1. society
2. unrest and war

The Nation
July 8, 19151
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4’
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rb
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JUBILJE.
Thoseto-dayresponsiblefortheconduct
of the
lookback
to its
years
of life with a kind of proud humility.
The
securepast is nottheirs,yetthey,as
inheritors of a hightradition,must
not discreditit.
theythink of themenwho
conceived the
and nourished its early
years-both
editors and contributors during
the time when its fame was solidly built up
-the sensation is like that of one walking
through a gallery of the
portraits
of his
famous
ancestors.
They
arehis,yetnot
his-his,
if he
lives
worthy
of the
name
they
bequeathed
to
him;
not
his,
if he
fastensdisgracewheretheystamped
honor.
personalities in the earlier day,
wemustleaveotherstospeak.Theyhave
done it in this issue richly and with grace
andjustice.
Over thestillrecent and still
mourned loss of
Hammond Lamont. we
could not pass in complete silence.
His was
a very tragedy of premature death.’
Early didst thou leave the world, with powers
Fresh,
to the
without,
Firm to
their
mark,
not
spent
on other
things,
Free from the
fatigue, the languid doubt
Tributes
to
Godkin
and
Mr. Garrison
linerthanthosepaidelsewhere,
no friend
andadmirer of theirs coulddksire.
There
is perhaps room for a word on t h e feIicitous
way in which ,the twosupplemented edch
other in their joint work.
Godkin’s was
the greater elemental force. He had an impetuousrush.Butsometimesthemighty
flood of his
argument,
surcharged
with
humor,was
indanger
of overflowing its
banks. He occasionally
nebdeb
a dikebuilder. It was a piece of r a r e good fortbne
for Kim t h a t h e had a t his elbow a man
of the coolest judgment, of accurate scholarship,willingandpleasedtowreakhimself
upon theperfecting of thesmallestdetail.
I n Mr. Garrison’shands,
veeification was
as a religion. Evkri punctuation^ became
to
his pen a fine art. His patient labor behind
the curtain was not of a kind that the high
gods of literature delight
yet it was indispensable
to
the
rounding
out
of t h e
No one was quicker to perceive this
than Mr. Godkin. He once wroteto
Garrison, after years of associated endeavor:
“If anything happens to
I shall retire
into zi monastery.”
No one has ever written comprehensively
of theplace of the
theintellectual life of the United States,
more particulrtrly, of its true position in the history
of American
journalism.
The
hints,
the
echoes, the scattered individual testimonies,
thetreasuredmemories,abound.
We have
the letters of Lowell andNorton.Wehave
still
themen of sixtywhosehearts
wlthin them as they recall what the Nation
was t o them in the years when their minds
were expandingtothelight.Inthe
colleges it was a powerwith the choicer natures: on more than onefarm
it was a
college t o awakeningintelligences
denied
a college education.Notlong
ago, a man
wWo hadspent forty-five years in t h e ser.
vice of a railway, rising from train-hand to
conductor of a trunk-line express, spoke simply of the
whichhehadreadfor
all that time, as “the only university I have
been abletoattend.”
No doubt, the new
weekly of 1865 fellhappilyuponthe
Pe
riod.
America
was still very
provincialminded,more than a triflecrude,micted
withChauvinism.
Yet therewerestirrings
of a newlife,gropings
after moresevere
standards,
an
increasing
perception
that
Americanachievementmustsubmitto
the
test of the bestthathadbeendone
or
written. Then along came the
to ex
press trained and cosmopolitan judgment
of
books andmenandmovements.Tomany
a youth-and his elders, too-it was like the
opening of a new world.
The
influence inshapingthe
Americanpress
was
of allproportion
to the mere number
of its readers. It did
notstrive nor cry. T h e effects it wrought
weresubtleandinsinuated,never
clamor.
ous. A virtue went out from it which was
unconsciously absorbed by many newspaper
writers.
They
could scarcely
have
said
where they got their new impulse to exercise a judgmentindependent of party. All
can raise the flowers now, for all have
t H e seed. Tc-day themostpowerful
news.
papers in the United States are those which
have the reputation of being always ready,
on a question of real principle, to snap the
greenwitheswithwhichpoliticians
would
bind them. But until twenty years after thc
founded,howfewtheywere,
howsneeredat,
how disliked!Thesteady
light which
Godkin burned in the
and later in t h e
had its slow
but- chmulative’radiations.Notherely
did
i t become imposslble
employ, with a grave
face, the partisan shibboleths which he
was
continuallyholdinguptoridicule,butit
was’ madeeasier
editorstorefuse
to
give
t o party what was meant
for country. In this way, the
was as leaven
in thelump
of Americanjournalism.Its
33
primaryappealwasto“theremnant.”Yet
those whomittaughtandinspiredwere
all the time going out
to teach and inspire
a ge0others.Thustheresultwaslike
metrical
progression.
The
reaped
whereapparently it hadnever sowed. And
in thewholematter
of unbiassedand
in-.
iormed comment upon great affairs, it graduallybecame a sort of externalconscience
to otherpublications.Theywaitedtosee
what it would say before finally committing
themselves. Coming down to a later period,
that of Mr. Godkin’s larger identification with
the
we have the remark Of a
veteran Western lournalist, in reply t o some
one who was lamenting the fact that such a
paperhad
not a largercirculation.
idiot,”he
exclaimed, withprofaneemphasis, “don‘t you know that there isn’ta decent
editor
theUnitedStateswho
does not
want to find out what it has t o say
any
subject worth writing about, before getting
himself on record in cold type?”
We would not end on a purely commemorative note. Thepast of the
ought
to be a pledge for the present and a guarantee of itsfuture.WalterBagehotchose
a
newspaper as a good illustratlon of th8 doctrine of persistence of type; and no one
nected with the
could- escape, if h e
would, what the years have wrought into it.
If it has seen many of the causes advocated
6y it cometotriumph,thereareothers
still to be struggled
If i t drew to itself
a day that is dead, it will
rare spirits in
continue to invite the b e d t h o u g h t a n d t o
seek to secure and express the soundest verdicts on literature, science,
politics,
Kfe.
This number of the
is largely- given
up t o memory, but hope is interfused.
Coming days are to be frontedbravely.
institutionlikethe
is self-renewing.
The spirit of youth is forever interpenetrating it.
that there is the more’
confidence as it
since, with Rabbi
Ezra, it may hope that the best
is
to be.
Twenty-five years ago,
Godkin, ori the
occasion of the
quarter century, reviewed the
tendencies
and
developments,
good a n d bad, of the period. His conclufrom the wholewasone
of reasoned
the
optimism. H e believed that noteven
mostpessimlstlcobservers
a u l d discover
real ground for despairing
of the republic.
In words which we may make
own t*
day, hesald:“Aftertheyhavecollected
together all the most depressing facts in existence, tkiey are sure to find‘
in
them a bushel of’ reminders that,
the
34
Western
world
at least,after
all action
comes reaction, after theflood comes the ebb,
and that in politics, a s in private life, people often make a ladder of their vices to rise
to higher things.”
The war has been productive of few benefits, but oneof these has been acutely felt by
the
The war has partially restored a
valuable
condition
of t h e
early
years.Alwayshavingdrawn
largely upon
the universities
contributions. i t once had
theadvantage of scholarswho could write
upon pressing fundamental issues. The back
files show that neither
nor ton^ nor Lowell.
t o mention no more, was content to be confined t o his special field, broad as it was
compared
with
the
limits
prescribed
for
mostsoholars to-day. Both men were deep
ly concerned abou,t the politics and culture
of thecountry
at large,and
conceived it
theirduty
t o speak out. In recentyears
the
thoughstillenlistingtheservices of foremost scholars, has found it increasingly difficult todrawfromthemany
broad
expression
of their views. Partly,
the trend of scholarship towards specialization was responsible for this; partly,
it was
because they preferred to leave general statementstorepresentatives
of certainnewer
departments of the university to which generalizing is thebreath of life;butmainly
it was because they had been confronted by
no public issue of supreme importance.
T h e Nation
[Vol.
moment.Thescholar’sdiscipline,directed
bywell-triedprinciples,mayyetmake
the
sway of the great god Change less easy.
In
accordancewith its traditional policy, t h e
will continue to point out the danger
of innovations which do not stand the test
of rational criticism.
to throw over the intellect
would be t o p u t
reliance entirely upon the emotions-and to
b r i n gi n
newbrood of romanticists. I n
is toturn t o
such a passthealternative
science, theguidingspirit
of the times.
This is, in fact, what has been done, whether
we look at the preponderance of mathematical formuls in thenewphilosophy,
at the
of thenew
pretentiousaccuracyindetails
poetry,
at t h e elaborate,smooth-running
The desire
machinery of modernbusiness.
is to make automatons of
The intellect, i f we examinethemovement
on the
philosophical side, is to be exercised in applying the exact truths of mathematics,
the higher truths, those usually arrived
at
by a rational synthesis, are to- bereached
by means of the “instinct.” It will b e not$
that this d e m e n t of instinct is in realits
the
determining
factor,
even
though
much is made of the safeguards’ of science,
and that it thus relates the new -school with
the. old one of romanticism. ??be one is but
theinverse of the other. Whereas t h e romanticists created the universe ‘out of their
souls, thenewrealists
admimt a universe
existing independently of them, but bring it
into their
when science will not suffice
t o do so, by means of their emotions.
We are glad to announce that in the autumn .we shall print a series of articles,
writtenbysome
half-dozen distinguished
scholars, on as vital an issue as exists today. Tosaythat
it is at theroot of t h e
war would be no exaggeration in the judgment of some; it is, at the least, a question
whose ramifications reach to all spheres
of
life. We
mean
the
New Realism.
There
could be no better time to examine the pretensions of this growing attitude,
by its
very immensity and revolutionary character
thewarhas
set thewhole WQrl,d to questioning what this reality is which is worth
such a cataclysm as we are witnessingto-day.
as realism, so called, meant that
photographic attention t o details which for
a time infected the drama it did little harm.
Even ,though its votaries pictured by preference thelife of t h e slums,includingthe
brothel,therewastheconvictionthatthe
publicwould
tire of a n art which stifled
Imagination.What
it actuallydidwasto
increasethe
run on the “movies,” which
were seen to be more exact illustrations
of
things as they are. But the new realism has
been turned
into
something
much
more
subtle,and
has pervadedallthearts,
as
well as philosophy, education, business, and
politics, passing in thecase
Fortunately for the
the war has
of thelast
of efficiency-that
changed all this; it
has made the secluded threeunderthename
Yet
it is in t n e
study no sufficientabode,
andnas
moved prince of corrupters!
spheres of painting,poetry,andphilosophy
some of this country’s,mostdistinguished
that it has flourishedmostspectacularly.
scholars
to
assail
the
ready
arguments
To
explainitspeculiarities
in onesphere
whichhavethreatened
us all withconfuis
t
o
come
near
explaining
them
in all; and
sion. That,thoughtrainedintheGerman
system, they have found their quarry
t o be though we cannot undertake to give here an
chiefly eminent German professors, h a s add- analysis of t h e new movement, some of the
lines may be indicated which the symposium
ed zest a s well as ironytotheonslaught.
in the autumn will follow.
Tothose
wtho have followed t h e
correspondencecolumnsanditsspecialarT h e newrealism,
as t h e Nation appreticles on t h e war during the past year,
it hends it, is in brief a variety of naturalmust be evident that the American professor Ismdisguisedby
a -veneer of science. In
has aided materially in the cause
of clear its desire to break through the monotony of
thinking,andthatmuchmaybe
expected the conventional it has been constrained to
from him on otherissues,providedhecan
do away, in large measure, with the rational
beinducedtospeak.
Now it is theintenas well. Themovement is alsoprompted,
in so f a r as it may, to let us admit, by the higher motive of arrivtion of t h e
prevent the study from becoming an ivory
lng at truth, which it is felt has ,been betower. For we a r e convinced that our staff fogged by a silly adherence to the traditionof contributors, selected, in t h e main,from al; habits of thinkinghave come down t o
the aca’demic world throughout the e-untry,
u s from ages past which
do notkeeppace
haye a peculiaropportunityjust
at this- withthe,vastchanges
of modernlife.Yet
101,
No. 2610
When Wil1ia.m James, by his
alluring
deEnition of pragmatism, put a modicum of
philosophy into the hands of the people, he
could nothaverealizedhoweagerly
they
would embrace it, nor that to them pragmatism would soon be identified with efficiency
-the thingwhichbringsresults,
‘‘delivers
the goods.” Neither could he have foreseen
that the methods of modern business would
tendtodirecttheminds
of some of his
philosophicaldisciples.Yetthisseems,to
be whathashappened.Thenewrealists
will have their philosophy as practicable as
James’s. Theymust‘organizeandcreate
a
machinery as scientiiic a s a Steel Trust‘s.
Theymustbe
efficient by forestallingthe
waste occasioned by old-fashioned
mental
concepts; knowledge is to be conveyed much
more
directly.
F o r their
symbolic
logic,
which they have adapted from
Bertrand
Russell, read business organization, and
for
their
“instinct”
read
“hunc$’-that
quentcourt of appealwith the man of affairs-and
yousee howclosely adjusted is
theirphilosophy to everydayconditions of
modern life.
It shouldbetolerablyplain,wethink,
after a systematic examination, that the body
of d,octrine which is the basis of efficiency Is
also t o a large extent the basis of the new
realism. If so, thiswillmeanthat,
the.
C
Bryan declined t o turn on that pivot, and so
h ~ sChxago speech was cancelled. The thing
passed withoutcausing a ripple of excitement. That could hardly have been the ease
if a “considerable majority” of the American
people were of the mind that warsupplies t o
the Allies, to be used against Germany, ought
If he gives but a pale reflection of the an- to be stopped.
Most Americans will respond heartily t o
thestatement
of Dr. Meyer-Gerhard that
hiendship
between
two nations such as GerGovernment and people right about h e r i - derstate the bitterness with which Germans
have expressed themselves against the Unit- many and the United States ought not to be
can sentiment, has already begun his work.
ed States.This
is consistent with the rBle llghtly thrown away. But a good test of
The
article which he wrote for the Tag1
.
which he has assumed of amiable go-between. friendship is to be able to endure the truth
has been summarized in cable dispatches.
His aim is to get each of the two nations to €rom a friend. And thetruth which GerIts burden is that the stress of war has led
believe that the other is really a good fellow mans have now to bear from their Amerito misapprehensions o n both sides; Ameriand a true friend,and that the differences can friends is that the course of the German
cans have not understood the German posiwhich have arisen are due wholly to failure Government in this war has deeply alienated
tion, and Germans have not been able to comon either side t o understand what the other American opinion. There is not s o much
prehend the American attitude. It is
Meyer-Gerhard
was driving at. This is’tactful
and may be “misunderstanding” as
Meyer-Gerhard‘s mission, ashe
evidently
helpful up to a certain point; but obviously chooses to allege. We in this country underconceives it, to act as a skilful intermediary
it cannot go very far. Despite all the bland stand only too well what happened in Beland conciliator between the two. He begins
words that can be used, there remains a clear gib, and what was done t o the Lusitania.
with the German public; and it may be takand sharp issue, a question between the two And if Germany really wishes to retain and
en
granted that what he writes guardedcountries to the merits of which Dr. Meyer- to deserve our friendship,she new knows
ly in a newspaper he will state more explicitGerhard’s conciliatory methods
not and what just demands of this nation she must
IY and emphatically in his confidential incannot go. And it is Germany’s official posi- b s t grant.
terviews withthe omcials of the Foreign
tion on that question which we are now waiting for her to make known, and which will
It must be conceded that he sets about his be decisive of her relations with the United
difficult task in friendly temper and with a States.
Taken in connection with the well-defined
fair measure of adroitness. One must bear
On
point, Dr. Meyer-Gerhard touches reports of a considerable growth of peace
in mind the inflamed state of,opinion in Gerrather gingerly. This is the American sale sentiment among the German Socialists,
many which he is addressing and endeavorand munitions Of war to the
which we commented last week, the short
ing t o soothe. It would not do for him to tell Of
He
considers
this “regrettable.” and to that shrift given a t a recent meeting of British
bluntly the whole truth-supposing
that he
knows it-about American feeling regarding opinion he is entitled. But when headds trade unionists to the proposal that a vote
the raping of Belgium and the sinkingof the that a “large part” of the American people of sympathy be passed
their fellows in
Lusitania.Hehas,
as it were, to break it disapproves of it, and that “a popular vote” Germany is not without significance.
gently to German readers. And he does it, would show “a considerable majority” such sentimental bosh,” was the contemptwith some degree of cleverness, by explain- against it, one feels like asking him for his uous exclamati’on of that stalwart labor leading that Americans did not “understand” the evidence. On the question of the legality er, Ben Tillett; and we are told that
“German idea of the rea1 conditions” which of the practice, the record is perfectly clear. cries of ‘Next business!’ buried the propothe violation of Belgium and the The German Government has itself officially compelled
sal.” The temper of the British trade uniondestruction of women andchildren at sea. admitted that it has no ground in interna- iststhus revealed is significantprincipally
From this it is easy to pass t o warning to tional law for complaining of the purchase because it is
a revival of the international
the German public not to make the mistake in this country of shells and other war ma- sentiment among the workers of the variof supposing that tbere is not real and wide terial. The position of our own Government
countries at war that recent expressions
an early peace have been largely
indignation inthe United States at these was laid down plainly in the note toAmbas- of hope
acts in Germany’s conduct of the war. The sador BernstorfP. And Mr. Bryan committed based. Despite the far more efficient control
to the hilt, i n his personal letter of the press exercised in Germany than in
implication is rather subtle,andhad
to be himself
sales England, and despite the greater difficulties
deftly conveyed.
thatthe desired im- to Senator Stone, to the view that
pression was made is indicated by the com- to the AlIies were both Iegal and proper. His of communication with the former country,
ment of the
Anzeiger-the newspaper; words on that subject, it is worth noting, he we have seen thatin Germany there are
it will
remembered, which has lately been has thus far refused t o retract. Recently, he signs of such a revival. That similar
preaching that Germany must do everything was to have addressed a meeting of German- ences are at work in England to any
within reason to keep
friendly terms with Americans in Chicago. Butthey
demand- siderable extent there appears to b* 80 far
Meyer-Ger- ed thathe come out squarelyfor
t h i s country. It remarks of
anemthe most meagre evidence. On the conhard’s article that it ought to give a new bargo
the response to
Lloyd .George’s
the export of arms. As the
point of view to “those
which here- land maintains, this is the “pivot“ of Ger- ped for volunt‘eers
c a r e out
prbvitofore have been inclined to make light of man-American sentiment a t present. But Mr. sions of the MunitionsBill would
differences with America as being utterly
arts a n d ph~losophya r e coming into close
Bryan did
touch with actual life; it will also mean unimportant.”Whether
that the llmltations of efliciency are likewise did not give Berlin to understand that the
diplomatic notes of our Government meant
those of the new realism.
nothing inparticular, it is plain that Dr.
Meyer-Gerhard is reporting that they were
“
wholly serious;
I
-
.36
Thel N a t i o n
-
[Vol.
101,
No. 2610
indicatethatwhateverindifferencetothe
by
Professor
Progrds. Of Mr. Bernard ewer, which i s emphasized
there may have been among the
C:onybeare’s recantationisthatby
Ihaw, theauthor of “Commonsense
ers of England is
a fair way to being dis- he War,” i t is hardly necessary to speak.His f ection the very small group of Englishmen
sipated, and that
its place is crystallizing taturaldisapprobation of the war and
his Trho have regarded the war as UnnecesWW
.a determination to prosecute to a Enish the nherent mistrust of hisfellow-countrymen amd found fault with Sir EdwardGrey‘a part
business in hand.
,eem t o be mingled with a curiously roman- in it, is deprived of one of itsprincipal
thephenomenathatdistinguish
ic satisfaction in the spectacle of the “Lion’s 2ipokesmen. Clearlythesentiment
Ithis
fromany in whichEnglandhas
peace on the
ast fight.”
Besides,
Mr. Shawisone
of Iand in favor of anearly
engaged during the last hundred years not
ante s e e m to diminhose who never follow anything that other t>asisof the
-the least remarkable is the almost total ab- nen begin.
i sh rather than t o increase. It mighteven
.8ence of a “peace party.’’ By this we do not
it toostronglytosaythat
Perhaps the most interesting of t h e small lotbeputting
mean any lack of those who, amid the
be
:roup of English dissenters is R o f . F. C. ;he “will t o conquer”appearstcdayto
rors of
continue to work faithfully for
:qnybeare. of Oxford, whose mental process Inorewidespread in Englandthan in Qeranultimatesolution
of internationalprob
Iince sthe war began has been kaleidoscopic Inany.
lems which shall in the future eliminate t h e n itsvariety.Beginningas
a well-known
waste and futility of armed strife.
these Iacifist convinced ,of the justice of England’s
there are, happily, plenty. We mean that in
a
:awe-on whichsubjecthecontributed
England today the small but powerful mi.
lumber of letters to the Nation-he gradunority which openly disapproves a particular dly veered round to the opposite position,
WhenVaillantthrew
his bomb inthe
war on the ground that it is unjust and unvhich he statedin
a private letter to a
1Prench Chamber, twenty-two years ago, the
necessary is all but non-existent. This was not‘riend in America that waspublished
in
r e s i d i n g officer quickly recovered his poise
the case even during the Napoleonic wars, in .he Vital
This document, on which
m d calledupontheDeputiestu
proceed
theearlystag?
of whichtheGovernment
ve published a letterwithbriefeditorial
luietly
with
the
public
business.
It
was a
(
was regularlycalledtotask
by an Opposi.
:omment in
issue of May 13, was ref
ine
way
of
testifying
to
dynamitards
that
tion in which figured such men
as
narkable for its vitriolic attack
on Sir Ed:hey cannot frighten civilized people o u t of
‘Grey andSheridan,andwhenthere
were
pard Grey,whom
thewriterdescribed
as :heir senses. Yet of this truth it seems nec1
n o t wanting British subjects, like Sir Roger
“sinister liar” and whose ultimate fate,
it
3ssary to remind some civilized people as of,Casement in the present war, to give
com.
vas prophesied, would b e t o be sent to the
ten as theassassins.Wehavejusthad
a
fort to t h e enemy
his
stronghold. The
:alluws by theHouse of Commons whioh
3uccession
of
shocks.
The
wrecked
room
apppogition of the “Little Englanders” to-the
le had“utterly hoodwinked.” Mr. Asquith,
In the Capitol at Washington, the attempt to
South African
is fresh in the memorq
.t washinted,mightbe
expected toshare
1kill
Morgan, and the explosionof a bomb
d all but the youngest, and i t is significanl
Minister. Naturally,
;he fate of his
%t Police HeadquartersinNew
are
of the changed temper of the land that to
Professor
Conybeare’s
diatribe
has
been
wents which, treading
so closely uponone
day the
to whom England looks to make
widely circulated by Germansympathizers.
mother’s heels, cannot but try
nerves.
provision of themunitionsnecessaryto
a
?Taw comes t h e professor‘srecantation,in
,They a r e also a test of what w e carry about
successfulprosecution
of thewar
is thc
!he
of
letter to Sir Waiter Raleigh,
heads. Howevergreatlywemaybe
same
who, Efteen years ago, as a rising
:abled to this country last week. A further atartled and horrified by such mad acts,
we
Young statesman, jeopardized his future ca
rtudy of the official documents has con- must make it
business to look calmly a t
reer by fearlessly denouncing the Boer Wal
vinced ProfessorConybearethathewas
their causes, and t o make a note of what can
as unjust and unnecessary.
‘quite wrong” in attributing to Sir Edward b e done-and what cannot
be d o n e t o preToday thoseEnglishmen
of any promi
Grey the mo.tives thathe did andthat
vent
their
recurrence,
as
also
to
protect innencewhohaveexpressedopenoppositior
ought to havesetdown
to theawful con- ,dividuals and society from miscreantsof this
t o the war may be counted on the fingers
tingencies with which he [Sir Edward] was .kind.
one
Morley and
re
laced, manypassageswhich
I wasguilty
After every sensational occurrence of the
the Cabinet at the outbreak
0:
If grossly
misinterpreting.
.
I deeply aort there is invariably an outburst, greater
the war, but they have kept guard over thei~
regret t h a t I misunderstood his aims,and
less, of hysteria. It was so when Guiteau
tongues, although
famous state
in my endeavor to
fair to the enemy was shotPresident
Garfield.
was SO when
ment,
agoprovedapocryphal,
is stil
grossly unJustto ‘him.”
Cony- Czolgosz killed
President
McKinley.
We
quotedwithsatisfactioninGermany.Ram
beare concludes: “I am only anxious
to
mere
told
that
these
crimes
proved
not
only
say MacDonald, the labor leader and membe~
undo, if it bestill
possible, some of the theweakness of
lawsandthe
needof
of Parliament, is the one man of prominencc
harm which my hasty judgments and intem- making them vastly more comprehensive and
in ppblic life who
not hesitated ,to voicc
perate language have caused.”
moresevere,butthefolly
of allowing SO
his opposition to the war, his conviction t h a
In the fulness of hisrepentancewe sus- muchfreediscussioninthiscountry,
England’s participatiun in it was utterly un
puttingwildideasintounbalpect that Professor Conybeare overestimates its efEectof
necessary.That
his viewsarenotpopula
anced
brains.
Not
much
talk like this, we
t
h
e
harm
that
he
has
done,
which
is
chiefly
in hia constituency of Leicesteriseviden
are
glad
to
say,
was
set
loose
by the effort to
in
the
sorry
exhlbltion-not
unlike
that
ed-itorial in the Leicester
Post
murder
Morgan.
Some
newspapers
went
made
by
his
acqdemic
brethren
in
Germany
a Radical
in which the writer Corn
the disastrous .effects exercised by the to the hasty extreme of making the pro-Gerunfavorably
NlacDonald’s
a
that should be mans in the United States directly responsicentarticle
diqcoun;en+ncing -thetales 0 present cataclysm
.ble
the crime, but they were
trained
to
clear,
th,inking.
The
point,
liaw-.-.
, ~ m a n - a t , r o c i t i e s in
, .the Swiss .review.
,
,
. .
~
July 8, 19151
n the N a t i o n
31:
~-
~~
4
,
done in this regard by the English press that heard people say, on the question of the salt
they soon gave UP the competition. The
of American munitions of war. to-the Allies
for example, declared that the So far as any motive can be madeout in tht
attempt
Mr. Morgan’s life was presump- murderer’s mind, this was the substance
tive evidence of “a Germanblackhand con- it, If ‘he is really insane on this subject, hi:
spiracy in the United States.” Trying t o im- maladywasdoubtlessheightened
by publi
itself, it went
to say that “it is catgns and speeches. But are we now to rush
becoming clear that the German Embassyat off and say that all such agitation must
bc
Washington is the headquarters of acrim- suppressed? Most of it is, in our opinion
inal organization.” This is going i t f a r too veryfoolish, and a good d~ealof it is ma.
strong for American editors~to hope to keep dicious; we canalso
readilyimaginethal
up. Theyhave hadtocontent
themselves
forms of theoutcry,reaching
brains
already
the
verge
of
losing
self-control
with
pointing
out
the
danger
of infla+ing
minds like Holt’s,
whatever his name is, mightset them t o brooding over criminal
this account, for.
and with suggesting various precautions and thoughts. But shall we,
punishments
that
might
be adopted.
bid German-Americans,
German sympa.
mistaken sentimentalists, to saJ
It is a problem with which civilized nations thizers.
have been wrestling
at least thirty years. the thing they really believe, so long as it i a
No complete solution has been found.
legitimate agitation, ‘and not a direct incite
is to be looked
in the near future.
We ment to violellce? We all know that this i a
shallhavetoget
withwhateversafeimpossible. I f a law were passed this yea1
guards
palliatives can be devised. The to effect it, it would be repealed next year.
risk, especially for public officials andfor You cannotrepress pro-German discussion
out anti-German. T h e
men.prominent by reason
great wealth, withoutalso
will remain. As our pioneer ancestors were principle was pretty thoroughly threshed
subject to the perilof.venomous reptiles and at the tlmeof McKinley’s assassinhtion. Only
wild animals, so we of today seem to be com- then it was “anarchy,” not protests against
pelled to reckon with the possibility of dyna- the shipment of ammunition, which nobody
mite explosions
lurking attempts at
as- was t o be allowed towhisper about. Sup
sassination. We must do
best to guard pression’ wasfound to be impossible then,
We havetotakethe
the classes particularly exposed; we must; and it will be
free institutions.
make penalties exemplary; we ought to seek, drawbacks along with
knd we must keep our heads even when ast o remove every removable cause of such
rages-so far as this can be done consistently: sassins are about.
with whatis moreprecious than life; but)
when all is done, the hazard will long
STYMIE.
tinue to exist, for all that we can now see.,
It is, asKingHumbertputit,one
of the
Mr. John
Anderson, well known as
hazards of the “trade” of monarchs. And we
both a skilful player andanintelligent
see how it inevitablyattends others.They
writer
golf, has been boldly advocating
may be carefullyguarded.
Presidentsand
Governors and Mayors should have the best what many will think nothing less than a
game. He would have
protection that the detective service can fur- revolution inthe
United
States Golf Association
nish. But,as Mr. Wilson observed. atthe the
sgeously take the stymie by the horns and
time when Col. Roosevelt wasshot by acrazy
man in Milwaukee, it is not possible absolute- legislate it out of existence. In thevery
a
ly to prevent homicidal maniacs €rom~gettingphrasing of the proposal thereis
access to American public men. The danger sciousness of challenging the long British
game,
can be kept small: it cannot be wholly elim- tradition of golf. America gotthe
.yet we have
inated. The risk is there, and the.only ques- with its rules,fromEngland,
shown a certain degree of independence in
tion is how we are toface it.
The concrete case just no,w is that of Mr. settingup American variations. We have
still
Morgan’s assailant. He appears to be of un- legalized the Schenectady putter,
soundmind.
He may fallwithinthe
legal anathema across the water. We have slightly modified the rules for
a lost ball and a
definition of sanity:that is forthecpurts
ball out of bounds. Why not, asks ,Mr.
to decide; but h e betrays
unmistakable
symptoms of brain disturbance. Now, must aerson, issue another Declaration of
thestymie
be grant4 that the particular obsession un- can Independence, andabolish
land?
der which he labored was ,Intensifled, if it In this
would
more consent to its abolition than
they would to the taking down of the images
of Gog and Magog inthe Guildhall. Any
American who ever played golf withan
Englishman, and who politely offered to
lift his own ball so that his opponent might
have an unobstructed putt for the hole.
&sows whatistheastonishedstarewith
Which the proffer is refused, and the conclusive
giyen:
“It isn’t done,, you
know.” Thequestionoftenheard
as two
American playersstartfromthefirst
tee,
“Shall we play stymies?” would be profanation on a British links. As well ask
Whether strokes were to be honestly Counted! So that it is a case
a n American
secession, if the thing is t o be done a t all.
was not immediatelx provoked, by -things
It is admittedthatBritons
will never,
assassin had read
the newspapera,
n had y e w cease ,to,be. slayeartofhs,e.bmte.
the
.reason for abolishing them,
maintains Mr.
Get .the .game
-
n
4
~-
Yet if we are to set up for ourselves in
this high matter, a decent regard for the
opinion of mankind requires us t o give
o u r reasons. They arestatedinthe
usual
form by Mr. Anderson. Match play a t golf
should be purely a test of skill.The man
who gets into the hole in the fewest number
of strokes wins. Yet he may be robbed of
his deserved victory by an unforeseeable
stymie. Hegets
on the green, fourfeet
from the hole, in three, while his opponent
requiresfour,yet
thelatter’sball
is diof the former’s. Thus two
rectly inline
strokes are necessary where only one would
have been needed but
the stymie. What
could
be
more unfair? Is itnot
obvious
thattherules
should be changed so as to
do away with this unjust penalty?
Thosewho argue on the other side have
something to
say
for
themselves. They
would distinguish between thestymiethat
is an accident and the-one that is deliberate
ly “laid.” Thelatter
is notmetwith
so
often as some suppose. A player who in
cold blood tries t o stymiehis opponentis
&pt to meet with a good many cold glances.
not to say cold shoulders. Besides, the
thing is not so easily done. If aplayer
Can hit his ball with such delicate accuracy
that it comes torest on the precise spot.
a hair‘s breadth, where it bIocks the line
Lo the hole, why not expend that preternatural skill on haling out, and be done with it?
[t is doubtless- true that a player sometimes
has thethought in the back of his head,
when essaylng a long and difficult putt, that,
in case he misses, it wouldn’t be a bad thing
if his ball stopped so as t o stymie his oPPW
uent. But both this idea and the execution
?f it are rare. Nine stymies out of ten are
luck.
I
<