Evening Post THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1916 A DOUBLE CENSURE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 4, 6 January 1916, Page 6

Evening Post THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1916 A DOUBLE CENSURE

Sir Oliver Lodge has successfully indicted both the gross ' materialism of Germany and the self-satisfied incompetence of Britain. In the German method there is much that commands respect if not admiration Judged by itself, the German way of doing things is wonderful It is excellent both in design and execution. It attains its object with the least waste of time and material. It is mechanical perfection. But the most wonderful and regrettable thing is that so much energy and perseverance should be devoted to so contemptible a purpose. German brain and industry •were bidding fair to make a peaceful conquest of half the world when they were switched off their task because, to use Sir Edward Grey's phrase, the German Government chose to press the button for war instead of for peace. H is almost incredible that a nation which was holding the- highest rate of commercial expansion among the Great Powers should endanger its whole position —"the place in the sun" already won—for the sake of a gamble with the sword. That is not the policy which Bismarck would have followed, and yet "it arose directly out of his blood and iron policy. He created a .Germany great in militarism and growing in industry—industry that brought in its kail tho Social Democracy This internal movement, with its peaceful objective, was always the bete noire of Junkerdoin, which set itself to capture the' Social Democracy, and; by popularising war, to confirm that dominance which Prussian militarism feared would, slip from its grasp. In this plot the Bernhardis were joined by professors; the whole nation went mad on militarism, as part of "the will to power" ; and the result is the widespread ruin seen to-day The wonderful "German.' mind," of which so much has been written, gave itself over to a fixed idea. Like Faust, it sold itself to Mephistopheles. In the words of Sir Oliver Lodge, the result of false teaching was that "purely material, ideals were elevated to the region of worship and sentiment." Nothing else could have so transformed the soul of a people, and yoked to the chariot wheels of conquest a nation whose earlier intellectual development had made for toleration and freedom.

Now for the other side of the story In these days, to be self-critical is a venturesome thing, as many people seem to think it amounts to lack of patriotism. Fortunately,' Sir Oliver Lodge stands on a pedestal above such a reproach, and lie is able to handle the subject) of our own shortcomings ■without gloves It seems that while Germany is marvellously clever in a bad cause, Britain has been remarkably stupid in a good one. Not long ago a critic of British methods declared that the outstanding feature of the war was the inability of tho British governing classes to govern. Sir Oliver Lodge does not put it this way, but he emphasises the fact that the war has demonstrated " the ignorance of the governing classes and of all classes." Recent American criticisms—which need not be reprinted—have stung us, but in the main they do not exceed in severity this dispassionate verdict of Sir Oliver Lodge. Not only has the ineptitude of politicians caused new doubts to arise as to the efficiency of party government; in the competitive ranks of industry itself loose screws have been revealed, indicating how easy it would have been to yield commercial supremacy to Germany if the pre-war somnolence in British trading circles -had- continued undisturbed Sir Leo Chiozza Money tells of a lawyer who is director of *a big British armament firm, and who thinks that modern, bullets are made of lead. In all sorts of places and in many incredible ways the war has revealed what Sir Oliver Lodge calls "ignorance of natural facts." " Our courage and personal character," lie adds, "alone saved us." In other words, we have retained, in somnolent inefficiency, what the enemy in his diabolical cleverness sacrificed. In the long run, there is no victory unless it is a moral victory, and this we are

going to win. But it is wrong to continue to expect Providence to help those who do not help themselves. Sir Oliver Lodge's address is more than an indictment of the moral weakness of Germany. It calls the British people to an intellectual and practical awakening;.