"THIS ENSLAND"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 129, 4 June 1927, Page 17

"THIS ENSLAND"

CPMRADES^AND TITLES

THE NEW CULT

(By Edgar Wallace.)

My Communist" friend sneers heavily at' titles. ; v Thef mention o£' those unblessed prefixes "Lord and "Sir'? does not arouse , him to frenzy, but rather depresses him to a state of helpless despair.! '■■'*'

"Titles, comrade!■'" he wails.

And yet,-as I.pointed out to him, there is no.title quite so empty and meaningless as this same machine-made "comrade,',' of his.

"One of these days," he says darkly, *'there'will only be 'comrades'' and nothing" pise. .The bourgeoisie. . i ."

/"Sh'uy-rup!" I said vulgarly.

And.-:yet, strangely enough, I really ■believe 1 that-unintentionally and • unknowingly he spoke the truth. But I do not believe that .we shall ford to the great comradeship through rivers' of .bourgeois blood. The very idea that weishall'is ludicrously inconsistent. But, then; Qommunists,arc. npt the only inconsistentpeople:..;'■■';■■■ ■ . I" know'.a-matt / who •" never kills flies,-beeaiuse he .hates i tSe thought 1 of taking;" life/ and ;ttiis /man;; being very baalyTbredi is rudeito waiters and uhop assistants iand .other people who would lose;,tneir:>jops if they punched him on the iiose. $'/■■■ ':■'■ ■■ •.•'',• ■/. ■■• .'•■".■ \ ••.• '■■■.•• ■-..'.

1 know; another; man who is never rude to.;'anybddy' except his social and financial equals. When a lorry driver takes ,_„the .middte,of. the, road, and, despite his 'irenzied^ hpnlun'gs, will not tal.! the near side and give his car the rigit of way^vhe passes, the churl, with a |?rin and a wave of his hat. And he says that,;as lie didn't go' to the war, .and in., all probability the lorry driver did,: he dare; not^ be" offensive for fear he is insulting a "man who- went '\ over, the tpp in the cold light of dawn, whilst .my.frierid was in bed in Maidenhead Thteket'.::■'.'■■■■.■•':■.•■''.'•■■ ' '■.■.:,".■:. \ ■■ :.■■ •.-.'."

He said he was .oja.ee rude to a bricklayer, and that when he discovered afterwards, that this bricklayer- had held at bay a Bulgarian'battalion sin-gle-handed with a machine-gun he felt such'a worm that he could not hold up his.'head-, until lie Bad sought' out the leisurely. layer of-bricks and;had taken hiin-'up West. *-I belieye they:,both got drunk together, which was very ieprehcnsible conduct -on -the part: of -my friend, who is a Master <of Arts of the UniVersity of Cambridge.":; '. "So," said he; "was' Major Armstrong, and he;.was-~ hanged V—which was inconsequential, and a little foolish. I. find in this England a growing inclination towards loving-kindness and real comradeship. The classes of other days have merged one into the other, so. that you are not sure where" one' ends, and .the other begins. .. And with this change certain-definite bits of Old Englishness-are crumbling and. vanishing under our very .eyes, v ■ One o£ v these is ' patronage. The patron has almost vanished. He lingers in the prospectuses of charities and on the cards of certain race meetings; but, generally: speaTcing, pa'tr'orfage is a dying'industry, and that is all to.the good.

One noi longer pint's''an. holiest workman on the back anil says, "My good fellow, you are doing splendidly. I will, send your wife some blankets at Christmas./' You-forward'Kim a laconic notification that his salary has been raisedJ Anf J'01? onljvslap him- on the back it ybitf-aro prepared to be slapped on the back yourself.

At the same, time, we must admit that, in Kussia, whero everybody is equal, there is no such thing as patronage either. If one comrade wants another to do a job of work, he says: "60 along and.load that wagon, comrade," and, if he strikes, ;another comrade comes along with a rifle and bayonet, and he iB clapped into a friendly prison, wher«j everybody is equally depressed. -Arid perhapsJsome fine morning ho-is taken out to face a neighbourly firing squad, and that's the end of him; But he is never patronised, never made to feel that he is less thstn anybody, else., . ; ■• 1 ".-. ■ This'brand of friendliness and equalr ity. Has been introduced' into' England; but has no*'been as successful as it might have been if , our ■ pepple were also stupid follss, who have.boei).- accustoihed to,do as they were told, and were ready to, go mad with delight because they were now bossed as comrades instead 6f serfs.. '■■••-■■; ,;■■.:-.■/■' ' •.-''.

,The.- flueer; teachers of\ the new coin-. rado cult- are "extremely interesting. They- have always existed—-they, always ■will exist. It is the job they do best* Ton have' never met a violent friendof Bussia -who <;6uld get his: living in any other .way. ' I, know scores—quite nice fellows —who have-worked their way up by dint of hard work to the position-they now occupyV. .Think of the years they spent their opportunities.'' The di'abj;little,: uriappreciative,- -bf test - derisive audiences • they haltingly 'addressedfbefoio- they learnt the" cliches"that constitute their: oratory.. It meant work, a continuous course of study, for which they were iH-equipped. Think of it that way— ■ it is their only; job. -Take>Cook. • (If you are a true eoinrade, you never call anybody "mister."). There is a lot in Cook to admire. ..""Fpt thei past seven, years he has been the hardest-worked man in: England; his: energy has. been phenomenal,.and if Ms speeches lacked grace they did not want in rough-vig-our.

Now, suppose, "With the best intentions in the world—shut your eyes and imagine that you are a great friend and admirer of, his—that you wanted to give Win'a:j*ob; What? ;' :

< Obviously ; he hasn't, the balance or foresight to run a successful business, as obviously he. is a visionary who thinks 'in terms:- of destruction... You couldn't place him.' He is a man of extraordinary, gifts; as,a revivalist his conversions wouldie sensationally numerous, but he-is not a religious man, and somehowl.!", can't imagine that ho is a hypocrite. ■ He is doing the job that he understands best—just as I am, just as yon are. The mass spirit which moves him is admittedly coloured by his own personal wrongs, real or imaginary/ 5

He is nnhapplv situated. If he had teen born in Bussia, he would either have been as great a figure as—whoever is a great figure in that country, or he would have been shot' out of hand. In this England neither real eminence nor martyrdom is possible. ■ Cook hasS to.''have his share of the new tolerance; most of us are better stabilised than he. We can be tolerant with-him even if he cannot be tolerant with us, and I feel that spirit working all the time as it has never worked before. There isn't a Tory that hasn't been sorry for the, miner—not one who has not,marvelled at the dogged.loyalty they have given their lekders. It was the,".loyalty that Englishmen gave their officers in battle, even though they might not be confident in the leading of the Omen they followed. English, workmen are English soldiers out of uniform, a fact of which nobody must lose sight. It. .is absurd to condemn in a labour dispute qualities over "which we grew ecstatiein the grim days of war.. •■■ . .- : i.c .. ■■ . :/'■■.

The British Army was the only army which'did not mutiny in the dark days of war.. The spirit thaFkept them true 5s the very spirit which makes revolution unthinkable. The very spirit, paradoxicaHj; enough^ which exasperates

you when it is expressed in terms of resistance to what is glibly labelled "capital." .

You can't have it both waj-s. There's a. lot of-give and take in big. families; it is any odds that sooner ; or later one of the brothers is going to be annoyingly naughty. It is our first job to understand him, and if he sulks a bit not to "sulk back."

I see so many people, I know so many grades of society, that I don't think it is,possible that I can have got a wrong impression.,.'.''" There is a wonderful spirit of tolerance abroad in this country to-day. A great breaking-down of the artificial barriers that separated man from man; an intense desire 6h the part of those most fortunately placed to make life tolerable for their harder-living fellows. And I think this fellowship is working from the other end. Who knows 1 We may become comrades after all!