially toits application to thle scienceand art of his Government has seen it for him. There is no doubt war.It was, I believe, the view of some extremists that Bulgarian as well as Turkish influence h.as been at such as Nietzschethat modern education and environ- work in certain parts of Albania, and with Servia prac- mentwere two greatfactors which tended to hinder tically out of the way there is nochance for Greece. the development of leaders (“higher men”) and it would Unless the Turks and the Bulgars can be soothed-and be of interest to know how far this view finds support. at presentthere does not seem to he anymeans of I mention thematter because of thereports which soothing them-Greek hegemony in Macedonia and the have reached me concerning th,e autumn maneuvres in Aegean Islands is at an end. England,France, Germany, and Austria. In all cases *** genius was lacking in the officers and its place appears tohave been taken by thenational characteristic of The ingenious M. Venizelos hasmade the only pos- each country. In other words, the French army officers siblethreat that he could make in thecircumstances. appear to be relying on the artistic intuition that results He has warned the Powers that if the Turkish claims fromlong traditional and cultural development the are pressed he will have the Greek soldiers withdrawn Englishmen“commonon sense” and“muddling from the Islands in question, which, presumably, would through”-of course !-the Germans on the painstaking then be taken over by Turkey. But he has added that efficiency of their General Staff,and the Austrians on insuch a casethere will simply be a dozen or more something not quite French and not quite German, but Cretes for the Powersto deal with ; and they would have betwixt and between. to be dealt with eventually. *** *** What should be emphasised is that the Germans are Although there is no doubt that this would be very the onlypeople .at thepresent moment who look on awkward,itdoes not appear that the Powers can leadership asan art which maybe taught andculti- counter.A renewed Russian offer to mobilise three vated aad experts whose views count have once more army corpsfor the purpose of strikingat Turkey .declaredthat the German army is now the best led through Albaniawas notaccepted by Germanyand in Europe as itwas said to belast year. The French Austria,who intimated, in fact,as they had done be- officers this year made a very bad showing-which in- fore,that such a move on thle part of theTsar’s ad- dicates only too clearly that if a war were to break out visers would not be construed as a friendly action. On within thenext decade France would have to rely the other hand, the joint cruise of strong squadrons of largely on the vigourand dash of her non-coms and the British and French fleets in the Mediterranean this men. Th,e Germansoldier, on .the other hand, appears winter has brought semi-official protests from the Triple to be more stupid than ever, the British soldier is well Alliance Powers,whose unanimityindisliking the up to hisaverage, and the Frenchman is, asalways, cruise in questiondoes not at all mean that they are more intelligent and self-reliant than a German and an unanimousabout anything else. Italyis determined to Austrian put together. To trainand educate an officer stick to Rhodes and Stampaglia, where she has erected is not an easy task ; and it is of little consolation to us a wirelessstation, though Great Britain is equallyde- to know that France is ,experiencing the same difficulties termined that Rhodes shall be given up--whetherto as we ourselves are. 686

intent, of consummate skill, to the fearsand hatreds The Solemn Farce and Covenant. latent in theirhistorical sub-consciousness. The un- FROMthe reality anddrama of Dublin’sindustrial compromising resistance of Carsonism is a problem of struggle, we turn with some repugnance to the Carson psychology ratherthan of politics...... Thus episodeinUlster. It isnot surprising that Great exhorted, all thosein whom hereditary instinct was Britain has taken this business somewhat seriously, be- strongerthan reasoned observation of the present causehitherto Ulster’s word has been its bond. Per- cameunder immediate control.” Captain White and hapsthe greatest disservice thatSir Edward Carson Sir RogerCasement have after careful inquiry now has done to Ulster is that he (neither he nor his lieu- discovered that thissinister influence is by no means tenantsbeing Ulstermen) has brought the wordof universal in Ulster Of the Ulster Protestants immune Ulster into reproach. A famous Irishman said the other from this psychological malaise, Captain White writes. : day : “I am in favour of Home Rule, but I am an Ulster “There were numbers among whom co-operation with Protestant.Ihope my neighbours will fight. If they Catholics in. agriculture and local government had laid don’t,then the word of anUlsterman will become a thisbogey past hypnotic resuscitation. The majority bye-word and a reproach.” It is thenaltogether per- of them perhaps had little enthusiasm for Home Rule, tinentto inquire how far a gang of lawyersand pro- lowing to itspossible interference with industrial and fiteering ruffians have succeeded in prostitutingthe commercial prosperity;these have never enteredthe good faith and good name of Ulster. hypnotic trance, but at first thought it good policy tu A littlemore than a yearago, over a quarter of a feignhaving done so; now,though they fully realise million men and womensigned the Ulster Covenant. that Carsons’s resistanceto Home Rule may be commer- The plain meaning of that document to most of the plain cially moredeadly than frank acceptance of it,must people whosigned it was that,rather than submit to maintain.their simulated subjection, lest the hypnotist HomeRule, they would actively rebel. The imported bid his. genuinely entranced subjects arise and slay them leaders next proceeded to call for volunteers and to drill in the name of the Lord. The remainder consisted and them. Having enlisted a considerablenumber consists of convinced HomeRulers or men sym- (generallyon the specious plea that there would be no pathetically disposed towards Home Rule. ” fighting), they secured the services of a retired English Theanniversary proceedings to which wehave general who is now supposed to be the Commander-in- alluded now prove that the hypnotic trance is passing Chief of theUlster Contingent Rebellion. A month or off, leaving many thousands of good men and women more ago itwas .announced that 40,000 volunteers vaguelywondering of whatstupidities and banalities would beparaded inBelfast on the anniversary of they have been guilty. But it is evident that these are Covenant Day. A week later, the public was informed neither the psychological nor moral conditions to breed that 30,000 would be reviewed. A few days more and the successful rebellion. A whiffof grapeshot, if not a number was reduced to zo,ooo. The day before the re- policeman’s baton would very speedily bring a hypno- view, we were told that 12,000only would march to the tised population back to reality.Butto rebel Balmoral: grounds. On that day tloo, word was passed successfully it is first necessary that the rebelpopula- round the shipbuilding works of Workman and Clark : tion shall be united, “homogeneous,” to quote the word “For God’s sakecome to-morrow, if younever come now in, fashion.Ulster, however is not homogeneous; again.”On the great day, 8,500 menwere all that it does noteven approach homogeneity. First, take could be mustered. From a military point of view, pro- Belfast itself. About one-third of Belfast’spopulation bably not more than 4,000 of these volunteers could be is Catholic and devoted to Home RuleThe Belfast regardedas physically efficient anld possibly 1,500 as LiberalAssociation has over five thousandmembers technically efficient. Thus, in twelve months,the allProtestant anld all either ‘‘convinced HomeRulers Carsonmovement had dwindled tto comparativeinsig- or sympathetically disposed towards Home Rule.” How nificance. Norcan there now be theslightest doubt would the rebels.deal with these? Obviouslysuch a that the great majority of responsible business men in minorityconstitutes fatala weakness. In addition, Belfast are heartily sickand slightly ashamed of their there are literally tens of thousands of people in Belfast associationwith the Carson movement Theydo not wh,o, whilst conscientiously opposed to Home Rule, want Home Rule; but they will make the best of it when have not the remotest intention to oppose it by physical it comes. They go abouttheir business day by day; force. At presentthey are silent. At thecritical they aremaking contracts in advanceas they have moment they will tell Sir Edward Carson in plain always done ; they are building houses and laying out terms.that th’ey will have none of hisstupid foolery. streetsas theyhave always done; they aremarrying In short, before rebellion became active in Belfast one andbeing given in marriage, very much as usual ; half would first haveto subdueth’e other half. The bridge parties, tea parties, and all the usual conventions elements of rebellion are obviously not in Belfast, remain untouched and unaffected by the near approach although it cannotbe doubted that riotand indiscri- of. thedreaded change. They tdk and joke about minatelooting are possible and probable.Should Carsonand Smith very much as they would, about these occur, it is comforting to think th,at the property Marie Lloyd and Little Tich The solemn covenant has of the leaders of the rebellion mould not be damaged. become a farce. Sir Edward Carson has no property in, Belfast, neither How isit thatthese Ulster Protestants, in business has Mr. F. E. Smith (who duringthe past twoyears affairs so level-headed,have allowed theirreputation has. goneto considerabletrouble to prove himself a thus to be prostituted? Undoubtedly it is primarily due feather-brain); neither has General Richardson,whose to the bogey of Rome. It is extraordinary and outside goodsand chattels are safely bestowed in suburban thebounds of reason,but nevertheless true, that the Pinner; Lord Londonderry’s material wealth will also mere mention of the Pope puts these otherwise strong be found on this side of thse Irish Sea, whilst the Duke and self-reliant people inlto a kind of hypnotictrance. of Abercorn islargely interested in SouthAfrican A Presbyterian minister, preaching on the anniversary finance. Colonel Sharman Crawford derives hiswealth of Covenant Day, told his congregation. that th.ey were Largely from the whisky sold by Messrs. Beamish and struggling to be free from the tortures and oppression Crawford, whose advertisements in th’e south of Ireland of Roman Catholicism. It did notoccur either to him bear th’e imprint of the Irish harp without the crown. or his hearers that their immediate ancestors were thle If, however,these gentlemen lend their namesto the victims, not of Rome, but of the Episcopalian clique in sacred cause, it can hardly be expected that they should DublinCastle to which SirEdward Carson actually suffer material loss. We may indeed safelyassume belongs and to whi,ch, as Crown Prosecutor, inhis that Sir Edward Carson will he at no loss in the matter, earlierdays, he haddevoted himself. Captain J. R. because last year a sum of ;&~O,OOQ was placed at his White, son of thle FieldMarshal, an Antrim man, put absolute disposal. One Belfast merchantwho sub- itsuccinctly and accurately : “Many of them have subscribed LI,OOOto this fund, being altogether disgusted allowed a hypnotic control t’o be established over them with thepantomime, recentlyconsulted his lawyers by an appealmade, with the effect if not withthe whether he could not recover it. 687

If,then, Belfast be too hopelessly divided toinau- thisquestion. We are absolutelycertain that any gurate a rebellion, what of therest of Ulster?The Governmentalrecognition of theCarson movement situation there is too comic for serious treatment. The would destroythe Government and the whole Liberal counties of Down and Antrim are, of course, predomi- Party.Their destruction, it is true, would leave us nantlyProtestant, 73.9 beingProtestant and 26.1 cold ; but it is obvious that it would be infinitely better Catholic. But in the seven other counties, the Catholics to: get the Irish. problem out of the way before we come are 61.6 percent. againstthe Protestant 38.4. There to grips on exclusively British issues. is not much homogeneity about that. But even amongst theProtestants there is no serious thought of armed rebellion. In Antrimand Down there are over 20,000 An Examination of the National Protestant farmers, most of whom have purchased their farms under the Land Purchase Acts. They have paid Guild System.-11. a considerable number of increments,and they have By Belloc. made it perfectly clear to Sir Edward Carson that they H. have not theslightest intention of endangeringtheir I SAID in my last article that at the outsetof an examina- interests. Inthe remainingcounties of Ulster,there tion of the Guild wemust recognise four types into are nearly 40,000 farmers and graziers in a likecase. which the Guildmay fall : State-owned,Capitalist- AltogetherinUlster, there are 57,181 Protestant owned, Guild-owned, or Distributively-owned ; and that farmersand graziers, and 78,578 Catholicfarmers. one of these four types would necessarily be the domi- This particular group is not dreaming of rebellion ; it nant type in any particular Guild. is seriouslyconsidering how, under Home Rule, they Idifferentiated these four types by the test of Pro- canobtain further reductions either in theirpurchase perty in material objects. I need not waste space upon price or in theirannual increments. It isclearly very thattest, for everyone must be agreed that itis the strongground for Sir Edward Carson and his land- true mark of differentiation. lord cohorts. Nor do these figures tell the whole story. Property-that is,control overmaterial objects- TheseProtestant and Catholic farmers employmale property of some kind in the material means of produc- relatives, 31,845 Catholicsand 19,745 Protestants. It tion(land, machinery, stores of foodand of clothing, constitutes a giganticcommunity of interests.These etc.) there must be. men meet at market ; they meet on the roads ; they pass Theremust. be someone whohas the power tosay the time of dayand amiablydiscuss prospects. They what shall be done with this particular material object will certainly not cut each others’ throats either for the in connection with the production of wealth, and to give love of God or at Carson’s request. effect to his will ; and according to whom that someone Inshort, however we may regardit, the Carson is (whether (I) the official of a State or (2) the official of movementis a bluff. It has alsoshot its bolt. It has a privilegedcapitalist class, (3) the official of a Guild never had the sanction of the business men of Belfast, or (4) a member of a largemajority of owners, a nor of the vast body of workmen, nor of the farming citizen of a Distributive society), will economic society folk of Ulster. It is controlled and financed by a group take its form. of wealthy men, notably Captain Craig, of Craigavon, It is self-evident that, according to the type of man one of the proprietors of Dunville’s Distillery, a rather we find thus possessed of active control, the economic vulgarman, who is striving hard to climb intothe type of society must hejudged. Not until you know aristocracy. (It is odd, by theway, :.hat whereasthe whereProperty resides can youcall anarrangement Nationalists are supposed to be dominated by the drink Socialist, or Co-operative,or Capitalist, or anything traffic, this Carson movement? proclaiming itself to be else; and whenyou know where itresides, then you religious in inception,is mainly financed by brewers know what you are dealing with. and distillers.) Whenthe names of theProvisional Toreturn, the answer to the question, “Who ex- Governmentwere announced, all Ulsterbroke into ercises active rights of control”-that is, of Property- shrieks of laughter.The Personnel Committee (prac- “over the means of production?’’ gives us four types of tically theCabinet) was found to be almostentirely Guild, which four types cover the field, and one of which composed of members of theHouse of Lordsand four types will always be found to be the dominant type landedmagnates. “What will thefarmers think of in any arrangement. that?” everybody asked smiling. There was, of course, It is exceedingly important to recognise this, because no answer, and within a few days Sir Edward Carson, we shall have, in seeking an ideal, to discover which of in his own legal way, was preparing a way of retreat. the four types is satisfactory to human society ; and in The truth is that he had completely failed to secure a seeking a practical policy, to discover which of the four ProvisionalGovernment that would inspirethe con- could best be developed from existing society. fidence of his own people, to saynothing of the rest These four types we found to consist in two groups of thecommunity. His speecheslatterly have been a of twotypes each. There was the Proletarian group queer compound of bluster and appeal. His whole posi- divided intothe two types, the Guild whosecapital is tion has becomeuntenable. The game is up. owned by theState andthe Guild whosecapital is If, when themeasure becomeslaw, anyreason- owned by a Capitalistclass external to the workers. ableconcessions can,administratively other-or Therewas the Ownership group, dividedinto two wise, be made to Belfast, why so much the better, but it types, the Guild in which Capital is owned collectively is now recognised that the Home Rule die has been cast by themembers of the Guild, andthe Guild in which beyondrecall. This sentiment can now befound shares in theWorkers’ own Guild or in other Guilds amongst all sectsand classes in Irelandand, for our are owned severally. part, we think it is the common sense of the situation. We start, then, with our definition of a Guild :-“An Knowing with how little wisdom the world is governed association of men working in a particular trade, pos- (politicians not being their own masters whilst the poli- sessingthe monopoly of labour in thattrade and ticalfunction is invaded by industrialand commercial governingthe conditions of theirlabour autonom- pressure), and having regard to themeddling timidity ously.” We seek to establishsuch an associationbe- of the Crown, it is possible that Mr. Asquith may finally cause we say that men cannot work. happily unless they consentto a conference. But the suggestion coming controlor choose the conditions of theirlabour. And from Lord Loreburn can hardly be palatable to, him. we find that such an association may be :- LordLoreburn would hardly weep bittertears if he (I) A Proletarian Association working under the could put Mr. Asquith into a ridiculous positionBut State as Capitalist. Mr. Asquith is hardly likely to oblige his ex-colleague, (2) A Proletarian Association working under a. capi- who parted from him without anysuperfluous effusion talist class as Capitalists. of loveand gratitude. We arenot, of course, con- (3) An Association of Owners possessedcorporately cerned with the personal relations of men in high places within the Guild of themeans of production,but not but weare deeply interested in an earlysettlement of ’ possessed of several property. 688

(4) An Associationof Ownerspossessed of several owner of theland under the Feudal system, while in. property, whether within the Guild or without it. practice the Guild really managed all the important or‘ Ipropose to examine these separately, first in order intimateaffairs with which labourwas concerned? to answerthe question, “What formofassocia- Would not that be a true Guild-solution of our difficul- tion will bestsatisfy such men as we are?” secondly, ties, in spite of the bogey of State Ownership? That is. the question, “Which type can in practice be best estab- the first objection to my criticism. lished?”I propose to show, as Ihave said, that the The secondobjection is as follows :-Unless you answerto the onequestion as to the other resides in have State ownership of the Guild’s means of produc- type 4. A Guild of owners, the members of which POS- tion, how can you prevent the segregation, by particular sess Property in severalty, is both ideally the best and Guilds, of Rent? Unless the State can demand surplus-. practically the most realisable. valuesthrough its ownership of the means of produc- First, then, for type No. I. tion,those surplus-values will accruetoparticular Type No. I is, if we examine its essential character, Guilds fortunate in theirsituation, and will thereby identicalwith the old State Socialism of our middle- reproduce that element of economicluck, independent class fathers. It is neither more nor less than the Social- of labour, which you are setting out todestroy. It is not ismwhich our elders preached in the ‘80sand which I that call these inequalities an injustice, but it is evident sawthe salvation of the State in thehanding over to that my objector, a Socialist by definition, regards them politicians, astrustees forsociety, of theland and as an injustice. And how, says he tq me, can you get capital present in society. that Rent or surplus-valueaway from the fortunately I do not use these words “old” and “middle class” situated Guild unless the State is the ultimate owner of in order to cast ridicule upon this ideal, but in order to the means of production? present it vividly to my readers.For it is under the To both these questions I make the reply that those aspect of asomewhat old-fashioned andcertainly a who put them forward are confused upon the nature of middle-classconception thatthis State Socialism ap- ownership. If the State were only “nominally,” “theo- pearsto our generation. Again, I am not saying(for retically,”“legally” (or what you will) the owner the moment) that the scheme is a good or a badone, while the Guild was the active controller of those means but only (for the moment) emphasising its real character of production,then you would havea Guild system -which is the negation of the Guild idea. devisednot under type Yo. I, butunder type No. 3. If you approve of State Socialism, if you have fixed Youwould in practice have for your dominant feature your ideal where the late Mr. Quelch, I believe, fixed it, a Guild possessing corporate property in its own means and where so many Germans still fix it, then-suppos- of production, not a Guild under State ownership at all. ing you are compelled to admit the word “Guild” into The property in the means of production, the property your ideal state-you must in reason work for a Guild in the rails and locomotives and the rest, would be really of thistype No. I. But if youdo that you are neces- vested in the officers of the Railway Guild, and not in sarilymissing the objects for which this ideal of a the officers of the State. Guild Systemhas beenraised. It is as against the old So much for the first objection. orthodox State Socialism,it is in reactionagainst the Anyone who usesvaguely or ambiguously the term trusting of politicians, that all this demand for a Guild “Stateownership” with the object of whittlingthat Systemhas arisen. It isprecisely because men have ownership down and supporting the Guild-power, is in come to see of whatnature your Parliamentary poli- reality setting up the ideal of type No. 3, and not the- ticianis and mustalways be, and also because they ideal of type No. I at all. What Isaid atthe outset have come to see how impossible it is for the units to upon that point 0.f ownership should make this clear. controla large political organisation, that the concep- Thesame answer meets the point about Rent. The tion of a Guild has been substitutedfor the old con- State need notbe an owner at all in order to tax the ception of men acting as servants of the State or of the various Guilds in proportion to the luck of their situa- Municipality. The end of man is happiness,and the tionfor theproduction of surplus values. TheState whole idea of a Guild, the whole desire for it, proceeds would (as we shallsee when we come to type No. 3). fromthe conception that men will only work happily almost necessarily tax upon the lines of surplus value, when they control or choose their work and exercise an supposing Guilds of corporate ownership to arise. Even active supervision over their elected officers in connec- if the State did not tax the whole of the surplus value” tionwith that work.Such supervision they will never away, it would, as we shall see later, be bound in prac-. be able to exercise over the elected officers of a huge tice to tax upon the basis of that surplus value and in political machine. proportion to it, because that surplus value would be the In other words, if the State is really to own the means only index of ability to pay in such a state of society. ofproduction with which the members of any Guild My mainpoint in regardto type No. I, therefore work,then the societyin which those Guildsexercise remainssecure. If you have real and effectiveowner-. their functions will be a Collectivist Society and nothing ship by the State of the means of production, then your. more : the Guild hasno real meaning. The Collec- Guild system is only a new way of putting the old State tivistcan support or condemn so-called Guildswithin Socialism,and, by definition,does not subserve those his ideal State : it is a detail of very little importance, spiritual needswhich a Guild is intended by its own merely a question of internal organisation for the appor- definition to subserve. You mustmake up your mind. tionment of alabour that remainsproletarian. In a If you are for Guild No. I you are for killing Guilds, just Collectivist State, if there were no Guild system,such as the man who declares for thenon-alcoholic type of fer- a person as the Chancellor ofthe Exchequer or Lord mented liquor is against fermented liquor, or the man Murraymight have the appointment of, let us say, who declares for unlimited divorce is against marriage, stationmasters ; witha Guild system,these officers however much he may attach the word “marriage” to might be chosen according to some machinery devised his chance unions. You cannot have your cake and eat within the Railway Men’s Union : but the privilege, or it too. lack of it, would be of very little importance. The men The same answer, by the way, applies to those who of the Guild would remaindependent fortheir lives tell us that a Guild having a monopoly of labour could, fromhour to hourupon an external power, not them- though proletarian, coerce the State or any other Capi- selves,a great capitalistorganisation calledin the talist into granting it the virtual control over its instru- abstract“The State” ; andbeing in theconcrete the ments of production. Whether itcould do so or not I politicians. shalldiscuss when I pass from the theoretical to the TWOobjections will, Iknow, be here made by an practicalside of my subject.But for themoment my opponentof whatI am saying. The onetheoretical, point isthat, if the Guild won in such astruggle, it the other practical. wouldsimply mean that ithad refused to exist under The first objection is this : Why should not the State the form of type No. I, and had succeeded in establish- be the“ultimate,” or “technical,” or ‘‘legal”owner, ing itself under thfe form of type No. 3, the Guild own- justas the King was the ultimate, technical, or legal ing its own capital. 689

In other words, if the ownership is really in the hands of theState you might as well haveno Guild at all, Towards a National Railway SO far as the definite objects of a Guild are concerned, to wit, the satisfaction of man’s desire for control Over Guild. his labour and the fruits thereof. XI. This abstract reasonI find sufficient, but a concrete THEoperations, of a National Railway Guild would be instance will perhaps make my meaning more clear.I so interwoven withthose of othertransport activities will supposethe locomotives, thestores of coal,the that sooner or later th’e Guild would findit advisable reserves of new rails (and for that matter the stores of to federate withother transport industries food and clothing, which would be concerned with other In fact, seeing how closely transport companies other Guilds) to be in the active ownership of the State, and thanrailways work at thepresent time with the rail- the Railway Guild to be at issue with the State upon ways,it seems desirable that a NationalTransport somepoint. Guild should be the aim of the railway guild from tlhe The politicianin charge of tfie Railwaydepartment beginning desires, for instance, having received a bribe, to give the Railwaycompanies already own canals,docks, post of stationmaster at St. Pancras to a Mr. Smith, the steamers (over-sea and lake) motor vehicles (passenger bastard of the man who bribed him. That is what goes andgoods, rail and road), and employ to a large on in politicsevery day. The men want Mr.Jones. extentthe street cartage companies who bringgoods The Railway Guild, sympathising with the protest of to or from the goods depots the men most directlyconcerned, quarrels with the To embrace the whole of th’e system of pards, goods and passenger transport (inland, coastwise, and Conti- appointment of Smithand prefers Jones as candidate nental)into one guild wouldremove many existing forthe post. The Railway Guild has the monopolyof labour, and it can say to the State : “We readily grant inconveniences. that the locomotives areyours and the stores of coal As an example of how the competitive system grinds and all the rest of it ; we readily grant that the stores of all, to’ the good of none but those who live on unearned food andclothing produced by other Guilds are also incomes let me give some particulars, simple in them- selves,but referring really to a no small part of the yours ; but the labour is ours : now let us fight it out and let the best man win.” general transport system of the country. In London and provincial townsthe railway com- Remember that this challenge would bedelivered in panies charge scheduled cartagerates per tonfor a societywhere privateaccumulation was forbidden. various kinds of goods, which rates are for the removal The Guild could not, as the trades union can now, ac- of goods between the station and any business premises cumulatefunds : forfunds simplymean things which within a defined area. aremeans of production-stores of food andbuilding It is obvious that the nearer the warehouse or factory material and locomotives and all the rest. (within that area) is to the station the greater the pro- Is it not self-evident that in the case of such a chal- bability of a private haulier king able to do thle service lenge really fought out on itsadmitted rights of pro- at less than the railway companies’ charges, which are perty the Guild would be beaten at once? Of course it fixed withan eyeupon bothshort and long distance is ! cartage How would themen of the Guild live?For how Thishas led t,o firms who are withinreasonable many days would they and their children get on without proximity of a stationputting their cartage into the bread, and milk, let alone fire and all the rest of it? hands od privatecarting contractors, who underquote You maysay : “The politicians would never dare the railway companies (and each other) so long as they exercise that sort of power ; public opinion would cer- can see an. existence or profit out of the returns after tainlyprevent it ; the men of theFood Guilds,etc., purchasing their labour as cheaply as it can be obtained, wouldhelp their fellows of the Railway Guild inspite andcombining t.hefirms’ cartage business whether it of the politicians, and would,even in the gross im- be to or from a railway station, docks (if there are any), potence of a ParliamentaryState, be able to prevent or other places in the town. that politician from continuing his career.” The same thing applies, by different methods, to rail- Theanswer is a sound one;that is probablywhat way parcels and goods business carried by the railway would take place : the men would win ;and if they could companies at rates which include collection or delivery, win over the appointment of a stationmaster, they could the private firms when they do the cartage being paid alsowin over theuse that was to be made of their partly or wholly out of allowances made by the railway instruments of production.But thatis only saying comganies from th’e inclusive rates they have charged. in otherwords that they would havedestroyed the These private carting contractors cannot underquote active ownership of the State in the means of produc- each other beyond certain points without resorting to tion. the cheapening of labour to its lowest existence level, If the Guild which ran the granaries said to the State and this often leads t’o the formation (or contributes to Granary bosses : “We will give wheat to our fellows of the formation) of associations of cart or motor vehicle theRailway Guild whetheryou like it or not,” then owners. the Granary Guild would have destroyed the ownership The men also become moreor less organised, and of the State in their wheat, just as the Irish peasantry labour conditions being bad strikes may ensue. have in so many cases destroyed the ownership of the Forone thing, the cartage firms mustgive some garrison landlords over Irish land. advantage to thseir principalsover what th,erailway TO sum up : type No. I is in its essentials a negation companies give either by charging less or by including of theends for whichGuilds areto bebrought into some other services in an all-round rate; and for another existence, and we may therefore by definition neglect it theymust be cheaper than the firm can undertake a inour survey. For oncewe begin totalk about type cartage department of th,eir own. No. I in some such fashion as to render it tolerable to Whilst labour isexploited by small capitalists these the supporters of a Guild system at all,we find that, themselves are in turnexploited by othercapitalists, willy-nilly, we have turned type No. I into type No. 3 ; the whole being theservants of the mostpowerful and are presupposing an effective control by the mem- business; the power of resistance to pressure being pro- bers of the Guild over its own means of production. portionateto the extent to which theyhave secured That seems to me the unalterable conclusion we must somekind of advantage,traceable asrulea to come to in our theoretical examination of this first kind monopoly. of Guild : where it truly exists it is not a Guild worth It is almost as easy for the small firms to convince. calling a Guild at all. When it begins to subserve the the men when discussing terms together that they are functions of a Guild it ceases to be of this first kind. under great hardship as it is for the men to show that Itherefore reject type No. I as being in theoryun- instead of a living wage they are being paid only a bare satisfactory to the nature of man. subsistence. 690

What thlen has to be done? Shall the demands of the ment, mentally andphysically, to carrythrough the men be met to thepoint of exterminatingthe small most effective forms of thisdoctrine." firms?In that case the move is towards a monopoly Mycomments upon this are that the principle of on th,e part of the larger firms. shirkingwork would haveto be actedon for a long It never seems to occur to the men and masters that timebefore it affected dividends to anythingbut an they are both under th'esame driving force-the need indifferent degree;anld before thishappened every forproviding dividends ,either directly to theirown effort would be put forth to nullify its effect. shareholdersor indirectly to the shareholders of those All men are creatures of habit to a degree which it firms who squeeze them down to the lowest charges. isimpossible to realise and on railways work is done The effective step is for them to join hands, pay out by men and boys together thecapitalist, an,d work th'etransport business of the I know of nothingmore soul destroying than th,e town as a monopoly th'e good with th,e bad, the income compulsion of devoting nine hours daily to the produc- fromthe labour to be justly apportioned between offi- tion of badwork which could easily be done well in cials and men. six,not even the compression of twelvehours' work In,trade generally it is thle businless which pays the into nine. largest dividends (or ridiculously excessive salaries) that To underdoit supervision would require the plunders thle public to tbe greatest extent one way or development of qualities generally regarded as the indis- another an~d it isoften the business which makes the reputable monopoly of " workshies."When practised narrowestprofits which is compelled toresort to th'e longenough tbe honest worker becomes actually greatestpressure upon its wages list (a synonymous incapable of his former output, and the younger he is term for men themore difficult forhim to divest himself of his Thebenevolent business magnate who ,pays 40 per second natureHe is degradedin his own opinion, cent. t'o hisshareholders has usually sense enough to and disrated in thae opinion of all with whom be comes avoid"labour unrest by paying a littleaboce the in contact. average rate of wages; but he sees to it that other firms Better far that he should work hard in thqe hope that are squeezed by him in securing the 40 per cent., and someone, at any rate, will benefit, until such time as an in actualfact it is he whopays existence wages only improvement in the state of affairs can be arranged althoughdone by the proxy of firms he exploits.In It it quite legitimate and laudable to aim at as few purchasing his raw materials he is not likely to pay the hours of compulsory work as are absolutely necessary full cost of theirproduction plus 40 percent. on the butonly that the leisure hours thus secured may be capitallaid out in the business of hissuppliers. Not used t.o follow one’s natural inclinations which allowing likely ! It is onlywhen he comes to sell thatthere is time for full development will assuredly not be in the virtue in extorting 40 per cent. direction (of doing nothing How any man making ten, twenty, or thirty per cent. Loss of stamina and capacity for work is as much to upwards can oppose railway companies in the House of be deplored whether the result of poor and insufficient Commons when they seek to consolidate or extend their food, disappointment or despair, or deliberate training, monopoly so as to be able to pay something more than and this way lies national decadence a miserly five per cent (say), is a mystery to me The policy of th,eearth for the workers provides It is noconsolation to the community, surely, to be nothingfor thle shirkers,and it would be interesting toldthat whereas the railway dividends are paid by to hear whether such sabotage appeals to tbe best and monopoly conferred by the State, the monopoly of th,e mostintelligent od workmen, or mostreadily to the private businless magnate is notin writing. The earn- low class worker who is happy to be assured that some ings o,f railway companies are restricted by competition obscure advantage will result from his giving full play andActs of Parliament.The earnings of business to his natural tendencies firms are often almost unrestricted by either. Intentionalwrong labelling of trucksas a weapon As the time seems afar off: when a Government will against capitalism is petty, unmanly, and ineffective for inquire into the methods by whichexcessive dividends anyultimate good. This, however, is described as are made and theireffect upon the community as a whole "easy"and cannot, therefore, be regardedas one of with a view to compellingthe return of unjustprofits the most effective forms of th,e doctrine which ar.e said to theState, the most practicable step seems to be to to call for the highest development to execute. convertthe industries most adaptable and ready into Label a truck o'f buildingmaterials to Cornwall guilds and gradually eliminate the profiteer entirely. intendedfor Norfolk andwhat has been ,effected? At the worst it reaches its destination in four days instead XII. of onethe company suffers no financial loss;clerks, " Remus"contributed to THE NEW AGE of July 17 telegraphists,and others are involved in unnecessary last anarticle under th,e heading of "What is Syndi- andconsequently annoying labour; but the unknown calism?" in which he speaks of sabbotage in some detail, consignee and his empIoyees possibly all of whom are andlater I expressed the opinion that if thisdoctrine of,or near, the wage class,bear the whole of the was allowed to permeate railwaymen irreparable injury burden. would result to the men who should practise it. Thle mastermind which has executed tbe plan, Theforms of sabotagehadI in mind werethe doubtlessemulating an impossible Raffles, maybe ca' canny principle he described under which men would surprised at achieving a reputationlittle above Bill beincited to work as little as theycould be forced to Sikes. and give the poorest possible return in quality and also Even if the railway companyhad to payfor the the sabotage mentioned in thee following extracts :- delaywhich would not happenin one case out of a "Takethe railway for example. It is quite easy for hundred,it is notliable for consequential losses, and the labels on trucks to be put on tbe wrong ones, thus thle workers,including the small empIoyer, who have causing goods consigned tc one part of the country to probablyhad to play off for want of material,are hit arrive at a place afar off. . . . . antd embittered against their own class. "These ar'e examples of a peaceful form of sabbotage If all th'e methods of sabotage ar'e so unhappily con which injure no one except those they are intended to ceived thle instinctive repugnance to it is justified. injureand annoy. . . . Admitting that it might be necessary to debauch an "Ithink we have said sufficient aboutsabotage to entire army for the good of a nation, the need must be convince theopponents of, an,d theinquirers about extreme and be capable of demonstration. Syndicalism,that thle workershave no cause to fear It is so fatally easy to inculcate destructive ideas and the methods of the advocates of Syndicalism, and that so difficult to formulate a constructive practical policy. the onlyones who need have any such fear are the In things' essential it is folly to destroy the old before possessingor capitalist class." the new and better has been constructed. OnSeptember 2s " Remus writes : " As 1 under- Inadvocating a NationalRailway Guild there need standsabotage it wouldrequire the highest develop- be no delusion that railway employees are amongst the 691

Once or twice a week I journeyed intlo town to get my worstsituated of the wage classes They are not. I lettersOn boat anld trainther,e was always a coterie have intimate knowledge of labour conditions far worse, of persons from my village who always gathered in the and which call more urgently for attention, but the very same coach of th,etrain, the same position on thfe parlous state of the workers makes them more difficult steamer Isoon became a recognised familiar of this of treatment.Tbeir time is not yet. group wh.ich comprisedex-Ministers of Stateand Inthe case of therailways, the field ispromising highofficials officers employed at thle arsenalor the Thte organisation is already there, requiring only to be Ministry of War, doctors khojas and some journalists; perfectedand adapted to newconditions The men and heard the war and general politics discussed in sad havenot yet lost the spirit and power to helpthem- orangry tones accordingto the speaker's views. Th,e selves, given educated leaders who can be trusted, and Unionists (Ittihadjilar so called from the Committee of a simple yet lofty policy; and a National Railway Guild Unionand Progress) were sad because the war, con- is within th,e region of early practical politics. tinuedbytheir party with thehope of saving Such a guild once successfully launched, the beneficial Adrianople,stillwent against Turks.the Th,e resultsevident to thtemeanest intelligence and the Itilafjilar (Entente Liberale party, hereinafter called the causeof tbe workers of theworld would receive a Liberals) upon th,e other hand were angry at the mad- stimuluswhich the orthodox State ownership schemes ness, as they called it, of the Unionists in prolonging a havefailed to impart. hopeless struggle,and blamed them for overthrowing To bring this about th,e railway workers must realise Kiamil,Pasha's cabinet upon an empty boast. I soon who is its public an,d earn its respect and sympathy. found out that party feeling ran extremely high. There Theprivate companies do not usually make the werecertain people who would notspeak to certain mistakefor long of alienatingthe sympathies of its others Men who had beentalking tome in the public,but invariably feel its pulse in anynew crisis friendliest manner would suddenly look glum and edge and move accordingly.Their public theis large away wben someone else drew near of my acquaintance. commercialhouses, the Press, officials, and others. Most of myfriends wer,e Liberals, but two or three- The public of themen is theworkers of allclasses andthose thle best I had-were Unionists.I naturally by brain or muscle, including small traders, sociologists, took no side in the dispute, but listened keenly to both and their own officials. parties with a view to forming an opinion. The firstguild will be in th,eposition of invaders Onle day whsen I had gone to town upon some errand conquering a country in which thley have to liveafter- I seemed to notice a fresh atmosphere of gloom about wards. The less damage they do, and the more respect thte streets.Meeting a friend,I asked him what had theyearn, th,e more peaceable will be both thgeir con- happenled.He said that Adrianople, it was feared, had questand their occupation. fallen. Had Iheard the cannonade upon th,e previous In conclusion, it shouldbe realised that when the day? had.I Indeed the noise of it so nearhad great evil is thle extraction by non-workers of incomes caused a little-panic of theladies in ourvillage, some from the wealth production, those who take the least in of wh,om, believing that the Christian fanatics had got proportion to capital expended are the smallest burden throughthe lines had come to MisketHanum as a upon the workers. foreign subject, to implore her to protect and hide them. Th'e businesses which pay th,e largest dividends ought well that cannonade, he told me was a general attack really to b,e attacked first, but it is not practicable. on the Chatalja lines--really a feint to keep the Turkish Thoseworkers who are best organised, who have armybusy whik a great combined assaultwas made thehighest intelligence, and th'e best resources, will onAdrianople. TheBulgarians had got theSerbs to be th'e salvation, not only- of themselves, but of the great help them, not to speak of Russian volunteers, and so army of thewage classes. Henry LASCELLES. thetown had fallen He repeated : " Butthe news is not yet known," begging me not to mention it as yet. How came it then that everybody seemed to know it? On board theboat, as Iwent homeward, talk was A Pilgrimage to Turkey During hushedbut ran on nothing else, though there was no mention of it inthIe evening papers. Misket Hanum Wartime. hadreceived thle news beforeI came, and greeted me By MarmadukePickthall. with tears, in consequence Thle tidingswere confirmed next morning. All the V.-The Neighbours, papers had it then that Shukri Pasha had blown up the THEroad which ran past Misket Hanum’s garden-gate citadelwith himself and wh.at remained of thebrave ended in on,e direction shortly in a flowery cliff upon the garrison.believeI it was a disappointmentto all Sea of Marmora;in the other it divided a suburban Turkswhen, this account was contradicted by autho- township,leading out by an old mosque and village rity, and it was known that Shukri Pasha and the rest andsome tangled cemeteries to opencountry of a would go to Sofia as prisoners.They needed some mountaincharacter. Primitive wagons drawn by greatcrash of heroism for thleir nerves;and such a buffaloes, decked with blue beads against the evil eye, crash might possibly have wakened Europe to t,he fact the stubborn hair between th,eir horns made bright with that Turkey lives still, with. a passionate life unknown henna; country carts with redor yellow curtains flapping in Western lands. in thebreeze, and now an,d then a well-appointed Thle grief and rage felt for the loss of Adrianople by European carriage passed along it, wending to or from all classes of theMuslim population was intense. The therailway station The almond-trees and plum-trees otherterritories might conceivably become good were in bloom, and in the town as in th'e country every- riddance, th'ey weremere dependencies; but this was body carriedflowers. From Misket Hanum’s garden, Turkey proper-Muslim country.Th,e loss of Mace- a veryEnglish-looking path through corn fields led donia and Albania did notrankle, th,ere was no desire down to a littleharbour, consisting of a muchdilapi- forvengeance in regard to that.But Adrianople was datedjetty and some wooden sheds, from which thIe anothler matter.Itmust be regained atall costs. view was ofth'e Prince's Islands with their Summer "Revengefor Adrianople !" wasthe general cry. Our towns set in a sea as blue as lapis lazuli. One got the housewas behind none in patrioticfury. My Turkish Same view from thle woodedheights inland with the teacher-gentlestudent that he was--and I both addition of Stamboul and some more distant coasts of vowed tlo volunteerfor the re-conquest of theMuslim Europeand of Asia. My firstfew days, being sunny, fortress on th'e first occasion meaning to march together wer,e spent in exploration. of t.he neighbourhood Th,ere sideby side. Misket Hanum called down vengeance followed rainand mud andbitter cold whlen I was on thtePowers of Europe."Did they not solemnly glad to stayindoors and work at Turkish. The Imam declare at the beginning of th3e war that no onre should of the village mosque taught me for an hour each day, gainany territory by th,e fighting? That was when excepting Fridays, and I spent much time in study by theythought the Turks might win ! Kyurolsunlar !7' myself overthe day's newspaper and .a dictionary. (May they go blind !) 692

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All this may seem like madness to the quiet reader. news of the assassination was confirmed some six weeks In truth the Turks were maddened by a long course of later, an,d all that while the wretched wife was in sus injustice. The lossof Adrianople was the last straw. pense. Whenat length she knewthe truth, herhus- Butthe madness soonsubsided, once the vow was band had been four months dead. made,and people settleddown towatch events. The This is no isolated instance. In our village there were coolness of the army, after the first shout of rage, was, manyladies who hadnot heard a word of sons and I am told,remarkable and ominous Our Liberal husbands for six months and more; who had no notion friends inclined to lay the blamefor Adrianople’s fall wherethey were, whether incaptivity; alive and well, upon theUnionists, who had tried but failed to save or dead and buried ; who only drank the common fount thecity ButMisket Hanum would have none of it. of news-an endless tale of pestilence, defeat and mas Then it w,asI first discovered that she was an ardent massacre. Theirsufferings can hardly be conceived by Unionist, bearing her faith in the Young Turks intact Englishwomen, who have many interests. For a amid continual assaults for almost all her friends were Muslimwoman her husbandand her children arethe of theother party. At that rimeI inclined alittle whole of life. towards the Liberals from having been for same days One of our neighbours who had been a childless wife chiefly thrownwith them, and spent much time-not for fifteen years, yet had never been supplanted in ha- uninstructiveIy-in trying to impress on her the Young husband’slove, would notbelieve thenews, when ir Turk errors. arrived, that the said husband had been killed in battle Misket Hanum’s fears of me oncefairly dissipated, at the very outset of the war ; but every day expected she became an amiabletyrant and reproved my ways. hisreturn or news from him. Itseems probable from I had, of course, a cold,or a succession of colds- what I heard and saw that she will go on thus expecting everybody has in Turkey in the winter-which gave himuntil her dying clay. One of my Turkishsisters excusefor feminineoppression. Turkish gentlemen hadthe bitterness of hearing thather husband had and ladies were brought in by her to see me, no longer been hanged,and then, soon after,that herbrother as an, unknown terror,but as some wild creature she had been murdered in Albania. The news in both cases was proud of having tamed. Nothing could exceed the proved false, but it was current for some weeks. Occa- friendliness of theseacquaintances. I wasadmitted there were happy endings to the long suspense. fully to a littlecircle of advanced French-speaking I myself was witness of thereappearance of a giant Turks, of which the ladies were permitted to adopt me officer, in perfecthealth, for whom his family had as a brother ; while the old-fashioned men-the vast mourned for three whole months. ’The lack of surnames majority-assured me thattheir wives anddaughters made it difficult forpeople to identifytheir own rela- were much, looking forward to my wife’s arrival. Kind tions in official lists of killed and wounded, which were messages were sent to me by women who would have besidesoccasional and incomplete. After the second perished rather than be seen of me. One most exalted armistice,when news at ladyasked me for my opinionupon a question which lastcould be obtained from hadlong been troubling her.Sh,e had been recom- the lostprovinces, in every Turkish paper one read recommended to visitSwitzerland for her healthwould columns of advertisements for officers and men of whom allrecord had beenlost. “Good Muslims, of your it be possible for her to do so, wearing Turkish dress? She had never in her lifeused gloves or corsets, Levander Charityfor Allah’slove !” GoodMuslims are ex- being elderly, felt not at all disposed to pinch her figure tremely like good Christians. orput on a silly hat.Rather than subject herself to Then there were gruesome stories of the massacres. suchindignity, she wouldremain at home. A Levan- A ladywho had fled from Monastir recountedtales of tine woman, whom she had consulted, had assured her cruelty,the work of BalkanChristians, which made thatshe would be torn in pieces did sh,e ventureto mere crucifixionseem a deed of kindness. Our nearest appear in Turkishdress in WesternEurope. Were neighbour had a cousin in the madhouse, the reason of theEuropeans really so fanatical? his madness being this :- I sent .a message back through Misket Hanum to the He and some other Turkish students of good family effect that she could go to Switzerland in Turkish dress hadvolunteered for service in thewar and, being all without the slightest fear of an insult greater thim the acquainted,kept together. One night they were on natural curiosity of well-bred people; travelling, as she outpostduty in a lonely hut,quite unaware that the would travel, in reserved compartments, andstopping force to which they were attached was in retreat, when atthe best hotels. I hope I did not over-estimate the theyfound themselves surrounded by Bulgarian komi- West’s politeness. tajis.T.he character of theassailants was so well one morning I waswalking in thegaden by the known that allwere panic-stricken, and one, who was Lake, when a tall and verygraceful woman came small, managed to get into an empty barrel which was towards me, wearingthe black charshaf, which, as in thehut. The boy inhiding heard what followed, worn to-day by Turkish ladies, is a dressof Grecian whenthe students had beenoverpowered. “You’ll beauty.She had her veil thrown back.A white veiled look betterwithout that nose, bey effendi. Those lips slavecame on behind her at a studied distance--a are much too long, they hide your teeth. And now that second but more rustic statue. I had turned to flee, as pair of ears-those eyes-that tongue !” Suchwords, decency enjoined, when she implored me in soft wailing withthe horrid crying of thevictims, still more, per- tonesto wait forher. I then perceived thatshe was haps, his own terror which prevented him from coming weeping bitterly. out andsharing the fate of thosehe loved,drove the WouldI forgive her, she exclaimed, wringing her youthin hiding mad ; not atthe moment,for he hands,for comingout like this to trouble me? But managed to lie quiet and escape, but afterwards, when Misket Hanumhad assured her I was not ill-natured, he had reached a place of safety. had even bidden her to come to me. Her grief was very Mere human rags deprived of almost all that makes great, and I could help her if I would. Her brother-in- life sentientfound their way t’o Turkey with the ro- law, her sister’s husband and the best of men, besides refugees Among a crowd of wretches who weretaken thegreatest general Turkeyhad, had been reported care of on a farm belonging to my friend Ali Haidar murderedin Albania. The newswas not confirmed. Midhat,every girl and youngish woman had been It was a rumour only, but it had been printed in the violated ; and children of thirteen were big with child. evening papers. Her sister had chanced on it, and was In our village one saw many refugees. It was nothing now quiteprostrate. Would I--could I-go to Pera uncommon at the railway station to send a tray round for her and find out from European sources if the news among persons waiting for the train on behalf of some was false or true? unhappy individual. Oneday, when I was calledon I went at once and asked the “Times” correspondent, to contributethe object was a splendidspecimen of Mr. PhilipGraves, the only Englishman Iknew who manhood who had had his tongue cut out. I think, too, was likely to have information on the subject; bringing there was something wrong about his ears, 4b ut cannot back to those ladies hope, which proved fallacious. The be quite certain for he wore a heavy turban. 693

city. Enter a forgetfulorthodox Brahmin and his What Does Little Babu Say ? shrewish wife. He puns. a little,and then the whistle sounds. Now theinnermost innards of the drama are By C. E. Bechhofer. seen ; all the people we met in the drawing-room come ONCEindeed India hadsunk low Some small part of in one by oneand tell us alltheir troubles. One has itsglory returned in theguerillas of Shivaji, the lost a wife, one has wedded a shrew,one wants to Mahrattaking, and his Brahmin minister Ram Das. marry a widow,several widows wish to get married, one woman married and says she might as well not But now it has been left for a Brahmin of Maharashtra is’ to strike a fierce blow at that effete evil which is hold- be, the merrywidow seeks love, andthe villain is ing the Indian people back in these days of ,progress- dogging all the women’ in. the play, withoutregard its love of beauty and art. This Brahmin haswritten to their condition. Wives or widows,they ha ha ! are the play that I saw in a Poona theatre somenights, ailthe same ha ! to him.Everybody but he is dis- contented andweeps and sobs. The villain, after a Its name is “ Prem-sannyas”--“ the Renunciation ago. fewscenes which Ihave quite forgotten, elopes with of Love. )) Thename, too, of the author-this re- nouncer of tradition--shouldnot be forgotten by the hero’s wife, but she jumps out of a stationary train posterity.Let Ram Ganesh Gadkari be remembered (agrand sceniceffect) andis killed, leavingher with his play ! husband free to court the heroine-the virgin widow Tbe playdeals with the question of widow- With a ringing of bells the curtain falls on the first act. remamiage. In India children are ceremonially married It soon rose again, and the characters recommenced at the age of six or seven, but they do not live together their conversational At last, the real charm of the play until aboutten years later; nevertheless thle earlyrite began; we had a bedroom scene ! It was the midwifery is held binding,and, if aboy of ten dies histiny ward of a hospital, bed, basin, and forceps complete ! widow is prohibitedfrom remarriage by Hindulaw. Theerst merry widow hadjust beendelivered of a Thisnaturally rouses the modern rationalising Babu, child-she weptand wailed ; thedoctor wept and andthree parties have beenformed. The first isthat wailed ; wasit possible to preventthe child from of theorthodox Brahmins, who, whether aware or being born?-alas ! itwas too late ! (Sobsand ignorant of modernideas, are entirely opposed to the wailsfrom both characters.) Various scenes suc- infringement of the laws of tradition by the re-marriage ceeded, andallthe other widows,widow-wooers, of any widow,maid or marred; the second,composed andwidow-worriers, came onseparately, together of eclectics with a marvellous feeling for all the newest and coincidently, and talked and talked, and talked, and European tendencies, deliberately sets itself against its sobbed and wept. The villain came on occasionally religion andadvocates re-marriage whereverit is and gave us news of thesuccess of allhis plots. He desired,the third, inconciliatory spirit,suggests that was a very capable man, judged by th,e number of rapes girls who are widowedbefore thle consummation of andseductions he affected. Healso had anamusing their marriage should not be left to a life of virginity, scenewith a lingam,that emblem of Shiv-which all butshould freely bepermitted to re-marry. the purestand most enlightened minds, including of 1 cannot say whether Hindu widows have complained course,Gadkari’s, regard as originally and essentially so much of their lot that a Babu heart has been touched phallic. Thenwe had an abductionscene, in which ad has gut forwardthis plea fortheir sake, but I half the villains, who were disguised as Ascetics, held cannot believe that so unnatural a feelingguided th,e the rope, and the rest steadied the scenery an alarm. pen of RamGanesh Gadkari. No, I thinkthis great Fathersand odd characters and the comic Brahmin mandetermined to show that the modernIndian can rush in. Whack ! whack! thecomic man yells for do all that the European can do. He too, thought this help-the plot has failed and the second act is over. tigeramong Brahmins, would writeareal modern The next actwas really magnificent. Wedekind, drama of thebluest hue. Were he nobluer than his even Wedekind at his best,was never finer. Alas ! predecessors,Shaw, Barker, Wedekind, Masefield, why was not present the critic of some modern monthly Maeterlinck,and the rest of that“tedious row he review tomake ourGadkari immortal? Can I, all would be as dull inhis dirtiness as theyare, and as innocent of blueness, take the stern duty upon myself? instantly to be forgotten.But Gadkari is not as they, wishI wereI blue and could understand.Then I their blueness is yellow to his ! might say : “This is the real thing !” or “This is the Let the Brahmin’s words, fraught with great wisdom right sort of forceps !” but alas ! I can only describe. be heard. Let others, bluer, immortalise ! This is the play :-The first scene shows the waiting- The firstscene showed theexterior of the villain’s room of a railwaystation. Poor Kalidasa ! whatan house. Heenters andunlocks the door. The once inopportuneage you lived in.) A wantsto marry a merry and nownormally despairing widow emerges widow, B isorthodox; they argue, standing up and anddoes a littlemad act, tothe amusement of the yelling atthe gallerywhich, in anIndian theatre villain. The scenechanges frequently, and all the always courteously responds with a round of applause. charactersstroll on and divulge their latest troubles, They talk and talk, and, at last go through a gate-a and conclude with a review of the universal unhappiness real gate-to catch a real canvastrain. The stage of tbe world dueto the enforcedcelibacy of widows. manager’s whistle is heard, and the scene changes to a They sob and weepand we return tothe villain’s drawing-room richly furnished in completest Mile End house He comes on, unlocksthe door, looks in, and Road style (which is, by thge way, the same as that of laughs aloud. There. is a whistle, the walls rush away, most Rajput palaces to-day-in Jaipore and Alwar, for and th,einterior of thehouse is shown. In a corner instance). TwoHindu women aresitting at needle- hangs a corpse ! It is bloated and ghastly to observe. work.They are at once seen to be widow‘s astbey Its faceis ashen, itseyes stand out, and blood drips have not the little red mark painted on their foreheads. from its gaping mouth. The merry widow ‘has hanged (Thewomen’s parts are, of course,being played by herself ! The villain laughs, hops round the room, and men, as in all Indian companies.) One of them has withdraws,scheming. Tbe scene changes to a road- been .a widow from infancy, and they bewail their lonely side the villain enters with two men who bear a heavy lot,and weep and console one another and talk. trunkcontaining the woman’s corpse. They set it Suddenlysix or sevencurious people enter,the men down,the villain feelsinside andextracts the fatal clad in clothes in various stages of transition between baby,and, closing the lid, laysit ontop. Hethen a Hindu’s andJewa office-boy’s. Eachman, tbo10, glides off with a villainouslaugh. The hero imme- wears a different kind of collar an.d tie, which he retains. diately entersNaturally he is sobbingand telling all ,throughout the play, under all circumstances. There is his troublesIt is, by theway, the darkest depth of also a “merry widow” with a “‘glad eye. ’) They talk. night,and the stage islift only to show what could There are no epigrams, no jokes, only conversation and havebeen avoided hadit really been so-a kind of unhappiness. There is a whistle and a back cloth falls dramaticirony, I supposeHe stumblesround the over the scene, showing the interior of a house in the stage, reaches the box, feelsit to find out what it is, 694

______._ - . ._...____._._.~~ and picks up the baby, just as two policemen rush in, Approach to Paris. dispatched by th,e villain. They grip the hero and turn The theirlanterns on his burden. He gives a shriek of By Ezra Pound. horrorand drops tbe baby which, poor unconsidered VI. trifle,falls with a thud to the ground The next scene isnaturally very laughable-the comic Brahmin is in WHENI beganthese articles Ihad no intention of his house trying to learn his evidence by heart, for he proclaimingthat M. Jammeswas thc most important has to appear at the hero’s trial and is very forgetful writerin France. don’tI know that I shall do so Twenty-fivetwenty-five, twenty, twenty, twenty-five, even now. It is foolish to say th,at “this apple is more herepeats. Weare next shown the court. TIe hero importantthan that quince.” I don’tknow that I is weeping inthe dock, and the comic Brahmin is shall even call him “the greatest of the living French making funny errors in the witness-box; at last he was poets,” for he completely escapes from all computation off, and the Parsi judge without any further ado, com- andfrom the adjectives of magnitude.Time was, we commences todeliver his judgment in anamusing eccen- h.ave heard, when thepeople trod upon Chimborazzo, eccentrically-worded speech, and condemns the hero to death. an,d Mrs. Barbuld’s cousin bade her- Thehero swoons away and the curtain falls. 1 myself Seize, seize the lyre ! resume the lofty strain. thought the decision hasty and ill-considered, but after Timewas, it was several years before the times of The Clay-Cart” one expects circumstantial evidence to theworthy Lucretia, when people, or at least bards, be decisive,andis not this play a truesuccessor to did go about seizing lyres and tom-,toms, and when the “ TheClay-Cart ”?-both arewritten of Indiaby (‘Enthusiast”enfrenzied his audience o,r hisagora, in Hindus.Gadkari is more up to date, Shudraka more histown or inhis Hellenic state respectively. And old-fashioned, that is all. VictorPlarr tells me that savage tribes still strut forthto war with their noble bards who do valiantly Thecurtain rises o.n thefourth act, and we are insultth,e grandparents of thetribal enemies, in, pre- shown, the whole apparatus for th.e killing of a man by sumably,the lofty strain. And Noyes is persistently hanging. Two policemenlead in thehero, clad in a withus, or rather he is at Yale, or inKansas, or in thin white shirt,drawers, and cap. The judge comes the“Daily Mail” around the corner. And as long as inwith a few friends, one or two widows arrive, and Englandis England she we have her lofty strain. eventhe villain joins th’e party. The herobursts into “ It is one dam’dthing after anotherand if it tears,and embracing the heroine, delivers a long isn’t tribal wars, it will be post-Fabian pamphlets, and speech.Th.e widows sob, the villain laughs, the judge if the dear nation can’t have her great figures she will stolidly fills oneside of thestage. The hers steps have her Hall Caines and her Chestertons until the end uponthe trap-door, the rope is knottedtightly round of theregime And they’ll have her lofty strains for hisneck, and the executioner grasps the lever. Then her. The which is no concern of good letters. a noise of heavy boots is heard, and the father of the Whenthe bard did actually toy with the plectrum heroine runs on with a reprieve to the general joy and or flatter t’he Pythian victor or prevent a tragedy with tearsand, the consternation od thlebaulked, villain, masks,we believe he had some relation to hisday’s whom we find, however in, the next scene closeted with normalities.Someone was, may be, amused,or threir the heroine in her house. H’eappears to have the right sporting instincts were flattered or they were paid to of entering wherever h,e will, thisubiquitous monster. attend. Now, for no particular reason he induces her to drink poison just as the hero enters and, thinking her asleep, ‘Ava&c@ppyyes Zpuot, andignoring the villain, soliloquises upon his escape, O&, +ma, rlva, 8 2v8pa KEXR&~UO~CV; even, atmoments, venturing to smile. The villain beganPindar How he’dhave “ done a baseball declaresthat the heroine is dying;the hero shrieks, game ! Andwhat an ass you or I would look if we severalweeping people enter,and the widow dies a beganan account of theDerby with a query as to slow talkative death. “what God what hero or what man,” it was fitting to shout for. Thescene changes t’o a publicstreet. ’Th’e villain M. FrancisJammes does not ramp about seeking and his chief hireling enter. The villain gives the man barbitoi.Thle hair of dearlute players would be allthe money hce asks,the rogue pockets it, beaming perfectly safe in his keeping. with gratitude, and then suddenly, for no better reason M. Jammes is a part of our normal life; he is not the than tbo wind up th,eplay, jumps on thle villainand leastbit less a poet. we readhis books of verse. It strangleshim in! fullsight of theaudience. Next is as if heentered our room. He speaksin a normal comesthe very, very last scene.Th,e widow’s corpse toneHle produces a conversation. He doesnot isplainly shown burning on a pyre; the hero tries to seem to monopolise it. Heseems to speak,and to jumpinto the flames but is restrained by her father. wait,and to answer. nd then he sayssomething. Talk and tears and the curtain falls. The play is done. He says it withoutundue haste. He doesnot seem Wedekindat his best, .as I have said, cannot com- to betrying We are pleased-a little surprised--so compare withmy discovery-Gadkari. Th.is play wants few people ever dosay anything. only to be translated from Marathi into German to fill He comesagain. He “drops in,” pas we say in my thetheatres for months. The numbers of itssale in country.H,e gets the habit of “dropping in.” He book form would be beyond belief.An English trans- usuallysays something, .an,d graduallywe perceive a translation would be published and extracts could appear in man of originalmind.” (If I am permittedthat all the blue periodicals. Besides, the magnificent stage cliche management of the European theatres would assist the I think M. Jammes can touch nothing without making authorin his finest effects. For instance, how greatly that thing his own. It is better than being King Midas. would the last some be improved by a strong smell of It is, I think,the great gift.At least it is “style”in burning flesh, such a smell, I mean, as the globe-trotter, the fine sense.It is, inthe fine sense literature. It especiallythe female of th,especies seeks with such is themanner of Montaigne.It is, withboth these diligencein the ghats of Benares.Otherwise I am men,naturalness and humanity. bound to say that the corpse-burning comes almost as Theytell me “Verhaeren is thegreatest poet,” an anti-climax after the gallows, the bloated corpse, and, etcetera, but much of Verhaeren is what I have called of course,theobstetric scene. What if several elsewhere “ Symtomatic.”That is, it is a sort of Brahmins in theaudience did go out after the second barometerIt is basedon an economic condition. M. andthird acts, disparaging the author and th:e play; Jammes‘has based his work upon our nature as what of it?Even some Germans dispraise Wedekind. humans, znd the economic condition is but one symptom Fearnothing, Pundit Ram GaneshGadkari, blueness of this nature. nevergoes unrewarded. Perhaps to someextent it is. This author delineates as clearly as Laurent Tailharde, likehonesty, its own reward. But thy full reward will buthe does so withoutirritation. Irritation with the come,Gadkari. general asininity is a passion common enough in great 695 mindsand sufficiently pardonable tothe intelligent, “ Oh, ma chere ! oh ! la la . . . but it is not, after all, the highest of human emotions. . . . Figure-toi . . . mardi And even scorn, which is a very fine thingindeed is je I’ai vu . . . j’ai rri ”-Elle dit not theone thing essential. Next to exasperating comme ca “Le Muffle” there are few things more delightful than to watch,someone elsedo it well. And yetthere are Quand un jeune homme souffre things beyond this. M. Jammescompares himself to d’abord elle se tait : a donkey- elle ne rit plus, tout etonnee J’aime l’ane si doux, which does not mean “ I love the donkey,” but “ I like Dans les petits chemins the donkey walking about the holly trees. He waggles elle remplit ses mains his ears, and is on guard against bees; and he carries de piquants de bruyeres thmepoor people and the sacks full of barley. He goes de fougeres near theditches with a littlehalting step. The lady Elle est grande, elle est blanche, with me thinks he is stupid because he is a poet, etc.” elk a des bras tres dous. This poem isnot very important. Let us turn to elk est tres droite et penche another- le cou. I was goingto Lourdesby rail, beside amountain Finis.Richard of St. Victorwho was half neo- stream,blue as air.The mountains seemed tinin the a platonist tells us that by naming over all the beautiful sunlight, and they were singing, “ Sauvez ! Sauvez ! ” in thetrain. There was a crowd crazy,excited, all over things we canthink of, we maydraw back upon our dust and sunlight. minds some vestige of the unrememberable beauties of Thereare cripples, and apriest in a pulpitcovered paradiseIf we are not given to mysticaldevotions with blue cloth and women who every now and again we may suspect that the function of poetry is, in part, todraw back upon our mind aparadise, if you like, sing “ Sauvez. ” An,d the procession sings- or, equally, one’s less detestablehours and the outrageoushopes of one’syouth. However that may Les drapeaux se penchaient avec leurs devises en or. be I get a distinct pleasure when M. Jammes writes- J’ai vu, dans de vieux salons, des tableaux flammands, Le soleil etait blanc sur les escaliers, oh, dans une auberge noire, on voyait un type dans l’air bleu, sur les clochers dechiquetes, qui buvait de la biere, et sa tres mince pipe avait un point rouge et il fumait doucement. Mais sur un branchard, portee par ses parents, son pauvre pere tete nue et priant, And hehad heavyships, probably from China and the Indies and so on-the poem is .a bit long to quote Et ses freres qui disaient : “ ainsi soit-it,’’ here infull. Anyway, I get visiona of th.e old une jeune fille sur le point de mourir. chateau--inn at La Tour, near Marueil, where I lunched slap in thte middle of a Rembrandt.Itis not M. Oh ! qu’elle etait belle ! elleavait dix-huit ans et elle souriait; elle etait en blanc. Jammes’picture; he is talking of a Dutchmerchant; but my pictureis near enough he gives me his, and Et la procession chantait. Les drapeaux he gives me back my own Ihave thle pleasures of se penchaient avec leurs devises en or comparison,and mine islike enough for me to know thatreliablehisis And whenwriteshe “Lte Moi je serrais les dents pour ne pas pleurer, Paysan . . .” I get avery clear sight .ofthle ruined et cette fille, je me sentais l’aimer. Rocafixada crouched on its needle of rock an’d of an old peasantdriving homehis wry scraggly herd of Oh ! elle m’a regard4 un grand moment, une rose blanche en main, souriant. sheep andcows and goats, with adog and a stray colt or so, in attendance. And hehad a son who was Mais maintenant oh es-tu ? dis, oh es-tu ? a waiter in Toulouse orsome suchplace. And if I Es-tu morte ? je t’aime, toi qui m’as ru. married andincreased the population I’d soonlearn where the money goes and so on. M. Jammes’ peasant Si tu existes, Dieu, ne la tue pas : was onadifferent road ; his“brebis se mettent B elle avait des mains blanches, de minces bras. courirfort parfois . . . cela faitde la poussiere.” My peasant and his crowd of beasts made no dust. It Dieu ne la tue pas !-et ne serait-ce que pour son pere nu-tete qui priait Dieu. was an evening all pink and green like bronze. Of course, if you like to make comparisons you may You will see that thte author does not sentimentalise. say of the poem beginning“L’enfant lit l’almanach” He portrays a situation full of feeling, or emotion, and, thatLaurent Tailhade, withhis Greek tradition would if you like, of sentiment. Hedistorts nothing. He havestopped when he finished the picture He would does not try to make the thing any more pathetic than not have gone on to speculate about the child’s thoughts ‘it was.He doesnot weep anyimaginary tears, anld of heaven. And M. De Regnier would have told us he doesnot callupon the reader to weep any. As for thatthe “ Belier” wasthe ram which “Bore Phryzus beingsentimental, you might as well call “ Steve andHelle upon his golden back.” He u.ould have Cranesentimental. You might, if you like,say that described the beast in a field with burrs gleaming one thenext poem is bony.Yet, is itprecisely that? It colour in a fleece which gleamed another etc. I have is simpleand adequate statement. Thie author does no particular quarrel with any of thes,e methods- not forbid you to add to it. It issimple and adequate statement- L’enfant lit l’almanach pres de son panier d’oeufs. LaJeune Fille. . . e As M. Jammes does notseem to repeat himself it The young girl is white; she has greenveins on her would seemimpossible to giveanything like a com- wrists, inside her open sleeves. plete impression of him in a reviewOne could not Onedoes not know why she laughs. She cries out all omit the charmingair of tale-telling in his “ Amster- of a sudden, and this is shrill. dam,”nor the humour of “Je m’embete,” nor th.e Est-ce qu’elle sedoute delicacy of such poems a5 that beginning qu’elle vous prend le coeur en cueillant sur la route Tu serasnue dans le salon aus vieilles choses, fine comme un fuseaude roseau de lumiere des fleurs ? On dirait quelquefois It might be claimed by one’s adversaries that Francis qu’elle comprend des choses. Jammes is for the most part only a causeur in verse, as, Pas toujours.Elle cause for example, in his “Je pense B Jean-Jacques. . .” I Tout bas donot know.I think,however, that a manreading 696

Jammes about A.D. 2500 might get a fair idea of our life, givenus the life of every small town in France,with the life of A.D. 1913. Ithink he might get a fairly in- thefaint rumour of eventsand countries beyond the timate sense of this life and be drawn into it very much province. Me has done this in x75 pages, that is to say, as I have been drawn into some study of mediaeval con- in less space and with about one tenth the number of ditions by the reading of Dante. I do not for a moment words that a novelist would have needed. compare the four volumes o’f Jammes with the Divina Exceptwith Tourganev, I thinkwe often feel Commedia. M. Jammes’ work resembles the Musee du that the novelist gives us all of life except the things Louvre far more than it resembles the Acropolis; but which need a poetto see them. I thinkJammes has after all, the highest symbols of national desire and of leftout scarcely anything that a novel writer would our present civilisation are our great picture galleries. havegiven us. The actionmoves swiftly, yet he does Each city must have one, from Edinburgh to Indiano- not fail to convey the air of inestimableboredom. He plis, just as in the Middle Ages or in classic times each presentshis characters, and they are numerous. He city would havehad its cathedral or its abbey orits delineates their specific brands of stupidity and detest- temple.I admitthat the sensation of transcending abilityand their pathos. The bookis a vigorous one’stime is wholly and thoroughly delightful. Never- arraignmentof provincial life. Onecannot garble the theless if a poet manages to be, in sort, the acme and more serious, or the more tragic scenes by lifting them epitome of his time and of the civilisation from which from their context. I take two, one from the really dull he is sprung, I think it is all th:at we may justly demand soriee : Le Poete pense of him. The peoplewere givenepics whenthey were C’est drole . . . Cette petite sera bete given to ‘building temples,and a “Commedia”when Comme ces gens-18, comme son pere et sa mere. theywere addicted tocathedrals. Now they are dis- Et cependant elle a une grace infinie posed to hang, inimpressive buildings, a multitude of I1 y a en elle l’intellegence de la beaute. square yards of canvas of all times and countries and C’est delicieux, son corsage qui n’existe pas, to gather bibelots, andthey have, in returnfrom the Son derriere et ses pieds. Mais elle sera bete poets, M. De Regnier’s collection of the antique and the Comme une oie dansdeux ans d’ici. Elle va jouer. various collections of Jammes. Benette (joue la valse des elfes). I know that cathedrals are builteven to-day, as a sort Chapter 25 (forty pages further on) : of “stunt”or propaganda. They are less interesting Le Lendemain Matin (Mme. Larribeau ouvre subitement than such, spontaneouscreations as the Metropolitan la porte de la chambre de la bonne. Larribeau en caleson LifeInsurance building on Madison Square ; they are est assis sous la bonne). copiesand adaptions. One might say that this new Mme. Larribeau : Vvveu.. . . Vvv!eu . . . ez . . gueu architecture has also its parallels in the attempted epi.cs gueu gueu gueu gueu. Larribeau et Jeanne : . . . . . of Romains or in M. Barzun’s plans for a sort of orches- Mme Larribeau etouffant ses cris avec son mouchoir)-: tration in writing, of which I will speak later. Gueu gueu gueu gueu gueu-gueu gueu gueu gueu gueu As forJammes and his common sense, he has per- Jeanne(s’arrange et sourit) : . . . . haps put a good deal of it into the elegy :- Mme. Larribeau : Gueu gueu gueu gueu gueu. Larribeau(toujours en caleqon, A genous et les mains I1 va neigerdans quelques jours. Je me souviens de suppliantes) : A . . . . line? I’an dernier. Mme. Larribeau : Gueu gueu gueu gueu gueu Larribeau : Ooooooooooomo Aline? . . . Aline? . . . Mais moi j’etais bete parce que ces choses ne pouvaient 00 Aline? . . . pas changer et que c’est une pose de vouloir chasser les Mme Larribeau : Gueu gueu gueu gueu gueu choses que nous savons. Larribeau : Les hommes sont des brutes . . . Je ne Thusfar I havequoted from books written before voluais pas, . . C’a eteplus fort que moi. . . C’etait Jammeshad also written two novels, “Clara l’animal qui parlait. . . Je t’alme. Oooooo. 1900, Mme. Larribeau : Gueu gueu gueu gueu gueu. d’Ellebeuse, ou l’histoired’une acienne jeune fille” and “Almaide d’Etremont, ou l’histoire d’une jeune fille The book is, however,not onlyclever butgrave. It passionnee.” “Le Triomphe de la Vie” is dated 1900- is exceptionally clever for all that-the usual phrases : 1901, the second part of this book, “Existences,” is of not a dullmoment, etc., can all of thembe applied. special interest. “Et c’est ca qui s’appelle la vie.” And beyond this there are such passages as the reverie Huysmans in thepreface to “A Rebours,”done in chaptertwenty-one where the poet of thestory twenty years after that book, writes as follows :- writes “ J’aurai bientot trente-deuxans.” It is too long to quote just here. On etait alors en plein naturalisme ; mais cette ecole Having delineated the provinces in such a way that qui devait rendrel’inoubliable service de situer des personages reels dans des milieux exacts, etait condamne no flaneur howeverbored with metropolitan life, will A se rabacher, enpietinant sur place. . . . S’efforcait ever be without at least once consolation, to wit, that he . . . de creer des etres qui fussent aussi semblables que doesnot live in the provinces, M. Jammes evidently possible 2 la bonne moyenne des gens. . . . L’Education attainedsuch celebrity that he wasable either to live sentimentalede Gustave Flaubert . . . etaitpour nous in Paris or to come there wheneverhe pleased I am tous . . . une veritablebible; mais il ne comportaitque not absolutely sure of my dates, but shortly after this peu de moutures. I1 etait paracheve,irrecommencable he began to believe in thedivine beneficence, andhis pour Flaubert meme; nous en etations donc, tous, reduits, next volume of poems bears a note stating that some en ce temps-18, a louvoyer, a roder par des voies plus ou of themwere written ‘‘apres mon retourau catholi- moins explorees, tout autour. cisme.” There is a notable difference between the kind “Paracheve !” If l’Education Sentimentale left little of man who “returns,” and the kind of man who gets tobe donewith a youngman loose on the town, converted-a difference in favour of theformer, I “Madame Bovary” left an equally difficult problem for feel that the discussion of thislater work belongs the next author who wished to treat Moeurs de Pro- rather to a detailed study of Jammes’ development than vince. ” to a hurriedand rather superficialsurvey of the con- Huysmansescaped by puttingan exceptionallydull temporarypoetry of France. I think M. Jammes sees youngdecadent in themidst of no milieu whatever. quiteclearly, and that the “return” is more than a Francis Jammes was, in 1900 in much fuller naturalism literary pose. Tothe critic not wholly in sympathy, than was the author of “A Rebours” in ’84. most religious poetry is apt to seem as the Whistlernoc- To write a novel in verse as a series of scenes with turnes seemed tocertain critics, “ merely another thespeakers marked as in a play, is nothing new or unsuccessful attempt to paint the night.” strange.True, it has hardly beendone successfully On the other hand it is quite clear that there awaits since DiegoPuedeser composed the “Celestina,” but a very definite place in our own literature for th.e man no matter. The interesting fact is that Mr. Jammes has who will dofor the English or Americansmall city doneitsuccessfully. He hasgiven us Moeurs de what Jammes has done for the French in “Existences.” Province”;he has given us morethan that, he has And that is a silly sort of thing to say, for no one will. 697

Readers and Writers. read,and our reviews apparentlyplease nobody but ourselves. Besides with so manylibraries, the books MR. WELLSinvited the Editorial footnote to his letter canbe got without the smallest dependence upon the of last week, for there he was, self-confessedly “bother- courtesy of their writers; and we are consequently free ing about the distribution of his Press copies.” Whether fromthe least self-suspicion of obligation.But what Mr. Wells is among the authors who “bother” a very doesgall my kibe isthe spectacle of authors and great deal about their Press-notices is another matter. publisherspretending publicly thatthey are onthe In the absence of any private knowledge of his instruc- look-out forindependent judgment, criticism, and dis- tions to his publishers I have only the evidence common discussion and privately practising every art of suppressing to everybody ; but from this I can deduce, having been thosevery things. In my mind they are littlebetter behind the scenes, a littlemore than most people. My than politicians. impression is certainly that Mr. Wells, like Mr. Shaw, *** Mr.Bennett, Mr. Phillpotts, .and others, does concern A recent note on the Socialist Press has brought me himself with the “market reports” of his literary com- a protest on behalf of “Justice” in particular.I am commodities, and does bring what pressure he can to bear not concerned to deny that “Justice” is thte best of the , to determine the nature of those reports. I do not sug- bunch;it is. I have only torepeat my remarkthat gest that this is illegitimate or much to be wondered at. journals which must always be appealing to the move- Whenwriters have fixed several thousands a year as mentfor money are not a source of strengthbut of theirindispensable income from literature it is only weakness. Not one, I think, of th.e Socialist or Labour natural that theyshould conduct their business on the papers is within the region of paying;and all have, establishedlines. They must, that is, followmuch the thereforeto pass round thecap occasionally. The samemethods as the patent-medicine vendors, adver- mostshameless, undoubtedly isthe “ Daily Citizen,” tising their virtues among the largest public and ignor- whose mendicancy draws tens of thousands of pounds ing, when they can, the analyses of th,emere experts. from thetrade unions. The remedy, if anybody asks If this practice among successful authors is not delibe- me,for this wretched parasitism of journalists upon rate on their part-and in several instances I happen to wage-earners is simple : either these journals should be know that it is quite deliberate-their agents and pub- privatelysubsidised, or their price should be raised to lishers, at any rate, are up to the game. One has only enablethem todispense with advertisements. The to trace the evolution of opinion concerning any writer third course is to cease publication. to conclude that other forces than his merit have been *** at work.Merit alone, in my experience,is thelast InWashington “Sociologicala Fund” has been quality in a writer that really makes preserves, or en- formed for the purpose, amongothers, of subsidising hanceshis contemporary reputation-in other words, “ social reform”plays Already oneplay-Brieux’s hissales. These dependupon the“pull’ he can exert, “ Damaged Goods”-has been launchedfrom privacy whether as a result of accident a-of artifice. For con- intopaying publicity by thismeans; and nowone of firmation of this. by onewho knows, my readerscan Francois CIoppee’s novels has been adapted for produc- turnto Mr. Bennett’s“Truth about an Author.’’ The ti,on. Thee“lesson” of Brieux’splay is, as everybody facts are all there. knows, the danger of syphilis-a perpetually attractive *** subject;of Coppee’s novel, thelesson, if I remember, wasthe injustice of illegitimacy. A movement(pro- That publishers as well asauthors are “ touchy ” about reviews THE NEW AGE,I know, has plenty of bablytwo orthree people) exists,we are told, in evidence. Someyears ago the publishers of the America to legitimisebastards by givingthem a title “English Review” invited THENEW ACE to exchange ; t.0 thleir father’sname; and Coppee isbrought into and for a time the exchange was made. After a while, assist it. The idea of the “ Sociological Fund” is, as however,our notices of the“English Review” being propaganda, excellent. Harnessingthe theatre to sincerely but uniformly unfavourable,the proprietors reformis quite the probable development that sincere of the“English Review” struck us off theirlist. Mr. reformers will take.Nor is thereany objection in my Austin Harrison did not want judgment but advocacy. opinion tlo playsbeing written for reformatory ends. The same course was taken by that over-rated review, On tbe contrary, all works of art have a moral purpose the “Mercure de France,” so much praised by English- or they are nothing inmy estimation. Criticism,how- ever,must begin with the questions of theplane on men with only a smattering of French. An unfavourable comment onits London correspondentinstantly re- which th’e evil and i’ts suggested remedy are supposed t,o operate, and of the adaptation of means to ends by sulted in the scratching of THENEW AGE from its ex- th,eartist in hismoral propaganda. evils of change list.At thismoment, in consequence,Ican The syphilis and bastardy, though considerable, are not of only suppose, of our fraternal candour with authors and muchimportance relatively; and in anycase they are of our sense of responsibility to ourreaders, quite a notconcerned withmorals. Inother words, I do not number of publishers have put THENEW AGE on their think that either of them will find morethan a third- blacklist. Foryears Mr. WernerLaurie has never ratedramatist to touchit. First-ratedramatists have sent us a book to review. Mr. Dent lately come to has infinitely greater concerns tlo mind. The adaptation of a similar,resolution. So have Messrs Constableand means to endsis likewise a matter of judgment. severalother publishers. The“boycott,” therefore, Supposing the grievance to be temporal, the competent ofjournals that express an honest and competent dramatiston this level should at least succeed in opinion isno mere fancy of mine ; itactually works focussing public attention on his subject. If he should withvisible results. Messrs. Constable, forexample, fail in this, he has failed even in th.e lesser mysteries of publish Mr. Shaw’s works, including his revised edition his art. of the “Quintessence of Ibsenism”about which I had *** something tosay before it appeared. Neither that nor Mr. Shaw’s defence of his “Androcles and the Lion” Mr.Shaw’s latest plays have reached us. Now, does againstthe attacks of the“divines” does not strike anybody suppose that this is an accident? Is it just an me as very effective. Indeed,long after his buzzing accident that these publishers and authors should send brillianceis out of my ears,I find ithard to sum up their works to be assayed by journals like th,e “British what he hassaid. Isthere any “gist” in Shawat all Weekly” and the “Sphere” and not send them to THE or ever? Does he not always say everything and there- New AGE? Let others believe it, if they like ; but such fore nothing? It is absurd for him to go onrepeating accidents, in my opinion, are the children of intention. that an honest Christian would infallibIy find himself in *** prison. He knows that suchtalk is cant. Before the I find it necessary to state that I am not complaining “New Statesman” appeared Mr. Shaw said in an inter- on behalf of thisjournal. Itis really a matter of in- view that heshould consider himself lucky if the staff difference to us whether we receive books officially or escapedprison [prison again] for a couple of issues. not They give us as arule a vast deal of trouble t,o There have been twenty-six ; Mr. Shaw, I believe, has 698

written in most of them ; he is not onlt stillout of writing of cheapbooks, I haverecently had in my prison,but he and his staff are well onthe way to hands and examined several of Messrs T. C. and E. C. knighthoodor some such Government honour Again Jack’slatest publications. Some of themare marvels hepretends to find the world shocking and divines in of compilation as well as of cheappublication. I am general a set of self-deluded scoundrels ; but his language not referring to the series named the “People’s Books” is much stronger than his feelings ; in short it is mere (6d. neteach) which now contains over a hundred rhetoric. For instance, in his reply to the Rev. Morgan volumeseach by a passablespecialist ; butto such Gibbon, of whom,ex hypothesi, he thinks ill, neither works as Mr.Innes’ “History of theBritish Nation” the general reader nor, I dare wage, the Rev. Morgan (illustrated ; 1,000 pp. 3s. 6d.net) ; “Jack’s Reference Gibbon himself, can sense anything sincerely offensix-e. Book” (1,088 pp., 3s. 6d. net), and now to “The New Theoretically Mr. Shaw is in a state of manly indigna- Encyclopaedia” (1,626 pp.,quarto, 7s. 6d. net).Ency- tlon ; actuallyhe is damned amiable. Itis not true, encyclopaedias Iconfess are not much in my ‘line. They either, that Mr. Shaw does not “sneer’’ or that when appear to me always to contain too little or too much : hedespises a thinghe “insults it in the most unmis- butat a distancefrom the sources they are, I find, takablydirect terms.” I remember nothingthat he necessaryeven if irritating. “The New Encyclopdia” has, in anybody else’s opinion, insulted in his life; and is as good as the best of its kind, which perhaps at its sneeringis surely only fault-findingwithout fault-feel- price is all that need be said of it. ing. Onpartial consideration-for Iconfess that Mr. *** Shaw is still an enigma-I should summarise his whole Neither the reviews nor the sales (up 1.0 the present) doctrine as : Be brilliantor bust. If anybodycares to of Mr. Rosciszewski’s “Caricatures” do much to soften change or” into “and,’’ I shall not dispute the differ- myimpression of thegeneral state of active intelli- ence. gence. Of passive intelligence, that is, of a kind of Zed *** appreciation, there is a great deal in the world. Under Apart from its contents, which I personallyfind almost skilful bell-wethering the majority of people are willing unreadable,the “Prose and Poetry (1856-1870)” of to followin flocks practicallyanybody. But this kind William Morris, issued by the Oxford University Press, of affectability is of little use to pioneers who scorn to isa model publication. No publishers in 7he world,I employa bell ; inother words, to pioneers who are think,can equal it. Beautifully printed on good paper goingsomewhere. Of all thereviews that have so far and bound in good taste, the volume not only contains appeared, the best were published in the “Athenaeum” over 650 pages of text, but its end-papers are entirely and the “Daily Express.” In both journals the writers freefrom advertisements of anykind. In fact, as far of thle reviews really appeared not only to know some- as the publishers can make it, the book is a book. And thing of the meaning of caricature, but to have had the theprice, if you will believeme, is eighteenpence. To courageto pronounce their judgment. The reviews in thesame series belongs “The Pageant of English the“Star,” the “Evening News,” and “T. P.’s Poetry,”edited by R. M. Leonard.This anthology Weekly” were some ‘of the feeblest that ever appeared (600 pp., IS. 6d.)I may say, has scarcely been out of in print. “T. P. ’s Weekly,” I believe, is edited by Mr. my sight since first it was published. It contains 1,150 Holbrook Jackson, who professes to be a connoisseur in poemsby 300 Englishauthors ; andthere is newartists in particular. The “Star’ “is under the ‘hardlyone wouldI leave out. The Morris’ volume, editorship, if amI not mistaken, of thatdashing by theway, contains “The Life and Death of Rupert,Mr. James Douglas. Well, I haveonly to say Jason,”one of thelongest and dreariest poems ever this of boththese aesthetic leaders, that if the“dis- thrice published. Hispatience at tapestry must have covery” of Mr. Max Beerbohm depended as much upon stood Morris in good stead while he was stitching this them as his renewed booming next week will be assisted poemtogether Unlike tapestry, however, the effect of by them, Mr. Beerbohm would still be a caricaturist in which onthe spectator is produced at a glance,the obscurity so faras their readers are concerned ; for- poemtakes almost as long to produce itseffect as likeLabour leaders they take good care to lead their Morris spent in writing it ; in short, it takes too long. flocksfrom behind. ’The sales of the volume, however, *** quite justify critics who reckon merit in terms of circu- Messrs. Bell have just added to their cheap reprint of lation. To thetime of writingthey are just forty “Bohn’s Library” some twenty volumes (IS. net each). copies. They are as follows : Ranke’s “History of the Popes” *** (3 vols.) ; Carlyle’s “French Revolution” (3 vols.) ; Mig- No reasonhas been offered by the custodians of net’s “French Revolution” ; Montaigne (3 vols.) ; Emer- “Punch”for the change in thecover of thejournal ; son (2 vols.) ; “Tom Jones’’ (2 vols.) ; Francis Burney’s but the reason is clear to any journalist. The new cover Diary (2 vols.) ; Long’s “Marcus Aurelius” ; Miss Jame- of art-papercapable of takingcolour permits the son’s“Heroines of Shakespeare” ; andtwo of Trol- publication of aclass of highlypaid advertisements lope’s novels. I suppose that having announced the re- hithertobarred. In other words, the ‘change is due to publication of the whole series, Messrs. Bell felt bound greed of profit. ‘The colour-printing of thme newcover to go through with it ; but the obligation to do so was is in my judgment execrable; so, too, is the paper em- reallynot serious. Nobody, for instance, would have ployed.In America whose magazines have apparently missed Carlyle’s “French Revolution” in three volumes been“Punch’s’’ model, atleast the colour-printing is when it can be obtained in Chapman and Hall’s edition competent.Great smears of mustard and plates of in one.The same applies to Long’s “Marcus, Aure- poachedeggs are not allowed to be suggested on the lius,’ ’ to Emerson, to Montaigne and to ‘‘Tom Jones,” covers of the “Literary Digest,” for instance, or “Cur- any one of which it is already easy to procure cheaply rentOpinion.” Both thegood taste and the public andin a goodform. Moreover, the material of the spirit of the present proprietors of “Punch’’ are called binding of the new editionis not so pleasingto the in question by the new form. Of good taste, as I have touchthat I would ratherhandle it than the existing- suggested, the change is entirely devoid ; a childwith editions. The cloth is a littlerough and scurrs on apenny box of paintscould not do worse. And for the fingers. Smooth covers like those of the new Scott public spirit, what can be said of a set of men, already librarywould, I think, have been preferable. My real makinghuge profits, deliberately vulgarising a semi- objection, however, to the series, is that it began at the national organ in order to make more? Yet Mr. Owen wrongend. Outside Messrs. Bell’s, who says Bohn Seaman, if I remember, was an active vice-president of saysBohn’s Classical Library. With the absurd subsi- the Agenda Club, a body that once upon a time set out subsidised Loeblibrary of classicsmanifestly missing their to bringtaste into fashion again even at thecost of mark, a shilling reprint of the famous Bohns would cer- business profit. tainlyhave been successful commercially. From a *** literary point of view moreover, such a series is indis- Mr.Galsworthy’s suggestion for the solution of the pensableto the popular renaissance that is now long Libraries’ censorship difficulty has 110 merit to commend overdue. I wish Messrs. Bell would begin it at once. it to the Libraries, to the public or to the authors them- 699 selves. A committee, such as he would have, of authors, black paint squeezedfrom a tube.I looked into these annuallyappointed through the Authors’ Society to faces for the joyous personality that I sought, but each form a Courtof Appeal €or the Libraries, would infallibly countenancewas stern, wooden, andunapproachable. become as prettily corrupt as the Royal Academy or any They expressed neither joy, nor despair, nor hope, nor other body of men with favoursto dispense. youcan fear, nor surprise, nor anything that I could conceive : imaginethe touting for their votes that would take what was the divine word, I wondered, that would un- place in the event of a dispute between an author and lockthese faces and set free their souls.I looked in the distributors, and the airs the committee would put vaineven for an eager face. The processioncontinued on in consequence ! No, if I were an author of novels uninterruptedfor half an hour. The bookstallcaught the last tribunal I should appeal to would be one com- thembetween the barriers and the entrance of the posed of brother novelists ; and especially if (as would station. They were attracted to it as moths to a brilliant be my case) my novel were conventional in its light,their eyes brightened artificially,and were held morality. The public,likewise, would have good cause andfascinated by thecute covers of magazinesand for complaint. What ! they would say, you are to judge novelswhich were so artfullydisplayed in manyrows your rivals for us? And the Librarians-such as have aroundthe stall. Travellers with onlya few moments any good sense--would reflect that it was an Authors’ to spare elbowed their breathless way along from book Society that crowned Mr. Masefield’s penny-blood, with to book.A young ladypushed past meand carefully thelaurels of fame,and hundreda pounds. The inspected thecovers of severalcheap novels, opening remedy, I repeat, for the censorship of the Libraries is to the pages of one or two and reading’ a line here and re-establishthe authority and censorship of criticism. there in ahaphazard and altogether pitiful fashion. What neitherthe police of manners nor the police of “ Can you recommend this?” she inquired of the boy in morality(critics, to wit)can between them suppress uniformwho paraded around the stall. This youth must be allowed to circulate as the will of God. assured her of the merit of the particular novel and also R. H. C. ventured the information that over a million copies had alreadybeen sold. “ Oh, verywell, then,”she ex- claimed, fishing for money in her purse-bag, “I’ll take thisone.” The paper-boy flipped ashilling over the The Steam Cloud. counter to his chief. I moved round to the farther end WITHno other object but that of seeking personalities of the bookstalland scrutinised thle long line of facies I driftedfrom the Strand into Charing Cross Station. which confronted the man behind the counter. He was “Surely,” I had said to myself, “in this great terminus, dealingpapers like clockwork. When a paper was and exit from civilisation, whose glittering arms stretch called for, his right hand passed unhesitatingly over the out to embrace the earth-here, there is surely the pos- wide expanse of journalswhich laybefore him to the sibility of comingface to face with one inspiring onerequired, while withhis left hand he took the countenance-some traveller, maybe, setting forth to a money and threw it with an unerring aim into the till distant land ; a human being consumed with joy at the behind him. He had an unconscious habit of repeating thought of escaping from London.” the name of the journal required-“ Tit-Bits”-(clink) 66 Inthis mood I havehaunted many great railway yessir” - “T.P.’s” - (clink) “Yessir” - “ London stations.Invariably I concludea disappointingquest Mail”-(clink) “Yessir”-“Everyman”-(clink)“Yes- by introducing myself to the nearest porter who chances sir” - “Winning Post” - (clink) “Yessir” - “Pall to be idle. I have discovered that by avoiding all men- Mall” - (clink) “Yessir” - “Answers” - (clink) tion of luggage it ispossible to make a porter forget his “Yessir.”It seemed thathe had a kind of truck. It is not easy, but it can be done. The mistake system which enabled him toserve with thisgreat that the majority of individuals would make in attempt- ecomony of time. I noticed thathe had arranged ing to free the consciousness of a railway porter would the more popular journals side by side in a straight line be this : they would attempt to break the ice by making nearest to hisright hand. Reading from the left- a remarkeither about luggage or about trains. But “Tit-Bits,”“T.P.’s Weekly,” “Answers,” “Ideas,” wherethese things are concerned therailway porter “LondonMail,” “Everyman,” “Winning Post,” and is impersonal and mechanical ; he responds to your ques- “ London Opinion. ’ tioning without inspiration ; when he talks of luggage After twenty minutes I grew so tired of hearing these he is himself-luggage ; when he directsyou to a certain samenames continually repeated that I moved away platform he is nothing more than a sign-post. from the bookstall and strolled into the first-class wait- Thereis a porter at onestation who possesses a ing-room. It was occupied by a fat clergyman reading specialknowledge of flowers. Approachthis man “What’s On.” thenI tried the third-class waiting- quietly (without luggage), speak the word “bulb,” and room,and this was crowded to suffocation. Eachface the miracle is accomplished. I have talked flowers with was hidden by aperiodical. Lookingaround the long this particular porter until the station has become trans- row of third-class passengers it seemed that their heads formedinto Kew Gardens, and the smell of engine- had been removed and, in their place, a periodical stuck smokeinto the fragrance of honeysuckle. I saw him upon their shoulders. There was Miss “T.P.’s Weekly,” this afternoon, shouting “Backs, please !” sweating in Mrs.“Tit-Bits,” Mr. “Answers,”Master “ Ally front of a huge pile of luggage, whichbelonged to a Sloper,” Uncle “Ideas,”Aunt “Red Magazine,” and smart gentleman who strutted beside him ; this gentle- Mother-in-law “Pearson’sWeekly. ” Otherclose re- manwore a redrose and smokeda cigar. I perceived lationswere represented by “TownTopics,” “The thatthe porter had an eye fixed admiringlyupon the Weekly Welcome,” “Everyman,” and “London Life.” rose,and the other upon the pile of trunks which he I noted one very important fact ; that no matter what waspushing. But I knew that the smart gentleman paperwas being read, the quality of personalitywas wouldnot speak,the mystic word, and wouldconse- entirelylacking. Whether Mr. “Everyman”was quentlymiss a verycharming and illuminating con- escaping from London, or whether he was stuck in it, or conversation whether he was aware of his existence at all, or “ ded I wandered fromthe bookstall tothe cloakroom, up” with it-this was impossible to tell, and so it was fromthe cloakroom to the barriers, from the barriers withall of them.Iwas suddenly overwhelmedwith to the entrance, and then back again to the bookstall. the horror which I had experienced as a child in Madame The crowd of men and women grewdenser each Tussaud’s Waxworks, when I found myself surrounded minute. The suburbans mingled with the Continentals, by yellow dead dummies with staring glass eyes. the over-seaswith the over-land,Human beings I leftthe wax-works hurriedly and went once more pressed me upon all sides ; I was swept here and there, intothe station. Suddenly anengine shrieked pierc- I came into contact with hundreds of fellow-creatures, ingly ; it grunted,groaned, spat and hissed, then ex- butthis experience wasmeaningless ; theywere the haled vastclouds of steam whichascended pure and unconscious waves of a leaden sea ; they did not dance white into the grimy dome of the station, blotting out even as do the waves, but oozed steadilyforward like the blackribs of the roof. ARTHURF. THORN. 700

I omit a section in which Mr. Kenney argues that, in Views and Reviews.’ winter,the work of aNorth Sea fisherman ismore WHENI said, in my last article, that the economic pro- comfortable than that of a capstanman. “The dangers blem might be complicated at any moment by the intro- attendant upon the work both to those actually engaged duction of a psychological factor, 1 wasnot offering in andit toothers working in the vicinity, are a merely tentative criticism of an academic argument. I numerous. The hookmay break and come banging knew, as everyone knows, that all criticism of social or with great force against the capstan-or capstanman; economic problemsis anattempt to introduce such a the nipper may be late in jumping and get caught be- complication, and that in theory, at least, the problem tween tbewagon and the rope, or struck by the long ago wasso complicated. But it will be remembered swingingbuffers as the wagon turns. But one of the that the particular complication that I thought might be greatest sources of danger is when the rope gets worn effective was the refusal of Labour to accept its status and frayed so that the bottom laps grip the rough edges as a commodity in the economics of capitalism. There or ravels of theupper instead of letting them run off can be no doubt of the revolutionary nature of such a through the capstanman’s hand to be coiled up behind refusal; the mere idea alone suffices to shift the centre the capstan. If, in addition to a badrope, the capstan of sympathy and of interest from economics to human happens to be loose in its bearing so that it does not nature. In Mr. Kenney’s mind, the “men” precede the stop when the starting stud is released, there is pretty “rails” in order of importance ; he says : “I desire to certainto be trouble, for, as soon asthe hook drops state the case for a more rational treatment of 1 railway fromthe wagon, the rope coils in a hopeless tangle problems in the hope that it will lead t’o a more humane roundthe capstan, the capstan gains greater speed, treatment of railwaymen. Ihave no intention of even and the hook swings round and round at a terrific rate. attemptingto produce ahandbook dealing with all Anyonewithin reach of the swinging hookis lucky to the complexissues andconfusing statistics of railway escape with nothing worse than a broken limb. In our finance-there are already numerous excellent treatises yard a nipper was once caught and knocked to pieces on the various material phases of the subject--my first, in this way.” and my last, concern is with the hundreds of thousands The ordinary person will only need the assurance that of human beings whose lives are bound up in the ruder thereare rules andregulations applying to this work andmore solemn facts of the railway industry.” That to enable him t’o forget that one in eight capstanmen Mr.Kenney should, asthe writer of “Notes of the was killed or injuredlast year. “Of course,” says Week” said, conclude “an argument originally intended Mr.Kenney, “we had rules to regulate our workand toestablish nationalisation with a non sequitur in the prevent usfrom running needless risks. ‘The nippers form of advocacy of theGuilds,” was only natural. must not go between buffers,shunting poles must be The mereeconomic change involved in nationalisation usedfor coupling anduncoupling, every wagon must would donothing for the men ; and if Mr.Kenney be effectively scotched beforebeing swung round on jumped from out of his syllogism back to his premise, the turntable, capstanmen were not to use ravelled or no Englishman at least will object to his preference for frayed ropes or ropes with knots, no wagon was to be reason instead of mere logic. moved untileveryone in the vicinityhad been warned, The facts adducedby Mr. Kenney are of such a nature none but rated capstanmen were to touch theropes-and thatno merely economic change such asthe substitu- dozens of otherthings. These were the rules.Excel- tion of State for private monopoly will alter them. The lent rules Buthad I ken unfortunateenough to kill necessity of what is called “economic” working would a man during my period I should certainlyhave been remain,nay, it might even be intensified; for, apart tried formanslaughter, for I paid noattention what- from the “interest” that would be paid instead of “divi- ever to them. I broke the desevery day and all day. dends,”the State would attempt,at least, to obtain We had tlo accomplish a certain amount of work in a some revenue from the railways, the traders would ex- given time and todo this it was impossible to keep pect betterterms than the companies nowoffer, and them. And not only did the pressure of workmilitate thetravelling public would howl for lower fares. Ex- againstworking in accordance with the regulations, penses would still have to be kept down ; and what that but there wereother reasons, such as th3e company’s phrase means may be understood by a reference to Mr. ragefor economy. We wouldrun anyrisk with a Kenney’s description of ,capstan work on the railways. slightlyfrayed rope before asking for a newone, as Lastyear, he says casually, one in eightcapstanmen ‘expensesmust be cut down !’ Expensesalways had was killed or injured. I make here a few quotations to to be cut down.Scotches we seldom saw, and seldom askedfor them theytook up too muchtime. As for enlighten those readers who may wish to knowsome- shuntingpoles they were thing of thesubject. “The capstans are bell-shaped of noearthly use to our nippers. Tbe shunting pole is a piece of ash from five pieces of metal about thirty inches high and thirty inches to sevenfeet in length,quite heavy enough for any wide at the base. The whole of the mechanismis in a grown man to handle ; our nippers were youths of from pit in the ground underneath, covered by a large iron 13 to 16 years of age(wages 10s. a week),too small plate. Ironstuds projectfrom theplate on twosides, and weak to use them. I ordered my nipper to try the and when one of these is pressed down by the capstan- poleone day,and the first wagon he tackled nearly man’sfoot the capstan revolves at a tremendous pulled himunder it. Itis not often that anyone but speed. Coiled up behind each capstan is a long hempen a trainedman handles the rope, but sometimes even rope with a hook at the end. To each, capstanman is a this occurs. On oneoccasion a nipperwas ‘buffered ‘nipper,’ whose duty it is to drag the rope out, slip the up’ in our yard by another nipper who had been put on hookinto the axle guard of a wagon, uncouple this capstan work only a few days before to save full cap- wagonfrom the rest if necessary,and warn the cap- stanman’s wages.” capstanman when he is ready for a move. The capstanman I have dwelt at length on this one matter to illustrate then laps his end of the rope three or four times round whatought to be a truism,that until thecentre of the capstan, presses down the starting stud, the capstan interest is shifted from economics to human nature, no begins to revolve, slowly at first but rapidly gaining change can be effected even in the working conditions speed, the rope is pulled taut, grips, and the wagon is of men. If capitalisteconomics tend to monopoly, and on the move. At given distances on each line are turn- we are influenced only by economic considerations, the tablesfor transferringwagons from one line to the rage foreconomy oi‘ which Mr.Kenney speaks would other. As soon as the wagon is fairly on the table th’e be at least asnoticeable under a State as under a private nipperscotches orbrakes it, lifts up thecatch of the regime Capstanmen would stillhave to useunravelled table, the capstanman jerks the rope, the table lumbers ropes, scotches would still be invisible, capstans would roundand thewagon isturned ready for sending still be used though loose in their bearings, and so on. along the crossing- to be placed elsewhere.” - It is certain that, until the “men” precede the “rails” in * “ Men aud Rails.” By Rowland Kenney. (Unwin. order of importance, there is no hope of any consider- 6s. net.) able reduction of the mortality among these men, or of 701 anyimprovement in theirworking conditions. Indus- Tenth Pious Man : I investigate his Nature, and pro- trial efficiency, measured by “profits”or “revenue,” vide him withdiversion, by the declarationthat he is meansthat a capstanman must workwith inefficient threefold. tools,for tools cost more than men. As Mr.Kenney Eleventh Pious Man : Rubbish ! Moderntheology quotes : “One reasonunblushingly given fordoing . . . . belief combined withchemistry. That’s the real nothingfor railway employees wasthat, ‘Ifrailways thing. kill fifty men to-day they can get fifty more to-morrow TwelfthPious Man : AbsoIutely mistaken ! Codfish at the same price’ ” ; and that would be as true under onFriday. . . . that’s whathe likes. nationalisation as it is under private ownership. Thirteenth Pious Man : All wrong ! Not one of you Whatever economic arrangements may be made, it is knows. You ought. . , . certain that there is no way of minimising the risks of Stop.Thirteenth Pious Man ! “Not one of you railwaywork except by the men takingover the knows” Q.E.D.-(“Ideen,” No. 431.) management of theirown labour. The Napoleonic maxim : “La carriere ouverte aux talens” : is obviously I knew a milliner who had an unnatural child. “Un- applicableonly tothe men. Management of their natural” I say for the honour of the milliner, who was labour from above is really impossible, unless we are to married.Presently I will tell you the father’s name. disregardhuman life ; onecan only makerules and The goodwoman was veryfond of herchild, and regulationsto minimise thedangers, which are ren- dressedit as tastefully as she could. A ribbonhere, a deredineffective by the maineconomic considerations ribbonthere. Sameplain, some gaudy. The mother’s which guide the whole business. That the men are at only enjoymentwas to busy herself with her child’s lastdiscovering that, to be reasonablysafe in their finery. work., they must have control of their own labour, and And if anybody said : That colour is too red, or too must not be limited by economic considerations, is a fair yellow, or too Faint. . . thatborder too broad, that inferencefrom some passages in Mr.Kenney’s book. veil toothick, that gauze too flimsy. . . if anybody The labour question is not to be solved by economics : complained aboutlack of taste or lack of fitness-no- thehuman will alonecan determine thestatus of body thought of reproaching the careful mother of lack Labour,and if thelong-suffering of the menis not of love for her child. eternal, we may yet see a revival of human industry. Themother’s name was Parable. I am aware that, as a review, this article is not com Poietes was the father’s name. competent. Thecontents of the book are notindicated, And TRUTHwas the name of the child that the mother norhave I troubled to statethe steps bywhich Mr. was so fond of adorning. Kenneyarrived at hisnon sequitur. I trustthat my Onceshe displayedher child, an,d askedwith her readers will readthe book.Certainly, if they do they eyes :- will find the economic considerations fading from their “ How do you like my child, my treasure, my all? minds, or thrown up in violent contrast to the welfare Just look at the colour !” of the men. Terms of purchase,nominal capital, con- “ the yellow stripe is nice.” ciliation boards, Parliamentary interference, and so on, “Yellow. . . . thosecheeks yellow? That is pink ! whatdo they matter when what is forcedupon our Yellow?’’ attention is that the men are not able to take ordinary “I was speaking about the frock.” precautionsto safeguard their own lives? That is the Againshe displayedher child andasked withher primaryproblem ; andit is not to be solvedby any eyes :- elaboration of the present system of management. The “ How do you like my child,my treasure, my all? State may own, but the men must manage ; and it is to Splendid,isn’t it? See how clean, and how red,and Mr.Kenney’s credit that he has made !.his fact per- the veins !” fectlyclear to us. Thatthe railwaymen are rapidly “There’s too much starch.” realising thehopelessness of expecting any improve- “Starch in my child’s arms?” ment in their conditions except as a result of their own “I was speaking about the frock.” efforts, is one of the most hopeful signs. Economics is Againthe careful mother displayedher child, and already complicated by the introduction of a psycholo- asked with her eyes :- gical factor. gical A. E. R. “HOWd’o you like my child, my treasure, my all? See these limbs, this plumpness these curves !” “The body’s too short.” From “ Multatuli.” “My child’sbody too short?” “ I was speaking about the frock.” (Translated from the Dutch by P. Selver.) Thenthe mother grew vexed. It troubledher that

“ BUT,” say the pious, “your comparison is not exact. nobodylooked at herchild. True,she liked toadorn We know well whatis pleasing to our Lord. He. has her darling, but it grieved her that the adornment pre- deigned to reveal that to us.” vented people from seeing the child. Aha? Let’shear. Grief makes peopleunreasonable. Parable became First Pious Man : He desires psalms. angry with Poietes, who could not help it. She left his No criesthe Second Pious Man, honourI him bed and board, and assumed her maiden name, Ameleia. by turning round and round. Shetore off tje baby’sfalse frock that stoleaway ThirdPious Man : I speakthrough my nose. I’m the attention. Thereupon she showed her child to many sure he likes that. people, and asked with her eyes :- FourthPious Man : Ibore myself everySunday in “HOWdo you like my child, my treasure, my all?” his honour. One of the many said :- FifthPious Man : I breakfastwith Ezekiel. “Indecent.” Sixth Pious Man : I read a book every day, that not Theothers saidnothing. They had not understood a soul can make head or tail of. If that’s not enough the mother’s question, and did not see the child. for hilm, all I can say is that he wants a good deal. That troubled Ameleia She became reconciled with SeventhPious Man : That’s allwrong. The right Poietes, whoeagerly agreed. And she called herself way to get him ina good temperis to builda large Parable as before, and adorned her child as of old. house, and once a week to assemble there and listen to “Ah,”she cried, “now after all they will see the something that you know just as well as the one who frock and the pretty stripes and the ribbons ! Perhaps tells it, and that you understand just as little as he does.. in the endthey will pay heed to mychild, and find it Eighth Pious Man : I’m always calling out that I’m more beautiful than its adornment. ”-(“Ideen,” Nos. a wretchedcreature, unfitfor anygood. That ought 79-84 to impress him pleasantly. A VERY STALE JOKE. Professor Z wasfriendly with Ninth Pious Man : I sup four times a year in broad apothecary Y. He invitedhim to his house to tea, in daylight. a note that got lost. The finder knew the flourish in the 702 signatureand deciphered therest. He found init a virtuous, leaped on the back of the stubborn man, mcE remedy againstcramp inhorned cattle Nowsome- dragged him downuntil his head reached the level of thingthat is no stale joke. No daypasses, on which Patagonian worthiness. And he who bore all Patagonia the Public do not surprise me by an explanation of my on his shoulders without becoming virtuous, was put in writing, even more foolish than Professor Z’s recipe.- the pillory with a tablet on which was written a Pata (“Ideen,” No 95.) Patagonian word,whose real meaning was :--“This man stood in Pigmy’s way.” “Child, do you know where your father is?” ‘‘No.” This word is translated into our language as : pride. -(“Ideen,” No. 109.) “Ha, ha, ha. . . he has no father !” The child began to cry. And I understood its crying. There is something malicious in the alpha privans of the Aristophanes or Tailharde ? word atheist. By T. L. I know not, reader,whether you are a manor a K. woman. THERE are people whc, become bitter at the mention of I doubt theexistence of sea-serpentsand political Tailharde. ‘These are they that cherish the remnants of honesty. hero-worship. Tailharde has limpidly claimed to be the I deny the return of yesterday. modernAristophanes : hence hatred of Tailharde. I Those who “know” often confuse the words I have comfortthese gratuitous friends of the Greek. Con- underlined. And the confusionis totheir advantage. sideryour Aristophanes bellowing with passion at the Clearness in expression, gentlemen ! indignities of life in decadent Athens. Tailharde, in de- cadent Paris-grins, my good fellow ! Why, Aristo- When you hear an individual talking about principles phanes himself was a hot-bloodedhero-worshipper. . . . . be cautious. You rememberhis rage at Cleon : When you hear a statesmantalking about systems Witness,ye deities ! witnesshis blasphemies ! . . . . becautious. You to compare with Themistocles ! you ! When you hear a theologiantalking about dogmas Tailharde would content himself with two double- . . . . becautious.-(“Ideen,” Nos. 98--100.) entendresagainst the chiefest low rogue in Paris. Hc If the existence of God is to be proved from Nature matcheshis art with the Athenian’s.Pardonnez moi ! we have to depend upon “ ists”and “ ians,”and th’e I profess to seeMonsieur Tailhardewith eyeseven conceptions of God depend upon aspeck in thelens moreclear than his own. He resembles Aristophanes. of the microscope, upon theerror of a millimetre in Granted. Rut Frenchmanthe forgets price to the graduation of a thermometer oranother meter hismodernity. Weare too mucharrives nowadays upon the iron in the neighbourhood of a compass, upon daysto compare so preciselywith theancients. You incorrectly calculated refraction, upon defective achro- mustcome at leastto Catullus for thebeginning of achromatism in a spy-glass, upon,upon. . . . our modern vast large virtue of enjoying the decline of Upon goodness knows what in. power. Tailharde, bless us, guzzles(he would Sirins is so many miles away, so : God is great. approvetheword) therot of his nation.The, Infusoria hold converse with other infusoria,, who under- Greekvomited to behold his. Thereaccounts stand and grasp what is said, so : God is great. the difference in theirrespective styles. Both This fish has a fin that enables it to make a turn with an employ the“presentative” method, the statement of angle of --’--.--~00000,O degrees, so : God is great fact. But where the one fails frequently, led away from All this has beendiscovered by Professor A, Doctor the bare object by his personal opinion, the other never B, and Anatomist C, and these threeGod-serving swervesfrom the native excellent fact.Aristophanes natural scientists are the theologians of the day. will rave you throughforty lineswith some boresome Onthe following day it turnsout. Ibis, some anathema of one or other forgotten traitor. ThatSirius is one mile further away : God is n wile Tailhardeknows that traitors are simplyobjects. If- greater. he wrote of a traitor you would never guess his attitude That the infusoria have been wrongly understood : God is towards all traitors. Becausehe has no attitude ! He wrongly understood. nameshis object. Hepresents it. He makes nocom- That this fish is less agile than was supposed, and for 3 turnit requires an angle with anought less inthe ment. Hewashes his hands of theories. He doesnot decimal : There is n nought less in the decimal of the attempt to justify or condemn anybody’s ways to any-. estimation of God. body or anything else. He isopen to all facts and im- If, nevertheless, I want to dreamand guess and pressions. Now howdoes he compare with Aristo- ponderover what I do not know, I keepin with the phanes? dreamy,old-fashioned theology. Thestudy of Nature Torevile the vile has ever been accounted just and. is the best study, but nothing can be learned from it . . right. exceptNature, that is, everything. And for the very That is opinionative-Greek ! In modernParis, we reason that God is outside everything,he cannot be don’t revile the vile. We grinat the bourgeois. We learned from nature.-(“Ideen,” No. 102.) catalogue such human objects as the excitable call vile, butour most strenuous criticism is our passing grin I will tell you how humility came into the world. atthe bourgeois. Inthe followingverse Tailharde Pygmy was small of stature, but he liked to look over approaches this sort of criticism : other people’s heads. He managed that rarely, because Upon the little pleasure-boats he was so terribly small. The common people crowd and stuff, He wentabout travelling, and sought peoplewho Withtheir kids whose nose they wipe, weresmaller than he was,but he didnot find them. But do not wipe enough. But his desire, to peep over the heads of others, became Personshave objected that childrenand their little more acute and more ardent. frailties are not decently to be made objects of derision. He came to Patagonia, where the people are of such Tailharde,that unabashed, unashamed poet, cares a size that a child can look over its father’s head imme- nothing for decency. Whatis decency tohim? An diately after its birth. abstraction ! Heis only interestedin Facts. Hear Pygmy didnot like that . . . in another. But him on the irrefutable fact unobscured by comment : through despair of finding people who were smaller than The ugly womenwho unravel sonatas himself,he hit on a plan. He inventeda virtue, which Come out of Erard’s the concert ended, prescribed as its first principle :-He who is taller than And on the greasy curb they jostle Phryne, Pygmy must bow down beneathPygmy’s level of vision. Offering for the best offer the gold of her false hair. And the novelty caughton. All thePatagonians were They- come from hearing Ladislas Talapoint virtuous. If anybody, by walkingupright, sinned The Hungarian pianist praised by “ Le Figaro.” against the “first principles” of Pygmy’s virtue, he was This is what is called “rendering one’s own time in the punished in acurious way. All thatwere humped and terms of one’sown time.” The very best I cancull 703 fromAristophanes is moreambiguous than the above obliged to use double-entendre,for he dealt with sub- clear statement, is mixed with angry irony, adulterated jects thatmight easilyhave involved hishead ! He by unconcealablecontempt and hatred of sham which was attacking-and attacking men of supreme political almostdestroy one’s calm view of the objects. power. M. Tailhardeuses double-entendre because he Demosthenes meets with the Sausage-Seller whom he wills. It occurs to him while he coolly amuses himself urges to supplant Cleon as ruler of Athens : with his grocer and the fat nuns who ride in omnibuses. s. s. : When Aristophanessavagely depicted an Athenian in Are there any means of making a great man the act of buying fish in the Agora,- the audience knew Of a sausage-selling fellow such as I? their eel well enough : its tail was in the pocket of some Dem. : politicaljobber ! Thecurrent slang, in fact, smelled Alas ! But why do ye say so? What’sthe meaning all of politics. M. Tailharde also employs the slang of Of these misgivings? I discern within ye A promise and an inward consciousness his time ; but without temper or politics. Of greatness.Tell me truly : are ye allied La demoiselle a mis un chapeau rouge vif. To the families of gentry? It need not arouse any comment-“Theyoung lady s. s.: has put on a vivid red bonnet.” Only the young lady Naugh, not I; I’m come from a common ordinary kindred, might mildly blush to find h‘l. Tailharde here employing Of the lower order. thecatchword popular thirty years agoamong the Dem. : “dogs” of Paris,from whom it descendedto the What a happiness ! Lycees whereno doubt Tailharde pickedit up, in- What a footing it will give ye ! What a groundwork differently. For confidence and power at your outset ! Of courseit isnot thatTailharde neveranywhere s. s. : expresses a predilection. In sacrificing upon thealtar But bless ye ! only consider my education ! of that profoundand delicate genius, MarcelSchwob, I can barely read . . . in a kind of way. he appears to choose the offering : Dem. : That makes against ye !--the only thing against ye- Too much stockfish and copious lentils- The being able to read in any way : Sole refection of the faithful- For now, no lead or influence is allowed Adorn with edifying belches To liberal arts or learned education, The constipation of the spiritual. But to the brutal, base, and under-bred. Natheless, you will be hard put to it to discover whether you may call this “rendering one’s time in the terms of Monsieur Tailharde feels delight or repulsion through- one’stime,” but it ismuch too much more thanjust out his clarified statement of his own time-or, rather, that. It is also rendering one’s time in the terms of one’s of so much of it as he elects to enshrine in his pleasing own opinions, these opinions happening here to be held anderudite poems. with analmost visibly throbbinganger. I havemen- tioned Catullus as better comparable than Aristophanes withTailharde. But evenCatullus wanders from the object. Hispoetic dictionfrequently needs to be clari- Art. fied. Tailharde’sdiction is as plain asthe commonest Raw Materialat the Dudley Galleries. gossip. It is what may be called the “prose tradition” Anthony Ludovici, of poetry. What?It maynot be called anythingof By M. therubbishy sort ! My friend, you areindulging in a IN the love of the immature and of the unhandseled so personalopinion? what ? I am reckoningprose like prevalent in England to-clay, there is a certain hostility Moliere’s bourgeoishero who discovered that hehad toculture and civilisation which isas morbid as it is been speakingprose all his life ! Perhaps I am, per- dangerous.The delight which the common orgarden hapsIam not. What?Poetry is atotally different English girl, woman, man or youthlet, feels at the sight art from prose, and is never to be confounded with or of an uncouth landscape of tangled brushwood, bracken, mistakenfor prose ! Well,to quiet you, I replywith brambles and rocks, has, as Schiller pointed out a cen- the simpleundeniable factthat ever so muchof my tury ago, a moral and not an aesthetic valuation at its numerous friends’poetry has actually been mistaken back It is delight in the presence of chaos, of anarchy, for prose ! I can’t help it if this age of ours is resolved or over a lack of restraint, design or ‘purpose. But this tomake prose-poetry.merelyI statethe fact. You is obviously a delight in the very reverse of the pillars mayscream hoarse about the stupendous genius” of of culture and civilisation. It denotes a mental attitude Aristophanes, and hiss Tailharde for his paltry “Cock- which isdecidedly unfriendly’ to order,to a set plan ney talent.” You will getthe success of thosewho and,above all, to thehand of man.It betrays a bar- argue that the “great satirists’’ attacked morals while barian’s loathing .of any principle which would be more theothers concernthemselves only withmanners. powerful than Hobbes’ famous “bellum omnium contra You will get sucha success ; but you will not, there- omnes,” and which would controlthis eternal ding- fore,disturb the pens of poetswho, above all things, dongpurposeless battle. At thepresent day seven- abhora mission. We proceed. HearTailharde on the eighths of so-called cultured English people, who throw Louvre, aptly catching the spirit of picture-galleries : up their hands in horror at the unbridleddeeds of the Thesetourists wear waterproofs yellowish-grey, women suffragists,are yet foolish and muddle-headed With half-boots such as voyagers put on ; enough to admire andenjoy the veryprinciple of dis- In front of Rubens, Rembrandt, and Watteau order in theirattitudes towards nature. Artistically They halt to consult Guide John. they are anarchists and barbarians ; but as Art has been I absolutelycannot find anything in Aristophanesto emasculated and made an innocuous pastime with which comparewith this forsheer uncommentated fact. He evenlittle schoolgorls can play, it is assumed that you will beforever at hisopinions. can be an anarchist or a barbarian in the matter of pic- Then thestripling, their accuser fresh from training, tures, or in the matter of your taste in scenery, without bold andquick, in the least involving yourself in any serious charge of Pleadsin person, fencing, sparring, using every turn and trick ; wishing tosubvert society. We havegrown so reck- Grapplingwith the feeble culprit,dragging him to lesslystupid that we imaginethat a moral attitude dangerous ground, which condones anarchyand chaos in scenery or in Into pitfalls of dilemmas, to perplex him and confound. Artcan have no bearing on our attitude towards life. It is no use seeking for barefact in Aristophanes ; But of courseit has. It is one andthe same thing and for thisreason I opine that Monsieur Tailharde with our attitude towards life. And if we see this love doesnot belong on the Greek shelf. Even what these of theuncouth, of theuncultivated and of rude, un- two poets really have in common-the double entendre ,handseled natureprevalent to-day, we knowprecisely -each employs in such singularly distinct fashion that why we seeit. We know as surely as if the fact were comparison is nearlyvalueless. Aristophanes was writtenup in largeletters before us, thatit isnot a 704 mere coincidence, but a necessary result of the modern which dumbfoundsand exasperates sucha thinker, barbarian attitude towards everything. however, is to find that great, big, full-blown nabobs of Now what applies tothe love of rude,unhandseled thePress, men who dareto callthemselves critics, Nature also applies to the undue love and exaltation of guides of public opinion, and men of taste, should have children.Schiller, quite theprofoundest theof the impudence to puta line topaper withouthaving Romantic School, saw this as well, and, after shoving dreamt ofsuch things ; without havingever imagined that a sentimental elevation of rude Nature has for its that such things were ! roota dislikeof, or a lack of faithin, culture and in For, theworst aspect of thegeneral tendency to man, he proceeds : “That is why the feeling that makes admireand court the immature in England,from the us cleave toNature is so clearly allied to thatother undue adulation of the infant to the frenzied censing of feeling which induces us to regret the vanished age of the flapper, is the loss of caste, and with it the loss of childhood, together with childhood’s innocence (‘ ‘ Ueber order and of proper discipline in the education of child- naiveund sentimentale Dichtung.” Edit. 1838. p. 189). hood, which this worst of all kinds of barbarian madness It is an exaltation of the immature and of +heinchoate, brings in its train. implying a distrustand a dislike of themature An instance of this prevalent vice isafforded by the or of that which hasform and oftenfailure in ridiculous prostrateattitude of the highlyrespectable maturity.It is therefuge of cowards in any age in Press, before the work of Daphne Allen at the Dudley which cultureand civilisation arebeginning to show Galleries. signs of being badly managed, or it may simply be the Put all suspicion of captiousness aside, ye gentlemen unalterable attitude of the sentimentalist. In a country of the Press, from Sir Claude Phillips downwards, and like England, however, it may be evenless than that; listen to me, as man to man ! I leave to you the enter- it may simply be the hereditary love of a nation of manu- lainment of fault-findingforfault-finding’s sake. facturers for rawmaterial. Heaven knowsthat there are enough errors strewn In completelyanyis case it hopeless. You along the path which you tread, for me to be able to dis- cannotcure bad maturity by exaltingmere im- pense with a magnifying glass when calling attention to maturityto the clouds.However ghastlyour failure them. Why, then, should I be left alone to protect this asadults maybe, thesheer potentiality for any- unfortunatechild, Daphne Allen and, in herperson, thing-which constitutes the essence of the child-does all themore or less gifted children of England, from notthereby become a fit object for worship. Again on your deadlydrooling embrace? It isbad enough that thispoint, Schiller, as one of thesechild-worshippers, a pack of hydrocephalous and gushing adults should be was perfectlyclear and straightforward. If only every- found to every attractive or moderately talented child in body who shares his views would be as upright as he is, theBritish Isles, and when theseadults happen to be we should be able toargue with thesewretches, and parents one can at least pity if not forgive their foolish- showthem where they stand. In explainingwhat he ness. But when a lot of grown-up men, with Sir Claude conceived to bethe essential charm of childhood, Phillips at their head, join their hymns of praise to the Schiller, in theessay already quoted,says : “Our rest,and write pompously aboutthis child’s nursery childhood is theonly example of ungarblednature productions, as if they really constituted a serious event (unverstummelte Natur)that we are stillable to find in theart world,it is time toprotest, for, in such a in culturedhumanity.” Thus, the mere lack of this case we cannotunfortunately set motion in the “garbling”or cultivation, becomes in hiseyes some- machinery of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty thingcharming. This is, in fact,his chief groundfor to Children--the cruelty here is too subtle, too remotely admiringthe child. And itis the chief ground of all tragic and disastrous, to pierce the thick skulls of this those of the present day who unconsciously follow his Society’s officials. And even if this cruelty affected only example.Obviously it involves a negativeatticude to- one individual in the person of Daphne Allen, one would wards man’s culture, and seeks its solace in the canonical readilylet itpass. But it is onlyone instance in a sation of themere absence of culture.But even if we million. Incompetenceand stupidity is so general, so grant that there are just reasons for disliking .modern asphyxiatinglycommon nowadays, that the smallest civilisation,surely this pig-headed worship of its spark of anything a little above it, is stamped flat. absence alone, is the most futile and undignified escape Letme tellthose adults who are connectedwith from the dilemma ! Daphne Allen, and who are perhaps as concerned as I To console yourself in the wholehearted adoration of am about the proper duties of adults to children, what mere potentialities,simply because there is still the I conceive to be the truth about her. Ignore what Sir ClaudePhillips says, do notpay any heed either to element of the unknown and of the hopeful about them, thoseother peoplewho, however kindly, tell you that is obviously thestupidest thing sf all. manwho, A Daphne Allen is “a potential Turner,”or that “the after ascending a steep hill from a sweet valley, found talent displayed is perhaps a matter for psychologists as himself beset on all sides with difficulties of an alarming much as forcritics” (“Sunday Times”). Comparing nature, would certainly be suspected of nothingshort this work of hers, which I have now carefully examined of lunacy,, if he sat down and smilingly contemplated for twoyears running, with the work even of talented the rest of his days the valley he had just left behind children (in the same line), there is nothing surprising, him. Butthis is practicallythe positionassumed by nothingwonderful about it. Thirteenor fourteen-it the sentimentalworshipper of theimmature, and all does not matter ! Believe me I have seenbetter work that it involves. And once more we find Schiller almost by children just as young, who never did anything ex- self-sacrificingly honeston this point. He says we are traordinary in later life. Beforeshe is anything like a charmed by children “not because welook down upon th,e goodadult painter or draughtsman she will haveto child from the height of our power and our perfection ; undergo a most severe training, and she has only got butbecause we look up fromthe narrowness of our seven yearsto do it in. I donot wish todiscourage state (which is inseparable from the fixedness to which poor little Daphne Allen. In fact I hope she will not see we have attained) to the unlimited potentialities of the this notice,until, perhaps,ten years hence; for itis child.” This, however,is obviously theattitude only difficult even for a nice child to listen patiently to her of the impotent and cowardly failure (not necessarily in only apparently hostilecritic. I should,however, like material things), who buries his head in the sand rather the adults about her to see it. Let them take care not than readjust his life, which he has bungled or ruined. to ruin this child and all like her. Let them prevent her All these things are perfectly clear. Every thinker of from squandering her strength before her very bud has any statusat allknows them longbefore he reads a even formed. Let them help her to husband her powers, page of Schiller, andhowever valuableSchiller’s in- to study, to be protected from the poisonous hot breath genuous confession may be to him, as a confirmation of of the ignorant adulator, and in seven years, not less, his worst suspicions, it is not exactly a pre-requisite for let us begin to talk seriously about her work and discuss his indictment of the miserable gang, less honest than it withproper self-possession and composure. All the Schiller, who nevertheless hold that poet’s views. That rest is sentimental madness. 705

ofthe value of “the capacityfor greatness.” Besides, Drama. we remember that Mr. Shawmade his GeneralBur- By John Francis Hope. gyne say, in ‘‘Th’e Devil’sDisciple” : Martyrdom, sir, is whatthese people like. Itis the only way in I BELIEVE that MissLillah McCarthy followed Miss which aman can become famous without ability.’’ It MaudJeffries in thepart of Mercia in “TheSign of is known thatthe Christians, in many cases, rushed the Cross. ” Thatwas a longtime ago, but“the to the courts, without waiting for accusers, and called whirligig of time brings in hisrevenges” ; forshe is upon the magistrates to inflict the sentence of the law. now Lavinia in “Androcles and the Lion,” and it is im- “Unhappy men,” said thle proconsulAntoninus to, the possible to avoid the conclusion that Mr. Shawhas Christians of Asia, “if you are thus weary of your lives, written only aparody of WilsonBarrett’s “master- is it so difficult for you to find ropes and precipices?” piece.” It is a little amusing to remember howminis- Whatever Mr. Shawputs into the mouth of Lavinia, ters of religion gave handsometestimonials tothat matters nothing : the Roman captain tells her that she play ; andto notice how ministers of religion are is not being persecuted, she is committing suicide ; and dividedin opinion about Mr. Shaw’sparody of it. So the martyrdom is really the joke of the play. There is officially and officiously Christianwas the welcome norattling of bonesbehind a closed door but Andy- given to“The Sign of theCross” that, in 1896, Mr. Wandy dances off arm-in-armwith a pantomime lion. G. W., Foote,the President of theNational Secular Martydomis ridiculous,now as ever, in th,e eyes of Society,published “a candidcriticism” of it. If many Mr. Shaw ; and, in thecase of Lavinia, as in that of more clergymen clasp Mr. Shaw to their bosom as the Mercia, it is undoubtedly presumptuous. Rev. R. J. Campbell has done, I suppose that we shall If Mr. Shawmeans anything else, he will haveto have from Mr. Foote a candid criticism of “Androcles reconstruct his play. If heidentifies himself withthe andthe Lion.”Certainly, it would serve Mr. Shaw argumentativepassages of the play, then he admits right, for a parody that does not define the thing paro- himself incapable of dramatisinghis ownconception. died has failed in its function of criticism.Wilson The whole action ishalted while thisscene is being Barrettwas precise enough in hisstatement of the played and the scene itself is so frivolously conceived meaning of his play : “My heroine,” he said, “is em- that I despair of the intelligence that can regard it as blematic of Christianity ; my hero stands for the worn- acontribution tothought Mr.Shaw’s reminiscences out paganism of decadent Rome.” But what does Mr. of HydePark are alone apparent in thisscene The Shawmean by “Androcles”?Not he, nor any other Roman captain makes a speech, and is heckled by the clergyman,can tell you. If itis taken seriously, as Christian’ prisoners. As theRoman captain, is not the Rev. Mr. Campbell takesit, as a re-statement of only pledged to obey orders, but is incapable ‘of think- the essentials of religion, then Mr. Shaw will say that ingback t,o first principles, andLavinia only tries to he meant the play to be so, understood ; if it is regarded make him do so tosave herself from thre pantomime as a parody, Mr. Shaw will say that he meant it as a lilon, there is no drama in the scene and no profundity parody. If hesays both, he has only totalk alittle in thethought. A sentimentalappeal disguised as an aboutthe mystical nature of reality,the dual appre- intellectualone isalways limited by itspurpose; and hension of facts which makes paradox the language of thethought is necessarily sophistical mysticism, to convinceevery clergymanthat he is in Butthe very defects of the play oughtto convince the confidence of theUniverse. Well, well, healways even Mr. Shaw that he is not serious about it. I know was George Barnum Shaw, the greatest Shaw on earth. that, as a matter of historical fact, Androcles although Iam not goingto play at metaphysicswith Slr. having previously lived on friendlyterms with a lion, Shaw : the black hat is not there in “Androcles.” Be- was terrified when he faced the lion in th,e arena.But sides, art is a showing forth, an expression, and if the Mr. Shawmakes his Androcles almost a professional finished work does not show forth the authors meaning, tamer of animals; before he enters the arena, be talks he proclaims himself as a bad artist. The end of “The of the friends he has had among wild animals, of how Sign of theCross” mayhave been forgotten by some th,ey understood themeaning of kindness, and so on. of my readers; so I will just remind them that Marcus Why, th,en, Androcles terror of the lion a few moments Superbus becomesa Christian and a martyr because afterwards? It is not consonant with thecharacter of Merciarefuses to save her life byrecanting. “Thus, Androclesas shown byMr. Shaw, either before or hand in hand, we go to our bridal. There is no death afterthe meeting with the lion in thearena. The forus, for Christus hath triumphed over death. Our real explanation of it is that it is a bit of fat for the love will give usvictory over the grave. Come thou, actor,as the phrase goes.This explanation is power- my Mercia, my bride indeed, come to thse light beyond.” fully supported by one of the grosses defects of stage Thus he spouted, and they twain passed into the arena ; management in this scene. Androcles entersthe thegates ,clangedbehind them,and there was heard passage-way to th’e arenaand passes the gates; the therattle of bones on theground. Obviously, sucha scene is reversed amd we see Androcles again entering death could not be witnessed by an audience ; anything tbepassageway and passing the gates. The same approaching the reality wouId be too horrible to, behold. thing happens when Androcles dances off with the lion, Butthe idea of martyrdomwas at least seriously andthe scene is againreversed. Why? Simply for treated ; there was provoked in the spectator the genuine tbe stage effect of a long walk. feeling of horror at the form of death, and of admiration Indeed not merely the whole conception of the play, tion at the courage which faced it serenely. but the treatment ofiat, makes it impossible to believe But if the martyrdom is exhibited, thewhole character that it is other than a parody. Dramatically,at least, of the play is altered. obvisouly areal hungry lion martyrdom. mustbe accompanied by persecution. cannotbe allowed on the stage; and to substitutean Wilson Barrett was a better dramatist than Mr Shaw animal actor means only that Androcles is afraid to face in this respect his Tigellinus, although mlore akin to a a pantomime lion. Whatis the value of Lavinia’s Christian,Inquisitor than aRoman, was the proper blather about dying for je ne sais quoi (“I really don’t dramaticantagonist of th,e Christians.But Mr. Shaw know,”she says, “unless it is for God.” “What is in his treatment of th,e Romansismore accurate God?” she is asked. “Ah, if we knew that we should historically thanWilson Barrett, and less dramatic. become as God ourselves ”) whenall thatawaits His Romans are continually arguing with the Christians them in the arena is Mr. Edward Sillward, made up to not tto b.e obstinate, but to burn the pinch of incense; look like a lion? As a serious treatment of the idea of nobody wants to kill them and why should they mm- martyrdom, Mr. Shaw has reacheda non sequitur ; if, mit suicide and so forth? At thelast, as I have as Mr. Campbell says,“in Androcles and the Lion’ shown, Mr. Sh.aw takes away even the idea of God SO Mr.Shaw has tried toillustrate the fact that when thatthere is absolutely no antagonism between the people are willing to sufferand sacrifice foran ideal two sets of characters on the question of religion. Both they are exhibiting a capacity for greatness, ’i he ridi- are really worshipping th,e unknown God; andthe ridiculous end to which they come in the play is a denial martyrdom resolves itself into the determination to die. 706

At the last, the Emperor pardons the lot of them, and YOU know the truth, you can see the truth; say if the onceagain we see Mr. Shaweliminating the very truth be there, essentials of drama,and calling the result “a play.” Or dip Your flag to 3 slaver’s rag and show that his trade To take the thing seriously is t,o be bored to death to is fair! regard it as a parody is to be able to spend as pleasant They buy your books and they praise your books ; do they an evening as is possible at a Barker production. The read your books at all, amateur character tbe whole affair is emphasised by of These stolid fools of the public schools ? I’ve heard YOU the preceding “ Harlequinade,” which is planned to harry them all, ‘instruct the audience, in a manner suited to its intelli- When Thomas sangto your guiding hand, while the gence, in the real meaning of th,e harlequinadeThat adders hissed in the sun, hje instruction is conveyed by a young girl, in language When Tomlinson went down toHell and his life was befittingher age,is a commentary on Mr. Barker’s barely begun. estimate of the intelligence of his audience. Have you sold yourself for your stomach’s sake ? You’ve reached thefattening time. Have YOU foundthat flattery drugs your speech and tickles your drowsy prime? Pastiche. Must I call you parasite, rogue and knave, you whom my soul adores ? TO RUDYARD KIPLING Have you headed me into an open grave, you whom my “Will they give me their fee when they reach the quay? mind abhors ? (Shoal ! ’ware shoal !) Not they !” You know the truth, you can see the truth; say if the truth be there, And his disciple saidunto him- Shall I call youparasite, fool orknave, you whom my Or dip your flag to a slaver’s rag and show that his trade is-fair ! soul adores ? J. A. M. A. You have led my steps to an open grave, you whom my mind abhors. CONSCIENCE. YOU know the truth, you call see the truth ; say if the truth be there, I was tempted;the fall was imminent;then I dis- Or dip your flag to a slaver’s rag and show that his trade covered I had a conscience. Never untilthen had I is fair! suspected it ; even now I doubt it. A new journal, desirous of obtaining information (and Where the smoke oi an hundred fetid towns drops grit copy) at a small cost, offered two guineasfor the best on the open air, essayon one’s life. The civil servant,the miner, the Where the barren earth lies pitted and scratched, agape male teacher, the hurdy-gurdy man, all had their chance at the swooning air, of a golden prize. Two guineas,and the holidaysap- Where the glint of the sun on rustling corn, the glow of proaching ! Why, it was enough to tempt Saint Thomas the sun on the fields himself. I borrowed a few back numbers-oh, what satire, IS the myth of a thousand years ago, a myth and the gall for they must always have been back numbers !-to study it yields- thestyle required. This is a hint acquiredfrom the There men rise to the hooting dawn ancl sweat through Correspondence School for Capturing Literary Prizes : I: the pallid day, charge nothing for it, though it may have cost me some- And straggle home to a shuttered night that shivers in thing. A glance at each, and I looked up my list of plati- filthy grey , tudes and cliches Fondly I had hoped they were recorded Looming vast as a pall is cast to shroud the rot of the only to be discarded. But now I saw I mustagain use dead, them if I wished to handle those guineas. Hooded and black with crooked back as sickness watching I took“The Male Teacher’’ asmy theme ; there was a bed. no reason why I might not have taken “The Signalman You know the truth, you can see the truth ; say if the “The Male Teacher,” with its quaint title, arrested me. truth be there, Male ! That word wrecked myhopes as I repeated the Or dip your flag to a slaver’s rag and show that his‘ trade title. It aroused my conscience in some way and made is fair! the writing- of laudatorysentences impossible. What could be the esteem behind the mere zoological classifica- Where men drift fettered from life to death, fettered and tion ? But to my work I turned Thephrases came fancy-free, easily at first,for I had been reading sane speeches of Where men sit blinded withleering lies, ticketed, bold the Minister of Educationand of his leader, the Lord and. free, Chancellor. I was imbued with the glowing praise until Where tinkered gold gives knavery hold on market and 1 heard the ironicchuckle runningthrough the mock mineand pier, promises,. Mockery ! Why,that sort of writing would And a score of rabble to work the same and learn that never mn. Thenthe machinewas geared toanother their wage is dear- pace and could out the old familiar phrases. ‘The most There were you set and your eyes were set on the utter- wonderful profession in the world numbers in its ranks most ends of the earth thousands of devoted, selfless men and women. . . . ” As you watched an empire caught in the pain and mess And conscience whispered : “Males and females.” The of an afterbirth : sentencehalted, stumbled, and fell ! I began anew.. Do you wonder still, do you understand why the English “These people” (conscience was baulked !) “mould the don’t understand ? characters of sevenmillion children every year. They Can you chatter to slaves of a hot-head love, love for an train them in habits of independence and self-reliance.” unseen land ? I paused : the sentence was safelyplatitudinous. all You know the truth, you can see the truth; say if the was well. My mind was. playinground “independence” truth be there, to enlarge the paragraph-I had 2,000 words to spin on Or dip your flag to a slaver’s rag and show that his trade the title-when there arose a vision of startling truth. is fair ! This was it. Of independence in the scholastic profes- sion there is none. The subjects areset by an outside YOUhave given life to our boundary strife : you live at groupwithout reference to the “profession.” Methods the centre now- of training are outlined by the same external authority Colour you’ve cast on the magical past : you live in the as a suggestion, not to be slavishly followed. Inspectors, present now- also externally trained and appointed, come round to see will YOU rouse yourself, will you hear your voice, shoddi- there is no deviation from the “suggestions.” The hints ness twice refined, become law. If some new fad is originated byanother Indolence purged by an equal sloth, or--twirl in thescorn- external group of cranks, and an inspector becomes inocu- ful wind? lated, then the teachers in his, area are forced to adopt the There’s never a cry goes landward now, hut wails for our new subject.Teachers arethe broody hensperpetually English dead ; clucking over the addled eggs of all the old cacklers in There’s never a call spins seaward now, but homes to OUT the country. English dad. Thesethoughts flitted past andleft me helpless. My From London docks to our dusty gain, our map that is idea of independence was wrecked and the paragraph was half-unrolled ruined. Why attempt to inculcate independence when the YOUmay hear the curse at our tender nurse, our Lady teacher’s hands. are tied and his brain clamped to placid of Gelded Gold. obedience? Whyspeak of self-reliance when the whole 707 profession depends on externals for ideas ? 1 groaned for the hypocrisy. And my paragraph lay fragmentary LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. A daylater I had another try. “Everyman’s” two SINGLE TAX. guineas should be mine, I swore. Here was I, a graduate of the Correspondence School for CapturingLiterary Sir,-Mr. Fels does not appearto me to have fairly Prizes,unable to compile a collection of cliches in the answered your criticisms of hisletters. His case as accepted manner Their first rule is : “Smother your con- against yours was to prove that wages could be raised by science,” and mine, certified smothered, was triumphant. the operation of the Single-tax; but in my judgment he I began on thetheme of “Soul-moulding,”braving the hasfailed to make it. In its economic aspect and from hint to spell the word “mouldering.” At last words fitted Mr. Fels’ own point of view, the Single-tax is only the together as ordered in Instruction Book 5. “See him means of transferring monopoly rent from theprivate there shaping the destinies of those nascent minds. The owners to the State; it is, in fact, the nationalisation, by patient teacher regards each one as anentity, and, by gradualtaxation, of economic rent.But as you per- correlating studies, he is moulding the young characters.” tinently ask, what difference does it make to the prole- Damn Le Bon andhis ‘‘ Psychology of Peoples.’’ His tariat whether rent is paid to Peter or to Paul, so long as grin upset all the piffle I had just written, and a phrase it must be obtained from the surplus of proletariat pro- of THE NEW AGEcompleted my discomfiture. No educa- duction over proletariatsubsistence? That it makesno tion is possible so long as the classes contain sixty chil- difference to the wage earner whether his rent is paid to dren,said thatjournal; and I knew it was true. Each an individual, a corporation or the State is as clear as the child an entity ! The only entity is the crowd of scared, corresponding fact that it similarly makes no difference mentally-starved, dulling children.Curse the two whether Interest and Profits are paid to any one of these guineas ! I tore up my paper and went out. In the street three. As I understood youranalysis of the Wage was a puppytrying to catch itstail ! C. H. C. System, you contend that the surplus value of industry, extractedby Land and Capital operating on Labour zs a commodity, alone provides Rent, Interest and Profits; TO MY LOVE. and you propose to absorb all these in Labour by creating I met thee first upon an evening rare; a Labour monopoly. Mr. Fels, on the other hand, would The world before was grey, of pleasure bare. simplytransfer the title deeds of one of thesethree, Its dismal look I had no cause to blame, namely,Rent, to theState, leaving the other two still When, uninvited, you full on me came. to be enjoyed by the monopolists of Capital. Collectivists, Not at your manners had I need to carp; I believe, of whom Mr. R. B. Kerr appears to be a sur- your speech was firm andfull of candour sharp; vivor, would go further thanMr. Fels and transfer to the And,egotistic, should your charms I mark, State bothInterest and Profit as well. But,again, your You entertained me in your parlour dark. question ispertinent : how muchbetter off is Labour provided it continues to be paid as a commodity for all There in the dusk we hid a common smile; the change in the personnel of its employers ? The State I earned your love by simple wooer’s guile. under the new circumstances would be in loco not All blind with passion, this I understand, parentis,but capitalis.There might be more public I gave unto your own my friendship’s hand. officialsand even State-providedamusements, and so As pure of heart was I of virtue chaste, forth; but I cannot see that wages would rise. Perhaps Though evening light you thoughtfit not to waste; Mr. Fels will explain. FREDERICKTaylor But many words of mine now cut my spleen; *** Glad am I that your face then not was seen. THE EVASIONS OF MR. FELS. Sir,-I can easily understand your reason for not carry- Your sweetest love T thought that I had gained, ing on yourcontroversy with Mr. Fels.He positively Hut found that your reluctance more me pained, cannot repeat accurately the simplest of your statements, When knowing you but wished to be my friend, andthat renders discussion withhim futile. Neverthe- I yearned the plague of love would soon me end. less, Mr. Fels and his Single Tax colleagues are so per- Then low in mind I sought a weak excuse sistent and controversially so unscrupulous that if you let For making of your comradeship some use, the matter rest with Mr. Fels’s last letter we shall shortly Resolved to buy your love at this, the cost be told that you have been converted by his logic. I Of all the love which I for you had lost. therefore beg that you will permit me to follow Mr. Fels through some of his extraordinary tergiversations. Now into brain of mine a thought it walked; (i)First, a simpleand palpable misrepresentation. In More welcome sprite upon me neverstalked. his last letter Mr. Fels remarks : Two weeks ago YOU All lust for thee within me turned to hate, said rent was due to manuring and rotation of crops,” I With which I hurried from your tempting gate, could not bring myself to believe that you had written Before this having cast you all my spite anything so idiotic, and accordingly looked up the quota- For staying me when I a tome would write, tion. It is in your issue of September 18. The reference Which, treating of high wisdom’s proper nurse, ta manuring and periodic fallow is the obvious reply to a Called down on woman’s head man’s hearty curse. statement made by Mr. Fels that land does not reproduce itself. You answer : “Economically considered, land does Soon woman’s charms’ again bethralled my heart ; reproduce itself. . . . If it does not, why the necessity My logic had evolved another part ; for periodic fallow? . . . Ha’s Mr. Fels ever heard of For when the man he from his study creeps, manure?’’ It will be first noted that Mr. Fels does not His joy before the femalegrace it leaps. appear to know the difference between periodic fallow and Upon your. company once more I passed ; rotation of crops. One naturallyexpects that particular Thistime your welcome far the first surpassed, kind of ignorance from Single-taxers-but let that pass. For now I saw you in the light of day, The point is that you do not say that “rent was due to Which, bright as you, reflected you as gay. manuring and rotation of crops.” Mr. Fels, relying- upon your good nature, ascribes to you a statement you never made, apparently to make you look foolish. What does it “ My friend so dear,” you called me, speaking free, ‘‘ 1 would your equal than you sweetheart be.” make Mr. Fels look like ? (ii) In his last letter Mr. Fels charges you with defining ‘(Ay, friendship nobler ’ i than love,” I cried. ‘‘ The ways of love ,,re coarse,” you then replied. wages as “equalto the subsistence level of the pro- letariat.” He putsthese words in quotationmarks as “ Nay, love domestic is a dame so sweet, though it is your definition. And again he does it deliber- ’‘ That friendship oft,” I said, “ would kiss her feet.” I love her not, this foolish wife forlorn.” atelyto make you look foolish. I willquote him accu- ‘( rately to prove his mala-fides. He says : “You do not Your silly words quick drove me back to scorn. assist your readers to see through my alleged fallacies, for in discussing wages you substitute ameasure for a Now anxiously I hoped your mind would change ; definition. Just as thestatement that ‘a steamship is a Such vicious thought in woman mas too strange’; thousand feet long’ is no definition of a steamship, so it But, while in her should man he praise her grace, is no definition of wages. to say that wages are ‘equal to I saw upon your path a fury race; the subsistence level of the proletariat.’ ” Again I won- For, leaving parents’side, you followed man, dered if Mr. Fels had the slightest justification for pre- And now a merchant’s clerk, his work began, senting you to your own readers as a congenital idiot. When, seeing how your filthy wage you lust, Here areyour ipsissima verba : “But wages arenot a Your name I henceforth hear it with disgust. residue after other charges upon industry have been met ; CHARLESCUNNINGHAM. they are the cost of the raw material called labour. And 708 this cost is roughly equal to the cost of the production of October (6d.) is a long and, as I read it, an accurate sum- labour-that is to the subsistence level of the proletariat.” mary of the social proposals and analyses made familiar This gross perversion of your words is not accidental, as to your readers during the last year or two. The author thecontext of the words 1 havequoted clearly proves. is Mr. Rowland Kenney, who happens also to have just But worse remains to be told. If this had been your only published a book on the Railways in which he concludes definition of wages we might forgive Mr. Fels but you in favour of Guildisation.Reviewing this work, the could not have been more explicit. Mr. Fels, in fact, in “Times,” the “Athenaeum’’ and the “Daily Herald” each his letter in your issue of September 11 says : ‘‘You define mentions this proposal and names, with the author, THE wages asthe price paid inthe competitive marketfor NEW AGE as the journal in which it firstappeared. In- labour as a commodity If MI.. Fels misdescribed his deed, the “Daily Herald” is somewhat annoyed that Nr. own trade products as unscrupulously as he misquotes you Kenney should say that THENEW AGE is the only journal he would very soon find himself in jail. Now, is it you or now editoriallyexpounding the idea ; the supposition he who looks the more foolish ? being that the “Daily Herald” is also doing it. I do not (iv) I have merely to remark that these misrepresenta- suppose you will mind if that is the case; but I have to tionsare necessarily deliberate, because Mr. Fels relies warn you that the “Daily Herald” does not appear to be uponthem to makeout some sort of a case. Being de- quite firm on its new economic legs. Occasionally it liberate misquotations, they vitiate his whole argument. managesto walk straight, but every now andthen it (v) 1 have not yet completed the instances of Mr. Fels’s leans for assistance, not upon the economics of the Guild, falsification of your words. I quoteagain from his last but upon the “New Statesman”-a journal asinnocent, letter : “You contend that ‘the only obstacle to the use I believe, of economics as a new-laid egg. In the “Rail- of land isthe provision of capital.’ Thisis decidedly way Review” (September IS) a pseudonymous contributor Greek to me. Capitaliststo-day cannot get the use of has an interesting discussion of your phrase, “the cama- land; small-holders backed withthe public credit are raderie of the salariat and the wage earners’’ of the rail- denied independent living and are driven into the hands way system. This, he says, is not a new idea, for it was of the farmer at 12s. a week; a firm like Cammel, Laird popular in the service forty years ago. Since then, how- and Co. were driven from Newport ; builders at Wembley ever, the salariat, he thinks, has become a caste. On the were shown the other road when they offered ,&32,000 for otherhand, recent events at Aisgillsuggest to him,as land on which LIS were paid inrates.” I freelyadmit they did to you, that the two orders of railwaymen may that this twisting of your argument is not quite so dis- yetunite against the State, and form akind of Syndi- honest asthe twoprevious cases cited, but itis bad catist-Syndicalism Serve theState right, he says, for enough when faced with your exact words ancl their palp- having been so slow ! A discussion by ‘‘Q AT. G.” of the able meaning. now let me quote you : “Mr. Fels surely Guild System appears also in the Postal Clerks’ Herald. would not argue that capital would become less indispens- “Q. M. G.” does not, as he should, attempt to work out able to the employment of land if rent were nationalised ? the scheme in detail, but he approves of it in principle as On the contrary, capital would be no less necessary than “the panacea for which we are seeking.” Panaceas, how it is to-day. In other words, with all the free access to the ever,have to be created as well assought. I should land (at a rent, mark you) the existing proletariat would suggest a number of postal servants getting together and still be barred from its effective use unless they could raise working out such a scheme for their organisation as MI-. -that is, pay interest on-the capital necessary. . . . The Lascelles recently drew up single-handed for the railways. only obstacle to its use by the proletariat is the provision The New Statesman,” you will be sorry to learn,has of capital. Rut tLatobstacle if it exists, and is insur- spoiled its record as an ostrich by mentioning THE NEW mountable when no other rent is charged, would obviously AGE. Mr. Solomon Eagle announced tohis readerslast remain where the preliminary fence of a rent was also to week that THE NEW AGE was about to be raised in price be negotiated.” Mr. Felssays that this statement is and added that “scores of contributorshave passed in Greek to him. It is assuredly perfectly clear to everybody procession throughthe journal and many writers who else. It is certainly rather odd that a particularly smash- havesince made reputation contributed toit some of ing argument is not only Greek to Mr. Fels, but yet not their earliest work.” Not scores, buthundreds, Ishould sufficiently Greek to prevent him from giving it 3 mean- say; and is it true that their reputations hare been made ing it obviously andpalpably and undeniably does not since ? I rather think they made theirreputation while possess. writingfor THE New AGE, and subsequently spent it- We may now estimate the exact value of Mr. Fels’s con- but one never knows how such a remark will be taken. tributions to this controversy. He seems to think that the To resume with our friend, Mr. Carstairs Matheson-no, editor and readers of THE NEW AGE are as foolish as would thereis one moreitem. The “Daily Herald” published be the buyers of land upon which a progressive tax was on Thursday quite a witty ballade by Mr. Vance Palmer levied, whilst the sellers run off with the plunder. Per- in which thename of THE NEW AGE Editor occurs as sonally, I do not think that (except jerry-builders) there having a “pen of a marksman’s bow.’ And now for Mr. are so many fools to buy land Single Taxed as Mr. Fels Matheson-Mr. Matheson,Forward ! “GuildSocialism,” supposes. JOHN J. HEREFORD. says this comrade, is aregular mess. It appears in “a *** weekly journal [are you prepared ?] edited by a cad, [be ECONOMICPOWER First ready again !I, with cads as its contributors, and written Sir,-In yourabstract way, you constantlyassure us forthe delectation [everybody ready?] of cads of the that economic power precedes political power. Those of pseudo-cultured variety.”The only reply he makesto us who have been brought up in an older school are a little ourpitiful question : What ’ave we done guv’nor ?-is reluctant to accept yourdictum. Occasionally, 1 regret that the “love of comrades isthe hope of the world.” to tell you, something happens to give us old stagers the Poor old world ! PRESS-CUTTER. staggers. For example,the Cardiff Liberal Association *+* recently elected Mr. D. A. Thomas as its President. Mr. THE Wilson ADMINISTRATION. Thomas was very frank abouthis position. He is re- Sir,-To Mr. Zapato let me repeat thatthe Mexican ported thus :--“Another matter uf which he must remind question is aphase of the Panamaquestion, that he is them was his association with capital in about twenty-five quite wrong in thinking it would be the same if Panama directorships. He believed in themutual interests of hac1 never been heard of, that all the difficult questions capitaland labour, but if in Cardiff thereshould be a which have recently arisen in America Worth, South, and conflict between these interests he would have to be on the Central) are economic, that the United States will be at a side of the boards with which he was connected.” I fear disadvantage when the time comes for her to support her there is something in your contention At allevents, I economic claims by force if she has not, at such a time, a feel ratherqueasy about it. WELSHNONCONFORMIST. strong army as well as a strong navy; ancl that he will find *** allthese statements proved If he lives to be ten years “THENEW AGE” ANiD THEPRESS. older. If my experience of foreign affairs makes me Sir,-You, I and all of us should be greatly honoured interpretthe signs of thetimes differently fromhim, I by the attentions of Mr. Carstairs Matheson-professional fear that no amount of argument will ever enable one of us comrade and acontributor to, yourSocialist contemporaries to convince the other. contemporay “Forward.”He saps-but letme first dispose of Mr. David Lamb’s letter, I confess, puzzles me. He lessImportant persons. The scheme of the National certainlydid, as I pointed out last week, applyto Dr. Guilds is, I verily believe, now quite safe in the keeping Wilson personally remarks of mine concerningDr. Wil- of the general public, Even if THE NEW AGE should be- son’s Cabinet. Thatthe new Administrationhad not come extinct (absit omen), the Guilds idea will go march- brought in the Currency Bill does not upset my statement ing on likeJohn Brown’s soul. You have, at any rate, that it had failed to pass it.; the point is that Dr. Wilson ensured itssurvival if notthe survival of the body in wished it to be passed, and passed promptly, whereas now which it was born. Inthe “Pall Mall Magazine for we are told that it may be passed in November, and then 709

onlyif the President himself sets out on an oratorical conceived by thenumbskulls who regard Mr. Lloyd campaign in the late autumn It was mycritic, in his George as fulfilling the prophecy of the Second Advent, letter published in your issue of September 18, and not I, this is undoubtedlytrue. Mr. Randall is quiteentitled who referred to the Tariff Bill. I ;Jid not imply that the to say thatthe popular Jesus, whose coming was sup- extra session of Congress was over, as my actual words, Posed to have abolished chattelslavery, actually quotedin your issue of September 25, sufficiently show. founded wage slavery as a better-paying system of Why Dr. Wilson should be praised (by implication if not organisation Who, looking to what this Jesus’ followers directly for an unsuccessful attack on “lobbying,” simply have done, candoubt it? Withoutmany exceptions, all because hisattack was “popular,” I do not know. And, the most devout Jesusites-of this type-are wealthy of course, a foreign policy may be conducted in a vulgar comfortable andcapitalistic. Let Mr. Hare look around. way : my word was not out of place as applied to the con- Does not this Jesus’ Church, whether Catholic, Anglican duct of a policy; my critic’s word “inelegant” was out of Or Nonconformist,support the capitalist system ? Do place as applied to an ironclad. On re-reading the articles notChristians everywhere hold property sacred ? Do and letters concerned in this little dispute I cannot agree they not regardrent, interest, and profit as duesjustly with Mr. Lamb that the evasions, perversions and so on, demanded by the possessors oE capital? Of course they are on my side. S. VERDAD. do. But while doing thisit is ridiculous tosuppose **3 thatthey believe thattheir great Founder was of the AN URGENTAPPEAL. precisely opposite faith;that, in fact, he was an anti- Sir,-One, JohnCarney, of Belfast, hasrecently capitalist.They do not believe it, and Mr. Randall appealed, by leaflet, to workers to refuse to enterthe hadevery warrant inthe conduct of the Churches and militaryor police forces on theground of these forces of Christians,as well as in the texts of theTestament, being systematically used by Government to crushhis to regard that Jesusas the chief prophet of capitalism. fellow workers-to whom he becomes a traitor by enlisting. Theother Jesus, as I have said,Mr. Randall was Formaking this eminently important and essentially carefulto place beyond even his own criticism, as, in- pacific appeal-an appeal I for one emphatically endorse, deed, He seems to have been placed beyond the recog- as, no doubt, do many of your readers---Carney has been nition,still more the comprehension, of thevast prosecuted, and now awaitstrial for sedition! Yet we majority of those professing andcalling themselves know what is taking place the while ; how members of Christians. To sum upthe matter as it appearsto a the privileged parliamentary clique are permitted by the careful reader of the whole controversy, Mr. Randall same authorities to incite and organise armed resistance to has proved thatthe onlyJesus commonly known, the merely political changes,without any suggestion of in- onlyChristianity commonly accepted andpractised, the dictmentbeing made : indeed,“The Daily News and only parts of the Bible commonly quoted with any Leader” recently admitted, in a burst of candour (6.8.13), practicalobject, are all emphaticallyinsupport of “Thatthe Government has no intention of proceeding capitalism. To prove that theseare Socialist, Com- against the Ulster leader (Sir Edward Carson), who is per- Communist Anarchist, or anything but Capitalist is now, I sonally most popular in Ministerial quarters ! think, impossible.There only remains to be made now Well, it isto he hoped that such flagrant anomalies and the separation of the popularJesus from the mystical perversions of justice will at last redly awaken the aver- Jesus,the latter of whom, I imagine, is as much ~011- age man, with s start, to the true nature of governments : concerned with Capitalism or Socialism as the doctrine of that these governments with all their laws, are both made the MythicalBirth with gynecology. and administered, always and wholly, in the interests of National the possessing class. Guildsman Whatcan be done for our courageous comrade, John *** Carney? Let the authorities at least know that for each WOMEN IN PUBLIC. man they silence for such action a hundred will rise in Sir,-I wish one of yourcontributors would collect a his place : or must we resort to Russia where Tolstoy column about “ Current Women appendI three or who made like appeals to the workers to refuse to enter four cuttings from various journals, which show the the military and other services of legalised murder--was hopeless mentalobscurity and tastelessness of the left untouched ? ***OTWAY M’CANNELL modern angel. (‘A ‘ Votes for Women Fellow ’ writes from Rou- THE ECONOMICS OF JESUS. mania :-.‘ It may interest you to know that a big laud- Sir,--I was considering how long Mr. Randall’s owner here said, the otherday, that, owingto the war, patiencewith Mr. Loftus Hare would and am he had had to depend almost entirely on women for the relieved to find thathe is human and there is an end to it. Havingjust re-read theoriginal article which harvest,and that he has never had a more satisfactory your readers may be surprised to recall appeared in the ingathering nor n bigger harvest. Italics mine. Pre- middle of Julylast, I amunable to discover what Mr. sumably the Creator was away atthe war, so woman Hare found to cavil at in it. Any reader not predisposed took charge of Nature. to take objection on trifles, or to catch at debating Inthe samejournal Madame Nordica is quoted as a points,must have realised that Mr. Randall’sarticle “ singer who is also a Suffragist )’ (note the two S’S for waswritten exactly midway between jestand earnest. women’sview of the arts), saying, “ The ballot is only It was as if he had set out to show that, accepting the a symbol. What we wantis a law to protect thelittle common exegesis of the New Testament and such glosses girls on ourstreets from the men of thirty who hide and annotations as are made on its texts by pious poli- behind that barbarism, the age of consent.” Men of ticians,the whole language could be aseaslly proved thirty-guilty ! Men maypresently think about a law tosupport capitalism as any other scheme of society. to punish womenwho allow theirdaughters to be on Actually Mr. Randallsafeguarded the gnosticand thestreets. Certainly no man is immunefrom the mystic Jesus from any confusion with the Jesus of the oglingflapper, the pest of civilisation. If women had tabernaclesand the polling-booth. He quiteclearly conducted themselves as women and mothers, more than exceptedfrom his thesis theJesus of the Sermon on a hundred families in Breslau would not now be bewail- the Mount. The plainJesus, however, theJesus of the ing seventy-two debauched schoolgirls,eight suicides, plainman, he not only proved to be notunfriendly to andforty arrested men. Withoutany use of force, capitalism,but to have assumed the existence of the seventy-two girls behaved like young devils. Shut them wage system,and never once tohave questioned its up, I say; we havealways known they needed to be justice.When it is remembered thatthe early English shut up. Nothingbut an artificially induced innocence Socialistsclaimed Jesus as a Socialist-a preposterous will everkeep women straight, and men aretheir claim inany case-the desirability of showing that on natural victims. I see inthe “ New Statesman ” a the evidence Jesuswas not Socialist,a but an un- quotation by a woman from Dr. Gray’s book on ‘‘ Public questioning acceptor of the wage system,must have Schools and theEmpire.” Needless to say, the cor- struckany honestmind. Mr. Randall, I mustsurely respondent misses Dr. Gray’s import.She actually con- say,has delivered the Socialist movement from Jesus. cludes from this masonic communication that men would Equally, however, hehas delivered Jesus from the do better tomix muchwith women ! “ The male un Socialist movement. consciously radiatescertain waves of electricity which, I am inclined to doubtwhether more has been done if they remain unabsorbed, tend to maintain and develop by either the article or the subsequent controversy than masculine energy, but which, if in constant contact with justthis. Mr. Hare’s attitude I franklycannot under- opposing waves of electricity diffused by the othersex, stand. I do not know what he has been driving at, and become unconsciously absorbed thereby. ” Michael I hasten to say that 1 have no wish to know for certain. Angelo is the grand example of artists who would never At one timehe appeared to haveassumed that Mr. allow a woman inhis house. All nationsat their man- Randall had made Jesus the actual founder and prophet liesthave “ kepttheir women down.” It is no easy of capitalism. Of theJesus of to-day, of theJesus as task, this, but s perpetualfight against enervation! 7 lo

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My fourth reference is to the reported conduct of Mrs. NEW AGE, as I should have to do to mention all its good Fitzgerald atthe meeting of theJohannesburg Trades things . Federation. When I read one of yourcorrespondent’s Please handto your businessmanager the enclosed laudation of this woman, I very nearly wrote to contra- cheque : it is to cover twosubscriptions to THE NEW dict it; but I hadonly a personalletter for evidence AGE, each for oneyear, and the cost of a copy of that she was thoroughlydetested on the Rand for her ‘(Tomt’s ” caricatures. BILMEMKIM. eternalrant, meddlesomeness, andassumption of play- Constantinople. ing adviser to the miners. Her fate, at the firstchance *** the miners got to put her in her place, might warn any but such women asfancy they hold thestrings of the ON CRITICISM. English movement. Theminers broke uprather than Sir,-Your correspondents (at least, those who honour endureher presence. They would havekicked a man me with theirletters) are becoming impossible. A fort- out ! Truly,the ‘‘ scruff of a man’s neck itches at the night ago, I quoted some figures which, I said, (‘estab- thought of doing public businesswith a woman.” Only lish the fact of a progressive decrease in the marriage- men could do withoutshame whose maleenergies it rate ” amongstcertaina class of educated women. have already been “ unconsciously absorbed ” by ‘‘ H. E. H.,” in your last issue,tries to be ironical at females. Shamebelongs to men. Physicalmodesty, myexpense. (( On theassumption,” he says, “ that thevirtue born of fear, belongs to women. When they girls out of college (on an average) for five years--(1900) break loose, they forget even this-witness Breslau ! 1910) the date of the census-have an equal chance to get None of the girls committed suicide. marriedwith girlsout of college for a period of 65 My fifthand last reference is again to the “ States- years,”these figures do prove my contention. 1 need man,”a number of whose parochialreaders have set only quote “ €3. E. H.” against himself, for I never made up a ‘‘ Day-Servants’Hostel ” for the refuge of girls hisassumption. “ The women,’’ he says, “ who have withillegitimate children. It is a pretty title, but what on an average been out of college 65 years, and are now, will the averageday-servant think of it Therethey therefore, about go years old or thereabouts,have are,all these “ unfortunates,” herded togetherunder managed in these 65 years to get married to the extent one widely published roof. Whynot put them in a of 85 percent., but on theassumption that women uniform andhave done with it? The newest develop- marryin equalproportion at everyage above 20, they ment isto be similarhostels for fallen typists, fallen should have married at the rate of 312 per cent., which lady-clerks, fallen schoolmistresses. Who but women is absurd.” Marvellous ‘‘ H. E. H.”, who demolishes wouldbe so damned mercilesslycharitable ? Myvoca- an assumption that I never macle ! Anyone canarrive bulary gives out.gives bulary EDWARDSTAFFORD. atan absurd conclusion if hebegins with an absurd *** assumption ; but it is necessary in controversy to under- “THENEW AGE.” standyour opponent’s case before replyingto it. Obvi- ously I could not have made these assumptions, because Sir,-‘‘ R. H. C.” has recently complained more than I didnot arrive at the conclusions of “ H. E. H.” The once thatthe extraordinarily good work done by some assumption that I made, but did not state, was that the of your contributorspasses without notice---or, at least, most favourableage (statistically) for marriage is 25-30, withoutdrawing from yourreaders any signs of appre- and therefore that one is entitled to assume that at least ciation. Now, thisdisheartening silencemay be dueto a majority of the marriages occurred during the decades diffidence rather than to dullness or indolence. It is not which included the graduations. It is nonsense to sup- incongruous that readers of the ‘(Daily Mail ” should pose, for example, that there are 39 per cent. of spinsters writeexpressing admiration for that paper’s love of among the graduates of 1860-69, because they have been truth, courage, patriotism,and what not ; butthere is out of college onlyabout 40 years ; while their fore- a suggestion of Impertinence, to my mind, in writing in runners, who have been out of college for 60 years, have praise of THE NEW AGE. Besides, you must realise so only 15 percent. of spinstersamong them. If well the value of the work you publish that we hardly “ H. E. H. means to tell me that,during the next expect you to be moved when that work is praised. One twenty years, the graduates of 1860-69 will reduce their may write sonnets to the moon, but one does not expect percentage of spinsters from 39 to 15, I canonly say Cynthia’spulse to beat the faster. However, if it will that he has apeculiar idea of the propermanner of help to convince you that the apparent desert in which handling figures. As theystand, these figures do prove you arecrying is really peopled afterall, let me bear what I said they proved; for the women who have been witness. out of college only five yearshave actually abetter Seven years ago I was at Cambridge, hanging, in a statisticalchance of marriagethan any of those who futilefashion, on theskirts of thegroup of Fabians graduated before them. On the assumption that I made, that most of themarriages were consummated during accurately depicted by Mr. Wells in “ The New Machiavelli velli,” and I began to cast about for a periodical embody- the decade of the graduations, these’ figures do “estab- ing more satisfying views than those set forthby the lish the fact of aprogressive decrease in the marriage- SocialistPress on the one handand by the papers in rate amongst these women.” the college reading-room on the other. (You can imagine The second attempt of “ H. E. H.“ to prove that I thelatter : thedaily papers, the anodynemonthlies, am “ absolutelyincompetent as a critic,” ashe says, “ Punch,” anillustrated weekly or two, and-Harms- ought to be addressed to the (‘Daily Citizen,” not to me. worth fly away with it !-the “ Spectator.”) Somehow I was provingonly that the “ Daily Citizen ” didnot I came across a copy of The NEW AGE, then under non- know the nature and meaning of evidence; and it is to descriptmanagement andapparently on itslast legs. be inferred, at least, from my remarks, that I was com- This was onlya littlebetter than nothing; but when, plaining of theinadequate treatment given to its own shortly afterwards, you became sole editor, I realised figuresby the ‘‘ Daily Citizen.’’ To tell me, as that I had found what I wanted-a paper worthy of its “ H. E. H.” does, that (‘a live critic . . . would have readers’ respect. From that time I have never missed sought contradiction orconfirmation in the import returns one copy of THE NEWAGE, and I havenever wavered of foodstuffs and raw materials” is to direct to me a criti- in my opinion that it is the one paper I cannot do with- cism that really belongs to the “Daily Citizen.” I may out.When it arrivesa post late I amkeenly dis- mention that the import returns could not authoritatively appointed; when a servant of mine, during my absence, confirm orcontradict these figures : not all thethings used some back numbers to light fires, I was so annoyed considered are of foreignorigin. I was writingon that I did not notice for some days that a silver napkin- criticism,not on therise in the cost of living;and it ringand variousother articles had disappeared too. wasnot my business, at the moment,to check or con- (No, Mr. Pickthall.The servant was neither alying tradictthe figures of the ‘‘ Daily Citizen.” I only Greek nor a cringingArmenian; he mas aDruse.) And attemptedto show thatthe treatmentgiven to these when the recentmobilisation of the Roumanian army figuresby that paper was inadequate,and the conclu- took place, my first thought was thatmy NEW AGE sions drawn from them unsatisfactory. “ H. E. H.” has would be indefinitely delayed. But what is this to you, done what he said that the English people refuse to do : sir, when you haveall the children of youreditorial he has drawn unjustifiable conclusions from inconclusive discernment to rise upand callyou blessed? Mr. evidence. Hehas not eliminated from consideration all Haigh’s (‘Ethiopian Saga ” andthe caricaturesby butthe essentialfacts, and therefore he is one of the “Tomt ” would speak for themselves even without the people of whom I wrote in myarticle. His letter is mighty support of “ R. H. C.” Then remember the ex- really an example that helps to prove my argument, and quisite “ Maids Comedy,” your “ Unedited Opinions,” I,am grateful for the assistancehe has unconsciously and “R. H. (2.”’’ own admirable “Tales for Men only givenme. But I find him, none the less,a bore. Rut I have nottime to copy out the indexes to THE A. E. R. 711

SIMPLIFIEDSPELLING. possessions, and how should I purchase the Caxton Sir,--In “R. H. C.”” note about Sir William Ramsay Balzac, whose faithfulness tothe original and freedom and Spelling Reform, three mistakes occur in five lines. from expurgation has pleased Scottish divines? Besides, (I) Sir William Ramsay did not read a paper on the sub- I did not want it. Therefore the envoy and I conversed ject ; he took part in the discussion ; (2) he did not suggest together for aspace and then parted, notwithout some a spelling of the word “usual”; he gave what the Simpli- slight dissension. For he saw in Balzac salvation for my simplified Speling Sosieti proposes; (3) “yuzhyual” is the form ; soul, but I did not. not the one printed by you. Sir, those who value their peace of mind would do well But three mistakes in five lines is typical of the general not to demand prospectuses from the Caxton Company, attitude and the prevailing lack of knowledge on the ques- however moving their supplications. Anti-Caxton tion of spelling reform. Granted that “usual” in its new dress looks strange, so did the first motor-car, thefirst umbrella-and so on. The awkwardness of the form can be got over by theuse of new letters;but that is an advanced reform which cannotyet come. One thing- the proposed “yu” notation does : it brings unity where there is chaos. Think of all the spellings for that sound : “new, tune,duty, ewe, sue, eulogy Which pleases your ITH the commencement of the fourteenth : of aesthetic eye? Supposing it is thelast the “eu” volume of “ The New Age” OII “eulogy then you get “euzheual.” Is that better? W SYDNEYWALTON, Secretary. November 6th next, the price of the Simplified SpelingSosieti, 44, Great Russell Street, W .C. weekly issue will be SIXPENCE. [“R. H. C.” replies : I shall neverforgive myself for havingmistaken a speech delirered for a paper read; or for insinuating that Sir William Ramsay himself sug- gested the new spelling of “usual,” when, in fact, the blame belongs to the Society of which he is only a Vice- President.The form, however, of the word I copied cor- rectly from the “Times”report. If THE NEW AGE was wrong so was the “Times.”Regarding an alternative “notation” for the uniform spelling of words like “new, tune, ewe,” etc., I not only do not want one, but I deny that one ought to be attempted. If the “nu spelers” were not tone-deaf, ill-bred inEnglish pronunciation or in fatuated with their absurd notions, they might recognise the nuances of pleasing difference in the proper enuncia- tion as well as spelling of the words they wish us tu spell to disastrous uniformity.] *** “THE CAXTON BALZAC.” Sir,-I wonder whether any of your other readers have met with the same experience as I have, or whether my case is a rareand special one, due to some favourable planetaryconjunction atmy birth. Some time ago I sent for a prospectus of the Caxton Balzac. It was foolish, I admit;but I had been so often assailedby Caxtoniansupplications inthe publicPress that one daymy heart was moved, and I sent the Caxton Com- pany abright and friendly little postcard. The note thatthey sent me with the illustratedprospectus was even more brightand friendly than mine.But partly because my interest in Balzac had now begun to wane, andpartly because I didnot wish to allow my ideal relationswith the Caxton Company tobe sulliedby sordidgolden sovereigns, and for avariety of other reasons, I handed the prospectus tomy librarian, with instructions to catalogue it, andthen supposed the incidentat an end.But this was merelya prologue. A week later, a lachrymosemissive arrived, imploring me CARICATURES to ascertain whether, in the rush and scurry of mundane BY affairs, I had overlooked their tender gift and the accom- “TOMT’” of “The New Age” panying epistle. My ruthless silence, I suppose, appeared de Rosciszewski). ‘ otherwiseinexplicable to these long-suffering doers of (Jan Junoza noble deeds. And who am I that I shoulddestroy their Uniform with “The New Age ” Volumes. faithin humanity? Was I to shock thesedelicately Price xi, Net strung natures by telling them bluntly the true facts of the case? Or was I to take advantage of their guileless hearts by a base lie? In this quandary I once more took refuge in cowardlyinaction. But theyfelt, no doubt, that this Hamlet-like failure to decide was to be assailed at all cost, and a week later they were prepared to sacri- fice much for me. They would send me their book that my eyes mightgaze thereon. And nota stiver to pay, ifit were notnear enough to my heart’s desire. What might have happened, I know not; but about this time 1 set forth on my travels for a season. NOW, shortlyafter, it would seem, theysent their envoy to mymansion. He, beinginformed of my de- parture by my steward, set out and hastened night and clay till he arrived at the city where I was now sojourn- ing, and rested only when he had found the caravanserai of my choosing. But great is theadversity of the righteous.That day I had crossed the threshold at dawn, and returned not until long after sunset. Yet that envoy rejoiced in the end, for on his second journey he found me and greeted me with a smile. My own joy was not so deep. For I had in the meantime squandered my 712 r-