BY THE WAY

Evening Star, Issue 16676, 7 March 1918, Page 7

BY THE WAY

[By Carh, Cross.]

lterven *»» °i « T *pan in Russia, « generally regarded as "a consummatioiTde. voutly to be TOsied," is now announced as SSn? lfb^ tl6s ' and ?£ remodns to bo seer of m? ? wllLoit} "* help Russia ot sorvo the interests of the Allieo Russiajs the rottenest of reeds, very 5 • ™ Xf ry and irritable am St 1 ?* WOTI - d ' ifc Ver y ™*a. do welcome the intervention or oppose th< le mav r G ™** since the revolution ™i,« ™ y • gard them as onl y * new enenn Kl, f °*f lV *»* notion for all it hj IS tw X 4 th ? B » can bo per fW Ru f w has less to fear frorr anv . than from Japan, with her unKriS ft o *"* f nd ™ val stren S th - «'* Ki' awwtance-of China, wo shall fcave another turn in the complications XS ?*2 tlM v ßo were r <«Vded as having reached the climax of possibility. */**■****■# Meanwhile Japaneso influence in Chimi seems to be growing rapidly. She hj« taken -up the position that she will not allow China to ba exploited bv anv Fowei whatsoever. China is evidently 'pleased, ana japan may be presumed to have v S !T• , «ke breach between Aorth and South China is said to be closing up under the virtual alliance with Japan. The possibilities are exciting. in spite of a few defects in her manufaotures and tricks in her commercial which will disappear in time, Japan as a nation does stand in a serious way -fop efficiency. If once established as supreue mentor of the - Oninese in diphmacy, administration de- ' ten «>> finance, and education, her efficient methods -will have such an inexhaustible field, human and material, for their exercise for fenerations that the most stupen- ... dous results may be looked for. Thero is up reason why the relative values and significance of Europe and the Far East should not gradually be reversed. It largely depends on the growth of universal ideas and the type of character that is the West-etronglv domestic like the Chinese, deeply patriotic like the Japanese, but with an infusion of somethin? greater audi higher than either, which, -try as wo will, we shall find difficulty m explaining until'we have uttered the word " Christian." ******* 'Vorwarts,' the leading organ of Social Democracy in Germanv, mournfuljv declares that "the Bolsheviks have strengthened German imperialism, and made an effective fight against it most difficult.' There can be no doubt that such is the case. The Bolsheviks have erven m abundant measure all that the Kaiser and his Junkers could have prayed for—a lurid example of the way the <*o=pcl- - lers of brotherhood and equality set",-.bout business when they get a wide Md in which to show their quality. It is enough to make the less doughtv even of the Social Democrats wonder if it may not b» better to " bear those ills they have than Hy to others that they know not of." The aoings in Russia have made the editor of Vorwarts' "shudder," as he tells us. J 1 . 6 ™ 0 , say we a T e so often told miles away: that the Bolsheviks have been wronged bv the cabled' record of their brotherly exploits. He is too n*ar them and their impressive efforts at social "melioration to be under anv aualif r i ne illusions of that. sort. It takes their svmpathirers under the Southern Cross to Vet toe true hang of things. * * * - * * # * ..'These unbelievers of anything that they cannot turn into grist for their mill show a voracity that is positively indecent for any yarn that tells against the country that Teared them. As special pleaders for Germany thev run Houston Chamberlain very close. Their loyalty is not to their country, but to a certain class. They are apparently unmoved bv the sickening bar banties practised systematically by the German? but the thoueht of the " capital-W-."ST 8 th T tic Trith anger and hate. Tnere is hardly a wrong, or a condition, or an rvent adverse to human happiriess for which thev do not trv to make the capitalist responsible, though, to do them justice, I must confess I do not remember having hern-d any of them Warnmc the capitalist for such things as the codnn moth, or appendicitis, or As it the golden hammer were the onlv instn,mcnt of "man's inhumanity to man ! There could be no more perverse am fatuous dictum on the war than to - A. war, with the implication that it matters not to th» British democracy" or "workers" or" "profelanat " how it goes. * **'*»»♦■.» ' Grantme that capitalism is in manv lespects an evil that almost infallibly turns success into privilege and injustice, it s bat the latest phase of economic evolution And since capitalism is the inevitable form which success takes, why curse man ™! peculiarly abhorrent Bpecies of for tho alleged enormity of succeeding when everybody else is bursting with cfeire to be even with him? Moreover, to hear oiulocal champions- of the proletariat talk one would ] magme_ there were no capitalist in the world outside the British Empirecertainly none in Germany or Austria. mm- » a capitalist but a successful fel-•low-citizen, who as truly belongs to the democracy as tho wage-earner? If everv man is to be despatched who is getting all wJ 1 ' T^ ler ? We th f to come irom? The dream of an economic order in wj„ch ever,- man will be automatically sandbagged who has the undemocratic temerjty to show his head above a certain •line may have attractions for those for whom such a provision would involve no risk. But a sober world could never tolerate a regime in which brains and ability were penalised as undemocratic, and the genius of the few enslaved and kicked about at the dictation of the manv, likn the fallen damson in the grip of the Philistines. There is no excuse for class hatred in a country with free education, universal a lult suffrage, a free Press, and a free platform. ******* The German dogma that "the"be-a'l and end-all of the State is power," and that the State being superior to morality and a law unto itself, will, if j t j s wi J seize every opportunity of augmenting that power, has not yet been brought to judgment, and until it has be J con •drained and penalised by an outraged humanity ,t will continue to laugh at our homilies and our horrors. So "far is it from having been brought to book that it still regards itself as justified, not »o»Uy—* "corns that-but politically; and if it gets off with its booty its faith an the mailed fist will be stronger than •ever. Its principle is that of some travellers (not of tho Livingstone type) In Atrica and elsewhere: that if you are going to talk about justice and humanity you had better give up business. If vou want to do anything you must make "the niggers fear you as a despot with a whip We have somo way to go before we have convinced Germany that the doctrine is essentially bad, and in the long run spells ruin.