BY THE WAY

Evening Star, Issue 16837, 12 September 1918, Page 2

BY THE WAY

[By Cab e. Cboss.] "* G.R.S." sends me a satirical poem on a. tousicaj criticism connected with the competitions, which ho regards aa unreasonably severe. I am at a loss to understand ■why "G.R.9." has addressed his complaint io m^ r aj;d, ia say case, I have no room in my little comer for 17 quatrains, whatever "fibeir merit. Moreover, I am no rmisicaJ critic, and it must be in vain that "G.RJEL" supplicates my good offices as arbitrator. I do cot want to write myself down aa tone-deaf, sa some axe colorblind, for, to tell the truth, I am conscious of a considerable difference between a woman's voice and a foghorn. I have to ronfess, too, that some renderings, both Vocal and instrumental, make me very unkappy) while others will produco in me a peculiar sense of_harmony with life and the whole scheme of creation. Yes; when I come to think of it, I do remember occasions -when music has affected me as I might be affected by an auction sale in a cathedral, or ping-pong on the altar. It has also often occurred to me that the Street music that is released from its iair by the manipulation, of a crank ia a species oi assault and battery on the. soul for ■which there is no more excuse than there would be for the throwing of more tangible missiles at th& heads of passers-by. I jnust therefore plead guiltv fo some appreciation of a more violent contrast in Jnusic j but when it comes to refinements End musical criticism so called I must cry off. I am glad, however, that "G.R.S." has given me an opportunity of putting myself right with the public. I have turned over his lines to the editor. * « # * » » » In confident anticipation of complete victory, we continue to think of Germany flo she was before the war, with the exception, perhaps, that we have come to think of her as shorn of her oo'ouies. In this way, wobbling theorist* and t'reimors have come to think thev are serving humanibt when their demand for peace is associated with the watchword "No indemnities'' The utver fatuity of thi-t is startlingly demonstrated in a little book, ' German War Profit,' by M. Ardre Cheradamo, which covers the first three years of the war, and •has taken 10 months to comp'le. It is shown that during that period not only was the war expenditure of the C'entia l Powers less than one half thit of the Allies, but Germanv had mide war profits worth many thousands of millions sterling, with incalculable prospective increment if fail to compel her to d'ssoige her ill-gotten gains. "The reason whv the immerse sains of Germ-riv .ire not -set understood is that the All'ei continue to look upon Germany, Austria-Hun aiy. Bulgaria, and TurKey as sepa-.ite without perceiving the formidable novelty that i es beh'nd these old names. That noveltv is Pan-Genmny."' Pan Gornmn aspiratiors have been "completely revived in the West at the exrense of Belrrmm, and all hut completers at fho expense of France. To the south-east and the plan is, to all intents and purposes, en tirely realised. Pan-Gormanv is a fact It- e-ri-is, arni contains some 180,000.000 in hah-'tants who obey, willy-uilly, the supreme control of Berlin." M. Cheradame draws up a formidable Est of the plunder that has fallen to Germany during the period under review. He tellsus that on the basis of pre-war valuations the 212,000 square miles of territory the Germans have occupied is worth at least £6,400,000,000. He then describes Tinder different heads the colossal amount tf movable wealth appropriated—war material, foodstuffs, raw materials, industrial plant, furniture, works of art, war levies, coin, jewels, and securities. Under some of these heads plunder to the value of hundreds of millions sterling is involved, especially under such descriptions as "raw materials" and "industrial plant." "The formula 'No indemnities' would leave to the Germans these immense war profits which they have already realised. I- the. Germans gave back the occupied territories, they would give back only resions materially devastated and inhabited by people whom more than three years of suffering and forced labor have eihausted materially and morally. In these conditions the restoration of the evacuated regions would require immense expenditure that, would fall upon the Allies. Even without reckoning the great • difference in proportionate war outlay incurred by Germany and allied countries, the application of the formula 'No indemrritdes * would tend further to impoverish the Allies and to handicap them* economically whHe Germany would keep bsr war profits." ■ »'*',# * # * * It is a mistake to talk about the dead Et The -world's past is no more dead n the yesterday of tho individual. -In ; hj cases the past i 3 still _ living and operative" and bearing fruit in the pre- . lent. ,- Moreover, the great figures that . dominate what we call the past are by no Gams done with, they are still challengj its and judging us or being called up for judgment. This is notably true of • inch men as Frederick the Great, and Sansewjta, and Bismarck, whom we are ■ fighting in this war as truly as we are fighting William the Second and Hindenbuxg. ■, For their soul still permeates Ger- ; many and casts its baleful eyes over the ; rest of the world. It is our task in this . war to decide whether the world is fit for anything better than the hideous political ' philosophy for which these men stood. ; Does time justify them and their gospel ' of sta,te despotism and efficient brutality, ' or is it going to cover them with a •withering discredit, and make them " like ! the chaff which the wind driveth away?" ' We are plainly up against this character- I jstically German gospel of th© divinity oi J violence, Oar»failnTe would he its justi- : ; fication, not as -the highest ideal, but as j' the only thing the world was fit for and j: ■worthy of. j ' *, ******* j' | The ' Nation' reminds us once more I &f the facility with which we allow our- !: pelves to be imposed upon by words, j i f* On the lips of all are great abstractions j Liberty, Power, Progress, Justice r on j. Jthe lips of all, yet in the minds of how .; many, lies the ability or even the ~ faintest desire to define them in terms of , : Eractical happiness ? It- was Viscount ; ■ lorley, great follower of the great, who , gununed up this truth in the aphorism, '. . 4 All the noblest tilings come from the j heart: yes, but they must go round by :; •the head.'" What, for instance, is the ! • .precise meaning we attach to Progress. ; i The idea of progress is purely relative, :; and presupposes a goal What, then, is : ; cor goal—social, economic, political? I . If we don't know, how can we affirm : ; that we are approaching it? And what;; of Justice ? All over the world are men j - threatening to burst wdth apoplectic de- ;; Biands for justice. But who thinks it ' ■worth while waiting to consider fairly : what they mean by justice? There is j nothing to prevent any man from being j just, but the trouble is that we are so ' jr.uch less concerned! with being just than j with ou? claim to impose our particular ''. notions of justice upon others. And what , of Liberty ? Says the ' Nation ' : [ " Liberty, too is a fair and frequent ' jewel of the peroration, yet many a man Is eager to burst his lungs in praise of a tree empire, in which, if he had his way, ao individual could think, sneak, or act , jxcept according to the approved pattern. The Bolsheviks ars just now busily engaged on this business of liberty , and justice and progress in Russia! By } the way, John Morley notwithstanding, ' all the noblest things do not come from the heart to suffer ia their progress ' through the head. Many a noble thing { proceeds from the head to be wrecked when it essays to move the heart. ******* i, The ' Westminster Gazette' has an ar- !' (resting article on 'youth and the Church,' 1 by the Rev. Edward Shiilito. "There is i clearly a movement in the heart of youth j bo-day. It is seeking for something which ' It does not find. It discovers certain i timidities and compromises entrenched l within the Church. It is impatient, with , ! reitless energies v.-aiiing to be claimed, j . , . . The Church as an institution falls | : largely under the control of the middk>- 1 juna and the elderly. Thev speak for it,: ,

make its programmes, decree its hmita. Behind them, often inarticulate and mis>interpreted, stands the younger generation. . . . Will the Church, so far as it is guided by age 0-nd middle age, be merely critical and scornful? . . _ . The war has revealed too late how little we understood many of our boys. They were mysteries to their seniors as well as to .themselves; but they had a life to be claimed. For those who come hack there will still be a life to bo claimed. It would be a tragedy if the Church made to such men a reduced offor. . . . It is the. adventure in Christianity that will make its appeal to youth. . " . Of all conceivable follies this ia the maddest, to offer youth a 'safe' thing. . . . The wise ieaders of the Church wall rather offer an adventure. . . They will say: ' You may be called fools, you may tee many things, you will find life a hard fight, but you will enter tire kingdom of heaven, and you will see God."' It is a, tremendous problem, this of the wasted energy of youth, and it is a problem for society as well as for that part of it specifically called tho Church, for educationists, economists, and legislators, as well as tho clergy and their organisations. Wc aire indebted to Mr Shißito for a searclrirnjj diagnosis. A religion that is out-and-out concerned with, personal safety must make but a languid appeal to youths who in this great war Lave astonished their own parents bv their steady heroism and uncomplaining and even cheerful endurance in the cause of freedom and humanutv. There seems i no escape from tho conclusion that the ori ganieed Church is but on© department of the kingdom of God. ******* We cannot estimate the magnitude of , tho loss to the intellectuail w.irld involved ire ihe destruction by the Turks of the famous Oriental library in Bagdad founded by the Carmelite Fathers in the seventeenth century. The collection consisted of more than 20,000 books and manual ii{.ti. on . übiects connected with MeM.poUmi.i The most important part of the t-L.RiTii was 2,753 Aiab marvj'aipts bought during last cent"<ry at a i-t of til' j'-irJi of poind 1 * They were Ihs v nrks ot Arabian scholars written between the sc\e'ith aid eleventh centuries; nio-s of then had not leen printed, and no other (o'iy of them ex^t 5 " It fc «°d to icfleet how the intellectual life of humanity ha» been impoverished b\ the de tn-cti n of libraries thr-."gh nar and religious fanatk.sro Tli -1 f.'te of the ccVhratod A'< \-T<lj i.'i hl-n>r\ will re'd"lv he ler>lhd It " i~ th» hr-o't clleti n of be ->k6r of the an unt world, and in it? riiiun hj _<• iti (4 i- ■*■ i d to have c"" 1 - tim 1 fr. m 500 Co"> to 7 1 "* 1 COO ■wilmneg ox ii.'ls, nrlmrintr the collected I'toMtun? of Home. G eoc* Trrh'a, aixl Ftrvpt. Tbi crci f er prt of th'-s immense h'teiw nci' n i wis 'n the siego by Ji-lhi" Cfp-ir. Tho roW- was kept i'i th" the magnificent tempi" of Jupltov S><-m's, and iemai"ed there I'll \d 331, wh-n a laige proportion c f «'ie'rr rr~rirt= d"io tips,;, slip, e ' tl » f,->'o <vf the teinle, wVch was deshovM h\ tho ChrstvTH 'n an of tie zetl '''o At"'.= hn« Ffiii.ilh- accorded the odium of destining tie .yrr'nln- I hit it world 'in|->r tint the <"hii=t an- hj d - 1 verv rcn-'dei'Me hind in it vr-d -aire nv t"'e<s a,"-' tW when th-> Ar-'b*? t"'t\ AVvn h,-, (in, M . bnt completed what was already veil begun.