Page images
PDF
EPUB

SEVENTH SERIES
VOLUME LX.

No. 3612 September 27, 1913

{

CONTENTS

FROM BEGINNING VOL. CCLXXVIII

V.

VI.

John Cope's Year at Oxford. (Concluded.)

1. Referendum or Republic. By Pierse Loftus.

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

BRITISH REVIEW 771

[ocr errors]

Realistic Drama. III. By W. L. Courtney. FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 775
The Strength of the Hills. Chapter III. The Choice.
By Halliwell Sutcliffe. (To be continued.)
The Irish Farmer. By George A. Birmingham.
The Faith of Dostoevsky.

[ocr errors]

TIMES 786 OUTLOOK 793

TIMES 797

[merged small][ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE

GAZINE ECONOMIST 813

SATURDAY REVIEW 816

PUNCH 819 OUTLOOK 821

[blocks in formation]

FOR SIX DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, THE LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage, to any part of the United States. To Canada the postage is 50 cents per annum.

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office or express money order if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, express and money orders should be made payable to the order of THE LIVING AGE CO.

Single Copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents.

THE EMIGRANT.

Going by Daly's shanty I heard the boys within

Dancing the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll's violin,

I heard the sea-boots shaking the rough planks of the floor,

But I was going westward, I hadn't heart for more.

All down the windy village the noise rang in my ears,

Old sea boots stamping, shuffling, it brought the bitter tears, The old tune piped and quavered, the lilts came clear and strong, But I was going westward, I couldn't join the song.

There were the grey stone houses, the

night wind blowing keen,

The hillsides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green, The hearth nooks lit and kindly, with dear friends good to see,

But I was going westward, and the ship waited me.

John Masefield.

THE WIND-BELL.

A wind-bell, that a Japanee
Made in a town beyond the sea,
Hangs on my balcony, to sway
To every wind that blows its way.
And, as it sways, it doth repeat
Its tintinnabulation sweet
As call to fairy revelry:

My wind-bell, made across the sea.

Some yellow-fingered craftsman

wrought

In painted glass his lyric thought,
To glad me with its jocund din
From morning till the stars begin.
Methinks a red-capped muleteer
And all his chiming train I hear

Climb the long Pass, where, wild and free,

Adventure calls across the sea.

With iris and chrysanthemum
"Tis gaily dight, and never dumb.
And when the heavy air's aswoon,
Still, through the breathless afternoon,

[blocks in formation]

THE WHISTLER. Beside the doorway of a country inn One stood and whistled right melodiously:

He whistled as the birds, scarce dreaming why,

Save that with all fair things his heart was kin.

And as he stood a-whistling, from within

The hostel, oft broke in upon the song

The uncouth voices of a rustic throng

Who marked the tale a wanton churl did spin,

The discord hushed, the melody would merge.

Triumphant, clearer sweeter than before,

Until a very rapture smote the ear Of one who trod the long lane's duststrewn verge:

So Love stands, making music at the door.

One lists perchance the rest nor heed nor hear.

The Bookman.

E. M. Cook.

YOUTH AND AGE.

Youth asks itself, "How can I ever die?

Only the old into the grave must fall,"

While age is wondering with a gentle sigh

If all its wasted breath was life at

all.

Edward Storer.

REFERENDUM OR REPUBLIC.

Probably the most important fact in present-day politics, not only in this country, but throughout Europe and America, is the growing disillusionment of the people with Representative Government. When we look back to the fervor of 1848-the year of the barricades-we can measure the distance we have travelled, the full extent of popular disappointment. Then it appeared that the one necessary object for all European peoples was the attainment of representative Parliamentary Government. In the eyes of the eager fanatics of all nations, death on the barricades was a small price to pay for that inestimable boon for their people. Government by a Parliament elected on a wide suffrage was regarded as the sure and immediate precursor of the millennium. For this great ideal they gladly suffered exile, imprisonment and death, with an absolute and burning faith in the efficacy of their ideal which seems infinitely pathetic to the present generation, disillusioned with the reality. Their tremendous sacrifices were not in vain, because in all European countries widely elected Parliaments have come into existence, and in most they have absorbed all sovereign powers. The golden age of Democracy, as imagined by the martyrs of '48, has come to pass, yet popular contempt and distrust and dislike of the governing powers is great and increasing.

Few can deny that in France Parliament and the members of Parliament are held in scant respect by the populace, and that this contempt of the Legislature has increased with alarming rapidity during the last ten or twenty years. Therefore, it is no surprise to find the nation at the present time demanding that the President should exercise his powers to the full. They ask that he shall have enough

power to check and control the venal or futile politicians of Parliament. The people feel, subconsciously perhaps, that Parliament does not represent the people, that the caucus machine, not the people, controls and elects the Parliament; that members pay more regard to their own and their party's interests than to the interests of the Nation.

We find the same phenomenon in the United States, where, for two generations at least, the people have been forcing more and more power into the hands of the President. They feel that election to the House of Representatives or to the Senate is controlled by the party "Bosses," and that it is necessary to give one man, directly responsible to the people, power to control the "Bosses," and the nominees of the "Bosses," who form the vast majority of Representatives and Senators.

The examples of France and the United States are perhaps the most remarkable, but in almost every country we find the same strong tendency at work. Almost every nation which has possessed for a considerable period the blessings of Parliamentary Government is despairingly calling in some form of one-man power to check and curb the caucus politicians, the representatives who do not represent. Possibly there is sub-consciously present in the mind of the people the feeling that one man is more easily accountable for his actions than a vague body such as Parliament, that one tyrant will more readily bow to the popular will than several hundred.

But whatever the cause, whatever the sub-conscious feeling that animates public opinion, the fact remains that in all so-called democratic countriesin France and the United States, even in Greece-there is visible to all the

desire of the populace to increase the powers of the head of the State, to make him a check and control on the Parliament supposed to be elected by the people, actually controlled and selected by a plutocratic oligarchy.

Now this general tendency observable in all nations who have handed over their Government to the unchecked representative system is in strong evidence in England to-day. There is no doubt that Parliament does not hold to-day the high position it formerly possessed in popular esteem. Among all classes

one

hears constantly expressions of contempt for Parliament and politicians. The proceedings and debates no longer attract attention, and the much-advertised "scenes" excite no more notice than the "barracking" of a crowd at a cricket match. The people feel that politics to-day lack reality; that various plutocratic interests have obtained control of both Party machines; that it is all a rather sordid game divorced from reality, and out of touch with national feeling. That Parliament and politicians are not in touch with realities was conclusively proved in the strikes of 1911, which took even the Labor Party completely by surprise. Can the divorce between reality and politics go further than when we find a professed Labor party, supposed to "represent" Labor, so ignorant of its special electorate that it does not know that the majority are seething with discontent and preparing a series of almost revolutionary strikes; and while the attention of every politician is concentrated on the "great democratic measure" to curb the power of the Upper House, the great Democracy, with scornful contempt of the ideals and victories of the "Democratic Party" in the House of Commons, is silently preparing a "great Democratic measure" of an al

most universal strike to curb the power of the Capitalists? Suddenly the succession of 1911 strikes breaks out; our newspapers no longer devote columns to the Lords' Veto and the Diehards, indeed this question, the question of the politicians, which according to our newspapers was agitating all England, this shrinks away to utter insignificance under the stern reality of the strikes.

It might perhaps be added that our great national statesmen, when face to face with the real crisis of the strikes, seem to shrivel into rather uncertain shifty politicians, making many wonder with misgiving how they would face the grave crisis of a European War.

And combined with this loss of respect in which Parliament and politicians are held is a feeling of bitter resentment among the masses against the worrying restrictive legislation passed by Parliament-such acts, for instance, as the Children's Charter. Such measures cause intense irritation, nor is the respect for the governing powers increased by revelations of Ministerial gambling on the Stock Exchange, especially as the working classes recognize that those Ministers who indulged in this pursuit would be the first to welcome and encourage restrictive legislation to put down gambling among the masses.

Of course, the South African War may be held to be the starting point of this loss of faith by the populace in our political machinery. That event had results which we shall not be able to estimate for many years, but undoubtedly one result was to reveal the incompetence of the Government of the country, and to make men question the whole system, especially the selection of programmes and candidates by a couple of Central Caucuses. After all, many Tories condemned the mismanagement of the war, yet they

bers.

could only give effect to their feelings the State over the representative chamby voting for a party they detested, and many Liberal Imperialists who approved the war had to vote for men who opposed the War. It was thus that the average man began to ask why he should vote for either of two obscure carpet-baggers sent down by the Caucus. What voice had he, a free and independent elector, in the selection of either Candidate or in the selection of either programme? Such questions are being asked with increasing frequency to-day, and though Mr. Lloyd George may represent himself and his party as valiant assailants of Capital and Capitalists, the people are just beginning to realize that Mr. George is supported, and his party financed, by a host of millionaire capitalists. When they realize this to the full-and day by day the knowledge is spreading-we shall be face to face with something like revolution.

But whatever the special causes in England, this distrust of the politicians is but an instance of a general phenomenon common to all those nations which have adopted full representative Government for a considerable period, including among the great powers France, England and the United States.

Now, if we accept this proposition, we can advance to another, namely: that among all those nations which have adopted full representative Government for a considerable period, there is a growing demand among the people that the head of the State should have more power, enough power to check and control the elected chambers.

Among the great nations this is evident in France and the United States.

Among the smaller nations Greece may be taken as an example.

We must further note that Germany and Austria acquiesce in the maintenance of the power of the head of

Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that in England we are bound to see the same political phenomenon, especially when the Upper Chamber is made elective, thereby coming under the complete control of the Caucus Politicians. When the whole machinery of government is thus controlled by the Caucus, we are bound to hear in England what is heard to-day in France and the United States, a demand for increased power for the head of the State. Already to-day we hear hints of a movement for reviving some of the unused prerogatives of the Crown. Yet such a movement must be fraught with immense danger to our monarchical system, as so much will depend on the personality of the Monarch. It is true that a very able and popular King might revive many unused prerogatives, but the continuance of their use would depend on the continued succession of exceptionally popular and extremely able Kings-a dangerous basis for our monarchical system. Otherwise, the interference of the King in politics would be bound to lead to an agitation against the Throne.

Yet it is evident that the demand for some check on the politicians, some increased power for the head of the State will arise in England, and if our monarchical system will not and cannot meet and satisfy this demand, it would seem certain that our people will turn in despair from the throne, and observing strong Presidents in France and America, curbing and controlling the often venal caucus politicians, they will likewise demand a President directly elected, and directly responsible to the people, as a necessary check on the power of the representative chambers.

Therefore, in the immediate future we may look for a revival of the Re

« PreviousContinue »