lem of
extinction of the theme. Mountain Blood is a old days, the harbor and its decaying jetties, the
rousing story; it would even make a tremendous ships under clouds of white canvas making the heart
motion picture without complete annihilation of its lift, the three generations of Ammidons, the great
identity; but it is certainly not, in any consistent house named to symbolize the “happy end of an
artistic sense, the focused story of “
arduous voyage," the loves and the gossipings, all
failure to repair a spiritual wrong with gold,” and the vistaed loveliness of things native and exotic.
for that reason it remains, of all Hergesheimer's There, in creation of loveliness, is the goal of this
work, least Hergesheimerian. There is one more
writer's endeavor. There too is the lesson for
lapse into factualism, that of The Dark Fleece criticism to interpret to his contemporary tellers of
(one of the three tales in Gold and Iron, 1918), in
tales, cisatlantic and other. For the novel in gen-
which Mr. Hergesheimer is lured into a startling eral
, as for this one artist, the path of pure simplic-
breach of his point of view by the pursuit of a
ity, that leads from factualism to impressionism, is
theme which seems always to have had a peculiar
the path to beauty.
WILSON FOLLETT.
atmos-
an aged man's


452
May 3
THE DIAL
same
Paul Carus
I
IS WHEN halfway on the Road, as our friends to look into and round about. His acquisitions
begin in such solemn procession to quit our ken, were enormous; in an age of a thousand specialties
that death brings with it a new bewilderment
he seemed to take, like Bacon, all knowledge for
besides its primitive power to shock the feelings. It his province. In the course of one morning at
brings now a tragic cunning to awaken the La Salle he piloted me through his father-in-law's
thoughts
. In taking the friend away, it first shows fuming zinc factory, traversed Kant, Alfred the
us with a grave high challenge the friend, detached Great, Empedocles, and Gummere's ballad theories
and whole, who was before to us but half-regarded on the way to the composing rooms, and then with
fragments among infinite other fragments. So it is whimsical mirth analyzed the character of a huge
that by middle life not a little of our thinking goes printer in his establishment who got drunk and
into the organized effort to appraise individual wanted to divorce a wizened wife for cruel and
character and influence; and the effort, though not abusive treatment. All was grist to his mill, grist
unworthy as effort, is as result (we all know) and not chaff or grit, and the mill seldom clogged
a grievous confusion—for life cannot comprehend
but continued to grind out a definite brand. Some
life, even when isolated and clarified by death.
This elemental truth has been particularly brought
smaller mill-owners, resenting this, said he showed
a lack of sense for relative values. He showed the
home to me of late by the passing of Paul Carus.
lack in taking up with incongruous people.
For he was a man so greatly and diversely alive,
with so many interests, activities, contacts sym-
In turning over the pages of The Monist, The
Open Court, or his numerous books, besides vigor-
bolizing and illustrating so many issues. But I can
at least refuse to complicate the moment by attempt-
ous correspondence with such distinguished and ill-
assorted friends as Ernst Haeckel, Tolstoy, and
ing to appraise him for others; let me set down these
Père Hyacinthe, one comes upon equally whole-
few paragraphs, as if simply to help myself. hearted discussions with up-state clergymen in
I think, inevitably, first of his big, rugged human-
Michigan-or small-town doctors in Illinois-sub-
ity, so well squaring with his philosophy but so
scribers doubtless. But I know it was not editorial
gloriously untainted by that unctious serviceability
of those who practice humanity as
courtesy that prompted him to take their thinking
from their philosophy. Profoundly absorbed as he
a deduction seriously. He took any thinking, or honest attempt
was in his own enterprises as publisher, thinker,
at thinking, seriously—because he was too habit-
and father in a large household, he had the zest
ually close to the great problems, and all men's
and the strength for so many little kindnesses here fems, to be much impressed with the differences
great shortcomings in dealing with the great prob-
and there by the way that of themselves they would
alone constitute good works enough to fulfill and
between such superficialities as fame and obscurity;
justify any life of three score and ten lacking three.
and really living his mission to seek and to bring
Not that he could not dislike with the same zest.
light into the world, he found none who asked or
I have a list of his pet aversions : certain pompous
challenged too humble to arouse his interest. In
orators, tricky business men, smug politicians, ver-
this, as in so much besides, he often reminded me
bose philosophers—the shams and the exploiters.
of my old teacher William James, whose broad-
But they served only his abounding sense of humor cogmatist quite as warmly as his pluralistic philos
:
gauge personality was cherished by this broad-gauge
and the bearded volubility of his table talk; thereophy was repelled. His ceaseless vitality could not
was not one of them he could have done a mean
turn even if he had summoned to the ungracious
be exhausted in looking into and thinking about,
task all the formidable domination of his unshorn, making: he had Veblen's two primary instincts, the
even in talking about. "It discharged itself also in
massive head and his stocky physique. A fighter
, instinct of craftsmanship no less than that
but always in the open and on the square, indiffer-
ent to self, if only the truth of the object prevail.
osity. He expanded the Open Court Publishing
And what might the object be? Literally, any-
Co. till it has become veritably an “institution
thing. For him any thing was some thing: on con-
(vide the Evening Post, New York, September 26,
sciously conceived principle, a some-thing because
1914), with distinct aims and methods and with
it was a hint, a manifestation of one or another of
contacts all over the world. The bibliographical
those universal laws that made the monistic world
summary of his writings to 1909 is itself a book of
he so valiantly preached; but more immediately, a
213 pages (Philosophy As a Science). Once when
some-thing because, merely, of his inveterate instinct
two weeks on his back in the hospital he wrote a
verse-drama on Buddha, not perhaps important as


1919
THE DIAL
Me
453
a thokala
E of one or
<<
ed Kant A
mere's balls
“ depart-
character : 1
wwho got era
ist to his al;
1
efinite brez
chs a be
own
incongruous
boks, besis
Singuite's
telTalo
In equiel T
Zie der
ence
verse or drama, but still two weeks of giving shape obey the rules, he didn't play the game. His Eng-
to big thought instead of setting eyes to blank walls. lish vocabulary, among other things, was too un-
Nothing but death could keep his untiring spirit technical and his English sentences too clear—and
still.
a German, too! And he associated with so many
Paul Carus' name suggests many morals on my intellectual fools and parvenus! Besides, he didn't
walks in the spring lanes out of town. A graduate look natural. He couldn't be classified in any de-
of Tübingen in 1876, he found his intellectual partment. He meddled with the affairs of so many
opportunity in America, and gave to America the departments.” Even inside the sacred walls a
loyal services of a grateful German soul. I thought man who meddles with more than one
of Paul Carus once when a fellow Anglo-American ment is doomed as a suspect. Again, his pro-
assured me that every German-American, had he digious output was in fact a disconcerting farrago.
stayed where he belonged, would still be plodding If one is as alert, many-faceted, and fluent as
about in wooden shoes. A man of independent Carus, he shouldn't have the use of a personally
means (largely I believe through his association owned and controlled printing press always at his
with that sturdy founder of the zinc factory and elbow. He never took time to write a magnum
the Open Court, Mr. Hegeler, himself a German opus, and was short on footnotes. Writing for
American and a rare character with a romantic general enlightenment, he frequently merely popu-
history), he found in money solely instruments of larized (sometimes too in rather slap-stick fashion)
liberation, liberation for his intellectual facts already familiar enough to the better informed.
growth, and liberation for leadership and public He would intermingle, with naive indifference to
service in essentially uncommercial enterprises. He ex-cathedral dignity and scholastic reputation, fa-
was not your rich man who writes out a check for miliar commonplaces of higher thought amid valua-
a drinking-fountain, a monument, a whole library ble, original analysis of such abstruse affairs as
or university, and then goes down to the Stock Ex Kant's inconsistent threefold meaning of “experi-
change to make good the sacrifice. He didn't even " and Aristotle's inconsistent fourfold meaning
spend his money for illuminated manuscripts and of cause." Moreover he sometimes made pal-
incunabula. A philosopher by profession, but not pable blunders of fact or ventured on erratic guesses
a professor of philosophy, he had relatively little of theory. But, all in all, such a capital stock of
professional recognition in Academia, though he brains, if properly invested, would yield enormous
was sometimes a lecturer before clubs and classes. returns of academic prestige in any one of a half-
Professor Otto here at Wisconsin tells me of pick dozen departments, if not in a whole college. And
ing him up by chance in the corridor (the Carus finally there was the paradoxical character of his
boys were at our college) five minutes before the relations to modern thought and the vast scope of
hour and getting him to talk to his students on the synthesis he attempted. Of this a word more.
Kant-in a luminous and well-ordered exposition An active champion of evolution in nature, man,
without notes or other hitches. But most teachers, and man's institutions from the days when the fight
I suspect, would have begrudged him the hour. It was first on, he still held as firmly as Aristotle or
wasn't jealousy, for most professors are, in the the Schoolmen to eternal norms of truth, and was
security of their ivy citadels, without jealousy as impatient of agnosticism as was Huxley's bishop.
except perhaps toward their fellows inside the Indeed agnosticism, to him “the egg-shell of meta-
works. It wasn't any superficiality in his philos physicism was, with mysticism, one of the few
ophy—at least not if they stopped to examine it typical isms of human speculative endeavor he could
for though, as to theory of knowledge, as to the not, or would not, subsume under one or another
concepts of energy and stuff, he may be inadequate, of his principles of reconciliation. There could be
and though his whole system may be founded on a no such thing as agnosticism any longer. Science is
repugnant technique, or dialectic, his best thinking registering law after law; the laws are the inter-
(as in God, an Inquiry and a Solution, or Kant's related forms of one universe; and the complex of
Prolegomena) has the unmistakable note of the the forms is “the Allhood.” And the result is
philosopher as distinct both from author of a phil more, too, than positivism. Man can grasp the
osophic monograph and from the philosophaster of Allhood because he is himself of the same stock.
the middle-class readers' magazines. The neglect Man's reasoning is not a subjective reconstruction
seems to have been due to a number of things, in- by man for man: against Kant he affirms the forınal
structive for the quizzical moralizer. In the first factors of thought to be the formal factors of
place, it illustrates the delimited hospitality of any nature; against Mill he affirms the universality of
established cult. Carus was not in any university the principles of pure mathematics and pure logic;
catalogue. He hadn't the password. And he didn't against Bergson he affirms the validity of the inte!-
ke that is
e and
ck 2015"
Is Amateur
22
Peret


454
THE DIAL
May 3
Carus dedicated some of his best study in books. has no meaning for the latter. So too of Dr. Carus'
ting rid of the illusion of self; and immortality is, . in the use of many old words for new views. The
lectual, rather than the intuitional approach, pre as with Buddha, the Karma, the infinite and subtle
cisely because it does break phenomena up into the influences of our character as men and minds, and
discreet, abstract, formal; against James he affirms Dr. Carus (so runs his credo) lives still, for better
that reason creates the specific activities of the will, or for worse, in this little essay and in the conscious-
far more than the will creates the activities of ness of those who read it (even as I too live in it);
belief and reason; against the pragmatists generally, God is not personal but super-personal, nor the All
that life does not make truth but truth life, re of Pantheism but the Allhood of Laotze as ex-
affirming with the Stoics the injunction to follow pounded in Dr. Carus' own translations from the
nature (that is, to learn the norms and work with Chinese (for Carus' capital-stock included, among
them) and holding with Platonism against Nietz other things, a Professorship of Oriental Linguis-
sche that morality is conformity to an Eternal, not tics.) There is no Umwertung aller Werte: mythol-
a psychological twist in a temporal flux. Withal, ogy, religion, philosophy are evolution, are progress,
he seems an old-fashioned rationalist in an age that
and, as it were, a progress in understanding and
has changed all that. Of the two types of explana- making ideographs, alphabets
, metaphors, symbols.
tion, that which stresses the principle of being and
Christ is true, but so is Apollo-there is no last
that which stresses the principle of becoming—the oracle. And Christianity was
“the fulfillment"
Eleatic and the Heraclitic, recurring in later times proclaimed by the Apostle, the result of antecedent
as Absolute Idealism or Creative Evolution (and historical and spiritual forces, as strikingly pre-
combined in The World as Will and Idea)—he sented in his scholarly but popular little book called
seems to have closer affiliations with the former. The Pleroma; and he advised more than one trou-
But his own pages are dedicated to bringing "all
bled cleric, whom the times had made shaky in the
that" down 'to date. The universal rational norms
faith, to stick to his job. Dr. Carus belongs in
are the very condition of this recently discovered
the Protestant inanner, as Cardinal Mercier (today
evolution that is supposed to have dethroned
rationalism forever.
so famous for preserving the heroic of thought in the
As the immanent world-
order of uniformities which naturally lead all crea-
heroic of action) belongs in the Catholic manner,
the modernists of science who are the mediators of
tures to develop toward rationality,” they reveal tradition.
a rational meaning in evolution as progress: prog-
This hospitality to all points of view, this reso-
ress is not merely relative, an adjustment between
organism and environment; it is not, either, in any
lution of factual opposites and logical antinomies
increased differentiation of functions and
was it a good or not? I don't know. It doubtless
it is measurable strictly in terms of approach toward
organs;
helped to stabilize himself and many others in an
that intelligence which “mirrors the norms
age of spiritual shake-ups and change. It doubt-
less serves as an impressive reminder of the organic
toward the powers, culminating in man, to achieva continuity of history, its institutions and creeds.
truth (which is reason), and to act upon it (whicl.
is morality), and to love and reverence it (which is
But as a dialectic method it may tend to obscur,
religion). And so he combines old and new, orth-
antism, however far from the obscurantism of
odoxy and heterodoxy, science and religion, and calls
Hegel. Certain things are different, if only be-
the result Nomotheism (Greek: nomos, law). The
cause, as James used to say, they make a difference ;
laws of science—that is, the immanent world-order
and they should be named differently. Dr. Carus
-have an intrinsic teleology; determinism is still
may live on in my thought; but I shall never see
freedom where the determinant is the actor's own
Dr. Carus again–because Dr. Carus has gone to
character; the logos—that is, the norm—becomes
his long sleep and I shall soon be going to mine,
flesh ever and anew; we live and move and have
and there are no hands across the seas of death.
our being in God—that is, we are all that we are
The immortality of the Buddhist's "Karma" and
by virtue of the cosmic laws in which we share.
the immortality of the Christian's “ personality”
We are personalities, souls, but Buddha (to whom
are two different immortalities; and though the
latter might not exclude the former, the former
now translated into many tongues, west and east,
and used in the temple-schools of Japan and Cey-
God.” The monist Haeckel, incorrigible atheist
,
lon) Buddha was right, as modern psychology is
wrote him, “We mean the same thing." And
beginning to realize: our souls are but samskaras,
Carus was never able to make it clear to me that
soul-forms (for example, seeing, hearing, thinking)
Haeckel was not right-intellectually. The term
with no atman, no metaphysical entity, behind; and
is possibly justified only when we meditate certain
salvation, with Carus as with Buddha, means get-
human factors outside logical analysis; and these
factors are at the root of the good (or the evil)
to


1919
455
THE DIAL
live di:
can
symbol “God," born of a deep racial instinct of
wonder and aspiration and dependence on the order
of nature, and rendered trebly sacred by the long
human history so intertwined with it, saves for us
an attitude, an emotion, an imaginative moment,
that the logically correct norms of existence
never have; and Carus' attitude of reverence and
love and dedication to the logos may be truer to the
sources and the ends of man's life than the defiantly
scientific” attitude we associate, rightly or wrong-
ly, with the author of The Riddle of the Universe.
Paul Carus, like so many men of his generation,
suffered the spiritual tragedy of a household faith in
ruins; and the waves swept him far out to sea. ' But
he was a young and vigorous swimmer, and wrestled
in the dark. He found shore in a new faith of
science, far from all old doorways. But the old
Orient.
emotional attitude, the old imaginative moment had
not altered. So it came, I think, that he felt with
a peculiar poignancy and depth, not amenable even
to his own versatile argument and not communi-
cable in any speech, the religious quality of what
is logically speaking, a system of impersonal laws,
infinite in time and space and achieving self-
consciousness (as far as we know) only through
one moment of eternity on one small planet of one
of millions of suns in the life of that creature whose
destiny it is to transmute cosmic process into cosmic
reason—a destiny to which 'Paul Carus himself so
nobly bore witness, and to which the masters of
the earth today, not only in Paris, seem so trag-
ically, so ominously, indifferent.
WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD.
[100, 2.
3
strhy
The Impending Revolution in Italy
let
مابین
ters.
AT
T THE SUDDEN and unexpected breaking out of are needed for the industries of the country itself.
the European war in 1914 Italy was just passing Yet before its entry into the great war Italy im-
through a very hard and critical period of unrest, ported more than a billion of francs more value than
as a consequence of the victorious but difficult strug its exports amounted to. It was on the market, a cus-
gle in Tripoli against Turkey. The Italian prole tomer of Germany, England, France, Austria-Hun-
tariat has never approved and was never willing to gary, and of the United States, and if these nations
start any colonial enterprise, on account of its own ever closed their market Italy would be strangled in
backward social conditions. The colonial wars al a very short time. Therefore, because of its geograph-
ways left Italy crushed under a burden of heavy ical position, its financial and industrial needs, and
taxation. The working classes, spurred and upheld further because of its political and traditional ties
by their sense of solidarity and of their own common of sympathy with England, Italy entered the war,
interests, warned the government of the danger that “bargaining” for the best of ker“sacro egoísmo."
its policy was precipitating upon the whole nation, The beginning of this war found Italy already at
sending it in the direction of new ruins and disas the point of exhaustion as a result of the Tripoli war,
which cost over a billion lire. The working classes
But even the young kingdom of Italy had in itself were absolutely opposed to any further war venture
and had fomented in others the imperialistic desires and they went into the fight grudgingly, their hearts
that are common to kingdoms. It had visions of filled with resentment. The protests of the Socialist
a larger country and new lands to exploit. From party were unheard. Violence, corruption, excep-
the point of view of the new and audacious financial tional laws conquered every opposition. Italy had
and industrial classes of northern Italy this policy to fight.
might have been excusable, but central and southern Italy, the country that had for years opposed any
Italy are poor and industrially, agriculturally, and real program of reform in favor of the working
financially undeveloped. Besides this, the taxation people, using as her excuse the meagerness of her
system of Italy is a most unjust one, both in its sys treasury, now threw millions and millions of dol-
tem and in its administration. The average per capita lars into a war to realize her dreams of revenge and
rate of contribution to the budget of the government territorial aggrandizement. During four years
is
greater in central and southern Italy than in the Italy has suffered as no other country. She de-
more prosperous north. This want of equilibrium in stroyed the best of her human stock, she destroyed
system of taxation inevitably results in a simi her forests, her farms, abandoned all her public
larly unbalanced ratio of benefits from the govern works, especially in the south, and stripped of every-
thing of value her already miserable peasants who,
Italy is absolutely dependent upon outside coun more than any other class, gave to the war their
tries. Its resources—grain, cotton, coal, and iron blood and their resources. The public debt which
1
the
ment.


456
THE DIAL
May 3
crises-war, death, disease, hunger, grief, privations
there has been no food in the markets for himself
and his family? And in addition the proletarians
the Socialist party are the only hope of the Italian
No other party or faction or group from
the Conservatives to the Republicans, from the
Catholics to the Democrats, has the confidence and
was fifteen billions of lire before the war is to proprietor the right of living off the land. Nor can
day seventy-five billions of lire. Three-fourths of the returning soldiers be omitted from the equation.
the national wealth, which is estimated at one hun At the front they heard of useless sacrifices of their
dred billions of lire, is mortgaged. The interest comrades, due to faults and mistakes of their com-
lone on her debt, at the rate of four per cent, will mandants. When they return they find themselves
cost Italy three billions of lire annually. Let us and their families and villages in desperate plight,
take statistics from the official records of the coun helpless, penniless, hungry, suffering. They wander
try in normal times, just preceding the war.
like ghosts, cursing the responsible "Signori" who
Year Revenues Expenditures Surplus Deficit
wanted the dreadful war. The situation in southern
(lire) (lire) (lire) (lire) Italy is terrible, no less. Here the peasants depend
1909-10 2,237,260,000 2,204,960,000 32,300,000
1910-11 2,403,390,000 2,391,820,000 11,570,000
mostly upon the products of agriculture. Right here
1911-12 2,475,350,000 2,587,180,000
111,830,000
one strikes the first spirit of revolt. The peasants'
1912-13 2,528,870,000 2,786,370,000
257,500,000
1913-14 2,523,750,000 2,687,660,000
psychology is very simple, direct, clear, and because
163,910,000
The question which arises spontaneously on the
of its very simplicity is in a position to interpret and
understand society and the relation of the peasant to
lips of every person of common sense who reads
“higher authority." They have been told for years
these figures is: How can Italy pay the interest on that the defeat of the “ ancient enemy" would bring
her debts? (Many of them are contracted with freedom and prosperity to the poorer classes. They
foreign countries.)
have, ordinarily, no interest in political matters. But
Here is a nation in an absolutely unique situation,
not to be compared with that of any other country
as soon as they perceive that they have been duped,
used, deceived by false promises, they go back in
in the world. Italy has no gold, no raw material,
their minds and memories to other disastrous adven-
no superabundant capital, no great world-famed
captains of industry. Her only wealth is a thrifty,
tures—the Abysinnian War, Tripoli—and they
realize that it is but the same tragic story in a new
intelligent, and productive peasantry, and of this cloak.
wealth she has an abundant store, with a great
reservoir of natural strength and ability, which will
And they need but to realize this to become spon-
play a great part in the building of a new society.
taneously and immediately revolutionists. They see
Italy's central government has been for the past
men who a few years ago were without a span
half century, with few exceptions, formed of men
land and who today are rich. How? Why? All
entirely unfit for any public office. They are usually gather in their exasperated brains, and it is belea.
their own sufferings, like the clouds before a storm,
appointed from or chosen by groups of parliamen-
tary camarillas who represent petty bourgeois pro ing the bloody revolts of Sicily the peasant vented his
step from that point to open violence. In 1894 dur-
vincial interests. Never in this time has there been
hatred upon the little stations of the municipal im-
a man of large vision who could see or outline a
consistent Italian policy, a democratic policy. The
port duty, thinking that these were the culprits who
Parliament has been an obedient and manageable
were to blame for all his unendurable misery. He
instrument in the hands of the Conservative party,
cannot be so deceived again. Now he experiences all
and it is lately in the hands of the Free Masons.
the different stages of moral, mental, and physical
The kings of Italy swung from reaction to a hypo-
critical ostentation of democracy. The actual ruler, pathy, for solidarity.
—and his heart burns for justice, for human sym-
very shortsightedly forgetting the teachings of past
history and events, assumed for himself the right to
And the industrial worker of northern and cen-
throw Italy into the war.
tral Italy shares the resentment of his brother in the
So in ignoring the Socialist Party, the Confedera-
south. What matters it that he has made money
zione del Lavoro, and the Unione Sindacale Italiana
out of the war, because of the higher wages, when
—the government, the statesmen, the king, the
parties, pushed Italy over the brink of an abyss, for-
getting everything but the war, neither understand-
of the large cities have found during the war that
ing nor trying to understand the real feelings and
there are organizations for their benefit, class of;
conditions of the working classes.
ganizations, the Socialist party, and he has learned
posed and hotly discussed great reform of “The
to trust them. Here is the kernel of the matter. It
Land to the Peasants" can no longer seduce the
cannot be denied that the labor organizations and
working classes. They know too well that this re-
form does not abolish the private rights of property
workers.
but changes only its management, leaving to the
of
Even the pro-


1919
457
THE DIAL
support of the working masses. The Socialist party, of its workers, it has been defeated economically.
with its uncompromising attitude, composed of men Our problem now is to feed the people, and the
fearless, honest, combative, every moment in close bourgeoisie cannot feed them. Only if the revolution
touch with the workingmen, has the key of the whole in Russia, in Germany, in Austria succeeds will it
situation.
be possible to obtain food from the East."
A few weeks ago in Milan, the greatest indus Such is the plain expression of the men who will
trial center of Italy, at a meeting of thousands of be in the saddle of the new Italy tomorrow.
No
workers organized to protest against the holding other remedy can be successful. The giving to
of political prisoners and to demand the evacuation Italy of all she demands from the Peace Conference
of Italian troops from Russia, a Socialist representa will not change by a hair's breadth the swing of
tive defined the situation sharply and clearly, amidst the pendulum of her fate. A country of many
thunders of applause from the crowds. The revolutionary traditions, in the most precarious
Italian bourgeoisie is bankrupt. The state which social unrest, party strife; a mass of people held
represents it is bankrupt. It matters not that bank under the most brutal iron heel of military discip-
ruptcy has not been declared. It exists. Every line for the past four years; with revolutionary
public service in the state is disorganized. Un-
parties who unceasingly speak, write, organize, and
employment is growing. There is nothing to meet incite the workers and the peasants to solidarity,
and face the needs of the people. The state and Italy is at a crucial hour of a great revolution. No
the bourgeoisie have no solution.” (Voice: "It is magician has yet arisen to avert the social deluge.
true. We need revolution.”) Even if Italy has
won a military victory by sacrificing a half-million
FLAVIO VENANZI.
The Montagu-Chelmsford Reform Proposals
As
S IN EVERY OTHER COUNTRY, so in India eco protect capital, credit, and indeed property, with-
nomic factors play a predominant part in the politi out discrimination.'
cal situation. Any constitutional reform proposal India is at present an agricultural country. It
to be of any practical value to the people should possesses a phenomenally fertile soil. It has an area
solve economic grievances in a way satisfactory to of about 1,820,000 square miles, or about two-thirds
them with an eye to their real interests, and not to that of the United States. Still almost two-thirds
the interests of a few special or
kept " classes. of its population are supported directly by agricul-
To understand the effect which the new Montagu ture and the subordinate industry of cattle raising.
Chelmsford Reform Report, if adopted, will have If the number indirectly supported by these indus-
upon the Indian masses, it is necessary to study the tries be included, the proportion dependent upon
economic side of the proposal. The extent to which them would rise to nine-tenths. In the United
the proposed reforms embodied in this scheme will States the proportion dependent upon agriculture,
benefit India's millions is really the extent of its directly and indirectly, is only three-tenths of the
value. Throughout the whole of this record, admir entire population. In other words, because of scien-
able for its bulk, its excellent English, and its clever tific methods, modern implements, and a broader
ness, there are few provisions for solving the eco education, an American farmer does the work of
nomic needs of India-needs which are vital to the six Indian ryots (farmers).
peace and tranquillity of the people and the country. One would naturally expect that any reform con-
The document abounds in changes; but they are ceived for India would be executed on behalf of
merely political changes, with checks and counter this vast peasant class. Yet nowhere in the new
checks, limitations and provisos, and the authors reform scheme is there mention of any change which
seem entirely lacking in ability to discern and un might improve its conditions. Under the proposed
derstand the real economic problems of the people,
reforms, Indians-natives of the land, owners of
the solution of which is more necessary than the in-
the soil of India—are granted more voice in the
crease of a carefully chosen electorate, or similar legislative bodies. If the representatives of the
purely political institutions. Where the report people, sitting in legislative bodies, attempt to solve
touches
, or can be construed to touch, the economic problems arising out of their own domestic affairs
problem, it is found that the whole function of in a manner which may make India more of an in-
the proposed reform is to safeguard a few special dustrial and less of an agricultural country-a pro-
interests. Or, to quote directly from the report, “to
cedure which would be for India's benefit-or if


458
May 3
THE DIAL
Herein lies the true reason for the avowed "forward
nowadays the products of an industrially developed
community coincide so nearly “in kind, though not
war," so the authors of the scheme are concerned
they should attempt innovations which might be em British manufacturers; the countervailing excise
barrassing to the supreme authority of the British duty on locally manufactured cotton goods, and the
Government, the Governor-General in Council is maintenance of a Stores Department at the India
given the power to intervene and to veto such a Office in London, are eloquent symbols of the ex-
move, on the plea that it “threatens the stability of ploiting economic policy of the administrators who
the country.” Article V of the Summary of Rec now profess to hold so close to their hearts the wel.
ommendations, which follows, will be the strong
fare of the Indian ryot.
veto weapon in the hands of the Governor-General:
Though
the standard of living among the
The Government of India [is] to preserve indisput.
peasant class has improved perceptibly of late years
,
able authority adjudged by it to be essential in the dis there is still no great margin of taxable capacity.
charge of its responsibilities for peace, order, and good
[Italics mine.]
government.
This sentence from the report again exposes the
The following quotation, also taken from the re-
port, further gives the attitude of the supreme
kind of concern in the peasant held by the governing
authority in the land toward the people subject
class. The governing class has but one interest, and
that is to levy taxes.
Witness the confession that
to it:
the rjot is today taxed to his fullest possible capac-
And while we do everything that we can to encourage
Indians to settle their own problems for themselves,
ity. This in itself is sufficient condemnation of an
we [the Governor-General in Council] must retain
administration which has brought such unspeakable
power to restrain them from seeking to do so in a way
poverty. Yet the authors of the reform scheme are
that would threaten to destroy the stability of the coun-
try. He, [the ryot], must not be exposed to the
searching for new sources of revenue of taxation.
risk of oppression by people who are stronger and
While thus searching they have turned their eyes
cleverer than he is, and until it is clear that his inter-
to industrial development, which is the prime source
ests can safely be left in his own hands, or that the legis-
lative council represents and considers his interests, we
of revenue in modern, self-governing countries.
must retain power to protect him.
Practically every well-poised, up-to-date country
Or, in other words, the authors of the scheme
in the world has a fiscal policy which, in one way
believe, or seem to believe that, unlike the represen-
or the other, fosters home industries through pro-
tatives of any self-governing country, the represen-
tective tariffs, dumpings, and subsidies. Even the
tative of the people of India are incapable of look-
self-governing colonies of the British Empire enjoy
ing after the interests of the Indian peasants, while
this privilege to the full extent. Only in India is
they, the British, are above criticism in this respect.
the fiscal policy designed to suppress (Indian) in-
The quotation further infers that the Indian rep-
dustries and handicrafts, and hamper the develop;
resentatives do not represent the ryot or consider
ment of natural resources—all in the interests of
their interests. Yet this would not be true if the
English capitalists and manufacturers. India's fis-
franchise were granted to other than selected groups
cal policy is dictated from Westminster by a few
whose representatives are incapable, as are the Brit-
of the “kept" classes; they are not even the Indian
ish themselves, of considering the interests of any
“kept" class.
save themselves. It is a clever political reform which
The authors of the present scheme have come for-
says: “You do not represent the people, and we re-
ward with a policy for industrial development. But
fuse to give you the power to do so. But we have
even in this they are not as altruistic as may appear
the power and we are, therefore, capable of this
on the face of the proposal.
benevolent duty."
Both on economic and military grounds, Imperial i
But just what sort of interest in the peasant class
terests also demand that the natural resources of India
should be better utilized. We cannot measure the access
the alien rulers possess may readily be inferred from
of strength which an industrialized India will bring to
a study of the economic policy of British rule in
the power of the Empire.
India, as well as from the recommendations em-
a strong light on the military importance of economic
bodied in Chapters 344, 345, and 346, which con-
development. We know that the possibility of sea como
munications being temporarily interrupted, forces us to
cern themselves with special classes and interests.
rely on India, as an ordnance base for protective opera-
The economic policy which obtains in India has re-
tions for eastern theatres of war.
duced the country to the status of "a hewer of wood
and drawer of water," an expression used by Mr.
policy": India is strategically needed for a military
Austen Chamberlain, the ex-Secretary of State. All
and ordnance base for operations in the East. As
Indian industries and handicrafts have been ruined
by restrictive and repressive measures, both political
and economical; industrial backwardness has always
in quantity, with the catalogue of munitions of
been fostered and encouraged in the interests of
with an industrialized India--not for the interests
The war has thrown


1919
459
THE DIAL
to
ten gav
TACTE
RE
of India however, but as an asset of strength
It is our duty, to reserve to the Government the power
the Empire for Imperial interests." The great in-
to protect any industry from prejudicial attack or priv-
ileged competition.
ternational importance of India is thus revealed:
in the past converted into a producer of raw mate-
Here, again, India will be allowed to develop her
rial for a special purpose; in the future, converted
industries only in a way such as will safeguard
into an industrialized country, not for its own de-
"vested interests." These "vested interests" must
velopment, but to be used as a base for an Eastern
be protected from prejudicial attack or privileged
theater of war. And a war for whom and for competition. All the power and force of the alien
what? Perhaps the world will be told that it is to
administration is there to look after the good be-
--save India from subjugation by a foreign power!
havior of India's representatives. The missionaries
Will India be allowed to have measures of pro-
and the Eurasian community have long been indi-
tective tariffs for the development and protection
rectly, if not directly, encouraged by the theory of
of its own industries ? Not according to the report
absolutism to inculcate in the illiterate masses ideas
if, by so doing, India jeopardizes the interests of
of their inferiority. The authors of the present
British manufacturers. It must not be allowed “to
scheme, therefore, are determined to protect the in-
penalize imported articles without respect of ori-
terests of these communities against “impositions”
gin”—meaning, of course, those of British origin. by the representatives of India which might
To safeguard this phase of tariff regulations, jeopardize their privileged positions. Imperialism
in other words, to safeguard British manufactured
in India, as well as in every other country outside
articles—the Governor-General in Council retains
of Japan, assumes as its first tenet the superiority
absolute veto power over tariff measures passed by
of white rulers, and every precaution is taken in the
the representatives of India in their Legislative
new reform scheme to perpetuate this theory. Any
Council. For political expediency and military
action taken by India's representatives to challenge
necessity the Government will act as guide in the
this assumption will face the supreme veto power of
development of natural resources, but these must be
the Governor-General.
subjected to the interests of the British Empire. In-
Taken as a whole, the Montagu-Chelmsford Re-
dia's development is to be, not for her own advance-
port is almost entirely political in scope; but even
ment, protection, and gain, but only so far as is
then it has not met the very moderate political de-
needed for the interests of the Empire for "strength-
mands of the Indian National Congress and the
ening India's connection with the Empire.” India
All India Muslim League. It has been forced by
exists for the interests of the Empire and must serve
the growth of the separatist movement in India.
as needed and directed, and not in her own way!
This latter movement owes its origin as much to
The reform proposals also give the Governor-
economic injustice, economic inequalities, and eco-
General in Council absolute veto power over meas-
nomic exploitation as to political injustice. India's
ureş passed by the Legislative Council
, which might grievances have been accumulating for a centurý;
be looked upon with disfavor by certain special in-
they have given birth to the separatist movement.
terests, such as the European community, the Chris-
The reform proposal hopes to solve these problems;
tian missions, the Eurasian community, each of
yet every safeguard is used to maintain the status
which belongs to what Thorstein Veblen, in a re-
quo in the policy of economic exploitation.
cent issue of The Dial, has styled “kept classes,”
Political concessions without economic reform
and the class of "vested interests." The authors
will count for little in India. The economic situa-
of the scheme seem to be particularly anxious to
tion is the root cause of political difficulties, and
safeguard the interests of the non-official European
economic grievances create political grievances. Un-
community. In main, this class is engaged in com-
less these problems are solved in time, in the right
mercial enterprises, but it also includes Christian way, a political and social upheaval may be the re-
missions, whose dignitaries, unlike those of other sult. But reforms offered should not be half-
religious denominations, are supported by Indian hearted, suspicious adventures, the purpose of which
taxpayers from Indian revenues.
The non-official is to emasculate opposition without meeting the de-
European community also includes European pen mands of India and solving the root
sioners living in the "cooler parts of the country." agitation.
It is the British commercial interests that drain India presents this reform bill in entirety to the
the country of the wealth which ought to be retained. world and wishes to know if this is what is meant
But again, lest India's representatives raise a voice
by the expressions “self-determination" and "un-
in their Legislature against this unjust drain, the
Governor-General in Council retains the absolute
dictated self-development” of nations.
power to keep this drain a-fiowing. The report states :
SAILENDRA NATH GHOSE.
L
1
-
cause of


460
May 3
THE DIAL
The Passing of Classicism
ness.
IN
THE REPUBLIC of letters a book ought to But the adventure as well as the history of the
have good reason for existing—it would simplify painter is intensive, individual, and constraining.
life incalculably for all readers, and make the lives His style evolves by a process of involution; by re-
of uninspired writers much less irksome. And yet ciprocal confinement and consolidation of the crea-
Mr. Cox unreasonably insists that it is the obvious tive materials; by bringing the pictorial idea, the
that is ever being forgotten or denied, and therefore pictorial symbol, and the pictorial performance into
the obvious that needs constant reassertion. Such a close cooperation. The more nearly complete this in-
claim sums up the merciless raison-d'etre of a book ner alliance, the more individual the creative ele-
Concerning Painting, (Scribner) no less indifferent ments, the more intense their activity, the more deep-
for having been carefully written. It is accordingly ly determined his taste. It will, consequently, bias his
a clarification rather than a contribution, a sheaf of judgment. For in the episode of stylistic formation
occasional and consecutive papers on the history of the painter drifts into orthodoxies of his own, with
painting, originally addressed to an immature public private ritual and private dread of heresy. The
of students, and amateurs.
Guarded as its preten-
objects of his idolatry may even 'be predicted. He
sions are, it is neither free from pedantry nor com-
may be counted on to look for his own reflection in
placence. In fact our author sails down the dim the works of others, and his chest will swell with
centuries, past what he calls “ the golden age,” into
pious exaltation before works that betray similar
the placid shallows of American painting, altogether procedure or aims kindred to his own.
like a vessel of sweetness and light, distributing his
The insulation of taste and of standards is the
gifts generously, but seldom illuminating the dark-
result partly of defensory measures the conscientious
individual must take against the quantitative ideal
Yet it would be ungracious not to add that Mr. of modern civilization. In the day when the aver-
Cox came to his subject with special qualifications.
If not a constructive thinker, he was sane and cir-
age mind was of a more imaginative order and each
separate communal world rejoiced in common intel-
cumspect, unlikely to slip up on external details,
lectual and spiritual possessions, as in the Italian
while he kept safe and warm within him the invio-
Renaissance for example, the individual was shaped
lable principles of his solemn esthetic. He was one
by the total growth of culture and society; and the
of the few artistic practitioners who had mature
painter's taste, with its roots in the genius of his
convictions about painting. He was one of a very
small number of writers upon art in whom an easy
people and his time, was indeed typical and authori
.
tative. But in this age, and in our country most of
and innocent public reposed its ultimate remnant of all
, the creative activities encounter great difficulties
.
faith, because he was at the same time a craftsman.
In the dearth of acknowledged norms, ' of early
But—and it is here that the obvious pleads for
standardized training, with an unkindly or indif-
reassertion—the activities of art and criticism are
ferent or insensible world spinning round him, the
profoundly antinomian and disparate, and each must
forever remain prejudicial to the other. A prudent
artist avows no higher authority than his own,
his taste must contract until it becomes personal
Providence has given the painter freedom of all the and eccentric.
fruits of his boundless paradise but denied him that
With Mr. Cox taste had settled into something
of the knowledge of what is good and what is bad.
For the concern of the artist is chiefly with an opera-
like fastidiousness, received the vesture of a formula
tion, that of the critic with a result—that of the one
and the glorification of a canon. Being what is
with the mechanics of externalization, that of the
vulgarly called a “classicist,” his canon would have
other with the consummation. What the artist
been the canon of correctness. And as he followed
creates by a vital act of imaginative synthesis the
it in his painting, he could not have failed to apply
critic reconstructs by imaginative sympathy. His
it to the painting of others. It is as easy to guess
that our egregious author found the embodiment of
the ideal critic is accordingly put together of high Leonardo, Raphael, Rubens
, and a group of painters
canonized” ideal in the academic genius of
susceptibilities, range and freedom of the imagina-
tion, and a clear gift for self-analysis. He is "pro-
more nearly of our own time, who like himself have
tean and expansive. He is also learned and dis-
covered beautiful wall-spaces with ineffably tire-
cerning. His delicate business is to interpret a work
some decorations.
of art through infinitely Auid, responsive emotions.
As his position was essentially uncritical,, so his
method was shallow, traditional, and dogmatic. In
and
I
.


1919
461
THE DIAL
a philosophic exordium Mr. Cox set himself to conduct be deduced from the conduct of men in
abstract from the history of art—and what he was the past. Standards of judgment in art, like the
pleased to decide are its eras of greatest progress standards of right and wrong in ethics, must ulti-
its eternal characteristics, and he was persuaded mately derive from the individuality of the object
that from its first appearance painting has been an or the circumstance. Each 'work of art carries
art of representation. No theory could—both for within it its own law, its own standard, its own
its tradition and its plausibility—be more flattering. esthetic, exactly as each is the product of different
It has all the sanctions of logic. Does not our internal and external conditions.
whole system of imagery derive from the objects of His original assumption once established, that art
natural life? They constitute the iconography of is measurable by unchanging rule, he found it easy to
the mind and become, by necessity, the notation in pass to the elementary fallacy that art like science
which painting realizes itself. Only be it remem has knowable and calculable characters; and he
bered that ever since the days of Cubism much of 'spoke with amusing innocence of “progress in art”
painting has dispensed with natural forms, a matter as if art, like the sciences, advanced by a sort of
which Mr. Cox noted in his argument but chose to cumulative growth of artistic excellence. But such
ignore in his conclusions. This is not treating his a view would drag us to the preposterous conclusion
tory ingenuously. For the contemporary movements that the art of Titian is greater than that of Giotto,
are no less a parcel of evolution than those that that of Ingres greater than that of Raphael, and
have gone before. But Mr. Cox thought more of Mr. Cox's by inevitable inference, the greatest of
rolling up a high score by careful dialectic than by them all.
sympathetic reading of artistic evolution.
were that so, his reputation as
Having, as he thought, satisfied the historic and painter should have as little to do with the value of
inductive part of his discussion, he proceeded to his critical pronouncements as the marvelous con-
formulate the ethics of art—from a krowledge of structions of a mole, let us say, with the value of his
what painting is, it is only one logical step to what opinions on architecture. But it is neither by his art
it should be, and Mr. Cox surpassed himself when nor by his criticism that Mr. Cox will be remem-
he told us with staggering composure that what is bered, but as an angel of dead perfections, who has
historically true (according to his lights) must be bravely set his face against the intolerable beauty of
esthetically right. The viciousness of this view is many things in art that are strange or violent or
only too obvious. As well might our standards of merely beautiful.
RICHARD OFFNER.
And even
a
The Army and
and The Law
ON JANUARY 3. George T. Page, President of
ties that the sentences were rescinded by the Secre-
the American Bar Association, brought up the sub tary of War and the men liberated.
ject of court-martials before the body, and a resolu Both in the army and the navy men were en-
tion was adopted condemning the entire judiciary trusted with the administration of military justice
process of the Army as "unworthy of law and jus- and penalization, with little regard for their mental
tice.” A bill known as Senate Bill No. S.5320 was equipment or qualifications for these important posi-
introduced by Senator Chamberlain on January 13, tions. Officiousness, stupidity, brutality prevailed
1919, asking for the revision of the war acts relat side by side with the apparent humaneness and fair-
ing to the administration of military justice. As the ness of the Secretary of War and his immediate as-
result of disclosures and insistent demands by friends sociates. Outside the army, men who were loudest
of the conscientious objectors confined in the Camp in their denunciation of the Prussian theory of “mili-
Funston Guard House, two officers were dismissed tary necessity” excused these irregularities because
from the service for the responsibility they bore
-maxim of benighted medieval pirates—inter arma
for the brutal treatment accorded to the imprisoned lex silet. Of specific instances of injustice there is
conscientious objectors. The New York World, hardly an end. No account seems to have been taken
in its issue of January 19, 1919, under the title
by the officers of the fact that the drafted men were
A Thing Called Military Justice, relates the story sons of freemen unaccustomed to the iron-clad arbi-
of men ordered to be shot in France, the sentence trary discipline of the life into which they were sud-
being mainly based on induced confessions of the denly cast. The conscripts, taken from their fami-
men themselves. The charge was sleeping while on
lies, were expected to imbibe the spirit of unques-
sentinel post and the record disclosed such irregulari- tioning obedience over night. The offenses for


462
THE DIAL
May 3
labor which goes into the making of the small
which severe punishments were administered were serving almost lifetime sentences for incommensurate
entirely out of proportion to the penalties. It can trespasses, some sentences imposed because of the
not be said that the system was "for the good of the caprice of a newly commissioned smart young officer
.
service.” The experience of France and England Men are still being court-martialed. The entire
proves the contrary. The punishment in the Ameri- penal system is a disgrace to the nation. But the
can cantonments was administered with Puritan author's "avowed purpose,” it may be said, is not
solemnity and the severity disclosed the inexperience so broad;' he merely sets out to interpret the rela-
of the amateur penologists. The officers were evi tion of the army to the common law, and has here no
dently impressed with the fact that they were a business with the army organization per se. Even
principio soldiers and incidentally human beings. A in this narrow sphere, Mr. Glenn is merely pro-
man in the guard house was like one who had mulgatory. No mention is made of the numerous
stained the hem of the cloister robe. There was invasions made by the army and navy Intelligence
none of the jolliness and wink-of-the-eye camara Officers into private homes where they seized per-
derie of Tommy Atkins while in the guard house: sonal effects and made searches without warrants.
The notorious "slacker raid” in New York City
But I've had my fun of the Corp'ral's Guard;
I've made the cinders Ay,
and elsewhere, in which the army played such an
And I'm here in the Clink for a thundering drink important part, is avoided. The illegal drafting of
And blackening the Corporal's eye.
aliens, Russians with or without “first papers,” the
A plausible explanation may well be that there is
drafting of Austrians and even Germans are not
a Freudian reason for the severity which officers of
treated. The case of Angellus vs. Sullivan is inade-
court-martials exercised on men claiming to be con-
quately referred to. No account is given of the de-
scientious objectors. Men who voted for and elected
batable proposition of "desertion" by drafted men
a President because he had “ kept them out of war
who fail to report.
were required to become staunchest martinets almost
The book is a learned legal dissertation citing
within a fortnight. But most of the severity was
numerous historic references but totally devoid of
due to inexperience. An artist doing police kitchen
suggestions ch would displease the army author-
work “bossed” by a non-commissioned bootblack ities
. Its proper repository is the Academy at West
and court-martialed by a furniture salesman, drug
Point, which we all hope will some day be turned
clerk, small-town newspaper man, and the like. Such
into a National Museum. Otherwise it will make
was this strange world of topsy-turvy.
a valuable addition to the overcrowded library
The military law of the United States preserves
shelves of the law schools, where the students may
its archaic spirit in which our characteristic unpre-
hurriedly read the title some time. But ours are
paredness found us at the beginning of the war.
the days of quick changes. Even the venerable lore
While the Congressional investigation into the sani-
of Metternichian diplomacy has been taught that its
tary and medical conditions in the camps, made at
usefulness as a humanity-serving institution has gone
the very beginning of the war, disclosed culpable
by the board. The democracies of the world will
laxity and negligence and resulted in immediate re-
insist that martial law lose the spirit of the middle
form, no such action was taken in relation to judica-
ages. Blackstone, Hume, Coke, Dicey, and Lieber
ture or penal institutions. The entire system was
may be interesting to historians and brief-writers,
originated by Lieber in the Civil War and in normal
but books on law and the army should be broad, pro-
times of peace was found to be ample in regulating
gressive, and constructive outlines, not merely
a comparatively small body of volunteers. With
retrospective dissertations. Within its proper limits
practically no important changes the War Act (Act
the book demonstrates a conscientious purpose and
of 1917) was applied to an army of millions of con-
scripts. A book, therefore, dealing with the law
painstaking labor and a well-grounded knowledge
of the subject matter with which it deals. Its chosen
and the army written by a lawyer should prove a
field is well covered and it is replete with in-
welcome and timely contribution. Unfortunately
teresting historical incidents. It is to be regretted
Mr. Gerrard Glenn's The Army and the Law
that the author elected not to view so important a
(Columbia University Press), fails in this im-
matter as the army and the law from the broader
,
portant task. It is not a criticism, nor is it suga social, economic, and internationalist viewpoint Huis
gestive of any reforms. It may be argued that the
disbanding of our army will make these changes
audience must necessarily be limited—and it is an
audience which is incapable of appreciation of the
purely academic. That were a wished for consum-
mation. But many men are still languishing in jail
volume.
CHARLES RECHT.


1919
463
THE DIAL
Mary in Wonderland
MARY ARNOLD was the child of the Victorian
temporary reversion to Anglicanism, she felt the
family—a
—a large family of grown-ups but only one presence of the lost leader, felt it in the intellectual
child. At least the impression which A Writer's life of the University which was a battle in which
Recollections (Harper) gives us is that of a little Christ Church represented authority and the church,
girl who sits on the knees of innumerable parents, Balliol, liberalism, and Lincoln, science and re-
grandparents, uncles, aunts, and mature cousins, and search; in University politics which were a struggle
asks questions, or plays contentedly by herself on the between Pusey and Liddon on the one hand and
hearth-a quiet, demure child, serious and attentive, Jowett and Pattison on the other. Liddon had suc-
with nice manners and no taste for mischief or dis ceeded Newman as the pulpit orator of the Tractar-
concerting sense of humor. She must have been ians and vividly she recalls the scene of his triumph:
a delight to her elders. She took the toys which
First came the stir of the procession; the long line of
they handed to her—the higher criticism, the higher Heads of Houses in their scarlet robes as Doctors of
education of women, the polite philanthropy of the
Divinity-all but the two heretics, Pattison and Jowett,
who walked in plain black and warmed my heart always
University Settlement, the improving card games of thereby! And then the Vice Chancellor, with the
society, scholarship, arts, and letters. She never "pokers," and the preacher. All eyes were fixed on the
wanted a boy's toy, like the vote—and didn't want
slender willowy figure, and the dark head touched with
silver. A bow to the Vice Chancellor as they parted at
other little girls to have it either. Oh, she must the foot of the pulpit stairs, the mounting of the pulpit,
have been a delight to those elders—so fresh, and the quiet look out over the Church, the Bidding Prayer,
the voice-it was all part of an incomparable perform-
bright, and naive, and—Thomas Humphry Ward to
ance which cannot be paralleled today.
the contrary—maidenly. Her Recollections are like
Beside this dignified picture there is a more grac-
a tea-party, a child's tea-party with everybody for
ious and winning one. The leader of feminist Ox-
half a century invited and accepting, and all there
ford was Mrs. Mark Pattison, afterward Lady
at once, a party like Alice in Wonderland with
old Miss Martineau as the Red Queen crying
Dilke. Her lovely apparition on the severe academic
Off
scene was a portent which few recognized. To the
with his head," and Uncle Matthew dangling his
meeting with her Mrs. Ward gives another vignette,
gloves like the White Rabbit, and Mark Pattison
with an indescribable and old world charm:
as the Mad Hatter, complaining that it's always
It was in 1868 or 1869–I think I was seventeen-that
jam tomorrow and never today, and the Master of
I remember my first sight of a college garden lying cool
Balliol perched on the wall like Humpty Dumpty and shaded between gray college walls, and on the
and little Mary handing round the cakes. Some grass a figure that held me fascinated—a lady in a green
French gentlemen, M. Taine and M. Renan, are
brocade dress, with a belt and chatelaine of Russian
silver, who was playing croquet, then a novelty in Ox-
there too, but of these Mary is at first a little shy, ford, and seemed to me as I watched her, a perfect
for her French is not very good.
model of grace and vivacity. A man nearly thirty years
There was one terrible figure in the background of
older than herself, whom I knew to be her husband, was
standing near her, and a handful of under-graduates
the child's thoughts, and in her playroom a dreadful made an amused and admiring court round the lady.
closet which was not to be opened. Her father, The lady in green brocade playing croquet on the
Thomas Arnold, son of the leader of the Church of grass—the husband thirty years older—the amused
England against the Oxford Malignants, had fallen and admiring undergraduates—could anything be
victim of their arts and become perverted to Roman more enchantingly of the period ?
Catholicism. This fact supplied the element of fear Mrs. Pattison marked the beginning of feminine
without which no child's game is complete, and the influence in Oxford as did Newman the end of
fear was no less real because the author of it pos monasticism. One can divine the breeze which
sessed such rare and tender charm. As a child in made the leaves of gossip tremble on the University
Edgbaston, where her father was master in the tree when she wore a tea gown to her Sunday night
Oratory School, she saw the figure of Newman pass parties, and smoked a cigarette—as a few years be-
in the streets and “shrank from him in a dumb fore they had rustled when one of Newman's dis-
childish resentment as from some one whom I under ciples assumed the .eastward position or bowed to
stood to be the author of our family, misfortunes.” God in a Catholic chapel. The coming of George
And she never escaped the sense of Newman's mys Eliot to Lincoln College as her guest was an event
terious power and subtle charm, the old childish that shook the branches as did the return of New-
fear lending a kind of fascination to her thought of man in his cardinal's robes to hold high court at
him. At Oxford, whither her father took her on his Trinity. One can divine too the second intention


464
May 3
THE DIAL
ment.
which made Mrs. Pattison welcome little Mary was missing from her stock, and her prompt surmise
Arnold to her salon, though Mary's evangelical that some German had done it, working in the same
protest took the form of a dark frock high about the field and about to anticipate her. No, it was the
throat. Perhaps it was this sign that the young girl Regius Professor, Bishop Stubbs, the greatest his-
was in this world but not yet of it that made the torian in England, who was checking up on her.
George Eliot hold her back as the party was ad He approved, and so did young Mr. Creighton.
journing, to sit in the darkness and tell her of Tell Mary to go on. There is nobody but Stubbs
Spain. And one more recollection. The next day doing such work in Oxford now," he said.
as the party were returning from Christ Church But Mary had more ambitious plans and a larger
meadow they were led by Mr. Creighton, Fellow game in mind.' With her departure from Oxford
of Merton, through the gardens of his college. for London this was inevitable. The West-Gothic
The chestnuts were all out, one splendor from top to
kings were well enough so long as one was playing
toe; the laburnams; the lilacs; the hawthorns, red and at the feet of Mark Pattison and Bishop Stubbs,
white; the new-mown grass spreading its smooth and · but most people wouldn't care much for them. Fic-
silky carpet round the college walls; a May sky over-
head and through the trees glimpses of towers and tion was the king sport of the century, and already
spires, silver gray, in the sparkling summer air. ... As Mary had seen how one great woman played it.
we turned into the quadrangle of Lincoln-suddenly at
one of the upper windows of the Rector's lodgings there
Her first novel, Miss Bretherton, was a study based
appeared the head and shoulders of Mrs. Pattison, as on the spectacular success of Mary Anderson in the
she looked out and beckoned, smiling, to Mrs. Lewes. It
was a brilliant apparition, as though a French portrait
early eighties, and it brought her much encourage-
by Greuze or Perronneau had suddenly slipped into a
Henry James, Walter Påter, John Morley,
vacant space in the old college wall. The pale, pretty Mr. Creighton, Cotter Morrison, Sir Henry Tay-
head, blond-cendrée; the delicate, smiling features and
white throat; a touch of black, a touch of blue; a white
lor—they are all there.” Whatever game Mary
dress; a general eighteenth-century impression as though
wanted to play she found plenty of grown-ups ready
of powder and patches-Mrs. Lewes perceived it in a flash to make-believe with her. Henry James indeed
and I saw her run eagerly to Mr. Lewes and draw his
attention to the window and its occupant.
went down on his hands and knees and played the
If she
had lived longer, someday, and somewhere in her books,
critic Beast to her Beauty for the rest of his life.
that vision at the window and that flower-laden garden
would have reappeared. I seemed to see her consciously
Looking back she feels a certain surprise at so much
and deliberately committing both to memory.
complacency, and a certain remorse at having taken
such advantage of it.
Are there similar friends
With all her admiration for Mrs. Pattison it is
nowadays to help the first steps of a writer? Or is
clear that it was for the Rector that Mary Arnold
there no leisure left in this crowded life of ours?"
kept her devotion, cheering him in the absence of
his wife, making tea for him in his lonely rooms.
Miss Bretherton was a trial trip, short and prom-
Scarcely less intimate and charming was her friend-
ising. One can imagine the delighted excitement in
ship with Jowett. For them and for Thomas Hill
the family when it was whispered about that Mary
Green, Dean Stanley, Henry Sidgwick and her
was doing another novel-a real affair of large
uncle Matt she kept a girlish yet maternal instinct
canvas and long breath, to set before the world the
to cherish and protect from the bitter assaults of
reconciliation of Christianity with science that
the Tractarians.
Uncle Matt had proposed in Literature and Dogma
When Bishop Wordsworth at-
tacked her friends in his Bampton lectures she de-
and God and the Bible, the new faith that all liberal
fended them in a pamphlet that the High Church
Oxford believed. This was Robert Elsmere. Into
party suppressed on the ground that the printer's
it she put the best material she would ever have-
name did not appear. Under their inspiration she
the background, characters, and thought of the Ox-
began to play in earnest. Historical scholarship was
ford which she knew. She toiled nobly to be worthy
the great game at Oxford: history touched by the
of it, and she achieved much. Like George Eliot
modern scientific method was its newest phase. Peo-
she found her great problem to incarnate in flesh
ple were going about saying that if Newman had
and blood and in action the themes that her mind
only known German the course of the world would
provided, but with the help of portraiture and first
have been different. Mary Arnold began to amuse
hand experience she for once solved it. But the
herself with the West-Gothic kings of Spain and
glory of Robert Elsmere in its author's recollection
then was commissioned to write the Spanish lives
of it is its stupefying popular success—the enormous
for Smith's Dictionary of Christian Biography. Mr.
sales in England, the runs
Pattison secured her admission to the great gaming
libraries, the personal encounters between rivals for
tables of the Bodleian, and there she played for her
copies, the stupendous piracy in America, the review
She relates her consterna-
by Mr. Gladstone, the applause of Uncle Matt-he
tion at finding one day that Johannes Biclarensis
read only the first volume before he died, being, one
fancies, a slow reader of fiction all this is like an
on the circulating
modest stakes and won.


ܬܟ ܗ
I919
THE DIAL
465
eastern tale of a genius out of a bottle, or Alice's boy) and Lytton Strachey, who stuck out his tongue
wonderful growth after eating her cake.
at her grandfather's portrait. Writing and society
This story of success was repeated with David were the two games Mary enjoyed. Politics she
Grieve, Marcella, Sir George Tressady, Helbeck of would have liked to try—the old-fashioned, dignified
Bannisdale, and Eleanor, and here the Recollections game that Palmerstone and Disraeli played in her
end. Of Lady Rose's Daughter, Fenwick's Career youth when ladies in famous country houses or in
and The Marriage of William Ashe one suspects Mayfair held the threads of Parliamentary intrigue
that Mary knows that the toys are somewhat worn adroitly wound on their elegant fingers. But in
and battered, and certainly the bright red paint of later days the politics of suffrage and labor were too
popular triumph has been licked off. The Recollec rough, and sex had become too horrid. Then came
tions close with a rather wistful chapter about other the war, and we suspect that Mary played that
writers, Meredith, Hardy, Bennett, Wells, Gals badly. We are thankful that she closes her Recol-
worthy, boys who, except Henry James, apparently lections twenty years ago—when the charm was
would not play with girls. None the less Mrs. still strong of that incomparable play world which
Ward records her opinion of them cheerfully and was opened to her so freely and in which she stayed
without prejudice-except a little for Wells, who is so pleasantly and so long.
a journalist (clearly Mary is thinking of a news-
Robert Morss LOVETT.
London, April 10
EVERYBODY
THAT RETURNS from France takes a war might be, its prolongation could only be ruinous
grave view of the situation there in every respect. to France. M. Clemenceau now says in effect that
The financial problem seems almost insoluble, and I was right. But I can derive no satisfaction from
M. Klotz's lamentable exhibition at the Chamber of this confirmation of my forebodings. I wish that I
Deputies on March 13 showed that he, at any rate, had proved to be wrong. Can anybody now doubt
has no solution. He could only say that the ques that the rejection of the Austrian peace proposals
tion must be postponed until it was known what made in March 1917 and of the German peace pro-
could be obtained from Germany. Yet no sane posals made in August of the same year was a crime
person supposes that any indemnity can be obtained against France and against Europe? I am glad to
from Germany which will enable the financial bur know that the English Government was not chiefly
dens of France to be alleviated to any appreciable responsible for it. That responsibility rests on M.
extent. Justice demands that Belgium and Serbia Alexandre Ribot and Baron Sonnino.
should have the first claim, and if Germany can be The lesson has not yet been learned, as the pro-
made to compensate them the Allies may think them- ceedings at the Peace Conference show. Here dis-
selves fortunate. As things are it seems quite possi- gust and disappointment are giving place to indif-
ble that before very long Germany will no more be
ference in that regard. People are beginning to
in a position to pay an indemnity than Russia is. recognize that it will soon not matter much what
Perhaps it would have been wiser not to push the Peace Conference decides, for things will have
matters to extremes. As Lord Beauchamp said re gone too far for its decisions to have any impor-
cently, Lord Lansdowne's initiative in favor of tance. We see with amazement our representatives
peace is now approved by many more people than discussing such matters as the annexation to France
at the time when it was taken, and will probably of the Saar Valley or the acquisition of Dalmatian
have still more regretful admirers in the near future. ports by Italy with more than half Europe already
People who only six months ago were for victory at in revolution and the rest on the verge of it. M.
any cost are now beginning to think that the cost Auguste Gauvain's severe criticism of the Confer-
is perhaps greater than the victory is worth. And ence in the Journal des Débats of March 17 was
M. Clemenceau has declared that the victory is a not more severe than the Conference deserves. As
Pyrrhic one so far as France is concerned. One he said, while the Peace delegates are disputing
might reply: “Tu l'as voulu, Georges Dandin.” strips of territory, “general disorganization is in-
For my part, I might derive some personal satis creasing in the world with a rapidity which only
faction from the fact that I have been denounced the blind fail to see.” “When,” added M. Gau-
for the last three years as a
defeatist," and was vain, “ agreement has at last been reached as to the
finally expelled from France simply for having fore division of the spoils it will be too late to profit by
told what is now in fact happening. It seemed to them: the tertius gaudens, that is to say, the anar-
me evident that, whatever the military result of the chist, will have laid hands on everything.” And


466
May 3
THE DIAL
ernment.
M. Gauvain warned the delegates that the peoples For, if report be true, some of the peace conditions
are indifferent to territorial acquisitions and are contemplated by the Conference are in flagrant con-
thinking only of the restoration of normal life in tradiction with the Fourteen Points.
peace. The peoples," said M. Gauvain in con The pressure has not come from the British Gov-
clusion, " for whom the men of the chancelleries
Mr. Lloyd George is far too acute a
and the amateur diplomatists speak with superb judge of public opinion here not to desire a really
disdain, will in the end be the masters in spite of democratic peace. He knows that discontent with
all the clauses inscribed in the treaties. If those the Peace Conference is one of the causes of the
clauses violate evident rights, all the piles of proto industrial unrest.
Indeed, if a general strike on
cols heaped on the European cauldron will not pre economic grounds is averted it is quite possible that
vent the lid from being blown off.”
there will be one as a protest against the peace con-
Such an article as this in a paper that represents ditions, if they are what they are expected to be.
intellectual conservative opinion in France is indeed The reactionary influences at the Peace Conference
significant. M. Gauvain's view of the Peace Con-
ference is that very generally taken in England.
are, I am sorry to say, the French and Italian dele-
Only today I was talking about the matter to the
gates. It is they who are aimed at in M. Gauvain's
article that I have just quoted, for it is they who
manager of a great London bank. He was protest have wasted the time of the Conference in disputes
ing against the proposal to hold a week's peace
celebration in the summer.
about strips of territory, and who are opposed to
Most people, he said,
disarmament and a genuine international organiza-
saw no sign that there would be much cause for
rejoicing. The Peace Conference was discredited
tion. They are still at the Congress of Vienna.
I should be sorry to think that they really represent
and there was little or no public interest in its pro-
the French and Italian peoples, but there can be no
ceedings. What people wanted was to get back to
doubt about their attitude. It is the French Gov-
work and normal life-he used almost exactly the
ernment too that has prevented any sane policy—or
same words as M. Gauvain, of whose article he indeed any policy at all—in regard to Russia. The
had not heard—and they would be glad enough if,
by summer, a revolution had been averted.
most violent and uncompromising opposition to the
Russian Revolution comes from the official represen-
This is certainly a representative opinion. The
scheme for a League of Nations produced by the
tatives of the country of the Revolution.
Paris Conference is generally regarded as a fiasco.
Unless the Peace Conference mends its ways the
“The Clique of Nations " is the name that has been
outlook in Europe is a dark one. I am sure that
given to it by the Labor paper, the Herald, which
M. Gauvain is right in saying that the people care
is now a daily. The general view in the Labor
nothing about territorial acquisitions and strategi-
party is that it is worse than nothing for, instead
cal frontiers. They want peace and a new start.
of being a genuine international organization, it is
At any rate that is the feeling here. Nobody cares
more like a modern version of the Holy Alliance
any more about the German colonies, or about pun-
a hegemony of the five great Allied powers.
ishing the Kaiser, or about making Germany pay.
No
section of opinion shows any enthusiasm for it.
The English people demand peace conditions which
Some people in America seem to think that the
will make an army of occupation unnecessary, and
League is a British device for controlling the world.
if it does not get them there will be trouble.
They are much mistaken. President Wilson's pro-
Meanwhile the makeshift League of Nations has
posal for a League of Nations was enthusiastically
been unfavorably received by the small Allied
received here because it was believed that it would
powers and the neutral countries. In Belgium in
be a genuine international organization limiting the
particular its constitution is deeply resented. Bel-
power of the stronger nations and strengthening the
gium is economically and commercially a more im-
weaker. It was hoped that it would lead to general
portant country than Italy, and it feels that it has
disarmament, without which it is impossible to pre-
been scurvily treated after the terrible sacrifices that
vent wars. Public opinion, which had formed such
it has made. Those sacrifices were made in the
high hopes, is proportionately disappointed at the
cause of liberty and democracy, not to secure the
miserable substitute offered to it. And I am bound
domination of the world by a clique of five powers.
to say that it is also profoundly disappointed that
The whole question must be reconsidered and it
President Wilson has not been able to achieve more.
may be better, after all, if the present scheme for
It is to be feared that he came to Europe without
a League of Nations is not incorporated in the pre;
any definite scheme of his own.
seems to have yielded to pressure not only in regard
In any case he
liminary treaty of peace. For it cannot be final and
it has not the support of the peoples of Europe.
to the League of Nations, but also on other points.
ROBERT DELL.


e pezas de
THE DIAL
ots
GEORGE DONLIN
CLARENCE BRITTEN
to desnis
+ discount
ROBERT Morss LOVETT, Editor
In Charge of the Reconstruction Program:
the chest
JOHN DEWEY
THORSTEIN VEBLEN
HELEN MAROT
general or
quite pour
ost the peaks
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Peace Care
and lur:
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the French
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the people
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Nihi 3
The
HE MEMORANDUM OF THE Allied Govern- occupation by the Allied forces. The breaking of
ments transmitted to the German Government No those boundaries in Hungary was the immediate
vember 5, 1918, by President Wilson, which formed cause of the overthrow of Count Karolyi's Govern-
the basis of the Armistice, affirmed the willingness ment. The ninth point states that “a readjustment
of the Allies and the United States to make peace on of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along
the basis of the fourteen points promulgated by the clearly recognizable lines of nationality." The
President January 8, 1918, and the principles of set Armistice allowed the temporary occupation of Ger-
tlement enunciated in his subsequent addresses. It man territory by Italian forces, with the result de-
further expressly defined the compensation to be scribed by the Neue Züricher Zeitung, February 28,
made by Germany, and limited the liability to dam-
1919, as follows:
age done to the civilian population of the Allies by The Italians are continuing their policy of forcibly
the aggression of Germany by land, by sea, and from annexing German South Tyrol and thus confronting the
the air. Scarcely had the ink of the signatures dried
Paris Peace Conference with a fait accompli. In con-
trast to the army of occupation in Germany, which did
when this provision was cast aside by Mr. Lloyd
not prevent the population (with the exception of Alsace-
George in his election appeal on the basis of making Lorraine] from voting for the German National As-
Germany pay the entire cost of the war, and on this sembly, the Italians prohibited the inhabitants of German
platform England gave him a huge majority in the
South Tyrol from taking part in the national Austrian
elections. Recently the German communes were visited
new Parliament. England's repudiation of this ex by commissions of Italian officers who induced people
plicit provision of the Armistice gave the cry to who do not understand a word of Italian to sign state-
France and Italy. In the months that have fol ments expressing satisfaction with the Italian occupation.
lowed, what has transpired of the deliberations of
As the inhabitants do not know what they are signing,
the Peace Conference has had no reference to the
they are told that the statements submitted to them are
receipts for food about to be distributed. Anyone of the
agreement made through President Wilson: the native officials who refuses to sign is denounced to his
whole discussion has turned on what Germany can community as opposing the distribution of food supplies.
pay, Now that the sum has been fixed approximate-
In Meran the teaching of Italian in the schools has al-
ready been made obligatory. History is now being taught
ly, and it appears that it is far smaller than was im-
according to Italian books. It is also significant that
plied in the promises of the Allied Governments to General Amante has given orders to Italianize the names
their people, there is still no mention of its distribu of all railway stations in the German section of South
tion according to the principle laid down in the
Tyrol.
Armistice. On the contrary, Mr. Lloyd George has It is superfluous to point out that a League of Na-
reaffirmed to Parliament his pre-election promises, tions which should set out by guaranteeing political
and the latest forecast of the apportionment gives to arrangements brought about by such methods would
England a third of what is now everywhere referred be merely a form of capitalizing dishonor and vali-
to as the German indemnity. Whether the amount dating a lie.
paid by Germany is sufficient or not to cover damage
done to the civilian population and their property,
the Allies have made a scrap of paper of their en-
All
THAT HAS TRANSPIRED OF THE PROCEEDINGS
gagement.
of the Peace Conference since the Covenant of the
This is not the most serious infraction of the League of Nations was presented to the world on
terms of the Armistice. The most immediately im February 14 tends to weaken confidence in the good
portant of the fourteen points are those having to do faith of the parties thereto. On the one hand the
with territorial arrangements, and here again the dis United States has insisted on the addition of a clause
cussions of the Conference have inevitably led to the making exclusive reservation in regard to that hoary
belief that the Allies would not be bound by their fetish, the Monroe Doctrine, a reservation conducing
promises. The proposed arrangements in regard to only to selfish interest and vulgar prestige. On the
the Saar Valley and the left bank of the Rhine are other, the claim of Japan for the recognition of
in implicit contravention of the eighth point, as that equality of her citizenship with that of other nations
in regard to Danzig is of the thirteenth. Still fur has been summarily rejected. Both the freedom of
ther, the Armistice set definite boundaries to military the Western Hemisphere from European aggression
orate
Cerasti
ditus et
JAAT
2


468
May 3
THE DIAL
hear of a case where a soldier has been punished
The Fifth Liberty Loan drive will soon be here. Make
and the adjustment of immigration according to responsibility of the executive of the state, and of
mutual interest are matters which should be left to the military authorities under whose very eyes mur-
the operation of the League of Nations if any con der with fiendish tortures took place, was not
fidence whatever is to be placed in that organization. pressed. When the report of the Congressional
Faith and good will are the basis of such an organi committee of investigation was received a motion
zation. Where are they? But the most serious lack was made that it be not printed, on the ground of
of faith in the League on the part of its proponents its lack of importance, and though this motion failed
is shown in their failure to make use of it as a means to pass the report was virtually suppressed. The
toward peace and reconciliation. The exclusion of public printer replies to inquiries that he has no
Germany, or her admission by an extorted accept copies for distribution. This impulse toward con-
ance of the principles of the Covenant, is fatal alike cealment shows that we are as a nation under con-
to the conception of the League as proposed and viction of sin, but there are few signs of remorse.
fought for, and to its working under the present
An effort to arouse the public conscience on this
forces in control. Still the question insistently de matter and to initiate works meet for repentance
mands answer: Can those forces make peace for the will be made by a National Conference on Lynch-
world? That the treaty may be signed, the Cove-
ing to be held in New York City May 5 and 6,
nant adopted, and the machinery of the League set " to take concerted action against lynching and
up constitute no answer to that question. These
lawlessness wherever found, and to consider what
things may prove only more clearly the impotence
of existing governments to give an affirmative an-
measures should be adopted to abate them.”
swer. More and more clearly it appears that a con-
dition precedent to a true peace is a change in those The WORDS OF THE CALL ABOVE QUOTED CONTAIN
governments themselves. As the Russian Revolu-
tion, by eliminating one set of nationalistic interests,
an oblique reference to the fact that lynching is no
made the first simplification in the problem, so now
longer a purely race problem-nor is it always a
it appears that the next steps are revolution in Italy,
matter of reprobation and shame. On the contrary,
in France, in England—wherever selfish imperial-
as an expression of patriotic sentiment it has been
ism blocks the path of progress toward world peace.
recognized as part of our moral life, and associated
To quote Mr. J. A. Hobson: "If the workers
with our best efforts toward the progress of the
within each nation cannot capture their state and
world. It is invoked under the sanction of patriotic
through their state the new international arrange-
societies, military authorities, and sponsors for the
ment, League of Nations or whatever it may be
Victory Loan. The chief propagandist for the
called, they will be helpless in the hands of their
Security League still boasts of his attempt as agent
rulers and their capitalists.'
provocateur before an audience in a Western uni-
has its temporary function and' value. The fact that
Even so the League versity. The press has repeatedly borne witness to
it is not a peoples' league, merely an arrangement
the crimes of violence committed by men in uniform
whereby governments are impeded in making war,
against persons exercising the right of lawful as-
is a cynical recognition of the fact that it is not the
sembly, but whereas our courts martial have been
people who need such restraint, for it is not they
active in grinding out sentences to death and life
who make war. But if the League is to be the con-
imprisonment against men who have failed in some
structive instrument of righting the monstrous
minor observance of military law, we have yet to
wrongs of the world, if it is to be the beginning of a
genuine society of nations, it must be under the con-
for attacking the institutions of democracy which
trol of men who possess a common ground of under-
he was drafted to defend-except the men who
rioted at Houston, who were black, and who were
standing other than participation in loot, a basis of hanged. An instance of the attitude of the ladiers
mutual trust other than the honor among thieves.
toward mob law is shown by the petition of soldiers
of the 27th division to General O'Ryan threatening
AN INSTANCE OF THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NATIONAL
violence unless the entirely lawful performance of
repentance is the attitude of the American people
opera in German were prevented by “organized
toward the lynching of Negroes. That the country
action.” Apparently the threat was regarded as so
natural as to attract no comment or rebuke. An
feels a certain shame is clear. The news of such out-
rages is now largely suppressed. Even the press
organ which claims to represent the returned sol-
diers is Arthur Guy Empey's Treat 'Em Rough,
its readers' appe-
whose eminent services are enlisted in behalf of the
the accounts of certain peculiarly hideous mob
crimes it was roundly denounced for lack of patriot-
vises the men who were in the trenches when he
ism. In the case of the massacre of East Saint
was on the lecture platform as follows:
Louis, after a brief spasm of horror the country
averted its face. The trials were perfunctory. The
a Bolshevist or an "I. W. W.” buy one of those bonds,
and believe me, from that time on that fellow is going to
..
tite for atrocities, and when the Liberaead published Wictory Loan. In the March issue Mr. Empere he


1919
469
THE DIAL
The utterances of men like the Reverend diplomats
. Prapparently in national and international
support Uncle Sam, and, if necessary, fight for him. If
tory itself became a matter of evaluating human
you cannot, after very patient endeavor, sell him, then
show him what it means to get a good Yankee wallop in
testimony. The geological record reduced the period
the nose.
of history to a brief moment in the life of man.
Biology became the background of human thought-
And again in April, referring to Socialists:
drama, fiction, poetry in serious moods reflected it.
This speaker, instead of being arrested and given a
Modern psychology and sociology were born. Only
chance to gain his freedom by putting up as bail a few in politics has the historical background and method
paltry dollars, thus being enabled to further spread his persisted with undiminished authority. Only there
treason, should be executed by a firing squad composed has the obsession lingered that historical study and
of men in uniform. The staff of this magazine-and some
of us are pretty good shots—would be only too willing
precedent will serve as infallible guides. But the
to volunteer for such a firing squad, and I know that events of the last years have given a rude shock to
every true-thinking soldier, sailor, or marine would do the belief that men and nations learn anything from
the same.
recorded experience. The record itself, when sub-
The national and local authorities which are inter-
ject to political use, becomes distorted beyond the
ested in preventing the spread of Bolshevism might
semblance of truth. If there is one lesson that
consider whether the restraint of those patriots who
stands out today it is the failure of history to teach,
invoke mob violence to suppress free speech and
or men's perverse incapacity to profit by its teaching.
opinion might conduce to this end.
The failure of empires of the past had no message
for modern imperialists; the economic teachings of
war had none for modern capitalists; the disillusion-
peace congresses
Charles A. Eaton, McNutt McElroy, and Arthur organization nations are thrown back on the trial
Guy Empey may be discounted as part of the ritual
of violence which their professional employments
and error method. They are becoming laboratories
in which nature must be read in the language of
make necessary. In the same way the utterances on
experiment—mortars in which human material is
which the I. W. W. leaders were convicted in Chi-
brayed and broken, to be purified in the process of
cago and elsewhere are part of a ritual of sabotage, disintegration, and the residue fused and welded to
which had no more reference to the question of the new forms and uses by fervent heat. Of the na-
country at war than the ritual language of tions which submit themselyes boldly to experiment
Christians with their Golden Rule and Sermon on Russia is the type; of those that trust to the biased
the Mount had to the same situation. Far more
textbooks of their past the United States is the
serious is the resort of the local authorities, whose chief. No country, unless it is China, is so proud
professional function is to keep the peace, to open of its past, so confident in the wisdom of the fathers,
provocation and violence. The facts of the behavior
so unconscious of the vital phenomena of the modern
of the police at Lawrence are suppressed in the news world. The contrast is reflected in the masterpieces
columns of the press, but have been made known by of Lenin and Wilson. The proletarian state is an
communications from Mrs. Glendower Evans and
experiment; the League of Nations is being rapidly
others who were eyewitnesses of brutal assaults
reduced to the application of a historical formula.
made by the protectors of society against strikers
Of these assaults, both on the public street and be- ImmanuEL KANT ONCE WROTE A SKETCH, A
hind prison walls, there is no shadow of doubt,
century and a quarter ago, on Perpetual Peace. He
yet no official cognizance is taken, no charge is prefaced it with a jest, as tasteless as it was clumsy,
brought, and the reign of law continues. The Gov-
to say that the running title under which he wrote--
ernor of Massachusetts looks on Lawrence as the
Zum ewigen Frieden, that is to say, The House of
Governor of Illinois on East Saint Louis, and, like Peace Everlasting—was borrowed from the sign-
Gallio, they care for none of these things.
board of a certain roadside tavern adjoining a cer-
tain ancient churchyard. Compounded of bar-room
The cuLTURE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
and graveyard, this wise man's jest will to many
readers doubtless have seemed as pointless as it is
was largely historical. Its authors of epic scope were tasteless. But that will be true only of those readers
historians – Carlyle, Macaulay, Grote, Napier, of Kant who have not had the inestimable fortune
Kinglake, to mention no others. Drama, fiction, to live through these days of returning peace and
poetry, when devoted to high and serious ends, took to witness the maudlin deliberations of that con-
their material from history. The trust in history as
clave of elder statesmen who are now arranging
a guide to life was reiterated in definitions:
His to make the world safe for the vested rights of inter-
tory is philosophy teaching by experience," and the national dissension. The point of Kant's jest is
like. With the publication of Darwin's Origin of plain now. Today his readers are in a position to
Species, the intellectual life took a new turn. The marvel that even that wise old man should have
scientific replaced the historical method—even his-
been so wise as all that. It is quite uncanny.
.
66


470
THE DIAL
May 3
amounts to our
suggestions from officers and enlisted men demobil-
training and discipline in the army from a patriotic
and pedagogical viewpoint; and to report conclusions
Communications
the Russian invasion. But his own party, as well
as the Republicans and Allies, silenced that voice.
WITHDRAW FROM RUSSIA
His vision of what would happen has come true, and
time has divulged the contradictory unjustness of
Sir: It seems to me that no day should pass
our invasion. Our way of conferring " self-deter-
without dignified but persistent agitation of the fol-
mination " is to kill.
lowing points:
I appeal to you who have stood out against the
Why are we fighting the political majority of the
invasion of Russia, and urge you to even greater
Russian people? Have not wives, mothers, and
effort.
fathers, as well as the soldiers themselves, a right
And I appeal to all liberals to make themselves
to know for what reason American boys are giving
heard at this crucial time.
their lives or being wounded in a foreign country?
Julia Ellsworth FORD.
Is it right or just for men to be conscripted to kill New York City.
people with whom they are not at war? Why was
there no answer to the note from the Russian Soviet
Government to President Wilson asking for an ex-
MILITARY TRAINING AS EDUCATION
planation of our conduct and a statement of what Sir: In your issue of January 25 appears a very
war aims "?
Should not sal- interesting contribution by George Soule on the
diers wounded now in Russia be able to claim dam educational value of military training. His argu-
ages for being forced to fight against a people with
ment is interesting and instructive, and doubtless
whom we are not at war? Has there not been
many thousands of serious men have felt the same
enough agony and bloodshed in a just cause against things in the last two years, but few could express
Prussianism and militarism, without agony and
these ideas so definitely and in so few words. My
bloodshed in an unjust cause? Or have we been
aim in writing is to present the other side of the
contaminated into taking up Hohenzollern methods
question in part, and to explain some features of
against the Russians ?
military training that have educational value. Mr.
We are told in recent reports from Paris that we Soule has chosen the weak points, and I say can-
are to keep troops in Russia to give
didly I am sure the points he makes must be reck-
port to certain approved but fluctuating govern-
oned with. It is a problem to be worked out by
ments against the immoralities and illegalities of pedagogical experts. "It has often appeared to the
the Bolsheviki. But let us look to our own morals,
writer, a mere civilian in uniform, that military
our own doings, our own laws in America, before
methods are too conservative, and the chiefs, those
we undertake by force to improve another people.
in high command, are rather “ inhospitable to new
We are persecuting political offenders in a way to
ideas.” The American public, the American Con-
recall darkest Czarism. Our state prisons are
abominations, medieval in their tortures. Unless we
gress, those in high military command, and the
quickly relieve and remedy these and other evils, we
horde of under-chiefs should candidly admit that
the machine and the methods are not perfect, and
must expect among our own people revolt and even
Bolshevism. The greater the tyranny the more ex-
set about to take counsel to improve them. Army
officials must take the thinking public into their
treme the revolt. Russia and Germany are a lesson
confidence.
the whole world. Kerensky's moderation
was not supported by the Allies. Bolshevism fol-
The question of military training is fundamen-
lowed. Czaristic Russia and tyrannical, imperial universal military training is imminent, the others
tally a question of education. Since the problem of
istic Germany forced the people to revolt. Two
years ago could you have persuaded anyone that re-
imminent question for citizens, fathers, and mothers
volt of the people of these imperialistic countries
is what ideals, what methods shall control the
would have been so sudden and complete and suc-
training. No counsel or advice or suggestion from
cessful? Let imperialistic conservatives of Eng-
any source should be refused or ignored by law-
land bear in mind their decisions at the Peace Con-
makers and military leaders to insure not only ef-
ference. The British Labor Party was seemingly
fective military training, but valuable habits and
defeated at the polls but is strong and on the alert.
useful information available in civil pursuits. To
Let imperialistic conservatives in America as well
achieve this end, it occurs to me that Congress or
take heed, because the more oppressive and tyran-
the War Department should raise a commission,
nical they become, as in the Mooney case, the more
composed of one military official, one university
sudden and violent the deluge.
man, one high school teacher or superintendent, one
I am proud to be an American these days, proud
business man, and one professional man, to call for
that we are represented by the only man who is
speaking clearly in the cause of democracy at the
ized from service to study the whole question of
Peace Conference, demanding honest treatment for
all people as well as for the people he represents.
President Wilson originally raised a voice against
and recommendations to Congress and the War
Department. There is no mystery or esoteric force
moral sup-
to


1919
471
THE DIAL
II
23.
... Ger-
1
-
cators.
enshrouding and obscuring military questions. hesitancy of inaugurating a scheme to exact tribute
Methods and ideals that succeed in efficient indus from others.
tries may be applied advantageously to army train Mr. Codman is apparently not informed as to
ing and discipline. Since universal training takes Germany's present financial condition. Dr. Rudolf,
the entire citizenry into direct contact with the one of the editors of Freiheit, the organ of the In-
army, military leaders must consent to take counsel
dependent Socialists of Germany states that:
of and with civilians. Since the military establish Today Germany is hopelessly bankrupt. .
ment is to be broadened numerically and financially, many's national total debt is 170,000,000,000 marks.
its high command must admit the possibility of im-
Add to this total, debts of the states, cities, and communi-
provement by adopting suggestions from “partially
ties—50,000,000,000 marks; and add further 20,000,000,000
initiated civilians." There is a
for the uncovered paper money in circulation. Besides,
reason for the
Germany's running expenses today are 4,000,000,000
archaic, non-progressive methods of which Mr. marks a month, say another 50,000,000,000 a year, making
Soule complains. The American public has never a grand total of obligations of nearly 300,000,000,000
taken any interest in the army except in time of
marks (approximately $75,000,000,000 under the normal
war, and then there was no time to consider and
rate of exchange). This is more than the national wealth
today, and this without paying a penny of indemnity or
devise improvements. In peace times the army has including present necessary payments for food and raw
been considered and treated as a thing apart from materials.
our chief national interests. Before our entry into In the face of this could the German people be
the world war, millions of Americans never saw a expected to pay an indemnity and at the same time
soldier. Further, military leaders were not edu pay off their own national debt, as well as the neces-
Officers came from the ranks or from West sary payments for food and raw materials in a “re-
Point, but in both cases the previous training was markably short time,” even though the wealth-own-
solely to make soldiers. Years of military discip- ing classes were deprived of everything except title
line do not encourage originality or develop the to their holdings, by being forced to pay over the
habit of mind of seeking out improvements, but full rental value for the right of ownership which
instill a disposition to accept existing conditions and the Allies would have to exact through force? Will
to acquiesce in prevailing ideas, ideals, and methods. the German working classes voluntarily place them-
Furthermore, military power is one-man power. selves in virtual bondage for generations to come to
The commander neither asks nor accepts suggestions pay off the moral debts of the Junkers ? Mr. Cod-
from inferiors. As it is impossible for one man man apparently takes this for granted in saying that
to know all things, the chief who does not take sentimentally, it would make little difference to
counsel of others is shut off from the greatest source the factory hands, the peasants, to the tenant farm-
of information and enlightenment. Hence the ne ers,” to whom they paid their tribute. (The own-
cessity of some such commission as suggested. ers of capital and employers never have and never
John J. McSWAIN,
will pay any tribute.) Another misjudgment of
Captain, Infantry'. human nature. He forgets that the working classes
Camp Morrison, Va.
are fast becoming class conscious, which means that
they are finding out that the interests of any person,
The GermAN INDEMNITY
organization, or institution that exploits them are
diametrically opposed to their own.
Sir: In regard to Mr. Codman's article How Assuming that the Germans could pay the in-
to Secure the German Indemnity, it is inconceiyable demnity under Mr. Codman's plan, would the prop-
after taking all facts into consideration just how ertied classes give up private ownership of the nat-
this indemnity can ever be paid. From a stand ural resources when technically they would not be
point of state socialism Mr. Codman's plan appears
required to do so ?
sound, sane, and practical; but conditions have so If Germany must have foreign markets to dis-
changed as to make this extremely doubtful if not pose of her surplus production, the Allied nations
altogether unthinkable. The law of economic de must also have them to dispose of their surplus pro-
terminism is entirely ignored, also human nature.
duction, more especially so if the Allies were pro-
When a man lies awake nights thinking and schem ducing as abundantly as the Germans would be.
ing, and chases dollars all day to amass a fortune,
These markets are now and always have been the
he is not going to give it up without a fight. On competitive markets of the world, and with nations
the other hand if the people were given their competing for them, there is bound to be a war at
economic freedom, as a man might have a fortune
some time or other.
dropped into his lap, would they appreciate its value,
Mr. Codman also proposes that the Allied gov-
and would they hold it? There is an old saying ernments practice the same methods at home as he
that anything that comes easy goes easy. That is thinks they should practice on the Germans. Would
No.
true to human nature. Even if Mr. Codman's plan any of the Allied governments do this?
were feasible and put into practice, there would be Where did he get such a funny idea?
A. L. BIGLER.
an unceasing opposition, and it would not be long
before those who so desired would have no fear or
Norfolk, Virginia.


472
THE DIAL
May 3
war,
men
66
to be otherwise occupied than with the vaporings of lawyers, and one banker." Of those who were
Notes on New Books
a centuries dead mystic— Mr. Grandgent has well
set forth in thesè Lowell Lectures. He shows us
CIVILIZATION. By Georges Duhamel. Century.
the poet's faith, its reality and working force;
his
morality, stern in its logic but lightened with pity
Certain modern painters have tried to suggest for the frailties of the flesh; his uncompromising,
the power and influence of machines on our present honest, scholarly, and courteous temperament; the
day life: it is "those machines of yours that used to varied course of his life and the wanton injustice
amuse me once, when I knew nothing, but that now done him by his beloved Florence; his vision of the
fill me with horror, because they are the very soul meaning of life and the allegory of Man, so much
of this the principle and reason of this war!" truer than the silly symbols of some more recent
that cause Georges Duhamel to write with fury
little stories of his experiences as a surgeon with
seers; his keenness of conception, realistic in its de-
the French army.
tail; and his workmanship and diction, which,
He sees the battlefield as a vast
grievous to relate, were the result of a classical ed-
“brazier,” the front line as a "workshop of tritura ucation. These lectures cannot be enjoyed to the
tion and destruction, the automobile ambulance as full without a fairly complete acquaintance with
the first “repair shop,” in which “skilful work-
hurriedly patch human bits of the military
the poem, an acquaintance which possibly a Lowell
Lecturer alone has a right to expect; but if they
machine. Field hospitals are
flesh-factories,”
send the reader to attempt the great journey with
whose wheels revolve on themselves when there
is insufficient material to gorge them. The heart
Dante as guide they will have added to the sum-
total of human joy. Among the pleasantest features
of the hospital is the monstrous sterilizing autoclave,
“raised up like a monarch on a sort of throne.” The
of the book are the many graceful and scholarly
translations by Mr. Grandgent in Dante's own
worst of it is that civilization's reply to itself,
the correction it was giving to its own destructive
meter. It makes one hope that Mr. Grandgent will
eruptions, all this complexity to efface a little of the
some day give us that long-awaited perfect transla-
harm engendered by the age of machines," seems
tion of the Divina Commedia which will unite ac-
to be simply the pincers, the delicate knives, the
curacy and real poetry in the English.
microscopes, and the autoclaves of the hospital. No
wonder Duhamel cries out: 'I hate the twentieth
THE EARLY YEARS OF THE SATURDAY CLUB
century as I hate rotten Europe and the whole world
(1855-1870). By Edward Waldo Emerson.
on which this wretched Europe is spread out like a
Houghton Mifflin; Boston.
great spot of axle grease." And yet: “Civilization!
the true Civilization—I often think of it. It is
THE SALMAGUNDI CLUB. By William Henry
like a choir of harmonious voices chanting a hymn
Shelton. Houghton Mifflin; Boston.
in my heart, it is a marble statue on a barren hill,
The Golden Age of the Saturday Club has been
it is a man saying, 'Love one another!' and 'Return
recorded with pious fulness by Edward Waldo
good for evil! And if civilization “is not in the
Emerson, with the help of Bliss Perry, who wrote
heart of man, well, it's nowhere." And it is the
nine personal sketches, and of four other contribu-
heart of man suffering from terrible wounds, or
oppressed by living with corpses, which he shows
tors, who together wrote five. The differences
us in these sickening side-wing sketches of war.
among the contributors are enough to make the
sketches vary perceptibly in quality, from Professor
They are good little stories, not always so well
written as one would expect (is that the translator's
Perry's accomplished grace to Dr. Emerson's au-
fault?) but illumined by, an irony, a weary humor,
thoritative pomp. The sketches of Emerson, Lowell,
and
other bewritten persons naturally contain
and a disillusioned martyr-spirit characteristic of the
French litterateurs of Duhamel's generation. One
little if anything that is new, but in emphasizing
the clubable traits of these celebrities they are an
is tempted to say that Duhamel in this book is the
Oliver Jeannin of Jean-Christophe gone to war.
essential part of the scheme. More valuable how-
ever are the sketches of the underlings, such as
Ędwin Percy Whipple (whose centenary is being
The Power Of Dante. By Charles Hall
observed somewhat casually this year), now for the
Grandgent. Marshall Jones; Boston.
first time the subject of a full-length portrait, and
As someone has said, “there are books and books,”
Horatio Woodman, an interesting farmer from
and of these the Divina Commedia is the second that
New Hampshire with a large appetite for genius
.
When formed, the Saturday Club included fourteen
every type of mind. Dante speaks with a certainty Dwight, Hoar, Motley, Ward, Whipple, Wod:
Emerson, Lowell, Agassiz, Peirce, Dana,
that catches the sympathetic reader at once and
makes him feel that he is on a firm ground of belief.
man, Holmes, Longfellow, and Felton—" four
The reasons for this power that Dante has over
poets, one historian, one essayist, one biologist and
even the modern efficiency expert—who is supposed
geologist, one mathematician and astronomer, one
classical scholar, one musical critic, one judge, two
)


1919
473
THE DIAL
Granica
ECONOMIC PRIZES
temper
SIXTEENTH YEAR
realistis
In order to arouse an interest in the study of topics relating to commerce and industry,
and to stimulate those who have a college training to consider the problems of a business
career, a committee composed of
Professor J. Laurence Laughlin, University of Chicago, Chairman
Professor J. B. Clark, Columbia University
Professor Henry C. Adams, University of Michigan
Hon. Theodore E. Burton, New York City, and
Professor Edwin F. Gay, Harvard University
01 CSM
aquem ?
posar a la
tu anda
Sperrero3
sh
has been enabled, through the generosity of Messrs. Hart Schaffner & Marx of Chicago, to
offer in 1920 four prizes for the best studies in the economic field.
In addition to the subjects printed below, we will send on request a list of available
subjects proposed in past years. Attention is expressly called to the rule that a competitor
is not confined to topics proposed in the announcements of this committee, but any other
subject chosen must first be approved by it.
1. On what economic basis can a League of Nations be permanently established ?
2. The Future of the Food Supply.
3. A study of the means and results of economic control by the Allies during the
European War.
4. The effects of governmental action in the United States on the wages of labor.
5. The effect of price-fixing in the United States on the competitive system.
6. A study of the effects of paper money issues during the European War.
Class B includes only those who, at the time the papers are sent in, are undergraduates
of any American college. Class A includes any other Americans without restriction; the
possession of a degree is not required of any contestant in this class, nor is any age limit set.
A First Prize of One Thousand Dollars, and
A Second Prize of Five Hundred Dollars
TOPC
ildo Emu
from
il
Franz li
other
Eestris
taly
are offered to contestants in Class A.
A First Prize of Three Hundred Dollars, and
A Second Prize of Two Hundred Dollars
are offered to contestants in Class B. The committee reserves to itself the right to award
the two prizes of $1,000 and $500 of Class A to undergraduates in Class B, if the merits of
the papers demand it. The committee also reserves the privilege of dividing the prizes
offered, if justice can be best obtained thereby. The winner of a prize shall not receive the
amount designated until he has prepared his manuscript for the printer to the satisfaction
of the committee.
The ownership of the copyright of successful studies will vest in the donors, and it is expected
that, without precluding the use of these papers as theses for higher degrees, they will cause them to
be issued in some permanent form.
Competitors are advised that the studies should be thorough, expressed in good English, and al-
though not limited as to length, they should not be needlessly expanded. They should be inscribed
with an assumed name, the class in which they are presented, and accompanied by a sealed envelope
giving the real name and address of the competitor. No paper is eligible which shall have been
printed or published in a form to disclose the identity of the author before the award shall have been
made. If the competitor is in CLASS B, the sealed envelope should contain the name of the institu-
tion in which he is studying. The papers should be sent on or before June 1, 1920, to
there
4
J. Laurence Laughlin, Esq.
The University of Chicago
Chicago Illinois
When writing to advertisers please mention The Diat.


474
May 3
THE DIAL
as
admitted later perhaps the best known are Prescott, among those classes of the people who hitherto have
Whittier, Norton, Sumner, and Charles Francis been expected meekly to bear the brunt of this
Adams. At first the club was often referred to by “ Fact.” Spenser Wilkinson, however, is very far
outsiders Agassiz's Club.” Louis Agassiz, the from being a mere zealot or enthusiast in the cause
expansive, cultivated French-Swiss who loved his of militarism. Despite his quarrel with Norman
work in America too much to respond to the French Angell (touched on in the essay What is Peace?)
Emperor's offer of a chair in the Museum of an impartial reader cannot but see the force and
Natural History at Paris, was fortunately one of logic of many of the author's contentions: the whole
the ruling spirits. He helped to keep the club from trouble is seen to rest in the old-fashioned concep-
being the group of well-behaved literary Brahmins tion of the State as in some sort an entity, not to be
that too many of us are accustomed to regard it.
At “ Parker's," opposite the City Hall, where the
in any way modified or tampered with by those cos-
mopolitan and international influences at present
statue of Franklin bade them beware of provincial operating in the world. Thus, the major premise
ism, these good gentlemen ate from three to nine; being discredited, or at least very seriously ques-
and imbibed (discreetly) sherry, sauterne, and claret; tionable, the whole fabric of Mr. Wilkinson's mili-
and talked with a degree of wisdom and brilliance taristic politics crumbles. The book is of interest as
since then probably unequaled in the Western showing how well a certain element of the English
Hemisphere. Every serious student of American life public assimilated the ideas of the Prussian philos-
and letters will need to know this book. It is
printed and bound perfectly.
ophy they had vowed utterly to destroy.
Dr. Emerson's record runs to 1871: William
Henry Shelton's record of the Salmagundi Club
THE VALLEY OF Vision. By Henry Van
begins with its inception in that year and runs to the
Dyke. Scribner.
present. The difference between the Boston and the
THE VALLEY OF Vision. By Sarah Com-
New York of 1871 is roughly symbolized by these
stock. Doubleday, Page.
two famous clubs: the one dominantly literary on a
Despite a common title, a common cost, and a
Puritan foundation, the other artistic with the
common humanity, there are numerous points of
simple ideals of the painter. Salmagundi
rew out divergence in these two books; the coincidence has
of a group of art students who formed a sketch
class for mutual improvement,”, and prospered in
no literary significance. Dr. Van Dyke has assem-
bled a series of sketches and short stories, most of
the same current of progress that is associated with
them with the war as background, whereas Miss
the old Scribner's Monthly (later the Century Mag-
azine), for which they drew. For many years the
Comstock unburdens herself of a novel which ends
members gave annual exhibitions of black-and-white
two years before the war begins. A trivial dis-
tinction of the literal-minded, no doubt; but note
drawings;
; a large number of these early sketches are
the closing lines of the novel :
admirably reproduced in the present book. Not to
mention several “laymen," the original members
It was then the summer of 1912.
were F. S. Church, Will Low, Fred Vance, the
She went on packing. She was brisk.
Harleys, W. H. Shelton, Alfred E. Emslie, and
"I can see,” she mused, following some dim train of
thought, “how it must be-how war must come as a
J. P. Andrews. In 1887, the last 'exhibition year,
godsend to a man or woman-at certain times—"
the club gave up its character as a group of sketchers
And the old Psychologist smiled less cynically than
and became frankly social. Recognizing the re-
before upon Marcia Warren-almost kindly, in fact, as
if wanting to tell her that 1914 was but two years away.
stricted interest in a record of this kind, the pub-
lishers have printed a limited edition. Like the
In style—to continue the parallel-Miss Comstock
Saturday Club, it is an exceptionally beautiful book.
is like the gilt on a picture framé, obliterating the
wood; while the effect with Dr. Van Dyke is more
like that of varnish—it is smooth, rather glossy, and
GOVERNMENT AND THE WAR. By Spenser
Wilkinson. McBride.
occasionally_brings out the beauty of the grain.
Doubtless Dr. Van Dyke reacted deeply and au,
For those to whom the inevitability of war is
thentically to the emotional experiences of war, and
a foregone conclusion this volume of essays by
without question his vantage post for observation
the Chichele professor of Military History at Ox-
was far superior to that of most of those who have
ford will prove very acceptable reading, presenting
committed their thoughts to books; yet one turns
as it does every essential argument to prove that the
the excellently printed and faintly amber pages
development of human societies and the progress of
feeling that here are good intentions run into lean
civilization has been attended and even conditioned
literature. Either a temperamental inability to let
by warfare. According to Professor Wilkinson,
himself go, or perhaps a conscious curbing of the
war is an unavoidable Fact of Government and the
pen, has resulted in a product too correct and too
State—a view of the “realists” in politics from
impersonal to kindle the spark of enthusiasm. When
Machiavelli to Bernhardi. A view, one might add,
Dr. Van Dyke unbends, it is with an audible pro-
that seems to be falling into considerable disfavor
fessorial creak. If he seeks to transcribe the slang,
discourse of college men he jumbles the obsolete and


1919
475
THE DIAL
“Many
Typewriters
In One"
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN STUDIES
STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
No. 1. British Criticisms of American Writings: 1783-
1815, by William B. Cairns. Price 50c.
No. 2. Studios by Members of the Department of Eng-
lish (Dedicated to Frank Gaylord Hubbard).
Price $1.00.
No. 3. Classical Studies in honor of Charles Forster
Smith, by his Colleagues. Price $1.00.
THE HERACLES MYTH AND ITS TREATMENT BY EURI-
PIDES
G. L. Hendrickson
THE SOURCE OF HERODOTUS' KNOWLEDGE OF ARTA-
BAZUS
A. G. Laird
SENECA AND THE STOIC THEORY OF LITERARY STYLE
C. N. Smiley
THE PLAIN STYLE IN THE SCIPIONIC CIRCLE
George Converse Fiske
THE OLIVE CROWN IN HORACE
Andrew Runni Anderson
THE ETERNAL CITY
Grant Showerman
BRITAIN IN ROMAN LITERATURE
Katharine Allen
A STUDY OF PINDAR
Annie M. Pitman
LUCRETIUA-TAD POET OF SCIENCE
M. S. Slaughter
AN EGYPTIAN FARMER
W. L. Westermann
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476
THE DIAL
May 3
romance.
Midas and Son. A novel. By Stephen McKenna.
Two Banks of the Seine. A novel. By Fernand
Vandérem. Translated by George Raffalovich.
the current jargon in an orderly fashion which the ancient echoes of that El Dorado, the search for
belies the uninitiate. When he approaches the white which is in part the motive force of the present
heat of creative writing, he sacrifices its finer fever
With its color and suspense and action,
to avoid its minor flaws. It is difficult to be patient The Gilded Man will appeal especially to those
with such repeated lapses into schoolmaster con who prize a novel in proportion to their inability
descension as: “Well, I must tell you more about
to lay it down.
that, else you can never feel the meaning of this
story;" or, “Is this the end of the story? Who
Books of the Fortnight
can say?" There are times when the helping hand
is best withheld.
The following list comprises The Dial's selec-
Miss Comstock's claim to The Valley of Vision tion of books recommended among the publications
would hardly hold in a court of literary equity. Her received during the last two weeks:
novel is an interesting sample of manufactured
atmosphere, done with a fretwork of Ellen Key
and an embroidered smartness which attains such
The Way to Victory. By Philip Gibbs. 12mo, 676
heights as: She read William James till midnight
pages. 2 vols. George H. Doran Co.
—she always spoke of him disrespectfully as her
Forty Days in 1914. By Major-General Sir F.
spiritual hot toddy.” Miss Comstock's story is it-
Maurice. 8vo, 213 pages. George H. Doran
self not unlike spiritual cold slaw.
Co.
Authority in the Modern State. By Harold J.
DOMUS DOLORIS. By W. Compton Leith.
Laski. Svo, 398 pages. Yale University Press.
Lane.
(New Haven).
If the droning prose of Compton Leith causes
Idealism and the Modern Age. By George Plimp-
the reader to revive the old discussion of style and
ton Adams. 8vo, 253 pages. Yale University
matter, he will probably head precipitately for the
Press. (New Haven).
camp of those who maintain that what you say is
The Forgotten Man, and Other Essays. By
far more important than the way you say it. He
William Graham Sumner. Edited by Albert
will reflect that the more you divorce thought from
Galloway Keller. 8vo, 557 pages. Yale Uni-
style the more sensuous the latter becomes, and that
versity Press. (New Haven).
the senses sate themselves far sooner than the in-
tellect. He will remember too that to write prose
The Lady. By Emily James Putnam. Illustrated,
more than feebly suggestive of Pater necessitates as
12mo, 323 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
rich and developed an attitude towards life as the
A New Study of English Poetry. By Henry New-
master himself had. And always he will note, as he
bolt. 8vo, 357 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
follows the inane meditations of this present-day
The Letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne.
Polonius, that one may have the politest of 'manners
Edited by Edmund Gosse and Thomas James
and still be a deadening bore.
Wise. 2 vols. 8vo, 600 pages. John Lane Co.
The Years Between. Verse. By Rudyard Kipling.
THE GILDED MAN. By Clifford Smyth.
12mo, 153 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co.
Boni and Liveright.
The Arrow of Gold. A novel. By Joseph Conrad.
There is a thick coating of science around this
12mo, 385 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co.
romancer's pill. You are beguiled by what is essen-
The Jervaise Comedy. A novel. By J. D. Beres-
tially a fairy story—but a fairy story in which the
ford.
12mo, 283 pages. Macmillan Co.
conjuration is duly accounted for, instead of being
left to the haphazard brandishing of a wand. Thus
12mo, 418 pages.
Dr. Smyth tunnels through the heart of a legend,
Blind Alley. A novel. By W. L. George. 12mo,
using the edged tools of the psychologist and the
431 pages. Little Brown & Co.
physicist to heighten the apparent verity of the
myth. In this manner the reader is adroitly led
Christopher and Columbus. A novel. By the
into unquestioning—if somewhat temporary—ac-
author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden.
ceptance of the highly-colored ingredients, not one
Illustrated, 12mo, 435 pages.
of which is introduced without the coating of scien-
Page & Co.
tific incantation. This method of writing, coupled
Twelve Men. Sketches. By Theodore Dreiser.
with a vivid and sure-footed style, results in a piece.
12mo, 360 pages. Boni & Liveright.
of fiction which sustains the curiosity rather than
Blood and Sand.
A novel. By Vicente Blasco
the higher faculties of the mind. One reads on
Ibáñez. Translated by Mrs.' W. A. Gillespie.
with the consciousness that one's reward is destined
12mo, 356 pages. 'E. P. Dutton & Co.
to be nothing more permanent than a demolished
question mark. Dr. Smyth was for some years
American consul at Carthagena, and there gleaned
E. P. Dutton & Co.
George H. Doran Co.
Doubleday,


ALL LANGUAGES
1919
THE DIAL
477
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by JAMES BROWN SCOTT. Svo (9 x 544), pp.
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478
May 3
THE DIAL
verse and poetic drama. Wraiths and Realities was
reviewed in THE DIAL of June 20, 1918, and
Current News
fresh earth. And by collecting these poems in a
book he has lost the advantage they held as light
The Alexander Kerr translation of The Re magazine verse—that of coming in small doses and
public of Plato, which M. C. Otto recommended in of contrast with the other subject matter.
his communication in the previous issue of The Apparently Christian Internationalism, by Wil-
Dial, was published by the Charles H. Kerr Co., liam Pierson Merrill (Macmillan), is a course of
Chicago.
war-sermons: possibly it is a series of essays with
It will be of interest to many inquirers that the accepted homiletical technique. The author is a
Frank Tannenbaum's article The Moral Devasta typically American optimist of the pre-war type.
tion of War, as printed in The Dial of April 5, He puts his faith in existing institutions, such as the
was read in manuscript to several officers and to League to Enforce Peace, the World Alliance for
200 soldiers. They endorsed it and urged its pub International Friendship through the Churches, and
lication. It was printed as it was read to them. the National Committee on the Churches and the
The Annual Convention of the American Book Moral Aims of the War. He seems to feel that
sellers' Association is to be held this year at the
we already have a practically Christian national-
Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, May 13, 14, and 15. ism—to which we have only to add a Christian
Mr. Hulings C. Brown, of Little, Brown and Co.,
internationalism.
chairman of the committee on arrangements, re-
quests that booksellers planning to attend the con-
Contributors
vention communicate with him at 34 Beacon Street, Bertrand Russell's more recent publications in-
Boston. As an advance souvenir of the convention, clude Political Ideals, reviewed by Randolph
the Penn Publishing Co. (Philadelphia) is sending Bourne in The Dial of January 17, 1918;
out, upon request, complimentary copies of a holi Mysticism and Logic, which was treated by Edward
day edition of Robert Shackleton's The Book of Shanks in his London Letter to The Dial of
Boston.
April 25, 1918; and Proposed Roads to Freedom,
A two-act phantasy, The Lost Pleiad, by Jane
reviewed by Will Durant in The Dial of April
Dransfield (James T. White) has made its tardy 5, 1919.
way into type after being first performed some
Flavio Venanzi is a research expert in economics
eight years ago.
Miss Dransfield has handled
and statistics, and a well-known Italian journalist
her blank verse without trepidation, and has
and lecturer on political questions. He was as
succeeded in giving a really graceful setting to the
sociated for some years with Il Proletario, and
ancient myth of the Pleiad who came to earth to
has been a contributor to many other publications
marry the first King of Corinth. Disclaiming in Italy and America.
any intent to pattern after Greek models, she has
Sailendra nath Ghose, M.Sc. (Calcutta) was
reproduced the spirit of the myth in a somewhat
formerly on the staff of the Calcutta University Col-
modern fashion. Pert passages rub elbows with
lege of Science for Post-Graduate Studies. In 1916
the poetic, but the effect is informal rather than dis-
he obtained the Sir T. N. Palit fellowship of the
pleasing.
The Gentleman Ranker and Other Plays, by the
University of Calcutta at Harvard. Two days
before he should have left India he was refused a
actor Leon Gordon (Four Seas; Boston), contains
a stereotyped melodrama of the campaign against the
passport on account of his interest in the movement
German Colonies, a one-act detective play of some
for independence. He escaped to the United States
ingenuity written in collaboration with Charles
in 1917. In 1918 he was arrested in New York and
was kept in the Tombs for ten months on $25,000
King, and a short cockney farce well suited for
amateur dramatics—all three bristling with the
bail
. He is now a political refugee in New York,
wooden tricks of the conventional actor. Emma
in danger of deportation.
Charles Recht, a native of Bohemia, is a New
Beatrice Brunner commands a smoother technique.
In Bits of Background in One Act Plays (Knopf)
York lawyer who has been especially active in the
she has written one very clever sketch, Strangers,
defense of civil liberties. He is the translator of
and three others which do not carr
a number of plays from the Czech, the Polish, and
because their themes are less intriguing.
so well solely
the German, and the author of numerous magazine
To Christopher Morley one might easily apply
articles on the drama, the history and culture of
the title of his recent book of light verse.
Bohemia, Central European politics, and American
He is
liberties in war time.
the rocking horse among the younger American
writers. In Shandygaff (Doubleday, Page) he
Cale Young Rice (Harvard, 1895) is a Ken-
lurched forward as a delightful enterprising essayist:
tuckian, a poet, a dramatist, and a traveler
. His
in The Rocking Horse (Doran) he sidles back to a
published works include some seventeen volumes of
rather unsteady singing of the well-known joys of
the suburban home-builder. He seems to feel that
Joyce Kilmer's efforts in that field should be sec-
Songs to A.H.R. in the issue of December 14.
onded, but it is a hard pasture in which to turn up
ously written for The DIAL,
The other contributors to this issue have previ-


May 3
THE DIAL
479
BOOK REPAIR and RESTORATION
By Mitchell S. Buck
A manual of practical suggestions for Bibliophiles.
Clear and rellable instructions for removing stains, re-
backing, repairing and preserving old bindings, remarks
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ar-
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thor of Nights in London and
Limehouse Nights through "the
Dorothy Canfield enlarges the
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Peace
THE DIAL
A FORTNIGHTLY
VOL. LXVI
NEW YORK
NO. 790
MAY 17, 1919
PEACE
Thorstein Veblen 485
DISPATCH. Verse
Wallace Gould 487
Quo Vadis?
Norman Angell 488
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS AND NEGRO FOLKLORE Elsie Clews Parsons 491
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN SOCIALISM
Will Durant
494
The IMPENDING INDUSTRIAL CRISIS.
Walton H. Hamilton 496
FIRST SNOW ON THE HILLS. Verse
Leonora Speyer 500
JAPAN AND AMERICA
John Dewey 501
IRELAND BETWEEN Two STOOLS
Dubliner 503
The SCHAMBERG EXHIBITION
Walter Pach 505
IVAN SPEAKS
H. M. Kallen
507
THE HISTORICAL West .
Howard Mumford Jones 508
LETTERS TO UNKNOWN Women: La Grosse Margot
Richard Aldington 510
EDITORIALS
COMMUNICATIONS: Concerning the Defense of
“Soviet
Government."-Professor 514
Lomonossoff Replies.-"Point of View.”
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS: Iolanthe's Wedding.–A Gray Dream.—Russia from the Varan 517
gians to the Bolsheviks.-Shops and Houses.—Teton Sioux Music.—The English
Village.—Ma Pettengill.-Jacquou the Rebel.-Nono: Love and the Soil.—The Heart of
• Peace.-From Czar to Bolshevik.—The City of Trouble.-Books of the Fortnight.
CURRENT News:
.
511
526
The Dial (founded in 1880 by Francis F. Browne) is published every other Saturday by The Dial Publishing Com-
pany, Inc.-Martyn Johnson, President-at 152 West Thirteenth Street, New York, N. Y. Entered as Second Class
matter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., August 3, 1918, under the act of March 3, 1897. Copyright, 1919, by
The Dial Publishing Company, Inc. Foreign Postage, 50 cents.
$3.00 a Year
15 Cents a Copy


482
THE DIAL
May 17

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FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD
By OSCAR KUHNS
By CHARLES W. DABNEY
"After the Bible there is no influence so beneficent
A series of Constructive Essays dealing with To-
on the serene life as the works of Plato," says Professor
day and To-morrow. Some of the titles are “A Better
Kuhns, who occupies the chair of literature in Wesleyan
Era," "True Preparedness," and "Fighting for a New
University. “We believe," he says, "the times are ripe
World." Some of these essays were made the basis of
for a new interpretation of that religion
which is sense
and taste for the infinite, and as essentially a part of
efforts by Pro-Germans to depose the author from the
Presidency of the University of Cincinnati.
human nature as either knowledge or action.". Hence
,
112 pages. Cloth. Net, 75 cents, Postpaid.
he leads the reader through a really delightful browsing
over the whole field of human aspiration for soul expres-
THE CLEAN SWORD
sion and satisfaction.-San Francisco Chronical.
By LYNN HAROLD HOUGH
12 mo. 234 pages. Net, $1.00, Postpaid.
What is the relation of war to reconstruction. How
does a soldier become a builder. Can this war be made
THE MASTER QUEST
a highway to permanent peace? How is the new world.
By WILL S. WOODHULL
to be made from the material of the old. Such ques-
tions are lifted and answered in a fashion which has far
It is the contention of the author that "man is ever
reaching significance in Professor Hough's new book,
questing greatness. He vigorously protests against
being
“The Clean Sword.”
insignificant." The satisfaction of that quest is to be
found in God. In Him, and Him alone, one can find
mo. 212 pages. Cloth. Net, $1.00, Postpaid.
completeness. "Above all," says the author, "Chris-
THE CONFESSIONS OF A BROWNING LOVER
tianity is the religion of a Person. Sometimes we forget
By JOHN WALKER POWELL
this most obvious fact and come to think it consists of
Browning lovers are on the increase, for which Mr.
Articles of Religion, of Longer and
Shorter Catechisms,
Powell's confessions are certain to strike a responsive
of Confessions of Faith and proceedings of councils."
chord in many hearts. He returns again and again to
his thesis that Browning is primarily a poet, an artist.
cussion of some of the most important truths connected
* * He never saw pure white light, as such, but as made
up of all the colors of the rainbow. *
appreciation of these eternal verities. Zion Herald.
* There are fre-
12 mo.
12
12 mo.
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CINCINNATI
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THE MASTERY of the FAR EAST
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THE DIAL
A FORTNIGHTLY
Peace
INTEMPERATI
INTEMPERATE CRITICISM has diligently sought to shop. True to the political tradition, the Covenant
find fault with the covenant which has been devised provides for enforcing the peace by recourse to arms
and underwritten by the deputies of the great and commercial hostilities, but it contemplates no
powers. The criticism has been animated and vol measures for avoiding war by avoiding the status
uble, but it has been singularly futile on the whole. quo out of which the great war arose. The status
At the same time the spokesmen of this covenant quo was a status of commercialized nationalism.
show a singular lack of assurance; they speak in a The traditions which bind them will not permit
tone of doubtful hope rather than enthusiastic con anything beyond these political ends, ways, and
viction. And the statesmen who set up this cov means of commercialized nationalism to come within
enant do so with such an engaging air of modesty the cognizance of the competence of these elder
and furtive apprehension as should engender a statesmen who have had this work to do. So there
spirit of good will and fellowship in the presenta is no help for it.
tion of a doubtfully hopeful enterprise, rather than But the Covenant is after all the best that was
obstructive tactics and intemperate criticism. They reasonably to be looked for. It embodies the best
are saying, in effect: We have done the best we and highest traditions of nineteenth century states-
could under the circumstances. It is a great pity manship. That it does so, that it is conceived in the
that we have been able to do no better. Let us hope spirit of Mid-Victorian liberalism rather than in
for the best, and God help us all!
the spirit of Mid-European imperialism, is to be set
The best must always be good enough, and the down to the account of America and America's
Covenant is the best that the political wisdom of President. But that it remains standing as a left-
the three continents has been able to find in a five over on that outworn ground, instead of coming up
months' search for ways and means of avoiding war. abreast of the twentieth century is also to be credited
But this best will always have the defects of its to the same power.
It is in an eminent sense
qualities. And such defects as still attach to the America's Covenant, made and provided by the para-
Covenant will best be understood, and may there mount advice and consent of America's President.
fore best be condoned and allowed for, when seen And this paramount advice and consent has gone to
in the light of its qualities. Now, as for its qualities, the making of the Covenant in the simple faith that
the Covenant is a political document, an instrument commercialized nationalism answereth all things.
of realpolitik, created in the image of nineteenth The unfortunate, and unfortunately decisive, cir-
century imperialism. It has been set up by political cumstance of the case is, therefore, that the Presi-
statesmen, on political grounds, for political ends, dent's outlook and ideals are in this way grounded in
and with political apparatus to be used with political the political traditions of Mid-Victorian liberalism,
effect. It brings to a focus the best and highest tra-
and that his advisers have been animated with po-
ditions of commercialized nationalism, but also it
litical traditions of a still narrower and more anti-
brings nothing else. The outcome is a political quated make. Hence the difficulties which arise out
covenant which even its friends and advocates view of a new industrial situation and a consequent new
with an acute sense of its inability, perhaps rather a bias of the popular temper are sought to be adjusted
sense of its total vacuity.
by readjusting the political status quo ante.
Its defect is not that the Covenant falls short, but Now, it should be plain to anyone on slight re-
rather that it is quite beside the point. The point Alection that this covenant has been forced upon the
is the avoidance of war, at all costs; the war arose politicians by the present state of the industrial sys-
unavoidably out of the political status quo; the
tem. The great war has run its course within the
Covenant reestablishes the status quo, with some confines of this industrial system, and it has become
additional political apparatiis supplied from the same
evident that no nation is competent henceforth


486
May 17
THE DIAL
At the same time, that which chiefly hampers the permit; for without their constant supervision and
sonnel. The cost, the work, and hardship fell on
single-handed to take care of its own case within the Covenant is the good old answer of the elder
this system, in which all the civilized peoples are statesmen of the Old Order—provision of armed
bound up together. And it should be similarly force sufficient to curb any uneasy drift of senti-
plain, on similarly slight reflection, that no readjust ment among the underlying populace, with the due
ment of working arrangements among the peoples advice and consent of the dictatorship established -
concerned can hope to touch the core of the diffi by the elder statesmen.
culties unless its scope is the same as that of the in Now, the great war was precipitated by the
dustrial system and unless it is carried out with a malign growth of just such a commercialized na-
single-handed regard to the industrial requirements tionalism within this industrial system, and was
of the case, and coupled with a thoroughgoing dis fought to a successful issue as a struggle of industrial
allowance of those political and nationalist prece forces and with the purpose of establishing an endur-
dents and ambitions that hinder the free working of ing peace of industrial prosperity and content; at
this industrial system.
least so they say. It should accordingly have seemed
The interval since Mid-Victorian time has been reasonable to entrust the settlement to those men
a period of unexampled change in the industrial arts who know something about the working and re-
and in the working arrangements necessary to indus-
quirements of this industrial system on which the
trial production. The productive industry of all the welfare of mankind finally turns. To any man
civilized peoples has been drawn together by the
whose perspective is not confined within the Mid-
continued advance of the industrial arts into a single Victorian political traditions, it would seem that the
comprehensive, close-knit system, a network of me-
first move toward an enduring peace would be
chanically balanced give and take, such that no
abatement of the vested interests and national pre-
nation and no community can now carry on its own
tensions wherever they touch the conduct of in-
industrial affairs in severalty or at cross-purposes
dustry; and the men to do this work should logically
with the rest except at the cost of a disproportionate
be those who know the needs of the industrial sys-
derangement and hardship to itself and to all the
tem and are not biased by commercial incentives.
All this is simple and obvious to those who
An enduring settlement should be entrusted to reas-
are at all familiar with the technical requirements
onably unbiased production engineers, rather than
of production. To all such it is well known that for
to the awestruck political lieutenants of the vested
the purposes of productive industry, and therefore interests.
These men, technical specialists, over-
for the purposes of popular welfare and content,
workmen, skilled foremen of the system, are expert
national divisions are nothing better than haphazard
divisions of an indivisible whole, arbitrary and ob-
in the ways and means of industry and know some-
thing of the material conditions of life that sur-
structive. And because of this state of things, any
round the common man, at the same time that they
regulation or diversion of trade or industry within
are familiar with the available resources and the
any one of these national units is of graver conse-
uses to which they are to be turned. Of necessity in
quence to all the others than to itself. Yet the Cov-
war and peace, it is for these workmen of the top
enant contemplates no abatement of that obsructive
line to take care of the industrial system and its
nationalist intrigue that makes the practical sub-
working, so far as the obstructive tactics of the
stance of the "self-determination of nations."
vested interests and the commercial statesmen will
everyday work of industrial production and chiefly
correction this highly technical system of production
tries the popular temper under this new order of
things is the increasingly obstructive and increasingly
will not work at all. Logically it should be for
these and their like to frame such a settlement as
irresponsible control of production by the vested in-
will bind the civilized peoples together on an amic-
terests of commerce and finance, seeking each their
able footing as a going concern, engaged on a joint
own profit at the cost of the underlying population.
Yet the Covenant contemplates no abatement of
industrial enterprise. However, it is not worth
these vested interests that are fast approaching the
while to speculate on what they and their like might
limit of popular tolerance; for the Covenant is a
propose, since neither they nor their counsels have
political instrument, made and provided for the re-
had any part in the Covenant. The Covenant is a
habilitation of Mid-Victorian political intrigue and afterthought.
covenant of commercialized nationalism, without
for the upkeep of the vested interests of commerce
and finance. The cry of the common man has been:
To return to the facts: The great war was fought
What shall we do to be saved from war abroad
out and peace was brought within sight by teamwork
and dissension at home? And the answer given in
of the soldiers and workmen and the political per-
rest.


1919
487
THE DIAL
the soldiers and workmen, and it is also chiefly their deflect the course of events, what is likely to be of
fortune that is now in the balance. The political material consequence to the fortunes of mankind is
personnel have lost nothing, risked nothing, and chiefly the outcome of this furtive traffic in other
have nothing at stake on the chance of further war men's good between the deputies of the great
or peace. But in these deliberations on peace the powers, which underlies and conditions the stilted
political personnel alone have had a voice. Neither formalities of the instrument itself. Little is known,
those who have done the necessary fighting at the and perhaps less is intended to be known, of this
front nor those who have done the necessary work furtive traffic in other '
men's goods. Hitherto the
at home have had any part in it all. The conference "High Contracting Parties” have been at pains to
has been a conclave made up of the spokesmen of give out no “information which might be useful to
commercialized nationalism, in effect a conclave of the enemy."
the political lieutenants of the political lieutenants What and how many covert agreements have been
of the vested interests. In short, there have been no covertly arrived at during these four or five months
Soldiers' and Workmen's Deputies included in this of diplomatic twilight will not be known for some
Soviet of the Elder Statesmen which has conferred time yet. A decent cover still hides what may be
the dictatorship on the political deputies of the hidden, which is presumably just as well. And yet,
vested interests. By and large, neither the wishes even if one had best not see him face to face, one
nor the welfare of the soldiers, the workmen, or the may still infer something as to the nature of the
industrial system as a going concern, have visibly beast from the shape of his hoof. A little something.
been consulted in the drafting of this Covenant. in that way is coming in sight now in the shameful
However, to avoid all appearance of graceless over transaction by which the politicians and vested in-
statement, it should perhaps be noted in qualification terests of Japan are given a burglarious free hand
that the American workmen may be alleged to have
in northern China; and it would be both graceless
been represented at this court of elder statesmen, in and idle to speculate on what may be the grand total
formally, unofficially, and irresponsibly, by the sex of gruesome enormities which the Oriental states-
ton beadle of the A. F. of L., but it will be admitted men will have undertaken to perpetrate or overlook,
that this qualification makes no serious inroad on the
for the benefit of the vested interests identified with
broader statement above.
the European powers, in consideration of that carte
Neither the value nor the cost of this Covenant blanche of indecency. So also is the arrangement
are fairly to be appreciated apart from its back between the great powers for the suppression of
ground and the purposes and interests which are Soviet Russia, for the profit of the vested interests
moving in the background. As it now looms up
identified with these Powers and at the cost of the
against this murky background of covert agreements underlying population; the due parceling out of con-
covertly arrived at during the past months, the
cessions and natural resources in foreign parts, inci-
Covenant is beginning to look like a last desperate
dent to that convention of smuggled warfare, will
doubtless have consumed a formidable total of time,
concert of crepuscular statesmanship for the preser-
vation of the civilized world's kept classes and vested
ingenuity, and effrontery. But the Covenant being
interests in the face of a menacing situation. There-
an instrument of commercialized nationalism, all
these things have had to be seen to.
fore, in case the Covenant should yet prove to be so
lasting and serve this turn so well as materially to
THORSTEIN VEBLEN.
Dispatch
Come up to Maine, old friend, before the violets are gone.
The valley of the Kennebec is smeared with luminous purple.
It is smeared with waves of bluettes, too.. Out in the fields
are sweeps of white, as if the shadows
of the clouds were white,
yet even the white is touched with purple,
and so is the leaden leafmould of the woods.
Come up to Maine before the violets all grow pale.
Come up before they are ghastly on their stems—
withered, they look like heads impaled on spears.
Come. Do not let me tell you more of what is dead.
WALLACE GOULD.


488
THE DIAL
May 17
new world. Never was anything to be quite the Unions, has just had an election. At that election
mines and railways, hand them over to the Unions
world organization based upon the union of the
hopeless cranks refusing to face the hard facts of apparently in one mood to paralyze the nation's in-
dustrial life in order to enforce some point about
Quo Vadis?
TO GO FROM ENGLAND on the morrow of the elec-
It is true that in Paris one found official France
tions, and the eve of the miners' and railway men's resenting this diplomatic revolution, but not pub-
strikes, to the Conference in Paris, and from that to licly resisting, and great masses were accepting,
the meeting of the resuscitated Internationale in passively it may be, but still accepting, the Wilsonian
Berne, is to get a pretty fair bird's-eye view, so far policy.
as externals can give that view, of the factors of In Berne one still found early in February the
European politics at this moment. Let us note cer federal capital of Switzerland resounding with the
tain outstanding features of this political landscape. echoes of the Bolshevist coup d'etat of November-
There can be no doubt of a general condition of an attempt on the part of the extremer Socialists
widespread upheaval in England. Strikes are with to seize the government and create a revolution
out number. They are for demands—such as a six by means of a general strike-an attempt of which
hour day—that a year or two ago would have been the world heard very little because it happened to
regarded as outrageous. In his opening speech of coincide with the Armistice. But it was a very
the session the British Prime Minister said that serious business indeed for Switzerland: for three
while he was in Paris he received every morning on days the members of the federal government were
going to the Conference a telegram announcing virtual prisoners in the Bellevue Palace Hotel and
some new strike, and found another such telegram the whole army was placed on a war footing.
on returning in the evening. And what is notable (Incidentally the land-owning peasants, very con-
is the apparent triviality of the pretext for strike.
The whole industrial life of the country is embar-
servative, very anti-town, were, so it is very com-
rassed because of a disagreement over the dinner
monly believed, extremely anxious to demonstrate
hour of railway men.
the excellence of that shooting which is the feature
And the authority of the
Trades Unions themselves is flouted: bargains made
of his military training in which the peasant takes
by the Unions with the employers are disregarded;
most pride.) And then of course here on the bor-
strikes which have been forbidden by the Unions
ders of Germany, with Germans going to and fro
take place.
with relative freedom and ex-German and Austrian
Fact number one then: a widespread revolution-
royalties escaping to Swiss villas and hotels, one
heard a good deal of the German revolution in
behalf of minor aims. Papers like the Daily Express thousand years vanished from the face of the carth.
which in a few days dynasties which had lasted a
represent the whole strike movement as the work
of a minority of Bolshevists aiming at the overturn
Here then undoubtedly was a world in revolution,
of the state. The Times gives evidence to show
boiling and seething in order to throw out the
that the leaders are political revolutionaries of ex-
elements of the old order and to take on an entirely
treme type. What these papers seem to overlook is
that they themselves have for four years been sedu-
That however is only one aspect of the case.
lously cultivating a revolutionary mood of a kind.
There is a contrary and conflicting aspect.
Every day they told us that we were fighting for a
This England, of a mood so revolutionary that
the very Unionists are rebelling against their
same again; the old diplomacy was dead. While
Mr. Webb talked to us of a new social order Mr.
a great Labor Party appeared as definitely repre-
senting the new social order. The English Consti-
world order. Just latterly the Daily Mail has been
printing every morning articles in support of an
capture of a political power which, without inter-
organized internationalism which might have been
fering Supreme Courts, would have enabled organ-
written by David Starr Jordan, or Bertrand Russell,
ized labor to enter into its own: to nationalize the
or Lowes Dickinson, or Henry Brailsford. One
Here was revolution indeed.
Those who ventured to write in this strain before
matic methods in international affairs, and make of
the war were held up by the Daily Mail itself either
the settlement of Paris the beginnings of a new
as plain traitors playing the game of Germany, or
the world about them.
new form.
Wilson and his friends talked of a new politica, senting would have permitted here, at one este intense
rubbed one's eyes.
for management, make an end of the old diplo-


1919
489
THE DIAL
WHE
e found out
Erolution, but ar
ccepting a
early in leta
resounding a
d'etat offers
de entrada
create 1
-an attempt av
witzerland; i
Je Palace his
On 3 M
peavoaz
wise
ous to demais
which is as
the peranti
Yet
here '
the length of the dinner hour, did not trouble to treaties, Clemenceau's and Orlando's very open de-
vote at all in an election which could have given fense of the old system of alliances, the ill concealed
it the foundations, at least, of this new social contempt for the political ideology which would
order everybody had been talking about. At a attempt to do away with them; the French attitude
juncture of the world's affairs more momentous to Russia, the Italian to Jugo-Slavia, the very frank
than any perhaps which mankind has known in writ- hostility even of the French press itself to publicity
ten history, at a time when the character of a popu of debate at the Conference—these are but a few
lar judgment might affect the character of our of the numberless facts which show that the old
civilization during whole centuries, half the British order, its spirit and method, still dominate the
people stayed away from the polls. The very men management of international affairs.
who went to the war, risking their lives, lying, But at the Berne Socialist Conference? Surely
some of them, half-disemboweled through nights of here at least would be found a definite and radical
hell in the Flanders mud in order that international break with the principles of the past insisted upon by
treaties might be respected, that their children might men who knew what they wanted—a revolutionary
never again ” know this thing (insert here the per program in fact? Well, a young radical at the
oration of ten thousand impassioned speeches, ser close of the Conference—having attended all its
mons, poems, editorials of four years of war) sessions—summed it up in these terms:
these men, most of them perhaps, declined to trou-
The Conference professed to be the most advanced ex-
ble about recording their vote at all. They seem pression of Internationalism and Socialism. You need
to have decided to leave it to their womenkind, to
only look at the reports of the debates and read its reso-
lutions to see that it is neither Internationalist nor Social-
whom that sort of thing was a new amusement. ist. It is not Internationalist, in that national passions
With the result that there are excluded from the blazed out at every turn, and great Socialistic figures like
Parliament of the new Britain, which
“has swept
Albert Thomas and Renaudel practically never spoke ex-
away forever the obsolete order which
cept to express a national point of view. Look at the
(insert
resolutions. Is there one that deals with the method of
again quotations from the perorations of ten thous- abolishing the present capitalist system? Not one.
and .speeches), all those who have been notable
that was the supposed raison d'être of the Conference.
The place has been positively swamped with the litera-
for their thoroughgoing radicalism and constructive ture of Czecho-Slovak, Jugo-Slav, Armenian, Georgian,
work towards the new order. Mr. Sidney Webb Roumanian, Greek, Lettish, Esthonian, Ukrainian, Fin-
nish national claims—there have literally been tons of
himself, draughtsman of the Charter of the New So-
it distributed during the Conference. Not one single leaf-
cial Order, is rejected by London University, which let, so far as I know, has there been on industrial inter-
has been the scene of so much of his labor. In this
nationalism or the social revolution. And in the ques-
tions with which the Conference did deal-League of
Parliament of the Revolution power is placed in the Nations for instance—it showed itself no more radical
hands of Mr. Bonar Law! And in the international than Lord Robert Cecil or the other people in Paris.
field this new Britain marks its sense of the degree to
In one vital particular only—that of parliamentary rep-
resentation did it go in definite proposals beyond the
which old diplomatic methods have disappeared and Paris Conference, and that was so much an afterthought
an entirely new method of handling international
that it had to be introduced as an amendment. Who
affairs inaugurated, by sending, as one of the prin-
have been the dominating figures at the Conference?
Branting and Arthur Henderson-about as suggestive of
cipal members—in Mr. George's absence the head revolution as Lord Rothschild or the Archbishop of
of the British delegation, Lord Milner. Lord
Canterbury. The excommunication of the Conference
pronounced, not only by the Russian but even by the Swiss
Milner, the reader need hardly be reminded, is an Bolshevists, has been from their point of view entirely
administrator of German training and partly Ger-
justified.
man descent, whose Prussian settlement in South Very well then, one concludes, with his eye on
Africa had to be undone by the Liberal Government this group of facts—the deliberate election of a
of Campbell-Bannermann; whose conservative habit Tory Government in England; the docility with
of mind, particularly in international affairs, has which is accepted the representation at this juncture
never been disguised, whose skepticism concerning of the democracies by men like Milner, Cecil, Bal-
what
may be called Wilsonian methods is notorious. four, Bourgeois, Clemenceau, Orlando, Sonnino;
He is perhaps the one public man in Britain most revolutionary” conferences of the kind just de-
certain to adhere to principles and ideas which it was
scribed—it is evident, in view of all this, that
supposed to be the task of the Conference to do away Entente Europe is in no revolutionary mood, and
with.
that it will stand by a steady and orderly develop-
The pessimism of Liberals and radicals in close ment.
touch with the Conference concerning the possibility And then-one reads of the British strikes, where
of any real change of the old diplomatic attitude these sober British workmen who voted for Lord
has now become pretty well known: French and Milner throw the whole country into industrial
Italian insistence upon the fulfilment of secret chaos because they have a grievance about the dinner
man
and bloc
PLAN TRE
face of
meld in diese
threat
ake an
WE
Eigeks
17


490
THE DIAL
May 17
gram; it
the hundred would have gone on working without industrial field of miners and railway men-a simi-
hour. And it is not just a momentary explosion. And thus it is that an active minority can secure
The thing is indicative of what has been going on revolutionary action-a tremendous movement for
for months; it is symptomatic of something wide ends and results that of themselves are small. And
spread and chronic. What does it mean?
action which is the result of motives and impulses
This much is clear: we cannot make any reliable of that kind is apt to be sporadic, localized, undis-
estimate of forces at work unless we take the two ciplined, without centralized direction. The action
apparently contradictory tendencies into considera is not on behalf of any large predetermined pro-
tion. How can they be reconciled ? Here is a guess :
" breaks out
spontaneously, impulsively
Normally the mass of a busy people, concerned with La temperamental manifestation. The final state
its own individual daily work and troubles and pre is not one of revolution—large masses moving
occupations, is inert in political matters. That against a common enemy on behalf of a conscious
inertia cannot be stirred by forces that lack psycho political program. Rather is it confusion, one group
logical stimulus, that are undramatic-mere argu taking a line which runs counter to that taken by
.ment and exhortation that require cold intellectual another group. The men who strike about a din-
decisions arrived at by painful and unexciting ratio ner hour are not impelled by revolutionary ideas
cinative processes to give them effect. An election, or visions of a new social order, but by motives
a matter of argument, speeches, votes, leaves the much less rationalized. And the situation would
mass relatively cold, except where its emotions can be be a good deal more hopeful if the movement were
stirred. This is done most easily by appeals to the
more revolutionary, in the sense of being impelled
old and familiar sentiments of nationalism, hatred by a vision of social revolution, and less tempera-
of the enemy. Certainly so unfamiliar a thing as mental and subconscious.
the League of Nations does not profoundly stir it.
Francis Bacon. remarked some centuries since
But this relatively inert mass, absorbed in its own
that truth came out of error more easily than out
affairs, can readily feel the stimulus of an action of confusion. If a man has on some subject a clear-
which it can follow or imitate. To do something
cut theory definitely wrong, he will, as Huxley re-
that other people are doing is a good deal easier
marked, have the great good fortune one day of
than to think out painfully opinions and decisions banging his head against a fact; and that, if he is
which may differ from those of others. A strike
honest, sets him straight again. But the man who
is such an action, easily followed; the expression of
will not clearly rationalize his beliefs at all, but,
opinion through a vote on the League of Nations again as Huxley puts it, goes buzzing about unre
and the abolition of the old diplomacy, involving flectingly between right and wrong, comes out no-
difficult questions as to why the old diplomacy where.
should be abolished and why the balance of power
and national forces are insufficient, impliesan in-
Something analogous is true in politics. If there
tellectual activity before which an overworked miner
were a conscious, concerted revolutionary
ment, leaders knowing what they wanted, with a
or railroad man quails. The laborer feels himself predetermined program of a new social order
, mara
done out of his dinner hour; that is so
to him, understandable; he is angry. The suggested
something near
shaling forces on one side; while on the other there
remedy is one he is familiar with and the efficacy of
were the forces of the old order, also knowing
what they wanted, then one or the other would
which he can understand. And it is action—like
fighting, a relief to the feelings. But this voting
impose its will, and we should be able to live, tant
about foreign policy in Paris—that may have im-
bien que mal, by one system or the other. The
traffic would be going either to the left or the
portance twenty years hence
. Why should he have right. And the question as to whether it should
any feeling about that? And the Boche should
be made to pay up, as Hughes says ; Hughes
talks important thản that everybody should
do one
thing
go to the right or the left is after all much less
about the Boche in a way a man who has lost a
son in the war can understand. Makes a man's
or the other. The fatal thing most provocative
blood boil. And now a lot of blighters who made
of dreadful smashes is that sometimes folk go one
pots of money out of the war want to do a man
way, sometimes the other, with no rule, but just
out of his dinner hour!"
as the spirit moves them. In that sort of confu-
And if in this mood two or three active resolute
sion nobody can go into the streets in safety. And
men come to a hundred and say they are going to
it is this confusion, the absence of any working
strike, and ask the others to join them—why, in
theory, not the supremacy of one revolutionary
most cases they will, though except for such a lead
theory however wild, that threatens the world.
In the political world in general-outside the
question.
lar absence of conscious political principle or theory
move-


1919
491
THE DIAL
is leading to a similar condition of instability, of months of the war nearly all America drew an un-
incalculable unrest, of movements that are deter- compromisingly pacifist argument from the war;
mined not by conscious efforts towards a discerned it was the period of “I did not raise my boy to be
goal but by unconscious impulse. One reads these a soldier"; of the Democratic party's claim for
speeches from statesmen of the old school in favor support on the ground that
it kept the country
of a society of nations, and the self-determination out of war." Within a few months the author
of small peoples, and the respect of the weak by the of “I did not raise
was writing to the
strong; these Daily Mail editorials expressing sen papers to explain that the song was really written
timents of pacific internationalism which, but a few for the purpose of promoting the selective draft;
years since, the same paper was holding up to fero- great communities that voted by the hundred-thou-
cious contempt. One might assume that the public sand against America's participation in war were
had undergone a great conversion, had seen a great in a few months lynching those who were supposed
light, thus to embrace this revolutionary doctrine not to favor the war. In such things as our atti-
of the League of Nations with its surrender of tude to Russia we have displayed the same moral
national sovereignty and independence, the privilege gymnastics. For two years no word of criticism of
of imposing our will upon others by means of our Czarist Russia was permitted in the French or
superior might and virtue. But there is no such English press; the papers abounded with touching
moral revolution; the public is quite unaware of stories of the gentleness and nobility of the Russian
having surrendered anything or changed any opinion. people. Today no good word for Soviet Russia
It follows an active lead like that of Wilson as can be printed in that same press. It is part of
tomorrow it will follow a contrary lead, if some the condition which enables a Durham miner to
turn of political circumstance should render it worth vote for Mr. Bonar Law today and for the aboli-
while for an active minority to furnish it. And tion of private property in mines and a syndicalist
statesmen and newspapers would turn from inter revolution tomorrow.
nationalism to intense nationalism and all its moral And if this waywardness marks a people possessed
connotations, from talking of “the great ideals so of the self-confidence, the encouragement, that comes
nobly expressed” to talking of “the debasing sen of victory, what may we not look for in the enemy
timentality of an emasculate pacifism,” without people whose future is so uncertain, who cannot,
blinking; and the great mass of their readers would however disciplined and concerted their action, de-
soon be completely unaware of any change what termine that future, since they are within the power
of others? Is it to be wondered that each gives
Put down thus nakedly the thing seems an af-
himself to the impulse of the moment?
“Revolu-
tion would imply a set and common purpose, a
fected overstatement, or an effort at cynicism. But
it is neither. This change from one political philo-
discerned goal, and that would give us some hope.
But those things do not mark the course of events.
sophy to a contrary one within a few weeks has been
There's no discernible goal. Quo vadis?
abundantly illustrated in the last year or two in
both Europe and America. For the first eighteen
NORMAN ANGELL.
soever.
---
Joel Chandler Harris and Negro Folklore
I n Uncle Remus RETURNS (Houghton Miflin; gishness is the outcome of a quasi-scientific educa-
Boston) we meet our old friend Remus and the tion, held Harris, and so his little boy—in this last
same little boy who appears in Told by Uncle picture of him ať any rate—is consistently a prig.
Remus—the son of the boy who listened to the The stories the child listens to—there are six of
earlier tales and of a mother most antipathetic to them-consist of the familiar colloquies between
Uncle Remus, Miss Sally, and Mr. Harris. That the animals, superimposed upon folk-tales or near-
the little boy should be shown to be so exclusively folk-tales. Impty-Umpty and the Blacksmith is a
the product of his mother's theory of education is, variant of the tale known to readers of Grimm as
by the way, a naive witness to the unfortunate in- Grandfather Death. It has been collected in New
significance of the father in the American family. England from Portuguese Negroes, but it has not
The little boy is singularly lacking in the child's been recorded before, so far as I know, in the South.
usual protective devices against education. But Mr. Mr. Ridgeley Torrence tells me however that the
Harris had caught the folk-tale spirit, keeping tale is widely spread among American Negroes. The
to the expected theme or emotion or trait. Prig Most Beautiful Bird in the World appears to be


492
THE DIAL
May 17
tern of the tale very faithfully, so the setting (
Iation, it seems to me, is made by Mark Twain in
a variant of The Birds Take Back Their Feathers, coast town, to get him some characteristic coast
recorded in Jamaica, in New England from Portu tales, varying from the cotton plantation tales
guese Negroes, and—further evidence of its Hispanic of the interior, tales for example about alligators,
provenience—in the Southwest from the Pueblo Mr. Harris particularizes: “All I want is a reason-
Indians. Brother Rabbit, Brother Fox, and Two ably intelligent outline of the stories as the Negroes
Fat Pullets consists of the European pattern of the tell them.” That is, he might have said, he wanted
false message or letter, the same pattern which ap the pattern; its setting he himself would supply.
pears in the earlier Remus tales of Brother Rabbit A definite illustration of the distribution of folk-
and the Little Girl, and In Some Lady's Garden, lore and literature in the Remus tales is presented
and in a tale which was once told me in Newport, in the biography. A correspondent from Senoia,
Rhode Island, by a white woman from the Azores. Georgia, wrote:
How Brother Rabbit Brought Family Trouble on
Brother Fox is reminiscent likewise of Portuguese
Mr. Harris I have one tale of Uncle Remus that I have
tales that I have listened to in New England. A
not seen in print yet. Bro Rabbit at Mis Meadows and
Bro Bare went to Bro Rabbit house and eat up his chil-
variant of Taily-po I heard on Andros Island,
drun and set his house on fire and make like the childrun
Bahamas, and what is probably another variant
all burnt up but Bro Rabbit saw his track he knowed
Bro Bare was the man
so one day Bro Rabbit saw Bro
Chatelain heard in Angola, West Africa. Brother Bare in the woods with his ax hunting a bee tree“after
Rabbit's Bear Hunt contains a less well defined
Bro Rabbit spon howdy he tell Bro Bare he know whare
pattern than the other tales in the volume and, like
a bee tree was and he would go an show and help him
cut it down they went and cut it an Bro Rabbit drove
'some of the earlier Remus tales, it is, I suspect, one
in the glut while Bro Bare push his Kead in the hole Bro
of those quasi-individualistic pieces of embroidery
Rabbit nock out the glut and cut him hickry. Mr. Harris
with familiar material which are not uncommonly give you all you can finish it.
you have the tale now give it wit I never had room to
forthcoming among Negro story-tellers and which This tale, writes the biographer, was the source of
may or may not develop into a true folk-tale.
To what extent does Mr. Harris himself em-
The End of Mr. Bear, in the first of the Remus
broider? In more than one of those very pleasant
books. Reread this tale and you will agree with Mr.
Harris that the tales were
not written as folklore
letters which are printed in the recently published stories.”
biography by Julia Collier Harris (The Life and
Letters of Joel Chandler Harris. Houghton Mif-
As it may be urged however that the tale from
Alin; Boston) Mr. Harris refers to himself as
Senoia was merely a written “outline," as the bio-
merely a compiler of the Remus tales. In a letter
grapher calls it, and not a reproduction of the tale
in particular written to Gomme, president of the
as told by Negroes, I am tempted to give the tale
Folk Lore Society in England, but with character-
of the Forgotten Pass-Word, of which this Senoia-
istic diffidence not sent, Mr. Harris stated of
Harris tale seems to be a variant, as the former was
the tales that " not one of them is cooked, and not
taken down this year from the lips of a Sea Islander.
one nor any part of one is an invention of mine.
Ber Wolf he fin' a honey tree. So he call Ber Rabbit
,
They are all genuine folk-tales.” That they are
“Le' go get some honey.” So dey went_to de tree. De
honey commence to come down. Dey couldn't get it-
indeed folk-tales, at least the earlier tales, any folk-
so very free. But anyhow dey bu'st de tree wid de axe,
lorist will agree, or in fact anyone who takes the
So Ber Rabbit he went to de tree an' poke his head an'
say,
trouble to compare them with another collection
“Come down honey, go up bee." So de honey com:
mence to pour down. Dey get so much, but Ber Rabbit
made in Georgia, the excellent collection of C. C.
it seem like he didn't sati'fy with what he get. So he went
Jones, Jr., called Negro Myths from the Georgia
to de tree, an' he get his head into de holler of de tree.
Coast, or with Mrs. Christensen's collection from
When he get dere, he said, “Oh Ber Wolf, my head is
too big. You try now.'
the Sea Islands of South Carolina, or with our
he didn't know any better. He poke his head way up in
meager collections from other parts of the South
de tree. After Ber Wolf get his head in, he
down bee, an' go up honey." So de honey go up, an'
or from the West Indies.
de bee stung Ber Wolf to deat'.
But in making this comparison it becomes quite
In connection with the respective literary and
evident that just as Mr. Harris preserved the pat-
folklore elements in the Remus tales a happy valu-
66
So Ber Wolf try. Poor feller,
say,
refer not only to the old man and the little boy, but
to the animal colloquies and to the developed con-
cept of the animal community) is a thing apart,
not appearing in any of the other recorded tales.
In the Harris biography there is likewise testimony
of, in this respect, the literary character of the tales.
In 1883 in requesting a friend at Darien, a Georgia
a letter to Mr. Harris in 1881: “You can argue
yourself into the delusion that the principle of life
is in the stories themselves and not in their setting,
but you will save labor by stopping with that soli-
tary convert, for he is the only intelligent one you
will bag.
In reality the stories are only alligator
pears—one eats them merely for the sake of the


1919
THE DIAL
493
ome characters
cotton platan:
Tample about
* All I want : 13
e storis adel
-ht have said to
imself world as
the distribution
zmus tals
pondent frases
Uncle Regatta
use and eato
2
his tracker
Er Bro Raitis
unting a bete.
• Bare be dont
20 shot at
an Break:
s bead in der
en hicry. We
I nerer bal
, wastkic
first of the Le
vill 2018
written su
dressing.” To be sure, now and then one hears Six, sewen sojers pile out an' ax me ef I wan' mek
of somebody who fancies alligator pears without some money. I say, “Not dat way. Le' me fin'
dressing.
out who dat chauffeur, I git after him.” We had
With or without dressing, a diet of alligator heard a motor, but Mr. Jack was not to be inter-
pears may lead one to seek variety. The seeker, rupted. “I hear' nothin'," he answered. “I des
whether artist or folklorist, can find variety in · tellin' riddles to dish yere ladee.”
Negro stories as told by Negroes. He can find Later in the island of Defuskie it was as an out-
ghost stories, stories of the narrators' English or come, I surmise, of the afternoon riddling on the
Scotch neighbors or forbears; witch stories that top of an oyster-shell heap that in the evening one
may trace back either to medieval Europe or to of the oyster openers told me of the week-long stay
Africa; preacher stories curiously reminiscent of in his house of a pa'tridge” hunter and his wife
Chaucer or Boccacio; “ Ashman stories in which from the north, a visit which had caused the Whites
swearing Pat is, like Rabbit or Jack or Pedro Ordi of the island to charge the Negro with being pro-
nales or Petit Jean, the protagonist of the cycle; German. The social intercourse involved had been
'fairy stories whose European origin is some so contrary to Southern ethics that the violator was
times plain and sometimes obscure; and stories like necessarily pro-German. “But dose white people
the tale of the Forty Thieves or the tale of the treated us decent," said the host of the Northerners,
Treasury of King Rhampsinitus, which in the "an' dat was all we cya'd.”.
course of wanderings in Africa since the days of Again, it was due to the friendliness that is a
Herodotus or before have been so transformed that by-product of collecting tales that, after two days
they yield the secret of their origin only to devout and parts of two nights spent in story-telling in the
study.
cabin of James and Pinkie Middleton of Hilton
Such study is compounded not only of patience Head, I was informed by my host as he drove me to
and industry, but of a gratified sense of romance. the shore which is called Spanishville that, had I
As there is romance in the wanderings of peoples stayed on in the house of the white man where Mr.
over the globe, so is there romance in the wander Middleton and I had met, he would not have told
ings of tales. It is exciting to recognize in an me tales—“fo' no money, not fo' a week.” Here Mr.
Apache tale from the Southwest or in an Indian Jack, who had come on with me to this island and
tale from Penobscot Bay a tale you have heard the was sitting on top of the dress-suit case in the back
day before from a Cape Verde Islander on Cape of the buggy, began to generalize on racial relations.
Cod, a coincidence which may resolve for you an “We hoľno communication wid dem,” he con-
uncertainty whether the tale came from Europe or cluded. And James Middleton added: “We pay
from Africa. Or, after comparing the forty-odd dem fo' what we git, an' dey pay us.
We don't
variants of a tale collected from American Negroes boder wid dem an' dey don' boder wid us.” Was
and American Indians from the southeast to the there ever a more trenchant statement of racial sep-
northwest of the continent, it is exciting to hear aration ?
the one recorded European version of the tale, a One hears quite often from the Whites of the
Spanish version, fall from the lips of a Sea Islands South that the Negroes do not tell stories any
Negro in South Carolina.
And they don't-to their White neighbors,
The pursuit of folk-tales not only takes one to certainly not to adult Whites, and less and less to
islands and other places more or less romantic; it the children. Story-telling is a pastime which the
reveals the unlettered people of the world and it superior may share with the inferior-elders tell
leads to intercourse which is unknown, as a rule, stories to children; a king or judge may point his
to other travelers or sojourners. Recently, on a decision with a tale—but, lacking the institution of
visit to the Sea Islands, had I not been sitting by court jester or minstrel or player, inferiors or quasi-
the fire one night in the house of old Mr. Jack, inferiors do not tell stories to their superiors
sometime sailor and, despite the loss of his left arm or quasi-superiors, and on the whole the art
skylarkin',” now boat builder, it is likely that one of story-telling is wont to be practiced between
aspect of the charming little town which is the equals. Arrogance or condescension stand in the
metropolis of the Islands had escaped me. We
way of story-telling. It would be strange indeed if
were in the middle of a tale about the Devil Bride-
Southern Negroes told stories to Southern Whites.
groom when a goodlooking young woman came in
It takes something of an artist to listen to a folk-tale
from the street and, looking over the screen between
as well as to tell it, and between artists theories of
the hearth and the open door, said,
Mr. Jack,
social inequality do not obtrude.
didsh yer hear dat cyar jus' now in dis street ? Ef
I could fin' out who dat chauffeur, I git after him.
ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS.
that the table
UCTA DE
as the heart
more.
de ser
ol, r7 *
beid me
liteza si
Magyar
de
the


494
THE DIAL
May 17
put through " by the in-
whose interests are so bound up with the present
wished to be huddled up in the great safe bosom of producer and investor as a result of stock-holding,
masters; the blurring of the distinction between
The Future of American Socialism
THE HONEST RADICAL (who may be defined as the
in a sort of economic Nirvana in which God and the
radical who would rather look fact in the face than State and ourselves melted into an ethereal, ether-
feast on a phrase) is discovering today that the chief ized unity. Then came war; and overnight the
difference between the exploiter and the exploited socialized state engulfed us. Some of us are relieved,
is the superiority of the former in initiative, organi even enthusiastic, over this event; Mr. James Mac-
zation, and foresight. The rapidity with which Kaye, indeed, rejoices eloquently, and feels that we
capital, faced by revolution and dissolution, has are tobogganing into Utopia (Americanized Social-
organized its international in the League of Nations, ism; Boni and Liveright). But some of us are
and the readiness with which Republicans and skeptical, and think of Greek gifts.
Democrats combine in localities where Socialism has Now, we have had enough of this Schiedemann
become a menace to all respectable and God-fearing yellow Socialism; there is more for our eyes and
men, may be profitably contrasted with the passion our hopes in the brilliant colors with which Bolshe-
for fragmentation which has animated and dissi vism is covering the canvas of the world. Soviet
pated the forces of reconstruction in Europe and is the throned word of the day; we shall send our
America these last half-hundred years. The same
Congressmen back to school, and shall put in their
abounding individuality which makes a man a rebel
place a body of deputies chosen by the producers,
against Providence and the police makes him also rather than named and "
an impatient item in any organized radical group. vestors of the country.
Clearly we Americans are
This is an old story, and not the sweetest ever told;
in matters political still at the imitative stage; we
particularly painful today, when the opportunity is import our isms bodily from Germany (State
so obviously ours to replace deceptive geographical Socialism), or from France (Syndicalism), or from
divisions of political opinion by fundamental hori England (Labor Party programs), or from Russia
zontal divisions drawn to accord with the vital and
(Bolshevism); and any suggestion that these the-
present interests of men. Probably the opportunity
ories must be changed to fit the peculiar perspective
will be lost, and we poor individualistic Socialists of the American scene passes over our heads, close
will go on with our infinite division, like a conscien-
tous mathematician struggling with the square root
to the 'clouds though they be. Mr. Louis Fraina,
of a surd.
for example (Revolutionary Socialism; Communist
Press) wants a red-hot revolution immediately, if
Part of the difficulty, of course, buds out from the
fact that radicals deal in new ideas while conserva-
not sooner, and never doubts that the proletariat of
these United States is prepared to take over all the
tives (as such) deal with ideas older than the hills.
A new idea is an experiment, a risk, an adventure;
means of production and distribution, and to man-
it leads a precarious existence always, and has no
age sufficiently well the complicated interrelations of
American agriculture, industry, and commerce. The
large expectation of life; it is more often a fashion
than a fact, and even as a fact it may ride insecurely
differences in size, organization, and intelligence be-
some passing crest of circumstance. So we whose
tween the business class in America and the business
radicalism is losing the beardless flush of youth find
class in Russia; the condition, character, and con-
ourselves caught today in a flux of theory that has
servatism of the average American farmer; the pres-
long since dislodged us from our cherished isms, and
ence of a large and victorious army; the individual-
istic and careerist tradition that has molded us all
,
is sweeping
us on with a rapidity only less violent immigrant almost as much as native
, radical almost
than the dizzying current of events. Our old fetish
of government ownership, for example
, is no longer rapidly decreasing) Huidity of classes in America
as much as conservative; the comparative (though
a fit god for our tribe ; our enemies too are begin the secret hope in almost every wage-slave's heart
.
ning to worship at this shrine, and we begin to feel
ill at ease in its presence. We have become sus-
that he will some day be a happy exploiter himself
,
with a front pew at church and an ancient coat of
; we distinguish
arms on his stationery; the vast horde of servants-
ism—though we are rather surer of what we do not,
than of what we do, mean by the former term.
This State Socialism was a religion of weakness; we
regime that they are more reactionary than their
“the Government,” to lose our little worried egos
profit-sharing, bond-purchases, and so on; the bour-
anxiously now between Socialism and
State iseciah asparasitic proletariat,". Shaw has called the
* 1


1919
495
THE DIAL
in which Gods
to an etern
ome of GDE
ent; 31. ja
Americanes
But some
gifts
of this site
ore for sett
3 with what
en by the po
through ":
imitatires
I Germain
yndicala,
mus),
Ttion there is
geois affiliation of practically all men trained for than heretofore, sacrificing some immediate gains to
directive and administrative functions; above all the larger ulterior purposes; and the liberals—well, can
conservatism of the dominant group in the ranks of anything good still be said for the liberals? The
organized labor in America—treacherous details of very word is in bad odor with all men who can
this sort are to our gentle revolutionaries but spots detect decomposition; it has come to betoken a mild
on the rising sun; let us put our blinders on and and bespectacled indecision, as of a man who dis-
move forward; “if we reflect too much we shall penses radical rhetoric but cannot forget that he
never act at all ”; let us have action, action, action, has some shares in Bethlehem Steel. Yet the threat-
and we can ask questions afterward.
ening propinquity of revolution is sifting the ranks of
No, we must take leave of Mr. Fraina too; mere the liberals, driving into a frankly conservative posi-
ly recommending his book as a very capable and sin tion those who think that pills will do where surgery
cere exposition of the revolutionary point of view. is needed; and the remnant finds its hands freer to
And now, having successfully demolished all other work for some such program as has been here put
theories, nothing remains for us to do but to formu forth. Let then these four elements unite
late and establish our own nostrum.
There are
Laborite, Socialist, Leaguer, and Liberal—and they
three questions involved: First, what do we want? may quicken a new birth which will burst the shell
(Most of us stop here.) Second, what can we get? that is stilling American growth.
(Most others stop here.) Third, just how are we But all this is politics, and is mere paper and ink
going to go about it? (Some get thus far.) Most unless behind it stand forceful organizations of pro-
radicalism is rather an aspiration than a resolution; ducers and consumers. That consumers too must
and most of the resolution fights shy of specific pur be organized is elementary, and hardly calls for
poses, methods, and details. Two things we can demonstration here. That our trade-unions must
perhaps agree on as items in our general social turn over a new leaf, passing from the isolated con-
desire: One, that “labor” shall have at least an sideration of hours and wages to self-preparation for
equal share with “capital ” in the direction of indus all the tasks of industrial management and co-ordi-
try, local and national—and not merely in the dis nation, is a proposition that can better bear repeat-
cussion and arbitration of lesser industrial disputes, ing; we offer it here as the second constituent in our
as seems to be upshot of the Whitley Reports—until general panacea. The new society must be built
such time as all capital may be socialized and the from the bottom up, with the remodeled labor union
private investor squeezed out of existence. Two, as its productive and directive unit. But it must be
that to our present Congress, retained as a geograph a maturer union than that which gives Mr. Gompers
ically elected body representing us as consumers, we carte blanche to stultify American labor in the con-
shall add a national economic congress of deputies ferences of Europe; it must become worthy of its
elected by agricultural and industrial groups and future. It will have to reorganize on an industrial
representing us as producers. The first of these two rather than a craft basis, with shop-committees re-
commandments of the new dispensation is probably placing the old union machine; it will have to
as much as can be made effective at present. A broaden its borders to include all producers, manual
revolution might realize both, or more, for a time; or mental, who care to be included. So labor will
but the lack of administrative and commercial train (let us pray) eventually unite itself as thoroughly
ing among the members of the proletariat would pre as capital is united; "one big union” is indispens-
sumably result in a swing back to the condition as able to ultimate labor control of production and dis-
here outlined and here proposed as within the tribution, and will serve as effective counterpoint
bounds of bloodless attainment.
to the centralized control of capital. And in every
Towards this prosaic attainment we would sug city these organizations of labor will join hands for
gest, first of all, that some effort be made to bring all manner of purposes, economic, political, recrea-
into general harmony—at least on these two points tive—and educational. To this last, in the end, all
-the four fundamental forces making for a better plans return. Each great center of population must
social order in America: a unified Labor party, a have its labor-financed People's University, where
broadened Socialist party, a more partisan Non all may freely learn who can show a producer's card,
Partisan League, and the more advanced element in and where men effectively pledged to labor-loyalty
the very varied ranks of American liberalism. The may be selected and trained to fill, one by one, the
Labor party would have to open its ranks to all who places of direction and management in industry and
live by their labor of hand or brain; the Socialists
And out of each such university may
would have to stretch a point or two in their con come a daily paper accurate and thorough in its
stitution and develop a more flexible machinery; the reports, courageous and constructive in its' com-
rebellious farmers would have to play a bolder game ments, managed and edited by a board that will rep-
pecular
Fill our ia
Jo. Los
cialism: Los
it the pala
to take not
stión
, an'a
ndi
and det
commerce.
ar


496
May 17
THE DIAL
resent fairly the varied elements that are joined in holiday. We cannot write our poetic drama yet;
its support. To teach workingmen to read their we can only write the prologue, and in prose. We
own press, and to produce a labor press which work can only make straight the way. We can organize
ingmen can be persuaded to read—this is part of the our forces, add to our resources, and develop within
prelude to reconstruction.
our ranks men fit to deal with the complexities of
In short, we are not worthy of a revolution be our economic interrelations, domestic and foreign;
cause we have not yet developed a system with which we can use our present power to compel the democ-
to replace the order that we would depose. It is ratization of industry by the equal representation of
only by the artificial stimulus of European example labor with capital on all industrial boards; and with
and democratic autocracy at home that we are this leverage we can one by one replace the mana-
driven to think of it; the indispensable basis of a
successful revolution—the ability to replace and
gers, engineers, agents, and merchants whose hearts
improve upon the existing system-is not yet pres-
are loyal to the past, with men chosen by the forces
ent; certainly less so here than in England. To
of labor, trained in the universities of labor, pledged
advocate revolution without serious conviction of
to the purposes of labor, and directed by its councils.
our ability to make this substitution is to invite
And so, perhaps, unheroically but surely, the new
workingmen to be slaughtered for an ideologist's
day will dawn.
Will DURANT.
The Impending Industrial Crisis
Three
HREE GROUPS of events, quite distinct to many
to himself and doubtless to other devotees of ritual.
whom they intimately concern, hold the key to the
Nor was it vain self-congratulation, for he had the
riddle of demobilization. The first is the decrease
testimony of clean desks and accurate files to effici-
in the volume of production and of business and a
ency in his work. It may be that non-consultation by
consequent increase in the number of the unem-
laymen in Congress with financial experts, and con-
ployed. The second is the rapid growth in the num-
ber of strikes since the first of the year, a tendency
gratulatory smiles by army officers are poor ultimates
which bears evidence to the alarming amount of in-
in a philosophical quest. Yet in the act of Congress
in putting good advice to a bad use and in the satis-
dustrial unrest in the country. The third is a series
faction of the army chiefs over their work the prin-
of steps which make up the unscientific and dilatory cipal causes of the muddle of demobilization are to
policy of the “Government” in dealing with the sit be found.
nation. This last is typified by two significant
Unlike the larger issue of reconstruction, the
occurrences.
On May 1, 1919, there went into effect a new
problem of demobilization was too immediate to
schedule of high taxes upon “luxuries.” These im-
escape even Mr. Wilson's Benthamite logic. The
positions upon cosmetics, high-priced clothing, and
government had conscripted men; it had to devise
like articles had the sanction of the financial experts
some plan of getting rid of them. The government
of the Bureau of International Revenue and the all
had contracted for supplies; it had to formulate
but unanimous approval of the economists of the
some scheme for the cancellation of contracts. Of-
country. But they were originally designed, not to
ficials charged with the discharge of men and the
raise revenue but to force producers to turn their at-
riddance of contracts may be able to view their
tention from non-essential to essential commodities.
acts apart from their effect upon the industrial sys-
Because of a needless delay of nine months by Con-
tem, and in emulation of the deity see the work
gress they are useless for stimulating the production
which they have done and find it good. But one
of munitions of war. Because a tax bill designed by
who recognizes the problem as part of the larger
experts for a war emergency was not revised in the
one of reorganizing industry by transferring men
light of the conditions of an impending peace, these
and materials from emergency to ordinary
taxes serve to discourage production, retard the con-
likely to behold the result and call it a failure.
version of industry to a peace basis, and to contribute
To understand the nature and extent of the failure
to swelling the volume of the unemployed.
of the administration's demobilization policy, or
A few days earlier a representative of the army
lack of one, it is necessary to have the story.
stated that demobilization had nearly reached the
the story begins in November. One reason for
two million mark and that the process was going for-
the lack of success is that it did not begin months
ward with alacrity. His statement was satisfactory
earlier.
In November arose the question of whether de-
uses is
And


1919
THE DIAL
497
our poets bas
gue
, and in pa
var. Hema
ces, and detegi
ith the company
doresti ar :
to compete
equal represent
Etrial bourd's
>
one repar a:
erchant rigt
chosen by the
Eties of labore et
Tected by sa
but sure
devoted
NON-IN .
El expert
, a
s are parts
de at ul:
zanditi
mobilization was likely to involve an industrial But real pessimists do not easily forego the joys
crisis or whether it could safely be left to the min of seeing the future as through a glass darkly.
istrations of the general staff and “the simple and They refused to be silenced by even so rosy an
obvious system of natural liberty." The optimists, array of argument. They denied these and affirmed
whose numbers at that time were overwhelming, propositions of their own fashioning. Many plants,
saw just ahead of us farm, mine, and factory filled hastily erected, were useless for peace-time produc-
with well-paid and contented laborers producing tion; many more could be made of service only
. wealth enough to insure national plenty and to through great expense and after long delay. But,
take away the dearth of Europe. Their vision was even if plants and equipment were adequate, there
of “ peace on earth and good will to men made was no assurance that they would all be used.
doubly sure by abundance. The pessimists, a mere Owners would run their establishments only if they
handful at the signing of the Armistice, had as little saw a profit in doing so. This profit was an affair
trouble in discerning in the near future an industrial of demand and of price. Undoubtedly there was
system half-stalled, a host of laborers half-employed a great need for goods of all sorts. But need did
or idle, wages falling and labor standards going to not constitute effective demand, the kind which stirs
rack, and anarchy arising to devastate the land. business into activity. To be effective need must
Their vision was the specter of hatred, class strug be attended by the means wherewith to pay and
gle, and violence, kept alive by unemployment, dis a willingness to purchase at high prices. Manu-
content, and hunger.
facturer and merchant alike would hesitate to buy
To understand the matter aright let us look at
raw materials and stocks when prices were on the
it as each of these groups did at the time of the eve, of a decline. Europe was by no means a good
Armistice. The optimists found all signs pointing prospective debtor. Even if it could afford our
to fair weather. The plant capacity of the country, goods it would be reluctant to pay our prices. Ac-
consisting of field, mine, factory, railway, and shop, cumulated orders were no infallible index of the
had been increased by the war, and was ample for future, for there was no assurance that all of them
all needs. The great demand for goods gave em-
were "live.” If anticipated profits failed to per-
ployers an incentive to maintain production at a suade the owner to produce, employment would not
high level. Evidence of this demand was to be be forthcoming. Men would seek without finding,
found in the anticipated purchase of non-essentials and those who found might not cheerfully accept
which had been renounced for the war, in depleted the lower wages which were offered. The result
stocks of goods which merchants had to replace, would be underemployment or none at all, low
in wear and tear and “deferred maintenance,” in wages or their lack, a breaking down of labor stand-
the construction of buildings and the production ards by a desperate competition of the great unem-
of equipment halted by the war, and in the large ployed for a little work, a disruption of the buying
orders which would come to us for the wherewithal power of the masses, a further threat to the em-
to rebuild a devastated Europe. A visible record ployer's inducement to go ahead, and the prospect
of this demand was to be found in accumulated of group conflict and industrial depression. The
orders which crowded the files of every productive temper of employer and employee alike held the ;
firm. With such a stimulus to industry the indica seeds of trouble. Their union had but the simple
tion was rather of a shortage than a surplus of labor. end of winning the war. Self-interest, held in
Before the war the industries of the country had leash, might be expected to display itself in sus-
been able to absorb nearly a million new immigrants picion and prevent the cooperation which alone
a year. Since the autumn of 1914 only a fraction would save the situation. The forces of war had
of this number had come in. Even if plants had been loosed, and naught that man could do would
to be converted to peace uses, the matter was not stay the consequences. The Civil War analogy
serious. Peace had come before the process of mak was worthless. Men drawn from farms for a local
ing industry serve the needs of war was completed, struggle could be reabsorbed. As for the reabsorp-
and the structure of the industrial system remained tion of men drawn from an intricate industrial sys-
intact. That all the laborers could be put back tem for a world-wide conflict, that was another
into the system was evidenced by the fact that they
Thus the pessimists assured each other
had been withdrawn.
And finally, history was that peace meant dearth, calamity, and warfare.
called upon to countersign the promises of prophecy.
Between these two stood a third group little
The Civil War had been followed by an era of prone to positive prediction, and fond of the words,
prosperity. Then why not this one? Thus the
then." They saw in a plastic situation
optimists persuaded those who agreed with them the elements alike of promise and of despair. With
that peace meant plenty, prosperity, and peace. the optimists they agreed that in plant and equip-
zobrazi
These
ad no
ܐ ܬܐܐ
of
matter.
1
is it”


498
May 17
THE DIAL
66
ment, in natural resources, in labor, we were pos those involving goods which can later find a way
sessed of the materials of prosperity. With the into ordinary commerce last. In addition the can-
pessimists they were in harmony in seeing in the cellation of contracts should be governed by the po
situation elements of danger. They differed from sitions which the goods affected hold in the produc-
both in insisting that the future could be shaped tive sequence which runs from raw materials to
by means of a conscious policy. To them attitudes finished products.
were the result of markets or the lack of them, of In like manner a definite policy must guide the
employment or its absence, and markets and em discharge of men. It must not take account of sol-
ployment depended upon the speed and efficiency diers alone; it must comprehend all who are bring.
with which industry was reorganized. This group ing their labor to market. Since soldiers compete
included many men scattered throughout the coun with discharged munitions workers and other civil-
try and had its representatives even among the per ians, assurance of employment is contingent upon
sonnel of the war boards at Washington.
arresting the whole flow into the labor market.
In all probability a unified and consistent pro This threatening food is composed of five streams:
gram for the demobilization period has never found 1) discharged workers from war industries, 2)
written expression. But its various parts, which fit men in service overseas, 3) men in arms in this
together into a fairly consistent plan of action, are country, 4) immigrants, and 5) young persons
all recorded in memoranda with which those bringing their labor to market for the first time.
upon the working level ” bombarded departmental Each of these streams is subject to more or less
chiefs, heads of boards, and others upon the dis-
control. Through them the flow into the labor
cretionary level”—who together form that inchoate market can be arrested. In this way the chances
personnel known outside of Washington as the of soldiers finding acceptable work may be multi-
government.” This paper assault engaged repre-
plied many fold.
sentatives of most of the departments and boards The control of the government over these groups
at the Capitol. It lasted from early October until varies. The most immediate danger lies in the
mid-November. The general principles which wholesale discharge of munitions workers. They
found expression in these documents were three in threaten to deluge the market, to snap up the better
number: first, the demobilization of men and ma-
places, to force wages down, and to cause discharged
terials must respond to the industrial needs of the soldiers to seek work in a glutted market. Their
country; second, by conscious policy the government
must hasten the return of industry to a peace basis;
discharge can be controlled only through the indi-
rect means of reading the intent to hold them back
third, the government must provide employment
into a policy for the cancellation of contracts. The
for the men who are certain to be left adrift in the
men under arms, both overseas and in this country,
process. Together these policies analyze the prob-
lem of demobilization and reveal the factors which,
are under a single authority. Their discharge may
left uncontrolled, have made the situation what it
be hastened or stayed as the powers that be decree
.
Whatever considerations impel a speedy release, it is
is today. For this reason each of them requires possible to prevent them from flooding the market
,
explicit statement.
In the first place, demobilization must respond
Neither of the two groups last named offers a
to the industrial needs of the country. If the use
serious threat. For the time at least the scarcity of
to which men and materials were to be put made
shipping is an effective bar to immigration. Most
of mobilization a military matter, then demobiliza-
of the young people who might now be seeking
work for the first time have already been drawn
tion is stamped with an industrial label. The
army's needs expire suddenly and the men
into industry. Thus, of the streams into the labor
be quickly released. But the adjustment of industry
market, one is subject to indirect control, two of
them are responsive to exact direction, and two of
to new conditions takes time. Hence the need is
them are for the time closed.
for an arrested demobilization. Both the rate at
which and the order in which men and plants are
The control of the discharge of labor requires
to be transferred from emergency to ordinary uses
also a scheme of priorities. Labor is not a fluid
must be carefully determined. As for industrial
fund of units which can be used interchangeably
establishments, they should be released from war
at will. Attention must always be given to the
work as fast, and no faster than, they can find
requirements of the place and the capacities of the
civilian work to do. This can be effected through
man. Military must yield to industrial usefulness,
a carefully formulated policy for the cancellation of
and no chance of putting a laborer into an accept-
war contracts. Through this policy contracts which
able place should be overlooked. Requests from
involve articles useless in time of peace must go first,
employers should in all reasonable cases be acceded
In priorities managers of business should be
can
to.


ܗ݈ܘܽܢ
1919
THE DIAL
499
can
In addition
be governed by a
ted hold in the
Tom 121 .
policy mata
ot take actor
nd all wie:
Since soldat
rkers and to
-t is contents
Dosed of fress
men i 23
5) pour y
act to mu?
How nu .
Fork may be
t over ther's
Janger les
us worlas
Shep up the
released early, for their planning is necessary to a sorality called the government undertook no policy
resumption of industry which eventually will create so comprehensive and so definite as this one. Those
employment for others. By tempering policies such who get their notions of its activities from text-
as these to changing circumstances the flow of labor books may not understa :d its hesitation But those
could in detail be adjusted to the country's need who are acquainted with the genus in its native
for men.
habitat will not have to be told the reasons for its
In the second place the government should strive timidity. Here they must be set down in briefest
to hasten the return of industry to a peace footing.
fashion. There was little interest in demobiliza-
Its aim should be to draw within the effective or tion and even less consciousness of what it involved.
ganization of industry as much of the productive So far as those who decide things considered the
equipment of the country as possible. Manifestly matter, they saw only boundless resources and the
no panacea will suffice for so large and delicate a unprecedented demand for goods. They argued
task. But there is much which a wise government that all was well ahead and were content to let Mr.
might do. By regulating cancellation of contracts Baker's department handle the matter. The Secre-
it could prevent plants from standing idle. Through tary of War, who knows perhaps better than any
priorities in the discharge of men it could influence one else the limitations of the military mind, and
the order in which industry was resumed, and thus is perhaps the world's greatest authority upon its
hasten the process. By placing new orders judi- incapacity for industrial and social problems, let
ciously' it could stimulate resumption when and the matter go. As a result the general staff ex-
where it was lagging. If labor were lacking, a con hibited its customary reticence at the prospect of the
cern could be supplied from the stores of the army.
ceremonial of discharge by military units being
If a scarcity of raw materials were the limiting disturbed by so small a matter as concern over jobs
factot, a priorities board could see that they were for the victims. As for the civilians—they took
available. If capital were lacking for conversion refuge in the magic of making all well by insisting
or another purpose, a peace finance corporation should that all was well, and joined the Whistlers' Chorus.
prove of service. Even something could be done So it came about that matters were left to the
to stimulate demand. If many industries are idle, War Department, “the simple and obvious system
their employees are not paid, and no one fares well of natural liberty,” and to “ the invisible hand.”
who has goods to sell. If all resume production, Little attempt was to be made to slow up de-
and too many do not turn out the same article, the mobilization or to correlate its streams; the re-
owners and employees of each should constitute a sumption of industry was to be intrusted to whom
market for the products of the others.
With it might concern, and no buffer was to be erected
prospect of little loss the government could against impending dangers. Under certain condi-
guarantee industries a reasonable profit for the tions men were to be released upon representa-
demobilization period. It could thus secure addi tions from employers. A faint-hearted effort was
tional wealth from establishments the timidity to be made to give system to the cancellation of con-
of whose owners would otherwise bind them tracts. Some motions were to be made to solve
to partial idleness. By a careful supervision of the problem in terms of the recipe of the Civil
production it could, remove the dangers of over-
War and settle soldiers from cities upon an agricul-
production of certain lines of goods. Finally its
tural frontier which does not exist. A pious wish
policy would arrest the hesitation which comes from was expressed that something might be done to pro
an expectation of falling prices. By removing this
vide “ buffer employment
upon public works.
threat upon profits it would stimulate production.
And that was all.
Even if resumption could not be brought entirely The gods often aid those who blindly trust them.
under control, the hand of the government, cun-
Thus far they have threatened but they have sent
ningly applied, promised better than the ruthless upon us no industrial calamity. Many factors lurking
struggle under laissez-faire.
in strange places have kept the gravest dangers from
In the third place the government should miti our doors. A belief that all was well for a time
gate the unemployment which at best would attend prevented serious trouble. The more compact or-
the process. The men who find themselves victims ganization of industries brought by the war has
of the rapid changes in industry should be given given them an ability better to withstand an impact.
something to do until they can find regular employ- Limited shipping facilities have slowed up the rate
Perhaps the best device for furnishing of the return of overseas men. And a reasonable
buffer employment” is a provision of public works measure of inefficiency has worked magic in stay-
by federal, state, and municipal governments. ing demobilization. Delay in getting blanks, fussi-
It is no secret of state that the multiform per ness about forms, and much ado over proper pro-
d marte 1
through
contrast
d'indisi
er discher
یا م م 5
eeds related
nine
t the end
grazie
Obec
Jy het
Potre site
ment.
de content


500
May 17
THE DIAL
cedure have been of more service than they will no interest in the problem when it was brought
ever get credit for. Even official procrastination to their reluctant attention at their conference at
has improved the quality of judgment in defiance Annapolis in December. A bill providing for a
of copy-book mottoes. But most important of all, federal commission upon public works was being
the hue and cry against non-essentials never drove pushed strongly in the Senate when it adjourned.
“ business as usual ” out of the land. Our conse An act prohibiting immigration for a period of
cration of industry to the service of war was never years is likely to pass Congress when it reconvenes,
as complete as it seemed. Therefore we have pre and may run the gauntlet of a presidential veto.
served intact what every European country has lost. Even the army has become concerned and a would-
the structure of the pre-war organization of in be discharged soldier may abide in the ranks until
dustry.
he has assurance of employment. The Chamber of
But the end is not yet. For some weeks the gods Commerce of the United States has demanded a call-
have muttered at the load, and occasionally they ing of Congress immediately upon the President's
have thundered. The reports of the labor situation return from abroad.
gathered by the employment service speak of im The impending crisis is not yet over. The trade
pending trouble. For November they were rosy; papers are full of gloomy predictions about the fu-
December saw them promising; January found them ture. The industrial depression of 1919" is
colorless; in February they threatened; and March already upon us. In the face of this the country
found them gravely, alarming. Although they are is not yet ready to take vigorous action. The mail
fragmentary and come from optimistic sources, at and wires bring to members of Congress floods of
the end of March they showed nearly four hun- telegrams asking for a provision for "buffer em-
dred thousand unemployed. Since the first of April ployment.” But they carry fully as many messages
we have been denied also their help. The failure of protesting against the high rates of taxation. The
an appropriation impaired the efficiency of the ser government still persists in attempting to deal with
vice, reports became more fragmentary and came in the situation through the processes of magic. The
from little more than one half the number of cities, Secretary of Labor has recently taken the lead in
and the consequent tallerations became well-nigh insisting that an intricate problem in industrial or-
meaningless. Just when we most need a picture of ganization can be solved by wishing and that the dan-
the whole situation, it is not to be had. Unrest is gers in the situation will disappear before an act of
visible here and there; in more than one city soldiers collective volition. He has assumed to lead several
have already paraded their status of being among the members of the Cabinet and other high dignitaries in
unemployed. In many localities unrest is finding ex-
an anthem which has become characteristically the
pression in strikes. It is true that these strikes have
Administration's own “The Whistler's Chorus."
little existence in the newspapers; but even those
But fortunately the problem lies in the immediate
journals which conscientiously limit themselves to
transition to peace, not in the ultimate matter of
the news that's fit to print " have had to note the
national well-being. Upon that we shall doubtless
more important of these. A certain barometer of the be saved, as we have been many times of yore, by
change is to be found in the attitude of officials. our vast stores of natural resources,
The indifference of November had become a grave
our help in ages past,
concern by March. The governors who came to-
Our hope for years to come,
gether at the request of the President to consider
A refuge from the stormy blast,
unemployment are the very ones who manifested
WALTON H. HAMILTON.
And our eternal home.
First Snow on the Hills
The hills kneel in a huddled group,
Like camels of the caravan,
And winter piles upon their patient backs
Its snows.
And through the desert of long nights and days,
I think I see them stepping-stepping-
In misty file
Towards the green land of Spring.
LEONORA SPEYER.


1919
501
THE DIAL
Japan and America
MR. CREEL'S Critics should have been sent to a reached the public through three non-American
foreign country to view his activities in a new per sources: British, French, and Japanese. The latter
spective. When the armistice was signed the Bureau two are, so it is currently believed, subsidized. The
of Public Information was at its height. Every French Havas service if not anti-American has been
newspaper in Japan was daily printing about two steadily anti-Wilson. The Japanese service, both
columns of American news conceived from an Amer the regular Kokusai and the special cables, has been
ican standpoint. And daily newspapers in Japan are chiefly concerned with the questions of race discrimi-
many and widely circulated. Small towns that in nation and China. - The Reuter service is not anti-
the United States would depend upon journals of American but is decidedly pro-British, and with
the large cities have sheets of some importance. Prac American prestige at the height it has reached all
tically every Japanese man reads a newspaper. To over the Far East, there is no motive, economic or
put it moderately, the international value of publicity political, for expressly cultivating its further growth.
is not less in Japan than in other countries. Self As a net result the reader of the press would re-
consciousness about foreign affairs and about what ceive the impression that President Wilson's policies
other nations think of one's own country is perhaps have had a very bad back-set, even if they were not
more intense there than anywhere else. No country positively discredited; that he has practically failed
is so responsive to the approbation of other peoples, both at home and abroad in securing an effective
and none more sensitive to slights, real or fancied. following; and that the League of Nations will
It was then hardly a coincidence that pro-Ameri either fail in the end or be adopted in such a form as
canism in Japan rose with the rising of news from to represent a complete defeat for Wilson. Prior re-
America, and was at its height when the end of war gard for the United States was largely due to sym-
came.
pathy with the idealism of Wilson's policies and the
There was enthusiasm for America's energetic wave of liberal sentiment they released. But if they
share in bringing peace, and even more for her aims. are coming to nothing, the wave naturally subsides.
Sentiment was warmer toward us than any time There are also many items which leave the further
since the end of the Russo-Japanese war and the impression that“ humanity” and peace for the whole
days when readers of a Tokyo newspaper voted world were merely disguises behind which material-
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to head istic America was hiding her commercial and terri-
the list of the world's great men when that paper
torial ambitions in China, Siberia, and other parts of
took a poll. Such a vote, placing Americans above the world. The League of Nations has been held
even the Japanese national heroes, is a surprise to up as a scheme of Anglo-American capitalism to
those of our countrymen who regard the Japanese as
dominate the world without the trouble and expense
devoted to a narrow and exclusive “patriotism.” of maintaining an army. As a reputable publicist
But the indication it gives of the almost sentimental recently said, when the robber is expelled, the
responsiveness of the Japanese is more to be depended swindler is likely to enter”; the menace of German
upon than current opinions that make the Japanese militarism is destroyed to give way to that of Anglo-
people completely self-centered. On the spot one American economic domination.
reaches the conclusion that some at least of the most Those whose faith in moral factors as political
chauvinistic utterances of her politicians are in forces has departed should pay a visit to the Far
tended as a makeweight against too ready popular East. Unless they have become complete cynics their
enthusiasms for outside countries.
faith will revive, Sentiment will appear as a thing
Today the Bureau of Public Information is out of of almost incalculable importance. On the one
existence, and Japanese newspapers are largely en hand, Oriental diplomacy is an object lesson in the
gaged in an anti-American drive which however suicidal character of an international politics based
already shows some signs of waning, as influential on narrow considerations of self-interest. There are
statesmen have issued warnings against it. It is no no critics of Japan's policies more severe than many
coincidence that this drive began when news from of the Japanese, who declare that for lack of suffi-
the United States had been for some weeks at its low cient disinterestedness Japan has thrown away in
est ebb. The Pacific cable has been broken, and no Asia one of the greatest opportunities that ever came
news has come directly, and none even indirectly to any nation. While the present Hara ministry has
from the Associated Press. Hence all knowledge of tried to repair the evils done by the prior Terauchi
both America and of the Peace Conference has ministry, these critics feel that the mischief has been


502
May 17
THE DIAL
done—and done because of a short-sighted policy of confined to the newspapers. The difference of tone
seeking immediate and one-sided advantage. On the within and without the newspapers is such as to
other hand, it is evident that American prestige and create a feeling that somewhere it is thought that
influence rise and fall in the Far East with belief the people are too pro-American, and need to have
and disbelief in the generosity and idealism of her their sympathies and affections cooled. Especially
purposes. The Americans at home who have adver-
does it seem suspicious that the only chord which wins
tised opposition to the League of Nations have as a spontaneous popular response should be increas-
sumed a heavy responsibility. They have made ingly harped upon—the race-discrimination issue.
many intelligent foreigners, previously sympathetic However this may be, there is one fact that Ameri-
with America, open to the impression, fostered by cans should bear unceasingly in mind when accounts
inadequate news service, that Wilson's professed reach them of anti-American propaganda in Japan.
aims were a cloak. They have done America an ill The outstanding fact is that the outcome of the war
turn in spreading the conviction that in truth Amer has dealt the militaristic and bureaucratic party in
ica cares at home only for her supremacy in South Japan the greatest blow it has ever had. It is not too
America and abroad only for such power as will much to say that only one thing could have shaken
increase trade.
its hold to a greater extent, and that is the actual
It is not my intention to repeat the items of the defeat in war of the party itself. If this element of
newspaper criticism of the United States that would Japanese life, so strong in the past, is not to pass into
stimulate a like criticism of Japan. They are re-
deeper eclipse and be permanently discredited to such
ferred to for an opposite purpose, to bring out the
an extent that nothing less than a radical realign-
various factors which at the present time are affect-
ment of Japanese politics will occur, it must take
ing the formation of public opinion. In part, most
steps to recover some of its lost prestige. The easiest
Tokyo newspapers are against the ministry whatever
way to accomplish this recovery is to foster that dread
it is. Criticism of the United States is thus an easy
and suspicion of other nations which is the ultimate
way of hitting the Government. This is accused on
source of all militarism, since it is the only thing that
one side of truckling to the United States and on the
will make a nation endure the burdens militarism im-
other of failure to promote Japanese interests prop-
poses. There are some symptoms that the discredited
erly at the Peace Conference, in Siberia, and in
party has wavered between Great Britain and the
China. There is also a natural reaction in the face
United States in selecting the danger which only its
of the surprising exhibition of patriotism and power,
own reinvestment can avert.
military as well as economic, manifest by the United
alliance with Great Britain which still holds, the
States. There is a revulsion of combined suspicion
United States is uppermost in everybody's mind at
and dread not unlike that which in the United
the present. It was from America that proceeded
States followed after Japan's victory over Russia.
the cry which made the war one between autocracy
The result was desired but it seemed unnecessarily
and democracy, and the difficulties which Japan is
demonstrative. Hence events in Korea, in Siberia, experiencing in Korea, Siberia
, and China can most
in China, where it is possible for imagination to in- plausibly be attributed to America.
volve America either officially or through private
individuals, take on an ominous aspect. The race
I asked an intelligent and well-informed Japanese
discrimination issue, which becomes pointed in the
friend if he did not think that this situation, to-
virtual prohibition of immigraton, suddenly takes
gether with the absence of authentic American news,
on a renewed importance. The reported abolition of
explained the present outburst of criticism. He was
conscription seems to be aimed particularly at Japan.
very sure that it did not. And his reason is so sig-
Each one of these matters is too complicated to be
nificant that I give it.
discussed merely in passing. It is enough to say
that the bureaucrats and militarists should be back
here that they constitute the headings of the chief
of the criticisms, for they have so completely lost
charges brought against the United States, adding
their authority and influence that they are powerless
.
that the accusations as respects China and Siberia
I quote the answer because it illustrates that loss of
of view, the drive against America ceases to be a
made-a loss so extreme that at first it seemed in-
and retort,
credible, but which I am now convinced is the out-
all the possible causes of friction between the two
however, a party still entrenched in education, the
countries.
Up to the present the anti-Americanism is, ac-
army, and the civil service should be so completely
discredited as to surrender withºut a struggle does
cording to the best reports I can get, almost wholly
not seem probable.
But aside from the
It is not possible, he said,
have many
sub-headings
. Looked at from
this point standing and prestige to which reference has been
and becomes a kind of burning glasstin which tole standing fact in the present life of Japan. There


1919
503
THE DIAL
il
The diferent
ewspapers .
where it is thang
erican, and
ions cooled by
ne only chord stoc
Onse should ret
ce-discriminate
Is one 12 :
in mind ten
propazna :
the outon d'1
burcauerati
The moral of all this for our own country is be enormous, and bureaucracy and militarism might
almost too obvious to need mentioning. The cause come back. One cannot believe that such a thing is
of liberalism in Japan has taken a mighty forward to happen. But every manifestation of national
leap—so mighty as to be almost unbelievable. The greed, every cynical attack upon the basic ideas of
causes which produced it can sustain it. If they do the League of Nations, every repudiation of inter-
sustain it, there will be little backward reaction. If
national idealism, every thoughtless word of race
they do not continue in force to sustain it, they will prejudice, every exhibition of dislike and unjustified
betray it. To speak more plainly, the release of lib- suspicion directed at Japan is a gratuitous offering
eral forces that had been slowly forming beneath the
in support of the now waning cause of autocratic
lid was due to the belief that democracy really stood
bureaucracy in Japan. Liberalism here has plenty
of difficulties still to overcome. Only the liberals
for the supremacy of fairness, humanity, and good
in Japan itself, who have now taken heart and cour-
feeling, and that consequently in a democratic world
a nation like Japan, ambitious but weak in many
age, can work out the problem. But liberals else-
where can at least fight against those untoward
respects in which her competitors are strong, could
developments in their own countries which will
afford to enter upon the paths of liberalism. The
restore to the Japanese reactionaries the weapons
real test has not yet come. But if the nominally
which the outcome of the war has loosed from their
democratic world should go back on the professions
hands.
so profusely uttered during war days, the shock will
John Dewey.
Ever had been
ang could bars
and that is die
ast, I DET
prestig. Tres
s to fosteret
which is the :
the only one
udens pilis
that the end
at Britai e
enbaitira
Oinez
tes
Ireland Between Two Stools
WHILE MANY Small nations, from neutral of England, at all events. In the latter event, since
Danes to most belligerent Czecho-Slovaks, have the active participation of Ireland on the side of the
seen in the collapse of German militarism the hope Germans was impossible, the Irish people would
of national resurgence and security, Ireland has not have to content themselves with an attitude of
been allowed to seize more than the most insubstan- benevolently pro-German neutrality, framing their
tial promise of some degree of autonomy. We have policy always upon the assumption of England's de-
been permitted to cling, with the fervor of despera- feat. That, in fact, was the attitude of a small sec-
tion, to the possibility of American intervention on tion of Irish opinion, an attitude dating from many
our behalf. This hopeful gleam has been per years before the actual outbreak of war, and ex-
ceptible, it is true, only to the most ostensibly un pressed by word and action in the pre-war writings
sophisticated, and almost vanished at the time Pres- and subsequent mission of Roger Casement. What-
ident Wilson left Europe without confronting the
ever the defects of such reasoning, it was, at least,
issue. After the victory of the Allies our participa- logical, granted the premises, and its most conspicu-
tion in the general rejoicing was constantly tem ous and intelligent exponent demonstrated tragically
pered by a despondency based upon the conviction the sincerity of that point of view.
that England had obtained a new lease of imperial It happens, however, that the policy of coopera-
life. Only that section of Irish opinion which cor tion with England was the one adopted by the Irish
responds to the Junker mentality in Germany has Nationalist representatives in the House of Com-
unfeignedly rejoiced in the triumph of the Allied mons, with the approval of the vast majority of the
cause. Their happiness on that occasion was para Irish people. The conflict was seen to be too wide,
doxically insured by Sir Edward Carson's emphatic and the principles involved too far-reaching to allow
assurance that Ireland would be immune from the a return to the old method of meeting such crises by
application of the principle which the Allies had the simple process of saying “against England right
vindicated.
or wrong." When John Redmond pledged Ireland
When England took the field against Germany for the Allies there is little doubt that he was not
there were two policies open to Irish nationalism. exceeding the wishes, though he certainly exceeded
Ireland could either decide to trust the British Gov the mandate, of his people. They would have
ernment, and join with the English people to defeat pardoned this technical abuse of their authority had
Germany, or she could fall back upon the belief that subsequent events justified both his faith and theirs
only in England's difficulty would Ireland find the in the sense of justice of the British Government.
opportunity of freedom, and count upon a German Ireland was not like England; she did not feel men-
victory to secure Irish independence-independence aced by German militarism; her choice was there-
Amena
akt
este


504
THE DIAL
May 17
whose sole significance was their expression of dis. England professed to stand seemed to guarantee re-
him to pledge his sword for England. He could participation of other powers, particularly America,
fore conscious and reasoned, not patriotic and emo not know until now he has learned it by the bitter-
tional. It is possible to pity the blindness which est experience that it meant the disintegration of
did not see any danger in the aggrandizement of Irish nationalism, the destruction of constitutional-
Prussia; it is difficult for Englishmen to realize the ism, and, as it now seems, the obliteration of all that
separation of Ireland in what appeared to be the was in process of achievement after a century of suf-
clear call of patriotism. It is nevertheless a fact, a fering and patient negotiation. The reward of
most vital fact, that an Englishman's patriotism may moderation is the rise of Sinn Fein.
be an Irishman's poison. The two rarely coincide, If the neutral and pro-German Irish were sur-
and the remarkable point is precisely their common prised and disappointed respectively when Germany
impulse in August, 1914.
surrendered, their plight certainly need not detain
How Irish nationalism was gradually robbed of the Allies. The case of the pro-Ally Nationalists
its illusions is now a matter of common knowledge is altogether different. They are probably the most
amongst all who have tried to acquaint themselves sadly deceived of all belligerents in the war, for
with the history of Anglo-Irish relations during the they have nothing, not even honor, for their partic-
past four years. The rise to power in England of ipation in the great crusade against Prussianism.
the most anti-Irish forces, political and journalistic, Their exploits, unlike those of Carsonia, do not
in the country; the selection for office in the Cabinet elicit Royal telegrams and the felicitations of the
of the man who preached treason and armed rebel world; their nationalism is carefully passed over in
lion in Ireland until all faith in constitutional gov-
the sympathetic addresses of President Wilson, who
ernment was destroyed; the discouragement of Cath-
greets Danes, Czecho-Slovaks, and Jugo-Slavs with
olic recruits for the army; the refusal at any time
so keen an appreciation of their grievances. Irish
to make the slight concessions to local pride and
Nationalists are not rewarded for the virtue of be-
sentiment which would have definitely established
ing pro-Ally. In fact, they find themselves in no
the part of Irish nationalism in the war —these facts better position than those of their countrymen who
are now well known, and have been admitted on the held aloof, or backed their enemy, the Germans. In
authority of responsible ministers. Their first effect Ireland they have been forced to witness the extinc-
was to strengthen the hands of the minority so that
tion of the party which represented them, and to
the abortive insurrection of 1916 followed, marking hear themselves taunted with having supported a sus
the flare-up of the accumulated bitterness of disillu-
tem which they abhor no less than their political
sion. Rather than throw upon the professional opponents.
While Sinn Fein suffers the fortunes
“loyalists” of the minority the onus of revolt, Eng- of war and must abide by the decision against Ger-
land preferred to purchase the assistance of Sir
many, constitutional nationalism can neither share
Edward Carson at the cost of Ireland.
to the full the Unionist exultation in the Allied
ized when it became evident that the death of a hand- Schadenfreude of the Separatists
, whom the British
The expense of this bargain was only fully real- victory, nor bring any weight to bear against
ful of representative extremists had profoundly af-
fected the mind of nationalist Ireland. Evidence martyrdom.
Government delights to honor with an irresistible
accumulated to show how foolish those idealists
Thus it seems as if Ireland must be forced to the
were who had pledged the cooperation of Ireland
without exacting a single guarantee. People who
logic of the extreme revolutionary position, namely,
had hesitation in taking sides with England when
that until England is defeated there is no hope of
her chances of victory seemed most problematical,
freedom for Ireland. This argument has always
now became neutral, watching the ever-increasing
been in the background of Irish politics, and it
ranks of England's Allies with cynical contempt or
emerges periodically to prompt those who have sided,
sullen hostility. By every known process of repres-
at various times, with whatever enemy threatened
sion, taunt, and outrage the Irish people were driven
the supremacy of England. Insurrectionary Ire-
into a denial of constitutional government, and
land has turned in the course of history to Spain,
obliged to put their trust in those who promised, at
to France, and to Germany, in the hope of witness-
By cost, to remove
the agents of theiro undoinging the victory which would mean freedom. In this
By-elections offered opportunities for manifestations
last war, it so happened that the principles for which
gust at the betrayal of a confidence given at the
sults which had never hitherto been associated with
cost of an old and deep tradition of mistrust. Only
an Irish Nationalist can know what it meant for
an English victory. The defeat of Germany could
not be claimed as an English triumph, and the


1919
505
THE DIAL
as learned into
eant the decis
_truction de
the obliterature
ent after a work.
sation. The
inn Fein
.
German langz
pectivelr mkt
ertainly get
gave an appearance of hope to the future. But the
hope has with difficulty survived the gravest disap-
pointments, and is now threatened with extinction as
we observe the transcendental optimism of the
President's acceptance of a militarist-economic trust
in lieu of a league of free peoples. The sweeping
electoral victory of Sinn Fein was intended primarily
as a demonstration to the world of the Irish de-
mand for self-determination. It was a manifesta-
tion of national purpose which, we believed, could
not be misunderstood, but we forgot-or did not
care to remember—that it might easily be ignored.
That is precisely what has happened, so far as the
Peace Conference is concerned. There are not
wanting advisers who hint that some more dramatic
reminder of the existence of this ignored, if not
forgotten, small nationality is required. It depends
upon America whether moderate Nationalists in Ire-
land will be able to parry this suggestion by refer-
ence to the tangible evidence of a desire to anticipate
the argument of bloodshed. To evade the issue is
to invite revolt.
DUBLINER.
ne produk
F are praders
creats per
honor
, ta iz
t € against Press
The Schamberg Exhibition
urefully para
eir grietas
for them
and cheart
Der LITE
Witres der
ented the
-ing support
than the
cutterste
tion in de
whaa mbele
Tith 29.3
A BRAVE SPIRIT went from among us last autumn ment. They add something to the world's sources
when Morton L. Schamberg died. His name may of thought and happiness, and so, from one stand-
be known to few even among those who read
point, they pass out of the category of the experi-
these lines, but we who had followed his work
mental into that of the creative, the definitive.
looked upon hima
• as one of the men on whom de-
And yet I think their greatest interest is found
pended the building up of art in America. Would
when we look on them as phases of a long proges-
he have remained isolated—would his public still
sion, one that had given no sign of slackening when
have been a small one—had he attained twice his the painter's death broke it off and brought us once
thirty-seven years ? Looking at the retrospective more to the world-old riddle of nature's unconcern
exhibition of his pictures in New York (at Knoed with the destinies of men. One thinks of the great
ler's until May 24), noting the uncompromising giants of the past who have died in their thirties,
character they reveal, the seriousness, the clear in their twenties even, and before their results we
tellect, the man's indifference to the popularity
cannot ask for more. What matter whether a
which is bought by things that too readily please, Masaccio or a Giorgione died young? His work
one is tempted to think that only certain rare in-
was complete. We rebel however at the senseless-
dividuals would have been willing to meet him on ness of fate in cases like the one before us, where
his proud, often severe plane of research, that few there was every promise of a great expansion, every
would have cared to keep with him in the ascent to proof that the man was worthy of his increasing
which he held so unfalteringly, and seen that his capabilities—when the breath of an epidemic chokes
results at every stage and with ever-increasing full the work where it was, its finest development, one
ness were marked by a noble beauty.
that we needed sorely, forever unrevealed. What
This success of his gives the best answer to the we have is a splendid thing; what would have come
question as to whether Schamberg's public would was bound to surpass it.
have grown with time. For there is a solidarity be To understand how fine Schamberg's pictures are,
tween the artist and his generation, and if he ad one has to know where he started. And to see
vanceś more rapidly than the laymen, one cannot him come up from the impossible level on which he
but see that they will follow where he has led. was twenty years ago is to convince oneself again
The forces which impelled him to go on are pres-
of that solidarity among men of which I spoke be-
ent in other men, whose slower progress is due to
fore. The advance that one man could make crea-
their necessary preoccupation with everyday affairs. tively, in his work, others are making receptively,
No artist worth the name has ever thought he paid in their appreciation. Not more than fifteen years
a high price for his freedom to advance. For those carried Morton L. Schamberg · from a type of
who have drawn the breath of that freedom know pretty-girl picture," as grotesquely cheap as any-
that it is the one thing in the world worth while, thing in the cheap magazines, to a work that had to
and the bond between the artist and his fellows is be counted among the significant productions of our
that they too want to live, and so they realize what time. I should not venture—for fear of personal
is great in those who have lived most fully.
prejudice in his favor -on a statement so strong as
The pictures before us are a record of achieve my last if it were not amply confirmed by the judg-
the
polis e
66
2.57


506
May 17
THE DIAL
to
ment of many competent men, both American and follow them however until, by chance, he
foreign.
was led by circumstances outside of his painting to
It was William M. Chase who first directed consider the beauty which the makers of machines
Schamberg's attention to art—the ideas he first had lent to their work. His incentive in painting
in his student days, as an architect, and as a victim themes drawn from the field of mechanics was
of the abominations of popular art (a misnomer therefore first-hand observation quite as much as
currently applied to commercial art), being merely the lead given by other men. His pictures of this
obstacles he had to overcome when he had once period will surely be ranked among his best. If I
started on his career. The first years of it were
may intrude a personal preference, it is for those
spent in somewhat the usual manner of serious and in which his rich store of the traditional esthetic
active students of art—in academic training and a qualities unites with the vigor of his new outlook,
questioning of the old masters. To be sure it was the exhilaration of handling a perfectly fresh sub-
only certain sections of the museums which were
ject being supported rather than checked by the
consulted and not until the winter of 1908-09 did self-control that was native and natural with him.
Schamberg discover, at Florence and Siena, the Few men were more stirred by the war than
meaning of the great tradition which was Schamberg, and from the beginning of it his logical
open his eyes to the falsity—for him at least mind was working at fever heat with its problems.
-of nineteenth century naturalism. On his He went down step by step to the underlying forces
return to Paris he was ready to appreciate what at work and the turmoil of doubt, indignation, and
the great Frenchmen of our time had accom-
resentment in which he lived was not conducive
plished in setting art upon a truer basis than that
to painting. He was never a partisan-save of
which their predecessors had had. It is from this truth, which seemed to him the monopoly of none of
point that Schamberg's real work is to be reckoned. the belligerents.
The present exhibition is arranged with that fact in
He had striven unremittingly in art for truth,
mind, nothing of his production before his last and and the falsity of the appeal to might which comes
critically important stay in Europe being included,
in even a righteous war was a thing to which he
though in the years preceding there were quite hon-
could not reconcile himself. When the torture of
orable qualities in his work.
his conflicting ideas on the war had done its ut-
The last years of his work may be divided with
most and when, at the same time last summer, cer-
some distinctness into periods. For a time he
tain new ideas of art came to crystallize in his mind,
worked in strong color, Matisse and the Chinese he produced the series of water-colors which mark
and Persian ceramists being his influences. It is
remarkable to note how far he went in mastering take the accurate notation of objects in the
the end of his career. Thoughtless observers will
their quality. Painting with a new ardor, this man,
works as a sign that Schamberg had repented of
the passion of whose nature seems hardly suited to
the type of expression which we think of among
his “heresies" of the preceding years and had come
back as a sheep to the fold. If these people cannot
colorists, let himself go with an unwonted vehem-
see that his last pictures are built on the earlier
ence, and the pictures of 1911 and 1912 show that
works and contain their qualities in a purer
his color sense was genuine and strong. But he
more intense form—the drawing, the color, the
was still working with the ideas of the older men
character—they should at least understand, at this
among the moderns ; by 1913 or 1914 he had caught exhibition, that for the man who had painted the
up with his generation and was painting in a way
which not only placed him in line with his contem-
pictures of 1910 to 1916 there was no turning
back; such men can only go onward.
poraries but which was unquestionably better suited
I have tried to write of him impersonally and
to his own temperament. The change was from objectively, and with regard to the ideal of his artar
reliance on instinct—the unconscious factor—to the
a white fire that he tended and increased and that
guidance of reason. His paintings in the Cubistic
throws a light on the youth of America in his time.
manner were among the very first in America and
will probably long remain among the best.
If there was one such spirit here, then there were
many. It does not matter whether they speak
As fine as they were, he still saw in them re-
minders of his old years of naturalism and of the
through one medium or another: they are here, and
preciosity that fastened itself on the “men of the
they will speak, as strongly and as straight as did
brush ” of 1870. Some of the Frenchmen, notably
the man we have lost. Fortunately the body of
work he has left is enough to let us know him. And
Duchamp, had already used machinery as their sub-
jects, ostensible or real, and Schamberg had appre-
the talent, the probity, the love that were in him
ciated the fineness of their work.
are in his work and will make it endure.
He did not
and
WALTER PACH.


1919
THE DIAL
507
Ivan Speaks
This is all Mr. Whittemore has to say in Ivan
These sayings on war and peace were set down by free thinking and straight speaking. All have felt
Madame Fedorchenko, a Russian nurse, from talks which
she overheard among Russian soldiers at the front in
"mystery" in children, and have enveloped them in
1915, 1916, and 1917. From a large amount of material “clouds of glory.” All have been committing the
they are selected, translated, and arranged. These de same pathetic psychologist's fallacy—of imaging the
tached utterances of wounded soldiers, many of whom
could neither read nor write, lying in their cots, were
subject of their contemplation in the stuff of their
spoken without premeditation or thought of the nurse's own mentality and passion. It has been perpetra-
presence. Beyond translation, they are printed absolutely ted upon the Russian without laughter, and at great
without change. For this reason they penetrate and reveal
the mystery of Russian character.
cost. The disillusion cannot come too swiftly that
the "mystery of Russian character” lies in the fact
that Russian character is simple, direct, sensitive,
Speaks (translated from the Russian by Thomas
and liberal, precisely as a child's is. In this, also,
Whittemore. Houghton Mifflin; Boston), by way
lies its hopefulness. Saved by a benevolent bureau-
of preface or introduction. The sayings are sub-
cracy from the curse of literacy, and by a sanitary
mitted, without interpretation, direct to the English-
economic system which reserved industrial organiza-
reading public. They are as near the aboriginal of
tion and skill for foreigners, particularly Germans,
the Russian peasant psyche as can be documents that
from the bitter sophistications of industry, the
have undergone selection and arrangement at the
Russian peasant remained close to the community of
hands of so too civilized and sensitive a spirit as Mr.
earth, profoundly a part of his commune and in
Whittemore's. He, his tastes, his opinions, and his
every way dependent on it. The “revolutionary"
philosophy of life are an invisible and pervasive re-
gospel of the Soviet was to him largely a common-
fractive medium through which the material comes
place of the daily life, and this subversive commun-
to the reader. One feels that one either ought to
ism to which he was invited was so ordinary as to
know all about Mr. Whittemore who selects and
stir in him no excitement. It was the Revolutionary
arranges, or to have the residue of the "large promise of education that excited him, for he felt
amount" from which the selection and arrangement
"dark;” the challenge of authority excited him, for
have been made. From the point of view of those
he had the submissiveness of a child who has never
who desire a genuine understanding of what has known freedom; and the division of the land excited
been going on in Russia, in terms of the original him because it promised to meet his great need.
qualities of Russian men, the latter is the consumma But that was all. “For the rest, just what seems to
tion more to be desired. Mr. Whittemore will, we the possessing classes of Europe most revolutionary
hope, publish the rest of his material before long. in Bolshevism seemed most natural to him. The
What he has already published may be said in Socialist economics was the only economics he had
deed to "penetrate and reveal the mystery of Russian learned, and he took it simply and literally. The
character.” He exhibits in nearness and intimacy creative foundations were natural to him; the rest
the quality of spirit that makes Russian literature would pass, like other artefacts, in God's good time.
a cult among non-Russians, and the Russian people The foregoing, however, already inference from
a religion with such temperaments as Mr. Stephen the quality of Russian character which Mr. Whitte-
Graham's. It is at once the most hopeful and dis more's pellucid translations exhibit. The speeches
illusioning publication about Russia that has come throw the mind at once back to Homeric poems,
and
to hand. Disillusioning because the "mystery of to some of the great ironic simplicities of the Old
Russian character” which it "penetrates and reveals” Testament narratives. Nothing is held in reserve,
turns out to be no mystery whatsover in the Russian nothing repressed—and nothing is made ignoble or
himself. It turns out to be the embarrassment and unclean: lust, drunkenness, superstition, greed,
wonder and unreadiness of the sophisticated Euro honor, ambition, courage, pity, irony, love, and com-
pean—the Continental European with his mores of radeship, the conventions of home and community,
insincerity and the Anglo-Saxon European with his the uprootedness of barrack and battlefield, all pos-
mores of repression—before a personal quality that sessed of that certain dignity with which only
is at once straightforward and uninhibited. All straight speaking and straight thinking can suffuse
adults have felt the same wonder and unreadiness the deeds and passions of men. It is the solidity
and embarrassment in the presence of some child not and healthy-mindedness of natural being, indeed,
yet perverted by education from the simplicity of that transfigures all the sayings. They are, together


508
THE DIAL
May 17
can Historical Society, "had written of Montcalm
with the ghosts of Christianity that figure in them, Some birds are clothed in feathers of every hue in the
clean pagan, pagan clean. They are astoundingly
rainbow, and have eyes like precious stones. And such
animals! Incredible! There is the lion, now, the king of
free from animosity; the quality they register is as beasts. The crowd stands around him, gaping with idle
toundingly esthetic—thus:
curiosity. But he lies quiet and won't stir, and looks right
through you, as if you were not there at all. He is seeing
"I took aim at him, and did not know who it was, something of his own, quite different. You feel the
but hoped it would turn out to be a German. I aimed strength under that hide, a strength like cast steel; and
from a trench. I took long aim, and shot very luckily. his very calm is terrible. Believe it or not, as you will,
He fell flat, and turned out to be a German, and healthy but the earth breathes. Only your ear is not always
as a bull.”
attuned to hear it. Life makes too great a noise around
If this seems cruel and insensitive, one need only
you; we never have leisure, either to look or to listen
closely. But there are peculiar days and nights when the
turn to the many expressions of pity, even in action. soul tears itself from the material and sees and hears earth
What it truly utters is the sensuous realization of
live, as you might say, her own separate life. She stirs the
the business in hand, the childlike absorption in
swaying grasses and the waters; breathes in vapor, in
mists, in the fragrance of flowers, in the exhalations of
the thing doing. Beneath it, and all the other words all living things. So immense is the life of the earth
lies the sense of a living nature, which is so patent
that man can sense it only by feeling, not from knowl-
in the spirit of the unconverted young:
edge. I think monastic life is the real thing, the stillness
that could make many think clear; but where find such
I was allowed to go out. I went to see the animals and
retreats?
the birds. What beauty unspeakable there is in the world!
H. M. KALLEN.
The Historical West
I
T IS Now almost fifty years since Mark Twain, cles of America series (Yale University Press; New
in the first chapter of Life on the Mississippi,
Haven) emphasize our antiquity. In Crusaders of
undertook by a clever comparison of dates to ex New France, by William Bennett Munro, Cartier
plode the fallacy that America, speaking historically, and Richelieu, Champlain and Louis XIV, naked
is a mere infant in arms. Today, when we boast Huron Indians and men of the Régiment de Carig-
of the oldest national flag, the chapter has lost some
nan-Salières elbow each other for attention. Mr.
of its edge. Such are the changes of half a century.
George M. Wrong in The Conquest of New
But in 1874 Pioneers of France in the New World,
France is even more of a showman. One turns
the first of the Parkman narratives, was not yet ten
from Titus Oates to the conquest of Louisbourg,
years old; the historical societies of the Middle West
from the intrigues of Versailles and Vienna to the
had just begun their invaluable labors; fifteen
years planting of old-world names
, like that of Fort
were to elapse before Roosevelt was to draw popu-
Maurepas, in the wilderness.
lar attention to the winning of the West; and no-
body had dreamed of Professor Turner's epochal
from Marlborough to Mandan Indian culture is at
times a little precipitate, it is none the less exhila-
discovery of the significance of the frontier. When rating. Allusions to European affairs are thicker
Clemens wrote, American history was convention-
than blackberries and furnish excellent gymnastics
ally the tale of Jamestown and of the Pilgrim for the memory.
fathers with the rest of the continent stuck on like
In the best sense, both authors are popular his-
a fringe.
torians. Both suffer under the disability of the
But now the middle west is proudly conscious
of being antique. University courses are devoted
inevitable comparison with Parkman. Perhaps a
to its history. It has been discovered by Meredith
lurking fear of this accounts for the flatness of Mr.
Nicholson and eastern literati. Vachel Lindsay
Munro's chapter on LaSalle. It is the dreariest
thing in his book. With Mr. Wrong the chal-
field. The Spoon River Anthology exhibits all the
crimes of decadent Rome. We have read Hamlin
Roosevelt in his address as president of the Ameri-
Garland's A Son of the Middle Border and found
there the winey flavor of things historic. Some of
and Wolfe there was left for other writers only
us are familiar with Reuben Gold Thwaites and
what Fitzgerald left for other translators of Omar
some of us, beholding the St. Louis pageant, know
Khayyam.” If the comparison is not just to the
that the mound builders are part of our history.
painstaking American who reigns, like Gibbon, the
Two volumes recently published in The Chroni-
sole master of his field, the point is nevertheless well
taken.
If the transition
has seen historical ghosts in the streets of Spring lenge is even more direct. After Parkman, setia
Mr. Wrong, however, dexterously avoids-


1919
509
THE DIAL
a sustained parallel by breaking his book in two It is the aim of Mr. Wrong to present the strug-
with a long excursus devoted to the explorations of gle for Canada as part of the world conflict begun
La Vérendrye and his followers, of Hendry and by Louis XIV and ended by the efficiency of Pitt.
Saint-Pierre. Their heroic exploits rouse him to a This is undoubtedly the proper method of attack,
pitch of enthusiasm not unworthy of the great his but it is difficult matter for a small book of 246
torian.
pages. He undertakes to present the varying Euro-
The Crusaders of New France falls into a seri-
pean situation, and from that to argue the policies
ous difficulty, best described by Mr. Crothers in
of the rival governinents. He is compelled to
one of his most entertaining essays. That amusing hurry from India to the valley of the Ohio, from
author, writing on The World's Worst Books,
the character of Madame Pompadour to the idiosyn-
details at length the struggles of a writer compelled
crasies of the Pennsylvania legislature. He also
to mix in one volume information on the Chosen
sketches the characters and the biographies of the
People and
observations on our gallinaceous
fowls.” Mr. Munro is in a similar pickle. After
principal personages, and, in addition, devotes forty-
his preliminary chapter on France as a colonizing
seven pages—a fifth of the book-to the fascinating
country, he has only five chapters, totalling less
but subsidiary story of French exploration in the
Far West.
than one hundred pages, to devote to the whole his-
tory of French exploration from Cartier's first voy-
As a result he has had to pay tribute to compres-
age in 1534 to the the death of LaSalle in 1687.
sion. The final capture of Louisbourg, of Fort
This compression is fatal to anything like adequate
Duquesne, of Fort Frontenac, "giving command
treatment. Five more chapters, the most interest-
of Lake Ontario and, with it, the west ”—these are
dismissed with a word. The defeat of Braddock is
ing part of the book, are given to a discussion of
life in New France, one each being devoted to the
not sufficiently developed and the exploits of the
Jesuits, the seigneurs, and the coureurs-de-bois, and
young Washington are given disproportionate space.
two to the life of the colony proper. As a result
And yet, under these accumulated problems, Mr.
the title of his study must be stretched outrageously
Wrong has produced a unity of impression that is
a tribute to his structural powers.
to cover two subjects, neither of which can be
treated in half a book.
The fall of French power in America, indeed, is
General readers will find these last five chapters
like a great play—a play in five acts of which the
an interesting corrective to Parkman. Mr. Munro
titles are Frontenac, Acadia, Louisbourg, the Ohio,
Montcalm and Wolfe. This Mr. Wrong has seen,
shows that the organization of New France was far
better adapted to Canadian conditions than is gen-
and has frequently opposed his figures with apposite
dramatic effect. He is interested in character.
erally supposed. The feudal system which in
France was obsolescent achieved in Canada
Frontenac, “the showy court figure " with genius
restored vitality.” The centralized government in
in it, whose "
guests were expected to admire his
indifferent horses as the finest to be seen, his gardens
church and state made possible the long resistance
of the French to the numerically powerful but
as the most beautiful, his clothes as of the most
effective cut and finish, the plate on his table as of
mutually jealous plantations of the English. In-
deed, had Canadian affairs been even more central-
the best workmanship, and the food as having a
superior flavor ”—Frontenac is superbly drawn.
ized in 1759; had the incompetent Vaudreuil not
interfered ; had the entire management of the colony industry, governor of Massachusetts, and burner of
His foil is Phipps, half pirate and half captain of
been given to Montcalm, Quebec might have held
witches. If the figures of Montcalm and Wolfe
out against the English for an indefinite period.
Certainly Frontenac was able to launch the entire
seem less vividly cut, it is only because they are
more familiar.
strength of the colony against the English with an
A word should be devoted to the form of the
effectiveness that Montcalm could only despair of.
books in this series. The illustrations, the type,
The Conquest of New France presents a smaller
the binding, are alike attractive, and represent a
and more manageable sector of history. The nar-
high achievement in bookmaking. The present
rative really begins with the second administration
edition is the Abraham Lincoln edition; it must
of Frontenac in 1689, and ends with the fall of
be confessed that these aristocratic volumes are more
Quebec in 1759–exactly seventy years. The treaty
of Paris (1763) and the final withdrawal of the
in the spirit of Chester A. Arthur than of the
French from North America form an epilogue to
Illinois rail-splitter. Yet one can take pleasure
the battle of the Plains of Abraham and are so
in their format and wish that Lincoln might have
owned them.
treated.
HOWARD MUMFORD JONES.
-
a


510
THE DIAL
May 17
as he.
treachery lurked and the plague ran like flame along cannot be made criminal. Even Villon escaped from
called the “cruel spiritual fact" of La Grosse Mar.
Letters to Unknown Women
LA Grosse Margot
TO LA Grosse MARGOT:
thief, and Flora the beautiful Roman gave place to
There are moments, not rare unhappily, when our
the gross Margot. Like a branch of fruited oak
dreams of the beauty of Greek women, our senti- Aung in the mud the poet's soul became filthy in
mentalizings over past loveliness, seem sickly and the ordure of his age. There seemed no place for
inane. We try to persuade ourselves with soft words him; and indeed the world has no place for such
that life is delicate, but too surely we are shocked
back to a grim realization of true ugliness, true hor-
But we cannot forget that the age which produced
ror, true futility. And at such moments life, which you, produced also Jeanne d'Arc, that the very mo-
we had symbolized as some myrrh-tressed Heliodora,
ment when you and Villon were deep in the filth of
resembles one of those desperate cynicisms of Rops, degradation, Ficino and Poliziano were declaiming
where the painted lovely face of the courtesan slips with sonorous eloquence of Plato and of perfect
off like a mask and shows the yellow hag beneath. beauty and perfect knowledge, and that Botticelli was
That mood finds its symbol in you.
Day after day drags past and we know too surely vinced that life is as bestial as you seem to make it
dreaming his Madonnas. If we were really con-
that the bright rapture is leaving us, that the gay
shades of our dreams grow fainter, the power of
there would be nothing for us but the "bare bodkin
beauty less potent.
or the ignoble gibbet your poet eventually honored
There were days when the with his neck. We do not believe it, we cannot; we
sense of fascination in choice exquisite things almost
deceive ourselves if deception be necessary; we put
stifled us, when we spent hours upon hours in some
aside the horrors and the filth which we know to be
sunlit Italian garden or shut out the gloom of No-
vember with the patterns of Hokusai and Utamaro.
true, but we claim that the beauty is true also. We
do not condemn, we accept you. Misery upon mis-
Now these things are a cause only of infinite regret,
having about them the pathos of bright playthings
ery, disgust upon disgust, we know that they exist,
with which men tried to deceive the gloomy truth,
that for every sensitive soul the loathsomeness of La
to gild the leaden reality. Villon wrote of Helen
Grosse Margot is a cruel spiritual fact, but we know
also that the bright toys are not wholly toys but
and Flora, but you were his life. For in the des-
peration of that moment when men see that truth is
symbols of truth, truth itself. We do not need to
other than they had dreamed they may revolt from
interpret this horror in confused geometric shapes
of sullen color or to torture the Muse's mouth to the
an impossible beauty to mere dulling bestiality. Had
“There
utterance of harsh discordance. We say:
we not seen his own words we could scarcely believe
that he who mourned over the dead ladies of old
are rose-wreaths and the foulness of dead men;
times, likening them to the melted snow of yester-
Greek song and the groans
year, could have lived with you in a brothel. Per-
der a pale opaque sky and the mephitic gloom of
haps we did not quite understand it until in this
narrow streets—we know it, we accept it, but we
and generation the horrors of the world, hidden un- rose-wreath and song and the clear air."
choose among these things and choose for ourselves
der a light mask of gayety, became suddenly alert
Horror may be forced upon us, but the purity of
white marble has entered our souls and cannot be
Europe was desolate with wars and with civil war;
in the villages there was no safety; fields were burnt
at us from street corners with foul words and ob-
and ravaged; within the walls of cities murder and
scene gesture—we are not harmed, for Heliodora
loves us; we may be forced towards crime, but we
the narrow streets; in the woods to which men fled
for safety lay starvation or a wretched death from
you, if not by disgust, by the gallows; and by death
fierce beasts. In the daytime your Paris knew many
he purged from his soul that “accidia” which I have
shameful things made more bitter by the contrast
of mad luxury with utmost poverty; and at night,
got. Perhaps you cannot see these things, sneer that
as Hugo tells us, those who stood on the tower of
the harm you do is irrevocable ; but, Margot
, the
Our Lady could see the dull glare of burning vil-
gods feed their sparrows and will doubtless release
lages and trembled for the safety of their city walls.
their nightingales from the snare.
Little wonder, then, if the poor scholar became a
of murder; tall trees un-
age
and dangerous.
The time in which you lived was horrible indeed. permanently stained; the grosse Margot may reduce
RICHARD ALDINGTON.


THE DIAL
. ROBERT MORSS LOVETT, Editor
In Charge of the Reconstruction Program:
CLARENCE BRITTEN
JOHN DEWEY
THORSTEIN VEBLEN
HELEN MAROT
THE
CHE WAR WAS WON BY AMERICA.
WITH ALL lishment of new
states, Jugo-Slavia, Czecho-
possible subtractions from our achievement it is clear Slovakia, Poland, difficult questions arose which
that but for American food, American munitions, did not admit of any clean cut application of the
American money, and American men, the Allies fourteen points, but in the claims of Japan on China
would have been compelled to negotiate a peace in there was bụt a single issue to be maintained or
1917, or accept a dictated peace in 1918. At the
compromised, that of right, justice, and truth. The
time of America's entrance into the war the belief
treaty not only cancels the principle of “equality
was general that her influence would result in a
and participation in a common benefit ” as respects
peace which would be righteous and permanent.
The foundations for such a peace were announced
the late enemy; it withdraws it among the Allies
themselves. America has won the war but has lost
by President Wilson in his address to the United
States Senate on January 22, 1917. He said
the peace. With far greater reason than Clemenceau
Only
President Wilson may lament a Pyrrhic victory.
a peace between equals can last. Only a peace the
very principle of which is equality and a common
participation in a common benefit.” On April 2, on
THE REASONS FOR THE DEFEAT OF AMERICA ARE
the eve of entering the war, he explicitly confirmed easily to be read. They go back to our entrance
this view of the peace to be sought. I have ex into the war in April 1917. It is clear that Presi-
actly the same things in mind now that I had in dent Wilson was hurried. He would have preferred
mind when I addressed the Senate on the twenty to meet Congress in extra session in May, but the
second of January last.” On August 27 in his war-at-any-price party forced his hand in April. If
reply to the proposals for peace issued by the Pope the longer interval had been allowed it is possible
he asserted that the basis of peace was the rights that an arrangement might have been arrived at be-
of peoples . . . their equal right to freedom and tween America and the Entente, including a state-
security and self-government and to a participation ment of war aims. Such a negotiation would at
upon fair terms in the economic opportunities of the least have revealed the existence of the Treaties of
world, the German people, of course, included if London, and the common necessity of the Allies
they will accept equality and not seek domination.” might have led to their common renunciation of
There followed on January 8, 1918, the statement
the aims of those secret instruments. However,
of explicit terms in the famous fourteen points. time was not granted. We entered the war more
America won the war; America has lost the immediately dependent on the Entente nations for
peace, the object for which she fought. It is a means to carry it on than the latter were upon us,
thankless task to bring in a bill of particulars—to bound by necessity to peoples who were fighting for
show in detail how one by one the fourteen points secret ends utterly at variance with our own. Even
to which America and the Allies bound themselves then it might have been possible to save the situa-
have been abrogated by the actual pact. On Jan-
tion had President Wilson issued promptly a state-
uary 22, 1917, President Wilson had declared that ment of the war aims of the United States, and de-
the freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of peace,
fined the basis upon which he would cooperate with
equality, and cooperation,” yet this was the first the Allies; but this he showed a fierce reluctance to
article of the fourteen to be withdrawn from con do, accusing those who advised such action of seek-
sideration before the Armistice was signed. The ing to embarrass him in the conduct of the war, and
grant of Upper Silesia to Poland, of Southern in his letter to Congressman Heflin disingenuously
Tyrol to Italy are not only violations of an agree trying to confuse the demand for war aims with a
ment made with a beaten enemy: they are clear vio- profession of ignorance as to why we were at war
lations of that international order which America at all. He insisted that his general statements of
fought to establish, crimes against the peace of the January 22 and April 2 were all-sufficient. In
world. The terms of the grant of Kiaochau and August, however, he assumed to reply to the Pope's
Shantung to Japan, of the Dodecanese to Italy, are proposals in the sense of his January speech, as com-
violations of the fourteen points at the expense not
mon spokesman of the nations fighting Germany;
of the enemy but of allies. In the territorial estab and in the January following he issued the famous


512
THE DIAL
May 17
liquidation of empires and the raising to the status
of self-government of peoples now held in political
bondage, which does not look toward freedom of
net positive result of the participation of the United
States in the war—this and Fiume. It is to be hoped
that on his return to his native land President Wil-
fourteen points. Though these were received with general surrender of his fourteen points, only by
general agreement he later challenged the Allies to some special grudge against their country. Of
express dissent if such existed. The points were course this is absurd. Mr. Wilson needs Fiume
reaffirmed in his speech of April 6, and in the most more than the Italians do: he needs it as the symbol
solemn fashion. They were put forward by Ger- of his victorious idealism—the sign that he knows
many as the basis of her surrender and, with two how to get what he wants. If it were permissible
exceptions, specifically accepted by the other warring
for Mr. Wilson to accept a patent of nobility from
nations. But even with all this open diplomacy he
some foreign power we should suggest as the appro-
failed to bind the Allies to the terms of world settle-
priate title, Lord Wilson of Fiume.
that they had always made reservations in favor of THE ABANDONMENT OF THE FOURTEEN POINTS
the secret treaties of London. When President
Wilson learned of the terms of these agreements is
was the price which Mr. Wilson paid for the form
of peace which he has secured under the title The
uncertain. It may have been only when they were
League of Nations. He will doubtless base his
published by the Soviet Government of Russia. In claim to the success of his mission to Europe on this
any case, however, the moment of his first knowledge achievement, and already it is being hailed as a
of these treaties was the time when he could have
triumph of practical statesmanship over the futile
moved for their specific subordination to his own
aspirations and feeble scruples of the idealists of
terms with best chance of success.
whom Mr. Wilson used to be accounted one. It
If Mr. Wilson trusted entirely in the acceptance
should be pointed out, however, that the process by
of his fourteen points by the Allies he must have been
which the League was secured, that of paltering
rudely shocked by the behavior of Lloyd George and
with the principles on which it was to have been
Clemenceau in promising their tax-payers to collect
based, goes far to discredit it in its inception. The
the entire cost of the war in the form of a German
true relation between the Covenant and the Treaty
indemnity. He must have gone to the Peace Con-
has been reversed. The Covenant was put forward
ference with a clear presage of defeat. And in fact
he has seen his own terms, and those on which Ger-
as a pledge and promise to be made good by sub-
many surrendered, repeatedly repudiated in favor of Instead of this the Treaty has been used to buy sup-
sequent action beginning with the Treaty of peace.
those of the secret understandings. From France
he has apparently been able to purchase certain con-
port, or worse, to buy off opposition, to the League.
Mr. Wilson is an architect who robs his foundation
cessions in regard to the left bank of the Rhine by of stone to build Aying buttresses. He is the mother
more or less definite promises of support in event of fleeing in a sledge from wolves, holding to her bosom
future attack by Germany. In regard to Japan his
hands were tied by a secret arrangement of his
her last born and throwing her other children suc-
own—the Lansing-Ishii agreement—and the situa-
cessively to the devouring pack. Whether the child
tion has been further complicated by the fact that he
is worth the sacrifice is for the future to show. The
League with which Mr. Wilson escaped is not a
was constrained to purchase support for the League society of peoples, a new social order. It is a politir
of Nations at home and in the English colonies by a
cal instrument, and as such it enters on its career
refusal to accept the clause granting equal recogni- handicapped by the political compromises and recent
and pathetic plea of the Chinese delegation Kian frankly-in perpetuation of the victorious alliance
chau and the Shantung peninsula have been turned
over to Japan, to relinquish when and how she
which excludes from membership the nations with
may determine. Baron Makino's claim that this
which we were at war, which denies the right of
nations to choose for themselves a form of economic
procedure was in recognition of the fact that Japan democracy hostile to the institution of private propong
had proved always faithful to her international
agreements must have extorted a smile even from
erty, which recognizes at the outset territorial
Mr. Wilson, as he recalled the Russo-Japanese
arrangements in direct contravention of the principle
agreement of April 25, 1898 in which both govern-
of self-determination of nationalities, which does not
require disarmament even
pendence of Korea and pledged themselves tmecinador equality a bf citizenship of those nations or the fire
nations against each other, which does not assert the
to abstain from all direct interference in the internal
affairs of that country—a pledge subsequently re-
dom of the seas, which makes no provision for the
asserted in agreements of Japan with China and
with Korea herself. In regard to Italy Mr. Wilson
found no resting place in his retreat to the line
drawn by the Treaty of London, short of Fiume,
trade or movement-such a League with such
which Italy claimed in excess of that settlement.
powers and processes as are allowed it is all too
We can appreciate the feeling of the Italians that
weak for its assigned task. Yet this League is the
‘Mr. Wilson's insistance on the exact limitations of
this secret pact is to be explained, in view of the
among the signatory


1919
513
THE DIAL
more.
son will not seek to exaggerate his triumph for are so taken to heart by the governments of these
reasons of partisan or personal glory. The con countries that these same governments are eager and
dition of the success of the League is recognition ready at the sacrifice of the interests of their own
of the function to which it has been limited, that business men to carry on trade wars against those
of a temporary receivership of a bankrupt world. nations which fail to observe ethical standards of
More clearly than when it was first presented the industrial relationship. If indeed these High Com-
Covenant appears in the light of a task, to be per missioners know better than the rest of us about
formed, if at all, only by such an initial repudiation what they are talking—that is, if, the governments
of the men and the methods instrumental in draw of their countries have actually taken this matter
ing it up as to amount to conversion, to regeneration, to heart-the point for which the old-line trade
to revolution. We suggest therefore that the proper unions have been fighting is cleared up and the al-
mood for the reception of President Wilson on his liance between stand-pat unionism and stand-pat
return is that of the old Puritan day of fasting, business is consummated. If this is the case the
humiliation, and prayer.
wage standards of the regular unions of the United
States and Great Britain are to be protected as the
N
OTHING Which The Peace CONFERENCE HAS
prices of commodities are now protected by the
United States tariff, and special labor interests like
proposed will excite less opposition than the recom-
special business interests will be cared for. Such a
mendations of its labor commissioners. The recom-
mendations convey a gratifying sense that of all the contemplated scheme, naively supported by reformers
in a spirit of universal uplift, has as much relation
problems now before the world awaiting solution
to a progressive civilization as a tariff imposed for
none is so simple or requires so little readjustment
of interests as the relation of capital to labor. One
the support of infant industries, but no
may turn from the outdoor turmoil in Europe, and
The declaration of the High Contracting Parties
even in the United States, as from a bad dream to
that the “labor of human beings should not be
treated as merchandise or articles of commerce
" is a
the report of the Commission on Industrial Labor
Legislation of the Peace Conference and be assured restatement of Mr. Gompers' familiar formula that
that the hour of peace has struck and "all is well” labor is not a commodity. But as that is exactly
in industry. The declaration of these Commis what labor is in the wage system which Mr.
sioners that no child under 14 years should be per Gompers and the High Commissioners support, this
mitted in industry; that every worker has a right statement as it is uttered by men who represent labor
to a wage commensurate with civilized standards of
is sheer cant. And they may clear the statement
living; that every worker should enjoy one day of of cant only as they carry with it a proposition which
rest in seven; that forty-eight hours wherever indus will do away with a market where labor is bargained
trial development permits should constitute a week's for collectively according to trade-union practice, or
work, will receive the endorsement of the Whitley where individually sold and purchased. But such
Commission of the large organizations of employers a proposal would reecho the outdoor movement of
in England, and even of the Chambers of Commerce
the workers of Europe, and that we know is not
in the United States. Everyone in all parts of the
the purpose of the Peace Congress.
globe, except in certain backward regions where
industrial life is still primitive, is saying as much.
But it is noteworthy that wherever this pious wish Mr. Wilson either
is expressed in the report there is the expectation that points honestly or he did not. He put them forward
it will stand as a promissory note for the sometime either as a holy cause for which his countrymen were
enforcement and that reasonable time will of course to die, or else as a political, or rather moral, offensive
be allowed for the fulfillment of these ideals. The
in the same spirit in which Colonel Robins sent
ways of enforcement it is understood are fraught Bolshevik propaganda into Germany. In any case he
with technicalities which must perforce take prece-
owes an answer to the American people, who com-
dence as they are concerned with the realities of mitted life and honor into his hands—the more that
routine rather than the abstractions of human rights.
his answer is bound to be theirs. Either he acted as
As a matter of fact, the High Contracting Parties
of the Labor Commission steep in mystery the ways
decoy or he fell among thieves. It is a hard choice
and means of enforcing their own decrees as to labor
for vanity to make; and it is the vanity of the whole
rights and standards. There is a hint in their pro-
nation which must be denied when the truth is
posals that some dire fate will befall a nation which
spoken. In the litany which should be sung for all
does not accept the precepts. But what that fate
of us are the lines:
or penalty is they do not explain. However, there
is a clear assumption that the highest of the High
Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;
Commissioners (which must mean Great Britain,
Men crown the knave and scourge the tool
the United States, France, and Japan) already ob-
That did his will—but, thou, O Lord,
serve those ethical precepts. It appears that they
Be merciful to me, a fool.
----
MEANT
HIS
FOURTEEN


514
THE DIAL
May 17
excluded " for the purpose of still greater democrati-
Bolshevik elements is carried out in other localities.
cordance with the sentiment of country, but because regarding his lengthy criticism of the Provisional
I shall not stop to argue with Mr. Lomonossoff
Communications
the Soviets were necessary, and for the following
reason:
CONCERNING THE DEFENSE OF “Soviet After the March Revolution and the downfall of
GOVERNMENT
the Czarist regime the local authorities lost their
heads. As there were no other democratic institu-
Sir: In your issue of January 25 appeared an tions which were trusted by the masses, the necessity
article under the title A Voice Out of Russia in de arose, therefore, to create temporary revolutionary
fense of the Soviet Government.
organs on more democratic lines than the former
In illuminating the present events in Russia Mr. municipal Dumas and Zemstvo institutions, the mem-
Lomonossoff tries to show by comparing the Amer bers of which were elected on property qualifications.
ican people with the Russians that the reason for the
Thus, in order to cooperate with the Provisional
success of Socialism in Russia (understand Bolshev Revolutionary Governments, were
created the
ism) is the fact that the Russian peasants are com-
Soviets of Workmen and Soldiers' Delegates, and
munists while the American farmers are individual also the Peasants' Soviets. These were then neces-
ists. Thus he states:
sary, life itself brought them to the fore. True, it
During that thousand years they (the Russians) grew
might seem strange to see soldiers (soldiers and of-
accustomed to cultivating the land by communistic
ficers, of course) in the local political and economic
methods. But the American farmer is first of all
organizations, for politics is not the business of the
an owner, whereas the Russian peasant is a communist-
and here lies the reason for the success of socialistic
army, but the war had taken in all the healthy young
teaching in Russia.
men of the population, and it was quite natural that
Mr. Lomonossoff knows or should know that the
they should wish to participate in the whirlpool of
the revolution.
Russian peasant does not cultivate his land by com-
munistic but by individualistic methods; that the
The Provisional Government in the course of its
Russian peasant of the Commune considers himself
constructive work promulgated universal suffrage,
the owner of the land which has been allotted to
and thus in August and September of 1917 all the
him and to his family by the village Mir, and that
municipal Dumas and Zemstvo institutions were
he is in reality the sole owner of that land at least
elected under the system of universal, equal, and
up to the next redivision, which may come in
secret suffrage. From the moment these truly
twenty-five years or may not come at all.
democratic institutions began to function, the role
Mr. Lomonossoff knows that this very faith in
of the temporary revolutionary organs—the Soviets
the communistic and socialistic ideals of the Russian
—was over, and they should have naturally given
peasants was the reason for the great revolutionary
up their power.
movement of the Russian Intelligentsia—“On to the
But now however started the struggle for power,
people ”-in the seventies of last century. He
the Bolsheviki agitators doing their utmost with the
must be aware that the Russian Intelligentsia was
slogan “ All power to the Soviets." And wherever,
greatly disappointed in its expectation of infusing
after the November counter-revolution, the Bolshe-
Socialism in Russia with preliminary education and
viki seized the power, they dispersed the Dumas and
active propaganda among the masses, and that its
the Zemstvos, and replaced them by Bolshevist
hopes in the Mir and Commune were not realized.
Soviets. In addition I must say that even if these
He surely must also know that the communal land
Soviets had been elected without pressure on the
tenure is far from being general in Russia, that it
part of the Bolsheviki, even then they could not be
is very little known in the Ukraine, and that there
considered as democratic institutions to replace the
were no signs of protests from the peasants when
Dumas and the Zemstvos, for the representation of
Stolipin had dealt the Commune its death blow.
the Soviets was accidental and the regularity of the
In explaining the rise of the Soviets Mr. Lomonos-
elections was not guaranteed.
Thus the Soviet rule even in case the elections
“The composition of the First Pro-
visional Government was not in accordance with the
were conducted without pressure or special selection
sentiment of the country. And as a result, side by
is far from being genuinely democratic. Moreover,
side with this Government, sprang up the Soviets
as Mr. Lomonossoff well knows, the Bolsheviki have
backed by the great masses of the people.” As one
zation
from the Central Executive Committee of
of the participants in the work of the Provisional
the Soviets all Socialist Revolutionists and Social
Government at Kiev after the March Revolution,
Democrats (Mensheviki). This exclusion of non-
as one elected by the Kiev Soviet of Workmen and
Soldiers' Delegates to the office of Military Com-
mander of the Kiev district, and as a delegate to the
The Soviet Government at present does not even
represent the workmen nor the peasants, but only
Copenhagen Conference sent by the Central Execu-
the Bolsheviki or those who feign Bolshevism, and
tive Committee of the Peasants' Soviets, I feel com-
therefore Mr. Lomonossoff's assertion that “ the
petent to assert that the Soviets did not spring up
Soviets and the Bolsheviki are not one and the same
because the Provisional Government was not in ac-
is entirely false.
soff says:


1919
515
THE DIAL
Government, but one point I cannot pass in silence.
He reproaches the Provisional Government for not
having concluded a separate peace with Germany.
At that time, he says, we still had an army, and
the Germans would have paid us highly for a sep-
arate peace.” I wish to thank Mr. Lomonossoff for
this reproach. He says the Provisional Government
has not sold the honor of Russia to the German mili-
tarists for the high price they offered, but the Bolshe-
viki whom he so ardently defends have done so. In
order to retain at any cost the power they usurped
they sold the honor of Russia at Brest-Litovsk. No,
they did not succeed in selling the honor of Russia,
but only the honor of the adventurers who in the
name of Russia signed such a peace, for Russia as
such did not recognize this peace.
These same revolutionary adventurers—the Bol-
sheviki—have torn to pieces our fatherland, and de-
livered it to hunger, suffering, and torture for a
long time to come. And such results of the domina-
tion of the Bolsheviki and their hirelings are quite
comprehensible in the light of Lenin's remarks at
the Third Congress of Soviets. In estimating his
comrades—the Bolsheviki-he said: “To every
hundred Bolsheviki there is one idealist, thirty-nine
criminals and sixty fools.” Sapienti sat.
C. OBEROUTCHEFF.
the socialist Intelligentsia while the General accuses
me of not mentioning it. Among the propagandists
were Bolsheviki, Mensheviki, and Social Revolu-
tionists. In the villages, with the exception of
Ukrainia, the latter were most successful. Why then
did the socialist teaching in general have in Russia
-a land industrially backward—such an enormous
success? Just for the reason that the darkest masses
of the people were historically ripe to absorb the
socialistic ideas. It is exceptionally hard for me to
explain this to General Oberutcheff, who is himself
a member of the Social Revolutionary Party, which
always explained this as the basis of their ideology.
Furthermore, the General says that within the
Commune the peasant always remained an individ-
*ualist and “ that there were no signs of protests fronı
the peasants when Stolipin had dealt the Commune
its death blow." Those who are interested in the
history of the Russian commune I would refer to the
classic works on this question—Professor Ebers' Das
Alteste Recht der Russen, 1826; Professor Beliaeff's
The Peasants in Russia, 1891; and Professor Kauff-
man's The Origin of the Russian Commune 1908.
But in this brief article I shall endeavor to explain
what was exactly the Russian land commune before
the war, and what is an “artiel.”
Until 1907, with the exception of those parts of
Ukrainia which preserved the standard of the Polish
land right, all the Russian peasantry owned the land
on communistic basis. The land did not belong to
any individual but was embodied in a commune be-
longing to a whole village. The members of the
commune had only the right to utilize their partic-
ular plot which was allotted to them by the commune
or by the mir for a definite length of time. The re-
divisions of these lands regularly took place in Siberia
every fifteen years; in Zabaikals—every five years,
and throughout Great Russia—every year.
Within
the limits of these periods the peasants tilled the
alloted plots individually, but the pastures, forests
and fishing waters were used by the commune as a
whole. By the ukase of November ist, 1907 (Stoli-
pin's reform) the peasants were given the privilege
on certain conditions to buy their own plots of land.
General Oberutcheff says that this ukase was a
death-blow to the commune and that the peasants
did not protest. The facts are, however, as follows:
The Czar's regime had allotted credits only to the
peasants who were willing to take advantage of the
ukase of November ist. Before the war out of 135
millions Russian peasants only 19 millions became
rivate landowners, and only six millions expressed
their desire to do so (From the Russian Year Book,
1916, pages 176-177). In other words, under the
pressure of the monarchy only 18 per cent of the
Russian peasantry forsook the old traditions of the
land-tilling masses.
Another, not less ancient establishment of the
Russian life is the “artiel.” The “artiel " is a free
union for cooperative work. In Russia there are
widely spread artiels of woodcutters, carpenters,
diggers, and so on. Their capital is composed of
(G
Professor LOMONOSSOFF Replies.
In the domain of facts General Oberutcheff re-
futes two of my statements: (1) That the reason of
the success of socialistic teaching in Russia lies in the
fact of the existence of the land communes and
artiels" for a thousand years; (2). That the
Soviets and the Bolsheviki are not one and the same,
and that the Soviets were created simultaneously
with the first Provisional Government and as a coun-
ter-balance to same.
Besides General Oberutcheff
tells us a new fact-that-Lenin supposedly said at
the Third Congress of Soviets:
To every hundred
Bolsheviki there is one idealist, thirty-nine criminals,
and sixty fools.”
These facts I want to discuss. We shall begin
with the first. General Oberutcheff says: In
illuminating the present events in Russia Mr.
Lomonossoff tries to show by comparing the Amer-
ican people with the Russians that the reason for
the success of Socialism in Russia (understand
Bolshevism) is the fact that the Russian peasants are
communists while the American farmers are individ-
ualists.” If we are to exclude General Oberu-
tcheff's own insertion“ understand Bolshevism," my
idea is conveyed quite accurately. But the trouble
is that this insertion distorts my idea and gives the
General the opportunity to make a series of accusa-
tions, which accusations would otherwise not be pos-
sible, if he quoted what I actually said. My words:
The success of socialistic teaching in Russia
should be understood as what they meant to convey:
I am speaking about that particular propaganda of
66


516
THE DIAL
May 17
gas. Have we not had enough of such arguments
contributions of the members. The implements, quite clear that the Kerensky Government was
provisioning, and sometimes even the clothing are doomed.
communal. The earnings are divided proportion I do not dispute that in August, 1918, not all,
ately to the contributions. Of late, the Russian but many, of the Social Revolutionists and Menshe-
word "artiel ” has begun to disappear and is being viki were expelled from the Soviets for the participa-
replaced by the foreign word "cooperative.” Some tion and communication with the elements that in-
differentiate these two conceptions and say that an vited foreign forces into Russia, and for the attempt
artiel is a productive union, while the cooperative is to overthrow the Soviet Government. But let me
the consuming union. Both are nevertheless an at ask what would the American Senate do if foreign
tempt at communal economy. The establishment of forces should invade the United States, attempting-
the Russian land commune, in accordance with we will say—to put up a monarch at the head of the
Article 113 of the Provision of February 19, 1861, Government and if some of the Senators should help
was also, in spite of the opinion of General Ober in such an adventure ?
utcheff, such an attempt.
And, finally, in regard to the phrase attributed
Speaking about the Soviets, I insist that they to Lenin that “ To every hundred Bolsheviki there is
existed from the first day of the Revolution and were
one idealist, thirty-ninė criminals, and sixty fools,"
not, as the General says, local organs for coopera-
tion with the Provisional Government, but a real
let me humbly call attention to the fact that I have
in my possession the stenographic report of the Third
power which overthrew the first and the second Congress of Soviets and that this report contains no
Provisional Governments. I remember perfectly
such phrase. Nothing of the sort was heard by the
well the conditions under which the Soviets came
Americans present at the Third Congress—by
into existence, but I am afraid that the General Messrs. A. R. Williams and G. Yarros. I do not
will doubt my testimony. Therefore I will quote
know the source where the General borrowed this
the testimony of one of the chief workers of the phrase (he does not state it), but I presume that he
March Revolution, a member of the Duma—Mr.
Boublikoff-especially because he is an ideologist
was made a victim of a joker. It is hardly possible
to believe that Lenin should say any such thing about
of capitalism and a bitter opponent of the Soviet
Government. In his book entitled The Russian
his party, and still more it is absolutely impossible to
believe that after such a remark he should remain
Revolution, published in New York in 1918 in at the head of it.
Russian, he says:
Chicago.
G. LOMONOSSOFF.
And nevertheless the revolution came welcomed by
nobody and organized by nobody (page 15). Later
it was often said that the Duma refused to dissolve.
“ POINT OF View"
This is incorrect. The Duma was not in session. The
members of the Duma, after receiving the Ukase,
There is in the March 29 issue of the Scientific
assembled for a private conference (page 17).
last it was decided to organize a “Temporary Com-
American an article headed The Humanity of Poison
mittee for the Maintenance of Order and for Communi-
Gas. The quotations below are taken from that
cation with Organizations and Individuals,” consisting of
article:
twelve members of the Duma (page 18). A mob
entered the Palace (the quarters of the Duma).
So greatly have the horrors of gas attack been miti-
Having seized the Duma quarters, the remnants of the
gated since its first introduction that in the opinion of
revolutionary parties of 1905 quickly formed the Soviet
Brigadier-General Amos A. Fries, who was in command
of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and this Soviet raised
of the Chemical Warfare Service of our army at the
its head and voice hourly and was growing more insist-
front, it is possible that gas warfare may come to be
ent (page 25.]
recognized as a lawful method of warfare, and that
(At the same time) the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers'
will not be eliminated. The argument as presented by
Deputies
consistently worked for the formation
of its branches throughout the land.
him is also endorsed by Colonel Walker, who is in com-
In other words, it
was getting ready to seize the power in the future
mand of the Edgewood plant for the manufacture of
(pages 40-41).
gas.
The Provisional Government
If these facts are well established
at once put itself in an inferior and dependent relation
to the Soviets (page 41).
a question whether prudence and farsightedness do not
Many of the ministries
were always running to the telephone to inquire of the
suggest the maintenance of our great gas factory at
opinion and the sentiment of the Soviet of Workers' and
Edgewood Arsenal.
Soldiers' Deputies (page 48). The resistance of
Possibly the Colonel and the Brigadier General
Kerensky in July and October was not much more rigid
than that of the Czar in February (March) (page
are prejudiced somewhat by self interest in recom-
76]. Undoubtedly, much of what has been done by
mending the continuance of poison gas in warfare,
the Bolsheviki, could and should have been done by the
and, by implication, of warfare itself. Possibly they
Provisional Government (page 81).
did not lie half-blinded and half-suffocated in
In spite of the opinion of General Oberutcheff,
trenches charged with the breath of death, nor toss
the establishment of the All-Class Zemstvo did not
in vain search for relief from the agony of livid
shake the strength and the position of the Soviets,
Alesh that had been caressed with humane mustard
while the adventure of General Korniloff only
strengthened them. In September, 1917, the Soviets
as these two warriors advance?
called a democratic Congress and at that time it was
Schenectady, N. Y.
.
At
it becomes
H.S. TRECARTIN.


1919
517
THE DIAL
mann.
THE
Notes on New Books
rather than in the material, for most of the glimpses
of life are not different from what has been en-
countered before in some guise. We are given pen
IOLANTHe's WEDDING. By Hermann Suder-
pictures of village characters, tiny flashes of person-
159 pages.
Boni & Liveright.
ality set down with sober sympathy. We review
Sudermann is an expert in handling the massive the even succession of events which are the warp
and unruly phenomena of passion: nearly all of his and woof of unhorizoned lives, with now and then
various works testify to his absorption in the sinister a glow of vital tragedy, and now and then a touch
rather than the rapturously sentimental phases of of homely comedy. A Gray Dream is a looking
love. Nietzsche's caustic words“ but even your backward, through the eyes of a woman, upon “ the
best love is only an enraptured parable and a painful lengthening record of delectable days.” The style
heat give the measure of Sudermann's curiously is unpretentious, and its not infrequent felicities
tender and relentless .cynicism, which seems always seem to rise out of the author's quiet harmony with
earnestly seeking genuine beauty in sex relations, the period of which she writes rather than from
but is invariably conpelled to find more of purgatory conscious literary striving. Not a book for a wide
than of paradise.
public, but one which will be welcomed by those
Iolanthe's Wedding (which is but the longest of whose lives beat in tune with the New England
four stories in this little volume) is a very grace memories which it evokes.
fully told story of an elderly nobleman and a beauti-
ful girl whose betrothal to him was the result of RUSSIA FROM THE VARANGIANS TO
parental intrigue rather than love. The nobleman BOLSHEVIKS. By Raymond Beazley, Nevilſ
himself tells us the story, beginning with the death Forbes, and G. A. Birkett. 601 pages. Ox-
of his best friend, his meeting with the parents of ford University Press.
Iolanthe, the girl herself, and his growing love for
her—a love he consistently makes fun of, in a
The presumptuous subtitle is justifiable only in
wistful way. But his dead friend has a son, Lothar,
so much as the book presents a kaleidoscopic cat-
and it develops, immediately after his marriage to
alogue of the more important events that took place
Iolanthe, that she and Lothar have long been des-
in Russia between the ninth century and the abdica-
perately in love with each other and are considering
tion of the last Romanov. Beyond this qualification,
the work of the British professors scarcely meets the
a double suicide as the only way out of an intoler-
able situation. The old nobleman hides his pro-
obvious need for a comprehensive interpretative ac-
found adoration of Iolanthe and keeps them both
count of the history of Russia. The meritorious
alive by getting divorced from the girl. The story
impartiality of the authors is quite evident; but this
merit becomes dubious when one finds their lack of
ends with the old gentleman climbing into his
bias tantamount to lack of point of view. More-
beloved army cot and putting himself to sleep with
over the triunity of the authorship is responsible
an account of certain campaigns of the Franco-
for a lack of unity and uniformity in the strụcture
Prussian War. Presumably Iolanthe and Lothar
are married, but Sudermann spares us the corrosive
of the book and in the transliteration of Slavonic
solvent of his irony: for once in a way he will per-
Mr. Beazley's Hedwig is rightly trans-
mit us to imagine a happy ending.
formed by Mr. Forbes into Jadwiga, to cite a typical
instance. Neither do the authors possess an equal
The Woman Who Was His Friend, the
second story, is a fragment of concentrated bitter-
sense of proportion. There are pages and pages of
ness, presented in the form of a letter. The theme
entertaining narrative relative to the semi-legendary
is the eternal incompatibility between friendship period of Russian history (Book 1), whereas less
and love; despite a rather sentimental tone the
than a page is given to the Decembrist uprising
episode is forcefully told. The remaining two tales,
(Book III). Were Mr. Birkett guilty of critical
-New Year's Confession, and The Goose Herd-
vision, or at least of a point of view, he would not
dismiss this uprising as a parody of the court revo-
are linked to the others in subject matter and treat-
One can thank Adele Seltzer for very
lutions of the eighteenth century." The Decem-
sympathetic translation.
brists struck the keynote of the revolutionary move-
ments in Russia which culminated in the two revo-
lutions of 1917. The platform of Colonel Pestel,
A GRAY DREAM. By Laura Wolcott. 288 the soul of the Decembrist movement, was virtually
pages. Yale University Press; New Haven.
Bolshevist, advocating as it did a Federative Repub-
The method and the mood of sketches cling to lic, the abolition of class privileges, the nationaliza-
all the contents of this volume, though part of it
tion of the land, and even a temporary dictatorship!
aspires to consideration as stories. But where the The failure of the Decembrists to overthrow the
aim has been fiction, the effect is scarcely less sketchy Czar does not justify the contemptuous treatment
than in the pieces plainly of that genre. All the
allotted them by Mr. Birkett. One of those dream-
things are tinted in the same soft shades, and there ers, Kahovskoy, shouted from the scaffold to his
is the flavor of New England from cover to cover.
executioner: You've caught the pike, but his teeth
'The book's value is perhaps chiefly in the flavor are at large.” In the words of Alexander Herzen,
-
names.
ment.


518
THE DIAL
May 17
independent of social relationships, free to indulge village theme is a mark of the growing democratic
ment of the deus ex machina-a wrecked delivery about to disappear, it established itself in literature.
Only within the last decade have the Hammonds
and others told the full story of the destruction
the old village society. Many readers victims of
the cannon, the Senate Square (1825] aroused a sisters. This understanding of sisters however is
whole generation.” Thus the book on nineteenth quite remarkable. Mr. Swinnerton knows the secret
century Russia starts out by overlooking the import intricacies of sex rivalry_woman against woman,
ance of an event which laid its stamp on all the sisters against sisters. Jenny and Emmy in Nocturne
succeeding movements of the Russian revolutionary are perfectly drawn: similarly here Adela Veronica
forces. On the whole the third book is much weaker and Judith are alive, human, passionate, combative.
and thinner than the first two. The more recent It is difficult to recall another author who has so
the events the more journalistic appears their treat successfully and intimately mastered the presentation
ment. Again one is struck with the authors' peculiar of sisterly love and hatred.
sense of proportion, when after a parsimoniously
condensed account of the important events in the TETON Sioux Music. By Frances Densmore.
last fifteen years one comes in the concluding pages 561 pages.
Government Printing Office;
upon a verbatim reproduction of the abdication Washington.
manifestoes of Nicolas II and of his brother,
This is a work of the utmost value. The Indian
Michael. One is tempted to suggest a reason for
the superiority of the first two portions of the
customs are rapidly vanishing; the Indians them-
book: Messrs. Beazley and Forbes have made con-
selves prefer not to talk; the buffalo hunts are over;
scientious use of the work of the great Russian his-
the war ceremonies have gone. This author how-
torian, Kluchevsky. But Kluchevsky's history does
ever has collected, arranged, and analyzed their
not reach the nineteenth century, and Mr. Birkett,
songs with enthusiasm and patience. The difficul-
with his faculty for “overlooking,” has failed to
ties were immense: Indian scales are different; their
consult the work of Kluchevsky's follower
, Kornilov, familiar, and often curiously complex. The drum
intervals are different; their rhythms are un-
the author of a standard book on nineteenth century
Russia.
and the voice, for example, often seem entirely in-
dependent of each other. But the author is not
exclusively interested in music; that in fact is only
SHOPS AND HOUSES. By Frank Swinnerton.
the focus of the book. There are elaborate and
320 pages. Doran.
sympathetic accounts of ceremonies, legends, phil
.
There is an old fallacy in Mr. Swinnerton's in- osophy, medicine, symbolisms, societies, games, and
teresting new novel-a study of social life in a dances, illustrated by photographs and colored te
small community. He presents the hypothesis that productions of the Indians own paintings
. The
society in such a community excludes the individual,
translations of Indian poetry alone would justify
cruelly represses him and belittles him; whereas the
the book's existence. Musicians however should be
society of a large city, in contrast, receives this.same
especially interested in the rhythms, the curious
individual sympathetically and democratically.
method of building a melody by rhythmic phrases,
Surely that is not the true state of affairs. Exactly
and the non-tonal tunes.
the same kind of conflict that takes place in Beck-
with takes place in London or any other large city
THE ENGLISH VILLAGE: A Literary Study,
when people try to break into a set which is not
1750-1850. By Julia Patton. 236 pages.
The butler is prejudiced against the
Macmillan.
new chauffeur, and the duchess antagonistic to the Dr. Patton discusses the literature of the English
parvenu wholesale
grocer. Moving to London only village as a
dodges the subject; it does not solve it.
chapter in the social history of Eng;
Social
climbers are everywhere alike-petty, comtumelious,
land." No purely literary study—having regard
cruel.
to origins, relations, developments, types—would
where alike?'em in the social worla, assuredly, we het has been constitute a distinct genre. It is without
have been feasible, for the literature of the village
are very much alike. What London really does
offer is not an escape from the social conflict but
unity of conception or a common form, and it was
an escape from social life itself. In a city the in-
written in response to the most diverse influences.
dividual can live as an individual,
In the history of the Romantic Movement, the
comparatively
century
individualistic predilections.
In the development of his story, Mr. Swinnerton
spirit; it is also the expression of a sweeping social
swerves curiously from a realism, vigorous and au-
change. As the old-time village, with its unenclosed
thentic, to a romanticism that permits the employ Spirit
, its rich traditions of an immemorial para cures
common, its self-sufficient isolation, its communal
wagon and other interpolated impedimenta. As a
result, the issues are worked out through the agency
of accidents, chance, disease, and the like. It is
strange that Mr. Swinnerton, the realist, writes a
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of
scene like that of The Concert, which might easily
be a chapter in a Louisa May Alcott novel about
the usual method of teaching literature as if it
flourished in a vacuum-must have felt a thrill at
their own.


1919
519
THE DIAL
VI ET VERITAS
ותמים
HAROLD J. LASKI'S NEW BOOK
AUTHORITY IN THE MODERN STATE
“The real danger in any society is lest decision on great events secure only the passive
concurrence of the mass of men. It is only by intensifying the active participation of men
in the business of government that liberty can be made secure. For there is a poison in power
against which even the greatest of nations must be upon its guard. The temptation demands
resistances; and the solution is to deprive the state of any priority not fully won by performance."
A paragraph from Mr. Laski's book. Cloth. $3.00
IDEALISM AND THE MODERN AGE
By George Plimpton Adams, Ph. D.
Of the University of California
"Now, I am persuaded that amidst all the manifold traditions which lie embedded within our
age, there is, through vast reaches of our life and thought, a single idea system which is at work.
That many of the fundamental categories of our thinking and of the basic concepts to
which the modern age has become habituated, need to be overhauled and reconstructed, is the
unescapable lesson of the present situation, which he who runs may read. This essay is an
attempt to understand something of that idea system in the midst of which the present age has
been living its life.”
A paragraph from Mr. Adams' book. Cloth. $2.50
THE HISTORY OF HENRY
FIELDING
By Wilbur L. Cross, Ph. D.
"A masterpiece of biographical writing.”-Samuel
C. Chew in Modern Language Notes
"Not only a monument of sound, patient deep
delving scholarship and original research extend-
ing over many years, but is also a fascinatingly
readable narrative and a keen, intelligently sym-
pathetic critique and estimate of Fielding, the
man and the artist."-New York Sun.
3 volumes, cloth, photogravures, $15.00. Sets
autographed by Mr. Cross, $25.00.
THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND
OTHER ESSAYS
By William Graham Sumner, LL. D.
Edited by Albert Galloway Keller, Ph.D.
The fourth and last volume of Sumner's col-
lected essays, containing chapters on the philos-
ophy of strikes, free trade, tariff reform, the co-
operative commonwealth, integrity in education,
and other economic subjects. Bibliography, and
index to four volumes of Sumner's Complete
Essays. Cloth, $2.50. Set of four volumes, $10.00.
THE QUIT-RENT SYSTEM IN
THE AMERICAN COLONIES
By Beverley W. Bond, Jr., Ph.D.
(Yale Historical Publications, Miscellany, Vol. VI)
The feudal restraints upon the land in colonial
times, how they were managed and in what meas-
ure they were eventually eliminated. Cloth, $3.00.
RURAL RECONSTRUCTION IN
IRELAND
By Lionel Smith-Gordon, M. A. (Oxon.), and
Laurence C. Staples, A. M.
The interesting story of the successful move-
ment initiated by Plunkett in Ireland for the
establishment of coöperative creameries, credit
societies, and societies for the purchase of farm-
ers' supplies. Cloth, $3.00.
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
120 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut 280 Madison Avenue, New York City
When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL.


520
May 17
THE DIAL
causes.
the proof that The Deserted Village was not a haze and finds it good. Though she is made to
“beautiful piece of irrelevant pathos,” but a true recite a dozen or so undeniably "made" tales, she
picture of what the great Enclosure movement was recounts them in so shrewdly humorous a fashion as
bringing about in England. It was clearly the op to make them entirely delightful. And Ma Petten-
portunity of the literary student to reexamine the gill herself, by right of her spicy vernacular and
old familiar village literature in the light of this this same shrewd humor, belongs, with Pudd’nhead
new body of social fact. This Dr. Patton has done, Wilson and Mr. Dooley, in the apostolic succession
with fine literary appreciation and keen social sense. of Simon-pure American humor,
That the result is in one way a little disappointing
is not the author's fault. Disinherited peasants, JACQUOU THE REBEL. By Eugène Le Roy.
victims of an agrarian revolution more obscure but
415 pages. Dutton.
no less sweeping than the Industrial Revolution, Nono: LOVE AND THE Soil. By Gaston Roup-
exiled laborers, villages sinking into poverty and nel. 272 pages. Dutton.
crime—what did literature do with this tragedy?
Typically, it looked backward to the village of the
The Library of French Fiction, edited by Barnet
past, to Auburn in its happier days. Dr. Patton
J. Beyer, proposes to follow in the wake of the war
brings out the full social significance of Crabbe's
and to make known to a sympathetic but non-
stern realism and of Burns' sturdy assertion of
French-reading United States the "distinctive insti-
peasant independence; she stresses all the scattered
tutions” and “unique social and intellectual life" of
references to enclosure, to the grim
France by means of a series of translations from
House,” to the
unjust game laws; and she notes the groping after
contemporary French novels., A sense for the pic-
Yet from her study emerges the fact that
turesque in landscape and customs—whose exploi-
literature lagged behind life.
tation was one of the marks of nineteenth century
England's peasant
slave, the trodden down, the parish paid, in soul
romanticism-reinforced by the intense French at-
and body bowed,” was not wholly neglected in the
tachment to the national soil, has produced a line
literature of the village. But this literature does
of novels whose care for local color makes them so
little to break the force of the statement made by
intensively interpretative of provincial life that they
the Hammonds, that "the obscurity which sur-
seem designed for instruction of the foreigner.
rounded the poor in life has settled on their wrongs
Novels, like individuals, are of mixed ancestry; but
in history."
whatever the crosses with naturalistic schools in both
France and Russia, such novels as Jacquou the Rebel
MA PETTENGILL. By Harry Leon Wilson.
and Nono derive directly from the provincial novels
324 pages. Doubleday, Page.
of George Sand.
If Harry Leon Wilson has a genius for any-
There is so little the ring of invention, so little
thing—and it is within the range of possibility that
even the air of reshaping, in Jacquou the Rebel that
he has—it is most evident in the touch of burlesque
one is inclined to accept Jacquou as a genuine local
with which he gives point to personality. Tricks
character whose story has become a part of the tra-
dition of the countryside. The grasp of the forces
of manner, quaintnesses of speech, strange quirks
and eccentricities—all of them humanly significant
that formed the character of the peasant rebel-
he catches aptly and repeats. Like the calcium man
that is the contribution of the novelist's sophistica-
with his spotlight, he picks out dim figures on the
tion, certainly. But the murder of the villainous
darkened stage and throws them into a picturesque
steward, the assault and razing of the chateau-the
reality more real than life. But this genuine knack
tale of these must still persist among the descendents
of Mr. Wilson's is at once his opportunity and his
of witnesses.
limitation. The cowmen, old Safety First Cum-
French critics has said, "that the author is absent
mins, the little guest from “ Grenitch ” Village ap-
while the book goes on quite by itself, unrolls of its
pear engagingly before us in the grease paint and
own momentum.”
full costume of their several roles, and speak their
matter-of-fact way, such a story of peasant oppres-
lines with conviction; but it requires a deal of in-
sion and misery would out-Dickens Dickens for
genuity on Mr. Wilson's part to keep them moving
pathos. The novel is told as the direct recital of
across the stage. He has been so busy with their
the hero, and perhaps the only sign of strain iş
make-up that he hasn't had time to give them minds.
exactly the details of local superstition, habit, and
They have no inwardness, no urge to move in any
history. Nono's story is less outwardly striking and
particular direction, or in fact to move at all, so
more complex. The reader gets at it by layers
.
that Mr. Wilson must needs shove them. But Ma
There are first fragments of Nono's tavern ac-
Pettengill, the stalwart ranchwoman who emerged,
counts—baited by his fellow-habitues—of the mar-
an upstanding figure, from Ruggles of Red Gap,
riage of his youth; gradually these fragments fall to-
suffers from none of the limitations of her creator's
gether into a connected narrative, and finally we
method. Tipped back in her chair on the ranch-
are at the heart of an idyl of the vineyards—Nono's
house porch, wreathing herself in clouds of cigar-
love for the sweetheart of his childhood, a love that
ette smoke, she savors life through this pleasant
overlooks her violation by Renardin, the villain of
" It seems,” one of Eugène Le Roy's
Treated in any other than this
the countryside. But Nono's old father under-


1919
521
THE DIAL
BOOKS OF MOMENTOUS INTEREST
PRESIDENT WILSON'S
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a
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When President Wilson appealed to the con-
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Taking each land separately, “Stakes of
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In the inevitable progress of the race—from pairs
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522
THE DIAL
May 17
I
brutes's
man.
C
И
a
those whose unquestioning resignation had endured
stands more of the intricate nature of the girl. “I tionary soldiers and workmen are sullen, obstinate,
know you've a good heart," he tells her. “But dull, brazen, furtive, or evil-looking. “Scalawags,"
your head is a little fanciful, and the flesh is ever “ruffians,
are the favorite epithets. No
knavish. Well!" So that, the idyl done, and the conversations with these workmen, soldiers, and sail-
old man dead whose knowledge of life had kept its ors are recorded. The tragedy of Russia reveals
various forces in equilibrium, the melancholy of the itself in the slouch of a sentry, the failure to sal
fanciful head unites with the knavish flesh to lead an officer, the entry of privates into a first-class
Nénette back to Renardin. And to others. There restaurant car. When the soldier in the hospital
is finally the moment of anger and Nono turns out suffered with patient, uncomplaining, unquestioning
his wife. And yet they would both regain the resignation; when the masses knelt, weeping, cheer-
idyl if they could; they both feel it still as a living ing, and singing, as the Czar passed by on his way
thing.
to the cathedral—then Miss Buchanan loved and
Humanity both novels have. And the qualities pitied the simple-hearted Russian. Later, her pity
of the soil run like sap in these peasant lives; so is for the poor, bewildered, old-fashioned soldier who
that, as one ground produces wheat and another no longer has a Little Father to die for; for the old
grapes,- Perigord nourishes a Jacquou and Ber white-bearded general in fur hat and scarlet-lined
gundy a Nono.
cloak, who' is pitifully grateful for the unexpected
saluté of an English officer; for the upper-class
THE HEART OF PEACE. By Laurence Hous women whose relatives lost their lives and whose
140 pages. Small, Maynard; Boston. estates were plundered during the agrarian troubles
.
For if you harp too long your harp becomes a
Her admiration is for the fierce, well-disciplined
hurdy-gurdy,” grinds out Laurence Housman in
Cossacks who ride down the Kronstadt sailors, and
Farewell to Town. And hurdy-gurdy in their con-
for the faithful though cruel police who stuck to
ventionality of thought and in their mechanical
their posts to the end, firing with their machine
nature seem the tunes of this poet, although we
guns upon the people. Mr. Stebbing's hero is
cannot assign him the stridency of the instrument
Kornilov, and his hope is for the appearance of the
mentioned. We must grant that occasionally he
strong man.” Both muse, in empty churches or
shows some originality, as in The Quick and the
in the halls of the Winter Palace, upon the majesty
Dead; that he does give us passages of beauty in
of the old faith, or on the scenes of splendor when
The Beautiful Heart and in one or two songs; and
those halls were thronged with the noblest and love-
that A Goodly Heritage and Armageddon-And
liest and greatest of the Empire. Miss Buchanan
After are better war poems than some of his more
hears the savage laugh of a workman in the desolate
famous brother poets of England have written.
city of Peter the Great, once the scene of golden
But the remainder of his volume merely justifies
pomp and revelry—and of Bloody Sunday mas-
H. L. Mencken's dictum that all poets should be
sacres. Mr. Stebbing quotes with no mark of disap-
killed at twenty-six.
proval the opinion of an old regime official that,
until the new generation is educated, the only way
FROM CZAR TO BOLSHEVIK. By E. P. Steb-
to rule is with the whip. For, bad as the old regime
bing. 322 pages. Lane.
was, it maintained order, protected property, and
THE CITY OF TROUBLE. By Meriel Buchanan.
made the law respected. In short, it had “ dignity
242 pages. Scribner.
and distinction."
Who is the author? and what were his opportuni- they emphasize different aspects. Mr. Stebbing his
Although the two writers record the same events,
ties for observing the Russian Revolution? These
are questions the wise reader asks concerning each
most concerned with the military situation on the
new book on Russia.
various Russian fronts, and with the political
To ignore the political or
class bias of the competent eye-witness is scarcely operations. His diary is full of political gobie
changes in the capital as they affect the army's
Both Mr. Stebbing and Miss Buchanan's lived speeches, and of reports from the
army. Mis
less, foolish than to swallow every traveler's tale. significant and trivial, of extracts from interminable
through the Kerensky regime in Petrograd; Miss
Buchanan was also resident there during the last
Buchanan is an artist. She selects with a sure in-
years of the Czar's power. Both are of the British
stinct the picturesque scenes, the dramatic incidents
,
privileged class: Miss Buchanan is the daughter of
of the court, the street, and the hospital. She has
the British ambassador; Mr. Stebbing was for
a rare feeling for the beauty of sunset, of shadows,
years an official in the Anglo-Indian service. Their
of opal or copper tinted waters, of gilded domes and
slender spires
, golden bells, blue seas, snowy forests,
opinions they quote are largely those of members of beauty in the crimson banners of the Revolution",
the privileged class in Russia: bankers, generals, of-
ficials, and diplomats of the old regime, industrial
they were always "grimy," or
magnates, leaders of the more conservative political
--and felt no thrill at the new light in the eyes of
groups. To both observers the faces of the revolu-
too long.
many
It is a pity she saw no


1919
THE DIAL
523
POM
Ave at 27 ST
AULALANGUAGES
JOHN BAUER the genial, charming and
unequalled Swedish Artist The Great European Treaties
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Of the Nineteenth Century, edited
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SIR
passed away. The mysterious accident on Lake Vettern
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on the 20th of Nover last year brought also to a
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ANATOLE FRANCE
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524
THE DIAL
May 17
The Toys of Peace, by H. H. Munro (illustrated; 303
pages; Lane), is made up of some thirty very brief
Books of the Fortnight
Problems of Peace: From the Holy Alliance to the
League of Nations, by Guglielmo Ferrero (281 pages;
Problems of Reconstruction, by Isaac Lippincott (340 Putnam), is a summary and running comment on the
pages; Macmillan), will be of greater permanent history of Europe from 1815. Mr. Ferrero finds that
value than most of the books on reconstruction, be the chief problem of peace during the nineteenth
cause the author does not concern himself with
century was the opposition between divine right and
meliorative reforms but with fundamental problems popular sovereignty as principles of rule. The
of war production and administration. He realizes only problem of peace that he sees in the present is
that the problems must be worked out as engineers the complete satisfaction of the claims of Italy to
work; that they cannot be solved by opinions. If
compensate for her unparalleled chivalry in rush-
his summary of the problems of production is of ing to the aid of the Allies and her surpassing losses
greater interest than his review of suggestions for on their behalf.
reconstruction, that is because the issues are clear
as they have never been clear before and all sug Mexico Under Carranza, by Thomas E. Gibbon (270
gested solutions are pitifully inadequate to our needs. pages; Doubleday, Page), betrays its animus in its
sub-title: "A Lawyer's Indictment of the Crowning
Democracy in Reconstruction, by Joseph Schaefer and Infamy of Four Hundred Years of Misrule." It is a
Frederick A.: Cleveland (506 pages; Houghton Mif-
flin; Boston), is a symposium of opinions on political
piece of special pleading leading to the familiar
conclusion that intervention is the only solution.
and social betterment from men in good academic
standing. The opinions are familiar, and the sug The I. W. W.: A Study of American Syndicalism, by
gestions for reconstruction are uninfluenced by the
Paul Frederick Brissenden (Columbia University
recent industrial upheavals induced by the war.
Press), wisely treats the I. W. W. neither as a
The Society of Free States, by Dwight W. Morrow
philosophy nor as a contribution to pure theory, but
(224 pages; Harper), offers a comprehensive account
presents a comprehensive and impartial historical
of earlier attempts at the establishment of world
account of the organization as a militant tactic from
its inception to date. The book contains excerpts
peace, now culminating in the League of Free Na-
tions, and an analysis of the Covenant submitted
from the I. W. W. Song Book and a valuable bibli-
ography,
February 14, 1919. Mr. Morrow's point of view is
limited to that of the Covenant makers themselves.
Old Saws and Modern Instances, by W. L. Courtney
For consideration of the subject from a wider social
(269 pages; Dutton), is a new collection of essays by
point of view, see Mr. Veblen's article in this issue
the editor of The Fortnightly." An inquiry into the
of THE DIAL.
conditions and limitations of Dramatic Realism is
Characters from the Histories and Memoirs of the
perhaps the most substantive of my aims in this
Seventeenth Century, by David Nichol Smith (329
book, which also includes some purely historical es-
pages; Oxford University Press), calls attention to
says" The three essays on Dramatic Realism are
the interest of the seventeenth century in personality
accompanied by two on The Idea of Comedy, which
and studies of human life as reflected in biography
supplement his admirable book The Idea of Tragedy
and history. The most noteworthy selections here are
(1900), and by discussions of Hardy and Aeschy-
from Clarendon, whose great and neglected merit
lus; Aristophanes, the Pacifist; Patriotism and Ora-
as an analyst of character is made abundantly evi-
tory (with reference to Demosthenes, Lincoln, and
dent. The introduction traces the influence of char-
Venizelos); Sappho and Aspasia; Marcus Aurelius;
Brieux as
acter writing in the manner of Theophrastus, of clas-
a Moralist; the “human" Euripides;
sical historians, and of the French memoirs.
and Sir Herbert Tree and the English Stage: A
book rich with the seasoned thought of a scholar
Banners, by Babette Deutsch (104 pages; Doran), is
who is equally at home in the ancient and the modern
the first volume of verse from a poet who has fre-
worlds.
quently contributed to The Dial. Her vers libre-
which is genuine vers libre-is delicate in mood but
The Moon of the Caribbees, by Eugene O'Neill (217
discloses a restrained intensity and a faculty for
pages; Boni & Liveright), includes Six Other Plays
colorful image. The volume also contains some
of the Sea: Bound East for Cardif, The Long Voyage
sharply etched lyrics in the regular forms, some in-
Home, In the Zone, Ile, Where the Cross is Made,
teresting experiments in irregular rhymed verse, and
and The Rope. The atmosphere that on the stage
a few sonnets, undistinguished except for one to Ran-
saturates these brief dramatic studies persists in the
dolph Bourne.
printed plays and carries them successfully through
The New Morning, by Alfred
not a little halting action and commonplace motiva-
Stokes), contains more war poems, American poems
Noyes
(172 pages;
tion. Picture, dialect, and mood contribute more to
between 1912 and 1917, and a miscellany that might
this magic than do 'the characters, who are often
sentimentalized, or the events, which may be quite
be made up of pieces omitted from earlier volumes
melodramatic.
--if Mr. Noyes ever omits. Except for a few rollick-
ing sea chanteys there is no evidence here that his
Travelling Companions, by Henry James (309 pages;
muse has altered, or will alter, her now familiar and
Boni & Liveright), contains seven stories, published
too pedestrian gait.
between 1870 and 1874, of the type made familiar by
The Earth Turns South, by Clement Wood (149 pages;
the collections in The Passionate Pilgrim and in A
Dutton), will confirm the reader of his earlier volume
Bundle of Letters. The material of most of them is
of verse-Glad of Earth (Gomme, 1917)—in the sus-
the rather thin cosmopolitanism of James' early years.
picion that Mr. Wood has rather more of the will
The pallid characters and self-conscious style are
than of the talent for poetry.
pleasantly reminiscent of the affectations of that in-
teresting period.
Alice Sit-by-the-Fire, by J. M. Barrie (139 pages; Scrib-
ner), the sixth volume in the new uniform edition
of the Barrie plays, is in print, as in Miss Barry-
more's production, a very dilute solution of the au-
thor's fantasy.
such lightness of touch and complete spontaneity as
to make their nonsense most infectious.


1919
525
THE DIAL
a flaming
romance of
rebellion
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PHILOSOPHY AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM
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526
May 17
THE DIAL
memora-
Current News
gle; in all of them it is the pleasant, the heroic side
of war that the authors choose to stress. Entirely
Dishonesty is the national sin of America,” says absent from their picture is the uncompromising
Christian, one of the characters in Basil King's truthfulness of Siegfried Sassoon and his indignation
novel The City of Comrades (Harper). And one at the system that lets war come to pass :
divines that the author himself is speaking. Dis-
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
honesty—of workmanship—is also the fault of Mr.
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
King's story. He does not face his problems squarely. Sneak home and pray you never know
When his hero, rescued from dipsomania by the The hell where youth and laughter go.
efforts of the Down and Out Club, is rebuffed by The crowd will never know if they depend on these
the heroine on account of his past misdeeds—in authors. These will never draw aside the veil.
other words when an apparent impasse has been Their account of the war is fuller, more studied, but
reached—the author discovers that the Archduke
no more true and no more vivid than that of the
Ferdinand must have been murdered about this
average newspaper,
time,' and ships Frank Melbury off to the wars. John Finley's A Pilgrim in Palestine (Scribner)
When he returns, a Canadian major with a fash-
is the product of a conscientious effort to recount
ionable limp, affairs have of course altered. In due each step of the journey on foot through Palestine
time the wars, by disposing of Melbury's rival, save as the “first American pilgrim” after its recovery
the heroine from her impasse as well.
by General Allenby. Mr. Finley, a sincere and
In Victorious (Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis) earnest pilgrim through holy places, is genuinely
Reginald Wright Kauffman tries to invest the same impressed, is awed into a delightfully solemn and
national characteristic—exemplified in this case by
reverent mood—and rendered - inarticulate. Now
army contractors—with an epic quality.
He at-
and again he turns for self-expression to mediocre
tempts much more than Mr. King; he fails more verse—and returns, frustrate. In less
signally and for similar reasons. On his canvas he ble" matters—in his chapter on the personal quali-
includes the whole of America at war: the country
ties' of General Allenby, for instance—he is on firm
towns in 1917; the debarkation camps; Paris; the ground and succeeds well. The volume is consid-
American front. He knits the story together with erably brightened by some excellent photographs.
recurrent references to munition frauds and bureau Greenwich Village receives for once a not un-
cratic inefficiency. At times he rises to a noble worthy treatment in I've come to Stay, by Mary
anger, but he accomplishes little in the end, for he Heaton Vorse (Century). Mrs. Vorse writes well
;
mingles the inevitability of tragedy with the shoddy the characters maintain a high level of conversa-
of circumstance. Moreover the motto of the eternal tional cleverness, and Sonya, the super-child who
journalist—" Cherchez la femme,' or in plain turns cart-wheels in the street to express her individ-
American, “Go heavy on the sex stuff"_interferesuality, is an entertaining creature. The reader be-
constantly with his larger purposes.
It is a journalistic view of the war, again, that
comes at once a joyful partner in this gay romance.
Through M. de Wal the radicals confined in the
ruins The American (Century). In this case the
journalism is sentimental and reeks of the press
Deporting Division at Ellis Island, New York
office of the Y. M. C. A. Mary Dillon's novel
Harbor, have appealed for good reading-matter.
shows in addition the futility of the old situations-
Donors may feel assured that books and periodicals
the romantic triangle, for example—against the by readers who now find time heavy with inactivity
.
addressed to him there will be greatly appreciated
background of a world in arms. When chance
places the rival suitors of her novel in the same
Art Young and Ellis O. Jones have issued the
first number of Good Morning, a humorous weekly
,
company, one is willing to give some credence to
the story
, for such things do happen, even if only York City
. It is devoted to social and political
which they will edit at 7 East 15th Street
, New
once in ten thousand times. But when the heroine
takes up nursing and happens to be assigned to their
satire in cartoons, prose, and verse.
sector of the front, one begins to doubt. War, after
Contributors
all, is the great separator, not the great assembler,
Howard Mumford Jones is assistant professor of
of friends.
English in the University of Montana. He is the
Confronted by the same situation as the others,
translator of Heine's The North Sea, and the author
J. C. Snaith acquits himself with more polish but
of a recently published volume of verse, Gargoyles,
with little more understanding. In The Undefeated
and of various short stories.
(Appleton) he skimps on realities just as she does,
Wallace Gould is the author of Children of the
and emphasizes the obvious. At the beginning of
Sun: Rhapsodies and Poems (Cornhill, 1917). He
the book his characters are either weakly good or
is a resident of Madison, Maine.
strong and wicked; after a hundred pages, and the
The other contributors to this issue have previously
declaration of war, they become paragons of both
written for THE DIAL.
strength and virtue.
Leonora Speyer is a resident of New York City.
All of these books deal with the European strug- periodicals.
Poems of hers have recently appeared in various


1919
527
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528
May 17
THE DIAL
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The Symbolist Movement in Literature By ARTHUR SYMONS
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Balzac, Prosper de Merimee, Gerard de Narval, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt,
Stephane Mallarme, Paul Verlaine, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Arthur Rimbaud, Jules Laforgue, and Maeterlinck are among
the authors here interpreted.
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IN PREPARATION. BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Studies in the Elizabethan Drama By ARTHUR SYMONS
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The Secret of the Cross By EDMOND HOLMES
The Author of "The Tragedy of Education," one of the most arresting and original books on that subject, bere examines
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A New Study of English Poetry By HENRY NEWBOLT, M.A., D.Litt.
An extremely suggestive study of poetry and its relations, to rhythm, to personality, to politics, to education, to the
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Old Saws and Modern Instances By W. L. COURTNEY
Exceedingly fascinating essays which aim to illustrate the discussion of modern questions—especially in the region of
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While Paris Laughed By LEONARD
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"Keep the Faith”
THE DIAL

A FORTNIGHTLY
VOL. LXVI
NEW YORK
NO. 791
MAY 31,
1919
.
"Keep the Faith"
533
THE REAL Sem Benelli
Robert Morss Lovett
534
AMERICANIZATION AND WALT WHITMAN
Winifred Kirkland 537
AMERICANIZING THE IMMIGRANTS
Carl H. Grabo 539
THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT.
Harold J. Laski
541
AMERICAN ART?
Maxwell Bodenheim
544
AN ATTITUDE TOWARD POETIC REVOLT.
Rollo Britten 545
CoQ D'OR. Verse
Amy Lowell 549
Mood. Verse .
Maxwell Bodenheim 549
STEAMBOAT Nights. Verse
Carl Sandburg 549
A PLAINT OF COMPLEXITY. Verse
Eunice Tietjens 550
REVEILLE. Verse
Lola Ridge 551
ON THE Hills. Verse
Eden Phillpotts 551
INDUSTRY AND THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY
Thorstein Veblen 552
CONRAD AIKEN-METAPHYSICAL POET.
John Gould Fletcher 558
RAINER MARIA RILKE
Martin Schütze 559
THE ROMANCE OF THE REALISTS
Babette Deutsch 560
THE CULT OF BRUTALITY
Louis Untermeyer 562
LONDON, MAY 10
Edward Shanks 563
SUN GLAMOUR. Verse .
Hazel Hall 564
EDITORIALS
COMMUNICATIONS: One Future for American Poetry.— The Path on the Rainbow.-, 568
The School Problem in Russia.—Brutes in Uniform.
Notes On New Books: The Years Between.- Lanterns in Gethsemane.-A Study of . 571
English Metrics.—Poems, by Gerard Manley Hopkins.—Poems, by Geoffrey Dearmer.-
Poems, by Michael Strange.—The Drums in Our Street.-Joyce Kilmer: Poems, Essays,
and Letters.—Candles That Burn.—Anthology of Magazine Verse: 1918.—The Writing
and Reading of Verse.—How to Read Poetry: - Books of the Fortnight.
A SELECTED LIST OF POETRY
CURRENT NEWS
.
.
565
580
582
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$3.00 a Year
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530
May 31
THE DIAL
AMONG NOTABLE RECENT BOOKS OF VERSE
The Earth Turns South
By CLEMENT WOOD
Alluring free verse by a young poet in tune with modern
social forces, sensitive to beauty of character as well as
of nature-by some critics held to be the truest South-
ern poet since Sidney Lanier.
Net, $1.50
My Child
By JEAN BERRY
Free verse, simple, naive, but so full of the wonder and
joy and content of a real mother in her child that one
thrills in sympathy for the genuine happiness the book
contains.
Net, $1.50
Lanterns in Gethsemane
By WILLARD WATTLES
The unusual qualities of these poems of religious er.
perience is the poet's keen sense of the reality of the
facts of faith, and bis power to impress that reality
upon bis readers.
Net, $1.50
Counter-Attack
By SIEGFRIED SASSOON
“Sassoon is master of the vivid phrase that burns itself
into the brain, his character delineation is sharp and
exact, his imagery unusual and often surprising, bis
satire a live, stinging thing, his love for nature real."-
Sunday News, Detroit.
Net, $1.25
The Old Huntsman
By SIEGFRIED SASSOON
An earlier volume of Mr. Sassoon's verse which affords
unusual insight into the soul of the beauty-lover, who,
hating war, won the Military Cross for distinguished
valor.
Net, $2.00
A NEW EDITION OF
A Lute of Jade
Selections from the Chinese Classical Poets Rendered
into English, with an Introduction by L. CRANMER-
BYNG, containing so much that is beautiful, so much of
genuine music and delicate fancy as to be exceedingly
interesting and valuable.
Net, $1.00
Net$
A New Study of English Poetry By HENRY NEWBOLT, M.A., D.Litt.
An extremely suggestive study of poetry and its relations—to rhythm, to personality, to politics, to education to be
poet's friends and to his wider audienceunacademic, exceedingly interesting.
Old Saws and Modern Instances By W. L. COURTNEY
Exceedingly fascinating essays which alm to Mustrate the discussion of modern questions especially in the region and
Thomas Hardy's Dynasts is related to the great plays of Aeschylus. Those who recall Mr. Courtney's essays on me
Idea of Tragedy " will find here the companion papers on
A study of " Aristophanes, the Pacifist " leads easily to essays on “ Principles of Patriotism " and " Patriotism, and
Oratory."
The Dickens Circle By J. W. T. LEY
Charles Dickens's original publishers consider this the most important work dealing with bis life and character which
study of the entire world in which Dickens revealed his amazing capacity for friendship, and the many sided tempera-
The range of its side-lights on well-known men and women of the Victorian age is surprising:
The Symbolist Movement in Literature By ARTHUR SYMONS
of ,
,
greatly enlarged edition of a work which is distinguished re qually by the charm of its writing, and its authority orection
cism. Through the medium of its great French exponents "Mr. Symons traces that irresistible impulse, the expression
Balzac, Prosper de Merimee, Gerard
de Narvel, Gustate hauberent
Charles Baudelaire, Edmund and Jules de Goncourt
Stephane Mallarme, Paul Verlaine, Joris-Karl Huysmans, ' Arthur Rimbaud, "Jules Laforgue, and Maeterlinck ere, al
In Preparation. By the Same Author
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THE DIAL
A FORTNIGHTLY
"Keep the Faith"
With us rests the choice to break through all the hypocrisies and
patent cheats and masks of brute force and help set the world free.-
December 1917.
No nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irre-
sponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and
abominable wrong.–December 1917.
The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by, so is also the
day of secret covenants.— January 1918.
The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations will be the acid
test of their good will.—January 1918.
WOODROW WILSON.
A
NATION that cannot keep its promises is weak. and blacken the historical character of the Ameri-
nation that will not keep its promises is faithless. can people.
Vithin the next few weeks the American people “The ultimate peace of the world and the libera-
just choose either to admit their helplessness or tion of its peoples " still remain to be achieved.
inction their betrayal.
The Treaty and Covenant block the path to a new
In entering the war we pledged ourselves to order. Hence The Dial rejects the Treaty and
eate a new international order. Our aim was demands an honest Covenant. Unless the Ameri-
othing less than to make the world “safe for can people have the moral honesty and the political
emocracy.” Spurred by our magnanimous state force to back up this demand, their promises are
ent of purposes the peoples of Europe, weary of fouted, their hopes are betrayed, and their pledges
e riot and carnage and death, stiffened their backs annulled.
bear a little while longer the burden of the war.
Now is the time for a lineup. On one side-
early three hundred thousand American soldiers submission, reaction, chaos, and warfare without
aled the pledge of honor with their blood. Mil end. On the other-resistance, progress, order,
ins more stood ready to make the sacrifice.
and the foundations of a genuine peace.
THE DIAL
The arrangements effected by the Peace Confer has frankly indicated the ground upon which it
ce are a mockery of our democratic faith and our stands. It believes that the American people must
ealistic promises. We are offered a peace “hold their purpose and their honor steady to a
hich only further warfare can keep intact. The common end,” and that they cannot boast them-
:ague of Nations has become a bond exacted by selves a free nation unless they are able to keep the
Not for such a pact did the American faith they have plighted. Holding that democracy
ople pledge their lives and their fortunes. We itself is at stake, The Dial appeals boldly for
league of honor." We cannot satisfy popular moral support. The daily press is venal.
rselves with the sort of honor that is found The national legislature is subservient. The liberal
long thieves. To accept the present treaty and journals must serve.
venant would betray the dead. It would sell Will you help us keep the faith?' The govern-
? common people of the world into the slavery of ment has failed. The American people must finish
petual militarism. It would smirch the honor
the job.
urers.
aght a


534
THE DIAL
May 31
briello for his hopeless love of Ginevra, and on
The Real Sem Benelli
IN ITALY DURING THE Years before the war one
tion of English melodrama—the late Elizabethan.
heard much of the rising fame of Sem Benelli. He The story might be one out of Boccaccio, and its
was a Tuscan, born at Prato—almost a Florentine. treatment is reminiscent of the way in which the
While yet in his twenties he was the author of a Elizabethans used that storehouse of dramatic ma-
great theatrical success, La Cena delle Beffe, as well terial—with this difference, that no decadent fol.
as of several plays upon which the popular verdict lower of Shakespeare would have chosen this story
was more doubtful. He had found a new mode of at all. To the Italians of the Renaissance the
Italian dramatic poetry, a dolce stil nuovo. In practical joke was a test of human power and of
the general opinion Italy had given to this genera that adroitness which they prized above strength,
tion a second romantic and poetic dramatist worthy of that compound of human forces which they
to stand beside D'Annunzio—and Rostand. But called virtú. To the English mind it is but a
before the name and plays of Sem Benelli reached piece of ingenuity aided by circumstance, clever
our shores the war intervened; and only now, ten but hardly worth telling. Thus in the Barty-
years after its brilliant premiere at the Teatro dell’ mores' version we have the effect of an Elizabethan
Argentina, comes La Cena in its American form of tragedy, Middleton's Changeling or Ford's "Tis
The Jest to Mr. Hopkins' theater as a vehicle
Pity She's a Whore, but with the difference that
for the talents of the Brothers Barrymore.
whereas the English plays have a basis of genuine
It must be said at once that the play has suffered passion to sustain them, the Italian lacks that raison
a sea-change. La Cena delle Beffe is in the origi- d’être. Its suffering seems gratuitous, invented. In
nal a historical play of character and atmosphere. other words, it is melodramic.
D'Annunzio's Francesca da Rimini is its rival—a
Giannetto Malespini has suffered long humilia-
play which diffuses from the old story immortalized tion at the hands of two brothers, Neri and Ga-
by Dante the very mood of the Middle Age, the
briello Chiaramantesi, bullies from Pisa. Neri has
spirit in which the Malatesti and Polentani played stolen Giannetto's lady-love Ginevra, and the two
their desperate match in Ravenna and Rimini, as
have beaten and nearly drowned him. Giannetto
the Baglioni at Perugia or the Estensi at Ferrara, has engaged his friend Tornaquinci to give a supper
a mood of threatening gloom as of winter, a spirit
to which he invites his enemies. Here at the out-
of fierce concentration upon self-preservation and the adaptation goes wrong.
aggrandizement relieved at moments by the tender
authorization, except John Barrymore's prejudice,
dawn of youth and spring, by a flash of matchless
for making Giannetto but eighteen years old, and
beauty, a song of infinite sweetness, which leads
the lovers back again into the “lightless night of
the story of persecution on his way to school by
the older, boys, who compel him to eat twelve blue-
night.” La Cena delle Beffe is of a period later by
bottle flies, however true to American life, does
two centuries, the noon of high Renaissance, in the
Florence of the magnificent Lorenzo, the home of
not belong to the play. Equally baseless is the ac-
artists and of artists in life, of men who still played
count of the grotesque torture inflicted on Gian-
with the same counters of love and death, but in
netto by the brothers, which is the immediate oc-
sport, seeking sources of new sensation in subtle
casion of his revenge—his trussing up on a barrel
compounds of pleasure and fear, finding expression
and the decoration of his hinder parts with pic-
for their artistic endeavor in giving to human ex-
tures drawn in blood with a knife. The possible
reason for this addition seems to be to strengthen
perience strange, grotesque, and yet symmetrically
exact forms; a period when they had learned to act
the motivation; the adapter does not trust to
the Renaissance concept of a jest and fears that
more lightly, to dare more negligently, to bear
themselves more gracefully, to pluck the exquisite
his audience will find the play top-heavy with its
terrific structure of revenge built upon so slight
moments of life more casually, to parody the great
struggle for the survival of the fittest with a jest,
a foundation. The same reason doubtless explains
a beffa, and to make the jest a work of subtly con-
the metamorphosis of Ginevra from mistress to
Much of this
atmosphere is lost in the fishmonger seems entirely gratuitous
, perhaps a
fiancée—though her description as daughter of a
American adaptation. The Barrymores or their
reminiscence of Hamlet.
adapter have chosen to see in the play a melodrama,
and they have naturally fallen into the great tradi-
Giannetto begins his revenge by pitying Ga-
set
There is no
trived art.


1919
535
THE DIAL
that suggestion the younger brother departs. He
then challenges Neri to go to the shop of Ceccherino
in armor and bearing a sword. As Neri departs he
sends word to the bravi at the fencing-school that
Neri is mad and must be seized—and to Lorenzo
that the beffa has begun, and that it will be per-
fidious and beautiful.
In the next act Ginevra emerges from her cham-
ber to hear from a messenger how Neri has gone
mad and is in bonds—she is astonished, for is not
Neri within? No, it is Giannetto who comes forth
-a thief of love-trembling between desire and
fear. Here again the American adaptation refines
upon the original, for Giannetto makes it clear that
there has been nothing between them less innocent
than sleep. Was not Ginevra his fiancée? But
this change makes his scene with Neri (who appears
but is again captured) one of pure boasting.
Act III is in Neri's prison. He is tested by the
appearance of those who hate him, women whom
he has betrayed. One of them, Lisabetta, really
loves Neri and tells a falsehood in order to be
brought to him among the others. She counsels
him to feign actual madness so that Giannetto may
free him, and then asks that he be given into her
custody. Giannetto is terribly afraid, but he
savors his fear like a rare fruit or wine—and he
is mad to play out his beffa to the end. He-sets
Neri free:
I shall be (he says] this evening at Ginevra's house
at the usual hour. If you come, you kill me. I shall be
there! You know how danger is my bread and my wine.
My legs tremble when I reflect, but I shall be there. If
you are mad you will not come; if you are not, I find
my death.
Act IV is brief as a spasm of passion or of death.
It is again at the house of Ginevra. Neri forces
her to receive Giannetto, meaning to kill him in
her arms. Trembling with horror she agrees. Into
the night of fear comes a single star—the song of
a boy who loves Ginevra and sings under her win-
dow his song of May. A man enters wearing the
mantle of flame color which Giannetto has worn
in Act I. He goes in to Ginevra. Higher and
higher rises the boy's song of May into the sky
black with murder. There is a double cry of man
and woman. . Neri emerges with his bloody dag-
ger in his fist-in the Ame ican version, a blood-
stained white mantle to be confronted by the
pallid face of Giannetto, trembling in the joy of his
completed vengeance.
It was Gabriello, whom
love of Ginevra, planted by Giannetto's hate, has
lured to death and Neri is indeed mad.
In the acting, likewise, the Barrymores have fallen
back on the Elizabethan tradition. John Barry-
more, who has somehow grasped the fact that his
part is one of superheated intelligence, adopts the
pose of Hamlet, though his appearance is rather
that of Osric. Lionel Barrymore, as Neri, carries
off the first act with bluff bravado, a compound of
Falstaff and the Ancient Pistol. In one moment
indeed he raises the play from melodrama to pure
tragedy, when in Act III he stands chained to his
pillar, his head bowed, his face hidden, his body in-
ert and broken. Even Miss Maud Durand (who
is excellent) as Ginevra's servant has reminiscences
of Juliet's nurse. The real triumph of presenta-
tion, as has been generally agreed, is that of the set-
tings by Mr. Robert Edmond Jones. They restore
to the play in a measure that of which adaptation and
interpretation have deprived it—the atmosphere of
its period.
La Cena delle Beffe is, in its true form, a great
play because it is the perfect representation of char-
acter in action—although the action is but a jest.
Benelli's preoccupation with this chief of dramatic
problems, the relation of action to character, can
scarcely be understood without reference to his
other plays, particularly the one which preceded
La Cena and which might be called its antitype. In
The Mask of Brutus (La Maschera di Bruto, first
acted at the Teatro Lirico, Milan, in May 1908)
he chose for his action not a jest, but one of the
famous events of history, one of those deeds which
like the exploit of Judith or the death of Samson
or the temptation of Herod have fascinated the race
by its drawing together of human forces into one
moment of overwhelming action. Benelli's action
is that of Lorenzino dei Medici (Lorenzaccio),
who murdered his bastard cousin Alessandro, tyrant
of Florence by grace of the Emperor Charles V,
and first holder of the hated title of Grand Duke of
Tuscany. Lorenzino has always been a baffling
figure, incarnating within himself the worst vices
and weaknesses of rotting Italy, and 'yet strangely
capable of a deed that reminded men of Césare
Borgia, and made them wonder for a moment if
that great active spirit had not returned to earth
to bring back the glories of the days when the
Renaissance was action, and human character
was human force. This personality of Loren-
zino was Benelli's chief attraction to the story.
He loves his aunt Caterina with that mixture of
feeling, filial, fraternal, passionate, which fasci-
nated the Renaissance with its suggestion of being
beyond human sin; and twisted into this theme is
his love of Florence. The Grand Duke also de-
sires Caterina and Lorenzino stabs him. Then
fleeing he is hailed by the Florentine exiles as
Brutus, and the mask once assumed he can never
put it off. At the court of Francis I of France,
where he is an exile, Marguerite of Navarre, with
the novelist's instinct, pursues him. Is he really
-
-
-
-
-


536
THE DIAL
May 31
foreign reader to feel how smooth, plastic, undulat-
each other. Meanwhile outside the sacred portals tragic utterance-above all how the strain of fol-
sincere? As falsehood,” cries Lorenzino. At masked as precious stones. They will assist at the
last at Venice, he confesses, and dies by the hands session and reward with a suitable prize the poet
of Cosimo's assassins.
who triumphs. But outside rises higher the song
In Lorenzino Benelli has presented a character of the revellers:
in which the late Renaissance delighted, a man
Enjoy with gladness
played upon by conflicting passions, love of country,
For tomorrow comes sadness.
love of woman, love of fame-themselves capable of
Christ forsakes never
Him who sins with ardor.
assuming strange perverse forms—a personality with
He pardons ever
motives which bear no fruit in deeds, and deeds
Who repents with fervor.
which have no honorable parentage. He has given
For clearly the heart
Which Morgiveness would win
us a drama about a bastard act, written with the
Must know well the wisdom:
eloquence of deceit. The truth of the play is its
'Tis human to sin.
falsehood. My drama respects his mask," says There is tumult about the door and the revellers
Benelli, that which is most significant and most rush in. They are the company of the Man-
beautiful in him.
Art is also a game.” tellaccio—of the cloak—a singing company, men of
Of Benelli's other plays The Love of the Three the people, poets as well, who have forced the
Kings (L'Amore dei Tre Re) is known in Amer doors of the Inviolate to let in a little fresh air.
ica as the libretto of Montemezzis' opera. It takes It is agreed that they shall be admitted to the con-
us back into an earlier age, forty years after the con test, and the leader of the masks, the Emerald,
quest of Italy by the Lombards, the twilight of the promises to show her face to the victor as prize.
world—the period of D'Annunzio's La Nave. The L'Ardente begins a
canzone in the Petrarchan
blind old Lombard king Archibaldo recalls the con-
manner, but the lady is bored. Then the Novice
quest:
sings for the Mantellaccio, a song as different from
This goddess, rising between two seas, seemed to us
L'Ardente's as Walther's from Beckmesser's. The
solitary, with none to defend her-alone, unguarded,
Novice has won. Later he visits the Emerald and
virgin, who to the panting desire of us barbarians in-
clined her head, timid, shrouded in melanchóly. But her
tells her how his father was poet, a strolling singer;
members, hardly touched, awoke a morbid languor which how he grew up, a poet of nature; how love of her
diffuses itself through us all. And here with her we sit,
and lie, and love, and never one of us will leave her,
makes him more than ever poet. He leaves her,
this new mistress, all fresh, green, golden—and loving her
followed by L'Ardente, who forces him to a duel and
we weep that she is our slave, not our mother, because if she wounds him mortally, as the Emerald comes, bring-
were our mother she would teach us to conquer the world.
ing too late the love that would have saved him.
The play is a swift tragedy. The son of Archi-
The question which has been raised in regard
baldo, Manfedo, has married Fiora, of an ancient
Italian family. Her former betrothed, Avito, re-
to the verse of The Jest in English, calls attention
to the new dramatic medium which Sem Benelli
turns and she loves him. The old king's blindness,
has created. He has taken the Italian endecasyllabic
which prevents him from seeing and avenging the line—the established
dishonor of his house, is a touch of tragedy like poetic drama as the Alexandrine is of French-and
the presence of the blind wife in D'Annunzio's La
has used the permissible freedom of dividing it ac-
Città Morta. Fiora wavers between love of Avito
cording to the meaning of the speaker, and varying
and returning passion for Manfedo. She is
the value of syllables according to the natural
strangled by the old king, and her lovers die of the
rhythm of his speech, thus obtaining a freedom
poison with which he has anointed her lips. It is that is comparable to that achieved by Shakespeare in
the allegory of Italy—“the woman country, woo’ed
not wed, by earth's male lands”-and her
Hesitating him, making of the rigid blank verse a kind het
his later plays, and by the dramatists who followed
betrayal of her future with her past.
colloquial poetry.
In Il Mantellaccio, 1913, to choose one mo
imposed upon the established line of the Italian
of Benelli's plays, he comes again to the Renais-
sance to the seventeenth century
, whene che ci puntal effects of prose. Italian critics regard these
blank verse the larger rhythms and countless contra-
ture of Italy had stiffened into pedantry and her
innovations as re-creative. It is easy for even a
poetic genius had become an affair of learned clubs
the Accademia degli "Intemerati
, that is estien Tofingin accommodates itself to the staccato effect one
violate. The members are trying their verses on
his comic speech and the sonorous majesty of his
measure
of the Italian
In other words, Benelli has
the Carnival is on.
A group of ladies enter,
lowing the thoughts of men in a medium in which


1919
537
THE DIAL
they do not think is abolished. We can conceive And now for the final effect of his drama-is it
of Benelli's characters thinking in such verse as his. anything more than an assembly of scenes recalled
Another Elizabethan characteristic of Benelli is
from the past, a little local color, a few baffling fig-
his feeling for the word. We have come to rec-
ures set in clear light, a new collection of human
ognize the dramatic value of language itself—the
types, pathetic, aspiring, grotesque, a few new-old
difference between a play written in the vital speech,
phases of the endless struggle of man with man and
even if it be slang, of actual life, and one written
with himself for the meager gifts of the gods—love
in poetic or literary diction. But words themselves
and freedom and truth and unity? One is tempted
live and move, have in themselves being, expres-
to answer, protestingly, yes—but there are Benelli's
sion, action. This is truer of Italian words than
of those of any other modern speech. Benelli's
own words on the first page of La Cena delle Beffe:
words have characters, movements, lineaments of This poetic comedy is dedicated to Giulio di Frenzi,
beloved brother, who upon the shifting sand of art knows
their own. They are noble, generous, bold, false,
well how to trace and mark with his painful and subtile
cruel, hateful; they bear themselves boldly, rear pen the bounds of our evil-eternal and uniform, infinite,
themselves proudly; they fly, or they crawl, sneak,
crouch, prowl; they smile, frown, grin, weep; they
If this is all that Benelli will claim for his friend
storm and roar; they groan, mutter, hiss. We look it were impertinence to claim more for himself.
on their faces as on living forms. All this gives This is his philosophy and reason of art—to in-
an effect as of a kind of internal drama to his spire the eyes, to stir the senses, to quicken the
printed page.
As Giannetto tells of his persecu- pulses, to spur the lagging step, to purge the mind
tion at the hands of the brutal Chiaramentesi and of illusion and the soul of fear, to give higher value
takes revenge to be his mistress, we hear his suffer-
to the moments as they pass—the art of relief and
ing in the great sobbing words, and read his fero-
escape-truly romantic and fundamentally pessi-
cious resolution in their bitter smiles and grinding mistic, as is all romance.
teeth.
ROBERT MORss LOVETT.
monotonous.
can be
die
an
Americanization and Walt Whitman
AMERICANIZATIO
MERICANIZATION is a word now frequent in In a recent Atlantic appeared an article entitled
print and on our tongues. The past five years have What America Means to an Englishwoman. One
waked us abruptly to the fact that our cherished pregnant paragraph gives a reader pause: “If you
melting pot has in many instances conspicuously ask me what is essentially American and could not
failed to fuse, and with laudable energy
but have been born anywhere else, I can only think of
lamentable precipitancy we have rushed to find The Education of Henry Adams, the Introduction
remedies. Suggestions for the speediest possible to Victor Chapman's Letters, and Walt Whitman,
making of an alien into an American are crowded the Rodin of poetry.” The juxtaposition of names
upon legislators and educators. It is no lack of is provocative, but there is no reader who would
patriotism but quite the contrary that makes the not agſee that the last is preeminent in expressing
more thoughtful pause for a moment of self-ques what America means to an American. Poet and
tion, as to what are these American ideals which prophet and patriot, Whitman is still the supreme
we are so eager to teach to our immigrants. The spokesman of American democracy. To many of
American spirit does not seem so easy to label us the poems of Whitman have taught more than
when one tries to translate it into curricula or we could ever otherwise have known of our own
laws. Love of country is as sensitive an emotion patriotism; and because of their proved inspiration
to expose to methods of efficiency as love of God. to Americans, they are perhaps best fitted to em-
Humbly one wonders how so beautiful a thing as body for an alien the spirit of his new country.
the spirit of America, that spirit for which once our This is far from saying that Whitman is not too
fathers and lately our sons have died, is to be strong a draught to be offered untransmuted to a
transmitted to the ignorant and down-trodden who foreigner, but that there is no book so well fitted
seek our shores of promise. It is the priceless gift to clarify and vivify for the teacher of Americaniza-
we would bestow with adoption, but the actual tion his own ideals.
details of how to give it make one look about help The mere name Walt Whitman brings an in-
lessly for a textbook, make one ponder how to equip stant exhilaration like the sudden sight of the stars
teachers to impart so sacred a study.
and stripes billowing on the breeze. Like the flag
7


538
May 31
THE DIAL
venture.
become attached to them, as I do to men in my own
his name connotes space, for his descriptions touch
It is significant for us today that his
as vast and varied a territory as that over which clarion call to courage
Pioneers! O Pioneers"
the flag floats. Pride of place is a foundation should be placed under the general heading of
element in patriotism, the one that constrains it to Marches Now the War is Over. Today when the
take certain individual forms of expression in na world is again breathless and spent over this latest
tional character and action and literature. The war for freedom, we need again Whitman's ring.
Swiss is molded by his mountains, the Hollander ing incentive:
by his dykes, the Norwegian by his mysterious Have the elder races halted ?
dark and daylight; the American, if he is to be true Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there,
inheritor of the land that has been given him,
beyond the seas?
We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the
needs to tune his soul to wide spaces, unchained lesson,
cataracts, limitless prairie, and to cities seething
Pioneers! O pioneers!
with incredible energy.
There is no poet but Above all other American ideals for which we
Whitman fitted to be the poet of all these United may turn to Whitman to find expression and re-
States. His song cannot be chained to any one
inforcement of our
own conviction, a catholic
- locality. His pictures flash on us reminiscence from breadth of hospitality is paramount. The United
the Adirondacks to Florida, from his busy Manhat States is an entity fused from myriad nations to
tan to California. We too need to be spacious each of which each of us owes something. No
people like Whitman if we are to be worthy heirs, land ever befriended the foreigner so generously
so that we can say with him:
as ours, and the grace of that sympathy is some-
I inhale great draughts of space;
thing we must hold fast if we are to be worthy
The east and the west are mine, and the north and the of the sacred trust of transmitting the soul of
south are mine.
America to the soul of the stranger. Because with-
Genuine patriotism is always expressive of place in these last tragic years there has been sporadic
in no vague, but in most specific correspondence of abuse of our welcome, we must not forget that
national character to national geography. Not only
the loyal have outnumbered the traitorous a
should vastness and variety somehow translate
thousand to one.
We need to turn to Whitman
themselves into our national qualities, but we
that we may more surely recall our clearer motives
should reflect in our energy some of the limitless before the heat and hatred of a world war. Whit-
resources and fecundity of our land. No poet has
man too was fresh from a conflict where cruelty
celebrated this native energy with more inspira-
and oppression had almost prevailed, but his
tion for our efforts than Whitman. His farm
sympathy was not abated. If some of the strangers
scenes are always busy; “ the song of the broad axe"
within our gates have failed us, others by the
rings through his forests; cities and factories teem
thousands have braved death to vindicate the ideals
with life. There is no remoteness of reverie about
of our United States and theirs. To these and
this poet of a pioneer people. He celebrates always
to others of their kind we owe all that we long to
a tireless activity. Yet American energy as Whit-
bestow under the complex and subtle term Amer-
man expresses it is never fevered but always pur icanization. There was no man of whatever race
poseful. Voicing ideals for industry that we should
or color or country that Whitman's sympathy could
like to cherish and, in spite of his sturdy realism,
not have found a way to reach:
suppressing that sordidness of toil which we should
like to annul, Whitman always paints work as
This moment yearning and thoughtful, sitting alone,
It seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearn-
joyous. For him the singing man had not vanished
ing and thoughtful;
--perhaps Whitman's own singing, if only we
It seems to me I can look over and behold them, in
listen, may some day bring him back, as Whitman
Germany, Italy, France, Spain—or far, far away,
China, or in Russia or India-talking other dialects ;
knew him:
And it seems to me if I could know those men, I should
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear;
lands;
Those of mechanics—each singing his, as it should be,
O, I know we should be brethren and lovers,
blithe and strong.
I know I should be happy with them.
Always Whitman viewed the vitality of Amer-
Of all the pioneer adventure that Whitman
ica as essentially a pioneer vitality, the health and
coveted for his countrymen there was none dearer
courage and force of men brave enough to build
to him than the difficult and daring adventure of
a new world. In Whitman's lifetime he saw this
brotherhood:
pioneer activity chiefly applied to actual frontier
I will establish in the Mannahatta, and in every city of
conditions, but his vision reached into the future
and imaged other frontiers for his nation to ad-
And in the fields and woods, and above every keel, little
or large, that dents the water,


1919
539
THE DIAL
Without edifices, or rules, or trustees, or any argument,
The institution of the dear love of comrades.
Over and over again, Whitman's poems affirm
the New World welcome to the Old World im-
migrant:
All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia,
indifferent of place!
All you on the numberless islands of the archipelagoes of
the sea!
And
you of centuries hence, when you listen to me!
And you, each and everywhere, whom I specify not, but
include just the same!
Health to you! Good will to you all—from me and
America sent.
For the teacher humble enough to feel that he
himself needs instruction before he shall presume
to teach Americanization, there is no nobler text-
book than the poems of Whitman. If only we
can breathe his inspiration deeply enough we may
safely leave all the details of its application to
American efficiency. More simply stated, if we
can succeed in being as good Americans as was Walt
Whitman, we shall know how to make good
Americans of other people.
WINIFRED KIRKLAND.
5
Americanizing the Immigrants
The True PATRIOT, it is to be assumed, welcomes foreigners a year “ lay down their lives digging coal,
sincere criticism of his country and is a bit embar making steel, blasting stones, and doing the number-
rassed when her praises are sung; if by foreigners, less dangerous drudgeries of the industrial life of
suspecting them of flattery; if by the native-born, the country." In return the immigrant is exploited
of emptiness or worse. Best praise and criticism of at every turn, receives little or no compensation for
all is that of the naturalized American, caring industrial accidents, and crowds the slums of our cit-
enough for his new home to become a citizen, yet ies, forming colonies where he may live among his
possessing standards of comparison, the inheritor of countrymen and speak their language. He learns,
benefits from another land. Though one of the fam consequently, little English, and is seldom natural-
ily, he is, like an adopted son, a bit detached in ized. Being often a tiller of the soil—the South
spirit, one fitted to take notes.
Italians mostly so—he finds in city life little exercise
It is somewhat unjust to the Rev. Enrico C. Sar for his knowledge, nor are his many excellent virtues
torio in quoting from his book, Social and Religious such as suffice him, unaided, to endure for long the
Life of Italians in America (Christopher Publishing strain of new conditions. Says Mr. Sartorio: “In
House; Boston) to emphasize his criticisms of the Italy we know the difference between a peasant who
country of his adoption, for he is ardently patriotic
has lived there always, and one who has spent a few
and sanguine of the future. So too in citing from years in America and then goes back. The former
Mr.· Horace J. Bridges' essays, On Becoming an is poorer, but the latter is quite often rotten.”
American (Marshall Jones; Boston), for Mr. Despite the fine work done by Hull House in Chi-
Bridges sees more clearly than nine out of ten of cago, and similar agencies, we do not as a people
the native-born whatever is great and good in the
make any effort to understand our immigrants or to
American spirit and tradition. Yet in both it is from aid them. To quote again from Mr. Sartorio:
their strictures and their suggestions of amendment Where does the fault lie? In prejudice and indiffer-
that we can derive most profit, particularly at this
ence, and in the spirit of patronage. Americans who
time when there is under way a widespread move-
judge by appearances, who have not traveled in Italy
or studied modern Italian life, scornfully turn away from
ment to Americanize the immigrant more efficiently the Italian immigrant because he is not clean-shaven or
than in the past. For in how few quarters is there
as well-kempt as the American workingman. Other
Americans do not concern themselves with foreigners.
any clear notion of what Americanization means. They have a vague knowledge that there is somewhere
That there are more Italians in New York City
in some God-forsaken corner of the city, a foreign popu-
lation, and that is all.
than in Rome, in Philadelphia more than in Flor-
The American point of view is compactly expressed
ence, is perhaps no news to the socially informed;
in the remark cited from the report of a group of
but such comparisons are nevertheless always illu-
minating, awakening us anew to our obligations to
social workers: “ Not yet Americanized; still eating
Italian food.”
this race—but one of many—if it is to become an
integral part of our national life. We know too
The Bureau of Naturalization, presumably in-
that the Italians largely build our railroads and sup-
tended to be of constructive service in the process of
ply much of the unskilled labor upon which the Americanization, replies to the applicant for citizen-
It
country has hitherto based its economic prosperity. Ship papers with a letter stating that
Steiner is quoted as estimating that ten thousand wants to help you to get a better position that pays


540
THE DIAL
May 31
meaning of American institutions home to their members
As a specific means to "cultural cross-fertiliza-
" Mr. Bridges suggests that every immigrant
be a member not only of a society of his own national
origin, but " also a member of an international
you more money for your work," and adds that
oped and unappreciated, the materials for a new and
“the superintendent of the public schools of your richer civilization than the world has yet seen:
city has promised to teach you the things you should
It is an astonishment to me that so few Americans seem
know to help you to get a better position.” A let aware of the great educational opportunity which lies
ter not designed, surely, to awake in the new citi at their doors, through contact with their fellow-citizens
zen the ideals either of Garibaldi or Lincoln, but
of alien origin. One would have expected a priori that
familiarity with foreign languages would be more gen-
justifying him in his belief that Americans care only eral among Americans than among any other people.
for money and worldly success. Of governmental
Yet the fact, I fear, is precisely the opposite of this. My
bureaus one does not, of course, expect much spirit-
impression, tested on a fairly large scale, is that among
native-born Americans there are comparatively few who
ual vision. Yet the churches are no better. Mr. are really at home in the language and literatures of
Sartorio cites a conference of representatives of all
continental Europe. We blame our foreigners for
their clannishness. We resent the fact that they sequester
the Evangelical churches to consider extensive re themselves among people of their own race, and do not
ligious work among the foreigners of the community.
take the trouble to understand our language or our his-
“Not a single representative of the different foreign
tory and institutions; but we are guilty of an exactly
colonies was invited.
analogous piece of provincialism when we betray our
The good repre-
unwillingness to learn from them, while expecting them to
sentatives of that gathering felt no need of advice
learn from us.
from the educated leaders of the different races Mr. Bridges objects to our favorite figure of
which they desired to influence.”
speech, “the melting pot,” as one utterly unsuited to
Mr. Sartorio's suggestion of one means whereby define the Americanizing process. “There is," he
in the naturalizing process, which now affects al observes, no such thing as humanity-in-general
,
most solely the second generation, much needless into which the definite, heterogeneous, living creat-
pain, cultural loss, and even criminality may be ure can be melted down.
There is no hu-
obviated will doubtless fall coldly upon the ears
man mould in America to which the spiritual stuff
of those patriotic Americans who feel that the best of the immigrant is to be patterned. Not only is
and quickest way to naturalize the foreigner is as there as yet no fixed and final type, but there never
soon as possible to make him forget his native speech, can be.” He adds that “the very genius of democ-
substituting therefor, in the public schools, commer-
racy, moreover, must lead us to desire the widest
cial Spanish in view of the commercial possibilities possible range of variability, the greatest attain-
(somewhat dubious) of Latin America:
able differentiation of individuality, among our pop-
The children of foreign extraction learn English and,
ulation.
The business of America is to get
as very little is done in school to make them keep up
rid of mechanical uniformity, and, by encouraging
the language of their parents, they soon forget it, with
the result that their home life is destroyed.
the utmost possible differentiation through mental
It is sad
to notice the patronizing attitude that the child assumes
and psychic cross-fertilization, to attain to a higher
towards his father and mother after a few months in the level of humanity.”
public school.
When I discuss the matter with
teachers in the public schools, I become aware that they
Mr. Bridges would have the foreign-language
possess a holy horror of teaching children the language
press fostered rather than discouraged, not only to
and history of Italy. In my opinion the way to preserve
afford Americans an opportunity to learn of their
the home life of the children of immigrants is to teach
through the language and history of their fathers that
neighbors, for he would have every American read
in every country men and women have always been
at least one foreign language paper, but also as a
ready to sacrifice their personal interest for the sake
of their country. By making these children realize that
means to genuine Americanization of the foreign-
they are connected by blood with a race of glorious tradi-
born and their acquaintance, with the spirit and
tions, and by adoption have come to belong to a country
ideals of the Republic. Foreign societies are likewise
which has also a glorious past, the love for America will
be kept in their hearts without their acquiring a feeling
one of the best means to Americanization and serve
of contempt for their fathers' country.
another purpose only less important:
Mr. Bridges, English born and trained in the Eng-
Let them keep alive Italian and German music and
lish tradition, making his home in the United States
literature, Balkan handicrafts, and the folk-lore and folk
only when he was mature, and after careful consid-
dances of the Old World;-not for the sake of the Old
World, but as elements contributory to American culture,
eration, conceives it to be the “business of America
Let them spend as much time in bringing the spirit and
to produce a new type of national character and civ-
ilization by the cross-fertilization of the many cul-
as in bringing home to Americans the spirit
and meaning
of their European traditions.
tural types which the Republic has absorbed and is
absorbing.” This thesis he develops at length, it tion
being his conviction that hybrid civilizations have
always, as history shows, been culturally the most
rich. In the United States we have now, undevel-
society composed of representatives of as many


1919
541
THE DIAL
a
different peoples as possible.” The native-born, like aware have anything to learn from the foreigners in
wise, for the good of his soul and the eradication of their midst is a thought that has, indeed, never en-
his provincialism, should be a member of an inter tered their innocent hard heads, or that the cultural
national society. Intermarriage between persons of richness of the state could be enhanced by grafting
different national descent, which is also advocated, upon it the culture of Poland and Italy. Neverthe-
can be safely left, one imagines, to take care of it less the night schools they have established to teach
self. But the establishment of municipal theaters English and civil government will do something
in which plays in all languages shall be presented, to make the immigrant a better prospective citizen,
useful and timely suggestion, will need to be and a gleam of light is evident in the statement that
pushed if it is to be realized.
“Americanization is a two-fold matter, it carries'
In the light of these suggestive books it is some a practical industrial advantage, and is also a means
what depressing to turn to the state policy of Amer of producing better citizenship in the communities of
icanization initiated by the Delaware State Council this state.” And, again : “Americanization is above
of Defense. The motive is frankly commercial. all else a cooperative activity; impose it upon the
Fearful that the end of the war is to see an exodus foreigner, and he will repudiate it; plan it with him,
of workers from Delaware to other fields of indus and he will carry his share of the load.” Perhaps,
try or to their native lands, "the most hard-headed with a better and more permanent citizenship of for-
men have come to see that the way to attract work- eign extraction, cultural benefits will in time ensue.
men is to attach them to the community.” The More is involved in this problem of Americaniza-
pamphlet of the League continues:
tion than the cultural enrichment of our national
Some of the employers take it out in throwing up their
life and the conversion of our present provincial
hands and cursing the scum of Europe. A few spirit. In the internationalism which is coming,
enlightened employers, however, see that they can control
this situation just as they have controlled many other
peace among the nations and their cooperation to
difficulties in business by an enlightened cooperative
the larger ends of a world civilization are depend-
policy. Letting the situation alone means leaving it to ent upon the good will and reciprocal understand-
the I. W. W. and to other forces of disintegration. Radi-
ing among men of diverse stocks and cultures. If we
cal agents depend always upon the ignorance of the men
as their chief asset for their purposes. As soon as the man
, are to work with Russian, Frenchman, Italian, and
understands English and has some glimmering of Ameri German to the attainment of our common welfare
can ideals and becomes attached to some given com-
and security, the first step to that end is a greater
munity, he is a less hopeful prospect for the I. W. W.
The "enlightened ” policy of the Delaware State sympathy with and appreciation of the foreigners
now among us. If we truly absorb them, and are
Council of Defense is obviously at best, but enlight-
modified by contact with them as they by us, we
ened self-interest stimulated by fear. And yet it
shall be better prepared to assume our duties in the
would be unjust wholly to dismiss their declaration
League of Nations.
on this ground. That industrial managers in Del-
Carl H. GRABO.
The Federal Suffrage Amendment
.
U.
PON THE PRINCIPLE of women's suffrage there
can now be no further debate. Every device of
unreason has been exhausted by its opponents, and
their arguments have long since been relegated to
the museums of political antiquities. The contest
chas now been shifted to a different field. Of federal
suffrage by .constitutional amendment we are now
certain; and the only point at issue is the actual
date of its passage. That has raised an interesting
question of political method. The most representa-
tive of the suffrage societies, headed by Dr. Shaw
and Mrs. Chapman Catt, proceed upon the ordinary
assumptions of the classical theory of representative
government. Men, so they urge, are the creatures
of reason and the suffrage has an unanswerable case.
They have only to put confidence in the resistless
logic of the facts to secure their goal. Speeches,
deputations, pamphlets, the record of women's
achievement and the results of the vote in suffrage
states—here is the material for a campaign of which
the success is ultimately certain. Even Senator
Lodge must one day feel his antiquarianism; for
right and truth are bound in the end to prevail.
And it is upon a charming insistence upon the in-
tellectual case for the vote that they have laid all
the emphasis of their effort.
In a book that is already a decade old, Mr.
Graham Wallas laid down a thesis which suggested
that human nature is in fact more complex than
this easy Benthamism would seem to suggest. John
Stuart Mill wrote an unanswerable argument for
women suffrage in the sixties; and if logic was the
=


542
THE DIAL
May 31
And, in any case, the
stituents arrested. Ministers were irritated beyond marks to Congress on Filipino self-government.
he told a deputation that a federal amendment was
The pickets were placed about the White
main element in politics suffrage for women would was due to the irritations of peace. But they in
have found its place in the Reform Act of 1867. reality yielded to the effort of the militant move-
In fact, the struggle took fifty years; and to anyone ment which, between 1906 and 1914, made suffrage
who looks back over the last ten years of its history for the first time a genuine issue. Suffrage would
in England the psychology of the movement will have been secured, war or no war; but Mr. Asquith
be seen to have different foundations. We live in a was able to make a more congenial recantation, and
big world and it is difficult for any government to Mr. George to compensate for a typical piece of
find time to answer the calls upon its attention. double-dealing, by an atmosphere in which the real
What it does, perhaps also—since politics is by its causal sequence had been forgotten in a vaster
nature a philosophy of the second best-what it is drama.
bound to do—is to proceed upon the assumption Something of the same situation has developed in
that what is politically innocuous is, for practical America in the last few years. The National
purposes, non-existent. The rule is well enough Women's Party represents the early stage of the
known. So long as parties are not closely influenced English militant movement.
It secures the typical
by the matter in debate, it may well enough be left abuse of those respectable people whose faith in the
to take care of itself. There must be no glaring suffrage is so urgent that they will do anything
injustice, since that would give your opponents on its behalf except the thing most likely to achieve
ground for criticism. But the public need be given it. They think it unladylike, abominable, con-
nothing that it does not insistently demand. A
temptible, to do things that increase the difficulties
powerful interest must always be conciliated at the of the President; as though anything can be got in
expense of interests which fail to attract attention. America except by making it impossible for the
Decisions must be evaded unless they insistently President to refrain from doing it. They urge that
demand response. In the result, that unanswerable militancy has put back their cause for years; while
logic of the case on which Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt
in the same breath they acclaim its triumph in the
pin their faith is really unrelated to the realities of
next Congress. They cannot have it both ways.
political life. The telephone operators of Boston
In December, 1916, the federal amendment wanted
would not have secured Mr. Burleson's defeat by one hundred votes: today it is certain of passage.
trusting to the unanswerable logic of their case If militancy has done so much harm, it were de-
and to that alone. The Railroad Brotherhoods in voutly to be hoped that every good cause were so
1916 would never have brought Mr. Wilson to served by its mistaken adherents.
urge the justice of the eight-hour day except by
The real truth, of course, is that the militant
forcing him to a point where the issue could no National Woman's Party was the only suffrage
longer be evaded. Social improvement is always society to see the inexorable logic of the situation,
born of a refusal to depend any longer upon the
relentless pressure of unending time. It is born of a and their hostility to suffrage was a part of the cross
The President's party was an incubus on his back,
determination to produce a set of circumstances
where action is irresistibly necessary.
he had to bear. Mr. Wilson would smile benignly
Men are
at deputations and make pleasing speeches to in-
pricked into thought not by a passionate desire to
dividual callers. But he would not take his party
set right the whole world but by being brought to
seriously in hand for the sake of diminishing the
see that in a given set of circumstances thought is
cheaper than inertia. And thought must be driven ordinary suffragist was so humbly grateful for the
.
by its continuity into action if the original inertia
least crumb of comfort, that Mr. Wilson must
is not to be resumed.
have felt, when he received them, that it was really
That, certainly, is the history of women suffrage
in England. It came in 1918 simply because events
unnecessary to go further lest the depth of their
in the eight years before the war had made it in-
gratitude hinder the retention of their self-respect.
The militants were better psychologists. They
over again the wholesale irritations of the militant speeches is a His supporters made promises in the
were dissatisfied with Mr. Wilson's hopes and
Members hated to have their con-
West in 1916 and their redemption was some re-
endurance by the impossibility of burking the issue.
They lied, they evaded, they shuffled, they showed,
Miss Paul and her party interrupted his remarks
like Mr. Asquith, a proud impermeability to the
and Mr. Wilson had thereby made the suffrage an
obvious facts. The war came and with it the wide
issue of the first importance. On January 9, 1917,
extension of female labor. The government was
glad to attribute to the service of war what in fact
hopeless.
House. They were arrested and imprisoned; on
movement.


1919
543
THE DIAL
their release they went to prison again. Mr. Wil House for Mr. Balfour to see and smile at, as he
son began to take notice. Congressmen began to remembered the pickets in Downing Street. He did
hold communications, to offer terms, to watch with not want Russians who had seen the women of
the troubled suspicion of men who know that elec Russia emancipated, to ask themselves if his fine
tion is only a year away. The President gave away phrases about democracy were in fact applicable to
pardons like theatre-tickets; but the women wanted American conditions; Russians were so terribly
not pardons but the suffrage, and they went to literal-minded and there were difficulties, like
prison again. Little by little the things that had Mooney and conscientious objectors, to trouble him
been, as Mr. Wilson said, in 1917 impossible be in addition. He did not want his speeches burned,
came, as the year closed, within the range of action. not merely because he did believe in their truth in
In January 1918 in a House previously most those realms where the Democratic Party was in
hostile the amendment was accepted and Mr. Wil- reality democratic, but because he saw that more
son ate his previous words and hurried to its sup and-more the women in suffrage states would tend
port. Clearly, he was getting anxious, for the next to regard his supporters as useless and swing their
Congressional elections began to draw near and it influence to the Republican side. That was why
is not Mr. Wilson's habit to offer gifts (and votes) he became the urgent advocate of the amendment-
to the Republicans. From the Congress the mili a little too late perhaps, but he would have been in
tants turned to the states and began to oppose time had it not been for the eager disciples of '
Democrats who were hostile to suffrage in the respectability who urged him to pay no heed to
primaries. Little by little hostility in the Senate those women who were disgracing a movement they
dwindled down to two; and these Mr. Wilson themselves would never in such fashion press as to
could have removed if he had treated Senator inconvenience him. No external observer can doubt
Shields as he treated Hardwick and Vardaman. that it is the blindness of the peaceful suffragists to
But instead he still refused to admit that he was political reality which lost women the vote in the
so obviously the head of his party as to hold it in Congress recently ended.
his hands. Senator Jones elaborately explained last In the special session presently to be summoned
September that the time-table of the Senate left no it does not seem that the issue is doubtful. The
room for the amendment. Mr. Wilson told the Republicans are, on this factor at least, alive to the
peaceable societies, on September 26, 1918, how new significance of the West. They do not want the
much he hoped for and with them, and his anxiety experience of the Democratic party in the last three
that they should win (as he only could secure) the years. They remain untrammeled by doctrines of
necessary votes in the Senate. Fair words to an State-rights, by a high and chivalrous regard for the
ancient and beguiling tune and the militant suf women of the Mid-Victorian age, and the half-
fragists burnt those words. It is coincidence, but dozen similar obfuscated arguments by which the
significant coincidence, that on the next day Senator Southern Senators attempted to delay the inevitable.
Jones found a place for women suffrage in the time The only danger is lest the Democrats should seek
table. It is coincidence, but still significant coinci to delay the measure to prevent the Republicans
dence, that a week later Mr. Wilson was urging from securing the credit of its passage. But Mr.
the amendment to the Senate in the most earnest Wilson is on record on this matter and he cannot
effort he had ever made upon its behalf.
avoid the issue. Nor is it likely that Miss Paul and
It may, of course, be urged that association is her supporters will release him from the need of ac-
not causation, and that this progress is in despite of, tivity. They have a sufficient hold of political reality
and not because of, militant activity. The whole of to know, as Huxley said, that while right and truth
historic experience is against that contention. “If will ultimately prevail, a gentle assistance to their
the people of this country,” said Mr. Gladstone in progress will do them no harm. Doubtless they
1869, “had obeyed the précept to preserve order
have shocked the old-fashioned who thought that by
and eschew violence, the liberties of this country deputations and the reading of John Stuart Mill
would never have been obtained.” The reforms of even a Presidential heart would be won. But it is
1832 and 1867 were not a peaceful surrender to worth while even to shock the old-fashioned in
logic; they were an ungrateful yielding to militancy. order to win the vote. It is worth while to make
The pickets, the burning of speeches, the interrup the effort that has distinguished the National
tion of Congressional debate, brought suffrage down Women's Party if only to demonstrate their under-
from the clouds of argument to the solid earth of standing of the mechanisms of politics. Therein,
action. Mr. Wilson did not want suffragists im indeed, they removed the last objection a critic
prisoned for the backwardness of his supporters.
could have made to the final attainment of their
He did not want the pickets round the White freedom.
HAROLD J. LASKI.


544
THE DIAL
May 31
the slow march of centuries, and even then this
shading will steal over the creations of artists who
will not consciously evolve it, but will recognize
it in their finished products as a natural function.
American Art ?
Critics
IN THIS COUNTRY often assail the lack in a brassy surface melee in which swagger and
of a distinctively American art and strive to labor earnest materialism are dominant notes; other mem-
for its arrival. They long to see the spirit and bers of these races have kept their national tints
surface flavors of America molded into sturdily more intact, thanks to their more recent immigra-
esthetic art forms that will grow in unison with tion; still others have completely preserved their
the inner and outer life about them.
national colors, revealing these colors during lulls
But art is ever a concentrated infidelity toward in material activity. The descendants of original
the semblances and spiritual averages of actual ex-
settlers in this country have not, as yet, been fused
istence. A blind and instinctive lack of communion
into one emotional unit; their surfaces touch, but
with the outer forms and details of his environ-
their inner lives do not spontaneously meet in ways
ments causes the artist to rear his individual's
refuge, in which the mandates of reason and eye-
deeper than the bright, seeming union of material
building and social exuberance. The memory of
sight are delicately or incisively ignored. Some-
their forefathers and the solemn moments of Amer-
times his world is tinged with detached fantasy; at
ican history give these offspring of American
other times it wrestles with the salient motives of
pioneers a deceptive cohesion unsupported by any
daily life. But even when he touches the con-
crete, reiterated forms about him, his emphasis is
permanent, inner response in the individual. The
American business man recollects Abraham Lincoln
upon what he would like them to be; he takes liber-
at patriotic festivals but does not make him a walk-
ties with their essence and visual outlines. Ex-
ing-companion.
amine the work of a Bellows or a Glackens. These
men seize upon details of their fishermen, prize-
Agricultural and small-town dwellers are rela-
fighters, shopgirls, plowmen, and nudes, and exag-
tively more crystalized than those in the larger
cities, but even there no wide emotional traits exist.
gerate them to a world of semi-masquerading
reality. The longings of these painters distort
There is a sameness in the types of Sherwood An-
but do not utterly violate the common forms of
derson's. Winesburg stories, but it is a similarity of
life.
surface mannerisms and customs, of mechanical so-
Artists can never accurately reflect the ensemble-
cial observances; no deeply rooted reactions toward
spirit and average contours of the formative age in
gaiety, melancholy, or pagan serenity, no emotional
which they dwell; artists live upon their own hori-
undercurrents can be discerned. A French com-
munity would offer an equal variety of types
ing them. The clamoring nationalist in art does whole.
not realize this, nor the fact that the essence of a
complicated age hides beneath the turmoil of exist-
The American nationalist in art dreams of a
ence and needs the mellow retrospect of succeeding
trend that will be toward "the spirit of the prairies
"
centuries to bring it forth. He also ignores the
and "Mrs. Giovanitti carrying her bundle of wood
,
fact that national characteristics are but the broad
in the morning, on Peoria street" and "the husky
colorings of art and not part of its substance.
laborer smilingly hewing a new world.” But these
French art can immediately be distinguished from
are myriads of struggling details in a blithe whirl-
Russian, though both hold the same fundamentals.
pool in which no one group of objects is entitled to
When centuries have concentrated and softened a
a distinctive role, in which a feverish interplay of
nation, a wide color spreads over its life and from
material currents forms à disorganizing force
thence to its art. But this color steals from the
against any quiet, vital fusion of emotional or men-
womb of a slow process and cannot arbitrarily be
tal longings. This applies even to the voices of be-
evolved by individual artists.
ginning bands of artists.
America, in its ensemble, is the eagerly childlike
American art will attain a national shading with
forum of different races speaking one ill-assimilated
language and joined by common social and ma-
terial aspirations instead of esthetic ties or emo-
tional undercurrents. The descendants of some
of these races have submerged their original traits
blend-
zons and ever recede to the mass of people approaching into an infinitely more compact intangible
MAXWELL BODENHEIM.


1919
545
THE DIAL
An Attitude Toward Poetic Revolt
I.
2.
a
as
MANY
ANY SINCERE LOVERS of poetry bear malice senting Professor Lowes' attitude, I choose, when-
toward the present insurgency; but the banners ever I can, to quote his language, even at the sac-
their standard-bearers raise seem curiously frayed rifice of brevity, in order to convey some impres-
and old. Does not their attitude rise out of an sion of its vitality and aptness of allusion:
entire misconception? The revolt in essence is One element convention is acceptance.
not against the strongholds of Parnassus, but Horse” has a certain meaning because I accept
against a force drawn up along its slopes—the its use in that sense. Another element is the ac-
shades of that which once was great. Such a re ceptance of illusion. I accept as one thing some-
bellion cries out for a public which will not be thing which is another and different thing—hence
partisan, but will discriminate, intellectually and the inevitability of imagery. In a word, it is be-
emotionally. There is no call to praise a poem cause poetry is what it is that its conventions are
merely because it is not that against which it is
what they are.
in revolt; but the fact that a rabble of extremists Two weighty and paradoxical facts have in-
are carrying along with them not a small propor fluenced the development of poetry: the plasticity
tion of a public which is reading poetry as never of conventions, while the life still runs in their veins;
before makes it of importance that the construc and their tendency to harden into empty shells,
tive aims of the new poetry be understood and like abandoned chrysalids, when the informing 'life
that its sincere workers find sympathetic has flown.
audience.
.3. Through these two opposing characteristics,
Probably the most significant necessity is that for
it comes about that art moves from stage to stage
understanding the part conventions and form play by two divergent paths-by molding the still
in the creation of beauty. If some of the new
ductile forms (the way of constructive acceptance)
workers believe they have succeeded in being form and by shattering the empty shells (the way of
less, the more successful among them realize the revolt). The two frequently alternate during dif-
hopelessness and madness of such a pursuit. It is ferent periods, but they must be viewed
form which coordinates the impressions they wish
complementary
to convey.
Without form all is confusion—the 4. Thus the present revolt is an old familiar
futurist poetry of Marinetti is very close to the friend, revisiting, with punctual observance of its
formless—and confusion is only experience unas-
period, the glimpses of the moon.
similated, unrelated. Beauty is created when, by 5. The function of the revolutionists in poetry
imaginative selection, the essentials are brought to (who are quite the mildest-mannered men that
gether in an ordered whole, more real than reality, ever scuttled ship or cut a throat) is to reach out,
even as the City which
for new substance for its alchemy, into the regions
of the strange.
is built
To music: therefore never built at all,
6. After the pioneers there follow others, when
And therefore built forever.
the strange has become no longer strange, who
The point is that the given form, the given conven transmute what the adventurers have brought with-
tion, shares the transiency of all things human, in the circle into something that is enduringly old
not the fortunate immortality of the City.
and new in one.
Perhaps no book in English has presented, in a 7. For originality, rightly understood, seldom
manner so full of life and feeling, the part which concerns itself with minting a new and particular
the acceptance of convention plays in the creation medium of its own. Genius of the highest order is
of beauty as John Livingston Lowes' Convention far more apt to disclose the unexpected resources
and Revolt in Poetry (Houghton Mifflin). He of whatever vehicle of expression it falls heir to.
lends perspective to the present insurgency by his Originality is the fixing of the familiar in the re-
illuminating views about the dependence of art on current act of becoming new.
the acceptance of convention and about the man 8. It is poetry which, through its energizing
ner in which these conventions stiffen into death influence, gives to words poetic quality; it is not
and give rise to revolt. Viewed in the light of this poetic diction which makes poetry.
Thus the re-
volume, the present revolt ceases to be unique, volt, when best informed, is not against this or that
spontaneous, without historic background. Pre type of words per se, but against the use of any


546
THE DIAL
May 31
selves from form, but from forms—those of older speculation is not a diversion with Mr. Newbolt.
word solely for its adventitious values. It aims to writers. It is only in the camp-followers of the
use (in the language of the Imagist Manifesto) school that indolence has led almost to formlessness,
“the exact word, not the nearly-exact word, nor and therefore to failure. Mr. Newbolt points a good
the merely decorative word.”
caution: “We have ceased to love affectation,
9. Upon the length or the development of the elaboration, imitation of models; we must not go
larger infinitely varying rhythmic units of poetry,
on to make the mistake of imagining that a meter
meter does not impose any limitations whatever. once used is used up.” Different personalities will
They are merely taken up and merged with an employ the same medium and secure widely differ-
other rhythmic movement. By substituting rhythm
ent results. May I add that they will even employ
alone for the fusion of rhythm and meter in the same ideas, those which are enduringly old and
one, free verse has foregone the great harmonic, new in one? The fact that Shelley had written
orchestral effects of the old verse.
Ozymandias does not preclude our appreciating the
Disengaged from their luminous background, following from Mr. Fletcher :
these propositions, although sound doctrine, no The wind shakes the mists
doubt fail to do full justice to Mr. Lowes' atti Making them quiver
tude, and their bearing on the present question
With faint drum-tones of thunder.
would be more vital could I report the examples Out of the crane-haunted mists of autumn,
and transitions by which they are reinforced; but
Blue and brown
Rolls the moon.
they are at least suggestive. The necessity for the
acceptance of convention is particularly apropos There was a city living here long ago,
and must be regarded as being somewhere in mind
Of all that city
There is only one stone left half-buried in the marsh,
during the whole of this discussion. In much of With characters upon it which no one now can read.
the art of Mr. Fletcher, to take a case in point, we
are given a substance compact of convention, but
Mr. Newbolt devotes a chapter to the question of
the conventions are those of Japan and have not yet
personality in art. A poem is to be regarded not
been accepted by the Western world. For instance,
as a finished product, but as the expression of a
the hokku (three lines) was originally followed by doubtful value,
because they emphasize the isolated
Most anthologies are therefore of
the ageku (two lines). It became the custom to
have the ageku given by a second person. Under
poem. The point is well taken—and the same
Basho the ageku was dropped, but there was an
might perhaps be said of magazines devoted to
implied continuation. To the Western mind, which
poetry.
has not accepted this convention, a poem of Basho's
What Mr. Newbolt thinks would make it pos-
-such as:
sible for the individual to appreciate the good in
the new movement is a clear esthetic principle, a
An old pond
And the sound of a frog leaping
criterion by which to test his first impressions. If
Into the water-
he is pursuing a will-o'-the-wisp in this matter, let
has little beauty. Mr. Fletcher has a task indeed
us follow him so far as we can.
if he would bring that convention within the fold
poetry we have always with us. To Mr. Newbolt
of Western appreciation; unless he succeeds, that
poetry is the act of expressing an intuition in
part of his poetry which is based upon it will re-
words.” I shy at the word “intuition," and re-
main the art of a select group of the initiated.
luctantly but necessarily am drawn into the meta-
Consider now a second recent publication—A physical lists, which Mr. Lowes has so discreetly
New Study of English Poetry, by Sir Henry New-
eschewed. The case is put as follows:
bolt (Dutton). This volume, again, without deal-
We are placed in a world where there exist two great
ing primarily with the present movement, holds out
antagonistic forces-consciousness and matter. They are
to it the same cordial welcome, tempered by the
antagonistic in this
, that matter is naturally the sphere of
same doubts, although the personalities and basic
fatality or necessity, while consciousness is naturally the
sphere of freedom. Their antagonism must be remedied
esthetic attitudes of Messrs. Lowes and Newbolt
by life, which is simply consciousness attempting to turn
differ widely. Mr. Newbolt is perfectly clear on
matter to its own uses, to the uses of freedom.
the subject of the necessity for form in poetry.
are all vessels, channels, vehicles, of one and the same
spirit.
“The evil with which we have to contend,” he
says, “is that old belief that form in art is an
Such a speculation makes an interesting diversion
adornment, an added beauty independent of the
—this it has in common with most metaphysics-
subject and less important.” He points out that Hegel's
but it seems to have little pragmatic value beyond
the efforts of the vers-librists are not to free them- izing itself.”
“the beautiful is the absolute ideal real-
Definitions of
We
As it chances, this metaphysical


1919
547
THE DIAL
It leads him promptly to the esthetic principle which Professor Neilson once devoted a book to the
is to guide us :
problem—The Essentials of Poetry—but it would
The spirit of man has two activities: the esthetic or appear that he stopped short at explaining varying
intuitive activity by which he gains perceptions, and the taste. It is a justification that is needed. With
intellectual or scientific activity by which he makes con-
Mr. Neilson there are three primary elements in
cepts or judgments. Poetry is the expression in human
language of our intuitions; prose is the expression of poetry: reason, sense of fact, imagination. When
our judgments. Good poetry, poetry in the full the first predominates, the period is classical; when
sense of the word, is the masterly expression of rare,
difficult, and complex states of consciousness, of intuitions
the second, realistic; when the third, romantic. The
in which the highest thought is fused with simple percep-
greatest art has the three characteristics in approx-
tions, until both become a new emotion. And of all the
imately equal proportion. That is a very illumina-
possible emotions, the strongest and most binding is felt
when the poet's consciousness of this world is tinged with
ting view to take of literary history; but it indicates
man's universal longing for a world more perfect. that in his mind there lurks the feeling that there
Mr. Newbolt goes on triumphantly to the conclu is a greatest, although no one age may be able to
sion that the real world, the world of reason,
apprehend it as a whole. In spite of the wealth of
of common sense, of prose, has of its own nature,
keen understanding in The Essentials of Poetry, a
no passion, no humor, no true drama," and he is
book that would be of infinite value in determining
even led to the -belief that “ the western side of
an attitude toward insurgency, we must seek else-
the world has sacrificed instinct to intellect." where for a solution of the problem of relative
What such obscurantism does not see is that the
values.
processes leading to an intuition correspond to the The acceptance of convention, which Mr. Lowes
steps of reasoning. The one takes place below the
shows to be the fundamental necessity of poetic ex-
threshold of consciousness, the other above it; if
pression, carries with it a corollary that will fur-
one is supernatural, so is the other. Thus the way
nish the clue. For it implies the acceptance of
out of the metaphysical swamp is through the fields standards. If that gives us nothing absolute, neither
of psychology, poorly tilled though they be. One does it give us chaos. Conventions, however rap-
of the most insidious delusions which the philos- idly they change, are bound together by the asso-
ophers have bequeathed to us is the sharply defined
ciation of ideas in the mind; they are no more
contrast between spirit and matter. Psychology chaotic than the instinctive actions of an insect.
is freeing itself rapidly from this unfortunate at As an example of how this principle of the accept-
titude, since in its experimental work it finds the ance of standards may be applied, it should be noted
intellect nowhere working independently of neural
that we fail, for the most part, to be moved by
activity. Whatever the ultimate truth as to this
Chinese music, not because it is incapable of mov-
relationship, we can never judge a poem by means
ing human beings, but because we are not in the
of the intellect alone or by means of the emotions
tradition. Some day we may be. On the other
alone.
The two are interwoven inextricably, and hand, we are gradually drawing out of the charmed
there is bound up with them the memory, the
circle of many previous ages, with a corresponding
senses, and other factors. Mr. Newbolt has tried
decline in the keenness of our appreciation of their
in vain to extricate them. Through intellectual
literature. In a degree we can place ourselves in
activity, he states, man takes his intuitions and of the tradition by education, and in that fact we see
them makes comparisons, classes, generalizations, and this is one of the important points to be
and deductions; the expression of these in words made—why the establishing of a rough and chang-
is essential prose—that is, Science. But such is the ing scale of values is justified. The broader our
way of art too, except that at the touch of imagina- appreciation—that is, the more completely we, as-
tion—a miracle, and in the place of comparisons
similate varying traditions—the more deeply we
and deductions we have a thing of beauty.
shall live. And this is why we can feel from the
Life however has a way of tripping us up at the depths of our beings that the person whose tradi-
very moment when our hypotheses would carry us
tions lead him only to understand rag-time and slang
farthest into the clouds. We feel the cool earth
and magazine covers is on a lower plane, artistic-
of reality and our speculations are dispersed. Thus ally, than he who has back of him the traditions
Mr. Newbolt, in spite of a philosophical twist that
of the great art of the past. And this is why there
is as questionable as it is popular at the present
are standards, ideals for which artists are making
moment, really sees eye to eye with Mr. Lowes daily sacrifices, values which lend richness to our
and a great line of critics and poets. He has written lives. But it must not be forgotten that our atti-
a book of singular interest, which takes up enter-
tude toward such standards is ever undergoing meta-
tainingly a variety of questions that cannot be morphosis. It is not of much consequence to hold
touched on here.
that the values themselves are unchanged, for it is


548
May 31
THE DIAL
a
our attitude that determines their complexion. preserved only in the pages of a never opened
Exactly as in the case of conventions. And what volume.
ever the books teach us and however our modern Were the intellect-always working, it must be
ists assail us with theories of new beauty, we shall remembered, in and through the emotions-called
take the complex way of the intellect working in upon to play the part indicated, I believe there would
and through the emotions, the two indissoluble, their be far less occasion to criticize the new verse for
relations indeterminate. The mind will discern cer its frequent lack of good taste. Miss Lowell says
tain general principles (those quoted above from of “polyphonic prose” that "its only touchstone
Mr. Lowes will answer for the moment) and will is the taste and feeling of the author.” And yet,
apply those in so far as the emotions, with their to choose an example from one of the best poets of
rich and controlling traditions, permit; but so long the revolt in this country-Miss Lowell herself
as personality remains as the distinction of our kind, will write: “The Earth rolls upon itself, in-
the mind and emotions of one will never conform cessantly creating morning and evening.” It would
entirely to the mind and emotions of another. We appear that the taste and feeling of the reader must
shall muddle through.
also be considered. The proposition that a poem
But I do not mean to disparage the part which
must be congruous, consistent with itself, has been
keen criticism and honest intensity of feeling must well brought out by Mr. Lowes. The crying need
play. The impression one receives from a vast is for self-discipline, which in a measure was given
amount of the new verse is that of an absence of by the metrical form employed in the past. Free
mental training and mental discipline. The idea verse has made it so simple a matter to fill up
is poured out without the taking of pains to ex page with scratches that more than ever before it
press it in the best possible manner. For instance
is necessary to feel that genius is “the capacity for
note the following from Carl Sandburg:
taking infinite pains.” The exact expression of an
REPETITIONS
idea may be the occupation of a life-time—at least
They are crying salt tears
the poet who tires himself with "seeking an epithet
Over the beautiful beloved body
Of Inez Milholland,
for the cuckoo " need not envy him who writes a
Because they are glad she lived,
handful of poems of a morning.
Because she loved open-armed,
To sum up, our attitude toward the present re-
Throwing love for a cheap thing
Belonging to everybody-
volt in poetry cannot be a simple one of acceptance
Cheap as sunlight,
or rejection. It must be compact of a variety of
And morning air.
factors, including an understanding of the nature
Among the lesser men of the movement, who cast
of convention, the relativity of values, the course of
aside even the cadences to be noted in poems like
previous revolts, and the part personality plays.
the above, writing-paper is the target of all their
“There is no master principle,” says Mr. Max
thoughts, however incomplete, and before the
Eastman, “ for that art whose very nature is to shun
printers' ink is dry these fragments and sketches are
generality and cleave to the unique nature of each
blown about the earth. Frequently the attitude
individual experience.” It is not a problem for the
seems to be:
“This has come into my mind in
indolent. The revolutionists are fighting along the
this form. I should have failed my calling unless
frontiers of art, whatever their individual vagaries;
I were to express it precisely as it came to me."
and in the mind of the reader a counterpart of this
But it is a rare soul to whom ideas do come already struggle should take place. Mr. Newbolt is led
clothed in their final form. Mostly they are born
naked. One thinks of the pages of unilluminated
to exclaim against the passion for burning heretics,
music of Schubert, which could never have gone
which to him is unintelligible; but we are not only
down on paper had his intellect been actively select-
always conservative when the zest of life is not in
ing and arranging; yet he is perhaps the best example
us, we are also intolerant of another's enthusiasm.
of one to whom the idea frequently came, com-
If the reader cares to extend the frontiers of his own
plete, ready for the composer to play but the part
appreciation, he must be up and about. For it is not
of a clerk. The intellect, as Mr. Lowes states,
alone in the creation of beauty that a man must be
must hold “imperial sway over the impressions re-
ever a fighter; if he would secure from life, for the
ceived, selecting, clarifying, ordering, molding, fil-
moment the privilege is his, all that it has to offer,
ing, and refiling them.” Were this the habit
he must approach the appreciation of art with all
of more poets at the present time, magazine mails
of the intelligence and energy and honest intensity
might be lighter, but there would be a wholesome
of feeling of which he is capable. He will be a con-
check on the impulse to immortalize every precious
servative of the conservatives if he do not.
thought of the poet, even if it is ultimately to be
ROLLO BRITTEN.


1919
549
THE DIAL
Coq d'Or
I walked along a street at dawn in cold, gray light,
Above me lines of windows watched, gaunt, dull, drear.
The lamps were fading, and the sky was streaked rose-red,
Silhouetting chimneys with their queer, round pots.
My feet upon the pavement made a knock-knock-knock.
Above the roofs of Westminster Big Ben struck.
The cocks on all the steeples crew in clear, flat tones,
And churchyard daisies sprang away from thin, bleak bones.
The golden trees were calling me: Come! Come! Come!"
The trees were fresh with daylight, and I heard bees hum. -
A cart trailed slowly down the street, its load young greens,
They sparkled like blown emeralds, and then I laughed.
A morning in the city with its upthrust spires
All tipped with gold and shining in the brisk, blue air,
But the gold is round my forehead and the knot still holds
Where you tied it in the shadows, your rose-gold hair.
AMY LOWELL.
Mood
Standing before your heart, one evening,
I bent and saw a little gate,
Its posts and bars were like still smoke
Tinged with a drolly murmuring red.
I had passed near it many times
On my way to the drowsy carnivals in your heart,
But not until one evening did I see it.
“There are no walls or keepers before her heart,
So why this little gate," I asked.
Then a joy-maiden ran to the gate
And perched upon it, lightly fingering
Her tenuous, out-blown mandolin of hair.
This gate is over an unseen road,” she said,
And one grief-pilgrim comes here every evening.
He feels the closed gate and sinks, tired, at its feet,
While I play upon my hair and make him sleep.”
MAXWELL BODENHEIM.
Steamboat Nights
AN OMAHA MAN WRITES TO AN INDIANAPOLIS WOMAN
If a million wires slid through the prairie rain and the yellow telegrams poured from
Labrador to Texas, crowds, faces, and money calling me,
I would remember only you; I would remember only three nights; I would remember
only our steamboat nights.
The pressing thirsty lips, the pressing wishing lips, unlock a tidal drive of storm
and star.
The love knot of our arms amid a Mississippi River sunrise shall last while the sun and
the moon are painted on the sky.
And the dawn tongues we spoke to each other with, these passionate tongues, even as
a thimble of dust at the last, the two of them shall mix and go down the wind
together.
CARL SANDBURG.


550
May 31
THE DIAL
A Plaint of Complexity
I have too many selves to know the one.
I've a self compound of strange, wild things-
In too complex a schooling was I bred,
Of solitude, and mud, and savagery;
Child of too many cities, who have gone
Loves mountain-tops, and deserts,
Down all bright cross-roads of the world's desires, And the wings
And at too many altars bowed my head
Of great hawks beating black against the sky.
To light too many fires.
Would love a man to beat her.
One polished self I have, she who can sit
Familiarly at tea with the marquise
I've a self might almost be a nun,
And play the exquisite
So she loves peace, prim gardens in the sun
In silken rustle lined with etiquette,
Where shadows sift at evening,
Chatting in French, Italian, what you please,
Hands at rest,
Of this and that,
And the clear lack of questions in her breast.
Who sings now at La Scala, what's the gown
Fortuni's planned for “ La Louise,”
And deeper yet there is my mother self,
Or what Les Jeunes are at in London Town. Something not so much I as womankind,
She can look out
That surges upward from a blind
At dusk across Lung' Arno, sigh a bit,
Immeasurable past.
And speak with shadowy feeling of the rout A little laughing daughter, a cool child
This brute modernity has made
Sudden and lovely as a wild
Of Beauty and of Art;
Young wood-thing, she has somehow caught
And sigh with just the proper shade
And holds half-unbelieving. She has wrought
Of scorn for Guido Reni, just the Ah!"
Love-bands to hold her fast
For the squeezed martyrs of El Greco.
Of courage, tenderness, and truth,
And memories of her own white youth,
And I've a modern, rather mannish self,
The best I am, or can be.
Lives gladly in Chicago.
This self stands
She believes
When others come and go, and in her hands
That woman should come down from off her shelf
Of calm dependence on the male
Are balm for wounds and quiet for distractions,
And labor for her living.
And she's the deepest source of all my actions.
And equal comradeship, and giving
But I've another self she does not touch,
As much as she receives.
A self I live in much, and overmuch
She likes discussions lasting half the night-
These latter years.
Lit up with wit and cigarettes-
A self who stands apart from outward things,
Of art, religion, politics and sex,
From pleasure and from tears,
Science and prostitution. She thinks art
And all the little things I say and do.
Deals first of all with life, and likes to write
She feels that action traps her, and she swings
Poems of drug clerks and machinery.
Sheer out of life sometimes, and loses sense
She's very independent—and at heart
Of boundaries and of impotence.
A little lonely.
I think she touches something, and her eyes
Grope, almost seeing, through the veil
I've a horrid self,
Towards the eternal beauty in the skies
A sort of snob, who's traveled here and there
And the last loveliness that cannot fail.
And drags in references by the hair
To steamship, lines, and hotels in Hong Kong,
The temple roofs of Nikko, and the song
But what she sees in her far spirit world,
Or what the center is
Of the Pope's Nightingale.
She always speaks,
Of all this whirl of crowding I's,
In passing, of the great men whom she knows,
I cannot tell you—only this,
And leaves a trail
That I've too many selves to know the one,
Of half-impressed but irritated foes.
In too complex a schooling was I bred,
My other selves dislike her, but we can't
Child of too many cities, who have gone
Get rid of her at certain times and places,
Down all bright cross-roads of the world's desires,
And there aré faces
And at too many altars bowed my head
That wake her in me.
To light too many fires.
She likes men,
EUNICE TIETJENS.


1919
551
THE DIAL
11
Reveille
Over the whistling steam
You shall hear me shrilly piping.
Your mills I shall enter as the wind
And blow upon your hearts,
Fanning the slow fire.
Come forth, you workers !
Let the fires grow cold.
Let the iron cleave to the furnace.
Let the iron spill out of the troughs.
Let the iron run wild
Like a red bramble on the floors.
Leave the mill and the foundry and the mine
And the shrapnel lying on the wharves.
Leave the desk and the shuttle and the loom-
Come!
With your ashen lives—
Your lives like dust in your hands.
They think they have cowed you-
Beaten you to a tool
To scoop hot honor up with
Till it be cool.
But out of the passion of the red frontiers
A great flower trembles and burns and glows
And each of its petals is a people.
I call upon you, workers.
It is not yet light but I beat upon your doors.
You say you await the dawn,
But I say you are the Dawn!
Come
In your irresistible unspent force
And make new light upon the mountains!
Come forth, you workers-
Clinging to your stable and your wisp of warm straw!
As our forefathers stood upon the prairies,
So we shall stand in a ring.
We shall tear up their prisons like grass
And beat them to barricades—
We shall fight the fire of their guns with a greater fire,
Till the birds shall fly to the mountains
For one safe bough.
.LOLA Ridge.
You have turned deaf ears to others:
Me you shall hear.
Out of the mouths of turbines.
Out of the turgid throats of engines
On The Hills
Solitudes carved from the granite, your passionless patience reproaches
One time-worn and travel-stained spirit, who wanders your antres in sorrow
And deep discontentment, disheartened because the world's weather has smote him,
And frowned on his labor and left him unwanted, unloved, and unheeded,
The things he has made unr uited, the gifts he has offered unwelcomed ;
For here, deep withdrawn in your valleys and hid on the cairns of your crowning,
Lie the haunts of ineffable peace, austerely unchanged and persistent.
When lightnings break short in your bosom, you moan not of wound or of anguish;
Nor teeth of the frost in their gnawing win ever a cry from your torment;
Where watersprings drown all their fountains and sweep to the valleys your substance,
You claim not compassion of any, nor whisper lament neath their scourges,
For what know the tempests that fold you and robe your wide summits in purple?
And what shall the starry nights see, when the ice and the snows are your mantle?
They find but a fervor to hide all the brands of your stripes and your tortures,
A zeal that's unsleeping, unshaken, to cover the track of ill fortune.
You waste not a thought on self-pity, nor squander your potence in anger
Against the harsh heavens that broke you and cleft you and left you ableeding.
For now your eternal devotion, good will, and great might of endeavor
Are turned to the task of retrieval and healing and cure and forgetting.
You rally, revive, and redeem; you staunch and bind up and establish;
You bury your manifold gashes and turn all your buffets to beauty.
You bring the grey lichens and golden to hide the white wounds of the granite;
With rapture of stars and of buds you deck the black grief of the peat beds,
In euphrasy, tormentil, heather, in violet, asphodel, milkwort;
And over each ravage and scarth Aing the rainbows and laughters of blossoms.


552
THE DIAL
May 31
The Industrial System and the Captains of Industry
IT
not only have the conditions of life among these
civilized peoples continued to be fairly tolerable on
the whole, but it is also true that the industrial
Oh grant one to echo evangel that waits for his heart on your summits,
In the songs of the ocean-born wind and the voices from sweet, secret places;
Make pure his dark, earth-foundered thinking with bright, lustral foam of your waters,
Until the slurs and the slightings and bruises of life's cold indifference
Shall spring a new niche in his temple that pleads for another adornment,
And grace, and distinction to fill it with all of the best he can fashion.
So shall contumely leave in his 'heart a new precinct for beauty-
A challenge deserving his courage, noblest and highest endeavor.
For thus your sublimity answers the child of a day who invokes it-
That to brood upon them who ill use him will drive home a bitterer woe
Than can lie in the compass of others, or wide world in arms thrown against him.
EDEN PHILLPOTTS.
T HAS BEEN USUAL, and indeed it still is not business man came more and inore obtrusively to the
unusual, to speak of three coordinate factors of front and came in for a more and more generous
production ”: land, labor, and capital. The reason portion of the country's yearly income—which was
for this threefold scheme of factors in production is taken to argue that he also contributed increasingly
that there have been three recognized classes of in to the yearly production of goods. So a fourth factor
come: rent, wages, and profits; and it has been of production has provisionally been added to the
assumed that whatever yields an income is a pro threefold scheme, in the person of the "entrepre-
ductive factor. This scheme has come down from neur," whose wages of management are considered
the eighteenth century. It is presumed to have been to measure his creative share in the production of
true, in a general way, under the conditions which goods, although there still is some question as to
prevailed in the eighteenth century, and it has there the precise part of the entrepreneur in productive
fore also been assumed that it should continue to be industry.
natural, or norr
ormal, true in some eminent sense, Entrepreneur is a technical term to designate
under any other conditions that have come on since
the man who takes care of the financial end of
that time.
things. It covers the same fact as the more familiar
Seen in the light of later events this threefold plan “ business man,” but with a vague suggestion of big
of coordinate factors in production is notable for business rather than small. The typical entrepreneur
what it omits. It assigns no productive effect to the
is the corporation financier. And since the corpora-
industrial arts, for example, for the conclusive
tion financier has habitually come in for a very sub-
reason that the state of the industrial arts yields no
stantial share of the community's yearly income he
stated or ratable income to any one class of persons;
has also been conceived to render a very substantial
it affords no legal claim to a share in the commu-
nity's
's yearly production of goods. The state of the productive industry out of which the yearly income
service to the community as a creative force in that
industrial art is a joint stock of knowledge derived
arises. Indeed it is nearly true that in current usage
from past experience, and is held and passed on as "producer " has come to mean
“ financial manager,"
an indivisible possession of the community at large
. both in the standard economic theory and in every-
It is the indispensable foundation of all productive · day speech.
industry, of course, but except for certain minute
There need of course be no quarrel with all this.
fragments covered by patent rights or trade secrets,
this joint stock is no man's individual property. For
It is a matter of usage. During the era of the
this reason it has not been counted in as
machine industry—which is also the era of the com-
factor in production. The unexampled advance of production and have managed the industry of the
mercial democracy-business men have controlled
technology during the past one hundred and fifty
commonwealth for their own ends, so that the
years has now begun to call attention to its omis-
sion from the threefold plan of productive factors
material fortunes of all the civilized peoples have
handed down from that earlier time.
continued to turn on the financial management of
their business men.
Another omission from the scheme of factors, as
it was originally drawn, was the business man.
But in the course of the nineteenth century the
And during the same period


1919
553
THE DIAL
or less
system which these business men have been manag likely to be rated as inventors, at least in a loose
ing for their own private gain all this time has con sense of the word. But it is more to the point that
tinually been growing ‘more efficient on the whole. they were designers and builders of factory, mill,
Its productive capacity per unit of equipment and and mine equipment, of engines, processes, machines,
man power has continually grown larger. For this and machine tools, as well as shop managers, at the
very creditable outcome due credit should be, as same time that they took care, more
indeed it has been, given to the business community effectually, of the financial end. Nowhere do these
which has had the oversight of things. The efficient beginnings of the captain of industry stand out so
enlargement of industrial capacity has, of course, convincingly as among the English tool-builders of
been due to a continued advance in technology, to a that early time, who designed, tried out, built, and
continued increase of the available natural resources, marketed that series of indispensable machine tools
and to a continued increase of population. But the that has made the practical foundation of the me-
business community have also had a part in bringing chanical industry. Something to much the same
all this to pass; they have always been in a position effect is due to be said for the pioneering work of
to hinder this growth, and it is only by their consent the Americans along the same general lines of
and advice that things have been enabled to go mechanical design and performance at a slightly later
forward so far as they have gone.
period. To men of this class the new industrial
This sustained advance in productive capacity, due order owes much of its early success as well as of
to the continued advance in technology and in popu-
its later growth.
lation, has also had another notable consequence. These men were captains of industry, entrepre-
According to the Liberal principles of the eighteenth neurs, in some such simple and comprehensive sense
century any legally defensible receipt of income is of the word as that which the economists appear to
a sure sign of productive work done. Seen in the have had in mind for a hundred years after, when
light of this assumption, the visibly increasing pro- they have spoken of the wages of management that
ductive capacity of the industrial system has enabled are due the entrepreneur for productive work done.
all men of a liberal and commercial mind not only They were a cross between a business man and an
to credit the businesslike captains of industry with industrial expert, and the industrial expert appears
having created this productive capacity, but also to to have been the more valuable half in their composi-
overlook all that the same captains of industry have tion. But factory, mine, and ship owners, as well
been doing in the ordinary course of business to hold as merchants and bankers, also made up a vital part
productive industry in check. And it happens that of that business community out of whose later
all this time things have been moving in such a direc growth and specialization the corporation financier
tion and have now gone so far that it is today quite
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has arisen.
an open question whether the businesslike manage His origins are both technological and commercial,
ment of the captains is not more occupied with check and in that early phase of his life history which has
ing industry than with increasing its productive been taken over into the traditions of economic
capacity.
theory and of common sense he carried on both of
these lines of interest and of work in combination.
This captain of industry, typified by the corpora-
That was before the large scale, the wide sweep, and
tion financier, and latterly by the investment banker, the profound specialization of the advanced mechan-
is one of the institutions that go to make up the ical industry had gathered headway. But progres-
new order of things, which has been coming on sively the cares of business management grew larger
among all the civilized peoples ever since the Indus and more exacting, as the scale of things in business
trial Revolution set in. As such, as an institutional grew larger, and so the directive head of any such
growth, his life history hitherto should be worth business concern came progressively to give his atten-
looking into for anyone who proposes to understand tion more and more exclusively to the financial
the recent growth and present drift of this new end.” At the same time and driven by the same con-
economic order. The beginnings of the captain of siderations the businesslike management of industry
industry are to be seen at their best among those has progressively been shifting to the footing of cor-
enterprišing Englishmen who made it their work to poration finance. This has brought on a further
carry the industrial promise of the Revolution out division, dividing the ownership of the industrial
into tangible performance, during the closing decades equipment and resources from their management.
of the eighteenth and the early decades of the nine But also at the same time the industrial system, on
teenth century. These captains of the early time are its technological side, has been progressively growing


554
THE DIAL
May 31
what the market would carry off at a reasonably
and can happen, only rarely and intermittently.
the critical point, when business exigencies began This has been true, increasingly, ever since the ordi-
did not come at the same date in all or in most of seriously began to overtake and promised to exceed
greater and going farther in scope, diversity, special say that, by and large, the period of transition to a
ization, and complexity, as well as in productive general rule of restriction in industry comes on at
capacity per unit of equipment and man power. the time and for the reason so indicated. There
The last named item of change, the progressive were also other factors engaged in that industrial
increase of productive capacity, is peculiarly signif- situation, besides those spoken of above, less notable
icant in this connection. Through the earlier and and less sharply defined, but enforcing limitations of
pioneering decades of the machine era it appears to the same character. Such were, for example, a
have been passably true that the ordinary routine rapidly gaining obsolescence of industrial plant, due
of management in industrial business was taken up to improvements and extensions, as also the partial
with reaching out for new ways and means and exhaustion of the labor supply by persistent over-
speeding up production to maximum capacity. That work, under-feeding, and unsanitary conditions,
was before standardization of processes and of unit but this applies to the English case rather than
products, and fabrication of parts had been carried elsewhere.
far, and therefore before quantity production had In point of time this critical period in the affairs
taken on anything like its later range and reach. of industrial business coincides roughly with the
And, partly because of that fact—because quantity coming in of corporation finance as the ordinary and
production was then still a slight matter and greatly typical method of controlling the industrial output.
circumscribed, as contrasted with its later growth Of course the corporation, or company, has other
the ordinary volume of output in the mechanical uses besides the restrictive control of the output with
industries was still relatively slight and manageable.
a view to a profitable market, but it should be suffi-
Therefore those concerns that were engaged in these ciently obvious that the combination of ownership
industries still had a fairly open market for what and centralization of control which the corporation
ever they might turn out, a market capable of taking brings about is also exceedingly convenient for that
up any reasonable increase of output. Exceptions purpose. And when it appears that the general
to this general rule occurred; as, for example, in
textiles. But the general rule stands out obtrusively
resort to corporate organization of the larger sort
sets in about the time when business exigencies begin
through the early decades of the nineteenth century
to dictate an imperative restriction of ouput, it is not
so far as regards English industry, and even more
easy to avoid the conclusion that this was one of the
obviously in the case of America. Such an open
market meant a fair chance for competitive produc-
ends to be served by this reorganization of business
enterprise. Business enterprise may fairly be said
tion, without too much risk of overstocking. And
to have shifted from the footing of free-swung com-
running to the same effect, there was the continued
petitive production to that of a conscientious with-
increase of population and the continually increasing holding of efficiency, so soon and so far as corpora-
reach and volume of the means of transport, serving
to maintain a free market for any prospective in-
tion finance on a sufficiently large scale had come to
be the controlling factor in industry. At the same
crease of output, at prices which offered a fair
time and in the same degree the discretionary con-
prospect of continued profit. In the degree in which
this condition of things prevailed a reasonably free
trol of industry, and of other business enterprise in
competitive production would be practicable..
great part, has passed into the hands of the corpora-
tion financier.
The industrial situation so outlined began visibly
Corporate organization has continually gone for-
to give way toward the middle of the nineteenth
ward to a larger scale and a more comprehensive
century in England, and at a correspondingly later
period in America. The productive capacity of the
coalition of forces, and at the same time, and more
mechanical industry was visibly overtaking the
and more visibly, it has become the ordinary duty
capacity of the market, so that free competition with-
of the corporate management to adjust production
out afterthought was no longer a sound footing on
to the requirements of the market by restricting the
which to manage production. Loosely, this critical
output to what the traffic will bear, that is to say,
or transitional period falls in and about the second
what will yield the largest net earnings. Under
quarter of the nineteenth century in England; else-
corporate management it rarely happens that produc-
where at a correspondingly later date: Of course
tion is pushed to the limit of capacity. It happens,
to dictate a policy of combination and restriction,
nary productive capacity of the mechanical industries
the mechanical industries; but it seems possible to


1919
555
THE DIAL
ed
profitable price. And ever since that critical turn to be entrusted with the community's industrial wel-
in the affairs of industrial business—somewhere in fare, which calls for maximum production.
the middle half of the nineteenth century-it has Such has been the situation in all the civilized
become increasingly imperative to use a wise mod countries since corporation finance has ruled indus-
eration and stop down the output to such rate and try, and until a recent date. Quite recently this
volume as the traffic will bear. The cares of busi settled scheme of business management has shown
ness have required an increasingly undivided atten signs of giving way, and a new move in the organi-
tion on the part of the business men, and in an ever zation of business enterprise has come in sight,
increasing measure their day's work has come to whereby the discretionary control of industrial pro-
center about a running adjustment of sabotage on duction is shifting still farther over to the side of
production. And for this purpose, evidently, the
finance and still farther out of touch with the re-
corporate organization of this business, on an increas quirements of maximum production.
The new
ingly large scale, is very serviceable, since the requi move is of a twofold character: (a) the financial
site sabotage on productive industry can be effec- captains of industry have been proving their indus-
ſually administered only on a large plan and with a trial incompetence in a progressively convincing
firm hand.
fashion, and (b) their own proper work of financial
The leaders in business are men who have management has progressively taken on a character
studied and thought all their lives. They have thus of standardized routine such as no longer calls for or
learned to decide big problems at once, basing their admits any large measure of discretion or initiative.
decisions
upon their knowledge of fundamental They have been losing touch with the management
principles.”—Jeremiah W. Jenks. That is to say, of industrial processes, at the same time that the
the surveillance of this financial end of industrial management of corporate business has, in effect, been
business, and the control of the requisite running shifting into the hands of a bureaucratic clerical
balance of sabotage, have been reduced to a routine staff. The corporation financier of popular tradition
governed by settled principles of procedure and ad is taking on the character of a chief of bureau.
ministered by suitably trained experts in corporation
finance. But under the limitations to which all The changes which have brought the corporation
human capacity is subject it follows from this in financier to this somewhat inglorious position of a
creasingly exacting discipline of business administra routine administrator set in along with the early
tion that the business men are increasingly out of growth of corporation finance, somewhere around
touch with that manner of thinking and those ele the middle of the nineteenth century, and they have
ments of knowledge that go to make up the logic come to a head somewhere about the passage to the
and the relevant facts of the mechanical technology. twentieth century, although it is only since the latter
Addiction to a strict and unremitting valuation of date that the outcome is becoming at all clearly
all things in terms of price and profit leaves them, defined. When corporate organization and the
by settled habit, unfit to appreciate those technologi consequent control of output came into bearing there
cal facts and values that can be formulated only in were two lines of policy open to the management:
terms of tangible mechanical performance; increas (a) to maintain profitable prices by limiting the
ingly so with every further move into a stricter output, and (b) to maintain profits by lowering the
addiction to businesslike management and with every
production cost of an increased output. To some
further advance of the industrial system into a still
extent both of these lines were followed, but on
wider scope and a still more diversified and more
the whole the former proved the more attractive;
delicately balanced give and take among its inter-
it involved less risk, and it required less acquaint-
locking members.
ance with the working processes of industry. At least
They are experts in prices and profits and finan it appears that in effect the preference was
cial maneuvers, and yet the final discretion in all increasingly given to the former method during this
questions of industrial policy continues to rest in half-century of financial management. For this there
their hands. They are by training and interest cap-
were good reasons. The processes of production
tains of finance, and yet, with no competent grasp
were continually growing more extensive, diversified,
of the industrial arts, they continue to exercise a complicated, and more difficult for any layman in
plenary discretion as captains of industry. They technology to comprehend and the corporation
are unremittingly engaged in a routine of acquisition, financier was such a layman, necessarily and increas-
in which they habitually reach their ends by a ingly so, for reasons indicated above. At the same
shrewd restriction of output, and yet they continue time, owing to a continued increase of population


556
May 31
THE DIAL
notable feature of it all as seen from the point of
view of the public at large was always the stabiliza-
tion of prices at a reasonably high level, such as
and a continued extension of the industrial system, corporation financier is little more than a dubious
the net product of industry and its net earnings con intermediate term between these two.
tinued to increase independently of any creative One of the greater personages in American busi-
effort on the part of the financial management. So ness finance took note of this situation in the late
the corporation financier, as a class, came in for an nineties and set about turning it to account for the
“unearned increment" of income on the simple benefit of himself and his business associates, and
plan of “sitting tight.” That plan is intelligible to from that period dates a new era in American cor-
any layman. All industrial innovation and all poration finance. It was for a time spoken of loosely
aggressive economy in the conduct of industry not as the Era of Trust-Making, but that phrase does
only presumes an insight into the technological not describe it at all adequately. It should rather be
details of the industrial process, but to any other
called the Era of the Investment Banker, and it has
than the technological experts, who know the facts
come to its present stage of maturity and stability
intimately, any move of that kind will appear haz- only in the course of the past quarter-century.
ardous. So the business men who have controlled
The characteristic features and the guiding pur-
industry, being laymen in all that concerns its man-
pose of this improved method in corporation finance
agement, have increasingly been content to let well are best shown by a showing of the methods and
enough alone and to get along with an ever increas-
achievements of that great pioneer by whom it was
ing overhead charge of inefficiency, so long as they inaugurated. As an illustrative case, then, the
have lost nothing by it. The result has been an
American steel business in the nineties was suffering
ever increasing volume of waste and misdirection in
from the continued use of out-of-date processes,
the use of equipment, resources, and man power
equipment, and locations, from wasteful manage-
throughout the industrial system.
ment under the control of stubbornly ignorant cor-
In time, that is to say within the last few years,
poration officials, and particularly from intermittent
the resulting lag, leak, and friction in the ordinary haphazard competition and mutual sabotage between
working of this mechanical industry under business
the numerous concerns which were then doing busi-
management have reached such proportions that no
ness in steel. It appears to have been the last-named
ordinarily intelligent outsider can help seeing them
difficulty that particularly claimed the attention and
wherever he may look into the facts of the case.
supplied the opportunity of the great pioneer. He
But it is the industrial experts, not the business
can by no stretch of charity be assumed to have had
men, who have finally begun to criticize this busi-
even a slight acquaintance with the technological
nesslike mismanagement and neglect of the ways
needs and shortcomings of the steel industry. But
and means of industry. And hitherto their efforts
to a man of commercial vision and financial sobriety
and advice have met with no cordial response from
it was plain that a more comprehensive, and there-
the business men in charge, who have, on the whole,
fore more authoritative, organization and control of
continued to let well enough alone—that is to say,
the steel business would readily obviate much of the
what is well enough for a short-sighted business
competition which was deranging prices. The ap.
policy looking to private gain, however poorly it
parent purpose and the evident effect of the new and
may serve the material needs of the community. But
larger coalition of business interests in steel was to
in the meantime two things have been happening
maintain profitable prices by a reasonable curtail-
which have deranged the regime of the corporation
ment of production. A secondary and less evident
financier: industrial experts, engineers, chemists,
effect was a more economical management of the
minerologists, technicians of all kinds have been
industry, which involved some displacement of quon-
drifting into more responsible positions in the indus-
dam corporation financiers and some introduction of
trial system and have been growing up and multiply-
industrial experts. A further, but unavowed, end
ing within the system, because the system will no
to be served by the same move in each of the many
longer work at all without them; and on the other
enterprises in coalition undertaken by the great
hand, the large financial interests on whose support
pioneer and by his competitors was a bonus that
the corporation financiers have been leaning have
came to these enterprising men in the shape of an
gradually come to realize that corporation finance
can best be managed as a comprehensive bureucratic
increased capitalization of the business. But the
routine, and that the two pillars of the house of
corporate business enterprise of the larger sort are
the industrial experts and the large financial con-
cerns that control the necessary funds; whereas the
would always assure reasonably large earnings on the
increased capitalization.


1919
557
THE DIAL
Since then this manner of corporation finance has in the hands of this inclusive quasi-syndicate of
been further perfected and standardized, until it will banking interests it is necessary that the credit sys-
now hold true that no large move in the field of tem of the country should as a whole be adminis-
corporation finance can be made without the advice tered on a unified plan and inclusively. All of
and consent of those large funded interests that are which is taken care of by the same conjunction of
in a position to act as investment bankers; nor does circumstances; the same quasi-syndicate of banking
any large enterprise in corporation business ever interests that makes use of the country's credit in
escape from the continued control of the investment the way of corporation finance is also the guardian
bankers in any of its larger transactions; nor can any of the country's credit. From which it results that,
corporate enterprise of the larger sort now continue as regards those large-scale credit extensions which
to do business except on terms which will yield are of substantial consequence, the credits and debits
something appreciable in the way of income to the are, in effect, pooled within the syndicate, so that no
investment bankers, whose continued support is nec substantial derangement of the credit situation can
essary to its success. The financial interest here take effect except by the free choice of this quasi-
spoken of as the investment banker is commonly syndicate of investment banking houses; that is to
something in the way of a more or less articulate say, not except they see an advantage to themselves
syndicate of financial houses, and it is to be added in allowing the credit situation to be deranged, and
that the same financial concerns are also commonly, not beyond the point which will best serve their
if not invariably, engaged or interested in commer collective purpose as against the rest of the com-
cial banking of the usual kind. So that the same munity. With such a closed system no extension of
well-established, half-syndicated ramification of credit obligations or multiplication of corporate
banking houses that have been taking care of the securities, with the resulting inflation of values, need
country's commercial banking, with its center of bring any risk of a liquidaton, since credits and
credit and of control at the country's financial debits are in effect pooled within the system. By
metropolis, is ready from beforehand to take over way of parenthesis it may also be remarked that
and administer the country's corporation finance on under these circumstances credit” has no par-
a unified plan and with a view to an equitable dis ticular meaning except as a method of account-
tribution of the country's net earnings among them ing. Credit is also one of the timeworn insti-
selves and their clients. The more inclusive this tutions that are due to suffer obsolescence by
financial organization is, of course, the more able it improvement.
will be to manage the country's industrial system as This process of pooling and syndication that is
an inclusive whole and prevent any hazardous inno remaking the world of credit and corporation finance
vation or experiment, as well as to limit production has been greatly helped on in America by the estab-
of the necessaries to such a volume of output as will lishment of the Federal Reserve system, while some-
yield the largest net return to itself and its clients. what similar results have been achieved elsewhere
Evidently the improved plan which has thrown the
by somewhat similar devices. That system has
discretion and responsibility into the hands of the
greatly helped to extend, facilitate, simplify, and
investment banker should make for a safe and sound
consolidate the unified control of the country's credit
conduct of business, such as will avoid Auctuations
arrangements, and it has very conveniently left the
of price, and more particularly avoid any unprofit- substantial control in the hands of those larger finan-
able speeding-up of productive industry. Evidently, cial interests into whose hands the lines of control
too, the initiative has hereby passed out of the hands in credit and industrial business were already being
of the corporation financier, who has fallen into the gathered by force of circumstances and by sagacious
position of a financial middleman or agent, with
management of the interested parties. By this means
limited discretion and with a precariously doubtful the substantial core of the country's credit system is
future. But all human institutions are susceptible gathered into a self-balanced whole, closed and un-
of improvement, and the course of improvement may breakable, self-insured against all risk and derange-
• now and again, as in his case, result in supersession ment. All of which converges to the definitive sta-
and displacement. And doubtless it is all for the bilization of the country's business; but since it
best, that is to say, for the good of business, more reduces financial traffic to a riskless routine it also
particularly for the profit of big business.
converges to the conceivable obsolescence of corpora-
But now as always corporation finance is a traffic tion finance and eventually, perhaps, of the invest-
in credit; indeed, now
more than ever before. ment banker.
Therefore to stabilize corporate business sufficiently
THORSTEIN VEBLEN.


558
THE DIAL
May 31
Conrad Aiken-Metaphysical Poet
The world is seriously in need of a new classifica-
the rarity of great metaphysical poets. In England settling of our cherished conventions and prejudices.
there have been, so far as I remember, Donne-
tion of poets. Hitherto we have been largely con facile princeps in this field—also Vaughan, and possi-
tent with the old labels of romantic and realist. bly Marvell. Shakespeare in Hamlet and Iago,
But these old labels can no longer satisfy, for the Webster in Bosola and Ferdinand, gave us complete
boundaries of poetry have been enlarged since the figures illuminated by the same searching metaphys-
early nineteenth century to embrace the whole field ic. Shelley, had he developed in the direction
of scientific speculation which is our legacy from of The Cenci and of The Triumph of Time,
the evolutionists, the anthropologists, the psychol- might have become one of the great metaphysical
ogists, the sociologists, and the men of science gen poets.
erally. As we are today, it is evident that there
To turn from these figures to a writer of the
may be quite as much romantic magic in a poet writ-
present day and generation may seem to some an
ing from a mind stocked with purely scientific impertinence. But we are not able to estimate the
theory, as there is in Shelley; and as much realism
weight and significance of a writer such as Conrad
in the narrower sense, in a poet of pure romantic Aiken, either as poet or as critic of poetry, except
tendency, as there is, say, in Masefield. We must
by making some such transition. On the jacket of
seek finer distinctions. What is needed is not a new Mr. Aiken's latest book, his fifth (The Charnel
definition of the incomprehensible mystery called Rose; Four Seas Co.; Boston), I find the following:
'poetry,” but a new classification of the poets
There is a strangeness about the art of Conrad
themselves.
Aiken that makes it unique. No one is writing
When we come to examine English poetry, we
just like him in America today.” This remark is
can, if we observe closely, easily distinguish two
not only true, it is probably the one true thing that
main streams of inspiration in it now parting, now has ever been said about Aiken. And because of this
fusing, sometimes clouded, and again distinct. There
have been the poets who wrote largely of the aspects
strangeness, which I think springs from the fact that
of things outside themselves; and the poets who,
both in his poetry and in his prose criticism Aiken
is a metaphysician, he has been more variously esti-
turning within themselves, wrote of the world as mated by writers and critics on both sides of the At-
mirrored in the human brain. We may call the first
objective, and the second subjective; or we may
lantic than any man I know. He is profoundly dis-
adopt a more recent nomenclature and label the first
liked by many, mistrusted by some, and admired, if
imagistic and the second symbolistic. But if the
at all, by a few.
spirit of inquiry is strong within us neither of these
I turn to page thirty-one of the poem he calls
labels can completely satisfy our intelligence. They
Senlin: A Biography (really I like to think that
do not completely cover the ground. We are per-
the subject of this poem is Aiken himself) and cull
haps safer if we say that the first group of poets
the following stanzas:
are externalistic, and the second metaphysical, in
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
tendency. There have been far more poets of the
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
externalist type in English than of the metaphysical.
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
And these poets have been more widely read and
Stars in the purple dusk above the roof-tops
appreciated by their contemporaries—indeed, by
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet
posterity—than their neglected antitypes. This is
Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
partly due to the mental inertia of most of us-
I stand before a mirror and comb my hair ;
an inertia that seeks to be soothed with pretty,
How small and white my face!
easily explainable pictures and familiar tunes—partly
The green earth tilts through a sea of air,
also to the extreme difficulty of writing good meta-
And bathes in a flame of space.
physical verse. The good metaphysical poet must
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
be always turning the world inside out, so to speak.
Should I not pause in the light to remember God?
And since the faculty of verse-writing is based pri-
Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable,
He is immense and lonely as a cloud.
marily on an immediate emotional response to sensu-
I will dedicate this moment before my mirror
ous impression, it is apparent that the good meta-
To Him alone, for Him I will comb 'my hair.
physical poet must be always battling against his
Accept these humble offerings, cloud of silence!
I will think of you as I descend the stair,
own immediate apprehensions. This will explain
Here we have a kind of poetry profoundly un-


1919
559
THE DIAL
Either we are by nature timid anthropomorphists in desire that has tormented every great mind from
matters of religion (despite all the evidence that can Saint Augustine to Nietzsche, Aiken has woven a
be urged to the contrary) or we are simply indiffer vast symphony. Quotation here is useless. We are
ent. But Aiken is neither. He looks beneath the simply upborne in these mad, delirious waves of
surface of age-old compromises and sees the body drunken music that flow in and out endlessly. We
of Everyman poised on an unstable helpless planet, are hurried from one chaos into another, so that we
carefully arranging his tie, while his soul, darkened should be in danger of losing our bearings utterly
and without knowledge, humbly seeks to penetrate
were not the mind and voice directing this orchestra
to the cause of all things. The cruel clarity of such
that of a poet. “To shape this world of leaderless
perception as this startles and horrifies. But none
ghostly passions,—or else be mobbed by it, that is
the less it is both beautiful and true. In this mind
the question”: in these lines is summed up the whole
we find all our minds mirrored. Poetry cannot do
purpose of the poem. Conrad Aiken has shaped this
world for us, has striven to make tangible to us the
Even more profoundly disturbing, more intoxicat-
‘ingly daemonic, is the insight displayed in the poem
intangible substance of our lives, and we cannot
withhold from him a meed of praise as great as that
which gives this volume its title—The Charnel Rose.
The subject of this poem is sexual desire; and out
of any poet living and writing in America today.
of desire, the “ desire of the moth for the star," the
John Gould FLETCHER.
more.
Rainer Maria Rilke
CHIEF AMONG THE LYRICAL gem makers of Ger- sphere of normal perception. Their consciousness
many at present is Rainer Maria Rilke. He makes spurns the ministrations of the naked sense. Emo-
little perfect things after the patterns of old great
tion and sense-life are sustained by a high-power
things. Taking an intimate, poignant, but minute microscope.
impress of a great emotion or intimation, he gives The German movement is not an isolated sport
out an attenuated copy of it wrought in exquisite in the poetry and art of nineteenth century Europe.
miniature workmanship.
It took a decided form first in the Romantic Move-
His talent burns with an intense but thin flame, a ment in Germany. It rose again in the French
flame assuming a semblance of many colors from the Symbolists and in some of the Neo-Celts, and is now
many objects over which it plays, but having little seeking rebirth in the Imagists. It is closely asso-
color of its own. The paucity of inner warmth and
ciated with the musical and pictorial arts, especially
substance is covered by much outward sense imagery
the latter, from which it borrows much of its tech-
wrapped in a symbolistic haze of unutterable mean nique of the reproduction of the world of the eye.
ings. The attitude of the Annunciation becomes a It seeks to mirror nature in a consciousness one-
habit. The vatic gesture serves as a vehicle of any sidedly visual, and, to a lesser degree, auditory.
communication no matter how casual, trivial, or Its chief shortcoming lies in the poverty of its in-
merely pretty. A breathless anticipation of eternal ner life. Its emotionality is subtle sense excitement.
beauty and heavenly preciousness exhales a strained Its spirituality is an exquisite mask of the utmost re-
atmosphere of a sublimity both exclusive and pre finements of a rarified animalism. Its ethos is a
carious. Sense intoxication, immensely skilful and sensuality from which has been refined away its
self-conscious, counterfeits vision.
proper relevance, its matter-of-fact gravity and
Though he developed separately, he is in a sense downright honest desire for material fruitfulness.
the extreme efforescense of the movement which took What remains is an intense but impoverished gesture
definite form and set forth a precise program under
of creativeness.
the leadership of Stephan George in Die Blätter für The attitude of the recording self in this poetry is
die Kunst, during the nineties. That magazine was that of a spellbound inactivity, of a breathless, pass-
for a time the organ of an esoteric poetical brother- ively intense waiting for the spontaneous arrival of
hood of excruciating sensitiveness and finesse. The the unutterable, which, like the king in Maeter-
brotherhood has passed, but the spirit has remained. linck's Seven Princesses, never comes. It lacks the
Its devotees repudiate whatever is readily perceptible naïve identification of the conscious self with the
to the common.
The impact of reality upon the impulses, motions, and activities swaying it, which
mind is by them removed to the extreme limits of is the essence of the mood of true lyricism. Its in-
the aura of crepuscular intimations fringing the ward quality is largely that of prose which is meas-


560
May 31
THE DIAL
tent.
ured by the degree to which the recording conscious ship, will repay careful reading with many subtle
ness keeps clear of the sway of the activities, emo thrills, many suggestions, and many admissions to
tions, and ideas transmitted through it. Its emo modern emotional sophistication.
tional participation in its subjects is that peculiar These remarks on Rilke have been called forth by
introspective mood in which self-conscious gesture translations of a selection from his many books of
takes the place of naïve utterance. “I will pour
poems by Jessie Lemont (Tobias A. Wright; New
forth my soul with hands stretched out” is the con York). In view of the immense difficulties of her
cluding and culminating line of The Bride. True task, she has acquitted herself with remarkable
lyricism is not introspective,
fidelity and a considerable degree of success. Aside
The irrelevance of mere visual finesse intruding from the common difficulties of metrical translitera-
on the essential mood is shown in the characteristic tion from German into English-difficulties inher-
last stanza of the poem Memories from Childhood. ent in the far greater number of unstressed final
The poet remembers, the sweetness of his boyhood, syllables and the greater rhythmical weight of un-
glorified as it was by the companionship of a gifted stressed syllables generally—she had to contend with
and sympathetic mother, who used to play and sing the obstacles, often insuperable, raised by the author's
to him. The picture concludes:
exquisite verbal skill and by his preciosity. Fre-
His large eyes fastened with a quiet glow
quently, with the illusive veil of the latter torn by
Upon the hand which by her ring seemed bent, the exigencies of English, there appears the naked
And slowly wandering o'er the white keys went
Moving as though against a drift of snow.
prose of the matter, as in lines like: “ He will
awake, will read, will letters write,” in which the
Such self-mirroring as in the first line, and the eyes'
search for unusual and strained refinements of ex-
inversion crudely emphasizes the uninspired con-
Harshness of sound and rhythm, inadequate
ternal analogy in the remaining lines, destroy sin-
cerity of emotion and freeze lyrical warmth.
renderings of subtleties of matter and diction are
However
, with all its shortcomings of externalism original is inaccessible and to those sympathetically
unavoidable. Yet, to those to whom Rilke in the
and inner sterility, this poetry has a claim on our
attention as an expression of a type of individuality
interested in the suggestions gained from comparison
developed by modern civilization and as a conspicu-
of metrical translations with their.originals
, the book
ous feature of the literary life of a century. And
will prove valuable. The translations are prefaced
Rilke, as one of the most distinguished representa-
by an illuminating though somewhat panegyrical
tives of this type, both in substance and workman-
appreciation of Rilke, by “H. T.”
MARTIN SCHÜTZE.
The Romance of the Realists
Be
E HE NEVER SO STERN a realist, the poet must
volution of that personality with a complex and in-
yet obey his romantic spirit. For poetry is distin-
guished from prose by a desire that broods upon its
apprehensible world. Much of the poetry at the
own activity, returning upon itself as a lapsed wave
close of the last century was the poetry of men
is caught up and carried forward by the sea. It is
defeated by the coils in which they found them-
this that renders the subject-matter of poetry indif-
selves, fooling with surface fripperies and fra-
ferent. Any subject is “poetic " which the artist can
grances. What marks contemporary English poetry
invest with his personal ardor. It is “prosaic” to
is its preoccupation with the personal, a preoccupa-
the degree that he intellectualizes
, that he resists its plexity of our life. It is not so much that the spleng
tion stimulated and directed by the increased com-
immediate claim upon him for the sake of imposing dor of a sunlit wind-ridden earth or the terror of
a more considered accent. That toward which the
artist's instinct drives him is “poetic "; that which
space and thunder have lessened, as that the prob-
he accepts, as an object for the exercise of his technic
lems we have more frequently to face are those of
or the play of his intelligence, is to this extent the
one personality impinging on others; and moreover
subject matter of prose.
that we have new knowledge about personal rela-
Primitive poetic impulse seems to be toward a
tions no less revolutionary than the new knowledge
perception of the external world. The mind of the
about impersonal ones which shook the mid-nine-
poet, playing in the vague childhood of the race,
teenth century.
dis-
covers earth and air, the seas and the planets, with
Inasmuch as the majority of her poems deal with
wonder and delight. It is only later that he discov-
this novel world, Jean Starr Untermeyer is a mod-
ers his own personality, and, as he progresses, the in-
ern person. All art is to a degree pathological. It
is a means of throwing off waste emotion. It is


1919
561
THE DIAL
medicine for the sick soul. So she makes her frank For Mrs. Untermeyer's acute self-analysis Mr.
declaration :
Brody substitutes a more objective if less keen appre-
Not for Art's sake,
hension of his environment. He is more nation-
But to rid me of an ancient sorrow.
ally minded than the other poet, he is at once more
And since to the sensitive mind the knowledge of its
self-conscious and less concentrated. He lingers on
own loneliness is always intensely present, it is here his racial affiliations; dwelling on the Russian
her emphasis lies. If she dwells upon the soul's village—with its
sweet-sounding, time-scented
essential solitude, however, it is without sentimental name "—where he was born, and upon the New
ity and often with a stringent challenge.
York Ghetto to which he came, with the same fond
The authenticity of Growing Pains (Huebsch) accent, the same receptive lucidity. In the Ghetto
lies in the poet's surrender to her mood. A surrender
twilight he regards the old tenements,
which is yet not an abandonment, which is con Watching the tired faces coming home from work,
trolled by the cleverness of the technician as well
Like dry-breasted hags
as by the author's realistic bias. Here are
Welcoming their children to their withered arms.
no songs
for an idle lute.” If this seems a bold statement,
And he asks:
an examination of the poems gives it validity. Not Is that ugly?
all have the same highly-wrought quality, but all. That dreamy-eyed little ragamuffin urinating so contem-
platively on the pavement,
seem to have been evoked by the pressure of life
Patterning that square patch of sunlight into circles and
itself, by the demands of body and brain. The power ellipses
of investing vulgar experience with beauty is patent
With such intense absorption-
in the color and odorous pungency of Autumn; in
or beholds the November trees, where
the mellow gravity of A Man; in On the Beach, Fearlessly,
with its sure resurgent cadences, the infibulation They thrust their dry branches against the sky;
Long since the wind rifled their blossoms
of human passions with the vast heave and murmur
And scattered their foliage on the ground-
of the sea; in Spring, perhaps the most sustained Now they stand sternly erect,
Naked and strong,
poem in the book, certainly one of the most penetrat-
Having nothing to lose.
ing. There is little verbal music in these poems,
despite the author's fine rhythmic sense. She cares
Mr. Brody simply asserts himself to be a realist.
rather for a word's adequacy than for its resonance.
Understanding the demands such a philosophy of art
But her work has the virtues of that defect. For puts upon the poet, he strives unremittingly to fulfill
them. There are many lapses and immaturities; he
the sheer power of its imagery, no less than for its
is often verbose; and sometimes his verse moves in
characteristic ironic vigor, High-Tide is fairly
the alert progressive rhythms of prose rather than the
typical:
* strophic curves of his chosen art. But there is the
I edged back against the night.
note of a significant voice here.
The sea growled assault on the wave-bitten shore.
And the breakers,
Without any expressed theory, Mrs. Untermeyer
Like young and impatient hounds,
achieves what Mr. Brody seeks. In spite of a more
Sprang, with rough joy on the shrinking sand.
limited and delayed output, perhaps because of it,
Sprang-but were drawn back slowly,
With a long, relentless pull,
she comes more nearly to the core of poetic realism.
Whimpering, into the dark.
Both poets deal with familiar things, finding their
Then I saw who held them captive;
themes in the homely street, the common face, the
And I saw how they were bound
With a broad and quivering leash of light,
eventualities of the day. Both prefer the use of un-
Held by the moon,
rhymed free verse, probably for its greater strict-
As, calm and unsmiling,
ness and terseness. Of the two,