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ANGLO-AMERICAN ANIMOSITY, ----
THE NEW AGE, THURSDAY MAY 1909 13,
NEWAGE
U.....................
By
Francis Grierson.
A WEEKLY REVIEW OF POLITICS, LITERATURE AND ART.
Vol.V
No. 3]
No. 766]
THURSDAY, 13, 1909. MAY
CONTENTS. PAGE ... 45 BOOKOF
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NOTESOF THE WEEK .,.. ... ... THE IDEALSOF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT. By ‘G. R. S. Taylor ... ... AERIAL NAVIGATION SOCIALISM. By. “G.” ... AND ... ... ANGLO-AMERICAN ANIMOSITY. By Francls Grierson DEBUSSY’S MUSICAL IMPRESSIONS--II. Translated by Mrs. Liebich ... MR. BENNETT’S New PLAY. By J. E. Barton ... ... WHITED SEPULCHRES--chapter III. By Beatrice Tina... BOOKS AND PERSONS. By Jacob Tonson ... ...
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WEEK “Through Foreign Spectacles.” By : M. D. Eder ... ... ... REVIEWS Six Masters of Disillusion ... : ... ... Trials of a Country Parson ... ... ... ... Trove Treasure ... ... ... . .. .. .. Romance of a Nun ... ... ... ... ... MAGAZINES AND QUARTERLIES ... CORRESPONDENCE D. Quirk, W. L.’ George, W. E. : J. Campbell, J. Haldane Smith, Fredk. A. CarIton Smith, LL.B., Millicent Garrett Fawcett ... ... ...
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make it equally impossible for us to praise the Budget without reserve, we agree ; but our business a s Socialist A D V E R T I S E M E N T S : The latest time for receiving Adcritics discrimination. is W h a t wecannotsympathise vertisments i s first post Monday for the. same week’s issue. -with is the attitude which condemns or praises without SUBSCRIPTION RATES for England and Abroad: judgment, or with an eye to party advantage. W e may Three months . . 1s.. 9d. frankly claim that in this matter The NEWAGE, having Six months m e a m 3s. 3d. Twelve months . 6s. 6d. no party,stands alone. No otherSocialistpaperhas All remittances should be made payable to THE NEWACE PRESS, dared to praise the Budget so unmistakeably ; no other Ltd., and sent t 12-14, Lion Court, Fleet Street, London o Red Socialist paperhas,therefore,therighttocriticise it The Editorial address i s 4, Verulam Buildings Gray’s Inn, more unsparingly. W e shall certainly, as the discusW.C. sion proceeds,havea good deal to say byway of instructionandadmonitionbothtoTories,who believe to Liberals and theBudget isaSocialistBudget,and WE cannot for the life of us see why the Budget should Socialists who pretend it is not. *** not be claimed a s a victory for Socialist ideas. W e W e may a s well dispose here of the fiction that havealwaysmaintainedthatthealternativeto Tariff Socialistsupport of theBudget will infallibly lead t o Reform was Socialism, and now that Mr. Lloyd George theformation of the much-discussed Radical-Socialist has accepted it, we see no object in denying it. Hollow alliance. As there happens to be only a single Socialist Socialist victorieshave often been thrust upon us by member of theHouse of Commons, and hissplendid the Yellow Press, but here is a victory with a kernel in forces: isolation is carefully guarded by all the Labour it. At a singlestroke Socialism is brought again into not theprospect of a Radical-Socialistalliancewould the arena of practical discussion, and Liberalism is ‘reseem to promise for much the Radicals. W h a i s t habilitated. Is it thislatterfactthat is objected to? That is quite possible among those who have been fol- meant by the phrase, of course, is an alliance between of the LiberalParty, led, lowing Liberalism to its grave these forty years. .How- theadvancedRadicalwing and let us say, by Messrs. Lloyd George Winston ever, now that- Liberalism shows signs of reviving, we Churchill, with Mr. John Burns sitting the on fence After all, have no intention of treating it as still dead. watching,andthethirtyoddmembers of theLabour what is there to gain by remaining amongst the Sauline Party led by Mr. Henderson. That, admit, we is a to Socialists, breathing threatening and slaughter? Or zebra of a differentstripealtogether. As wesaid last lose by frankly declaring our views that the Budget is week, we do not care very much if such an alliance i s better than we hoped or prophesied it would be? One actuallyentered into. There is, a s we haveveryoften complained, an entente between the two wings already ; Socialist writer we hear of, having been commissioned and common honesty, if not political tactics, might very inadvance ta damn the Budget, and finding the task well suggest the necessity of the avowal of what has so honestly ‘impossible, damned the Budget all the same. long been tacit. Inanycase,we maybecertain that Such insincerity does not advance Socialism, nor does the possbility must be taken into account : and, if we itdiscreditLiberalism. Of suchtacticsitiseasyfor are rightly informed, members of both sections are statesmen to die into politicians. cogitating pros cons the and without prejudice. The * * * situation is interesting, if dangerous, but for-the Labour Besides, there is no excuse for wilful blindness. Party at least it is undoubtedly a t their door. Either the Budget does or does not contain proposals *** Y i On the other hand, there is more Y need than ever for which Socialistshaveadvocatedforyears. If itdoes, for shutting our eyes then there- is no possible excuse an independent attitudeamongavowedandconfessed Socialists : independent, we mean, towards the Labour and pretending that we do not recognise our own deParty. Labour The Party has rejected our claim to mands so soon as they are begun to be conceded. W e runwithin itsranksSocialistspureandsimple ; prodo not gatherthat even “Justice,” blindfold as it is bably with a n eye on some such alliance a s above foreproperly supposed to be, denies altogether the that shadowed.Mr.RamsayMacdonald,whateverhemay Supertax, for example, is a plank of the Socialist platsay,has neverthoroughly believed in thepermanence form. Then why denounce Budget the without reof the Independent Labour Party : still less in the possiserve? If it be said that the other parts of the Budget I bility o a f Socialist Party. W e d o n o t deny him his
dressed to the Manager
ALL BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS should be ad12-14 Red Lion Court Fleet St., London.
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NOTES OF THE WEEK..
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THE NEW AGE
MAY 13,
1909
right to a n opinion norwithholdourrespectforhis judgment. All the same, who those believe in the possibility as well as in the necessity of a Socialist Party are scarcely likely to continue hammering at the doorsof a partywhosesecretaryhas firmly decided never to open it. Sooner or later, if the I.L. P. refuses to Socialist run candidates, Socialist candidates will havetoberun by someotherorganisation.Forthe a piece of legislation as the more we examine such Budget the more we are convinced that Socialists, and only Socialists, can extract the maximum of value out of it. I t will be a crying shame on the Socialist movement of this country if, at the moment whenSocialist constructionbeginstobemosturgently needed and, indeed,invitedin the Commons, every Socialistcandidate should be compelled to undergo ordeal by the Labour Party and to lose his politicalindependence in the process. Whatis plainly needed atthis moment in Parliament is a group of trained and educated Socialists capableboth of whippingtheBudgetintoshape and of seeing that the coming surpluses are devoted to a task must they economic purposes. And for such needsbemen of the level in trainingandexperience of the false friends as well as of the avowedenemies both of the Budget itself and still more of its Socialist possibilities.
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pump up much grief ourselves for the distressed brewers, particularly as we are pretty sure that, like tobaccomanufacturers, they will positively make money by the taxesputon them. I t is, of course,indefensible that smokers drinkers and should be penalised for indulgence in vices, if they are vices, no greater than many if not a othersuntaxed at all. Butthereisanexcuse justification for Mr. Lloyd George. Some 75 per cent. of the new taxation is certainly put on the shoulders of the rich ; and can we quite conceive that unless a certainamounthad been put upon thepoorthevery poor themselves would haveregardedtheBudget as unjust. The factis difficult tounderstand,andparticularly by Socialists, who are accustomed to think that not only are the poor exploited and supertaxed always, as they are, but that the poor are acutely aware of it, which they are not. W e venture in all sorrow to affirm that if the whole of the new taxation had been put upon unearned incomes, and not a penny added to the poor. it is the poor themselves who would have defended the wealthyagainstthe“injustice.” A s itis, the tobacco tax may be set over against the Supertax.
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Incomparable opportunities are afforded by the Budget debates for the public discussion of many details of Socialism. We may take it as significant, for example, that Mr.Balfourshouldbedriven to admit“ Britishway ”o f individualism in the tingthatthe matter of agriculturehas finally broken down. Agriculture is the last ditch of Conservatism, and when Mr. Balfour suggests the intervention of the State in this most ancient private adventure, we may be sure the end is His near. criticism the and criticism passed by many Socialists on Mr. Lloyd George’s proposal to build a DevelopmentFundout of the fragments constituting the old Sinking Fund were disposed of later by to everybody’s Mr. Lloyd George himself, hope we satisfaction. The Development Fund to cumuis be lative under control and the of Parliament.Inother .words, it is a State stocking the for endowment of English colonisation. That, at least, is what it must W i t h Mr.Balfour’s “ RingPassNot ” rebemade. moved, theState should go ahead in agriculture now until England again becomes capable of feeding herself. Kropotkin tells us that if England werecultivated a s Lombardy is, we could feed 80,000,000 inhabitants without a sack of wheat from Argentina.
One of the most striking debates took place on an old familiar axiom of Socialism, that you cannot make the rich poor richer. without at the same time making the poorer. This axiom, so obvious to moderneconomists. is nothing less than a sinister paradox to pre-Marxian economists and their unthinking followers. Mr. Balfour, for example, quite thought that he would carry the House with him when he declared that they “must‘, of course, remember, that what we are suffering from now is not having too many richmen, but having too many poor men.” That is like saying’ that while there are not too many hills there are too many valleys. Mr. Snowden, in hiscourageousandable replya dayor two later, pointed out this with excellent emphasis. h e said,“hadoften “Theextreme Socialist school,” been chargedwithwantingtomakethe rich poorer and poor the richer. H e had never denied thatthat was his purpose,becausetheremasnonootherway under Heaven by which they could make the poor better off except making by the wealthy poorer they than are.” A t thisnot only the“Times ” was staggered ” grew a little alarmed. Yet the hut the “Daily News fact is obvious on inspection.
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Mr. Balfourwaslesshappy in his declaration that there is no proof thatvacantlandneartowns is deliberately held up for a rise in price ; and his choice of Glasgow a s anexamplewas suicidal. I t is true, as he said that the increase in the populationofGlasgow is accommodated by building on 40 acres of new land annually ; but t h i s is absolutely no measure of the need. Glasgow is notoriously one of theworstcities in the world forovercrowding,beingmorelike a coralreef o r arabbitwarrenthanacityof h u m a n beings. No fewer than 1 2 0 , 0 0 0 homes in Glasgow consist of a room apiece ; and all the time in the environs of the city some 3,000 acres of land suitable for building exist, with only a price of £2.000 an acre to prevent it being used. £2,OOO is, of course,prohibitive for a price cottage land : hence the overcrowding. But Mr. Balfour, like in . h i s conclusion that Lord Robert Cecil, was wiser thetaxationof LandValuesandUnearnedIncrement was uselesswithout State purchase of the land. That is true ; and it is a s a lever towards State ownership t h a t we regard the Budgetary proposals as most valuable Unless we believed that the Budget commits the Liberal Party to Socialist reconstruction, its mere “conus. fiscatory ” proposals would almost fail tointerest After Mr. Lloyd George and his taxes, Mr. Balfour and Lord Robert Cecil with their State purchase !
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Of course this will be regarded a s spoliation and class legislation ; and, indeed, both thesetermshave already been applied to Budget the The idle rich’ naturally would prefer to believe that poverty canbe abolished without reducing their own income very much : and when eventsprove that every amelioration of the condition of the poor threatens in the lone run to encroach on Rent and Interest, the cry is raised that the poor are preparing to despoil the, rich. Mr. Balfour w a s unscrupulous enough to presume on the ignoranace of House the of Commons. and to assure them that the “rock on which all the old democracies split ” was th-e abuse by the many of their power to tax thefew. It is a pityMr. Snowden did not retort again that all the evidence wastheother way. We are not sure what “old democracies ” Mr. Balfour had in mind ; but in any ours case, is a n Empire comparable to Rome Persia and and Babylon Well a t their fall, some two cent. per of the total population of these Empires ownedpractically the whole of the wealth of their States.Inthelatter days of Rome for example under 2,000 families owned the known world.
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On the subject of the treatment of the Liquor Trade, Mr. Balfour becamesuitablylyrical. W e really cannot
This does not look a s if the danger lay in the abuse by the manyoftheirpower of taxing thefew : and, in fact. there is notonly no such danger. but scarcely the hope in US that t h e many will consent tothefew being taxed very, much further. A s Socialists w e would t a x t h e m o u t of economic existence ; but w e frankly is not popular the courage for our admitthatthere ideas Both Mr. Balfour and Lord Hugh Cecil complained that “few the have little practical power of making their voices heard.” In fact, we were asked to pity thesorrowsofthe idlerich,taxed andsuper-
M A Y 13,
1909
THE NEW A G E
47
taxed a bygreedy democracy, without and defence. Yet, as somebodypointed out, not only havethe idle rich for all their inarticulate feebleness managed to retain their riches withidleness, but theyhave a t this moment one whole House of Parliament to themselves and a considerable share of the other. In plain words, the power of the idle rich is still absolutely overwhelmwill be ing ; and twenty more Budgets like the present needed before the terrific surplus of their power is exhausted.
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W e should like to speculate on what would have been the fate of the governing classes of this country if they had maintained their Feudal character. Certainly there would have been no proletariat movement of to-day. Evennow theEnglishpassably love a lord,however decadent ; and not all the nouveaux riches additions to the peerage have entirely robbed the aristocracy of their glamour.Yetinpoliticalcirclestheirprestige is well nigh gone. W e have no hesitation in affirming that the elevation of a Harmsworthtothepeeragedrovethe nail of Jael into the temple of the House of Lords as a great institution. By such actions the classes of this country paved way their the to fall. Thus, the on whole, while we should be the-first to mourn the loss of a mannered class, a cultured class, a significant class, from the fabric of society, we have to declare that the loss occurred long ago. Totaxthe idle rich out of existence will betobring noloss so great upon the State as has long ago been suffered : for the idle rich of to-day are as-a class a caricature of aristocracy,
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On ThursdayHouse the of Lords rejected the second reading of theCrueltyto.Animals Bill, introduced by the Bishop of Hereford, to makeillegal the hunting,coursing,orshooting of animals which have been kept in confinement. Lord Newton, a insingularly barbarian. speech, contended there no that was evidence that the conscience of the democracy was. outraged by such spurious sports, because a t no Trade Union Congresshad they been condemned. W e hope that since the noble lord accepts the democracy as the mirrorandpattern of nobility thenextTradeUnion Congress will realise its responsibilities.
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It is difficult as yet to say what the opinion in the country of theBudgetisgoingto be. The two byelections at Stratford and Attercliffe are noindication one way ortheother.Captain Kincaid-Smithmay be congratulated on having made the question of Compulsory Military Training a little ridiculous, but the Liberal candidate, Martin, Mr. failed profit to either by this ridicule or by own his intelligence. A Budgetcandidate might certainly, we should think, have won Stratford for the Government. Attercliffe, we admit, is a surprise to u s : a very pleasant surprise, since Mr. Pointer, we understand, is an out-and-out Socialist, and therefore liberalhis in conception of the need for reform in the I.L.P. as well as in Parliament. It is plain,however, thattheBudget scarcelyenteredinto the lists of Attercliffe, since most of the fighting was done and the victory practically won before the Budget was opened. Elsewhere the signs are distinctly favourable to theSocialistside of theBudget : andthisis encouraging. On the whole, we imagine that the country is prepared to make a move in the right direction, which is the Socialist direction. Time now to raise the Red Flag again.
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The problem o how to raise the wind in Germany is f still under discussion ; and taxation for German Dreadnoughts seems to be as unpopular there as taxation for English Dreadnoughts .here. According the to “Times ” correspondent, whose evidence has plenty of corroboration a t home, “everyclass,fromthe ‘ yacht and motor-car ’ capitalists, the Prussian country gentlemen frombeyond the Elbe,downto theretailersand consumers of beer, spirits, tobacco, eager and is to thrust the .burden . . . . on to the shoulders of somebody else.” That is always the way exotic with patriots and imperial bouncers of all descriptions : the White. Man’sBurden must be taken up certainly, and placed on somebody else’s shoulders. How exaggerated reports the of German splendour have been during our little panic may be partially gathered from the, specialarticlesonNavalConstruction in England and Germany now appearing in the “Times.” One sentencedeservesquotation : “ It will b e found that there has been utter misrepresentation of our ship-buildingresources by certainpersons whohavedescribed them a s inferior to those of Germany.” No wonder the Octavian Campaigndrooping. is W e have said before, and we say again : there will be no more great European -wars.
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‘ W e may be sure that the House of Lords will not be foolish enough to reject the Finance Bill when it comes beforethem.LordNorthcliffe’sbarrel-organshave beseeched theLordstodoit,buthisotherinstrument, the“Times,”has dismissed thesuggestionas“nonsense.” For which of theseopinions, we wonder, has Lord Northcliffe beeninvited to acceptapost in the nextUnionist Cabinet?WhatevertheLords maydo, LordNorfolk hasdistinguished himself by anactas parsimonious a s it is vindictive and as vulgar as itis impolitic. On the plea that Budget the threatens to make the ground landlord of Sheffield- and the Strand a poor man, he pretends that he must begin selling some of his chattels ; and he has fixed upon one of his pictures, Holbein’s portrait of Christina, Duchess of Milan, which he has offered forsaleto a dealer a t £61,000. As theusualscare about precious art, etc., was got up,the price has been raised to £70,000 a t which figure National the Art Collections Fund proposes with the help of the Government purchase to the for pictureNational the Gallery. The whole transaction is disgusting, and not a bit more creditable topurchasers to the than the vendors. If Lord Norfolkhad been a Chicagopork-millionaire he would have behaved better.
France is still the splendid pioneer and experimentor on behalf of humanity. Being the democratic most nation in the world, all kinds of experiments impossible here are possible there. I t remains to be seen what, will arise from the current movement of the. most active character amongst Government officials in favour of theirindustrialand political independence. Thereare some 700,000 Stateservants- in France, so thatthe experiment can be tried on a grand scale. I t is useless for the Government of M. Clemenceau to pretend now that a strike an is illegal weapon for Government servants. That objectionshouldhavebeenraised and maintained a month ago and before M. Barthouparleyed with the “ mutineers ” and finally came to terms. Having once admitted the claim of the postal servants to act after the manner of a trade union, a reversal of policy and principlemere is weakness. There is no way outshort of recognising Trade Unionsamongst Government officials, since you cannotdragoona million of men. Besides, there is every reason for Government workers insisting on the right to strike. Half of our own lower grade civil service is madetyrannical andbrutal by the absence of suchpower amongthe men. Our municipal mandarins would be well served by a strike of their employees, which would expose the stupidity and incompetence among the elected and selected persons of authority. W e sincerely hope the French Government servants will revolt on behalf of the‘ world’s official slaves.
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Mr.JusticeMontagu Sharp is apparentlyintent on beating the brutal record of the late Sir Ralph Littler, whoboasted that hehadgivenover 500 years’penal On servitude to various persons during his reign. Saturday, the at Middlesex Sessions, some shocking sentences were passed, culminating in the following,. the simple report of which we quote from the (‘Times ” : Thomas Brynes, 65, a tailor, who, it was stated, had been repeatedly convicted of begging, was sentenced to a whipping, 12 strokes, in addition to 12 months’ imprisonment, with hard labour. The last thing to be civilised is law !
48
THE NEW A G E
MAY 13, 1909
The Ideals of Mary Wollstonecraft
AMONGST other events which happened during the recent International gathering of the Woman Suffrage Alliance was a great pageant of Women’s Trades and Professions, which marched to the Albert Hall. As is customary on days .of pageantry, there was much attention given to the display of symbols ; thus, the potters brought their wheel, the laundresses their tub, and so on. But there was one symbol which, I take it, was intended to sum up all the rest, for it appeared on the cover of the programme which described the show. T h a t covering symbol has set me thinking, and I want to know whether I am on the right track, whether I a m right in interpreting it as I do. W h a t precise significance, in short, are we . t o attach to the fact that the portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft was placed on the front page ? The women must not be hastily annoyed by our dull wits, if .some of us are just a little confused, not quite knowing the ultimate end of their demand for t h e political franchise. If they were struggling only to prove the simple issue that women are entitled, on grounds of commonsense and elementary justice, to a n equal share with men in the governing of the country, then their object would be a plain one. But that is a question which is no longer discussed in intelligent circles ; for exactly the same reason that the accuracy of the multiplication table is not a subject for debating clubs. That women have as much right to a vote a s men is just a s much beyond argument a s the result of twice two. But, of course, the women are not so simple a s to believe that there is any abstract advantage in being the possessor of a Parliamentary vote. No one, with the United States of America displaying itself a t the other side of the Atlantic, can have much enthusiasm for the abstract virtues of a n extended franchise in itself. There all the men have votes, and. they place them a t the unlimited disposal of a half-dozen or so financial kings, who get on quite well without bothering about a crown and sceptre. And in England the case is not far different. So that it is fairly clear, with all these examples before them, the women have in their minds some new use of the vote which ordinary, easily-gulled men have not had the wit t o discover. \Vhy do women want the vote? I t must be for a more intelligent reason than to use it a s men use theirs. So the real question remains : what is the political programme on which the women will invest their votes when they get them? .They will admit that the answer, so far, has been somewhat’ vague. They have taken pride in standing outside party politics. One sees them, Liberals, Tories, and Socialists, ail side by side in their societies, refusing to do much more than express a n insistent and urgent demand for the vote a t once. T h e policy of the Society which organised this Pageant is lying before me, and one clause runs : “ I t has no party.” There is not one word which begins to hint a t a policy. So we a r e thrown back on indirect evidence Now, what I want to know is this. The portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft has been placed on the cover of the Pageant programme. Perhaps it may be said that her beautiful face, blended of strength and mysticism, would be sufficient ornament for any cover. I imagine there is something beyond the pictorial in her presence there. She was a woman of very settled convictions ; she expressed them with such vigour that intellectual Europe rose--in considerable alarm ; for intellectual persons are easily frightened, after all, when anyone has the courage to say the truth without due warning. NOW what I want to know is this : Are we to understand that the International Suffragists have deliberately accepted Mary Wollstonecraft as the chief symbol of their innermost convictions? Are they prepared to stand by all that Mary Wollstonecraft said and did? If that be SO, then w e know, with some certainty, what is the aim of the Suffrage movement. Further, one is ready to bear the charge of patronising, and begin With the humblest congratulations that the women have
chosen for their leader as perfect a woman as ever crossed the page of history : in the one scale, the finest sense of purity ; in the other, the passion of. romance ; and both balanced by the sanest of intellects. F o r what did Mary Wollstonecraft stand? T h e second sentence of her introduction to the “ Vindication of the Rights of Woman ” is this : “ Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue.” I read the. rest of her book as a passionate development of that theme. Thus : “ I t is vain to expect virtue from women until they are in T h e laws reSome degree independent of men. . pecting woman make a n absurd unit of a man and his wife ; and then, by the easy transition of only considering him as responsible. she is reduced to a mere cypher. . . . . She must not, be dependent on her husband’s bounty for her subsistence during his life, or support after his death.” Now if those words mean anything, they are the most emphatic declaration of a principle which, in the terms of modern sociology we Call the Endowment of Motherhood. But the matter does not end there. Mary Wollstonecraft was not merely a theorists She translated her principles into the sphere of life. Twice she gave birth to a child ; once in the case of Imlay and again in the case of Godwin ; and in both cases the child was conceived outside the marriage bond. So vivid was her SenSe of the delicacy of a pure sex relationship that she could not imagine it controlled by any legal compulsion ; it was a matter for the completest freedom. I n a magnificent outburst to the deserter Imlay, she wrote : ‘‘ I never wanted but your heart ; that gone, you have nothing more to give. Forgive me if I say that. I shall consider any direct or indirect attempt to supply my necessities as an insult which I have not merited.” She told him haughtily that she considered marriage “ a vulgar precaution.” Now in the case of Godwin, before the birth of the child, it is true, they married ; for she seemed unable again to endure the onslaught of public opinion. But there is a significant fact which strikes one in the front of the Suffragists’ programme : their leader appears under her maiden name, though, in law, she died a s Mrs. Godwin. Am I right in assuming that they regard that marriage as a surrender of that innate chastity which she had spent her life in maintaining could rest alone on the basis of her free will? Then there is another principle which runs through all that Mary Wollstonecraft wrote and did. She stood for the democracy ; she wrote : “ F r o m the respect paid to property flow, as from a poisoned fountain, most of the evils 2nd vices which render the world such a dreary scene.” She tells her fellow-women “they need not complain, for they are as well represented as a numerous class of hard-working mechanics, who pay for the support of royalty when they can scarcely stop their children’s mouths with bread.” She stood ,by the people. There is not space to amplify the point,, but one is justified in asking whether so many of the disciples of Mary Wollstonecraft should be quite so determined to support only a limited bill? If the Women Suffragists will say quite openly that they stand for economlc independence in its most democratic sense, a s Mary Wollstonecraft put it on her b a n n e r they have a n unassailable case, which their opponents cannot meet except by the confession of an immoral desire to enslave women by compulsion. Will not their present leaders tel! us if this is what they mean by putting Mary Wollstonecraft’s name on their front page? The declaration would be of immeasurable help to their propaganda. For they will never teach women to demand the vote until they have shown them, also, what they can do with it when it is won. G. R. S. TAYLOR.
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DELICIOUS
For Breakfast & after Dinner
MAY 13, 1909
Aerial Navigation and Socialism
THE NEW A G E
49
I F we ask any ordinary citizen to summarise the featureswhichhavemarkedtheprogress of therace during the last one hundred years, he will point to the achievements of theinventorandscientist,andselect such instances as railways, ocean liners, telegraph, telephonesandthe like. This an is acknowledgment of the undoubted fact that such social progress as we have if made up to the present time has been caused mainly, not entirely, by the work of innumerable inventors and scientists. In fact-and the more closely examine we history more truth the this will appear--changes in social organisation from feudal times have been brought abut only by reason of new conditions arising through the march of science and inventions. T h e prejudicewhichopposedscientificandtechnical progress in the early days was as bitter as any opposition to social progress now is, but it constantly tended to becorneadiminishingquantity.Beingovercomeby one invention, and finding that no very dreadful consequences ensued, it was less bitter on the next occasion, and so on,until, at the present day, prejudice against new inventionsanddiscoveries,whilstnotextinct,is very small as compared with the prejudice against social innovations. This is probably owing the that to fact socialprogressdependsonmoreelusivemattersthan immutable natural which ascertained laws, are and grappled by technologist, consequently with the and fetishandsuperstitionaremuchmorepowerful.This blind fear of change will be dissipated only by the same causes as have operated in that direction hitherto. Therefore, we and our non-Socialist friends will be well advisedinkeeping a watchfuleyeontheprogress of inventions and discoveries, in order to discern the signs of the coming of Socialism. From this point of view, also, we can see a new and, extremely valuable proof of the soundness of the Socialistposition.Thereisnoneglectedorunaccountedfor residuum in the scheme of Socialism as there is in the .capitalistic system. No conceivableeventsorhappenings in theindustrialorsociallife of thecommunity could overturn a socialistically organised society, whereas we find that very little and comparatively insignificant causes in are common experience capable of causing serious very Consequences our to present ,system. For instance, supposing the dream of theAlchemist ‘were to come true (and modern science shows that the ‘transmutation of the elements was not such a wild dream as we imaginedtillrecently),orthatgoldwas ‘discoveredAfricaAsia in or giving hundredweights instead of ounces to the ton, gold would then fall to the value of silver o r nickel, and, under the present system, terrible a crisis would ensue. Ali the present gold and theentire miningcompanieswouldbebankrupt, of the world would paralysed. be monetary system But, under Socialism we would welcome the discovery, €or the peculiar properties of gold, its decorative colour, so on, ‘Itsresistance to corrosion,itsmalleability,and would make its cheapening a most advantageousdiscovery for the service of mankind, and not one human being would be confronted misery. with Similarly, if the laboratory work of the late Professor in theartificialproduction of Moissan(whosucceeded diamonds on a small scale) were one day to be carried so farthatthecommercialproductionofcrystallised carbon were accomplished, s a y a t half-a-crown a pound, there would be a cataclysm in Hatton Garden, and all those who have investedmoney in diamond mines, or
whorely on the ownership of these gems as a n easily a portableform of wealth,wouldbeconfrontedwith very serious and, in many cases, ruinous state of affairs. Under Socialism, only the result would that be the efficiency of cutting and boring tools, lenses and optical instruments wouldenormously be increased, to the general benefit of the community, because the only present rarity of this form of carbon prevents its generaluse in theArts.Thosewhoask,“Who will wearthediamondsunderSocialism? ” mightmake a note of this. It has been demonstrated within the last few months heavier air than can be constructed that a machine which is capable of carrying two men without gas-bags o of any kind for a distance of forty miles or s in about an hour. The inventor has made many flights by himself and with a passenger, and has remained in the air for as long as an hour and three-quarters, flying at any height from the ground at will, and describing complicated evolutions in all directions, either with or against the wind, alighting easily safely and at any desired crude is in design-all first place. The machine machines are-but there can be no doubt that the problem has at last been solved in principle, and that future developmentsaremerely a matter of experimentand design. The airship has now arrived at about the same stage as the bicycle had when it had evolved from the old “hobby-horse ” tothe“ordinary ” high bicycle. The greater dissemination of technical knowledge is continually increasing the number of persons capable of inventingnewappliances.The effect of thiswasseen in thephenomenallyrapidevolution of the bicycle. I n ten years or so the bicycle, from being a freak machine that a man rode more or less at peril of his life, became one of the most perfectmachines in designandconstructioneverproducedbymankind. A morerecent instance of the rapid evolution of mechanical appliances is the remarkable way in which the motor car has been developed from a machine which stuck at almost every gradient to one that has crossed whole continents over vile roads, or no roads at all, and arrived home in good order. With these instances in mind, it is not too much to say that in a few years from now the airship will have becomepracticableand efficient. The present writer is confident the that airship of thenearfuture will be capable of travelling at the rate of 150 to 2 0 0 miles a n h o u r t h a t it will have a radius of action sufficient to encircle the globe without coming to earth, that it will travel any at desired altitude giving to not rise too much physical discomfort, carry and weights’ be to measured in tons rather than hundredweights as now. If we take the speed at what has been actually demonstrated, namely, forty miles per hour, and if we assume the radius of action a t 1,000 miles instead of the earth’s circumference, it will not materially affect point, the which is this : that the advent of the airship will bring about a revolution in the social organisation of the world compared which consequences with the which ensued on the introduction of the steam engine are insignificant. Let us now examine changes for these and the momentassumetheyareaccomplishedfacts.Perhaps the first thing that strikes one is that frontiers, whether they seas, are rivers, mountains, merely or abstract geographicallines,are all reducedtoone level. They all become abstract lines, because the air is just as navigable over waterasoverland.Similarly,positions of sea and land defence, such as Gibraltar, Kronstadt, Heligoland, are. etc., of no importance more than Timbuctoo or Jericho. The consequences of this change are, of course, numerous instance, very For international relationships w i l l become less parochial. Înterdependence and solidarity between the nations must become more pronounced. reforming Our Tariff friends will have a somewhat rude shock, because it is hardly likely that a n airship captain passing over any frontier,say in themiddle of thenight, will descend
50
THE NEW AGE
MAY 13, 1909
and knockupthe CustomsHouse officers in orderto .pay the duties on his cargo. Import and export duties, therefore, must go. But are there compensations. Customs duties are used largely for the up-keep of Armies Navies. and Under the new conditions,. the finest army ever drilled will be reduced to the level of an undisciplined mob, for an airship a fewthousandfeet aboi-e could destroyit whilst practically itself secure. Although it may be possibleoccasionally to hit an airship, the difficulty of range-finding, to say nothing of the chances of hitting a rapidly moving object at such an inconvenient angle for rifled ordnance,makesthecombattoo one-sided. Even if it werepossible to hit it in the daytime, at night it would be practically impossible. Similarly, most the powerful and, at present, invulnerablefortification will be no more terrible than a child’s sand-castle, and the modern battleship, costing a couple of millions, and having o n board the effective male population of a good-sized town, can be blown into a mere conglomeration of scrap metal in a few seconds. These circumstancesmust inevitably suggestdisarmament,and no longer can the peoplebedistractedfromtheir wrongs by war. Millions of men now serving as soldiersandsailors must be found productive work, and the men now engaged in building ships and barracks, making material andclothing,victualling,and so on, will alsohaveto havetheirenergiesotherwise directed.Howthis is to be done by any other system of organising society than by Socialism one cannot see. Under the present system, the problem of unemployment already finds our governing classes at their wits’ end for a remedy., I t is comparatively easy to deduce from whathas already been demonstrated what will be done in future so far as the technological side is concerned, but one’s powers of deduction stop there. Who can tellwhether the Nations will see absurdity the of W a r , tariffs, frontiers and so forth, or whether they ,will try to construct air warships-such a s Tennyson foresaw “grappling in thecentral blue ”-and thus attempt to perpetuate the old hideoussystem? If they do, the problem of employment will bejust as pressing, as not a tithe of thepresentnumber of men employed in war could be employed to any advantage in aërial warfare. It is alsopossible, perhaps, that some sort of international agreement not to use aërial warships-in fact, as it were, to shelve the invention-may be suggested ; but wouldnotbebinding onprivate individualswho would be incited to make use of airships by the thought of gainsto be made smuggling, by prospecting, or exploiting unexplored or little known countries, etc. an agreement -Moreover, it is difficult to seehowsuch could be enforced in case of infraction. One can be sure of this : that Socialists alone have a policy which can deal with the conditions arising. Socialists should be early in the field with a constructive policy ready to meet theemergency,because whenall the rest of the world is dazed and uncertain as to what to do for the best,then will be the time for Socialists -to justifyessential the sanity of their belief that “Socialism is the only remedy.” G.
Anglo-American Animosity.
By
Francis
Grierson
in a combination of power., pride, and prejudice. Never before in the history of nations has there been a political situation so harmonious in appearance, yet so inconwhen regarded critically. The gruous clashing and situation is calculated to deceive all but those who have travelled much and thought deeply ; it is certain to deceive all but those who are carefully trained to observe facts and he o n guard against illusions engendered by superficial sentiment and hysterical emotion. The thinking world is brought face tofacewiththemost interesting outlook since the invasion of Greece by the Romans ; andyeteventhisparallelfalls short of our present position in the world of commerce and politics
THEsecret of Anglo-American animosity is to be found
Ever since the defeat of the Spanish Armada, worldpower has been the leading characteristic of the AngloSaxon Power race. had to precede pride, and pride had to precedeprejudice. A deep-seatedprejudice was the inevitable result of England’s geographical position. T h u s w e havethethree P’s, which forcenturieshave governed the English people in theirrelationswith all othercountries. But a change had to come, andthe British race began to put forth an off-shoot of power on the day when the colonists of Massachusetts threw the famous cargo of tea into Boston harbour.” Then again, on the day of the Declaration of Independence, real Power was conferred on the people of America, although no one in Englandrealised what a “taking off ’’ there had been from the very root of the British people. Yet, i n spite of this falling off, England remained as great as ever in Europe and Asia, and became even greater after the Rattle of WaterlooThe wealth of India made Englishmenforgetthattherewas suchaplace as an American United States ; but, after having been ignored for years, America began to be regarded with an eye of prejudice, a prejudice springing not so much from feelings of animosity as from ignorance of, the country, its people, their customs, manners, ideals, and institutions. Even so late as the W a r of Secession serious little thoughtwasgiventoanythingthatoccurredinthe United, States. Little did the English people dream that their sentiments regarding America would one day find their counterpart among the people of the United States!! Who could haveguessed thatpower. would onedayanswer to power, pride to pride prejudice to prejudice? Again England’s world-power received a shock on the day that Bismarck turned Germany into an Empire, while atthesame time anera of aggressive prosperity began in America. I t will be seen how natural it was, and perhaps still is, for many people in England to assume an attitudeof indifference or patronage towards all foreigners, even towards the people of AustraliaandCanada,and how comes it aboutthat their opinions in thesemattersarenottheresult of pretence, but result the of teaching and heredity. Nevertheless,andrightly or wrongly,Americansnow possess their own power, their own pride, and their own deep-seated, long-ground-in-the-mill prejudices. If power comes from simple wealth, let it beadmitted at once that the Americans are a powerful people ; but if it is caused by acombination of intelligence, hard work, natural riches, and numbers, they are formidable indeed. Can it be wondered at that they in their turn, after unheard-of pioneeringandfighting, are aproud people? As for American prejudice, it is, after all,. founded on reality ; ithas a stiff backbone. Itwas instilled into the blood of the race during the W a r of Independence, it received a newinfusion in t h e W a r of 1812, anotherduringthe W a r of Secession,when the upper classes in England were almost to a man on the side of the South. these For reasons, American prejudice is deep-seated, and as little likely to yield to the blandishments of interested financiers as it ever was. All nations are governed by self-interest, the but Englishand Americanpeoples are supposed to be the mostpracticalandmatter-of-factracestheworldhas ever known ; sometimes pitiably so, a s when the English ” tothe ceased from applying theepithet“monkeys Japanese and the French and began to embrace them as brothers. No one is deceived. Great indeed is the influence of sentimental psychology but greater still that of internationalanimosity.This is thethingthat will not away at the bidding of professional politicians, selfmade millionaires i n search of titled society, and smart young women in search of titledhusbands.There are no quarrels so unrelenting a s those that occur in families andamong relations. W e all ,know the typicalselfish old father in theplay,who cuts off his only son and turns him out of doors ; but in the case of England and America the son has returned more than once, and forced the old man to sell at the figure the son chooses to fix, for when it is a cast of dog eat dog, the bull-dog with the best teeth will w i n It is not too much tosaythat where the English’ looked down on Americans with an air of patronage a
MAY 13, 1909
THE NEW AGE
51
few years ago, it is now the American tourist who thinksthisair of patronage perfectly justified in his own case when visits he England. If anyone doubts this, the daily reports of the doings and sayings of the young ladies from Ohio and Illinois are bound to convince the most sceptical. I t is all but impossible to convince an Englishman that there are other people on the earth who were born with their “mind’s made up.” Having a fixed mind about everybodyandeverything was at one time a sort of divine right of the man born and bred in England.Other people mighthavetheir notions, customs, whims ; they did not matter. But now the American mind seems to be fixedin a way all its own ; the American head seems to be screwed on by a new and unheard-of process ; it is made to turn, but not to bow ; it can think quicker than it can feel, and a bevy of young womenfrom the Middle West contain as many flashes of wit a s a garage does of electric sparks. Never before has the missing phrase come with such lightning force. Artistic London waited has long for this, uttered by one of the lady tourists recently : “ T h e National Gallery looks like a man in a bowler hat and a frockcoat ” ; orthis : “Thestatues in Westminster Abbey would look better if theirheadswere off ” ; or this, in reference to London buses : “Funny old things with stairs.”Thesevisitorshavealanguage of their own, denuded of all make-believe. Remarks come a s from a machine made to open, cut, and shut in a single movement. A judgment is short, spontaneous, and final ; something so positive that a superficial observer might take it as the result of long and deliberate study. The opinions of Continental visitors never weighed with the people of London ; butherecomesthe American tourist, stripped of all superfluities, armed with a handbag, two keen, restless eyes, and a sharp tongue, ready to see most things as they are and some things as they ought to be, the time having passed whenSentimental considerations play even an insignificant role in the ruling of a judgment ; and .lo ! the Londoner’s breath is taken away with the cool frankness of a point-of-view of the never dreamed of in theremotestcalculations possibilities of the future. In fact, every other calculationhad been made by the wits of Londonwithreference to visitorsfromthefourpoints of the European compass-the opinions of Russians, Poles, Parisians, ; their Spaniards,and even Turks, could foretold be likes and dislikes gave neither pleasure nor pain ; but who couldhaveguessed at the condition of things today? For the young lady from the Middle West comes to London with a purpose wholly foreign to that of the young lady from Berlin orParis.Shecomes with ‘a full-fledged will, an independentmind, and an attitude devoid of diffidence ; and, the irony of it ! shecomes from that same West so brutally lampooned by Dickens andMrs.Trollop, and, must it be said? her epigrams cut ten times deeper than anything Dickens ever penned, about America. They cut deeper because they are true, whereas Dickens criticised a raw and crude country as if it had been settledfor a hundredyears. W e who have known London for the past forty years and more have failed to find the phrase that fits-certain places and institutions in the great Metropolis-thus the younglady fromIndiana,whenshetermedTrafalgarSquare “A nightmare with the window open.” WhiletheEnglish remain fixed in many of the old notions and illusions, the Americans have grown out o f many of theirprovincial views ; they come to Europe with feelings of independence, a marvellous sense of assurance, and an ability tograpple with everything that comes in their way, fromscenery to society. And a deep interest in in spite of a liberal training and Shakespeare’s birth-place and the old cathedrals, there remains a suppressed feeling of acrimonious rivalry, which I believe ‘to be a far graver menace to the British Empire than any menace from Europe or Asia. Owing tothe blindness of political parties,everything in the two countries, material spiritual, and political and Social, tends to a wider and wider divergence. The gulf that separates England and America is
greater in the mind than it is on the map. The present generation in America is one of cosmopolitanised patriots, the but younger people have been educated clear outside sphere the and beyond the influence of English traditions. American children soon become familiar with the European types, made brighter by beingtransplanted to a brighterclimate ; andthis is one o the causes of ,the disappointment of Americans f when they visit Europe ; the European native is inferior to European the in America. But there is something : perhaps gravest the danger for more, worse and England lies in the fact that a whole foreign world has now sprung up in America, a worldborn of Germans, Irish, Hungarians, Poles, Italians, Russians, a world numbering tens of millions, soon to be vastly increased, the majority prejudiced in favour of their native country, o r the country of their parents, most of them taught to regard England with suspicion or downright animosity. Everyone who has spent much time in travelling about in Continental countries knows with what secret distrust England is regarded. Add thisdistrusttothesecret animosity of a large portion of the Anglo-Saxon population of the United States, and the man must be blind indeed who cannot see at a glance that 75 per cent. of the people are ill-disposed towards everything European andmost things English. The time has come to cease prating about blood beingthickerthanwater,forthe saying has no meaning when applied to distant relatives pulling attheother end of the rope. Thephrase is handyfor Micawber statesmenwho like to hide their want of imagination mountains under of platitude. This cheapsayinghasworked,and is still working, infinite mischief. I t serves sorts all of irresponsible people. It is thestrawthrown to a drowning manby a befuddled captain groping his way in a fog ; it serves the timid optimist, the daring bungler, the make-believe. politician, and the obfuscated pessimist. There are phrases that breed danger in a nation as much as the germs of a pestilence,and this is one OF them.But it is the sort of sentiment that clingslikeasuperstition totheeasy-going,hum-drum intellectready to believe anything the but facts, anxious place to the whole burden of Anglo-Saxon progressontheshoulders of youngAmerica. The sentimental, which is dubious in religion,deceiving in business,dangerous in love, becomesfatefulanddeadly in politics. There was something sentimental as well a s fundamental in Gladstone’s obstinacy which made his failures so formidable. There are those who think they can see, those who are trying to see, and those who are playing at politics blindfolded ; they are themuddlers,thefuddlers,andthepuddlers, thelastbeing in the majority.Theyhavewhittled the Anglo-American situation down to something like this : E n g l a n dand America are now engaged in aharmIess butheatedfencingbout,butthe momentmay arrive when, in place of foils,they will he called on to fence with red-hot pokers. What will be the outcome? I shall try to answer the question in another article.
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52
THE N E W A G E
~-
MAY 13, 1909
M.
Debussy’s Musical Impressions..
Translated by Mrs. Franz Liebich.
II.
(From “ L a Revue Blanche,” July I , 1901.) IT was a lovely evening, and I had made up my mind to do nothing (to be elegant, letus say that I was dreamone of those admirable ing). reality,was In it not momentstowhichonereferslaterwith emotion and ... complacency ashavingpreparedthefuture.No these minutes were really quite unpretending, they were simplymoments of “good-will.” I wasdreaming . . . Should I put some ideas shape into ,...? Finish .some compositions . . . . ? So manypoints of interrogationsuggestedby a childishvanityeagertofree itself a t all costs from irksome ‘thoughts ; all of which ill conceal the foolish notion of wishing to appear superior to others. And this superiority represents no if it does include estimable not the particular effort desire above to rise oneself. this But is special a alchemic process, in which one must offer up one’s own cherished personality little a s holocaust. And this is hard to endure and absolutely barren in result. Morea vast over, bidding for popular favour means wasting amount of time on constant public appearances or unceasing propaganda ; by these means one may earn the right to be one of a parcel of great men whose names are bandied about the for purpose of giving fresh To avoidgiving interesttolanguishingtalksonart. discouragement to others, I will not dwell longer upon this subject. The evening was still beautiful, but, as it may have beenremarked,Iwasdissatisfiedwithmyself. ... I waslosingsight of my ownidentity,and all kinds of vexatious impersonal nations were floating around me. Just then my door bell rang, and I made the acquaintance of M Croche. His entranceintomyapartments . was associated with incidents both natural and absurd, of which a detailedaccountwouldbewearisomeand useless. M. Crochehad a small,leanhead ; hisgestures were obviously of a kind suitable for the sustaining of metaphysicaldiscussions ; onecouldlocatehis physiognomy by recalling to mind the features of Tom Lane,thejockey,and M. Thiers ; hisgeneralappeara brand-new knife. His voice ance reminded of one was deep, he never laughed, and occasionally he undera slow smile,whichcomlined hisconversationwith of his face, menced round his nose, wrinkling the whole andcausingit to resemble a quiet pool intowhich a pebble been has thrown. I t was long and insufferable. . . . H e rivetted my attention once his at by individualideasonthesubject of music. He spoke of orchestral scores in terms of painting ; he hardly ever use of unemployed technical expressions, made but familiar words of austere elegance, slightly out of-date ; theyseemed to fallonthe ear with a soundlikethe metallicring of old medals. I recollect hisdrawing a comparison between Beethoven’s orchestra, which he likened to a design in black and white, its with consequent exquisite scale of greys,that and of Wagner : a kind of multi-coloured mastic laid on almost evenly, in which, he declared, he could no longer single out the sound of a violin from that of a trombone. As hisinsufferablesmilere-appearedmore especially when spoke he about music, occurred me, it to of a ask him what his was profession. He sudden, to answered in a tone of voice which cut short any attempt a t discussion : “ Ante-dilettante ” . . . . and continued in a monotonous and irascible key : “ H a v e you noticed
A Colloquy with M. Croche.
thehostilemanner of an audiencein a concerthall? Have Y O U observedthosefacesglumwithennui, indifference,and even stupidity?Never,for a moment, are they in sympathy with the fluent dramas which bring themselves play the into in midst the of symphonic conflictwhereonediscernsthepossibilityofattaining to the summit of the sonorous edifice, and, once there, of breathing in an atmosphere of perfect beauty. These persons, Monsieur have always the appearance of being guests more less their or on good behaviour ; they endure patiently the boredom of their situation, and if. they do not get up and go away it is only because they want to be seen coming out at the end of the concert-; YOUmustown forwhatotherreasondotheycome? thereisenoughtogiveoneaneverlastinghorror of music.” As I brought forward the pleaof havingwitnessed, even and taken in, part really praiseworthy enthusiasms, answered he : ((You grossly are mistaken,and if you diddisplay so muchenthusiasm,it was in the silent’hope of somedayreceivingsimilar approbation for yourself ! Rest assured that a true impression of beautymustnecessarilyhavetheeffect of imposing silence. Listen ! when have you been watching that daily magic pageant of the setting sun, has it everoccurredto you to applaud? Yet, YOU will confess, developments its are a trifle more amazing than your all little musical anecdotes? And, besides, you realise your own insignificance and the impossibility of being in complete union with such perfect loveliness. But in thepresence of a soi-disantwork of artyou regainpossession of yourself, you havethen a classic jargonatcommandwhichenables you toindulgein endless discussions.” I did not dare tell him how nearly I was of his way of thinking; for nothing dries up a conversation so quickly a s a n affirmation ; I preferred to ask if he ever played anyinstrument.Heraisedhisheadquicklyandsaid : (‘Monsieur, I dislike specialists. To mymind,specialising is equivalent to circumscribing one’s outlook and becoming those like good old wooden horses which used to be set revolving the lever of a merry-go-round, by and came slowly to rest to the well-known accompaniment of the ‘ Marche Lorraine ’ ! But I have a thoroughknowledge of music,andpride myself very speciallyonbeing proof againstallpossiblesurprises. Two bars are sufficient t o tell me the key of a symphony or of any othermusicalstory. If we cancreditsome great men with a ‘ doggedresolution ’ nottorepeat themselves, reverse the may be’ said of others, who plagiarisedoggedly on theirinitialsuccess,andtheir ingenuity not does interest me in the People least. havecalledthemmaestros ! Letthemtake heed lest thisbe only apoliteway of beingrid of themor of excusingmanysimilarbunglers.Onthe whole, I try to escape music, from because it hinders from .me hearing that which is unknown to me, .or with which I may become acquainted ‘ to-morrow.’ W h y should one cling to what is already too familiar? ” Imentionedthenames of someprominentcontemporary musicians, whereuponbecame more he still aggressive.“Youhavea tendency tomagnifyevents which would have been cf every day occurrence in the days, for example cf Bach. You wrotelatelyabout a sonataof M. P. Dukas ; he is probablyoneofyour a musical critic? So many friends, more or, likely, reasons to speak well of him. have, You, however, been outdone in eulogiums, for M. Pierre Lalo, in a feuilleton of ‘ LeTemps ’ devoted exclusively tothis sonata, declared himself willing to sacrifice toall it those written by Schumann Chopin. and Chopin’s nervous temperamentwas,mostcertainly, ill-suited to comply with the necessary patience required the for confectioningof a sonata ; thosehewrotewere,more properly speaking, ‘ elaborate sketches sonatas.’ for All the same, one can affirm that he inaugurated a perfectly individual manner of treating the sonata form, andthisirrespectively of thedelightfuloriginalmusic contained in them.Hewas a mar,of noble ideas,and he exchanged them frequently, without exacting an investment fer them at IOO percent.,whichisthebest partoffameformany of our maestros. M. P. Lalo,
MAY 13, 1909
THE NEW’ A G E
53
of course, .does not omit to evoke the mighty shade of Beethoven apropos of your friend Dukas’ sonata. Had I been in his place, I should have greatly not felt flattered. Beethoven’s sonatas very are badly written for the piano ; they can be more accurately described, especially ,last his ones, orchestral as transcriptions. They often need a third hand, which Beethoven certainly heard, at least I hope he did. It would have been ; they better to have left Schumann and Chopin alone both wrote strictly for the piano, and ,if thisseemsof slightaccountto M PierreLalo,hecan, . at least,be grateful to them for having prepared the way for the perfection of a Dukas-and a few others.”
Mr. Arnold Bennett‘s
New Play
“
What the Public Wants ” is not a question that will A sick navvy, when somebody ever interest the public. told him thatthetroublelayinhis.digestion,replied frankly that he didn’t know he had such a thing. The public, similarly, .has never reflected on the process by which it is drawn or repelled in the domain of art and literature. Mr. Bennett has twice proved that exquisite comedy may be sucked from contemplation of the laws of supply and demand, as these are affected by what is called thepublictaste. He proved it inhisnovel “A Theselastwordswereutteredby M. Croche in icy GreatMan,”one of themostamusingbooks,forthe tones, with a kind of you may take it or leave it manner. cynicaland bookish reader,everwritten.Inthisplay I was,however,greatlyinterested,andIlethimconhe has proved same the thing. As a play the for tinue after a long silence, during which his only sign of knowing auditor, for all, indeed, who are at all behind life had been the smoke of his cigar. He had carefully thescenes of contemporaryjournalism,nothingcould watched ascent the of the spirals, blue seeming apbe more enchanting. The public would be bored by it. parently to behold some curious amorphisms in themSeveral people of passable intelligence have me told perhaps some audacioussystems. silent His attitude nothing very entertaining in “ A was discomforting and rather alarming. . . . H e re- they find possiblethat“WhatthePublicWants Great. Man.’’ It is just ” sumed : ‘‘Music.is a sumtotal of scatteredforces.It might slightly annoy the public. is ‘turnedinto a commercialspeculation ! I prefer to Of course the chief persons of this play are products hear a few notes of an Egyptian shepherd’s flute, he is of the Five Towns ; three brothers with a solid backing in accordance with scenery hears the and harmonies of Potteries burgess ancestry, say to nothing of the ignored by your treatises. Musicians only listen to heroine, a London actress, who springs from the same music written by clever experts ; never to that which is soil by a very excusable coincidence. John Worgan, inscribedNature. in It would profit more them to eldest of the brothers, is a medicalpractitionerinhis watch a sunrise to than hear a performance the of native town. A brainy provincial of the sound and sen‘ PastoralSymphony.’ Of whatgoodisyouralmost sibleorder ; a familyman of highprofessionalideals, incomprehensible a r t ?O u g h t YOU not lessen to its the sort of man who belongs thoroughly to social life, parasitic complications, which, by their ingenuity, cause while a t the same time he recognises that an anthology ittoresemblethelock of a strong box? You donot of Swinburne’sversewhichdoesnotgivethe“Anacgoforward,because you havenoknowledgeofanytoria ” in full not is quite satisfactory. Briefly, Engthingbutmusicand you submit yourself tostrange ; and a type much land’s backbone in no ironical sense and barbarous rules. You a r e saluted flattering with rarer, I fancy-even in the Potteries-than Mr. epithets, and you are just a set of rogues ! Something Bennett by his works of fictionwould have us believe. between a menialand a monkey !” I ventured, tosay Francis Worgan is the flower of thefamily. An intelthat men had essayed; some in poetry, others in paintlectualaristocrat,,heembodiesthatunion of easy culing (with difficulty I managed add, some to and in turewithzestandfreshnesswhichusuallyseemsto music) to shake off the accumulated dust of tradition, demand a middle-classprovincialorigin as one of its withtheresult of findingthemselves labelled symbolconditions. A wanderer, convinced settled that habits istsandimpressionists,both of whichtermsarecona leisurelystudy of meanspiritualdeath,hepursues venientforslightingone’sfellows.“Theyaretradesart, nature, and human life onthemereinterest of a men and journalists who treat others in this manner,” legacy. I t ischaracteristic of himthathetakesover continued M Croche without flinching. “They are not . the vacant post of dramatic critic to his brother’s leadof any importance. A very beautiful idea in process of ing paperon his ownsuggestionandjustforfun.In formation is a worthyobject of ridiculefor imbeciles. the person of Sir Charles Worgan, knighted multlRest assured, there is a greater certainty of finding a proprietor of printed slush for the multitude, all the hardtrueperception of beautyamongthosewhoarcthus headed virility andcommercialinstinct of hisforbears ridiculed than among the class of men resembling sheep achieve a perfect essence culmination. and T h e first who wa!k with docility, in flocks, in the direction of the actreveals him in his multiproprietorial lair,expoundslaughterhousespreparedforthem by a clairvoyant ing to his newly arrived foil and brother_ Francis, to his fate. Remain unique . . . . above suspicion. To my manager, to all andsundry,hiscardinalmaxim,that mind,itspoils anartisttobetoomuch in sympathy success lies in giving the what public wants. it withhissurroundings,for I have always thefear of Secretly (a true touch) pines recognition he for by his becoming merely the interpreter of his own milieu. ((superior,intellectualpeople,”thoughhe is aware of Disciplinemustbesought in freedom ; it will notbe theirpracticalfutilityFrancis suggests an intellectual found in the formulas of a worn-outandfeeble philowife by way of solution-. Opportunelyhehasjustmet sophy. Take no heed toadvicefromanyoneunlessit M r s V e r n o n a beautifulwidow,thenengaged in “inbethepassingbreezewhichrelatesthehistory of the tellectual ” drama the at Prince’s Theatre. As their world to those who listen.” At this moment M. Croche Bursley compatriot and acquaintance in herchildhood, seemed to brighten up a bit : itseemed to me a s if I she has already some claim to their interest, and wants could see through and words sounded him, his then to see Sir Charles, it appears, on a matter of business. like most the wonderful music. I cannot transcribe The business turns out to be concerned with the Prince’s suitably peculiar its eloquence-perhaps thus : ‘(Can fine workunder Theatre, which is givingtotheworld you imagine anything productive of emotion a finer control of a wonderful Celtic manager, St. Holt I the than to hear of a man has who remained unknown John,butlackscapital--theusual flaw in enterprises through centuries long whose secret been has accisuffused with Celtic glamour. Charles Sir is partly dentallydeciphered? To have been oneofthesemen fascinated by The lady, partly moved on his sentimental . . . . thatisthe onlyvalid honour tobe obtaincd of side ; for she is obviousiymaking a hardfightwith Fame.” poverty He agreesfinance concern.the to the In second act The first streaks of dawn perceptible were ; M. comes the inevitable conflict between Sir Crochewas visibly tired,and so hewentaway.IacCharles, who even here cannot resign his fatal flair for companied him to the door of the landing ; he did not whatthepublicwants,andSt.Johnwithhisuncompromising idealism. St. think of shaking hands, neither did I dream of thanking John resigns, later and we him. I listened for a long to sound his time the of hear he is gone toAmerica,themodernsubstitutefor Oxford as a home of impossibleloyalties..Meanwhile, as he descendedthemany footsteps,growingfainter flights of stairs. I dare not hope to see him a g a i n the Prince’s Theatre pays under Worgan’s control. He
54
THE NEW AGE
MAY 13, 1909
perceivesthecommercialpossibilities of a diluteand decorated Shakespeare, and acts upon them. It is part of his genius to understand the Shakespeare public, just as he understands (for example) the “religious ” public. All this time, of course, he has been falling in love with EmilyVernonHeproposesmarriagetoher,andshe acceptshim.Inactthreethewholefamilymeetsin JohnWorgan’shouse,Bursley.Herecomesthedramatic moment of the Mrs. plot. Downes, a lifelong friend of old Mrs. Worgon is one of the party, and it happensmostunfortunately(Imeanfortunately)that the current issue of “Charlie’s ” Sunday rag announces -as next week’s instalment of the “ Crimes of Passion ” series-“ the famous Dick Downes case,” a dirty story, thirtyyearsold,inwhichMrs.Downes’sbrother(or some relative, I did not quite gather) had distinguished himself. Worgan the John sees announcement by chance.Thefat is in the fire. CanCharlieandMrs. Downes sit down to supper at the same table in such circumstances--letalonethegeneraldepravity of resuscitating such “ Crimes of Passion ’’ forthelewder Sunday public? Charlie is firm, and a first-classbattle ensues between him and John ; between John’s unclouded moral sense, that is to- say, and Charles’s great principle that the public must have what it wants, irrespective of atriviallocalcoincidencelikethis.Emily is naturally introduced to cut the knot. She kisses her affianced oneintodesertion of hisgreatprinciple ; he undertakes that Dick Downes shall not be disinterred, (a few days have and supper proceeds. In the last act elapsed) Emily has thought things over, and breaks to Charlesthenewsthatshecannotmarryhim.She is’ aware, as, in fact, tells she Francis, Charles that is unconvinced. “ I didnotconvincehim,”shesays. “I caressed him.” Charles is staggered by her declaration. He goes so far that he offers to throw up the newspaper business altogether and retire on his modest million. She stands by her resolve. They would never see eye to eye morally. In a splendid outburst of genuine surprise andpassion,Charlesreproachesherbitterly,andshe retorts that he would sell his wife if the public wanted her. The playcloseswithSirCharlesforlorn,butsetting his teeth in determination to out-Herod Herod and push straight on to the House of, Lords. Even Francis, tired of dramatic criticism, deserts him. We leave him outlining a campaign in which the “Mercury ” and its countless satellite journals to are engineer the final phase of the woman’s suffrage movement, which he backs as a winner. At some risk of shocking readers of THENEW AGE, I mustconfessthatSirCharlesWorganrousedmuch sympathy in my breast. Partly, doubt, was no this Mr. Bennett’s fault. Heistoosincerelyanartistto damnanybodyoffhand.“Crimes of Passion,”andall the naïve cynicism which underlies an organised depravity like the Worgan press, are not to be condoned, I allow. ButWorganas a man appeals one to on many sides, and I believe Mr. Bennett meant him so to appeal. H e is a human creature ; above all, he is consistent,andwecontemplatehimwiththesatisfaction (callit aesthetic ornon-moral if you will) whichmere beast,thing, or always unity of purpose, in man, offersthe to philosophic mind. His will-power and hisenterprise,after all, areimmeasurablyrarerqualities the than cleverness of his brother Francis, for instance. Charles’s attitude Emily to throughout was perfectly conceived. There pretty are bits of brushHis hesitationtousethe word workinthisportrait. “love,”thoughreallyheisinloveheadoverheels ; his confessionthathealwaysgetsred,andsomehow feelsashamed,whenhehastosay“Thank you ” to anybody; his childlike satisfaction in the prospect of a D.C.L., and quite genuine amazement at the fuss made by certainpeopleabout a splitinfinitive;thesethings had definite dramatic value. when nature Even the of a split infinitive is explained to him, his amazement remains. Indeed, it is increased ; such people are mad, he cries, mad.” “all (This, the is by by,true.) In business and in love alike, Sir Charles has the simplicity of genius. H e lived. Not so Emily Vernon. Interpreted by Miss Halstan
in a charmingandaccomplishedmanner,theimpressionsheleftwasnonethelessnebulous. To remain nebulousthe is privilege of woman--in and life in novels. Butnotonthestage. An elusive,mysterious Phyllis (I refertoMr.Bennett’smasterlycreation of that name in “Whom God hath Joined ”) is not possible for drama. And Emily’s behaviournot is so much mysterious as meaningless.Some of the professional critics, I note, have discovered that she did not really love Worganwhensheagreedtomarryhim.Itmay be that professional critics have some method of testing these things, some method unknown to the simple lay mind. For myself,thewholelovescenestruckme as singularlyrealandunhackneyed,one of thebestlove scenes modern in comedy. If Emily did not yield to Charles’s suit quite sincerely, a s a woman of that sort very naturally does yield to a suitor of that sort, there is somestrangemistake.Author,oractress,orone’s a moment own plain perception is to blame. I don’t for believe that Mr. Bennett means her to accept Worgan as a way out of poverty ; still that looks less she forwardreforming to Worgan. Anyhow, if this be Mr. Bennett’s meaning, I regret and, resent it, for the love sceneinthat case wasallwrong.Observe,too, that Emily is engaged to Worgan for four solid months before Bursley the episode. we suppose Are to that the blind spot in Worgan’s moral consciousness is only brought home to her by the concrete domestic accident of Mrs. Downes? Emily is not ordinary an woman. acceptedon (I this trust.; She is “intellectual.” Within three days of the Downes affair she is final in herrepudiationofpoorWorgan. All thisseemsvery unreasonable. Indeed, last her words to him struck one not so much as drama, but as melodramatic. I fearEmily is somewhat of a prig, a terriblethingin woman. Do realwomen,evenwomenwhoprofessto appreciateFord’s“BrokenHeart,”andrecommendit t o their lovers, break off their engagements this in fashion?Incompatibility of temperisseriousenough, butherewehavenosuchthing.Thepairgetontogetherexcellently, by all onegathers.Incompatibility of moral Ideals is the trouble. And I do not find it adequate, as real life and love go. After all, my dilemmawithrespecttoEmilyis a verysimpleone. Eithersheis a heroine,dominated by hermoraland intellectualperceptions; in which caseshe would have felttheimpossibility of Worgan’s mind from the outset. Or else she is essentially a woman ; in which case her love, once given, would certainly be proof against Worgan’s defective principles, however patent and disapproved. If you reply Emily that was a refined creature of subtlesympathies,shockedout of love by the Downes affair, with all its unpleasantness ; my rejoinder is that refined creatures survive such shocks, while moral heroinesdonot need them.Hundreds of charming and sympathetic women are married to ruthlesskings cf commerce,andthesemarriages(shame uponmeforsaying it) areimmenselysatisfactoryall round. without scruples, Emily her belated and Worgan as he throughout, was would have made a capitalmatch.Isthereattheend a suggestion,faint butintentional,thatEmily will turn to Francis? Sincerely J hope not. I was sorry rejected for Charles, but the plight of Francis and Emily would be dreadful. Two “intellectual, superior people ” married is bad sense, the case is desperate. also a lofty moral enough ; butwhentheladyadds Theacting,as I haveimplied,wasworthy of the play. It be may assumed, suppose, Simon I that Macquoid, civil servant and dramatic critic, who throws uphispost in irritation at thesplit infinitive inserted overhissignature, is nothingbut a frank grotesque As grotesquewas he well enough, though to be complete should he have dragged Aristotle. in To a non-professionalplaygoerlikemyself,suchacting as onesawinthisperformancesuggestedoncemore the question : “ Has anybody ever seen a reallyfirst-class ” W e wantplays ; or, moderncomedybadlyacted? rather, we want the means of seeing them. How many hasMr.Bennettgot up his Sleeve?
J. E. BARTON,
MAY 13, 1909
THE NEW AGE
55
the neck threw her down on the bed. She screamed, and he puthishandoverhermouthforamoment.“BEquiet !” he muttered, but he moved away from her, looking appreBy Beatrice Tina. hensively towards the door. Shesatupand covered her face with her two armsheldhigh.Hethrew himself into C H A P T E R III. a chair, and took out his pipe. “ I sometimes wonderwhether, if my girls had known what “A prettybeast you’ve made of me already,’’ he said, was before them,theywould have gone quietly.”--THE BISHOP bitterly. “You’ve spoilt the finest fellow in world.” the OF C H E L S E A . She sobbed. “ O h , be quiet, for God’s sake. You’ll drive me mad. . . You vixen, to carry on like this. I tellyou, IT was nine o’clock on the morning after the wedding. Mrs. you’d have come off a bit the worse for it with some chaps Thomas Heck entered to join her husband in their sittingI know. I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve said so, and I mean roomatHastingsShehadputontheprettybluedress it; but I’m not going to be made a fool of.” pre-destined this for first breakfast. H e r olden hair was Nan gazed at and him struggled to speak. “How,” drawn back in its customary morning knot. The embroidered sheburstoutatlast,(‘How would itmake a fool of you slippers were onherfeet,and a soft lace-edgedhandkerifwe went back? ” chief was tuckedinherwaistband. As she closed the door shepaused a moment,holdingthehandle,and when she H e went over put arm and his around She her. drew turned round towards the spring sunshine streaming through away slightly, but he pulled her close to him, and patted her the window from the sea, her face showed tear-stained. shoulder. “That’s better,” said. he “ Be a little considerate-that’s all I want. You don’t understand--naturHer husband was seated by the fire reading a. newspaper. ally, of course ; I’d be very sorry if you did-how men look a t H e threwitasideandjumpedupwhenshecame in,. She to last Crone a year if these things. There’d be talk enough shrank away from his outstretched hands. we cut short our honeymoon, as you want t o They’d say-“Now,silly”hesaid,laughing. “Don’t do that.Come say! dear, I tell you Crumbs ! What wouldn’t they My and have some breakfast, and then I’ll take you out on the our private affairs would on be every Tom, Dick, and water.It’s quitewarmenoughfor a short sail. Kissme.” Harry‘s confounded tongues. I couldn’t face it-that’s a ‘(Tom, I want you to take me back to London.” fact. I should have to leave the damne? place.” “ W h a t ? Now don’t beginthatalloveragain. You’ll be “But why? No one know need anything our about all right to-morrow.” private affairs. W e could just go home, a n d you could H e pressed lips his impatiently together rang and the say I was sick.” bell for breakfast. “ H a w ! Well, I mustsay you’re cool,or you’re a n idiot. Nan took a cup of tea, but would eat nothing. She What you do suppose I’m made Sugar spice? of? and no refused to join her husband in his trip on the sea, and Don’t you think I’m a m a n ? Now listen. Take persuasioncould move her to go out,noranysuggestion your time, understand but that we’re married,and we’ve wean her from her desire to return to town. gottoremainmarried.Whatdoyousupposeyourpeople Really, irl, g do consider me a little,” Thomas said would say if I sent you backhome?Your mother--” I should look a pretty sort of Heck. “Don’t you think fool trotting you back to Crone? I tell you it’s only because “ My mother ! ’’ it’s all new to you that you’re upset.” ((Yes; she’d give you a pretty welcome. But, there, ‘‘ Thenit isn’t new toyou?”repliedtheyoung wife, you’re not going to be foolish. Kiss me. Yes, kiss me. sharply. I won’t be so roughagain. Kiss m e ; kiss m e ; kiss me I ” “ Don’t be absurd. ” H e crushed her down in his arms, but she lay there merely “ I t is very all cruel,”. she said, burst and into tears. a captive,andmade no response. H e releasedheratlast. “And I will go back.” She passed her hands over her hair and dress. ‘(Come out for a bit,” h e said. ! I‘m notplaster a “Mydeargirl, do-be-reasonable “ No, I must think it all over. I didn’t realise that people saint. Of course, I thoroughly understand delicate your would meddle so.” feelings,and they’re a creditto you. I‘d besorryifyou “ My dear, Mrs. Tom Heck would be talk the of the on a weredifferent.Hurryupandgetyourhat,andput district.” thick veil.’’ “ Horrible.” But Nan shook her head and went on weeping and after “And Mr. TomHeck would be joke the of every pota few strides up a n d down the room, Tom seized his the way folks gossip-but there you house. It’s a shame hat the and newspaper and went out. rushed Nan back are,theydo.” into bedroom locked the and the door. There were few There came sound the of the outer opening door and a wild, blind rage coherent thoughts her in mind-only shortly closing again. Mr. Heck looked out. Letters lay against her situation. So that is marriage,” she exclaimed on the table. H e brought them in and handed two to Nan. once,aloud. “ That-that ! ” Then she pressed herfingers She opened them. One was from Mrs. Pearson. laid She tightly her over m o u t h but out of her eyes looked it down withoutreadingit.Theother was signed,“Ever the. question : What can I d o ? At length arose, she It was a fulsome brideaffectionately, Marion Rogers.” c r y i n g “I will go.” She feverishly began dressing maid’s epistle, crowded with congratulatory phrases and outdoor The her things. in lovely brown travelexpressions of longing expectation to share in the triumphal ling coat was buttoned on, and over her feathered Viennese welcome home of the (‘happy and envied Light of Crone.” hat she tied a veil and a scarf of crêpe de chine. Then she The Light of Crone her and bit lips wiped away the seized a portmanteau bag and threw in a few things, slipped tears which sprang to her eyes. “ G o away now, please,” her gloves on,and took herpurse.Sheunlockedthedoor shesaid to her husband “I wanttimetothink. I’m worn andpassedintothesitting-room. out.” Thomas Heck there, sat smoking He noticed the bag. “Youcertainlyare,”heresponded, with a disapproving “Where are you going ? ” he demanded, roughly. glance at her red eyes andstained face. Mr. Heck went to “ Back---” she faltered. get his hat. “All right-go. I’m-sure I’m sick of it.” ! ” hs a i dP u l l e“ yourself ((Well, au revoir, dear She was at the outer door when he leaped u p and thrust together now, and show me your old pretty face when I herfromit. H e heldhertightlyand forced herintothe comeback.Shan’t give you too long.” inner (‘Tom-don’t,” room. she wailed. “Oh, I hate He shut the door, gently enough, and went out whistling, you. ” won for him, although And verily battle been the had “ B e quiet. down Sit You’re not going to make a fool Nan herself was not aware yet of this. Marion Rogers’s of me-so I warn you. I’ve got some claim to consideration. a realisation of allthe . I don’t want to berough with you,but you’ve got letterhadbroughthersharplyto unbearable stings to be endured by a disappointing and to behave yourself.,’ disappointed bride. But even the sense of desolation en((How dare you speak to me like this ?” gendered her by vision, of the loss of her new home “ D a r e ! I’llshow you what I dare if you playmeany and friends her might perhaps have failed to weigh as more tricks.” argument for accepting with her position as Mrs. Tom Heck Nan was silent; Tom and Heck followed up he what the disabilities -of that position. Certainly, struck it her supposed was an advantage. thatallherfriends were either wives ortheydesired to ‘(Doyouthink you’d feeldifferent if you went back ? become wives. What was differentinher?She was driven Lookhere; wait a dayor two-even te-morrow wouldn’t desperate by a position which other women accepted to-morrow, eh,duckie ! ” H e be so ridiculousWaituntil as the highest honour, and to be attained at any price. She attempted to take her hands. began to suspectthatthepricemightbe,tosomeothers “ Oh ! No, no ! ” of her sex, more than they ever acknowledged. She recalled “You’ll have to. Takeyourthings off. Atonce ! ” H e her mother’s words : “ A lot of disagreeableness and painbegan to drag off her cloak. “ A nice lot I’ve let myself in but all women had to go through it. It was the will of God.” for. A fool for a wife, who hasn’t decency enough to avoid Thename of God sent Nan hysterically to her knees, a damned scandal. I won’t have a scandal ; do you h e a r ? ” Holding herarmsacrossthe b e d she wept andsentforth She was struggling with the choking knot of the veil wailing entreaties to be. givenstrength,and to be shown around herthroat. H e seized the veil, and taking her by
Whited Sepulchres.
.
. . ..
Heck
...
56
THE NEW AGE’
JUST OUT.
MAY 13, 1909
herduty as a trueChristian. Her prayers were answered. She felt it impossible to evade the price of being Mrs. Tom Heck. It must be ! §he must save hernamefrom scanda!, and obey her marriage vow. So soon as shearose, however, .she shudderedviolently, and her bewildered little mind began casting about for furthermeans of relief. She was still doubt, more in and than half ready for another flight, when her husband returned. He made no reference whatever to the morning’s scene, only bidding her dress and comeinto the, sitting-room.She obeyed himthis time, and wearily fastenedupherhair. After a dreadful and almostsilent dinner he took her outfor a stroll, and, more chilledand monosyllabic, escorted finding her grow her back again, and sent heyto bed. They stayed five days longer at Hastings, and then, bored to ungovernableill-temper,TomHeck himself discovered some excuse for cutting short the remaining day of the bridal week, and the couple went back to town to receive the .visits and congratulations of their families and friends. Mrs. Pearson was at No. 24 to welcome them home. She threw wide the door herself and beamed upon her daughter. the The daughter looked tired and grey. §he blamed journey, smiled and straight at her mother’s eyes. Tom Heck, watchful suspicious and heaved a sigh of relief. There would be no scene here ! “May you always be as happy as you are now, my dear ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Pearson. “Thank you, mamma. I hopefor n o less. ” (To be continued
CUPID AND COMMONSENSE
.
A PLAY IN F O U R ACTS.
With a Preface on the
CRISIS I N THETHEATRE.
BY
Arnold
Crown 8vo, Canvas Gilt,
I
Bennett
Books
and Persons.
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OF A L L BOOKSELLERS.
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(AN OCCASIONAL CAUSERIE.)
of the journalistic novel andthejournalisticplay,forthenameandphenomenon of Harmsworth seem to have a sinister fascination, justnow,fornovelistsandplaywrightsinsearch of a subjectaboutwhichtheycanbesardonic.At-least one novelist has been so sardonic at the expense of the mighty that he had to choose between a libel action and thewithdrawal of hisbook.Hispublisherdecidedfor him-I need say not how. by way. This the I wish simplytoremarkthatamongallthestories,novels, I haveseen,read,orwrittenonthe andplayswhich i n question, incomparably most the enormous topic subtle is Mr. Oliver Onion’s “Little novel, Devil very glad it that D o u b t ” (Murray, 6s.). And I am hasappearedbeforethesaidtopichasbecomealtogethertootrite. This bookreallyisveryfine,andit to its close. Indiscussing holds attention the evenly of FleetStreet thenovel with theexpertinhabitants (where aroused genuine has it the interest which nothing but straight and finetalkingevercanarouse there) I have one two met or persons consider who that the last half is. unequal to the first. I do not agree. I judge solely by my own keenness in reading the richly cruel thing. I do recall novel not any which better renders the atmosphere of a provincial factory, especially conversational the atmosphere ; and I am quite of thewholesalenewspaper surethattheatmosphere shop has never before been reproduced with such conviction and such truly remarkable philosophic breadth.
*****
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“Little Devil Doubt ” will compel you to turnover thestock of yourideasandexaminethemafresh.It does fairly grapple the with age. In short, it is a n important work---as a picture, as an indictment, and as a c r y of battle. I could find fault with it. (For instance, Mr. Onions omits, a s so many authors omit, to show howhisboyishherogrowsinto a man. I n one chapter Georgie is a student ; in thenexthe is a n accomplished connoisseur of life.) But I am not minded t o find fault with a fine, harsh, masculine, sardonic held me, as they in saypublishers’ work has that to Some will disa d v e r t i s m e n t s from cover cover cern a tendency to caricature in the book, a n d will deem this a fault. It is not. Mr Onions has known how Miss Carruthers in toliftcaricatureintothesublime her sagé-green mahogany and retreat ; Mr. Tebbs £100 foioffered a s a husband-prize, together with furniture ; Sir Charles, who objected to the sea because
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it occupied four-fifths of theglobe,andhecoulddo nothing with it ; these matters are caricature imbedded in a realistic book ; they are impossible ; but they are so splendidly unctuous, so apt, they so finish and achieve the desired overwhelming effect, that they well “ Little justify themselves. Whatever circulation it has, Devil Doubt ” cannot fail to exert a profound influence, for it will .appeal to and affect influential minds.
A Reconciliation of Religion with Science. By Rev. HOLDEN Thls book is of the deepest interest to many classes of readers and thinkers,andwedonothesitatetopronounceitone of themost during last century. the half I t apremarkable books published peals to so many sections of human society, beingserious a Contribution published to thought i n u r r e n t scientific c research. It is a definite positive and advance the of Evolutionary theory which started from the publication of Darwin’s memorable books ‘The Origin of Species ’ and ‘ T h e D e s c e n t of Man ’ and it guides the scientific mindthrough the portals of psychology ’(as ineffectDarwinhimself prophesied would be the case) into the wider regions of the so-called and Supernatural,’ the Spiritual planes breaking down the time-morn barriersS which f o r so manyages been reared up betweenthe Material, between and Science Religion. and It Spiritual and the affords a theory of the Origin of Life, of Being, of Nature and Forms, of Evil and of the Garth and Heavenly Bodies, which has never before in the history of modern literature been propounded ; a theory of the deepest interest and importance. To the Sociologist the “Fabian,” and the Philanthropist, and t o all who havethewelfare of mankindatheartthisbookiseminentiy pertinent. It propounds the simplest and plainestlines of reform, of betterment,and of influence,useful to theChristian “ Missionary,” the Socialist, and the leaders of political, social and industrial reform. It sets forth the principles of a collective state and polity, in contradistinction to the abnormal and fallacious principles of Individualism.
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*
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One discovers passable verse in the most unlikely places. Here is a pretty good line in a great metre :The sea has its storms, its grey desolate tumults I cameuponit,togetherwithmanyotherlinesand parts of lines, concealed in a mass of prose entitled MEMORY Harbour,’’ by Mr Filson Y o u n g (Grant Richards). You may, like a- celebrated character in comedy, prose talk unconsciously, yet stand and not convicted of bad art. But you cannot write verse under is prose without writing bad the impression- it that prose. Mr. And Filson Young’s prose is bad. It is affected prose. All these “ essays chiefly in description ” are so many sins of fine writing. They are introduced with a musical quotation from end the of the is in second act of “Die Meistersinger,” which fact itself anaffectation ; andthewholebookis a pose. Mr.FilsonYoung’spre-occupationwithliterarystyle would be laudable if he had anything to say, if he had an original individuality to express. But in the circumstances his ceremonial and important air merely aggravates essential the tedium. If you nothing have to say you cannot say it beautifully. “ Memory Harbour ” is journalism, and has neither more nor less connection with literature than a leader in the “Daily Telegraph.” I regret to have to make these remarks. But they are a credit to its calledfor.Thebookonthewholeis publisher; but just as the prose is disfigured with verse so the pages disfigured are by “snakes.”The man, whoever he is, who could design a piece of bookmaking so well, ought to have possessed enough farce cf charactertocompelthecompositorstodoawaywiththe said “ snakes.”
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MONISM?
This little volume has been written with the objectstimulating men of and women to think Materialism is spreading far and wide to-day, and it seems to me that this is largely d u e to want of sound thinking. The rush and hurry of modern life too prevent or often deep London : n d t h i n k i n gand lead many REBMAN, Ltd., people to take their views of life a n d f a i t h r e a d y - m a d e - 129, Shaftesbury
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MAY 13, I909
up ; Samuel Warren, Jemima Tantphoeus, G . P. R. James, and the like. . After an introduction which discusses the main characteristics. of the age and the chief landmarks of .its literature, the book is divided into 32 chapters. The first treats of Dickens in 31 pages ; the 32nd of Shaw in 2 5 pages.Thereisa completelist of the works of each author, the with chief literature, biographies, letters, and studies that have grown up around them ; a short biographical sketch, with the writer’s mentality, is given, followed by a critical estimation of his writings, and style, influence. Then follow shorter notices, varying the with interest of the subject, of thosewriters whom ProfessorKellnerconsiders to be ’influenced by or of the same school. For instance,appended to chapter Dickens the on there Samuel are Warren, Mayhew, Wilkie Collins, etc., with again a complete list of their writings. The book, then, is in some respects an encyclopaedia, to which,indeed,reference is admirably facilitated, not only by a perfect very contents,butalso by a very completeindex, which givesthename of every author and every book. What are the outstanding features of that Victorian Literature ? “EnglishLiteraturefrom 1837-1901 is the reflected image of a Society which is no longer in spiritual equilibrium,and which is seeking a new resting-place. . . The history of England from the Battle of Hastings till the downfall of the American Colonies . . . is an almostuninterruptedseries of victories andconquests in all parts of the world. . . . Is it strange,then, that the successesagainstRome,Spain,Holland,and France, in conjunctionwith thelong exclusion, developed aconsciousness of election in the whole people? The Britishconstitution is thebest, indeed the only one possible ; the British class arrangement is for all eternity, and an example for all States ; the. British Britishhave State Religion is God ordained,andthe the mission of spreading it the over earth.” This creed, says Professor Kellner, was shattered by the end of the 18th century. He finds in the new industrial conditions,the decline of thesmallcraftsmenandthe creation of the factory-hand, the chief quite new circumstances that gave rise to a different world outlook. “Fromthis time forwards the soul of the people is seeking for a new relationship with the other peoples of the world, to a new arrangement in State and Society, .to a new understanding with foreign races, both at .homeand in the Colonies, to a new God anda new law of morality.” of Queen Victoria English Literature in the reign is a true expression of theseinnercrises in England, which are nothing other than the efforts a t adaptation inprovidingforanaiveself-glorification of the suppressed to ego a new national, spiritual, social, economic, and localised concourse. . . . .” , “Robert Browning is, perhaps, the first writer of our epoch who had this inward impulse to, discover the spiritual similarity inall humanbeings,to reconcile all racesand all creeds.” Of the novel a s the principal form of literary activity in thesedays,Professor Kellner has much tosay.In contrastwiththeEnglishwriters of formerdays,he regrets its modesty in sexualmatters. “ N o writerhas dared to liftthe veil of sexualsecrets.Sexualpassion is followed to the borderland of the sensual--everything beyond remains by silent consent forbidden ground.” To Oscar Wilde in England essay (his on “The Soul of Man under Socialism ” is, by the way, omitted from the list of hisworks) is due the “creation of the aristocratic superman, who is beyond good and evil, and who only lives for himself.” To express one’s ownindividuality, that is why we are here. “ A comparison of the phrases in ‘ Dorian Gray ’ and ‘ De Profundis ’ gives most the characteristic examples of Wilde’s subjective.” Professor Kellner’s classification gives rise to occasional strange companionships. “Max Beerbohm and G. K. Chesterton have driven paradox to its limit andmade it unfashionable. . . ,
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THE NEW AGE
59
However,Chestertonthepoethas nothing in common with Chesterton the wag.” Onenaturallyturnstoone’s few favouritestosee how these are treated in thiscomprehensivebook. Of Mr. Housman’s “ Shropshire Lad,” “ what reserve, what freshness,what melody,” we shallnotquarrel.Butto regard Henley as only “the defender of the British Imperialism at anyprice,”toplace him either as the inspirerorthe follower of Kipling, is aninjustice to thepoet, with his cravingforbeautyand romance in life. Professor Kellner writes with extreme enthusiasm, of Kipling, to whom, as the author of “Kim,” much, of a certainty, may be forgiven. Of Shaw, the Professor (wily man) finds it a thankless task to give a character sketch : “ It is difficult to say what is natural, what affectation, what true conviction, what paradox.” But why not assume itall to be pure conviction? However, the “when historian of the futurecomestonamethepuritanic zealots who have put the altruistic ideal against the ‘ I worship of the 19thcentury . . . . he will notomit to placeBernard Shaw alongside John Ruskin and Leo Tolstoi.” I donotunderstand why a modernwriterlikeMrs. HumphryWardhas five pages all to herself, and I shall never forgive my friend for dismissing Mark Rutherford, in so manyways the biggest of them all, in fourteen lines. Samuel Butler is mentioned in theintroduction,but he has not received any critical attention, nor is a list of hisworksgiven.The bookcontains so much that is interesting, so trueaninsight,that it is not upon other than a word of sincere praise that I would end.
work published four years ago. Given that he does not write on any definite party lines, his work is a welcome additiontothereformer’sbookshelf. He has collected together an amazing amount of data concerning hours, wages, outputs, housing, compensation, treatment of children, etc., in Great Britain, Germany, the and United States. object His is mainly to ascertain the influence of these factors upon production and the welfare of the people. Dr. Shadwell, perhaps unfortunately,doesnotmakeany definite suggestions as t o methods by which their welfare could be promoted, and he seems to be determined a individualist. On the other hand, the value of this extraordinary mine of information can be gauged from the fact that he tells us how manynewspapers are published in Pittsburg, and on what capital the building societies of Rhineland are run. The Trials of a Country Parson. By Canon Jessopp. (Unwin. 3s. 6d.) Thls book having already passed through five impressions, further criticism would appear hardly necessary, but it is good to .recall to our minds these “trials of a country parson,” set forth with so much sobriety and restraint that it is difficult to believe they are in any way exaggerated. If we are not in agreement with all with regard to Disthe Rector of Scarning has to say establishment Disendowment, and we share his view that the Church would benefit if it adopted a working constitution,and did away with our odioussystem of clerical patronage. “ Parson ” Jessoppalsoclearsup
M. D. EDER.
By Algar Thorold. (Constable. 6s. net.) In grouping as “Masters ” Fontenelle, the writer who preceded the great sceptics-Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot--and and Mérimée Fabre, Huysmans, Maeterlinck, and Anatole France, the writers who followed them, Mr. Thorold runs the risk of being taken for a seeker results an after from impossible combination. He tells he us has done so because “ i t is the disillusionment consequent on the change of attitude towards Christianity in which the writers here studied agree.”Inotherwords, theyhadonecommon aimto get back to crudetruth,whateverthattruthmay be, whetheris itsomething hidden in a consensus of agreement,or,asPascalthought,residing in the prosandcons,or, a s Rousseausuggested, in parallel thought and conflicting conclusion. The one point which the author apparently has overlooked is that such truth-seekers are of two kinds : those whohave experienced truth, like Maeterlinck, and those who have read the truths of other truth-seekers, like Anatole France. Had he applied this principle tothe classification of the disillusionists, he would doubtlesshave made a different andmoreconvincingselection.This consideration apart, his book is full of deeply interesting matter, and we pass without weariness from Fontenelle, the physician disillusionist of the Middle Ages-one of thoseearlierstudentswho is so difficult todesignate, sinceneither apoet,aphilosopher,nor a scientist-to Huysmans, with his theorythatthefunction of Realism is to disinfect Romanticism, turn from and it a monument of aesthetic imbecility to a fairly sane representation of a certain aspect of life, andto Anatole France, a literary craftsman, a writer of strong French, but an indifferent philosopher. The interest .of the book is, however, disturbed by the author’s clumsy phrasing and constant and unnecessary use of French terms. We should feel inclined to quarrel with theterm“Poetry of Doubt,” since there is no poetryaboutdoubt,but that we remember there was a certain Persian poet who was adoubter,and who wrotepoetrytoexpresshis
Six Masters of Disillusion.
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THE NEW AGE
MAY 13,
1909
much of theambiguitythatsurroundsthetithes,and explains the very doubtful advantages- of the parson’s freehold, which apparentlyentitles him, mainly to be assessed on an income that he can never hope to realise. W e also admire the frank picture he has drawn for Ü S of rusticity,wherethepoorare “ needy, seedy, and greedy,” and devoid of that picturesqueness. whichis so often falsely associated with rural life. W e can quiteunderstandhowthisatmosphere of. mentaland moralstagnationmust stifle the mind of thefreshest and most ardent young curate, when, after the Varsity and strenuous experiences in a great city, he finds himself in the living of “ Claylump,’) and it is almost tragic to think that Dante’s words on entering Avernus can be quoted by Canon Jessopp himself a s apposite in the case of a countryclergymanabout to take possessionofa cure of souls. Treasure Trove. By C. A. Dawson Scott. (Heinemann. 6s.) is anastonishingjournal. It has disThe “Times tinguished itself in many and divers ways. It has masteredthe art of sensationaladvertising,trieditshand a t a Trust,managedto palm off onanunsuspecting publicauseless and out-of-date Encyclopaedia, thrown itsdestinyintotheHarmsworth-Pearsonbalance,and now,, to all, top it provides fiction with a new and original character. Thorp Tom is a reporter and dramaticcriticwhohas “the good fortunetobeon Armedwith thisindisputablepassport the ‘ Times.’ to respectability, he. is ablesuccessfully to pursue the adventurous calling of a burglar, and this as much for How this blend of Charles Peace, copy as forgain. Deacon Brodie, and Jekyll and Hyde visits the Smarts and leaves behind a parcel of valuable jewels, how Mrs. and how Smart stealsthe jewels to helpherchildren, she is punished for her sin through her children is well told in “Treasure Trove.” Dawson has Mrs. Scott written a readable novel, her charactersare Strongly drawn, both and their biology and psychology ring true. But some of the situations our try patience, notably that wherein the intellectual burglar returns a t midnight for his booty and has a pleasant bedside conversationthe who them. with womanhas kept Burglars don’t do such things. The Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith. By Frank Elias. (Clark. 3s. 6d.) and AppreciMr. Elias’s rather dull “ Biography ation ” lets us into the secret of M r . Asquith’s attitude towards Woman’s Suffrage. In the chapter on Characteristics we find that Mr. Asquith’s two most distinguishing traits are discretion and tenacity. In thechapters on his birth, boyhood,legalandpolitical. careers, we learn that these traits belong to a Yorkshire stock, Puritan have a foundation, are and Jowett trained. W e know,therefore,they will manifestthemselves in one general way, in a determination ,never to give i n - e v e n when you know you are wrong. A story is told of Mr. Asquith (.p. 47) which may be quoted to illustratethistendency. The Dark Blues, after a long succession of defeats, had got the victory. Asquith was looking on, his beaming. face “We’ve chawed ’em up this time,” he cried triumphantly. Isthis a fair sample of Asquith? For the rest, the book affords a careful survey of the facts of the Liberal statesman’s fleet -career. Some excellent portraits add to its value. The Song of the Stewarts. By Douglas Ainslie. (Constable. 7s. 6d.) Fromthedays sinceitwasfirstchronicled,Scotch Brus, history has had a fascination of its own. Douglas, Stewart, who shall say which is the most delectable of the family names, or the more dearly asscociated the with ballads of the nation. writer The of
“ “
~
the present volume ventures to follow in the footsteps of SirWalterScott,buthedoesnotaspire so high. His verse is a t the best of the historical chronicle order, in lovewithit, but he knowshissubject,isevidently and, though without any originality to speak of, he tells his stories with a good deal of vigour and vivacity. On the whole, then, these songs make good enough reading, but we could wish that the construction were less involved, thatthe predicateswerenotcontinually inverted, and that the author could overcome his weakness to say nothing of tiresome-genealofor proper names, gies. Health, Morals, and Longevity. By George Cresswell and Albert Cresswell. (Simpkin: 5s. This is quite an admirable book A more convincing popularised commonsense exposition of health principles and sanitation, by two ‘writers who are thoroughly imbued with their subject, has seldom been written. It touches upon almost every point of interest concerning health culture-in food, shelter, clothing, transport, and sport. To quote its many good things would necessitate quoting the entire book. As our short -attachment to earth, among other considerations,, forbids this, we canonly recommendthose who. wish to emulatethe prophet, and live 999 years, to buy a copy and make their own quotations. Nora and the Shepherd. By R. G. D. Frampton. (Dent. 3s. 6d. net.) These poems, as the author states the preface, were in writtenfor hisgrandchildren. W e sincerely hope the latter were grateful ; but, if so, we are rather doubtful whether this feeling will be shared by the outside worId, while one feels a little sceptical as to whether even the grandchildrenthemselveswere wholly sincere in their appreciation of the pratings of Nora and the platitudes and philosophy of the Shepherd in the series of poems which give the volume its title. The verseis of a fair order,butrarelysoarsabovethe commonplace. Itis difficult, however, not to take exception to such rhymes as “feet stop ” and “sweet shop,’’ and why,whenall children are so prone to cockneyabbreviations,teach them to say “daz” “ fordazzle, to rhymewith “baz,” for bazaar ? The Romance of a Nun. By Alex. King. (Rebman. 6s.) Mr. Kingis a psychologistwith a strongdramatic instinct, the high merit of whose book will be acknowIedged even by those without a sympathy with his treatment of convent life. To appreciate book, this the reader must possess a rationalistic tendency, a humane taste,anda poetic sensibility. If he a is zealous, an orthodox, a devout Catholic, he will strongly object to it. H e will not like t osee an affectionate, entertaining, undutiful child of the Church laying bare her undutiful soul in her diary, and seeking, by means of the “discipline ” and other horrible flesh-subduing contrivances, to thwart nature, conviction, and constitutional predisposition to worldliness in love ; nor to read of her a hereticprisonerfrom escapades andelopementwith an adjoining prison. He maybetouched by herrelations to “Ma Mere,”and find consolation in the piety and religious observances of the latter, and even be moved by the great dramatic scene in which the struggle between the Church (“ Ma Mere ”) and the World (the lover) for the soul of the erring nun is so ably shown. As a devotional Catholic, he will enjoy the but sad beautiful end of a finely drawn character, who, having accepted the love of a man, finds the religious element in which she was born and bred too strong for her, and accordingly expiates her “sin ” by, self-destruction. In our view, this book is one of the best, most human, and moving we have read.
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MAY MEETING.
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there is ’notinthis country a single well-known journal (wilh, perhaps, the solitary exception of a Socialist weekly, ‘The Clarion ’) willing to open, its columns to the free ventilation of thissubject.” The subject is “the perils and burdens to which our financial system exposes the public, especially the Producing classes.” writers The are not cranks, the and readers need not be financial geniuses. “How to Solve the ‘Question of the Gold Reserves “ is a solid. constructive re’form which anyonecanunderstand. ‘(TheGoldFetish )’ and ((The Riddle of Trade “ are lucid and to the point. W e may compliment Mr. Kitson, the editor, on his first number. T h e review will discuss Socialism, Trade, Free Tariff Reform, etc., so there is a wide enough field. We certainly must not Ieave this question to the bankers and professional politicians. The most interesting article in “The New Quarterly “ is Mr. G . Lowes Dickinson’s Ingersoll Lecture, “Is Immortality Desirable ? ” Mr. Dickinson wants it very badly. “The immortalitywhich I hold to be desirable . . . isone. in which acontinuity of experienceanalogous to that which we are aware of here is carried on into a life after death.” cannot that get Mr. Dickinson is inclined to BUT if he agree, “that a survival of the substance of oneself would be ,desirable, even t h o u g h i tcarried with it no consciousness of assured of such a .survival, there survival.” If we were would be, indeed,littledifference between the two forms. Samuel Butler’s essay, on Genius is not worth printing. Mr. N. R. Campbell, in his examination of “ T h e Physics of M. Gustave Le Bon,” betrays hisown ignorance of the necessary relationship between physics metaphysics. and Mr. Sturge MooreonFlaubert is asdull as Mr.OscarBrowningon “The Old Culture and the New.” MauriceBaringhasa good sketch of “Gogol,” “the greatest humorist of Russian Literature-the Russian Dickens.’, Deutschland über Alles is the undistinguishing feature of theMay“National Review.” By constant reiteration Mr. Maxse and his contributors have lost all vigour in their invectives. W e know all they what would say month by month. General von Pelet NARBONNE writing on ‘‘ The “ Itisimpossibletosay exGerman Army,” admits that: of actly what would be the attitude of the Socialists in case war.As far as one can observe, it seems. that the wearing of a uniform and the subjection to military command have the effect of s u b d u n g anti-military sentiments. Cases of very rare.”These disorderunderthesecircumstancesare are reflections which want some attention from the Socialist upholders of a Citizen Army. The article “The End of the Competition,” contends that have “we ‘ E r a of Railway of the ways,” but the writer is very arrived at the parting uncertain as to the future. He admits the arguments for State Nationalisation. are strong, but issuesa timely warning : who .shall say, having regard to the terms that the London Water Companies obtained .a few years ago from the London public, that such a policy is not conceived in the interests of the railway shareholders ? Special attention is drawn to the editor’s approval, in the ((Socialist Review,” of the resignation of the four- members of -the National Council. We ‘are g l a d indeed, that Mr. ,Macdonald, as editor, approves of his action as politician ; he gives his own version of the affair, and finds nothing but theusualabuseforeveryone who doesnotexplicitlyand implicitlyagree with him. “ W e suffer from a ‘smart’ SocialistPresshere,enticinglysuperficialbothinstyleand matter, placing mental no strain its upon readers, and writing down to simple the enthusiasms of its patrons.” The “Socialist Review “ and the (‘Labour Leader ” are, we may suppose designedly dull to counterbalance this ‘ smart ’ Press; their lofty tone purposely places a strainuponthe has admirable on article readers. A. P. Grenfellan “Afforestation”’contendingforlargeforestschemestobe startedatseveralcentresinEngland. There is nothing in the first number of “The Eugenics Review ” worth notice. T h e Rev. W. R. Nye finds that “the well-to-do classesinthiscountryare,onanaverage, among the finest specimens of humanity which have appeared since the ancient Greeks. It would be a calamity if theydisappeared.”Thereverendgentlemanappears to a device forperpetuating-these finest regardEugenicsas with specimens. Of course,Eugenics“canmakenoterms any scheme of scientific ,race culture which would destroy the sanctity of marriage. no scheme But such has been thoughtof,atanyratebythisSociety.”For which relief much thanks. Saleeby learnt Dr. has from some Mendelianexperimentsuponhensandeggs-theepochmaking discovery that : “One man, even one woman, is much more sympathetic than a n o t h e rI t is insuIt an to science to comparethispuerile Reviewwith the“ArchivfürRassenund-gesellschafts Biologie,” which t h e editors state is ‘‘a
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62
THE NEW AGE
MAY 13, 1909
periodical akin to our own.” Theonlypart of this new thing. But Collectivism means to establish it in all detail; quarterly worth reading is the reviews of books. to organise the whole action of the State from this centre: The British “Health Review,” edited by Mrs. Hodgkinson, -if it is true and thorough it will make .the sense ob the is something much fresher in tone; We disagree with alien possession of one’s land ubiquitous and unpleasantly nearly all the dietary reforms as hygienic counsels, but we actual. liketheir frankandfree discussion. But the editor must NOW,is not the .Socialist answer at present inconsistent ? refrain from buttering the medical profession and advertisWhat men really want-say;Mr. Cecil Chesterton and Mr. ing (gratis) Eustace Miles as. a mental expert. That gentleJepson-is security of use ; they are quite indifferent whether man afford can to pay his for ads. Mrs. Earle gives a they feel the l a n d to be theirs or not. That is a perfectly recipe for a vegetarian stock which must be skimmed ((every possible analysis of men’s relationship to land--chester2 0 minutes or so for about 12 hours. ” Give us our simple bellocians simply deny it, and think it misses something out. steak and save the cook’s time and temper. But the Socialists are not content to stop at this real deadThe April number of “St. George ” is varied and interestlock and divergence. They go on to argue that under Coling. Professor Urwick has two excellent articles; one on lectivism not only will all men have security of use, but that theReport of the Poor Law Commission, andanotheron the same they will feel theland to betheirs inexactly “Mr. Beveridge’s Book on Unemployment.” Both articles manner as they do now. Surely the sense of possession is will pay forcarefulreading;he regards Mr. Beveridge’s either of value or it isn’t. Chesterbellocians think that book a s ((masterly without being profound,” and states that Collectivism will work itself out as a complete alienation of Mr. Beveridge does not answerthe Sphinx’s riddle ; “he this sense of possession; why do Socialists say, first, that it only explains the meaning of his question.” Dr. Gilbert does not exist except as a morbid or meresentimentality, Slater pleads for full powers to be given to Health Authoriand then that they are the persons divinely bent on restoring ties to act for (‘The step-children of the State.” it to men? J. D. QUIRK. The most interesting article in the “English Review ” is ** ** “The Pole,” by P. Wyndham Lewis, which gives an amus“ T H E NEW AGE.” ing account of the Polish students who become free life penT O THE EDITOR “THE NEWAGE.’’ OF sionaires in Breton homes. We like Mr. W. H. Hudson’s Inote great with interest suggestion by l d the made O discovery of ((The Goldfinches a t Ryme Intrinsica,” and we Journalist ” that the price of THENEWAGEshould be raised agree with him that anyone would go a dozen miles out of to 2d.As you know, I ,occasionally contribute ‘to its pages; his road to avoid a place with such a name. Mr. Conrad I have lost no opportunity of pushing it among my friends; continues his Reminiscences, and Mr. Brailsford writes enI feel that its disappearance would be -a serious loss for the thusiastically of the Young Turks. Stephen Reynolds drags progressive forces of this country. on with his “The Holy Mountain” ; it is the most mechanical I understand, however, that it does pot pay, and this in stuff that has yet appeared in this Review, if we except some spite of its having been put on a soundfinancial basis. I must find another verses by Sturge Moore. The editor would thereforesuggest that you takethe sense of your Tono-Bungay if he will insert slabs of fiction. readers by printing a special coupon in a prominent position T h e City,” written and published at the Garden City, is in your next issue couched in the form of a voting .now reduced to 3d. Mrs. Margaret Pease’s% article on. “Eating As 3d. and 6d. are obviously too much, I suggest the followone’s wheat as grass “ is a splendid plea for the abolition of ing form :so dainty half timers. In fact, the printing and get up are I am in favour of maintaining’ the price of THE that we can find nothing but pleasant words for this little NEWAGE at Id. (20 pages). monthly. I am in favour of raising the price of THENEW The May International ” is an excellent number, conAGE to 2d. (24 pages). taining articles by experts on most of the current‘ industrial Name .................. Address a special and political questions. Col. Reay contributes A bare majority would not, in my .opinion, justify you in pleaforWages Boards based on his knowledge of their puttingupthe price, but this would enable you to tell working inAustralia.What puzzles, he says, Australians, whether your readers are overwhelmingly in favour of an is the opposition to WagesBoardsbycertain intellectual increase if it is necessary to, save the paper. You need not England. But his representatives of the wage-earners in bind yourself the verdict by W. L GEORGE. . quotation from Mr. Morgan affords a partial solution: [We shall gladly adopt Mr. George’s suggestion and S t a t e regulation of industry has actually given a feeling print next week avoting paper on the lines drawn up by of security and permanence to industry consequent upon its ‘him.-Ed. N. A.] having rendered serious. strikes impossible.’’ We agree, * * * but industry until is nationalised strikes ought to be possible. The Rev. R. J. Campbelldeclares -forthe ecoMORE’S UTOPIA. nomic independence of women, meaning by that, apparently, T O THE EDITOR ‘(THE OF NEW A G E in the right o women to f earn their own livingany Your reviewer‘s protestagainst Mr. H. G. Wells’ introprofession. of More’s “Utopia “ is duction to a new pocketedition The Englishwoman ” for May is scarcely up to its own timely;and his quotation from a well known writer on high standard. We find nothing more interesting in it than sociological matters presents More in a fresherand truer Dr. Alice Salomon’s account of the Women’s Movement in light. May I quote a third view of that great man which Germany, wherein the writer takes what is, in our view, not perchancemay be as n e a r to historical truth? A people s only the conventional, but the fatally conventional, viewof who read More’s Utopia in his own day did him the the nature real of women’s freedom. Economic freedom compliment of wishing to prepare an expedition to its happy without sexual freedom is not worth fighting for; and the those who do an even land, so now there are to be found advanced women of Germany know it. InEngland, of greater compliment to the subtlety of his irony by supposcourse, the fact is either ignored or suppressed. ing that the views he put into the lips of Ralph Hythloday are his own latest convictions on the problems of human life. What he puts the really into mouth of Ralph Hythloday isthedream of natural reason, a dream that will never be realised inanylandorplace where human For the opinions expressed by correspondents, the Editor duesnot nature remains what it now is. And that he deems this to hold himself responsible be so, he is most careful to point out under his own name Corespondence intended for Publication should be addressed .to in the [‘Utopian Dialogue ” : ‘It is not possible,’ he replies the Editor and written on one sida of the paper only. for to Hythloday, ‘ all things to be well unless all men are good Which I think will not be yet for a good many y e a r s SPECIAL NOTICE .--Correspondents are requested. to be brief And, again, at the conclusion, he hits the same nail on the Many letters weekly are omitted on account of their length. head and drives it home. ‘In the meantime,’ he says, ‘as T H E POSSESSIVE CASE. I cannotagreeand consent toallthingsthatheRalph T O THE EDITOR OF “THENEWAGE.” Hythloday) said, being yet a man singularly learned , and also in all worldly matters (rerum humanorum) exactly and May-not the theory of the ChesterbelIocians be put in this way?They hold thatthe sense of alien possession is dis((The Party and the Parson,” by‘J. Keir Hardie, M P , .. agreeable to men, and that this applies to land as much as will appear in next week’s “Christian Commonwealth “ to other forms-of property ; and they hold that under Col(May 19th) which will also contain “ T h e Deadlock in lectivism, for the first time in history, this sense will become Religion; Science, and Art,” by Annie Besant ; “The apractical and oppressive fact of daily life. They know Budget from the Point of View of the Child,” by MArgaret that, legally, Possession has always belonged to King or McMillan ; “The Women Slaves of England,: an interview Commune, and they know that in the boasted Middle Ages with Mary Macarthur ; “Bradford and Brighton,” bp land-holders submitted tocertain occasional exactions on T. Rhondda Williams ; “Socialist Compulsion and this basis. Butit was not the whole political end; it was Christianity,” by Conrad N d ; “The New Spiritual still thought that practical private possession need not be Synthesis,” by R. J. Campbell;and an article byPhilip injurious to the community, and therefore it never entered Snowden, M.P.--[Advt.] into the common talk or petty life of the citizens as a felt
..................
( (
CORRESPONDENCE.
May 13, 1909
THE NEW A G E
63
profoundly experienced, so must I needs confess and grant that many things be in the Utopian weal public which in our cities I may rather wish for (optarim) than hope after W. E. CAMPBELL.. sperarim.’ “
To The EDITOR The NEW AGE.” OF You say you are glad M . Thornedeclaredinthe r Commons “on behalf of Socialists that Socialists, at any rate, believe in free State maintenance of all children.” Do you mean . t o saythat a person is notSocialist a unless he believe in free State maintenance for all children.” Do you believe i n ’it, and it i s by no means a, closed questionin the party, although you and others choose to regard it as such. In view of the discussion inParliament it is surely time for the upholders of the doctrine to depart from dogmatism and condescecd to give reasons forthefaith that is in them. .They have not only to convert fellowSocialists, butthetrade unionists andthegeneral public. And the onus of argument in favour of a change rests upon them as reformers. There are some questions of principle, such as this, which are far more important than miserable squabbles between so-called “leaders,” questions which if not settled nowwill in the future cause great division and perhaps vital rupture in t h eparty of progres and to which, therefore, at least a little space should be given in Socialist journals. Can you not get any of your contributors or correspondents to give reasons their for advocating free State .maintenance for all chidren, and for regarding it as an essential principle of Socialism?
IS IT A PRINCIPLE OF SOCIALISM?
*
*-*
The trouble in the camp i not caused by the policy of s ”weaning the working class ; for that policy we all agree to be the proper one to adopt ; but by the Quartette fearing to carry out that policy in practical politics.’ Hence, there is still plenty of room for “sects“ “ to undertake the thankless work of ‘‘educating “ by friction both the working class andtheir idols. T o carry on this work it is necessary to understand economic and social forces ;-the Quartette belong to the theological world, and think otherwise.
”
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WOMEN’.S SUFFRAGE. TO The EDITOR “TEE NEW AGE.^ OF My attention has been calIed to a curious passagein a communication signed “Canadian “ in TheNEW AGE o f April 29. The writer states that “Mrs. Fawcett and her to grind out coterie . . ... invited Mr. Lloyd George the same twaddle at a recent meeting of women.” I have never invited Mr. Lloyd George to any meeting, recent or remote, and am not, and never have been, a member of any society .or “coterie ’’ which has invited him to a meeting. If the foregoing is a specimen of “Canadian’s “ accuracy, it leaves as much to be desired as his manners. MILLICENTGARRETt FAWCETT.
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MR. MAX BEER AND THE SOCIALIST POLICY.
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EDITOR The NEWAGE.” OF No student of “Das Capital “ will, I think,doubt the power of theGerman tothink clearly. It is, therefore a painful duly to call Mr. Max Beer’s attention to thefact t h a t he quietly assumes as proved the verypoint which is in dispute. To be convincing he, must put forward bis evidence. He says Messrs. Macdonald and Co. hold the chief duty is to wean the working class from the capitalist parties, to organise it into an independent politicalforce, and to educate it in the spirit of Socialism. But this is taking place, for Mr. just contrary to what is actually the working class to a Macdonald IS attempting to lead capitalist party. M r . Beer knows quite well that Mr. Macdonald has negotiated with the capitalist Liberal Party after joining the I.L.P., achieving means by this an apparent success. Theunfortunatepart of the business is that Mr. Macdonald has not sufficient moral courage to we find the indethrow over his capitalistfriends.Hence pendent politicians devotingmuchtime. and energy to the Liberal Licensing Bill andthe Liberal FreeTrade campaign IS this the up-to-date method of weaning? Will the working class ever be weaned from the capitalist parties by these strange tactics? Mr. Beer also refers to Mr. Macdonald’s desire to “educate “ the workingclass in the spirit of Socialism. What does thisvague language mean? In the first place, it is necessary to understand the masterly analysis of capitalist production written by Marx before a Socialist is ready for “educating” others in Socialism. Even Mr. Beer will admit that he was tempted of the devil to the extent of criticising adversely Mr. Macdonald’s “Socialism and Society.” He found that book espressing the point of view of the common orgarden Philistinean Liberal
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A series of essays in Modern Socialist Criticism, etc.
FABIAN ESSAYS
New Edition 1908 Cloth, 233 pages, 11/6 net ; Paper cover, 2 0 8 pages, 1/-. Paper cover, 6d. net. Sets forth in detail a practical scheme of social FORK AND SPADE HUSBANDRY. John Sillett. reconstruction based upon Socialist, principles. HOW THE CLERGY ARE PAID. Paper cover, 59 pages, 6d.net. T. Bennett, LL.D., B.A. (Lond.), Theauthorwasone of thepioneers of thesmall Paper cover, 60 pages, 6 d . net. holdings and his booklet ran into a dozen editions fifty A popular history of the Tithe Laws. years ago. His accounts show a net profit of £51 in a t least one year, by fork and spade work. (Tobe continued
IN SOCIALISM. Edited by G. Bernard Shaw.
A series of biographicalsketches by H M. Hynd. MorrisWalter Crane,. man, E. BelfortBax,William J. HunterWatts,,John E Williams,AndreasScheu,. . H. W. Lee, James Macdonald, R. Blatchford, H, Quelch, Tom Mann. HOW I CAME TO BELIEVE. Leo Tolstoy. Paper cover, 64 pages, 3d. How Tolstoy’s wandered became soul and defiled, and by painful steps found way heights its to that: perchancebutforthewandering couldnothave been attained.
HOW I BECAME A SOCIALIST. Cloth, 81 pages, 1/- net ;Paper cover, 6d. net..
HOW IT CAN. BE DONE ; OR CONSTRUCTIVE SOCIALISM. john Richardson, M.Inst.C.E.-
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