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_Title:_ The Growing Point of Truth
_Date of first publication:_ Unpublished
_Author:_ James Chapple (1865-1947)
_Date first posted:_ March 10, 2024
_Date last updated:_ March 10, 2024
Faded Page eBook #20240311
This eBook was produced by: zyx, Pat McCoy & the online Distributed
Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net
This unpublished work was provided courtesy of the estate of the Rev.
James Chapple from the original manuscript held in the Alexander
Turnbull Library (reference: MS-Papers-4678-027).
[Cover Illustration]
The Growing Point of Truth
by
James H. G. Chapple
author of
The Divine Need of the Rebel
and
A Rebel’s Vision Splendid
_Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his Essay on ‘Compensation’”:—_
_“The history of persecution is a history of endeavours to cheat
nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand
. . . . The martyr cannot be dishonoured. Every lash inflicted
is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode;
every burned book or house enlightens the world; _every
suppressed_ or expunged _word reverberates the earth_ from side
to side. The minds of men are at last aroused; reason looks out
& justifies her own, & malice finds all her work in vain. It is
the whipper who is whipped & the tyrant who is undone.”_
FOREWORD.
In this book written in the South Pacific Seas there is a definite
purpose, that is to help in releasing the human mind from many errors
that entangle it. New Zealand is twelve thousand miles from Britain, &
distance may help in gaining true perspective & due proportion.
New Zealand is especially in mind when both the constructive &
destructive ideas in the book are uttered. But the problems in this part
of the British Empire are looming up in every part of it. Many will
disagree, for all new truth at first is unpalatable but, at least
Tolerance is asked, for under any circumstances, the impact of ideas, &
the collision of differing thoughts is good, & results in the sifting of
Truth from error. The words of Taine used in completing his book on
English Literature are also used here at the beginning of these stray
thoughts as herein published, i.e.: “There is in the world but one work
worthy of a man, the production of a Truth, to which we devote
ourselves, & in which we believe.”
The spare moments in which these thoughts were written were times when
the soul was devoted to Truth, in which we believed.
The sections may be short, but these are not the days for long
cumbersome chapters. Sydney Smith once in writing to a friend said:
“Excuse the length of this letter but I haven’t time to be brief.”
Dr. James Black went to preach in a country church in Scotland.
“Hae ye your sermon written?” asked the beadle. On Dr. Black
replying that it was even so, the beadle exclaimed, “I’m rale
gled, because when thae folks come wi’ paper, ye ken they’ll
stop when that stops; but when thae hae nae paper ava, the
Almichty Himsel’ disna ken when they’re likely to feenish.”
The citizen, not the soldier, is to be our hero. Our grain of incense
will be thrown, not at the shrine of Mars, but with a scientific eugenic
picture, & a goal of the city beautiful, & the race perfect; our grains
of incense will be cast on the shrine of Venus: for the sublimation of
sex & the idealising of the child. We tire of destruction &
common-worship, we turn in prayer & reverence to the child & the cradle.
We see with Isaac Zangwill, who said, “to safeguard peace we must
prepare for war—I know that maxim, it was forged in hell!” We have a
new outlook!
“Yet nearer, & nearer dawns the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God,
As the waters fill the Sea!”
Southey once wrote an acrid & rasping letter to Shelley taking him to
task for many of his new opinions. Shelley in answering him said: “You
say you judge of opinions by their fruits. So do I . . . the immediate
fruits of all new opinions are indeed calamity to the promulgators &
professors: but we see the end of nothing, & it is in acting well, in
contempt of present advantage, that virtue consists.”
In view of this, the reader must give the writer credit for writing what
is true at least to himself, ever remembering that often in the world’s
history, the voice crying in the wilderness has had the Truth. If one
has it, he cannot rest by repressing it, for unuttered Truth becomes
poisonous. Said M^{rs} E. B. Browning: “Truth is like sacramental bread,
it must be passed on.” And Jerome of old asserted that if an offence
come out of the Truth, better is it that the offence come than that the
Truth be concealed, so
“I follow the trail,
To find Truth ere I rest,
I follow the trail.
Men say I shall fail
In the measureless quest
To find Truth ere I rest.
What though I should fail!
I follow the trail.”
It is a day also when creeds are in the crucible, & all brave men &
women have to think out their own philosophy. The writer has done so to
his own happiness, & has proved himself what he would like the reader to
do, to be the unique witness of God in his own life. The best way to
understand the great Secret is to work for the uplift of Humanity, by
such Service, God is experienced in such a way, it cannot be explained.
It is a Life not a belief. Once you get there, life will be full of
Ideals & Divine dreams.
“Dreams, are they? But ye cannot stay them
Or thrust the dawn back for one hour!
Truth, Love, Justice,—if ye stay them,
Return with more than earthly power:
Strive, if ye will, to seal the fountains
That send the spring through leaf & spray,
Drive back the sun from the Eastern mountain,
Then—bid this mightier movement stay.”
Much in these pages is prophetic & prophets are ever stoned. It is said
that no one should prophesy except he Knows. But some have the leisure
to watch world events, also they are well versed in the world’s history,
these advantages combined with a Knowledge of the foibles & psychology
of Humanity, at least allows one to presage in an accurate way.
Shakespeare sensed it when saying:—
[Transcriber Note: Shakespeare clipping missing from manuscript]
Besides when a man believes in Divine Immanence, & lives day by day
above the commonly accepted false values of modern life—money, property
& so on—preferring the real values of Harmony with God then that person
is more likely to presage aright than the mere materialist. Says Noyes:
“Man is himself
The Key to all he seeks,
He is not exiled from this majesty
But is himself a part of it!”
If the writer at times has been angered at the insane irrationality of
war & cruelty everywhere, he asks pardon. Robert Burns once swore when
watching a lame hare limp across a ploughed field, after it had been
shot at. And the author of this, would rather swear with Burns then pray
with any parson over war.
But there are light & gay pages included also, & they will balance the
ledger & add a little gaiety & cheer. In an old curio shop in Berkeley,
California, the following lines arrested me:
The wisest men, that ere you ken,
Have never deemed it Treason:
To rest a bit—to jest a bit,
And balance up their reason:
To laugh a bit—to chaff a bit
And joke a bit in Season.
So reader please look upon me in these Southern Seas as a battler for
justice against the armies of the unjust. Be critical if you will, but
remember the answer of an innocent school-boy who was asked what a
critic was:—“a screaming little insect” said he. But he was not far
from the Truth!
A battler for social justice, come join the growing ranks. You have
nothing to lose but your chains: but so many people today from pure
expediency, hug & kiss their shackles. A rather long Spanish proverb
says: “Mankind is like an ass who kicks those who endeavour to take off
his panniers.”
Matthew Arnold in one of his poems on “Obermann”: (these poems are too
unfamiliar.) says of Creeds & Societies too:—
Your creeds are dead, your rites are dead,
Your social order too!
Where tarries He the Power who Said:
See: I make all things New?
So go little book, in the spirit of German SPRICHWÖRTER:—
“When the word is spoken it belongs to someone else.”
J.H.G. Chapple
TAURANGA, New Zealand.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
I. The Growing Point of Truth in Sociology.
II. The Scientific & Evolutionary Growing Points.
III. Truths Growing Points in Nationalism, Imperialism &
Universalism.
IV. Truths Growing Points on Militarism & War.
V. The Religious & Philosophical Growing Point of Truth.
VI. Truths Growing Point on Sex: Child-Love: & Education.
VII. Didactic & Miscellaneous Growing Points of Truth.
[Transcriber Note: Since this is an unfinished work, it is difficult to
correlate the Table of Contents with the pages in the manuscript. See
Transcriber Notes at the end of this ebook for more information.]
INTRODUCTORY: BOOKS IN GENERAL.
Books! Books! Books!
And we thank thee, God,
For the gift of them;
For the glorious reach
And the lift of them;
For the gleam in them
And the dream in them;
For the things they teach
And the souls they reach;
For the blaze of them,
And the maze of them;
For the ways they open to us,
And the rays they shoot through us.
WILLIAM LEROY STIDGER.
One of the sensations of the last publishing season was a literary hoax
by a young woman under twenty years of age. Over 20,000 copies were sold
in short time & she found herself with money to invest. The book took
the form of a fictitious diary & included a description of a lover’s
attempt to climb into a girl’s bedroom at night, as well as other
questionable episodes.
That such a book could prove a Success is not complimentary to the
reading public, but it recalls what John Stuart Mill once proclaimed:
that the writings by which one may live are not the writings which
themselves live.
It is not a day when people are very interested in Truth. They live in a
world of film-fiction, book-fiction, & also life-fiction generally. All
professions are affected by this, & the clergy seemingly are not exempt,
for the “garage” seems now more necessary to the manse & Vicarage than
the library.
Prof. James Moffat, translator of the Bible, Modern Version,
says, on returning to Scotland from his recent lecture tour in
this country, that he noticed American ministers “have few
studies, & their libraries are distressingly thin, but they all
seem to have motor cars.”
The writer, in this book, has avoided long chapters, he has chosen, of
set purpose, small sections, instead of laborious chapters. So the
reader must be prepared rather, for the dropping of thoughts, than the
beating out of ideas into gold-leaf form.
In spare moments here in the Southern Seas, his pen has been active, &
it is the result of an active brain in an age of economic, scientific, &
theological duress. But there is something more than mental activity,
for as Goethe once said: “there is nothing more terrible as activity
without insight.”
The days are strenuous, & there is much to unlearn, before we can dwell
contentedly on the Growing Point of Truth. Whately long ago observed, we
must neither lead nor leave men to mistake falsehood for Truth. =Not to
undeceive is to deceive.=
Criticise & judge my views if you will, but the attitude of the author
remains similar to Bruno’s before his Judges: “Greater perhaps (said
Bruno) is your fear in pronouncing my sentence, than mine in hearing
it.”
IDLENESS, NOT LAZINESS.
There is a great difference between the two, although we often hear them
used as if they were synonymous. It may sound strange, but it is also
true, that most of the useful & finest work in all spheres connected
with the pioneering of the world’s progress has been done by idle men.
This sounds paradoxical. It may be explained in this way: a servant in
Charles Darwin’s family once said to someone: “M^{r} Darwin is an idle
man, he has been two hours looking at a leaf!”
There has been lots of hypocritical Talk about work, & idleness, &
mostly by people who themselves are not only idle, but lazy. They who
praise Toil the loudest, usually do the least themselves, either in a
way physical or mental. They are fond of the text, “in the sweat of thy
brow shalt thou eat bread,” forgetting while they repeat the words, that
they eat bread regularly, nay all their food, (& shelter & also clothes)
comes from the labor of others. So the true rendering of the text should
read: “Thou shalt not eat bread, by the sweat of another’s brow!” Such
people are apt at quoting the adage about the busy bee, & also the ant,
but neither of these wise insects are known to Sweat at their work. The
busy bee works pleasantly for about six hours daily, for about five
months in the year. The busy ant works when he feels like it. They can
both sting & bite the interfering robber-capitalists too, especially the
bee.
The whole of the Industrial world will be happier, & do better work
also, when the psychology of the worker is better understood.
In a recent number of an American “Journal of the National
Institute of Industrial Psychology,” there is an interesting
article entitled, “Day Dreaming in a Spinning Mill.”
In a certain American mill every year one hundred hands have to
be taken on in order to keep forty working. The spinners used to
work five days in the week for ten hours a day, and the
investigators who were called in some eighteen months ago
rapidly discovered that almost every worker suffered from foot
trouble & neuritis, & many complained of pessimistic reveries.
At length two or three rest periods of ten minutes each were
introduced. The morale rapidly improved, and the spinning
department began to earn a bonus, which had never been done
before. But owing to a heavy demand for goods last February the
rest period system was abandoned. Production immediately went
down, and absenteeism increased. Last April the management
ordered that all hands should rest for ten minutes four times a
day. Since then the output of this department has steadily
improved again.
The prosperous country is not the land with the greatest output, not the
nation that piles up the material wealth, & allows a few privileged
people to be millionaires, & multi-millionaires, the land of prosperity
is the land of happy workers, who have plenty of leisure, & have learnt
the splendid art of idling. There is badly needed a new definition of
the word Prosperity.
In his humorous way M^{r}. Dooley writes close to the root of
common-sense:—“Get up” says Prosperity. “Get up, an’ hustle over to th’
rollin’ mills: there’s a man over there wants ye to carry a ton in coal
on ye’er back—Prosperity grabs every man by th’ neck, an’ sets him
shovellin’ slag & coke, or running up & down a ladder with a hod in
mortar. Wurruk f’r the night is comin’! Get out, an hustle. Wurruk or ye
can’t be unhappy; an’, if th’ wurruld isn’t unhappy, they’se no such a
thing as Prosperity.”
THE BLESSINGS OF LEISURE.
I see action to be good, when the need is, and =sitting still
also to be good=. One piece of a tree is cut for a weather cock,
and =one for the sleeper of a bridge=; =the virtue of the wood
is apparent in both=.
R. W. EMERSON
The leisured classes forsooth! Who are they? By what Divine right are
they leisured, while millions of folk are under life sentences to hard
work, & what is worse than hard work—drudgery? I once saw a little book
called: “Blessed be Drudgery” but I don’t believe a word of it, for no
drudgery is blessed! If there was no so called “leisured class”, there
would be no drudging class. The first is the cause of the second.
Yet there should be a leisured class, & every member of society should
belong to it by a Divine right. Said Sir John Lubbock:
The advantage of leisure is mainly that we have power of
choosing our work; not certainly that it confers any privilege
of idleness.
The leisured class, as it is now known & recognized, enjoy the
privileges of leisure, but only at the workers’ expense. The people who
deserve leisure are the folk who do the world’s work. But where the
leisured eat & drink & do not work in either physical or mental way,
others are compelled through this, to work without the proper
necessaries of life. One class is the necessary Sequence of the other
here also.
Blessed be drudgery forsooth! The sane man will better ask, why this
meaningless curse of everlasting toil? Why have I to spend my years
turning the handle of the industrial machine & getting next to nothing
from the business end of the machine? In fact, does machinery help the
workers at all? Richard Jeffries truly said:—
“Mechanism increases convenience—in no degree does it confer
physical or moral perfection. The rudimentary engines employed
thousands of years ago in raising buildings were in that respect
equal to the complicated machines of the present day. . . . Our
bodies are now conveyed all around the world with ease, but
obtain no advantage. As they start so they return.”
The workers of the world might well ask, as they face the world’s
machinery today, “what contribution does all this vast array of wheels,
cranks, engines, etc., make to the well being & happiness of society?”
Echo answers, “what?” The true answer is, none, for the factories mean
dwarfed, consumptive, stunted, physically crooked men & women. Worse
even than that is, they also mean the slow destruction of man’s most
sacred & Divine gift of Personality.
When everybody begins to work in earnest, it is soon found that
there is not enough work to go round; and when everybody sets to
work to produce more, the result is that we produce too much.
The theory refutes itself as soon as any attempt is made to put
into practice. The reason is not far to seek. Scientific
ingenuity has provided us with machinery which has multiplied
our productivity a hundredfold and more. The problem for
economists and moralists of the school of Dean Inge is,
therefore, simply this:—Given a machine which enables one man
to do the work of a hundred, =what are the ninety-and-nine to
do=? We should have thought the answer simple enough. Either the
ninety-and-nine are to be left free to use this leisure at their
own discretion, or they are to be engaged in work merely for
work’s sake. The former alternative is what rouses the wrath of
Dean Inge. It is the state of affairs he denounces as “=the
greatest idleness of the greatest number=.” But how, in this
mechanical age, is it to be avoided? =By smashing the machines?=
It is one of Dean Inge’s many grievances against the working
class that in the early days of the modern machinery they tried
to adopt precisely this remedy of machine smashing. They, like
the Dean, dreaded the prospect of being without work. But what
are we to do? =Yearly, and almost daily, the development of
machinery is diminishing the amount of work necessary to produce
a given result.= At present, workers and capitalists are at
their wits’ end to circumvent science by =sneaking methods of
sabotage=. Is there any reason why the actual state of affairs
should not be faced openly & honestly?
When the Industrial world control the machines, they will learn, that in
a well ordered world, there is no need for drudgery or hard toil of any
kind. Four hours work daily is sufficient if there are no idlers.
THE MEANING OF WORK & LEISURE.
The buzz, the whirr, the rush, the bustle, of modern machine life cannot
last, if it does it will kill Humanity, & the world will be left to the
machines. Or as the quaint, humorous, Samuel Butler suggested, the
intelligence of the workers would, in the end, pass from the men into
the machines, & the workers would become the slaves of the machines.
They have so in part already. The machines drive the men more than the
men drive the machines. We learn, that in England last year, the inmates
of the mental hospitals were increased by many thousands, & the
increasing toll goes on year by year. Today’s cable news states that the
toll of life on the roads of America for last year by automobile
accidents alone was over 30,000, & among that number over 5000 children.
Amid this insane whirl, life on the planet is not worth living. It is no
place for a quiet soul: a Godly soul!
A quiet soul, going about his many duties with a sureness that
was not so much in his speech as in his spirit, President Samuel
Valentine Cole, President of Wheaton College, has made the
transit to the place of immorality. He was a poet of real skill,
and among his verses there is the well-remembered piece, “In
Silence.” It is a plea, high & far from that of a stoic, for one
to go about his work without fretting because praise is not
forthcoming at every turn. Two stanzas have a memorable quality:
I hear the traffic in the street,
But not the white worlds o’er the town;
I heard the gun at sunset roar,
I did not hear the sun go down.
Are work & workman greater when
The trumpet blows their fame abroad?
Nowhere on earth is found the man
Who works as silently as God.
“God is not in a hurry—the devil is!” Says the old maxim.
The word “Sabotage,” is usually in conversation, when talking about the
wickedness of Industrialism, but it can also be applied truthfully to
the Capitalism of the day. When we think of the tricks of the traders,
such as adulteration, cornering markets, speeding up, shortening hours,
& using the newspapers for cooking news, what after all are they but the
weapons of Sabotage? Are they more moral than the weapons of the
workers, when throwing a monkey-wrench into a machine to wilfully
disable it? The worst Sabotage of all is the state inventions for
destructive war purposes. Nothing is more influential than that!
The truth is that today Labor cannot be creative & artistic, for
Capitalism demands human machines & wage slavery.
Creative work is impossible without time for work, & much time for
leisure. Creative work is Inspirational, & therefore Divine. Norman Gale
well says:
To-day the man who does not shrink from =communion with his
private angel= can hear, when alone in the wild, only the
whispering he rejoices to hear—the whisper of Solitude found
where she is ready to dispense her largest blessings. There she
anoints us with spikenard taken from the box that she keeps only
in the wilderness.
These are the days when we hear a lot about “Listening-in”. But who has
the leisure to listen in & hear the still small voice of creative art?
Who has the time to be with the prophet in Solitude? This “Listening-in”
produced Plato, Dante, Milton & G. B. Shaw. They leisured, the
uninitiated called them lazy! Plato wrote & re-wrote pages thirteen
times! Maratti sketched heads thirty times! That was not machine
work—they were Creators!
LOAFE & INVITE YOUR SOULS.
Such was the advice of Walt Whitman, & never was there a day when the
advice was more needed. The rapidity of trains were a worry to John
Ruskin, but had he lived in our time amid the automobiles on the roads,
he would have found life almost unbearable. Trade & rush! Rush & Trade!
It is all very well if man is only a body, & has no soul. But he =is= a
soul, & has a body. That being so he needs leisure & time to nourish the
soul. Well spent idleness is the most sacred & valuable experience on
the earth. To be your own master & with leisure to think & be really
free is one of the greatest privileges in life. Nothing is equal to
it—no property—no wealth—no amount of money, or number of jewels, are
equal to it.
From that kind of leisured freedom has come all that is best in the
world. If we reach the treasures in literature, or the treasures in the
art galleries, or inventions, we find that they were at least conceived
in idleness, not laziness. That is they were exempt from arbitrary labor
masters.
Richard Jefferies was right. Idleness is a wonderful thing. When
men are free to please themselves, then by a necessity of their
being they will cultivate the best of which they are capable,
and civilised life will rise to heights of creation and
enjoyment of which to-day we can only dream.
In the “Story of my Heart”, Jeffries put it tersely & splendidly: “I
hope succeeding generations will be able to be idle. I hope that
nine-tenths of their time will be leisure time; that they may enjoy
their days & the earth, & the beauty of the beautiful world; that they
may rest by the sea & dream; that they may dance & sing & eat & drink. I
will work towards that end with all my heart.”
But Jeffries was not exalting laziness! His idleness was music, laziness
is discord. His idleness was fertile, laziness is sterile. His idleness
was emancipating, laziness is fettering.
No country in the world needs this teaching so much as America, & it was
an American who coined the sentence: “Loafe & invite your souls!” It is
having a little result for an American writer says:
—in the days, only a little while ago, when this picturesque
hill overlooking the Wisconsin River and its beautiful valley,
then to a large extent wooded, served as a veritable “lodge in
the wilderness,” where, far from the madding crowd of cities and
towns, and far removed from all reminders of regular work and
cares and responsibilities of the rest of the year, a company of
from forty to sixty congenial friends from many places in the
West, but largely from great hurrying and restless Chicago,
gathered for six to eight weeks every summer during fifteen or
twenty years, “=just to rest body and mind=,” as some of the
tired teachers and preachers said; or to “=loaf and invite their
souls=,” as Walt Whitman would have put it; or, as Mr.
Jones, the great-souled poet and preacher who established
the Camp and was always its “inspiration,” expressed it, “=to
escape the artificialities, the noise, and wear of our modern
rushing life, and for a little while, in a quiet and picturesque
place, snuggle down in Mother Nature’s arms, with leisure to
listen to her birds, to watch her stars and her sunsets, to
enjoy the close companionship of a few dear friends, and, alone
or with others of like mind, to read and revel in some of
world’s great, noble, uplifting, & fascinating books=”?
[Transcriber Note: ony Madison, an American citizen and
stoker on board the cargo steamer Ripley Castle, that arrived
here this week, considers that he has had one of the luckiest
escapes from drowning in the history of the sea. When the vessel
was nearing the Equator on the voyage from Philadelphia to Cape
Town, he fell overboard just after midnight and was in the water
for one and a half hours before he was rescued.
“Overcome with the heat of the stoke-hold, I had staggered on
deck for fresh air and a cup of cold water,” Mr.
Madison said. “I must have lost consciousness then,
for the next thing I saw was the stern of the ship passing me.
How I escaped being sucked into the wash of the propeller I
don’t know. I was wearing shoes, socks, dungaree trousers and a
shirt. I soon kicked my shoes off and I managed to get rid of my
trousers. Then I floated, watching the lights of the ship
vanishing into the distance. There seemed little hope of rescue,
for no one had heard my frantic shout as I hit the water. But I
had strength, the water was warm enough and I made up my mind
not to give in.
“After a long time I saw the lights of the ship again and I
thought that she was still steaming away, and that I had seen
them from the top of a wave higher than the rest. But the ship
was on her way back. Other stokers had noticed I was missing and
had reported it to the captain. He turned round and steamed back
over the same course. I was half dazed and could not understand
why there was a large red light close by. It was the steamer’s
port light, and when they threw lifebuoys with flares into the
water I realised that help had arrived. They lowered a boat and
dragged me into it—one and a-half hours after I had fallen
overboard.
“I am not a particularly strong man and I have certainly never
won any prizes as a swimmer,” said Mr. Madison, “but
I made up my mind not to drown while I had enough strength left
to keep on the surface, and that saved me.” The captain of the
Ripley Castle corroborated Madison’s story in every
particular.
These men, you say, drink! Well, I guess I would, & so would you, if we
were chained to this work! Drink? I would maybe drink like the
proverbial fish! We would better the camel who can go, they say,
seventeen days without a drink—but if I was damned to such toil
probably I would drink seventeen days without stoking! Thank God they
can get drink & forget the work!
The late Fredrick Harrison was not a Socialist, as the word is
ordinarily accepted, but he was right when saying that ninety per cent
of the actual producers of wealth have no home that they can call their
own beyond the end of the week; have no bit of soil, or so much as a
room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any kind, except as
much old furniture as will go in an old cart. Good enough for stokers!
Modern civilisation is a curse! Away with it!
HAIL THE REVOLUTION!
Every good man wants it! Every good man lives for it! Every genuine
religious man prays for it! Dear God! May I be spared to see it, & share
its delights. This is not thoughtless, for there are horrors unceasing
at present. A long drawn out agony. What is the torture of a short
Revolution, in comparison to the want, unemployment, (when working,) the
grinding wages, & all the social injustices of modern commercialism,
where wolf-like all are compelled to compete with each other? Again, a
good man, a Divine woman, will long & pray for the Revolution as Mary
the mother of Jesus did. Read the “Magnificat” slowly & allow her
Revolutionary utterances to percolate into your mind!
Besides—no Revolution could ever equal in horrors the doings in the
great war. All that sacrifice too, was useless, & misplaced for it
accomplished nothing, only piling up debts that can never be paid,
except by mortgaging labor for centuries. It brought no good, except to
the profiteers. All the world is worse off. God will not allow the world
to revert to pre-war conditions, the planners & schemers, of the great
tragedy are being brought to confusion & the end is not yet. The late
twenties will ripen matters!
Twelve millions of lives wasted! Twenty millions of lives broken! All to
no purpose!
A practical part of this sacrifice would bring about a successful
Revolution. In this struggle there would be a purpose! It could be
accomplished without violence or bloodshed, with planning & much
thought. The great combat must be carried out with man’s greatest
weapon. The weapons of IDEAS! Ideas are more powerful than bombs, more
deadly than poison gas! If all the nitro-glycerine in the world was
placed together for one grand explosion in a material way, it could not
be compared to the release of a Divine, Spiritual & Revolutionary idea.
The one who founded Christianity released that Idea! It is to be found
in the most Revolutionary prayer ever uttered:—“=Thy Kingdom come!=”
There can be no hate, no war, no soldiers, no exploiting, no rent, no
interest, no profit, no nationalism, no Imperialism, no capitalism, in
that Kingdom!
In that Kingdom, there can be the International & also Communistic
Brotherhood!
Then live for it, & all Hail the Revolution!
CAN “SOCIALISM” BE A RELIGION?
Where minds are consecrated to the betterment of the world, & also are
sacrificing themselves for that purpose, in order to bring the kingdom
of peace, goodwill & brotherhood on the earth, they are religious
people. It is the same Divine Spirit activating them that also was the
motive power in Jesus & the Disciples. They love “Good” & that is
another name for “God”—the word “Good” is the word God—the difference
being that it has an extra letter “o”. In like manner the word “devil”
is the word “evil” with the letter “d” placed in front of it. This
explanation does not eliminate God from the Universe, for God is
Immanent Spirit, filling & flooding all things. In Him, we live & move &
have our being. “He is closer than breathing, nearer than hands & feet.”
If Socialists never pray, & refuse to enter an orthodox church, & yet
live for the founding of God’s Kingdom on the earth, (& maybe without
knowing it,) they still remain more truly religious than the folk who
repeat the Creeds, & learn the catechisms, attend Communion Services, &
go through all the mental assents towards traditional dogmas, & yet
neglect the Kingdom of Peace on the earth.
If there be a Deity to face, (though Judgment in reality never ceases on
the earth!) I would rather stand before the Great Judge as a Socialist,
than as an ordinary Christian that defends militarism & champions war, &
also winks at the social injustices. Why? Because the Judge of all the
earth shall do right!
The average worshipper has a very mistaken notion as to what religion
is. The word “notion”, by the way, is the correct word here, for when in
America I often saw in small shops these words: “Notions sold here.” It
struck me as strange & I enquired as to the meaning. The answer was, in
America we call pins, needles, tape & such like things “Notions”. Little
insignificant things! So the popular church-going of the day is not a
serious thing at all, it is small, petty & insignificant.
This “notion” is the sort of thing, despised in sarcastic terms by the
socialists of today. Very few of them know Latin, but the Latin phrase
they would be delighted in:—
“TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM.”
Without Latin, how often have I heard them say in almost the same words:
“Too much religion makes me sick?”
You cannot catch them with chaff & husks. They know peace is the ally of
wisdom, & far-sighted human consideration for humble lives. Also that
war is the ally of egotism, anger, cruelty, & vainglory. Peace is the
unshakeable courage of sanity; war is the red blind courage of madness.
They know the churches defend war & militarism.
PERSONAL. IS THIS SOCIALIST A RELIGIOUS MAN?
You have a right to ask it reader. Many years ago he was tried for
heresy in the Presbyterian Church. As Ian Maclaren used to say, in
Scotland heresy hunting is the national sport. Nobody really dislikes a
heretic, that is if he is game & gives them, for their money, a good
run. I gave the Presbytery a short quick run & still retain the title
“Reverend”, perhaps to annoy the =auld lichts=. “What you a Minister?
Well I should never have thought it,” said one. He was right, I don’t
feel a little bit reverend at times, in fact quite the other way when
the social wrongs are before me.
The ordinary cleric is known by the “holy tone” style of talk. The
“brother-how’s-your-soul,” way of greeting. Also the pervading spirit
carried into all company of “Let-us-rise-&-sing-that-grand-old-hymn,
manner.” These things, the writer has dropped, & yet he claims to be
religious. My sons have not been trained either, as what the Americans
choose to call “religious Lizzie-boys,” & yet they are all turning out
well, not one black sheep among them. Parsons’ children too are
proverbial black sheep!
The parsonic, dog-collar I, too, have discarded, with all the outward
signs of the pulpit dress, I leave them to the undertaker. My wife likes
me all the better & so she does not say in the language of M^{rs}
Malaprop: “Here comes my husband in the garbage of a monk!”
Sometimes, people yet approach me, when in trouble, but very few now do
so as they did of yore, wanting to discuss about, & reveal to me, their
spiritual insides.
Fifteen years ago, I became a Unitarian, but strange to relate, I have
very little in common with that movement either. But they give me a free
platform & so happiness is mine, but no stipend. They do not require me
to preach the Hell dogma. To some, that seems a pity, for one said: “The
Unitarians believe that everybody will be saved, but we hope for better
things!”
Said one orthodox parson, on the subject of the eternal burnings:—“If I
did not believe in fire & brimstone, I’d steal!” So to him, hell was the
hangman’s rope to keep the wretch in order. Anyway, it is good, I have
not to sit in that man’s church, & listen to him, for when he belauded
hell & damnation, I would have to hold my nose. We leave these
middle-age beliefs now to the Pharisees, with all their theological
splitting of hairs. The Pharisees discussed of old, whether an egg laid
on the Sunday could be eaten on Monday without sin? These things now
trouble me not!
In the matter of these peccadilloes, I am like the old negress who was
asked by her mistress whether she ought to attend the communion service?
For she asked her:—“What about that goose you stole last week?” “Lor
missus,” she replied in vast surprise, “do you think I’d let an old
goose stand betwixt me & my blessed Lord & master?”
But I am not frivolous, reader! A schoolmaster son of ours, recently
married, wrote a letter to his mother & father, asking what was the
secret of the beautiful way he had been brought up? What really were the
religious beliefs we held? Write & explain, for they followed & haunted
him.
That gave us our chance. It was our reward also.
A woman speaker & also known the world over, she is old now, but she has
passed through many shades of thought, was in dire mental trouble &
perplexity about the year 1875. She then wisely wrote:—
Who pants & struggles to be free;
Who strives for others’ liberty;
He truly prays.
Who, falling, still works patiently;
Who, loving all, dare none despise,
But with the worst can sympathise;
Who for a truth, a martyr dies;
He truly prays.
NEW ZEALAND’S OPPORTUNITY.
By the Imperialist Politicians our fair young land has been switched
from the path of God & Right. These men are not Statesmen but merely
politicians, who have the unwavering eye on the next election. It is not
New Zealand they love so much, as the future possible honors that may
come their way on a King’s Birthday or some future New Year, when titles
& sugar-plums are thrown across the seas from London. They are
politicians, (odious word!) not Statesmen, but men of expediency, what
Nietzsche rightly calls “Soft-treaders.” These men would have this young
land follow in the path of the older land, with its thousand years of
bloody wars, & steaming in Europe’s everlasting hates.
We are ready for a Statesman, but there is not one in sight, a man who
will steer this land clear of Imperialism. One who will extend hands
across the Pacific, to all who are willing to stretch their hands.
We are ready for the real, the genuine patriotism, the Divine seal upon
it, that patriotism expresses itself in world-neighbourliness. We are
tired of that false brand of jingo-patriotism, of the flag-flapping &
profiteering brand, expressing itself in military conscription &
enthusiasm for war, when occasion offers. There is a growing feeling
abroad, based upon common horse-sense, that the only patriotism
acceptable in God’s sight, finds expression in upholding the hands of
those who are working to avert war by culturing the Spirit of Universal
Brotherhood. To prove that this spirit is not a mere personal matter,
but growing daily, the following will prove it. It has been addressed to
the citizens of New Zealand & the ever-growing figures of the prosecuted
lads, who refuse to drill. These young men are amongst the most alert, &
intelligent of the country. They have something better than the animal
courage of the soldier, they have moral courage:
=Are you satisfied to let New Zealand remain a Conscript
country? Do you= want to be =more Militaristic than Great
Britain=, where there is neither boy nor adult conscription?
Do you know that =OVER 40,000 LADS= have been prosecuted during
the past 15 years, and that convictions =at the rate of 2,000
per year= are now taking place? Thus from 40 to 50 youths face
the Courts every week.
“But,” you will say, “we should be glad to do away with
conscription if we could feel safe. The League of Nations has
not secured disarmament.”
Will your support of =Conscription= help the League?
=Are you satisfied with your Representation on the League?=
Do you think that those who advance =Conscription= and have been
Ministers of War, or believe in the compulsory saluting of
national flags and the glory of =Empire= will ever bring peace
among Nations? World experience proves that they will not.
Ask =YOUR MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT= to work for the repeal of
Conscription.
Ask him to favour the appointment of really world-minded and
genuine peace-loving Representatives for New Zealand on the
League of Nations.
This land is wanting & waiting for the Imperial slogans to be cast
aside. We have been duped too long with the words & phrases of a false
loyalty. We have been the slaves of a bogus Terminology. In the S.
African war with the Boers & also in the world war, the public were
definitely & effectively psychologised by the designing Imperialist
politicians. Imperial slogans were thrown out, & the public mistook the
slogans for ideas. They had the name, but not the idea. It is not
“Imperial Unity” we want in these Southern Pacific Seas, it is Universal
Unity, a somewhat different thing. We are going to Change the Terms &
adjust the stupid institutions to our own Divine Ideals, & modern
Tendencies & thereby model our Terminology upon the Ideals of a new
civilisation.
NEW ZEALAND’S GROWING REVOLT.
During the last decade especially, our visions & ideals in these pacific
islands have suffered a shock, & our intellectual rebels are
contributing in a slow but effective way towards a better goal. This
growing revolt is a necessary factor to the change that lies ahead. The
unthinking crowd in the meantime, do not entirely grasp the cause of the
revolt in ideas. But it is slowly dawning upon the most unintelligent,
that war & militarism, is the assassin of democracy. As a matter of fact
we have never had Democracy in New Zealand. You can vote here on
non-essentials but you cannot use the ballot-box on any vital matter.
There is very little publicity about many Imperial & Military doings,
they leak out slowly when it is too late for repeal & make alteration, &
the public are hoodwinked by all kinds of party issues that divides the
voting.
But we are going to demand the fullest publicity in all matters, for it
is the greatest safeguard against the autocratic designs of the
Imperial-Capitalist-Militarists. We are beginning to hate the spirit of
this evil Trinity, for it is in bad odour & is repugnant to the
fundamental principles of Social-Democracy. There is a growing, & a
higher ethic abroad; a developing mind & conscience that looks upon any
man who brags about his Empire, his military & naval power, his boys of
the bull-dog breed, as a blasphemer, when he links the Universal
Mother-Father God to them.
The war & its aftermath, taught us that, after all the prating about
Democracy, we were merely the puppets & creatures of an absolute State.
The idea has to go, we are determined to bring about the responsible
State, a State subject to the moral law written deep in the soul of the
average man & woman. That indelible moral law, is at present crushed
beneath wheels of the Imperial Juggernaut. There is going to be a New
State, when the Revolution develops in England, will be our chance to
create it, & see that it is subject, not to Imperial designs of debts &
slaughter, but to the moral law of God’s Fatherhood, & thereby as a
necessary sequence, Mass Brotherhood; that coming State will have a
decent regard, not to England, but to =Mankind=.
We are tired of being tied to the apron-strings of the so-called
Mother-land, for it is time we learned to fend & rely upon ourselves. In
this land, Imperialism has killed initiative, except the initiative
connected with Mammon-Art. Literary talent, Artistic talent, Inventive
talent, is almost a dead thing in this country. When we break away from
the present shackles as rebellious America did, then, like her, we shall
expect a great surge of inventive genius. Imperialism chloroforms it,
except in Military form. We are hungering to invent, to organise & to
achieve, also to assume wonderful initiative in all directions. Alas! at
the present, the Imperial millstone hangs about New Zealand’s neck, & at
the moment our one Ideal is Imperial Preference whereby the profiteers
in London extend hands across the seas, & pick the pockets of our
workers, & whereby the profiteers of New Zealand extend hands across the
seas, & pick the pockets of Britain’s millions. So they dazzle the
people at both ends, while the Union Jack is waved, & the National
Anthem is sung. Some workers unthinkingly stand for it, but they are
being slowly classed in a new order, known as the Union-Jackasses.
In a word, the Imperial policies that attempt to mix New Zealand up with
the European fates, or any other fate, will have to go. We are
developing a policy too, & that new ideal will allow Europe to stew in
her own juice.
Some statesman will appear here soon, who will frame up a kind of Monroe
Doctrine for New Zealand, whereby to all the outside world we will say
“Hands off!” “Mind your own business!” If your hands are soiled, & your
soul dirty with Naval bases, & so on. We refuse to meddle in your evil
business, except on the lines of reciprocal commerce, & open free trade,
in which we desire our ports free to all trade, & also to all eugenic
peoples who are devoted to Social Democracy. That Divine intercourse,
that freedom of travel & commerce, that Holy interchange of thought &
Brotherhood is due. Said the poet:—
“Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new:
That which they have done, the earnest of the things that they shall do.”
That is to be the new slogan for New Zealand!
IMPERIAL PARSONS.
Yet the founder of their religion was a rebel against the Empire of
Rome. When war is declared, these Imperial parsons drop their peace &
goodwill, & turn their churches & chapels into recruiting stations. Is
it any wonder, the workers look upon the church-message as a kind of
enchanted sawdust? On occasion they (the clergy) repeat the commandment,
“Thou shalt not Kill,” & then bless troops that go forth to kill. They
are very little better than the boy who was asked if he could repeat the
Ten Commandments? He declared: “I can’t just repeat them, but I know ’em
when I hear ’em.” But you cannot argue with these jingo parsons, they
throw a text back at you. They are no more amenable to reason than the
healing cult, that declare disease doesn’t exist, & then go on to
testify that they have been cured of twenty different diseases. So they
go on in their strange fallacies singing the hymn:—
“The Son of God goes forth to war,
His blood-red banner streams afar!”
& at the same time worshipping the Man of Peace & Goodwill! They thus
wink at & defend the greatest curse on the earth, & quibble about
theological hair splittings. Like the wranglers of old they don’t
quarrel about the ass, but about =the shadow of the ass=.
“A crime to drink ale but not cider,
A crime to smoke, but not to grow tobacco,
A crime to dance, but not to play kiss in the ring,
A crime to tell gossip, but not to listen & believe in it,
A crime to steal, but not to roll up letters in newspapers.”
These men, too, are ardent Imperialists. It pays! It allows them to
enter society! The workers are as nought. But supposing that a
Revolution changed New Zealand into a Social Democracy, or something on
the line of the Russian Soviet system, then these Imperialist parsons
would probably do what the clergy of the Greek Orthodox Church did in
Russia—come over on the side of the Soviet! =Expediency again!=
It all gives point to what G. B. Shaw once said, & it applies to the
supposed fixity of the orthodox church code:—“Morals are mostly only
Social habits & circumstantial necessities!”
Am I uncharitable? I have no wish to write merely in a destructive way.
Let me suggest a constructive method. In view of a peaceful & brotherly
world, would it not be better to outlaw war, & take advantage of the
suggestibility of the minds of the people by dropping all words about
war & hate? Refuse to use such terms as “War Departments,” instead, coin
the term, “Peace Department.” Drop the term “Secretary for War,” & use
in its place “Secretary of Peace”. Let the sentence “War-policies” go, &
use the Christian words “Peace-policies”. Would the new words express
more accurately the temper, & spirit of the Nazarene Carpenter? Would
not “Peace-Budgets” sound better in the pulpit than “War-Budgets?”
There is a law of the association of ideas. Read Le Bon’s work on “Crowd
Psychology”, & learn the truth. In that work the laws of mental action
are learnt.
If the clergy will only learn, that there is a new & growing world
consciousness, set towards peace & goodwill, they can take the tide at
the flood. Often they have a few soldiers, (not many!) in their
Services. Would it not be better to tell them, their business is for
peace? Tell them it is for war, & they naturally look forward to war.
Officers, too, often attend Services when on duty, expediency demands
it. The new terms may impress them. As it is, the officers dare not
openly advocate peace, for they are men of war, & have to live up to the
term of villainy.
But the clergy can yet repent, & do their just works, while it is day,
they have still a limited power to direct, & accelerate the world
conscience toward the ideal of peace, & love, instead of war, & hate.
De Tocqueville, the historian on American affairs said:—“The work of
the Consulate, & the empire consists more particularly in the clothing
with new words of the greater part of the institutions of the past.” Le
Bon also, tersely points out, “that when crowds have come, as the result
of changes of thought or belief, to acquire a profound antipathy by the
images evoked by certain words, the first duty of the true Statesman is
to change the words.”
Very good! Will the clergy of New Zealand read, mark, learn & inwardly
digest, in the interests of pure & undefiled religion, & a higher
ethical code for this beautiful land in the Pacific Seas? Be true to the
word Pacific? It is Christian!
HAVE WE NO SOUL?
Owing to passports, oaths of allegiance, & what is to all intents &
purposes, military conscription, we are beginning to wonder if New
Zealanders have any souls at all. To one, who has lived in this fair
land, amid emerald seas, for over thirty years, it came as a shock, on
board an ocean liner, to hear this young country referred to as the New
Siberia. And yet, there was a reason for it, in fact many reasons.
A military-imperialism is ruining the land. Another war, & the ruin will
be complete. When Gambetta was once talking to Lubbock, the English
banker & scientist, he said: the day will come when Frenchmen will all
be beggars in front of barracks. New Zealand was headed in that
direction during the Boer war. In 1914 it gained momentum in the same
direction, & the leaders here, still sit mounted on the military beast,
& they recall the old Chinese proverb: “When you are riding a tiger you
cannot dismount.” They have no ideal, no vision beyond good markets, &
prices for meat, hides, cheese & butter-fat. There are a few who
understand things of the Spirit, as expressed by Olive Mercer:—
“Oh, there are moments when we touch the stars
God-visioned, fleeting moments, heralding
The souls fulfilment somewhere on the way. . . .
Yet we are spirits now, & conquerors.
Not made of dust alone, nor made for earth,
But planted on the earth to flower for heaven.”
But the only heaven the New Zealand politicians seemingly vision, is a
good Imperial market, with the orthodox streets of gold, & gates of
pearl, also trees whereon grow twelve manner of fruits (marketable
apples for the London shops & market) in a word, a heaven of
materialism.
The Imperial Gospel of greed, & the cruel force of militarism, &
navalism to protect it. These commercial profiteers attend church on
occasion, & hear the usual platitudes about Imperial conquest paving the
way for the Gospel. The Divinely appointed destiny of the British
Empire, & so on. The same thing, old Greece, Rome, & Spain had drummed
into their ears until they got to believe it. So the pulpit urges them
to keep a stout heart for God, & the Empire, & the services conclude
with “Onward Christian Soldiers!”
These political adventurers who are bringing this land to ruin, will ere
long need to be unseated. As Emerson said long ago, they are in the
saddle & ride mankind. The military war horse must be destroyed & the
riders sent sprawling in the mire. Then men of vision, ideals & with a
goal in view, will take their place, men who:—
“Have an open heart, & a gate ajar,
For light that wanders from the farthest star;
Keeping ready eyes for truth & love,
And all things else, that’s born of all things above.
Who seek no fetters of faith, nor creeds defined;
And want no measuring-rod, but an open mind,
The past forgot, the sea ahead, with time
Untold to follow the gleam of things sublime.”
Britton Strangways.
THE CAUSE OF OUR GROWING UNREST.
Until the war, things were going along fairly well, but the useless
destruction of our finest human life in the European shambles, has
caused a rubbing of eyes, & a clearing of vision. The increase of crime
& immorality since the war has caused reflection. Even those men who
returned safely to New Zealand, were not the same men who went away. No
mother received the same son in return for the son who went to the
trenches. It takes the military barracks, & life, to awaken the
slumbering devil in a man. In Australia, & also at times in this land, a
good shepherd’s dog will lapse into the wolf spirit & attack sheep. Once
the dog does that, no matter how intelligent & useful he may be, he is
never the same dog & can never be trusted again. There may be exceptions
in soldiers, but even when the best are under survey, the men themselves
will readily confess, that the war spoiled them & that they are not
quite the same since. No one is more conscious of this than the returned
soldiers themselves. Destroying homes, looting, rapine, shooting, &
bayonetting others belonging to the one human family, leaves all men who
are guilty of it as they were not prior to the experience. It has been a
shock to the moral sense, & there can be no real recovery from it. The
moral wound may heal in time but the scar on the soul remains! The guilt
of this presses upon the British Imperialism, & throughout the whole
Empire, we note the growing unrest. It is not peculiar to New Zealand.
We see another comment, on much the same lines.
“It is true, of course, that the British Empire is of vast
extent. But it is not true that the British flag flies over
territories, countries and peoples whose contentment is
unquestioned and whose acceptance of British rule is
enthusiastic.
“On the contrary, it is safe to say that never within any period
of the Empire’s history was unrest as great and so-called
“disloyalty” so manifest. As a matter of plain and unvarnished
truth, the majority of those who constitute what we call the
Empire want none of it, and would, if they could, sever their
connection with it to-morrow. The Empire is only kept together
by force—by compelling unwilling elements and countries to
acknowledge the sovereignty of the British Crown.
“It is as well for us that we occasionally look at these matters
quite plainly. That we cease our cant and humbug and squarely
face the facts, and by these means glimpse the world and the
Empire as it really is, and not as we would like it to be.
“India and the British possessions adjacent thereto are
restlessly stirring. Not for much longer will they acquiescence
in foreign domination. There is evidence in abundance to show
that the Eastern people want to work out their own destiny in
their own way, and are working with increasing unanimity towards
that end. The outcome is inevitable. India will secure complete
independence. What is true of India is true of the rest of Asia
as a whole.
“In Africa we have Egypt in the North sullenly discontented and
working feverishly for national independence. Concessions
wrested from the British Government will not suffice—will not
satisfy—complete and untrammelled independence will only cease
the agitation, and so complete independence it will have to be
in the end, whether we like it or not.
“South Africa’s former Republicans are beginning to organise
politically on a republican basis and just as soon as the
internecine strife among the Boers end a Republican majority
will control the South African Union. And what then? Another
South African war or the extension of the principles of
self-determination within the Empire?
“Of Ireland, in the very heart of the Empire, we need not
comment. Pages are being added daily to her tragic history
written in letters of blood, and every page contains a
denunciation of an Empire which denies to a section of its
people the liberty it desires.
“In America the French Canadians and others of that Dominion had
their patience tested during the war. Observant British
statesmen of that time stated that unless there was a decided
change of policy in Canada towards the citizens of certain
provinces and centres, the Dominion would be split in twain.
That ‘Empire spirit’ which appeals to a certain type of
swash-buckler, is abhorrent to these Children of old France.
Their country is Canada and to her their loyalty is
unquestioned, but they refuse to accept that ‘wider vision’
Imperialism demands, and its enforcement only means disaster.
“In Australia there is a growing sentiment which is distinctly
Australian. A sentiment which says, in effect, that the first
consideration of Australia is Australia and its people. A
sentiment which causes the Australian people to eye with
suspicion schemes of ‘Imperialism’ with ‘Imperial Parliaments’
and similar devices ‘for strengthening the bonds of the Empire,’
but which the average Australian shrewdly suspects will limit
his own powers of self-government. The Australian Labor Party
stands very definitely for ‘No Imperial Federation,’ and will
have none of it, not withstanding the trumpetings of the
Milners, Curzons, Georges and the rest of a suspect crew.
Indeed, the behaviour of the present Government of Britain with
its wild-cat military expeditions abroad and its anti-Labor &
anti-democratic policy at home, is responsible for the suspicion
so very widespread in Australia that however glorious the Empire
may be, it is being grossly & wickedly mismanaged.”
Like other parts of the Empire, our hopes lie in the growing Industrial
consciousness, the ever-increasing unrest in the breast of the Labor
world. It is there the moral force lies that will regenerate the world.
Real culture is in the spirit of International altruism & Universal
Brotherhood. The workers, have that Divine Culture, strange to say, &
University graduates have it not: at least very seldom.
CUCKOO CRIES!
There are many cuckoo cries heard in this land. The old country cuckoo
is not familiar to us, but we have a special cuckoo of our own, it is
called the silver-tailed cuckoo. Also the political & imperial slogans
heard here on occasion, are cries of silver-tailed cuckoos.
One familiar cry is “Don’t drive capital out of the country!” With some,
that ever has a telling effect. They don’t stop to ask what real capital
is. If they did, it would dawn upon them, that if the bogus capital of
paper currency, & debit & credit entries, in the ledgers of banks
ceased, our real capital would remain as it was, i.e.;—the rivers,
mines, forests, plains, coast-lines, mountains, lakes, & arable land
would remain as it was. They could not be driven out. If capital
goes—they remain!
Another bawling cry is “Markets.” So for markets & food dividends for
the few, great freezing works are dotted here & there throughout the
land. But the irony of it! They do not store meat, butter, fruit, &
cheese, for the people, they are used in order to keep the necessaries
of life away from the people until big prices can elsewhere be demanded.
Instead of man’s inventive genius being used for his good, the
exploiters use it to work against Humanity in the aggregate, in order to
bless the few, who of course become rich in peace times, & their wealth
is quadrupled in times of war. So much so, they cannot hear the cries of
the wounded & broken men, nor the wails of the Rachels at home, who are
in war-times bereft of sons. No! their ears are plugged tight with
cheese, meat & butter, they cannot hear! These things mean big cheques &
abundant prosperity. But these things are not real wealth, that’s the
rub! A country’s real wealth is her young virile manhood. But under
Imperial policies, this wealth does not count, except for Imperial
aggrandisement.
This aggrandisement also allows the wares of Britain to be carried
across the seas to other places, but what better off is the British
worker? The most contented workers, & peasantry, to be found in the
world are not members of Great Empires, but the people of small lands
like Switzerland, Denmark, Norway & Sweden.
When Emerson said: “Empire is an immense egotism,” he sounded the depths
of the Imperial Dead Sea. Its fruits too are apples of ashes.
When New Zealand becomes a free Social Democracy, it will become at the
same time the finest land on the planet earth.
A land that knows no frontier, no blustering, empty, meaningless
patriotism. A land with no class pride, except the only class worth a
thought, =the working class=. Love of Humanity will replace love of
nation. The Ideal will then be to consolidate the Human Family, on a
basis of firm & enduring Brotherhood.
“Empires, to endure, must be based upon equality and human
liberty. Without that fundamental basis they will perish, even
as the Empires of old have disappeared. Greece, Babylon,
Nineveh, Carthage, Rome, & Spain; their glories have passed
away. They rested upon a foundation of servitude and of
conquest. Unwilling nations were held in subjection by force;
the will of the conqueror was alone worthy of consideration. And
in our day, given a similar basis, Empires will disintegrate,
for it is a law of nature most inexorable in its decree.
“Notwithstanding the gloomy outlook, the Empire can be saved.
But not by oppression. Not by the machine gun, the aerial bomb
and the battleship; but by complete social and economic
readjustment of our relations both within and without, by the
recognition and acceptance of the Socialist policy of
reconstruction. There is no other way.
“The Empire’s greatest enemies are those who condone the present
form of society. Those who shriek the loudest of their
patriotism are, from an Empire point of view, the most
unpatriotic, for they countenance and support a policy which
must inevitably lead to disruption.
“So strange contradiction. Socialism alone can save the
Empire. Socialism alone can link these conflicting
nationals within the Empire into a League of Free
Peoples, and not only maintain an Empire which then will be
truly great, but make it greater still by stimulating
world-federation of Socialist States wherein the fullest measure
of political and economic liberty will be enjoyed by each and
every unit in the federation.
“The choice is: Capitalism and Empire decay; Socialism and
Empire rejuvenation.”
[Transcriber Note: In the original manuscript, the word
“Empire” has been replaced with the word “WORLD”.]
IMPERIALISM AT A DEAD-END.
Evolution is a fact & can be no longer questioned. No thoughtful man who
knows the evidences, can apply the words theory, or hypothesis to
evolution any longer. That being so, the one interested in economics, &
imperialism, must be prepared for changes. The pre-historic monsters,
some over eighty feet long, & with only a tea-cup full of brains, came
to a dead end. Evolution there, could go no farther. They became useless
monsters, & utility ceased,—hence they were without use. So it is with
Imperialism. It has developed into a ruthless tyrant, & the earth has no
further use for it. It is at a dead end. Far from being of any use it
has become a danger to Humanity. It is allied to the old world word,
“Mammon”, which is the synonym of the modern word Capital. Writers on
economics are being forced, at times, very reluctantly, to acknowledge
this. The following to wit:
“In the final analysis, Capital is inert matter. Consequently we
may fill from basement to attic all the banks and treasures of
the world with gold or any medium of exchange, and it will never
produce or reproduce one penny’s worth of human betterment till
labour is used in conjunction for that purpose. This shows, in a
measure, the true value of labour. Capital now lives, thrives,
and expands on the surplus profits derived from interest, rent
and profits which have been made ready by those who toil with
hand or brain or both. The surplus collected this year and not
spent by the profit-takers is invested so as to extract profit
next year and ever after if possible, thus increasing the
burdens of the people.
“Excess or surplus profits and the usual methods employed for
acquiring them are directly responsible for most of ‘man’s
inhumanity to man.’
“The present ‘get-rich-quick’ scramble for class wealth must be
humanised by the strong arm of the law. The talk about
brotherhood, moral suasion, self-denial, ‘golden rule’ and
service is quite useless when surplus private profits are being
considered or dealt with. Every businessman knows this fact.
“The Governments of the world at the present time seem to
exercise little useful control on behalf of humanity over
interest, exchange, rent, profits, big business, war-mongery,
disturbing foreign loans, bonuses, subsidies, concessions,
franchises, artificial money shortages, mortgage foreclosures,
debt funding, bond issues, stocks and food gambling, the liquor
and drug traffic, ‘carrying coals to Newcastle,’ disgraceful
unemployment and many other preventable evils, all of which tend
to degrade the people and are allowed to run riot quite contrary
to our much-vaunted British justice and liberty, and the
Christian standard of universal good. Most people seem to think,
vaguely, that the present private profit system must continue
indefinitely with slight modifications. There is nothing in
modern experience to warrant that view.”
In New Zealand at least, Imperialism must go. This will be resented by
the Patriots & Profiteers. Patriotism & Profits have kissed each other.
The two are one—Patriotism is to Imperialism, what superstition is to
religion. Real religion has need no longer for superstitions, man’s
evolving mind casts them aside. Real patriotism, has need no longer for
Imperialism, man’s broadening mind cannot be kept within Imperial
boundaries, nor within sectarian fences either. There is a new
orientation in both spheres.
We are tired of war & Empire. So is Canada, South Africa, India &
Australia. The only people who are not weary of it are the flag-flapping
profiteers, who are moral derelicts.
John Ruskin was right, when saying: “two nations may go mad, & fight
like harlots, God help them; but they who hand them carving knives of
the tables, that you may pick up a dropped sixpence, what mercy is there
for you?” Therein you find the ethical code, (or want of it) of
Imperial-profiteers.
So New Zealand approaches the cross-roads, & a few of us are in
readiness abiding our time, & watching for the finger of God! With
Shelley we say:—
“A brighter morn awaits the human day,
When every transfer of earth’s neutral gifts
Shall be a commerce of good words & works,
When poverty & wealth, the thirst for fame,
The fear of infamy, disease & woe,
War with its million horrors, & fierce hell
Shall live but in the memory of time.”
BLUNTING THE MORAL SENSE.
Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent, referred truthfully to the
Imperial menace as a soul-blinding, & heart-blurring business. It is all
that, & more; it is full of pious hypocrisy. British Imperialism
especially, is dealt out in cant phrases about preserving democratic
free institutions, the general uplifting of Humanity, & the glorious
spreading of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, & so on. New Zealand
so far reprises this theological cant in her day schools, but the
churches, & their Sunday Schools, are permeated with it. But a false
Imperial history is cunningly handled & dealt out in the State Schools.
John Bryce was right in proclaiming that history as taught in schools
was an evil & should be taught no longer. When this ghoul of Imperialism
is linked with Christianity, it sends a cold chill down one’s spine. A
N.Z. penman reminds us:
“All my readers will either recollect or will have heard of the
battle of Omdurman in 1898. At the time, when the press was
gloating over the great triumph achieved for civilisation and
Christianity, it became noised abroad that the Egyptian
auxiliary troops had killed the wounded. Of course the story was
denied, just as the Mallow shootings and the burning of Cork
City by the Crown Forces have been denied. I have just read two
very interesting volumes, however, by Mr. Wilfrid Blunt (1), and
there I find it recorded that Mr. Winston Churchill, while
holding office as a Cabinet Minister and during a week-end visit
to the author’s home in Sussex, had personally described how the
Lancers—not the native troops by the way—had killed wounded
Dervishes at Omdurman! Mr. Churchill, in fact, described how the
Lancers were obliged to place their full weight on their
bayonets in order to pierce the thick coarse clothing worn by
the wounded men! He added that one Lancer had boasted that he
had been the most merciful to his man in that he had given him
only four inches of cold steel!”
* * * * *
“I myself remember well they we were advised by cable a few days
after Omdurman that a relative of General Gordon had blown up
the Mahdi’s tomb at Khartoum. More than one New Zealand
newspaper commented on that item of news in strong terms and
reprobated the act as a needless display of barbarism. Mr. Blunt
tells the whole story, however, and a horribly gruesome one it
is. It is true that one of the officers concerned in the outrage
was a nephew of General Gordon but evidently he participated
most reluctantly. The tomb was destroyed by the express orders
of Lord Kitchener, and the skeleton of the Mahdi thrown into the
Nile—except the head which was taken by the commander and
retained by him! We read with a shrug that during the Maori War
in Taranaki certain Hauhaus slew Colonel Lloyd, and subsequently
displayed his head on a spear in several engagements. What can
be our verdict on Kitchener’s conduct? Had the matter not been
proved to the hilt, would anyone credit that such brutality
could be perpetrated by a British general? After the battle of
Omdurman a great Thanksgiving Service was held at Khartoum, when
fervent thanks for the victory were offered to the Lord of
Hosts! We may imagine the comments of intelligent Mohammedans
who knew that the wounded had been butchered and that the
Mahdi’s skull had been ‘commandeered’ by the Commander of the
Christian Forces!”
Christian-Imperialism forced the ports of China for the opium traffic.
The same political-unctions thing, forced Chinese labour on the Rand in
Africa. The same Imperial-Triah-Hepism, went hand in hand with the old
Russian-Czarism, in shooting & hanging the Persians, whose only crime
was that they loved their country, whose only fault was that they
carried out to the logical issue the teaching that Britain instills into
her public school children: the love of country. The crime was—the
Persians love Persia. The same thing is going on in Egypt, & India,
today, with much the same results, excepting that Russia has since been
Divinely Regenerated.
A NEW IDEALISM & TOWARDS HUMANISM.
The tide has turned. New Zealand is tired of European politics, &
balances of power. The words of a wise woman, a heroine of old
Alexandria, Hypatia, to wit, spoke words in her day that have a pointed
message to the million odd New Zealanders:—“To understand the things
that are at our door, is the best preparation for understanding those
that lie beyond. We are going to do that first & then extend the hands
of amity across the seas to all workers of the world. We are going to
cultivate a soul!” We have failed in initiative, but a new age dawns. In
literature & poetry, (excepting one poem of Brackens) we are as dead as
the proverbial door nail, but there is a Social Beyond!
“Dreamer of dreams,” we take the taunt with gladness,
Knowing that God beyond the years you see,
Has wrought the dreams that count with you for madness,
Into the substance of the world to be.
THE END
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
This ebook has been created from a handwritten manuscript
instead of a printed book.
Although there is a Table of Contents with seven intended
chapter headings, it is difficult to correlate these with the
headings in the actual manuscript.
Multiple clippings from newspapers or books, most from
unidentified sources, are included in the manuscript. Text from
these clippings are in bold font in this ebook. Underlines and
strike-throughs in the clippings were added by the author and
replicated in this ebook.
Misspelled words have not been corrected.
Punctuation has been normalized.
Book cover is placed in the public domain.
[The end of _The Growing Point of Truth_ by James Chapple]