Vol. IX. No. 7. THURSDAY,JUNE 15, 1911 THREEPENCE. PAGE PAGE NOTES OF THE WEEK..................... 145 L’AFFAIRESERGE-BABIN. From the French of Alfred Capus 156 POLITICALGEOMETRY. By E. S. Hole ............ 146 AN ETHIOPIANSAGA. By Richmond Haigh ......... 157 FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad ............... 147 L’AFFAIREGREAVES. By Walter Sickert ......... 159 TORYDEMOCRACY. By J. M. Kennedy 148 ............ BOOKS AND PERSONS. By Jacob Tonson ......... 160 RINGINGDOWN THE CURTAIN. By Kosmo Wilkinson 149 ...... CZARDAS:A Fragment. From the Polish of Przerwa- PAGESFROM A BOOK OF SWELLS:The Lady Paramount. By Tetmajer ........................ 161 1’. H. S. Escott ..................... 150 THEREAL WAGNER: An Unrecorded Incident. By Leighton PARISAS A PLEASURERESORT. By Vincent O’Sullivan ... 161 J. Warnock ..................... 151 LETTERSTO THE EDITOR PROM Thomas Short, Percy W. THEREBUILDING OF THE THEATRE. By Huntly Carter ... 152 Carlisle, William Poel, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Beatrice DYONISOSMEDITATES. By A. E. Randall ......... 153 Hastings, W. E. Burghardt Dubois, Algernon Herveg UNEDITEDOPINIONS : East and West ............ 154 Bathurst, Gustav Hübener, Cicily Fairfield, E. H. Visiak, AMERICANNOTES. By Juvenal ............... 155 R. C. Hall, Dr. C. J. Whitby, Criticus ......... 163 Subscriptions to the NEW AGE are at the following ‘It is well known that optimism of this character is rates :- only possible to people who either wilfully, or by some Great Britain. Abroad. defect of intellectual vision, fail to see or realise dis- agreeable facts. They suffer, that is, from partial blind- One Year ... ... 15 0 17 4 ness or shortsightedness. Both diseases are to be found Six Months.. ... 76 8 8 at this moment among the supporters of Mr. Lloyd Three Months ... 39 4 4 George’s Insurance Bill, and in an aggravated form in SPECIALNOTE.--All communications, whether re- Mr. Lloyd George himself. Speaking, far example, in lating to the editorial, business, advertising or Birmingham on Saturday last, Mr. Lloyd George asserted that the principle of his Bill had been publishing departments, should be addressed to THE accepted with unanimity; it was only in the matter NEW AGE, 38, Cursitor Street, London, E.C. of details that criticism had arisen. Now this, as our readers know very well, is untrue. Not only the NEW AGE,but “ Justice ” and the “ Clarion ” have published NOTES OF THE WEEK. articles attacking the Bill in principle. Subsequently the “ Labour Leader ” joined in, and its last two issues “WE are living in great days. It is a privilege to be have contained vigorous criticisms of the bases of the alive. ... Our days are like the dawn of the King- Insurance Bill signed by well known names. It is dom of God. ... It is humanity that is coming to its simply dishonest to pretend after this that the chorus own. ... It is the Sun of Man ascending His of praise of the principle of the Bill has been universal. throne. We are marching into the realisation of The fact is that no single economist in England has ... approved of it. If their judgment has been ignored, it the ‘ world to come.’ ” These passages are taken from an editorial on the Friendly Societies which appeared in has been because Mr. Lloyd George and his claqueurs have preferred not to see what they did not wish to see. the “ Christian Commonwealth ” of last week. The *** “ Christian Commonwealth ” is conducted by an Edi- torial Board consisting of the Rev. R. J. Campbell, We hope our readers who are interested in the theory of the Bill will turn to the impressive letter published in Mr. Philip Snowden, Mr. Sidney Webb, and others equally eminent. We cannot congratulate them on their the “ Nation ” of last week from the pen of one of the most able and conscientious living economists, Mr. conceptions of progress or the Kingdom of God. Ap- Philip Wicksteed. Mr. Wicksteed is under no illusions parently we both read the same book day and night, as to the principle of the Bill, nor has he any more but we read black where they read white. doubt than we have that the, final upshot of the precious *** measure will be the reduction of wages. Expressed in Undoubtedly this vulgar outburst of snuffling optim- the simplest terms, the gist of the Bill lies inthis-that ism is due in part to the signal given by Mr. Lloyd under its provisions an employer will henceforth be George himseIf. There never has been in England compelled to pay the State 3d. a week for permission to before to-day a politician with the impudence to employ employ a man at less than £160 per annum. But what the terminology of the little bethels in the service of a guarantee is there that an employer will not recoup political party. But Mr. Lloyd George, having begun himself by reducing wages to the same extent, if not it and found it extremely profitable, we may expect to directly, at least by resisting the next demand on the be flooded by it before very long. Nay, more, the worst part of the men for a rise in wages? None whatever. effect to be feared from the Payment of Members is the In fact, the experience of German employers, as con- introduction not of the professional politician into fided to Mr. Lloyd George, is that an Insurance Bill is Parliament, but of a crowd of Nonconformist parsons of positively good for employers. English employers have the Silvester Horne and R. J. Campbell type. As been quicker to realise this than English workmen, ignorant of economics as they are of politics, and as with the result, as Mr. Wicksteed points out, that there ignorant of life as they are offensively familiar with their is no general complaint amongst employers against Mr. boojum, they will be ready to announce the Kingdom of Lloyd George’s Bill. The ostensible burden put upon Heaven as lying round the corner of every sentimental them may seem to be heavy and their merit in accepting measure introduced by their friends. To the momentum it meekly, patriotic and Christian; but “ no one should derived by legislation from capitalism will now be expect that they will permanently bear it. ” added the momentum derived from Puritanism ; and *** since both operate in the same direction without more When we, in company with a growing number of than the shadow of a divergence, the pace developed critics, venture to declare that whatever the intention, towards the servile state will be frightfully accelerated. the hopes, or the immediate promises of such a Bill as 146 Mr. Lloyd George’s may be, its ultimate and not very rate at which “we are marching to the realisation of long delayed consequences will most certainly be the the ‘ world to come ’ ” that in two decades we shall very contrary of beneficent, we are met by a double have covered the intervening leagues. The wages reply, though never, of course, directly-anything system will indeed have been abolished. direct being alien to the methods of puritan politicians. *** We are assured that the manifestation of sympathetic interest in the condition of the poor is ample compensa- Our readers will be glad to read the following letter tion for any trifling defects the Bill may have in detail; from Mr. Bernard Shaw which appeared in the and is evidence complete of the rectitude of its inspiring “ Times ” on Saturday :- principle. We are further assured that our vision of THE BIRKBECK SUSPENSION AND THE the coming slavery is a mere disorder of our mind, and INSURANCE BILL. that the very condition that we most fear is really To THE EDITOROF THE “TIMES.” rapidly passing away. We should be glad if we could Sir,--An institution which has for 60 years been of in- believe even one of these smooth and comfortable calculable service to that section of our middle class which assurances; but in the light of facts they appear to be has to content itself with bank balances beneath the notice of rich men’s bankers is, through no apparent fault of its own, no more than mirages of the desert. Good intentions compelled to close its doors because it is short of £400,000, were never yet either compensation for defects in or somewhere between £6,000 and £7,000 per year for its practice or guarantee of rightness in principle; and the term of service. Will anyone who has imagination and path to the servile state may well be paved with them. business faculty enough to understand what banking Apart from its presumed intentions, what in actual means and what it saves, and how it helps men to be really practice must the Insurance Bill prove to be if not an thrifty, deny that it would have paid us as a nation to sub- additional prop to a system of capitalism which makes sidise the Birkbeck to four times this sum annually had such its profits by reducing the cost of production, chiefly in help been necessary? Now that the help is necesSay-now that 112,000 people, who, if they had had their houses the form of wages? Mr. Lloyd George may snivel be- shaken down by an earthquake, would have been rescued fore the Birmingham audience and profess his intention by the public as a matter of course, are thrown into the of treating men as well as horses are treated; but a more most distressing anxiety and threatened with a calamity exact analogy is that of compassionately feeding a dog that will spread far beyond the direct sufferers-why should with its own tail. Every penny, as any fool who is not the Chancellor of the Exchequer hesitate to come to their also a knave can see, that is bestowed on the working assistance, and not only enable the Birkbeck to reopen its classes by this Bill is bound to be taken from them doors and resume its altogether beneficent and nationally profitable activity, but if necessary to give it hopes of such before it is given back.