The New Age, June 3 1915

Notes and highlights from this issue:

From "Notes of the Week," an explanation of why England needs to avoid conscription. I think I've written about this before: they've been arguing against conscription for some time now. The reason: if capitalism won't end soon, England's going to need to be able to kick butt on land, because submarines are ruining its naval advantage:

"If, indeed, we could assure ourselves that the present war would end war, something might conceivably be said for adopting a temporary measure of desperation in the certainty that no precedent would be created by it. But unfortunately this is not likely to be the case. On the contrary, as far as we can see, and in the continued postponement of the destruction of Capitalism, the need for military efficiency in England will be greater in the future than ever before." (97-98)

Note that The New Age has no illusions about a "war to end all wars." Their objection to conscription is that it will play into the hands of big business, the real enemy. If you can conscript in wartime, why not in peace? Etc.

One theme of the week's "Notes" that gets taken up again in the later column "Towards National Guilds" is that the capitalists have formed what is essentially a super-coherent blackleg-proof union of the owners of production (102).

Alice Morning/BH continues her "Impressions of Paris," this time describing wounded soldiers in Paris and continuing her campaign against war photography. Then she pivots into a critique of de Maetzu's own critique of luxuries--she argues that luxury is culturally and individually relative, so that a beer is not a luxury in a land rich in beers, and might be a need to someone who relies on alcohol (Beethoven is her example).

More importantly for her story: dark clouds gathering in the correspondence pages. I know from my research that "Impressions" are going to get her in trouble because of their flippant treatment of the war. I feel bad for missing a few issues that contained the beginnings of this, and will go back to catch them in my own reading. Arthur Hood writes that Hastings has besmirched the reputation of French Revolution revolutionary Danton, and hits her hard with this: "We can endure the meanderings of Miss Alice Morning when she writes of ants, influenza, and midinettes, although these subjects are not extraordinarily interesting; it is a different matter to pass a careless judgment on mighty occurences in a nations’ history; to attempt this, without willfully insulting the dead, a wide outlook and a more spiritual insight are required" (119). I can't imagine Morning/Hastings off The New Age and, for all her considerable faults, I'm not looking forward to it.


Quick Notes:

Marmaduke Pickthall returns, this time explaining the systems of local government in Turkey, especially the system of election by acclaim rather than by, well, election. Prominent men are cheered into office and shouted out of it. Unfortunately, Turkey has been tricked out of this system by its attempt to apply English law and democracy to its own internal government, creating all kinds of problems. I have no idea if this is true, but contemporary examples of Western powers trying to impose democracy around the world resonate. (103)

Ivor Brown contributes a piece on socialism, but his first novel gets an awful review. I had a student write a paper on Jane Austen, and it turns out that Brown became an Austen scholar (among other things I'm sure).

"Pastiche" contains an interesting, if nasty, satirical story by pseudonym "X." titled "Whit-Monday," in which sentences rigorously constructed in linear fashion describe a kind of Virginia Woolvian London park scene, meant to be grotesque, but coming out ugly.