CHESTERTON ON SHAW.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 170, 11 April 1908, Page 12

CHESTERTON ON SHAW.

, :In ."The Now Age," Mr.G. K. Chesterton • i'replies' at 1 longtli to a recent articlo' aboilt' ; i : ,' i> himself and Mr. Hilaire Belloc, M.l'.j from ■ ./the/pen of.Sir.. Bernard Shan - ,-extracts from I .which .appeared in The Dominion on Satur-1 day List. Mr. Shaw (says Mr. dhostert-on) 'criticises thorn not .for ."their .peculiarities, 'but for :thmg3 which are common to'man-1 kind. ■ ">/' "Shaw turns' : oiir claim for the. .'common i human .. drink' into, , some nasty. ideas : about : 'excess,' ; and then; being evidently unable ;: ,to boast of having drunk with another- man in .'his life, goes off. (L speak with reveronco aiid .affection);.into some rubbisli about a piano. . \ , But Bolloc and I aro , not maintaining that! • boer is a divine gloi7, but that .it .is a nor- . ; ;mal habit; and .natural, right: as normal 1 as y, ; meat, and much more normal'than soap. /\Vg ; ,do not f*ot excited on'befcr. < :It is Shaw who ! . ■ .gets excited on boor. And it really seems a pity to get drunk on beer when you, have not • even drunk it." . -X:.)'. vv;.' Mr. Chesterton'adds-thaio Mr. Bolloc .and ... he want to. abolish .drunkards and .teetotaltors, not drink.' ' • 1 „D»ling ..with',Sdciil««n.-and its advocates, Mr, Chesterton. saya, ; speaking of Mr. Belloc and himsolf: — •• • .V" •/.y; .. -c "Wo do not "plank down" a "Dbopia • .>, . but. wo do "plank-down" : these much moro, practical statements:— 1- That a man will not .be-humanly, .happy unless he owns something in the sotso that he. can play ,the fool with it; -2. That. this can' only be achieved ! by Getting, steadily to work to distribute , property, not-to .concentrate;'it; v\ . : .. 3. That history proves that property .C®i he so •re-distributed and 'romam so i distributed, while history has no record of • • successful: Collectivism outsido of monas- . , tones. . . ~