The New Age, Feb 19 1914

Back to The New Age after several month's absence. I've been reading a few of them along the way, just haven't had time to type up anything.

The clouds of war are gathering over Europe.

I wish I didn't have to be so scary. The New Age's theory about why there may be war: the industrialization of Germany requires raw materials, materials which the British Navy can cut off at any time. The solution is a railroad from Germany to Turkey to Iraq and the Persian Gulf, a railroad that could carry those materials to the factories of the Ruhr. I keep thinking of Peter O'Toole. S. Verdad mentions Kuwait as a focal point of the crisis! Have we really been fighting the same darn war for the past 100 years? S. Verdad can be hawkish, but even he doesn't see what's coming (this week, he called it several months ago), as he says the result of this political jobbing will be "acrimonious discussion."

Arthur Penty begins a series on Guild Socialism and the arts. I took a moment to chew on on this:

"Now it is to be observed that though the interests of architecture and the crafts and the interests of democracy are ultimately identical, it is nevertheless true that in the immediate and practical sense their interests are opposed. It is the immediate aim of democracy to place power in the hands of the people ; the immediate need of architecture and the crafts is to re-establish authority."

He ends by advocating small workshops and local markets as the best way to promote the arts. Sort of like the artsy-scene in medium-sized American town and cities?

A different paradigm.

Quick notes:

Romney, though in a military context, entertainingly writes about "the modern cult of the specialist." Less entertainingly, he retains his right to categorically attack Jews in the press (along with anyone else he wants to attack: only he doesn't).

There's an article about the state of Egypt...

In a satirical piece called "The Cabinet Council" by "Conclavist," the Home Office minister McKenna explains that the militant suffragette movement is dying: "from the moment one of the leaders proclaimed herself an authority on the subject of pox the militant movement began to decline." There was something of this in The Egoist, if it was in the Feb 1 issue, it was to the effect that the Pankhurst wing of suffrage had begun crusading against venereal disease by resuming their campaign against prostitution. The next bit (bite) of satire has the Cabinet resolving to gas paupers. Phew.

H. Caldwell Cook contributes the first segment of The Play Way, a book advocating experiential education.

"Present-Day Criticism" is a plea for teaching Greek myth instead of Norse, contra Caldwell Cook.

Beatrice Hastings' current "Tesserae" is about how women should be homemakers instead of faux-intellectuals. Tough stuff.

There's plenty more in there, but I'm stopping here--off to do other things.