The State of England

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 45, 25 November 1925, Page 25

The State of England

(By John Romxsox.)

t Arrogant imperialists, and self-satisfied * profiteers broadcast the vain boast that the security of England was won by the defeat of Prussia. How false is this notion may be gathered from a brutally candid little book entitled Declension , by “A Gentleman with i a Duster.” This slender volume may ho read comfortably in one evening, but if read with attention it will provide sufficient mental food for many moons; for its thesis is that Britain is doomed, not by German machinations, but by the mental and moral chaos which is mirrored in the economic, and social debacle which is England to-day. Insolvency and Stagnation. There is no doubt about the tragedy. Lord Inchcape says that the first line of a country’s defence and of the defence of civilisation is solvency; and then lie adds; “We have got into a position where many can only pay rates and taxes by realising assets and so diminishing the funds needed for the expansion of business. If this goes on our whole social and industrial fabric will go to pieces, and the country, instead of being a land fit for heroes to live in, will be peopled by paupers.” An American observer is quoted as saying: “The outlook of the British people seems dark and uncertain. . The troubles that beset the British are large .and concern things fundamental. Their greatest days, are probably past. . . I look for no largo immediate catastrophe, though these indeed may come, but I fear that a long, slow decline has begun.” Mr. Philip Snowden says that one of the great captains of industry in the North told him he expected that within two years every factory in Great Britain would be closed down. The Cause. The cause of the disorder is thus tersely expressed in the preface:—“There is chaos in our ways because there is chaos in our minds. There is disorder in our house because there is disorder in our souls.” And again: “We are acting as if the universe were governed by no. laws of any kind, acting not only as if it were possible and reasonable to gather grapes from thistles and figs from thorns, but as if the Invisible Powers behind the plain processes of evolution had a taste for tomfoolery and a positive passion for the second-rate.” Effects of Stupidity. The first part of the book deals with our economic perils. Not only is it made clear by this conservative writer that 'England is not now a great nation but he also shows that even in the height of her power she was vastly over-rated. Her fortunes were fortuitous. They were built not upon stability of character and tenacity of purpose, as is commonly supposed, but upon continental t revolutions and the undeveloped state of s America, both of which relieved her from rivalry while she established her manufacturing trade at the time when power-driven ma-

chinery was in its infancy. Even then, it is shown, her stupidity sealed her doom, for she sacrificed the agriculture of the country to the exigencies of industrialism, and permitted conditions of life in manufacturing cities which were fatal both to the health and morals of the people. Eighty per cent, of her food is grown in foreign countries; and if she cannot pay for her food she will not receive it. This in face of the fact that sin cannot now command her customers, for she is surrounded by rivals who are able to defeat her in the markets of the world. The chief and only safe way in which she can procure her food is by sending her manufactured goods to those who grow it. And in order that her manufactured goods should he more desirable in the eyes of those who grow it, they must be good, cheap, and unchecked in their —better, cheaper, and more regular than those of competing nations. The achievement of this purpose demands intelligence and good morals, both of which are conspicuous by their absence from ever phase of English life. “We can no more hope to shape a. great destiny out of our present way of thinking than a. child with spade and bucket can build a stone house out of sand. Our thoughts are our chastisement. If we let them, they will become our destruction.” In short, if England continues to think stupidly she will figure as an unemployed nation without the dole. The Challenge. When England became an industrial nation France was convulsed with wars and revolutions: the United States were disorganised and undeveloped; and time had not given birth to the great German Empire. Hence, she was able to peddle her wares throughout the world unchallenged by the rivals that later rose out of a peaceful Europe to try her strength. Their food was growing at their door, and they realised their power when they observed her folly, first in abandoning agriculture and later in neglecting to manufacture her own manufacturing plant, two blunders that turned her into a clearing house for raw material. Her colonial expansion amused them, for her bull-headed way of dealing with the people in the foreign territory she occupied made those colonies a perpetual menace to her security. It was observed that she was conducting herself like a. rich parvenu, that she despised education, and that her people degenerated into careless, vulgar, stupid materialists. To quote from the book: “The quality which most struck them [our rivals] in our civilisation was its extreme untidiness, and they considered that just as a dirty house is the effect of a careless housewife, so the extreme untidiness of British civilisation was the effect of a very gross and culpable carelessness on the part of our rulers,” After the Boer War we “found ourselves exhausted and friendless in a world which no longer admired our intelligence or feared our strength.” Our rivals watched our blunders and profited by them to the end that seven

years after the war Germany has “come back” while Britain stands with a great array of unemployed, a burden of unexampled taxation, and a difference between her exports and imports' of some £350,000,000. And during the same period she has spent nearly a like sum on keeping the idle fed and the discontented from mutiny. In addition to these woes another spectre rises to confront her. The future belongs to oil and electricity, and the rich coalfields of England must fall more and more into decay. How the crisis was met is thus told by the “‘Gentleman with a Duster” : “Three years after the armistice . . . the great trade of England was suddenly snapped like a twig. Four millions of people were thrown out of employment. . . To meet the difficulties of the times, the statesmen and local authorities of England, making no effort of any moment to reduce their own extravagant expenditure, loaded the manufacturer with still heavier rates and taxes, and directed all their energies, not to the assistance of British foreign trade, hut to the doping of unemployed with a dole for idleness. . , . Lot our foreign rivals defeat us still further in the overseas markets of the world, and our supplies of food will fail, the cost of living will increase, and the hungry millions of this country will demand a revolution that must destroy us all.” Signs of Unsoundness. These disorders are merely the effect of mental chaos which is reflected in the everyday lives of all classes of society. The abnormal demand for crime news, pornographic literature, obscene pictures, and indecent plays shows that the country has abandoned God for Sex. “Further evidence of disorder and moral carelessness may he seen in many commercial pictures which are posted about the streets of our cities or used as advertisements in the newspapers and magazines. The prevailing look in these pictures is a prurient leer, and their only tone a guffaw of sensuality. No one nowadays seems able to advertise a box of chocolates without calling the world’s attention to a woman’s ankle, and cigarettes would apparently go unsmoked unless the picture of a girl showing her knees was for ever confronting the public. Plays of a comic character would attract us by some such picture as that of a woman immodestly fastening her garter and there is scarcely a soap in the world or an article of attire or a throat lozenge which can be sold without some representation of a woman cn dcshabillee .” To a certain extent the rich must bear responsibility for the sins of the poor as the latter naturally look to the rich for guidance. But the sons and daughters of finance are too low in moral vitality to do otherwise than escape from boredom through a breach in the Ten Commandments. It is not that they are vicious, but they are idle and ignorant and the mind that cannot be bothered with God will have to spare time for Satan. The Remedy. It is when the writer searches for remedies that he drifts into troubled waters. .He knows that the nation is doomed unless it , returns to healthy principles of life. It fell

from greatness when it fell from God, and it cannot escape the consequences of its sins any more than a man who thrusts his hand into the fire can escape burning. But he appears to think that people may be persuaded, to abandon their beloved sins if it is made clear to them that the nation will perish if they don’t. It is not easy, however, to persuade people to make immediate individual sacrifices in order to check national decadence. The man who keeps the Ten Commandments because he loves God, fears hell, and has marked the uncertainty of his days has a stronger personal motive for sanctifying himself than the person who disapproves of sin because too much of it exercises an injurious effect .on trade. In short, we must serve God for Himself, not - as an adjunct to industry. The broad, undenominational religion which the writer of 1 Declension believes can unite all classes without interfering with any of the religious dogmas held at present is not likely to cause much excitement in theological circles. If the religion established by Christ as a rational rule of life cannot'command the souls of men, it is not likely that any man-made religion will work the miracle. Indeed, we owe most of our social and economic troubles to men-made religions. Nevertheless, the book is a valuable contribution to the literature of 1925. It is wholesome and candid, tersely and graphically written by a man who understands the importance of first things. ——