on which they which is the outgrowth of his other institutions-
stood.
the Artel and the Mir, a government that he can
After Kaledin and Korniloff had been beaten the understand, a government in which he feels a very
counter-revolutionary forces backed by foreign capi present sense of ownership.
tal put their hopes in Semyenof, Orloff, and Kalmi In this last particularly lies the force which
koff. Regiments of officers, monarchists, adventur makes him a zealot for the Soviet. For the work-
ers, Khun-Khuz bandits, and Japanese mercenaries ingman is just like any other human being: he likes
were formed in Manchuria and kept attacking the power. And once having tasted he is loath to' let it
frontiers of the workingman's republic.
go; and once having lost it he strives for it again.
It was the regular detachments of the Red Army As the Soviets are brought down by the Allied
that bore the brunt of these raids. As soon as the
troops the Soviet becomes enthroned in the hearts
enemy broke through, the cry of “The Socialist
of the masses. Every peasant and workman who
Fatherland is in danger!" was raised. Into every falls before the Allied guns in the defense of the
village and factory hurried the call to arms. Each Soviet only roots deeper the loyalties to his institu-
formed its little detachment, and along the roads tion. The Soviet is only silenced. It is not de-
and pathways they marched up into the Man- stroyed. It goes underground and becomes an
churian Mountains, singing sometimes a revolution-object of religious devotion.
ary hymn and sometimes folk songs of the village. Supposing the Allies are able to smash the Soviets
Poorly equipped and poorly fed, they voluntarily and then, proclaiming a grand philanthropy, go
advanced to pit themselves against a merciless foe, inta Russia with all sorts of economic help. Sup-
splendidly armed and trained.
posing they pour into that country unlimited stores,
The Red Army and the Red Guard showed a Red Cross supplies, and railroad equipment. Will
a manifest lack of the iron discipline of the regular that satisfy the Russian workingmen and peasants?
national armies. But it had an elan which all others Will that atone to them for the destruction of their
lacked. I talked much with these peasants and Soviets? Only those who are totally ignorant of
workers who for weeks had been lying out on the
the social significance of the Soviets can believe that.
hillsides in the rain and the cold. “What made you
Only those who are unaware of the spiritual con-
come and what keeps you here?" I asked. "Well-
tent of the Revolution to the Russian masses will
millions of us dark people,” they replied, "had to
go out and die for the government of the Czar in
attempt to bribe them.
the old days; surely we should all be cowards if we
"The conquest of the Revolution"-one hears that
didn't go out and fight for a government that is our
over and over again. And that means not only the
own!”
conquest of bread. It is the conquest over the houses
“Our own government!” That was the expres-
and cities they live in, the shops and lands they work
sion one constantly heard. The opportunity which in, a conquest of government—the Soviet.
the Soviets had thus given them to become masters
ALBERT RHYS WILLIAMS.


534
December 14
THE DIAL
A Story-Teller's Holiday
A STORY-Teller's Holiday, George Moore's excuse would be from the moral idea, the familiar
latest and nearest approach to the perfectly confi moral idea which purifies vaudeville. Alas, in A
dential (issued by Boni & Liveright for the Irish Story-Teller's Holiday the familiar moral idea
Folklore Society; limited edition, $10), our friend is not to be found. What is not nice is interrupted
of deathless middle-age is discovered on a familiar by what is more or less beautiful-an intolerable
scene. Self-revelation is taken up as easily as if it interruption. Would any American have looked for
had never been dropped; the old properties have the clear singing finish to The Nuns of Crith Gaille;
scarcely needed a dusting. Moore Hall even looms would he be apt to like it? Not at first. Later
again, and one gathers with sorrow that it is passing perhaps, he would remember the expurgated Odyssey
into other hands, though one is not very clear on of his high school days, and how when Circe had
the matter-not unpleasantly clear and not confused changed the sailors back from swine into men they
at all. Moore rid himself long since of that juggler's appeared "taller than before they were, and hand-
ambition to keep more than one object in the air at somer far, and pleasanter to look upon." In this
a time, so that no perplexities hinder the soft satis way he would get back to the moral idea, though
faction of things that are forever taking leave. not exactly the familiar one.
Halfway through the book, reminiscence con Let me hasten to add that probably no such moral
denses and takes shape in stories on a theme, or idea was in Moore's mind when he wrote The Nuns
rather the refinement of a theme, which Boccaccio of Crith Gaille, and that if it was there, he had it
probably thought he had pretty well exhausted. It well under control. The mind of the reader is a
is not inappropriate that the Irish Renaissance different affair.
different affair. One frequently hears of persons
should have found a new quill for this ancient itch. who claim to have been converted to a new and
Boccaccio would have been envious; but he might freer mode of life by one of Moore's novels or stories.
also have been impatient. Moore's story of the Art's misfortune it surely is to be open to “interpre-
temptation of the saints by the saints for the greater tation” at all hours of the night by the first comer
glory of Heaven lingers along with as many tan with a prejudice, a prejudice sometimes that has
talizing pastoral interruptions as the story of hitherto gone unrecognized by its possessor. At the
Daphnis and Chloe. And while Moore, knowing same time I am not going to set about correcting
Christian doctrine better than Longus, did not have wrong impressions by trying to appreciate the ex-
to resort to an improbable innocence to stave off the clusively artistic triumphs of these delicately joined
event, Boccaccio would still have been impatient. indelicacies. For one thing it would be superfluous.
A quotation here from The Nuns of Crith Gaille Few writers are more frankly awake than George
may be of use:
Moore to the merits of their own work, and he has
"In the South,” said Brother Marban, "the blood is
been at some pains to celebrate the fine points of each
hotter than it is in the North. Ah!" the Mother Abbess one of these stories.
grunted, “true for you. It's in holy Ireland only that Moore's self-celebrations always seem more trust-
strength is given to man to best temptation; and now, for
it's getting late, which of us is going to
worthy than other people's. We cannot doubt him
when he tells us what part of a story is the best
But this is neither Italy nor Ireland.
An American's annoyance at Moore's interrup-
part,'or when he tells us where the parts came from
and how they were put together. De Gourmont
tions is likely to be more complex than an Italian's,
because the American is generally under more con-
and others have contradicted Poe's account of how
straint. In spite of his editors the American still
he wrote The Raven, but no one is likely to con-
tradict Moore as to his cool way with situations.
has a taste for what is not entirely nice in literature.
And nothing in the stories contradicts him either.
The influence of the editors, however, becomes evi-
Indeed we have been aware for some time that he
dent as soon as he makes up his mind to the plunge.
either could or would not commit himself in any
Like a boy of twelve he will have had to assume
prose narrative.
His fortune is tied up; it is no
much inward bravado; his conscience will be sternly longer available as it once was for the risk of being
clamped down; his heart will beat rapidly. And
ridiculous. Since particulars here would simply be
being finally ready for the worst, he will insist on
confusing, I may leave everyone to think for himself
having it unadulterated. Anything less than the
of some early book of Moore's that seems silly to
worst will naturally seem an impertinence or even an him. This should be easy enough; but to think of a
insult. The only interruption that he could possibly later book of Moore's, a book written since Hail


1918
535
THE DIAL
and Farewell, which seems silly will be more dif -if this is not too strong a verb—as are Voltaire's
ficult. In fact, as I said, Moore appears to have or Dryden's South American tragedies. It will be
ceased altogether to run this salutary risk of being remembered, without being read, as a classical
ridiculous, and equally he seems to have lost his writer's attempt to be romantic. Nothing abso-
ability to strike fire.
lutely forbids such a writer an exotic subject; only
Without trying further to connect these two remoteness, if not a help, will surely be a hindrance.
observations, I will point to The Brook Kerith. In Impressions and Opinions Moore wrote about
There is nothing silly in The Brook Kerith; it could Verlaine, whom he had met, and about Rimbaud,
no more be ridiculous than a well chosen collection, whom he had never met. His remarks about the
A collection of literary objets d'art it certainly is poems of both are sensible enough. But when he
a marvelous collection adroitly disposed. Every bit comes to the men, he does well by Verlaine and
of character, incident, scenery that appears in it is badly by Rimbaud. Lies, per se, are sufficiently
of the very highest quality. Yet one looks in vain harmless—but what lies! Rimbaud has immured
for anything to equal the last heroic scene of Esther himself forever in a convent by the Red Sea. He
Waters.
has been seen digging the soil for the grace of God.
The Brook Kerith is held together by a sustained "The Mediaevalism of this strange story," says
grayness such as we do not often find. In a measure Moore, letting the cat out of the bag with a sigh
Moore's consistently gray palette is responsible for of literary contentment, "has always had a singular
this not altogether agreeable effect, but only in a fascination for me.” A singular fascination it must
measure. Turgenev proved very well with his color- have been, to have led its victim so frequently of
less intensity that grisaille in literature is capable of late into regions where he was at a disadvantage
life and vibration. Intensity. Decidedly we shall with even so humble a romancer as Andrew Lang.
have to fall back on this reliable tertium quid when But the final touch in the picture of Moore as
we are finding fault with The Brook Kerith and connoisseur came when he began ostentatiously to
the stories of A Story-Teller's Holiday.
rewrite his old books. Clearly it was a case of
Where we can, however, we may as well be ex rearranging the collection. No author who regarded
plicit. Moore's inadequacy when he comes to deal his work as sacred or inspired could have made such
with people and atmospheres which he has never extensive changes. Turgenev in his old age was
experienced is not anything one needs be vague afraid that his sole touch would contaminate the
about. Without a doubt he wanted to do the exotic work of his prime. On the other hand many authors
and do it down to the ground. His ideas on transla- who do not think their work sacred are still kept
tion tell us as much. In The Confessions of a from revising it by a feeling quite as strong, a feeling
Young Man he announced that the translator had of disgust. As soon as a book has left their hands
failed miserably who had failed to bring over even it is dead; the next stage is putrefaction. Moore
a little of the original's strangeness. No detail has no feelings of this sort either. His appraising
seemed to him insignificant or obscure enough to eye regards failures and successes without awe and
permit any other than word for word translation without repugnance. He does not hesitate to relate
Perhaps his statement of this principle is exagger the intimate history of every one of his creations,
ated-exaggeration has been always his favorite way even of those which were evidently conceived in sin.
of showing his contempt for principles, even his own He is writing now, so he tells us in his preface, for
principles—but the principle itself is a much health men and women of letters, so that there is no danger
ier one than that of the translators who were then of wounding sensitive feelings. Yet perhaps even
in fashion. What a relief it is even now to turn to men and women of letters so much talk about
to an interlinear after the sweetness and light of— incident, scenery, and character will seem unworthy
shall we say-Jowett's Plato!
in a generation which prides itself on having ban-
Unfortunately, writing The Brook Kerith was ished the subject from painting.
hardly the same thing as translating. Moore had Of course we may say that Moore's interest in
here to give new life to something which had never these things is as beautiful morally as the enthusiasm
come within the range of any one of his keen five of an old gentleman at work in his garden; but
The sixth romantic sense that should have moral consolation is not the precise thing we are
helped him he had not at all. In its place was a fine looking for in A Story-Teller's Holiday. What
literary sense, serviceable enough for arranging his really makes up to us for the absence from these
own sensations, but of no use in gathering new stories of epic grandeur, lyric intensity, and so
sensations out of other people's reports. In a few forth is the extraneous matter which precedes and
years The Brook Kerith will probably be thought of follows the stories, comes between and permeates
senses.


536
December 14
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them. If the proposition which I have perhaps The ancients regarded pose as the highest form of
foolishly been trying to prove is true, and Moore man's creative activity; even so recent a work as
will never write another novel as good as Esther the Anglican Hymn Book seems to aim principally
Waters, the world is still not much the poorer. at making its readers self-conscious. If we pretend
One novel is quite enough for a novelist to be sur to despise a man as a poseur without regard to his
vived by, the number of good novels and stories pose, it is simply because we have become so false
even in English being really excessive. Not so with that it hurts us to talk frankly about our falseness.
memoirs. Had Moore filled A Story-Teller's It goes without saying that everyone with imagina-
Holiday entirely with stories, he would not have tion acts a part, what sort of an exhibition he makes
had time to immortalize in a few words the Irish of himself depending on his taste and on the taste
rebellion. And had he been busy with novels all of his audience. Moore, I suppose, is not posing,
this while, he would not have given the Irish Renais- like the readers of the Anglican Hymn Book, for
sance a chance of being remembered for a long time a crowd of invisible witnesses. Who can say?
after the greatest event in history has been for Doubtless he is his own audience and model.
gotten. Two such writers of memoirs are not likely At the very most there should be so little conflict
to be seen in the same fifty years, and unless Moore between Moore's pose and his natural inclinations
turns his attention to the greatest event it may that our only possible objection to accepting his
conceivably fail to take its place in history at all. own account of himself would be that he did not
Yet even such a calamity might seem providential tell the whole story. We might find it hard, for
to serious persons who remembered Moore's habit instance, to understand how a man could go so long
of making whatever he writes about a little funny. unassassinated who invariably came out on top in
This blight of absurdity is largely due to the conversation. But then, who really wants to know
shrinkage which things of great importance to the the whole story, and of what use is art anyway if
world undergo when they pass into Moore's me it does not improve in some respect on life?
moirs. Here the author is the important thing, and When we think of Moore we always think of
it is natural that as objects get farther from him the feminine temperament—passive, swayed by
they should approach the vanishing point. From every impulse, yet parasitic, ungrateful, hard toward
the center of the picture Moore's concerns and the world's opinion, proud to be "ashamed of noth-
unconcerns, his likes and dislikes, range away toward ing but of being ashamed.” So he had described
the horizon.
himself, and so he is to be known.
Mr. Chesterton once complained that Moore had With such an accommodating framework we
been careful to observe himself, his likes and dis- might expect considerable vagaries. Yet when we
likes, from so many different angles that it was not look into the matter we find that even the details
possible to guess at his true nature.
of Moore's pose have remained unaltered since the
we seem to see Mr. Chesterton roaming hungrily beginning. There may have once been a time in the
in search of food for paradox. And we seem to see dim ages before The Confessions of a Young Man
his inevitably logical mind, baffled at all points by when Moore admired Zola and said so. Later he
unresisting fluidity, finally hitting upon Moore's evi-
said that he did so no longer; and this is almost the
dent desire to describe himself, as the only thing last record of his having publicly changed his mind.
contradictable. Everywhere else Moore had fore- Admirably continuity, sometimes hard to under-
stalled his by stating his own contradictions.
stand. That a man should hate Stevenson all his
For once however let us do the difficult thing and life long is comprehensible enough, but what are we
give Mr. Chesterton the benefit of a doubt. Per to say of a man who never tires of praising Manet
haps in The Confessions of a Young Man he di and Degas? This self-consecrated sparrow of the
vined already what later was to become so clear love of girls is, when it comes to male artists, faith-
in Hail and Farewell: that Moore was anxious not ful as the swan. (My zoological parallel is not
so much to reveal himself as to form an opinion disagreeably meant, however.)
about himself, and then to confirm and promulgate Moore's dislikes are not only more comprehensible
it. Mr. Chesterton may have foreseen this develop than his admirations; they are more influential,
ment without being able to put his disapproval sounder. They might be described as the very
where it belonged.
soundest dislikes of the last fifty years in England.
Even so, there was not so very much cause for The dislikes of Henley, Symons, Stevenson, and
disapproval in the discovery that Moore was making others, including the academic critics, are as nothing
himself a pose or attitude. The bad odor attaching compared with Moore's, which are as vital now as
to these words is entirely of modern construction. they were when he first put them into the world, or
In this essay


1918
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THE DIAL
more correctly into England. Moore is the Sainte- have got off little better. As Moore's pose devel-
Beuve of his generation in England, a creator of oped, serious admirations became more and more
values, negative values - a sort of negative burdensome. To free himself he resorted to a
Sainte-Beuve. Need one argue that a negative method more tender than the one he had used with
Sainte-Beuve, if not actually better than'a positive Zola, but no less sure. The case of Balzac is
one,, is still better than no Sainte-Beuve. at all? typical. How many times has Moore praised Balzac
Granted that many of Moore's dislikes were from with luxuriant praises? How many times has he
Paris, is it not to his credit that he made them a part repeated Balzac's story of the Spanish nobleman
of himself, and a part of the best critical thought who was compelled to chop off the heads of all his
that is being expressed in English today? The dis- relatives? Moore knows as well as the next man
like of Huysman's for ideas in literature, which that that this story is not one that will stand retelling,
bleak American aristocrat, Mr. T. S. Eliot, was still less repeating. Yet here it is again in A Story-
lately airing—who brought it across the Channel if Teller's Holiday, related with as much high serious-
it was not Moore? Let us also remember that ness as ever. Thus gently and surely does Moore
Moore did something for us, and be thankful: disengage himself from the clutch of his admira-
"Henry James," he said, "went to France and read tions, so gently and so surely that before we are
Turgenev; W. D. Howells stayed at home and
aware that anything is happening, a great man has
read Henry James."
vanished utterly, and in his place is left only the
In comparison with such immortal dislikes, glow of a splendid insincerity.
Moore's admirations seem a little trivial, and one
Turgenev alone has so far eluded this apocolocyn-
suspects that he is not wholly unconscious of this tosis; he is still Moore's better self, the only sign of
bad impression. There may have been a time, as
a divided allegiance. In time he too will magically
I said, when he really admired Zola and Balzac
go the way of the rest, and the grandest pose of our
and Manet and the rest. That he turned on Zola
so frankly was partly Zola's fault. But the others
age will be without a flaw.
J. S. Watson, JR.
Freedom
A League
of Nations and Economic
ALTHOUGH
LTHOUGH the previous articles in this series have free and equal, while leaving them to unrestricted
asserted that the hopeful approach to a concert of competition with one another. Immense inequality
nations is along the economic road which should of power is compatible with formal equality. The
aim to further common interests, rather than by the same thing will surely develop with respect to any
negative and legal road which should content itself merely legal equality among nations. Certain
with litigation and the adjudication of disputes, the nations have a tremendous superiority in population,
problem of the economic equality of nations, which natural resources, technical progress in industry,
constitutes the third of President Wilson's conditions command of credit, and shipping. Nothing better
(and with which any real adjustment of colonial calculated to develop actual inequality of trade re-
problems is bound up) has been reserved for this lationship among nations could well be found than
concluding article.' What does "equality of trade a system which set up a nominal mathematical
conditions” mean, and how is it to be achieved and equality and then threw matters practically into
guaranteed? The President has contributed to the hands of the present big nations. Under the
clarification of the thesis. It precludes economic old regime it was at least an object for every power-
boycotts and selfish economic combinations; it pre ful state to attach to itself and its sphere of influence
cludes, as he unequivocally states, all preferential a certain number of the smaller and weaker states.
trade arrangements. Access to raw materials may To some extent the former were compelled to bid,
be assumed to mean guarantees of outlet to the sea, by grant of economic concessions, for the support
with the free ports and the internationalized railways of the latter. A League of Nations which deprived
and watercourses necessary for adequate commercial economically weak states of all the advantages as
use of such ports. But obviously equalization of well as disadvantages of the old system of groupings
trade conditions among nations demands something would merely leave them to be devoured by the
It has been demonstrated that more is needed competition with one another of the three or four
to secure freedom and equality of conditions be- big states of the world.
tween individuals than to declare them legally all This may account for the fact that as yet nations


538
December 14
THE DIAL
like Spain and Italy have not been seen to manifest self-restriction in question. Not only this, but also
enthusiasm for the project of a League of Nations. enlightened enough to look ahead and weigh the
How can they be sure that, in effect, it is not a advantages of trade, extended over a long period,
combination of, say, the United States and the with a nation growing in internal prosperity, against
British Empire, with incidental concessions to immediate trade profits based upon taking advan-
France, to control the commerce of the world, and tages of a nation's needs and calculated to keep it
to achieve, with no violation whatever of political
in industrial subjection.
equality, virtual subjugation of all other peoples? For in the long run this is the only question.
The question doubtless puts the matter with harsh Does trade flourish better and pay better with a
exaggeration, but it suggests that a nation like, say, weak and impoverished customer or with one having
Italy cannot be expected to engage heartily in the increasing wants because of increasing power to
new system of international organization unless she supply them? This, in last resort, is the question
has some assurance in details as to how her economic of a narrow protectionism versus an intelligent free
interests are to be protected. Her primary question trade. And thus we arrive, although perhaps by
and that of other nations similarly situated will be: an unexpected route, at the heart of the question of
does the new system enable the more powerful the meaning of equality of trade conditions and the
peoples to take advantage of our weaknesses, or removal, as far as possible, of economic barriers.
will it be so constituted as not merely to reenforce The classic doctrine of international free trade was
whatever strong points we possess with respect to hopelessly defective in that it entirely overlooked
the world's markets, but actually to make good our the need of intelligent supervision and positively
deficiencies? Shall we be given legally guaranteed controlling action if real equality of conditions is
access to coal and iron, but exacted at the highest to be secured. The classic doctrine was bound up
prices that the market will bear (including a virtual with the dogma of laissez faire among nations, and
monopoly of the world's shipping by other nations), that doctrine was bound to work as fatally applied
or will administrative commissions of the League: to nations as when applied to the relation of indi-
equitably survey the whole field and see to it that viduals. The doctrine rested upon the fantastically
we get that relative share of the world's resources unreal theological doctrine of the goodness of
which an adequate development of our own powers Nature when left to herself, and of the natural
requires? Shall we have to compete under onerous harmony of interests. It ignored the fact that
terms for the world's capital and credit, or will there Nature means only the existent distribution of
be some assurance that credit will be equitably power, and that to fall back on the existent dis-
assigned to us for, say, such a development of our tribution of relative strength and weakness in the
own hydroelectric power as will make us less eco-
present world of states is to leave the destiny of
nomically dependent upon the very nations which the world at the mercy of rapacious economic
supply the credit?
prowess. Against such a dogma the protective
Such questions may seem to answer themselves. policy has stood, however stupidly, for the need
They may appear to exact a spirit not merely of of some kind of human direction of natural forces.
justice but of altruism toward economically weak In other words, any practicable and any desirable
peoples, which it is hopelessly Utopian to forecast.
general adoption of a policy of international free
Even so, the questions are worth putting even if trade means the development of powerful inter-
only to suggest that the basic problems of an effect-
national administrative commissions dealing with
ive League of Nations involve more than a sur- (such matters as equality of labor standards, the
render of that arbitrary irresponsible political power regulation of shipping, and, for some time to come,
we call national sovereignty, that they also involve of food, raw materials, and immigrants, and above
surrender of ruthless economic activities which, to all of the exportation of capital and the distribution
last analysis, rest only upon the possession of superior of the available credit of the world. Equality of
power due to accidents of position and history. But
trade conditions means equalization of conditions;
after all, the questions do not assume a fantastic it cannot be secured without giving to the mainte-
altruism on the part of the bigger nations. They do
nance of peace the same kind of intense intellectual
assume, however, an enlightened self-interest-en- labor, study, and foresight which has gone to the
lightened enough to see that some price must be conduct of the war—the same in kind, but con-
paid for an adequate guarantee against the recur tinued and persistent as well as comprehensive and
rence of wars which, even when valued in the most
impartial in scope. If a particular nation would
materialistic of cash terms, are indefinitely more gain in trade by keeping up low labor standards,
costly than the charges imposed by the economic then there must be power to penalize the commerce


1918
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31
6 17
of that nation as a means of equalization. If it of experts of all sorts which within a year took
overstimulates science and industry along lines cal America from a peace basis to an effective war
culated to make other nations dependent upon it at basis. The mobilization of the necessary variety and
a critical juncture—as Germany developed the dye scale of forces was possible because of the faith and
industry as an adjunct to explosives—then that devotion behind the cause.
devotion behind the cause. That is the issue which
must be dealt with as an international government
faces the world, and especially the United States,
would deal with an excess cultivation of an armed
with respect to the organization of the world on
force.
the basis of international democracy. The resources
The problem is indeed difficult and complex. But
and abilities are at hand, if we choose to use them.
its solution is not Utopian. It requires, let it be
The question is as to the depth and endurance of
our desire.
repeated, exactly the same kind of cooperating ability
John DEWEY.
6 296
The New Forces in British Labor
British Trade UNIONISM, not unlike American statę, exercise a most powerful influence upon the
Trade Unionism, is conservative not only in tem resettlement of industry.
perament but also in form of organization. It has The two groups of forces to which I have re-
a long history behind it, and with the lapse of time ferred are essentially different, though they spring
it has accumulated traditions and vested interests to some extent from a common impulse. The first
which are difficult to dislodge. It has adapted itself group is in the main a movement among workers
painfully and imperfectly to the changing industrial who were already organized before the war towards
conditions and its power of resistance to change a new form of organization; the second is in the
is so great that movements of innovation are virtu main a movement towards organization among
ally compelled to begin as “rebel” movements, with workers who were previously unorganized. The
something like defiance of constituted Trade Union first is to a considerable extent a movement away
authority. Were the leaders of Trade Unionism from the old “defensive" idea of Trade Union pur-
men of wide sympathy and imagination there is pose towards a new "offensive" idea of the Trade
little doubt that these “rebel” movements could be Union as the nucleus for a new form of industrial
absorbed with comparatively little dislocation into control; the second is still largely a movement of
the body of the Trade Union movement; and even
mutual defense among workers who have hitherto
as things are, the process of absorption is slowly lacked even the elements of organized self-protec-
taking place. Sooner or later British Trade Union tion. But, while this is true in the main, the move-
ism will settle down to new forms of organization
ment among
the less skilled workers is also
and new lines of policy, but the slowness of the accompanied by a “rank and file” movement within
change and the constant struggle which accompanies itself, in which the offensive idea of the Trade
it are sorely hampering Labor in dealing with the Union as a nucleus for workers' control of industry
problems of Reconstruction.
is largely present. Thus the two movements, while
The new forces which have arisen in the British they remain distinct, interpenetrate and join hands
Labor movement during the war are mainly of two
on many points.
kinds. First there are the various organized "rank
The rise of these new forces presents at once
and file movements” of an unofficial character which dangers and reasons for hope to British Labor. If
have come into prominence during the war period; they can be effectively combined into a single move-
and second there is the huge growth in the organiza- ment, the whole force of the British Labor move-
tion of the less skilled male workers and of women.
ment will be enormously increased. If on the other
hand the growing tension between the skilled and
Both these groups of forces will necessitate large
the less skilled workers develops into open conflict
changes alike in the structure, in the administration, in the period after the war, it is only possible at the
and in the policy of Trade Unionism; but the change best to look for a final reconciliation and strength-
will certainly not be accomplished in time for the ening of forces at the end of a long period of
period of Reconstruction. Nevertheless the new
disorganization and defeat. It is too soon to say
forces, though they will not have settled down into which of these things will happen, but the outlook
their future place in the machinery of Trade Union-
cannot be regarded as hopeful, despite the forces
ism, will inevitably, even in their half-organized in both groups which are working for reconciliation.


540
December 14
THE DIAL
The outstanding development of organization zation, independent in its action of the national
among the skilled workers during the war period is Trade Unions to which its members continue to
the shop stewards' movement. This movement, belong.
while it is not wholly new, has during the war The policy of the Shop Stewards' and Workers'
assumed new forms, which have very largely Committee movement has been throughout aggres-
changed its character. For many years before the sive and militant. It is a "rank and file” organiza-
war it was the practice for certain Trade Unions tion in revolt against the slowness and sectionalism
in certain districts to appoint, in addition to the' of official Trade Unionism. In particular its
ordinary Trade Union officials, workshop stewards, members stand for amalgamation of Trade Union
or delegates, in the various factories. The principal forces, and for the supersession of a narrow Craft
duty of these stewards was to see that newcomers Unionism by broader forms of organization by in-
joined the Union and that members paid their con dustry or class. One of the greatest obstacles to
tributions promptly. In most cases they had no efficient Trade Union action during the war has
power of negotiation on behalf of the Union, though lain in the multiplicity of competing and often
in a few trades their functions were wider and an hostile Trade Unions, and the difficulty of securing
able man could raise the post of steward to a certain a common policy among these Unions has been one
degree of importance. On the whole it may be said of the principal factors in forcing the shop stewards’
that before the war, while the shop steward existed movement into unofficial lines. Officialism has too
as an institution, he had shown few signs of the often meant also sectionalism and lack of coordina-
importance which he has acquired during the war. tion; and consequently movements based on a wider
Abnormal conditions have no doubt had much to idea than that of craft are almost forced to be un-
do with the rapid growth of the shop stewards' official, at least in their early stages.
movement during the war. The rapid changes in Such is the shop stewards' movement which the
workshop organization, due to changes in productive war has created. It remains to see what will come
methods and to the growth of dilution, the restric out of it. Already it has won a certain measure of
tive conditions imposed by the Munitions of War official recognition. A number of the principal en-
Acts and other war-time enactments, and the gen- gineering Trade Unions have signed an unsatis-
eral intensification of industrial life, have all given factory agreement with the Engineering Employers'
rise to a large number of workshop problems calling Federation providing for the recognition of shop
for immediate action and solution. Moreover war stewards in workshop negotiations. By far the
time conditions have to some extent hampered the largest Trade Union concerned, the Amalgamated
freedom of the official Trade Union movement and Society of Engineers, refused to be a party to this
by increasing its remoteness from workshop life, agreement, but is now negotiating for a fuller
have forced the "rank and file" workers to the im-
measure of recognition on the same lines. And
provisation of a substitute. Thus, while the crea with recognition of shop stewards by the employers
tion of official shop stewards of the old type has necessarily goes the recognition of shop stewards by
gone on apace, there has also sprung into prominence the Trade Unions themselves, as an essential part
a new type of steward, unofficial or at the most of Trade Union official machinery.
semi-official, arrogating to himself considerably
The shop stewards, then, are certainly destined to
wider powers; and the growth of this type of play an important part in the Trade Union move-
stewards has operated to cause an extension in the ment after the war. What, we must ask, is their
powers of stewards of the old official type.
real significance? It lies in their position as repre-
Thus there has grown up, in most important fac sentatives directly chosen by the Trade Unionists
tories, a body of shop stewards only imperfectly in the various workshops and factories. The whole
coordinated with the Trade Union movement out orientation of the new forces in the Trade Union
side the workshops. Nor has the new movement world is towards the securing by Labor of a greater
stopped short at this point. The "rank and file” measure of control over the actual conduct of in-
stewards from the various factories in a district dustry. As soon as this demand for control begins
have come together to form a local Shop Stewards' to translate itself from theory into practice it must
and Workers' Committee, which has in some cases asume a "workshop" form. The only place in which
become a powerful rival to the official District Com- Trade Unionists can effectively begin to exercise
mittees of the various Trade Unions. And finallycontrol is in the workshops.
repeated and more or less successful attempts have The real significance, therefore, of the shop stew-
been made to link up the various Workers' Com- ards' movement lies in the fact that it does provide
mittees in a single national "rank and file” organi- at least the nucleus of the machinery through which


1918
541
THE DIAL
Trade Unionists can hope, by gradual extensions Whatever the immediate fate of these proposals
of their power, to assume control in the workshops. may be, there can be no doubt that the effect of the
It may be agreed that it is at present ill-prepared shop stewards' emergence will be seen in a far
for any such drastic step; but wherever the move greater concentration of Trade Union activity on
ment shows real signs of stability the more far problems of workshop control, and a consequently
seeing stewards are beginning to work out the greater orientation of the whole Trade Union
immediate problems of control. This is the case movement in the direction of control. The only
especially where systems of payment by results are thing that can prevent a considerable increase in
in operation; for the demand is being made by the Trade Union control over industry after the war is
more constructive stewards that the working of dissension in the ranks of the workers. The chances
such systems shall pass, by way of collective bargain- that this dissension will be avoided we shall be
ing, into the hands of workshop committees con better able to estimate when we have discussed the
sisting of stewards directly representing the workers second new movement of the war period—the growth
employed in the shops. Another demand of immedi-
of organization and consciousness among the less
ate workshop importance is that the appointment of skilled workers—and its effects upon relations be-
charge-hands and workshop foremen shall be trans-
tween the less skilled workers and the skilled crafts-
ferred from the management to the workers em-
men who form the greater part of the shop stewards'
ployed in the shops; that is, virtually, that the shop
movement. This problem must be reserved for an-
stewards shall take the place of the foremen ap-
other article.
pointed by the management.
G. D. H. COLE.
Sauce for the Gander and Sawdust for the Goose
Ir, as some critics assert, literature tends to be-
a play. It is hung upon a framework, however
come unduly feminized, a balance in the arts may Aimsy, of plot; and the exhibition of the human body
be considered struck by the masculinization of the in action, figures—however grotesquely—the opera-
theater. In this particular connection the theater tions of the human mind. Even the songs and
is not to be understood as the drama, which in its dances are about something, be it something less
highbrow connotation may be considered a near rela than nothing. The types of human beings portrayed
tion to literature and perhaps tarred with the same have some verisimilitude and stimulate emotional
brush by the devitalizing feminine hand. The reactions of sympathy or antipathy, admiration or
theater from another aspect is the commercial under contempt, attraction or repulsion. They must above
taking that maintains a "full house” and makes all, unless unwelcome mental.effort is applied, make
"good money.” It is seldom that “the play's the easily possible the identification of the auditor with
thing" that does this. It is more often the "show,”
It is more often the “show," the actor. What the theatergoer craves is the infan-
and our most frequented theaters are filled by shows. tile gratification of saying to himself, like a child
We have been sated with comments on the extent with eagerly stabbing finger in a picture book,
to which the senses of the tired business man are "That's me.” The princess Mathilde expressed what
titivated by the girl and music show. Less obvious everyone feels when she confessed, "Je n'aime que
perhaps is the nature of the appeal to what may pass les romans dont je voudrais être l'héroïne." The
for his mind. Yet it is here that the discerning play is the phantasy acted by real instead of imag-
eye may observe in operation the creative genius of inary figures--the daydream come true. But as it
those practical psychologists who are carrying on is only the young or those confirmed in perpetual
their experiments in the laboratory of the theater. youth by the fixative of a supreme egotism who can
If the appeal to the senses through the song and readily picture themselves as brave and beautiful,
dance were all that is required by the elements of the world of the theater can offer greater compensa-
human nature catered to, then the old vaudeville tions for the deficiencies of the world of reality by
performance would answer the purpose.
refraining from tog much idealization of the human
man, even in the state of mental dilapidation that nature that is to be pandered to.
succeeds the daily grind, is a reasoning or more The competent authors and actors who devote
accurately, a rationalizing being—his complete sat their talents to these psychological subtleties with
isfaction demands food for the spirit as well as for an eye single to the emotional satisfaction of their
the flesh. The show therefore remains in essence
to overlook completely the fact that
But as
sex,
seem


542
December 14
THE DIAL
women as well as men frequent the theater, and the capers of the chorus girls are not alluring but
that they also have emotions which seek an outlet menacing, and the charms of the leading lady are
denied or limited by real life.
not a stimulant but a depressant, since they discour-
Passing over the obvious failure of the lips or the agingly realize a degree of physical perfection to
legs of the chorus girl in any scheme for satisfying which she cannot aspire. That such a paragon of
the senses of women spectators, let us consider the unattainable fascination as the heroine should fall
types of speaking parts devised to make their appeal in love at first sight with a man as commonplace
to mind and heart. Almost any one of a dozen as her own husband or lover, produces uneasy reflec-
comedies to be seen and heard at any one time tions as to the type of woman his type of man may
in our metropolitan playhouses would serve as an so readily command, and speculations as to the effect
illustration. Take for instance the one where the of such an exhibition on his personal regard for
leading lady—a young person whose face, figure, her. In so far as she is able to identify herself with
voice, and clothes make her the cynosure of every
the beautiful lady on the stage, she finds her emo-
masculine eye-evidences a total indifference to the tional outlet blocked by the creature's perverse pref-
suit of an entrancing French aviator, equipped with erence for the inferior masculine type. Her atten-
a smart outfit, a glorious physique, a fascinating tion strays from the caricature of manhood in the
manner, a melodious voice, an engaging accent, and center of the stage to the real hero and prince in dis-
apparently all the physical, and intellectual, perfec- guise, near the wings. Her heart cries out to the
tions that characterize these supermen, enhanced by
lady actress:
the mysterious charm of the Latin—a figure in short
"Have you eyes?
to thrill the soul of any woman.
To this paragon
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! Have you eyes?"
the heroine perversely prefers a homely commonplace Apparently ladies of the stage, when professionally
civilian, who offends the feminine eye in a ridicu-
engaged in the performance of man-made plays,
lous costume, boasts of feats that he has never per-
haven't eyes; but the ladies of the audience, like the
formed, exhibits physical and moral cowardice and
men, have eyes and also the usual outfit of normal
ineptitude, and is altogether insignificant and despic-
instincts. Every ordinary masculine emotion is
able. This contemptible little whippersnapper not
catered to by these girl and music shows, but what
only wins the leading lady but captivates all the
sop is thrown to the starved feminine hanger-on?
pretty chorus girls, while the embodiment of every
This feast of unreason is for her a famine. As
manly virtue and Gallic allurement is left stranded
show girls have become more showy, leading men
at the fall of the curtain without the conquest of so
have become steadily more insignificant. It is no
much as a supernumerary—on the stage.
longer demanded that an actor should have even
The tired business man for whose relaxation and
passably good looks, though beauty is indispensable
restoration this edifying production is designed
to the actress. Of course women, with their larger
doubtless derives ample satisfaction in the spirit and
tolerance in such matters, can love men who are not
in the flesh. His senses are pleasantly titivated by
handsome, on as well as off the stage. To them
the twinkling toes of a score of pretty girls, and
the beauty that is preferred is not of the face but
the cravings of his soul are sated by what is
of the mind. But they do like a man to be manly-
dished up as the plot. Since he is himself probably
especially on the stage. They like to look up to
possessed of insignificant personal charms, common-
men rather than down on them on the stage. The
place intellect, and undistinguished character, he
feminine plot is King Cophetua and the Beggar
finds it pleasing that the leading man in the comedy
Maid; the masculine, Beauty and the Beast.
should be an individual of similar if not inferior
type and should be preferred by the embodiment of
It was to this sad pass, from the feminine point
all feminine fascination to a man who represents
of view, that the theater had come when the war,
youth, beauty, and heroism. He is thus enabled to
the solvent as well as the compounder of human
bask in the warm confidence that since the best is
difficulties, brought on the boards plays subtly if
none too good for the likes of him, or for one to
unintentionally devised to satisfy the emotional de-
whom he can without undue vanity feel himself su-
mands of women. There began to appear the so-
perior, this is indeed the best of all possible worlds called "recruiting play," and before the entranced
where, even if none but the brave deserves the gaze of women's eyes the hitherto girl-infested stage
fair, none but the coward gets her, and where self became filled with noble specimens of manhood,
criticism is superfluous.
handsome, well built, athletic creatures, beautifully
But what of the woman condemned to sit through caparisoned in khaki, navy or horizon blue-men
such a representation of human psychology? To her marching, men in trenches, men going over the top


1918
543
THE DIAL
in No Man's Land, in hospitals, invalided home, courages the audience to join in the chorus of a
armless, legless, wounded, blinded, shell-shocked, trench song with a jaunty "tune up girls." The
and dying men—but men, brave men, merry men, "girls" tune up, and the men's chorus on the stage
adorable men-real men!
gives way before the chorus girls in the orchestra.
Look about over the audience at one of these Women have at last, thanks to the war, per
plays when the lights go up, and when the lights are angusta ad augusta, come into their own. It is
down listen to the music of the fountains of falling again possible, as in Elizabethan days, to witness a
, tears. It is a great religious revival, an orgy of play where the players are all or practically all men.
feminine emotion. The only men present under This reform in the drama should be perpetuated.
forty are in uniform. Others would be uncom Here is a permanent after-war career for large num-
fortable. If the purpose of the representation was bers of its survivors. The profession of stage hero
recruiting, it must have been fulfilled by means of and chorus man in reminiscent war-plays should
the "indirect influence” of which so much was heard attract those who become physically or mentally un-
in ante-suffrage days. A careful scrutiny of the audi-
fitted for the exactions of industrial or commercial
ence would indicate that the closest relation that
life. The equal rights that women demand should
most of those present could have to a possible recruit
include equality of opportunity for emotional sat-
would be that of aunt. It is a gathering of women
isfaction in the musical comedy of the future, and in
weeping for the men they have not got. The beau-
the public utility or futility of the theater.
tiful soldier-actor on the piano stool, a "real"
soldier, recognizes what he is up against. He en-
MARY VIDA Clarke.
The Modern Point of View and the New Order
V.
The VESTED INTERESTS.
There are certain saving clauses in common use no discredit on the economists and publicists who
among persons who speak for that well-known order so have sketched out the natural run of the present
of pecuniary rights and obligations which the mod and future, since their reservations have not been
ern point of view assumes as “the natural state of observed. The arguments have been as good as the
man." Among them are these: "given the state of premises on which they proceed, and the premises
the industrial arts"; "other things remaining the have once been good enough to command unques-
same"; "in the long run"; "in the absence of dis- tioning assent, although that is now some time ago.
turbing causes.” It has been the praiseworthy en The fault appears to lie in the unexampled shifty
deavor of the votaries of established law and custom behavior of the latter-day facts. But however
to hold fast the good old plan on a strategic line shifty, these facts, too, are as stubborn as others
of interpretation resting on these provisos. There of their kind.
have been painstaking elucidations of what is funda-
mental and intrinsic in the way of human institu The system of free competition, self-help, equal
tions, of what essentially ought to be, and of what opportunity, and free bargaining, which is contem-
must eventually come to pass in the natural course plated by the modern point of view, assumes an
of time and change, as it is believed to run along industrial situation in which the work and trading
under the guidance of those indefeasible principles of any given individual or group can go on freely
that make up the modern point of view. And the by itself, without materially helping or hindering
disquieting incursions of the new order have been the equally untrammeled working of the rest. It
disallowed as not being of the essence of Nature's has of course always been recognized that the coun-
contract with mankind, within the constituent prin- try's industry makes up something of a connected
ciples of the modern point of view.
system, so that there would necessarily be some
Now, as has already been remarked in an earlier degree of mutual adjustment and accommodation
paper, the state of the industrial arts has at no time among the many self-sufficient working units which
continued unchanged during the modern era; conse together would make up such an industrial com-
quently other things have never remained the same; munity; but these working units have been con-
and in the long run the outcome has always been ceived to be so nearly independent of one another
shaped by the disturbing causes. All this reflects that the slight measure of running adjustment


544
December 14
THE DIAL
weet
needed could be sufficiently taken care of by free tardation of the work at any critical point-which
competition in the market. This assumption has comes near saying at any point-in this balanced
of course never been altogether sound, at any stage system of work will cause a disproportionately large
in the industrial advance; but it has at least been derangement of the whole. The working units of
within speaking distance of facts so late as the the industrial system are no longer independent of
eighteenth century. It was a possible method of one another under the new order.
keeping the balance in the industrial system before This state of things would reasonably suggest
the coming of the machine industry. Quite evi that the control of the industrial system had best
dently it commended itself to the enlightened com be entrusted to men skilled in these matters. The
mon sense of that time as' a sufficiently workable industrial system does its work in terms of mechan-
ideal—so much so that it then appeared to be the ical efficiency, not in terms of price. It should
most practical solution of the industrial and social accordingly seem reasonable to expect that its con-
difficulties which beset that generation. It is fairly trol would be entrusted to men experienced in the
to be presumed that the plan would have been suf ways and means of technology, men who are in the
ficiently workable if the conditions which then pre habit of thinking about these matters in such terms
vailed had continued unchanged, if other things had as are intelligible to the engineers.
remained the same. That was, in effect, before the
However, by historical necessity the discretionary
coming of the machine technology and the later control in all that concerns this highly technological
growth of population.
system of industry has come to vest in those persons
But as it runs today, according to the new indus who are highly skilled in the higgling of the market.
trial order set afoot by the machine technology, the And so great is the stability of that system of law
carrying-on of the community's industry is not well and custom by grace of which these persons claim
taken care of by the loose corrective control that is this power, that any disallowance of their control
exercised by a competitive market. That method over the material fortunes of the community is
is too slow, at the best, and too disjointed; besides now scarcely within reason. All the while the pro-
which, it does not work. The industrial system is "gressive shifting of ground in the direction of a
now a wide-reaching organization of mechanical more thoroughly mechanistic organization of indus-
processes which work together on a comprehensive try goes on and works out into a more and more
interlocking plan of give and take, in which no one searching standardization of works and methods and
section, group, or individual unit is free to work out
a more exacting correlation of industries, in an ever
its own industrial salvation except in active copart increasingly large and increasingly sensitive indus-
nership with the rest, and the whole of which runs trial system. All the while the whole of it grows
on as a moving equilibrium of forces in action. This less and less manageable by business methods; and
system of interlocking processes and mutually de- with every successive move the control exercised
pendent working units is a more or less delicately by the business men in charge grows wider, more
balanced affair. Evidently the system has to be arbitrary, and more inconsistent with the common
taken as a whole, and evidently it will work at its good.
full productive capacity only on condition that the The businesslike manager's attention is continu-
coordination of its interlocking processes be main- ually more taken up with "the financial end” of the
tained at a faultless equilibrium, and only when its concern's interests, so that by enforced neglect he is
constituent working units are allowed to run full necessarily leaving more of the details of shop man-
and smooth. But a moderate derangement will not agement and supervision of the works to subordi-
put it out of commission. It will work at a lower nates, largely to subordinates who have some knowl-
efficiency, and continue running, in spite of a very edge of technological matters and no immediate
considerable amount of dislocation—as is habitually interest in the run of the market. But the larger
the case today.
and final discretion, which affects the working of
At the same time any reasonably good working the industrial system as a whole, or the orderly
efficiency of the industrial system is conditioned on management of any considerable group of industries
a reasonably good coordination of these working within the general system—all that is still under
forces, such as will allow each and several of the the immediate control of the businesslike managers,
working units to carry on at the fullest working each of whom works for his own concern's gain,
capacity that will comport with the unhampered without much afterthought. The final discretion
working of the system as a balanced whole. But still rests with the businesslike directorate of each
evidently, too, any dislocation, derangement, or re copcern—the owner or the board-even in all ques-


1918
545
THE DIAL
tions of physical organization and technical man himself at the cost of the rest by obstructing, retard-
agement, although this businesslike control of the ing, or dislocating this working system at some crit-
details of production necessarily comes to little else ical point in such a way as will enable him to get
than acceptance, rejection, or revision of measures the best of the bargain in his dealings with the rest.
proposed by the men immediately in charge of This appears constantly in the altogether usual, and
the works, together with a constant check on the altogether legitimate, practice of holding out for a
rate and the volume of output with a view to the better price. So also in the scarcely less usual, and
market.
no less legitimate, practice of withholding needed
Hence in the large mechanical industries, which ground or right of way, or needed materials or in-
set the pace for the rest and which are organized formation, from a business rival. All these things
on a standardized and more or less automatic plan, are usual and a matter of course, because business
the current oversight of production by their business management under the conditions created by the
like directorate does not effectually extend much be new order of industry is in great part made up of
yond the regulation of the output with a view to just these things. Indeed, sabotage of this kind
what the traffic will bear; and in this connection is indispensable to any large success in industrial
there is very little that the business men in charge business.
can do except to keep the output short of productive However, it is well to call to mind that the com-
capacity by so much as the state of the market seems munity will still be able to get along, perhaps even
to require; it does not lie within their competency to get along very tolerably, in spite of a very appre-
to increase the output beyond that point, or to in- ciable volume of sabotage of this kind-even though
crease the productive capacity of their works, except it does reduce the net productive capacity to a frac-
by way of giving the technical men permission to go tion of what it would be in the absence of all this
ahead and do it.
interference and retardation; for the current state
The business man's place in the economy of of the industrial arts is highly productive. So much
nature is to "make money," not to produce goods. so that in spite of all this deliberate waste and
The production of goods is a mechanical process,
confusion that is set afoot in this way for private
incidental to the making of money, whereas the gain, there still is left over an absolutely large
making of money is a pecuniary operation, carried residue of net production over cost.
on by bargain and sale, not by mechanical appliances munity still has something to go on. The available
The business men make use of the margin of free income—that is to say, the margin
mechanical appliances and powers of the industrial of production over cost-is still wide, so that it
system, but they make a pecuniary use of them. allows a large latitude for playing fast and loose
And in point of fact the less use a business man with the community's livelihood.
can make of the mechanical appliances and powers Now these businesslike maneuvers of deviation
under his charge, and the smaller a product he can and delay are by no means to be denounced as being
contrive to turn out for a given return in terms of' iniquitous or unfair, although they may have an
price, the better it suits his purpose. The highest unfortunate effect on the conditions of life for the
achievement in business is the nearest approach to
That is his misfortune, which law
getting something for nothing. What any given and custom count on his bearing with becoming
business concern gains must come out of the total fortitude. These are the ordinary and approved
output of productive industry, of course; and to means of carrying on business according to the lib-
that extent any given business concern has an inter eral principles of free bargain and self-help; and
est in the continued production of goods. But the they are in the main still looked on as a meritorious
less any given business concern can contrive to give exercise of thrift and sagacity-duly so looked on,
for what it gets, the more profitable its own traffic it is to be presumed. At least such is the prevailing
will be. Business success means "getting the best view among the substantial citizens, who are in a
of the bargain."
position to speak from first-hand knowledge. It is
The common good, so far as it is a question of only that the exercise of these homely virtues on the
material welfare, is evidently best served by an large scale on which business is now conducted, and
unhampered working of the industrial system at its when dealing with the wide-reaching articulations
full capacity, without interruption or dislocation. of the industrial system under the new order of
But it is equally evident that the owner or manager technology—under these uncalled-for circumstances
of any given concern or section of this industrial the unguarded exercise of these virtues entails busi-
system may be in a position to gain something for ness disturbances which are necessarily large, and
The com-
and powers.
common man.


546
December 14
THE DIAL
which bring on mischievous consequences in industry recognized by calling such a concern a "vested in-
which are disproportionately larger still. In case terest” or a “special interest.” Free income of this
these maneuvers of businesslike deviation and defeat kind, not otherwise accounted for, may be capital-
are successful and fall into an orderly system whose ized if it promises to continue, and it can then be
operation may be continued at will, or in so far as entered on the books as an item of immaterial
this management creates an assured strategic advan- wealth, a prospective source of gain. So long as it
tage for any given business concern, the result is a has not been embodied in a marketable legal instru-
vested interest. This may then eventually be cap ment, any such item of intangible assets will be
italized in due form, as a body of intangible assets. nothing more than a method of notation, a book-
As such it goes to augment the business community's keepers' expedient. But it can readily be covered
accumulated wealth. And the country is richer with some form of corporation security, as, for
per capita.
instance, preferred stock or bonds, and it then be-
A vested interest is a marketable right to get comes an asset in due standing and a vested interest
something for nothing. This does not mean that endowed with legal tenure.
the vested interests cost nothing. They may even Ordinarily any reasonably uniform and perma-
come high. Particularly may their cost seem high nent run of free income of this kind will be covered
if the cost to the community is taken into account, as by an issue of corporate securities with a fixed rate
well as the expenditure incurred by their owners of interest or dividends; whereupon the free income
for their production and upkeep. Vested interests in question becomes a fixed overhead charge on the
are immaterial wealth, intangible assets. As regards concern's business, to be carried as an item of ordi-
their nature and origin, they are the outgrowth of nary and unavoidable outlay and included in the
three main lines of businesslike management: (a) necessary cost of production of the concern's output
limitation of supply, with a view to profitable of goods or services. But whether it is covered by
sales; (b) obstruction of traffic, with a view to an issue of vendible securities or carried in a less
profitable sales; and (c) meretricious publicity, formal manner as a source of income not otherwise
with a view to profitable sales. It will be remarked accounted for, such a vested right to get something
that these are matters of business, in the strict sense. for nothing will rightly be valued and defended
They are devices of salesmanship, not of workman- against infraction from outside as a proprietary
ship; they are ways and means of driving a bargain, right, an item of immaterial but very substantial
not ways and means of producing goods or services.' wealth.
The residue which stands over as a product of these There is nothing illegitimate or doubtful about
endeavors is in the nature of an intangible asset, this incorporation of unearned income into the ordi-
an article of immaterial wealth, not an increase of nary costs of production on which "reasonable
the tangible equipment or the material resources profits” are computed. “The law allows it and the
in hand. The enterprising owners of the concern court awards it.” To indicate how utterly con-
may be richer by that much, and so perhaps may gruous it all is with the new order of business enter-
the business community as a whole—though that is prise, it may be called to mind that not only do the
a precariously dubious point-but the community captains of corporation finance habitually handle the
at large is certainly no better off in any material matter in that way, but the same view is accepted
respect.
by those public authorities who are called in to
This account of course assumes that all this busi- review and regulate the traffic of these business con-
ness is conducted strictly' within the lines of com cerns. The later findings are apparently unequiv-
mercial honesty. It would only be tedious and ocal, to the effect that when once a run of free
misleading to follow up and take account of that income has been capitalized and docketed as an
scattering recourse to force or fraud that will never asset it becomes a legitimate overhead charge, and
wholly be got rid of in the pursuit of gain, whether it is then justly to be counted among necessary costs
by way of business traffic or by more direct methods. and covered by the price which consumers should
Commercial honesty, of course, is the honesty of reasonably pay for the concern's offering of goods
self-help, or caveat emptor, which is Latin for the or services.
same thing.
Such a finding has come to be a fairly well settled
Roughly, any business concern which so comes in matter-of-course both among officials and among the
for a habitual run of free income comes to have a law-abiding investors, so far as regards those in-
vested right in this "income stream," and this pre- tangible assets that are covered by vendible securities
ferred standing of the concern in this respect is carrying a fixed rate; and the logic of this finding


1918
547
THE DIAL
is doubtless sound according to the principles of the going concern exceeds the value of its material
modern point of view. There may still be a doubt properties is commonly quite wide. Only in the
or a question whether valuable perquisites of the case of small and feeble corporations, or such con-
same nature, which continue to be held loosely as cerns as are balancing along the edge of bankruptcy,
an informal vested interest, as, for instance, mer does this margin of intangible values narrow down
chantable good-will, are similarly entitled to the and tend to disappear. Any industrial business con-
benefit of the common law which secures any owner
cern which does not enjoy such a margin of capital-
in the usufruct of his property. To such effect ized free earning-capacity has fallen short of ordi-
have commonly been the findings of courts and nary business success and is possessed of no vested
boards of inquiry, of Public Utility Commissions, interest
of such bodies as the Interstate Commerce Commis This margin of free income which is capitalized
sion, the Federal Trade Commission, and latterly in the value of the going concern comes out of the
of divers recently installed agencies for the control net product of industry over cost. It is secured by
of prices and output in behalf of the public interest successful bargaining and an advantageous position
-So, for instance, right lately, certain decisions in the market, which involves some derangement
and recommendations made by the War Labor and retardation of the industrial system-so much
Board.
so as greatly to reduce the net margin of production
Any person with a taste for curiosities of human over cost. Approximately the whole of this re-
behavior might well pursue this question of capital- maining margin of free income goes to the business
ized free income into its further convolutions, and men in charge, or to the business concerns for whom
might find reasonable entertainment in so doing. this management is carried on. In case the free
The topic also has merits as a subject for economic income which is gained in this way promises to con-
theory. But for the present argument it may suffice tinue, it presently becomes a vested right. It may
to note that this free income and the businesslike then be formally capitalized as an immaterial asset
contrivances by which it is made secure and legiti- having a recognized earning-capacity equal to this
mate are of the essence of this new order of business prospective free income. That is to say, the outcome
enterprise ; that the abiding incentive to such enter is a capitalized claim to get something for nothing-
prise lies in this unearned income; and that the in which constitutes a vested interest. The total gains
tangible assets which are framed to cover this line which hereby accrue to the owners of these vested
of "earnings," therefore, constitute the substantial rights amount to something less than the total loss
core of corporate capital under the new order. In suffered by the community at large through that
passing it may also be noted that there is room for delay of production and derangement of industry
a division of sentiment as regards this disposal of that is involved in the due exercise of these rights.
the community's net production, and that peremp In other words, and as seen from the other side, this
tory questions of class interest and public policy free income which the community allows its kept
touching these matters may presently be due to come classes in the way of returns on these vested rights
to a hearing.
and intangible assets is the price which the com-
munity is paying to the owners of this imponderable
To some, this manner of presenting the case may
wealth for material damage greatly exceeding that
seem unfamiliar, and it may therefore be to the amount. But it should be kept in mind and should
purpose to restate the upshot of this account in the be duly credited to the good intentions of these
briefest fashion: Capital—at least under the new
businesslike managers, that the ulterior object sought
order of business enterprise—is capitalized prospee- by all this management is not the one hundred per
tive gain. From this arises one of the singularities cent of mischief to the community but only the ten
of the current situation in business and its control per cent of private gain.
of industry, namely, that the total face value, or
even the total market value of the vendible securities So far as they bear immediately on the argument
which cover any given block of industrial equipment at this point the main facts are substantially as set
and material resources, and which give title to their forth. But to avoid any appearance of undue nov-
ownership, always and greatly exceeds the total elty, as well as to avoid the appearance of neglecting
market value of the equipment and resources to relevant facts, something more is to be said in the
which the securities give title of ownership, and to same connection. It is particularly to be noted that
which alone in the last resort they do give title. credit for certain material benefits should be given
The margin by which the capitalized value of the to this same business enterprise, whose chief aim


548
December 14
THE DIAL
and effect is the creation of these vested rights in volved a recapitalization of the concerns so brought
unearned income. It will be apparent to anyone together under a common head, and that commonly
who is at all familiar with the situation that much if not invariably the resulting recapitalization would
of the intangible · assets included in the corporate be larger than the aggregate capital of the under-
capital of this country, for instance, does not repre- lying corporations. Even where, as sometimes has
sent derangement which is actually inflicted on the happened, there was no increase made in the nom-
industrial system from day to day, but rather the inal capitalization, there would still result an
price of delivery from derangement, which the busi- effectual increase, in that the market value of the
nesslike managers of industry have taken measures securities outstanding would be larger after the
to discontinue and disallow.
operation than the value of the aggregate capital
A concrete illustration will show what is in of the underlying corporations had been before.
tended. For some time past, and very noticeably There has commonly been some gain in aggregate
during the past quarter century, the ownership of capitalization, and the resulting increased capital-
the country's larger industrial concerns has con ization has also commonly proved to be valid. The
stantly been drawing together into larger and larger market value of the larger and more stable capital-
aggregations, with a more centralized control. The ization has presently proved to be larger and more
case of the steel industry is typical. For a consider stable than the capitalization of the same properties
able period, beginning in the early nineties, there under the earlier regime of divided ownership and
went on a process of combination and recombination control. What so has been added to the aggregate
of corporations in this industry, resulting in larger capitalization has in the main been the relative
and larger aggregations of corporate ownership. absence of work at cross-purposes, which has re-
Commonly, though perhaps not invariably, some of sulted from the consolidation of ownership; and it
the unprofitable duplication and work at cross- į is to be accounted a typical instance of intangible
purposes that was necessarily involved in the earlier / assets. The new and larger capitalization has com-
parcelment of ownership was got rid of in this way, monly made good; and this is particularly true for
gradually with each successive move in this concen those later, larger, and more conclusive recombina-
tration of ownership and control. Perhaps also, tions of corporate ownership with which the so-
invariably, there was a substantial saving made in called era of trust making in the steel business came
the aggregate volume of business dealings that to a provisional conclusion. The United States Steel
would necessarily be involved in carrying on the Corporation has vindicated the wisdom of an un-
industry by the methods of ownership in severalty. reserved advance on lines of consolidation and
Under the management of many concerns, each recapitalization in the financing of the large and
intent on its own pecuniary interest, the details of technical industries.
business transactions would be voluminous and in For reasons well understood by those who are
tricate, in the way of contracts, orders, running acquainted with these things, no one can offer a
accounts, working arrangements, as well as the confident estimate, or even a particularly intelligent
necessary financial operations, properly so called.
opinion, as to the aggregate amount of overhead
Much of this would be obviated by taking over burden and intangible assets which has been written
the 'ownership of these concerns into the hands of into the corporate capital of the steel business in
a centralized control; and there would be a conse the course of a few years of consolidation. For
quent lessening of that delay and uncertainty that reasons of depreciation, disuse, replacement, exten-
always is to be counted on wherever the industrial sion, renewal, changes in market conditions and in
operations have to wait on the completion of various technical requirements the case is too intricate to
business arrangements. There is circumstantial evi admit anything like a clear-cut identification of the
dence that very material gains in economy and immaterial items included in the capitalization. But
expedition commonly resulted from these successive there is no chance to doubt that in the aggregate
moves of consolidation in the steel business. And these immaterial items foot up to a very formidable
this discontinuance of businesslike delay and calcu proportion of the total capital.
lated maladjustment was at each successive move
It is evident that the businesslike management
brought to a secure footing and capitalized in of industry under these conditions need not involve
an increased issue of the negotiable corporation derangement and cross-purposes at every turn. It
securities.
should always be likely that the business men in
It will also be recalled that, as a matter of rou charge will find it to their profit to combine forces,
tine, each successive consolidation of ownership in- eliminate wasteful traffic, allow a reasonably free


1918
549
THE DIAL
and economical working of the country's productive directly to a restriction of output, according to the
powers within the limits of a profitable price, and familiar run of monopoly rule. So frequently will
so come in for a larger total of free income to be restriction, enhanced prices, unemployment, and
divided amicably among themselves on a concerted hardship follow in such a case that it has come to
plan. This can be done by means of a combination be an article of popular knowledge and belief that
of ownership, such as the corporations of the pres this is the logical aim and outcome of any successful
ent time. But there is a difficulty of principle int maneuver of the kind.
volved in this use of incorporation as a method of So also, though its output of marketable goods
combining forces. Such a consolidation of owner or services may be got on easier terms, the new and
ship and control on a large scale appears to be, in larger business concern which results from the coali-
effect, a combination of forces against the rest of tion need be no more open-handed or humane in its
the community or in contravention of the principles dealings with its workmen. There will, in fact, be
of free competition. In effect it foots up to the some provocation to the contrary. A more powerfull
same thing as a combination in restraint of trade; corporation is in a position to make its own terms
in form it is a concentration of ownership. Com- with greater freedom, which it then is for the work-
bination of owners in restraint of trade is obnoxious
men to take or leave, but ordinarily to take, for the
to the liberal principles of free bargaining and self- universal rule of businesslike management-to
help; consolidation of ownership by purchase or
charge what the traffic will bear continues to hold
incorporation appears to be a reasonable exercise
unbroken for any business concern, irrespective of
of the right of free bargaining and self-help. There
its size or its facilities. As has already been noted
is accordingly some chance of a difference of opinion
in an earlier passage, charging what the traffic will
at this point and some risk of playing fast and loose
with these liberal principles that disallow conspiracy
bear is the same as charging what will yield the
in restraint of trade. This difficulty of principle has largest net profit.
been sought to be got over by believing that a com-
bination of ownership in restraint of trade does not
There stand over two main questions touching
amount to a conspiracy in restraint of trade, within
the nature and uses of these vested interests: Why
the purport of these liberal principles. There is a
do not these powerful business concerns exercise
great and pressing need of such a construction of
their autocratic powers to drive the industrial sys
principles, which would greatly facilitate the work
tem at its full productive capacity, seeing that they
of corporation finance; but it is to be admitted that
are in a position to claim any increase of net pro-
some slight cloud still rests on this manner of dis-
duction over cost? and, What use is made of the
posing of ownership. It involves abdication or dele- free income which goes to them as the perquisite
gation of that discretionary exercise of property
of their vested interest? The answer to the former
rights which has been held to be of the essence of question is to be found in the fact that the great
business concerns as well as the smaller ones are all
ownership.
The new state of things brought about by such
bound by the limitations of the price system, which
a consolidation is capitalized as a permanent source
holds them to the pursuit of a profitable price, not
of free income. And if it proves to be a sound busi-
to the pursuit of gain in terms of material goods.
ness proposition the new capitalization will measure
Their vested rights are for the most part carried
the increase of income which goes to its promoter
as an overhead charge in terms of price and have to
or to the corporation in whose name the move has
be met in those terms, which will not allow an in-
been made; and if the work is well and neatly done crease of net production regardless of price. The
no one else will get any gain from it or be in any
latter question will find its answer in the well-
way benefited by the arrangement. It is a business
known formula of the economists, that "human
proposition, not a fanciful project of public utility.
wants are indefinitely extensible," particularly as
The capitalized value of such a coalition of owner-
regards the consumption of superfluities. The free
ship is not measured by any heightened production income which is capitalized in the intangible assets
or any retrenchment of waste that may come in its
of the vested interests goes to support the well-to-do
investors, who are for this reason called the kept
train, nor need the new move bring any addition to
the community's net productive resources in any
classes, and whose keep consists in an indefinitely
respect. Indeed, it happens not infrequently that
extensible consumption of superfluities.
such a waste-conserving coalition of ownership leads
THORSTEIN VEBLEN.


550
December 14
THE DIAL
An Apostle to
the Civilized
SELDOM
ELDOM HAS the sacrament of nature's beauty been what for them is most significant and beautiful. In
more fittingly celebrated than in the life and works Hudson's autobiography, which he tells us is ended
of W. H. Hudson. From his childhood in the Ar at the age of fifteen, there is concentrated the thing
gentine, when his mother, anxious at his staring of which he has given many intimations in earlier
fixedly in the air, stole after him only to find him works—the child mind and the sense of beauty, two
rapt with absorption in birds overhead, to the time powers which will yet some day destroy industrial-
and long after when he wrote A Crystal Age and ism. Another volume, A Little Boy Lost, which is
Green Mansions—more vivid creations than those published in this country just now (Knopf; $1.50),
of Bernardin de St. Pierre and Rousseau—he has is to be taken in the same sense. Although it is for
been responsive to those moments in life when children, it is less a book written at them or to them
"nature draws near to it, and, taking up her ne than a ransacking of the author's treasure house for
glected instrument, plays a fragment of some ancient their delectation.
melody, long unheard on the earth.” Attuned as
Averse as Hudson had been to writing an auto-
only savages are attuned to the soundless, wordless, biography—for the reason that incidents of his boy-
'unthought harmonies of desolate plain, flowers, and
hood were related in chapters of The Naturalist in
living creatures, this scientist, poet, artist has been
able to resurrect from their grave in civilization
La Plata, Adventures Among Birds, Birds and Man,
moods and states of being which men find well-nigh
and other works; for the reason also that he felt the
incommunicable. To his bird-watching and his difficulty in other autobiographies of childhood of
learned observation he brought the passionate atten-
the "unconscious artistry' which would “sneak in
tion of a child, the selflessness of an instinctive man to erase unseemly lines and blots, to retouch, and
whose brain is "a highly polished mirror, in which colour, and shade and falsify the picture"—yet he
all visible nature-every hill, tree, leaf—is reflected could not resist the illness which put him in a state
with miraculous clearness," and the endowment of where he could review the entire sunlit prospect of
a creator.
his youth. It is with Serge Aksakoff, author of the
Akin as he is in spirit to other faithful observers History of His Childhood, that Hudson finds him-
of the wonder of the world (he refers to the Argen- self comparable, because Aksakoff's "intense love of
tinian pampas as his "parish of Selborne" and he
his mother, of nature, of all wildness and of sport
lived, he tells us, in the house in which Richard
kept him a boy in heart, able after long
Jefferies died) he has yet brought something sig-
years to revive the past mentally and picture it in
nificant and new into science and literature. Readers
its true, fresh, original colours.”
of his works have felt its presence. They have felt
not only that here was a man penetrated with
And I can say of myself with regard to this primitive
faculty and emotion--this sense of the supernatural in
beauty, intoxicated with life, but that there was also natural things as I have called it—that I am on safe
present in him the child, alien to our civilization, ground for the same reason; the feeling has never been
wholly outlived. And I will add probably to the disgust
wise and critical. Simple and patient in his observa-
of some rigidly orthodox reader that these are childish
tions as Fabre (there is a chapter on spiders in The things which I have no desire to put away.
Naturalist in La Plata which has few if any peers) Essentially Hudson is a nature-worshiper. His
he possesses an added quality of imagination. It is wild heresy began with the religion that his beloved
the mythology of the child mind and its animism, mother taught him. He believed implicitly what
sublimated and fused with that delicacy of sense she told him about the Supreme Being, but never-
perceptions which distinguishes him.
theless :
It is fortunate that this magnificent childhood, as
these teachings did not touch my heart as it was touched
Mr. Hudson has displayed it in his writings, should and thrilled by something nearer, more intimate, in na-
have its autobiography in Far Away and Long Ago
ture, not only in moonlit trees or in a Rower or serpent,
but in certain exquisite moments and moods and in cer-
(Dutton ; $2.50). For the child, the savage, and tain aspects of nature, in “every grass” and in all things
the artist are one, and to the civilization they ap-
animate and inanimate.
praise they impart à quality of strangeness. That
That He speaks of the feeling he had on moonlit nights
civilization is calculated to crush out just such that a tree seemed "more intensely alive than others,
spirits as those of Hudson, to rob them of their more conscious of my presence and watchful of me."
sensitivity, to market their fancies, and to extinguish This faculty he acclaimed even then as more to him
.


1918
551
THE DIAL
den upon:
ness.
than all the religious teaching he received from his by his confession of preference in literature for the
mother, and it always seemed to him essentially works of Vaughan, Traherne, and other mystics;
religious in character. For one so perfectly respon-
for it is only in them “that I find any adequate ex-
sive to the moods of his environment and therefore pression of that perpetual rapturous delight in na-
to the slightest expressiveness of incident or person
ture and my own existence which I experienced at
about him, life could not fail to be filled with para-
that period." Tolstoy, we are told at another point,
is his favorite author.
bles, living parables instinct with the realities he
perceived through his senses and felt about him.
Carrying within him this deep spiritual and emo-
One such parable in his life was the incident of the
tional impress of what he had seen and experienced,
it was impossible for Hudson to approach the
serpent discovered lying in a path and almost trod-
simplest of observed facts perfunctorily. One is
tempted to quote almost at random from his books,
One of the men, the first to find a stick or perhaps the
now nearly a score, to display the new-minted qual-
most courageous, rushed to the front and was about to
deal a killing blow when his arm was seized by one of
ity which his words bear, fresh from the allocation
the ladies and the blow arrested. Then, stooping quickly, he has given them in the context of his conscious-
she took the creature up in her hands, and going away
There comes to mind that extraordinary
to some distance from the others, released it in the long
green grass, green in color as its glittering skin and as chapter in Idle Days in Patagonia-Concerning
cool to the touch.
Eyes, which begins:-
He saw her then "coming back to us through the White, crimson, emerald green, shining golden yellow,
orchard trees, her face shining with joy because she are amongst the colors seen in the eyes of birds. In owls,
herons, cormorants, and many other tribes, the brightly-
had rescued the reptile from imminent death," and
tinted eye is incomparably the finest feature and chief
his young mind was troubled with the question why glory.
she was so innocently glad.
One remembers his furious Magellanic eagle owl,
wounded to the death, whose
Nevertheless, I think that this incident bore fruit later,
and taught me to consider whether it might not be better
irides were of a bright orange color, but every time I
to spare than to kill; better not only for the animal
attempted to approach the bird they kindled into great
spared, but for the soul.
globes of glimmering yellow flame, the black pupils being
A corollary, or perhaps the essence itself, of Hud-
surrounded by a scintillating crimson light which threw
out minute yellow sparks into the air.
son's deep feeling for the being of all life is rever-
And there crowd into the memory of a reader of
ence for all living things. He has given voice to it
Hudson old gauchos of the pampas, whose lives held
in his lament over the extinction of the wildest and
most beautiful creatures of the earth, of incompar- picaresque hero of Spanish narrative; scenes from
more of the fierce and romantic than the finest
ably greater value to mankind in his eyes than the
the soul of wit, as where a "Crowner's inquest is
finest of pictures or marbles. Hear him in Idle
held on the remains of a Saxon or Dane or an
Days in Patagonia, telling of Nature's masterpieces
ancient Briton," dug up by a rabbit; pages of bird
which we should hold sacred :
and animal lore, passages where in magical prose the
In ancient times the spirit of life shone brightest in these ; very hush of outdoor silence seems captured and
and when others that shared the earth with them were
taken by death they were left, being more worthy of
impregnated in the printed page.
perpetuation. Like immortal flowers they have drifted The stage is set in Far Away and Long Ago. The
down to us on the ocean of time, and their strangeness
and beauty bring to our imaginations a dream and a
curtain is about to rise. The book is prelude and
picture of that unknown world, immeasurably far re performance in one, the urgence of feeling rewon
moved, where man was not: and when they perish, some-
fused with mellow reflection.
thing of gladness goes out of nature, and the sunshine
Of that intensity in
loses something of its brightness.
Green Mansions of which John Galsworthy said it
In A Shepherd's Life he displays the same feeling
immortalized "as passionate a love of all beautiful
for the bare quietude of the downs. They too gave
things as ever was in the heart of man,
him a "sense of man's ha and oneness with
of the keen-sensed sharp observer, there is here rich
nature":
expression. One partakes with the author the gusto
of the boyhood lesson (learned after trying to
This quiet spot in Wiltshire has been inhabited from of
old, how far back the barrows raised by an anciente capture doves by putting salt on their tails) that one
barbarous people are there to tell us, and to show
could only distinguish between real lies and lies that
us how long it is possible for the race of men, in
all stages of culture, to exist on the earth without spoil were not lies by "not being a fool.”
ing it.
Quite outside and beyond its revelation anew, and
That feeling, deep-rooted in his youth, is illumined in more sustained light, of the naturalist and the cre-
as
well as


55-2
December 14
THE DIAL
ator of prose music, Far Away and Long Ago is a horizon a perfect ring of misty blue color where the
picture of an elapsed age and of people in that age crystal-blue dome of the sky rests on the level green
who passed with it. Don Eusebio, fool of the Dicta world"--may be found all the pageantry and the
tor of Argentina, stalks through the streets of Buenos portraiture possible to narrative of the unfamiliar,
Aires clad in scarlet, with scarlet plumes, and at history almost, but more eagerly lived than by any
tended by a bodyguard of twelve soldiers with historian. There is indescribable feeling, close to
drawn swords. The War Minister's major-domo tragedy, in some of the clear pictures of human be-
on a neighboring estancia sends armfuls of peacock ings. For instance, the Negroid daughter of a
feathers to the Hudson family to decorate their neighbor, Cipriana by name, “an imposing woman,
house. Don Gregorio, to whom a piebald horse is her eyes sparkling with intense fire and passion, who,
dearer than precious stones, rides to the race meeting despite her coarse features and dark skin, had a kind
conscious that all eyes are upon him and his steed of strange wild beauty which attracted men.” Hud-
with its jeweled trappings. Barboza, singer of son saw her once, in a white dress, galloping on a
songs, who killed men for the fame it gave him big bay horse, her gaucho lover leading the way. He
among the gauchos as a fighter with the knife, sings speaks of the pain of seeing her again, sitting at
on at a cattle-marking indifferent to the insulting evening with her eyes fixed on the dụsty road,
jibes of Marcos, called El Rengo by reason of his moving her lips as she spoke softly to herself in a
lameness, because it could add nothing to one's glory sort of dream. Best perhaps are the passages where
to kill a cripple. Then there is a vivid interlude of he has described humanity in unexpected places,
the fall of the dictator Rosas, when the dull roar of humanity that he surprised into revealing itself. At
distant guns came to the ears of the Hudson family. one point he has been listening to the field finches of
and they were told a great battle was being fought the pampas: "It is as if hundreds of fairy minstrels
between Rosas, with his army of 25,000 men, and were all playing on stringed and wind instruments
the traitor-Urquiza with his 40,000. With the ut of various forms, every one intent on his own per-
most rapidity and clearness of image scene after formance without regard to the others." And then
scene is visualized: horsemen in flight, galloping up he turns to an old carpenter on the estate, known
to the door demanding fresh mounts; the cool smil for his slowness and stolidity as the "Cumberland
ing demeanor of his father, who went out to parley boor.” The man is standing with a look on his face
with the threatening fugitives; a young officer's at like that "on the face of a religious mystic in a
tempt to escape and the swift death that overtook
moment of exaltation." Again, Hudson's quality is
him.
clearly envisaged in the enlightenment on the tor-
Here, as elsewhere in his autobiography, Hudson turing problem of life after death which he found
is master of a cadence of narrative comparable only in conversation with an old rough gaucho, primitive
perhaps to that of Joseph Conrad, who can as nearly and vigorous. It is a problem which had first con-
as any writer living annihilate space and time, en fronted Hudson as a little boy, when he had taken
close past and present, swift incident and the slow it to his mother and derived temporary comfort
revelation of personality, in the crystal of his mind, from her assurance that the soul survived even
until the narrative glows and vibrates. Nowhere though the body was lowered into the earth and
perhaps is the easy accumulation in Hudson's telling decayed. Protestant young boy and Catholic gaucho
more striking than where he comments on the simi-
became for a moment one inquiring mind with
larity of voice he and his elder brother had inherited, opposed forces in itself. And then the gaucho told
from their father. On one of his visits to Buenos
how he came to unbelief; how at the age of four-
Aires he remembers that voice brought him recogni- teen he was deprived by death of his mother and
tion by Jack the Killer, desperado and hero, who cried for her every night to come back to him, until
lay ill in a stable. It is made the occasion of a he became convinced when she vouchsafed no reply
famous story of Jack the Killer's fighting history. that there was no immortality. “His story," says
And it is made the prelude to an exploration of his Hudson, "pierced me to the heart, and without an-
brother's character, to a story of that brother's in other word I left him."
sistence on fighting with real knives in order to culti That was only one incident in Hudson's spiritual
vate the heroic gesture and skill, and finally to an history; his struggle went on "all on the old lines,"
appraisal of its ultimate effect on the relationship he tells us, for he had no modern books. It is true
of the two boys.
enough, as he says, that thousands and millions of
In the scene of Hudson's youth—“a flatland, its men have undergone similar experiences; but his


1918
553
THE DIAL
own are of special significance for us because, with a an existence in which the senses are starved, in
minimum of indoctrination from any civilized en which the imagination is cramped and repressed,
vironment, they are so intensely lived at every mo- in which all impulses are subordinated to the re-
ment. That is one of the keys to Hudson's signifi- wards of acquisitiveness, in which even thought
cance. Thought is never with him an escape from moves behind high walls and beauty is almost as
reality: it is the overtone of his life of the senses. completely shut out as is sunlight.
He has lived daringly, and the poor assumptions
Distinctly, this apostle of beauty to an indifferent
with which civilization covers its poverty of life and world is dangerous in the sense that Bertrand Rus-
imagination are assumptions to him and nothing sell had in mind when he said thought was danger-
more. Perhaps no less dogmatic naturalist and ous and subversive. He is dangerous because he
writer ever lived. The gaucho with blood on his possesses a power, which he can communicate, more
hands, wild creatures, nature he has observed and potent than any doctrine which can be learned by
lived with irrespective of their accordance with the rote and declaimed, more potent than program or
false maxims or delicacies by which the vast ma organization. It is the sense of beauty and fitness
jority of civilized people have been bound. In the in the individual soul, the sense of community with
preface to the second edition of A Crystal Age he all nature and all living beings; and it is inseparable
said explicitly how fully he had learned and how from a feeling for their dignity and loveliness. Per-
deeply he had come to know that strife was nature's haps there will never be such a “Savonarola bon-
price upon life. It is not therefore in any senti fire" as that imagined in A Crystal Age, in which
mental vein that Hudson abhors bloodshed. He
most of the things once valued have been consumed to
has been able to look on while cattle were being ashes-politics, religions, systems of philosophy, isms and
killed in the brutal way in which gauchos kill them
ologies of all descriptions; schools, churches, prisons,
poorhouses; stimulants and tobacco; kings and parlia-
on the pampas and in the killing-grounds outside
ments; cannon with its hostile roar, and pianos that
Buenos Aires, where the earth is inches deep with thundered peacefully; history, the press, vice, political
clotted dust and blood. If he abhors bloodshed,
economy, money, and a million things more.
cruelty, indifference, hatred, it is because he has seen
But such minds as Hudson's give these things their
them in purer form than anyone else, has felt their proper valuation. · His sense of beauty, his childlike
iron in his own soul. And it is in perfect natural- quality, are the ultimate foes to oppression, ugliness,
ness and in perfect accord with his instinctive life
waste. One has the feeling in reading W. H. Hud-
that he has formulated or written in unformulated
son that here is a gorgeous and delicate plant whose
fashion his criticism of the existence to which men
slender growth may rend masonry and tear massive
stone from stone.
are condemned who live in industrial centers. It is
HERBERT J. SELIGMANN.
The Hire Learning in
in America
ALTHOUGH
H no mortal of
common clay and ordi on, all unconsciously or perhaps protestingly, the
nary wit could do justice to Mr. Thorstein Veblen's color of the host, so the heads-presidents, deans,
The Higher Learning in America: A Memorandum provosts, supervisors, registrars, secretaries, official
on the Conduct of Universities by Business Men bellmen, and “successful" professors—take on the
(Huebsch; $1.60) within the compass of a brief modes of thought and the standards of judgment as
book review, it is a comparatively simple mat to worthiness and worth which are cherished by the
ter to state the thesis which it sustains: there is in directing body from which the main source of eco-
every society a body of esoteric knowledge, guarded nomic sustentation is derived; finally, the higher
by specialists in the subject-medicine men, shamans, learning is of the spirit-unseen, immeasurable, im-
priests, savants, scholars, scientists; “the higher ponderable, and invendible; hence the antithesis and
learning” is such a body of knowledge and universi- the problem.
ties are the appointed keepers; the direction of the From the preface it appears that this work was
universities in American society has fallen into the written, in the main at least, many years ago at a
hands of business men of large material possessions, favorable point of vantage, the University of Chicago
who by the stress of their intensive preoccupations are under President Harper, but remained unpublished
driven to measure all things by quantitative rather for fear that the public might read into a purely
than qualitative standards-size, number, extent, detached and scientific study a personal strain, and
weight, vendibility, and so on; as the parasite takes thus vitiate the sedative and informing effect of a


554
December 14
THE DIAL
contribution to educational analysis. The author course, time-clock, and unit system, necessary enough
was wise in his restraint, for in the intervening years in high schools and colleges, occupy also the citadel
what appeared to be an isolated pecuniary phenome- of the university—the guardian of the higher learn-
non in the world of learning has become universal - ing. Well-meaning educators struggle against it in
except in some of the side pools along the main cur vain as drowning men fight the foaming currents
rent where theological bias or pique has encompassed
that overwhelm them at last. When men are caught
learning with a protective shelter against the purely in the perplexing net of expediency, the instant need
pecunious. Everywhere
of the things drives out all slowly maturing, far
that power of aspiration that once surged full and hot in looking, and deeply spiritual considerations. No one
the cults of faith, fashion, sentiment, exploit, and honor is to be blamed for being conquered by his environ-
now at its best comes to such a head as it may in the con ment. He always has the alternative however of
certed adulation of matter-of-fact.
changing his environment by migration.
So things stood, at least, on the eve of America's
There are any number of side eddies in Mr. Veb-
entrance into the war, and those who looked with len's main stream. He has found by experience that
distress upon the uniformity of American interest in
some universities are in fact managed by a mere frac-
measurable vendibility may take hope in the thought tion of the board of trustees, who take an active
that concern with the glories, honors, and sacrifices
interest in the enterprise, and that in the allocation
of war may act as a salutary check upon the drift of available funds they frequently apply those canons
toward the "mechanistically effectually matter-of-
of pecuniary honor which are to be found in many
fact." The recent allocation of colleges to a very historic business undertakings, such, for example, as
useful position in the scheme of military things may the Crédit Mobilier. Perhaps some Henry VIII
result in a somewhat rude treatment of the purely who has the historic mission of dissolving estab-
pecunious by gentlemen of military traditions and
lished corporations of learning may care to have
honor. To be plain, military standards may sup the financial records of institutions enjoying exemp-
plant those of the business college. It will be re tion from taxation made the subject of expert inquiry
called by the well-versed student of American gov-
by accountants of the new order. It will be a mat-
ernment that the construction work supervised by ter of no little edification to the loyal alumni who
engineers detailed from the United States army make financial sacrifices for their alma mater to learn
stands in marked contrast (owing to the absence of that the cost of maintaining the "establishment" of
corruption) to similar construction enterprises, such their president (to say nothing of the retinue of
as the first subways in New York, managed by deans and statistical shamans) has been quite as
bankers and financiers. Our immediate choice ap much as the unit cost of instructing the freshman and
pears to be between the measurements of dollars and sophomore classes. Mr. Veblen's comments on aca-
cents and those of 'military honor.
demic buildings and material equipment will be read
To return. It must not be thought that Mr. with surprise by those who do not know that college
Veblen is making a plea for an entirely cultural and structures are not infrequently erected by architects
non-utilitarian learning. He does not object to and engineers wholly ignorant of any of the purposes
measurements by standards of serviceability for and intents of the higher learning, and quite prepared
human use in the long and larger sense, but to the to sacrifice light, comfort, and the ease of the inhabi-
business man's conquest over the eternal interest of tants to the considerations of fenestration and osten-
high minds in widening the domain of knowledge by tatious industrial arts. Mr. Veblen is also perti-
free and independent inquiry, unbought and fear nent when he notes the willingness of the once devo-
less. He sees the paraphernalia of the business col- tionally religious institutions of learning to wink
lege submerging the spirit of learning. He sees men at the theological unconventionality of instructors,
who might have contributed to enlargement of life providing their political economy is of the immediate
drawn
away from the essence of things by the allure matter-of-fact. The subject of dismissal from seats
ments of pomp, circumstance, advertising, and high of "learning" is touched by our author with much
salaries which business men are accustomed to award precision. Unfortunate newspaper notoriety, de-
to efficiency engineers, heads, managers, presidents, served or undeserved, unconventional religious or
deans, and stimulators of production in general, to political views, unsound economic doctrines, an un-
say nothing of accomplished shoo-flies. He finds prosperous marriage, or domestic infelicity is usually
that the records and filing systems of well conducted found in every case of discharge from academic trust;
business concerns tend to become the central con but Mr. Veblen is generously correct toward col-
cerns of college management, and that the term lege authorities when he states that


1918
555
THE DIAL
where action has been taken by the directorate on provo who endow or the people who tax themselves will be
cation of such circumstances, it is commonly done with the
willing to grant money freely and at the same time
(unofficial) admission that such action is not taken on the
substantial merits of the case but on compulsion of circum-
surrender control. That would be an act of faith
stances and the exigencies of advertising.
contrary to normal expectations in a capitalistic or
If to this is added the effect of directoral jealousy, democratic world. If the Espionage Act does not
pique, and personal dislike, the point is fairly forbid, it may be ventured that "the higher learning"
made. An illustration of Mr. Veblen's theory is is too fragile a plant to be entrusted to the tender
found in the case of a very distinguished scholar who
mercies of the board of aldermen. There is really
was dismissed from a large institution of "the higher more to be gained from a busy and heavily preoccu-
learning” ostensibly on the ground of an unfortunate pied benevolent despot. Moreover if the shamans of
amorous excursion, but as a matter of fact such learning should be freely granted a pecuniary under-
excursions were widely advertised among his col- writing without any obligation expressed or tacit,
leagues and known to the directorate many years pre-
the experience of mankind with cults would seem
vious to his expulsion, and it was only when they
to indicate that it would shortly become necessary
became a subject of animadversion by the sensational to pry open the independent, self-governing bodies
press that the directoral "guardians of the morals of in charge of the esoteric word and let in a little
the youth committed to their care" forcibly severed common sense of the earth earthy, springing without
connections with the culprit. This is an illustration effort and without guile from the living wells of
of the insoluble paradox of life for which our fath-
human experience, so deep that the straining eye of
ers could find only the solution of original sin, science cannot fathom them nor the mind of man
while those of coldly detached and scientific dispo- find the secret of the healing that comes out of
sition are forced to withhold scholarly judgment at
them.
this stage of mental development. Nevertheless Nevertheless in the pluralistic economy of provi-
when all is said and done Mr. Veblen has generous
dence there may be many things, and one or more
hopes, for he says:
of them may be self-governing colleges devoted not
Whatever expedients of decorative real estate, spectativa ing to cast their bread upon the waters, and dedi-
to teaching but to learning, financed by a few will-
lar pageantry, bureaucratic magnificence, elusive statis-
tics, vocational training, genteel solemnities, and sweat cated not to the dispensation of knowledge but the
shop instruction may be imposed by the exigencies of a
pursuit of wisdom. Why not? The modern theory
competitive business policy, the university is after all a
seat of learning devoted to the cult of the idle curiosity-
of evolution has a place for the "sport" and ascribes
otherwise called the scientific spirit.
to it immense potentiality.
By way of obiter dicta he holds that the academic But let us press the matter a bit further. Let us
trust may be dissolved, the captain of erudition use imagine that a few possessors of great wealth, of
fully employed in other (truly gainful) occupations, genial disposition, and unusual experimental interest
boards of trustees abolished or reduced to a vacantly should bestow upon the self-governing faculty a
perfunctory status, self-government granted to the goodly block of Baltimore and Ohio Gold 4's and
real guardians of higher learning, the teachers, and step aside, renouncing all claim and all concern.
a return made to the ancient and honorable com Then suppose that a changing industrial democracy
munion between teacher and student “that once made should be about to embark upon a policy that spelled
the American college, with all its handicap of pov-
confiscation or a scheme of taxation that would wipe
erty, chauvinism, and denominational bias, one of
out one-half, or more, of the income received by
the most effective agencies of scholarship in Chris-
the autonomous body engaged in the pursuit of the
tendom.”
higher learning, could that democracy expect a cold
Unhappily the present reviewer cannot share
the cool optimism of the author or accept even the
and passionless judgment from the professor of politi-
desirability of such a plan of affairs if universally
cal economy? And if his judgment should be in
adopted. Economic sustentation is essential to the
favor of the policy which spelled a curtailment of
modern shaman of learning, and a decent regard funds, would he find joyful countenances greeting
for the amenities of life requires that the standard
him on entering the council chamber of the many
should be at least reasonably worthy. Such support
headed directorate ?
must come from one of two sources, from persons
Ultimate solution: all things are relative and mat-
possessed of worldly goods—business men, finan ters of degree, and blessed are those who discover
ciers, bankers, successful merchants and manufac it early enough in life to prepare themselves for a
turers-or from public taxation laid by legislatures. sweet and dignified old age.
It is not to be presumed that either the capitalists
CHARLES A. Beard.


556
December 14
THE DIAL
Morals and Art from the West
THE AMERICAN NOVEL, in the hands of a faithful complex interweaving of persons : Grant's life is
practitioner like Mr. William Allen White, goes more or less an atonement for the boyish sin of
right on documenting with all the incident and em having begotten a beautiful son upon the heartless
phasis of which it is capable the eternal truth that but alluring girl who becomes in turn the wife of
sin is evil. On the 614th page Mr. White no the two stock reprobates. The threads are all pulled
longer makes any bones of his purpose—to show together in the great scene where Grant, as danger-
“how sad a thing it is to sit in the seat of the scorn ous rebel, confronts in the courtroom Tom, as
ful and deny the reality of God's purpose in the Federal judge. The lecherous and venal judge, in a
world." In hundreds of thousands of words, on Pilatelike gesture, washes his hands of Grant. The
a canvas that embraces the life of a mid-Western labor Messiah is seized by the maddened crowd and
community from pioneer days to the industrial lynched horribly on the golf-links of the neighboring
present, he draws in terms that would be under- country club.
country club. And so are both the personal and
standable by the veriest moral moron the corruption sociological gospels fulfilled.
that may exist In the Heart of a Fool (Macmillan; The book closes with one of the abruptest turns
$1.60). We live today in a world of great per of beatitude in all literature. After painting a
sonal variety; the obscurities of people's souls pro long picture of community superstition and ferocity
vide an endless interest to the young novelist, who that would disgrace a Central African village,
no longer ties life down to formulas or runs char riot and hatred and atrocious murder-Mr. White
acter into conventional molds. Yet Mr. White takes the Great War, rubs it like an eraser over
pursues with unquenched thirst and unabated vigor the smutched and hideous page, and lo! all is fair
the old themes which have come to have for the
and clean again. “To have lived in the generation
American mind almost the same classic significance
now passing, to have seen the glory of the coming
that Harlequin and Pierrot had for the marionette
of the Lord in the hearts of the people, to have
stage. Harlequin is the gay young professional man,
watched the steady triumph in our American life
with a weakness for women and a carelessness about
of the spirit of justice, of fellowship, over the spirit
their happiness. Hard, unscrupulous, daring, he
of greed, to have seen the Holy Ghost rise in the
climbs to a judgeship and becomes the center of a
wide web of personal and social corruption. His spirit of a whole nation, was a blessed privilege.”
friend has taken the swifter and more pathetic road
It is certainly a blessed privilege to be able to see the
of alcohol. For hundreds of pages the moral sense
Holy Ghost in a war which embraced the Espionage
of a wide society is concentrated on these deplorable Act and all the attendant furies and intolerances
reprobates—Tom, as he slips up so incorrigibly to of the past year. It is a blessed privilege to be able
the judge's bench, and Henry, as he slips down to write the appalling story of American industry
wards to the gutter. Henry is slowly rehabilitated and politics as Mr. White's last chapters present it,
by one of Tom's cast-off stenographer-mistresses, and then pass with sweet complacency to the com-
and Tom's deserted wife inevitably becomes an
ing of the Lord, ostensibly now glorious in our
angel of mercy to the poor, offering to humanity hearts.
the love she has been denied at home. The age-long
· Mr. White has become a sort of symbol of every-
moral types of sin and redemption walk once more thing intelligent, progressive, "folksy," character-
the fictional stage.
istic, in Kansas. The more I see of a mind like his
But Mr. White is not content with the theme the less I understand it. His novel is certainly not
of personal morality. He wants also "to show the art; it is too purposeful to be good realism. The
victory of the American spirit—the Puritan con crowd of characters are drawn with vigor, but the
science-in our generation." For this purpose he city does not live. It is stagy. The book is allegory,
brings us Grant Adams, who is not only a rugged and allegory that its author himself does not quite
antithesis of the "fool," but develops into a fanatical believe. This social evangelism of Grant Adams
leader of labor, organizing a great revolt in which he seems to be something that Mr. White thinks is a
is lynched, a glorious martyr. Grant's development good thing for our country to have rather than
is worked up in the full glare of that sociological something which he himself intensely feels. He is
evangelism which Mr. White represents as the last self-conscious about his message, and too much in-
stage of the Puritan conscience. There is much terested in working out the effects of personal sin


1918
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THE DIAL
and the victory of the Puritan conscience, to ask been patiently shaped until everything irrelevant
himself whether he shows us the veracity of life. has been scraped away. The story has a flawless
The heroism of a labor Messiah is evidently what tone of candor, a naive charm, that seems quite art-
Mr. White thinks fairest and of best repute.
I
less until we realize that no spontaneous narrative
suspect him of following a spiritual fashion in labor could possibly have the clean pertinence and grace
evangelism, just as in his showing the results of which this story has. It would be cluttered, as Mr.
sinful pride he is strictly in the spiritual fashion of White's novel is cluttered; it would have uneven
a bygone day. However mature, however various streaks of self-consciousness, as most of the younger
and intimate his outlook, Mr. White's imaginative novelists' work, done impromptu with a mistaken
vision of American life seems to be still set in the ideal of "saturation," is both cluttered and self-
terms of Sunday-schoolism and melodrama. Some conscious. But Miss Cather's even novel has that
Freudian will one day explain why the most moral serenity of the story that is telling itself, of people
society in the world—I refer to the Middle West-
who are living through their own spontaneous
requires its literature to reassure it so constantly charm.
and so hectically that sin is a sad and an abominable
The story purports to be the memories of a suc-
thing.
cessful man as he looks back over his boyhood on
Let us turn aside to a novel so different that it
the Nebraska farm and in the little town. Of that
seems impossible that it could have been written in
boyhood Antonia was the imaginative center, the
the same year and by an American from the same
little Bohemian immigrant, his playmate and wistful
part of the country as William Allen White. Willa
sweetheart. His vision is roma
mantic, but no more
Cather has already shown herself an artist in that
omantic than anyone would be towards so free
beautiful story of Nebraska immigrant life, O
and warm and glorious a girl. He goes to the
Pioneers! Her digression into The Song of the
University, and it is only twenty years later that he
Lark took her into a field that neither her style nor
her enthusiasm really fitted her for. Now in My
hears the story of her pathetic love and desertion,
Antonia (Houghton Mifflin; $1.60) she has re-
and her marriage to a simple Bohemian farmer,
turned to the Nebraska countryside with an en-
strong and good like herself.
riched feeling and an even more golden charm of
She was a battered woman now, not a lovely girl; but
she still had that something which fires the imagination,
style. Here at last is an American novel, redolent
could still stop one's breath for a moment by a look or
of the Western prairie, that our most irritated and gesture that somehow revealed the meaning in common
exacting preconceptions can be content with. It is
things. She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her
hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to
foolish to be captious about American fiction when make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and
the same year gives us two so utterly unlike, and
harvesting at last. All the strong things of her heart
came out in her body, that had been so tireless in serving
yet equally artistic, novels as Mr. Fuller's On the
generous emotions. It was no wonder that her sons stood
Stairs and Miss Cather's My Antonia. She is also
tall and straight. She was a rich mine of life, like the
founders of early races.
of the brevity school, and beside William Allen
White's swollen bulk she makes you realize anew
My Antonia has the indestructible fragrance of
how much art is suggestion and not transcription.
youth: the prairie girls and the dances; the softly
One sentence from Miss Cather's pages is more
alluring Lena, who so unaccountably fails to go
vivid than paragraphs of Mr. White's stale bright-
wrong; the rich flowered prairie, with its drowsy
ness of conversation. The reflections she does not
heats and stinging colds. The book, in its different
make upon her characters are more convincing than
way, is as fine as the Irishman Corkery's The
all his moralizing. Her purpose is neither to illus-
Threshold of Quiet, that other recent masterpiece of
trate eternal truths nor to set before us the crowded
wistful youth. But this story lives with the hopeful-
gallery of a whole society. Yet in these simple
ness of the West. It is poignant and beautiful, but
pictures of the struggling pioneer life, of the com-
it is not sad. Miss Cather, I think, in this book
fortable middle classes of the bleak little towns,
has taken herself out of the rank of provincial writers
there is an understanding of what these people have
and given us something we can fairly class with the
to contend with and grope for that goes to the very
modern literary art the world over that is earnestly
heart of their lives.
and richly interpreting the spirit of youth. In
her work the stiff moral molds are fortunately
Miss Cather convinces because she knows her
broken, and she writes what we can wholly under-
story and carries it along with the surest touch. It
stand.
has all the artistic simplicity of material that has
RANDOLPH Bourne.


558
December 14
THE DIAL
Dublin, November 16
Ar
A VITAL moment of the autumn publishing men,” to quote another phrase of “A. E.'s." To
offensive in Dublin a printers' strike withheld sup- judge by his pictures, Watts would have discoursed
plies for nearly three months, with the result that to his sitters of Life and Death and Hope and Eter-
we have not yet seen more than a very few of the nal Damnation.' Mr. Yeats' themes are more joy-
books announced for this season. The Talbot Press, ful, and the best of them are elaborated in Essays:
a comparatively new and very enterprising firm, Irish and American. His urbane wit, which is not
whose publication of the works of Thomas Mac- moved to fierceness, even in the numerous and pene-
Donagh and Joseph Plunkett drew them from the trating passages wherein the Englishman is re-
relative obscurity of purely educational publishing, vealed, is as delightfully articulate in this volume as
have increasingly compelled the attention of the is the Irishman's irrepressible love of country.
In
public which is interested in the Irish literary move the writings of this artist, as Mr. Erza Pound
ment. In a previous letter I had no occasion to refer once wrote, "the thought drifts up as easily as a
to the publications of this firm, the books mentioned cloud in the heavens, and as clear-cut as clouds on
being almost exclusively those with the more familiar bright days."
Maunsel imprint, and now I find myself in the Although Miss Susan Mitchell's Aids to the Im-
same predicament, since Messrs. Maunsel alone have mortality of Certain Persons in Ireland must have
been able to fulfil-planmässig !-their autumn an proved to closer students of the Irish literary move-
nouncements. However, as The Macmillan Com ment that there is humor in the world of Anglo-Irish
pany have arranged to publish Essays: Irish and literature, there is no doubt that the modern Irish
American, by John Butler Yeats. R.H.A., it is writer has the reputation of being serious. The re-
not yet too late to refer to this most attractive cent appearance of a curious anthology, Secret
of recent Talbot Press publications, which will Springs of Dublin Song (The Talbot Press) should
shortly be available in the country which Mr. Yeats help to dispel that notion. It is a collection of paro-
seems to have permanently adopted.
dies and satires to which many of the best known
Contrary to what might have been anticipated, writers have contributed. If the names of Lord
this artist turned author is very slightly concerned Dunsany, “A. E.," Seumas O'Sullivan, and others
with his own art. The only chapter in the book do not appear in its pages, I can vouch for the pres-
which one would have expected to find there is a ence of their efforts in a direction hitherto unsus-
lecture delivered at the Royal Hibernian Academy pected by the majority of their readers. The poets
by Mr. Yeats, a couple of years before his casual
are anonymous, and only the introduction by Miss
migration to your United States. Watts and the
Mitchell bears the writer's signature. Perhaps the
Method of Art provides the author with an oppor-
reasons for this coyness will be understood if I quote
tunity for many pleasantries at the expense of our
the lines in which a distinguished mystic under-
Philistines and for an ingenious defense of surely
takes to fix the mannerism of his greatest contem-
the greatest bore in modern painting, the allegorical
sentimentalist, whose ponderous fancies enliven the
porary:
parlors of aspiring artisans. He succeeds in this
I
esthetic gymnastic by an appreciation of Watts (Michael Robartes to His Beloved, telling her how the
the portrait painter, of whom he says all the good greatness of His Verse shall open to her the door of
prompted by his own professional insight and by the
heaven)
undoubted qualities of the portrait painter himself,
This pearl-pale poem that I have pondered o'er,
Made of a mouthful of the twilight air,
so unfortunately doubled by the elucubrator of such
And of one dream—the falling of your hair,
canvases as Hope. It is because Mr. Yeats is so un Shall open for you the eternal door.
like his brother artist that he is so happily dissimilar
II
in the choice of his subjects as essayist. In a preface (Michael Robartes in the place of the distraught strug-
his friend “A. E.” recalls “that enchanting flow of gles against the spell which binds him)
conversation which lightened the burden” of those Outworn heart, come out from her hair,
who sat for Mr. Yeats. "Nature," he writes, "was
That brought upon you this lonely doom,
And bound you down in the padded room,
wise in uniting the gift of portrait painting with
Away, come away, to less shadowy hair!
the gift of conversation.” That is precisely what There are hairs that blossom on foreheads more fair:
Curls ever shining with tendrils gay,
the reader of these essays must feel, particularly any
That twine and untwine as the shadows are at play.
who have enjoyed the talk of this "youngest of old Away, come away, to unshadowy hair.


1918
559
THE DIAL
Life in a small literary community imposes discre Valera usually blunders when he proceeds to test
tion upon the authors of such pleasantries, but if the the alleged superiority of the pen over the sword.
"inexpressive nuptial song," entitled To George His first appearance on a publisher's list is as the
Moore on the Occasion of His Wedding, consists author of Ireland's Case Against Conscription, a
of an elaborate ballade entirely in asterisks, readers brochure embodying the statement prepared by him
of A Story-Teller's Holiday will respect the meticu for the Address presented by the National Confer-
lous display of Celtic modesty!
ence to President Wilson. That body, representing
Of the autumn books so far published by Maun- the various sections of nationalist opinion, united
sel the most remarkable feature is the absence of all to oppose the application of the Military Service
fiction, and the predominance of political works. Acts to Ireland by any but an Irish legislature, drew
The Censor's blue pencil is the sword of Damocles up a more diluted statement than this essentially Sinn
hanging over the head of anyone who attempts to Fein manifesto. The pamphlet is a more readable
spread outside this realm the political ideas which document than the author's friends and enemies
most insistently preoccupy the mind of Ireland; alike expected. While it has been read by the faith-
and as the political and historical literature in ques ful as a patriotic matter of course, it has not attracted
tion most accurately reflects these preoccupations, the attention accorded to a provocative work en-
the safe and sane course is to avoid detailed refer titled The Sacred Egoism of Sinn Fein. Published
ence. A weighty tome is The Economic History of over the pseudonym "Gnathai gan Iarraidh," which
Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, by a new worker being interpreted from the Irish means roughly
in the field, prepared by Mrs. Stopford Green and "unwanted wares," this little book has been ascribed
Miss A. E. Murray. Mr. George O'Brien has at to various hands, including my own! It is a Nietz-
tempted to do for the eighteenth century what Mrs. schean indictment of pseudo-democracy, full of pun-
Green's Making of Ireland and Its Undoing did gent comment at the expense of all belligerent
for the history of Irish economic conditions up to nations, not excepting Ireland, whose right to satisfy
the end of the sixteenth century. It is an invalu the egoismo sacro of nationhood is proclaimed with
able extension to the investigations of Miss Murray, sardonic and cynical humor. The mystery of the
whose History of the Commercial and Financial authorship, in spite of rumors from those "who
Relations Between England and Ireland is familiar know," remains; and the Manchester Guardian is
to all students of the subject. Mr. O'Brien's schol- moved to surprise at the discovery that “there is in
arly volume is an interesting refutation of the theory, Dublin an unknown author capable of a piece of
which Mr. Bernard Shaw has recently reiterated in writing like The Sacred Egoism of Sinn Fein.”
public lectures in Dublin, that the young nationalist That journal declares “if Swift at his best were
intellectuals are romantic dreamers unacquainted to come to life again and turn out a pseudonymous
with the economics of history. Mr. Shaw's ignor- pamphlet on the war, he could write nothing more
ance of any Ireland later than that which he aban- acidly epigrammatic, nothing more full of intense
doned thirty years ago is notorious amongst Irish- individuality.” The booklet bears the imprimatur
men; so it is not surprising that he should fall into of the Press Censor, and is presumably exportable.
an error which a knowledge of the education and It may be recommended to all exasperated individ-
ideas of the younger generation would easily dissi ualists.
pate.
Mr. O'Brien's researches simply represent
Four slender books of verse are so far the sea-
the presentation by 'a specialist of facts which are son's sole offerings of pure literature, a fact which
ever present in the minds of all educated Irish nation- speaks for the state of the national mind I have
alists today. His book is a profound chapter in described. In a sense, this lack of balance may be
a history which makes it difficult to accept the com- said to correspond to the preeminence of war books
fortable pretense that there has been no deliberate over others in the larger belligerent countries. Even
policy of destruction on the part of the English this poetry reflects the preoccupied mind of the
in Ireland. The recorded and actual economic re people, for Miss Eva Gore-Booth's Broken Glory and
lations between the two countries dispose of the Mr. Seumas O'Sullivan's The Rosses and Other
theory of well-meaning, if stupid, misgovernment. Poems are unlike the work which has heretofore
Mr. Eamonn de Valera, the uncrowned monarch established them with a certain public. Both poets
of Sinn Fein Ireland, is far from possessing the talent have always shown an aloofness from the thoughts
for harsh political analysis which has made his jail- and cares of the market place and have preferred
companion, Mr. Arthur Griffith, one of the most to dwell apart, where imagination is free to follow
effective journalists in Ireland. By profession a its own fancies, now wistful, now heroic, now
mathematician and by choice a soldier, Mr. de mystic. Mr. O'Sullivan, it is true, has occasionally


560
December 14
THE DIAL
tarried in the grimy, swarming streets of decayed preceded him pseudonymously on the path to Maun-
Georgian Dublin, and has noted the poetic reality sel's and Parnassus. This was Mr. Richard Rowley,
hidden beneath so much squalor. But it is something who has added City Songs to his first venture of a
new in him to find the fierce social and political year ago, The City of Refuge. The latter contained
anger which he has concentrated into the majority more substantial promise than Mr. Allen's First
of these new poems. The title-poem is character- Songs, which-in spite of "A. E.'s". sponsorship-
istic enough of his older manner:
remains a very commonplace contribution to minor
My sorrow that I am not by the little dun
poetry. Mr. Allen can turn a pretty lyric, and he
By the lake of the starlings at Rosses under the hill, has a plaintive, ingenuous charm: but one is not
And the larks there, singing over the fields of dew,
.conscious of a temperament from which deep poetry
Or evening there, and the sedges still.
For plain I see now the length of the yellow sand,
springs, as was the case in The Vengeance of Fionn,
And Lissadell far off and its leafy ways,
by Mr. Austin Clarke, the newcomer of last year,
And the holy mountain whose mighty heart
of whom I have written in these notes:
Gathers into it all the coloured days.
My sorrow that I am not by the little dun
City Songs is not a work of Mr. Austin Clarke's
By the lake of the starlings at evening when all is still, caliber. Verbalism and conventional phrases are
And still in whispering sedges the herons stand,
'Tis there I would nestle at rest till the quivering moon
common to both the Belfast poets, but Mr. Rowley
Uprose in the golden quiet over the hill.
has really succeeded in giving us the poetry of Bel-
And there are verses in the familiar, beautiful style
fast, a thing we had almost come to believe non-.
of Autumnal and An Old Man. Yet it is evident existent, unless one accepted the tribal fanaticism
that events have modified the Seumas O'Sullivan
of Orange battle hymns. But here comes a man
of one's old affection. He addresses MacDonagh:
who writes of the shipyard workers:
Only strong hands
You who had garnered all that old song could give you,
Can give strength visible form;
And rarer music in places where the bittern cries,
Only proud hearts can fashion shape of pride;
What new strange symphonies, what new music thrills
Iron and steel are dead
you,
Till man's creative will
Flashing in light-loud magic beneath wildering skies? Shall weld them to the image he desires,
Shall make a living symbol
Singer of dawn songs, you who drink now at the foun-
Of the strength and pride of his soul.
tains,
Splendid the ships they build,
Cry out as your own poet of the bittern cried,
More splendid far
Flood that new song, deep-drunken, rapturous, about us, The hearts that dare conceive
So shall these parched sad hearts drink deep, be
Such vastness and such power.
satisfied.
Much of the specifically Sinn Fein poetry which
Mr. Rowley frankly accepts his role as the poet of
industrial Ireland:
has circulated publicly and privately since the Easter
Week Rising has all the defects of that rhetorical
My songs shall be songs of the city, of hoarse-voiced
streets,
tradition of '48 against which W. B. Yeats revolted, Of streets where men have never time to dream,
to the advancement of Irish literature. But he him-. Of streets where women are seldom beautiful,
And never happy. I shall sing to these men and women,
self could not keep the Rebellion of 1916 out of
Telling them that they starve, and their children starve,
his verse, no more than “A. E." and others inno-
Because they are robbed of their birthright!
cent of Sinn Fein doctrine. Mr. O'Sullivan and I shall teach them how strong is the soul of determined
Miss Gore-Booth have been as fortunate as they
men,
And that only cowards go hungry and content;
in being able to respond to the impulse of national That only slaves will see their children die
events without forgetting the demands of their
And never strike a blow at them that slay!
For a day shall come when the people shall not be afraid
exigent craftsmanship.
Of riches and of strength, nor of authority.
Of the two remaining volumes it may be said that Then they shall know that kings and senators
they have "put Belfast on the map," so far as we
Are ghosts and phantoms and imaginings
Dreamed in the mind of man
appraisers of Anglo-Irish literature are concerned !
We do not think of Belfast as precisely “a nest of
Lest it be supposed that Mr. Rowley is the poet of
Belfast Bolshevism, I may add that he has sung of
singing birds”—to quote the phrase that launched a
hundred poets—and thereby we respect the preju-
the streets in a gentler mood, that his dialect pieces
dices of Carsonia itself. Belfast poets do not boast
are excellent. When he does not mistake rhetorical
of their dalliance with the Muse, and come almost
exuberance for mysticism, as he occasionally does,
surreptitiously to Dublin to flaunt their lyrical
his verse is informed by a quiet emotion which con-
veys the beauty of humbler things, except when it
amours. Mr. Anthony Allen, whose First Songs
flares up in a cry of passionate revolt.
introduce us to a new poet from the northern city,
was astonished to discover that a friend of his had
ERNEST A. BOYD.


THE DIAL
CLARENCE BRITTEN
GEORGE DONLIN
HAROLD STEARNS
In Charge of the Reconstruction Program:
JOHN DEWEY
THORSTEIN VEBLEN
HELEN MAROT
THE
HIGH HOPES WHICH THE WORLD HAS ENTER may come into existence through the force of his
tained for a peace settlement that will make future personality and the wisdom of his leadership. Yet
wars impossible do not seem likely to be realized. we cannot disguise the bald facts with the same com-
Whatever President Wilson has in his mind about placency with which we may confidently expect the
the prospects for a better world order he did not Creel mission to send the American public saccharine
condescend to disclose to the American people in messages that all is for the best in this best of all
his last message to Congress, which certainly in tone possible worlds. And the bald facts are frankly
and very largely in substance was a valedictory to disquieting. An accredited correspondent to the
American problems. Concerning the railroads the New York Globe, in a message from Geneva,
President was frankly uncertain; the problems of re frankly states that "the action of one of the powers
construction were left to the beneficent business man. of the Entente is threatening the possible peace of
And of peace not a word, except that the President Europe," and goes on to state that Italy already is
was going to Paris to explain and interpret the violating the terms of the armistice with Austria
famous fourteen points—which Bonar Law once and engaging in frank imperialism. The liberated
succinctly described in a phrase: “All that we have nationalities of Central Europe are quarreling
asked for can be procured under the sanction of these among themselves. Lloyd George indulges in elec-
fourteen points.” The President practically washed tion speeches worthy of any jingo prima donna.
his hands of American problems. The program for No Allied government, moreover, has yet an-
a larger navy was recommended, since it "would be nounced any definite policy with respect to Russia-
clearly unwise for us to attempt to adjust our pro and the intervention troops are still there. Japan
gram to a future world policy as yet undetermined." has not yet stated that she intends to return Kiao-
In other words, although the President frankly chow to China. Mr. Hume has observed that
turned to his international problems with more England cannot give up the German colonies; and
eagerness and expectancy than he had shown con Mr. Churchill states with considerable emphasis
cerning our domestic problems, even here he was that under no condition will the supremacy of Brit-
uncertain about the future. Now we do not need ish sea power be compromised at the peace table. All
to dwell upon the bitter disappointment which this is hardly a pretty spectacle. Neither is it a
this speech brought to American liberals, for pretty spectacle to observe the high-handed way in
the truth is that they have lost confidence in his which the peace conditions are being drawn up by
ability to carry his formulated position. They have premiers and others who have no direct or clear
been disillusioned, until now his speeches seem too mandate from the people they are supposed to repre-
often like empty rhetoric. They have seen in the sent. Yet it is not only possible, it is probable, that
President's intellectual development a hardening of we shall get a League of Nations. At all events it
ideological, eighteenth century concepts about the will be called that. And the clearest statement of
State instead of any awakening consciousness of the what this League of Nations will be like is contained
fertility of the functional theory and the economic in an interview with Arthur J. Balfour. He said:
sanctions of plural sovereignty. They have watched "It is folly to suppose that the world can be quickly
in vain for any sign of his appreciation of even the turned into a series of free States with free institu-
commonplaces of present-day Continental liberalism. tions like the United States.
I think that the
They will watch with considerable irony and amuse league ought to act as trustee of these countries that
ment the same process of disillusion going on in have not yet reached the state at which true democ-
Europe among those radical and Socialist groups racy can be applied. Democracy is not a suit of
which for over a year have been pinning their hopes clothes that can be put on at any stage of develop-
to this verbal myth of a great statesman. We have ment.'
." There we have it in a nutshell. There is to
no wish to be harsh or unfair, and no one more than be a hierarchy of States, with England, ourselves,
The Dial can hope for the President the happiest France, and Japan, and Italy in control. If that is
of issues in his peace mission. We sincerely wish him what we mean by a League of Nations, let us call it
well; we sincerely hope that the League of Free by its right name, a league of the strong nations to
Nations, which he has described with such eloquence, exploit the weak.


562
December 14
THE DIAL
TH
HE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRAGEDY AND MELO their image upon life. From his essential pain and
drama, if we are to believe our blandly cheerful pro despair—the drink and the den are but accidents-
fessors, is merely that in tragedy the action proceeds Fédya is not redeemed. Nor do any misdeeds of
from character, whereas in melodrama puppets are his demand his death, but the brutal stupidity of
fitted into an action. But have they sufficiently re social interference with private rights. Even in this
garded the sort of melodrama that has inherited the popularized version however—and in spite of many
vogue of the American crook play? Such pieces bald and mechanical passages in the acting, passages
as Friendly Enemies and Three Faces East—to con for which the sensitiveness, the poetry, and the dis-
fine ourselves to survivors—fill one with a profound tinction of Mr. Barrymore's art scarcely atone-
sense of moral discouragement, almost with a sort of there is in Tolstoy's play the bread and wine of great
terror; and the professors' easy and harmless dis art. There is no intrigue and no theatrical struc-
tinction is quite inadequate to account for the im ture at all, and no vain gestures or conventional lies
pression of vague discomfort and subtle danger that or pitiful subterfuges. The broken scenes have tech-
such plays leave behind them. No, the permanence, nically no perceptible rise and fall. We are con-
and the permanent menace, of melodrama is due to scious of reality. And the theater is greatest when
the fact that it is a projection of the moral absolutism it transcends and so eliminates itself, when we ex-
of the tribal mind. Here that mind finds its pas- claim not “What a good show this is !” but "How
sions and its prejudices symbolized and embodied. deep life is!”
Here it enjoys the fierce delight of seeing its own
image of itself triumph over all who blur that image. After all, the staple Of OUR STAGE IS NEITHER
Here, then, from its own point of view justice is done melodrama nor tragedy, but comedy, It is not
-the sort of justice most abhorrent to the free intel- artificial comedy and it is not critical comedy:
ligence. For it is not a justice based upon the inner it follows the tradition of neither Congreve nor
need of souls engaged in the conflict of life, but a Molière. The former does not grow out of our
brutal enforcement of the limited and remorseless society; the latter would be considered immoral.
passions of the tribe and the hour. Does this not The reason why most people laugh a little vacantly
suggest a truer difference between tragedy and melo- when Bernard Shaw is mentioned is that they sus-
drama? In tragedy everybody is both right and
pect, quite rightly, that he is a hard and ruthless
wrong: in melodrama everybody is either right or
thinker; and hard thinking strikes them as an im-
wrong; there are no perplexities, and moral violence propriety. They will forgive a man's peccadillos if
takes the place of moral judgment. If anyone doubt he believes in marriage, his thefts if he proclaims his
this let him produce on Broadway a melodrama
love for honesty, his private atheism if he attends
in which a heroic part is assigned to a foreigner, an public worship. Hence high comedy, which is sharp
irreconcilable unhappy married person, an idle rich and cool and revealing, seems immodest to them. At
man, a lord, a sensible parent-or an unheroic atti- a genuinely modern version of Tartuffe they would
tude and fate to patriotic youths, patient wives, gal- almost feel robbed of some necessary garment and
lant crooks, young sweethearts, the romantically con- hasten to avoid the winds of a moral weather so
tented poor. If these examples seem trivial, consider bracing but so new. Accordingly the typical (not
the reckless moral bullying, the unashamed ferocity, the best) comedies of the early season are Penrod
with which the contemporary melodramatist cele- and Daddies for America, Humpty-Dumpty and
brates his utter oneness with the tribal instincts to the Saving Grace for England. The common char-
which he leads his trivial sacrifices. All these con- 'acteristic of these comedies is that they depict life
siderations are strengthened rather than weakened
not as it is but as it seems to a casual and uncritical
by the success of the one serious play that has thus observer-in short, as it seems to itself. The au-
far distinguished the theatrical season-Redemption, thors of such pieces merely hold up to human na-
an English version of Tolstoy's The Living ture mirrors that reflect back what human nature
Corpse. For when every allowance has been made likes to think of itself. Mr. Tarkington not only
for the attractiveness of the exquisite stage pictures, knows the Middle West: his implication is that it is
of the faithful costumes, and of the beautifully ren a perfect and happy place where appearance and
dered folk-songs of Mr. Hopkins' production for reality are one, where virtue and prosperity have
John Barrymore, the changed name of this version lain down together. The boy Penrod is set forth
still points very clearly how genuine tragedy must not only as true but as admirable; the unlovely and
be popularized into melodrama for American con spiritless vegetation of his parents—the woman's
sumption. Tolstoy's Fédya is not a “good” man futile domestic bustle, the man's pathetic money-
who becomes “bad” and is then redeemed. Prob- grubbing-is exhibited as a slice of sound American
ably the terms of Mr. Barrymore's thinking were life. Mr. Tarkington has reached a level from
not so crude; but certainly he did not quite grasp the which he observes the surface of life; the colder
intellectual despair that is Fédya's doom. Like half heights of thinking about it are not for him. Nor
of all great literature the play is the cry of pain we are they for Mr. H. A. Vachel. His Humpty-
utter over the discrepancy between our desires and Dumpty is a barber who is suddenly supposed to be
aspirations and the smallness of our power to stamp an earl, but who is not happy as an earl and returns


1918
563
THE DIAL
with pathetic delight to his tonsorial art, and whose "revolutionary self-discipline," the restraint imposed
story satisfies with astonishing nicety the crowd's on themselves by the revolutionists when they may
alternating love and hatred, envy and terror, of have been led into some intemperate course of action
wealth and rank. Mr. Haddon Chambers' The by the hasty order of some leader or faction. It
Saving Grace is even more flagrant, for it takes at has happened, in varying degrees, not once but many
his face value the “stupid soldier man” in Shaw's times during the course of the Soviet regime. The
Getting Married and uses an historical accident to suppression, for instance, of the anarchists by the
glorify that shiftless, brainless militarist. these Bolsheviki will be startling information to those
plays triteness turns paradox and Longfellow's poor naive newspaper readers who imagine that anarchism
old saying that “things are not what they seem” and Bolshevism are synonymous. Yet the fact is
would cause a riot.
that never during Kerensky's regime did the Gov-
ernment feel strong enough to deal firmly with the
А
TYPICAL INSTANCE OF NEWS DISTORTION ABOUT supporters of the black flag. It required the revolu-
Russia was the recent advance notice in our daily tionary self-discipline methods of the Soviet Govern-
papers of a St. Bartholomew's massacre of the entire ment to do that.
middle class to take place on November 10. This
report was based on a certain modicum of fact, A MERICAN ADVOCATES OF UNIVERSAL MILITARY
according to reliable information recently received
training have had the wind taken out of their sails
from Moscow. It is true that placards inviting the
by the British Government's new attitude on the
soldiers and workers and poorer peasants to exercise
"mass terror” were posted on the walls of buildings when British statesmen began to express their hope
subject. Hardly had the armistice been signed
in Petrograd, and that in the notice as it actually for a League of Nations that would make conscrip-
appeared the words "St. Bartholomew" did occur.
tion unnecessary. This is going to the very heart of
What had happened was that Zinovieff, Commis-
sioner for the Suppression of the Counter-Revolu-
the significance of the approaching peace. The prin-
tion, who had been working under high pressure for
ciple of conscription—which its admirers like to call
months, had been so attacked and plotted against
euphemistically universal military training or, bet-
that in a moment of temporary weakness his nerve
ter, service—is the very core and foundation of mili-
snapped. Angry and bitter, he gave orders that the tarism. Without it militaristic nationalism would
notice should be published. It was a human and
be impossible. If a government can no longer count
understandable phenomenon-anyone who works un on turning its maximum man-power into a military
der constant threat of assassination and against the machine, it will be compelled to find other techniques
handicap of constant intrigue and misrepresentation than force to secure its political ends in the world
is likely sooner or later to lose his temper. Zinovieff society. A war to end militarism must have been
did. But what was the reception accorded this ill primarily a war to end conscription. In bringing
advised notice? Was it eagerly seized upon by the this point so speedily and so dramatically to the fore-
disgruntled populace as an excuse for a general mas front, British policy has stolen a march not only on
sacre and for general looting? So our newspapers the Allied premiers but even on President Wilson
hastened to inform us. But the facts were exactly himself. There are signs that this utterance was
the opposite. The local Council of Workmen and
no mere impulse of separate ministers, but that the
Soldiers met in extraordinary session and promptly Government has considered the question and decided
proceeded to depose Zinovieff. Not content with against compulsory military training as a perma-
that, they had the offending placards torn from the
nent policy. Some months ago H. A. L. Fisher,
walls and the buildings. A resolution was offered
Minister of Education, told a delegation from the
and carried that on November 10, instead of a reign Miners' Federation that the Government had de-
of "mass murder” being inaugurated, a general cided that the innovation had neither educational nor
political amnesty should be proclaimed, meaning military value and would not be adopted. President
that even the enemies of the Soviet Government Wilson's fourth "Point" asks for "adequate guaran-
should be released. Proclamations announcing this tees given and taken that national armaments will
lenient action of the Council were at once printed be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domes-
and distributed throughout the city—yet only one of tic safety." This is a somewhat academic way per-
the New York metropolitan dailies saw fit even to haps of saying what Fisher and Churchill have said
print the news dispatch announcing the true facts with commendable bluntness. The American Exec-
and even in that case, with no explanation of the utive has not been explicit enough to prevent the dis-
attendant circumstances. We give this account less cussion here of compulsory training as a feasible if
because of its intrinsic importance than because it not an imminent measure. It is to be hoped that
illustrates an aspect of the Russian Revolution with some word will be uttered in America also that
which Americans are wholly unfamiliar. This inci will destroy the vitality of any such discussion dur-
dent is a typical example of what Russians call ing the coming reconstruction of peace time.


564
December 14
THE DIAL
Communications
Nolens-volens. One remembers Figaro's famous
saying: "Calomniez, Calomniez; il en reste toujours
TRUE INFORMATION FROM RUSSIA IS quelque chose.”
Needed
Very vitally it is necessary that the fine line of
distinction be drawn between fact and falsehood or
Sir: What is happening now in Russia ? Are the rumor as to what is happening in Russia. It is
reported horrors of Russia's everyday life under the necessary, too, to discriminate between two cate-
Soviet's rule reality or lies—lies deliberately fabri- gories of lies. There are lies that are being deliber-
cated in order to discredit the Soviets now in ately fabricated purporting to discredit the new
power-or are they the unconscious exaggeration regime in Russia. Such lies were fabricated even
dictated by panic and hatred ?
under Kerensky's regime. To the Monarchists and
If there is the basis of truth in the reports we Counter-Revolutionists the Kerensky government
receive from Russia, to what extent are the horrors was hated as much as the Soviets'.
occurring there due to the Government of the
Almost more patent are unconscious lies, exaggera-
Soviets and to what extent are they the mere result tions dictated by panic and hatred. In October
of the conditions created by the old regime and the 1917 I spent several weeks in Japan on my way
war-conditions inherited by the new regime? to the United States. I met there a company of
The questions above put are of peculiar interest Russian Monarchists who had “escaped" from Rus-
for Americans, who by the will of history are sia. Passionately and with all the semblance of
designated to play the most important role in the sincerity, they related "eyewitness” accounts of the
reconstruction of Europe. Of all belligerent coun terrors of Kerensky's rule which made decent men's
tries America alone possesses the food supplies which blood boil. But I had lived through Kerensky's
can keep Europe alive until the next harvest. rule, and I knew from absolute fact that all they
In relation to Russia the Associated Governments said was false. So I was not surprised when the
are facing the dilemma whether to continue their day after Kerensky's fall the same group began
military occupation of that country, or to substitute to praise Kerensky as the "real defender of Russia's
for military intervention economic assistance. liberties.”
At first it was insisted that military intervention Nevertheless, behind the black spreading of rumor
was prompted by the necessity of fighting the Ger- there was and is a basis of fact. Revolutions are
mans occupying Russian soil, and creating an East not pleasant. They are cruel and desperate. Revo-
ern front.
No matter whether any such motive lutions themselves do not grow out of pleasant con-
had from the beginning, a real foundation, now it ditions. They are bred by cruelty and desperation.
has lost every meaning. The war over, military
The war over, military It must be emphasized that to the Revolution in
intervention in Russia can be considered only as an Russia has been attributed phenomena which were
interference in the internal affairs of the Russian but indirectly connected
but indirectly connected with it, phenomena
Commonwealth and a violation of the principle of which not the Revolution but the economic de-
self-determination of nations.
bacle of Russia brought about, phenomena which
It is true that mankind has never been ruled by were not the result of the Revolution but its very
abstract principles. If all that is being reported of cause.
the Soviets' rule is true—if an organized brutality Hunger in the cities was brought about not by
has secured the support of the bulk of Russia—then the Revolution but by the shortage of products and
neither the Soviets' Government nor the Russian the disorganization of railroad traffic through the
nation itself has the right to endanger the world Revolution or no revolution, both shortage
longer.
and traffic disorganization were bound to continue
At present, without discrimination, every detri- and to become more, not less, acute. It is true that
mental rumor about the Soviets' rule in Russia is the Revolution emphasized these events with especial
being spread over the world, multiplied in editorials effect on privileged classes. For a well-to-do family
and special articles, and accepted at face value with- in Russia, accustomed to many servants, the mere
out investigation. One day we are told that the fact of doing without any servants at all was already
Soviets are planning a Bartholomew-tide in Petro a tragedy. For a Russian who had always traveled
grad; a few days later the report is canceled and cleanly and comfortably in first-class coaches in
we are told that not only are the Soviets not plan- the days of the Czar, it was a bitter and calamitous
ning slaughter but are releasing political prisoners. misfortune to come down to the smells and un-
Not very long ago we had the opportunity of read- washed companionship of a third-class car full of
ing in a New York newspaper a detailed description smoke. Elementary comforts easily become a part
of the execution of Breshko-Breshkovjkaya in of us. While we have them we are not aware of
Petrograd, and forty-eight hours later the same them; losing them we even remember Czars with
paper announced that she was on her way to affection. In countries of material culture, ele-
America.
mentary comforts are common property. In Russia,
war.


1918
565
THE DIAL
where the masses were always hungry and during harder in Russia, especially for the bourgeoisie.
the war half starving, elementary comforts were Great Russia, cut off from Ukraine and Siberia, was
the exclusive privilege of the more or less well-to-do deprived of food supplies. The disintegration of the
and educated.
economic organism of the land, begun in the Czar's
Yet the greatest part of these comforts would day, is going on from bad to worse. With or with-
shortly have been torn from the privileged Russian out a Bolshevist revolution the conditions of life
also, even though the Revolution had not occurred, would inevitably become harder. The demobiliza-
through the rapid disintegration of the entire Rus- tion of an army of ten millions could not take place
sian economic organism. The former privileged smoothly under any regime. Even before the
Russian is frightened, and fear has big eyes. How Revolution one dwelt with a spirit of anxiety and
fear exaggerates dangers may be seen from the fol- fear on what awaited Russia at the demobilization
lowing incident. On October 10, 1917, nearly a
of ten million soldiers—ten million exhausted,
month before the Bolshevist revolution, I left Petro- smarting men who had looked Death in the face.
grad in an excellent Siberian express.
We were
Without doubt under the Soviets the social leveling
twenty in a first-class sleeping car. At the Vologda tendencies were accelerated and intensified, which
station a number of soldiers demanded admittance with the lack of food made life for the former
to our car. They were on a ten days' furlough. privileged classes almost unbearable. Without doubt
One of them had lost a leg in a battle. Facing our there were and are being committed cruelties by the
resistance, the soldiers agreed to withdraw provided Soviets. But these cruelties are matched in no less
we permitted their comrade who had lost a leg to degree by those of their enemies. There is no more
ride with us. There was opposition even to this horrible war than civil war. Every revolution calls
Especially enraged against what he called the "im-
out a more or less lasting civil war between the
pudence" of the soldiers, was a merchant of middle adherents of the new regime and the real or some-
age who was traveling with his wife. “Just think times imaginary defenders of the old order, and
of it!” he said to the soldiers, “I paid one thousand also between the extreme and the moderate ele-
rubles for two tickets!” The soldiers replied: "Our
ments of the revolution. The profounder the char-
comrade lost a leg." We took in the wounded
acter of a revolution, the profounder the social
soldier. The merchant, incidentally a good-natured
fellow, could not rest however. Constantly he problems it calls forth and the more terrible the
sacrifices which are demanded. A revolution is the
repeated : "Just think of it! I paid one thousand
rubles !”
more cruel, the more is the state of despair to which
At the station at Omsk there was a train full of
the people have been brought before the revolution.
soldiers. They demanded that their train leave Every revolution ought to be considered as a na-
first. After some dispute and delay we started first. tional calamity. It is not the guilt of the people,
Nothing else occurred on the journey and we hampered on the path of progress by the old order
reached Vladivostok a day late. Instead of ten and brought by it to the brink of an abyss, which
days the trip had taken eleven. But you should has effected the calamity. Let remember
have heard the horrors some of our passengers re Burke's famous saying: “I do not know how to
lated of our journey. One became so excited that draw up an indictment against a whole people.”
he quite sincerely said we escaped narrowly with The most important condition to understand Rus-
our lives.
sia of today is to get true information and true
To me, a constant dweller in Petrograd, who facts.
spent there all the time from the beginning of the
GEORGE J. Kwasha.
Revolution till October 10, 1917, it was highly New York City.
interesting to hear in Vladivostok, and after in
Japan, how men who spent in Petrograd only two [EDITORS' Note: Mr. Kwasha was formerly a
or three weeks under Kerensky's regime saw "with representative of the Fuel Administration of the
their own eyes” all the horrors of Petrograd life of
Russian Government, under Kerensky.]
which they spoke. They said one with a white
collar could not walk without taking chances; one
TRADE UNION PHILOLOGY
could not go out in decent shoes and a decent suit
Sir: The undersigned is interested in a study of
of clothes without taking chances of being attacked
the Shingle Weavers' International Union and
and robbed. Such things never happened in Petro- would be glad if any reader of The Dial would
grad. My friends and I myself through the Revo- throw any light on the following questions: Why
lution still wore white collars, decent shoes and should a maker of shingles be called a weaver instead
clothes, mingled with the people on the street con of a worker or cutter? What is the origin of the
tinuously; nothing dire or even unpleasant ever name?
GEORGE M. Janes.
happened to us. There can be no doubt that under
the succeeding Soviet regime life became much University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
us


566
December 14
THE DIAL
Foreign Comment
ORIGINAL Decrees of the Soviet
GOVERNMENT
The following decree on the land was almost the
first official act of the Soviet Government on com-
ing into power, after the coup d'etat of November 7,
1917 (our style). Together with the decree on
peace it strengthened the political position of the
Bolshevik Party. Lenin, its author, apologized for
the haste with which the decree was brought out, but
the main features of the decree were embodied in the
final laws of the Soviet Government, as approved by
the All-Russian Congress of Soviets at Moscow:
Decree ON THE LAND
Of the Congress of Soviets of Workmen and Soldiers'
Delegates (passed at the meeting of October 26, 2 a.m.
[Russian style]).
(1) All private ownership of land is abolished immedi-
ately without any indemnification.
(2) All landowners' estates, likewise all the lands of
the Crown, monasteries, Church lands, with all their
live stock and inventoried property, homestead con-
structions and all appurtenances, pass over into the
disposition of the Volost Land Committees and District
Soviets of Peasants' Delegates until the Constituent
Assembly meets.
(3) Any damage whatever done to the confiscated prop-
erty belonging from now on to the whole people is
regarded as a grievous crime, punishable by the Revo-
lutionary Court of Justice. The District Soviets of
Peasant Delegates shall take all necessary measures for
the observance of the strictest order during the con-
fiscation of the landowners' estates, for the determina-
tion of the dimensions of the plots of land and which
of them are subject to confiscation, for the drawing up
of an inventory of the whole confiscated property, and
for the strictest Revolutionary Guard of all the farming
property on the land with all the constructions, imple-
ments, cattle, supplies of products, etc., passing over
to the people.
(4) For guidance during the realization of the great land
reforms until their final resolution by the Constituent
Assembly shall serve the following peasant Nakaz
(Instruction) drawn up on the basis of 242 local peas-
ant nakazes by the editor's office of the Izvestia of the
All-Russia Soviet of Peasant Delegates and published
in No. 88 of said Izvestia (Petrograd, No. 88, August
19, 1917 (Russian style]).
The question re the land may be decided only by the
general Constituent Assembly.
The most equitable solution of the land question should
be as follows:
(1) The right of private ownership of the land is abol-
ished forever; the land cannot be sold, nor leased, nor
mortgaged, nor alienated in any other way. All the
lands of the State, the Crown, the Cabinet, the monas-
teries, Churches, possession lands, entailed estates, pri-
vate lands, public and peasant lands, etc., shall be
alienated without any indemnification; they become the
property of the people and the usufructory property of
all those who cultivate them (who work them).
For those who will suffer from this revolution of
property the right is recognized only to receive public
assistance during the time necessary for them to adapt
themselves to the new conditions of existence.
(2) All the underground depths-the ore, naphtha, coal,
salt, etc.—and also the forests and waters, having 2
general importance, shall pass over into the exclusive
use of the States. All the minor rivers, lakes, forests,
etc., shall be the usufruct of communities, provided they
be under the management of the local organizations of
self-government.
(3) The plots of land with highest culture-gardens,
plantations, nursery gardens, seed-plots, greenhouses,
etc.-shall not be divided, but they shall be transformed
into model farms and handed over as the exclusive
usufruct of the State or communities, in dependence on
their dimensions or importance.
Homestead lands, town and country lands with pri-
vate gardens and kitchen gardens, remain as usufruct
of their present owners. The dimensions of such lands
and the rate or taxes to be paid for their use shall be
established by the laws.
(4) Studs, governmental and private cattle-breeding and
bird-breeding enterprises, etc., become the property of
the people and pass over either for the exclusive us of
the State, or a community, depending on their dimen-
sions and their importance.
All questions of redeeming same shall be submitted
to the examination of the Constituent Assembly.
(5) All the agricultural inventoried property of the
confiscated lands, the live and dead stock, pass over
into the exclusive use of the State or a community,
depending on their dimensions and importance, without
any indemnification.
The confiscation of property shall not concern peas.
ants who have a small amount of land.
(6) The right to use the land shall belong to all the
citizens (without distinction of sex) of the Russian
State, who wish to work the land themselves, with the
help of their families, or in partnerships, and only so
long as they are capable of working it themselves. No
hired labor is allowed.
In the event of a temporary incapacity of a member
of a village community during the course of two years,
the community shall be bound to render him assistance
during this period of time by cultivating his land.
Agriculturists who in consequence of old age or sick-
ness shall have lost the possibility of cultivating their
land shall lose the right to use it, and they shall receive
instead a pension from the State.
(7) The use of the land shall be distributive, i. e., the
land shall be distributed among the laborers, in de.
pendence on the local conditions at the labor or con-
sumption rate.
The way in which the land is to be used may be
freely selected: as homestead, or farm, or by communi-
ties, or associations, as will be decided in the separate
villages and settlements.
(8) All the land, upon its alienation, is entered in the
general popular land fund. The local and central self-
governing organizations, beginning from the demo-
cratically organized village and town communities and
ending with the Central Province institutions, shall see
to the distribution of the land among the persons de-
sirous of working it.
The land fund is subject to periodical redistributions
depending on the increase of the population and the
development of the productivity and cultivation.
Through all changes of the limits of the allotments
the original kernel of the allotment must remain intact.
The land of any members leaving the community
returns to the land fund, and the preferential right to
receive the allotments of retiring members belongs to
their nearest relations or the persons indicated by
them.
The value of the manuring and improvements in-
vested in the land, in so far as the same will not have


1918
567
THE DIAL
ence,
been used up when the allotment will be returned to of over 100,000, two delegates from the E. C. of the
the land fund, must be reimbursed.
Labor Unions..
If in some place the land fund will prove to be in (5) Side by side with the Workmen's Supreme Council
sufficient for the satisfaction of the local population, of the Labor Unions, committees of inspection compris-
the surplus of the population must emigrate.
ing technical specialists, accountants, etc. These com-
The organization of the emigration, also the costs mittees, both on their own initiative or at the request
thereof and of providing the emigrants with the neces of local workmen's organs of control, proceed to a given
sary stock, shall be borne by the State.
locality to study the financial and technical side of any
The emigration is carried out in the following order: enterprise.
first the peasants without land who express their wish (6) The Workmen's Organs of Control have the right to
to emigrate; then the depraved members of communi supervise production, to fix a minimum wage in any
ties, deserters, etc.; and lastly by drawing lots on undertaking, and to take steps to fix the prices at which
agreement.
manufactured articles are to be sold.
All of what is contained in this Nakaz, being the (7) The Workmen's Organs of Control have the right
expression of the will of the greatest majority of con to control all correspondence passing in connection with
scious peasants of the whole of Russia, is pronounced the business of an undertaking being held responsible
to be a temporary law, which till the Constituent before a court of justice for diverting their correspond-
Assembly is to be put into execution as far as possible
Commercial secrets are abolished. The owners
immediately and in some parts of it gradually as will are called upon to produce to the Workmen's Organs
be determined by the District Soviets of Peasant Dele of Control all books and moneys in hand, both relating
gates.
to the current year and to any previous transactions.
The lands of peasants and Cossacks serving in the (8) The decisions of the Workmen's Organs of Control
ranks shall not be confiscated.
are binding upon the owners of undertakings, and can-
not be nullified save by the decision of a Workmen's
CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF
Superior Organ of Control.
People's COMMISSARIES. VLADI-
(9) Three days are given to the owners, or the admin-
MIR OULIANOFF-LENIN.
istrators of a business, to appeal to a Workmen's
October 26, 1917. [Russian style)
Superior Court of Control against the decisions filed
by any of the lower organs of Workmen's Control.
(10) In all undertakings, the owners and the representa-
Decree ON WORKERS' CONTROL
tives of workmen and of employees delegated to exer-
cise control on behalf of the workmen, are responsible
Decree of the Council of People's Commissaires estab-
to the Government for the maintenance of strict order
lishing organs for Workers' Control of Industries.
and discipline, and for the conservation of property
(1) In order to put the economic life of the country on (goods). Those guilty of misappropriating materials
an orderly basis, control by the workers is instituted and products, of not keeping books properly, and of
over all industrial, commercial, and agricultural under similar offences, are liable to prosecution.
takings and societies; and those connected with bank (11) Workmen's District Councils of Control settle all
ing and transport, as well as over productive cooper disputes and conflicts between the lower Organs of
ative societies which employ labor or put out work to Control, as well as all complaints made by the owners
be done home or in connection with the production, of undertakings, taking into consideration any peculiar
purchase, and sale of commodities and of raw materials, conditions under which production is carried on, and
and with conservation of such commodities as well as local conditions. They will issue instructions within
regards the financial aspect of such undertakings. the limits prescribed by the All-Russian Workmen's
(2) Control is exercised by all the workers of a given
Council of Control and supervise the activities of the
enterprise through the medium of their elected organs,
lower organs of control.
such as factories and works committees, councils of (12) The All-Russian Workmen's Council of Control
workmen's delegates, etc., such organs equally com shall work out a general plan for control to be exer-
prising representatives of the employees and of the cised by the workmen, and to issue instructions and
technical staff.
regulations, and to systematize the reports of the vari-
(3) In each important industrial town, province, or dis-
ous Workmen's Councils of Control; and constitute the
trict, is set up a local workmen's organ of control,
supreme authority for dealing with all matters con-
which, being the organ of the soldiers', workmen's and
nected with the control exercised by workmen.
peasants' council, will comprise the representatives of (13) The All-Russian Workmen's Council of Control
the labor unions, workmen's committees, and of any
coordinates the activities of the Workmen's Organs of
other factories, as well as of workmen's cooperative
Control and of those institutions which direct the or-
societies.
ganization of the economic life of the country.
(4) Until such time as workmen's organs of control hold A regulation concerning the relations between the All-
a congress, the All-Russian Workmen's Council of Con Russian Workmen's Council of Control and the other
trol is to be set up in Petrograd, on which will sit institutions which organize and put in order the economic
representatives of the following organizations: five life of the country will be issued later.
delegates of the E. C. (executive committee) of the (14) All laws and circulars which impede the proper
Council (Soviet) of Workmen's and Soldiers' delegates
of Russia; five delegates of the E. C. of the Peasants'
working of the factory, works, and other committees,
Council of Russia; five delegates of the Labor Unions
and that of workmen's and employees' councils, are
of Russia; two delegates of the Central Committee of
abrogated.
the Workingmen's Cooperative Societies of Russia; In forthcoming articles The DIAL will show
five delegates of the Factory and Works Committee of
the detailed application of "workers' control," as it
Russia ; five delegates of the Engineers' and Technical
Agents' Union of Russia; two delegates of the Agrarian
has actually been applied in Russia under the Soviet
Union of Russia; one delegate from each Workmen's
Government. These articles will be written by an
Union in Russia having not less than 100,000 members, authority on Russian affairs and will be based on
two delegates from any union having a membership original material never before published.


568
December 14
THE DIAL
Notes on
New Books
authorship. Karma itself is typically Hearna
sensitive, flowing, idealistic bit, with a sustained
The CRACK IN THE Bell. By Peter Clark analytic note. There is, however, disappointment
Macfarlane. Doubleday, Page; $1.40.
at the end, where Hearn has sagged into sentimental-
ism. China and the Western World is a venture at
Politics is not adjourned in this novel-at least not
the brand which is muddy and municipal. Corrup- in the light of what has transpired since it was
interpretation and prophecy, to be read with interest
tion is piled upon corruption, until it takes a deal
written, while A Ghost and Bilal reveal other
of blasting to bring the reform motif to the surface. phases of the restless, delving Hearn mind. In the
And sometimes this blasting process doesn't entirely
carry conviction; the story has been so weighted children of the Orient have treasures to match
Japanese Fairy Tales, it will be seen that the
down with major and minor rottenness that one has
Grimm in naivete and wonder. These stories are
difficulty in swallowing the phenomenal reform
quite as irrational as they are ingratiating.
flourish which brings it to a close: That of course
is the chief danger in this field of fiction—the diffi-
culty of maintaining an even keel. The author MOTIVES IN ENGLISH FICTION. By Robert
has not been content to keep his canvas in modest Naylor Whiteford. Putnam; $2.
proportions; he has gone in for sweeping effects
It is not feasible to write a "history of English
beyond the scope of a somewhat journalistic and su-
fiction” at the expense of the English language. The
perficial mode of attack. It takes a fictioneer of
rather more poise than Mr. Macfarlane to pilot thrust into outer darkness if he cannot set his
critic need not be a stylist, but he deserves to be
his way with artistic precision in the midst of such a
thoughts on paper with some degree of lucidity. In
story. But Mr. Macfarlane is desperately in ear-
putting up Professor Whiteford as a candidate for
nest, and his zeal has lent a certain forcefulness to
outer darkness, therefore, it will hardly be necessary
the narrative. On the other hand, he has not always
to submit more than two specimens from his text.
been able to drop the reform motif out of scenes in
which it is sadly misapplied. When the young
Joseph comes next who is invulnerable to any attacks
made upon his catechism which he has thoroughly
reformer is struck down by an assassin's knife, and
mastered.
is hovering between life and death, it is rather
bathetic to find his fiancee kneeling at his side to
The only redeeming feature in the analysis of the dis-
agreeable in Swift's fiction is that this coarseness of
exclaim: "Jerry! Are you alive? You must be!
sardonic, diabolical humor in portraying the pathos of
You must live, Jerry. For me! For Philadelphia!" human life is the strength of the shaft of Fielding's or
Surely this was no time for mock municipalities. Smollett's satirical spear, when it pricks the side of the
Similarly, on the day when Jerry awakens to the cor-
reader to provoke hilarious, unhallowed laughter that
ruption of Philadelphia, he approaches an old Jewish of the meanness, badness and madness of the rogue called
dies away in tears, which flow because of the realization
peddler whose husband has just been mistreated by man; and this strange mingling of humor and pathos
the police. “My good woman,” he says, "you in satirical caricature, characterization, and dialogue,
appear to be in distress.” Some of the best scenes Swift largely inherited as a legacy from Daniel Defoe.
in the novel suffer from this recurring stiffness. To When Prof. Whiteford starts a sentence, he grows
put the defect in a word, Mr. Macfarlane's dialogue panicky with the fear that if he comes to a full stop
lacks an infusion of imagination.
he may never have the courage to go on. Hence, a
style which is superbly incoherent and quite beyond
KARMA. By Lafcadio Hearn. Boni and mental gulping. As for the content of the volume,
Liveright; $1.25.
it is on a par with the execution. Bowing to the
JAPANESE FAIRY TALEs. By Lafcadio Hearn
author's prefatory admission that "this book shows
and Others. Boni and Liveright; $1.25.
the motives that color the threads in the warp and
woof of all our fiction,” we still cannot stifle the
The garnering of stray bits from the indefatigable conviction that the garment is cut on a most peculiar
Hearn still continues, the latest sheaves appearing pattern. The author seems to have a mania for
in two volumes of an attractive new issue of books "connecting links,” "leading motives,” and “varia-
known as the Penguin Series. The Karma volume
tions." Thus Jane Austen is harnessed between
contains four diverse pieces of writing, and the Fielding and Meredith, while Marryat is chained
Japanese Fairy Tales contains four Hearn versions between Smollett and Kingsley. Professor White-
along with nearly a score of others from such ford lets Conrad off with two lines so that Letitia
authors as Grace James and Basil Hall Chamber- Landon (circa 1830) may have four pages; he
lain. The Penquin Series—most pleasingly printed brackets Hall Caine and Thomas Hardy as of even
and bound—is to be devoted to books never before merit; he lingers over Mrs. Humphry Ward and
issued in America, and includes Henry James' Ga- dismisses Arnold Bennett with a gesture; he has
brielle de Bergerac and Sudermann's Iolanthe's
two references to the author of The Way of All
Wedding among its first numbers.
Flesh and thirty-four to Mrs. Ann Radcliffe. As
The pieces in Karma have little in common save for George Meredith, you can scarcely, find him


1918
569
THE DIAL
H. G. Wells' New Novel
JOAN AND PETER
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mate artistry here is Wells the story teller, the master of narrative." —N. Y. Eve. Sun. “Mr.
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consum-
Birth
The Flaming Crucible—The Faith of the Fighting Men
ZONA GALE'S NEW NOVEL.
By ANDRE FRIBOURG
"One of the genuinely outstanding romances of Translated from the French by Arthur B. Maurice.
the year."-N. Y. Tribune.
$1.60 "One of the most remarkable books that have
A Chance to Live
come out of this war.”
$1.25
ZOE BECKLEY'S NEW NOVEL.
Behind the Battle Line
The story of Annie Hargan, daughter of the tene-
By MADELEINE DOTY.
ments, related with real power and insight. $1.60
The story of a trip around the world in 1918. $1.50
"The Future Belongs to the People"
BY KARL LIEBKNECHT. Translated by Dr. The Village : Russian Impressions
S. Zimand with a Foreword by Walter Weyl. ERNEST POOLE'S NEW BOOK.
Liebknecht's speeches in war time.
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The narration of Mr. Poole's own experiences in
Recollections of a Russian Diplomat
a Russian village during the Revolution. Ill. $1.50
By EUGENE DE SCHELKING.
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Significant revelations of European royalty and
diplomats by the former Secretary of the Russian
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III. $2.50 A stirring poem, expressing the spiritual signifi-
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Significant statements about the war and the idea Include everything that the distinguished English
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The Great Peace
verse. Vol. I, Poems; Vol. II, Plays. Each $2.75.
The set $5.00.
By H. H. POWERS.
A clear statement of the general problems of the Everychild's Mother Goose
peace settlement and reconstruction. Dec. 17.
Arranged by CAROLYN WELLS. Illustrated by
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EDITH R. WILSON.
ARTHUR RACKHAM'S NEW ILLUSTRA-
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other edition of Mother Goose was ever so beauti-
The old English fairy stories retold by Flora
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The adventures of Odysseus and the tale of Troy
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$2.00 readers.
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AMY LOWELL'S NEW POEMS
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Many illustrations. $2.50
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$1.60
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Publishers, NEW YORK
When writing to advertisers please mention The DIAL.


570
December 14
THE DIAL
without the aid of the index. And within the limits scholarly will perhaps find that Mr. Dempsey con-
of two successive paragraphs we are assured that fines his research rather too closely to the orbis
The Vicar of Wakefield is: (1) a "dramatic bit of terrarum of strictly classical antiquity. His account
fiction”; (2) "almost an accident of Goldsmith's of the forerunners of Apollo is very thorough, but
genius"; (3) "perhaps the greatest farce and at the has no allusion to the modern studies of Pelasgic
same time the greatest melodramatic, tragi-comedy origins. He has some acquaintance with the Minoan
novel that we possess”; (4) a "histrionic, idyllic theories of the Cretan excavator, but is as silent as
novel"; (5) "Goldsmith's tour de force.” For the the Oracle about the Hittites and other peoples of
enlightenment of the curious, it may be stated that nearer Asia, whose influence on the Hellenic world
Professor Whiteford teaches English literature in is being uncovered by the recent archeologists. Nor
the University of Toledo-Ohio.
has he pushed his lines far enough into modern
times to develop the analogies Ferrero would have
SOCIAL PROCESS. By Charles H. Cooley.
developed with Madame Thebes or Eusapia Pal-
Scribner; $2.
ladino. Mr. Dempsey does not try very hard to
rend the veil of the Temple, but he hazards the
This is a rather colorless and vigorless book, tepid suggestion that "telepathy" and other phenomena"
in its argument and timid in its antipathies. Nearly studied by contemporary "research” may explain the
all present-day aspects of the social problem-na- Sacred Mysteries. One trusts that time will reveal
tional and international-are passed in calm review, whether this is not another explaining of superstition
and there is never a page that burns the fingers, nor
by recourse to later superstition.
a paragraph so keenly pointed as to scratch any
political skin. The chapters on nationality in rela-
The FABRIC OF Dreams. By Katherine Tay-
tion to a league of nations are instructive: the lor Craig. Dutton; $2.
national state, it is argued, must remain the back-
bone of our social structure, and yet may fit into an
Miss Craig's book may be heartily recommended
international order in the same sense and measure
both to those who believe in dreams and to those
in which matured individuality fits into the national
who don't. The history of the belief in dreams
state. Indeed the problem may turn out to be as
through the ages is a fascinating record of human
much one of preserving national freedom as of curiosity. Even if we do not share the belief, there
limiting national sovereignty. A league that be-
still is nothing like the curiosity of others to stim-
comes a conspiracy for the maintenance of vested
ulate our own. Nor are there many problems which
interests and established social stratifications, by have equally stimulated human ingenuity, from Arte-
armed intervention if necessary, would be as great
midorus to Freud. Has not Professor Woodworth
an evil, surely, as unlimited national sovereignty-it wrathfully asserted that a theory as ingenious as
would be a strait-jacket put upon a growing world,
Freud's could not possibly be true, as if scientists
and war would merely change its name into revolu-
are in duty bound to make only dull discoveries?
tion. The League of Nations, says Professor Cooley,
But Freud has done more than irritate Professor
"must also provide a process of orderly change by Woodworth. His publications have certainly created
which the world may assimilate new conditions and
a boom in dream theories, with the popular, the
avoid fresh disaster." "Our discipline will fail un-
pseudo-scientific, and the contra-scientific in close
less we can get good will to support it.” Precisely; competition with each other. There is a touch of
and it is a point on which one could wish that Pro- irony in the thought that Freud himself should to
fessor Cooley had spared a little more energy of con-
some extent be responsible for the revival of popular
viction and utterance.
dream theories. He has often remarked that it was
partly the persistent popular belief in dreams which
helped him to doubt the dogmatic assertion of
THE DelphiC ORACLE: Its Early History,
psychologists that all dreams are nonsense; he sub-
Influence, and Fall. By T. Dempsey. Long-
sequently came to the conclusion that the intuition
mans, Green ; $2.
of the masses as to the psychic value and importance
The Irish have always had a penchant for the of the dream was justified even though the popular
lore of the ancients, and Mr. Dempsey has captured method of interpretation was utterly fantastic. The
much the same spirit of geniality, lucidity, and soothsayers and the almanacs were far too chronic
sympathy as his compatriot Professor Mahaffy. He in misinterpretation to hesitate before these re-
is so immersed in his topic that he can speak of the marks of Freud; they hastened to make the most
works of German savants with urbanity and can of the advertisement which had been thrown their
mention the forays of the Gauls without alluding way.
to the Hun. In a quiet conversational style, he Miss Craig cannot altogether be classed among
shows how the statesmen of a day when there was these. Her book is the result of a great deal of
no Colonel House used the seeress of Apollo to patience and research and a valiant attempt to pre-
frame policies. The general reader will glean an sent the material impartially for others to judge.
interesting insight into Greek psychology; the
the But she nevertheless represents the naive attitude


1918
571
THE DIAL
New Books of Importance
Just Issued !
A Writer's Recollection
By MRS. HUMPHRY WARD
The author of these recollections has brought
to life in these pages most of the great authors
of the Victorian period, with all of whom she
was well acquainted. Illustrated. Two Vol-
umes. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $6.00.
The History of
the Jews
in Russia and
Poland
Memories, Grave and Gay
By FLORENCE HOWE HALL
The well-known author, lecturer, and daughter
of Julia Ward Howe tells here the story of
her interesting life, and of the interesting
people with whom she came in contact.
Illustrated. Cloth. Regular 8vo. $3.50
By S. M. DUBNOW
The Seven Purposes
By MARGARET CAMERON
In this book the author gives narrative, involv-
ing remarkable expressions and messages pur-
porting to come from very definite and
recognizable personalities of former acquaint-
ances of herself and her friends. It is not only
thrillingly interesting, but tremendously in-
spiring.
Crown 8vo. Cloth, $2.00
The present work may properly
claim to give the first
comprehensive
and systematic account of Russo-Polish
Jewry. The first volume contains the
history of the Jews of Russia and
Poland from its beginnings until the
death of Alexander I in 1825. The
second volume continues the historic
narrative up to the very threshold of
the present.
Yesterdays in a Busy Life
By CANDACE WHEELER
The Washington Evening Star says: "Within
the first half minute of this reading one is fast
caught in a cord, three stranded, of fact, prom-
ise, flavor. The easy touch, the genial
laughter, the rich body of this book, these are
the elements that contribute to its appeal."
Illustrated. $3.00
While Dubnow's work limits itself
to the history of the Jewish people in
the Russian Empire, it throws at the
same time a lurid light upon condi-
tions in pre-revolutionary Russia in
general. Dubnow's History enables
the reader to follow the tortuous path
which has led the Russian Jew from
the seclusion of Ghetto life into the
whirlwind of international politics.
2 vols., 842 pages — net $3.00
Impressions of the Kaiser
By DR. DAVID JAYNE HILL
During the years Dr. Hill represented this
country at Berlin he was in almost daily con-
tact with either the Kaiser himself or his
ministers, and has let that man reveal him-
self through his own acts and words.
Illustrated. Regular 8vo. Cloth, $2.00
The Jewish Publication
Society of America
1201 North Broad St, Philadelphia, Pa.
Harper & Brothers :: Est. 1817 :: New York
When writing to advertisers please mention Tu DIAL.


572
December 14
THE DIAL
towards dreams in the deeper sense and seems to tivism, and military regimentation, followed by a
carry a heavy mystical insurance against the beguile severe arraignment of American inefficiency, indi-
ments of the scientific method. That is why her vidualism, and lack of military regimentation. The
book is sure to fill many wants. It contains among necessity and beneficence of universal service are
other things a fairly competent discussion of the stressed, and the danger of its being used for the
latest scientific theories concerning the dream, a dip intimidation of minorities (or majorities) and the
into the ancient art of geomancy, a discussion of making of menial minds is confidently denied.
dreams that have come true but not of those which There is no consideration of the expressed purpose of
have not come true, and a synopsis of the dream President Wilson to establish such an international
almanacs. Its emphasis upon fixed symbols in the concert as may bring partial disarmament and the
interpretation of dreams ought especially to recom end of large military establishments. The Presi-
mend it to those prolific disciples of Jung under dent's delay in entering the war is sarcastically
whose leadership the difficult psychoanalytic tech criticised, and the credit for his final decision is
nique of Freud has been abandoned in favor of the assigned to a small group of intellectuals, at whose
so-called objective method of dream interpretation, mention the author swells with a sense of quorum
which does not call upon the dreamer to sweat out pars magna fui. The book, in short, is thoroughly
his associations to the dream but interprets it for him Theodorian, and carries with it very little of the
by expounding the meaning of the fixed symbols liberalism that was once associated with Professor
which his dream may contain. This method is a Giddings' name.
little hard on those who have real afflictions but very
absorbing for those who have no serious need of THE SAD YEARS. By Dora Sigerson (Mrs.
psychoanalysis. It is mystical and fascinating to Clement Shorter). Doran; $1.25.
know that there is something to your dream without
knowing just what it is.
SONGS TO A. H. R. By Cale Young Rice.
Century; $1.
THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY. Ву
Twenty. By Stella Benson. Macmillan;
W. J. McGlothlin. Macmillan; $2.
80 cts.
The author of this significant volume, by recog-
It may be that we are a bit too prone to drop the
nizing the trend in the modern study of history
mantle of immortality about the shoulders of the
away from its emphasis on politics and wars to its
poet whose pen is stayed in the midst of war. The
social and moral bases, points out that to the general
critical eye tends to be distracted by the shadow of
student of history Christianity will necessarily be-
tragedy falling across the page of those "collected
come more and more a subject of sympathetic study.
works” which sometimes follow so precipitately-
To this end he sketches in cursory outline the course
particularly if the poet has met death in the service
of Christian history from its inception to its present
of his country. There is a quite understandable
diffusions and tendencies in various corners of the
ardor about the first evaluations, which may need
world. Within the extreme limitations of his allot-
to be qualified later on-just as certain estimates of
ment of pages he does a good piece of work. It is Rupert Brooke have been altered since the initial
refreshing to note that "Ancient, Medieval, and burst of praise. Circumstances have lent something
Modern” disappear as divisional units, and that in
of a martyr touch, likewise, to the death of Dora
their place nine periods are marked off as embracing Sigerson-a touch which is emphatically insisted
the whole scope of Christian history. One regrets
upon in the two prefaces to The Sad Years. Mrs.
however that the author did not see fit to discuss
Shorter was absorbed in the cause of Ireland, and
some of the social and psychological interactions that
her labors in behalf of the rebellion of Easter
had peculiar religious developments in given situa- week "consumed her like a flame into which she
tions, as for instance his failure even to mention the flung all her gifts.” Now, whether this literally
mystics.
may be read into the record or not, it doubtless gives
a certain poignancy to the present collection of
The RESPONSIBLE STATE. By Franklin H.
verse-all written since the beginning of the war.
The book takes its title from the first poem, a war-
Giddings. Houghton Mifflin; $1.
weary exhortation of compact power and feeling.
"These lectures," says the author's preface, “make There are several other war poems of similar trend.
in print a small book; nevertheless it is a product of Viewing the volume as a whole, however, one can-
long reflection checked up by a varied experience.” not dodge the conviction that much of its contents
Beginning with a brief sketch of the origins of the is not poetry. Mrs. Shorter has not always sought
state-a sketch in which there is considerable mini- the springs of lyric utterance, even where lyric
mizing and rationalizing of the martial phases of utterance is indispensable. The rhythm often
these origins—the book plunges in medias Kaiser, moves with a halting harshness, hampered by faults
and passes into international polemic. There is a of phrasing which dull the emotional edge and be-
severe arraignment of German "efficiency," collec tray her into flatness. With her inspiration thus


1918
573
THE DIAL

MODURO
TIMS
A new and valuable contribution
to literature on Lincoln-
BOOKSELLERO
10 OLURG
SO
ATIONER
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
AS A
MAN OF LETTERS
By Luther Emerson Robinson, M.A.
“I visited with a natural rapture the
largest bookstore in the world.”
See the chapter on Chicago, page 43, “Your
United States," by Arnold Bennett
It is recognized throughout the country that
we earned this reputation because we have on
hand at all times a more complete assortment
of the books of all publishers than can be found
on the shelves of any other bookdealer in the
entire United States. It is of interest and im-
portance to all bookbuyers to know that the
books reviewed and advertised in this maga-
zine can be procured from us with the least
possible delay. We invite you to visit our
store when in Chicago, to avail yourself of the
opportunity of looking over the books in which
you are most interested, or to call upon us at
any time to look after your book wants.
In this volume, Professor
Robinson has performed a need-
ed service for the memory of the
Great Emancipator. He has
written the first detailed study of
Lincoln's life and work from the
literary point of view.
The author shows how Lincoln's
development as a man of letters was
the direct outcome of the great
problems with which he was com-
pelled to deal. He points out the
steps by which Lincoln, under the
impress of his broadening experience,
steadily grew in literary stature and
in his ability to reach the mind and
touch the heart of the people.
A book that will be of especial
interest to Lincoln admirers and stu-
dents of American literature.
Special Library Service
An invaluable work of reference
for all libraries - collegiate, high-
school and public.
Includes:
We conduct a department devoted entirely
to the interests of Public Libraries, Schools,
Colleges and Universities. Our Library De-
partment has made a careful study of library
requirements, and is equipped to handle all
library orders with accuracy, efficiency and
despatch. This department's long experience
in this special branch of the book business,
combined with our unsurpassed book stock,
enables us to offer a library service not excelled
elsewhere. We solicit correspondence from
Librarians unacquainted with our facilities.
APPENDIX: Selections from Lin-
coln's works, including all of his
notable addresses, state papers, let-
ters, etc.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and INDEX.
Cloth; 342 pp.; $1.50 net.
A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
Obtainable from all booksellers, or
from the publishers
Retail Store, 218 to 224 South Wabash Avenue
THE REILLY & BRITTON CO.
Library Department and Wholesale Offices :
Chicago
330 to 352 East Ohio Street
Chicago
When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL.


574
December 14
THE DIAL
running upon the shoals of inadequate verse, it is officer. Do such types still exist in actual life? If so
inevitable that she should not infrequently fail to we hope that they will not survive the war, either in
establish a tone. This is the defect of such poems as actuality or in serious fiction. As it is, they give
The Hours of Illness, The Palace Gate, and I Saw this book its slightly archaic Aavor. Food conserva-
Children Playing.
tion and land utilization, though vitally important
This absence of felicity, which subtracts from the as means of national defense, are perhaps somewhat
esthetic content of The Sad Years, is not encoun uninspiring subjects for a novel, and that may be the
tered in the slight sheaf of lyrics by Cale Young reason why this story makes so little appeal, and
Rice. These songs to A. H. R.-unpretentious compares so unfavorably in plot and handling with
though they are-possess an undeniable singing sin- much of Mrs. Ward's previous work. What we are
cerity. Mr. Rice does not shy at the old, familiar given however is a very vivid impression of the
mountings—the sea, the moon, a bird's song—but terrible tension in England last April while the
he has surrounded them with the freshness of a not nation was awaiting the German offensive-an im-
inconsiderable lyric gift. His poetic mood is sus pression that would be almost unbearable if we were
tained in the key of a fine, fresh faith, and he has not so sensible at the present moment of the negative
embodied it in verse of a finished texture.
results of that same offensive.
As for the numerically named volume from the
pen of Stella Benson, one is tempted to steal one of How MOTION PICTURES ARE MADE. Ву
her own striking phrases and present it at her head: Homer Croy. Harper; $4.
she "seems to draw her soul's elastic very fine.” Not
If Mr. Croy is a prophet, the teaching profession
to pursue the metaphor too far, it does appear that
is walking wide-eyed into oblivion. Its sole salva-
these poems have too much "give” in them. There tion, if we interpret Mr. Croy's crystal correctly, is
is a certain aptness, but little flavor. In one of her
verses the author labels herself “militant civilian," within the fireproof fastnesses of an asbestos booth,
to learn the operation of a projection machine, retire
but not even her occasional lapses into feminism
and reel off the necessary instruction from that quiet
evoke the spark.
retreat. The prospect is appalling. We are to have
fewer textbooks, fewer teachers, less apparatus,
ELIZABETH'S CAMPAIGN. By Mrs. Humphry shorter courses.
Ward. Dodd, Mead; $1.50.
The whole of the American Revolution will be in seven
Under the stress of imminent danger the non-
reels and will be presented in a way much more vivid
than in its present unrelated generalities.
essential elements of life drop away and those in The movements of centuries will be brought out in an
dividuals who would preserve them at the expense hour and will be more vivid and permanent in their last-
of the larger safety are regarded by the rest of the ing effects on the student's mind than the same material
world as outside the pale of reasonable consideration.
covered from textbooks in a semester's course.
A student who is forced by economic stress to seek
Several well-known English writers have recently employment early will be able by means of motion
put forth novels dealing with the social, political, pictures to get a fairly comprehensive idea of American
and artistic life of London before the war, showing history and scientific subjects, with some familiarity with
how since the outbreak of war many tendencies
Shakespeare, and then devote himself or herself to short-
hand or any of the immediately capitalized branches of
which were superficial or morbid have disappeared
study.
while those which were robust and fundamental
have survived and developed. In Elizabeth's Cam-
We imagine that the author wrote his prophecy
paign Mrs. Ward shows a similar change taking
in haste, and is now repenting at leisure. Still he
would have turned out a better book if he had kept
place in another section of English society—the land-
his feet on the ground. The only "familiarity with
owning class. That class is no longer exempt from
governmental control; local committees have been Shakespeare” which is ever likely to come to us
formed to examine the resources of each estate with through the films will be "undue familiarity," and
power to enforce their development; bad farming or
as for putting the whole of the American Revolu-
unused land is no longer tolerated, and every foot
tion" in seven reels, even a camera would wink at
that assignment.
of ground is now made to contribute its utmost to
the support of the country. This has been brought in an entertaining manner, recalls some of the amus
Mr. Croy traces the evolution of motion pictures
about by Dora, who is the true heroine of this story,
ing makeshifts of its early days, and gives a good
although the ostensible heroine is the patriotic and
incredibly perfect Elizabeth, who by tact and moral
account of the workings of the modern studio.
There are chapters on color pictures, animated car-
suasion induces Squire Mannering, whose selfish
toons, trick pictures, and undersea photography. He
conservatism approaches pacifism, to comply with
tells you a lot of things which you have longed to
the government regulations. Among the characters know. The book is profusely illustrated and weighs
in the tale are several that are often considered typi-
a fraction of a ton. But apparently Mr. Croy's
cally British :- there is the heavy, overbearing father, subject did not inspire him above the level of
the timid daughter, the somewhat supercilious young slovenly English.


1918
575
THE DIAL
The General Education Board
61 Broadway, New York City
announces the publication of the
SURVEY OF THE GARY SCHOOLS
in eight parts, as follows:
The Gary Schools: A General Account
By Abraham Flexner and Frank P. Bachman
207 pages and appendix-25 cents
Organization and Administration
George D. Strayer and Frank P. Bachman
128 pages and appendix—15 cents
Costs
Frank P. Bachman and Ralph Bowman
82 pages and appendix-25 conto
lodustrial Work
Charles R. Richards
122 pages and appendix-25 cents
Household Arts
Eva W. White
49 pages—10 cents
Physical Training and Play
Lee F. Hanmer
34 pages-10 cents
Science Teaching
Otis W. Caldwell
About 75 pages and appendix-10 cents
Measurement of Classroom Products
Stuart A. Courtis
About 350 pages and appendix-30 cents
The first part will be issued about November 20;
the remaining parts in succession at brief inter-
vals. Any part will be sent postpaid on receipt
of the amount above specified.
IDYLLS OF THE SKILLET FORK
BY PAYSON S. WILD
Quaint and unusual poems in the vernacular of the native
of Egypt, Illinois.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, PRICE $1.50.
MY CHICAGO
BY ANNA MORGAN
A personal record of places, times and people,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, BOXED, PRICE $2 50
FROM DAY TO DAY
BY GRACE GOODMAN MAURAN
Clever essays on various "ordinary" subjects such as
"At the Death Bed of Hens," "Curtains," "Memories of
Maids," "The Great Adventure.'
WITH AN ETCHING FRONTISPIECE, PRICE $1.25
TWELVE MONTHS WITH
THE BIRDS AND POETS
BY SAMUEL A. HARPER
Accurate and interesting chapters telling of the birds
which arrive and pass on from month to month. The
book is almost an anthology of bird poetry, as well.
ILLUSTRATED. LARGE PAPER, PRICE $3.00
REGULAR ED., PRICE $1.50
LIFE OF ADRIENNE D'AYEN
MARQUISE DE LAFAYETTE
BY MARGUERITE GUILHOU
A biography interesting because of its unusual portrayal
of conditions in France during the last of the monarchy
and the reconstruction.
ILLUSTRATED, PRICE $1.50
These books are all interesting from the standpoint of
design and workmanship. They will be sent on approval.
RALPH FLETCHER SEYMOUR
Publisher
ROOM 1025 FINE ARTS BUILDING, CHICAGO
1
Essential Book on Industrial
Reconstruction
INDUSTRY AND
HUMANITY
By W. L. MACKENZIE KING
HOW ART METAL
HAS MADE STEEL
OFFICES STANDARD
dustrial relations made for the Rockefeller Founda-
tion, Mr. King, former Canadian Minister of Labor,
has drawn the material for this notable volume on
industrial reconstruction. Dial readers will be
particularly interested in the author's view of in-
dustry as in the nature of social service, and in the
emphasis he places on the rights of the public and the
community. $3.00 net.
Art Metal has shown the world
that steel not only protects, but
beautifies the office - that it adds
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That is why the office of the
future will be steel from desk to
waste-basket.
INSTINCTS IN
INDUSTRY
By ORDWAY TEAD
TEN basic instincts on which our whole life and con-
affect the worker's relation to his job, and how each
must be studied and used in the working out of sound
industrial conditions. The author has gathered his
material at first hand during his wide experience as
industrial counsellor for employers and labor unions,
and his suggestions for needed readjustments are both
definite and practical. $1.40 net.
ART METAL CONSTRUCTION CO.
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UIA
At All Bookstores
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576
December 14
THE DIAL
9
Books of the Fortnight
Christmas Books for Children
The following list comprises The DIAL's selec The following list comprises THE DIAL's selec-
tion of books recommended among the publications tion among the season's books for children. They
received during the last two weeks:
are roughly arranged in the order of the ages to
The Higher Learning in America: A Memorandum which they should appeal:
on the Conduct of. Universities by Business Mother's Nursery Tales. Told and illustrated by Katherine
Men. By Thorstein Veblen. 12mo, 198 pages.
Pyle. Color plates, Svo, 376 pages. E. P. Dutton &
Ce. $2.50.
B. W. Huebsch. $1.60.
Uncle' Remus Returns. By Joel Chandler Harris. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 175 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.35.
America in France. By Frederick Palmer. 12mo, Bugs and Wings and Other Things. By Annie W. Franchot.
479 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.75.
Color plates and drawings by Jessie Willcox Smith and
Harrison Cady. Svo, 99 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
The Sacred Bettle and Others. By J. Henri Fabre.
$1.50.
The Waterboys and Their Cousins. By Charles Dickens
Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. Lewis. Illustrated by E. H. Suydam. 12mo, 172 pages.
12mo, 425 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.60. J. B. Lippincott Co. 75 cts.
Jane, Joseph and John: Their Book of Verses. By Ralph
The Life of David Belasco. By William Winter. Bergengren. Illustrated in color by Maurice E. Day.
4to, 62 pages.
Illustrated, Svo, 1093 pages. 2 vols. Moffat,
Atlantic Monthly Press.
A Ride on a Rocking-Horse By Rachel A. Marshall. Il-
Yard & Co. $11.
lustrated in color by the author. Svo, 63 pages. I. P.
Dutton & Co. $1.50,
Leo Tolstoy. By Aylmer Maude. Illustrated, The Book of Elves and Fairies. By Frances Jenkins Olcott.
12mo, 330 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $2.50.
Color plates by Milo Winter, 12mo, 430 pages. Hough-
ton Mifflin Co. $2.
Swinburne and Landor: A Study of Their Relation Dream Boats, and Other Stories. By Dugald Stewart
Walker. Drawings and color plates by the author.
ship and Its Effect on Swinburne's Moral and
Svo, 219 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.50.
Poetic Development. By W. Brooks Drayton The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said. By Padraic
Colum. Illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker. 12mo,
Henderson. 8vo, 304 pages. Macmillan Co. 177 pages.
Macmillan Co. $1.50.
$3.
Little Brother and Little Sister. By the Brothers Grimm,
Illustrated in color by Arthur Rackham. 8vo, 251 pages.
The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Dodd, Mead & Co. Boxed, $3.50.
Dutch Fairy Tales. By William Elliot Griffis. Illustrated
Ulenspiegel. By Charles De Coster. Trans in color, 12mo, 220 pages. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
lated by Geoffrey Whitworth. Illustrated,
$1.25.
English, Fairy Tales. Retold by Flora Annis Steel. Color
8vo, 303 pages. Robert M. McBride & Co. plates by Arthur Rackham. Svo, 363 pages. Macmillan
Co. $2.50.
$2.50.
The Spanish Fairy Book. By Gertrudis Segovia. Trans-
Dr. Adriaan. A novel. By Louis Couperus.
lated by Elisabeth Vernon Quinn. Color plates by
George Hood. 12mo, 321 pages. Frederick A. Stokes
Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. Co. $1.50.
Faery Tales of Weir. By Anna McClure Sholl. Illustrated,
12mo, 321 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50.
8vo, 172 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2.
Iolanthe's Wedding. Tales. By Hermann Suder Canadian Wonder Tales. By Cyrus Macmillan. Color
plates by George Sheringham. 4to, 199 pages.
John
mann. Translated by Adele Seltzer. 12mo, Lane Co. $4.
159 pages. Penguin Series. Boni & Liveright.
Japanese Fairy Tales. By Lafcadio Hearn and Others.
12mo, 160 pages. Boni & Liveright. $1.25.
$1.25.
Fairy Tales and Poems in Prose. By Oscar Wilde. The
Modern Library. 12mo, 214 pages. Boni & Liveright.
We Others. Tales. By Henri Barbusse. Trans-
Croft leather, 70 cts.
lated by Fitzwater Wray. 12mo, 274 pages.
A Little Boy Lost. By W. H. Hudson. Illustrated, 8vo,
215 pages.
Alfred A. Knopf. $1.50.
E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50.
The Sandman's Forest. By Louis Dodge. Illustrated in
Karma. Tales. By Lafcadio Hearn. 12mo, 163
color by Paul Bransom. 12mo, 292 pages. Charles
Scribner's Sons. $2.
pages. Penguin Series. Boni & Liveright. $1.25. Over Indian and Animal Trails. By Jean H. Thompson.
Illustrated in color by Paul Bransom. 8vo, 263 pages.
$1.25.
Frederick A. Stokes Co. $2.
The Trail Book. By Mary Austin. Illustrated in color by
Japanese Fairy Tales. By Lafcadio Hearn and
Milo Winter. 12mo, 305 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Others. 12mo, 160 pages. Boni & Liveright. $2.
In the Days of the Guild. By L. Lamprey. Color plates
$1.25.
by Florence Gardiner. Drawings by Mabel Hatt. 8vo,
The Betrothal: A Sequel to the Blue Bird. By
291 pages.
Frederick A. Stokes Co. $1.50.
The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel.
Maurice Maeterlinck. 12mo, 222 pages. Dodd, By Charles De Coster. Translated by Geoffrey Whit-
worth,
Mead & Co. $1.50.
20 woodcuts by Albert Delstanche. 8vo, 303
pages. Robert M. McBride & Co. $2.50.
Echoes of the War. Four Plays. By J. M. Barrie.
The Blue Bird: A Play. By Maurice Maeterlinck. Trans-
lated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. Illustrated
Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50.
from the film. 8vo, 210 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $3.
The Betrothal: A Sequel to The Blue Bird. By Maurice
The Charnel Rose and Other Poems. By Conrad Maeterlinck. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mat-
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1918
577
THE DIAL


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Mother
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IL
USED to be a little bit ashamed of the way
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Luther's Correspondence and Other
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578
December 14
THE DIAL
Current Now
book.” And the layman will find it most illum-
inating.
Woodrow Wilson: An Interpretation, by A. William Aspenwall Bradley's Dutch Landscape
Maurice Low, is announced for immediate publica-
Etchers of the Seventeenth Century, covering the
tion by Little, Brown and Co.
work of all of the more important etchers of the
The publication of Mary Hasting Bradley's novel, period, Rembrandt excepted, and illustrated by re-
The Wine of Astonishment (Appleton), has been
productions of prints and drawings drawn for the
deferred until the first of the year.
most part from the collections of the Boston Mu-
Witter Bynner has collected and edited the poems
seum of Fine Arts, is to be issued soon by the Yale
of Richard Mansfield, 2d, who recently died in camp University Press.
at San Antonio. The volume is published by Mof Anthologists whose collections attain popularity
fat, Yard and Co. under the title Courage!
have opportunities to correct their sins of omission.
B. W. Huebsch has published the authorized
The third edition, revised and enlarged, of Burton
American edition of James Joyce's volume of lyrics, E. Stevenson's Home Book of Verse (Holt; $10)
Chamber Music, which was reviewed in The DIAL
is so much “enlarged” that its four thousand pages
of September 19.
are more likely to be turned for convenient reference
A novel by Eleanor Gates, which was announced than for comfortable browsing. The browser how-
for early autumn issue under the tentative title The
ever will find in it nearly all of those elusive poems
Girl We Love, is to be published in February by that his favorite anthologies inevitably and unac-
George Sully and Co. as Phoebe.
countably omit, even to pieces so recent as Ralph
Social and Religious Life of Italians in America, Hodgson's Eve.
by Enrico C. Sartario, with a dedicatory note to
Acting upon Swinburne's intention, frequently
Bishop Lawrence and a preface by Dean Caspar W.
expressed toward the end of his life, to collect in
Hodge, has just come from the press of the Christo-
one volume his poems about children and childhood,
pher Publishing House (Boston).
Edmund Gosse has compiled, and Arthur Rackham
Beyond Life, a volume of essays by James Branch
has illustrated with color plates and black and white
Cabell, is soon to be published by Robert M. Mc- decorations, The Springtide of Life: Poems of
Bride. A definitive essay by Wilson Follett treat Childhood, by Algernon Charles Swinburne (Lip-
ing the work of Mr. Cabell appeared in The Dial pincott; $3). The anthology includes thirty-five
for April 25.
poems, drawn chiefly from the second and third
The Department of Labor has just issued Recon- series of Ballads and Poems, from Tristram of Lyon-
struction: A Preliminary Bibliography, compiled by esse, and from the Century of Roundels. Mr. Rack-
Laura A. Thompson. It comprises fifty-seven mime- ham's fancy is here gayer and more tender, if per-
ograph pages and catalogues 415 titles in the Depart-haps less ingenious, than is its wont. The result
ment's Library. A more comprehensive bibliography is the best gift book of the season.
is now being prepared.
The Shadow of the Cathedral, by Blasco Ibáñez,
Contributors
which was imported by E. P. Dutton and Co. from
England two years ago, is now to be published by The Dial is able to vouch for the responsibility
them in an American edition. An estimate of the of "S. M.," who has just returned from Russia,
author, by Isaac Goldberg, appeared in The Dial where he had exceptional opportunities for observa-
for November 16.
tion and for verification of his observations.
The November issue of Poetry announced the fol-
Albert Rhys Williams, an American lecturer and
lowing prize awards for this year: the Helen Haire There he assisted the Foreign Office of the Soviets
publicist, has also recently returned from Russia.
Levinson Prize of $200 to John Curtis Underwood; in propaganda directed against the German Imperial
the prize of $100, offered by an anonymous guar Government. He is the author of In the Claws of
antor, to Ajan Syrian; and a special prize of $50, the German Eagle (Dutton, 1917).
offered by another guarantor to a young poet of Mary Vida Clark, for several years Assistant
promise, to Emanuel Carnevali.
Secretary of the State Charities Aid Association
In Joseph Pennell's Liberty Loan Poster (Lip (New York) and now Executive Secretary of the
pincott; $1)—which carries the sub-title A Text- Women's Prison Association, has been an occasional
book for Artists and Amateurs, Governments and contributor to the magazines and during the past
Teachers and Printers—the artist has described, year has had articles in The Unpopular Review and
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The other contributors to this issue have pre-
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posters, we Americans know amazingly little about
their proper technique. Those who have to do with
The Dial announces the resignation of Mr.
posters professionally should profit by this "text Scofield Thayer as Associate Editor.


1918
579
THE DIAL
THE BIOLOGY OF WAR
By Dr. G. F. Nicolai
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580
December 14, 1918
THE DIAL
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The Springtide of Life-Poems of Childhood
FLOHMS
1792
1918
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Handsomely bound. $3.00 net.
Swinburne frequently expressed his intention of gathering those of his
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publishing them in a separate collection. It was left to Edmund Gosse to
carry out the wish of the poet. Arthur Rackham, with his delicate and
romantic fancy, is in sensitive harmony with Swinburne's poems, and his
pictures show that he understands, no less than did the poet, “How heaven
lies about us in our infancy."
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schuo
Responsibility, Punishment, Reparation
THE DIAL
A FORTNIGHTLY
VOL. LXV
NEW YORK
NO. 780
DECEMBER 28, 1918
.
•
.
RESPONSIBILITY, PUNISHMENT, REPARATION
Norman Angell 583
A WAR-SONG OF THE FAR West
Natalie Curtis Burlin 589
Soviet RUSSIA AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Lincoln Colcord 591
DEMOCRACY, WATCH YOUR STEP! . .
Albert C. Barnes 595
LETTERS TO UNKNOWN WOMEN: HELIODORA
Richard Aldington · 598
"ON THE SEASHORE OF ENDLESS WORLDS"
Virgil Jordan 599
“QUANTI Dolci PENSIER, QUANTO Disio” Verse Edna St. Vincent Millay 601
PRIMITIVE RECONSTRUCTION .
Hendrik Willem van Loon 602
AN EXAMINATION OF EMINENCES
Randolph Bourne 603
THE MODERN POINT OF VIEW AND THE New ORDER. Thorstein Veblen
VI. The Divine Right of Nations.
WHITMAN, POE, AND Max EASTMAN
Louis Untermeyer 611
THE TALENT OF THE BRUSH
Walter Pach 613
LAFCADIO HEARN: A POSTSCRIPT
Lisle Bell 614
NORMAN DUNCAN
C. K. Trueblood 615
LONDON, NOVEMBER 16
· Edward Shanks 617
EDITORIALS
619
FOREIGN COMMENT: Liberal Britain Against Russian Intervention.—Kerensky Dis 622
illusioned.
COMMUNICATIONS: Political Prisoners in America.-Borrowing Trouble for the League. 623
An Open Letter.
Notes On New BOOKS: Lynton and Lynmouth.—The Call of the Offshore Wind.—Tales 626
from a Dugout.-Walking Shadows.—Hawthorne.—The Advance in English Poetry in
the Twentieth Century.--The Twentieth Century Theatre.—The Submarine in War and
Peace.—Neuropsychiatry and the War.—The Kingdom of the Child.—The Laughing
Girl.-Free and Other Stories.-We Others.
.
.
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82
December 28
THE DIAL
NEW BOOKS THAT REVEAL NEW RUSSIA
RUSSIA, 1914-17
Memories and Recollections of War and Revolution
By GENERAL BASIL GOURKO
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field. The murder of Rasputin, the political changes preceding the revolu-
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all these things are faithfully and dispassionately reported. The book is ded-
icated to the general's heroic wife, who was killed when the Germans shelled
a bandaging station behind the French lines.
Ready shortly.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT
The Suicide of Monarchies
By EUGENE DE SCHELKING
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THE DIAL
A FORTNIGHTLY
Responsibility, Punishment, Reparation
IN VERY MANY of his statements and addresses
German people and on the whole represented them
President Wilson has insisted upon distinguishing -and there is every evidence to show that on the
between the responsibility of the German Govern- whole he did—why should the “just and honorable
ment and the German people. He has said, for peace" of the World's phrase be more possible with
instance:
them than with their agent and representative?
We have no quarrel with the German people
... It
Even the fact that the people have turned against
was not upon their impulse that their government acted in the Hohenzollerns does not dispose of the considera-
entering this war. It was not with their previous knowl-
tion. For as one of the President's critics suggests,
edge or approval. · The American people have suf-
fered intolerable wrongs at the hands of the Imperial probably quite correctly, the real reason why the
German Government, but they desire no reprisal upon German people turned against their masters was not.
the German people, who have themselves suffered all
from indignation at crimes committed but because
things in this war, which they did not choose.
those masters lost the war. Had the war lords
And in the negotiations which led to the armistice brought victory they would today be as popular and
it will be remembered with what emphasis he in-
as powerful as ever.
sisted upon knowing whether it was with the old
It is the long and ever recurrent stories of atroci-
Government or with duly responsible spokesmen of
ties which have swept this distinction away. And
the German people that he was dealing. One of
to the moral effect of the stories of German atrocity
his chief journalistic supporters—the New York
must be added another consideration. If indeed the
World—said at the time: "With the German people German people are not responsible for the war, how
there can be a just and honorable peace. With
can we throw upon them the burden of the immense
German autocracy there can be no peace whatever.”
indemnities which certain of the Allies are asking?
A day or two previously Mr. Lansing had urged Yet do we seriously suggest that ravaged Belgium
upon the American people the need of discriminating and France shall not recover from Germany the
between the "responsible and the irresponsible, be-
means of restoring even the material destruction
tween the master and the serf."
wrought by Germans?
This distinction was an integral and very em-
It is the American sentiment of justice which has
phasized part of the President's policy. Yet we are
prompted the country to go against the President in
all aware that so far as public opinion is concerned
this matter.
it has completely disappeared. The feeling against
But can we assume that these considerations had
Germany has simply not been influenced either here
not occurred to the President when he first empha-
or in Europe by the fact that she has converted
sized this distinction between people and Govern-
herself into a republic. The conditions we are
ment? Can we suppose that he and those who
imposing upon her are not less severe than those
stand with him had overlooked the fact that many
forecast by the President in, say, January last; they of the horrors portrayed on the Liberty Loan posters
are more severe, and they seem to be growing stiffer
have actually been committed by men of the German
every day.
What was the original justification of the Presi- people and sanctioned by most of the others? Or
that he takes these things lightly?
dent's distinction? Why has it been repudiated by
the whole Allied world? What will be the effect
Obviously that cannot be so.
It is likely, to say
of its repudiation ?
the least, that the President is not less sensitive to
As to why the distinction was made at all, we
these things than the politicians, newspaper editors,
naturally ask: Were not Germany's crimes com-
and clergymen, who so clamorously demand se-
mitted by individuals from among the German verely punitive justice. Perhaps we shall never do
people? Did not the German people tolerate and justice to the President's motive unless we face
approve the evil policy of their Government? squarely a truth with reference to human conduct
If indeed the Kaiser was the spokesman of the which we are very ill-disposed to face; namely, that


584
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THE DIAL
some of the worst crimes against justice have been which exposes a writer to such easily excited preju-
due to the very fierceness of our passion for right- dice, to such cheap jibe and mean innuendo, as to
eousness-a passion so fierce that it becomes undis- challenge in any degree the sort of passion I have
criminating and unseeing. It was the passion for described. But we saw this country turn gradually
what men believed to be religious truth which gave from Wilson's policy because for months liberalism
us the Inquisition, the religious wars, five hundred was silenced and the only voices heard were clamant
years of tyranny; it was the passion of patriotism cries of instinctive retaliation, violent-minded and
which made France for so many years, to the aston undiscerning resentment. If the consequent drift
ishment of the world, refuse justice to Dreyfus; it of policy which marked the period of war is also, for
is a righteous loathing for Negro crime which has
the same reason, to mark the period of settlement,
made lynching possible for half a century in the then the case of liberalism will go by default be-
United States, and which prevents the development cause no one will dare challenge the lynching spirit
of an opinion that will really insist upon its suppres- sufficiently to state that case.
sion. It is the "just anger that makes men unjust." The facts, if we would face them, are these: puni-
The righteous passion which insists that a criminal tive settlement which insists upon treating the whole
shall die for some foul crime is the very thing which German people as criminals and upon excluding
prevents our seeing that the crime was not committed them from the Society of Nations will not secure
by him at all.
justice; it will enable those most guilty to escape
It is something akin to the passion of the religious punishment, and will punish those who are not
wars that possesses the world today. Just as a guilty; it will not secure indemnification for the
genuine religious conviction begged the whole ques French and Belgian peoples; it will not lift the
tion of the treatment of heretics in the centuries burdens of the war from their shoulders but rivet
when hundreds of thousands of the very salt of the those burdens more firmly than ever; it will not
earth were racked, burned, tortured, and broken by heal the wounds of the innocent victims in France
good and disinterested men for the greater glory of and Belgium, but cause fresh wounds to be made ;
God, so now is the question of justice and responsi- and to the millions of innocent women and children
bility begged at the outset in the matter of the who have suffered in those countries will be added
treatment of the German people, by the passion of other millions who will be made to suffer in like
patriotism. For five hundred years, more or less, it fashion.
was simply impossible to get at the mind of the Let us take, just for a moment, at face value some
Inquisitor, or of those—the great mass of the popu of our professions. Millions of the best of our youth
lation—who supported him. It was closed as in have died in agony to uphold the eternal principles
stinctively as an eye closes when someone would of justice. Let us note some of the least of its
remove a torturing cinder from it with his handker- demands. We may with justice punish individuals
chief. The action is not intentional; it is instinctive who have committed crime; and if it were feasible to
and irresistible.."Not punish a heretic! Wouldst
Wouldst take the officers who have ordered the murders of
thou intercede for those who would lead thy civilians, the men who have obeyed the order, the
children to hell? Wouldst thou send thy children U-boat commanders who have ordered life-boats
to everlasting fire to save a foul atheist from a few fired upon or passenger ships torpedoed, the very
hours of it?" asked the Churchmen of old. So now sailors who carried out such orders, give them fair
the question of responsibility in the treatment of the trial in duly appointed courts, and when convicted
German people. “Only a yellow dog would want hang them, the world would be better for the ex-
to save the Hun from his richly merited deserts. perience. (As a matter of fact this is not proposed,
Not until he is made to suffer will he ever learn an armistice clause virtually exonerating those who
not to attempt such crimes again. . Are the have acted under orders.) It may well be advisable,
people who murdered little children, drowned help as the least of several evils, to compel a whole nation
less women, tortured prisoners worthy of any con to make reparation and restitution for damage done
sideration whatsoever? What sickly sentimentality by its armies. But deliberately to “punish” it, with
would stand in the way of the stern justice the idea that in some way that will secure repent-
which
ance or fear of consequences of like offenses in the
And in this passion, flaming and righteous, is future, is to ignore the plainest facts of national
burning up all the foundations of a better world psychology as well as the accepted ethics of patri-
order, all those great things for which our youth otism by which our own political conduct is guided.
were sent to perish.
To stand by our country "right or wrong," to sub-
There is perhaps no task more ungrateful, none mit our individual conscience to the national de
.


1918
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THE DIAL
cision, is the code of nationalism the world over. mans even as late as October 1917: “The German
The English Bishops who protested against what people have been deluded into the belief that they are
they declared to be the immorality of reprisal air defending themselves against foes who are set upon
raids on German towns, did not renounce their crushing them out of existence."
government or their country when their protest was For what, then, after decreeing the punishment
disregarded.
of the babies and the decrepit, should we be punish-
The initial confusion in this matter arises from ing the great mass of ignorant peasants, of half-in-
the fact that we take words and symbols for things. structed workmen, fed upon lies and lashed into
“Germany" is guilty and must be punished. “Ger- honest fury by those lies? We should be punishing
many" includes millions of children-babies, boys, them for doing what they, however mistakenly, be-
girls, decrepit old men and old women. They had lieved to be their duty. Such conviction is generally
no responsibility. Are we, as part of our retributive a necessary part of prolonged war.
Men do not as
justice, to decree that these babies shall die, that these a rule die from selfish motives—unless they are very
girls and boys of five and six shall suffer cold, sure of their mansions in the sky.
hunger, privation, restricted opportunity, as their The truth is that the whole idea of collective re-
part of the penalty of the “stern” justice upon which sponsibility, based upon the misleading personifica-
we pride ourselves? Yet the punishment of “Ger tion of a whole nation, is itself the essence of
many” means nothing less.
injustice. Every large group has criminals. What
The Western world has always looked upon the percentage makes the whole group criminal? Ten
Chinese practice of punishing a man for his brother's per cent? One per cent? A hundred thousand
or cousin's offense as morally barbarous. But that degenerate brutes among the officials, officers, and
is fairness itself compared with the punishment of soldiers would more than suffice for the crimes that
the children for the father's crime.
A man may
have condemned Germany. That is little more than
have some responsibility for the conduct of his one in a thousand. But if the proportion were fifty
descendants or his contemporaneous family. But per cent we could not with justice punish one half
how can the children be responsible for the father? for the crimes of the other.
Yet it is for punishment so arranged that the moral A German aviator who dropped bombs on Lon-
rhetoricians now appeal. We calmly talk of in don excused himself with the plea that "the Eng-
demnities that we intend to spread over a hundred lish” had killed his brother. “The English” may
years of payment-one New York daily asks for have done so. But the children he blew to pieces
punishments that shall endure for two hundred had not. And his evil plea is not made a righteous
years. What should we say of the justice which one when an innocent German from Baden is slain
demanded that we be held responsible for the. because a guilty one from Hamburg has killed and
offenses of our great-grandparents? (What should tortured. The New York Times prints an inter-
we say if France were now asked to pay for the view with an Allied aviator returned from a re-
damage done by Napoleon's armies?)
prisal bombing raid: "How did you feel when
But that is only one of many such facts that we dropping bombs on the Rhine cities?” asked the
refuse to face. What real share of responsibility for interviewer. The aviator replied “with a quiet
Germany's policy have the workmen and peasants grimness”: “They killed my sister.”
Who are
who were the instruments of war, and who daily “they”? The babies of the Rhine cities?
risked death and suffered agonies as well as inflicting Suppose we assume that seventy million people-
them? For years we have been pointing out that men, women, and children—are “inherent crimi-
Germany was an autocracy; it is part of the indict- nals.” Two questions arise: What made people of
ment against her. Again and again we have de the Germanic stock, living within certain geographi-
clared that the people were the mere tools of the cal areas, criminal, while the same stock in other
Government; that they were not free agents. More countries—in Britain, America, France, and Bel-
than that. Since the Government had control of gium-represent great moral forces? Second, does
information, they saw to it that the people should, experience within our frontiers tend to show that
however mistakenly, believe themselves to be fight "punishment” suffices in dealing with criminals?
ing for their menaced Fatherland. That this was Or does experience point the conclusion that we
the amazing, but none the less sincere, conviction of must also insure them a means of honest livelihood
vast numbers is testified by all sorts of witnesses within our social system, give them equality of eco-
whom we cannot accuse of pro-Germanism. Lord nomic opportunity under the law so long as they
Northcliffe—to take one of many-says of the Ger- obey the law? Neither question is academic or idle;


586
December 28
THE DIAL
a wise answer to both is indispensable to the destruc to be the victim of a world-wide boycott and she
tion of Prussianism.
is to be cast in unprecedented indemnities for the full
Any sincere examination of the first of these two restoration of all of the territories she has devas-
questions reveals a truth which is almost self-evi- tated.
dent; namely, that the evils with which the Ger Note first who will and who will not be punished
mans have shocked the world are not the result of in this scheme. A large number of Germans, by
some biological difference from all other races, some virtue of these annexations, will cease to be Ger-
differences of gray matter and muscular tissue mans and become French, Danes, Poles, Russians,
which distinguish a man born between such and or Belgians. As such, they will be liberated both
such lines of longitude and latitude from all other from the oppressions of German rule and from the
men, white, black, brown, or yellow. The evils are punishments to be meted out to Germans. They
the result of certain false ideas born of a special will profit by the advantageous commercial arrange-
political system and tradition, themselves the re ments which are to be accorded Allied populations,
sult of certain conditions which we can do some and will enjoy the privileges of the French, Belgian,
thing to change. The German horrors are evils Danish, Polish, or Russian systems. These Germans
analogous to those born in the past not only of at least will largely escape “punishment.” In the
political, but of religious, systems, as when nearly Allied view they will have benefited. But Allied
all races, in the name of God and righteousness, populations will have received an admixture of
massacred and tortured not only men but women German elements. Poland, for instance, will be
and little children-pulled them limb from limb by largely German; its commerce and industry largely
ingenious machinery especially constructed for that in German hands. We may boycott things "Made
purpose, or burned slowly their living bodies; when in Germany" but what we buy may still be made
learned and religious and well-intentioned men by Germans. And the greater the extent of the
taught that falsehood on behalf of God was a duty; annexations the more will this be true.
that “to keep faith with a heretic was to break faith But the relation of “punishment” to restitution
with heaven."
and compensation has still stranger results. The
And, be it noted, to explain the crimes of the figure of total indemnity is now fixed at over one
Inquisition, the massacres of St. Bartholomew, of hundred billions of dollars, the interest alone of
the French Revolution, of the Commune or the which would amount to nearly five billions yearly
Congo-crimes of which peoples of all races have -about as much as the total export trade of Britain
been guilty—is not to condone or extenuate them. and the United States combined. The total gold
We need to understand them in order that they may possessed by Germany could not pay the first six
not be renewed amongst us. And we need, as a months' interest. To pay even the interest, she must
guide in dealing with German crime, to ask how far do so in materials, by an export trade immensely
it is historically true that the mutual atrocities of greater than that possessed by any country in the
Protestant and Catholic, Revolutionist and counter world, even by countries with nearly twice her pop-
revolutionist, white and Negro, were ended by vast ulation and many times her resources.
indiscriminate, collective “punishments” or by an But we don't intend that she should do any
other process.
foreign trade at all! We intend to boycott her.
Let us examine a little further the incidence of
Powerful American organizations are taking steps
punishment. Most of the punitive plans now cur-
to see that not so much as a German penknife or a
rent include large annexations of what is at present
toy shall reach the hands of Americans. An Eng-
German territory--the left bank of the Rhine,
lish seaman's union declares that they will not work
a ship that has a pound of German goods of any
Schleswig-Holstein, the whole of Posen and East
kind aboard. And even if there were not the boy-
Prussia, and of course all the German colonies. A
cott, she will by the Allied annexations have lost
plan recently published in Paris demands the "com-
most of her iron, some of her coal, and all of her
pensation" of Belgium by a considerable increase of
ships; she will be excluded from overseas
her territory. The idea seems about equivalent to
material.
saying to a householder whose house has been broken
Russia, Belgium, France—indeed half the world
into by burglars: "No matter. You shall be com -will be faced by semi-starvation, and will need
pensated. The burglar's family shall come and live these German indemnities—which, when translated
with you." Germany will lose the great bulk of into realities, will mean the material things neces-
her iron, some of her coal, all such raw materials sary to restoration, which Germany can make. We
as she got from her colonies, all her ships. She is cannot have it both ways. If Germany is to be
raw


1918
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THE DIAL
punished by the penalization of her industry, then once more become honorable. Their practice will
it is the population of Belgium, Serbia, Poland that be associated with the only defense of Germany that
will share that punishment by the retardation of the world allows—Germany's own strength or in-
their reestablishment. If Germany is to help feed trigue. Far from punishing the military order, and
and rebuild those countries, if we are to profit by discrediting its traditions, we shall revive them.
the labor of the German people to the full during The fact that we may indeed have to choose be-
the period of reconstruction—and it will be direly tween the luxury of fictitious “punishment" and
needed—then German industry must become once the achievement of the higher things for which we
more active, and by that fact will become powerful went to war, has been pointed out by a writer who
and occupy a large place in the world ten or twenty will certainly not be accused of pro-Germanism.
or thirty years hence.
Mr. Frank Simonds recalls the fact that after a
And during this period, of course, Germany is to quarter of a century of devastating warfare over all
be disarmed-thus, incidentally, being able to de- Europe, France, after the Napoleonic wars, was im-
vote all her energies to industry. But the neighbor- mediately admitted to the family of nations without
ing Russia, the Slav states of old Austria, the “punishment.” That made it possible for Europe
Balkans, Japan will presumably all be armed. We to reorganize itself according to the ideas of the
shall either be faced with a great Slavic Federation day with France's cooperation instead of her op-
of some two hundred millions, or numerous inde- position.
pendent Slavic states. Is it seriously urged-looking Now it would be conceivable (adds Mr. Simonds) that
back on the quite recent past and “taking human should the victors of the present war follow the example
nature as it is"—that neither of these contingen of those of a century beforė, remit to Germany their just
cies holds possibility of conflict or armed collision
claims for indemnities, content themselves with taking
for France Alsace-Lorraine and distributing German col-
about economic rights of ways, harbors, tariffs, pigs, onies as they chose, they might successfully establish some
minority cultures, religions, and languages? Is any-
orderly regime in Germany and, in negotiating with it,
formulate a constitution for a League of Nations. If
one so extremely pacifist as to believe that for a
the League of Nations is the chief concern of the Peace
single moment? And in the midst of that possible Congress this would offer a way, and I think the only
welter will live this solid bloc of highly industrial-
conceivable way, of bringing Germany into it.
ized, highly disciplined Germanic folk-unarmed, And unless Germany is brought into it, says Mr.
defenseless, discriminated against, their country hav- Simonds, there can be no League of Nations:
ing suffered in past centuries more miseries from the Unless Germany is a willing and sincere partner in this
invasions of their neighbors—French and Slavic-
enterprise the League of Nations will be a failure, for its
success must rest upon its universality. With Germany
than any country in Europe:
out, it is no more than a perpetuation of the existing alli-
ance against Germany. Moreover, Germany may easily,
A people whose country was for so many years a
if the Reds gain control, join hands with the Russian
theatre of devastating wars that fear is bred into the very Reds, and then we shall have the old situation of rival
marrow of their souls, making them ready to submit their alliances once more.
lives and fortunes to an autocracy which, for centuries,
has ground their faces but which has promised them But Mr. Simonds will not hear of purchasing the
security,
League at that price. It would be "inequitable and
says Mr. James W. Gerard, in My Four Years in , intolerable.”
Germany. And Theodore Roosevelt, in Why
If the condition, and the only condition, of a League of
America Should Join the Allies, says:
Nations be to make a peace with Germany which will
make the victims of German aggression and violence in
Fear of National destruction will prompt men to do the past four years bear the eventual burdens of that
almost anything, and the proper remedy for outsiders to
aggression then it seems to me that the price is too
work for is the removal of the fear. If Germany were
high. Even Utopia would be intolerable if in it
absolutely free from the danger of the least aggression only the red-handed murderer were to have immunity
on her eastern and western frontiers I believe that Ger-
from the consequences of his recent crimes merely because
man public sentiment would refuse to sanction such acts
he had changed his name or his employer. More than
as those against Belgium.
this, we hear much today of a "healing peace," and cer-
Does anyone really believe that they could be pre-
tainly every one hopes that we shall have this blessing.
But even a healing peace must be designed first to heal
vented from somehow arming, finding allies, and the wounds of the innocent victims before it strives to
repeating once more the history of the years that
cure the wounds of those who were injured seeking to
followed Jena?
murder their neighbors. And if any one is to bleed to
death, to follow the figure of speech, it certainly should
We refuse to admit her into the Society of Na not be the women and children of France and Belgium.
tions, refuse to accord her any protection; she will But Mr. Simonds confuses the alternatives as pre-
find her own protection. And the process means the sented by himself. He admits by implication that
rehabilitation of her military order. Arms will failure to establish the League means future war:


588
December 28
THE DIAL
should escape.
the old system will give the old results. In those homes and womenkind, rebuild their world; children
future wars, who will bleed and suffer? The men will be born to them and brought to manhood; and
and women and children of France and Belgium. then—it will once more all go smash in wars that
No matter. Better that than that the criminal will be still more full of hate, of obscene and filthy
The wounds of the innocent vic- cruelty. For these things are progressive, and in the
tims will not be healed. His proposal, not the pro next war neither side will leave to the other the
posal of the "Utopians," will prevent that. In the advantage of surprise in sudden invasion, poison gas,
terms of the dilemma he himself has stated, Belgium or disease germs. And we shall rear our children
will go on bleeding to death. She must refrain from for that foul destiny, not because it is inevitable but
binding up her wounds because the only means by because we shall have chosen that course for fear
which she can do it would enable the guilty to heal that the enemy should escape sufficient punish-
theirs. He admits that the price of punitive in- ment.
demnities will mean the exclusion of Germany from If ever it were true that the opportunity of salva-
the Society of Nations; that such exclusion will tion for mankind is in the Christian ethic, as op-
mean the failure of the League of Nations, by which posed to the older one, that time is now. But the
alone we can hope for reduction of armaments and moratorium of the Sermon on the Mount is not yet
the elimination or the lessening of the risks of war. expired; and to invoke that code is the surest means
But if we have to go on increasing our armaments of all of calling upon one's head the maledictions of
we may well spend thereon all the indemnities that a Christian world—and particularly the maledic-
we can wring from Germany. She will pay them, tions of the Christian churches, to say nothing of
but we shall not get them. What we get from our the Espionage Act penalties of a Christian state.
prisoner, or slave, we shall have to spend on guard. We have made the discovery that we do not really
ing him.
believe these emasculate doctrines. We formally
Nor is that all. The policing and holding down subscribe to them, as we do to things like "liberty"
of Germany and German Austria for the purpose of and "free speech.” But freedom of speech means
securing the indemnities, a similar task perhaps with freedom to speak the thing that pleases us: to refrain
reference to Russia for preventing the penetration from punishment must only be asked when we don't
of German Socialist influence, will mean during feel strongly about the crime.
twenty, thirty (or is it a hundred?) years the Lord Grey, professional diplomat though he be,
imperialistic exploitation of German soil and peo who saw more of the inner processes which led to
ples by foreign masters. It is seriously proposed to this war than any other Anglo-Saxon living, points
retain all the German prisoners now held by the out in his wonderful pamphlet on the League of
Allies for the purpose of working them as slaves in Nations that from time to time an attempt is made
the devastated districts. Presumably others will be to embody in material form the project of a better
deported from Germany for the purpose-poetic international order. It is then discovered that what
retribution for what happened to Belgians. The appeared as an ideal to the wholly desirable and
slaves and their children may well deserve that amiable cannot be of practical use unless we are
slavery; but it will none the less corrupt the masters. ready to subject ourselves to some limitations or
None the less shall we have gone back to medieval discipline that may be inconvenient, and unless we
practice. The evil virus of imperialism will not be are prepared to overcome some difficulties that were
sterilized because the imperialism is also a just not at first sight apparent. The ideal is found to
“punishment.” “That is only likely to make it have in fact a stern and disagreeable as well as an
worse.
easy and amiable side to it!
And such a task will mean of course the militari. Thereupon a storm beats against it; those who never
zation of France, England, Belgium--armaments, thought it desirable--for there are intellects to which
most ideals seem dangerous, and temperaments to which
conscription, centralized and bureaucratic states, and
they are offensive-and who had previously treated it
finally, war. "Servile revolts” of the Russo-Ger only with contempt in the abstract, offer the fiercest op-
man world-aided, it may be, by the Japanese, porters are paralysed by the difficult aspects of it, which
position to it as a practical proposal: many of its sup-
Chinese, and Indians—perhaps we shall call them. they had not previously considered, and the project re-
But none the less war, as Mr. Simonds pretty
cedes again into the region of shadows or abstract resolu-
tions.
plainly implies, in which France and Belgium will
bleed once more.
Mr. Simonds will not promise
He goes on:
them even the respite that the old men at Vienna
There is more at stake in this war than the existence of
individual States or Empires, or the fate of a Continent;
gave to Europe. The poilus will return to their
the whole of modern civilization is at stake, and whether


1918
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THE DIAL
it will perish and be submerged, as has happened to
previous civilizations of older types, or whether it will
live and progress, depends upon whether the nations
engaged in this war, and even those that are onlookers,
learn the lessons that the experience of the war may teach
them. It must be with nations as with individuals; in
the great trials of life they must become better or worse-
they cannot stand still. They must learn and profit by
experience and rise to greater heights, or else sink lower
and drop eventually into the abyss. And this war is the
greatest trial of which there is any record in history. If
the war docs not teach mankind new lessons that will
so dominate the thought and feeling of those who survive
it, and those who succeed the survivors, as to make new
things possible, then the war will be the greatest catas-
trophe as well as the most grievous trial and suffering of
which mankind has any record.
And only a profound change in the temper that
now seems to dominate us can save the world from
that catastrophe.
NORMAN ANGELL.
A War-Song
of the Far
West
HIGH
IGH IN THE Rocky Mountains the prism of the that cover them from head to foot like a symbol
war, the focal point of our generation, has glinted of that submission which is their lot; and silently
from many a strange angle: with shafts of local
the drooping figures trailed home to their lonely
color it has sent its searching rays into the obscure little flat-roofed adobe houses, like drifting shadows
lives of those whom limitless miles of desert, canyon, in a cloud of yellow desert dust. It seemed as though
and volcanic rock have separated from the rest of the tapalas hung from the bowed heads with melan-
mankind. Men whose fathers left the East after choly heaviness, and here and there an old mother
the Civil War, and drifting westward through fell flat in the sand, overcome with the exhaustion
Arkansas and Indian Territory “settled” down to of weeping and the sleepless nights of foreboding
a roving life of horses, cattle, and intermittent min- anguish. They understood so little, these poor
ing in New Mexico and Arizona, were startled women of the lonely mountain ranges; they only
out of their vast solitude to find the youth of the knew that their men were "taken”-taken to be
country called overseas to join in the “big fuss." killed by a terrible people of whom they had never
The Spanish-speaking natives of the Southwest heard before, a people whom all the world must
(they prefer to be known as "the natives," for punish, else they would come here and punish us
they say that “Mexicans” belong in Old Mexico,
and seize our little ranches. And the hot sun beat
whereas these are the "Children of the Conquerors”)
down on this doleful day as on all others; and the
were still more dazed by the thunderbolt that had
mountains towered into the cloudless sky, aloof and
fallen from their rainless sky. These people, whose unheeding; and all the colorful Soạthwest was still,
and as vastly peaceful, as utterly remote from noise
venturesome ancestors, marching north from Mexico
or stir of warfare, as though New Mexico were
in the sixteenth century, braved deserts and Indians
on some other planet-a primeval world in an
and planted the first white settlements in what is
earlier geologic age. Yet into each primitive little
now the United States, these American-Mexicans
home Fate had entered, sternly calling every family
of ours have been walled in by their gaunt cliffs
to a part in the greatest concerted human struggle
and mountains for over three hundred years. Sud-
that mankind has ever known.
denly the slow drone of their monotonous, sunlit Of course an emotional Latin people must reflect
lives was broken by a terrible and mysterious neces this great new experience in song. And perhaps
sity that took every able-bodied man from the tiny it is not altogether strange that the tune which is
villages and left the patient, sad-eyed, and already sung, hummed, or 'whistled in these war times by
overburdened women to all the work of ranch every man, woman, and child in New Mexico
and home. The whole Southwest found itself should have come originally from troublous Old
abruptly seized by the collar and jerked out of its Mexico to the south. It was when our own Span-
isolation; what railroads and the telegraph had ish troops returned home from the border after
been trying for years to accomplish the war has the recent difficulties that they brought with them
achieved in a twelve-month-it has linked the the song of the Carranzistas, Adelita, which has
wilderness with the great world.
spread through every village in the Spanish South-
At first the gatherings of Spanish wives and west. When at the Bailes (the crude native dance-
mothers at the troop-trains were full of somber gatherings) the blind fiddler and the heavy-handed
tragedy., Silently the women wept behind the en guitarist mount the rickety platform at the end
shrouding black tapalas, the deep-fringed shawls of the hard-stamped dirt floor in the adobe Sala de


590
December 28
THE DIAL
Baile, it is Adelita that is squeaked and thrummed shall translate only enough of them to give the
for the enlivement of the thudding and scraping · Latin spirit, thoroughly Mexican in its flowery
feet. When the boys went out, pitchfork on sentiment:
shoulder, to pile high the cut alfalfa and leave all,
“Adelita" is called the young maiden
the little ranch in readiness before the draft should Whom I love and remember each hour;
take them, Adelita sounded from their sturdy throats In the great world I still hold a rosebud,
And with time I shall gather the flower.
or piped on their lips. And when on the eve of a
Saint's Day the slouch-hatted musicians in the sha-
When sounds the bugle of battle,
The soldiers go forth without fear,
dow of some hollyhocked wall make their clumsy
And th' arroyos will flow with the spilt blood;
and discordant serenades to those who bear the name For the Kaiser shall never rule here!
of the saint, it is again Adelita whose strains torture And if I should die in the battle,
the moonlight to the delight of whispering groups
And my body be buried afar,
Adelita, by God I implore you,
for whom this is the best of all music.
Weep for me who am killed in the war.
Whether or not the song was ever published in When as soldier my country now calls me,
Old Mexico I do not know. Possibly my recording
And I go off to fight and to die,
Adelita, o do not forget me,
may be the only written version of the music in the
But pray for my soul with a sigh.
States. But the verses have been variously tran-
I must leave you, my dearest Adela,
scribed in New Mexico, usually by some dark-eyed O grant me my parting request:
girl in the village to whose heart the love-sick words That nothing may e'er come between us,
Let your image be graved in my breast.
of the soldier's farewell strike deep. For Adelita is
The Government calls me, Adela,
a typically Spanish popular song, impassioned, senti-
I must go, but though bitter the pain,
mental, dramatic. It was brought north orally, and I never shall part with the sweet hope
from mouth to mouth and hand to hand it has
Of returning to greet you again.
passed, a verse dropped here, another added there, This autumn the Spanish settlements seem astir
cach singer changing the words to suit himself, and with new life and courage. Adelita's soldier is not
now the whole made poignant to the hour by the
killed: the first drafted boys have been gone long
allusion to the Kaiser. Adelita is the War-Song and they are not dead yet. Perhaps, after all, they
of Spanish New Mexico.
will come back! Anyway they are well off in
The tune is what children call a "sticker": once
the "campos." Por Dios, what letters they send
heard it sticks in the head and cannot be extracted. home, all so cheerful and full of the new things
Yet it is not the fatal tune alone that causes
they are learning. Why, some of them can even
Adelita's popularity; the words have a deep appeal
send poems to the local Spanish papers. And how
at this time, and though the melody is little more
well the Government feeds them, too. And as for
than a rhythmic dance-jingle, I have seen it-be-
the wives at home, what with the soldiers' pay they
cause of its association with the soldiers—bring
now have more “dineros” than they ever had in all
tears to many an eye. For these people, whose
their lives before. No one spends it all on Saturday
hemmed-in lives seem to an outsider both barren night in the nearest town, or drinks it all up in a
and joyless, have been giving their all in this war.
day. How proudly the women now drive in their
They are poor, their only possessions being their big carts to the bank on the Plaza to deposit their
strips of irrigated land, their tiny orchards, their money!
sheep, goats, and burros, and perhaps the semi-arid
Towards the end, the last good-byes of the drafted
pastures for their animals. The toil of the patient boys were preceded by a whole week of festivities.
women is unceasing, and coin is scarce indeed. Yet
Bailes were held nearly every night, and the boys
dashed from one settlement to another on horseback,
in many a little window hangs a Food Administra-
the heroes of the hour, yelling like Indians. Adelita
tion pledge and the sign of the Red Cross. Loyally,
took on a gay sound as those who were driven down
uncomplainingly the Spanish-Americans shouldered
the mountains in the Government automobiles sang
their share of the burden of the world war. Further-
it at the top of their lungs till cliff and canyon
more, the boys marry before they are twenty; and
often it is a grandmother, mother, and young wife
echoed to the "sticky" tune. Surely this coming in
touch with the big world has been a great awaken-
who weep at the sound of Adelita and the memory ing. The draft is one of the most powerful educa-
of the handkerchief that waved from the window
tional forces that ever entered Spanish New Mexico.
of the troop-train.
Since the verses of the song trail on endlessly, I
NATALIE CURTIS BURLIN.


1918
591
THE DIAL
Soviet Russia and the American Revolution
THE
HE DRAWING of historic analogies is a perilous governing than education or a cosmopolitan training.
undertaking. On the score of specific incident and In a day of simple industrial, social, and commercial
detail it would be difficult to establish the case for a elements, class lines and feelings as they now exist
comparison between the Russian and the American were not included in the category. But these have
Revolutions; the two manifestations apparently run grown up rapidly under the impetus of industrial-
in quite independent channels; and it may seem ism; and along with them have grown, in new
strange that anyone should attempt to draw a paral- guise but in the same unmistakable form, many of
lel between Russia and America in this regard the very political and governmental evils which
when the French Revolution superficially offers the the writers of the American Constitution strove so
better analogy. But it is only superficially; after hard to avoid. Governments have become complex
all the specific objections have been freely admitted, once more, legislatures have passed into the control
after all detailed criticism has been allowed to of lawyers, the body of the electorate does not see
triumph by default of the argument, there remains and feels that it cannot grasp what is going on, and
a certain divine sense in which the Russian Revolu a ruling class selected along financial attributes
tion parallels the revolt of the thirteen American definitely dominates the political machinery of West-
Colonies more nearly than the other, and in which ern democracy. In a word, our system of repre-
the proletariat of Russia is striving to accomplish sentative government has demonstrated, to the class,
for his world much the same ideals which our fore at least, which feels the grievance, that under
fathers laid down for theirs. There was more of the changed economic conditions it does not fairly repre-
spirit of the people, more of faith and dependence in sent the popular will. Allowing for the great
the proletariat, in American Revolutionary doctrine natural difference between the two periods, it is not
than we seem disposed to admit today; and by the stretching the point to say that the Soviet system in
same token, it is because we have lost our sense of Russia proposes to do for the new era something
fundamental democracy that we do not care to admit very similar in its political objectives to that which
it. But we should think too highly of the outright the writers of the American Constitution proposed
American ideals to permit them without protest to to do for the old; and that the true purpose of
be swallowed whole by the pseudo-democratic claims Soviet Russia, irrespective of its transitory class
of a crass plutocracy. Totally different in form and dogma, is to simplify government again and to
substance, in method and event, in time, place, cir- bring it under the control of the actual majority.
cumstance, and era, these two revolutionary mani And the great danger which besets us is that, in
festations nevertheless have shown the same spirit the confusion of issues and events, the true demo-
and have sprung from the same set of universal cratic fundamentals of Russia may not be recognized
human impulses. To their respective centuries they in time by American and Allied statesmanship, and
have meant the same thing.
that the natural development of the Russian de-
In fact, has not the thought arrested liberals mocracy' may be hopelessly compromised by inter-
everywhere that in the Soviet system we see a fore- ference from abroad. This, in turn, would quickly
shadowing of the next step forward in the machinery undermine what democracy is left to us in the West,
of democratic government, bringing our present and might too easily bring about the cataclysm. The
machinery, a heritage from a past era, abreast of the future of civilization seems to hang between the
new industrialized world? The writers of the devil of selfish privilege and the deep sea of an
American Constitution certainly strove to construct inadequate statesmanship. From the beginning of
an instrument by virtue of which the actual majority the Revolution Russia has relentlessly precipitated
of the electorate should control the government. for the democratic world the issue which could not
They certainly strove to render impossible the domi-
be put aside.
nation of a ruling class, to do away with the artificial It is certain that Russia cannot continue per-
complexities of politics, and to bring every function manently to be governed on a class basis. The logic
of government within the grasp and comprehension of life and history precludes such an outcome. All
of the whole electorate. Indeed, they went much the tendencies of human relationships stand un-
farther than this in theory, and by opening the high- alterably opposed to it. The outright class program
est office to the lowest citizen they faced and of Soviet Russia, which already shows distinct signs
acknowledged the truth that an experience in human of becoming modified under the pressure of events
mutuality may be a better equipment for the art of
and responsibilities, is bound to be still farther modi-


592
December 28
THE DIAL
fied, until it loses its strictly class character. The local self-government and to apply it to the broader
existing bourgeoisie may easily be disposed of, but field of national politics. There is nothing un-
there is no provision in the class program for the democratic about the Soviet system; its ideal seems
new bourgeoisie which inevitably will be developed to be to produce a government actually representa-
out of the body of the proletariat. The various tive of the proportional groupings of modern society.
political parties of Russia, at present representing With the addition of the class feature, it is nothing
highly antagonistic class groups, must ultimately but an extension of our own town-meeting principle.
come together in some workable form of constitu- Let us have class caucuses in town-meeting, and we
tional and parliamentary coalition. The furthering have the local Soviet. At any rate, this system is a
of this process should be the great task confronting natural product of social and political fundamentals
American and Allied statesmanship today.
in Russia, and as such plainly is indispensable to the
Briefly, the political issue in Russia lies between development of the true Russian democracy.
two systems of governmental authority based on So the real issue, throughout the Revolution, has
different principles of election and representation: been between two antagonistic systems of representa-
the Soviet system, based on class units; and the tive government rather than between various politi-
system of the Constituent Assembly, based on the cal parties. On the one hand were the Bolsheviki
old geographical units. The Soviet system breaks up and certain groups of the Mensheviki and Social
the old geographical election district into class units, Revolutionaries, who steadfastly supported the So-
each one of which elects its own delegate to the local viet system. On the other hand were the Cadets
Soviet; and the local Soviet, in turn, elects its dele and the reactionary fringe of the center parties, who
gates to the next higher body. This, roughly, is the supported the system of the Constituent Assembly.
central principle of an extensive governmental sys These latter have refused to cooperate in the Soviet
tem the details of which do not properly come within system, and have insisted that democracy for
the range of the present article. The basis of the Russia lies only in a return to the authority of
Constituent Assembly, on the other hand, is the old the Constituent Assembly. It is not difficult to
geographical election district established under the see the reason for this: under the Soviet sys-
Czar's regime at the time of the first Duma. This tem they would be an insignificant minority,
also is the Zemstvo election district.
while under the system of the Constituent Assembly
The Soviet system made its appearance in Russia they would stand a better chance of controlling the
coincident with the first Revolution of the spring of political situation. They accuse the Soviet authority
1917. It was the authority of the Soviet system, of overthrowing the Constituent Assembly, which of
through its first manifestation in the Council of course was done; but the Soviets could not have done
Soldiers and Workers' Delegates in Petrograd, it and maintained the position without the backing
which brought about the downfall of the Pro- of a majority opinion. Two different principles of
visional Government a few weeks after the Revolu- government could not establish their separate ma-
tion. Throughout the summer of 1917, under the chinery throughout the same area. In the clash of
Coalition Government and during the Kerensky Revolutionary forces the Soviet principle won the
regime, the Soviet system was the real power in day, and became established as the will of the Rus-
Russia. From the very beginning the forces repre sian people. The statement that the peasants are
senting the Constituent Assembly have not been able being held in political bondage by the Soviets does
to stand against the Soviet authority, although many not seem to be borne out by the facts of the case.
counter-revolutions in the name of the Constituent The Soviet system is founded on peasant funda-
Assembly have been supported from abroad. All the mentals, and satisfies peasant training and psychol-
events of the Revolution prove the case. The author ogy. It cannot be overlooked that the peasants have
ity of the Soviet system has maintained itself in the not yet attempted to overthrow the Soviet system,
face of the combined hostility of the world, and is but that on the contrary they have everywhere sup-
stronger today than it was six months ago.
ported it; and that nowhere in Russia since the first
The fact is that the Soviet system is a new ma Revolution has there appeared a peasant movement
chinery of representative government, derived from for the reestablishment of the Constituent Assembly.
the principle of class representation, and in the case The task for constructive statesmanship, therefore,
of Russia taking its roots in the local machinery of obviously is to effect a reconciliation of all the Revo-
the ancient village Mir. It is a system simple and lutionary parties of Russia based on the Soviet prin-
direct enough to be understood by the peasants and ciple. It is now fairly demonstrable that to attempt
workingmen, and through it they are able without a reconciliation based on the opposite principle is to
handicap to exercise their traditional training in invite ultimate failure. It is to attempt to sustain


1918
593
THE DIAL
the small minority against the vast majority, to set American Revolutions. In both cases the general
up in Russia a fictitious authority not supported by problem is one of federation. Russia, like America,
the Russian people. This has been tried in lending has found her true legislative fundamentals but
support to the various Counter-Revolutionary move lacks administrative cohesion. Russia, like America,
ments, and now it is being tried directly by the force has her small body of Tories, whose property is be-
of Allied and American arms. Such a fictitious ing confiscated, whose political principles are being
government would needs be supported continuously outraged, and who are betraying her at every turn.
by military power from abroad. Who will promise In so far as it is possible to compare two widely
that such a policy will not destroy the very authority separated social, political, and economic eras, the
which institutes it, through the revolt of the pro- analogy holds. In America however the sole aim
letariat everywhere? Who will deny that such a was political democracy; for in that day the founda-
policy makes utter mockery of the principle of self tions of democracy had not yet shifted from legis-
determination, for which the democratic world os latures to banks and bourses, and there was no in-
tensibly has been fighting?
dustrial autocracy to fight. Today in Russia, in a
The second necessary office of American and world many generations removed from that of our
Allied statesmanship should be to assist in bringing forefathers on the score of economic progress, the
about cohesion within the Soviet system itself. This aim is social and industrial democracy through po-
system has sprung up like a mushroom growth litical democracy. The legislative fundamentals
throughout the length and breadth of Russia. It is
were of course more firmly established among the
natural and substantial on the legislative side, but it Thirteen Colonies than they are in Soviet Russia;
unavoidably lacks administrative leadership and fed the electorate may have been better trained in self-
eral cohesion. The executive branch suffers from government, and the necessary administrative ma-
sheer inadequacy of personnel. A legislative system chinery and personnel were unquestionably far more
based on sound fundamentals creates itself auto extensive; but on the other hand, these very facts
matically out of the body and initiative of a self- entailed a set of firmly grounded local antagonisms
governing people; but a corresponding executive sys among the Colonies which is largely absent in the
tem, with its enormous problems of personnel and case of Soviet Russia. What might be called the
authority, has to be built up more slowly out of potential cohesion of Soviet Russia is probably
training, education, and experience. The very train- sounder and more substantial than was that of the
ing in local self-government throughout Russia Thirteen Colonies, or in other words the danger
which gives strength to the legislative function of of disruption is less. The potentialities in America
the Soviet system militates at the start against its in 1788 were exceedingly treacherous; and Amer-
administrative cohesion; the provincial Soviets in ica's federal cohesion was not finally established until
some cases refuse to abide by the decisions of the the close of the Civil War in 1865. And for a last
All-Russian Congress, and in general the local So item of the analogy, the case of Russia, like that of
viets, born of independence and intoxicated by a year the Thirteen Colonies, demands the utmost wisdom
of youthful authority, tend to go their own ways. of reconciliation and vision of brave and constructive
The vastness of the country, the educational back- leadership, and this not only in Russia, but quite as
wardness of the people, the lack of transportation much on the part of the world abroad.
and communication, and the inevitable provincialism When we turn from the political to the economic
of the whole regime, all aggravate this failure in phase of Soviet Russia, we see that they are the
administrative cohesion. In addition, a great deal obverse and reverse of the same shield. However
of the trained administrative talent of Russia, with seriously Soviet Russia may have avowed the prin-
vision blurred by the injustices of the Revolutionary ciples of Marxian Socialism, it is evident that the
manifestation, has chosen actively to conspire against application of the program has not worked out along
the success of the true democratic principle. As a dogmatic lines, and that the final result will be far
result of all this we see a movement in Russia which different from the original theory. As a matter of
superficially may look like a disagreement among fact there seems to be much misunderstanding re-
the Soviets and a gradual breaking up of the system garding the Socialistic nature of the Bolshevik mani-
itself, but which in reality is only a natural stage in festation, and room for grave doubt of its orthodoxy;
the very unequal and desperately difficult develop- reports are infinitely confusing, and passion or
ment of a Russian federation based on true demo- prejudice almost unavoidably color the account.
cratic fundamentals.
The impression generally accepted through the West
Here again we discover that vague but neverthe- is that the Soviets are instituting Marxian Socialism.
less sound analogy between the Russian and the But it has not yet been explained why formal Social-


594
December 28
THE DIAL
ists everywhere, in Russia as well as in the Allied tically untouched; the well of her stupendous
countries and America, are the bitterest enemies of productive power remains unopened. Only an
Bolshevism. It has not been explained precisely insignificant proportion of her wealth is invested in
what Bolshevism is. The fact seems to be that the mechanical industries. But it is inevitable that
Bolshevism is something entirely new, something in the course of the next fifty years Russia will be-
which partakes of the nature of both communism come to a large degree industrialized. Millions and
and democracy, of both Socialism and capitalism- tens of millions of agricultural workers will become
something which has split Socialism everywhere and factory workers; enormous new wealth will be
caused the majority of Socialists to shift their created, and the most of it will be invested in the
ground, leaving only the dogmatic minority within mechanical industries; the color and texture of the
the walls of the academic Marxian doctrine. The whole social fabric of Russia will change. The
Bolsheviki in control of Soviet Russia have awakened prospect is overwhelming; nowhere in history has
the thought of the world.
such a field disclosed itself to an era so ready to
All this is a healthy and hopeful sign. It means seize and act upon it. The sweep of possibilities in
that the social program of Soviet Russia is as new Russia staggers the imagination. It stills the heart,
and untried as its political machinery; that both are as well, to realize that we of the Western democra-
in a process of rapid development, seeking im- cies are permitted to assist at the birth of this new
petuously to find their true bearings; and that both giant, and that all that we do, either right or wrong,
inevitably are destined to grow out of themselves for or against, shall surely affect the history of a
into more stable and adaptable forms. The thing great people, and shall as surely react upon the his-
which has appeared in Russia is a thing without tory of our children's children.
theory or precedent. In a strictly literal sense it is What shall be written on the clean economic
a natural development. It is not to be estimated by slate of Russia? What shall be the fortune of that
physical events, or even by the acts or announced portentous economic history which is even now be-
policies of the Soviet authority, but only by a free ginning to unfold itself? Shall it be permitted to
analysis of the tendencies and potentialities made develop naturally under the control of the Russian
manifest. What it is heading towards, what it must people, along with the development of Russia's free
become, is of far more importance than what it is political institutions ? Shall we in America and in
today. After a year of chaos, in which ideas of the Allied countries seek with all of our wisdom
Socialism, communism, and anarchy have run riot and experience to assist Russia to avoid the errors
along with sublime visions and great hopes in the into which Western democracy has fallen in the
minds of a people untutored, elemental, natively course of its industrial development? Shall we
philosophic, and suffering from tragic wrongs—a rejoice in the opportunity to put into effect in Rus-
people nobly disposed at heart, and suddenly en sia, as stones in the foundation, those reforms for
dowed with the tremendous burden of its own (and which Western democracy has had to pay such a
perhaps the world's) destiny-it is possible to dis- heavy price in the demolition of the structure? Or
cern the vague but nevertheless certain outlines of
shall we, actuated only by selfish motives, inspired
a cosmic plan, standing solidly in the background of only by greed and materialism, aware only of the
the Revolutionary picture.
temporary profit and reckless of the eternal conse-
This plan is neither Socialistic nor communistic. quence, break up the natural development of
It is neither a bourgeois plan nor a proletarian plan. Russia's economic and political destiny (the while
It is the plan of a free and outright representative we hypocritically explain that we are doing it for
democracy, of the rule of the actual majority, of Russia's benefit) and insist on grafting all of our
natural resources and all forms of national wealth own errors and vices on the free Russian stem? To
and productive power in the hands of the people, of be specific, shall Russia be left to develop her own
work for production rather than for profit, and of natural resources and productive power, under the
government for service rather than for privilege. control of her own popular government, or shall she
This is the objective towards which Soviet Russia be forced to undergo for a time the familiar proc-
is heading. These are the real tendencies and po ess of exploitation at the hands of foreign capital
tentialities of Bolshevism.
backed by foreign arms? Shall her enormous po-
In a modern economic sense Russia is a clean tential wealth accrue to herself, to her people, to
slate to write on. It is stated that less than three the benefit of Russia, or shall it accrue to banking
per cent of her population is made up of industrial circles in foreign capitals and to the close corporation
workers. Russia is still almost wholly an agri- of vested financial control?
cultural state. Her vast natural resources lie prac The latter course would seem to be 'monstrous;


1918
595
THE DIAL
and yet it is the course which so far frankly has Bolshevism differ only in degree, but not in kind,
been followed by Allied and American policy. It is from those inherent in all Western democracy.
the course which has prompted the bourgeoisie in They represent the same broad fundamentals which
Russia to revolt frantically against the Soviets; it is find expression in the war aims of Pre Wilson,
the course which has led the Allies (in unconscious in the reconstruction program of the British Labor
agreement with Imperial Germany) to support Party, in the program of the new Independent
counter-revolution after counter-revolution in Labor Party in America, and in the language of
Russia; it is the course which has inspired a thoughtful men everywhere when they discuss the
propaganda from Russia utterly misrepresenting growing inadequacies and palpable failures of our
events and issues; it is the course which has called present governmental machinery. When we visual-
for military intervention, for recognition of a ize industrial democracy for America, we visualize
Siberian Government, for any possible action cal a state not so far different from the state fore-
culated to break down the authority of the Soviet shadowed by the tendencies and potentialities of
system. The motive in all these acts has been the Soviet Russia. Thus by the inexorable logic of
spirit of exploitation, which, when driven into the human progress the truth in Russia is bound up with
corner, takes refuge in the claim that only through the truth throughout the West; and if the West
the machinery of the old economic order can Russia deny the truth in Russia, it will have denied the
properly be saved.
truth at home. And truth denied will launch the
The West perhaps may have the power to break cataclysm.
the new Russian democracy, although the breaker It rests with the statesmanship of America and
will be broken in the end. But the responsibility the Allies whether our ostensible objective shall be-
goes farther than the immediate issue. To break come our real objective, and shall be attained, or
the new Russian democracy means, in no uncertain whether the compromise must be carried forward to
language, to lose the fight for the new world. It disaster; whether Russia's contribution to democracy
means that the great war which has just now ended shall be recognized and accepted, or whether it shall
will have to be fought over again quite soon and very be spurned and scattered, to appear anon behind the
terribly on a different field. For the fact cannot be lines of the entrenched and self-righteous authori-
evaded that, stripped of misrepresentation and de- ties; whether the West can learn its lesson in time,
lusion, Soviet Russia's objective is essentially the or whether civilization must go down in ruins be-
same as the avowed objective of America and the
fore the new world appears.
Allies; or that the tendencies and potentialities of
LINCOLN COLCORD.
Democracy, Watch Your Step!
PERHAPS
ERHAPS THE MOST striking feature of President choose their Government and act as its first Presi-
Wilson's psychology, as revealed by his proclama- dent. That was self-determination, prompt, pure
tions, is an unerring sense of the popular will which and simple; it was Wilsonian democracy tri-
he reflects in words of precise and clear-cut mean umphant.
ings. It is that which has made him the idol of the But the most interesting feature of the situation
millions in Europe who in sweat, blood, and sorrow
to Americans was the contrast between the Polish
fought and won the war. In his speech of January policy of President Wilson as he stated it to the
22, '1917 to the Senate, the President declared for Senate and the manner in which it was antagonized
a free, united, and autonomous Poland and by that within the knowledge of the highest Administration
speech stirred the hearts and fired the imaginations political circles. I refer to the moral, if not defi-
and stimulated the lives of upward of twenty-six nitely official, support given by the State and War
millions of Poles who for centuries have carried the Departments to a group of exiled Poles living in
yoke of foreign autocracy and repression.
Paris, who had arrogated to themselves the func-
The armistice automatically created a free Poland
tions of the Government of the new State of Poland
and on November 15, at a meeting in Poland
which President Wilson said the war must make,
at which all of the many political parties were rep free, united, and autonomous. The attitude of the
resented, General Joseph Pilsudski, released by the Poles in Poland towards that Paris Committee of
armistice from a German prison, was selected to exiles is shown by the official act of the convention


596
December 28
THE DIAL
which chose General Pilsudski and which at the politician of the machine type, a man who had been
same time unanimously denounced the Paris Com- State Treasurer of Illinois, and a banker of con-
mittee as having had no authority at any time to siderable prominence. This combination of great
speak or act for the Polish people. The justice of human and social forces-idealism, Church, machine
that denunciation was recognized by every person politics—reenforced by a central business organiza-
who was familiar with the activities of the Paris tion, publicity bureau, lobbyists, press agents, and
Committee in Europe and America, and who be- the gullibility of high Administration officials, made
lieves in democracy as opposed to autocracy. Briefly, of the Paris Committee a potent influence among
the history of that Committee is one of flagrant self- the four millions of Poles in America. Indeed so
seeking carried out with all the cupidity of skilled powerful was the combination that the Paris Com-
unscrupulous politicians who exploited for their own mittee with no authority except that of their own
ends the people, the distress of Poland, the frailties egotistic ambitions were able to do several very un-
of stupid American Administration officials, even democratic, yea blatantly autocratic, things: First,
President Wilson's unmistakable, clearly stated they extracted from the four millions of Poles and
principles for the self-determination of peoples. many trusting Americans vast sums of money, sup-
Who constituted and what were the records of posedly for Polish relief. One donation of a thou-
that Paris Committee? They were ten men whose sand dollars for the relief of war victims in Poland
activities prior to the war were chiefly in furthering was transferred to the fund for the Polish Army,
the interests of the three monarchies who held the organization and maintenance of which was
Poland in their autocratic and persecuting power. part of their shrewd political program. Their in-
These men had by intrigue with the reactionaries fluence at Washington was such that, by an official
in Europe obtained a semi-official recognition by order of the War Department, all money donated in
the French and British Governments; and it was America for the relief of war victims in Poland
that recognition which gave them a standing in the could be sent to Poland only through Mr. Pade-
American State and War Departments which no rewski. Of course that order prevented those peo-
amount of information offered by disinterested per- ple to whom the nature of the activities of the
sons could dislodge. It was that quasi-official recog Paderewski faction were known from sending
nition which makes a dark chapter in the record of money to the starving and naked people in devastated
America's war activities. The State and War De- Poland. For instance, the official representative in
partments shied at this question put to them with America of the Women's League in Poland had
all the backing of documentary evidence: "In view $17,000 in cash ready to send to the war victims,
of a war waged in behalf of democracy and the but was told by the War Department that only Mr.
freedom of oppressed nationalities, why should a Paderewski could handle the money; the money was
group which is monarchial, representative of con not sent until Mr. Paderewski was shorn of power
servative economic interests, and largely anti- by the repudiation of the Paris Committee by the
Semitic, occupy such an important semi-official free Poles in Poland.
political status?"
There were no tricks of the political trade that
The member of the Paris Committee officially in attempts to gain their ends. For example, the
this faction did not practice with skill and ingenuity
delegated to America was Mr. Paderewski, the
great pianist. His social prominence and his rep-
newspapers of July 18 announced a bill to be intro-
duced into the United States Senate by Senator
resentation of the idealistic spirit of the Poles in
Hitchcock which proposed to bind the United States
America made him an admirable leader for the Paris
to recognize the Paris Committee as the only official
Committee's purposes; it enabled him to charm
representatives of the new State of Poland, and to
ignorant “society people” into endorsing his activ- give it the power to determine what Poles in
ities and to deceive the immigrants concerning the America were to be classed as "enemy aliens”—
real purposes of his schemes. As a politician his which was rather a nice, coercive measure for the
ability commanded respect by reason of the organiza- liberal Poles in America, who recognized the true
tion, ostensibly for Polish relief and for a free status of the Paderewski faction and stated their
Poland, which he rapidly effected. His first alli- opinions in the independent Polish press. Senator
ance was with the Polish Roman Catholic Church Hitchcock ignored a letter written to him at that
and especially with that branch of the Polish clergy time calling attention to the fact that a scientific
which openly opposes Americanization among the study of Polish conditions in America was being
immigrants. Another stone in the foundation of made and that the organization and its data were
the organization was Mr. Smulski, of Chicago, a at his disposal. The same Senator also refrained


1918
597
THE DIAL
from answering the following telegram sent on originated the gas mask worn at that time by the
November 25 by the author of the above mentioned American soldiers at the French front. The War
letter:
Department had written him a letter of apprecia-
The first act of the free Poles in Poland was to choose
tion, but they and the Department of Justice were
their own ruler in the person of General Pilsudski. That evidently not on speaking terms in reference to the
act is a sad commentary upon your proposed Senate bill
war.
to bind America to recognize the autocratic Polish fac-
The Paderewski faction was apparently persona
tion that consistently maligned and persecuted Pilsudski
here and in Europe. The lesson to you as chairman of grata in the State Department until the acts of the
the Foreign Relations Committee should be to conduct great Polish patriot, General Pilsudski, and the
a scientific study of the problems involved in the subject
nations, and thus avoid again embarrassing President
great, free Polish people in reference to their own
Wilson's policy for the self-determination of all peoples. Government gave the United States Government
See Professor Dewey's report to the Government for food for serious thought. It settled the Polish ques-
information as to methods of procedure. This is an open
telegram and a challenge to debate the democratic and
tion and all such minor futilities as the Detroit
educational principles embodied.
Convention, Senator Hitchcock, Mr. Paderewski,
Perhaps the finest bit of political trickery which
the political machine, and so forth, in that particular
this Paris Committee executed was that which Pro- connection. The stars in their courses will not be
fessor Dewey exposed in The New Republic of
balked.
August 24, 1918 under the title Autocracy Under The Paris Committee was asphyxiated and in-
Cover. Briefly, it was the announcement of a con-
terred by the inexorable logic of the irrepressible
vention, to be held in Detroit beginning August 26, spirit of man who will, and must, be free. But
that would represent, speak and act for, the four the Polish situation was merely a replica in minia-
billions of Poles in America. In fact the Conven ture of the world problem that President Wilson
tion represented the Paderewski faction exclusively will face at the peace table. The disembodied spirit
(an extremely small minority), was “packed” by of the Paris Committee will be there in its protean,
prime machine methods; not a delegate had the right multi-national forms. The countless millions of the
of free speech, and no liberals could possibly gain exploited hope, with the pent-up repressions of the
access to it. The packing of the Convention was ages, symbolized by the Poles, that the President
done chiefly through the obliging offices of the meant what he said and that he has the courage
Church. The real objects of the Convention it and the greatness of character to tell the exploiters
would be libelous to state publicly, but the Govern that their sun has set. These millions will forget
ment was informed of one of them in time to check his apparent defections regarding the Russian in-
a resolution that would have been a serious affront tervention, open diplomacy, the labor delegation, as
to the Government's policies. At the convention the expedients of losing the small stakes to get an
two native American liberals were denounced as opportunity at the big one—the freedom for all man-
"pro-German" because of their known association kind that will be lost or won for them by him. It
with a sociological investigation which had been is to be hoped that he will have the greatness of
the means of placing in the hands of the War and soul to carry out the intimation made in his speech
State Departments much data concerning the Paris
at the opening of the Fourth Liberty Loan cam-
Committee and its activities in Europe and America paign, that if he does not win the reactionaries will
of which they challenged refutation. That denun- lose, and lose violently, by his appeal over the heads
of the rulers to the peoples themselves. If Democ-
ciation was expected because the "pro-German" atti-
racy's step be sure and firm, the victory will be
tude was the single red herring in their intellectual
speedy and complete and probably with the smooth-
basket, and they applied it indiscriminately and as
ness and precision that made Poland a free people
a matter of routine to every person who thought in
with no resulting harm except to the autocrats.
terms other than theirs. And, as usual too, the
President Wilson would return with the power and
Department of Justice promptly investigated the probably the determination to begin democracy at
charges, but no arrests or warnings followed; the
home. The Lodges and the Roosevelts would dis-
investigations and the expenses to the public were
the Governmental evils sufficient unto the days ered the Paris Committee, and the Hitchcocks would
appear by means of the same mechanism that smoth-
thereof.
be compelled to get the preliminary education that
A minor irony of the situation was the fact that
one of these Americans investigated by the Depart: preach democracy at the head and practice autocracy
would avoid the ignominy of having official America
ment of Justice had furnished the total financial
at the extremities.
support to the private laboratory in which was
ALBERT C. BARNES.


598
December 28
THE DIAL
Letters to
Unknown
Women:
Heliodora
of poets.
HELIODORA :
love was as a fire burning him, that love had molded
Heliodora! Heliodora! Though the poet who
your image in his heart, that love was sweet yet hard
to bear, yet bitter to the heart.
sang you is counted neither among the great poets
You were a flower among women, so that when
nor among the great lovers, your beautiful name
echoes insistently in our ears; and though you are
the rose-crown withered on your brow in the hot air
of the banquet room, Meleager could exclaim that
but a legend to us, tenuous as some faint perfume,
you still shone the flower of flowers. He sends you
we cannot forget you, Heliodora! Heliodora! Gift
white violet and narcissus with myrtle, lilies and
of the sun god, we liken you in our fancy to a golden
flower, to a stem of wheat, to a cluster of grapes.
soft crocus and dark blue hyacinths and the lover's
We cannot know whether you lived at Gadara, at
rose “so that the garland about the temples of myrrh-
tressed Heliodora may strew flowers on her bright
Cos, or at Alexandria; but this we know—that you
loose hair."
were beloved by a poet whose words still move
Your loves were graceful and simple, Heliodora,
us in these later years. And since when we think
of Meleager's mistress it is always your name we
altogether too graceful and too simple for the taste
of today. You do not illustrate some great problem;
speak, perhaps you will forgive him for having loved
Timarion and Senophile and Demo and Tryphera.
you are not reformed and you are not punished.
You will not please our moralists. You and your
It is too much to ask you to forgive them. Be
lover are so frank, so pleasant in your sensuousness,
consoled; while Meleager is remembered, Heliodora
so innocent of a sense of sin, that you will not please
will not be forgotten.
Perhaps you have forgotten what love is, wander-
our sensualists. And because you are long dead
and not talked about in public gatherings you will
ing in those cold fields of Persephone, where there
not please the folk who are midway between sensu-
are none of the blossoms of Enna. Listen then to
alist and moralist but partake a little of each. But
the voice of your lover singing at the feast with the
yours is a more glorious fate; you are the beloved
rose-wreath in his hair:
"Pour the wine and say 'Heliodora'"he speaks
If you were gay and not troubled overmuch about
your name—"again and yet again say 'Heliodora';
the things of life and the things that might come
mingle with the wine that most sweet sound.
"Give me the flower-crown of yesterday, wet
after death, I hold you to have been happy. Per-
haps, in spite of the sweet singing which so stirred
with perfume, in memory of her.
the passionate heart of Meleager, you were more
"Look! The amorous rose weeps to see her other-
nearly interested in your perfumes and spices, in your
where and not upon my breast.”
garments of frail linen, in your polished mirrors
Were you cruel, were you faithless, Heliodora?
and chased boxes and little painted bottles, in your
The world will not easily forgive you for stabbing gold chains and jewels and the garland for your
the poet's heart. If you were not faithless why hair. At the very same time that you lived, a great
does he cry out:
"O Night, oh my sleepless yearning for Helio- philosopher, who was born not far from your lover's
dora, oh the tearful chafings of tortured dawns, birthplace, refused to condemn a hetaira accused be-
fore him, and his example is so illustrious that we
does any trace of my love remain, any remembered
dare not go against it. And then, too, you died
kiss warm her cold image ?"
Were cold to our poet, Heliodora?
you
young:
“Tears to thee under the earth, bitter tears I
moment he plays with the thought that though you
shed for thee, Heliodora, in Orcus; I weep above
were far away you "clasped to your breast and
your grave, that buries my desires, my gaiety.
kissed a heart-deluding image.” But if you were
“Bitterly, bitterly yet does Meleager mourn his
not faithless, Heliodora, why does he cry out: "Has
beloved among the dead, in empty Acheron.
she a new love, a new plaything?"
“Alas, alas, where is my beloved young olive-
Heliodora, you were as unfaithful to our poet as
branch? Death has taken her-dust stains the
he was to you. The gods are just.
lovely flower.
But we can forgive you much, for although you
were a hetaira-or perhaps because of that.-you softly clasp her to your breast."
"O Earth, O mother of all, my mother, softly,
loyed flowers and you sang gracefully, and you
were beloved by Meleager so that he cried out that
RICHARD ALDINGTON.
For a


1918
599
THE DIAL
“On the Seashore of Endless Worlds”
THREE
HREE THOUSAND five hundred of the Business And so, cigar-cases well filled, they paced the
Leaders of America came to Atlantic City on De- board walk with the well-known forceful, aggressive
cember 3 to reconstruct American Business. Each, stride and the broad-gage, virile jaw of the public-
of course, was the Typical Big Modern American spirited, forward-looking American Business Man.
Business Man. That is, he was "forceful and That board walk suited their mood so exactly.
aggressive," "broad-gage and public-spirited," "for Smooth, inviting, endless, the even tenor of its
ward-looking and virile," and so on. Together way was so reminiscent of the quiet wheel-chair
they constituted the War Emergency and Recon- days of American Business before 1914, when we
struction Conference of the United States Cham- could go on and on as long as we were pushed, in-
ber of Commerce.
vigorated by the free winds of Business Initiative.
This was, frankly, a serious occasion. They had The sea ? Yes, wasn't it beautiful?
endured the humiliation of traveling on Govern The victorious You-Be-Damned of their present
ment-operated railroads, and the fatigue of parlor- mood was lost on the unproletarian board walk, but
car journeys from all parts of the country, with no the rest of us waited for the dawn of December 4
light purpose. They stood, frankly, at the threshold to come up like thunder and the Voice of American
of a New Era. The time had come for American Business to unequivocally drown out the sea. Once
Business to make its position unequivocally clear. their thirty-five hundred cigars were lit on Young's
No mere equivocal clearness would do. American Million Dollar Pier and the windows closed and
Labor and the American Farmer had long spoken the Lord's Prayer said, the reconstruction thoughts
with voices of authority. Beside them the conflict- for which the world was waiting would drop
ing tongues of miscellaneous groups of American smoothly from the virile, efficient machinery of
Business had made timid and unimpressive appeal. American Business like shiny safety pins ready for
Now it was necessary for every forward-looking the swaddling clothes of Public Opinion.
American Business Man to put shoulder to the Before that, however, the machinery was to be
wheel and see to it that American Business got not well oiled and tried out in the preliminary meetings
only a fair deal, but that the public learned—what of the 350 or so War Service Committees. These
you know and we know—that instead of being its committees, representing every industry from baby-
enemy, Business is its friend.
carriage manufacturers to casket makers, had given
Unfortunate that the public attention just then their all-plus to put American Business in high
happened to be distracted by the Peace Conference. speed for the war. Now, of course, they would help
Unfortunate that the President could not have shift gears to the peace pace. Did we therefore
postponed it long enough to hear the Voice of wish to know whether the War Industries Board
American Business on the questions which, as a should be abolished, whether price-fixing should
mere statesman, he would so inadequately handle, continue, whether coal administration should be
or failing that that American Business could not maintained, and what should be done with the rail-
have gone along with him. He had declined how- roads, the tariff, labor, and a few things like that?
ever, and it was said that he had taken a mass
These things would be settled by those who were
of carefully compiled statistics with him instead.
As if the counsel of statistics could adequately rep-
conversant with the ways of business, not by theorists
or official meddlers. Each .committee would bring
resent American Business!
in its resolutions on these questions, and these multi-
Under these circumstances however, American
Business had only one thing to do and that was to
tudinous vibrations of virile American Industry
show precisely where it stood, to make its position would be sifted down and transmitted to an im-
frankly and unequivocally clear.
perishable record whence would issue unequivocally
It had a right to, too. A year before American
and as clearly as possible, considering the cigar
Business had “gathered its forces in this city by the smoke, the Voice of American Business.
sea to pledge its every resource to bring the war On the first day American Business was so for-
to a successful conclusion," and by heck, it had done ward-looking that it did not notice the Sea. The
so. Today the same forces "met to study the prob- Sea was there, of course, but after all it was just
lems involved in Reconstruction, and to offer to the water. American Business said with virile emphasis
Government their best counsel in accomplishing the it desired “to be left alone to work out its salva-
necessary readjustments."
tion." Auto makers came out for a "Free Rein


600
December 28
THE DIAL
a
He saw
for Industry in After-War Affairs." The Auto to pay; and “any economic boycott, advanced as a
Industry was "in a position to take care of itself, if punishment of those nations,” would only tend “to
left alone by the Government." All the others, too. drive the nations further apart and increase the un-
Furthermore, the Clayton Act was an "abortion"; rest in the industrial world.”
"the Webb Bill should be extended to include not Might not the United States lead here in "a
only foreign selling but foreign buying,” and inci- declaration of principles providing for such adjust-
dentally domestic business of all kinds as well. ments as will ultimately assure a Live and Let Live
Wages were "everywhere showing a Bolsheviki policy for the whole world”?
spirit”; but let it be understood unequivocally that American Business might "hold these suggestions
there was "to be no. Labor domination of American as more idealistic than practical, but we are facing
Industry.”
many vital changes in the controlling power of the
On the second day several attempts were made political and economic machinery of the world,
to lead them from the board walk to a slightly power which if unrestrained will bring much grief
higher place and direct their attention for a few before it settles down to a sober and intelligent
moments to the Sea. Harry A. Wheeler, "Charlie" recognition of its ability to impose harm as well as
Schwab, and Secretary Redfield, and others who good."
had been "endeavoring to guide the industrial inter The Sea, gentlemen, is sometimes wet and cold.
est of the country toward its true, high level" Would it not be best to hang our clothes on
endeavored some more.
hickory limb, while there are any hickory limbs left?
In the best of taste Mr. Wheeler spoke of “swords This was dismal, but then "Charlie" came like the
and plowshares" and "pruning-hooks and spears" sun from behind a cloud and they returned to the
and the “hum of peaceful husbandry" and the “curse Beautiful Board Walk and cheered up.
of war." Peace stood “on the threshold of a new before him “the energetic countenance of the Amer-
day, bidding us lift the curtain upon a world from ican Business Man that made this nation of ours
which the menace of Military Autocracy has been what it is," and "whose efforts and accomplishments,
forever removed." "Should we enter in to possess my boys, were unparalleled in the history of any
this new world with the boastful arrogance of the nation.” We were finished with this great and vic-
foolish victor drunk with power, or with the patient torious war. We were to be congratulated, we
humility of a chastened people intent upon building American Business Men, upon the part we had
a new civilization?”
played in this war and for the position in which we
It was a grave question, but he went further. had placed this great and glorious country of ours.
He -said the dangers of the state upon which the There were problems before us, to be sure, but he
world was entering were scarcely less than those was an optimist, and had never lost confidence in the
we had just escaped. “The overthrow of Euro-
“The overthrow of Euro- American Business Man, and in the American
pean Governments, inviting experiments with un Workman who was the backbone of this great nation
sound principles of government and all kinds of emo of ours. Matters would adjust themselves indus-
tional legislation, is likely to set us apart as the trially sooner or later by the natural course of events,
most conservative power on earth," and "we must but what we want to prevent is that sudden slip of
hold the lamp of our experience to guide the feet the cog which will give us a social jolt that may be
of those who are groping through new and untried dangerous to our industries for years to come. We
paths."
must be patient. We must go along with small or no
Here was a glimpse of the Sea, and uncertain, profits if necessary. We must bend every effort to
applause.
keep our employees busy, employed, and satisfied.
In view of this perilous wetness, was it not the This was a day of democracy in which we were
more necessary that American Business be consulted standing shoulder to shoulder for the protection and
in framing the peace conditions? The opportunity glorification of this great and glorious country of
was open to the United States in that way to suggest ours. We might expect troubles and difficulties, but
a new and enlightened diplomacy free from the we must plunge ahead with the confidence that the
devious intrigues of mere statesmen.
business interests of the United States were going
Likewise, perhaps, after all, should not the United onward and upward in spite of any condition that
States lead in proposing "an International plan for might arise in this great country of ours. [Applause)
rationing basic materials, with the aid and counsel “The American workman can stand with his
of those expert in handling these commodities"? head in the air as you and I and say 'I am an
Failure to do so would "seriously impede the indus- American citizen.' What prouder thing is there for
trial restoration of nations" with large indemnities any man to say? What greater nation on the face


1918
601
THE DIAL
a
of the earth, what nation that God has endowed of the concerns whose business he would like to
with more natural resources than this great nation grasp? ... Will our thought be to aid, with
of ours? Above all he has endowed it with a spirit of service running through all, serving those
people so filled with energy and patriotic enthusi who served us first? .. Shall it be the Amer-
asms as to place it for all time to come at the head ican Eagle that flies high or the American Hog that
of all the nations of the world.” [Applause]
roots low?"
And he would add just one word more. “We And so by the second day they began to admit
Americans might be great manufacturers and all the Sea was there, cold and wet, and troubled by
that, but we must pay the same tribute of respect strange tides, and on the third day they stood with
to our wives that this great nation of ours has paid Mr. Rockefeller on the shore and eagerly watched
to the women of the United States in this great him demonstrate how the pacifying petroleum of
crisis. Why should we not expect this of American Representation in Industry would calm the waves
mothers and American wives, the true women of a and abolish the tides and usher in a New Era of
true nation, the true wife of a true American and Brotherhood.
the true mother of a true American son ?" [Ap And when American Business went back to its
plause]
committee resolutions that evening the sea air was
Thus, expansively, good-naturedly, Charlie patted in its nostrils and sea sounds in its ears and its
them all on the back and waved his hands once or head was strangely giddy. I heard one group of
twice toward the Sea, but it was such a calm Sea, forceful aggressive American Business Men offer a
sparkling so cheerfully in the sunshine.
resolution “favoring legislation to permit combina-
Secretary Redfield, however, boldly herded them tion to standardize products, eliminate waste, and
off the Sweet Old Board Walk altogether and in- for any other purposes that might be considered
vited them to try the water with their large toes to necessary"--and loudly laugh it down. Another
convince themselves that it was wet. If it were per quite simply turned a resolution against the contin-
mitted him to urge a few words of practical advice uation of price-fixing on iron and steel into one for
to American Industry he would say: "Beware of the the continuation of price-fixing on iron and steel.
temptation hastily to lay rash hands upon wages. And a group of coal men decided first for the
Concentrate thought and effort on output. We abandonment of the fuel administration control,
need, of course, a large and expanding export trade, and then begged it to stay.
but the mere entering of foreign markets by cut
The next morning, after a short, desperate, and
prices or off-quality goods or by dumping or un-
virile promenade on the board walk of beautiful old
truthful advertising or by force of Government aid '14, American Business got out its little shovels and
or political power is in no true sense commerce,
nor can it last.” And splashing them vigorously home it took some large sea shells with it.
pails and played in the sand. And when it went
and rudely, he said: “Do we think of our sister
nations as twenty years ago a trust magnate thought
VIRGIL JORDAN.
“Quanti Dolci Pensier, Quanto Disio"
We talk of taxes and I call
you
friend;
Well, such you are; but well enough we know
How thick about us root, how rankly grow
Those subtle weeds no man has need to tend;
That flourish through neglect, and soon must send
Perfume too sweet upon us and overthrow
Our steady senses: how such matters go
We are aware, and how such matters end.
Yet shall be told no meager passion here:
With lovers such as we forevermore
Isolde drinks the draught; and Guenevere
Receives the Table's ruin through her door;
Francesca, with the loud surf at her ear,
Lets fall the colored book upon the floor.
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY.


602
December 28
THE DIAL
seas.
Primitive Reconstruction
Ir 15
IS A PITY that Arnold Wright's Early English bird. An English and a Dutch East India Company
Adventurers in the East (Dutton; $4) is not illus were formed (terribly overcapitalized and incred-
trated-illustrated with original woodcuts, clumsily ibly successful) and the combined task of dividend-
scratched into the blocks while the guiding thumb of hunting and Portuguese-baiting was undertaken on a
the old sea-rover indicated where they stood when large and most profitable scale. The result of this
they threatened to set fire to the English ship, and enterprise is well known. Spain and Portugal were
where he stood when he fired the gun that sent the driven out of the Indies, and the English and Dutch
canoe and its occupants into the Kingdom of the took possession.
Heavenly Papua. These old pictures, besides their The adventures of the earliest English navigators
charm, have a great advantage. They show the al- are well depicted in the present volume by Mr.
most ludicrous risks the earliest adventurers ran in Wright. It is a happy book. It is fair. The mys-
the tortuous narrows of those ill-charted Indian terious drama of Ambonia, where Dutch and English
imperial ambitions clashed and caused a disgusting
A cheerful task awaited the first men to round the legal massacre, is given in detail but without preju-
Cape of Good Hope. Not only were they to find dice. It was a miserable affair, and unfortunately it
riches unlimited—spices and gold and flowery silks was in keeping with much else. The Old Testament
- they also served their country and their Queen and Doctor Calvin were responsible for many hor-
when they drowned another Portuguese crew or rors. Was not man the master and owner of the land
forced another Spanish governor to work in the and the water and the fishes and the little brown
bagnio. It is a fact, oft forgotten but nevertheless men who plowed and harvested in this paradise of
true, that the pioneer work in the Indies was not the heathen and the idol ? Did not the captain of the
done by the present occupants of the British and ship which destroyed a few spice-islands to keep the
Dutch colonies. When the adventurers from Lon- price of nutmeg at the prevailing rate serve both his
don and Amsterdam appeared upon the scene, the stockholders and his God? The work of the Hak-
Portuguese and Spaniards had sailed the Malayan luyt Society and the Linschoten Vereeniging has
Seas for almost a century. Vasco da Gama had given us sufficient data upon which to judge the
doubled the Cape in 1498. But not until the begin- psyche of the men who did the rough work of estab-
ning of the seventeenth century, when the Spanish lishing their respective colonial domains. They de-
Armada had been definitely annihilated and the road stroyed and burned and reconstructed with a pro-
to the Indies was free, did the English and the Dutch found belief in a personal divinity and a firm assur-
navigators venture past the deadline drawn between ance of ultimate salvation. Nowadays a few minor
Lisbon and the Azores. Even then the voyage was atrocities amidst the naked savages of the Congo
dangerous and uncertain. The Spanish colonial of- fill the world with disgust. Our ancestors of three
ficials had guarded their charts and their nautical hundred years ago took such occurrences for granted,
secrets with great care often with disastrous results
and golden medals and bejeweled swords awaited the
to themselves. The existence of Torres Street be brave sailors who came home to report upon events
tween New Guinea and Australia was known to the which would hardly be covered in the least scrupu-
Spaniards, who kept that useful information hidden lous of our newspapers. While the commercial agent
in their archives for almost two hundred years, of that day-the good old factor-would not find
when the discoverers of Tasman made their knowl- employment with the most hardened of our bucket-
edge useless. In the same way no Spanish or Portu- shop magnates.
guese pilot was allowed to serve a foreign master. That is one of the reasons why Mr. Wright's book
Such rumors as circulated in the pothouses of Bristol may be recommended to the reader. It answers the
and the small towns along the Zuyder Zee had been question whether the world of men is stationary or
gathered at serious personal risk. Not until Lin- progressive. Not only does the human race pro-
schoten returned home from his twenty years of ceed; it rushes ahead at a terrible pace. What the
cheerful wandering amidst the Portuguese colonies German Junker, from the darkest part of interior
was the riddle solved with any accuracy. Then both Europe, did in Belgium and Northern France was
Holland and England gave up their search for a a common occurrence with our own ancestors only
North-Eastern passage and made straight for the eight generations ago. They accepted such methods
promised land of the Great Mogul and the dodo- of warfare and greed as common events-acts of


1918
603
THE DIAL
nature and acts of God. Their grandchildren have colonial development and the subsequent growth
seen a great light and millions of them have given of colonial responsibility shows what only a few
their lives that such things as these may never centuries of applied intelligence will do for us. And
happen again.
we are still so young.
Nature works with rough broad strokes. But
the picture is improving. The history of early
HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON.
An Examination of Eminences
FOR
OR MAKING a younger generation of rebels and - political, literary, religious—a cluster of priggish
malcontents the Victorian Age gets and deserves a
children about her skirts. Even Wells still pursues
good deal of reproach. Its descendants have not her relentlessly in his last novel as "that little old
desired to find it so unsatisfactory. They would German woman.' The anti-Victorian rebellion
much prefer to have sprung from a society which long since got into the play and the novel, but
they could really reverence. It is easier and alto- biography has been left untouched. No one has
gether pleasanter to love your parents than to dis dared to touch the sacred personalities themselves.
like them; and one's days would have been all the One could flash sharp little nips at them; but to
fairer in the land if the commandment could have take a life and turn it inside out, letting all the
been obeyed by their children with a joyous heart modern irony and youthful disdain play upon it, was
and a clear conscience. But it was not so to be. an enterprise which has surpassed the genius of
A budding young middle class in England and this younger generation.
America found itself too tightly encased in tastes
Until now. Mr. Lytton Strachey, in Eminent
and values that did not at all accord with the push- Victorians (Putnam; $3.50), has done that very
ings within or the faint but tantalizing interests thing—just at the time when the fun of hitting the
without. In a world where everything was becom- Victorian Age over the head, the delight of referring
ing public, where everyone was being enjoined to all our spiritual disorders, bonds, and tensions back
take his place in the world's work, the young person to the innocent maleficence of what was after all a
feeling the oats of his intelligence found that he varied and vivid time, is becoming a little stale.
was still being kept by family, school, and church With a cruelly masterful hand he has gone below
in a state of tutelage. Parents to whose timid souls the surface and turned up its paradoxes. We gloat
the confines of conventionality had been extremely over that “eminent.” Not Gladstone or Tennyson
grateful found themselves giving birth to amazing or Browning or Disraeli are his samples; but Car-
prodigies of reluctance and self-will. The turbu- dinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Thomas
lence of old submerged ancestors seemed to break Arnold, and General Gordon-people of no perma-
out rather generally in this younger generation; and nent influence, but revealing because their contem-
contempt, disdain, irreverence, Alightiness, bump- poraries became excited about them. They had the
tiousness, and rebellion raised their horrid heads. The luck to set vibrating the peculiar reverences and
vigorous and the wicked got easily free, but on the interests which that society took with the most un-
more sensitive youth the divine right of parents and questioning sobriety and satisfaction. Mr. Strachey
of the small-town sanctities often bore so heavily is the young man looking his elders and betters for
that a large part of their golden youth was spent the first time full in the face, sizing them up in the
in mere disentanglement.
complete poise of a modern self-assurance. From
The mournful inadequacies of religion, the them he squeezes the last drop of the glorious juice
urgency of socialism, sex-expression, and worthy which they so unexpectedly have to give forth. They
work all served as rationalizations for the wild live under his hand as no mere solitary targets for
impulsive need of escape. But the fashion became his depreciations. They trail along with themselves
gradually for us to roll our resentments into other figures Newman, Gladstone, Clough, Sir
blanket indictment of the Victorian Age. This Evelyn Baring, and typical Englishmen like Lord
happy way of taking the offensive-défensive has Hartington—in etched portraits that bring a sur-
almost driven the Victorians from the field. It has prisingly large part of the political and religious
been almost too successful. Not content with tendencies of the time before us.
turning the dear Queen into a sort of perpetual wet Mr. Strachey's preface is disarming and en-
nurse to a civilization, it has made of all the notables trancing:
a


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rem-
ness.
The history of the Victorian Age will never be written; of its hopeless ignorance, its smattering scholarship,
we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first
its lack of experience, and its eloquence that is mere
requisite of the historian-ignorance which simplifies and
clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection raw egoism. But what can be done with a mind of
unattainable by the highest art. Concerning the age this terrifying competency, who builds up an un-
which has just passed, our fathers and our grandfathers assailable structure of facts, and writes a racy narra-
have poured forth and accumulated so vast a quantity of
information that the industry of a Ranke would be sub-
tive in the clearest and most rhythmical of styles ?
merged by it, and the perspicacity of a Gibbon would His irreverences are not mere insubordination but a
quail before it. It is not by the direct method of a scrupu-
lous narration that the explorer of the past can hope to
genuine transvaluation of values. Froude and
depict that singular epoch. If he is wise, he will adopt Clough "went through an experience which was
a subtler strategy. He will attack his subject in unex-
more distressing in those days than it has since be-
pected places; he will fall upon the flank or the rear; he
will shoot a sudden, revealing searchlight into obscure
come; they lost their faith.” He has only to outline
recesses, hitherto undivined. He will row out over that the great hubbub about the Gorham Judgment-
great ocean of material, and lower down into it, here and
"the questions at issue were taken very seriously by
there, a little bucket, which will bring up to the light of
day some characteristic specimen from these far depths, a large number of persons”-or the questions of
to be examined with a careful curiosity.
Church and State that Dr. Arnold and others ground
That subtler strategy Mr. Strachey has adopted, the edges of their minds upon, to relegate the Age
with a mind so keenly tempered, a skill so deadly, almost to the medievality of the angelic doctors.
that it is no wonder that the tough Victorian re Manning's scruples deepened with his desires, and he
nant is reported to be in consternation over this
could satisfy his most exorbitant ambitions in a profundity
of self-abasement.
book which has created a stir in England even in
wartime. This man has them at his mercy because
He traces lightly the intricate thread of personal
he does not rant, he does not wring his hands or
ambition that played through a society which had
rail at Victorian obtuseness and middle-class stodgi-
almost completely succeeded in translating every
Up till now our anti-Victorianism has been
human purpose into terms of exalted altruism, or
Christian casuistry. We see the surprising tenacity
evangelistic. He improves on the evangelists by pre-
senting not an argument, or a gospel, but the clear, adventure. He is able to present very human figures
of Christian metaphysics in lives of the most worldy
cool, and always joyous truth. He tells the reveal-
ing facts, and he lets his heroes perform all their
without ever losing the sense of their social role in
own malice for him in their own words: Gladstone
some great conflict of ideas or parties. The in-
congratulating Manning gleefully on his promotion
domitable will and strident personality of Miss
to an Archdeaconship, only to catch himself up with Nightingale, that early wrecker of a parental home,
a reminder of "the great principle of communion in
is as living as her decisive effect on the English War
the body of Christ"; Dr. Arnold saying that the
Office. Dr. Arnold's majesty slips into a biting
"one thing needful for a Christian and an English- paragraph (as from the pen of one who has suf-
man to study is Christian and moral and political fered but restrains himself) about the influence of
philosophy"; and the Royal approbation falling with Rugby on English education :
exquisite timeliness on the exploits of Miss Night- The earnest enthusiast who strove to make his pupils
ingale and revealing in the inimitable style of the cording to the principles of the Old Testament has proved
Christian gentlemen and who governed his school ac-
Queen's own letters the origin of the immortal to be the founder of the worship of athletics and the
Hermione.
worship of good form.
Mr. Strachey is formidable. He escapes smart-
In the end of General Gordon we read the weird
ness, even when he says that “when Newman was story of a British Imperialism that did not know its
a child he 'wished he could believe the Arabian
own interests and had to break through, by a sort of
nights were true. When he came to be a man, his animal push, the wavering passions of statesmen to
wish seems to have been granted”; or that "one has attain its ends.
the impression that Miss Nightingale has got the At any rate it all ended very happily in a glorious
Almighty too into her clutches, and that, if He is slaughter of twenty thousand Arabs, a vast addition to
not careful, she will kill Him with overwork.” All
the British Empire, and a step in the peerage for Sir
Evelyn Baring.
his cleverness is substantiated. He treats his sub-
The book runs over with good things. One closes
jects, no matter how playful he sounds—and the
book is dotted with delicious anecdotes with a fine
it with a new sense of the delicious violence of sheer
seriousness. But his tact has the vigor of a genera- thought. If there were more Gideons like this, at
tion that has at last come into its intellectual own
the sound of such trumpets all the walls of the Vic-
and has its ancient hinderers on the run. Bump-
torian Jerichos would certainly fall.
tious youth can usually be discounted on the ground
RANDOLPH BOURNE.


1918
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THE DIAL
The Modern Point of View and the New Order
VI.
THE DIVINE RIGHT OF NATIONS
This
SINISTER FACT is patent, that the great war the same as the center of growth and diffusion of the
has arisen out of a fateful complication of national new order of industry. And in both respects, both
ambitions. And it is a fact scarcely less patent that as regards participation in the war and as regards
this fateful status quo arose out of the ordinary run their share in the new order of industry, it is not
of that system of law and custom which has gov a question of geographical nearness to a geographical
erned human intercourse among civilized nations center, but of industrial affiliation and technological
in our time. The underlying principles of this maturity. The center of disturbance and participa-
system of law and custom have continued to govern tion is a center in the technological respect, and in
human intercourse under a new order of material the end the battle goes to those few great industrial
circumstances which has come into effect since these peoples who are nearest, technologically speaking,
principles were first installed. These enlightened to the apex of growth of the new order. These
principles that go to make up the modern point of need be superior in no other respect; the contest is
view as regards law and morals are of the eighteenth decided on the merits of the industrial arts. And in
century, whereas the new order in industry is of this connection it may be in place to call to mind
the twentieth, and between these two dates lies again that the state of the industrial arts is always
an interval of unexampled change in the material a joint stock of knowledge and proficiency held,
conditions of life. The great war which is now com exercised, and carried forward by the industrial
ing to a provisional close is the largest and most atro community at large as a going concern. What the
cious epoch of warfare known to history, and it has, war has vindicated, hitherto, is the great efficiency
in point of fact, arisen out of the status quo created of the mechanical industry.
by these enlightened principles of the modern point · But the ambitions and animosities which pre-
of view in working out their consequences on the cipitated this contest, and which now stand ready
ground of the new order of industry.
to bring on a relapse, are not of the industrial order,
and eminently not of the new order of technology.
The great war arose within that group of nations They have been more nearly bound up with those
which have the full use of the industrial arts, which principles of self-help that have stood over from
conduct their business and control their industries the recent past, from the time before the new order
on the lines of these enlightened principles of the of industry came into bearing. And there is a
eighteenth century, and whose national ambitions curious parallel between the consequences worked
and policies are guided by the preconceptions of na out by these principles in the economic system within
tional self-determination and self-assertion which each of these nations, on the one hand, and in the
these modern civilized peoples have habitually found concert of nations, on the other hand. Within the
to be good and valid. The group of belligerents nation the enlightened principles of self-help and
has included primarily the great industrial nations, free contract have given rise to vested interests,
and the outcome of the war is being decided by the which control the industrial system for their own
industrial superiority of the advanced industrial use and thereby come in for a legal right to the
peoples. A host of slightly backward peoples community's net output of product over cost. Each
backward in the industrial respect-have been of these vested interests habitually aims to take over
drawn into this contest of the great powers, but as much as it can of the lucrative traffic that goes
these have taken part only as interested outliers on, and to get as much as it can out of the traffic, at
and as auxiliaries to be drawn on at the discretion the cost of the rest of the community. After the
of the chief belligerents. It has been a contest of same analogy, and by sanction of the same liberal
technological superiority and industrial resources, principles, the civilized nations, each and several,
and in the end the decision of it rests with the
are vested with an inalienable right of "self-
greater aggregation of industrial forces. Fright- determination"'; which being interpreted means the
fulness and warlike abandon and all the beastly self-aggrandizement of each and several at the cost
devices of the heathen have proved to be unavailing of the rest, by a reasonable use of force and fraud.
against the great industrial powers.
And there has been, on the whole, no sense of shame
The center of the warlike disturbance has been or of moral obliquity attaching to the use of so much


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force and fraud as the traffic would bear, in this ideas and considerations have the sanction of that
national enterprise of self-aggrandizement. Such new order of things that runs in terms of tangible
has been use and wont among the civilized nations.' performance and enforces its requisitions with cruel
Meantime the new order of industry has come and unusual punishments. It is these punishments
into bearing, with the result that any disturbance that are to be evaded or suspended, and immunity is
which is set afoot by any one of these self-deter- sought by measures of formality rather than by
mining nations in pursuing its own ends is sure to tangible performance. In such a case the keepers of
derange the conditions of life for all the others, the established order will always look to evasion,
just so far as these others are bound up in the same and entertain a hope of avoiding casualties and
comprehensive organization of trade and industry. holding the line by cleverly designed masquerade.
Full and free self-determination runs counter to the It is the express purpose of the projected league
rule of Live and Let Live. After the same fashion of pacific nations to keep the sovereign rights of
the businesslike maneuvers of the vested interests national self-determination intact for all comers;
within the nations, each managing its own affairs it is to be a league of nations, not a league of peoples.
with an eye single to its own advantage, derange But it should be sufficiently obvious, whether it is
the ordinary conditions of life for the common man,
avowed or not, that these sovereign rights can be
and violate the rule of Live and Let Live by that maintained by these means only in a truncated form.
much. Self-determination, full and free, neces Within the framework of any such league or com-
sarily encroaches on the life of all the others.
mon understanding the nations, each and several,
So just now there is talk of disallowing or abridg can continue to exercise these rights only on the
ing the inalienable right of free nations by so much basis of a mutual agreement to give up so much of
as is imperatively demanded for reasonably secure their national pretensions as are incompatible with
conditions of life among these civilized peoples, and the common good. It involves a concessive sur-
especially so far as is required for the orderly pur render of the sovereign right of self-aggrandizement,
suit of profitable business by the many vested in and perhaps also an extension of the rule of Live
terests domiciled in these civilized countries. The and Let Live to cover minor nationalities within the
project has much in common with the measures national frontiers-a mutual agreement to play fair
which have been entertained for the restraint of under the new rules that are to govern the conduct
any insufferably extortionate vested interests within of national enterprise. But hitherto no liberal
the national frontiers.
statesman has been so audacious as to "imagine the
In both cases alike, both in the proposed regula- king's death” and lay profane hands on the divine
tion of businesslike excesses at home and in the pro- right of nations to seek their own advantage at the
posed league of pacific nations, the projected meas cost of the rest by such means as the rule of reason
ures of sobriety and tolerance appear to be an in shall decide to be permissible. It is only that license
fraction of that inalienable right of self-direction is to be hedged about, and all insufferable superfluity
that makes up the substantial core of law and custom of naughtiness is provisionally to be disallowed.
according to the modern point of view. And in There is this evident resemblance and kinship
both cases alike the projected measures are designed between the vested interests of business and the
to go no farther than is unequivocally demanded by sovereign rights of nations, but it does not amount
the imperative needs of continued life on earth, leav to identity. There is always something more to
ing the benefit of the doubt always on the side of the national sovereignty and the national preten-
the insufferable vested interests or the mischievous sions, although these precautionary measures that
national ambitions, as the case may be, and leaving are now under advisement as touches the legitimate
the impression that it all is a concessive surrender bounds of both do run on singularly similar lines
of principles under compulsion of circumstances that and are of a similarly tentative and equivocal nature.
will not wait. There is also in both cases alike a In the prudent measures by which statesmen have
well-assured likelihood that the tentative revision of set themselves to curb the excesses of the greater
vested interests and of national pretensions is to be vested interests their aim has quite consistently been
no more than an incompetent remedial precaution, to guard the free income of the lesser vested interests
a makeshift shelter from the wrath to come.
against the unseasonable rapacity of the greater
It is evident that in both cases alike we have to do ones, all the while that the underlying community
with an incursion of ideas and considerations that has come into the case only as a fair field of business
are alien to the established liberal principles of enterprise at large, within which there is to be
human intercourse; but it is also evident that these maintained a reasonable degree of equal opportunity


1918
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THE DIAL
among these interests, big and little, in whom, one The divine right of nations appears to be a
with another, vests the effectual usufruct of the blurred after-image of the divine right of kings.' It
underlying community.
rests on ground more archaic and less open to
So, on the other hand, the great war has brought scrutiny than the natural right of self-direction as
into a strong light the obvious fact that, given the it applies in the case of individual persons. It is a
existing state of the industrial arts, any unseasonable highly prized national asset, in the nature of an
rapacity on the part of the Great Powers in exer imponderable; and, very much as is true of the
cising their inalienable right of national self-deter- divine right of kings, any spoken doubſ of its par-
mination will effectually suppress the similarly in amount validity comes near being a sin, against the
alienable right of self-determination in any minor Holy Ghost. As is true of the divine right of kings,
nationality that gets in the way. All of which is so also as regards the divine right of nations, it is
obnoxious to the liberal principle of self-help or to extremely difficult to show that it serves the com-
that of equal opportunity. Unhappily, these two mon good in any material way, in any way that can
guiding principles of the modern point of view have be formulated or verified in terms of tangible per-
proved to be incompatible with one another under formance. Evidently it does not come in under that
the circumstances of the new order of things. So mechanistic conception that rules the scheme of
there has come into view this project of a league by knowledge and belief wherever and so far as ma-
which it is proposed to play fast and loose with the terial science and the machine technology have
inalienable right of national self-help by setting up reshaped men's habits of thought. Indeed it is not
some sort of a collusive arrangement between the a technological conception, late or early. It is not
Powers, looking to a reasonable disallowance of statable in terms of mechanical efficiency, or even
force and fraud in the pursuit of national ambitions. in terms of price. Hence it is spoken of, often and
Under the material circumstances of the new eloquently, as being "beyond price." It is more
order those correctives that were once counted on nearly akin to magic and religion. It should per-
to keep the run of things within the margin of haps best be conceived as an end in itself, or a
tolerance have ceased to be a sufficient safeguard. thing-in-itself-again in close analogy with the di-
By use and wont, in the liberal scheme of statecraft vine right of kings. But there is no question of its
as well as in the scheme of freely competitive busi- substantial reality and its paramount efficacy for
ness, implicit faith has hitherto been given to the good and ill.
remedial effect of punitive competition and the puni The divine—that is to say inscrutable and ir-
tive correction of excesses by law and custom. It responsible-right of kings reached its best estate
has been a system of adjustment by punitive after- and put on divinity in the stirring times of the era
thought. All of which may once have been well of state-making; when the princes and prelates “tore
enough in its time, so long as the rate and scale of each other in the slime.” It was of a proprietary
the movement of things were slow enough and small nature, a vested interest, something in the nature of
enough to be effectually overtaken and set to rights intangible assets, which embodied the usufruct of
by afterthought. The modern point of view pre the realm, including its population and resources,
sumes an order of things which is amenable to and which could be turned to account in the pursuit
remedial adjustment after the event. But the new
of princely or dynastic advantage at home and
order of industry, and that sweeping equilibrium of abroad. This divine right of princes was disallowed
material forces that embodies the new order, is not among the more civilized peoples on the transition to
amenable to afterthought. However, ripe statesmen modern ways of thinking, and the sovereign rights
and overripe captains of finance have so secure a of the prince were then taken over—at least in form?
grasp of first principles that they are still able to be and principle—by the people at large, and they have
lieve quite sincerely in the good old plan of remedial continued to be held by them as some sort of im-
afterthought, and it still commands the affectionate ponderable "community property”—at least in point
service of the jurists and the diplomatic corps., of form and profession. The vested interest of the
Meantime the far-reaching, swift-moving, wide- prince or the dynasty in the usufruct of the under-
sweeping machine technology has been drawn into' lying community is thereby presumed to have become
the service of national pretensions, as well as of the a collective interest vested in people of the nation
vested interests that find shelter under the national and giving them a "right of user” in their own per-
pretensions, and both the remedial diplomats and sons, knowledge, skill, and resources.
the self-determination of nations are on the way to The mantle of princely sovereignty has fallen on
become a tale that was told.
the common man-formally and according to the
>


608
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THE DIAL
letter of the legal instruments. In practical effect sovereignty held in undivided community ownership,
it has been converted into a cloak to cover the it is ceremonially necessary for the gentlemanly
nakedness of a government which does business for stewards of the kept classes to consult the wishes
the kept classes. In practical effect the shift from of this their sovereign on any matters of policy that
the dynastic politics of the era of state-making to cannot wholly be carried through in a diplomatic
the liberal policies based on the enlightened prin corner and under cover of night and cloud. He,
ciples of the eighteenth century has been a shift from collectively, holds an eventual power of veto. And
the pursuit of princely dominion to an imperialistic this power of veto has in practice been found to be
enterprise for the protection and furtherance of something of a safeguard against any universal and
those vested interests that are domiciled within the enduring increase of hardship at the hands of the
national frontiers. That such has been the practical gentlemen-investors to whom the conduct of the
outcome is due to the fact that these enlightened nation's affairs has been “entrusted"-a very modest
principles of the eighteenth century comprise as their safeguard, it is true, but always of some eventual
chief article the "natural" right of ownership. The consequence. There is the difference that in the
later course of events has decided that the ownership democratic commonwealth the common man has to
of property in sufficiently large blocks will control be managed rather than driven-except for minor
the country's industrial system and thereby take over groups of common men who live on the lower-
the disposal of the community's net output of prod common levels, and except for occasional periods
uct over cost-on which the vested interests live, of legislative hysteria and judiciary blind-staggers.
and on which, therefore, the kept classes feed. And it is pleasanter to be managed than to be driven.
Hence the chief concern of those gentlemanly na Chicane is a more humane art than corporal punish-
tional governments that have displaced the dynastic ment. Imperial England is, after all, a milder-
states is always and consistently the maintenance of mannered stepmother than Imperial Germany. And
the rights of ownership and investment.
always the common man comes in for his ratable
However, these pecuniary interests of investment share in the glamour of national achievement, in
and free income are not all that is covered by the war and peace; and this imponderable gain of the
mantle of democratic sovereignty. Nor will it hold spirit is also something. The value of these col-
true that the common man has no share in the legacy lective imponderables of national prestige and col-
of sovereignty and national enterprise which the en lective honor is not to be made light of. These
lightened democratic commonwealth has taken over count for very much in the drift and set of national
from the departed dynastic regime. The divine right sentiment, and moral issues of national moment are
of the prince included certain imponderables, as wont to arise out of them. Indeed, they constitute
well as the usufruct of the material resources of the the chief incentive which holds the common man
realm. There were the princely dignity and honor, to an unrepining constancy in the service of the
which were no less substantial an object of value "national interests.” So that, while the tangible
and ambition and were no less tenaciously held by shell of material gain appears to have fallen to the
the princes of the dynastic regime than the revenues democratic community's kept classes, yet the
and material “sinews of war” on which the prestige "psychic income” that springs from national enter-
and honor rested. And the common man of the prise, the spiritual kernel of national elation, they
democratic commonwealth has at least come in for share with the common man on an equitable footing
a ratable share in these imponderables of prestige of community interest.
and honor that so are comprised under the divine Yet, while the national policies of the democratic
right of the nation. He has an undivided interest commonwealths are managed by liberal statesmen
in the glamour of national achievement, and he can
in behalf of the vested interests, they still run on the
swell with just pride in contemplating the triumphs ancient lines of dynastic statecraft as worked out
of his gentlemanly government over the vested in by the statesmen of the ancient regime; and the
terests domiciled in any foreign land, or with just common man is still passably content to see the
indignation at any diplomatic setback suffered by the traffic run along on those lines. The things which
vested interests domiciled in his own.
are considered desirable to be done and the sufficient
There is also a more tangible, though more petty, reasons for doing them still have much of the
advantage gained for the common man in having medieval color. National pretensions, enterprise,
formally taken over the sovereignty from the dead rivalry, intrigue, and dissensions among the demo-
hand of the dynastic prince. The common man be cratic commonwealths are still such as would have
ing now vested with the divine right of national been intelligible to Machiavelli, Frederick the


1918
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THE DIAL
Great, Metternich, Bismarck, or the Elder States a state of habitual enmity and distrust, for no better
men of Japan. Diplomatic intercourse still runs in reason than that they have not taken thought and
the same terms of systematized prevarication, and changed their mind.
still turns about the same schedule of national pre After some slackening of national animosities and
tensions that contented the medieval spirit of these some disposition to neglect national pretensions dur-
masters of dynastic intrigue. As a matter of course ing the earlier decades of the great era of liberalism?
and of common sense the nations still conceive them- the democratic nations have been gradually shifting
selves to be rivals, whose national interests are in- back to a more truculent attitude and a more crafty
compatible, and whose divine right it is to gain and more rapacious management in all international
something at one another's cost, after the fashion of relations. This aggressive chauvinistic policy has
rival bandits or business concerns. They still seek been called Imperialism. The movement has visibly
dominion and still conceive themselves to have extra- /kept pace, more or less closely, with the increasing
territorial interests of a proprietary sort. They still range and volume of commerce and foreign invest-
hold and still seek vested rights in colonial posses ments during the same period. And to further this
sions and in extra-territorial priorities and conces business enterprise there has been an ever increasing
sions of divers and dubious kinds. There still are resort to military power. It is reasonably believed
conferences, stipulations, and guarantees between the that traders and investors in foreign parts are able
Powers, touching the. "Open Door” in China, or to derive a larger profit from their business when
the equitable partition of Africa, which read like a they have the backing of a powerful and aggressive
chapter on Honor Among Thieves.
national government; particularly in their dealings
All this run of national pretensions, wrangles, with helpless and backward peoples, and more par-
dominion, aggrandizement, chicane, and ill-will is ticularly if their own national government is suf-
nothing more than the old familiar trading-stock of ficiently unscrupulous and overbearing—which may
the diplomatic brokers who do business in dynastic confidently be counted on so long as these govern-
force and fraud-also called Realpolitik. The ments are administered by the gentlemanly delegates
democratic nations have taken over in bulk the of the vested interests and the kept classes.
whole job-lot of vested interests and divine rights As regards the intrinsic value which is popularly
that have made the monarch of the old order an attached to the imponderable national possessions,
unfailing source of outrage and desolation. In the in the way of honor and prestige, there is little to be
hands of those Elder Statesmen who once did busi said beyond the stale reflection that there is no
ness under the signature of the dynasty, the traffic disputing about tastes. It all is at least a profitable
in statecraft yielded nothing better than a mess of illusion, for the use of those who are in a position
superfluous affliction; and there is no reason to to profit by it, such as the crown and the office-
apprehend that a continuation of the same traffic holders. But the people of the civilized nations
under the management of the younger statesmen
believe themselves to have also a material interest
who now do business in the name of the democratic of some sort in enlarging the national dominions and
commonwealth is likely to bring anything more com in extending the foreign trade of their business men
fortable, even though the legal instruments in the and safeguarding the foreign claims of their vested
case may carry the rubber-stamp OK of the com interests. And the Americans, like many others,
mon man. The same items will foot up to the same harbor the singular delusion that they can derive
sum; and in either case the net gain is always some a collective benefit from obstructing the country's
thing appreciably less than nothing.
trade at the national frontiers by means of a tariff
These national interests are part of the medieval barrier, and so defeating their own industry by that
system of ends, ways and means, as it stood, com much. It is a survival out of the barbarian past,
plete and useless, at that juncture when the demo out of the time when the dynastic politicians were
cratic commonwealth took over the divine rights of occupied with isolating the nation and making it
the crown. It is a case of aimless survival, on the self-sufficient, as an engine of warlike enterprise for
whole, due partly to the inertia of habit and tradi- the pursuit of dynastic ambitions and the greater
tion, partly to the solicitous advocacy of these na discomfort of their neighbors.
hbors. In an increasing de-
tional interests by those classes the trading and gree, as the new order of industry has come into
office-holding classes—who stand to gain something bearing, any such policy of industrial isolation and
by the pursuit of them at the cost of the rest. By self-sufficiency has become more difficult and more
tenacious tradition out of the barbarian past these injurious; for a free range and unhindered special-
peoples have continued to be rival nations living in ization is of the essence of the new industrial order.


610
December 28
3
THE DIAL
atta
hoy
The experience of the war has shown conclusively much more than they are worth to those vested in-
that no one country can hereafter supply its own terests which profit by them. In this respect they are
needs either in raw materials or in finished goods. like any other method of businesslike sabotage.
Both the winning and the losing side have shown Their aim, and presumably their effect, is to keep
that. The new industrial order necessarily over the price up by keeping the supply down, to hinder
laps the national frontiers, even in the case of a competitors, and retard production. As in other
nation possessed of so extensive and varied natural instances of businesslike sabotage the net margin of
resources as America. So that in spite of all the advantage to those who profit by it is greatly less
singularly ingenious obstruction of the American than what it costs the community.
tariff the Americans still continue to draw on Yet it is to be noted that the Americans have
foreign sources for most or all of their tea, coffee, prospered, on the whole, under protective tariffs
sugar, tropical and semi-tropical fruits, vegetable which have been as ingeniously and comprehensively
oils, vegetable gums and pigments, cordage fibers, foolish as could well be contrived. There is even
silks, rubber, and a bewildering multitude of minor some color of reason in the contentions of the pro-
articles of daily use. Even so peculiarly American
tectionists that the more reasonable tariffs have
an industry as chewing-gum is wholly dependent on
commonly been more depressing to industry than the
foreign raw material, and quite unavoidably so. most imbecile of them. All of which should be dis-
The most that can be accomplished by any tariff quieting to the advocates of free trade. The defect
under these circumstances is more or less obstruc-
of the free-trade argument, and the disappointment
tion. Isolation and self-sufficiency are already far
of free-trade policies, lies in overlooking the fact
out of the question.
that in the absence of an obstructive tariff sub-
But there are certain vested interests which find stantially the same amount of obstruction has to be
their profit in maintaining a tariff barrier as a means
accomplished by other means if business is to pros-
of keeping the price up and keeping the supply
per. And business prosperity is the only manner of
down; and the common man still faithfully believes prosperity known or provided for among the civil-
that the profits which these vested interests derive
ized nations. It is the only manner of prosperity
in this way from increasing the cost of his livelihood
on which the divine right of the nation gives it a
and decreasing the net productivity of his industry
claim. A protective tariff is only an alternative
will benefit him in some mysterious way. He is
method of businesslike sabotage. If and so far as
persuaded that high prices and a scant supply of
this method of keeping the supply of goods within
goods at a high labor-cost is a desirable state of salutary bounds is not resorted to, other means of
things. This is incredible, but there is no denying accomplishing the same result must be employed.
the fact. He knows, of course, that the profits of
For so long as investment continues to control in-
business go to the business men, the vested interests,
dustry the welfare of the community is bound up
and to no one else; but he is still beset with the
with the prosperity of its business; and business can-
picturesque hallucination that any unearned income
not be carried on without reasonably profitable
which goes to those vested interests whose central
prices; and reasonably profitable prices cannot be
office is in New Jersey is paid to himself in some
maintained without a salutary limitation of the
underhand way, while the gains of those vested
supply—which means slowing down production to
interests that are domiciled in Canada are obviously
such a rate and volume as the traffic will bear.
a grievous net loss to him. The tariff moves in a
A protective tariff is only one means of crippling
mysterious way its wonders to perform.
the country's industrial forces for the good of busi-
To all adult persons of sound mind, and not un-
In its absence all that matter will be taken
duly clouded with the superstitions of the price, care of by other means. The tariff may perhaps be
system, it is an obvious matter of fact that any pro-
a little the most flagrant method of sabotage by
tective tariff is an obstruction to industry and a
which the vested interests are enabled to do a reason-
means of impoyerishment, just so far as it is effect- ably profitable business; but there is nothing more
ive. The arguments to the contrary invariably than a difference of degree and not a large differ-
turn out to be pettifoggers' special pleading for ence at that. So long as industry is managed with
some vested interest or for a warlike national policy, a view to a profitable price it is quite indispensable
and these arguments convince only those persons to guard against an excessive rate and volume of
who are able to believe that a part is greater than the output. In the absence of all businesslike sabotage
whole. It also lies in the nature of protective tariffs the productive capacity of the industrial system
that they always cost the nation disproportionately would very shortly pass all reasonable bounds,
ness.


1918
611
THE DIAL
prices would decline disastrously, and overhead guarded for the nation's business men by moral sua-
charges would not be covered, fixed charges on cor sion backed with warlike force, and the common man
poration securities and other credit instruments pays the cost; there is discrimination to be exercised
could not be met, and the whole structure of busi and perhaps subsidies and credits to be accorded
ness enterprise would collapse, as it occasionally has those of the nation's business men who derive a profit
done in times of “overproduction.” There is no
from shipping, for the discomfiture of alien com-
doing business without a fair price, since the net petitors, and the common man pays the cost; there
price over cost is the motive of business. A pro are colonies to be procured and administered at the
tective tariff is, in effect, an auxiliary safeguard public expense for the private gain of certain traders,
against overproduction.
concessionaires, and administrative office holders,
But the divine right of national self-direction and the common man pays the cost. Back of it all is
also covers much else of the same description, be the nation's divine right to carry arms, to support
sides the privilege of setting up a tariff in restraint a competitive military and naval establishment,
of trade. There are many channels of such dis-
which has ceased, under the new order, to have any
crimination, of divers kinds, but always it will be
other material use than to enforce or defend the
found that these channels are channels of sabotage
businesslike right of particular vested interests to
and that they serve the advantage of some group of
get something for nothing in some particular place
vested interests which do business under the shelter
and in some particular way, and the common man
of the national pretensions. There are foreign invest-
pays the cost and swells with pride.
ments and concessions to be procured and safe-
THORSTEIN VEBLEN.
Whitman, Poe, and Max Eastman
Max
Ax EASTMAN is, according to 'twice-recorded man has been accepted as the great democratic bard
testimony by no less a critic than the Court of the of America; Poe as the anti-realistic, anti-social
City of New York, a revolutionary. He is and
poet. Mr. Eastman calls for a new valuation.
even Prosecuting Attorney Earl Barnes eulogized He attempts to show that Poe was actually the
along these lines—a blend of contradictions: a phi more democratic, for while Whitman was writing
losopher on fire; a lecturer with ideas; a political about people, Poe was writing for them:
theorist who has in The Enjoyment of Poetry) Walt Whitman composed wonderful passages about
written the most illuminating study of the art of universal love, but he could not be the universal poet
verse that this decade has produced; a languid aris-
exactly because he was not social enough. He was not
humble enough to be social. The rebel egoism of de-
tocrat of the arts who rushes forward to overthrow
mocracy was in him the lordly and compelling thing and
the pomps of aristocracy and to defend what is though his love for the world was prodigious, it was
poverty-stricken, forgotten, or despised. And so it
not the kind of love that gives attention instinctively to
the egoism of others.
was not strange for ·Max Eastman to champion There may be no grand passion for the idea, but there
formal poetry at a time when this ancient mode is a natural companionship with the fact of "democracy,”
in Poe's statement that he “kept steadily in view the de-
was being lorded over and trampled upon in so
sign of rendering the work universally appreciable," and
Prussian a manner by the vers librists; it was a that statement more characteristically distinguishes his
natural if somewhat overanxious taking up of arms
attitude from Walt Whitman's than the different ways
they had of talking about beauty.
for the oppressed that, a year or two ago, prompted Now, it is not merely an accident, or a reflection upon
his counterblasts in Lazy Verse.
America' or upon human nature, that Walt Whitman,
with all his yearnings over the average American and
Something of these righteous protests or (since his offering of priesthood and poetry to the people, should
Mr. Eastman's poetic work is confined to the strict
remain the poet of a rather esoteric few, whereas Poe-
even with the handful of poems he wrote—may be said
measures) personal prejudices color the excellent
to be acceptable to the generality of men.
preface in his latest volume, Colors of Life (Knopf;
It is Mr. Eastman's explanation of this incon-
$1.25). His partisan angle of vision leads him to
gruity that betrays his dogmatism as a philosopher
a supple, sensitive prose and a distorted set of con-
and his limitations as a poet. Mr. Eastman de-
clusions; it causes him to write a foreword which
clares that this is "something which only an ade-
is the most important part of his book-a preface quate science of verse can explain" and suggests
that is, beneath the orderly contours of its style, a that Whitman's "realizations of life would be
curiously passionate and provocative one. Whit- acceptable, and be honored by the divine average,'
.


612
December 28
THE DIAL
if they had been conveyed, as Poe's were, in vessels When Mr. Eastman proceeds to leave Poe for
of light, which would make them objective, and the poetasters he is on solider ground. He strikes
from which they might brim over with excess of out and scores heavily in the second half of his
subjective meaning and emotion." The explana- essay; especially when, with a prodigal excess of
tion is far simpler than this and has very little to vigor, he punctures so many of the vers librists'
do with the matter of form, which is Mr. East- bubbles. Here is an especially keen passage:
man's chief concern. Whitman, had he been clothed
To incorporate in a passage of printed symbols an inde-
in all the conventional appurtenances of rhyme, terminate element so marked and so frequent as that, is
regular rhythms, and strict verse structures, would
to say to the reader—"Take the passage and organize it
into whatever rhythmical pattern may please yourself.”
have remained fully as unpopular with the vast And that is what the reader of free verse usually does,
majority, who steadfastly prefer prettiness to splen- knowing that if he comes into any great difficulty, he can
dor, exotic fantasies to hard self-analysis, tinsel to
make a full stop at the end of some line, and shift the
gears of his rhythm altogether. And, since it is possible
truth. Whitman, even though Leaves of Grass
for one who is rhythmically gifted to organize any inde-
had been a sonnet sequence, was saying things that terminate series of impressions whatsoever into an accept-
most people did not want to hear; it was his frank-
able rhythm, he frequently produces a very enjoyable
piece of music, which he attributes to the author, and
ness not his form that kept them away. Poe did having made it himself, is not unable to admire. Thus
not trouble them with harsh realities; he soothed a good many poets who could hardly beat a going march
them with a narcotic romanticism. But that escape
on a bass drum, are enabled by the gullibility and talent
of their readers to come forward in this kind of writing
alone would not have endeared Poe to the heart of as musicians of special and elaborate skill. The "free-
the literary bourgeoisie. The Raven and Annabel
dom" that it gives them is not a freedom to build rhythms
that are impossible in prose, but a freedom from the
Lee might, as Mr. Eastman points out, “be found necessity to build actual and continuous rhythms. Free
in illuminated covers on the most “average of verse avails itself of the rhythmic appearance of poetry,
American parlor tables.” It is however not the
and it avoids the extreme rhythmic difficulties of prose,
and so it will certainly live as a supremely convenient
beauty of its form that has put The Raven there: way to write, among those not too strongly appealed to
it is its cheapness. Such an uplifting and magnificent by the greater convenience of not writing.
pattern of regularity as Francis Thompson's A
This sharpness and distinction of speech is not
Fallen Yew, or Robert Bridges' A Passer-by, or always with Mr. Eastman when he endeavors, in
George Meredith's Love in the Valley, or any of his verse, to live up to the demands of his prologue.
A. E. Housman's lyrics from The Shropshire Lad In his prose Max Eastman is always the poet; in
or, for that matter, Poe's The City in the Sea-none his poetry he is an artist anxious to capture beauty
of these are to be found "on the most 'average of rather than a captor driven by it. His sonnets
parlor tables.”
(with the exception of the caustic rejoinder to
The Raven and Annabel Lee owe their popu E. S. Martin and the ironically moving The Net)
larity to the fact that they are unusually jingly are a bit dessicated; his lyrics, for all their insistence
settings of bathetically sentimental themes. The on flame and desire, strangely cool. Coming to
Raven is liked precisely as a “popular" tune is liked, Port and To an Actress attain a passion that the
commonplace enough to be easily learned by heart others only approximate. But the freshest of his
and bearing the same relation to great poetry that poems are the early ones; and the best of these is
Nevin's equally popular Narcissus bears to great
still At the Aquarium :
music; Annabel Lee has even been made into
Serene the silver fishes glide,
Stern-lipped, and pale, and wonder-eyed;
"popular" movie. Had Whitman been endowed
As through the aged depths of ocean,
with all the metrical dexterity of A. C. Swinburne, They glide with wan and wavy motion.
it is hard to imagine the Song of Myself adapted
They have no pathway where they go,
They flow like water to and fro.
for the patrons of The Rivoli Motion Picture
They watch with never winking eyes,
Palace. Popularity is scarcely a sure test for either
They watch with staring, cold surprise,
The level people in the air,
poetry or democracy. The greater Poe is as un-
The people peering, peering there,
known to the lovers of his Lenore as the forbidding
Who wander also to and fro,
And know not why or where they go,
(and even forbidden) author of Children of Adam.
Yet have a wonder in their eyes,
If popularity were to mean anything except an
Sometimes a pale and cold surprise.
almost universal appetite for what is cheap, un The greater part of the volume contains much
troublesome, and second-rate, it might be significant that no one but an intransigent lover of earth
to observe that Captain, My Captain! (perhaps the could have felt. But its outstanding virtue is this:
poorest thing that Whitman ever wrote) lies on the it is an excellent introduction to the preface.
same table with Little Boy Blue and Annabel Lec.
LOUIS UNTERMEYER.
a


1918
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The Talent of the Brush
Since Norbert Heermann's history of a distin- shown only confirm the idea that the talent of the
guished and yet little known American painter, brush is not sufficient for an art which shall remain
Frank Duveneck (Houghton, Mifflin; $2), has a fruitful so long, even', as the artist lives.
sentence of John Singer Sargent's on its jacket and It is as a man of his generation that Duveneck
as the very first words of its text, we may feel must be considered, or more exactly, as one of that
justified in taking as our theme the quality which group in it who went to Germany for their training.
is thus proposed to us. For it was not in the lay- The best of them saw into the poverty of the
man's sense of the words, that would make “talent older generation of the German painters they found,
of the brush” mean much the same as “artist," that and formed their art on that of Leibl, himself a
Sargent spoke. When he expressed his opinion that devoted follower of Courbet. Despite their later
“after all is said, Frank Duveneck is the greatest turning directly to French masters, they all retained
talent of the brush of this generation,” he had in something of the Münchener in their painting. The
mind that mastery over the instrument of painting, classic sense of form, which underlies all good French
that technique—in the special use of the word, which art, quite eluded the German students of Courbet,
means handling-so brilliantly exemplified in the and the Americans who came to them for guidance
work of Sargent himself.
felt the need of the vital quality even less. It was
To the admirers of Frank Duveneck, Mr. Heer the robustness of Courbet which delighted them:
mann's little volume will come as a welcome tribute "That is no kid-glove painting" was Leibl's word
to a sympathetic personality, to an able painter, to for the great Frenchman. And so the effort of that
a teacher who has exercised a wide influence; to Munich of the seventies which we see so clearly in
future writers the value of the book must lie in its Duveneck's best pictures was for mastery of han-
statement of fact. For the most casual survey of the dling, the "talent of the brush." It went easily with
illustrations must convince us that the author only their attitude toward nature. Mr. Heermann re-
impeaches himself as a critic when he says of Duve-
minds us that the art of Courbet and his group was
neck: “There is in his work a certain finality of “la nature vue à travers un tempérament,” and we
grasp, with a dignity, a calm, which to the con may perhaps let the famous and faulty definition go
noisseur is akin to the serenity of the Greek.” for the present, since a paraphrase of it will describe
Sargent, with all his emphasis, does not get himself the work of the group we are discussing. With
into such deep water as this; the use of such weighty them it is "la nature vue à travers un musée." To
expressions as "finality” and “serenity” surely was be sure, every artist must go to the museum to learn
due to too great an absorption in his subject. his trade; but the men with something to say get to
Or indeed, if some admirer of Duveneck's should the inner meaning of the great works, and the form
feel disposed to criticize the present critic and say
in which they clothe their own ideas differs from
the Greeks and Rembrandt and Rubens, whom Mr. that of the past. The reason why the Munich
Heerman invokes, are themselves the reason for such group, and others, had so much time to lavish on
praise of the painter, how does it come about that all their brushwork was that they were content to accept
but three of the numerous paintings reproduced date merely the externals of the pictures in the museums.
from Duveneck's thirtieth year or earlier, and the But we must not underrate the importance of
remainder from not later than his fortieth, whereas these men. The return of Duveneck, Chase, and the
the artist is seventy years of age today ? Men great others of the generation was an event in our art-
enough to justify the use of such words as this book history. If they did not get to the deepest principles
uses so prodigally do not peter out. There is no of the old masters or orient us in the great current
example of a master's going backward as the latter of living art which centered in Paris, they did mean
work of Duveneck shows him to have done the a big advance over what was generally seen here
three paintings of 1887 being unquestionably a dis- before their time. They were potent influences in
appointment after the artist's production of the directing the younger men toward the art-wealth of
seventies. We are left to infer, from the omission Europe, which must still be our source of strength.
of any painting done in the last thirty years, that
And the vigor, the enthusiasm that suffused the
the pictures of that period are even less worthy to
generation in the delight of its advance has not been
bear out the promise of the young man whom
equaled by many of their better equipped successors.
William Morris Hunt hailed so cordially in 1875.
Indeed such later works by Duveneck as have been
WALTER Pach.


614
December 28
THE DIAL
Lafcadio Hearn: A Postscript
NLY A FEW short years ago, one had to go about 1908) did not hesitate to admit being instrumental
armed with a loaded theory concerning Laf- in "getting Hearn a soul,” thus drawing the fire
cadio Hearn, as a protection against prowling liter- of Elizabeth Bisland, who edited the bulk of the
ary buttonholers. Hearn was an issue. You were Hearn correspondence (Life and Letters of Laf-
not permitted merely to accept him; you were ex cadio Hearn, 1908, and Japanese Letters of Lafcadio
pected either to defend him or to reject him. Mean- Hearn, 1910—Houghton Mifflin). One recalls
time Hearn books came hurtling from the press in Yone Noguchi, the Japanese poet, berating the doc-
a sizzling stream, jostling and splintering one an tor (in Lafcadio Hearn in Japan-Kennerley;
other as do logs in a jam. All that was necessary 1911) for making "such an awful exposure of him-
to qualify as a commentator was at some time to self through Hearn,” and taking an incidental dig
have evolved a theory about Hearn or to have at Miss Bisland. And one recalls the clash of opin-
received a letter from him. The fact that the two ions over whether or not Hearn intended his letters
seldom went together implied no real handicap. If for publication. Here Miss Bisland and Noguchi
one had the letter, it was always possible to evolve were bracketed in the negative, with the opposite
a theory to match; and if the theory, to discover a opinion voiced by Gould and Milton Bronner. Ac-
letter which would substantiate it.
cording to Bronner (in Letters from the Raven
So thick became the dust of discussion and dis- Brentano; 1907) Hearn gave one batch of his
sension that one fairly despaired of ever reading returned love letters to his friend Henry Watkin
anything about this strange interpreter of the Japan- “to do with the faded missives what he deemed
ese which did not carry a chip on its shoulder. best." Miss Bisland countered with:
Partly owing to Hearn's erratic personality, partly Nothing could have been further from his intention. Pub-
to his outspokenness, but most of all to his revealing licity was abhorrent to him in all matters relating to his
and voluminous correspondence, he stepped from
own personality. And had he dreamed that his letters
might become famous, they would never have been
life into legend—with no twilight zone between. written.
After his death, his own preoccupation with the You will not find the key to the controversy in
spirit of beauty—the "Eternal Haunter”-became Mrs. Hearn's reminiscences. Instead you will find
almost unanimously subordinated to a seething her relating little household incidents with touching
scramble to explain him. Around his early life, his simplicity, telling of short excursions together, of
weaknesses, his eccentricities, and his friendships the what happened at this inn or that temple, of how
controversy raged, fanned by a dozen pens. It Hearn worked and how—in a somewhat puzzled,
became—to use words which Hearn once applied to groping way—she mothered him and humored him.
something quite different-"one continuous shrill-
She does not attempt to challenge the Hearn myth;
ing, keen as the steel speech of a saw.” It neglected
she is content to cherish the Hearn memory. Where
nothing, not even such momentous issues as whether
Dr. Gould is laboriously intent upon demonstrating
Hearn used his pocket telescope much or little.
that Hearn really is but an "echo" in the world of
In the wake of all this turmoil and truculence it letters, Mrs. Hearn is more concerned with other
is with a sense of relief that one turns to the
sounds—the household noises which might disturb
slender little outpouring from the heart of Hearn's his thoughts. She writes:
Japanese widow, Setsuko Koizumi, who has some-
When I wished to enter his study, I chose the time when
thing to say but nothing to prove in her Reminis-
he was singing or hitting the bowl of his pipe against
cences of Lafcadio Hearn (Houghton Mifflin; the hibachi (bronze bowl of lighted charcoal) to empty
$1). And what makes her naive recital all the
it. After we moved to Okubo, the house was much more
spacious and the study was far from the front door and
more ingratiating is its apparent unconcern with the children's room, so we made it a world of tranquil-
the stuff of the wrangle.
lity without a single noise. Even then he complained
that I broke his train of thought by opening the bureau
For what Nina Kennard, in her contribution drawers, so I made every effort to open the drawers
(Lafcadio Hearn-Appleton; 1912), spoke of as "a more quietly.
certain amount of friction” with another biographer Where Miss Bisland seeks to explain the "shy, wild,
was by no means native to any one phase of the beautiful spirit” of Hearn and to interpret his "rest-
controversy. There appears to have been more less, passionate, unhappy life,” Mrs. Hearn is puz-
than enough to go round. Dr. George M. zled at his interest in cemeteries, patient with his
Gould (in Concerning Lafcadio Hearn-Jacobs; carelessness, and properly firm in those little wifely


1918
615
THE DIAL
do so.
prerogatives which appear to be quite as inescapable his letters. One wonders whether he could have
in the Orient as they are in the Occident.
succeeded any better than she, had he attempted to
He cared very little about having his kimono well list her likes and dislikes in similar fashion:
creased. He was not very fastidious. He cared for
neither a swallow-tailed nor a Prince Albert coat.
I may name again some things that Hearn liked ex-
He had one made at last, but he wore it only four or
tremely: the west, sunsets, summer, the sea, swimming,
five times. Whenever he had to wear it he always made
banana trees, cryptomerias (the Japanese cedar),
a fuss. He would put it on unwillingly, saying, "I sim-
lonely cemeteries, insects, "Kwaidan” (ghostly tales),
ply wear this to please you. Whenever I go out, you
Urashima, and Horai (songs). The places he liked
always wish me to put on a new suit or à Prince Albert,
were: Martinique, Matsue, Miho-no-seki, Higosaki, and
-all of which I hate. This is no joke; I mean it.” I
Yakizu. He was fond of beefsteak and plum-pudding,
knew that he did not like it, but I regretfully made him
and enjoyed smoking. He disliked liars, abuse of the
He thought that it was my fault that he had to
weak, Prince Albert coats, white shirts, the City of New
wear them.
York, and many other things. One of his pleasures was
to wear the yukada in his study and listen quietly to the
As will be gleaned from this extract, the transla voice of the locust.
tion of these reminiscences retains a certain un-Eng-
Perhaps I shall not succeed in concealing an
lish flavor, which is not, however, out of harmony ulterior motive in withdrawing unobtrusively at this
with the text. It represents the joint efforts of Paul
point, resisting a temptation to linger upon that last
Kiyoshi Hisada and Frederick Johnson.
note. As a sedative for the jumping nerves of con-
One of the most delightful passages of the little
troversy, one is grateful for Mrs. Hearn's reminis-
volume is that in which Mrs. Hearn sets down a
The commentators might-not altogether
quaint summary of her husband's tastes and dis-
without profit to themselves have “listened quietly
tastes. "Even my own little wife is somewhat
to the voice of the locust.”
mysterious still to me," Hearn confessed in one of
LISLE BELL.
cences.
Norman Duncan
Norman Duncan is perhaps not better described The volume of Harbor Tales is ended by four
than in the words of his own Tobias Tumm, who stories told in the person of Tobias Tumm, clerk of
claimed for himself the title of "skilful teller of the Quick as Wink-tales in which this quality,
tales," though not of such tales as he thought were word-of-mouth intimacy, lives at its utmost. For
wanted by the “gentlefolk to the s'uth'ard,” who instance:
"must have love and be charmed with great deeds
“Tim Mull was fair dogged by the children of Tinkle
in its satisfaction”; he prided himself on his ability Tickle in his bachelor days. There was that about 'un,
to entertain "the lowly of our coast, with the fore- somehow, in eyes or voice, t'win the love of kids, dags
and grandmothers. 'I likes t'have un t'come t'me. Why,
castle bogie warm of a windy night or us all settled
damme, they uplift the soul of a bachelor man like me!
afore a kitchen fire in a cottage ashore." Perhaps I loves un.
it is only a quarrel in words, but Norman Duncan
“ 'You'll be havin' a crew o' your own some day,' says
Tom Blot, 'and you'll not be so fond o' the company.'
seems hardly a story-teller as we should understand
"I'll ship all the Lord sends.'
the term now; possibly he might even convince us "Oh-ha b'y,' chuckles Tom, 'He've a wonderful store
that we have ceased to understand the term. We
of little souls up aloft.'
"Then,' says Tim, 'l'll thank un tbe lavish.'”
are accustomed to speak a good deal of Dumas, of
Stevenson, of Maupassant, in this connection; to
And throughout indeed Tobias Tumm's narrative
In
has an excellent plain chimney-corner relish.
Dumas and Stevenson, especially, we append the
fact all of Norman Duncan's stories in the first
title of "born" story-teller; and the host of Maupas-
person succeed especially in leaving the impression
sant's followers seems to fix as his the province of the
that they have been heard and not read. The
short-story. But Norman Duncan can hardly be said
history of The Little Nipper o Hide an' Seek
to have had the narrative perenniality of Dumas; and
Harbor, Sammy Scull, whose father was hanged
if he was as alert, he was not so agile and so (often)
unnecessarily accomplished as Stevenson; moreover
when Sammy was three years old, is in several
his stories, though they are not long, are quite un-
respects one of Tobias Tumm's best efforts. And
like the short crafty bursts of Maupassant. The
at the same time, though this may be by accident, it is
distinctive trait of Harbor Tales Down North and
of all the tales in the two volumes the most oral
of Battles Royal Down North (Revell; $1.35 each)
and simply heart to heart. The idea of little
seems rather to be a sort of intimate oral quality, Sammy Scull's moral isolation is obviously open to
which is both robust and refined, and which carries meditative and psychological development, and as
us almost back to Dickens.
a matter of fact there is in the tale not only a fine


616
December 28
THE DIAL
Red eyes
unexploited pathos but a suggestion here and there chimney-corner kind of narrative most comes into
of something meditative. It is only a suggestion
its own.
Quaintness is not universally appreciated;
however, and taken in the large the tale is clearly its charm is not always readily conveyed. The
fireside and anecdotal in its point of view.
quaint are often unregarded, because they are often
The following—from A Madonna of Tinkle confused with the dowdy. They are held to be old-
Tickle-is an example of Duncan's psychology: fashioned, as indeed they usually are. But although
"When Tim Mull came aboard, I was fair aghast. they are not especially distinguished, they are re-
Never before had he looked so woe-begone.
warding; for under no circumstances can they be
peerin' out from two black caves, face all screwed with
neutral, and under no circumstances are they vulgar.
anxious thought. He made me think of a fish thief, some-
how, with a constable comin' down the wind. He'd lost Distinctness is of their quality. And really in this
his ease and was full of sighs and starts. And there was
warm and heart-to-heart way of setting them out,
no health in his voice. “Sin on his soul,' thinks I, he
dwells in black weather.'”
these stout fellows of the ice floes and sealing fleets
This is fairly representative; but if it is psychology
are nothing if not distinct.
it is of a relatively simple and scriptural sort.
Yet in our emphasis upon Norman Duncan's
And if he sank no very profound shafts into men-
simplicity and intimacy there should not be forgotten
tal complexities, neither did he aim to impart a
the sensitiveness and tact which inform and give
great fund of philosophy or of social induction, or
temper to such qualities and underline his volumes
to paint any very elaborate portraits of manners.
as something rather more than books of "stories."
It is his excellence of touch, I think, which has led
And he did not attempt a great deal with natural
to the claim for him that he was a writer of great
panorama, especially if we consider the necessary
prominence of such a matter in Newfoundland.
emotional range. As a matter of fact the impression
The sea is there in Harbor Tales and Battles Royal ;
finally gained from these volumes is less that he
it is not poorly there. So is the ice; so is the tim-
possessed great emotional range than that he had
ber; so is the vast wilderness which, since the days
great soundness within his range. His range was
of Jack London, has furnished so long a loaf for the
masculine, though it would be clearly absurd to hold
public appetite. But in these fields (in which, by
that his appreciation of women was not delicate or
the way, any qualities of intimacy which narrative
just. The fact is obvious however that his women
might have are easily lost) one feels there is too
are a good deal absent from the scene and some-
thing of the secondary order of consideration when
competent competition. After all, we find Nor-
Duncan somewhat matter-of-fact on such
present. It is really only in two stories of the pres-
points, evidently caring more particularly for the
ent two volumes that women may be said to be
"warm and human little glimmers in the dark—the
there. Peggy Lacey, it is true, is the primary and
cottage lights ashore.” It is really in a corner of
only consideration of The Siren of Scalawag Run;
the cottage kitchen, or on the fo'castle of a "banker,”
she is also a young woman the executed truth of
as with Synge it was over the tap room of an Irish
whose character carries conviction. Yet, after all,
hostelry, that we find our author at the key of his
one's net impression in this tale is that the whole
deserving
thing is a rather chivalrous and masculine compli-
ment to the sex. Again, in A Madonna of Tinkle
"Small Sam Small-that's me—an' I stands by! I'm
a damned mean man, an' I isn't unaware; but they isn't
Tickle, the reader is troubled somewhat to decide
a man on the St. John's waterside can say to me, 'Do this whether the story is most about Mary Mull and
this, ye bay-noddie! or, 'Sign this, ye coast's whelp!'
her Old Testament self-respect or about Tim Mull;
Still an' all, Tumm, I don't like myself very much, an' I
isn't fond o' the company o' the soul my soul's become.” there is no trouble however in deciding which of
Rough cloth, but pretty stout and genuine. The these two is the most done by. To cite Norman
Harbor Tales, in especial, lead one to believe that Duncan's women as examples of a power of
Norman Duncan had a sound intimacy with plain imaginative projection is really, I think, unjust
souls and a strong home feeling for essential human praise; they are rather to be held as good in virtue
meanings. There is something satisfying, both of their author's excellent perception. And of this
spiced and substantial, like gingerbread, about Hard and of his sensitive temperament there is continuous
Harry Hull and Tommy Lark and Tim Mull and evidence. Read-or rather hear Tobias Tumm:
Tobias Tumm and Toot Toot Toby. For one
"Afore we had time or cause for complaint of the
thing, they are universally alive-lusty, open as
botheration o' childish company, we was involved in a
daylight, somewhat quaint at the outset and growing brisk passage o' talk, which was no trouble at all, but
quainter as they progress toward "ol' codgerdom. sped on an engaged us without pause. There was that
about the wee lad, too, as a man sometimes encounters, t
Perhaps it is with such quaint old fellows—they are
command our interest an' to compel our ears an' our
not really old, though—that the word-of-mouth, tongues t' their labor."
man


1918
617
THE DIAL
This is to recognize some several strands of fineness method; but we find still a fine word-of-mouth
in the "ol' codger's" warm and woolen colloquiality. prose which becomes less colloquial only to become
Yet this tale spinning is really so well done that more literary, and always remains oral in its
we are unsuspicious of any other presence in the straightness. It is rather more succinct and syntac-
chimney corner; only old Tobias Tumm seems to tically terse than graceful; yet it is never angular,
hold the skein, and it is apparently only plain and it is continually refreshing the parched reader
Newf'un'land yarn after all.
with a various good taste in idiom. Like good
But we grow curious presently—if we are alive
prose it does not exhibit its writer's total power
to our author's qualities—and turning to the stories
of phrase ; and the restraint that so trained its spirits
down should do something to recommend it per-
told in the third person we find a closer weave and
manence.
less of the russet warmth of Tobias Tumm's
C. K. TRUEBLOOD.
London, November 16
The shadow OF PEACE is (as I write) almost as erally believed. I was in the streets at the time and
disturbing as once, how long ago! was that of im can testify that no one shouted, no one sang, no one
pending war. I do not mean that I dread it or look waved a flag. The public houses were all closed
forward to it with apprehension. I do mean that I we were balked of our customary method
and others are possessed by uncertainty—that it of expressing pleasure. Mr. Kingsway, a news-
usurps the place of other and more definite thoughts, paper seller, had chalked on the pavement: “Armis-
and that the business of life is hindered, or even sus tice Signed-Official,” and a crowd had gathered
pended, until we know the event. I suppose most of round the announcement, staring at it silently. An
my compatriots are in the same condition; but I will old gentleman, behind whom I was walking, craned
not pretend to the power of reading their thoughts. over the shoulders of the crowd, read the announce-
Perhaps a man who closely observed the crowds in ment, which apparently was news to him, and re-
the London streets when war was threatened and marking to no one in particular, “Armistice signed.
again now, and who was able to understand what Humph!” walked on at the same gait as before. Of
he saw, would be able also to interpret in a brief course it is always unsafe to argue from one par-
page the soul of the English race. But this too is ticular to the general, and this remark, in this old
past my powers of impudence to pretend to. I can gentleman, may have betokened to those who know
only set down what I have seen and leave the him a high degree of excitement. His behavior
interpretation to others.
seemed to me however to be typical. Whatever
We are conscious now of the issues that have been we may individually be feeling, we have ourselves in
at stake as, I am sure, we were not conscious four hand. I do not know why, but just as we did not
years ago. But though then we did not clearly burst into ferocious war-spirit when war was de-
understand what was happening-neither what we clared, so now we show no tendency to burst into
were fighting for nor the effort it would cost us— jubilation at its close-though of course we may
we were vaguely aware of something tremendous actually do so when the event is beyond question.
beyond the power of expression. But, then as now, And, as I read over again what I have written, I
we showed no signs of overmastering excitement. too seem to myself to be typical. I protest that I
There was in the streets, in trains and busses and have written with calm and with all the precision
theatres—one could feel it—a faint nervous tension, of which I am normally capable, that in treating
a slight constant uneasiness which was so universal this immense subject I have used all my customery
that it formed a sort of connecting thread between care in the placing of my adverbs—but I have writ-
the most dissimilar and unlikely people; and along ten because a slight unease keeps the matter in my
this thread there ran from time to time vague, weak mind and forbids me to write on anything else until
shocks of active excitement as a rumor spread or, it is satisfied.
perhaps, as someone in the gathering saw with more Meanwhile we are chiefly, I think, to occupy our
than usual concreteness what this meant to him. I thoughts concerning ourselves with vast fantastic
feel again today that slight tension-and no more. plans for private and public reconstruction. These
A few days ago a false but convincing rumor that the plans, so far as literature is concerned, are confined
armistice had been signed went round and was gen to the two words=more paper! Give us more


618
December 28
THE DIAL
paper, say authors and editors and publishers alike, provide a sort of central steadying point for French
and we will take care of literature. Give us more literature and, if it does no more, it at least sym-
paper and our share in the millennium will be car bolizes that order and maintenance of a standard
ried out with our usual dispatch and adequacy. which is the peculiar glory of French criticism.
There is hardly any other trade or profession which But much as I should like to see a reformation of
is not crying out for some kind of assistance or our criticism on those lines, I admit willingly that
protection or bounty. Literature alone modestly no Academy will ever take root in England. Our
asks the liberty to propagate itself indefinitely. This blood is against it. , We have not the Latin taste
seems to show that literature is in a strong position, for organization; and this is a fact which has been
secure in the appetites of the public, a thing in- discovered not only by the advocates of Academies
dispensable, however empires may rise or fall or be but also by the young persons who have striven
changed. And perhaps it is so. Literature is one to be Bohemian and disorderly and live the life of
and indivisible. The author of the penny blood the Quartier Latin on strictly regulated lines. Why,
is my equal and my brother; and we are both, if we if we were capable of such organization, we should
remember and can afford to pay our subscriptions, in our new enthusiasm for poetry have elected a
members of the Union of Ink-Slingers, a body well Prince des Poètes, an unofficial chief to whom we
instructed on contracts and royalties.
should all pay reverence; and indeed it would be
We are , at all events at one in one thing, in very amusing if such an institution were introduced.
repudiating the assistance of the State. We see too The French method, I think, is to allow every poet
clearly what State interference has done in the a vote; and they have election campaigns and pro-
matter of painting, how a Royal Charter 'forever paganda and canvassing, and the literary papers
set the seal of futility on the Royal Academy and echo with the noise. The first holder of the post
how endowment and control work in the National was Stéphane Mallarmé; the second, Leon Dierx
Gallery and the Tate Gallery. When recently (you will ask, and you may well ask, who the devil
the pictures of Degas were sold in Paris our author was he?); and now it is Paul Fort. I can imagine
- ities raised the magnificent sum of £3000 for the the whole business being immensely entertaining in
purchase of some specimens for London; and, it has England. My mind's eye discerns the rival poets
been rumored, an envoy was dispatched with the on the stump, and I can hear engaging fragments
instruction that he was to purchase no nudes and of their speeches. But my mind's eye does not reveal
no ballet scenes. We wonder sometimes what would to me the person who would be elected. My own
happen to literature if the State were to take a vote, of course, would be cast for
hand beyond its present distribution of knighthoods But what am I writing? I am seeking to distract
—which fall alike on the just and the unjust, but my mind from the thoughts that perplex us all, from
which are commonly refused by the former—and thoughts of Senlis (if the conference is really being
its distribution of Civil List pensions, which also held there or perhaps it is Pontarme) and of Spa,
fall on both but which are, on the contrary, ac of revolutions in Berlin and republics in Bavaria.
cepted by both with the same avidity. It does oc All I have written is a feverish making of conversa-
casionally happen that someone calls for an academy tion; but between the lines perhaps you can find a
or something of the kind which will organize us faithful picture of the English mind today. We
and declare with authority how we are to name a are all thinking of after the war; and that will pe
man who drives an aeroplane; but he is instantly, I haps be tomorrow. But that tomorrow is so dim
am glad to say, howled down. We are not authori and formless that we cannot speak of it intelligently;
tarians, the right of private judgment is in our we can only abandon ourselves to vague dreams. A
blood; and, for myself, I own that though some distinguished leader of the Alliance said recently to
time ago a strong committee of professors and such
a friend of mine: "La vie sera bien plate, quand il
like solemnly consecrated the word “Suffragette” it n'y a plus de guerre." But how splendid it will
still grates on my nerves like a nail on glass. We
be to lead a dull life! How dull and heavy and
have, it is true, an “Academic Committee,” oddly solemn we shall all be and how we shall all enjoy
enough composed, but it preserves itself from
it! My next letter will perhaps deal with the
obloquy by meeting in secret and not announcing its
decisions. The French Academy is not a body which
progress of English metaphysics in the twentieth
commands enormous reverence in its own country,
century, or the economic aspects of Parliamentary
but it does command some and the best authors do Reform, or the novels of Jane Austen. Time will
still care to be elected to it and do still announce
then be standing still and there will be time enough
the fact on the covers of their books. It does still
for everything
EDWARD SHANKS.
/


THE DIAL
CLARENCE BRITTEN
GEORGE DONLIN
HAROLD STEARNS
In Charge of the Reconstruction Program:
JOHN DEWEY
THORSTEIN VEBLEN
HELEN MAROT
:
WHAT IS THE BEST CRITERION OF DEMOCRATIC of the situation in Russia; we know less of the situa-
government? In a political sense, surely it is the tion in China and Manchuria; we know even less
measure of control exercised by the people of a na about Mexico and South America. And where are
tion over that nation's foreign policy. Ultimately it we to find out? The Secretary of State cannot be
comes down to that. Yet until the United States questioned in open session of the Senate: he is re-
entered the present war we illustrated the truth of sponsible only to the President. Nominally only
this thesis less sharply and less persuasively than any Congress has the legal right to declare war. Yet it
other country. The reason for that was compara is virtually a nominal right alone. The President
tively simple: our Monroe Doctrine, our isolation can always jockey affairs so that Congress is prac-
tradition, and our lack of large colonial possessions tically forced to ratify whatever policy he proposes.
and dependencies all combined to make our foreign At this moment our men are fighting in Russia with
policy of less immediate practical concern to the no declaration of war by either side. Tomorrow, it
average citizen than was the case in crowded Euro- is urged, hundreds of thousands more ought to be
pean countries, where a quarrel in a Vienna cafe by their side, although it occurs to nobody that a
might mean the plunging of several nations into resolution to that effect needs to be placed before
military adventure. The possibilities for any Congress. Treaties have to be ratified by the
large-scale war seemed remote from us, and it Senate. Yet here again it is virtually a nominal
was difficult to arouse any interest in interna- right alone. Gentlemen's agreements between foreign
tional affairs. Today, of course, the historical diplomats and our Secretary of State do not, seem-
position of the United States is completely reversed. ingly, even have to be shown to Congress. Trading
We do not need to ring the changes on the platitudes corporations can be formed and given assurances by
of interdependence in the modern world. We do the Government without a single Congressman's
not need to be told any longer that the decision of a knowing anything about it unless he happens to be
few business men in Siberia may mean that the a member of one of the favored firms or a lobbyist
Kansas farmer boy will find a soldier's grave in for it. From what clear mandate of the people, for
Italy. We know that today we are living in that instance, does the War Trade Board derive its
kind of a world. Consciousness of the actual situa- authority to say (in a news dispatch from Wash-
tion is, on the whole, alert. But with our inveterate ington) that “as rapidly as the Army of Occupation
American optimism and habit of worshiping our advances and the Bolsheviki are driven back, an
governmental institutions blindly, we have almost intensified campaign will be carried on to develop
completely ignored the fact that in this new world the railroad facilities and help the people to get
we are employing the same old technique of foreign on their feet"? From what legal expression of the
policy which characterized us when we were a pro will of the majority of our people do our Generals
vincial, detached, and non-militaristic nation. We in German cities derive their right to recognize only
have no right to demand "open diplomacy" of other certain authorities and to refuse to recognize others?
nations until we ourselves have shown that we have Who of us will ever have a chance to vote on a
at least a kindergarten notion of what it implies.
single one of the peace conditions now being drawn
Public opinion needs to be aroused upon this more up? What means have we for assuring ourselves
than upon almost any other point. Suppose that that we shall even know what all those conditions
throughout the length and breadth of the land arose
are? In a word, our conduct of our foreign policy
a spontaneous demand for a certain policy. If it
were a domestic policy there would be some chance
is in working fact, if not in form, as irresponsible as
of its sooner or later being adopted. If it were a
that of any autocracy or monarchy. In fact, if not
foreign policy how could that demand possibly be
in form, it is still being determined for us behind
translated into action ? And further, how is the
our backs, and without our knowledge or consent,
generation of any clear-cut and spontaneous demand by a small clique of persons. Measured, then, by the
for a certain line of policy in foreign affairs ever severe criterion of the conduct of foreign policy, the
possible when all the sources of information are United States has still to go to school to learn
kept secret? From official sources we know little democracy.


620
December 28
THE DIAL
The very
An
IMPORTANT BY-PRODUCT OF THE VICTORIOUS quite as subtle in its manifestations as in music, and
solution of the war will be the restoration of the in both these arts many of us are much deceived in
Holy Land to the Jews. The spiritual reaction to detecting its presence. The future of Yiddish liter-
that restoration may not be immediate, so far as ature is bound up with more than one problem that
Yiddish and Hebraic literature are concerned, but other nations do not have to face.
few can doubt that it will take place. Spiritual language is in the balance. In its short literary life
reactions of this nature are not quick to reveal them- it has had to struggle for very existence against
selves in enduring artistic forms. It is usual, of Jews that despised it as a menial jargon. Not even
course, for a certain type of journalist to see in every the beauty of which masters like Ash, Hirschbein,
war an immediate generator of great works of art. Kobrin, and Pinski have shown it capable has
Similarly there is no little talk about a renaissance reconciled them. The battle between the Hebrew-
of Yiddish literature during this important period. ists and the Yiddishists goes merrily on, and ink
That renaissance however is one of interest rather flows as freely in the columns as blood but lately
than of actual production. The past dozen years did on the battlefields of Europe. Prophets of the
have witnessed the appearance of truly representa- death of Yiddish have been busy for many years.
tive, and in some cases universal, work by Yiddish Their arguments are philologically sound, yet Yid-
authors. Much of this work, and especially the best dish does not die. Prophecies are futile, but it is
of it, has either languished in neglect or else has hard to see a literary future for Yiddish. The new
found favor with no more than a cultivated few generations rush to universal culture, adopting the
whenever the few could shake themselves free of the greater tongues. They are as little familiar, on the
factionalism that is so rife on East Broadway, the whole, with the great Yiddish writers as their elders
Yiddish newspaper row. Sooner than the produc- are able to appreciate those writers. These are not
tion of new masterpieces, one looks to an awakening precisely the conditions for a renaissance in national
of interest in those already at hand. Readers will letters, yet so contradictory has been the entire de-
find new meanings in poets like Raisin, Rosenfeld, velopment of Yiddish literature that the unexpected
and Bloomgarden (“Yehoash”); they will discover may happen. At any rate a deepened interest in
new beauties in dramatists like Pinski, Hirschbein, the treasures already at hand will in itself be a
Ash, and Kobrin; they will perhaps sift the wheat renaissance of no little value.
from the chaff in their crop of new writers. These
new writers, by the way, deserve consideration apart. AN UNCONFIRMED REPORT FROM TOKIO STATES
They are as interesting a “new” group as any that the Japanese Cabinet has decided upon the
country can show today. They have all the egotism
return of Kiaochow to China and that Japan's
and idiosyncrasy that youth so easily mistakes for delegates to the Peace Conference have been in-
originality, but they have not a little of the sub-
structed to support President Wilson's plan for a
stance too. Writers of tales like Opatovsky, Ignatov, League of Nations, especially as regards reduction
and Raboi, for example, show that the Yiddish tra of armaments, and to couple this support with a
dition still lives—if that may be called a tradition plea for the abolition of racial discrimination.
which really originated little more than a half- Whatever the facts, certainly there is nothing in-
century ago as far as the artistic use of language is herently unplausible in the report. Thoughtful
concerned. Similarly the new poets-young men Japanese have been much impressed by the showing
and women of broad outlook and high ideals, though of the United States in the war: many are now
they display a certain scorn for their predecessors convinced that general initiative and industrial vigor
which is by no means necessary and doubtless un-
are the most important things in military prepared-
deserved -are surely looking forward. Some would
ness, and that preparedness of the old type is out of
say that they had overleaped the boundaries of
date. Industrial and commercial strength have been
nationality: the same criticism was long ago shown to be more important than drilled battalions.
brought against Pinski and Ash by a noted Russo-
Yiddish critic. Is this however so strange in Jewish ourselves and Japan would most likely take is not
But the direction such a friendly alliance between
writers, who come from a nation upon which inter- precisely the democratic direction. Political or mili-
nationality has been forced? Others, indeed, would
tary control is irrelevant where commercial su-
see in this very quality a virtue rather than a
premacy obtains. Already, according to reports
defect. Still others would find it easy to reconcile
from Vladivostok, our military commanders in
the apparent contradiction, saying that this war has Siberia are cooperating with the Japanese military
taught that a certain type of nationalism is by no commanders in perfect understanding, and this co-
means inconsistent with internationalism. Even operation has also resulted in a unity of American
among the Jews there are readers who imagine that and Japanese commercial policy respecting Siberia.
to be national a writer must always be talking about It would be folly not to recognize what this com-
Palestine, the Holy Scroll, and other easy tokens of mercial unity implies. It implies that we
a combined feeling for religion and for political in- perfectly willing to keep the East weak, if by so
dependence. After all, nationality in literature is doing we can strike good bargains in concessions or
are


1918
621
THE DIAL
in guaranteed exchanges of valuable raw materials members, and there is little to wonder at. The atmos-
for our manufactured goods. It is the kind of phere of St. Stephens is redolent of unreality and one can
game Japan has been playing in China for some
float away in fancy to the sixteenth century without an
effort. If I were a member of a Labor majority my
years; seemingly it is the kind of game we are now first motion would be to transfer the meetings of Parlia.
going to cooperate with her in playing in Siberia. ment to the nearest saloon. That would be a most
Surely we might have learned some other lesson
beneficial revolution. To return to the chances of a
from this war. Fundamentally the world war itself
Labor government in the near future, there is consider-
able optimism in some quarters but I don't share it. In
was the penalty Western nations inevitably paid for a way, I hope Labor doesn't secure the reins of power.
keeping the East weak. Instead of trying to abandon Such a happening, I know, would be hailed with glee by
that policy we
seem to be about to extend it. Lloyd George and his cronies, who could unburden them-
selves of the extremely delicate tasks which will follow
Formerly Africa, the Near East, China, and India
the cessation of hostilities and the demobilization of the
constituted the arenas of friction, the stakes for army, and with the aid of Northcliffe and Co. could
which diplomacy played. Are we going now to
manufacture endless trouble and so compromise the
extend the arenas of friction to include large sections
Labor Party as to make its continuance in office impos-
of what used to be the great Russian Empire? If
sible. For my part, I am content to proceed with in-
dustrial organization. Strikes large and small are daily
we do, then we are only preparing the way for occurrences here but there is seldom a big principle
another and greater war. Unless the exploitative involved. Bread and butter upheavals leave one cold.
motive is completely excised from this commercial
policy towards the East we shall sooner or later The TECHNIQUE OF THE HUMOROUS MOVING
fall to quarreling over the spoils. When greed is picture is sadly underdeveloped. We have watched
the dominant motive, alliances have a curious habit with growing concern the standardization of the
of becoming easily strained. The truth is we stand main humorous event in the so-called comedy films-
at the parting of the ways, and our present implied that is, the hitting of a man over the head. The
policy towards the East is only one part of a larger technique of the wallop is susceptible of great varia-
problem which is involved in the whole League of tion: in the early days of moving pictures any soft
Nations idea. Is there enough good will in the and expansive substance, like a pumpkin pie or dis-
world to change the attitude of strong nations to- sipated egg, was considered the proper implement of
wards the weak? We can, if we like, follow the assault. Crockery, too, tickled our suppressed
traditional method of exploiting peoples weaker than destructive impulses; to see a plaster of Paris statue
ourselves. Or we can, if we have learned the lesson of the Venus de Milo shatter into bits over some
of this war, attempt to bring to weaker peoples a trained and disciplined head was a highly entertain-
fuller measure of democratic life, attempt to help ing and gratifying spectacle. But the era of thrown
them to self-control and self-direction. If we follow bric-a-brac and of resounding whacks quickly passed.
the latter method, the war will have been really We have entered upon a new period, where the
won. If we follow the first, and organize a league mallet and the hammer have usurped the place of
of rentier nations to control the exploitable and weak the ancient weapons. Practically no comedy film
nations, sooner or later a new international war will today is complete without one or two cases of some-
develop. Sooner or later the West will again pay
body's being hit over the head with a gigantic
its bloody price for keeping the East weak. mallet, the victim thereupon fainting in a direct
perpendicular line. This of course is a highly pleas-
WHEN THIS COPY Of The Dial REACHES ITS
ing spectacle, and we should be the last to ask for
subscribers the results of the British election will be morals of youth. But we complain bitterly of the
its withdrawal on the ground that it injures the
known. For that reason this quotation from a pri- conventionalization of assault which has made our
vate letter of a marine stoker, a member of the comedy films so rigid in structure and so impervious
Seaman's International Union of Great Britain, has to the influence of new styles of humor. We ask of
special pertinence. It reflects the increasing skepti- moving-picture producers that they devise some new
cism of all form of parliamentarianism, particularly styles of assault and battery, some new ways of injur-
among the English workers:
ing the human body., We realize that people cannot
It wouldn't be so unpleasant if the election had been be drawn and quartered or burned at the stake in our
handicapped for capable men, but it seems that our most films, for it is a condition of all comedy assault that
able representatives either were neglected deliberately the battered person be able at a moment's notice
by an official caucus or they had no desire to become
Parliamentarians. Henderson has improved but still I
to resume complete possession of his limbs and his
doubt him, and I wish he'd cut out the dramatic faculties. But it is a pity that the makers of our
stuff at conferences.
fault with all our leaders is the statesman bug.” imaginations. Vicarious assault, which has delighted
The great and unforgivable comedy films are not gifted with more flexible
They are
far
apt to do and
say things
which are "statesmanlike" than to undertake or utter the human race since the stone age, will and must be
things which are just common sense. They are all af- upheld in its full dignity in our moving pictures,
flicted in this way, from Snowden and McDonald down
to Thomas and Adamson. It is Parliament apparently and it is indeed lamentable when the technique of
which has this peculiar psychological effect upon its
its presentation gets into a rut.
more


622
December 28
THE DIAL
Foreign Comment
KERENSKY DISILLUSIONED
LIBERAL BRITAIN AGAINST RUSSIAN
Late last summer Kerensky applied to the British
INTERVENTION
Government for a passport back to Russia. It was
refused. The following extract from a personal
Great Britain, who is more deeply involved than letter written by him furnishes further explanation
are we in military intervention in Russia, is not of of this extraordinary refusal:
a single mind on the subject. Liberal opinion unani-
Having done all in my power to carry out my task
mously opposes it. The Daily Chronicle in an
here, and being further convinced by some rather sig-
article published December 18 says: "The situation nificant symptoms that my further stay in the Allied
in Russia is causing great anxiety in official circles.” countries would be useless, I therefore determined to
The article then goes on to point out that no reliable
return immediately to my own country, and at the end
of August I applied to the British authorities to grant me
information is being obtained about Russia, that the
facilities to do so, as without such help it was at present
censorship and irregularity of the cables and wireless impossible to reach that part of Russia which is freed
service make it impossible to accept any news as
from the Bolsheviki and the Germans. However, after
authentic unless it is two months old.
having exchanged a few letters with the Government,
on September 10 I received a communication stating,
The most reliable information puts the number (of the among other things, that the British Government is
Bolshevik Red Army] at about 180,000 scattered all over unable to comply with my request, as it does not see its
the former Russian Empire. There is, however, a prob way to do for me anything it is not prepared to do for
ability that an attempt will be made to increase this force the representatives of other groups and parties, for the
with a view to the invasion of other parts of Europe in reason that the British Government does not consider it
order to spread the principles of Bolshevism. It should possible to deviate from their “declared determination
be remembered that Poland is now in a very disturbed not to interfere in the internal politics of Russia." It is
state and almost defenseless. There would, therefore, be rather a peculiar and exceedingly liberal way of inter-
little difficulty in the way of force of the Bolsheviki preting the principle of non-interference in internal af-
marching into Germany, in which country a large amount fairs which renders impossible the return to Russia of a
of propaganda work has been carried on during the past man who only came to an Allied country with a special
year. Nor is it easy to say offhand what should be National Mission and is bound, as a member of the Con-
done to counteract this menace. The late elections have stituent Assembly, to return to Ufa in order to participate
revealed in some parts of the country a considerable in the work of the National Assembly created by the very
amount of sympathy with the Bolshevist Government in coalition whose interests he came to defend.
Russia, and it is certain that intervention by the Allies on
a large scale would be hotly debated and criticized. It is
This peculiar interpretation of the principle of
fortunate that President Wilson is now in Europe so that non-interference has since been so vividly illustrated
this important matter can be discussed by all the Allies.
that Kerensky in a recent interview speaks with
It would be advantageous if some line of policy could be
decided upon by other nations in common so that the
considerable bitterness of Allied policy towards
problem could be jointly tackled.
Russia. He states:
In its issue of December 17 the Manchester England and France are seeking to impose another
Guardian takes an even firmer position. It states that Brest-Litovsk upon Russia. I ask America, as paralyzed
Admiral Kolchak, who seized control of the Omsk
Russia's true friend, to protect her from exploitation by
her former allies. Russia fought three years for the
Government, and Semenoff, the Cossack leader,
Allies. It was due to her that America had time to pre-
were fighting "not for Russia and still less for the
pare and administer the knockout blow. Now the Allies
Allies, but for their own hands.” It adds a warning: ought to deal honestly with Russia. When the Russian
Even now drafts of British troops, men who volunteered
people, despite the Brest-Litovsk treaty, were continuing
to fight the Germans and defend liberty, are being or-
their fight, they called upon the Allies for military aid.
This help rapidly developed into an organized attempt to
dered out to Siberia to fight the battles of Koltchaks and
Semenoffs. If the British Government does not stop this
exploit Russia's wealth, and cut off Russia from Europe
by a barrier of tiny quasi-independent states. Thus, they
disgraceful adventure of its own accord it will find it
will soon be stopped for it.
are completing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which Ger.
many began.
Even the Westminster Gazette, hitherto a sup The peace conference ought to guarantee the integrity
porter of intervention, is now anxious about Eng of Russian territory, as it was before Brest-Litovsk,
land's commitments in Russia. It is afraid
affording the opportunity for a real solution of her prob-
lems. This could be brought about by the formation of
England may drift into a "series of costly, chronic
a confederation like America, of all the Russian states.
and indecisive expeditions in various parts of Russia, This is not an unrealizable dream. The Bolsheviks con-
or at best to permanent occupation, with large bodies trol about a fourth of Russia proper and a sixth of
of troops, of the various Russian provinces.” It
Siberia, on the basis of population. The balance is com-
posed of independent states, which have thrown off the
goes on to state that the Allies
Bolsheviks' authority. I believe it is possible to call a
have hitherto banked on the probability that the Bol general election for a constituent assembly, to include
shevist regime would be short-lived and another admin delegates from every part of Russia. England and
istration would come on the scene with which they could France oppose this, because it would restore Russia to
deal rationally and settle up the whole entanglement; but her former international position. They opposed my
after fourteen months they must at least reckon with the going to America in September, because they did not want
possibility that Bolshevism will in some form be perma-
America to know the truth about Russia.
nent in Russia and make up their minds what they are The victorious Allies are forgetting their idealistic war
going to do if that proves to be the case.
aims. England and France already have agreed on the


1918
623
THE DIAL
division of their spheres of influence in disintegrated prisoners, whether they are conscientious objectors or
Russia. If three men are fighting a brigand and one of Originally three Russian sectarians and one
them is knocked out, the others, who continue to whip orthodox Jew refused to work under military dis-
him, ought to help their comrade to his feet, instead
of robbing his pockets.
cipline, because it violated their religious convictions.
I appeal to America to remember the good side of The torture inflicted upon them provoked a sym-
Russia's part in the war, as well as the unfortunate. pathetic refusal to work on the part of other con-
Perhaps President Wilson's presence at the peace con-
ference will prevent any brigandage.
scientious objectors who believed: (1) that this
system of prison punishment should be changed,
and (2) that the consciences of their comrades
Communications
should not be coerced.
Contrary to general belief, the men in Fort
PoliticAL PRISONERS IN AMERICA
Leavenworth are not morally different from the
SIR: Your editorial on amnesty to political pris- other conscientious objectors who are now to go free.
me hope that perhaps you will print a letter telling sian sectarians, Mennonites, Socialist workmen, col-
of the present status of conscientious objectors in
the prisons of the United States. As a minister of lege students and graduates, social workers, a pro-
the Gospel, believing in the hope of social progress
fessor in philosophy, and a winner of a Carnegie
through enlightenment by individual conscience, I
Hero Medal. The majority of them are in prison
have followed the history of conscientious objection them to ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five years
because hasty court-martials tried and sentenced
with some care. I beg to submit the following facts
which I think can be proved :
before they even saw the Board of Inquiry. Some
When the armistice was signed, conscientious ob-
of these sentences are still under review by the War
jectors roughly fell into the following groups:
Department, but the men have been in prison for
months. Other men are in prison because, although
1. Those who had accepted non-combatant service they were adjudged sincere by the Board of Inquiry,
in the army, perhaps 4,000 men in all.
no farm furloughs were forthcoming and after nearly
2. Those who had accepted farm furlough or fur three months' segregation at Fort Riley, where
loughs for work in the Friends' Reconstruction efforts were made to compel them to take some
Unit, after their cases had been passed upon form of non-combatant service, they still refused.
favorably by the Board of Inquiry of the War Upon this refusal they were court-martialed, al-
Department. These men numbered roughly though luckier comrades who held exactly the same
some 1,000 or 1,200. They were under military point of view had been sent to work on various
control, but were furloughed from the army farms. A very few men are extreme absolutists
and did not wear uniform.
who felt thảt even to accept the farm furlough
3. Men still held in camp pending hearing before offered them by the Board of Inquiry was to
the Board of Inquiry. A few of these men were acknowledge the right of the State to conscript them
in guardhouse awaiting ultimate trial by court-
for military service.
martial.
Another small group is composed of men adjudged
4. Men sentenced to military prisons.
insincere by the Board of Inquiry and ordered to
Secretary Baker's demobilization order apparently accept either combatant or non-combatant service.
provided for all but this last group, and so the This last group is particularly interesting, because
numerous unsolved problems connected with the in spite of brutal treatment in guardhouse at Fort
third group more or less disappear.
Riley and Camp Funston, and the threat of court-
The fourth group, comprising conscientious ob- martial, they have steadfastly refused to accept non-
jectors in prison, is at present mainly located at the combatant service. This simple fact would seem to
Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks, where refute the charge that these men are insincere.
there are about 280 of these men. A few are at
The immediate need of the situation is that people
the Fort Jay Disciplinary Barracks on Governors should urge the Government:
Island, and there may be some others at Alcatraz
1. At once to reform the brutalities of its treat-
Island, in San Francisco Bay. According to the
last report from Fort Leavenworth which has
ment to all prisoners, irrespective of whether
they are conscientious objectors or not;
reached me, twenty-five of the conscientious ob-
jectors were in solitary confinement in dark cells 2. To recognize that there is a distinction between
in the cellar, sleeping on the cement floor between
acts committed in selfish crime, and those which
foul blankets, forbidden to read, write, or talk, fed
were urged by conscience. In many European
on bread and water, manacled nine hours a day to
countries political prisoners are not treated as
the bars of the cell, and in some cases beaten or
criminals. They ought not to be so treated here.
otherwise tortured by the guards.
In the end, there can be no righteous solution
This is the form of punishment for all recalcitrant of this thing short of pardon. The inequalities of


624
December 28
THE DIAL
the treatment of conscientious objectors for what is which he mentions should be committed to the
at bottom the same offense is in itself a scandal. charge of an international government, it by no
For instance, two men whose course of action was means follows that in discharging its responsibilities
identically the same received—the one five years, it is necessary or even wise that that government
the other twenty-five. A third man was first con should act along the lines announced by Mr. Tead.
demned to death and then the sentence was set aside, I would therefore, not disputing that these several
and ultimately he was granted a farm furlough. functions should be entrusted to the new interna-
These arbitrary acts are the natural effects of the tional government, call attention to the entirely
attempt to penalize men for loyalty to conscience. I unnecessary burdens which Mr. Tead loads upon
believe that every one of the men now in prison our backs in advocating the adoption of certain
would be useful in civil life. Every one has proved policies for the exercise of those functions. This is
his courage and steadfastness by facing imprison- borrowing trouble from the future. We have enough
ment, if not torture. Is it not now time for the difficulties to overcome right now in securing the
Government to grant a just, generous, and general erection of an international authority adequate to
pardon?
deal with these all-important economic problems.
JOHN NEVIN SAYRE.
But it is not alone the danger from the multipli-
Suffern, N. Y.
cation of fronts which I fear. The policy advocated
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Evidently the order authorized is the wrong policy. The writer assumes that there
by Secretary Baker in a public statement of De-
are but two alternative methods of dealing with the
cember 6 in no way changes the status of the men
economic and financial relations among men on the
described in Mr. Sayre's letter. It merely abolishes world scale: the devil's policy of laissez faire which
the former practice of handcuffing recalcitrant pris has hitherto ruled, or rather failed to rule, in these
oners to the bars of their cells. This of course is a matters, and his policy of rigid "control," which
gain, but it is an inadequate step which cannot
means an arbitrary fixation of terms. But that
possibly satisfy liberals in their demand that men these polar extremes do not exhaust all the possible
in jail for what Secretary Baker in his own state-
policies should be manifest by reference to our
ment describes as “political" offenses be at once re-
domestic experience of recent years.
leased. Merely to abolish medieval brutality is not
Between the policy of leaving every man to his
to perform justice. What liberals, must insist upon
own devices and the policy of absolute control by
demanding is immediate release of all political superior authority there is the policy of the regula-
prisoners.]
tion of the conditions of competition. In 1912 no
one was so bold as to stand for the first policy; Mr.
BORROWING TROUBLE FOR THE LEAGUE
Roosevelt sponsored the second policy; while Mr.
Wilson advocated the third. The second policy is
Sirs: The first duty of internationalists at the tantamount to government partnership in business.
present time is to maintain a united front toward It fosters privilege and monopoly. It condones and
the opposition. The principle of the single front even connives at the concentration of the financial
has been fully justified in the war, not alone in the power, the directing power of industry, in a few
conduct of the campaign but also in the maintenance
hands. Such is bound to be the practical import
of civilian morale. We have need of all the support of this policy, not only because it is a fundamental
which can be mustered behind the slogan, "Above postulate of the program that close manipulation is
all nations is humanity.” But if we are honest men
economical, but also because the concentration of
and earnest in our convictions we should have no power greatly facilitates the execution of its own
fear of, rather we should welcome, the freest dis powers.
cussion of our proposals. There is no part of the Happily the American people flatly repudiated
program of a League of Nations which is more than Mr. Roosevelt and his policy in the election. In
a tentative suggestion at this stage. That must be choosing the leadership of Woodrow Wilson they
admitted. And if we have a genuine faith in the endorsed the policy of the regulation of competi-
principle which underlies the whole movement, an tion. The implications of that choice have not al-
open debate over particular phases of the scheme ways been clearly envisaged. While this is not the
ought to fortify, not weaken, our position.
place for an exhaustive discussion of the merits and
Mr. Ordway Tead, in treating of The Economic demerits of the policy, attention may well be called
Guarantees of Peace in THE DIAL of November 2, to one or two of its distinctive features. In the first
has with his usual lucidity stated some of the most place it means that, outside of the limited range of
important functions which an international govern- public service industries, the government will not
ment may be constituted to discharge. But he has undertake in the normal course of affairs to deter-
not stopped with the statement of what those func- mine trade policies, dictate the conditions of employ-
tions are.
He has proceeded to declare in quitement, or fix prices, except in so far as the establish-
didactic language how they must be performed. ment of minimum limits and fair standards in these
Granted that it is expedient that the five subjects matters may be necessary to the preservation of free


1918
625
THE DIAL
some
competition. On the other hand the government with. This is further emphasized by the fact that
assumes the tasks of a vigilant policeman in pre the army of Germany, which has the best economic
venting the growth and fructification of private support, is admitted by officers returning from France
privileges and in extirpating all kinds of predatory to be still unbeaten. Military strength therefore is
practices. In short, primarily it does not regulate based absolutely on the economic strength.
business; it regulates competition, it polices the field The collapse of Russia after the Revolution was
of business.
an illustration of the fact that political power un-
In the second place, the government does not take supported by economic power is also futile.
upon itself the direct responsibility for the proper
From the above illustrations it is clear that in
functioning of the whole mechanism of industry and the organization of a state we must first organize in
market distribution. No doubt the admission of this such a manner as to produce the greatest possible eco-
fact will be hailed with glee by the type of thinkers nomic power. If there has been in recent years doubt
represented by Mr. Tead. But is it after all de as to the relative economic effectiveness of competi-
sirable that we should link up government with tion and cooperation in the production of economic
industry? Will not the consolidation of political power, the war should by this time have removed
power and business power under the forms of law all possible doubts on that subject. This is illustrated
and custom now prevailing constitute a menace to by the following facts:
the improvement of the economic position of the Germany before the war developed the greatest
industrial disfranchised? Have we any assurance economic system in the world, because an autocratic
that the welfare of the people rather than the pro- military power forced business to be in some slight
tection of property shall be the chief concern of those degree cooperative, and to recognize in
entrusted with power? What types of mind pre- slight degree its social responsibility.
dominate in the political councils of even the repub In England, France, and the United States it was
lics of the world? Are the prospects for the peaceful found on the breaking out of the war that a purely
development of industrial democracy enhanced by competitive business system was absolutely incapable
the participation of government in the determination of giving us the economic strength needed to fight,
of the details of the daily give and take of the and we attempted to establish the cooperative prin-
economic life of a nation? Are the prospects for ciple in our production and business systems as rap-
the growth of international good-will enhanced by idly as possible. The fact that we did it in a crude
the participation of the international government in way and with many blunders does not indicate that
the determination of national shares and allotments we have not yet found the proper basis for an effi-
in their economic intercourse? If governments par-
cient cooperative industrialism.
ticipate in these affairs or control them they cannot Without any shadow of doubt, then, we
avoid being partisan, or at least and this is more accept the fact that the successful economic state
important—they cannot avoid the appearance of of the future must be based on cooperation. If then
being partisan; that is, of showing favoritism. In we determine the principles on which cooperation
the one case this must tend toward bitterness and can be firmly established, we shall have determined
despair—toward violent revolution. In the other it the principles on which the economic state must be
must tend toward national grievances, food for based.
imperialism, and war.
Cooperation is only possible when there is mutual
MYRON W. WATKINS.
confidence, which means that we can have no cooper-
Columbia, Missouri.
ation in business as long as secret agreements exist.
The fundamental principle of cooperation, then,
AN OPEN LETTER
is no secret agreements of any
kind.
We have recognized this as a political principle-
November 1, 1918. no secret political treaties, the publication of all cam-
Mr. H. A. Miller, Director
paign expenses, and so on. As a business principle
Democratic Mid-European Union
we have recognized it in the abolition of rebates in
Hotel Plaza, New York City
railroad freight charges, and in the governmental
MY DEAR MR. MILLER: Replying to your re-
fixing of prices.
quest to give my view of the fundamental princi- sally acknowledged, almost all of the other principles
If this principle is firmly established and univer-
ples on which the successful state of the future must
be founded, I beg first that you would look around
of cooperation become secondary—the two most im-
and see why the military strength of the Central
portant of which are abolition of special privilege,
Powers is so rapidly crumbling on all sides. It does and of reward out of proportion to service rendered.
not take much insight to realize that this sudden
My message, then, may be summed up in few
and widespread collapse is due primarily to the lack
words. Your economic system must eliminate not
of economic strength, or, in other words, the lack of only secret diplomatic agreements but, what is more
ability on the part of the industrial and business
important, secret business agreements.
system to supply the armies with the means to fight New York City.
H. L, GANTT.
can


626
December 28
THE DIAL
Notes on New Books
shipyard "building them again” in the dazzling
prosperity of the war demand. Ships are paying for
LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH: A Pageant of
themselves on the first voyage; and Dudley, as
Cliff and Moorland. By John Presland. skipper, can have a thousand dollars a month who
Dodd, Mead; $2.50.
started in the Elizabeth under a captain who got
forty. But he prefers to marry the girl of his
There is a type of literature-chiefly in the do-
choice and settle down in the revived Spring Haven
main of travel and biography, including the never-
to direct the noble old trade of his father, the build-
ceasing deluge of Reminiscences and Memoirs- ing of splendid sailing ships. There are other ad-
whose sole purpose and function seems to be the
ventures particularly a capitally told story of a
delectation of the leisure-class mind. A kind of mutiny, and the marooning of the culprits off the
doling out of curious knowledge, anecdotes, literary Cuban coast. But there is quite as much of the
fragments of all sorts, in a silver spoon. The pres- story devoted to the business intrigue behind the
ent volume belongs to that species. John Presland, ships as there is to the tang of the sea and the ex-
with the help of a sympathetic illustrator, intro citement of the ships themselves. Mr. Paine im-
duces us, with a naive urbanity, to a section of Eng- plies, quite correctly perhaps, that to the modern
land-Devonshire. He sketches for us the antique reader the complicated conflict of strong men over
history of this province, mentions the inevitable
business advantage is as much a matter of romantic
classic authorities for this fact and that assumption, adventure as the contact with wind and weather
dilates on the various natural beauties of the scenery, itself.
touches now on old history and famous men, and
again on economic and social facts. One
TALES FROM A DUGOUT. By Arthur Guy
may be charmed at such historico-geographical dex-
Empey. Century; $1.50.
terity: in certain moods one may even find such a
book as this absolutely necessary as a relief from
The law of diminishing returns-psychological as
the tension of more important and significant things. well as economic-already has begun to undermine
Nevertheless, even in such moods, those of us who
interest in war books dealing with life on the fight-
feel the driving force of contemporary events com-
ing front, particularly those which are no more than
pelling our individual attention every moment must
an external setting forth of incident. It is uphill
feel a very perceptible exasperation in the-doubtless business—this attempt to inject the fever of the
quite unintentional—impudence of an author who trenches into the rapidly cooling veins of a public
tries to take the place of a moving-picture travelogue whose 'energies have been turned from problems of
or a lecture illustrated by stereopticon slides. Not devastation to problems of rehabilitation. Doubtless
to seem unjustifiably harsh in this instance, Lynton that is why one is unable to react very emphatically
and Lynmouth can be recommended in all good to these hastily thrown together sketches. Nor is
faith as an excellent account-barring all real liter- one's interest edged one whit by Empey's dedication
ary merit-of a portion of merrie England which
of his new book to “the overaged, the women, the
will never fail to excite the interest of travelers and physically unfit and the children. These are the ones
the curiosity of antiquarians. And possibly that is to be pitied, the ones who suffer most, because their
all the author intended: in which event it is the hearts are on the battlefields of France, although
reader's own fault if he falls foul of this book. their bodies must stay at home.” Such hyperbole of
war hysteria fails to carry conviction. The sketches
which comprise the volume are the narrations of the
The Call OF THE OFFSHORE WIND. By
various members of a gun crew, who while away the
Ralph D. Paine. Houghton Mifflin ; $1.50.
tedious hours by recounting adventures. They form
There is a very brisk and engaging quality about a series of "close-ups" of trench warfare, told in the
Mr. Paine's modern story of the sea. The romance vernacular. Uncouth and ephemeral though these
of the sailing ship has by no means disappeared ; and pages are, they nevertheless reveal a certain rough
he gets the full flavor out of even a gigantic schooner vigor in lieu of literary quality. They will be read
like the Elizabeth Wetherell in its career that is no with pleasure by those who enjoy war-fiction movies.
less prosaic than that of carrying vast hordes of coal
from Norfolk to Portland. But that voyage, the
WALKING SHADOWS. By Alfred Noyes.
first upon which the young Dudley Fenwick ships
Stokes; $1.50.
as mate, provides a rattling storm and a rattling
adventure, in which the sorely struggling vessel is Mr. Alfred Noyes, having apparently reached the
abandoned and recaptured by Fenwick and his men. place he wished to achieve in verse, now starts to
Then follows the inevitable intrigue by which the compete in a surprisingly new field. He aims, in
smart Yankee owner tries to deprive the young these "sea tales,” at nothing less than the role of a
mate of his salvage money. Fenwick holds his own refined Oliver Optic or Horatio Alger of the Great
however and after a long career in the doughty War. His first prattling steps in the short story
Elizabeth returns home to find his father's ruined show conclusively his determination to make a name


1918
627
THE DIAL
for himself in that style of literature known as the
Only by the light of that genius could the Puritan
small-boy thriller. And it is the submarine today
community have been visibly set forth, and again only
that provides the horrid clue. Mr. Noyes has dished
that community could have been the proper medium to
display his genius.
up, in these eleven stories, almost all the familiar
figures—the commander who lands at lighthouses Hawthorne is gently set back in his place as one of
and murders the keeper; the man who has married
our best provincial writers. Mr. Woodberry hints
a pure girl on a California ranch, and turns out to
at the structural weakness of his work, and finds
be a Hun who has escaped from a German sub-
his “artistic method of philosophizing
sel-
marine with all the treasure and left his comrades dom, if ever, quite equal to the task. The result is
to drown; the German agent in South America who
a continual failure of the art to express the thought;
gets tangled in his own code as he tries to get back.
the art falls silent; the thought ceases to appear.
to Germany; the submarine base on a Maine island, But he admires the "wonderful purity of tone” in
with a professor-yes, even a professor-sitting for his style, and saves for him that “poetic illusion”
lornly on the rocks. Most of the favorite spies and
which "gives him his charm, as his moral quality
plots and deviltries are here, and the Hunnish plot- gives him his substance.” Mr. Woodberry's faint
ters, appropriately, usually meet some such terrible admirations combine with the old-fashioned quality
end as they have been plotting for their enemies. of the extracts he makes from Hawthorne's works
Mr. Noyes even believes, among other things, that
to mark the slow fading of a literary reputation that
any English writer who criticized English civiliza was once as high as the greatest.
tion before the war was put up to it in some insidious
way by a Hun agent. In such a belief, of course,
THE ADVANCE IN ENGLISH POETRY IN THE
the faithful satisfaction of Mr. Noyes during those TWENTIETH CENTURY. By William Lyon
truculent days of Hun-paid Shaws and Wellses Phelps. Dodd, Mead; $1.50.
would shine all the brighter. The average writer of THE TWENTIETH CENTURY THEATRE. By
the small-boy thriller does not, perhaps, believe all he William Lyon Phelps. Macmillan ; $1.25.
describes. In this case however, both author and
publisher take the work with the utmost seriousness,
Last year William Lyon Phelps was writing a
not realizing how much better it can be done by poets for The Bookman. This year he has as-
series of critical essays on contemporary English
the serialists of McClure's Magazine with their so
much richer and racier command of the "movie"
sembled these papers, and with much addition and
technique. Walking Shadows is not even redeemed
revision has published them in a volume with a title
by its style, which is as childish as its matter. In
more ambitious than anything the book contains.
this new chosen field of his Mr. Noyes enjoys the
Professor Phelps writes as though he were lecturing
distinction of having written one of the silliest of
to a group of freshmen to whom he was more
all the books produced by the war.
anxious to prove his humanity and humor than the
creative power of criticism. He seems always more
fearful of tiring his audience than of failing to edify
HAWTHORNE: 'How to Know Him.
it. Aside from a few good jokes, his best passages
George Edward Woodberry. Bobbs-Merrill;
are the quoted ones.
$1.50.
If anything, the author's taste is too catholic. He
Mr. Woodberry's method of making us know devotes almost equal attention to poets of such vary-
Hawthorne is to comment on the copious quotations ing accomplishment as Amy Lowell, Alfred Noyes,
which he presents-quotations which are happily and Robert Frost. He gives less space to any of
selected to reveal both the weaknesses and the these than to William Watson and Wilfred Wilson
strength of that somewhat mysterious genius. The Gibson. His high praise of Yeats and Masefield
frontispiece shows us a very stiff Hawthorne, loses by such declarations as these: "Mr. Service is
dressed in his best, almost fashionable clothes, with undoubtedly a real poet." "William Watson really
his high hat on a table by his side. And this stiff- has the divine gift and is one of the most deservedly
ness rather sets the mood of his latest critic's work. eminent among living poets." There is a curious
Mr. Woodberry plays somewhat gingerly around lack of discrimination in a man who devotes two
his subject—Hawthorne is not entirely congenial to praiseful paragraphs to Ella Wheeler Wilcox and
his own temperament, and gets his praise in the end does not name Ezra Pound, even to damn him.
for qualities that set him dubiously outside the list Sometimes, too, the professor distorts the facts
of great writers.
-as when he mentions Stephens' paraphrase of
He was, in fact, a contemporary of all his books, and O'Rahilly's Righteous Anger in terms that would
wrote them, so to speak, from his own generation. He
lead one to believe the poem original with its trans-
did not transcend his own time by any gift of education, lator.
sympathy or travel. It follows from this that he
Is there nothing in this fat professorial volume
was substantially a man of his parish, one might say an
antiquary of his parish. .. Hawthorne's genius, how-
save sins of commission and omission? Well, there
ever idiosyncratic it may appear, will never be dissoci-
is a good estimate of John Masefield, a solid appreci-
ated from his community; the two are revealed together. ation of Vachel Lindsay. There are certainly
Ву


628
December 28
THE DIAL
enough debatable axioms laid down to furnish argu have battleship protection. Mr. Lake's volume re-
ments for several interesting evenings. There are flects—and here, perhaps, is where the imagination
some excellent poems quoted, and the book will al and the enthusiasm of the inventor creeps in-a
ways be a handy reference for biographical facts and faith in the future war-time supremacy of the sub-
preferred pronunciations.
marine which must appear at once excessive to naval
The Twentieth Century Theatre is a more hy- architects and ironical to supporters of disarmament.
brid and less engaging bit of work. Here he
approaches his subject with the lantern of Diogenes NEUROPSYCHIATRY AND THE WAR. National
in one hand and a pair of rose-colored glasses in the Committee for Mental Hygiene; distributed
other. To the last page, Professor Phelps seems free.
undecided as to whether he is writing for an audi-
One of the most progressive steps undertaken by
ence of scholars, for a group of indifferent pupils, or
the Medical Staff of the United States Army has
for the worthy members of the Drama League. He
been the creation of a Department of Neuropsy-
makes discoveries which would alarm one group and
be stale for another, following them up with quota- psychiatrist arise in such profusion in modern war-
chiatry. Special problems for the neurologist and the
tions that would bore the first and be full of meat
fare that they speedily tend to overtax the limited
for the second. Toward both poetry and drama the
number of men who specialize in these branches,
author's critical faculty has the quality of candle-
even if they have been mobilized in advance. They
light in a gusty gallery. Sometimes it flares upon a
have to deal not only with the specific cases of shell
picture of real beauty, but seldom does it throw a
shock of which we have perhaps heard too much,
full light, and it is likely to go out at the breath of
but with all those abnormal strains of war which
a sentimental wind.
seek out the weak spots in the central nervous sys-
tem or create a favorable environment for the
THE SUBMARINE IN WAR AND PEACE. By
hereditary insanities. Our Sanitary Corps is seek-
Simon Lake. Lippincott; $3.
ing to avoid the conditions in most of the con-
Important inventions of Simon Lake, and adapta- tinental armies, where doctors were continually over-
tions of them, are embodied in the submarine vessels whelmed with these baffling cases, while at the same
of modern warfare. His Argonaut, built more than
time it is bending every effort towards preventing
twenty years ago, was the first submarine success men with unfavorable predispositions from coming
fully operated in the open sea. So he speaks with under active fighting conditions in the first place.
the voice of authority of the mechanical principles The elaborate intelligence test now being adminis-
of submarines, of operation problems that have been tered to everyone entering the army and the question-
met and partly overcome, and of the history of sub naire of the Personnel Office are steps in the right
marine development. In the rehabilitation of the direction.
world, its industry and commerce, Mr. Lake
There could hardly be a better illustration of the
prophesies that the submarine will play a construct growing importance of the Department of Neu-
ive part. He points to the feasibility of employing ropsychiatry than a volume such as this, which comes
submarines in recovering cargoes from sunken ships, as a free gift from the National Committee for
in navigating under ice fields in the interests of Mental Hygiene. Here we have an attempt to
science and commerce, in performing important supply the psychiatrists and neurologists in the Army
hydrographic work, in investigating the flora and
with the latest information about the very special
fauna of the sea, in harvesting tons of shell-fish from problems in their respective fields. Miss Brown and
the ocean's floor. Yet the submarine's greatest
Dr. F. E. Williams have done the work in a very
service to mankind, as Mr. Lake sees it, will come
thorough manner, making abstracts of no less than
through the eventual elimination of naval warfare: three hundred articles from the medical literature
Sooner or later a reliable engine will be developed
of the leading belligerent countries, including the
which will meet the needs of military submarines and
United States and Canada. The book as it stands
which will deliver power sufficient to give the submarine is the first inclusive compilation of material upon
battleship speed. This is at present the only limitation shell shock, which alone makes it of great value.
upon submarine development, and it is not an insuperable
The consensus of opinion about shell shock should
obstacle. It is my firm conviction that it is the
destiny of the submarine to put an end forever to the
be of interest to the general reader. It is essentially
possibility of warfare upon the high seas, and to eliminate a temporary condition, with its intensity largely de-
warfare between nations which have no access to each
pendent upon the predisposition of the patient. Ac-
other except by sea.
cordingly the psychological treatment is most
These words are as in echo to John P. Holland's successful where the patient has previously been
assertion of submarine invincibility: "There is noth- inclined to functional nervous disturbances, while
ing you can send against it, not even itself.” And in other cases a regime of rest and sedatives may
yet the war has shown that submarines are not at bring about the same result. The problem of shell
present able to cope with the more heavily armed shock has been exploited to such a degree in popular
and speedier torpedo boat destroyers, which must discussions that it tends to act as a suggestion upon


1918
629
THE DIAL
DO you prefer a
Real League of
Nations to a Second Holy Alliance?
Do you actually stand for justice to all nations, whatever
their size or their past alignments ?
How should Poland obtain a trade route to the Sea ?
What of Trieste ?
Do you actually stand for equal access to Central Africa and
Mesopotamia ?
An American Statesman said recently: “ Nations have no
security but their own strength.' Do you want to lie down
before that? What about Belgium ? Servia ? What was the
war fought for?
WHAT treaties shall we sign?
Over such questions, which might make or break a League of Nations
at the Peace Conference or after, a volunteer group of about fifty experts and
publicists have been working and studying for the last six months in New
York. The product of their discussions is the Statement of Principles
that was published in The Dial of November 30 in the name of their
newly formed organization, the League of Free Nations Association. Liberal
opinion in America has rallied rapidly to their conclusions—that the League
of Nations must be democratic; it must have its Parliament; it must be open
to all free nations; it must be organized now; it must have administrative
machinery, and it must include a Bill of Rights for nations giving to all equal
access to the sea, lo raw materials, to new countries or colonies, to rivers,
railways and canals.
This bold conception must find its friends almost instantly, for a few short
weeks will see the official decisions at Versailles. We want members, meetings,
money.
LEAGUE OF FREE NATIONS ASSOCIATION
130 West 42nd St., New York.
* Copy mailed on request.
Here are a few of the signers of our Statement:
INFIRMOIL
John R. Commons
Charles A. Beard
WENDELL T. Bush, Treasurer
LEAGUE OF FREE NATIONS ASSOCIATION
John Dewey
John Graham Brooks
130 WEST 42ND STREET, NEW YORK CITY
Mark x
Edwin F. Gay
Felix Frankfurter
[]l. Please send copy of your Statement of Prin-
A. Lawrence Lowell Judge Learned Hand
·ciples.
Judge Julian W. Mack Thomas L. Chadbourne
[]2. I endorse the Statement of Principles of the
League of Free Nations Association.
Thomas W. Lamont Julia Lathrop
[]3. Enclose $.
to be applied to the
Henry Bruere
Herbert Croly
purposes of the Association.
Helen Marot
Lawson Purdy
Name
Street
Frank P. Walsh
Jacob Schiff
City
Dorothy Whitney Straight E. R. A. Seligman
The membership fee is $5.00 a year. Enrollment is
free. The work is supported entirely by
J. Randolph Coolidge, Jr. Ida M. Tarbell
voluntary contributions.
John F. Moors
When writing to advertisers please mention Tn Dial


630
December 28
THE DIAL
the military novice. It is also of interest to note by a college senior whose specialties are Anthony
that the prevalence of malingering tended to be Hope and Richard Harding Davis. This may not
greatly exaggerated in the first two years of the war. be intentional. There is always the theory that
It is now pretty well agreed that any serious attempt Mr. Chambers is widely and determinedly cultural
to malinger is in itself the sign of a psychopathic in his presentation of people whose beauty is sur-
condition. The normal adult is too critical of in- passed only by the number of gifts and graces they
tellectual processes to try to go back to the tricks have developed, in the hope that the great American
of his school days. Neuropsychiatry and the War public may profit by the examples of these supermen.
is bound to be welcomed in army medical circles if But whether the prolific creator of glorious beings
only on account of its convenient condensation; the means to be absurd or helpful, or both in a tangled
average army doctor is kept far too busy to have sort of way, his latest volume is such a mixture of
much time left for any extensive reading. Supple- melodramatic burlesque and silly intrigue as to be
ments to the volume, of which the first has just a disappointment to his most devoted worshipers.
appeared, will keep its material up to date.
An incredible nightmare of a story this is, with a
rendezvous of some of the crowned heads of south-
THE KINGDOM OF THE Child.
By Alice ern Europe in a Swiss chalet, where duchesses serve
M. H. Heniger. Dutton; $1.50.
as maids and fall in love with cultured Americans.
It is evidently satiric in intention, and it becomes
Mrs. Heniger has done more than anyone to cloyingly sentimental and heavily parodic by turns
develop the "Children's Theater" and persuade in result. But the American public continues to
teachers and parents of the importance of giving indulge itself in these stirabouts of grotesque shad-
young children an opportunity to express themselves
ows of things—the direct descendants of the Bertha
in drama. In this fresh and persuasive little book M. Clay style of literature.
she works out at some length the educational theory
that is behind her enterprise. Child life, she shows,
FREE AND OTHER STORIES. By Theodore
is intensely and universally dramatic. Make-believe
Dreiser. Boni & Liveright; $1.50.
is the world children live in. But this pretense
cannot be confined to the imagination. It needs
Mr. Theodore Dreiser may always be depended
definite expression, definite dramatization. Children
upon to show his readers what an essentially com-
can use almost any symbols, but there must be sym- monplace and fatuous thing life is. His novels
bols. That is why the acting out of stories appeals from the really exceptional Sister Carrie to that
to practically all children, dull and bright. Mrs. ponderous commentary on Weininger's Sex and
Heniger shows suggestively that much juvenile Character, The "Genius”—abound in situation and
crime is nothing more than inappropriate dramatiza- auctorial asides on the extreme, irremediable banality
tion-acting, in other words—done in places or with of man in conflict with himself, his fellows, and
symbolic tools that adults find inconvenient. If dirt with the universe. This attitude, which is the
is merely matter in the wrong place, then juvenile logical conclusion of the realist (or perhaps one
offenses are usually merely drama in the wrong
should say the naturalist) philosophy in literature,
place. The problem of home and school becomes, sits upon Mr. Dreiser's bowed shoulders like the
then, how to use this dramatic instinct of the child mantle of a prophet; and this prophet delights to
so as to turn it towards interests and activities that utter his mournful, harpy-like lamentations at the
will be important and useful for later life. The impoverished banquet of existence in a tone whose
kindergarten, built up on a theory of metaphysics skepticism is a little too like self-impotence always
rather than of dramatics, has failed on the whole to to convince. In the present volume he deserts the
supply the educational need it pretended. The novel for the short story, but he still wears the
schools are learning that much more vivid imper- mantle and executes the familiar gestures of realism.
sonation is required really to awaken the children's These eleven tales are not only so many Zolaesque
imaginations. Few are the schools nowadays that slices of life of the most drab content, but in struc-
do not approach the rudiments through the pathway ture and style they are deplorably inadequate.
of play: stories are acted before they are read, and Quite aside from the author's frequent perversions
even arithmetic proves susceptible to the dramatic of good English–especially his irritating habit of
instinct. In this book Mrs. Heniger says little that splitting infinitives—the development of practically
is new, but what she says is too important not to every story in this book obeys the prescriptions not
bear repetition.
of art but of journalism. A police-court reporter
with a modicum of culture and literary aspirations
could do no worse.
The LAUGHING GIRL. By Robert W. Cham-
And even Mr. Dreiser, whose
bers. Appleton; $1.50.
claims to literary ability have received the confirma-
tion of more than one genuine achievement, could
In his newest novel-newest at least for the scarcely do worse.
moment—Mr. Chambers gives a clever imitation of The fact is that Mr. Dreiser, in this book, has
the novelization of a musical comedy plot written committed the ultimate blunder: in his worship of


1918
631
THE DIAL
Three Important Dorang.Books
First publication outside of Russia of a
large and representative collection of the
To Clearly Understand the Conditions of Peace
YOU SHOULD READ
THE EDGE OF THE QUICKSANDS
By D. Thomas Curtin
With merciless clearness, Mr. Curtin depicts the autocracy of the
German government-the servility of the people--the underlying
causes of Germany's disintogration-the kind of enemy with whom
we now talk peace.
12mo. Net, $1.50
DECREES
OF THE
SOVIET GOVERNMENT
to appear in the
BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE
REICHSTAG
By Abbé E. Wetterle
Ex-Deputy at the Reichstag in
the Alsace-Lorraine Chamber
"A remarkable gallery of Reichstag portraits and ruthless analysis of
Reichstag realities." -London Times. "Makes one realize the at-
mosphere in which the German people were nourished."- Providence
(R. 1.) Journal. "A genuine inside view of politics at Berlin.
Philadelphia North American.
Octavo. Net, $2.00.
International Relations Section
of
The Nation
December 28th
A fascinating autobiography
OUT OF THE SHADOW
By Rose Cohen
Poignant, of enduring beauty, this authentic romance of the miracu-
lous spiritual Americanization of the alien. A Russian emigrant girl
tells her own story with the creative power of a great novelist.
Octavo. Not, $2,00
At AU Bookshops
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY NEW YORK
Publishers in America for Hodder & Stoughton
Russia in her present struggle cannot be
adequately understood by the people of
this country through the meagre and fre-
quently distorted reports appearing in
the daily press.
For a broader, more
intelligent comprehension of the form
of government now moulding the new
Russia, it is essential to know something
of the principles controlling it.
In this collection will be found decree's
regarding: Education --Religion-Com-
merce — Labor Conditions Trade-
Wages-Transportation - Agriculture -
Banking-Marriage and Divorce.
Just Ready
RUSSIA
From the Varangians to
the Bolsheviks
By RAYMOND BEAZLEY, NEVILL FORBES
and G. A. BIRKETT. With an Introduction by
ERNEST BARKER.
623 Pages. Net $4.25.
Postage extra, weight 2 lbs.
The Nation, issued weekly, and its Inter-
national Relations Section, issued fort.
nightly, are indispensable those who
would keep in touch with the best liberal
thought of the day,
10 cents a copy
$4.00 a year
vik domination of Russia ? Wherein does
the Russian Revolution differ from the French
Revolution? Why has Germany been so influ-
ential in Russian affairs ? Questions like these
are answered by the facts as given in this book.
The reasons for the present chaos in Russia are
numerous, and a true perspective can only be
gained by viewing her history as a vast panorama.
(A new volume in the Histories of the Belliger-
ents Series.)
At all Bookstores or from the Publishers
The Nation
20 Vesey Street
New York City
Enclosed is $. for which please send
The Nation for one year to
Name-
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
A M E R I CAN BRANCH
35 WEST 320 STREET, NEW YORK
Addresa
D12
When writing to advertisers please nuntiau TIE DIAL.


632
December 28
THE DIAL
con-
the trivial he has taken up the position of supposing through the horror he seems to have attained a
that the mere "presentation" of the insignificant is humanity and truth which his earlier work certainly
enough to render a story "vital.” Accordingly he does not show. His unconvincingness in these
insists upon eliminating from his situations and stories is helped by his use of that strained and
characters every hint of those incalculable factors bizarre style which the second-rate French writer
which lend dramatic power to the lives of even the of today so loves to affect.
sorriest peasant and charwoman. It is not, be it
understood, that Mr. Dreiser lacks feeling for real
Books of the Fortnight
character and psychology, Jennie Gerhardt proves
the contrary-it is just that in these rather colorless The following list comprises THE DIAL's selec-
tales he has failed in responsibility to himself and tion of books recommended among the publications
to his artistic ideals. With the exception of The received during the last two weeks:
Lost Phoebe, a really charming study in the pathos
(and pathology) of old age, and in the sketch of a
The People's Part in Peace. By Ordway Tead.
village Bovary, The Second Choice, the sensitive
12mo, 156 pages. Henry Holt & Co. $1.10.
reader would find it difficult to distinguish between
The New State: Group Organization the Solution
these awkwardly written footnotes'to a thesis and,
of Popular Government. By M. P. Follett.
say, the "sobstuff" of some exceptionally clever
12mo, 373 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. $3.
journalist. As an example of what real genius History of the Jews in Russia and Poland: From
might have done with such material as this book
the Earliest Times Until the Present Day. By
contains read the Dubliners of James Joyce. Any
S. M. Dubnow. Translated by I. Friedlaen-
reference to Tchekhov or Garshin or Galsworthy
der. Vol. II: From the Death of Alexander I.
would perhaps be spreading it on too thick. Free
until the Death of Alexander III. (1825-
and Other Stories is a book Mr. Dreiser will have 1894.) 12mo, 429 pages. Jewish Publication
to live down. It mars his reputation as an exact,
Society (Philadelphia).
patient student of the prosaic, offends by its un The Dawn of the French Renaissance. By Arthur
pardonable uncouthness of style, and seems
Tilley. 8vo, 636 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
clusive evidence that its author will never master $8.25.
the difficult, heart-breaking technique of the short Cities and Sea-Coasts and Islands. By Arthur
story. Yet, in the two exceptions above mentioned, Symons. 12mo, 353 pages. Brentano's. $3.
there is indisputably a spark of promise for Mr. The Day's Burden: Studies, Literary and Political,
Dreiser in this field. Now if he will just fan this and Miscellaneous Essays. By Thomas M.
spark into a flame for us
Kettle. 12mo, 218 pages. $2.
A Writer's Recollections. By Mrs. Humphry
We OTHERS.
Ward. Illustrated, 12mo, 500 pages. Harper
By Henri Barbusse. E. P.
& Bros. 2 vols. $6.
Dutton ; $1.50.
George Meredith: A Study of His Works and
The danger in following up a writer who sud Personality. By J. H. E. Crees. 12mo, 238
denly publishes a popular masterpiece lies in finding
pages. Longmans, Green & Co. $2.
that he has not always been writing masterpieces. Four Years in the White North. By Donald B.
The present run on Barbusse is drawing out ma MacMillan. Illustrated, 8vo, 426 pages.
terial that makes the fact of Under Fire all the
Harper & Bros. $4.
more bewildering. How did a writer of such doubt- Edgewater People. Tales. By Mary E. Wilkins
ful talent produce so amazing a book? It must
Freeman. Illustrated. 12mo, 315 pages. Har-
indeed have been the war, and Barbusse one of the
per & Bros. $1.35.
few writers whom the Great War did directly in-
Corn from Olde Fieldes: An Anthology of English
spire and endow with his own best powers. The
Poems from the Fourteenth to the Seventeenth
doubtfulness of his previous talent is well docu-
Century. By Eleanor M. Brougham. 12mo,
mented in this collection of short “stories of fate,
love, and pity,” as they are described. These stories Lanterns in Gethsemane. Verse. By Willard Wat-
298 pages. John Lane Co. $1.50.
are the merest feuilletons, such as the Parisian reads
tles. 12mo, 152 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
of a morning in his cheaper newspaper on the tram
$1.50.
or suburban train. Many of them deal with the
The Village Wife's Lament. Verse. By Maurice
more improbable forms of murder and sudden death,
Hewlett. 12mo, 72 pages. G. P. Putnam's
and they all have a decisively hollow and unnatural Sons. $1.25.
ring. The ingenuity of Barbusse in imagining the
A Family Album. Verse. By Alter Brody. With
ghoulish explains perhaps why he could make a an introduction by Louis Untermeyer. 12mo,
masterpiece out of war. For here was a wide and 132 pages. B. W. Huebsch. $1.25.
thoroughly congenial frame which would absorb Growing Pains. Verse. By Jean Starr Unter-
horror to the limit of one's inventive capacity. And meyer. 8vo, 64 pages. B. W. Huebsch. $1.


1918
THE DIAI
633

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634
December 28
THE DIAL
Current Nows
the sculptural values of the body in relation to
dramatic interpretation-is, however, intelligent and
Little Brown and Co. plan to bring out in Janu- illuminating. Unlike most manuals, this one has
ary The Curious Quest, by E. Phillips Openheim; charm, for Madame Guilbert is here both naive
Who Cares? by Cosmo Hamilton; and The Apart- and intimate, and her textbook on the art of singing
ment Next Door, by William Johnston.
is attuned to the vibrant note of her own personality.
Norman Angell's study of English labor condi-
tions and their bearing upon American ndustrial
Contributors
problems is to be published immediately by B. W.
Huebsch, under the title The British Reolution
Randolph Bourne, for two years a member of the
and American Democracy.
contributing staff of The Dial, died December 22
Social workers are again placed under obligation exigencies of publication make it necessary to post-
in New York after only a few days' illness. The
to the Russell Sage Foundation by its publication,
pone until the next number editorial comment on
in Shelby M. Harrison's Survey and Exhibit Series,
this loss to liberalism.
of the A B C of Exhibit Planning, by Evart G.
Routzahn and Mary Swain Routzahn. The vol-
ume, which sells for $1.50, illustrates its prctical Mrs. Natalie Curtis Burlin is the author of The
hints with many photographic reproductions de pos Indians' Book (Harper); Songs of Ancient Amer-
ters and displays.
ica and Negro Folk-Songs (Schirmer); and of
Mitchell S. Buck has prepared Book Repail and Songs From the Dark Continent (in press with
Restoration: A Manual of Practical Suggestions for Doubleday-Page).
Bibliophiles (Nicholas L. Brown, Pl.iladelphia; Lincoln Colcord is Secretary of the League of
$2), a simple and convenient treatise, generously Free Nations Association, whose recent manifesto
illustrated, which includes some translated selections The Dial printed in its issue of November 30. He
from A. Bonnardot's Essai sur l'art de Restaurer has been until recently the staff correspondent of
les Estampes et les Livres (Paris, 1858). The the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and is the author
booklover who enjoys taking care of his own pl- of The Game of Life and Death (tales; Macmil-
umes will find this little handbook a valuable lan) and The Vision of War (Macmillan).
companion.
Albert C. Barnes is a manufacturer who is
The Lyman Beecher Lectureship Foundation has especially interested in the application of psycho-
performed a conspicuous service by publishing Henty logical theory to the problems of business and
Sloane Coffin's series of lectures In a Day of Socil politics. Mr. Barnes and John Dewey are probably
Rebuilding (Yale University Press; $1). Dr. Coffin the leading authorities on the Polish Movement in
is an outstanding exponent of a larger conception America.
for Christianity in its relation to national and in Richard Aldington's Heliodora in this issue is the
ternational problems. Any alert layman troubled fourth in his series of Letters to Unknown Women.
by the cramped individualism of his pastor's sermons Virgil Jordan was at one time an instructor in
might well present the reverend gentleman a copy economics in the University of Wisconsin. He is
of these lectures.
now an associate editor of Everybody's Magazine
For publication early in 1919 the J. B. Lippin- and a contributor to that and other periodicals.
cott Co. promise a new volume in the Variorum Hendrik Willem van Loon is the author of The
Edition of Shakespeare-King John, edited by Fall of the Dutch Republic (1913), The Rise of
Horace Howard Furness, Jr. Other proposed titles the Dutch Kingdom (1915), The Golden Book of
are: The University of Pennsylvania: Franklin's Dutch Navigators (1916), and A Short History of
College, by Horace Mather Lippincott; A Gentle Discovery (1917), which was reviewed in The
Cynic: Being the Book of Ecclesiastes, by Morris Dial for May 9.
Jastrow, Jr.; and four novels-Wild Youth, by Sir
Lisle Bell, a frequent contributor to the Notes on
Gilbert Parker; The Soul of Ann Rutledge, by New Books department of The Dial, is a young
Bernie Babcock; The Diamond Pin, by Carolyn New York journalist whose work has appeared in
Wells; and The Red Signal, by Grace Livingston several magazines.
Hill Lutz.
The other contributors to this issue have previ-
Madame Yvette Guilbert's How to Sing a Song ously written for The Dial.
(Macmillan ; $2) is of negligible value as a text-
book in the art of lyric interpretation. The most
The Index to Volume LXV of THE DIAL,
eager chansonneur could scarcely find her elabo-
rately annotated and charted chansons of more than
which is concluded with this number, will be ready
ex post facto interest—the rule of thumb measure
in a few days. It will be printed separately and a
of Madame Guilbert's own technique, which, one
copy will be mailed free on request to any sub-
likes to think, is less arbitrary than this book indi scriber who sends his name and address to THE
cates. The author's treatment of “the plastic art" - Dial, 152 West 13th Street, New York City.


1918
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A really valuable work, based on intimate first-hand
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With valuable maps and illustrations. $2.50 net.
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6
December 28, 1918
THE DIAL
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