PATRIOTISM AND IMPERIALISM.

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 218, 18 August 1913, Page 1

PATRIOTISM AND IMPERIALISM.

In these days of Imperial Defence Councils, colonial contributions to the Imperial Navy, visits of gift Dreadnoughts, compulsory military training, and what not, there is so much loose use of the words “patriotism” and “Imperialism” that it almost seems to be regarded as an axiom that both are inseparably bound up with, and can only be evidenced by, mihtarx preparation or display. I hat which used at one time to be known by the somewhat disparaging term Jingoism, has come to be regarded in many quarters as the only permissible mental attitude for the loyal Briton and lover of his country. For all who differ from such a view, there is the ready term of opprobrium “Little Fnglander,” and easy denunciation as “disloyal.” It is -a easy to label a differing view with an objectionable adjective, that people often forget thai the tag is no infallible certificate of the value or otherwise of the goods, and that many a shoddy article finds commercial vaiuc under an “all-wool label, a wolf, so to speak, masquerading in sheep’s clothing. Because our l nion is a staunch advocate of peace and arbitration for the settlement of international and othci disputes, and believes that it is righteousness and not the mailed list that exalts the nation, we must take account of this military attitude of mind which seems to be growing in power and spreading among all the so-called civilised nations, despite the activities of Peace Conventions, and societes, and the proclamation from thousands of pulpits every week, of

the message of the Prime of Peace. For though the nations are already staggering blindly under a crushing load of mutual distrust ncl bloated armaments, yet still at t. * bidding of their ruler' and prophets, the Cabinets and journalists of to-day, they pile on still heavier burdens, and jealousy and distrust gnash their teeth al any evidence of a fellow-nations’ advance. There is of course an argument which says that aU this preparation for war even now, a commercial value. It maintains huge enterprises of manufacture, finding employment for thousands of men; it keeps a certain proportion of the male population more or less actively employed in drilling, guarding, etc., who would otherwise be thrust into the ranks of industry, to swell the number of unemployed. Alas! have so many years of civilisation, of the “organisation ot society,” brought us to no better state but that a large portion of the population mu-t be kept at essentially unnecessary and prospectively harmful employment, lest society be unable to absorb them into the ranks of ns producers, who contribute to life and not to death ! Fhi- argument has no sound basis to recommend it, any more than the argument that the production of unnecessary and even harmful luxuries is good, because it finds employment. What! though unemployment be rife, are not many shamefully overworked? I'hough the world’s stores are full to bursting of food and clothing, arc there not thousands starving and ragged i Though great wealth fritters itself away in shameful displays of ostentatious extravagance, are there not in

the same t ity those who do not know whence shall come the wherewithal for their next meal and shelter? And must we say that the heart and brain of man, the inventor, the organiser, the administrator, i' unable to devise a better organisation of wealth and industry? There is another and equally fallacious argument which holds that war is necessary to stiffen up the moral fibre of the nation, to inspire and give opportunity for heroic deed'. The records of heroism in industrial life, of miners seeking to rescue their entombed comrades, of engineers, going down at their posts in sinking ships, of common unheroic men and women risking their lives m no blazon of glory to save others, or offering themselves up in a life-long sacrifice for the good of others, are the best answer to this libel upon the human race. Against this modern maxim, borrowed, significantly enough, from a heathen nation : “If you desire peace, prepare for war,” may be set another and at least equally true one, “Horn oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, makes ill deeds done” ! Opportunity often makes*'the criminal, and this is a- true of evil-doers on the wholesale and national scale as on the retail and individual scale. And it cannot be too often repeated that the people have no interest in maintaining this huge expenditure upon armaments which so quickly do they become obsolete, that one might almost compare them to the grass of the held, but that they have no value to the life of man. It is upon the people, the producers, the workers, that the burden of all this expenditure ultimately

falls. It feeds fat dividends for capital, and binds upon the nation enormous national debts, whose principal has gone to make those dividends, and whose interest still How-, on \eai by year to the same source. \nd to maintain an uninterrupted How, the inspired leaders of the national press, the journalists who claim to lead public opinion, too often devote their talents to the task of sowing hatred and distrust between the nations.

The modern evolution of patriotism seems to have developed from love of one’s own country to hatred and dis paragement of another’s, or else to that love of another’s which takes the form of a covetous eye upon Naboth's vineyard. Vet what a world this would be if all w ere of the same race! It would be almost as monotonous as a country of uninterrupted Hat, unrerelieved by hills or forests. Suppose all the world had been English, where would have been the philosophy and music of Germany, the art of Italy, the mysticism of the Ea*t, the won derful skill of China, India, and Japan? Just as ihere is room in one family for many diversities of taste, skill, and temperament, so in the human family there is room for national and racial differences, which need no more lead to veiled hostility or open combat than the differences of the limited family. Each has its part, and each talent and characteristic may contribute to the perfect harmony of humanity. Must we, then, not love our own country any better than another? Yes, there is no reason why we should not. Hut, as the poet says: “Thou well canst spare a love of Thee, That ends in hate of man!”; so the national life is not bettered by a love of one’s own country that ends in hate of another. Our own country or nationality, that in which we have been born and lived, whose people are of our own blood and speech, whose thoughts and feelings we understand better than those of another nationality, will, except in rare cases, always have the first claim upon our love. Hut because we love our own best, there is no reason why we should look with either hatred, envy, or distrust upon another. The prosperity and happiness of the natiois, like that of the individual members of th» family, depends upon mutual interchange, goodwill, and forbearance.

In what way, then, shall patriotism, the love of one’s own country, And fitting expression? Believe me, there is no lac k of ways, even when we have turned our backs upon 'current misconceptions of what patriotism is. It will even perhaps be found true, that when we have put those wrong ideas out of our minds, and not till then, we shall attain to the highest ideal of patriotism. That ideal 1 judge to be the thought of a nation great in its citizens; whose men and women are free intelligent members or a well-ordered State; who serve their fellow-citizens according to the measure of their ability in all useful occupations, yet have sufficient leisure for cultivation of healthy minds and bodies in such harmless forms of . amusement and recreation as their tastes dictate. That State will provide intelligently for the well-being of its citizens, organising industry, seeing that the means of livelihood are not held at the caprice of individuals or corporations seeing also that each renders hi-, or her daily measure of fair service, and receives in return a fair measure of the national wealth. At the same time, thi> State will perhaps for the hr>t time in history, and with much advantage to the national character- enforce the rule that “If any man will not work, neither shall he eat.” The patriot who works for the attainment of this ideal State will have to remove the huge vested interests that fatten on the degradation of humanity; that for their own profit make noisome slums; that rack-rent their tenai.is; that overwork and underpay their employees, or work them in unsanitary conditions, because sanitary conditions cost money from which no dividends are perceivable. Me or she will have to work to make our cities once more, healthy latioiis of citizens, living and working amidst artistic surroundings which will foster a love of beauty that will reflect in the national physique and character, and will not be hourly affronted by the horrible sights and sounds of our modern cities. The patriot will need to work for the removal of all the present artificial distinctions between the sexes, which deprive the nation of the advantages of the talents and services of one-half of the population, because they happen to be women; which deny to women certain rights of citizenshij, or refuse her equal rights with the

father of control over the children whom she has borne at the risk of her life, or which in certain directions hold women’s life and honour at cheaper value than property. The patriot, too, will need to work for a revolution of the existing ideas and method of Government, as well as an alteration of the present mental attitude of the people towards the State (which is the aggregation of themselves); so that it shall be held a shame to take an advantage from the State which would not be taken from a private individual; so that the revenues and power of the people shall be applied to the development cf the country, to all kinds of research that will foster resources and help its citizens; not to the erection of costly and often ugly buildings, the building of political railway* or other wasteful forms of expenditure, but to promote the convenience and serve the advantage of the people; >o also that the people ot to-day -hall not pledge the c redit of the people to come, nor bind on them the* burden of huge loans from whose expenditure they will derive no benefit. The patriot’s ideal of Government will be that of a wellordered household, governed by the joint counsel and control of man and woman, in whose management there are healthy simple rules of expenditure and administration. The patriot will find much to do on behalf of the children, that they may be b< gotten and brought forth in love, endowed with the be-t parenthood that can be given by men and women, healthy physically, mentally, and mor ally; that they be brought up in homes where love radiates from the union ot free souls who have studied to become fit to bring forth and guide th«* young life; that their education be free and wide, both of mind and body, to develop whatever talent is in them for the best service of their fellows. This education will be free to all, •rc m the first beginnings to tiie highest university or technical training that the individual capacity is fitted to receive; none of it c ast in narrow, antiquated, or irrational grooves, but seeking freely and gladly for truth and beauty wherever they may be found. This education, too, will include training in the ideals of citizenship; not the saluting of a flag, nor the glorification of warlike deeds of the past; but the recognition that the nation has grown by struggle and persistence, by sacrifice and loss, in

sorrow and joy, through failure and success, to the measure of development that it has attained, and that if it i> not to sink into decay it must still reach upward and onward, not resting in the glory of pa>t deeds well done, hut looking and pressing forward to greater deeds still to be done, the righting of ancient wrong*, the destroying of hoary abuses, the conquest over all that makes man mean, and poor, and *uk in body and mind.

In brief, the patriot’s ideal of thought and action for his country, will be that which inspired the first sermon delivered by Jesus Christ: ‘The Spirit of the Lord i* upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; lie hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of >ight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Our Christian nations of to-day are full of the poor, whose hire ha* been kept back by fraud ; of the broken-hearted, who hnd none to heal them ; of the captives of their own weakness, who tind none to teach the way of deliverance; and of the blipd, who think that in the multitude of possessions they see that which gives happiness. The patriot knows that all these arc weak spots in the body politic, to which they constitute a far greater danger than any from armed foe* without, for outward defences are of little avail if the heait of the nation is not beating *tcadily with a healthy pressure of strong rich blood to every part of the body. Hut *urely, if the patriot makes the home nation his first thought, there will be little room for Imperialism? Yes, and no. For the first necessity to that Imperial thought which we have been recommended to cultivate, i* self-control and healthy development at home and within ourselves. An Imperial race will never spring from a nation containing extremes of wealth and poverty, or be nurtured in foetid slums or in the nurseries of the wealthy; such a nation may produce some good examples, but its average condition is fatal to a high and noble race. Hut the children who have sprung from a home nation noble, self-contained, free, and happy, win go out into the world bearing on their foreheads and ir their hands the mark* cf that Imperial race, and carrying its light into the farthest ends

of the earth. Their task will be not to brandish the sword in the faces o* other nations, but to be to them the pioneers and discoverers of a new and more glorious age, in which “the crooked -hall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and .nil flesh *hall see it together,”