Volume II Part 11 (1/2)
This is a little disappointing. And it means, of course, that we are likely to have periodical earthquakes like this present one till some radical change come. Republics have their faults, no doubt. But they have at least this virtue: that no country where the people really have the control of their government is likely to start out deliberately on any war of conquest--is not likely to run amuck--and will not regard its population as mere food for sh.e.l.l and powder.
Nor do I believe that our example of our government has, relatively to our strength and wealth and population, as much influence in the world as we had one hundred years ago. Our people have no foreign consciousness and I know that our government knows almost nothing about European affairs; nor do our people know. As regards foreign affairs our government lacks proper machinery. Take this as an ill.u.s.tration: The President wrote vigorous and proper notes about the _Lusitania_ and took a firm stand with Germany. Germany has paid no attention to the _Lusitania_ outrage. Yet (as I understand it) the people will not run the risk of war--or the Administration thinks they will not--and hence the President can do nothing to make his threat good. Therefore we stand in a ridiculous situation; and n.o.body cares how many notes we write. I don't know that the President could have done differently--unless, before he sent the _Lusitania_ notes, he had called Congress together and submitted his notes to Congress. But, as the matter stands, the Germans are merely encouraged to blow up factories and practically to carry on war in the United States, because they know we can (or will) do nothing. Mere notes break n.o.body's skin.
We don't seem to have any machinery to bring any influence to bear on foreign governments or on foreign opinion; and, this being so, it is little wonder that the rest of the world does not follow our republican example.
And this sort of impotence in influence has curious effects at home. For example, the s.h.i.+p-purchase bill, as it was at the last session of Congress, was an economic crime. See what has happened: We have waked up to the fact that we must have a big navy. Well, a navy is of no far-fighting value unless we have auxiliary s.h.i.+ps and a lot of 'em. Admiral Jellicoe has 3,000 s.h.i.+ps under his command; and he couldn't keep his fleet on the job if he didn't have them.
Most of them are commandeered merchant, pa.s.senger, and fis.h.i.+ng s.h.i.+ps. Now we haven't merchant, pa.s.senger, and fis.h.i.+ng s.h.i.+ps to commandeer. We've got to build and buy auxiliary s.h.i.+ps to our navy.
This, to my mind, makes the new s.h.i.+p-purchase bill, or something like it, necessary. Else our navy, when it comes to the scratch, will be of no fighting value, however big it be. It's the price we've got to pay for not having built up a merchant marine. And we haven't built up a merchant marine because we've had no foreign consciousness. While our Irishmen have been leading us to twist the Lion's tail, we've been depending almost wholly on English s.h.i.+ps--and, in late years, on German s.h.i.+ps. You can't cross the ocean yet in a decent American s.h.i.+p. You see, we've declared our independence; and, so far as individual development goes, we've worked it out. But the governmental machinery for maintaining it and for making it visible to the world--we've simply neglected to build it or to shape it. Hence the President's notes hurt n.o.body and accomplish nothing; nor could our navy put up a real fight, for lack of colliers and supply s.h.i.+ps. It's the same way all around the horizon. And these are the reasons we haven't made our democracy impress the world more.
A democracy is not a quick-trigger war-engine and can't be made into one. When the quick-trigger engines get to work, they forget that a democracy does not consider fighting the first duty of man.
You can bend your energies to peaceful pursuits or you can bend them to war. It's hard to do both at the same time. The Germans are the only people who have done both at the same time; and even they didn't get their navy big enough for their needs.
When the infernal thing's over--that'll be a glad day; and the European world won't really know what it has cost in men and money and loss of standards till it is over....
Affectionately,
W.H.P.
_To Walter H. Page, Jr._[32].
London, Christmas, 1915.
SIR:
For your first Christmas, I have the honour to send you my most affectionate greetings; and in wis.h.i.+ng you all good health, I take the liberty humbly to indicate some of the favours of fortune that I am pleased to think I enjoy in common with you.
_First_--I hear with pleasure that you are quite well content with yourself--not because of a reasoned conviction of your own worth, which would be mere vanity and unworthy of you, but by reason of a philosophical disposition. It is too early for you to bother over problems of self-improvement--as for me it is too late; wherefore we are alike in the calm of our self-content. What others may think or say about us is a subject of the smallest concern to us.
Therefore they generally speak well of us; for there is little satisfaction in speaking ill of men who care nothing for your opinion of them. Then, too, we are content to be where we happen to be--a fact that we did not order in the beginning and need not now concern ourselves about. Consider the eternal coming and going of folk. On every road many are travelling one way and an equal number are travelling the other way. It is obvious that, if they were all content to remain at the places whence they set forth, the distribution of the population would be the same. Why therefore move hither and yon at the cost of much time and labour and money, since nothing is accomplished thereby? We spare ourselves by being content to remain where we are. We thereby have the more time for reflection. Nor can we help observing with a smile that all persons who have good reasons to see us themselves make the necessary journey after they discover that we remain fixed.
Again, people about us are continually doing this service and that for some other people--running errands, mending fences, bearing messages, building, and tearing down; and they all demand equal service in return. Thus a large part of mankind keeps itself in constant motion like bubbles of water racing around a pool at the foot of a water-fall--or like rabbits hurrying into their warrens and immediately hurrying out again. Whereas, while these antics amuse and sadden us, we for the most part remain where we are.
Hence our wants are few; they are generally most courteously supplied without our asking; or, if we happen to be momentarily forgotten, we can quickly secure anything in the neighbourhood by a little judicious squalling. Why, then, should we whirl as bubbles or scurry as rabbits? Our conquering self-possession gives a masterful charm to life that the victims of perpetual locomotion never seem to attain.
You have discovered, and my experience confirms yours, that a perpetual self-consciousness brings most of the misery of the world. Men see others who are richer than they; or more famous, or more fortunate--so they think; and they become envious. You have not reached the period of such empty vanity, and I have long pa.s.sed it. Let us, therefore, make our mutual vows not to be disturbed by the good luck or the good graces of others, but to continue, instead, to contemplate the contented cat on the rug and the unenvious sky that hangs over all alike.
This mood will continue to keep our lives simple. Consider our diet. Could anything be simpler or better? We are not even tempted by the poisonous victuals wherewith mankind destroys itself. The very first sound law of life is to look to the belly; for it is what goes into a man that ruins him. By avoiding murderous food, we may hope to become centenarians. And why not? The golden streets will not be torn up and we need be in no indecent haste to travel even on them. The satisfactions of this life are just beginning for us; and we shall be wise to endure this world for as long a period as possible.
And sleep is good--long sleep and often; and your age and mine permit us to indulge in it without the sneers of the lark or the c.o.c.k or the dawn.
I pray you, sir, therefore, accept my homage as the philosopher that you are and my a.s.surance of that high esteem indicated by my faithful imitation of your virtues. I am,
With the most distinguished consideration, With the sincerest esteem, and With the most affectionate good wishes, Sir, Your proud, Humble, Obedient GRANDDADDY.
To Master Walter Hines Page,
On Christmas, 1915.