THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 V.
 
 THE 
 
 l^or 
 
 SoOAllS 
 
 SECURn;Y 
 
 BV 
 
 rJl^HN D.MAYNE
 
 ' ^ " f A.. . ' - j , '^* -
 
 iiTlZl £. ^^> ^4^^^^ 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM 
 
 AND 
 
 HOW IT SUCCEEDED
 
 THE 
 
 Triumph of Socialism 
 
 AND 
 
 How IT Succeeded 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN D. MAYNE 
 
 BARRISTBK-ATLAW 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & Co., Lim. 
 
 25 High Street, Bloomsbury, W.C. 
 1908
 
 
 \^ 
 
 • t • • • 
 
 • ••••• 
 

 
 MA 
 
 H4bt 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ; The events recorded in this work, though taken 
 
 ' from contemporary journals, must not be accepted 
 
 : in future ages as historically accurate. No opinion, 
 
 5 however, has been attributed to Socialists which 
 
 cannot be found in the published writings or 
 
 utterances of some recognised leader. For the 
 
 brilliant conception of an International Police I am 
 
 i indebted, as I gratefully acknowledge, to the speech 
 
 ■ of an honourable Member, delivered in his place in 
 
 the House of Commons in the Session of 1907. The 
 
 I ^legislation passed in the session of 191 2 in order to 
 
 carry out Nationalisation is purely imaginary ; for the 
 
 best of all reasons, because no Socialist with whose 
 
 works I am acquainted has attempted to state 
 
 : specifically the process by which his theories can 
 
 [ be carried out. 
 
 GOODREST, 
 
 READING. 
 
 JOHN D. MAYNE. 
 
 390820
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Triumph of Socialism in 191 2. 
 
 rACK 
 
 CHAPTER I i-io 
 
 The Result of the Election— Mr. Perkins is sent 
 for— Departure of the Royal Family— Proclamation 
 of the Republic. 
 
 CHAPTER II 11-27 
 
 How it was received in Paris, in Berlin, in 
 Montreal, in Australia— Where is the King?— 
 Proclamation of South African Republic— Visit of 
 the German Ambassador to the Foreign Office- 
 Thank God, India is saved. 
 
 CHAPTER III 28-51 
 
 Meeting of the Headless Parliament— Mr. 
 Perkins' Great Speech— Mr. Furbcr's Reply- 
 Remarkable Conduct of the O'Brallaghan— 
 Members provide for Themselves and arrange for 
 Nationalisation. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 52-59 
 
 Domestic Intelligence. 
 
 Resignation of the Judges— A Trades Unionist 
 on Socialism.
 
 viii. CONTENTS 
 
 How Socialism Succeeded in 1913. 
 
 J'AOE 
 
 CHAPTER V 60-81 
 
 Army and Navy Estimates, as viewed by Tht 
 Peoples Banner, The Times, and The Evening 
 Chxl — Foreign Opinion in Paris, in Berlin — The 
 City is Dissatisfied — Visit of Governor of Bank of 
 England to the Chancellor of the Exchequer — 
 Suspension of Bank Charter — Bank of England 
 Notes made Inconvertible— Unemployed London. 
 
 A Hitch in Internationalisation. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 82-rio 
 
 The Land won''t Nationalise — Diary of a 
 Secretary of a Land Committee — Land Protection 
 League — The Railroads object to being National- 
 ised — The Fact jries and Workshops won't be 
 Nationalised -The Shipowners refuse to become 
 State Money-bags — Four Deputations of the Prime 
 Minister— The People's Banner lets them down — 
 The Evening Owl blows them up — The Downward 
 Slide— The First of March— Riots in Manchester. 
 
 The German Manoeuvres. 
 
 CHAPTER VII iri-130 
 
 Visit of the German Fleet — A Slump in Consols 
 — Serious news from Guernsey -The German 
 Ambassador explains — The Admiral of the Fleet 
 is indignant — Worse news from Guernsey — An 
 Outrage on Germany — Ultimatum and Surrender 
 The Evening Standard denounces Mr. Nuts 
 — London revolts — Coup d'Etat — Provisional 
 Government. 
 
 Conclusion. 131-139 
 
 Diplomatic Intercourse broken off— The Wires 
 cut— The Great War — Battle of Flamborough 
 Head— Return of the King.
 
 THE 
 
 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN I9I2 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS 
 
 (The Peoples' Banner, Oct. 17, 1912.) 
 
 The final results of the Election have been 
 announced to-day. The Socialist triumph has 
 amazed the Socialists themselves. They had 
 expected a victory. They have effected a conquest. 
 The Conservative rout of 1906 was nothing to this. 
 Taking Great Britain by itself the first results showed 
 that the Socialists had won 494 seats out of 567. 
 When the numbers became known several of the 
 wealthier of the Opposition sent in their resignation, 
 stating that urgent private affairs would make it 
 impossible for them to attend to their Parliamentary 
 duties. New writs were at once issued, and the 
 defeated candidates were returned without opposition.
 
 2 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 There is now a serried host of 504 Socialists, against 
 63 of all other shades. After years of argument the 
 opinion of the country has been taken upon the one 
 issue, Socialism or not, and its answer has been clear, 
 conclusive and final. In Ireland none but the 
 Nationalists were returned. There the question at 
 issue was a different one, but we can rely upon the 
 gallant Irish to back us up, if we need backing. 
 
 Yesterday evening the leaders of the party gave a 
 dinner at the Socialist Club to the Great Perkins, to 
 whose energy, eloquence, and power of organization 
 the success was mainly due. On his arrival he was 
 greeted by all with tumultuous applause, though 
 several of the older men seemed almost awed by the 
 completeness of their success, which left them 
 practically, masters of the country. No reporters 
 were present, and the proceedings were private, but it 
 is understood that it was resolved to proclaim a 
 Socialist republic. What can King and Lords do to 
 prevent it? 
 
 During the greater part of the night the millions 
 of London were out in the streets. It recalled that 
 now almost forgotten Mafeking night, but how 
 different the occasion ! Then the thoughtless 
 populace celebrated the victory of masses of trained 
 mercenaries over a small band of half-armed farmers
 
 RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS 3 
 
 who were, in the noble words of Milton, " Rightly 
 struggling to be free." Now they were haiUng a new 
 era of liberty and equahty, peace abroad and 
 plenty at home. They roamed about in bands, 
 exchanging congratulations with each other, and 
 singing in chorus the new Socialist song — 
 
 Down with the tyrant employers, 
 Down with the pittance they paid ; 
 The workmen are now the top-sawyers, 
 And owners of all they have made. 
 Down with the Master and Missus, 
 And coming back home before dark ; 
 Give us the maids that will kiss us. 
 As we sit on the seats in the Park. 
 
 It was interesting to see how completely the 
 people had taken in the meaning of Social national- 
 * isation. The crowds who wandered about the West 
 End amused themselves by knocking at the doors of 
 the great mansions in Belgravia and Mayfair, and 
 asking to be shown over the house, as they were 
 coming next week to choose their rooms. But it is 
 impossible to excuse the conduct of numbers in the 
 East End, who thronged the public houses, drinking 
 their fill, and then went out without paying, merely 
 alleging that all the means of distribution had now 
 been nationalised. They must learn that no
 
 4 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 principle, however sound, can be acted on till it is 
 embodied in a law. 
 
 In direct contrast to this good-hurnoured 
 merriment is the condition of those who will no 
 longer be called the Upper Classes. We learn that 
 the greatest agitation and even alarm prevails among 
 them ; that every train and steamer is crammed with 
 rich men, leaving the country with all their money 
 and personal effects, and that every great mansion 
 swarms with carpenters, packing up in huge cases the 
 pictures and china and costly furniture of the 
 proprietors, and that the roads are blocked with vans 
 carrying them to the seaports. These insidious 
 attempts to thwart the national will should be 
 stopped at once. Our legal friends tell us that this 
 can be effectually done by sending out writs of Nc 
 exeat regno, and by applying for injunctions against 
 the removal of property beyond the jurisdiction of 
 Parliament. It is well that there are still judges in 
 England who are above party. 
 
 MR. PERKINS IS SENT FOR. 
 
 (The Globe, 1st. Ed. Oct. 19). 
 
 We are in a position to state that yesterday the 
 
 King's Private Secretary was desired to request that
 
 RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS 5 
 
 Mr. Perkins should wait upon His Majesty at 
 
 Buckingham Palace at noon. On his arrival he was 
 
 at once shown into a room where the King and 
 
 Captain Knowles were engaged together. After 
 
 some formal remarks the King pointed to a chair, 
 
 saying that he was anxious to hear from his own lips 
 
 what were the proposals which he intended to lay 
 
 before his party; a party which, as His Majesty 
 
 observed, now constituted the only po\ver existing in 
 
 England. Mr. Perkins commenced what promised 
 
 to be a lecture on the theories and merits of Socialism, 
 
 but was checked by the King, who said that he was 
 
 thoroughly acquainted with Social literature, and was 
 
 only anxious to know how far its views were to be 
 
 carried, and how effect was to be given to them. "It 
 
 all seems to begin and end with Nationalisation. 
 
 »Tell me how you are to nationalise everything and 
 
 everybody, and what is to happen when you have 
 
 done it." Upon this the Socialist leader began to 
 
 state his views and his policy, and continued to do so 
 
 for upwards of an hour, only interrupted from time to 
 
 time with a request that some point might be made 
 
 clear, or some difficulty might be answered. When 
 
 at last he ceased, the King said "Thank you very 
 
 much. I observe that it is stated you are about to 
 
 proclaim a Socialist republic. Who is to be your
 
 6 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 president, or will you take the post yourself?" Mr. 
 Perkins seemed rather taken aback by the question, 
 and fenced with it a good deal, but the King insisted 
 on a point blank answer. At last Mr. Perkins 
 admitted that the plans he had foreshadowed could 
 only be carried out in what would be practically a 
 republic. " Necessarily so," said the King. " If 
 you tear out the foundations of a building you can 
 hardly retain the roof. But who is to be your 
 president ? " " That is a point we have not yet 
 settled, nor indeed whether we want any president, 
 unless indeed your Majesty — " Oh no," said the King 
 with rather a sad smile, " that could never be. I am 
 the last king of a family which was called by the will 
 of the nation to reign in England, that we might be 
 constitutional monarchs, and might guide and lead 
 our people in the way of liberty and progress. We 
 have all, I think, done our best to do our duty. 
 Liberty and Progress, as I understand them, have 
 now come to an end. I cannot resist, but I will 
 have no share or part in what is coming. No, I 
 will not abdicate. I will leave the country to itself, 
 but I will watch over it, and perhaps help it a little 
 from a distance. When the nation has shaken off the 
 nightmare which now possesses it, perhaps it may call 
 for its old sovereign again." " Like Charles the
 
 RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS 7 
 
 Second," said Mr. Perkins with a slight sneer in his 
 voice. " No ; not Hke Charles II., nor for the same 
 reasons. The Stuarts were weighed in the balance 
 and found wanting. But when your mad experiment 
 has ended in ruin — and mark you, end in ruin it 
 must — then the people of England will remember that 
 when the last of the Edwards quitted these shores, he 
 left behind an empire which, during the reigns of his 
 mother and himself had grown to be the greatest the 
 world ever knew, which had been prosperous and free 
 at home, respected and dreaded abroad." He rose 
 and the interview was ended. " I don't envy you 
 your task Mr. Perkins," he said, " but I am glad I 
 have met you. Let us part friends." The King held 
 out his hand. The socialist bowed low, almost 
 reverently, as he clasped it in his own, and then went 
 ' silently out. 
 
 (The Evening Owl, Special Ed., Oct. 19). 
 
 Mr. Perkins called to-day at Buckingham Palace 
 in pursuance of a summons from Captain Knowles, 
 the King's private secretary. He was received very 
 kindly by the King, who entrusted him with the 
 formation of the new Ministry. It was understood 
 that it would not be necessary to submit the selected
 
 8 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 names for Royal approval. The King then requested 
 him for the fullest information as to the opinions and 
 proposals of the Socialist party, which he gave in 
 his usual frank and fearless manner, while abstaining 
 from any expressions which might be needlessly 
 offensive to his host. The King listened with the 
 deepest attention, and seemed much impressed by 
 what he heard. He was already aware that a Republic 
 was to be proclaimed, and asked so pointedly " Who 
 was to be President " that Mr. Perkins almost thought 
 he had an eye to the office for himself. The subject, 
 however, was not pursued, as the King stated that he 
 intended to leave the country shortly, and did not 
 propose to return till matters had settled down into 
 their final shape. This is a most judicious resolution. 
 Had he remained here, hot-headed partisans might 
 have been tempted from a spirit of mistaken loyalty, 
 to offer a hopeless resistance to the national will. At 
 the parting which was most amicable, the King ex- 
 pressed his deep regret that he had not met Mr. 
 Perkins sooner. We also regret it most sincerely. 
 Had our leader won the confidence of his Sovereign 
 in time, the King might have placed himself at the 
 head of the movement, and so guided it that when the 
 tide rose, he and his throne would have been left stand- 
 ing firm above it. But kings are never wise in time.
 
 RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS 9 
 
 DEPARTURE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. 
 
 (The Times> Oct. 21, Second Ed.) 
 
 Tlie King, Queen Alexandra, and the Princess 
 Victoria, attended by Captain Knowlcs, left for Dover 
 by the i r a.m. train from Victoria. They drove down 
 to the station in an open landau without any guard. 
 The few who recognised them raised their hats and 
 cheered. The public was not admitted into the 
 station, which was already crowded with the late 
 Ministry and numberless private friends of the Royal 
 Family, who pressed around them with expressions of 
 the deepest sympathy and sorrow. The King was 
 much affected. As the train began to move a 
 deafening cheer was raised. To those next to him 
 who said a last farewell, he answered, " Not farewell, 
 , au revoir." An immense crowd was in waiting at 
 the pier where the " Invicta " lay with steam up, ready 
 to start as soon as the King and his family were on 
 board. They at once took their places on the bridge, 
 where they stood waving their hands to those on 
 shore, who cheered wildly, and waved hats and 
 handkerchiefs to them, till their forms could be no 
 longer distinguished. 
 
 Nothing is known as to the destination of the Royal 
 travellers.
 
 lo TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 191 2 
 PROCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 (The Evening Owl, Oct. 22.) 
 
 This day the SociaUst Repubhc was proclaimed. 
 The Ministry and a large party of their friends were 
 entertained at lunch at the Mansion House at i. At 
 the conclusion of the speeches which followed the 
 banquet, the Lord Mayor proceeded to the balcony, 
 and from it read out the proclamation to the 
 thousands who swarmed below. Then the band of 
 the London Town Council played the new National 
 Anthem, God Save Ourselves, which was specially 
 composed for the occasion by the bandmaster, Mr. 
 Ralli, and which was much admired by all who 
 understood it. Needless to say that on this occasion 
 there were present no red dragon, or heralds, or 
 pursuivants, or any other antiquated relics of an 
 extinct feudalism. Only the blare of the trumpets, 
 and the shouts of an exulting people announced the 
 dawning of the new era, in which happiness is to be 
 universal and poverty unknown. 
 
 This evening's " Gazette " gives notice that Parlia- 
 ment will meet for the despatch of business on the 
 15th of November.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE — 
 
 {Front I he Tiims.) 
 
 From Our Own Correspondent, Paris, Oct. 23, 1912. 
 
 The state of feeling produced in Paris by the events 
 which have succeeded each other so rapidly in 
 England during the last week can only be described 
 by the word, panic. Since the entente cordiale, with 
 all its subsidiary diplomacies, Europe appeared to 
 have reached a state of stable equilibrium. France, 
 Russia and England, balanced the German Empire. 
 Austria — Hungary and Italy, were nominally allied to 
 Germany, but neither shared nor favoured her 
 ambition. The Scandinavian powers, and Holland 
 and Belgium, wanted nothing but to be left alone. 
 The Balkan States and Greece were buzzing angrily 
 like unsettled wasps around their nests, but none of 
 them could do any serious harm to the other without 
 the connivance of Russia or Austria, neither of whom
 
 12 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 would connive with them. Suddenly, as if by the 
 hand of a genie, the keystone was drawn out of the 
 arch on which the pohtical world rested, and no one 
 could tell at what moment the whole fabric might fall 
 in ruins around them. All peace of mind seems to 
 have passed away from the French. They are dread- 
 ing a return of the evils days of Bismarck and Biilow, 
 and are nervously watching for the moment when the 
 wolf shall again perceive that the lamb is conspiring 
 against him, and must, in self-defence, be bled to the 
 verge of death. The Belgian and Dutch Ministers 
 here tell me that their countries are disturbed in a 
 similar but not to the same extent. The Belgians 
 dread the moment when strategic necessity will compel 
 Germany to send her armies to Antwerp, as a con- 
 venient point from which to embark for the invasion 
 of England. The Dutch dread the process of 
 peaceful penetration, which should find that the 
 possession of the best part of the Rhine logically 
 demanded the possession of its mouths; that the 
 Dutch fleets and the Dutch colonies would only 
 attain their full significance if they were united to 
 and developed by Germany. They also feel how 
 much they will miss the friendly vis inertia of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 The Russian Ambassador is greatly excited, bu
 
 FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE 13 
 
 of course not so much disturbed. The recent course 
 of wise adminstrative reform has gradually stilled the 
 longing for constitutional government. The Russian 
 fmances are improving, their commerce is recovering 
 from its collapse, and their armies are solidifying 
 again. Russia does not fear Germany for herself, 
 but she does object to the perpetual squeeze to 
 which she herself is liable, so long as Germany is in a 
 position to threaten France with impunity. The 
 Franco-Russian Alliance, which has so long been a 
 pleasure without risk, has suddenly become a stern 
 obligation, which may at any moment mature into a 
 great and terrible war. 
 
 Yet while all these diplomatists are so deeply 
 affected by the earthquake which has for the time 
 engulfed Great Britain, they all seem to feel a strange 
 confidence that by some means or other she will in 
 time emerge. They talk of the common sense of the 
 English, their courage, their good luck — especially 
 their luck. England survived Queen Mary. She 
 survived Charles L and Charles IL She threaded 
 her way with unerring instinct through the Revolu- 
 tionary War, from the Mutiny at the Nore to the 
 evening of Waterloo. This is a great comfort to me- 
 My friends here all grieve over England's calamity; 
 she has not yet fallen so low as to endure their pity.
 
 14 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 From Our Own Correspondent. 
 
 Berlin, Oct. 23. 
 
 Never before did one nation shoot upwards into 
 the favour of another with the rapidity with 
 which England has earned the favour of Germany. 
 She is not exactly approved or admired, but she is 
 positively loved. She is loved with the love which 
 casts out fear. The Socialists of course are delighted. 
 It is not merely that the thing has been done, but 
 that it has been done so easily and so completely. 
 Not a head has been broken. Not a drop of blood 
 has been shed. Society has been turned upside down 
 with as little trouble as if it was a band-box. A mon- 
 archy has become a republic. Collectivism has 
 taken the place of individualism. King, lords, and 
 millionaires, have disappeared. It is just like scene 
 shifting in a theatre. If cool, sensible England has 
 taken the plunge, why should not Germany dive in 
 after her? The Government is delighted. Without 
 intending it, England has done for Germany what 
 Germany could never do for herself even by a threat 
 of war. It has destroyed, not the entente cordiale 
 at present, but everything which made the entente 
 offensive. England is now paralysed, and Germany is 
 where she was before Fashoda. The shipowners are
 
 COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE 15 
 
 delighted ; they see the end of the Cunard, and 
 Orient and P and O Hnes, with countless others, and 
 the Amerika-Hamburg, and the Nord Deutcher Lloyd 
 companies are already planning the doubling of their 
 capital. 7'he manufacturers and merchants are 
 delighted. No more competitions from England. 
 Some knowing ones shake their heads, and say, " But 
 what about England as a purchaser? Where is the 
 money to come from from ? " to which the others 
 answer gaily, " Oh we will unload our cheap shoddy 
 there. It will be good enough for them, and all they 
 can afford to pay for." The financiers are delighted. 
 The competition of English capital is gone, and why 
 should not German capital find profitable enterprises 
 in England itself ? Risky no doubt, but have we not 
 an Emperor? It is said that some wealthy bankers 
 had an interview on the subject with the Chancellor. 
 The answer was cautious. " German interests, where- 
 ever they were concerned, might always rely on proper 
 protection from Germany." So England is popular 
 here all round. I hope she will like it. 
 
 From Our Own Correspondent. 
 
 Montreal, Oct. 23, 1908. 
 I have just had an interesting conversation with
 
 i6 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 the Premier, Sir Walter Bays, who seemed rather 
 anxious that his private views upon the Enghsh 
 catastrophe should be known. He has watched the 
 progress of Socialism in England, and says it is like a 
 drama which began as a farce, and suddenly ended in 
 a tragedy. He is not afraid of the infection spreading 
 to Canada. It has no footing here now, and never 
 can get a footing till the country is filled up, and the 
 struggle for existence begins to be felt. We are all 
 too busy and prosperous here to think of robbing 
 each other. Personally of course, his feelings are all 
 in favour of the defeated party. As a statesman he 
 has only to consider the Revolution as it concerns 
 Canada. Till now Canada has been proud to be a 
 part of the British Empire. The interests of both 
 have been bound up together. It profited by the 
 wealth of Great Britain, and its growing commerce 
 was secured by the British Navy. Canada might 
 often be called on to help England in its wars, as 
 it did lately in South Africa, but it knew that the 
 cause would always be just and noble, and one for 
 which any man would be willing to fight and die. 
 Now everything was so different. The change from 
 a monarchy to a republic was nothing. England 
 had been more powerful and respected under Crom- 
 well than under the Charles who preceded or the
 
 FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE i7 
 
 Charles who followed him. But this was a very 
 different case. Socialism seemed to him to be sordid 
 and mean. Nobody standing by himself, and every- 
 body leaning on somebody else. Canada, with its 
 traditions rooted in France and England, would not 
 care to go arm in arm with a nation which had 
 abjured its past, and appealed to the future in formd 
 pauperis. But he felt certain that Socialism could 
 never survive one year of being left by itself, at full 
 liberty to suffer from its own schemes. And he felt 
 equally certain that Great Britain was sound at the 
 core, and that the " swing of the pendulum," of which 
 so much was heard, would swing the present party out 
 of sight for ever. So long as this hope was possible 
 Canada would be faithful to England. 
 
 k From Our Correspondent. 
 
 Sydney, Oct., 1908. 
 
 Nothing is talked of or thought of throughout 
 Australia but the cataclysm which has overwhelmed 
 Society in England. As regards her own future no 
 one is discouraged or afraid. The Commonwealth 
 has knit together all the parts of this huge region, 
 widely separated, and sparsely populated as they are. 
 The wise foresight which has converted every
 
 i8 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1913 
 
 Australian into a soldier, trained in the sort of warfare 
 tvhich would arise upon any attempt at an invasion, 
 checks any possible nervousness. There is only one 
 European power from whose ambition anything could 
 be apprehended, but it is believed that she will have 
 too much to do on her own side of the world to 
 meddle with the Antipodes. 
 
 WHERE IS THE KING? 
 
 From A Frenxh Correspondent. 
 
 Oct. 25, 1908. 
 The greatest curiosity, even anxiety, prevails as to 
 the whereabouts of the King and his party. After 
 leaving the " Invicta," which they did with very few 
 attendants and a very limited amount of luggage, 
 they disappeared as suddenly as if the earth had 
 swallowed them up. The King walking alone, has 
 been seen in numberless places, Paris, Biarritz, 
 Marseilles, Berlin, Geneva, Nice. Such ubiquity 
 seems incredible. A French sailor, lounging about 
 the quay at Havre, says that he saw a small party of 
 travellers embark on a large steam yacht, flying the 
 English flag, which had entered the port that morn- 
 ing, and which left the same day. His description 
 however is painfully vague. " Quelques personnes.
 
 COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE 19 
 
 Pas Irop dc bagages. Mais oui, une fenime. 
 Peutclre deux. Qui salt?" It has been ascertained 
 that a large steam yacht did put in at Havre in the 
 morning of the 22nd, and left the same afternoon. 
 It did not communicate with the shore, and excited 
 no attention. There seems no reason to suppose 
 that the sailor's story at all helps in the solution of 
 the mystery. 
 
 PROCLAMATION OF THE SOUTH 
 AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 From Our Own Correspondent. 
 
 Pretoria, Oct. 26, 1908. 
 Things here have run a rapid but predestined 
 course. The classes who are now in power in 
 JEngland, have always denounced the Boer War as 
 unjust, and our victory as criminal. They cannot 
 be surprised that they are now taken at their word. 
 The Boer leaders in the Transvaal, Orangia, and the 
 Cape, had been watching the progress of the elections 
 with the keenest anxiety, and the moment the result 
 was known they determined to proclaim their freedom 
 while everything was in confusion at home, so as to 
 start the new Socialistic Government with a fait 
 accompli ready made, whether they liked it or not.
 
 20 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 Tiieir resolve had already been communicated in 
 Europe in the quarters where it was likely to be best 
 received. For the present Natal is left out, but 
 sooner or later it must join. If it tried to stand alone 
 it would very soon find itself crowded out. 
 
 I enclose accurate translations of two telegrams 
 which you will find interesting ; you may rely upon 
 their genuineness and authenticity. They were 
 abstracted from General Botha's possession by an 
 individual who does not court publicity. I have seen 
 the originals which are now on their way to the 
 British Musum ; they were forwarded in cipher to the 
 Dutch and German consuls, by whom they were de- 
 coded. 
 
 DUTCH PRIME MINISTER TO 
 GENERAL BOTHA. 
 
 Splendid. Insult to Holland wiped out. Can 
 send numbers of suitable Hollanders. Wire offices 
 and salaries. 
 
 KAISER TO GENERAL BOTHA. 
 
 Thousand congratulations. Kruger is avenged. 
 Always regretted I could not help in war. Salisbury 
 was too cheeky (uppisch). You may rely on me. I
 
 FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE 21 
 
 intend to occupy Delagoa Bay so as to be near to 
 protect you. Are you safe at Simon's Bay. Could 
 send a cruiser there. Fleet coaling. Prince Henry 
 will start at once with mailed fist. 
 
 Germany may be proud of her Emperor. 
 
 VISIT OF GERMAN AMBASSADOR 
 TO THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 
 
 From The Peoples' Banner, Oct. 28, 190S. 
 
 We are informed that the new German Ambassador, 
 Baron Munchausen, paid a visit yesterday to the 
 Foreign Office. He was received by Mr. Nuts, the 
 Foreign Secretary. The Prime Minister, Mr. 
 Perkins, and the Chancellor of the Exchueqer, Mr. 
 Spender, were also present. After conveying the 
 Congratulations of his Government to the present 
 Ministry upon the success of their party, he proceeded 
 to say that he was also directed to associate himself 
 with them in the gratification they must feel at the 
 news from South Africa. The Socialists had always 
 opposed the Conservative party throughout the 
 deplorable events of the Boer War, of which he 
 could only speak with diplomatic reserve. Their 
 policy had at last triumphed, and he congratulated 
 them upon it. He had been much amused by the
 
 22 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 humorous telegrams which accompanied the intelli- 
 gence in the " Times." He had reason to believe that 
 they emanated from " Punch." His Imperial Master 
 felt convinced that this great event would end for 
 ever the feud which had embroiled the two nations, 
 from the time of the much misunderstood Kruger 
 telegram till the final surrender of the Boers. The 
 Kaiser had also felt it very deeply that when King 
 Edward was seeking for alliances he had turned to 
 the nation with which England had been at war for 
 nearly 800 years, instead of to his own nephew and 
 the German nation. Germany had never once been 
 at war with England, and in contests of its own, it had 
 always frankly accepted English money, and the help 
 of the English troops. This had preyed deeply upon 
 the Emperor's spirits, and he himself had witnessed 
 the tears the Kaiser shed at the thought that he 
 might be forced into a war with the land of his 
 mother and grandmother, (Here the Ambassador's 
 voice trembled, and in his agitation he relapsed into 
 his own language, using words of which the only 
 sounds that could be made out seemed to be 
 * " Vas foor narransee sind ") Upon some reference 
 
 * There seems to be a mistake here. \\c are informed that 
 the words in question mean " What fools they are," which of 
 course is absurd (Ed. P.B. )
 
 FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE 23 
 
 to the growth of the Germnn navy, the Ambassador 
 said that he had it particularly in charge to say that 
 Admiral Tirpitz had assured the Emperor that all the 
 arrangements for the programme terminating in 19 16 
 had long since been made, and that contracts had 
 been entered into which could not now be cancelled. 
 But under that entente cordiale which has now 
 been established between us, that is all in your 
 favour. All differences between us are swept away. 
 Our navy is now your navy. " In fact," he said, 
 turning to Mr. Spender, " if you find yourself stinted 
 for money in the philanthropic schemes which press 
 upon you, it can be best found by reducing your 
 colossal expenditure on your Army and Navy. 
 Germany, your friend and brother, guarantees your 
 safety and peace." Lastly he said that his Govern- 
 ^ ment desired him to say, that it hoped for the future, 
 Germans and English might learn to help each other 
 in civil life : that Englishmen would settle in 
 Germany, and give the example of institutions carried 
 on with their capital, and skill, and industry, while 
 Germans \Yent to England to learn to imitate and 
 profit by English methods. 
 
 Nothing could be more friendly and cordial than the 
 interview which lasted for upwards of an hour, and 
 which ended to the mutual satisfaction of both parties.
 
 24 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 THANK GOD, INDIA IS SAVED. 
 
 (The Times, Now ti.) 
 From Our Own Correspondent. 
 
 Bombay, Nov. 10. 
 I am now able to give you a complete history of 
 what is perhaps the most eventful crisis in the annals 
 of India. On the 19th Oct. the King sent a long 
 telegram in cypher to the Viceroy, in which he 
 explained the full significance of the Socialist victory, 
 and said that if he found his own position untenable 
 he intended to proceed at once to India, and place 
 himself as its emperor at its head. He warned the 
 Viceroy not to listen to any orders from the new 
 government which might weaken the position of the 
 British. On the 21st, another telegram arrived 
 stating that he was just leaving London, and that the 
 " Elfin," a steam yacht which Lord Steele had placed 
 at his disposal, would meet him at Havre the next day, 
 and take him to Bombay with the utmost despatch. 
 The Viceroy immediately summoned the Commander- 
 in-chief, Lord Cookham, and the most trusted 
 members of his executive council to a private 
 meeting at Government House, where the whole 
 situation was discussed. It was resolved at once to 
 send trusty messengers to all the governors and
 
 FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE 25 
 
 lieutenant-governors, with confidential news of what 
 was impending, and to direct the residents at the 
 courts of all the Feudatories to break the news 
 cautiously to the native rulers, and to communicate 
 the way in which it was received. AVithin a week the 
 answers began to flow in. They were all in the same 
 tone. The chieftains were all full of scorn for what 
 they called the British Babus, of exultation that the 
 Emperor was coming out to place himself at their 
 head ; of professions of loyalty to his person, and of 
 their determination to lay all their resources of men 
 and money at his feet. About the same time a 
 telegram arrived from Mr. Masham, the new 
 Secretary of State for India, stating that he was 
 about to send out to India Mr. Hardy Kerr as 
 commissioner to assist the Viceroy in setting on foot 
 
 • 
 
 representative institutions, which might ultimately 
 mature into responsible government. This telegram 
 was an open one, and of course at once became 
 known throughout India, as was no doubt intended. 
 The Stvadeshi party in Bengal and the Congress, 
 which threw off all pretence of loyalty, at once 
 raised the banner of disaffection. But the Viceroy, 
 now reheved from all fear of the House of Commons, 
 acted with electric decision. Within a few days, the 
 leaders were on their way to the Andamans, and t he
 
 26 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 movement collapsed as rapidly as it had arisen. 
 Then the announcement was puljlicly made that the 
 Emperor was about to assume his sovereignty in 
 person. A Durbar was to be held at Delhi, at which 
 all the Feudatories were to attend and to pay homage 
 to their head ; and then the Emperor was to make a 
 tour of India, and visit each of the native rulers at 
 his own court. The announcement was received 
 everywhere with uncontrollable enthusiasm. When 
 the " Elfin " steamed into Bombay Harbour, on the 
 9th November, the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, 
 and the Governor at once went on board, where 
 they found the Emperor waiting anxiously for news. 
 \Vlien he had heard it all, he wrung the Viceroy's 
 hand, and said, " Thank God ! India is saved." 
 
 From Our Own Correspondent. 
 
 Bombay, Nov. 12. 
 
 The " Orontes," conveying the commissioner, Mr. 
 Hardy Ken-, has just been signalled. It seems he 
 telegraphed to the Governor, saying that he would be 
 glad to remain at Government House for about a 
 week before going on to Calcutta. An A.l^.C. 
 immediately started in a boat to meet the steamer, 
 went on board as soon as it anchored, and handed
 
 FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE 27 
 
 to the conniiissioner a letter in which the Governor 
 expressed regret that he would be unable to receive 
 him, as the Government of the Emperor had decided 
 that his presence in India was undesirable. Arrange- 
 ments had been made that he should return by the 
 outgoing mail steamer, which was getting up steam 
 and flying the blue peter not far off. Mr. Hardy 
 Kerr was thunderstruck. Neither he nor anyone on 
 board had heard of the recent events, which the 
 A.D.C. retailed at once with much enjoyment to 
 himself and to everyone else except his special hearer. 
 In less than an hour, Mr. Kerr, a commissioner now 
 no more, was transferred with his effects to the 
 " Mooltan," and before sunset was retracing his way to 
 Aden. 
 
 OCTi,
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MEETING OF *' THE HEADLESS " PARLIAMENT. 
 
 {llie Timesy Nov. i6.) 
 
 Yesterday the new Parliament was opened, or 
 rather it opened itself. There was no ceremonial 
 of any kind. No procession to Westminster. No 
 speech from anything corresponding to the Throne. 
 No Address. No Speaker. No Mace. That 
 bauble has not reappeared. No Chaplain and no 
 prayers. For some time before 3 p.m. the members 
 had been straying in promiscuously and taking their 
 seats. Three benches on the left side of the Chair 
 were sufficient to accommodate the Opposition, 
 which looked like a rather stagnant pond in the 
 midst of a tumbling and tossing ocean. At 3 p.m. 
 Mr. Perkins followed by the members of the 
 Government took their places on the right. Then 
 Mr. Perkins rose and moved that Mr. Thompson 
 do take the Chair. Some one appeared to second
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 29 
 
 the motion. Mr. Thompson took off his wideawake, 
 bowed to the Assembly, and seated himself in the 
 Chair, in a shooting coat and shepherd's plaid 
 trousers. That was all. Then Mr. Perkins rose 
 again, advanced to the table and began his speech. 
 It was observed that he addressed the House and 
 not the Chair, and that when any member was 
 referred to, he was spoken of by his own name, and 
 not by that of his constituency. It was all very 
 much like a Board of Guardians. After a few 
 sentences of congratulation to the huge majority, 
 and some graceful and sympathetic words in regard 
 to the King who had retired from a country where 
 his presence could only have created disunion, and 
 who appeared to have found a sphere of usefulness 
 in India, he proceeded to say. 
 
 We are assembled here to carry out, fully, com- 
 pletely, and at once, the mandate which we have 
 received from the nation. Till now the nation was 
 like a pyramid. At the apex was the Sovereign. 
 Below him a series of strata each wider and deeper 
 than the one above it, till at last widest and deepest 
 of all came the people, which maintained and 
 supported the rest of the fabric. Each of the upper 
 strata was lazier, richer, and more powerful than the 
 one on which it rested. But when the lowest was
 
 so TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 reached, which contained the working classes, who 
 produced l)y their labour everything that enabled 
 those who called themselves the Upper Classes to 
 exist, and to live in affluence and luxury; they had 
 to accept whatever wages were offered them by the 
 landowner and the cai)italist. It was their hands 
 which furnished the feast, but they had to be content 
 with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. 
 For years we have asked how long was this to 
 continue ? Your answer came back last month. It 
 shall continue no longer. We are here to-day to 
 end the Old Era and to begin the New. (Loud and 
 continued cheering). Up to this tim<; the wealth 
 of the nation has been the possession of a privileged 
 few; it shall now be the possession of all, and 
 primarily of those by whom it has been made. 'I'hat 
 is the meaning of nationalisation. Many other things 
 will follow, but the first demand of socialism is, the 
 nationalisation of the means of production, transport 
 and distribution. What are the means of pro- 
 duction ? The first and greatest is the land. 
 Everything which grows upon the land, or is dug 
 out from it, is the natural possession of the entire 
 community. It was so when society was young and 
 free. The hunter followed his game, the shepherd 
 fed his flocks, the peasant sowed and reaped where
 
 TilE "HEADLESS" I'ARLIAMENT 31 
 
 he wished, and paid rent or taxes to none. He had 
 no lord and no master. The great philosopher 
 Rousseau wrote, that the first man who said of a 
 piece of land, this is mine, should have been slain 
 on the spot. That man in England was William the 
 Norman. Till he reached these shores, Briton, 
 Saxon and Dane lived peacefully together, and 
 enjoyed the fruits of the earth as they pleased. 
 Then he contiuered the island, and introduced the 
 feudal system, according to which the entire land 
 belonged to the King and to those to whom he 
 chose to give it. He portioned out this country 
 between himself and his nobles, and from that 
 time the law declared that every land had its lord, 
 and that no one could cultivate an acre without his 
 leave and without paying his demands. ("Shame! 
 Shame ! ") And then as population increased, and 
 fresh uses of land were discovered, rents increased, 
 until at this day diere are great dukes who own 
 entire counties, and draw hundreds of thousands of 
 pounds every year, from men to whom in their 
 whole lives they have never given the value of a 
 penny (" Shame ! Shame ! ") And the case of the 
 mine owner is even worse. The landlord at all 
 events came into something which his father had 
 before him. But he never knew that he owned a
 
 32 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 mine till some geologist told him — (laughter) — and 
 then he allowed some one to pay him for leave to 
 dig down into the earth, and received thousands 
 more every year from the work of the miners, who 
 toiled ten hours a day to bring the ore to the surface 
 where he could see it. ^^'ell, gentlemen, our first 
 task will be to put an end to this system, to restore 
 the land to those from whom it has been wrongfully 
 withheld, and to throw its produce and profits into the 
 National Treasury. (An opposition member. Any 
 compensation?) I believe the gentleman who asks 
 this question is a county magistrate. What com- 
 pensation does he give to the receiver of stolen goods ? 
 (Tremendous cheering.) No, sir. We think that those 
 who will be dispossessed by the justice of the nation 
 will have reason to be thankful that we do not call 
 upon them to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. But we 
 are willing to make a distinction between their lands 
 and their houses. We propose to allow them three 
 months to sell their castles and their mansions, and 
 at the end of that time, these, if still unsold, shall 
 be put up to public auction, and the proceeds 
 handed over to their previous owners. (Opposition 
 groans.) 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I proceed to what I may call the 
 secondary means of production, the factories, the
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 33 
 
 engineering works, the ship-building yards, and all 
 the countless ways in which the raw material is 
 converted into a saleable form. Here for the first 
 time we encounter the capitahst. (Hisses and 
 groans.) I see before me many of you who were 
 yourselves working men. You know how you had 
 humbly to approach the capitalist, and ask him to 
 let you work for him ! For him, who could do 
 nothing for himself. For whom not a wheel would 
 revolve without your help ; whose cotton and wood, 
 and iron, would be worthless without your strong 
 skilful hands. And while you were filling his stores 
 with wealth which you had created, he was compelling 
 you to accept the smallest wages which would keep 
 you and your wives and children alive. Is this just ? 
 (A storm of No ! No ! No !) Well, gentlemen, we are 
 determined once for all to abolish the capitalist. 
 (An opposition member. And keep his capital ?) 
 No : The capital shall be ours, the property of the 
 nation. But the value you give to it shall be yours, 
 and the profit which springs from it shall be applied, 
 not to the making of titled millionaires, but to 
 providing comfortable and happy homes for free and 
 self-respecting Englishmen. (Loud and prolonged 
 cheering.) There shall be no more masters ; no 
 more employers. Each factory shall be managed by 
 
 3
 
 34 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 a state superintendent. Under him shall be captains 
 of industry to manage and direct each department, 
 and then the general mass of industrials. Each of 
 these shall have a minimum rate of weekly pay, and 
 at the end of every three months the entire profit 
 made by each factory shall be divided among those 
 engaged in its working in a settled proportion. 
 (Cheers.) The factories will of course be purchased 
 from their present owners at a fair valuation in 
 reference to their cost and present condition. (A 
 conservative member. And paid for in cash ?) No 
 sir. In State stock bearing interest at 3 per cent., 
 which can either be held as an investment, or sold for 
 cash in the market like consols. At present we do 
 not intend to proceed beyond establishments of the 
 class which figure in strikes and locks out. In time 
 every sort of workshop in which there is one person 
 vrho pays wages for work, and others who work for 
 wages, will be nationalised. But we must proceed 
 gradually, and not undertake at once more than we 
 can carry out. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, we have reached the next branch 
 of our programme, the means of transport. The 
 greatest of these is the railway system. Even 
 gentlemen on the other side will not dispute the 
 possibility or the wisdom of nationalising it. The
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 35 
 
 railways of Germay, Italy, and Russia belong to the 
 State. So they do in Australia, India, and Ceylon. 
 Everywhere they form a large and growing portion of 
 the national revenue, just as the Post Office is with 
 us. We propose to convert these also into national 
 property. (Cheering.) I have no wish to vilify our 
 railways. They are most excellent, but they would 
 not fit into a Socialist state. They are managed 
 solely for the benefit of the shareholders, to gain 
 dividends. They carry the goods of the foreigner at 
 a lower rate than those of the British producer. 
 (" Shame ! ") The directors exercise a grinding 
 tyranny over their servants. They are given the 
 lowest wages and the longest hours which human 
 nature can stand. Most of the great railway 
 accidents are traceable to the exhaustion of a human 
 being who for 12 or 15 hours had been straining his 
 faculties to perform an impossible task. The 
 passengers have to endure the insolence of class 
 distinctions. A couple of millionaires or nobles roll 
 along in a luxurious carriage, while the common 
 people, forsooth, are packed like herrings in hard and 
 noisome conveyances. The fares for long distances 
 are prohibitive for all but the rich. We intend to 
 alter all this. Those who work the National Railways 
 shall have higher pay and shorter hours. Carriages
 
 36 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 shall be all of the same grade, such as the present 
 second class. The fares for all passengers shall be 
 the same, not higher than a penny a mile. My 
 friend Mr. Driver, the minister of railways, is matur- 
 ing an arrangement by which all fares higher than ten 
 shillings may be payable on the instalment system, 
 which has been introduced with such success by the 
 "Times." (Loud cheering.) By these means we 
 hope that the railways may be served by happy and 
 comfortable officials, and that the privilege of 
 travelling, to the improvement of health, and the 
 enlargement of the mind, may be placed within the 
 reach of all. (Loud and continued cheering.) Under 
 this head also, there are numerous minor conveyances, 
 such as trams, omnibuses, and cabs, which will within 
 time fall within our net, but they also must stand 
 over for the present. 
 
 The whole question of sea transport is one too 
 vast for discussion at present. Imagination glows at 
 the prospect of national fleets, bearing to every 
 quarter of the world the triumph of Socialistic ideas, 
 and bringing back to our treasury the freights paid by 
 the foreigner for the conveyance of his goods. At 
 present we must permit private ownership to con- 
 tinue. But we propose to assess every ship-owner, 
 whether an individual or a company, with a tax pro-
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 37 
 
 portionate to the number and the tonnage of his 
 vessels. The mode in which this can be carried out, 
 is engaging the anxious attention of my friend Mr. 
 Spender, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 The last branch of the Socialistic formula, viz., 
 the nationalisation of the means of distribution, is so 
 complicated that at present I can only offer some 
 hints on the subject. Water, gas, and electricity are 
 already to a great extent municipalised, which is a 
 form of nationalisation. The distribution of coal and 
 iron would naturally follow from our possession of the 
 mines. We can also see our way towards mono- 
 polising breweries and distilleries, so as to bring into 
 the State treasury the whole of the enormous profits 
 of the liquor trade. This is however, only a nibbling 
 at the margin of the subject. We contemplate in 
 tbe near future a time when not only everything will 
 be made, but everything will be sold by the State ; 
 when the comforts of the multitude will be increased 
 and the wanton luxury of the few will become impos- 
 sible. But here again I am trenching on the depart- 
 ment of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who will 
 be pleased to receive and study every suggestion that 
 may be offered to him. 
 
 Nor again, can I do more than notice, lest it 
 should be supposed that I have forgotten it, the
 
 38 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 Apostolical precept " If any will not work, neither 
 shall he eat." This again will come in time. (A 
 Conservative member, when we are all paupers). 
 When we have learned the dignity of labour, when 
 we have raised to their proper positions in the state 
 our men of science and inventors, our philosophers 
 and historians, our doctors and lawyers, our poets, 
 our painters and our musicians, and have enabled 
 them to e.xercise their talents, freely and gratuitously 
 for the benefit of all. (The Prime Minister sat down 
 amid enthusiastic applause, which was renewed again 
 and again, while numbers crowded round him to 
 congratulate him upon his success). 
 
 Mr. Furber (City of London) said : " I do not 
 rise to use any argument upon the general principles 
 of Socialism, nor shall I be tempted to notice the 
 Prime Minister's view of history, or of the general 
 principles of justice. On all these questions I and 
 others have uttered countless speeches during the 
 last few years. We have failed to convince the 
 electors, and we should certainly not affect you, who 
 arc their delegates. The time for discussion is past. 
 You have power to act, and the sooner you act the 
 better. We think you are wrong : you think you are 
 right. Put your theories into practice, and see if 
 they will stand the test. We will neither delay nor
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 39 
 
 obstruct you. On this occasion, I shall occupy the 
 neutral position of amicus curia. I shall ask the 
 Prime Minister to explain matters which he has 
 overlooked, or to turn his attention to difficulties 
 which do not appear to have presented themselves 
 to his mind. Following the order of his speech, I 
 shall first deal with the land. It is settled that the 
 whole of the land of this kingdom is to be confiscated 
 (Uproar. Cries of Withdraw. Withdraw). Certainly 
 I will withdraw the word " confiscation " if you don't 
 like it, provided I can find some other word which 
 expresses the idea of taking away a man's property 
 without paying for it. " Convey the wise it call." 
 Let us say it is to be conveyed from those who 
 owned it to those who never owned it without any 
 tfnoney passing. Of course you do not propose to pay 
 for it. You could not. All the wealth of Europe 
 would not buy up the fee-simple of England. The 
 owners of the fee-simple are to be dispossessed, because 
 they are inheritors of the original robbery committed 
 by William the Conqueror and his nobles. It is not 
 very obvious how this applies to Wales and Scotland, 
 but no doubt there is some equally good reason as to 
 them. But I want to know, is the same rule to be 
 applied to all those who have taken lawfully under 
 them? Are those who hold farms from them, and
 
 40 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 have invested their capital in their farms, to lose 
 farms and money too ? You see they represent the 
 slaves rather than the tyrants. Then again, probably 
 half of the land is under mortgage, often for money 
 spent in its improvement. Are the mortgagees to 
 lose their security and their money ? (Cries of 
 " Capitalists.") No, really, mortgagees are not 
 capitalists in any invidious sense of the word. They 
 are generally people who have saved moderate sums 
 out of their earnings, and who have invested on what 
 used to be considered safe security at reasonable 
 interest. Again, there is hardly a landed estate 
 which is not charged, for the benefit of younger 
 children and widows ; often while it is still charged 
 for the benefit of mothers, sisters, and aunts. Do 
 you intend to turn them out into the roads? Have 
 you considered, whether, on the whole, they have not 
 a better claim to be supported out of the land than 
 a number of other very deserving people, who never 
 thought they had any right to the land till you told 
 them so ? Does it not seem curious that a scheme of 
 universal benevolence should start with producing 
 wide-spread and incalculable misery? Now I am 
 going to ask another question. How is this enor- 
 mous estate to be managed ? I supposed it will be 
 primarily vested in the Minister of Land and Agri-
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 41 
 
 culture, Mr. Freshfield. He is a very excellent and 
 worthy gentleman, who as far as I know, has never 
 had anything to do with land, except as the proprietor 
 of a villa with a garden in front and a drying ground 
 behind. But if he had as great an experience as the 
 Duke of Devonshire or the Duke of Bedford, was 
 such a burden ever before laid upon a single man ? 
 Of course he and his entire staff can only exercise the 
 merest superficial supervision. The actual working 
 will be delegated to a number of local agents, or 
 more likely local committees. How will the land 
 itself fare ? Hitherto it has been managed by tenants 
 with the interest of proprietors, working for themselves 
 and their families, with the hereditary aptitude of 
 a race of farmers, to whom everything relating to the 
 J soil, which is a mystery to the citizen, is a natural 
 instinct. You will hand it over to small parties of 
 men, who are merely political agents, chosen for 
 their political services, and whose object is, not to 
 get the utmost possible profit out of the land, but to 
 please as far as possible a crowd of hungry applicants 
 who are scrambling for the spoil. You think the 
 land is an enormous asset in your scheme of universal 
 benevolence. I tell you before five years, you will 
 have turned it into a bankrupt estate. 
 
 And now I have only one more question to ask on
 
 42 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 this subject. Do you really think you will get the 
 land ? (Cries of, You'll sec ! Who is to prevent 
 us?) Well I am not so sure of that. Englishmen 
 are very stui)born when they are fighting for their 
 rights. Still more when thoy are fighting for their 
 homes and their wives and children. They won't 
 care a pin about William the Conqueror, or universal 
 brotherhood. They will only care for themselves 
 and fight for themselves, and they will find every 
 one round them doing the same thing. Burke said : 
 •' That he did not know how to draw an indictment 
 against a nation." I do not know how to serve a 
 writ of ejectment upon a nation, and still less how to 
 get it executed. Ask your friends from the other 
 side of the channel. (Cheers from the nationalist 
 benches). I know how difficult it was to execute 
 ejectments upon a handful of peasants, against whom 
 lawful and just decrees were passed, because they 
 refused to pay their rents when they had the money 
 in their pockets. And I know how impossible it 
 will be to turn Englishmen out of their lands and 
 homes, when you attempt to do it in defiance of law 
 and justice. (Loud opposition cheering). Now, 
 gentlemen, I go to the next subject dealt with by the 
 Prime Minister. You are to abolish the capitalist, 
 and to work the factories yourselves. You will have
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 45 
 
 less difficulty with the capitalist, especially as you 
 propose to pay him for his factories. I fancy by 
 this time he has pretty well laid his plans for 
 clearing his capital out of the country. He and it will 
 be received with open arms in India, in Australia, in 
 Canada, or in any other part of the world to which 
 he may take it, or send it. But when you have got 
 rid of the capitalist and his capital, how are you 
 going to work the factories he has left behind ? The 
 Trime Minister says : " With the property of the 
 Nation." What property has the Nation? where is 
 it? It has no money but what it raises by rates 
 and taxes every year. At the end of the financial 
 year, after it has paid the interest of the National 
 Debt, municipal debts, the expenses of Government 
 and of the defence of the nation, it has nothing left 
 but such balances in the treasury as are necessary to 
 go on with till the taxes begin to fall in again. 
 Have you ascertained the weekly wages bill of a 
 single great factory in Manchester ? Find it out, and 
 then multiply it by the number of all the factories, 
 engineering works, shipbuilding works and so forth 
 »ll over the Kingdom. Will you be prepared with 
 this sum every Saturday at 12 o'clock? The 
 capitalist has it already because he is a capitalist. 
 You will not have it because the State has no
 
 44 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 capital, but only an annual income which has been 
 exhausted every year by an annual expenditure, 
 which does not include weekly payments to cotton 
 operatives or engineers. (What about the profits ?) 
 The profits will not come in till you hare manu- 
 factured your goods and sold them and got paid. 
 Take three months as the shortest period. During 
 the whole of this time you will have to pay wages 
 and supervision every week. To provide coals, raw 
 material, and costs of repair, as they arise. If you 
 are ever late one day you will have a pack of hungry 
 wolves howling round you. When your money does 
 come in from the purchasers, it may repay your 
 outlay, but I doubt there being much profit. Under 
 the individualistic system the employer works 
 with a single eye to making a profit, and every one 
 under him has to work with the same view or be 
 dismissed. Under your system your profit is only 
 wanted to make up a bonus for your workmen. If 
 they won't take the trouble to earn their bonus, 
 it won't be made, but you will have to keep your 
 workshops and your workmen all the same. If they 
 are idle, or careless, or indifferent, do you think your 
 superintendent, or your captains of industry will 
 dare to dismiss them ? They will go to your 
 Government workshops not to make a profit for you.
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 45 
 
 but to enable you to give them easier work and 
 better wages than they ever had before. Their work 
 won't be worth their wages, and its old high quality 
 will disappear, and with it, its sale in the foreign 
 markets. (Howls and hisses). And remember, it is 
 by the sale of your goods in the foreign markets, 
 that you have to pay for 235 millions worth of food 
 which you import yearly, and without which you 
 would starve. Is this a very bright prospect for 
 universal happiness? 
 
 Now I pass to the railways which you are to 
 nationalise. You promise to pay for them which is 
 all right. It is quite true that the railways in many 
 parts of the world are State railways, and have turned 
 out profitable undertakings. But remember they are 
 i all worked with a view to profit. Your railways are 
 to be run on philanthropic principles, for the greatest 
 happiness of the greatest number. Those who are 
 employed are to have shorter hours and higher pay. 
 This alone will add 20 per cent, to the cost of working, 
 absorb the whole profit, and create a handsome yearly 
 deficit. You also propose to carry your passengers 
 at a loss, even if they pay their fares, which, under 
 the instalment system, they may possibly forget to do. 
 I imagine that the rolling stock and the permanent 
 way will very soon get out of order, and that the
 
 46 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 insurance tickets, which are now offered in vain to 
 travellers, will be eagerly sought for, and will rapidly 
 rise in price. 
 
 Now I want to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 rather an important question. How do you propose 
 to pay for the railways and factories ? You say with 
 Government Stock. Of course you can issue it on 
 paper, and the shareholders and owners will have no 
 choice but to take it. But how do you propose to 
 pay the interest ? At this moment the National Debt 
 stands at about 743 millions ; the Municipal Debt is 
 about 453 millions ; the interest of the former is paid 
 out of taxes, and that of the latter out of rates. But, 
 they are both paid by the same persons out of the 
 same pocket, and the pressure of the united sum is 
 already begiuning to be very severely felt. You are 
 going to buy the railways. Their present value is 
 calculated at 1286 millions. You are going to buy 
 the factories and workshops. I don't know that their 
 value has ever been calculated. Take them at 150 
 niillions, which is probably below the mark. You 
 will have raised the entire liabilities of the nation 
 from 1 196 to 2532 millions. Taking the National 
 Debt alone, without the Municipal Debt, you will 
 have to pay 60 millions every year for interest on it, 
 before you can touch a penny in the Treasury for
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 47 
 
 any other purpose. Where are your taxes to come 
 from ? The income tax will have gone, for as far as 
 I can see no one will have any income. Vou take 
 everything, out of which any one has made money, 
 and work it yourselves at a loss. You have no doubt, 
 two original ideas. One is a tax on shipping. Ship- 
 owners are very wideawake people; fleets are not 
 things which a tax gatherer can easily catch. I don't 
 advise you to rely much on that. Then a monopoly 
 of drink. Vou will either raise the price of good 
 liquors or poison the public with cheap ones. I 
 should not like to be in a Government which proposes 
 such a tax. I know what you will be driven to. You 
 will stint the Army and the Navy till each is in- 
 efticient, and then this proud empire will become the 
 sport of any foreign nation which cares to play with 
 It as a cat plays with a mouse. Philanthropy is a 
 beautiful, but an expensive thing, especially if you 
 undertake to make everyone happy and comfortable, 
 when you have relieved him from the obligation of 
 doing anything for himself. Socialism is a very 
 beautiful dream, but it has the defect of all dreams. 
 You awake in the morning, and find it corresponds 
 to nothing in real life. Then you will begin to learn 
 how sound was the advice of the philosopher, "So 
 act to-day as to make to-morrow your friend." You
 
 48 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 are now dreaming your dream ; think of to-morrow. 
 (Mr. Furber sat down amidst the enthusiastic cheerin" 
 of his own followers, while a stony and rather depres- 
 sing silence reigned over the rest of the House.) 
 
 The O'Brallaghan (Member for Mayo, and leader 
 of the Nationalist Party,) said: That he did not 
 intend to embark on this discussion to which he had 
 listened with so much interest. He agreed with a 
 good deal that had been said on each side, but on 
 the whole rather agreed with Mr, Furber than with 
 the Prime Minister. He, and the county which he 
 represented, agreed with the Socialists in being quite 
 willing to take from anyone anything they could get. 
 But when they had got it, they wanted to keep it for 
 themselves, and not to give it away to a shadowy 
 body like a Benevolent Brotherhood. However the 
 mode in which England was to be governed had no 
 interest for him and his Party. He had risen to 
 state, on the very earliest opportunity, that Ireland 
 had resolved to declare itself an independent republic 
 on Celtic principles. It would not be necessary for 
 the Prime Minister to trouble himself with any legis- 
 lation on the subject. All the necessary arrangements 
 would be made in College Green, and would be found 
 from day to day, in a very valuable Journal, the "Free- 
 man," which was taken by the Library Committee.
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 49 
 
 He only'wished to add, that if any British tax-gatherer 
 attempted to put his foot on any Irish steamer, he 
 would be chucked into the sea. (The honourable 
 gentlemen then bowed to the Speaker and left the 
 House, followed by his entire party). An expression 
 of blank astonishment spread over the rest of the 
 members, while a confused murmur of conversation 
 began, which was checked when the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer moved that the debate should be 
 adjourned till next day. 
 
 The house then resumed for business and sat for 
 another hour, during which it voted salaries of ;^5oo 
 a year lo each member, with free postage on all letters 
 received or written, free meals, and free shaving and 
 hair cutting in the House, whenever it was sitting ; 
 and a free pass over every railway for each member 
 and his wife. 
 
 ACTIVE LEGISLATION. 
 
 The Peoples' Banner, Nov. 26. 
 
 For the last five days Parliament has been working 
 
 with a business like despatch which is in strange 
 
 contrast with the verbose and snail-like proceedings 
 
 of the House of Commons, we have known and 
 
 wearied of till now. No first, second, and third 
 
 4
 
 50 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM vj \^2 
 
 readings. No long squabbles in Co. li littee. No 
 references to the House of Lords. No waiting for 
 the Royal assent. Each Bill was produced in the 
 form in which it was intended to pass; debated 
 section by section, and when the last section was 
 finally settled the Bill became law at once. Four 
 Acts have been passed which carry out the scheme of 
 Nationalisation, sketched in general terms by the 
 Prime Minister in his great speech at the opening 
 of Parliament. The Land act vests all the land in 
 England and Wales, except the urban districts, in 
 Mr. Freshfield, Minister for Land and Agriculture. 
 He is to appoint Local Committees in each district, 
 who are under his direction and supervision, to effect 
 the transfer of land in their district from individual 
 ownership. Rules are laid down for the mode in 
 which the land is to be worked, and for the distribution 
 of the proceeds. Similar provisions are contained in 
 the Mines Act, which is to be worked by Mr. Orr 
 the Minister for mines. Railways are entrusted to 
 Mr. Driver, as Minister of Communications, and 
 Factories and Workshops to the Minister of Trade 
 and Commerce, Mr. Worksop. The two last named 
 Acts provide for the purchase of the subject matter, 
 for its valuation, and for the payment of the amount 
 fixed by Government stock bearing interest at 3 per
 
 THE "HEADLESS" PARLIAMENT 51 
 
 cent. These Acts are all to come into force on the 
 I. St day of next March, and provision is made for the 
 service of notice of the effect of the Act on the owners 
 of all premises or property affected by it, and for 
 inspection of such premises or property by duly 
 authorised officials whenever required before the Act 
 comes into operation. The public offices are busily 
 engaged in the preparation of measures for carrying 
 Socialistic principles into other departments of life. 
 Of these, nothing is known at present.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 RESIGNATION OF THE JUDGES. 
 
 (The Times, Dec. 3.) 
 
 We are informed that a Conference of all the judges 
 of the Superior Courts has been held, and that they 
 arrived at the following resolution, which has been 
 communicated to the Prime Minister. 
 
 We, the judges of the Superior Courts of Law, 
 have met together to consider the effect of the recent 
 elections, and of the new state of affairs resulting 
 from it upon ourselves in the discharge of our judicial 
 functions. As judges, we take no part in poUtics. 
 Our duty is to administer the laws of the country as 
 declared from time to time by the legislature. The 
 change from a Monarchy to a Republic would not 
 necessarily affect us in the discharge of this duty, any 
 more than it did those who sat upon the Bench before 
 and after the execution of King Charles I. The
 
 DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE 53 
 
 present Republic, however, has not only introduced 
 novel legislation, but legislation which is founded 
 upon theories, and carried out by measures, which 
 appear to us to be destructive of all law as hitherto 
 understood in England, or any civilised community. 
 Possession of property originating from a legal title 
 and confirmed by long holding, is said to be so contrary 
 to public policy that the owners may be ejected 
 without compensation, and their estates confiscated 
 for the benefit of the general public. The contractual 
 relation of employer and employed, is said to be so 
 unnatural and unjust that it can create no rights on 
 one side or duties on the other. The community is 
 asserted to have the right of reducing everyone to a 
 condition in which he must support himself by labour, 
 and then of apportioning to him such labour as it 
 thinks proper he should adopt. It is not our province 
 to decide whether these views are sound or unsound. 
 It is sufficient for us that we cannot as English judges 
 consent to adopt them as rules for our decisions. We 
 shall try such cases as are in our present lists, till the 
 end of this sittings, and shall then retire from duties 
 which we are no longer able to fulfil.
 
 54 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 (The Evening Owl, Dec. 3.) 
 
 The unprecedented step which the judges have 
 taken and the reasons they announced for taking it, 
 are only another proof that people who are credited 
 with very high wisdom, may be incapable of understand- 
 ing a still higher wisdom which conflicts with their 
 early opinions and prejudices. It is, however, 
 fortunate that the numerous questions which will no 
 doubt arise in working the new system will not be 
 decided by a Bench which is so completely out of 
 sympathy with the views on which it is based. The 
 retiring judges are right in thinking that law and 
 politics cannot be in permanent opposition. It will 
 be the duty of the Prime Minister to fill the vacancies 
 with men who will know how to pour new wine into 
 new bottles. 
 
 The number of ofifices to be suddenly filled up has 
 of course fluttered the Bar immensely. There will be 
 no difficulty in finding a sufficient number of Socialist 
 barristers of ten years' standing. We believe that the 
 word " practising " has never been judicially defined. 
 We imagine that barristers of ten years' standing, who 
 have been steadily practising golf or tennis, will be 
 considered to have sufficiently complied with the 
 terms of an antiquated statute. They are likely to be
 
 DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE 55 
 
 better acquainted with the ways and wants of modern 
 life, than men who have spent their years in studying 
 monkish technicalities in black letter folios. 
 
 (The Times, City Article, Dec. 5. 
 
 The depression which has been slowly settling upon 
 commercial circles, became still deeper on the 
 announcement that the judges had resigned. In 
 every previous crisis of our history we have felt that 
 the groundwork of society was safe while our judges 
 stood fast. It was a rude shock to everyone to find 
 that we had drifted into ways and works with which 
 judges, the inheritors of the traditions of eight 
 hundred years, were unable to deal. Which will 
 prevail, Law or dreams ? A prominent financier, 
 sneaking yesterday of the Judges' manifesto, said — 
 " It is the first trumpet sounded before the walls of 
 Jericho. It is the beginning of the end." 
 
 A TRADES-UNIONIST UPON SOCIALISM. 
 
 (The Daily Mail, Dec. 15). 
 
 So much has been heard about Socialism at the 
 present crisis, on platforms, in Parliament and in 
 the press, that we thought it would be interesting to
 
 56 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 ascertain the opinions of the trades unions. Accord- 
 ingly our representative had an interview yesterday 
 with a prominent member of the Amalgamated 
 Society of Engineers. He was a middle-aged man, a 
 first class workman, who drew high wages and had 
 saved money. At first he seemed suspicious and 
 reticent, but on being assured that his incognito 
 should be strictly observed, he began to .speak very 
 freely. 
 
 I have always thought and said that we trades 
 unionists made a great mistake in throwing in our lot 
 with the Socialists, and especially in siding with them 
 at the last election. Our idea was, that as the 
 Socialist talkers were pushing fellows with notions 
 that caught the working classes, we could use them 
 to help us. But they were too sharp. It was like 
 the story of the horse that asked the man to get on 
 his back and help him against his enemies, ^^'hen 
 the horse had been helped, the man wouldn't get off. 
 The Socialists used us to get their own way, and that 
 was not our way. We did not want to upset society ; 
 we only wanted to get a little more out of it. Of 
 course we talked high about privileged classes, and the 
 tyranny of masters, but we knew that was all stuff. We 
 trades unionists are a privileged class. We are the 
 best workers in every line, and we have fixed our
 
 DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE 57 
 
 own wages and pretty well our own hours, ind we 
 won't let any man join us who is not fit to work with 
 us, and to draw the same money, and who can't be 
 trusted to pay up his subscription regular. Then we 
 don't allow the masters to employ more boys than we 
 let them, nor to employ any men who are not trades 
 unionists if we can manage it, and we don't let a man 
 in one trade do the work of another trade. So we 
 keep the best of the work to ourselves, and whenever 
 we see a chance we put a squeeze upon the masters. 
 Sometimes we've tried to squeeze too hard, and they 
 squeezed us. We are not likely to forget the strike of 
 1897. I think we got about all we wanted from CB. 
 in 1906. We can have our strikes, and our pickets, 
 and our peaceful persuasion, (here he winked), and if 
 ^ we hurt anybody, the masters can bring any chap they 
 like before the beak, and it won't do them any good, 
 and it won't do him any harm, for we pay his expenses 
 and keep his family while he is in prison, but they 
 can't touch a penny of our funds. So when our 
 ■wrestling bout is over we shake hands and are as good 
 friends as before. No, sir, the masters are not tyrants. 
 They are stiff business men, who know their own 
 work, and how it should be done, and they won't 
 stand shirking, or carelessness, or bad work. Why 
 should they ? They want to make money, and so do
 
 58 TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN 1912 
 
 we ; but if they don't, we don't, and if they fail, we arc 
 turned out into the street. They have sense enough 
 to know that they want us, and that if they don't pay 
 us well and treat us well, we will be ofT to someone 
 who will treat us better, if wo can find him. And we 
 have sense enough to know that we can't work 
 without his factory and his machinery, and the in- 
 ventions he finds out, and his iron and his coals, and 
 the money he pays us every week, whether times are 
 good or bad, and often for months when he is making 
 a loss, because he wants to keep his business together. 
 Now the Socialists tell us that there are to be no more 
 masters, and that we are all to be brothers, and all to 
 work together — a pack of blacklegs half of them — 
 and that the State will own the factory, and pay us a 
 minimum wage every week, and divide the profits 
 once a quarter. I .don't believe there will be any 
 profits. I don't believe the superintendent and 
 captains of industry will know half as much as our old 
 man. If they don't pay us our wages, who are we to 
 get them from ? and if we don't like our superin- 
 tendent, who else are we to go to ? My daughter is 
 in the cloak and mantle department at Warings'. A 
 fine handsome girl she is, and walks about with all 
 the pretty things on her back to show them ofT, and 
 make the ladies think the things will look as pretty
 
 DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE 59 
 
 on them as on her. She says their one talk is, how 
 everyone is going to be ruined, and no one will be 
 able to buy anything, and there will be no Court, and 
 no balls or parties, and the shops will have to shut 
 up. That mayn't hurt me, but it will hurt her, and 
 lots of others like her. I have got a pal, sir, who is a 
 clerk in a stockbroker's in the City. Says he to me 
 yesterday, ** Have you got any money put up, Jem ? " 
 " Well," says I, " I and my family between us have a 
 tidy little lot in the Government Savings Bank, and 
 our Friendly Society has the most of its funds in- 
 vested in Consols." f "I pity you," says he. "Why?" 
 says I. " Because there's going to be a crash," says 
 he, " and when you ask for your money, the man will 
 say, ' No assets.' " No, sir, I don't beHeve in 
 
 Socialism. 
 » 
 
 t In 1905 the Government Savings Banks held ^152,111,140, 
 and the Trustees Savings Banks. ;{^52,723,426, the whole of 
 which practically belonged to the working classes.
 
 HOW SOCISLISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES. 
 
 The Pboples' Banner, Jan. 15. 
 
 The Army aind Navy Estimates have been 
 published unusually early, so as to prove to the 
 People and to Europe that Socialism not only 
 professes the principles of peace, but knows how 
 to put its principles into practice. Everything 
 cannot be done at once. Abuses must be uprooted 
 slowly. Already, however, the pruning knife has 
 been used unsparingly. The numbers of the 
 regular Army have been reduced from 185,000 to 
 50,000, and its cost in the coming year will be only 
 two and a half millions, instead of ten millions. As 
 regards the Navy a different system has to be 
 adopted. You cannot send a ship adrift, as you can 
 disband a regiment. But you can put an end to 
 the building of new ships, except so far as is 
 necessary for the purpose of completing ships which
 
 ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES 6i 
 
 are still unfinished. Again, you can put existing 
 ships, as it were, upon half pay, by laying them up 
 in harbour with nucleus crews, in this way reducing 
 to a minimum the cost for crews and coal, while a 
 very much smaller number of vessels of all classes is 
 kept in a cruising condition, so as to be prepared for 
 any unforeseen, and at present unimaginable, crisis 
 that might arise. This will reduce the cost of the 
 Navy in the coming year from 32 millions to 25 
 millions, a total saving on both branches of the 
 fighting services of fourteen and a half millions. 
 What a wide field this opens for old age pensions, 
 the improvement of workmen's houses, the feeding 
 and clothing of the children of the poor, until all 
 who have been called poor have ceased to exist, and 
 the provision of recreations of an elevating and 
 improving character for all. 
 
 No doubt the usual outcry will arise that we are 
 endangering the safety, perhaps the existence, of the 
 kingdom. What about the regular army, what Mr. 
 Haldane calls the Striking Force ? What country do 
 we intend to strike, if indeed our army could strike 
 any country, except perhaps Belgium or Bulgaria? 
 The Territorial Army, that Citizen Force to which 
 military lervice is a pastime, freely indulged in when 
 more important occupations can be dispensed with,
 
 62 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 is still left us. Can we doubt that if any invader 
 should dare to land upon our shores, it would rush 
 to repel them, with all the energy of men fighting, 
 not for pay, but for the defence of their altars and 
 their homes ? Our Navy no doubt is at present 
 overwhelming. We send it about the world to 
 parade its offensive enormity before the eyes of 
 peaceable nations, like an Irishman at Donnybrook 
 Fair, who trails his coat behind him and challenges 
 creation to tread upon its tail. ^Ve keep every 
 nation in anxiety lest it should be suddenly attacked, 
 and if any sovereign veutures to create a navy in self- 
 defence, we shake our fist in his face, and hint not 
 indistinctly, that he is threatening our safety, and 
 that we may find it necessary, in his own interest, to 
 take his ships for ourselves. There have no doubt 
 been times, such as the days of Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 when no degree of precaution was excessive. But 
 is there a cloud in the sky now ? Where is danger 
 to come from ? In Europe we are protected by the 
 French entente, which carries with it the Russian 
 alliance. In the East we are protected by our 
 Japanese alliance, and our Russian agreement. 
 For years no doubt there was constant friction with 
 Germany. But this was due to our grasping 
 monopoly of every spot in the world, which a nation
 
 ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES 63 
 
 aiming at colonisation could hope to occupy. Also 
 to our oppression of Ireland, and to the manner in 
 which we trampled upon the liberties of the 
 unoffending Boers. Now Germany is absolutely 
 effusive in its affection for us, and was the first of the 
 Great Powers to recognise and congratulate our 
 Republic. How completely have all causes of 
 difference between ourselves and others been swept 
 away within the last six months. Ireland, our 
 secular enemy, is now an independent and friendly 
 republic, nestling under our wing. No one is likely 
 to envy us our malarial swamps in West Africa, and 
 if any one takes a fancy to South Africa, he must 
 apply to the Boers and not to us. India has set up 
 for itself, and the difficulty as to annual drafts will 
 be satisfied to Lord Cookham's content and our own, 
 ' by sending for as much as he wants of our disbanded 
 Army. Canada is protected against all foreign 
 invasion by the Monroe Doctrine. As far as we are 
 concerned, it is at full liberty to annex itself to the 
 United States if it likes, but the United States could 
 not annex it without its consent if they tried. Where 
 is there any possible ground of quarrel ? What does 
 anyone want from us but our iron and our coal, our 
 cottons and our woollens, all of which we will send 
 to them, free on board, for a consideration.
 
 64 HOW SOCIALIS^f SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 (The Timks. Jan. i6.) 
 
 We have suspended our remarks upon the 
 astounding Army and Navy Estimates until we had 
 before us the comments upon them of the Govern- 
 ment official organ. These duly appeared yesterday, 
 and the comment is, if possible, more astounding 
 than the text. The estimates are, it appears, a sort 
 of manifesto to the nation and the world of the 
 principles by which we are being governed in the 
 Foreign Office, and of the practical way in which 
 those principles are carried out. The leading 
 principle is that a nation can be safe without being 
 respected, and that it can be respected without being 
 feared. A corollary from this principle is, that so 
 long as a nation minds its own business, and gives no 
 offence to anyone, it will be loved and petted 
 and taken care of l)y the rest of the world. 
 It is recorded of a muscular divine that he showed 
 signs of resentment when a bully slapped his face. 
 His assailant at once referred him to a text, which 
 laid down distinctly the proper attitude to be adopted 
 by a person who had suffered such treatment. 
 The divine accepted the rebuke, and turned his left 
 cheek, which was also slapped. " My Master has 
 given me no directions," he said, " in regard to a
 
 ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES 65 
 
 second blow," and knocked the bully down. From 
 which it would appear that the meekest Christianity 
 requires a backing of physical force. We have it on 
 the highest authority that "When a strong man armed 
 keepeth his house, his goods are in peace. But when 
 a stronger than he cometh, he taketh away his armour 
 in which he trusted, and spoileth his goods." No 
 nation ever became great e.xcept by fighting its way 
 up, and no nation ever remained great after it ceased 
 to be able to fight, or met a stronger fighter than 
 itself. Carthage and Greece fought their way up 
 till they encountered Rome. Rome mastered the 
 whole known world till it became rotten at the heart, 
 and then the Gauls and the Goths crushed its life 
 out. Egypt fell into decay at a time when its history 
 was still written in hieroglyphics, and for three 
 thousand years its wealth has made it the prey of 
 every invader who chose to take it. England fought 
 her way up in one continuous succession of wars, 
 till on the night of Waterloo she emerged the 
 greatest nation in the world, because, of all nations, 
 she was the only one who had never yielded to, or 
 been conquered by Napoleon. When we put off 
 our armour in which we have trusted, what are we to 
 expect ? 
 
 Our Government seems absolutely^ to revel in the 
 
 5
 
 66 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 fact that within three months the British Empire has 
 contracted into a single island ; the England of 
 Elizabeth, without Elizabeth or Burleigh, or the 
 Buccaneers who roamed over every sea, or the 
 soldiers who fought against Philip, and the sailors 
 who sunk the Spanish Armada. But they forget that 
 the England of Elizabeth was only matched against 
 the Europe of Elizabeth ; not against the Europe, 
 Asia, Africa and America, of the present day. 
 
 It seems, however, that we can depend on our 
 alliances and conventions. A weak nation may have 
 a protector, but it can have no ally. The ally would 
 have to help in its difficulties, and would receive no 
 help in its own difficulties. We all know why Japan, 
 France and Russia entered into their agreements with 
 England. They found their own benefit in it. 
 Which of them would enter into an alliance with us 
 now ? 
 
 " But yesterday. 
 And England might have stood against the world. 
 Now none so poor to do her reverence." 
 
 It is quite pathetic to hear that no one can have 
 any ground of quarrel with us. Quarrel there certainly 
 will not be. It takes two to make a quarrel, and we 
 shall never be able to quarrel with anyone. But there 
 
 4 
 
 !
 
 ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES 67 
 
 is a process known as " diplomatic pressure " by which 
 a strong nation can squeeze anything it likes out of 
 a weak one, without firing a shot, or even using an 
 angry word. It looks quite friendly, but — it is 
 humiliating. We wish we could believe that the 
 authorities at the Admiralty and the War Office have 
 been compelled to assent to these reductions by the 
 pressure put upon them by the Chancellor of the 
 E.xchequer, in his wild attempt to clutch at a few 
 millions anywhere in order to stave off an impending 
 bankruptcy. But we fear that we cannot console 
 ourselves even with this ho{)e. We believe that our 
 Socialistic Government has in good faith created for 
 itself a world in which it supposes that every one is 
 living ; that it is walking about in a Wonderland which 
 would raise a roar of laughter in a nursery, and 
 tnat it honestly entertains delusions that would 
 startle the Mad Hatter. 
 
 (The Evening Owl, Jan. 16.) 
 
 •'The Times" has had its fit of hysterics, and we 
 hope it has quieted down after it. We must, however, 
 relieve its mind from the idea that any pressure has 
 been put upon either the Admirality or War Office by 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or that the alarming
 
 68 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 views as to security of the nation, which it has set out 
 in such agitating terms, have not been fully considered. 
 The Foreign Secretary has for some time been 
 evolving a plan for the creation of an International 
 Council, an Areopagus of the world, which is to sit 
 permanently at the Hague. All disputes which can 
 by any possibility lead to war are to be referred to it, 
 and its decision is to be final. It is to have 
 at its disposal an International Army and Navy, 
 composed of detachments and squadrons, supplied by 
 every civilised nation in the world, and commanded 
 by generals and admirals appointed by international 
 vote. The troops and ships with which we are 
 dispensing will probably be our contribution to the 
 great International Force, which will be kept up by 
 International subcription. This scheme has been 
 submitted to the Emperor of Germany, who is 
 enthusiastic in its favour, and who is prepared to 
 contribute his full quota of men, money and ships. 
 When this great scheme is carried out, we believe 
 that future generations of untaxed and unwounded 
 men will bless the name of Nuts, as the greatest and 
 the wisest man the world ever knew.
 
 ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES 69 
 
 From Our Own Correspondent. 
 
 Paris, Jan. 16. 
 (The Times, Jan. 17.) 
 
 The greatest reticence is maintained here in regard 
 to the reduction of the Army and Navy by the 
 English Government. The facts themselves are not 
 noticed by many journals, and the comments made 
 upon them are very slight. The tnot d'ordre seems 
 to have passed round that the matter should not be 
 discussed in public. In private it is the universal 
 subject of earnest and sorrowful conversation. Very 
 soon after the English papers arrived, the Russian 
 Ambassador called at the Foreign Office, where he had 
 a long interview with M. Delcasse. Frequent 
 inessages were passing all day between the Foreign 
 Office and the Minister of War and of Marine. There 
 is a general impression in official circles that some 
 sudden move by Germany may take place at any 
 moment, and that it is essential to be ready to meet 
 or even to anticipate it. There will be no interpella- 
 tions in the Chamber. All parties are agreed that at 
 this crisis, silence is golden.
 
 70 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 From Our Own Correspondent. 
 
 Berlin, Jan. 16. 
 
 (Times, Jan. 17.) 
 
 The public in Berlin is in that state of blissful 
 stupefaction, which possesses a man who has just 
 learnt that he is the winner of the First Prize in the 
 Hamburg Lottery. The general absence of humour 
 among the Germans is the only thing which 
 interferes with their full enjoyment of the moment. 
 That a great and warlike nation should suddenly 
 denude itself of all protection seems almost incredible ; 
 but the explanations which accompany the act, and 
 which seem to be sufficient and satisfactory to those 
 who are responsible for it, appear to the practical 
 Teutonic mind absolutely unintelligible. That a 
 tribunal sitting at the Hague should be able to 
 dictate to a great Power, Germany for instance, what it 
 should do, and should be able to enforce its decree by 
 means of an international army composed of its oppon- 
 ents, and its allies, and the Neutral nations, with a con- 
 tingent of German troops, the whole commanded 
 possibly by a German Field Marshal, seems to people 
 here to contain all the elements of a gigantic joke, 
 if they could only understand it. Some of the extra 
 wise shake their heads, and hint the Socialistic sheep
 
 DISSATISFACTION IN THE CITY 71 
 
 are not so innocent as they look ; that the ships with 
 the nucleus crews are probably fully manned and 
 equipped, and that the disbanded soldiers have all 
 left their names and addresses and accoutrements 
 behind, so that may be recalled at a moment's notice. 
 On the whole, the most suitable conduct for every 
 patriotic German will be to attend his own parish 
 church on some special day of Thanksgiving, and 
 there join in singing an anthem, written and composed 
 by liis all-too-universally wise and versatile Kaiser. 
 The Apotheosis of the Great Nuts will not be just 
 yet. 
 
 THE CITY IS DISSATISFIED. 
 
 CITY INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 Jan. 19. 
 
 Money is in great request. Not borrowed money, 
 for no one will lend, and no one could use money that 
 he had borrowed. What every one is trying to get 
 in is his own money, and to carry it away. Consols 
 are pursuing their downward course. Yesterday they 
 had reached 45, the price at which they stood during 
 the Mutiny at the Nore. In the afternoon they 
 rallied to 47, under the influence of some large orders 
 from Holland and Belgium. Some mystery attaches to
 
 72 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN r9i3 
 
 to the operations, and it is rumoured that the 
 real buyer is Berlin. The rise was not maintained. 
 Home Railway shares and debentures and Industrials 
 have only a nominal quotation. No one offers them 
 because it is well-known that no one would buy. 
 Breweries have fallen heavily, but have still a sub- 
 stantial value, as it is not believed that Government 
 will be able to carry out their scheme of monopolising 
 the liquor traffic. Shipping shares are well supported, 
 with even a tendency to rise. Rumours are about as 
 to the cause for this, but they arc still too unsub- 
 stantial to be stated. Foreign and Colonial Railways 
 are firm. Indian guaranteed Rails have fallen con- 
 siderably, as the Government guarantee is considered 
 unsubstantial. It is thought, however, that India is 
 still prosperous and solvent. 
 
 VISIT OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE BANK 
 OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Letter from the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer to the Prime Minister. 
 
 Exchequer Office. 
 My dear Perkins, 
 Just as I was reading " The Times " City Article,
 
 VISIT OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE BANK T-, 
 
 Sir Hickory Dibbs, Governor of the Bank of England, 
 was announced. He paid me a long visit. A nice, 
 pleasant old fellow, but rather fussy. Says the City 
 is going to the dogs. Nothing doing, and every- 
 thing undone. No one believes in anything but a 
 sovereign, and when he has got one Belial would 
 not persuade him to part with it. 
 
 The fellows on 'Change have been doing nothing 
 but whistling tunes for the last week. Yesterday a 
 young fellow brought in a gramophone, and they kept 
 him playing till he had to send out for more records. 
 Says the Clearing House is going to shut up. No 
 one will take crossed cheques, and as soon as he has 
 got an open one he runs off with it to the Bank to get 
 it cashed. What is the Clearing House, and why 
 shouldn't he get his cheques cashed? Says at any 
 » minute the depositors might begin to run for their 
 money, and then Overend and Gurney would be 
 nothing to it. I had never heard of Overend or 
 Gurney, but I did not like to ask him who they were, 
 as he evidently thought they were people like the 
 Apostles, whom everyone knew. 
 
 So I answered rather gravely that I supposed the 
 depositors' money was their own, and if the bankers 
 were honest men they ought to give it back when 
 they were asked. He seemed much amused, and
 
 74 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 asked me if I thought banks kept their deposits in 
 a cellar with spring guns all round to keep off 
 burglars ? Of course they didn't. They lent them 
 out on mercantile securities, or invested them where 
 they could realise at once ; generally in Consols, worse 
 luck. Just at that moment a knock came at the door 
 and I went out, and took the opportunity of slipping 
 round to the Under Secretary, and asked him what 
 should be done if the depositors wanted their money, 
 and was it as bad as Overend and Gurney ? He said, 
 " Suspend the Bank Charter at once, and start the 
 presses at printing off Bank of England notes." So I 
 went back to Sir Hickory, and after he had maundered 
 on a little more, I said, " I think the best course 
 would be to suspend the Bank Charter, and get as 
 many Bank of England notes printed as you want." 
 He said of course that set everything right in Overend 
 and Gumey's time but that was different from now. 
 Then all that was wanted was sufficient accommodation 
 to give people breathing time till they could realise 
 their securities that were locked up. As soon as they 
 knew that we could lend them as much as they were 
 worth, everything came right. It was like pumping 
 oxgyen into a man who can't breathe. " Are their 
 securities locked up now," said I ? " Not likely,' 
 said he. " All in the window. No reasonable offer
 
 VISIT OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE BANK 75 
 
 refused." " Then what is the matter with the 
 securities ? " " Nothing," said he, " except that they 
 are not secure. What is the value of a mortgage on 
 land, or a railway debenture, or a factory in Lanca- 
 shire, or a share in Peter Robinson's? What is the 
 value of your own Consols when you are going to 
 issue fifteen hundred millions of them, in order to buy 
 other people's property and make ducks and drakes 
 of it yourselves ? Do you expect to pay the interest ? 
 If you do nobody else does." I thought this very 
 uncivil, but as he was an old man I only said, " The 
 Germans don't seem to think so badly of our Consols ; 
 they are buying them largely." "Umph," said he. 
 " Whenever a German seems to be doing one thing, I 
 always look out for the other thing. How would you 
 feel if Berlin threw ten millions of Consols on the 
 market some fine morning, and insisted on selling ? " 
 " In any case," I said, " you can lend the Banks as 
 many millions as they want to pay their depositors. 
 That will make everything right, and won't cost you 
 anything." " Oh, but it will. As soon as the fellows 
 get the notes, they race off to us to change them into 
 gold. "What do they want with the gold," said I? 
 He winked and whispered " Hook it." " Then why do 
 you change the notes? They are legal tender. 
 No public office does it." "We are bound by
 
 76 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 statute," said he. "Then we'll repeal the statute." 
 " Oh, if you'll do that, it will make it all right for us. 
 It won't raise our credit abroad, but it will help us to 
 keep the gold in our cellars." " What's the use of 
 the gold, as long as you keep it in your cellars," said 
 I ? " Ah," he said, taking up his hat, " that's like 
 Paul Dombey's question, ' What is a pound ? ' 
 You'll have to learn a good deal more than you know 
 before you can answer that," 
 
 So we shook hands and he went off. The under 
 secretary says, you must pass an Act of Indemnity for 
 our suspending the Bank Charter, and another act 
 making Bank of England notes inconvertible. He says 
 we got on perfectly well during the Peninsular War, and 
 long after, without the Bank of England being obliged 
 to give gold for its notes, and it was only a whim of 
 Sir Robert Peel's to make the change. Please see to 
 this, and get your fellows to do the needful this 
 evening, or to-morrow at latest. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Jas. Spendkr. 
 
 (Times, Jan, 20.) 
 
 Yesterday, after an interview with the Governor of 
 the Bank of England, an order of Government was
 
 BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES 77 
 
 issued for suspending the Bank Charter Act. Parlia- 
 ment was sitting at the time, and before it adjourned 
 an Indemnity Act was passed in respect of the 
 suspension, and a further Act declaring that until 
 further notice the notes of the Bank of England were 
 to be inconvertible. This measure, though of a 
 somewhat momentous character, was got through 
 with as much consideration as might have been 
 accorded to an Act authorising Mr. Samuel Guppy to 
 assume the style and title of Marmaduke Plantagenet 
 Vera, Esq. As soon as the members were assured 
 that Bank of England notes were a legal tender they 
 did whatever they were told, and then retired to bed, 
 happy in the discovery that all expenses of the state 
 could be paid with a few reams of paper and a gallon 
 of printer's ink. Happier still from the reflection 
 that the capitalists who owned gold mines had been 
 put in their proper place, and shown that we could 
 do perfectly well without them. 
 
 (Times, Jan. 20, 2nd ed.) 
 
 Consols are quoted at 42. It is said in financial 
 circles that it will be necessary to issue Bank of 
 England notes for one pound, ten shillings and five 
 shillings. They do it on the Continent, and why not 
 here?
 
 78 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 UNEMPLOYED LONDON. 
 
 (Daily Mail, Jan. 22) 
 
 Socialism may be triumphant but London certainly 
 is not. Since Christmas it has come to assume the 
 appearance of a city — not of the dead, they are put 
 out of sight — but of the dying. Dying of creeping 
 paralysis. We sent out some of our representatives 
 to go about the town and see for themselves how 
 things were going on, and the following is the 
 substance of their reports. 
 
 Wherever you go, the streets have the appearance 
 of its being Sunday. There are very few omnibuses, 
 and they are not half full. Very few cabs, crawling 
 lifelessly along, apparently in the hope that they 
 might find a fare who was too tired to w^alk. Very 
 few passengers walking, and all of these with a listless 
 loafing air, as if they had come out because they had 
 nothing to do at home, not for either business or 
 pleasure. The residential quarters are silent and 
 deserted. In the most fashionable parts the blinds 
 are down, and the shutters are closed, while an 
 occasional charwoman loiters at the area. Those of 
 a secondary class have mostly bills up — House to be 
 let. Apartments to let. The business parts are 
 papered with notices that they are selling off at an
 
 UNEMPLOYED LONDON 79 
 
 " enormous sacrifice." The self devotion of the act 
 seems to tempt nobody. 
 
 The men lounge carelessly past. The women — 
 there are very few ladies out — stare drearily in at the 
 window, as if they felt that their purses were at 
 home — empty. If you enter a shop, you will be 
 received by a crowd of assistants with looks of 
 mingled hope and apprehension, doubtful whether 
 you are a customer or a cut-throat. They tell you 
 that there are a number of suspicious characters 
 about, especially in the evening, who pretend to be 
 making purchases, and if they see anything they 
 fincy, snatch it up, and if there are no men behind 
 the counter, walk out with it defiantly. In some 
 cases brutal attacks are made on the shop people. 
 Of real purchasers, there are hardly any. So we 
 found it. Warings' was a wilderness, and Marshall 
 and Snelgrove's a labyrinth in which no one seemed 
 to venture. Everywhere it was the same story. 
 Since October everything was dead. The county 
 families had never come up. Sight-seers there were 
 none. Perhaps it might be better when the 
 Americans began to arrive. But why should they 
 stay here ? There were no dinners ; no parties. No 
 one was willing to spend money; perhaps they had 
 none to spend. Half the theatres were closed. All
 
 8o HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 the leading performers had gone to America or 
 Australia. Boxes and stalls might be had by private 
 arrangement for half the nominal prices. Enter the 
 Carlton or the Savoy, it was the same thing. Empty 
 tables, inferior food and indifferent waiters. The 
 same dreariness in the city. The banks say that 
 their whole business now is cashing cheques. 
 Nothing is coming in. They have made all their 
 arrangements for the possibility of a run, and believe 
 their depositors will be paid to the last penny. The 
 bank rate is 12. Of course this is meant to be 
 prohibitive, but it is ruin to the commercial classes. 
 How can they keep their heads up if they can't get 
 their outstandings in, and can get no accommo- 
 dation ? In the East End it is even worse. The 
 streets are crowded with idle, hungry, wolfish looking 
 men. The public houses and provision shops have 
 put up an inner rail, over which everything is served 
 to those who have the money in their hands, but not 
 otherwise. Stalwart chuckers out are watchful for a 
 stauggle at any moment. The docks say their 
 business is half what it was. Numbers of orders for 
 cargoes have been cancelled, or the ships on arrival 
 diverted by their owners to foreign ports. The only 
 places which have their hands full are the Police 
 Courts, into which flow a ceaseless succession of
 
 UNEMPLOYED LONDON 8i 
 
 charges for every sort of offence against person and 
 property. 
 
 We enquired whether things would be better or 
 worse after RLirch ist, when nationalisation was to 
 begin. Far worse was the invariable answer. There 
 would first be a struggle to get the spoil, and then a 
 struggle to divide it. Socialism recognises none but 
 brothers, provided they profess to be working men. 
 Those who would work, those who couldn't work and 
 those who wouldn't work, would all be on a level. 
 How were they to be provided for by a government 
 which was fast sweeping the country clean ? Then 
 we should see how brotherly love would continue. 
 
 From the country the news is very much the same, 
 especially from the pleasure resorts, such as Brighton 
 ^d its sisters on the coast, Bath, Blackpool and the 
 like. From the manufacturing districts, accounts are 
 much better. There the masters and the trades 
 unionists seem to have agreed to work together 
 heartily till the fateful March i. The masters will 
 ship off their goods. The workmen will have their 
 pockets full — and then ? — we shall see what we shall 
 see.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A Hitch in Nationalisation. 
 
 THE LAND WON't NATIONALISE. 
 
 (Times, Jan. 25.) 
 
 We are daily receiving letters from every part of the 
 country which show that the seizure of the whole of 
 England by a temporary majority of one party, and 
 its appropriation to purposes which would be 
 irrational even if they were honest, are things not 
 likely to be had merely for the asking. Socialism 
 may be a very fine thing, but like other fine things it 
 must be paid for, and paid for by those who expect 
 to benefit by it, not by those who will admittedly be 
 ruined, whether the experiment succeed or not. We 
 Understand that the landlords and the farmers are 
 quite determined that they will not submit to being 
 robbed, merely because what is called, but is not, an 
 Act of Parliament, declares that they shall be robbed. 
 It is probable that a merely passive resistance will be 
 quite sufficient. If not, an active, if necessary an
 
 THE LAND WON'T NATIONALISE 83 
 
 armed resistance will be ready. We are not at 
 liberty to say more at present. We would merely 
 advise Mr. Spender, in preparing his first Budget, not 
 to rely upon the rents of England as an asset. 
 
 UIARY OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 LAND COMMH^EE OF THE NORTH 
 
 HAMPSHIRE DIVISION. 
 
 Feb. I. 
 
 Our Committee has been formed at last, not 
 without some difficulty. The farmers would have 
 nothing to do with it. Down-trodden earth worms, 
 who have lost even the wish to turn. Same with the 
 miller. Said his business was to grind corn, and 
 what he wanted was corn to grind. What had that 
 to do with it? Same with the doctor. Said he 
 didn't want to have patients who couldn't pay his 
 fees. We pointed out that he would be the servant 
 of the State, which would pay him a salary. Said he 
 was his own master, and would not be anyone's 
 servant. Our Committee of five consists of the 
 member for the division, the election agent, a house 
 builder, a publican, and the principal blacksmith. 
 They don't know much about country ways but that 
 doesn't matter as everything is going to be different.
 
 84 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED INJ1913 
 
 The great thing is to have active men who are in 
 sympathy with the Cause. 
 
 To-day received a cart-full of forms to fill up and 
 send out. Form A. to (landlord, 
 
 farmer, occupant) desiring him to give up his ( 
 ) on the ist of March next. 
 
 Form B. acquainting him (as before) that the 
 members of the Committee, or one of them, will 
 attend at (as before) to inspect (as before) and 
 report thereon. 
 
 Best to start at first with Lord Rawdon's estate, 
 Heckford Hall. 
 
 Feb. 2. 1 1 a.m. Sent off messenger with forms 
 A. and B. to deliver at Heckford Hall and five farms 
 attached to it. Not far from this. 
 
 5 p.m. Messenger not returned. What can 
 
 have happened to him ? 
 
 Feb. 3, 9 a.m. Messenger found this morning un- 
 conscious near Avenue of Heckford Hall. When shaken 
 said something inarticulate, thought to be "Shpirsh 
 fushra. Wan tshleep." Forms A. and B. torn up and 
 stuffed into his pocket. Evidently been drugged. 
 
 II a.m. Sent another messenger with Forms A. 
 and B. as before. A smart young man. Abstainer, 
 
 5 p.m. Messenger not returned. What can have 
 happened to him ?
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF A LAND COMMITTEE 85 
 
 Feb. 4. II a.m. Messenger returned, wearing a 
 crumpled white tie and an old livery hat with cockade. 
 In great spirits. Said he was splendidly received at 
 the Hall. Servants made quite a pet of him. 
 Insisted on keeping him for servants' ball that night 
 and dressed him up like a footman. Danced all 
 night. Under housemaid splendid girl. Such blue 
 eyes ! Could not find his own cap this morning. 
 Had quite forgotten Forms A. and B. Would start 
 off at once on his bike. Did not mind a bit. 
 Envelope produced. Forms A. and B. not in it ! 
 Only a letter to himself from Gwendolen Spratt. 
 Calls him *' her own pet puppy dog." Offers to walk 
 out with him on Sunday next during church. " Cook 
 sends her compliments to the young man, and would 
 *be glad to see him on Sunday at 5 at the hall. 
 Tea and muffins." Must look out for some one less 
 frivolous. 
 
 I p.m. Sent three serious widowers with Forms A. 
 and B. Cautioned them against intemperance and 
 frivolity. 
 
 4 p.m. Messengers returned, very crestfallen. 
 Had got a little way down the avenue when they 
 met Jack Bird, and three other poachers with sticks ; 
 said they were His Lordship's gamekeepers. Asked 
 our business. Made us show Forms A. and B. Tore
 
 86 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 them up and threw them in our faces. Said the 
 Land Committee was a pack of Socialist sneaks, who 
 could not hit a haystack at five yards. If we ever 
 put our noses within the grounds again, they would 
 bash our ugly mugs till our mothers would not know 
 us ! Messengers quite clear they would never go 
 near Heckford again. 
 
 This lawless spirit is very painful. Must write full 
 report to Minister of Lands and Agriculture. 
 
 LAND PROTECTION LEAGUE. 
 
 (Times, Feb. 6.) 
 
 We are now enabled to say that a League for the 
 protection of the land of England has been set on foot, 
 and is being rapidly organised. It will include all land" 
 owners, and probably the great majority of their tenants, 
 the detainers of the gentlemen, and a large number of 
 the farm labourers, who have begun to perceive that 
 they will be better off as they are, than by throwing in 
 their lot with a number of hungry applicants who will 
 ruin the land without benefiting themselves. In 
 each county the local hunt will organise itself into a 
 sort of light cavalry. The whole of the county 
 police, which is supported out of the rates will, it is 
 believed, be at the service of the league, and will
 
 LAND PROTECTION LEAGUE 87 
 
 certainly not be at the service of the Government in 
 any attack upon the members of the league. It is 
 also believed that in every county a considerable 
 portion, if not all, of the Territorial Army which is 
 connected with it, may be relied on to back up the 
 gentlemen of the county. No violence is con- 
 templated against anyone if it can be avoided, but a 
 firm resistance will be offered to any attempt to 
 interfere with landed property for any Socialistic 
 purpose. The emissaries of Government will be 
 simply turned away. Mob violence of any sort will 
 be repelled with the utmost vigour. As soon as all 
 arrangements have been completed it is intended to 
 ask the Prime Minister to receive a deputation which 
 will inform him of the objects and intentions of the 
 ( League. 
 
 THE RAILROADS OBJECT TO BEING 
 NATIONALISED. 
 
 (Times, Feb. 7.) 
 The Directors of the English railways have been in 
 constant communication with each other since it was 
 announced that they were to be taken over by 
 Government. If this were a bona fide proposal to 
 purchase the railways for the nation upon a fair 
 valuation, and by a fair payment, no objection could
 
 88 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 be offered to it. Similar purchases of great under- 
 takings have frequently been made. The nation has 
 generally found that it had made a very bad bargain 
 for itself, but that was its affair. This proposal, 
 however, is considered to be on its face illusory and 
 fraudulent. It is proposed to pay off the share- 
 holders with Goverment Ronds bearing 3 per cent, 
 interest, at a time when Consols have fallen to about 
 40, when the bonds would be unsaleable and the 
 interest would be insecure. The Government have 
 announced that they intend to lower fares and to reduce 
 the hours of labour. The railways would obviously not 
 pay their expenses, and at a time when the national 
 income is rapidly disappearing there is no chance of 
 the interest being paid from any other source. The 
 opinion of the railway men of all classes has been 
 ascertained. They have no wish to exchange the pay 
 and pensions which they enjoy at present, for the pro- 
 spects held out on Socialistic methods. They see 
 clearly that the boon of short hours means either a fall 
 in the earnings of the railway, or an increase of the 
 number of men employed. In either case their wages 
 would be reduced, and probably their lives endangered 
 by working with inexperienced associates. It has 
 been resolved to offer the most uncomprosing resist- 
 ance to the whole proposal.
 
 THE FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS 
 WONT BE NATIONALISED. 
 
 (Times, Feb. 8.) 
 
 The Federation of Employers in the manufacturing, 
 shipbuilding, and all the cognate industries, have 
 been engaged in constant discussion with each other 
 since the proposals of Government as to nationalising 
 their property were disclosed. Their objections are 
 exactly the same as those of the railroad directors 
 which were stated in our issue of yesterday. They 
 absolutely refuse to have anything to do with the 
 Government offer of purchase. They say it would 
 take years to make a valuation, during the whole of 
 which time their business would be falling off, and 
 they don't think they would ever get from the State 
 payment of a week's purchase of what they would 
 lose. They too, think that enough of their men will 
 stand by them to enable them to carry on. If not 
 they will work out the orders they have on hand, and 
 then shut up their factories and dismiss their men. 
 Their fixed resolution is to fight it out tooth and 
 nail.
 
 90 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 THE SHIPOWNERS REFUSE TO BE TURNED 
 INTO MONEY BAGS FOR THE STATE. 
 
 (Times, Feb. 9.) 
 
 The announcement by the Prime Minister at the 
 opening of Parliament that it was proposed to levy a 
 special tax upon ships, in addition of course to what 
 the shipowners already pay in the way of income tax 
 and rates, is taken by the shipowners as meaning 
 that they are to be taxed out of existence. That in 
 this way they will be drawn into the devouring maw 
 of the State, which seems to intend to live, like 
 Saturn, by swallowing its own children. It is 
 evident to them that ships subject to such taxes 
 could not possibly compete with those of other 
 nations, which are subsidised and favoured in every 
 possible way. They have no intention of submitting 
 to any such treatment. They have already worked 
 out arrangements for placing themselves out of the 
 jurisdiction of the tax-gatherer. For instance, the P. 
 & O. Company would establish their headquarters 
 either at Antwerp, which is at present their port for 
 loading and unloading their Continental trade, or at 
 Bombay which is the centre of their entire move- 
 ments. The Orient line would probably make 
 Cherbourg their home. The Channel steamrse
 
 THE SHIPOWNERS REBEL 91 
 
 would adopt Calais and Boulogne instead of Dover 
 and Folkestone. The Atlantic liners would settle in 
 New York, Boston or Philadelphia. The Wilson 
 line would set up in Copenhagen or Stockholm. 
 Each line would retain its own nationality but it 
 would change its domicile. It would have no place 
 of business in England. It would have a ticket box 
 on the pier where tickets might be purchased by 
 passengers, and an agent at Charing Cross or in the 
 City, who would receive applications for freight or 
 berths. Their ships would call at the usual ports 
 here, but the great bulk of their money would be 
 spent abroad. They would be visitors here like the 
 Nord-Deutcher-Lloyd, and Amerika-Hamburg, but 
 nothing more. In many ways it would probably be 
 a saving to them, but it would be ruin to Liverpool, 
 Southampton, Hull and Glasgow, 
 
 It is very curious how every scheme for enriching 
 those who have had nothing to do with a business, 
 seems to beggar those who have been living 
 comfortably upon it. It is so difficult to make 
 water run up a hill.
 
 92 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 FOUR DEPUTATIONS TO THE PRIME 
 
 MINISTER. 
 
 (Times, Feb. 14.) 
 
 Yesterday Mr. Perkins received four of the most 
 remarkable and influential deputations which have 
 ever waited on a Prime Minister on the same day. 
 They appeared on behalf of the Land of England 
 Protection League, the Railroads of England, the 
 Federation of Employers, and the Shipowners of 
 Great Britain. Each deputation had by request of 
 the Government been limited to 20 persons. No 
 reporters were admitted, but a summary of what took 
 place on each occasion was given to the press by the 
 secretary of each body. 
 
 The first deputation was admitted at 11. It 
 consisted of sixteen of the greatest landed proprietors, 
 headed by three Dukes, and of four of the most 
 representative farmers. It was received by the 
 Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the 
 Minister of Mines (Mr. Orr), the Minister of Land 
 and Agriculture (Mr. Freshfield), the Minister of 
 Factories and Labour (Mr. Worksop), and the 
 Minister of Railways (Mr. Driver). The senior Duke 
 spoke very briefly : He said that four of the 
 gentlemen who accompanied him appeared on behalf
 
 LANDOWNERS DEPUTATION 93 
 
 of the farmers of England. He, and the remaining 
 fifteen represented all the landowners of England. 
 They appeared to protest against the claim of the 
 Government to set aside rights of property which had 
 existed, in the case of many, for hundreds of years, 
 on grounds which struck at the root of all law and 
 morality, and which would not be listened to with 
 patience in any legislative assembly in the world 
 except the one in which they were uttered. He was 
 aware that his protest was quite unavailing. His 
 more important duty was to warn the Prime Minister 
 that the gentlemen of England did not intend to 
 submit to spoliation. They would be false to the 
 traditions of their race if they did. If any attempt 
 was made to carry out the measures announced at the 
 opening of Parliament, Government would find that 
 they had plunged into a struggle which would end in 
 their own destruction. 
 
 "You threaten us with a civil war?" said Mr. 
 Perkins. 
 
 " No," said the Duke, with a bow, " We are in 
 possession. It is you who threaten us." 
 
 He then sat down, and was succeeded by the 
 spokesman of the farmers. He was an old man, 
 whose family had held a large farm in Norfolk for 
 six generations. He explained that he and his
 
 94 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED"1N 1913 
 
 ancestors had from time to time invested all their 
 capital in the farm. For the greater part of his life 
 the returns had been very uncertain. Still it was all 
 he had. If he was turned out, he and his family 
 would be paupers. He did not understand what 
 right anyone else had to a share in his farm, nor 
 what right the ministers had to give it away. The 
 old judges would not have allowed it. Those were 
 his notions. Then the deputation retired. 
 
 The next deputation was composed of nineteen 
 chairmen of the principal railways, men of high rank 
 and position in society, and of another, an intelligent 
 and unassuming gentleman, who was introduced as 
 Mr. Bain, Secretary of the Railway Workers' Union. 
 The Chairman of the L. &: N. W. Railway Co. said 
 that the deputation represented the shareholders of 
 all the railways in England and Wales, who had a 
 paid up capital of 1,063 millions, with 16,000 miles 
 of line open, and annual receipts of 96 millions. 
 The great majority of the shareholders had com- 
 paratively small sums invested. Many of them were 
 far from rich, and some of them would be absolutely 
 impoverished if their shares were lost. On behalf of 
 all, he distinctly refused the Government proposal to 
 buy their undertakings with Government stock. The 
 British Monarchy would have shrunk before such an
 
 RAILWAYS DEPUTATION 95 
 
 undertaking. The present Republic had no credit, 
 and its promises to pay would be of about as much 
 value as pieces of nickel silver. The companies 
 would oppose compulsory purchase by every means in 
 their power, active and passive. A passive resistance 
 would be quite sufficient. If each company withdrew 
 its staff and its books and papers from its head offices 
 on the I St of March, the Goverament would not be 
 able to start a train from Euston or Paddington in 
 less than a month, and then the trains would probably 
 never reach their destinations. But he would most 
 solemnly warn the Government against tampering 
 with the railway system. Its lines were the arteries 
 which conveyed its life blood to every part of the 
 country. If they stood still for a day manufactures 
 and trade would be paralysed. We are here at this 
 moment in the midst of a city of six millions of 
 human beings, who depend for their daily food and 
 drink and fuel upon the trains which are rolling every 
 minute into the stations of this metropolis. 
 
 Mr. Driver : " You can't carry the railroads away 
 with you." " No. But we can carry away the minds 
 which by long training have learnt how to organise 
 and administer this system, and the practised skill 
 and intelligence of the men who work it by day and 
 by night. I can answer for the higher branches of
 
 96 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 the staff. I will ask Mr. Bain to follow me, and to 
 give his opinions as to the feelings of the men on 
 whom we depend for the workings of the trains. 
 
 Mr. Bain said : That he could not answer for all 
 the men, but he knew in a general way how they felt. 
 Railway service was not like any other service. 
 There was a lot of life and stir and change in it, and 
 the men liked it, and would not change it for any 
 other service. They had good pay and good 
 pensions, and the directors understood them and 
 treated them well. Of course they had their fights at 
 times, but they never intended to part, and when the 
 fight was over they were all good friends. He did 
 not think the men would like a lot of new masters 
 who knew nothing about railway work, and they 
 wouldn't like being mixed up with a lot of new men ; 
 wouldn't feel safe with them. He didn't want to say 
 anything disrespectful of Mr- Driver, but he thought 
 they were safer of their pay and their pensions with 
 the Directors. If they clear out, he thought the men 
 would clear out with them. Certainly he would. So 
 that deputation retired. 
 
 The next deputation consisted of the Chairmen of 
 four of the greatest shipbuilding firms, and twelve of 
 the leading manufacturers of Lancashire and York- 
 shire. They were accompanied by the Secretary of
 
 SHIPYARD AND FACTORY DEPUTATION 97 
 
 the Amalgamated Engineers Union, and representa- 
 tives of several unions in the textile trades. The 
 head of Strongi'th'arm & Co. took the same line as 
 the Railway Directors, in stating that they had no 
 idea of being bought out on the terms suggested by 
 the Government. They would be very reluctant to 
 leave the country, but would do so if forced. They 
 could not take their factories with them, but they 
 could take their machinery, probably a large number 
 of their operatives, and their capital. They would 
 be eagerly welcomed in Canada, or Australia, or in 
 Germany. And then in solemn tones he implored 
 the Government not to meddle with the trade of the 
 country. The Government did not understand it, 
 but the deputation did. The whole economic 
 working of the nation hung together, and if any part 
 bf it was checked or disorganised, parts which 
 seemed to have no connection with it would suffer. 
 The exports which they were producing purchased 
 the cotton and wool, and all the raw materials which 
 kept the factories at work. But they did more, they 
 purchased the food which kept not only the opera- 
 tives, but everyone in this room from starving. 
 Already, the gentlemen he was addressing must have 
 noticed that the price of every article of consumption 
 was rising. Why ? Because the merchants who 
 
 7
 
 98 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 sent the orders for such things could not be sure 
 that they would be able to meet the drafts upon 
 them, when they were presented, or that their 
 customers would be able to take the goods off their 
 hands. So the orders were kept back. Up to this 
 time the Employers had been able to keep the pick 
 of their men at work, and the men had stood nobly 
 by them. But he would be very sorry to try and 
 work a factory on the Go as-you-please system which 
 the Government advocated, when every mechanic 
 was to do as much as he liked, and get as much as 
 he asked. He thought six months of it would drive 
 Mr. Worksop to suicide or a lunatic asylum. 
 
 A couple of other trades union men were then 
 heard. They said a great number of them had been 
 very much taken by all this Socialistic talk. They 
 thought it was all wrong, the rich having so much 
 more than they had, and that it was right that they 
 should all go share and share together. The 
 speakers on the platforms said that if we only put 
 them in they would manage it at once. But they 
 did not seem a bit nearer it now. Those who had 
 steady work, like themselves, were doing well enough, 
 though food was getting dear, but lots of working 
 men, and clerks, and shopmen and such like, were 
 idling about, because their employers had no money
 
 DEPUTATION OF SHIPOWNERS 99 
 
 to give them. They used to be told that when 
 Socialism was on, they would get a "minnymum" 
 every week, and a share of the profits every quarter. 
 But they never could hear what a " minnymum " 
 was, or who was going to give it, and they didn't 
 believe there would be a profit in the way the thing 
 was going to be worked. More likely the other way 
 round. They hoped the gentlemen at the table 
 wouldn't meddle with the factories and, if it wasn't 
 making too bold, would mind their own business, 
 and leave them to mind theirs. So the third 
 deputation was bowed out. 
 
 Lastly, the Chairmen of the twenty greatest ship- 
 ping lines, from the Cunard and P. & O. downwards, 
 came in. No one represented the'numberless tramp 
 steamers and sailing vessels, which after all do, in an 
 unostentatious way, the greater part of the goods 
 carrying of the world. The head of the Cunard 
 Line said they were all agreed that such taxation as 
 was going to be put upon them would ruin them. 
 The huge fast steamers that were competing on all 
 the lines were so expensive to build and to run that 
 they were eating up all the profits. How could a 
 vessel that burnt 1000 tons of coal a day compete 
 against a German or American, or French steamer, 
 for which its Government did everything it could, if
 
 loo HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 the English steamer had an extra tax put upon its 
 tonnage and its measurement ? Of course it couldn't. 
 Its owners must either take it off, or take the tax 
 off. They had plenty of very good offers for their 
 fleets but they did not want to sell them. They 
 were proud of them. What they came here to-day 
 to say was, that they didn't intend to pay the tax. 
 They were advised that they could not be taxed if 
 they transferred their headquarters to the other end 
 of the line, and kept nothing in England but an 
 office room somewhere, and a clerk to give 
 information and take money. They didn't want to 
 do this either if it could be helped. It would be 
 troublesome and expensive at first. Not afterwards. 
 Of course all the seaport towns that they left, where 
 they used to spend their money, would be ruined. 
 Their rates would go up, and their rating would go 
 down, and their streets would be filled with paupers. 
 But that would be Government's affair, not theirs. 
 The only other thing that occurred to them was to 
 suggest to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that his 
 next budget seemed likely to be the sort of thing 
 that brought on the French Revolution. 
 
 So the last of these uncompromising deputations 
 left the room. 
 
 Cabinets do not record minutes, and no word of
 
 NATIONALISATION DEFERRED loi 
 
 what passed between the Ministers after the doors had 
 closed has ever leaked out. If we had only a Lucian 
 or a Landor to depict the discussion which passed, 
 how interesting it would be. 
 
 (The Peoples' Banner, Feb. i6.) 
 
 We are informed that each of the four deputations 
 which waited upon the Prime Minister on the 13th 
 has received an answer to the same effect, viz., that 
 the subject upon which it had addressed the Prime 
 Minister formed part of a large system of finance, the 
 details of which could not be announced until the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer made his budget speech. 
 The questions with which he had to deal were so 
 complicated that it was not likely that he would be 
 able to unfold his plans before the ist of May. At 
 least six months would then be required before those 
 plans could be carried out. In the meantime no 
 step would be taken to alter the status in quo. 
 
 It may be stated without any breach of official 
 confidence, that the complaining parties, while dif- 
 fering in the grounds of their objections to the 
 Government policy, all agreed in pointing out that 
 schemes involving such fundamental changes could 
 not be carried out on the ist of March. The 
 Government fully admits the justice of this objection.
 
 I02 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IX 1913 
 
 (The Evening Owl, Feb. 16.) 
 
 Our respected contemporary, "The Banner," has 
 diplomatically tried to reduce the differences between 
 the Government and the deputations which presented 
 themselves on the 13th, to a question of time, and 
 suggests that in about six months from the ist of May 
 it is possible that the Socialistic programme may be 
 carried out by amicable arrangement. From our 
 information no such hope can be entertained. We 
 hear that each deputation assumed an attitude of 
 absolute defiance, and treated the entire theory of 
 Nationalisation as fundamentally false, and one to 
 which they would never submit. We tell these proud 
 and arrogant men that they are proposing to do more 
 than Joshua did. He made the sun stand still for a 
 few hours. They are acting as if it could go back, 
 not for hours or days, but for years. It is years since 
 the great contest began between Individualism and 
 Collectivism ; between the usurpation of the few, and 
 the prerogative of the many. That contest was con- 
 cluded, once and forever, when the Electors of 
 Great Britain declared in October last, that all 
 previous rights were merged in the majesty of the 
 people. 
 
 All discussion on the subject is now closed. We
 
 THE DOWNWARD SLIDE 103 
 
 admit that the transfer of all property from its 
 present owners to the entire community cannot be 
 carried out on the ist of March. But we call upon 
 the people to celebrate that day as the birthday of 
 their rights, and to proclaim that they are determined 
 to support the Government, not merely in asserting 
 those rights, but in trampling down all who dare to 
 dispute them. 
 
 THE DOWNWARD SLIDE. 
 CITY INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 (Times, Feb. 20th.) 
 
 Things are getting worse and worse every day. The 
 Bank returns show a steady fall in deposits and bills 
 payable. All accommodation is refused except to the 
 soundest houses, and then only for very short loans. 
 Strong firms are contracting their business, and weak 
 firms are breaking down. The number of insolvencies 
 during the last month is alarming. Large dismissals 
 of the employes in every line are taking place. Since 
 October, nearly one-tliird of the deposits in Savings 
 Banks has been taken out, and hardly anything paid 
 in. The people are beginning to live upon their 
 savings instead of upon salaries and wages.
 
 I04 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 The Board of Trade returns tell the same tale. 
 Imports of the raw materials for our manufactures 
 are diminishing. France is sending us hardly any of 
 her silks or wines. The Excise returns for this 
 quarter will be hardly more than half of the usual 
 amount. The Income tax payments which are gener- 
 ally in full flood at this period, are trickling in as 
 from sources which are drying up. The Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer must be at his wits' end for his 
 current expenses. Treasury bills cannot be floated 
 with consols at 35. The general feeling is not panic, 
 but despair. And added to all this is a vague 
 apprehension as to what may take place on the ist of 
 March. 
 
 THE FIRST OF MARCH, 
 
 (D.\iLY Mail, March 3.) 
 
 The first of March has come in like a lion, or 
 rather like a lion's cub, and gone out like a lamb. 
 The day which our pugnacious little contemporary, 
 '* The Evening Owl," has ordained for the celebration 
 of a nationalistic victory began with a certain amount 
 of alarums and excursions — rather of the German 
 Band and Salvation Army type — and ended by 
 fizzling out like a wet Bank Holiday, The Majesty
 
 THE FIRST OF MARCH 105 
 
 of the people, which was to have shown how it 
 could trample on its oppressors, was, so far 
 as any trampling was done, the party on the 
 ground. 
 
 We have been flooded with correspondence on 
 this subject from every quarter. An interesting 
 letter from Manchester appears in another column. 
 It is the same story everywhere. In the actual 
 country there was no disturbance at all, A good deal 
 of friendly chaffing of the village orators, who had 
 been boasting of the free lodgings they were to have 
 in the Squire's mansion, or the potato grounds they 
 were to pick out in his park, but nothing more. 
 Where country seats were within easy reach of 
 country towns, gangs of rowdies, sometimes rather 
 * large gangs, came out to break down the palings, 
 and hoot under the windows, and make themselves 
 generally offensive. But their advent was always 
 expected, and the young gentlemen of the place and 
 their grooms, and the farmers' sons, all on horse- 
 back, rode about among them and thrashed them 
 with their horsewhips, and generally, as the Irish 
 say, " made hares of them." In many of the large 
 manufacturing towns matters were much more serious. 
 There were riots of a very threatening character, 
 which might have grown into something very
 
 io6 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 dangerous, if they had not been anticipated, and put 
 down at once with a swift and heavy hand. But 
 even there the rioters were not the real working 
 men, but that scum of the population which always 
 seems to rise to the surface when there is a fire, 
 or a runaway van, or anything else which shakes 
 them up. The rioters had no backing and met with 
 no sympathy. 
 
 How then are we to account for that enormous 
 Socialistic majority which swept everything before 
 it at the last election, like a mountain lake which 
 has burst its barrier? The answer seems to be, 
 that it was a wholly fictitious majority. It was 
 composed partly of a couple of hundred theorists, 
 who had dreamed themselves into the belief that 
 legislation could make and keep everyone equal, 
 which it could not, and that equality would make 
 everyone happy and comfortable, which it would 
 not. Next, of an immense number of ignorant 
 people, who thought that nationalisation was a huge 
 Joint Stock Company, returning large and regular 
 dividends, which everybody could join without paying 
 in any capital. Lastly, of a still greater number of 
 people who never thought about anything, but who 
 saw that the Socialists were making the running, 
 and who threw in their lot with the winning party.
 
 THE MANCHESTER RIOTS 107 
 
 When the theorists were put into power they found 
 that they had never considered how their theory was 
 to be worked. They tried something which looked 
 hked a plan, and found that it would not work. 
 They had destroyed a machine which worked 
 automatically, and they had set up a model which 
 would not even start. Naturally no one would fight 
 for a rag doll. 
 
 Letter from the proprietor of the Fairfield Mill, 
 Manchester, to his brother in London : — 
 
 March 3rd. 
 Mv Dear William, 
 
 You will be anxious to hear how we got 
 on here on the great ist of March. For the last 
 Veek or ten days the town had been deluged with 
 mob orators, who had meetings every night. I 
 went to one of them, and never heard such rot in 
 my life. It seems the operatives own everything 
 they make, except perhaps a trifle for coal and 
 electricity, and are regularly robbed every Saturday 
 night. Parliament had put an end to this from the 
 ist of March, and the thing for them to do was 
 to seize all the mills on that day, and then make 
 their terms with us when we showed up the next 
 morning. The ist was a capital day for them as
 
 io8 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 it was a Sunday, when there would be no one at 
 the mills, and we quietly at church. All our 
 preparations were made as secretly as possible. A 
 regiment of Yeomanry and the Manchester Volunteers 
 marched into town late at night, and were stowed 
 away while the men were asleep. A dozen of the 
 police were put into each mill. We came back 
 about 10, with a party of young friends with good 
 sticks and their breechloaders, and a dozen trusty 
 workmen. The windows on the ground floor of the 
 mill are all barred, so we rigged up a strong iron 
 cage behind each door, just far enough off to let 
 the door open comfortably, but not to hold too 
 many at once, and we laid the hose on ready. It 
 was pretty well on in the morning before everything 
 was done, so we had time for a sleep and a good 
 breakfast, and then waited for developments. About 
 1 1 there began to be a hum about the town like 
 a swarm of bees, and a lot of shouting. It seemed 
 to come nearer and nearer, and at last it burst into 
 our street, and there was a mob of ragamuffins that 
 filled the street, shouting and yelling like mad. 
 They seemed to have a lot of stones with them, for 
 they began breaking the windows of the mill. We 
 did not make a stir, so they stopped at the front 
 door, and after calling out to be let in, began to
 
 THE MANCHESTER RIOTS 109 
 
 break it in. Of course it went down at once, and 
 then you should have seen them when they were 
 stopped by the cage, and got the hose full in their 
 faces. It can throw up a hundred feet high, so you 
 may fancy how it knocked them about. They were 
 so pressed by the crowd behind that they could not 
 even tumble, so we turned it upon the throng in the 
 street, and then they were let out fast enough. They 
 were just gathering for another rush, when we heard 
 a cavalry bugle, and then the clattering of horses' 
 hoofs at the end of the street, and then the 
 yeomanry came in sight, galloping two deep, and in 
 another second they were in the midst of the mob, 
 knocking them over and beating them with sticks. 
 Didn't they just scream, and before five minutes 
 were over the street was clear. Everyone of the 
 factories was attacked, but not one of them was 
 entered. A good many bakers' and provision shops 
 were broken into and looted. No wonder, because 
 a great many of the unemployed are nearly starving, 
 but I don't think there was any organised attempt to 
 plunder. Before 5 o'clock the town was quiet again. 
 There were lots of broken heads, but, I am thankful 
 to say, not a shot was fired, and as far as I know 
 not a drop of blood was shed. When the operatives 
 came back on Monday morning they were much
 
 no HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 amused looking at the cages, which were just being 
 carried away, and wondering at all the broken 
 windows.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 VISIT OF THE GERMAN FLEET. 
 
 (The Peoples' Banner, March lo.) 
 
 We learn that Baron Munchausen, the German 
 Ambassador, has received instructions to inform the 
 Foreign Secretary that the German Fleet will shortly 
 proceed into the Atlantic, in order to perform a series 
 of battle fleet manoeuvres on a larger scale than is 
 possible in the Northern Seas. As the fleet will pass 
 down the English Channel, the Ambassador has been 
 desired to enquire whether it would be agreeable to 
 the English Government that the German Fleet 
 should call in at Portsmouth, in order to pay a 
 friendly visit to that portion of the magnificent Naval 
 Forces of Great Britain which is stationed there. 
 We believe that Mr. Nuts, on behalf of the govern- 
 ment, responded with readiness to this proposal. It 
 is not intended that Admiral Scheehorst should he 
 invited to London, but we are certain that the
 
 112 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 Admiral of the fleet, Lord Delapore, will welcome 
 his Teutonic brothers in arms with all the hospitality 
 of his nation and profession. It is understood that 
 the 1 6th is the day at which the German Fleet may 
 be expected, and that on the evening of that day 
 Admiral Schneehorst and his captains will be 
 entertained at the Admiralty House, while a selection 
 from the other officers will be received at dinner by 
 the Mayor at the town hall. A special performance 
 at the theatre will be given for the warrant officers 
 and a large number of the seamen of the fleet. We 
 hear that it was originally proposed to give a 
 representation of "H.M.S. Pinafore." It was found, 
 however, that this required more musical talent than 
 was available. It has therefore been decided to 
 substitute for it " Black Eyed Susan." This will not 
 only amuse our visitors, but give them a useful idea 
 of the noble qualities of the British seaman. We 
 welcome this opportunity for publicly celebrating the 
 friendship betweed the two nations, which has so 
 happily succeeded that temper of mutual irritability 
 and suspicion which marked the recent era. 
 
 (The Peoples' Banner, March 17.) 
 
 The meeting of the two fleets has passed off 
 splendidly. The German squadron arrived in the
 
 THE GERMAN MANOEUVRES 113 
 
 middle of the night, making a magnificent display 
 with its thousand lights, for all who were awake to 
 see it. At sunrise the fleet was seen lying at anchor 
 to the West of the Isle of Wight, while the Enghsh 
 fleet was anchored in two lines to the north of the 
 island, in the place consecrated to naval reviews. At 
 8 the two fleets thundered out their salutes to each 
 other. At 9 the exchange of ceremonial visits 
 between the German and English Admirals began, 
 and at 12, a portion of the German fleet steamed 
 slowly between the British lines and back again. It 
 was thought advisable not to introduce the Nassau 
 and her giant sisters into such narrow waters. The 
 Admiral accordingly transferred his flag into the 
 Scharnhorst, and led a line of six ships of the same 
 class between the ships of war, which lay still and 
 eilent on the water. Two trivial contretemps slightly 
 marred what might have been a still more interesting 
 day. It seems that for some time the whole of the 
 British fleet at Portsmouth has been suffering from an 
 epidemic of measles. The fact had been kept out of 
 the papers, and the utmost secrecy was maintained 
 on the subject, lest it might have caused a postpone- 
 ment of the visit. When, however, the German 
 Admiral expressed a wish to study the system of 
 
 nucleus crews of which he had heard so much, he 
 
 8
 
 114 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 had to be told that every ship was a floating hospital 
 into which it would be unsafe to admit our honoured 
 guests. Again, the dockyard authorities had given 
 all the men a holiday to see the foreign fleet 
 Accordingly when Admiral Schneehorst and Lord 
 Delapore arrived at the dockyard, they found that 
 not only all the gates were locked, but that the 
 superintendent had taken away the keys, and was at 
 that moment yaching round the German fleet. Lord 
 Delapore's vexation may be imagined ; the German 
 Admiral only said good humouredly, that he hoped 
 on his return from the Atlantic, he would find the 
 measles cured and the dockyards at work. 
 
 As we are going to press we hear that the German 
 Fleet left the roads at 2 a.m. in two lines ahead. 
 We wish them a pleasant time in the Atlantic, and 
 shall be glad to see them arjain on their way back. 
 
 CITY INTELLIGENCE : 
 
 The Stock Exchange. Slump in Consols. 
 
 Times, March 19. 
 
 Consols had been showing an upward tendency 
 during the last ten days, owing to the failure of any 
 attempt at disturbance on the ist, and a growing
 
 THE GERxMAN MANCKUVRES 115 
 
 belief that nationalisation was being recognised as 
 impossible. Yesterday however, in the afternoon, a 
 peremptory order arrived from Berlin to sell ten 
 millions. No limit was stated ; the order was to sell. 
 Of course the market went to pieces at once. The 
 wildest rumours were flying about. No one knew 
 whether any securities he had were worth anything. 
 It is not known whether there were any buyers. 
 Possibly not. But at any rate, the avalanche is there, 
 all melting, and ready to fall at any moment. If any 
 one cares to buy consols, he can have them now, at 
 any price he likes to name. 
 
 SERIOUS NEWS FROM GUERNSEY. 
 
 k (The Times, March 21.) 
 
 A correspondent in Guernsey sends us most circum- 
 stantial intelligence which, on account of its gravity, 
 we give with all reserve, but exactly as he sends it. 
 He says: On Tuesday morning (17th March) the 
 German Fleet appeared here quite unexpectedly, as we 
 thought it was going on into the Atlantic. It saluted 
 in due form, and after some time spent in looking for 
 blank cartridges we returned the salute. Shortly after- 
 wards a boat put off from the flagship with its captain 
 (Steinbock) bearing a letter from the Admiral to the
 
 lie HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 Lieut.-Governor. It stated that they had put in, as 
 they found that the shipi were short of fresh provisions, 
 and asked if they might be allowed to buy them in the 
 port. Of course an answer was returned in the 
 affirmative. The Lieut.-Governor went out to visit the 
 Admiral, and he returned the visit. Several boats 
 were sent in, and large quantities of supplies of all 
 sorts were bought. The same thing next day (i8th) 
 but several steam launches brought officers and men 
 from various ships, who wandered about the town and 
 surrounding country. The next day (19th) there was 
 a continuous stream of launches, with parties of men 
 each under its own officer, and many of them carrying 
 cases of provisions and tents which they set up where- 
 ever they chose outside the town. The Lieut.- 
 Governor sent his A.U.C. out to the flagship to 
 enquire the meaning of all this, and was informed that 
 the men had been a long time at sea, and as they had 
 not left their ships while at Portsmouth, they had been 
 allowed to run ashore. On this day (20th) the 
 number landing is greater than ever. Tents and 
 provisions and cases, which look suspiciously like arms 
 and ammunition, are still being brought on shore. 
 No men leem to return. The Lieut.-Governor has 
 again sent an A.D.C. to the flag-ship, bearing a 
 civil but firm letter, in which the Admiral is requested
 
 THE GERMAN MANOEUVRES 117 
 
 to order all the men back to their ships. They are 
 beginning to wander about the town and are making 
 themselves very offensive. None of the sailors are 
 armed, but they all bear their long knives, which are 
 quite as formidable as a bayonet. The answer returned 
 is said to be evasive and unsatisfactory. I hear that 
 orders have been sent to the headquarters of the 
 Militia, desiring them to be in readiness in case of any 
 sudden call." 
 
 We seem to be in view of one of those " unforeseen 
 and unimaginable contingencies " which might require 
 the existence of an armed force. 
 
 (The Daily Mail, March 22.) 
 
 » Immediately after reading the alarming news from 
 Guernsey, which appeared in yesterday's "Times," 
 and which was corroborated by private information 
 of our own, we directed one of our representatives to 
 call at the Embassy, 9 Carlton House Terrace, to try 
 and obtain any specific statement from the German 
 Ambassador. At the same time we telegraphed to 
 our reprsentative in Portsmouth to take the Admirals' 
 views on the same subject. We subjoin the state- 
 ments we have received from each. 
 
 I called at the Embassy about 12, and on sending
 
 Ii8 HOW SOCIALIS^f SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 in my card and the object of my visit, was at once 
 received by His Excellency, Baron Munchausen. I 
 found him sitting by the fire in an easy-chair, reading 
 a French novel, and smoking a cigarette. He offered 
 me one which he recommended strongly — it really 
 was very good. He was most polite, almost effusive. 
 Of course he knew what I came about. That absurd 
 letter in the " Times." " You English are sensible but 
 too .suspicious ; too much frightened if you see a mare 
 in a nest. You think every ant-hill a volcano which may 
 blow up. Facts quite simple. Our sailors confined 
 for weeks in ships — going to the Atlantic for weeks — 
 perhaps months — who knows ? They come to a lovely 
 little island belonging to nation friendly, almost ally. 
 They ask leave to go on shore to pull out their legs. 
 What of that? Stores? Why, yes. We bought 
 from your little town everything you could sell. We 
 could not sponge you. Everyone brought his own 
 food and beer. What you call Peek-Neeck. Tents ? 
 Naturally, German sailors do not like to sleep under 
 the beautiful stars. Too many ? How can there be 
 too many friends if there is room for them. 
 Admiral asked to withdraw his men ? Here he 
 he looked rather grave. There your Governor was 
 pas trap poli. How many English are there in 
 Berlin ? Perhaps three thousand. Suppose our
 
 THE GERMAN MANfKUVRES 119 
 
 Kaiser order them all to go away. What would your 
 Mr. Nuts say ? Something terrible no doubt. 
 Perhaps go to war. Don't go to war with us mon 
 chey. Have another cigarette? No? Then good- 
 bye." 
 
 Our Portsmouth correspondent had no difficulty 
 in seeing Lord Delapore, whom he found in a state 
 of great excitement. In referring to the visit of the 
 German Fleet he said : " In India when they want 
 to put a squeeze on a man, the favourite plan is to 
 shut him up in a dark room with a cobra ; that was 
 the way I felt with that Admiral. You never knew 
 what minute he'd spit and strike. Of course the 
 whole visit was merely to spy upon us here. Measles ? 
 Here his lordship had a good laugh. * German 
 measles.' As soon as I heard they were coming, I 
 gave them to the whole fleet by general order. 
 Hoisted the yellow flag on each ship the day the 
 Germans came in, and kept boats rowing about to 
 keep them from infection. Of course they wanted to 
 see the Nucleus crews, or what the Admiralty allowed 
 us. A pack of greasers and deck-swabbers, and ships' 
 housemaids, who could not get a ship to move if they 
 tried, or stop her if she went off by mistake. You 
 suppose I would have let them into the yards, to see 
 a dozen men going about oiling the machinery ? Had
 
 I20 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 the keys in my own bureau for fear any one got at 
 them. I have no doubt the Admiral knew that as 
 well as I did." "What do you think of Guernsey?" 
 •' I think the Admiral never intended to go anywhere 
 else, and never intends to leave it till he is made. If 
 this had happened seven months ago, I should be 
 getting up steam now at the head of my fleet. But I 
 suppose that idiot mechanic up there (this was the 
 disrespectful way in which he spoke of Mr. Carpenter, 
 First Lord of the Admiralty, who really never was a 
 mechanic but only a foreman in a newspaper office) 
 is either wringing his hands in despair, or writing a 
 despatch to the Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, 
 wigging him for his want of brotherly love to the 
 Germans. I have sent him a wire to say that I am 
 sending off the necessary orders to bring all the men 
 back — luckily I know where they all are — and to 
 concentrate the fleet, and that he must countersign 
 everything I tell him to, or I will send up a guard of 
 marines to pull him out of his office, and keep him 
 till the mob wants him. Now you can tell all that to 
 your people."
 
 THE GERMAN MANCEUVERS 121 
 
 WORSE NEWS FROM GUERNSEY. 
 
 (The Times, March 23.) 
 
 The agitation which spread all over the country 
 yesterday in consequence of the news which we 
 published from Guernsey, will be intensified by the 
 far graver intelligence which reached us last night. 
 We publish it exactly as it came, and we are com- 
 pelled to say that several of our contemporaries are 
 publishing this morning stories exactly similar. Our 
 correspondent telegraphs to us : " Matters came to a 
 climax to-day. St. Peter's Port was full of parties of 
 German sailors going into the shops and making 
 purchases, for which they frequently could not pay. 
 They considered it quite enough to give their names 
 and the ship to which they belonged. In the after- 
 noon they crowded into the liquor shops. The first 
 actual disturbance commenced in one where there 
 were some English sailors, who resented the way in 
 which one of the Germans tried to kiss the barmaid. 
 There was a regular scrimmage, which the police tried 
 vainly to stop. More Germans came in. The police 
 drew their batons ; the Germans drew their knives. 
 So did the English sailors. There was a regular hand 
 to hand fight, which was only ended by the arrival of 
 a Company of Militia with fixed bayonets. Then it
 
 122 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 was found that three Germans and two English were 
 fatally wounded, while many others of each nationality 
 were more or less hurt. A number of German officers 
 then came up, and were allowed to take away all their 
 men who were able to walk. Those who could not 
 were taken to the hospital, where the three Germans 
 died in the night. During the evening a succession 
 of boats from the fleet came in, carrying marines fully 
 armed, and some machine guns. What will happen 
 to-morrow no one can imagine." 
 
 (The D.\ily Mail, March 23, 2nd edition). 
 
 We sent our representative again this morning 
 to the German Embassy. He found Baron Mun- 
 chausen's carriage at the door. The attache in 
 waiting seemed in great glee, and said His Excellency 
 was just starting to the Foreign office to see Mr. Nuts. 
 " Our nutslich (useful) Nuts as we call him," but would 
 perhaps spare a few minutes. The Ambassador 
 dressed in most scrupulous attire and with a bundle 
 of papers in his hand, was about to start. He was 
 polite, grave and dignified. " I am just proceeding 
 to see your Foreign Secretary upon this most unfortu- 
 nate affair, which I fear may have the most serious 
 results." Something was said by our representative
 
 THE GERMAN MANCRUVRES 123 
 
 about the barmaid, and a drunken scuffle. The 
 Baron waved all this aside. " That is your story," he 
 said " but not what I have received from our Consul. 
 An organised plot to attack our men. They fought 
 heroically against superior numbers. Your police 
 arrive. Our men suppose to rescue them. The 
 police attack them with clubs. In the midst of the 
 battle our officers arrive. They threaten that our 
 ships shall fire on the town unless our men are given 
 up. So our men are rescued. Many of them are 
 wounded : some dying. It is an outrage on Germany. 
 I have just received my instructions from my Kaiser, 
 which I am to read to your Minister." 
 
 The ingenuity with which a German can always 
 explain away and reconstruct a story is quite worthy 
 of our Gladstone. 
 
 UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. 
 
 (The Evening Owl, March 23). 
 
 The German Ambassador under direct orders from 
 Berlin paid an official visit in the forenoon to the 
 Foreign Secretary, bearing with him the German 
 Consul's report of the sad occurrences at Guernsey, 
 and something very much in the nature of an 
 ultimatum from the German Government. We hear
 
 124 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 something of demands for an apology, a large in- 
 demnity, and a fulfilment of our undertaking, long 
 since made, often repeated, but constantly evaded, 
 that we would leave the Egyptians to their own lawful 
 Government, and to the Suzerainty of the Sultan, as 
 soon as they could be safely left to themselves. 
 
 We fear it will be difficult to resist these demands 
 in principle. The heated statements which appeared 
 this morning in a partisan Press, seem strangely in 
 contrast with the cool official statements made by the 
 German officers and the German Consul, all eye 
 witnesses of the scene. A full, frank, and generous 
 apology will naturally be offered in respect of what 
 appears to have been brutality to our guests, committed 
 by persons who are not our countrymen, but only 
 subject-aliens. As to an indemnity, we shall of course 
 be willing to grant such a liberal compensation as 
 would be awarded by a British jury to the sufferers in 
 the recent riots. Probably a sum of ^10,000 may 
 be found sufficient. Fifty millions which is talked 
 about is of course ridiculous. 
 
 As to Egypt, the German Government, with 
 dignified moderation, demands nothing for itself, and 
 claims nothing from ourselves, except that we should 
 make good our own promises which are recorded in 
 every Chancellery of Europe. If after thirty years of
 
 THE GERMAN MANCEUVRES 125 
 
 our own administration we have not trained Egypt to 
 stand by itself, the world may fairly call upon us to 
 abandon an attempt which we must admit to bo a 
 failure. All these questions, however, will have to 
 be the subject of careful and possibly protracted 
 negotiation, 
 
 (The Evening Standard. 
 
 March 23. Special Edition, 9 p.m.) 
 The fierce indignation which was felt in every 
 quarter of London on receipt of this morning's news 
 from Guernsey, swelled into absolute fury on the 
 appearance of the *' Evening Owl." There we learned 
 how our Foreign Secretary had had an interview with 
 the German Ambassador, in which he believed 
 everything that was asserted by his visitor, and 
 granted everything that was asked. And all this 
 stated with the easy indifference with which a society 
 journal would record how an unexpected proposal had 
 been made and accepted. Only " in principle," no 
 doubt. But on what principle ? Was it poltroonery 
 or imbecility that induced Mr. Nuts to accept at once 
 the " cool official statement " of a German Consul and 
 German officers, as eye witnesses of a contest which 
 was all over long before they arrived, in preference to 
 those of their own countrymen, and police and militia,
 
 126 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 who are put aside unheard ? But Baron Munchausen 
 tells him what to believe, "and surely he is an 
 honourable man," especially when backed up by 
 •• something in the nature of an ultimatum from the 
 Kaiser." So we are to apologise for the results of a 
 quarrel, which every one can see was only the last act 
 of a fraudulent conspiracy, begun and carried out by 
 false pretences. Then we have consented " in 
 principle " to pay, not compensation to the sufferers, 
 but an indemnity to Germany, which Mr. Nuts seems 
 to think will be assessed before the Sheriff's Court 
 and a British jury, like damages in a running down 
 case. Mr. Nuts thinks ^10,000 about the right 
 figure, Baron Munchausen rather leans towards fifty 
 millions. Of course he knows perfectly well that the 
 English Government could not scrape together a 
 million at present. The Stock Exchange coup from 
 Berlin on the i8th settled that. Since the principle 
 is admitted, Germany will no doubt with its " dignified 
 moderation" accept an equivalent. The Channel 
 Islands are gone already, so they won't count. AVhat 
 shall it be ? Perhaps Ceylon, or Singapore, or Hong 
 Kong, which seem still to belong to Great Britain ; 
 or all three. Or perhaps it may be necessary to 
 throw in the Isle of Wight, or the Isle of Man, or 
 both. Who knows? Possibly the Chinese Am-
 
 THE GERMAN MANCPIUVRES 127 
 
 bassador, who knows something about two German 
 missionaries and Kiachao, will be able to help him. 
 
 As to Egypt, that seems to the " Evening Owl," 
 and probably to Mr. Nuts, to be hardly worth 
 mentioning. The German Government, mors suo, 
 demands nothing for itself. It is only gently 
 reminding England of that little bill, accepted by Mr. 
 Gladstone, and so often presented, but always put 
 aside with a smile. But if the English step out of 
 Egypt, who will step in ? Ask General Goltz, who 
 engineered the Hedjaz railway, which has the 
 convenient property of allowing German troops to be 
 thrown on the flank of Egypt without coming under 
 fire of a fleet. Let Mr. Nuts ask any friend in the 
 City (if he has got one) what would become of our 
 trade to the East and our shares in the Suez Canal, if 
 the Germans did step into Egypt, just to protect the 
 Khedive against his own subjects or the Sultan of 
 Turkey. All these considerations no doubt will be 
 weighed in the course of "the careful and possibly 
 protracted negotiations '' which are to reduce the 
 Kaiser's ultimatum to diplomatic form. We should 
 like to see Mr. Nuts struggling with Baron Mun- 
 chausen. We have more than once watched a mouse 
 wriggling in the claws of a cat. 
 
 When, howover, the morning mails arrive and are
 
 J28 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 
 read throughout the length and breadth of Great 
 Britain, and when it is understood that we have been 
 insulted and robbed by our Great Friend, almost our 
 Ally, and that we have been betrayed and degraded 
 by our Foreign Secretary, then, unless we much 
 mistake our countrymen, they will rise and refuse to 
 submit any longer to a Government of incompetent 
 impostors, and will demand that the actors who have 
 played this farce of attempting to rule the Empire, 
 shall be hissed from the stage with scorn. 
 
 COUP D'ETAT 
 
 (The Times, March 24, 2nd edition.) 
 From early yesterday evening London was in a 
 state of rage and panic. Crowds collected in every 
 direction to read and discuss the broadsheets of the 
 " Evening Owl," which were posted up on every 
 available space. Rumours of every sort were abroad. 
 That the German Ambassador had left ; that its fleet 
 had quitted Guernsey ; that German troops had landed 
 at Hull. As night wore on Trafalgar Square was filled 
 with a surging mass, who listened to speakers mounted 
 on every spot to which a man could climb. One 
 orator, who stood on the parapet with his back to the 
 National Gallery, worked his hearers up to a passion
 
 COUP D'ETAT 129 
 
 of excitement, and ended by proposing that they 
 should visit all the Ministers, and serenade them. So 
 the crowd streamed away down Whitehall, and wedged 
 itself into Downing Street, while the foremost 
 hammered with the knocker at the door of No. lo, 
 and broke the bell, and then smashed the windows, 
 and yelled for Perkins and a speech. At last a figure 
 appeared at a window in the second floor, which was 
 said to be the Prime Minister. Just then a shower of 
 glass fell round him, and what he intended to say will 
 never be known. Similar scenes took place wherever 
 the residence of a Minister could be found out. In 
 the afternoon hurried consultations took place between 
 the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Party, 
 and in the evening Mr. Furber is said to have left by 
 Waterloo for some destination not known. About 1 1 
 this morning, two long trains arrived from Aldershot 
 filled with troops. In a first class carriage, were Sir 
 William MacGregor, commanding at Aldershot, his 
 staff, and Mr. Furber. A small party of the troops 
 accompanied by the General, his staff, and Mr. Furber, 
 then proceeded to the Government offices where they 
 turned out the Ministers, and to the House of 
 Commons which they locked up. As if by magic, 
 London was covered with the following poster.
 
 130 HOW SOCIALISM SUCCEEDED IN 1913 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 In five months a Socialist Ministry has reduced the 
 country to poverty, and brought it to the brink of 
 invasion. The nation is not safe in its hands. We 
 have anticipated your will by turning the Ministers 
 out of their offices, and shutting up the House of 
 Commons. A Provisional Government has been 
 formed composed of Lord Nairne, Lord Cranberry, 
 Mr. Furber and Mr. Tennant. The king has tele- 
 graphed that he is returning. On his arrival writs 
 will be issued for a new Parliament. 
 
 Let all men pursue their business peacefully and 
 without fear. 
 
 GOD SAVE THE KING. 
 
 (The Evening Standard, March 24.) 
 
 The startling events of this afternoon have, like the 
 turning of a kaleidoscope, changed the lurid gloom 
 which has been settling upon the public, into hues 
 which, if they are not exactly caerulean, are at all events 
 much brighter than any which have been known for a 
 very long time. The country feels that it is once more 
 in the hands of men whom it can trust. The Socialists 
 themselves, if any one will still allow that he has
 
 THE GERMAN MANCEUVRES 131 
 
 been one, seem to admit that something went wrong 
 with their theories, and that it was better to pull up, 
 and find out the defect. 
 
 We believe that Lord Cranberry's first public act 
 was to sign the passport, which recommended Baron 
 Munchausen to the protection of all Englishmen, 
 official and otherwise, whom he might encounter on 
 his way to the Wilhelmstrasse. He leaves London 
 to-morrow morning for Queenborough, aw route to 
 Flushing. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The foregoing pages fulfil their promise to describe 
 the Socialistic Triumph and how it succeeded. But 
 the closing events opened up an unforseen chapter in 
 the history of Europe of which we must give a brief 
 sketch. 
 
 A couple of days after the German Embassy 
 was left empty, Mr. Robert Davis, late British 
 Ambassador in Berlin, arrived suddenly with his 
 portmanteau and his passport. Out of the former he 
 produced a long despatch addressed to himself, more 
 apparently in sorrow than in anger, in which the 
 German Foreign Secretary detailed the series of 
 insults offered to his Imperial Master, which, as all
 
 132 CONCLUSION 
 
 satisfaction for them had been refused, rendered it 
 impossible to continue any diplomatic relations with 
 our Government. Simultaneously, two or three 
 steamers might have been observed cruising, in a 
 slow and purposeless manner, up and down our 
 eastern coast, and then suddenly — all telegraphic 
 communication between England and the Continent 
 ceased. At the same time all the cross-channel 
 steamers ceased to run, fearing worse things. So we 
 settled down quietly to take stock of our position. 
 
 Until the Wilhelmstrasse gives up its secrets, it 
 will never be known whether the occupation of 
 Guernsey was meant to be an end, or only the means 
 to an end. Whether the massacre of the German 
 sailors was a designed or an undesigned coincidence. 
 In any case it is clear that the seizure of the Channel 
 Islands was a blunder. Bismarck would never have 
 done it. It was the one thing which necessarily 
 united all the nations of the world against Germany. 
 France of course could not tolerate such a thorn in 
 her side. No nation which pretended to trade with 
 England, and what nation did not — could endure a 
 change which for the first time made all her 
 commerce pass within reach of German torpedo boats. 
 America certainly could not, nor Japan. Russia 
 followed France. Austro-Hungary and Italy did not
 
 THE GREAT WAR 133 
 
 openly turn from being allies to being enemies, but, 
 in regard to any results that might follow, they 
 assumed the attitude of neutrals, and not very 
 benevolent ones. And so it happened. France and 
 Russia immediately made the spring they had 
 prepared. They declared war. France burst into 
 Alsace, which revolted. Russia burst into Prussian 
 Poland, which revolted. Schleswig-Holstein revolted. 
 America sent her Atlantic fleet to pay a friendly visit 
 to Portsmouth. Admiral Evans was instructed that 
 the United States were at peace with the whole 
 world, but if England asked him for assistance 
 against any one he was to give it. Japan announced 
 that it considered that the Anglo-Japanese Alliance 
 applied to the case which had arisen, as the defeat of 
 England would alter her entire position in the East. 
 
 Nor was the cutting of the wires very wise. It 
 gave us a little trouble, but we could still com- 
 municate through the States and Canada with the 
 whole world, and an almost entirely friendly world. 
 Germany, on the other hand, lost all knowledge of 
 what was going on in England, and cut herself off 
 practically from all communication with the world 
 except in the friendly part of Europe. All coded 
 telegrams were at once forbidden in Great Britain, 
 and the strictest supervision was exercised both here,
 
 134 CONCLUSION 
 
 in the United States and in Canada over all open 
 telegrams. 
 
 The first result of this new state of things was 
 that we were practically relieved from all fear of 
 invasion. Caught as she was in the vice she had 
 so long dreaded, Germany could not spare a regiment 
 to attack us. But she had her fleet, and news which 
 we received from our friends, especially Holland, 
 Denmark and Sweden, showed us that she had 
 determined to make with it the great effort she had 
 so long planned to crush ours. Now or never. 
 Probably she over estimated the effects of the 
 Socialistic policy in weakening our fleet. The 
 wisdom of the Conservative Government, which was 
 overthrown in 191 2, had provided us with a distinct 
 superiority in Dreadnoughts, while as regards all the 
 secondary battleships, as they were now considered, 
 our superiority was overwhelming. The ships were all 
 there. The ammunition, the coals and the stores 
 were there. Thousands of the men had been 
 dismissed, but they were all there too, and streamed 
 back to their ships with wild enthusiasm. The 
 dockyards worked day and night to put every vessel 
 into perfect trim. Within three weeks after the 
 Socialist downfall, Lord Delapore had his whole 
 fleet in hand. And then he watched for news, as
 
 THE BATTLE OF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD 135 
 
 Nelson did to hear that the hostile fleet was putting 
 out from Cadiz. At last it came, and from different 
 sources. The German fleet was beginning to move. 
 Some ships were trickling out through the canal from 
 Kiel. The heavier portion was passing round the 
 Skagerak. 
 
 So on the 15 th of April that part of the English 
 fleet which was to fight the great battle was concen- 
 trated, and on the 17th it started on its way up the 
 North Sea, amid the prayers of a now united nation. 
 It paused abreast of the Yorkshire coast, where it 
 was formed into four great divisions. On the left the 
 fourteen Dreadnoughts. On the right all the other 
 battleships in two lines. These were to lie about 
 thirty miles to the east of the first division, being of 
 course in close wireless communication with it. To 
 the north a cloud of torpedo boats, destroyers, swift 
 cruisers and scouts formed an impenetrable curtain 
 which shut out our opponents from all knowledge of 
 our movements, while it supplied us with the earliest 
 notice of theirs. To the south a powerful squadron of 
 armoured cruisers, which were not able to lie in line 
 with the battleships, but which were able to deal with 
 the disabled or the flying. On the igtli torpedo 
 boats began to fly back. The whole German fleet, in 
 two divisions, was advancing very slowly and cautiously,
 
 136 COxNCLUSIOxN 
 
 as if fearing floating mines. Then our eastern division 
 began to extend itself upward, like a long arm, and 
 then the upper half turned westward at right angles 
 forming as it were a great elbow. Another pause, 
 and then the rest of the light division returned, 
 leaving only a few to decoy the advancing fleet in the 
 right direction. Their present course it was said 
 would lead them straight into the open space between 
 the two English fleets. Another hour and guns 
 began to open to the west. The suspense was almost 
 unendurable, and then a rustling was heard in the 
 electric rooms, and the needles began to tick out 
 their noiseless voices. The voices all gave the same 
 message. "Come at once, due West, full speed." 
 The answers flew back. " Coming, due West, full 
 speed." The bridges called down to the engine rooms. 
 The engines began to throb, and the bent arm, with 
 rapidly increasing speed, began its course to the West. 
 First, smoke was seen on the horizon, then masts and 
 hulls, and then the whole German fleet appeared 
 between us and our Dreadnoughts. Still the angle 
 advanced, and when its leading ship was in touch 
 with the far side of the quadrangle, the trap snapped 
 and the battle began. Here the experience of 
 Tshushima was repeated. The fabric of the great 
 iron castles was practically impregnable. The
 
 THE BATTLE OF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD 137 
 
 destruction was in the light upper works, the masts, 
 funnels and conning towers, in the carnage caused by 
 the shells exploding on the decks, and the continued 
 outbreak of fires. The English shooting was very 
 accurate, and nothing could exceed the coolness and 
 discipline of the men. The Germans began well but 
 their firing soon became loose and wild. It seemed 
 that they were nervous and flurried. They had not 
 the memories of four hundred years of sea victories. 
 This was the first naval battle in which a German 
 fleet had ever engaged. The men saw that they 
 were outnumbered, and suspected that they were out- 
 manoeuvred. The fight raged for about five hours 
 and then died away, leaving a sea covered with ships 
 most of them disabled, and all of them with their 
 * decks streaming with blood, and dotted with corpses. 
 But the victory was won, and it was won by the 
 English. Of the entire German fleet hardly any 
 escaped. 
 
 Meanwhile the great German liners, whose paths 
 traced on an ocean map of the world seem like a 
 spider's web, were being rapidly captured. In the 
 whole Far East they had not a single friendly port. 
 Kiachao was captured by the English admiral on the 
 China station at the first news of the war. If a 
 
 German ship took refuge in a Chinese neutral port it 
 
 10
 
 138 CONCLUSION 
 
 soon found that Germany was neither loved nor 
 feared. It could get no coal, and was ordered out 
 to sea at the end of 24 hours. The Red Sea and the 
 Mediterranean were mere traps. If a hunted ship 
 put in at any German Colony in Africa it found the 
 English flag floating there already. In the Atlantic 
 it was still worse. The Americans had joined in the 
 war as soon as it was declared, and .took a delight in 
 adding the great German racers to their mercantile 
 fleet. In less than two months the German flas 
 had disappeared. 
 
 On land the German armies were in their element, 
 and they fought magnificently, and won some battles, 
 but they were steadily out-numbered and worn down. 
 Saxony and Bavaria had little heart in a contest for 
 objects which did not concern them, and on which 
 they had not been consulted. The internal condition 
 of Germany was becoming desperate. Its colonies 
 had gone, its ports were empty, its commerce was 
 dwindling, its factories were idle, its workmen were 
 starving, and its treasury was empty. Money could 
 only be borrowed from German bankers, and they 
 would lend nothing to continue a war which they 
 considered hopeless. So peace was accepted " in 
 principle." At the Congress which sat in Paris to 
 determine on what terms it could be granted. His
 
 RETURN OF THE KING 139 
 
 Excellency Baron Munchausen sat next an English 
 Foreign Secretary who did not resemble Mr. Nuts. 
 
 Three days after the Tower guns had been fired in 
 honour of the Victory of Flamborough Head, they 
 roared out a welcome to King Edward. He had 
 travelled from India by Japan and Vancouver and 
 reached Euston on the 23rd of April. He was 
 received at the station by all the friends to whom he 
 had said au revoir on the 19th Oct. He was bronzed 
 with health by his long sea voyage, and radiant with 
 delight at the news which had greeted him at every 
 stage of his journey. His welcome by the crowds 
 which choked the streets the whole way from Euston 
 to Buckingham Palace was more than rapturous, it 
 was delirious. The men huzzaed, the women wept, 
 and the children were held high above their fathers' 
 heads to clap hands for the King. 
 
 The End 
 
 W. JoLi.Y & Sons Printers, Aberdebn
 
 UNIVEP'^'Ty '"■'^ r* * T 'vni»>^iA. 
 
 IjiJSd t-i i^ <., \.^ lj L.O 
 
 LIBRARY
 
 ^ % 
 
 4( 3 > »•
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 kM 
 
 9tp$ 
 
 u»^ 
 
 NOV 04 J984 
 
 L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)444 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF C.^i^irutiPnx 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS AM(ac>i.£JS 
 TTRRARV
 
 3 1158 00969 9 
 
 1 If ^rn "HFR', RFr.ir,'.;. ' -rrarv r;."'i ■"■ 
 
 AA 000 388 648 8 
 
 H