Review of the Book

The World Storm and Beyond,
by Edwin D. Schoonmaker

Edward P. Ingersoll

[Reprinted from the Single Tax Review, July-August 1915]

This is a series of essays on the great European war, its causes and probable consequences.

The author traces the spread of militarism northward from the days of Julius Caesar and Imperial Rome, through France and Bonaparte to the German Kaiser and the Russian Czar. The Kaiser, he intimates, may be an unconscious instrument for the furtherance of those democratic ideas which were undermining his throne when the war was precipitated. Whether militarism will finally take refuge in Russia, the only great power further north, remains to be seen. Germany he regards as a dual monarchy as much as Austro-Hungary, the military machine being imposed upon the Socialistic people, who really represent the modem projection of the ideas of the French Revolution. Karl Marx he calls the Rousseau of the Revolution beyond the Rhine, and the tremendous military machine, he thinks, was maintained as much to hold these two antagonistic parts together as to foster Pan-Americanism in Europe. The German people, if they did but know it, are in the throes of an internal revolution. The free institutions across the Rhine seem likely to be extended to them while the wonderful social and industrial progress of Germany bids fair to spread throughout Europe.

Whatever the outcome of the present war the author thinks the future belongs to Russia. She is a true cosmopolitan, ever eager to learn from other civilizations. But Russia dreams of the sea. "The open sea is the open mind. The oceans are civilization." The great nations of the earth are those that have conquered the oceans and so Russia has longed for ports, but all the other nations have opposed her ambitions even at the price of war. Europe has looked down upon Russia, but unjustly. Democracy means something more than government and the Russian people, in spite of their Czar and their bureaucracy, are democratic and this quality of the people will finally assert itself in the government. The centre of the real Russian life is the village, not Petrograd, and the Russian village is a democracy similar to the Saxon village of early England. In England excessive individualism has brought poverty while the Russian lends himself readily to cooperation.

In England the baron has absorbed the property of the commume while in Russia the commune has absorbed the property of the baron. In the so-called civilized nations the miseries of the people are due to government and can only be remedied by a social revolution, while in Russia they can be changed by popular education in normal development. The Saxon mind is obsessed with politics but the Russian sees things more in their social aspect. The plutocratic aristocracy which is the curse of the Germanic people is traced back by the author to the gilds. The Russian institution known as the Artel he finds a true and native cooperative movement which is indigenous to Russia and may be taken as an indication of what the people will accomplish when they finally began to move. Already the artels are entering the manufacturing field with the sanction of the autocratic government. The ruling house in Russia is half German and many of the influences that have worked harm to the Russian people during the past 200 years are Germanic in their origin. The true voice of the Russian people is found in Tolstoi.

There are two classes of wars, says the author, wars of conquest or personal ambition, and wars of [unreadable] need. The land holdings of a people individually are generally in inverse ratio to the land holdings of their State; or, in other words, as the State begins to win the world the people of that State begin to lose their own farms. We have not perceived this patent truth because we read history for cultural, not for ethical reasons. In other matters we progress, but in the land problem we seem to learn nothing from past experience. The author finds a close parallel between ancient Rome and modem Britain in the policy of world conquest and contrasting domestic misery. He thinks it is open to question if it would not have been better for the people of England if Napoleon had conquered their land. "Once let England's foreign trade be menaced and the Island Kingdom faces the dilemma, Circuses or Land." While England has been developing extensively, Germany has been developing intensively. Two tremendous social experiments have been going on, the extensive and the intensive, provinces, and acres, world dominion and individual efficiency, and now confront each other across the Straits of Dover.

We cannot fairly judge a State unless we know something of the relation of its people to its land, for free institutions depend for permanency upon this relation. England today finds herself in a dilemma. There is not one argument which the Liberal Party has used against the landlords of England that cannot be used by Germany against England herself, as most of her foreign possessions were acquired by the sword. Why is England entitled to ten times more of the earth's surface than Germany? "Landlordism, no less than militarism, is one of the problems that must be solved by this war if permanent peace is to come. Any talk of disarmament that does not provide also for the disarmament of the land- lord is a mere band3ring of useless words." Landlordism is the cause of militarism and judging as between Germany and England the effects of the former are the worse of the two.

A plea for a federation of European States next follows, the example of the United States being brought forward as an historical precedent. No choice is possible except between this and imperialism. Germany's experiment in world empire is the sixth that has cursed Europe. Why did Germany not read history aright? Will Europe leave the task of federation to Russia? Whatever the failings of the United States may be we have at least solved the problem of the unification of States although our problem is simplified by a common language, whereas in Europe there are at least three distinct races to be conciliated - Latin, Teutonic and Slavonic. The political work of the Anglo-Saxon will probably be regarded as his chief contribution to the future civilization. All the energies of the European nations have been directed toward co- operation for war and not for peace.

He questions whether the set-back given by the war to Socialism is permanent and regards the spirit of Socialism, which is nothing but co-operation or mass effort, as an old and gradually growing principle, which, manifesting itself most strongly in war, is bound to spread its influences through all the phases of human life. Why has the machinery of death been socialized while the machinery of life remains competitive? Even the class struggle disappears in war. In the present war we have the most perfect example of the efficiency of Socialism the world has ever seen. Any wide social struggle that is attended by great suffering is war. For the first time in Europe Socialism is being heard and actually seen in operation. Our war system is centuries ahead of our peace system. During war a nation is a society; during peace it is an aggregate of individuals. Sooner or later Peace will have to go to school to War to learn how to care for men.

The author draws a very instructive picture of the altruism of the generals who are leading the great armies in this war, contrasted with the greed of the captains of industry. What would one of these military leaders say if he were offered a tent and paraphernalia furnished with Oriental luxury by money taken from the wages of the common soldiers? This spirit of comradeship more than anything else we need if we are to put an end to the barbarism of peace.

One legacy of the past which should be newly assessed as a result of this war is culture. The scholar instead of the priest has become the father confessor of the nations. Culture is a new religion emploring all the instruments of the Dark Ages for its spread. How incongruous, a cultural crusade in an era of democracy! Germany has not emancipated herself from the medievalism of her universities where human values are ignored entirely or are considered of secondary importance.

One chapter of this interesting work is devoted to the "Moral Failure of Efficiency." We have mistaken literacy for education. Literacy is the sop which our comfortable society throws to democracy. We are blind to the inner forces of life, spiritual paupers. We are turning our schools into workshops. We are living for the present only, for the commercial efficiency that dominates the age. Efficiency produces a workman, education a human being. We are purchasing efficiency at the price of the eternal verities. Germany, the most conspicuous example of efficiency in the modem world, has shown us where it leads if carried to its logical conclusion. The center of our modem system is the factory -- industrialism. The moment a man gives himself up to being a mere part of a great machine he loses sight of the fact that he is a human being. In this respect the workman and the soldier are alike. Each is a mere unit of labor. If our whole superstructure has collapsed it is because our foundation, our educational system, are false. Militarism is simply a militant factory. The factory is simply our educational system at work. These are the three cars in the train of the modem world. Who cannot see that the present catastrophe is the wreck of the whole train?