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diff --git a/old/irpol10.txt b/old/irpol10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b61233 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/irpol10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4213 @@ +Project Gutenberg's National Being, by (A.E.)George William Russell +#2 in our series by (A.E.)George William Russell + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: National Being + Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity + +Author: (A.E.)George William Russell + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8104] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 15, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATIONAL BEING *** + + + + +Produced by Jake Jaqua + + + + +THE NATIONAL BEING Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity--A.E. [George +William Russell] + + + +To The Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett + +A good many years ago you grafted a slip of poetry on your economic +tree. I do not know if you expected a hybrid. This essay may not be +economics in your sense of the word. It certainly is not poetry in my +sense. The Marriage of Heaven and Earth was foretold by the ancient +prophets. I have seen no signs of that union taking place, but I have +been led to speculate how they might be brought within hailing distance +of each other. In my philosophy of life, we are all responsible for the +results of our actions and their effects on others. This book is a +consequence of your grafting operation, and so I dedicate it to you.-- +A.E. + + + + + +I. + + + +In the year nineteen hundred and fourteen Anno Domini, amid a world +conflict, the birth of the infant State of Ireland was announced. Almost +unnoticed this birth, which in other times had been cried over the earth +with rejoicings or anger. Mars, the red planet of war, was in the +ascendant when it was born. Like other births famous in history, the +child had to be hidden away for a time, and could not with pride be +shown to the people as royal children were wont to be shown. Its +enemies were unforgiving, and its friends were distracted with mighty +happenings in the world. Hardly did they know whether it would not be +deformed if it survived: whether this was the Promised, or another +child yet to be conceived in the womb of the Mother of Parliaments. +Battles were threatened between two hosts, secular champions of two +spiritual traditions, to decide its fate. That such a conflict +threatened showed indeed that there was something of iron fibre in the +infant, without which in their make-up individuals or nations do nothing +worthy of remembrance. Hercules wrestled with twin serpents in his +cradle, and there were twin serpents of sectarianism ready to strangle +this infant State of ours if its guardians were not watchful, or if the +infant was not itself strong enough to destroy them. + +It is about the State of Ireland, its character and future, I have here +written some kind of imaginative meditation. The State is a physical +body prepared for the incarnation of the soul of a race. The body of the +national soul may be spiritual or secular, aristocratic or democratic, +civil or militarist predominantly. One or other will be most powerful, +and the body of the race will by reflex action affect its soul, even as +through heredity the inherited tendencies and passions of the flesh +affect the indwelling spirit. Our brooding over the infant State must +be dual, concerned not only with the body but the soul. When we essay +self-government in Ireland our first ideas will, in all probability, be +borrowed from the Mother of Parliaments, just as children before they +grow to have a character of their own repeat the sentiments of their +parents. After a time, if there is anything in the theory of Irish +nationality, we will apply original principles as they are from time to +time discovered to be fundamental in Irish character. A child in the +same way makes discoveries about itself. The mood evoked by picture or +poem reveals a love of beauty; the harsh treatment of an animal +provokes an outburst of pity; some curiosity of nature draws forth the +spirit of scientific inquiry, and so, as the incidents of life reveal +the innate affinities of a child to itself, do the adventures of a +nation gradually reveal to it its own character and the will which is in +it. + +For all our passionate discussions over self-government we have had +little speculation over our own character or the nature of the +civilization we wished to create for ourselves. Nations rarely, if +ever, start with a complete ideal. Certainly we have no national +ideals, no principles of progress peculiar to ourselves in Ireland, +which are a common possession of our people. National ideals are the +possession of a few people only. Yet we must spread them in wide +commonalty over Ireland if we are to create a civilization worthy of our +hopes and our ages of struggle and sacrifice to attain the power to +build. We must spread them in wide commonalty because it is certain +that democracy will prevail in Ireland. The aristocratic classes with +traditions of government, the manufacturing classes with economic +experience, will alike be secondary in Ireland to the small farmers and +the wage-earners in the towns. We must rely on the ideas common among +our people, and on their power to discern among their countrymen the +aristocracy of character and intellect. + +Civilizations are externalizations of the soul and character of races. +They are majestic or mean according to the treasure of beauty, +imagination, will, and thought laid up in the soul of the people. That +great mid-European State, which while I write is at bay surrounded by +enemies, did not arrive at that pitch of power which made it dominant in +Europe simply by militarism. That military power depended on and was +fed by a vigorous intellectual life, and the most generally diffused +education and science existing perhaps in the world. The national being +had been enriched by a long succession of mighty thinkers. A great +subjective life and centuries of dream preceded a great objective +manifestation of power and wealth. The stir in the German Empire which +has agitated Europe was, at its root, the necessity laid on a powerful +soul to surround itself with equal external circumstance. That +necessity is laid on all nations, on all individuals, to make their +external life correspond in some measure to their internal dream. A +lover of beauty will never contentedly live in a house where all things +are devoid of taste. An intellectual man will loathe a disordered +society. + +We may say with certainty that the external circumstances of people are +a measure of their inner life. Our mean and disordered little country +towns in Ireland, with their drink-shops, their disregard of cleanliness +or beauty, accord with the character of the civilians who inhabit them. +Whenever we develop an intellectual life these things will be altered, +but not in priority to the spiritual mood. House by house, village by +village, the character of a civilization changes as the character of the +individuals change. When we begin to build up a lofty world within the +national soul, soon the country becomes beautiful and worthy of respect +in its externals. That building up of the inner world we have +neglected. Our excited political controversies, our playing at +militarism, have tended to bring men's thoughts from central depths to +surfaces. Life is drawn to its frontiers away from its spiritual base, +and behind the surfaces we have little to fall back on. Few of our +notorieties could be trusted to think out any economic or social problem +thoroughly and efficiently. They have been engaged in passionate +attempts at the readjustment of the superficies of things. What we +require more than men of action at present are scholars, economists, +scientists, thinkers, educationalists, and litterateurs, who will +populate the desert depths of national consciousness with real thought +and turn the void into a fullness. We have few reserves of intellectual +life to draw upon when we come to the mighty labor of nation-building. +It will be indignantly denied, but I think it is true to say that the +vast majority of people in Ireland do not know the difference between +good and bad thinking, between the essential depths and the shallows in +humanity. How could people, who never read anything but the newspapers, +have any genuine knowledge of any subject on earth or much imagination +of anything beautiful in the heavens? + +What too many people in Ireland mistake for thoughts are feelings. It is +enough to them to vent like or dislike, inherited prejudices or +passions, and they think when they have expressed feeling they have +given utterance to thought. The nature of our political controversies +provoked passion, and passion has become dominant in our politics. +Passion truly is a power in humanity, but it should never enter into +national policy. It is a dangerous element in human life, though it is +an essential part of our strangely compounded nature. But in national +life it is the most dangerous of all guides. There are springs of power +in ourselves which in passion we draw on and are amazed at their depth +and intensity, yet we do not make these the master light of our being, +but rather those divine laws which we have apprehended and brooded upon, +and which shine with clear and steady light in our souls. As creatures +rise in the scale of being the dominant factor in life changes. In +vegetation it may be appetite; instinct in bird and beast for man a +life at once passionate and intellectual; but the greater beings, the +stars and planets, must wheel in the heavens under the guidance of +inexorable and inflexible law. Now the State is higher in the scale of +being than the individual, and it should be dominated solely by moral +and intellectual principles. These are not the outcome of passion or +prejudice, but of arduous thought. National ideals must be built up +with the same conscious deliberation of purpose as the architect of the +Parthenon conceived its lofty harmony of shining marble lines, or as the +architect of Rheims Cathedral designed its intricate magnificence and +mystery. Nations which form their ideals and marry them in the hurry of +passion are likely to repent without leisure, and they will not be able +to divorce those ideals without prolonged domestic squabbles and public +cleansing of dirty linen. If we are to build a body for the soul of +Ireland it ought not to be a matter of reckless estimates or jerry- +building. We have been told, during my lifetime at least, not to +criticize leaders, to trust leaders, and so intellectual discussion +ceased and the high principles on which national action should be based +became less and less understood, less and less common possessions. The +nation was not conceived of as a democracy freely discussing its laws +but as a secret society with political chiefs meeting in the dark and +issuing orders. No doubt our political chieftains loved their country, +but love has many degrees of expression from the basest to the highest. +The basest love will wreck everything, even the life of the beloved, to +gratify ignoble desires. The highest love conspires with the +imaginative reason to bring about every beautiful circumstance around +the beloved which will permit of the highest development of its life. +There is no real love apart from this intellectual brooding. Men who +love Ireland ignobly brawl about her in their cups, quarrel about her +with their neighbor, allow no freedom of thought of her or service of +her other than their own, take to the cudgel and the rifle, and join +sectarian orders or lodges to ensure that Ireland will be made in their +own ignoble image. Those who love Ireland nobly desire for her the +highest of human destinies. They would ransack the ages and accumulate +wisdom to make Irish life seem as noble in men's eyes as any the world +has known. The better minds in every race, eliminating passion and +prejudice, by the exercise of the imaginative reason have revealed to +their countrymen ideals which they recognized were implicit in national +character. It is such discoveries we have yet to make about ourselves +to unite us to fulfill our destiny. We have to discover what is +fundamental in Irish character, the affections, leanings, tendencies +towards one or more of the eternal principles which have governed and +inspired all great human effort, all great civilizations from the dawn +of history. A nation is but a host of men united by some God-begotten +mood, some hope of liberty or dream of power or beauty or justice or +brotherhood, and until that master idea is manifested to us there is no +shining star to guide the ship of our destinies. + +Our civilization must depend on the quality of thought engendered in the +national being. We have to do for Ireland--though we hope with less +arrogance--what the long and illustrious line of German thinkers, +scientists, poets, philosophers, and historians did for Germany, or what +the poets and artists of Greece did for the Athenians: and that is, to +create national ideals, which will dominate the policy of statesmen, the +actions of citizens, the universities, the social organizations, the +administration of State departments, and unite in one spirit urban and +rural life. Unless this is done Ireland will be like Portugal, or any +of the corrupt little penny-dreadful nationalities which so continually +disturb the peace of the world with internal revolutions and external +brawlings, and we shall only have achieved the mechanism of nationality, +but the spirit will have eluded us. + +What I have written hereafter on the national being, my thoughts on an +Irish polity, are not to be taken as an attempt to deal with more than a +few essentials. I offer it to my countrymen, to start thought and +discussion upon the principles which should prevail in an Irish +civilization. If to readers in other countries the thought appears +primitive or elementary, I would like them to remember that we are at +the beginning of our activity as a nation, and we have yet to settle +fundamentals. Races hoary with political wisdom may look with disdain +on the attempts at political thinking by a new self-governing +nationality, or the theories of civilization discussed about the cradle +of an infant State. To childhood may be forgiven the elemental +character of its thought and its idealistic imaginations. They may not +persist in developed manhood; but if youth has never drawn heaven and +earth together in its imaginations, manhood will ever be +undistinguished. This book only begins a meditation in which, I hope, +nobler imaginations and finer intellects than mine will join hereafter, +and help to raise the soul of Ireland nigher to the ideal and its body +nigher to its soul. + + + + + +II. + + + +The building up of a civilization is at once the noblest and the most +practical of all enterprises, in which human faculties are exalted to +their highest, and beauties and majesties are manifested in multitude as +they are never by solitary man or by disunited peoples. In the highest +civilizations the individual citizen is raised above himself and made +part of a greater life, which we may call the National Being. He enters +into it, and it becomes in oversoul to him, and gives to all his works a +character and grandeur and a relation to the works of his fellow- +citizens, so that all he does conspires with the labors of others for +unity and magnificence of effect. So ancient Egypt, with its temples, +sphinxes, pyramids, and symbolic decorations, seems to us as if it had +been created by one grandiose imagination; for even the lesser +craftsmen, working on the mummy case for the tomb, had much of the +mystery and solemnity in their work which is manifest in temple and +pyramid. So the city States in ancient Greece in their day were united +by ideals to a harmony of art and architecture and literature. Among +the Athenians at their highest the ideal of the State so wrought upon +the individual that its service became the overmastering passion of +life, and in that great oration of Pericles, where he told how the +Athenian ideal inspired the citizens so that they gave their bodies for +the commonwealth, it seems to have been conceived of as a kind of +oversoul, a being made up of immortal deeds and heroic spirits, +influencing the living, a life within their life, molding their spirits +to its likeness. It appears almost as if in some of these ancient +famous communities the national ideal became a kind of tribal deity, +that began first with some great hero who died and was immortalized by +the poets, and whose character, continually glorified by them, grew at +last so great in song that he could not be regarded as less than a demi- +god. We can see in ancient Ireland that Cuchulain, the dark sad man of +the earlier tales, was rapidly becoming a divinity, a being who summed +up in himself all that the bards thought noblest in the spirit of their +race; and if Ireland had a happier history no doubt one generation of +bardic chroniclers after another would have molded that half-mythical +figure into the Irish ideal of all that was chivalrous, tender, heroic, +and magnanimous, and it would have been a star to youth, and the thought +of it a staff to the very noblest. Even as Cuchulain alone at the ford +held it against a host, so the ideal would have upheld the national soul +in its darkest hours, and stood in many a lonely place in the heart. +The national soul in a theocratic State is a god; in an aristocratic +age it assumes the character of a hero; and in a democracy it becomes a +multitudinous being, definite in character if the democracy is a real +social organism. But where the democracy is only loosely held together +by the social order, the national being is vague in character, is a mood +too feeble to inspire large masses of men to high policies in times of +peace, and in times of war it communicates frenzy, panic, and delirium. + +None of our modern States create in us such an impression of being +spiritually oversouled by an ideal as the great States of the ancient +world. The leaders of nations too have lost that divine air that many +leaders of men wore in the past, and which made the populace rumor them +as divine incarnations. It is difficult to know to what to attribute +this degeneration. Perhaps the artists who create ideals are to blame. +In ancient Ireland, in Greece, and in India, the poets wrote about great +kings and heroes, enlarging on their fortitude of spirit, their chivalry +and generosity, creating in the popular mind an ideal of what a great +man was like; and men were influenced by the ideal created, and strove +to win the praise of the bards and to be recrowned by them a second time +in great poetry. So we had Cuchulain and Oscar in Ireland; Hector of +Troy, Theseus in Greece; Yudisthira, Rama, and Arjuna in India, all +bard-created heroes molding the minds of men to their image. It is the +great defect of our modern literature that it creates few such types. +How hardly could one of our modern public men be made the hero of an +epic. It would be difficult to find one who could be the subject of a +genuine lyric. Whitman, himself the most democratic poet of the modern +world, felt this deficiency in the literature of the later democracies, +and lamented the absence of great heroic figures. The poets have dropped +out of the divine procession, and sing a solitary song. They inspire +nobody to be great, and failing any finger-post in literature pointing +to true greatness our democracies too often take the huckster from his +stall, the drunkard from his pot, the lawyer from his court, and the +company promoter from the director's chair, and elect them as +representative men. We certainly do this in Ireland. It is--how many +hundred years since greatness guided us? In Ireland our history begins +with the most ancient of any in a mythical era when earth mingled with +heaven. The gods departed, the half-gods also, hero and saint after +that, and we have dwindled down to a petty peasant nationality, rural +and urban life alike mean in their externals. Yet the cavalcade, for +all its tattered habiliments, has not lost spiritual dignity. There is +still some incorruptible spiritual atom in our people. We are still in +some relation to the divine order; and while that uncorrupted spiritual +atom still remains all things are possible if by some inspiration there +could be revealed to us a way back or forward to greatness, an Irish +polity in accord with national character. + + + + + +III. + + + +In formulating an Irish polity we have to take into account the change +in world conditions. A theocratic State we shall have no more. Every +nation, and our own along with them, is now made up of varied sects, and +the practical dominance of one religious idea would let loose +illimitable passions, the most intense the human spirit can feel. The +way out of the theocratic State was by the drawn sword and was lit by +the martyr's fires. The way back is unthinkable for all Protestant +fears or Catholic aspirations. Aristocracies, too, become impossible as +rulers. The aristocracy of character and intellect we may hope shall +finally lead us, but no aristocracy so by birth will renew its authority +over us. The character of great historic personages is gradually +reflected in the mass. The divine right of kings is followed by the +idea of the divine right of the people, and democracies finally become +ungovernable save by themselves. They have seen and heard too much of +pride and greatness not to have become, in some measure, proud and +defiant of all authority except their own. It may be said the history +of democracies is not one to fill us with confidence, but the truth is +the world has yet to see the democratic State, and of the yet untried we +may think with hope. Beneath the Athenian and other ancient democratic +States lay a substratum of humanity in slavery, and the culture, beauty, +and bravery of these extraordinary peoples were made possible by the +workers in an underworld who had no part in the bright civic life. + +We have no more a real democracy in the world today. Democracy in +politics has in no country led to democracy in its economic life. We +still have autocracy in industry as firmly seated on its throne as +theocratic king ruling in the name of a god, or aristocracy ruling by +military power; and the forces represented by these twain, superseded +by the autocrats of industry, have become the allies of the power which +took their place of pride. Religion and rank, whether content or not +with the subsidiary place they now occupy, are most often courtiers of +Mammon and support him on his throne. For all the talk about democracy +our social order is truly little more democratic than Rome was under the +Caesars, and our new rulers have not, with all their wealth, created a +beauty which we could imagine after-generations brooding over with +uplifted heart. + +The people in theocratic States like Egypt or Chaldea, ruled in the name +of gods, saw rising out of the plains in which they lived an +architecture so mysterious and awe-inspiring that they might well +believe the master-minds who designed the temples were inspired from the +Oversoul. The aristocratic States reflected the love of beauty which is +associated with aristocracies. The oligarchies of wealth in our time, +who have no divine sanction to give dignity to their rule nor traditions +of lordly life like the aristocracies, have not in our day created +beauty in the world. But whatever of worth the ancient systems produced +was not good enough to make permanent their social order. Their +civilizations, like ours, were built on the unstable basis of a vast +working-class with no real share in the wealth and grandeur it helped to +create. The character of his kingdom was revealed in dream to +Nebuchadnezzar by an image with a golden head and feet of clay, and that +image might stand as symbol of the empires the world has known. There +is in all a vast population living in an underworld of labor whose +freedom to vote confers on them no real power, and who are most often +scorned and neglected by those who profit by their labors. Indifference +turns to fear and hatred if labor organizes and gathers power, or makes +one motion of its myriad hands towards the sceptre held by the autocrats +of industry. When this class is maddened and revolts, civilization +shakes and totters like cities when the earthquake stirs beneath their +foundations. Can we master these arcane human forces? Can we, by any +device, draw this submerged humanity into the light and make them real +partners in the social order, not partners merely in the political life +of the nation, but, what is of more importance, in its economic life? +If we build our civilization without integrating labor into its economic +structure, it will wreck that civilization, and it will do that more +swiftly today than two thousand years ago, because there is no longer +the disparity of culture between high and low which existed in past +centuries. The son of the artisan, if he cares to read, may become +almost as fully master of the wisdom of Plato or Aristotle as if he had +been at a university. Emerson will speak to him of his divinity; +Whitman, drunken with the sun, will chant to him of his inheritance of +the earth. He is elevated by the poets and instructed by the +economists. But there are not thrones enough for all who are made wise +in our social order, and failing even to serve in the social heaven +these men will spread revolt and reign in the social hell. They are +becoming too many for higher places to be found for them in the national +economy. They are increasing to a multitude which must be considered, +and the framers of a national polity must devise a life for them where +their new-found dignity of spirit will not be abased. Men no more will +be content under rulers of industry they do not elect themselves than +they were under political rulers claiming their obedience in the name of +God. They will not for long labor in industries where they have no +power to fix the conditions of their employment, as they were not +content with a political system which allowed them no power to control +legislation. Ireland must begin its imaginative reconstruction of a +civilization by first considering that type which, in the earlier +civilizations of the world, has been slave, serf, or servile, working +either on land or at industry, and must construct with reference to it. +These workers must be the central figures, and how their material, +intellectual, and spiritual needs are met must be the test of value of +the social order we evolve. + + + + + +IV. + + + +In Ireland we begin naturally our consideration of this problem with the +folk of the country, pondering all the time upon our ideal--the linking +up of individuals with each other and with the nation. Since the +destruction of the ancient clans in Ireland almost every economic factor +in rural life has tended to separate the farmers from each other and +from the nation, and to bring about an isolation of action; and that +was so until the movement for the organization of agriculture was +initiated by Sir Horace Plunkett and his colleagues in that patriotic +association, the Irish Agricultural Organization Society. Though its +actual achievement is great; though it may be said to be the pivot +round which Ireland has begun to swing back to its traditional and +natural communism in work, we still have over the larger part of Ireland +conditions prevailing which tend to isolate the individual from the +community. + +When we examine rural Ireland, outside this new movement, we find +everywhere isolated and individualistic agricultural production, served +with regard to purchase and sale by private traders and dealers, who are +independent of economic control from the consumers or producers, or the +State. The tendency in the modern world to conduct industry in the +grand manner is not observable here. The first thing which strikes one +who travels through rural Ireland is the immense number of little shops. +They are scattered along the highways and at the crossroads; and where +there are a few families together in what is called a village, the +number of little shops crowded round these consumers is almost +incredible. What are all these little shops doing? They are supplying +the farmers with domestic requirements: with tea, sugar, flour, oil, +implements, vessels, clothing, and generally with drink. Every one of +them almost is a little universal provider. Every one of them has its +own business organization, its relations with wholesale houses in the +greater towns. All of them procure separately from others their bags of +flour, their barrels of porter, their stocks of tea, sugar, raisins, +pots, pans, nails, twine, fertilizers, and what not, and all these +things come to them paying high rates to the carriers for little loads. +The trader's cart meets them at the station, and at great expense the +necessaries of life are brought together. In the world-wide +amalgamation of shoe-makers into boot factories, and smithies into +ironworks, which is going on in Europe and America, these little shops +have been overlooked. Nobody has tried to amalgamate them, or to +economize human effort or cheapen the distribution of the necessaries of +life. This work of distribution is carried on by all kinds of little +traders competing with each other, pulling the devil by the tail; doing +the work economically, so far as they themselves are concerned, because +they must, but doing it expensively for the district because they cannot +help it. They do not serve Ireland well. The genius of amalgamation and +organization cannot afford to pass by these shops, which spring up in +haphazard fashion, not because the country needs them, but because +farmers or traders have children to be provided for. To the ignorant +this is the easiest form of trade, and so many are started in life in +one of these little shops after an apprenticeship in another like it. +These numerous competitors of each other do not keep down prices. They +increase them rather by the unavoidable multiplication of expenses; and +many of them, taking advantage of the countryman's irregularity of +income and his need for credit, allow credit to a point where the small +farmer becomes a tied customer, who cannot pay all he owes, and who +therefore dares not deal elsewhere. These agencies for distribution do +not by their nature enlarge the farmer's economic knowledge. His vision +beyond them to their sources of supply is blocked, and in this respect +he is debarred from any unity with national producers other than his own +class. + +Let us now for a little consider the small farmer around whom have +gathered these multitudinous little agencies of distribution. What kind +of a being is he? We must deal with averages, and the small farmer is +the typical Irish countryman. The average area of an Irish farm is +twenty-five acres or thereabouts. There are hundreds of thousands who +have more or less. But we can imagine to ourselves an Irish farmer with +twenty-five acres to till, lord of a herd of four or five cows, a drift +of sheep, a litter of pigs, perhaps a mare and foal: call him Patrick +Maloney and accept him as symbol of his class. We will view him outside +the operation of the new co-operative policy, trying to obey the command +to be fruitful and replenish the earth. He is fruitful enough. There +is no race suicide in Ireland. His agriculture is largely traditional. +It varied little in the nineteenth century from the eighteenth, and the +beginnings of the twentieth century show little change in spite of a +huge department of agriculture. His butter, his eggs, his cattle, +horses, pigs, and sheep are sold to local dealers. He rarely knows +where his produce goes to--whether it is devoured in the next county or +is sent across the Channel. It might be pitched into the void for all +he knows about its destiny. He might be described almost as the +primitive economic cave-man, the darkness of his cave unillumined by any +ray of general principles. As he is obstructed by the traders in a +general vision of production other than his own, so he is obstructed by +these dealers in a general vision of the final markets for his produce. +His reading is limited to the local papers, and these, following the +example of the modern press, carefully eliminate serious thought as +likely to deprive them of readers. But Patrick, for all his economic +backwardness, has a soul. The culture of the Gaelic poets and story- +tellers, while not often actually remembered, still lingers like a +fragrance about his mind. He lives and moves and has his being in the +loveliest nature, the skies over him ever cloudy like an opal; and the +mountains flow across his horizon in wave on wave of amethyst and pearl. +He has the unconscious depth of character of all who live and labor much +in the open air, in constant fellowship with the great companions--with +the earth and the sky and the fire in the sky. We ponder over Patrick, +his race and his country, brooding whether there is the seed of a +Pericles in Patrick's loins. Could we carve an Attica out of Ireland? + +Before Patrick can become the father of a Pericles, before Ireland can +become an Attica, Patrick must be led out of his economic cave: his low +cunning in barter must be expanded into a knowledge of economic law--his +fanatical concentration on his family--begotten by the isolation and +individualism of his life--be sublimed into national affections; his +unconscious depths be sounded, his feeling for beauty be awakened by +contact with some of the great literature of the world. His mind is +virgin soil, and we may hope that, like all virgin soil, it will be +immensely fruitful when it is cultivated. How does the policy of +co-working make Patrick pass away from his old self? We can imagine him +as a member of a committee getting hints of a strange doctrine called +science from his creamery manager. He hears about bacteria, and these +dark invisibles replace, as the cause of bad butter-making, the wicked +fairies of his childhood. Watching this manager of his society he learns +a new respect for the man of special or expert knowledge. Discussing +the business of his association with other members he becomes something +of a practical economist. He knows now where his produce goes. He +learns that he has to compete with Americans, Europeans, and Colonials-- +indeed with the farmers of the world, hitherto concealed from his view +by a mountainous mass of middle-men. He begins to be interested in +these countries and reads about them. He becomes a citizen of the +world. His horizon is no longer bounded by the wave of blue hills +beyond his village. The roar of the planet begins to sound in his ears. +What is more important is that he is becoming a better citizen of his +own country. He meets on his committee his religious and political +opponents, not now discussing differences out identities of interest. +He also meets the delegates from other societies in district conferences +or general congresses, and those who meet thus find their interests are +common, and a new friendliness springs up between North and South, and +local co-operation leads on to national co-operation. The best +intellects, the best business men in the societies, meet in the big +centres as directors of federations and wholesales, and they get an all- +Ireland view of their industry. They see the parish from the point of +view of the nation, and this vision does not desert them when they go +back to the parish. They realize that their interests are bound up with +national interests, and they discuss legislation and administration with +practical knowledge. Eyes getting keener every year, minds getting more +instructed, begin to concentrate on Irish public men. Presently Patrick +will begin to seek for men of special knowledge and administrative +ability to manage Irish affairs. Ireland has hitherto been to Patrick a +legend, a being mentioned in romantic poetry, a little dark Rose, a +mystic maiden, a vague but very simple creature of tears and aspirations +and revolts. He now knows what a multitudinous being a nation is, and in +contact with its complexities Patrick's politics take on a new gravity, +thoughtfulness, and intellectual character. + +Under the influence of these associations and the ideas pervading them +our typical Irish farmer gets drawn out of his agricultural sleep of the +ages, developing rapidly as mummy-wheat brought out of the tomb and +exposed to the eternal forces which stimulate and bring to life. I have +taken an individual as a type, and described the original circumstance +and illustrated the playing of the new forces on his mind. It is the +only way we can create a social order which will fit our character as +the glove fits the hand. Reasoning solely from abstract principles about +justice, democracy, the rights of man and the like, often leads us into +futilities, if not into dangerous political experiments. We have to see +our typical citizen in clear light, realize his deficiencies, ignorance, +and incapacity, and his possibilities of development, before we can +wisely enlarge his boundaries. The centre of the citizen is the home. +His circumference ought to be the nation. The vast majority of Irish +citizens rarely depart from their centre, or establish those vital +relations with their circumference which alone entitle them to the +privileges of citizenship, and enable them to act with political wisdom. +An emotional relationship is not enough. Our poets sang of a united +Ireland, but the unity they sang of was only a metaphor. It mainly +meant separation from another country. In that imaginary unity men were +really separate from each other. Individualism, fanatically centering +itself on its family and family interests, interfered on public boards +to do jobs in the interests of its kith and kin. The co-operative +movement connects with living links the home, the centre of Patrick's +being, to the nation, the circumference of his being. It connects him +with the nation through membership of a national movement, not for the +political purposes which call on him for a vote once every few years, +but for economic purposes which affect him in the course of his daily +occupations. This organization of the most numerous section of the +Irish democracy into co-operative associations, as it develops and +embraces the majority, will tend to make the nation one and indivisible +and conscious of its unity. The individual, however meagre his natural +endowment of altruism, will be led to think of his community as himself; +because his income, his social pleasures even, depend on the success of +the local and national organizations with which he is connected. The +small farmers of former times pursued a petty business of barter and +haggle, fighting for their own hand against half the world about them. +The farmers of the new generation will grow up in a social order, where +all the transactions which narrowed their fathers' hearts will be +communal and national enterprises. How much that will mean in a change +of national character we can hardly realize, we who were born in an +Ireland where petty individualism was rampant, and where every child had +it borne in upon him that it had to fight its own corner in the world, +where the whole atmosphere about it tended to the hardening of the +personality. + +We may hope and believe that this transformation of the social order +will make men truly citizens thinking in terms of the nation, +identifying national with personal interests. For those who believe +there is a divine seed in humanity, this atmosphere, if any, they may +hope will promote the swift blossoming of the divine seed which in the +past, in favorable airs, has made beauty or grandeur or spirituality the +characteristics of ancient civilizations in Greece, in Egypt, and in +India. No one can work for his race without the hope that the highest, +or more than the highest, humanity has reached will be within reach of +his race also. We are all laying foundations in dark places, putting +the rough-hewn stones together in our civilizations, hoping for the +lofty edifice which will arise later and make all the work glorious. +And in Ireland, for all its melancholy history, we may, knowing that we +are human, dream that there is the seed of a Pericles in Patrick's +loins, and that we might carve an Attica out of Ireland. + + + + + +V. + + + +In Ireland we must of necessity give special thought to the needs of the +countryman, because our main industry is agriculture. We have few big +cities. Our great cities are almost all outside our own borders. They +are across the Atlantic. The surplus population of the countryside do +not go to our own towns but emigrate. The exodus does not enrich +Limerick or Galway, but New York. The absorption of life in great +cities is really the danger which most threatens the modern State with a +decadence of its humanity. In the United States, even in Canada, hardly +has the pioneer made a home in the wilderness when his sons and his +daughters are allured by the distant gleam of cities beyond the plains. +In England the countryside has almost ceased to be the mother of men--at +least a fruitful mother. We are face to face in Ireland with this +problem, with no crowded and towering cities to disguise the emptiness +of the fields. It is not a problem which lends itself to legislative +solution. Whether there be fair rents or no rents at all, the child of +the peasant, yearning for a fuller life, goes where life is at its +fullest. We all desire life, and that we might have it more +abundantly,--the peasant as much as the mystic thirsting for infinite +being,--and in rural Ireland the needs of life have been neglected. + +The chief problem of Ireland--the problem which every nation in greater +or lesser measure will have to solve--is how to enable the country-man, +without journeying, to satisfy to the full his economic, social, +intellectual, and spiritual needs. We have made some tentative efforts. +The long war over the land, which resulted in the transference of the +land from landlord to cultivator, has advanced us part of the way, but +the Land Acts offered no complete solution. We were assured by hot +enthusiasts of the magic of proprietorship, but Ireland has not tilled a +single acre more since the Land Acts were passed. Our rural exodus +continued without any Moses to lead us to Jerusalems of our own. At +every station boys and girls bade farewell to their friends; and hardly +had the train steamed out when the natural exultation of adventure made +the faces of the emigrants glow because the world lay before them, and +human appetites the country could not satisfy were to be appeased at the +end of the journey. + +How can we make the countryside in Ireland a place which nobody would +willingly emigrate from? When we begin to discuss this problem we soon +make the discovery that neither in the new world nor the old has there +been much first-class thinking on the life of the countryman. This will +be apparent if we compare the quality of thought which has been devoted +to the problems of the city State, or the constitution of widespread +dominions, from the days of Solon and Aristotle down to the time of +Alexander Hamilton, and compare it with the quality of thought which has +been brought to bear on the problems of the rural community. + +On the labors of the countryman depend the whole strength and health, +nay, the very existence of society, yet, in almost every country, +politics, economics, and social reform are urban products, and the +countryman gets only the crumbs which fall from the political table. It +seems to be so in Canada and the States even, countries which we in +Europe for long regarded as mainly agricultural. It seems only +yesterday to the imagination that they were colonized, and yet we find +the Minister of Agriculture in Canada announcing a decline in the rural +population in Eastern Canada. As children sprung from the loins of +diseased parents manifest at an early age the same defects in their +constitution, so Canada and the States, though in their national +childhood, seem already threatened by the same disease from which +classic Italy perished, and whose ravages today make Great Britain seem +to the acute diagnoser of political health to be like a fruit--ruddy +without, but eaten away within and rotten at the core. One expects +disease in old age, but not in youth. We expect young countries to sow +their wild oats, to have a few revolutions before they settle down to +national housekeeping; but we are not moved by these troubles--the +result of excessive energy--as we are by symptoms of premature decay. +No nation can be regarded as unhealthy when a virile peasantry, +contented with rural employments, however discontented with other +things, exists on its soil. The disease which has attacked our great +populations here and in America is a discontent with rural life. +Nothing which has been done hitherto seems able to promote content. It +is true, indeed, that science has gone out into the fields, but the +labors of the chemist, the bacteriologist, and the mechanical engineer +are not enough to ensure health. What is required is the art of the +political thinker, the imagination which creates a social order and +adjusts it to human needs. The physician who understands the general +laws of human health is of more importance to us here than the +specialist. The genius of rural life has not yet appeared. We have no +fundamental philosophy concerning it, but we have treasures of political +wisdom dealing with humanity as a social organism in the city States or +as great nationalities. It might be worth while inquiring to what +extent the wisdom of a Solon, an Aristotle, a Rousseau, or an Alexander +Hamilton might be applied to the problem of the rural community. After +all, men are not so completely changed in character by their rural +environment that their social needs do not, to a large extent, coincide +with the needs of the townsman. They cannot be considered as creatures +of a different species. Yet statesmen who have devoted so much thought +to the constitution of empires and the organization of great cities, who +have studied their psychology, have almost always treated the rural +problem purely as an economic problem, as if agriculture was a business +only and not a life. + +Our great nations and widespread empires arose in a haphazard fashion +out of city States and scattered tribal communities. The fusion of +these into larger entities, which could act jointly for offence or +defense, so much occupied the thoughts of their rulers that everything +else was subordinated to it. As a result, the details of our modern +civilizations are all wrong. There is an intensive life at a few great +political or industrial centres, and wide areas where there is +stagnation and decay. Stagnation is most obvious in rural districts. +It is so general that it has been often assumed that there was something +inherent in rural life which made the countryman slow in mind as his own +cattle. But this is not so, as I think can be shown. There is no +reason why as intense, intellectual, and progressive a life should not +be possible in the country as in the towns. The real reason for the +stagnation is that the country population is not organized. We often +hear the expression, "the rural community," but where do we find rural +communities? There are rural populations, but that is altogether a +different thing. The word "community" implies an association of people +having common interests and common possessions, bound together by laws +and regulations which express these common interests and ideals, and +define the relation of the individual to the community. Our rural +populations are no more closely connected, for the most part, than the +shifting sands on the seashore. Their life is almost entirely +individualistic. There are personal friendships, of course, but few +economic or social partnerships. Everybody pursues his own occupation +without regard to the occupation of his neighbors. If a man emigrates +it does not affect the occupation of those who farm the land all about +him. They go on ploughing and digging, buying and selling, just as +before. They suffer no perceptible economic loss by the departure of +half-a-dozen men from the district. A true community would, of course, +be affected by the loss of its members. A co-operative society, if it +loses a dozen members, the milk of their cows, their orders for +fertilizers, seeds, and feeding-stuffs, receives serious injury to its +prosperity. There is a minimum of trade below which its business cannot +fall without bringing about a complete stoppage of its work and an +inability to pay its employees. That is the difference between a +community and an unorganized population. In the first the interests of +the community make a conscious and direct appeal to the individual, and +the community, in its turn, rapidly develops an interest in the welfare +of the member. In the second, the interest of the individual in the +community is only sentimental, and as there is no organization the +community lets its units slip away or disappear without comment or +action. We had true rural communities in ancient Ireland, though the +organization was rather military than economic. But the members of a +clan had common interests. They owned the land in common. It was a +common interest to preserve it intact. It was to their interest to have +a numerous membership of the clan, because it made it less liable to +attack. Men were drawn by the social order out of merely personal +interests into a larger life. In their organizations they were +unconsciously groping, as all human organizations are, towards the final +solidarity of humanity--the federation of the world. + +Well, these old rural communities disappeared. The greater +organizations of nation or empire regarded the smaller communities +jealously in the past, and broke them up and gathered all the strings of +power into capital cities. The result was a growth of the State, with a +local decay of civic, patriotic, or public feeling, ending in +bureaucracies and State departments, where paid officials, devoid of +intimacy with local needs, replaced the services naturally and +voluntarily rendered in an earlier period. The rural population, no +longer existing as a rural community, sank into stagnation. There was no +longer a common interest, a social order turning their minds to larger +than individual ends. Where feudalism was preserved, the feudal chief, +if the feeling of noblesse oblige was strong, might act as a centre of +progress, but where this was lacking social decay set in. The +difficulty of moving the countryman, which has become traditional, is +not due to the fact that he lives in the country, but to the fact that +he lives in an unorganized society. If in a city people want an art +gallery or public baths or recreation grounds, there is a machinery +which can be set in motion; there are corporations and urban councils +which can be approached. If public opinion is evident--and it is easy +to organize public opinion in a town--the city representatives will +consider the scheme, and if they approve and it is within their power as +a council, they are able to levy rates to finance the art gallery, +recreation grounds, public gardens, or whatever else. Now let us go to +a country district where there is no organization. It may be obvious to +one or two people that the place is perishing and the intelligence of +its humanity is decaying, lacking some centre of life. They want a +village hall, but how is it to be obtained? They begin talking about it +to this person or that. They ask these people to talk to their friends, +and the ripples go out weakening and widening for months, perhaps for +years. I know of districts where this has happened. There are hundreds +of parishes in Ireland where one or two men want co-operative societies +or village halls or rural libraries. They discuss the matter with their +neighbors, but find a complete ignorance on the subject, and consequent +lethargy. There is no social organism with a central life to stir. +Before enthusiasm can be kindled there must be some knowledge. The +countryman reads little, and it is a long and tedious business before +enough people are excited to bring them to the point of appealing to +some expert to come in and advise. + +More changes often take place within a dozen years after a co-operative +society is first started than have taken place for a century previous. +I am familiar with a district--in the northwest of Ireland. It was a +most wretchedly poor district. The farmers were at the mercy of the +gombeen traders and the agricultural middlemen. Then a dozen years ago +a co-operative society was formed. I am sure that the oldest inhabitant +would agree with me that more changes for the better for farmers have +taken place since the co-operative society was started than he could +remember in all his previous life. The reign of the gombeen man is +over. The farmers control their own buying and selling. Their +organization markets for them the eggs and poultry. It procures seeds, +fertilizers, and domestic requirements. It turns the members' pigs into +bacon. They have a village hall and a woman's organization. They sell +the products of the women's industry. They have a co-operative band, +social gatherings, and concerts. They have spread out into half-a-dozen +parishes, going southward and westward with their propaganda, and in +half-a-dozen years, in all that district, previously without +organization, there will be well-organized farmers' guilds, +concentrating in themselves the trade of their district, having meeting- +places where the opinion of the members can be taken, having a +machinery, committees, and executive officers to carry out whatever may +be decided on: and having funds, or profits, the joint property of the +community, which can be drawn upon to finance their undertakings. It +ought to be evident what a tremendous advantage it is to farmers in a +district to have such organizations, what a lever they can pull and +control. I have tried to indicate the difference between a rural +population and a rural community, between a people loosely knit together +by the vague ties of a common latitude and longitude, and people who are +closely knit together in an association and who form a true social +organism, a true rural community, where the general will can find +expression and society is malleable to the general will. I assert that +there never can be any progress in rural districts or any real +prosperity without such farmers' organizations or guilds. Wherever +rural prosperity is reported of any country inquire into it, and it will +be found that it depends on rural organization. Wherever there is rural +decay, if it is inquired into, it will be found that there was a rural +population but no rural community, no organization, no guild to promote +common interests and unite the countrymen in defense of them. + + + + + +VI. + + + +It is the business of the rural reformer to create the rural community. +It is the antecedent to the creation of a rural civilization. We have +to organize the community so that it can act as one body. It is not +enough to organize farmers in a district for one purpose only--in a +credit society, a dairy society, a fruit society, a bacon factory, or in +a co-operative store. All these may be and must be beginnings; but if +they do not develop and absorb all rural business into their +organization they will have little effect on character. No true social +organism will have been created. If people unite as consumers to buy +together they only come into contact on this one point; there is no +general identity of interest. If co-operative societies are specialized +for this purpose or that--as in Great Britain or on the Continent--to a +large extent the limitation of objects prevents a true social organism +from being formed. The latter has a tremendous effect on human +character. The specialized society only develops economic efficiency. +The evolution of humanity beyond its present level depends absolutely on +its power to unite and create true social organisms. Life in its higher +forms is only possible because of the union of myriads of tiny lives to +form a larger being, which manifests will, intelligence, affection, and +the spiritual powers. The life of the amoeba or any other unicellular +organism is low compared with the life in more complex organisms, like +the ant or bee. Man is the most highly developed living organism on the +globe; yet his body is built up of innumerable cells, each of which +might be described as a tiny life in itself. But they are built up in +man into such a close association that what affects one part of the body +affects all. The pain which the whole being feels if a part is wounded, +if one cell in the human body is hurt, should prove that to the least +intelligent. The nervous system binds all the tiny cells together, and +they form in this totality a being infinitely higher, more powerful, +than the cells which compose it. They are able to act together and +achieve things impossible to the separated cells. Now humanity today +is, to some extent, like the individual cells. It is trying to unite +together to form a real organism, which will manifest higher qualities +of life than the individual can manifest. But very few of the organisms +created by society enable the individual to do this. The joint-stock +companies or capitalist concerns which bring men together at this work +or that do not yet make them feel their unity. Existence under a common +government effects this still less. Our modern states have not yet +succeeded in building up that true national life where all feel the +identity of interest; where the true civic or social feeling is +engendered and the individual bends all his efforts to the success of +the community on which his own depends; where, in fact, the ancient +Greek conception of citizenship is realized, and individuals are created +who are ever conscious of the identity of interest between themselves +and their race. In the old Greek civilizations this was possible +because their States were small, indeed their ideal State contained no +more citizens than could be affected by the voice of a single orator. +Such small States, though they produced the highest quality of life +within themselves, are no longer possible as political entities. We +have to see whether we could not, within our widespread nationalities, +create communities by economic means, where something of the same sense +of solidarity of interest might be engendered and the same quality of +life maintained. I am greatly ambitious for the rural community. But +it is no use having mean ambitions. Unless people believe the result of +their labors will result in their equaling or surpassing the best that +has been done elsewhere, they will never get very far. We in Ireland +are in quest of a civilization. It is a great adventure, the building up +of a civilization--the noblest which could be undertaken by any persons. +It is at once the noblest and the most practical of all enterprises, and +I can conceive of no greater exaltation for the spirit of man than the +feeling that his race is acting nobly; and that all together are +performing a service, not only to each other, but to humanity and those +who come after them, and that their deeds will be remembered. It may +seem a grotesque juxtaposition of things essentially different in +character, to talk of national idealism and then of farming, but it is +not so. They are inseparable. The national idealism which will not go +out into the fields and deal with the fortunes of the working farmers is +false dealism. Our conception of a civilization must include, nay, must +begin with the life of the humblest, the life of the average man or +manual worker, for if we neglect them we will build in sand. The +neglected classes will wreck our civilization. The pioneers of a new +social order must think first of the average man in field or factory, +and so unite these and so inspire them that the noblest life will be +possible through their companionship. If you will not offer people the +noblest and best they will go in search of it. Unless the countryside +can offer to young men and women some satisfactory food for soul as well +as body, it will fail to attract or hold its population, and they will +go to the already overcrowded towns; and the lessening of rural +production will affect production in the cities and factories, and the +problem of the unemployed will get still keener. The problem is not +only an economic problem. It is a human one. Man does not live by cash +alone, but by every gift of fellowship and brotherly feeling society +offers him. The final urgings of men and women are towards humanity. +Their desires are for the perfecting of their own life, and as Whitman +says, where the best men and women are there the great city stands, +though it is only a village. It is one of the illusions of modern +materialistic thought to suppose that as high a quality of life is not +possible in a village as in a great city, and it ought to be one of the +aims of rural reformers to dissipate this fallacy, and to show that it +is possible--not indeed to concentrate wealth in country communities as +in the cities--but that it is possible to bring comfort enough to +satisfy any reasonable person, and to create a society where there will +be intellectual life and human interests. We will hear little then of +the rural exodus. The country will retain and increase its population +and productiveness. Like attracts like. Life draws life to itself. +Intellect awakens intellect, and the country will hold its own tug for +tug with the towns. + +Now it may be said I have talked a long while round and round the rural +community, but I have not suggested how it is to be created. I am coming +to that. It really cannot be created. It is a natural growth when the +right seed is planted. Co-operation is the seed. Let us consider +Ireland. Twenty-five years ago there was not a single co-operative +society in the country. Individualism was the mode of life. Every +farmer manufactured and sold as seemed best in his eyes. It was +generally the worst possible way he could have chosen. Then came Sir +Horace Plunkett and his colleagues, preaching co-operation. A creamery +was established here, an agricultural society there, and having planted +the ideas it was some time before the economic expert could decide +whether they were planted in fertile soil. But that question was +decided many years ago. The co-operative society, started for whatever +purpose originally, is an omnivorous feeder, and it exercises a magnetic +influence on all agricultural activities; so that we now have societies +which buy milk, manufacture and sell butter, deal in poultry and eggs, +cure bacon, provide fertilizers, feeding-stuffs, seeds, and machinery +for their members, and even cater for every requirement of the farmer's +household. This magnetic power of attracting and absorbing to +themselves the various rural activities which the properly constituted +co-operative societies have, makes them develop rapidly, until in the +course of a decade or a generation there is created a real social +organism, where the members buy together, manufacture together, market +together, where finally their entire interests are bound up with the +interests of the community. I believe in half a century the whole +business of rural Ireland will be done co-operatively. This is not a +wild surmise, for we see exactly the same process going on in Denmark, +Germany, Italy, and every country where the co-operative seed was +planted. Let us suppose that in a generation all the rural industries +are organized on co-operative lines, what kind of a community should we +expect to find as the result? How would its members live? What would +be their relations to one another and their community? The agricultural +scientist is making great discoveries. The mechanical engineer goes +from one triumph to another. The chemist already could work wonders in +our fields if there was a machinery for him to work through. We cannot +foretell the developments in each branch, but we can see clearly that +the organized community can lay hold of discoveries and inventions which +the individual farmer cannot. It is little for the co-operative society +to buy expensive threshing sets and let its members have the use of +them, but the individual farmer would have to save a long time before he +could raise several hundred pounds. The society is a better buyer than +the individual. It can buy things the individual cannot buy. It is a +better producer also. The plant for a creamery is beyond the individual +farmer; but our organized farmers in Ireland, small though they are, +find it no trouble to erect and equip a creamery with plant costing two +thousand pounds. The organized rural community of the future will +generate its own electricity at its central buildings, and run not only +its factories and other enterprises by this power, but will supply light +to the houses of its members and also mechanical power to run machinery +on the farm. One of our Irish societies already supplies electric light +for the town it works in. In the organized rural community the eggs, +milk, poultry, pigs, cattle, grain, and wheat produced on the farm and +not consumed, or required for further agricultural production, will +automatically be delivered to the co-operative business centre of the +district, where the manager of the dairy will turn the milk into butter +or cheese, and the skim milk will be returned to feed the community's +pigs. The poultry and egg department will pack and dispatch the fowl +and eggs to market. The mill will grind the corn and return it ground to +the member, or there may be a co-operative bakery to which some of it +may go. The pigs will be dealt with in the abattoir, sent as fresh pork +to the market or be turned into bacon to feed the members. We may be +certain that any intelligent rural community will try to feed itself +first, and will only sell the surplus. It will realize that it will be +unable to buy any food half as good as the food it produces. The +community will hold in common all the best machinery too expensive for +the members to buy individually. The agricultural laborers will +gradually become skilled mechanics, able to direct threshers, binders, +diggers, cultivators, and new implements we have no conception of now. +They will be members of the society, sharing in its profits in +proportion to their wages, even as the farmer will in proportion to his +trade. The co-operative community will have its own carpenters, smiths, +mechanics, employed in its workshop at repairs or in making those things +which can profitably be made locally. There may be a laundry where the +washing--a heavy burden for the women--will be done: for we may be sure +that every scrap of power generated will be utilized. One happy +invention after another will come to lighten the labor of life. There +will be, of course, a village hall with a library and gymnasium, where +the boys and girls will be made straight, athletic, and graceful. In the +evenings, when the work of the day is done, if we went into the village +hall we would find a dance going on or perhaps a concert. There might be +a village choir or band. There would be a committee-room where the +council of the community would meet once a week; for their enterprises +would have grown, and the business of such a parish community might +easily be over one hundred thousand pounds, and would require constant +thought. There would be no slackness on the part of the council in +attending, because their fortunes would depend on their communal +enterprises, and they would have to consider reports from the managers +and officials of the various departments. The co-operative community +would be a busy place. In years when the society was exceptionally +prosperous, and earned larger profits than usual on its trade, we should +expect to find discussions in which all the members would join as to the +use to be made of these profits: whether they should be altogether +divided or what portion of them should be devoted to some public +purpose. We may be certain that there would be animated discussions, +because a real solidarity of feeling would have arisen and a pride in +the work of the community engendered, and they would like to be able to +outdo the good work done by the neighboring communities. + +One might like to endow the village school with a chemical laboratory, +another might want to decorate the village hall with reproductions of +famous pictures, another might suggest removing all the hedges and +planting the roadsides and lanes with gooseberry bushes, currant bushes, +and fruit trees, as they do in some German communes today. There would +be eloquent pleadings for this or that, for an intellectual heat would +be engendered in this human hive, and there would be no more illiterates +or ignoramuses. The teaching in the village school would be altered to +suit the new social order, and the children of the community would, we +may be certain, be instructed in everything necessary for the +intelligent conduct of the communal business. The spirit of rivalry +between one community and another, which exists today between +neighboring creameries, would excite the imagination of the members, and +the organized community would be as swift to act as the unorganized +community is slow to act. Intelligence would be organized as well as +business. The women would have their own associations, to promote +domestic economy, care of the sick and the children. The girls would +have their own industries of embroidery, crochet, lace, dress-making, +weaving, spinning, or whatever new industries the awakened intelligence +of women may devise and lay hold of as the peculiar labor of their sex. +The business of distribution of the produce and industries of the +community would be carried on by great federations, which would attend +to export and sale of the products of thousands of societies. Such +communities would be real social organisms. The individual would be +free to do as he willed, but he would find that communal activity would +be infinitely more profitable than individual activity. We would then +have a real democracy carrying on its own business, and bringing about +reforms without pleading to, or begging of, the State, or intriguing +with or imploring the aid of political middlemen to get this, that, or +the other done for them. They would be self-respecting, because they +would be self-helping above all things. The national councils and +meetings of national federations would finally become the real +Parliament of the nation; for wherever all the economic power is +centered, there also is centered all the political power. And no +politician would dare to interfere with the organized industry of a +nation. + +There is nothing to prevent such communities being formed. They would +be a natural growth once the seed was planted. We see such communities +naturally growing up in Ireland, with perhaps a little stimulus from +outside from rural reformers and social enthusiasts. If this ideal of +the organized rural community is accepted there will be difficulties, of +course, and enemies to be encountered. The agricultural middleman is a +powerful person. He will rage furiously. He will organize all his +forces to keep the farmers in subjection, and to retain his peculiar +functions of fleecing the farmer as producer and the general public as +consumer. But unless we are determined to eliminate the middleman in +agriculture we will fall to effect anything worth while attempting. I +would lay down certain fundamental propositions which, I think, should +be accepted without reserve as a basis of reform. First, that the +farmers must be organized to have complete control over all the business +connected with their industry. Dual control is intolerable. Agriculture +will never be in a satisfactory condition if the farmer is relegated to +the position of a manual worker on his land; if he is denied the right +of a manufacturer to buy the raw materials of his industry on trade +terms; if other people are to deal with his raw materials, his milk, +cream, fruit, vegetables, live stock, grain, and other produce; and if +these capitalist middle agencies are to manufacture the farmers' raw +material into butter, bacon, or whatever else are to do all the +marketing and export, paying farmers what they please on the one hand, +and charging the public as much as they can on the other hand. The +existence of these middle agencies is responsible for a large proportion +of the increased cost of living, which is the most acute domestic +problem of modern industrial communities. They have too much power over +the farmer, and are too expensive a luxury for the consumer. It would +be very unbusinesslike for any country to contemplate the permanence in +national life of a class whose personal interests are always leading +them to fleece both producer and consumer alike. So the first +fundamental idea for reformers to get into their minds is that farmers, +through their own co-operative organizations, must control the entire +business connected with agriculture. There will not be so much +objection to co-operative sale as to co-operative purchase by the +farmers. But one is as necessary as the other. We must bear in mind, +what is too often forgotten, that farmers are manufacturers, and as such +are entitled to buy the raw materials for their industry at wholesale +prices. Every other kind of manufacturer in the world gets trade terms +when he buys. Those who buy--not to consume, but to manufacture and +sell again--get their requirements at wholesale terms in every country +in the world. If a publisher of books is approached by a bookseller he +gives that bookseller trade terms, because he buys to sell again. If I, +as a private individual, want one of those books I must pay the full +retail price. Even the cobbler, the carpenter, the solitary artist, get +trade terms. The farmer, who is as much a manufacturer as the +shipbuilder, or the factory proprietor, is as much entitled to trade +terms when he buys the raw materials for his industry. His seeds, +fertilizers, ploughs, implements, cake, feeding-stuffs are the raw +materials of his industry, which he uses to produce wheat, beef, mutton, +pork, or whatever else; and, in my opinion, there should be no +differentiation between the farmer when he buys and any other kind of +manufacturer. Is it any wonder that agriculture decays in countries +where the farmers are expected to buy at retail prices and sell at +wholesale prices? We must not, to save any friction, sell the rights of +farmers. The second proposition I lay down is that this necessary +organization work among the farmers must be carried on by an organizing +body which is entirely controlled by those interested in agriculture-- +farmers and their friends. To ask the State or a State Department to +undertake this work is to ask a body influenced and often controlled by +powerful capitalists, and middle agencies which it should be the aim of +the organization to eliminate. The State can, without obstruction from +any quarter, give farmers a technical education in the science of +farming; but let it once interfere with business, and a horde of angry +interests set to work to hamper and limit by every possible means and +compromises on matters of principle, where no compromise ought to be +permitted, are almost inevitable. + +A voluntary organizing body like the Irish Agricultural Organization +Society, which was the first to attempt the co-operative organization of +farmers in these islands, is the only kind of body which can pursue its +work fearlessly, unhampered by alien interests. The moment such a body +declares its aims, its declaration automatically separates the sheep +from the goats, and its enemies are outside and not inside. The +organizing body should be the heart and centre of the farmers' movement, +and if the heart has its allegiance divided, its work will be poor and +ineffectual, and very soon the farmers will fall away from it to follow +more single-hearted leaders. No trades union would admit +representatives of capitalist employers on its committee, and no +organization of farmers should allow alien or opposing interest on their +councils to clog the machine or betray the cause. This is the best +advice I can give reformers. It is the result of many years' experience +in this work. An industry must have the same freedom of movement as an +individual in possession of all his powers. An industry divided against +itself can no more prosper than a household divided against itself. By +the means I have indicated the farmers can become the masters of their +own destinies, just as the urban workers can, I think, by steadfastly +applying the same principles, emancipate themselves. It is a battle in +which, as in all other battles, numbers and moral superiority united are +irresistible; and in the Irish struggle to create a true democracy +numbers and the power of moral ideas are with the insurgents. + + + + + +VII. + + + +It would be a bitter reproach on the household of our nation if there +were any unconsidered, who were left in poverty and without hope and +outside our brotherhood. We have not yet considered the agricultural +laborer--the proletarian of the countryside. His is, in a sense, the +most difficult problem of any. The basis of economic independence in +his industry is the possession of land, and that is not readily to be +obtained in Ireland. The earth does not upheave itself from beneath the +sea and add new land to that already above water in response to our need +for it. Yet I would not pass away from the rural laborer without, +however inadequately, indicating some curves in his future evolution. +These laborers are not in Ireland half so numerous as farmers, for it is +a country of small holdings, where the farmer and his family are +themselves laborers. Labor is badly paid, and, owing to the lack of +continuous cropping of the land, it is often left without employment at +seasons when employment is most needed. No class which is taken up +today and dropped tomorrow will in modern times remain long in a +country. Employers often act as if they thought labor could be taken up +and laid down again like a pipe and tobacco. None have contributed so +to thicken the horde of Irish exiles as the rural laborers. Three +hundred thousand of them in less than my lifetime have left the fields +of Ireland for the factories of the new world. Yet I can only rejoice +if Irishmen, who are badly dealt with in their motherland, find an +ampler life and a more prosperous career in another land. A wage of ten +or eleven shillings a week will bind none but the unaspiring lout to his +country. But I would like to make Ireland a land which, because of the +human kindness in it, few would willingly leave. The agricultural +proletarian, like all other labor, should be organized in a national +union. That is bound to come. But the agricultural laborer should, I +think, no more than labor in the cities, make the raising of wages his +main or only object. He should rather strive to make himself +economically independent; or, in the alternative, seek for status by +integration into the co-operative communities of farmers by becoming a +member, and by pressing for permanent employment by the community rather +than casual employment by the individual. Agricultural labor +undoubtedly will have to struggle for better remuneration. Yet it has +to be remembered that agriculture is a protean industry. It is not like +mining, where the colliery produces coal and nothing but coal, and where +the miners have a practical monopoly of supply. If miners are +dissatisfied with wages and are well organized they can enforce their +terms, and the colliery owners may almost be indifferent, because they +can charge the increased cost of working to the public. But agriculture, +as I said, is protean and changes its forms perpetually. If tillage +does not pay this year, next year the farmer may have his land in grass. +He reverts to the cheapest methods of farming when prices are low, or +labor asks a wage which the farmer believes it would be unprofitable to +pay. In this way pressure on the farmer for extra wages might result in +two men being employed to herd cows where a dozen men were previously +employed at tillage. The farmer cannot easily--as the mine-owner-- +unload his burden on the general public by the increase of prices. There +are many difficulties, which seem almost insoluble, if we propose to +ourselves to integrate the rural laborer into the general economic life +of the country by making him a partner in the industry he works on. But +what I hope for most is first that the natural evolution of the rural +community, and the concentration of individual manufacture, purchase and +sale, into communal enterprises, will lead to a very large co-operative +ownership of expensive machinery, which will necessitate the communal +employment of labor. If this takes place, as I hope it will, the rural +laborer, instead of being a manual worker using primitive implements, +will have the status of a skilled mechanic employed permanently by a +cooperative community. He should be a member of the society which employs +him, and in the division of profits receive in proportion to his wage, +as the farmers in proportion to their trade. + +A second policy open to agricultural labor when it becomes organized is +the policy of collective farming. This I believe will and ought to +receive attention in the future. Co-operative societies of agricultural +laborers in Italy, Roumania, and elsewhere have rented land from +landowners. They then reallotted the land among themselves for +individual cultivation, or else worked it as a true co-operative +enterprise with labor, purchase and sale all communal enterprises, with +considerable benefit to the members. We can well understand a landowner +not liking to divide his land into small holdings, with all the +attendant troubles which in Ireland beset a landlord with small farmers +on his estate. But I think landowners in Ireland could be found who +would rent land to a co-operative society of skilled laborers who +approached the owner with a well-thought-out scheme. The success of one +colony would lead to others being started, as happened in Italy. + +This solution of the problem of agricultural labor will be forced on us +for many reasons. The economic effects of the great European War, the +burden of debt piled on the participating nations, will make Ministers +shun schemes of reform involving a large use of national credit, or +which would increase the sum of national obligations. Land purchase on +the old term I believe cannot be continued. Yet we will demand the +intensive cultivation of the national estate, and increased production +of wealth, especially of food-stuffs. The large area of agricultural +land laid down for pasture is not so productive as tilled land, does not +sustain so large a population, and there will be more reasons in the +future than in the past for changing the character of farming in these +areas. The policy of collective farming offers a solution, and whatever +Government is in power should facilitate the settlement of men in +cooperative colonies and provide expert instructors as managers for the +first year or two if necessary. Such a policy would not be so expensive +as land purchase, and with fair rent fixed, hundreds of thousands of +people could be planted comfortably on the land in Ireland and produce +more wealth from it than could ever be produced from grazing lands, and +agricultural workers and the sons of farmers who now emigrate could +become economically independent. + +I hope, also, that farmers, becoming more brotherly as their own +enterprises flourish, will welcome laborers into their co-operative +stores, credit banks, poultry and bee-keeping societies, and allow them +the benefits of cheap purchase, cheap credit, and of efficient marketing +of whatever the laborer may produce on his allotment. The growth of +national conscience and the spirit of human brotherhood, and a feeling +of shame that any should be poor and neglected in the national +household, will be needed to bring the rural laborer into the circle of +national life, and make him a willing worker in the general scheme. If +farmers will not, on their part, advance towards their laborers and +bring them into the co-operative community, then labor will be organized +outside their community and will be hostile, and will be always brooding +and scheming to strike a blow when the farmer can least bear it,--when +the ground must be tilled or the harvest gathered. And this, if peace +cannot be made, will result in a still greater decline of tillage and +the continued flight of the rural laborers, and the increase of the area +in grass, and the impoverishing of human life and national well-being. + +Some policy to bring contentment to small holders and rural workers must +be formulated and acted upon. Agriculture is of more importance to the +nation than industry. Our task is to truly democratize civilization and +its agencies; to spread in widest commonalty culture, comfort, +intelligence, and happiness, and to give to the average man those things +which in an earlier age were the privileges of a few. The country is +the fountain of the life and health of a race. And this organization of +the country people into co-operative communities will educate them and +make them citizens in the true sense of the word, that is, people +continually conscious of their identity of interest with those about +them. + +It is by this conscious sense of solidarity of interest, which only the +organized co-operative community can engender in modern times, that the +higher achievements of humanity become possible. Religion has created +this spirit at times--witness the majestic cathedrals the Middle Ages +raised to manifest their faith. Political organization engendered the +passion of citizenship in the Greek States, and the Parthenon and a host +of lordly buildings crowned the hills and uplifted and filled with pride +the heart of the citizen. Our big countries, our big empires, and +republics, for all their military strength and science, and the wealth +which science has made it possible for man to win, do not create +citizenship because of the loose organization of society; because +individualism is rampant, and men, failing to understand the intricacies +of the vast and complex life of their country, fall back on private life +and private ambitions, and leave the honor of their country and the +making of laws and the application of the national revenues to a class +of professional politicians, in their turn in servitude to the interests +which supply party funds, and so we find corruption in high places and +cynicism in the people. It is necessary for the creation of citizens, +for the building up of a noble national life, that the social order +should be so organized that this sense of interdependence will be +constantly felt. It is also necessary for the preservation of the +physical health and beauty of our race that our people should live more +in the country and less in the cities. I believe it would be an +excellent thing for humanity if its civilization could be based on rural +industry mainly and not on urban industry. More and more men and women +in our modern civilization drift out of Nature, out of sweet air, +health, strength, beauty, into the cities, where in the third generation +there is a rickety population, mean in stature, vulgar or depraved in +character, with the image of the devil in mind and matter more than the +image of Deity. Those who go like it at first; but city life is like +the roll spoken of by the prophet, which was sweet in the mouth but +bitter in the belly. The first generation are intoxicated by the new +life, but in the third generation the cord is cut which connected them +with Nature, the Great Mother, and life shrivels up, sundered from the +source of life. Is there any prophet, any statesman, any leader, who +will--as Moses once led the Israelites out of the Egyptian bondage-- +excite the human imagination and lead humanity back to Nature, to +sunlight, starlight, earth-breath, sweet air, beauty, gaiety, and +health? Is it impossible now to move humanity by great ideas, as +Mahomet fired his dark hosts to forgetfulness of life; or as Peter the +Hermit awakened Europe to a frenzy, so that it hurried its hot chivalry +across a continent to the Holy Land? Is not the earth mother of us all? +Are not our spirits clothed round with the substance of earth? Is it +not from Nature we draw life? Do we not perish without sunlight and +fresh air? Let us have no breath of air and in five minutes life is +extinct. Yet in the cities there is a slow poisoning of life going on +day by day. The lover of beauty may walk the streets of London or any +big city and may look into ten thousand faces and see none that is +lovely. Is not the return of man to a natural life on the earth a great +enough idea to inspire humanity? Is not the idea of a civilization amid +the green trees and fields under the smokeless sky alluring? Yes, but +men say there is no intellectual life working on the land. No +intellectual life when man is surrounded by mystery and miracle! When +the mysterious forces which bring to birth and life are yet +undiscovered; when the earth is teeming with life, and the dumb brown +lips of the ridges are breathing mystery! Is not the growth of a tree +from a tiny cell hidden in the earth as provocative of thought as the +things men learn at the schools? Is not thought on these things more +interesting than the sophistries of the newspapers? It is only in +Nature, and by thought on the problems of Nature, that our intellect +grows to any real truth and draws near to the Mighty Mind which laid the +foundations of the world. + +Our civilizations are a nightmare, a bad dream. They have no longer the +grandeur of Babylon or Nineveh. They grow meaner and meaner as they +grow more urbanized. What could be more depressing than the miles of +poverty-stricken streets around the heart of our modern cities? The +memory lies on one "heavy as frost and deep almost as life." It is +terrible to think of the children playing on the pavements; the +depletion of vitality, with artificial stimulus supplied from the +flaring drink-shops. The spirit grows heavy as if death lay on it while +it moves amid such things. And outside these places the clouds are +flying overhead snowy and spiritual as of old, the sun is shining, the +winds are blowing, the fields are green, the forests are murmuring leaf +to leaf, but the magic that God made is unknown to these poor folk. The +creation of a rural civilization is the greatest need of our time. It +may not come in our days, but we can lay the foundations of it, +preparing the way for the true prophet when he will come. The fight now +is not to bring people back to the land, but to keep those who are on +the land contented, happy, and prosperous. And we must begin by +organizing them to defend what is left to them; to take back, industry +by industry, what was stolen from them. We must organize the country +people into communities, for without some kind of communal life men hold +no more together than the drifting sands by the seashore. There is a +natural order in which men have instinctively grouped themselves from +the dawn of time. It is as natural to them to do so as it is for bees +to build their hexagonal cells. If we read the history of civilization +we will find people in every land forming little clans co-operating +together. Then the ambition of rulers or warriors breaks them up; the +greed of powerful men puts an end to them. But, whether broken or not, +the moment the rural dweller is left to himself he begins again, with +nature prompting him, to form little clans--or nations rather--with his +fellows, and it is there life has been happiest. We did this in ancient +Ireland. The baronies whose names are on Irish land today and the +counties are survivals of these old co-operative colonies, where the men +owned the land together and elected their own leaders, and formed their +own social order and engendered passionate loyalties and affections. It +was so in every land under the sun. It was so in ancient India and in +ancient Peru. The European farmers, and we in Ireland along with them, +are beginning again the eternal task of building up a civilization in +nature--the task so often disturbed, the labor so often destroyed. And +it is with the hope that we in Ireland will build truly and nobly that I +have put together these thoughts on the rural community. + + + + + +VIII. + + + +We may now consider the proletarian in our cities. The worker in our +modern world is the subject of innumerable unapplied doctrines. The +lordliest things are predicated of him, which do not affect in the least +the relationship with him of those who employ his labor. The ancient +wisdom, as it is recounted to him on God's day, assures him of his +immortality: that the divine signature is over all his being, that in +some way he is co-related with the Eternal, that he is fashioned in a +likeness to It. He is a symbol of God Himself. He is the child of +Deity. His life is Its very breath. The Habitations of Eternity await +his coming, and the divine event to which he moves is the dwelling +within him of the Divine Mind, so that Deity may become his very self. +So proud a tale is told of him, and when he wakens on the morrow after +the day of God he finds that none will pay him reverence. He, the +destined comrade of Seraphim and Cherubim, is herded with other Children +of the King in fetid slum and murky alleys, where the devil hath his +many mansions, where light and air, the great purifiers, are already +dimmed and corrupted before they do him service. He is insecure in the +labor by which he lives. He works today, and tomorrow he may be told +there is no further need for him, and his fate and the fate of those +dependent on him are not remembered by those who dismissed him. If he +dies, leaving wife or children, the social order makes but the most +inhuman provision for them. How ghastly is the brotherhood of the State +for its poor the workhouses declare, and our social decrees which turn +loving-kindness into official acts and make legal and formal what should +be natural impulse and the overflow of the heart. So great a disparity +exists between spiritual theory and the realities of the social order +that it might almost be said that spiritual theory has no effect at all +on our civilization, and its inhuman contours seem softened at no point +where we could say, "Here the Spirit has mastery. Here God possesses +the world." + +The imagination, following the worker in our industrial system, sees him +laboring without security in his work, in despair, locked out, on +strike, living in slums, rarely with enough food for health, bringing +children into the world who suffer from malnutrition from their earliest +years, a pauper when his days of strength are passed. He dies in +charitable institutions. Though his labors are necessary he is yet not +integrated into the national economy. He has no share of his own in the +wealth of the nation. He cannot claim work as a right from the holders +of economic power, and this absolute dependence upon the autocrats of +industry for a livelihood is the greatest evil of any, for it puts a +spiritual curse on him and makes him in effect a slave. Instinctively +he adopts a servile attitude to those who can sentence him and his +children to poverty and hunger without trial or judgment by his peers. +A hasty word, and he may be told to draw his pay and begone. The +spiritual wrong done him by the social order is greater than the +material ill, and that spiritual wrong is no less a wrong because +generation after generation of workers have grown up and are habituated +to it, and do not realize the oppression; because in childhood +circumstance and the black art of education alike conspire to make the +worker humble in heart and to take the crown and sceptre from his +spirit, and his elders are already tamed and obsequious. + +Yet the workers in the modern world have great qualities. This class in +great masses will continually make sacrifices for the sake of a +principle. They have lived so long in the depths: many of them have +reached the very end of all the pain which is the utmost life can bear +and have in their character that fearlessness which comes from long +endurance and familiarity with the worst hardships. I am a literary +man, a lover of ideas, and I have found few people in my life who would +sacrifice anything for a social principle; but I will never forget the +exultation with which I realized in a great labor trouble, when the +masters of industry issued a document asking men on peril of dismissal +to swear never to join a trades union, that there were thousands of men +in my own city who refused to obey, though they had no membership or +connection with the objectionable association. Nearly all the real +manhood of Dublin I found was among the obscure myriads who are paid +from twenty to thirty shillings a week. The men who will sacrifice +anything for brotherhood get rarer and rarer above that limit of wealth. +These men would not sign away their freedom, their right to choose their +own heroes and their own ideals. Most of them had no strike funds to +fall back on. They had wives and children depending on them. Quietly +and grimly they took through hunger the path to the Heavenly City, yet +nobody praised them, no one put a crown upon their brows. Beneath their +rags and poverty there was in these obscure men a nobility of spirit. +It is in these men and the men in the cabins in the country that the +hope of Ireland lies. The poor have always helped each other, and it is +they who listen eagerly to the preachers of a social order based on +brotherhood in industry. It is these workers, always necessary but +never yet integrated into the social order, who must be educated, who +must be provided for, who must be accepted fully as comrade in any +scheme of life to be devised and which would call itself Christian. +That word, expressing the noblest and most spiritual conception of +humanity, has been so degraded by misuse in the world that we could +almost hate it with the loathing we have for evil, if we did not know +that Hell can as disguise put on the outward garments of Heaven. Yet +what is eternally true remains pure and uncorrupted, and those who turn +to it find it there--as all finally must turn to it to fulfill their +destiny of inevitable beauty. + + + + + +IX. + + + +Often with sadness I hear people speak of industrial development in +Ireland, for I feel they contemplate no different system than that which +fills workers with despair in countries where it is more successfully +applied. All these energetic people are conspiring to build factories +and mills and to fill them with human labor, and they believe the more +they do this the better it will be for Ireland. They talk of Ireland as +if it was only admirable as a quantity rather than a quality. They +express delight at swelling statistics and increased trade, but where do +we hear any reflection on the quality of life engendered by this +industrial development? Our civilization is to differ in no way from +any other. No new ideal of life is suggested to differentiate us. We +are to go on exploiting human labor. Our working classes are to +increase and multiply and earn profits for an employing class, as labor +has one from time immemorial in Babylon, in Nineveh, in Rome, and in +London today. But a choice yet remains to us, because the character of +our civilization is not yet fixed. It is mainly germinal. It fills the +spirit with weariness to think of another nation following the old path, +without thought or imagination of other roads leading to new and more +beautiful life. Every now and then, when the world was still vast and +full of undiscovered wonders, some adventurers would leave the harbor, +and steer their galleys past the known coast and the familiar cities and +over unraveled seas, seeking some new land where life might be freer and +ampler than that they had known. Is the old daring gone? Are there not +such spirits among us ready to join in the noblest of all adventures-- +the building up of a civilization--so that the human might reflect the +divine order? In the divine order there is both freedom and solidarity. +It is the virtue of the soul to be free and its nature to love; and +when it is free and acts by its own will it is most united with all +other life. Those planetary spirits who move in solemn motion about the +heavens I do not conceive as the slaves of Deity but as its adorers. +But that material nature in which the soul is embodied has the dividing +quality of the prism, which resolves pure light into distinct rays; and +so on earth we get the principle of freedom and the virtue of solidarity +as separated ideals continually at warfare with each other, and the +reconcilement on earth of these principles in man is the conquest of +matter by the spirit. This dramatic sundering on earth of virtues in +unison in the heavens explains the struggle between Protestantism and +Catholicism, between nationality and imperialism, between individualist +and socialist, between dynamic and static in philosophy. Indeed in the +last analysis all human conflicts are the balancing on earth of the +manifestation of divine principles which are one in the unmanifest +spirit. + +The civilization we create, the social order we build up, must provide +for essential freedom for the individual and for solidarity of the +nation. Now essential freedom is denied to men if they are in their +condition servile. Can we contemplate the permanent existence of a +servile class in Ireland? For, disguise it how we will, our present +industrial system is practically a form of slavery for the workers, +differing in externals only from the ages when the serf had a collar +round his neck. He has now freedom to change from master to master, and +can even seek for a master in other countries; but he must, in any +case, accept the relation of servant to master. The old slave could be +whipped. In the new order the wage slave can be starved, and the fact +that many of the rulers of industry use their power benevolently does +not make the existing relation between employer and employed right, or +the social order one whose permanence can be justified. Men will gladly +labor if they feel that their labor conspires with that of all other +workers for the general good; but there is something loathsome to the +spirit in the condition of the labor market, where labor is regarded as +a commodity to be bought and sold like soap or candles. For that truly +describes how it is with labor in our industrial system: we can buy +labor, which means we can buy human life and thought, a portion of God's +being, and make a profit out of it. By so selling himself the worker is +enslaved and limited in a thousand ways. The power of dismissal of one +person by another at whim acts against independence of character, or the +free expression or opinion in thought, in politics, and in religion. The +soul is stunted in its growth, and spiritual life made subordinate to +material interests. To deny essential freedom to the soul is the +greatest of all crimes, and such denial has in all ages evoked the +deepest anger among men. When freedom has been threatened nations have +risen up maddened and exultant, and the clang of martial arms has been +heard and the stony kings of the past have been encountered in battle. +In Ireland we shall have our greatest fight of all to gain this freedom: +not alone material independence for man, but the freedom of the soul, +its right to choose its own heroes and its own ideals without let or +hindrance by other men. + +We have many of the vices of a slave race, and we treat others as we +have been treated. Our national aspirations were overborne by material +power, and we in turn use cudgel and curse on our countrymen when they +differ from us in opinion and policy. Men, when they cannot match their +intellect against another's, suppress him and howl him down, putting +faith in their own brainlessness. I would make the most passionate plea +for freedom in Ireland: freedom for all to say the truth they feel or +know. What right have we to ask for ourselves what we deny to another? +The bludgeon at meetings is a blow struck against heaven. Those who +will not argue or reason are recreants against humanity, and are +prowling back again on all fours in their minds to the brute. It +matters not in what holy name men war with violence on freedom of +thought, whether in the name of God or nation they are enemies of both. +We are only right in controversy when we overcome by a superior beauty +or truth. The first fundamental idea inspiring an Irish polity should be +this idea of freedom in all spheres of thought, and it is most +necessary to fight for this because the devil and hell have organized +their forces in this unfortunate land in sectarian and secret societies, +of which it might be written they love darkness rather than light for +the old God-given reasons. + + + + + +X. + + + +Whenever in Ireland there has been a revolt of labor it too often finds +arrayed against it the press, the law, and the police. All the great +powers are in entente. The press, without inquiry, begins a detestable +cant about labor agitators misleading ignorant men. Every wild phrase +uttered by an exasperated worker is quoted against the cause of labor, +and its grievances are suppressed. We are told nothing about how the +worker lives: what homes, what food, his wage will provide. The +journalist holds up a moral umbrella, protecting society from the fiery +hail of conscience. The baser sort of clergyman will take up the +parable and begin advocating a servile peace, glibly misinterpreting the +divine teaching of love to prove that the lamb should lie down inside +the lion, and only so can it be saved soul and body, forgetful that the +peace which was Christ's gift to humanity was the peace of God which +passes all understanding, and that it was a spiritual quietude, and that +on earth--the underworld--the gospel in realization was to bring not +peace but a sword. + +The law, assured of public opinion, then deals sternly with whatever +unfortunate life is driven into its pens. I am putting very mildly the +devilish reality, for society is so constituted that the public, kept in +ignorance of the real facts, believes that it is acting rightly, and so +the devil has conscience on his side and that divine power is turned to +infernal uses. What can labor oppose to this federation of State and +Church, of press and law, of capital and physical force to back capital, +when it sets about its own liberation and to institute a new social +order to replace autocracy in industry? Its allies are few. A rare +thinker, scientist, literary man, artist or clergyman, impelled by +hatred of what is ugly in life, will speak on its behalf, and may render +some aid and help to tear holes in that moral shield held up by the +press, and may here and there give to that blinded public a vision of +the Hosts of the Lord arrayed against it. But the only real power the +workers can truly rely on is their own. Nothing but a spiritual +revolution or an economic revolution will bring other classes into +comradeship with them. The ideal labor should set before itself is not a +transitory improvement in its wage, because a wage war never truly or +permanently improves the position of labor. This section or that may, +relatively to its own past or the position of other workers, improve +itself; but capital is like a ship which, however the tide rises or +falls, floats upon it, and is not sunken more deeply in the water at +high tide than at low tide. Whenever any burden is placed upon capital +it immediately sets about unloading that burden on the public. Wages +might be doubled by Act of Parliament, and the net result would be to +double prices, if not to increase them still more. The more the +autocrats of industry are federated the more easily can they unload on +others any burden placed on them. + +The value of money is simply what it will purchase at any time. If the +rulers of industry can halve the purchasing power of money while +doubling wages at the command of the State, logic leads us to assume +that wages boards, arbitration boards and the like can only be +transitory in their meliorating effect; and to pursue the attack on the +autocrats of industry by the road of wages alone is to attack them where +they are impregnable, and where, seeming to give way, they are all the +while really losing nothing, and are only fixing the wage system more +permanently on those who attack them. There are fiery spirits among the +proletarians who hope that militant labor will at last bring about the +social revolution, taking the earthly paradise by violence. They +believe that if every worker dropped his tools and absolutely refused to +work under the old system, it would be impossible to continue it. That +is true, but those who advocate this policy slur over many difficulties, +and the relative power of endurance of both parties. They do not, I +think, take into account the immense power in the hands of those who +uphold the present system. Those who might be expected to strike are +not--at least in Ireland--a majority of the population. They would have +far fewer material resources to fall back on than those others whose +interests would lead them to preserve the present social order. It is +clear, too, when we analyze the forces at the command of labor and +capital, that the latter has attached to itself by the bonds of self- +interest the scientific men--engineers, inventors, chemists, +bacteriologists, designers, organizers, all the intellect of industry-- +without which, in alliance with itself, revolting labor would be unable +to continue production as before. Labor so revolting might indeed for a +time bring the work of the nation to a standstill; but unless it could +by some means attract to itself men of the class described, it would not +be able to take the helm of the ship of industry and guide it with +knowledge as the holders of economic power have done in the past. A +policy of emancipation should provide labor with a means of attracting +to itself that kind of knowledge which is gained in universities, +laboratories, colleges of science, and, above all, in the actual +guidance of great industrial enterprises. In any trial of endurance +those who start with the greatest intellectual, moral, and material +resources will win. + +I do not deny that the strike is a powerful weapon in the hand of labor, +but it is one with which it is difficult to imagine labor dealing a +knock-out blow to the present social order. I believe in an orderly +evolution of society, at least in Ireland, and doubt whether by +revolution people can be raised to an intelligence, a humanity, or a +nobility of nature greater than they formerly possessed. Nobody can +remain standing on tiptoe. After a little time disorder subsides and +some strong man leads the inevitable reaction. In France people +revolted against a decadent monarchy, and in a dozen years they had a +new emperor. In England they beheaded a king as a protest against +tyranny, and they got a dictator in his place who took little or no +account of parliaments; and finally a second Charles, rather worse than +the first, came to the throne. The everlasting battle between light and +darkness goes on stubbornly all the time, and the gain of the Hosts of +Light is inch by inch. Extraordinary efforts, impetuous charges, which +seem to win for a moment, too often leave the attacking force tired and +exhausted, and the forces of reaction set in and overwhelm them. I am +the friend of revolt if people cannot stand the conditions they live +under, and if they can see no other way. It is better to be men than +slaves. The French Revolution was a tragic episode in history, but when +people suffer intolerably and are insulted in their despair it is +inevitable blood will be shed. One can only say with Whitman: + +Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that long-accrued retribution? +Could I wish humanity different Could I wish the people made of wood and +stone, or that there be no justice in destiny or time? + +There is danger in revolution if the revolutionary spirit is much more +advanced than the intellectual, and moral qualities which alone can +secure the success of a revolt. These intellectual and moral qualities +--the skill to organize, the wisdom to control large undertakings, are +not natural gifts but the results of experience. They are evolutionary +products. The emancipation of labor, I believe, will not be gained by +revolution but by prolonged effort, continued month by month and year by +year, in which first this thing is adventured, then that: each +enterprise brings its own gifts of wisdom and experience, and there is +no reaction, because, instead of the violent use of certain powers, the +whole being is braced: experience, intellect, desire, all strong and +working harmoniously, press forward and support each other, and no +enterprise is undertaken where the intellect to carry it out is not +present together with the desire. It requires great intellectual and +moral qualities to bring about a revolution. A rage at present +conditions is not enough. + + + + + +XI. + + + +Our farmers are already free. The problem with them is not now +concerned with freedom, but how they may be brought into a solidarity +with each other and the nation. To make our proletarians free and +masters of their own energies, in unison with each other and the +national being, is the most pressing labor of the many before us. +Unless there be economic freedom there can be no other freedom. The +right of no individual to subsistence should be at the good will of any +other individual. More than mere comfort depends on it. There are +eternal and august rights of the soul to be safeguarded, and the +economic position of men should be protected by organization and +democratic law. I have already discussed some of the avenues through +which workers in our time have looked with hope. I have little belief +that these roads lead anywhere but back to the old City of Slavery, +however they may seem to curve away at the outset. The strike, on +whatever scale, is no way to freedom, though the strike--or the threat +of it--may bring wages nearer to subsistence level. The art of warfare +is too much in the hands of specialists for trust to be placed in +revolution. A machine-gun with a few experts behind it is worth a +thousand revolutionary workers, however maddened they may be. Does +political action, on which so many rely, promise more? I do not believe +it does. I believe that to appeal to legislatures is to appeal to +bodies dominated by those interested in maintaining the present social +order, although they may act so as to redress the worst evils created by +it. In Ireland, for this generation at least, it would be impossible to +secure in a legislative assembly majorities representative of the class +we wish to see emancipated. It may seem as if I had closed all the paths +out of the social labyrinth; but the way to emancipation has, I think, +already been surveyed by pioneers. A policy of social reconstruction is +practical, and needs but steady persistence for its realization. That +policy--I refer to co-operative action--has been adopted in various +forms by workers in many countries; and what is needed here is to study +and coordinate these applications of co-working, and to form a general +staff of labor who will, on behalf of the workers, examine the weapons +fashioned by their class elsewhere, and who will draw up a plan of +campaign as the staff of an army do previous to military operations. It +will be found that economic action along co-operative lines has, in one +country, barriers placed before its expansion which could be set aside +by supplementing this action by methods elaborated by the genius of +workers elsewhere. + +It is not my purpose here to repeat in detail methods of organization, +partly technical, which can be found fully described in many admirable +books, but rather to indicate the order of advance, the methods of +coordination of these, and their final absorption and transformation in +the national being. There is a great deal of ignorance about things +essential to safe action. When men are filled with enthusiasm they are +apt to apply their new principles rashly in schemes which are bound to +fall, just as over-confident soldiers will in battle sometimes rush a +position prematurely which they cannot hold, because the general line of +their army has not advanced sufficiently to support them. Sacrifices +are made with no permanent result, and the morale of the army is +injured. + +In the rural districts the advance must, in the nature of things, be +from production to consumption, and with urban workers inversely from a +control over distribution to a mastery over production. I have often +wondered over the blindness of workers in towns in Ireland, who have +made so little use in the economic struggle of the freedom they have to +spend their wage where they choose. They speak of this struggle as the +class war; but they carry on the conflict most energetically where it +is most difficult for them to succeed, and hardly at all where it would +be comparatively easy for them to weaken the resources of their +antagonists. In warfare much use is made of flanking movements, which +aim at cutting the enemy's communication with his base of supply. +Frontal attacks are dangerous. It is equally true in economic warfare. +The strike is a frontal attack, and those they fight are entrenched +deeply with all the artillery of the State, the press, science, and +wealth on their side. What would we think of an army which, at the +close of each week's fighting, voluntarily surrendered to the enemy the +ground, guns, ammunition, and prisoners captured through the previous +six days? Yet this is what our workers do. The power opposed to them +is mainly economic, though there is an intellectual basis for it also. +But the wages of the workers, little for the individual, yet a large +part of the national income if taken for the mass, goes back to +strengthen the system they protest against through purchases of domestic +requirements. The creation of co-operative stores ought to be the first +constructive policy adopted by Irish labor. It ought to be as much a +matter of class honor with them to be members of stores as to be in the +trade union of their craft. The store may be regarded as the +commissariat department of the army of labor. Many a strike has failed +of its object, and the workers have gone back defeated, because their +neglect of the commissariat made them unable to hold out for that last +week when both sides are desperate and at the end of their resources. +But it is not mainly as an aid to the strike that I advocate +democratizing the distributive trade, but because control over +distribution gives a large measure of control over production. The +history of co-operative workshops indicates that these have rarely been +successful unless worked in conjunction with distributive stores. The +retail trader is not sympathetic with co-operative production. As the +cat is akin to the tiger, so is the individual trader--no matter on how +small a scale he operates--a kinsman of the great autocrats of industry, +and he will sympathize with his economic kinsmen and will retail their +goods in preference to those produced in co-operative workshops. + +The control of agencies of distribution by the workers at a certain +stage in their development enables them to start productive enterprises +with more safety and less expense in regard to advertisement than the +capitalist can. In fact the co-operative store, properly organized, +creates a tied trade for the output of co-operative workshops. It is a +source of financial aid to these, and will invest funds in them and +assist trades unions gradually to transform themselves into co-operative +guilds of producers which should be their ultimate ideal. As I shall +show later on, the store will enable the urban worker to enter into +intimate alliance with the rural producer. Their interests are really +identical. In every town in Ireland efforts should be made to +democratize the distributive agencies, and the workers will have many +allies in this, driven by the increased cost of living to search out the +most economical agencies of purchase. If the proletarians are not in a +majority in Ireland--a nation where the farmers are the most numerous +single class--they certainly form the majority in the cities; and the +co-operative store, while admitting to membership all who will apply, +ought to be and would be sympathetic with the efforts of labor to +emancipate itself, and would be a powerful lever in its hands. As the +stores increase in number, an analysis of their trade will reveal year +by year in what directions co-operative production of particular +articles may safely be attempted. More and more by this means the +producing power and the capital at the disposal of the worker will be +placed at the service of democracy. The first steps are the most +difficult. In due time the workers will have educated a number of their +members, and will have attached to themselves men of proved capacity to +be the leaders in fresh enterprises, manufactures of one kind or +another, democratic banking institutions, all supporting each other and +leaning on each other and playing into each other's hands. + +The extent to which this may be carried, and the opportunities for +making Ireland a co-operative democracy, I shall presently explain. I +do not regard any of these forms of co-operative organization as ideal +or permanent. The co-operative movement must be regarded rather as a +great turning movement on the part of humanity towards the ideal. The +co-operative organizations now being formed in Ireland and over the +world will, I am certain, persist and outlast this generation and the +next, and will grow into vaster things than we dream of; but the really +important change they will bring about in the minds of men will be +psychological. Men will become habituated to the thought of common +action for the common good. To get so far in civil life is a great +step. Today our civil life is a tangle of petty personal interests and +competitions. The co-operative movement is, as I have said, a vast +turning movement of humanity heavenwards, or, at least, to bring them +face round to the Delectable City. When this psychological change takes +place the democratic associations--which have grown up haphazard as the +workers found it easiest to create them--will be changed and remodeled +by men who will have the mass of people behind them in their efforts to +make a more majestic structure of society for the enlargement of the +lives and spirits of men. + + + + + +XII. + + + +We have descended from the national soul to the material plane, and we +must still continue here for a time, because the doctrine that a sane +mind can only manifest through a sane body is as true in reference to +the State as to the individual, and necessitates a study of social +fabrics. The soul creates tendencies and habits in the body, and the +body repeats these vibrations automatically and infects the soul again +with its old desires. Our religious hatreds created sectarian +organizations, and these react again in the national soul, which would, +I believe, willingly pass away from that mood, but finds itself +incarnated in organizations habituated to sectarian action, and its +energies are turned into these hateful channels unwillingly. So a +drunkard who now realizes that intemperance is rotting his nature is +conquered by the appetites he set up in the past, and with his soul in +rebellion he yet satisfies the craving in the body. The individualism +in our economic life reacts on the national being, and prevents +concerted action for the general good. We have yet to create harmony of +purpose in our economic life, and to bring together interests long +separated and unmindful of each other, and make them realize that their +interests are identical. It is one of the commonplaces of economics +that urban and rural interests are identical: but in truth the townsman +and the countryman have always acted as if their interests were opposed, +and they know very little of each other. I never like to let these +commonplaces of economics pass my frontiers unless they give the +countersign to the challenge for truth. People declare in the same way +that the interests of labor and capital are identical, and implore them +not to fight with one another. But the truth of that statement seems to +me to depend largely on whether capital owns labor or labor owns +capital. As an abstract proposition it is one of the economic formulae +I would leave instructions at my frontiers to have detained until +further inquiry as to its antecedents. All these statements may be +true, but to make them operative, to give them a dynamic rather than a +static character, we must convince people they are true by close +argument and still more so by realistic illustration. + +To bring about a high nobility in the national soul we must make harmony +in its economic life, and the two main currents of economic energy--the +agricultural and urban--must be made to flow so that their action will +not defeat each other. Let us take the farmer first. How ought he to +wish to see life in the towns develop? Should he wish for the triumph of +labor or capital: the success of the co-operative movement, the triumph +of the multiple shop or the private trader, of guilds of workers or +autocrats of industry? Economic desires generally depend on the nature +of the industry men are engaged in. The jeweler would probably desire +the permanence of the social order which created most wealthy people who +could afford to buy his wares. The farmer's industry, if we consider it +closely, is the most democratic of any in its application to society. +The produce of the farm, in its final distribution, is divided into +portions more or less equal and conditioned in quantity by the digestive +powers of an individual. The wealthiest millionaire cannot eat more +bread, butter, meat, vegetables, or fruit than the manual laborer would +eat if the latter could afford to get such things. In fact he would eat +rather less, because the manual worker has a much better appetite, +indeed requires more food. It appears to be the interest of the farmer +to support any urban movement whose object it is to see that every +worker in the towns is remunerated so that he, his wife, and his +children can procure as much food as they require. Any underpaid worker +in the towns is a wrong to the farmer--a willing customer who yet cannot +buy. If there is, let us say, a sum of fifteen hundred pounds a week to +be paid away in a town, it is to the interest of farmers that that sum +should be paid to a thousand men at the rate of thirty shillings a week +rather than to fifty men at thirty pounds a week. In the case of the +workers a greater part of the money will be spent on food. But if fifty +men have thirty pounds a week each, it will be spent to satisfy the +appetites of a much smaller number of people. A larger proportion will +be spent on furniture, pictures, motor-cars and what not. It may be +spent so as to give some kind of employment, but it will not be a +division of the money so much to the interests of the farmer. However +we analyze the problem it appears to be to the farmer's interests to +support democratic movements in the cities, certainly up to the point +where every worker in the towns has a wage which enables himself and his +family to eat all they require for health. It is also to the interests +of farmers to support any system of distribution of goods which +eliminates the element of profit in the sale. After the farmer gets his +price it is to his interests that food should be increased in cost as +little as possible when the article is transferred to the consumer, +because if farm produce has to bear too many profits it will be +expensive for the consumer, and there will be a lessened demand. So +associations like the co-operative stores, which aim at the elimination +of the element of profit in distribution, should be approved of by the +farmers. + +Now we come to the townsman again. Is it his interest to support the +farmers in his own country or to regard the world as his farm? The +argument on the economic side is not so clear, but it is, I think, just +as sound. If agriculture is neglected in any country the rural +population pour into the towns. The country becomes a fountain of +blackleg labor. Rural labor has no traditions of trade unionism, and +takes any work at any price. There are fewer people engaged in +producing food, and its cost rises. Food must be imported from abroad; +and there is national insecurity, as in times of war their is always the +danger of the trade routes overseas being blocked by an enemy, and this +again has to be provided against by heavy expenditure for militarist +purposes. The farther away an army is from its base the more insecure +is its position, and the same thing is true in the industrial life of +nations. International trade there must always be. It is one of the +means by which the larger solidarity of humanity is to be achieved; but +that will never come about until there is a nobler and more human life +within the states, and we must begin by perfecting national life before +we consider empires and world federations. So in this essay only the +national being is considered. + +I desire to unite countryman and townsman in one movement, and to make +the co-operative principle the basis of a national civilization. How are +we to prevent them fighting the old battle between producer and +consumer? I think that this can best be brought about by co-operative +federations, which will act for both in manufacture, purchase, and sale, +and with which both rural and urban associations will find it to their +interest to be affiliated. Now the townsman cannot to any extent supply +food for his stores by buying farms. To control agricultural production +in that way would necessitate a financial operation which the State +would shrink from, and which it would be impossible for urban +cooperators to finance. We had better make up our minds to let farmers +be syndicalists, controlling entirely the processes of agricultural +production themselves. They will do it better than the townsman could, +more efficiently and more economically. They will never be able, with +the world in competition, to put up prices artificially. How can the +two main divisions of national life be brought together in a national +solidarity? We can find an answer if we remember that farmers are not +only producers but consumers. They do not go about naked in the fields. +They require clothes, furniture, tea, coffee, sugar, oil, soap, candles, +pots and pans--in fact the farmer's wife needs nearly all the things the +townsman's wife needs, except that she purchases a little less food. +But even here modern conditions are driving the farmer to buy food in +the shops rather than to produce it for himself on the farm. Country +bread is made in the bakery more and more. Butter, cheese, and bacon +are made in factories, and the farmer's tendency is to buy what bread, +bacon, and butter he requires, selling the milk to be made into butter +to a creamery, the grain to make the bread to a miller, and the pigs to +a factory. Co-operative distribution would be as advantageous to the +country as in the town. Already in Ireland a considerable number of +farmers' societies are enlarging their objects, and are turning what +originally were purely agricultural associations into general purposes +societies, where the farmer's wife can purchase her d omestic +requirements as well as her man his machinery, fertilizers, feeding- +stuffs, and seeds. It would be to the interest of rural societies to +deal with co-operative wholesales just as much as it is in the interest +of urban stores to do so. It would be to their interest to take shares +in these wholesales and productive federations, and see that they cater +for the farmer's interests as much as for the townsman's. + +The urban co-operators, on their side, will see the opportunities for +productive co-operation the union of rural and urban movements would +create. They naturally will desire to employ as many people as possible +in co-operative production. Farmers are surrounded by rings of all +kinds: machinery manufacturers who will not sell to their societies, +manure manufacturers' alliances who keep up prices. It is a great +industry, this of supplying the farmer with his fertilizers, feeding- +stuffs, cake, machinery. These rural co-operative societies are +increasing in number year by year. Farmers want clothes, hats, and +boots: and the necessary machinery for their industry is almost +entirely of urban manufacture--ploughs, binders, separators, harrows, +and many other implements of tillage. It is an immense industry and yet +to be co-operatively exploited. In the towns some progress has been made +in distribution. But a nation depends upon its wealth producers and not +upon its consumers. Co-operators might double, treble, or quadruple the +distributive trade, and still occupy only a very secondary position in +national life unless they enter more largely upon production. We will +never make the co-operative idea the fundamental one in the civilization +of Ireland until we employ a very large part of the population in +production. Now we have at present, thanks to the energy of the +pioneers of agricultural co-operation, a new market opening in the +country for things which the townsman can produce. Does not this +suggest new productive urban enterprises? Does it not favor an +evolution of manufacturing industry, so that democratic control may +finally replace the autocratic control of the capitalist? The trades +unions cannot do this alone by following up any of their traditional +policies. They cannot go into trade on their own account with any +guarantee of success unless they are associated with agencies of +distribution. But if co-operators--urban and rural--through their +federations invade more and more the field of production they will draw +to themselves the hearts and hopes of the workers and idealists in the +nation. People are really more concerned about the making of an income +than about the spending of it. It is a necessity of our policy if it is +to bring about the co-operative commonwealth, that co-operators must +adventure much more largely into production than they have hitherto +done. + +Now let us see what we have come to. There is a country movement which +is not merely one for agricultural production. It is rapidly taking up +the distribution of goods. There is an urban movement not merely +concerned with distribution but entering upon production. They can be +brought into harmony if the same federations act for both branches of +the movement. The meeting-place of the two armies should be there. If +this policy is adopted there will gradually grow-up that unity of +purpose between country and urban workers which is the psychological +basis and necessary precedent for national action for the common good. +The policy of identity of interest must be real, and it can only be real +when the identity of interest is obvious, and it can only be made +obvious when the symbols of that unity and identity are visible day by +day in buildings and manufactures, things which are handled and seen, +and in transactions which daily bring that unity to mind. The old +poetic ideal of a United Ireland was and could only be a geographical +expression, and not a human reality, so long as men were individualist +in economics and were competing and struggling with each other for +mastery. + +By the co-operative commonwealth more is meant than a series of +organizations for economic purposes. We hope to create finally, by the +close texture of our organizations, that vivid sense of the identity of +interest of the people in this island which is the basis of citizenship, +and without which there can be no noble national life. Our great +nation-states have grown so large, so myriad are their populations, so +complicated are their interests, that most people in them really feel no +sense of brotherhood with each other. We have yet to create inside our +great nation-states social and economic organizations, which will make +this identity of interest real and evident, and not seem merely a +metaphor, as it does to most people today. The more the co-operative +movement does this for its members, the more points of contact they find +in it, the more will we tend to make out of it and its branches real +social organisms, which will become as closely knit psychically as +physically the cells in a human body are knit together. Our Irish +diversities of interest have made us world-famous; but such industrial +and agricultural organizations would swallow up these antagonisms, as +the serpents created by the black art of the Egyptian magicians were +swallowed up by the rod Aaron cast on the floor, and which was made +animate by the white magic of the Lord. + + + + + +XIII. + + + +It will appear to the idealist who has contemplated the heavens more +closely than the earth that the policy I advocate is one which only +tardily could be put into operation, and would be paltry and inadequate +as a basis for society. The idealist with the Golden Age already in his +heart believes he has only to erect the Golden Banner and display it for +multitudes to array themselves beneath its folds; therefore he +advocates not, as I do, a way to the life, but the life itself. I am +sympathetic with idealists in a hurry, but I do not think the world can +be changed suddenly by some heavenly alchemy, as St. Paul was smitten by +a light from the overworld. Such light from heaven is vouchsafed to +individuals, but never to nations, who progress by an orderly evolution +in society. Though the heart in us cries out continually, "Oh, hurry, +hurry to the Golden Age," though we think of revolutions, we know that +the patient marshalling of human forces is wisdom. We have to devise +ways and means and light every step clearly before the nation will leave +its footing in some safe if unattractive locality to plant itself +elsewhere. The individual may be reckless. The race never can be so, +for it carries too great a burden and too high destinies, and it is only +when the gods wish to destroy or chastise a race that they first make it +mad. Not by revolutions can humanity be perfected. I might quote from +an old oracle, "The gods are never so turned away from man as when he +ascends to them by disorderly methods." Our spirits may live in the +Golden Age, but our bodily life moves on slow feet, and needs the +lantern on the path and the staff struck carefully into the darkness +before us to see that the path beyond is not a morass, and the light not +a will o' the wisp. + +Other critics may say I would destroy the variety of civilization by the +inflexible application of a single idea. Well, I realize that the net +which is spread for Leviathan will not capture all the creatures of the +deep; and the complexity of human nature is such that it is impossible +to imagine a policy, however fitting in certain spheres of human +activity, which could be applied to the whole of life. What I think we +should aim at is making the co-operative idea fundamental in Irish life. +But to say fundamental is not to say absolute. Always there will be +enter rising persons--men of creative minds--who will break away from +the mass and who will insist, perhaps rightly, on an autocratic control +of the enterprises they found, which were made possible alone by their +genius, and which would not succeed unless every worker in the +enterprise was malleable by their will. It is unlikely that State +action will cease, or that any Government we may have will not respond +to the appeal of the people to do this, that, or the other for them +which they are too indolent to do for themselves, or which by the nature +of things only governments can undertake. For a principle to be +fundamental in a country does not mean that it must be absolute. I hope +society in Ireland will be organized that the idea of democratic control +of its economic life will so pervade Irish thought that it will be in +the body politic what the spinal column is to the body--the pillar on +which it rests, the strongest single factor in the body. Another +illustration may make still clearer my meaning. In a red sunsetting the +glow is so powerful that green hills, white houses, and blue waters, +touched by its light, assume a ruddy color, partly a local color, and +partly a reflected light from the sun. Now in the same way, what is +most powerful in society multiplies images and shadows of itself, and +produces harmonies with itself which are yet not identities. It is by a +predominating idea that nations achieve the practical unity of their +citizens, and national progress becomes possible. In the future +structure of society I have no doubt there will be elements to which the +socialist, the syndicalist, the capitalist, and the individualist will +have contributed. By degrees it will be discovered what enterprises are +best directed by the State, by municipalities, by groups, or by +individuals. But if the idea of democratic control is predominant, +those enterprises which are otherwise directed will yet meet the +prevalent mood by adopting the ideas of the treatment of the workers +enforced in democratically controlled enterprises, and will in every +respect, except control, make their standards equal. All the needles of +being point to the centres where power is most manifested. The effects +of the French revolution--a democratic upheaval--invaded men's minds +everywhere. Even the autocratically ruled States, hitherto careless +about the people in their underworlds, had to make advances to +democracy, and give it some measure of the justice democracy threatened +to deal to itself. Without demanding absolutism I do desire a +predominant democratic character in our national enterprises, rather +than a confused muddle or struggle of interests where nothing really +emerges except the egoism of those who struggle. + +It will be noticed that in all that has preceded I have referred little +to action by government, though it is on governments that democracies +over the world are now fixing all their hopes. They believe the State +is the right agency to bring about reforms and changes in society. And +I must here explain why I do not share their hopes. My distrust of the +State in economic reform is based on the belief that governments in +great nation-states, even representative governments, are not malleable +by the general will. They are too easily dominated by the holders of +economic power, are, in fact, always dominated by aristocracies with +land or by the aristocracies of wealth. It is the hand at the helm +guides the ship. The larger the State is the more easily do the holders +of economic power gain political power. The theory of representative +government held good in practice, I think, so long as parliaments were +engaged in formulating general rights, the right, for example, of the +individual to think or profess any religion he pleased; his right not +to be deprived of liberty or life without open trial by his fellow- +citizens. So long as legislatures were affirming or maintaining these +rights, which rich and poor equally desired, they were justified. But +when legislatures began to intervene in economic matters, in the +struggles between rich and poor, between capital and labor, it became at +once apparent the holders of economic power had also political power; +and that the institution which operated fairly where universal rights +were considered did not operate fairly when there was a conflict between +particular interests. + +The jury of the nation was found to be packed. At least nine-tenths of +the population in Great Britain, for example, belong to the wage-earning +class. At least nine-tenths of the members of legislatures belong to +the classes possessing land or capital. Now, why any member of the +wage-earning class should look with hope to such assemblies I cannot +understand. Their ideal is, or should be, economic freedom, together +with democratic control of industries, an ideal in every way opposed to +the ideal of the majority of the members of the legislatures. The +fiction that representative assemblies will work for the general good is +proclaimed with enthusiasm; but the moment we examine their actions we +see it is not so, and we discover the cause. Where the nation is +capitalist and capitalism is the dominant economic factor, legislatures +invariably act to uphold it, and legislation tends to fix the system +more securely. We see in Great Britain that wage-earners are now openly +regarded by the legislatures as a class who must not be allowed the same +freedom in life as the wealthy. They must be registered, inspected, and +controlled in a way which the wealthy would bitterly resent if the +legislation referred to themselves. After economic inferiority has been +enforced on them by capital, the stigma of human inferiority is attached +to the wage-earners by the legislature. But I must not be led away from +my theme by the bitter reflections which arise in one who lives in the +Iron Age and knows it is Iron, who feels at times like the lost wanderer +on trackless fields of ice, which never melt and will not until earth +turns from its axis. + +I wish to see society organized so that it shall be malleable to the +general will. But political and economic progress are obstructed +because existing political and economic organizations are almost +entirely unmalleable by the general will. Public opinion does not +control the press. The press, capitalistically controlled, creates +public opinion. Our legislators have grown so secure that they confess +openly they have passed measures which they knew would be hateful to the +majority of citizens, and which, if they had been voted on, would never +have been passed. The theory of representative government has broken +down. To tell the truth, the life of the nation is so complicated that +it is difficult for the private citizen to have any intelligent opinion +about national policies, and we can hardly blame the politician for +despising the judgment of the private citizen. Government departments +are still less malleable by public opinion than the legislature. For an +individual to attack the policy of a Government department is almost as +hopeless a proceeding as if a laborer were to take pickaxe and shovel +and determine to level a mountain which obstructed his view. Yet +Government departments are supposed to be under popular control. The +Castle in Ireland, theoretically, was under popular control, but it was +adamantine in policy. If the cant about popular control of legislation +and Government departments is obviously untrue, how much more is it in +regard to public services like railways, gas works, mines, the +distribution of goods, manufacture, purchase and sale, which are almost +entirely under private control and where public interference is bitterly +resented and effectively opposed. What chance has the individual who is +aggrieved against the great carrying companies? To come lower down, let +us take the farmer in the fairs. What way has he of influencing the +jobbers and dealers to act honestly by him--they who have formed rings +to keep down the prices of cattle? Are they malleable to public +opinion? The farmers who have waited all day through a fair know they +are not. + +When we consider the agencies through which people buy we find the same +thing. The increase of multiple shops, combines, and rings makes the +use of the limited power a man had to affect a dealer by transferring +his custom to another merchant to dwindle yearly. Everywhere we turn we +find this adamantine front presented by the legislature, the State +departments, by the agencies of production, distribution, or credit, and +it is the undemocratic organization of society which is responsible for +nine-tenths of our social troubles. All the vested interests backed up +by economic and political power conflict with the public welfare, and +the general will, which intends the good of all, can act no more than a +paralyzed cripple can walk. We would all choose the physique of the +athlete, with his swift, unfettered, easy movements, rather than the +body of the cripple if we could, and we have this choice before us in +Ireland. + +If we concentrate our efforts mainly on voluntary action, striving to +make the co-operative spirit predominant, the general will would +manifest itself through organizations malleable to that will, flexible +and readily adjusting themselves to the desires of the community. To +effect reforms we have not first to labor at the gigantic task of +affecting national opinion and securing the majorities necessary for +national action. In any district a hundred or two hundred men can at +any time form co-operative societies for production, purchase, sale, or +credit, and can link themselves by federation with other organizations +like their own to secure greater strength and economic efficiency. By +following this policy steadily we simplify our economic system, and +reduce to fewer factors the forces in conflict in society. We beget the +predominance of one principle, and enable that general will for good, +which Rousseau theorized about, to find agencies through which it can +manifest freely, so changing society from the static condition begot by +conflict and obstruction to a dynamic condition where energies and +desires manifest freely. + +The general will, as Rousseau demonstrated, always intends the good, and +if permitted to act would act in a large and noble way. The change from +static to dynamic, from fixed forms to fluid forms, has been coming +swiftly over the world owing to the liberation of thought, and this in +spite of the obstruction of a society organized, I might almost say, +with egomania as the predominant psychological factor. The ancient +conception of Nature as a manifestation of spirit is incarnating anew in +the minds of modern thinkers, and Nature is not conceived of as +material, but as force and continual motion; and they are trying to +identify human will with this arcane energy, and let the forces of +Nature have freer play in humanity. We begin to catch glimpses of +civilizations as far exceeding ours as ours surpasses society in the +Stone Age. In all our democratic movements, in these efforts towards +the harmonious fusion of human forces, humanity is obscurely intent on +mightier collective exploits than anything conceived of before. The +nature of these energies manifesting in humanity I shall try to indicate +later on. But to let the general will have free play ought to be the +aim of those who wish to build up national organizations for whatever +purpose; and to let the general will have free play we require something +better than the English invention of representative government, which, +as it exists at present, is simply a device to enable all kinds of +compromises to be made on matters where there should be no compromise, +as if right and wrong could come to an agreement honestly to let things +be partly right and partly wrong. We are importing into Ireland some +political machinery of this antiquated pattern. I have written the +foregoing because I dread Irish people becoming slaves of this machine. +I fear the importers of this machinery will desire to make it do things +it can only do badly, and will set it to work with the ferocity of the +new broom and will make it an obstruction, so that the real genius of +the Irish people will be unable freely to manifest itself. The less we +rely on this machinery at present, and the more we desire a machinery of +progress, at once flexible and efficient, the better will it be for us +later on. What must be embodied in State action is the national will +and the national soul, and until that giant being is manifested it is +dangerous to let the pygmies set powers in motion which may enchain us +for centuries to come. + + + + + +XIV. + + + +It may seem I have spoken lightly of that infant whose birth I referred +to with more solemnity in the opening pages of this book, and indeed I +am a little dubious about that infant. The signature of the Irish mind +is nowhere present in it, and I look upon it with something of the +hesitating loyalty the inhabitant of a new Balkan State night feel for +his imported prince, doubtful whether that sovereign will reflect the +will of his new subjects or whether his policy will not constrain +national character into an alien mould. The signature of the Irish mind +is not apparent anywhere in this new machinery for self-government. Our +politicians seem to have been unaware that they had any wisdom to learn +from the more obvious failures of representative government as they knew +it. So far, as I have knowledge, no Irishman during the past century of +effort for political freedom took the trouble to think out a form of +government befitting Irish circumstance and character. We left it +absolutely to those whom we declared incapable of understanding us or +governing us to devise for us a system by which we might govern +ourselves. I do not criticize those who devised the new machinery of +self-government, but those who did not devise it, and who discouraged +the exercise of political imagination in Ireland. It is said of an +artist that it was his fantasy first to paint his ideal of womanly +beauty, and, when this was done, to approximate it touch by touch to the +sitter, and when the sitter cried, "Ah, now it is growing like!" the +artist ceased, combining the maximum of ideal beauty possible with the +minimum of likeness. Now if we had thought out the ideal structure of +Irish government we might have offered it for criticism by those in +whose power it was to accept or reject, and have gradually approximated +it until a point was reached where the compromise left at least +something of our making and imagination in it. There is nothing of us +in the Act which is in abeyance as I write. I am less concerned with it +than with the creation of a social order, for the social order in a +country is the strong and fast fortress where national character is +created and preserved. A legislature may theoretically allow self- +government, but by its constitution may operate against national +character and its expression in a civilization. We have accepted the +principle of representative government, and that, I readily concede, is +the ideal principle, but the method by which a representative character +is to be given to State institutions we have not thought out at all. We +have committed the error our neighbors have committed of assuming that +the representative assembly which can legislate for general interests +can deal equally with particular interests; that the body of men who +will act unitedly so as to secure the liberty of person or liberty of +thought, which all desire for themselves, will also act wisely where +class problems and the development of particular industries are +concerned. The whole history of representative assemblies shows that +the machinery adequate for the furtherance and protection of general +interests operates unjustly or stupidly in practice against particular +interests. The long neglect of agriculture and the actual condition of +the sweated are instances. I agree that representative government is +the ideal, but how is it to operate in the legislature and still more in +administration? Are government departments to be controlled by +Parliament or by the representatives of the particular class to promote +whose interests special departments were created. I hold that the +continuous efficiency of State departments can only be maintained when +they are controlled in respect of policy, not by the casual politician +whom the fluctuations of popular emotion places at their head, but by +the class or industry the State institution was created to serve. A +department of State can conceivably be preserved from stagnation by a +minister of strong will, who has a more profound knowledge of the +problems connected with his department than even his permanent +officials. He might vitalize them from above. But does the party system +yield us such Ministers? In practice is not high position the reward of +service to party? Is special knowledge demanded of the controller of a +Board of Trade or a Board of Agriculture? Do we not all know that the +vast majority of Ministers are controlled by the permanent officials of +their department. Failing great Ministers, the operations of a +department may be vitalized by control over its policy exercised, not by +a general assembly like Parliament, but by a board elected from the +class or industry the department ostensibly was created to serve. An +agricultural department controlled by a council or board composed solely +of those making their livelihood out of agriculture and elected solely +by their own class, would, we may be certain, be practical in its +methods. It would receive perpetual stimulus from those engaged in +making their living by the industry. Parliaments or senates should +confine themselves to matters of general interest, leaving particular or +special interests to those who understand them, to the specialists, and +only intervene when national interests are involved by a clashing of +particular interests. Our State institutions will never fulfill their +functions efficiently until they are subject in respect of policy not to +general control, but the control of the class they were created to +serve. + +That ideal can only be realized fully when all industries are organized. +But we should work towards it. Parliament may act as a kind of guardian +of the unorganized, but, once an industry is organized, once it has come +of age, it must resent domination by bodies without the special +knowledge of which it has the monopoly within itself. It should not +tolerate domination by the unexpert outsider, whatever may be his repute +in other spheres. It is only when industries are organized that the +democratic system of election can justify itself by results in +administration. When a county, let us say, chooses a member of +Parliament to represent every interest, only too often it chooses a man +who can represent few interests except his own. The greatest common +denominator of the constituents is as a rule some fluent utterer of +platitudes. But if the farmers in a county, or the manufacturers in a +county, or the workers in a county, had each to choose a man to +represent them, we may be certain the farmers would choose one whom they +regarded as competent to interpret their needs, the manufacturers a man +of real ability, and labor would select its best intelligence. Persons +engaged in special work rarely fall to recognize the best men in their +own industry. Then they judge somewhat as experts, whereas they are by +no means experts when they are asked to select a representative to +represent everybody in every industry. To secure good government I +conceive we must have two kinds of representative assemblies running +concurrently with their spheres of influence well defined. One, the +supreme body, should be elected by counties or cities to deal with +general interests, taxation, justice, education, the duties and rights +of individual citizens as citizens. The other bodies should be elected +by the people engaged in particular occupations to control the policy of +the State institutions created to foster particular interests. The +average man will elect people to his mind whose deliberations will be in +a sphere where the ideas of the average man ought to be heard and must +be respected. The specialists in their department of industry will +elect experts to work in a sphere where their knowledge will be +invaluable, and where, if it is not present, there will be muddle. + +The machinery of government ought never to be complicated, and ought to +be easily understood by the citizens. In Ireland, where we have at +present no thought of foreign policy, no question of army or navy, +departments of State should fall naturally into a few divisions +concerned with agriculture, education, local government, justice, +police, and taxation. The administration of some of these are matters +of national concern, and they should and must be under parliamentary +control, and that control should be jealously protected. Others are +sectional, and these should be controlled in respect of policy by +persons representative of these sections, and elected solely by them. I +think there should also be a department of Labor. I am not sure that the +main work of the Minister in charge ought not to be the organization of +labor in its proper unions or guilds. It is a work as important to the +State as the organization of agriculture, and indeed from a humanitarian +point of view more urgent. Nothing is more lamentable, nothing fills +the heart more with despair, than the multitude of isolated workers, +sweated, unable to fix a price for their work, ignorant of its true +economic value; connected with no union, unable to find any body to +fall back on for help or advice in trouble, neglected altogether by +society, which yet has to pay a heavy price in disease, charity, poor +rates, and in social disorder for its neglect. Was not the last Irish +rising largely composed of those who were economically neglected and +oppressed? Society bears a heavier burden for its indifference than it +would bear if it accepted responsibility for the organization of labor +in its own defense. The State in these islands recommends farmers to +organize for the protection of their interests and assists in the +organization, and leaves the organized farmers free to use their +organizations as they will. As good a case could be made for the State +aiding in the organization of labor for the protection of its own +interests. A ministry of labor should seek out all wage-earners; where +there is no trade union one should be organized, and, where one exists, +all workers should be pressed to join it. Such a ministry ought to be +the city of refuge for the proletarian, and the Minister be the Father +of Labor, fighting its battles for an entry into humanity and its +rightful place in civilization. + +If we consider the problem of representation, it should not be +impossible to devise a system of which the foundation might be the +County Councils, where there would be as sub-divisions, committees for +local government, agriculture, and technical instruction or trade to +deal with local administration in these matters. These committees +should send representatives to general councils of local government, +agriculture, and trade. The election should not be by the County +Council as a body, but by the committees, so that traders would have no +voice in choosing a representative for farmers, nor farmers interfere in +the choice of manufacturers or traders selecting a representative on a +general Council of Trade, and it should be regarded as ridiculous any +such intervention as for a War Office to claim it should have a voice +along with the Admiralty in the selection of captains and commanders of +vessels of war. At these general councils, which might meet twice a +year for whatever number of days may be expedient, general policies +would be decided and boards elected to ensure the carrying out by the +officials of the policies decided upon. By this process of selection +men who had to control Boards of Agriculture, Trade, or Local Government +would be three times elected, each time by a gradually decreasing +electorate, with a gradually increasing special knowledge of the matters +to be dealt with. A really useless person may contrive to be chosen as +representative by a thousand electors. It requires an able man to +convince a committee of ten persons, themselves more or less +specialists, that his is the best brain among them. Where national +education, a thorny subject in Ireland, is concerned, I think the +educationalists in provinces might be asked to elect representatives +from their own profession on a Council of Education to act as an +advisory body to the Minister of Education. County Council elections +are not exactly means by which miracles of culture are discovered. A +man who came to be member of a board of control would at least have +proved his ability to others engaged on work like his own who have +special knowledge of it and of his capacity to deal with it. If this +system was accepted, we would not have traders on our Council of +Agriculture protesting against the farmers organizing their industry, +because none but persons concerned with agriculture would be a owed to +be members of agricultural committees, and this would, of course, +involve the concentration of merchants and manufacturers upon the work +of a Board of Trade and the control of a policy of technical instruction +suitable for industrial workers, where agricultural advisers in their +turn would be out of place. Control so exercised over the policy of +State institutions would vitalize them, and tend to make them enter more +intimately into the department of national effort they were created to +foster. The stagnation which falls on most Government departments is +due to this, that the responsible heads rarely have a knowledge great +enough to enable them to inaugurate new methods, that parliamentary +control is never adequate, is rarely exercised with knowledge, and there +is always a party in power to defend the policy of their Minister, for +if one Minister is successfully attacked a whole party goes out of +power. We, in Ireland, should desire above all things efficiency in our +public servants. They will stagnate in their offices unless they are +continually stimulated by intimate connection with the class they work +for and who have a power of control. This system would also, I believe, +lead to less jobbery. Men in an assembly, where theoretically every +class and interest are represented, often conspire to make bad +appointments, because only a minority have knowledge of what +qualifications the official ought to have, and they are outvoted by +representatives who do their friends such good turns often in sheer +ignorance that they are betraying their constituents. Where specialists +have power, and where the well-being of their own industry is concerned, +they never willingly appoint the inefficient. Such an organization of +our County Council system would operate also to break up sectarian +cliques. The feeling of organized classes, farmers, or industrialists, +concerned about their own well-being, would oppose itself to sectarian +sentiment where its application was unfitting. + +In the system of representative government I have outlined, we would +have one supreme or national assembly concerned with general interests, +justice, taxation, education, the apportioning of revenue to its various +uses, reserving to itself direct control over the policy of the +departments of treasury, police, judiciary, all that affects the +citizens equally; and, beneath it, other councils, representative of +classes and special interests, controlling the policy and administration +of the State departments concerned with their work. Where everybody was +concerned everybody would have that measure of control which a vote +confers; where particular interests were concerned these interests +would not be hampered in their development by the intervention of +busybodies from outside. Of course on matters where particular interests +clashed with general interests, or were unable to adjust themselves to +other interests, the supreme Assembly would have to decide. The more +sectional interests are removed from discussion in the National +Assembly, and the more it confines itself to general interests the more +will it approximate to the ideal sense, be less the haunt of greed, and +more the vehicle of the national will and the national being. + +By the application of the principle of representative government now in +force, one is reminded of nothing so much as the palette of an artist +who had squeezed out the primary colors and mixed them into a greasy +drab tint, where the purity of every color was lost, or the most +powerful pigment was in dull domination. If the modification of the +representative principle I have outlined was in operation, with each +interest or industry organized, and freed from alien interference, the +effect might be likened to a disc with the seven primary colors raying +from a centre, and made to whirl where the motion produced rather the +effect of pure light. We must not mix the colors of national life until +conflicting interests muddle themselves into a gray drab of human +futility, but strive, so far as possible, to keep them pure and unmixed, +each retaining its own peculiar lustre, so that in their conjunction +with others they will harmonize, as do the pure primary colors, and in +their motion make a light of true intelligence to prevail in the +national being. + + + + + +XV. + + + +No policy can succeed if it be not in accord with national character. If +I have misjudged that, what is written here is vain. It may be asked, +can any one abstract from the chaos which is Irish history a prevailing +mood or tendency recurring again and again, and assert these are +fundamental? It is difficult to define national character, even in +long-established States whose history lies open to the world; but it is +most difficult in Ireland, which for centuries has not acted by its own +will from its own centre, where national activity was mainly by way of +protest against external domination, or a readjustment of itself to +external power. We can no more deduce the political character of the +Irish from the history of the past seven hundred years than we can +estimate the quality of genius in an artist whom we have only seen when +grappling with a burglar. The political character of a people emerges +only when they are shaping in freedom their own civilization. To get a +clue in Ireland we must slip by those seven centuries of struggle and +study national origins, as the lexicographer, to get the exact meaning +of a word, traces it to its derivation. The greatest value our early +history and literature has for us is the value of a clue to character, +to be returned to again and again in the maze of our infinitely more +complicated life and era. + +In every nation which has been allowed free development, while it has +the qualities common to all humanity, it will be found that some one +idea was predominant, and in its predominance regrouped about itself +other ideas. With our neighbors I believe the idea of personal liberty +has been the inspiring motive of all that is best in its political +development, whatever the reactions and oppressions may have been. In +ancient Attica the idea of beauty, proportion, or harmony in life so +pervaded the minds of the citizens that the surplus revenues of the +State were devoted to the beautifying of the city. We find that love +for beauty in its art, its literature, its architecture; and to Plato, +the highest mind in the Athenian State, Deity itself appeared as Beauty +in its very essence. That mighty mid-European State, whose ambitions +have upset the world, seems to conceive of the State as power. Other +races have had a passion for justice, and have left codes of law which +have profoundly affected the life of nations which grew up long after +they were dead. The cry of ancient Israel for righteousness rings out +above all other passions, and its laws are essentially the laws of a +people who desired that morality should prevail. We have to discover +for ourselves the ideas which lie at the root of national character, and +so inculcate these principles that they will pervade the nation and make +it a spiritual solidarity, and unite the best minds in their service, +and so control those passionate and turbulent elements which are the +cause of the downfall and wreckage of nations by internal dissensions. +I desire as much as any one to preserve our national identity, and to +make it worthy of preservation, and this can only be done by the +domination of some inspiring ideal which will draw all hearts to it; +which may at first have that element of strangeness in it which Ben +Jonson said was in all excellent beauty, and which will later become--as +all high things we love do finally become--familiar to us, and nearer +and closer to us than the beatings of our own hearts. + +When ideals which really lie at the root of our being are first +proclaimed, all that is external in life protests. So were many great +reformers martyred, but they left their ideals behind them in the air, +and men breathed them and they became part of their very being. +Nationality is a state of consciousness, a mood of definite character in +our intellectual being, and it is not perceived first except in profound +meditation; it does not become apparent from superficial activities any +more than we could, by looking at the world and the tragic history of +mankind, discover that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. That +knowledge comes to those who go within themselves, and not to those who +seek without for the way, the truth, and the life. But, once +proclaimed, the incorruptible spiritual element in man intuitively +recognizes it as truth, and it has a profound effect on human action. +There is, I believe, a powerful Irish character which has begun to +reassert itself in modern times, and this character is in essentials +what it was two thousand years ago. We discover its first manifestation +in the ancient clans. The clan was at once aristocratic and democratic. +It was aristocratic in leadership and democratic in its economic basis. +The most powerful character was elected as chief, while the land was the +property of the clan. That social order indicates the true political +character of the Irish. Races which last for thousands of years do not +change in essentials. They change in circumstance. They may grow better +or worse, but throughout their history the same fundamentals appear and +reassert themselves. We can see later in Irish literature or politics, +as powerful personalities emerged and expressed themselves, how the +ancient character persisted. Swift, Goldsmith, Berkeley, O'Grady, Shaw, +Wilde, Parnell, Davitt, Plunkett, and many others, however they differed +from each other, in so far as they betrayed a political character, were +intensely democratic in economic theory, adding that to an aristocratic +freedom of thought. That peculiar character, I believe, still persists +among our people in the mass, and it is by adopting a policy which will +enable it to manifest once more that we will create an Irish +civilization, which will fit our character as the glove fits the hand. +During the last quarter of a century of comparatively peaceful life the +co-operative principle has once more laid hold on the imagination of the +Irish townsman and the Irish countryman. The communal character is +still preserved. It still wills to express itself in its external +aspects in a communal civilization, in an economic brotherhood. That +movement alone provides in Ireland for the aristocratic and democratic +elements in Irish character. It brings into prominence the aristocracy +of character and intelligence which it is really the Irish nature to +love, and its economic basis is democratic. A large part of our failure +to achieve anything memorable in Ireland is due to the fact that, +influenced by the example of our great neighbors, we reversed the +natural position of the aristocratic and democratic elements in the +national being. Instead of being democratic in our economic life, with +the aristocracy of character and intelligence to lead us, we became +meanly individualistic in our economics and meanly democratic in +leadership. That is, we allowed individualism--the devilish doctrine of +every man for himself--to be the keynote of our economic life; where, +above all things, the general good and not the enrichment of the +individual should be considered. For our leaders we chose energetic, +common-place types, and made them represent us in the legislature; +though it is in leadership above all that we need, not the aristocracy +of birth, but the aristocracy of character, intellect, and will. We had +not that aristocracy to lead us. We chose instead persons whose ideas +were in no respect nobler than the average to be our guides, or rather +to be guided by us. Yet when the aristocratic character appeared, +however imperfect, how it was adored! Ireland gave to Parnell--an +aristocratic character--the love which springs from the deeps of its +being, a love which it gave to none other in our time. + +With our great neighbors what are our national characteristics were +reversed. They are an individualistic race. This individualism has +expressed itself in history and society in a thousand ways. Being +individualistic in economics, they were naturally democratic in +politics. They have a genius for choosing forcible average men as +leaders. They mistrust genius in high places, Intensely individualistic +themselves, they feared the aristocratic character in politics. They +desired rather that general principles should be asserted to encircle +and keep safe their own national eccentricity. They have gradually +infected us with something of their ways, and as they were not truly our +ways we never made a success of them. It is best for us to fall back on +what is natural with us, what is innate in character, what was visible +among us in the earliest times, and what, I still believe, persists +among us--a respect for the aristocratic intellect, for freedom of +thought, ideals, poetry, and imagination, as the qualities to be looked +for in leaders, and a bias for democracy in our economic life. We were +more Irish truly in the heroic ages. We would not then have taken, as +we do today, the huckster or the publican and make them our +representative men, and allow them to corrupt the national soul. Did +not the whole vulgar mob of our politicians lately unite to declare to +the world that Irish nationality was impossible except it was floated on +a sea of liquor? The image of Kathleen ni Houlihan anciently was beauty +in the hearts of poets and dreamers. We often thought her unwise, but +never did we find her ignoble; never was she without a flame of +idealism in her eyes, until this ignoble crew declared alcohol to be the +only possible basis of Irish nationality. + +In the remote past we find the national instincts of our people fully +manifested. We find in this early literature a love for the truth- +teller and for the hero. Indeed they did not choose as chieftains of +their clans men whom the bards could not sing. They reverenced wisdom, +whether in king, bard, or ollav, and at the same time there was a +communal basis for economic life. This heroic literature is, as our +Standish O'Grady declared, rather prophecy than history. It reveals +what the highest spirits deemed the highest, and what was said lay so +close to the heart of the race that it is still remembered and read. +That literature discloses the character of the national being, still to +be manifested in a civilization, and it must flame out before the tale +which began among the gods is closed. Whatever brings this communal +character into our social order, and at the same time desires the +independent aristocratic intellect, is in accord with the national +tradition. The co-operative movement is the modern expression of that +mood. It is already making a conquest of the Irish mind, and in its +application to life predisposing our people to respect for the man of +special attainments, independent character, and intellect. A social +order which has made its economics democratic in character needs such +men above all things. It needs aristocratic thinkers to save the social +order from stagnation, the disease which eats into all harmonious life. +We shall succeed or fail in Ireland as we succeed or fail to make +democracy prevail in our economic life, and aristocratic ideals to +prevail in our political and intellectual life. + +In all things it is best for a people to obey the law of their own +being. The lion can never become the ox, and "one law for the lion and +the ox is oppression." + +Now that the hammer of Thor is wrecking our civilizations, is destroying +the body of European nationalities, the spirit is freer to reshape the +world nearer to the heart's desire. Necessity will drive us along with +the rest to recast our social order and to fix our ideals. Necessity +and our own hearts should lead us to a brotherhood in industry. It +should be horrible to us the thought of the greedy profiteer, the +pursuit of wealth for oneself rather than the union of forces for the +good of all and the creation of a brotherly society. The efforts of +individuals to amass for themselves great personal wealth should be +regarded as ignoble by society, and as contrary to the national spirit, +as it is indeed contrary to all divine teaching. Our ideal should be +economic harmony and intellectual diversity. We should regard as alien +to the national spirit all who would make us think in flocks, and +discipline us to an unintellectual commonalty of belief. The life of +the soul is a personal adventure, a quest for the way and the truth and +the life. It may be we shall find the ancient ways to be the true ways, +but if we are led to the truth blindfolded and without personal effort, +we are like those whom the Scripture condemns for entering into +Paradise, not by the straight gate, but over the wall, like thieves and +robbers. If we seek it for ourselves and come to it, we shall be true +initiates and masters in the guild. + +No people seem to have greater natural intelligence than the Irish. No +people have been so unfortunately cursed with organizations which led +them to abnegate personal thought, and Ireland is an intellectual desert +where people read nothing and think nothing; where not fifty in a +hundred thousand could discern the quality of thought in the Politics of +Aristotle or the Republic of Plato as being in any way deeper than a +leading article in one of their daily papers. And we, whose external +life is so mean, whose ignorance of literature is so great, are yet +flattered by the suggestion that we have treasures of spiritual and +intellectual life which should not be debased by external influences, +and so it comes about that good literature is a thing unpurchasable +except in some half-dozen of the larger towns. Any system which would +suppress the aristocratic, fearless, independent intellect should be +regarded as contrary to the Irish genius and inimical to the national +being. + + + + + +XVI. + + + +Among the many ways men have sought to create a national consciousness, +a fountain of pride to the individual citizen, is to build a strong body +for the great soul, and it would be an error to overlook--among other +modern uprisings of ancient Irish character--the revival of the military +spirit and its possible development in relation to the national being. +National solidarity may be brought about by pressure from without, or by +the fusion of the diverse elements in a nation by a heat engendered from +within. But to Create national solidarity by war is to attain but a +temporary and unreal unity, a gain like theirs who climb into the +Kingdom not by the straight gate, but over the wall like a robber. When +one nation is threatened by another, great national sacrifices will be +made, and the latent solidarity of its humanity be kindled. But when +the war is over, when the circumstances uniting the people for a time +are past, that spirit rapidly dies, and people begin their old +antagonisms because the social order, in its normal working, does not +constantly promote a consciousness of identity of interest. + +Almost all the great European states have fortified their national being +by militarism. Everything almost in their development has been +subordinated to the necessities of national defense, and hence it is +only in times of war there is any real manifestation of national spirit. +It is only then that the citizens of the Iron Age feel a transitory +brotherhood. It is a paradoxical phenomenon, possible only in the Iron +Age, that the highest instances of national sacrifice are evoked by +warfare--the most barbarous of human enterprises. To make normal that +spirit of unity which is now only manifested in abnormal moments in +history should be our aim; and as it is the Iron Age, and material +forces are more powerful than spiritual, we must consider how these +fierce energies can be put in relation with the national being with +least debasement of that being. If the body of the national soul is too +martial in character, it will by reflex action communicate its character +to the spirit, and make it harsh and domineering, and unite against it +in hatred all other nations. We have seen that in Europe but yesterday. +The predominance in the body of militarist practice will finally drive +out from the soul those unfathomable spiritual elements which are the +body's last source power in conflict, and it will in the end defeat its +own object, which is power. When nations at war call up their reserves +of humanity to the last man capable of bearing arms, their leaders begin +also to summon up those bodiless moods and national sentiments which are +the souls of races, and their last and most profound sources of +inspiration and deathless courage. The war then becomes a conflict of +civilizations and of spiritual ideals, the aspirations and memories +which constitute the fundamental basis of those civilizations. Without +the inspiration of great memories or of great hopes, men are incapable +of great sacrifices. They are rationalists, and the preservation of the +life they know grows to be a desire greater than the immortality of the +spiritual life of their race. A famous Japanese general once said it +was the power to hold out for the last desperate quarter of an hour +which won victories, and it is there spiritual stamina reinforces +physical power. It is a mood akin to the ecstasy of the martyr through +his burning. Though in these mad moments neither spiritual nor material +is consciously differentiated, the spiritual is there in a fiery fusion +with all other forces. If it is absent, the body unsupported may take +to its heels or will yield. It has played its only card, and has not +eternity to fling upon the table in a last gamble for victory. + +A military organization may strengthen the national being, but if it +dominates it, it will impoverish its life. How little Sparta has given +to the world compared with Attica. Yet when national ideals have been +created they assume an immeasurably greater dignity when the citizens +organize themselves for the defense of their ideals, and are prepared to +yield up life itself as a sacrifice if by this the national being may be +preserved. A creed always gains respect through its martyrs. We may +grant all this, yet be doubtful whether a militarist organization should +be the main support of the national being in Ireland. The character of +the ideal should, I believe, be otherwise created, and I am not certain +that it could not be as well preserved and defended by a civil +organization, such as I have indicated, as by armed power. Our +geographical position and the slender population of our country also +make it evident that the utmost force Ireland could organize would make +but a feeble barrier against assault by any of the greater States. We +have seen how Belgium, a country with a population larger than that of +Ireland, was thrust aside, crushed and bleeding, by one stroke from the +paw of its mighty neighbor.* The military and political institutions of +a small country are comparatively easy to displace, but it would be a +task infinitely more difficult to destroy ideals or to extinguish a +national being based on a social order, democratic and co-operative in +character, the soul of the country being continually fed by institutions +which, by their very nature, would be almost impossible to alter unless +destruction of the whole humanity of the country was aimed at. National +ideals, based on a co-operative social order, would have the same power +of resistance almost as a religion, which is, of all things, most +unconquerable by physical force, and, when it is itself militant, the +most powerful ally of military power. The aim of all nations is to +preserve their immortality. I do not oppose the creation of a national +army for this purpose. There are occasions when the manhood of a nation +must be prepared to yield life rather than submit to oppression, when it +must perish in self-contempt or resist by force what wrong would be +imposed by force. But I would like to point out that for a country in +the position of Ireland the surest means of preserving the national +being by the sacrifice and devotion of the people are economic and +spiritual. + +------------------* Since this book was written Ireland has had a tragic +illustration of the truth of what is urged in these pages. ------------- + + +Our political life in the past has been sordid and unstable because we +were uncultured as a nation. National ideals have been the possession +of the few in Ireland, and have not been diffused. That is the cause of +our comparative failure as a nation. If we would create an Irish +culture, and spread it widely among our people, we would have the same +unfathomable sources of inspiration and sacrifice to draw upon in our +acts as a nation as the individual has who believes he is immortal, and +that his life here is but a temporary foray into time out of eternity. + +Yet we have much to learn from the study of military organization. The +great problem of all civilizations is the creation of citizens: that is, +of people who are dominated by the ideal of the general welfare, who +will sink private desire and work harmoniously with their fellow- +citizens for the highest good of their race. While we may all agree +that war brings about an eruption of the arcane and elemental forces +which lie normally in the pit of human life, as the forces which cause +earthquakes lie normally asleep in the womb of the world, none the less +we must admit that military genius has discovered and applied with +mastery a law of life which is of the highest importance to +civilization--far more important to civil even than to military +development--and that is the means by which the individual will forget +his personal danger and sacrifice life itself for the general welfare. +In no other organization will men in great masses so entirely forget +themselves as men will in battle under military discipline. What is the +cause of this? Can we discover how it is done and apply the law to +civil life? + +The military discipline works miracles. The problem before the captains +of armies is to take the body of man, the most naturally egoistic of all +things, which hates pain and which will normally take to its legs in +danger and try to save itself, and to dominate it so that the body and +the soul inhabiting it will stand still and face all it loathes. And +the problem is solved in the vast majority of cases. After military +training the civilians who formerly would fly before a few policemen +will manfully and heroically stand, not the blows of a baton, but a +whole hail of bullets, a cannonade lasting through a day; nay, they +will for weeks and months, day by day, risk and lose life for a cause, +for an idea, at a word of command. They may not have half as good a +cause to lose life for as they had as a mob of angry civilians, but they +will face death now, and the chances of mutilation and agony worse than +death. Can we inspire civilians with the same passionate self- +forgetfulness in the pursuit of the higher ideals of peace? Men in a +regiment have to a large extent the personal interests abolished. The +organization they now belong to supports them and becomes their life. +By their union with it a new being is created. Exercise, drill, +maneuver, accentuate that unity, and esprit de corps arises, so that +they feel their highest life is the corporate one; and that feeling is +fostered continually, until at last all the units, by some law of the +soul, are as it were in spite of themselves, in spite of the legs which +want to run, in spite of the body which trembles with fear, constrained +to move in obedience to the purpose of the whole organism expressed by +its controlling will; and so we get these devoted masses of men who +advance again and again under a hail more terrible than Dante imagined +falling in his vision of the fiery world. + +There is nothing like it in civilian life, but yet the aim of the higher +minds in all civilizations is to create a similar devotion to civic +ideals, so that men will not only, as Pericles said, "give their bodies +for the commonwealth," but will devote mind, will, and imagination with +equal assiduity and self-surrender to the creation of a civilization +which will be the inheritance of all and a cause of pride to every one, +and which will bring to the individual a greater beauty and richness of +life than he could finally reach by the utmost private efforts of which +he was capable. + +I believe that an organization of society, such as I have indicated, +would evolve gradually a similar passion for the general zeal, having, +without the stern restraint militarism imposes on its units, a like +power of turning the thoughts to the general good. + +I may say also that to create a militarist organization, before the +natural principles to be safe-guarded are well understood and a common +possession of all the people in the country, would be a danger akin to +the peril of allowing children to play with firearms. We may find it a +bad business to create natural ideals as they are required, just as it +is a perilous business to try to create an army when a country is in a +state of war. If we do not rapidly create a national culture embodying +the fundamental ideas we wish to see prevailing in society our volunteer +armies will be subject to influences from the baser sort of politicians +who would force party aims on the country. We shall have a wretched +future unless the soul of the country can dominate the physical forces +in it, unless ideals of national conduct, liberty of speech and thought, +of justice and brotherhood, exist to inspire and guide it, and are +recognized by all and appealed to by all parties equally. + +We are standing on the threshold of nationhood, and it is problems like +these we should be setting ourselves to solve, unless we are to be an +unimportant province of the world, a mere administrative area inhabited +by a quite undistinguished people. + + + + + +XVII. + + + +But there are other methods of devotion to the national being possible +to us through collective action, and I was moved to imagine one, having +once received a letter from a bloodthirsty correspondent--one of that +rather numerous class whose minds are always loaded with ball cartridge, +whose fingers are always on the trigger, and who are always calling on +the authorities not to hesitate to shoot. He wrote to me during a +railway strike, advocating military conscription in order that railway +men who went out on strike could be called up by the military +authorities, as the French railway strikers were, and who were subject +to martial law if they disobeyed. I do not think with those who believe +the venerable remedy of blood-letting is the best cure for social +maladies; and I would have thought no more about that stern +disciplinarian, but my mind went playing about the idea of conscription, +and there came to me some thoughts which I wish to put on record in the +hope that our people in some future, when the social order will create +public spirit and the passion for the State more plentifully than it +does today, may recur to the idea and apply it. Nearly every State in +the world demands from youth a couple of years' service in the army. +There they are trained to defend their country--even, if necessary, to +slay their own countrymen. There is much that is abhorrent to the +imagination in the idea of war, and I am altogether with that noble body +of men who are trying, by means of arbitration treaties, to solve +national differences by reason rather than by force. But we all +recognize something noble in the spirit of the nation where the +community agrees that every man shall give up some years of his life to +the State for the preservation of the State, and may be called upon to +surrender life absolutely in that service. While the manhood of a race +does this on the whole with cheerfulness, there must be something of +high character in the manhood of that nation. A certain gravity +attaches to national decisions which are made, as it were, upon the +slopes of death, because none are exempt from service, and there is no +delirious mob ready to yell for a war in which it does not run the risk +of having its own dirty skin perforated by bullets. In Ireland we have +never had military conscription, for reasons which are well known to +all, and upon which I need not enter. I am well satisfied it should be +so, for it leaves open to us the possibility of a much nobler service, +one which has never yet been attempted by any modern nation, and that is +civil conscription. + +I throw out this suggestion, which may hold the imagination of those who +have noble conceptions of what national life should be and what a nation +should work for, in the hope that some time it may fructify. There is a +prohibition laid on the people in this island against conscription for +military purposes. Is there any reason why we should not have +conscription for civil purposes? Why should not every young man in +Ireland give up two years of his life in a comradeship of labor with +other young men, and be employed under skilled direction in great works +of public utility, in the erection of public buildings, the beautifying +of our cities, reclamation of waste lands, afforestation, and other +desirable objects? The principle of service for the State for military +purposes is admitted in every country, even at last by the English- +speaking peoples. It is easy to be seen how this principle of +conscription could be applied to infinitely nobler ends--to the building +up of a beautiful civilization--and might make the country adopting it +in less than half a century as beautiful as ancient Attica or majestic +as ancient Egypt. While other nations take part of the life of young +men for instruction in war, why should not the State in Ireland, more +nobly inspired, ask of its young men that they should give equally of +their lives to the State, not for the destruction of life, but for the +conservation of life? This service might be asked from all--high and +low, well and humbly born--except from those who can plead the reasons +which exempt people abroad from military service. As things stand +today, if the State undertakes any public work, it does it more +expensively by far than it would be if undertaken by private enterprise. +Every person puts up prices for the State or for municipalities. Labor, +land, and materials are all charged at the highest possible rates, +whereas if there was any really high conception of citizenship and of +the functions of the State, the citizens would agree so that works of +public utility, or those which conspired to add to national dignity, +should be done at least cost to the community. Where there is no +national sacrifice there is no national pride. Because there is no +national pride our modern civilizations show meanly compared with the +titanic architecture of the cities and majestic civilizations of the +past. We know from the ruins of these proud cities that he who walked +into ancient Rome, Athens, Thebes, Memphis and Babylon, walked amid +grandeurs which must have exalted the spirit. To walk into Manchester, +Sheffield, or Liverpool is to feel a weight upon the soul. There is no +national feeling for beauty in our industrial civilizations. + +Let us suppose Ireland had through industrial conscription about fifty +thousand young men every year at its disposal under a national works +department. What could be done? First of all it would mean that every +young man in the country would have received an industrial training of +some kind. The work of technical instruction could be largely carried +on in connection with this industrial army. People talk of the benefit +of discipline and obedience secured by military service. This and much +more could be secured by a labor conscription. Every man in the island +would have got into the habit of work at a period of life when it is +most necessary, and when too many young men have no serious occupation. +Parents should welcome the training and discipline for their children, +and certificates of character and intelligence given by the department +of national works should open up prospects of rapid employment in the +ordinary industrial life of the country when the period of public +service was closed. For those engaged there would be a true comradeship +in labor, and the phrase, "the dignity of labor," about which so much +cant has been written, would have a real significance where young men +were working together for the public benefit with the knowledge that any +completed work would add to the health, beauty, dignity, and prosperity +of the State. In return for this labor the State should feed and clothe +its industrial army, educate them, and familiarize them with some branch +of employment, and make them more competent after this period of service +was over to engage in private enterprise. Two years of such training +would dissipate all the slackness, lack of precision, and laziness which +are so often apparent in young men who have never had any strict +discipline in their homes, and whom parental weakness has rendered unfit +for the hard usiness of life. + +The benefit to those undergoing such a training would of itself justify +civil conscription; but when we come to think of the nation--what might +not be done by a State with a national labor army under its control? +Public works might be undertaken at a cost greatly below that which +would otherwise be incurred, and the estimates which now paralyze the +State, when it considers this really needed service or that, would +assume a different appearance, as it would be embracing in one +enterprise technical education and the accomplishment of beneficial +works. With such an army under skilled control the big cities could +have playgrounds for the children of the cities; public gardens, baths, +gymnasiums, recreation rooms, hospitals, and sanatoriums might be built; +waste land reclaimed and afforested, and the roadsides might be planted +with fruit trees. National schools, picture-galleries, public halls, +libraries, and a thousand enterprises which now hang fire because at +present labor for public service is the most expensive labor, all could +be undertaken. If the State becomes very poor, as indeed it is certain +to be, it may be forced into some such method of fulfilling its +functions. Are we, with enormous burdens of debt, to hang up every +useful public work because of the expense, and spend our lives in paying +State debts while the body for whom we work is unable, on account of the +expense, to do anything for us in return? If the State is to continue +its functions we shall have to commandeer people for its service in +times of peace as is done in times of war. There is hardly an argument +which could be used to defend military conscription which could not be +equaled with as powerful an argument for civil conscription. I am not +at all sure that if the State in Ireland decided to utilize two years of +every young man's life for State purposes that we could not disband most +of our expensive constabulary and make certain squads of our civil +recruits responsible for the keeping of public law and order, leaving +only the officers as permanent professionals, for of course there must +be expert control of the conscripts. The postal service might also be +carried on largely by conscripted civilians. + +This may appear a fantastic programme, but I would like to see it argued +out. It would create a real brotherhood in work, just as the army +creates in its own way a brotherhood between men in the same regiments. +The nation adopting civil conscription could clean itself up in a couple +of generations, so that in respect of public services it would be +incomparable. The alternative to this is to starve all public services, +to make the State simply the tax-collector, to pay the interest on a +huge debt, and so get it hated because it can do nothing except collect +money to pay the interest on a colossal national debt. Obviously the +State as an agency to bring about civilization cannot perform both +services--pay interest on huge public loans, and continue an expensive +service. It must find out some way in which public services can be +continued, and if possible improved, and the open way to that is civil +conscription and the assertion of a claim to two or three years of the +work of every citizen for civil purposes, just as it now asserts a claim +on the services of citizens for the defense of the State. As national +debts are more and more piled up, it has seemed to many that here must +be an end to what was called social reform, that we were entering on a +black era, and no dawn would show over Europe for another century. +There is always a way out of troubles if people are imaginative enough +and brotherly enough to conceive of it and bold enough to take action +when they have found the way. The real danger for society is that it may +become spiritless and hidebound and tamed, and have none of those high +qualities necessary in face of peril, and the more people get accustomed +to thinking of bold schemes the better. They will get over the first +shock, and may be ready when the time comes to put them into action. +When a country is poor like Ireland and yet is ambitious of greatness; +when the aspect of its civilization is mean and when it yet aspires to +beauty; when its people are living under unsanitary conditions and yet +the longing is there to give health to all; when Ireland is like this, +its public men and its citizens might do much worse than brood over the +possibilities of industrial conscription, and of revising the character +of the purposes for which nations have hitherto claimed service from +their young citizens on behalf of the State. Debarred by a fate not +altogether unkind from training every citizen in the arts of war Ireland +might--if the love of country and the desire for service are really so +strong as we are told--suddenly become eminent among the nations of the +world by adopting a policy which in half a century would make our mean +cities and our backward countryside the most beautiful in the modern +world. + + + + + +XVIII. + + + +I have not in all this written anything about the relations of Ireland +with other countries, or even with our neighbors, in whose political +household we have lived for so many centuries in intimate hostility. I +have considered this indeed, but did not wish, nor do I now wish, in +anything I may write, to say one word which would add to that old +hostility. Race hatred is the cheapest and basest of all national +passions, and it is the nature of hatred, as it is the nature of love, +to change us into the likeness of that which we contemplate. We grow +nobly like what we adore, and ignobly like what we hate; and no people +in Ireland became so anglicized in intellect and temperament, and even +in the manner of expression, as those who hated our neighbors most. All +hatreds long persisted in bring us to every baseness for which we hated +others. The only laws which we cannot break with impunity are divine +laws, and no law is more eternally sure in its workings than that which +condemns us to be even as that we condemned. Hate is the high commander +of so many armies that an inquiry into the origin of this passion is at +least as needful as histories of other contemporary notorieties. Not +emperors or parliaments alone raise armies, but this passion also. It +will sustain nations in defeat. When everything seems lost this wild +captain will appear and the scattered forces are reunited. They will be +as oblivious of danger as if they were divinely inspired, but if they +win their battle it is to become like the conquered foe. All great wars +in history, all conquests, all national antagonisms, result in an +exchange of characteristics. It is because I wish Ireland to be itself, +to act from its own will and its own centre, that I deprecate hatred as +a force in national life. It is always possible to win a cause without +the aid of this base helper, who betrays us ever in the hour of victory. + +When a man finds the feeling of hate for another rising vehemently in +himself, he should take it as a warning that conscience is battling in +his own being with that very thing he loathes. Nations hate other +nations for the evil which is in themselves; but they are as little +given to self-analysis as individuals, and while they are right to +overcome evil, they should first try to understand the genesis of the +passion in their own nature. If we understand this, many of the ironies +of history will be intelligible. We will understand why it was that our +countrymen in Ulster and our countrymen in the rest of Ireland, who have +denounced each other so vehemently, should at last appear to have +exchanged characteristics: why in the North, having passionately +protested against physical force movements, no-rent manifestos, and +contempt for Imperial Parliament, they should have come themselves at +last to organize a physical force movement, should threaten to pay no +taxes, and should refuse obedience to an Act of Parliament. We will +understand also why it was their opponents came themselves to address to +Ulster all the arguments and denunciations Ulster had addressed to them. +I do not point this out with intent to annoy, but to illustrate by late +history a law in national as well as human psychology. If this +unpopular psychology I have explained was adopted everywhere as true, we +would never hear expressions of hate. People would realize they were +first revealing and then stabbing their own characters before the world. + +Nations act towards other nations as their own citizens act towards each +other. When slavery existed in a State, if that nation attacked another +it was with intent to enslave. Where there is a fierce economic +competition between citizen and citizen then in war with another nation, +the object of the war is to destroy the trade of the enemy. If the +citizens in any country could develop harmonious life among themselves +they would manifest the friendliest feelings towards the people of other +countries. We find that it is just among groups of people who aim at +harmonious life, co-operators and socialists, that the strongest +national impulses to international brotherhood arise; and wars of +domination are brought about by the will of those who within a State are +dominant over the fortunes of the rest. Ireland, a small country, can +only maintain its national identity by moral and economic forces. +Physically it must be overmastered by most other European nations. +Moral forces are really more powerful than physical forces. One Christ +changed the spiritual life of Europe; one Buddha affected more myriads +in Asia. + +The co-operative ideal of brotherhood in industry has helped to make +stronger the ideal of the brotherhood of humanity, and no body of men in +any of the countries in the great War of our time regarded it with more +genuine sorrow than those who were already beginning to promote schemes +for international co-operation. It must be mainly in movements inspired +with the ideal of the brotherhood of man, that the spirit will be +generated which, in the future, shall make the idea of war so detestable +that statesmen will find it is impossible to think of that solution of +their disputes as they would think now of resorting to private +assassination of political opponents. The great tragedy of Europe was +brought about, not by the German Emperor, nor by Sir Edward Grey, nor by +the Czar, nor by any of the other chiefs ostensibly controlling foreign +policy, but by the nations themselves. These men may have been agents, +but their action would have been impossible if they did not realize that +there was a vast body of national feeling behind them not opposed to +war. Their citizens were in conflict with each other already, generating +the moods which lead on to war. Emperors, foreign secretaries, +ambassadors, cabinet ministers are not really powerful to move nations +against their will. On the whole, they act with the will of the +nations, which they understand. Let any one ruler try, for example, to +change by edict the religion of his subjects, and a week would see him +bereft of place and power. They could not do this, because the will of +the nation would be against it. They resort to war and prepare for it +because the will of the nation is with them, and this throws us back on +the private citizens, who finally are individually and collectively +responsible for the actions of the State. In the everlasting battle +between good and evil, private soldiers are called upon to fight as well +as the captains, and it is only through the intensive cultivation by +individuals and races of the higher moral and intellectual qualities, +until in intensity they outweigh the mood and passion of the rest, that +war will finally become obsolete as the court of appeal. When there is +a panic of fire in a crowded building men are suddenly tested as to +character. Some will become frenzied madmen, fighting and trampling +their way out. Others will act nobly, forgetting themselves. They have +no time to think. What they are in their total make up as human beings, +overbalanced either for good or evil, appears in an instant. Even so, +some time in the heroic future, some nation in a crisis will be weighed +and will act nobly rather than passionately, and will be prepared to +risk national extinction rather than continue existence at the price of +killing myriads of other human beings, and it will oppose moral and +spiritual forces to material forces, and it will overcome the world by +making gentleness its might, as all great spiritual teachers have done. +It comes to this, we cannot overcome hatred by hatred or war by war, but +by the opposites of these. Evil is not overcome by evil but by good; +and any race like the Irish, eager for national life, ought to learn +this truth--that humanity will act towards their race as their race acts +towards humanity. The noble and the base alike beget their kin. +Empires, ere they disappear, see their own mirrored majesty arise in the +looking-glass of time. Opposed to the pride and pomp of Egypt were the +pride and pomp of Chaldaea. Echoing the beauty of the Greek city state +were many lovely cities made in their image. Carthage evoked Rome. The +British Empire, by the natural balance and opposition of things, called +into being another empire with a civilization of coal and steel, and +with ambitions for colonies and for naval power, and with that image of +itself it must wrestle for empire. The great armadas that throng the +seas, the armed millions upon the earth betray the fear in the minds of +races, nay, the inner spiritual certitude the soul has, that pride and +lust of power must yet be humbled by their kind. They must at last meet +their equals face to face, called to them as steel to magnet by some +inner affinity. This is a law of life both for individuals and races, +and, when this is realized, we know nothing will put an end to race +conflicts except the equally determined and heroic development of the +spiritual, moral, and intellectual forces which disdain to use the force +and fury of material powers. + +We may be assured that the divine law is not mocked, and it cannot be +deceived. As men sow so do they reap. The anger we create will rend +us; the love we give will return to us. Biologically, everything +breeds true to its type: moods and thoughts just as much as birds and +beasts and fishes. When I hear people raging against England or Germany +or Russia I know that rage will beget rage, and go on begetting it, and +so the whole devilish generation of passions will be continued. There +are no nations to whom the entire and loyal allegiance of man's spirit +could be given. It can only go out to the ideal empires and +nationalities in the womb of time, for whose coming we pray. Those +countries of the future we must carve out of the humanity of today, and +we can begin building them up within our present empires and +nationalities just as we are building up the co-operative movement in a +social order antagonistic to it. The people who are trying to create +these new ideals in the world are outposts, sentinels, and frontiersmen +thrown out before the armies of the intellectual and spiritual races yet +to come into being. We can all enlist in these armies and be comrades +to the pioneers. I hope many will enlist in Ireland. I would cry to +our idealists to come out of this present-day Irish Babylon, so filled +with sectarian, political, and race hatreds, and to work for the future. +I believe profoundly, with the most extreme of Nationalists, in the +future of Ireland, and in the vision of light seen by Bridget which she +saw and confessed between hopes and tears to Patrick, and that this is +the Isle of Destiny and the destiny will be glorious and not ignoble, +and when our hour is come we will have something to give to the world, +and we will be proud to give rather than to grasp. Throughout their +history Irishmen have always wrought better for others than for +themselves, and when they unite in Ireland to work for each other, they +will direct into the right channel all that national capacity for +devotion to causes for which they are famed. We ought not only to +desire to be at peace with each other, but with the whole world, and +this can only be brought about by the individual citizen at all times +protesting against sectarian and national passions, and taking no part +in them, coming out of such angry parties altogether, as the people of +the Lord were called by the divine voice to come out of Babylon. It may +seem a long way to set things right, but it is the swift way and the +royal road, and there is no other; and nobody, no prophet crying before +his time, will be listened to until the people are ready for him. The +congregation must gather before the preacher can deliver what is in him +to say. The economic brotherhood which I have put forward as an Irish +ideal would, in its realization, make us at peace with ourselves, and if +we are at peace with ourselves we will be at peace with our neighbors +and all other nations, and will wish them the goodwill we have among +ourselves, and will receive from them the same goodwill. I do not +believe in legal and formal solutions of national antagonisms. While we +generate animosities among ourselves we will always display them to +other nations, and I prefer to search out how it is national hatreds are +begotten, and to show how that cancer can be cut out of the body +politic. + + + + + +XIX. + + + +It seems inevitable that the domination of the individual by the State +must become ever greater. It is in the evolutionary process. The +amalgamation of individuals into nationalities and empires is as much in +the cosmic plan as the development of highly organized beings out of +unicellular organisms. I believe this process will continue until +humanity itself is so psychically knit together that, as a being, it +will manifest some form of cosmic consciousness in which the individual +will share. Our spiritual intuitions and the great religions of the +world alike indicate some such goal as that to which this turbulent +cavalcade of humanity is wending. A knowledge of this must be in our +subconscious being, or we would find the sacrifices men make for the +State otherwise inexplicable. The State, though now ostensibly secular, +makes more imperious claims on man than the ancient gods did. It lays +hold of life. It asserts its right to take father, brother, and son, and +to send them to meet death in its own defense. It denies them a choice +or judgment as to whether its action is right or wrong. Right or +wrong, the individual must be prepared to give his body for the +commonwealth, and when one gives the body unresistingly, one gives the +soul also. The marvelous thing about the authority of the State is that +it is recognized by the vast majority of citizens. During eras of peace +the citizen may be always in conflict with the policy of the State. He +may call it a tyranny, but yet when it is in peril he will die to +preserve for it an immortal life. The hold the State establishes over +the spirit of man is the more wonderful when we look rearward on +history, and see with what labor and sacrifice the State was +established. But we see also how readily, once the union has been +brought about, men will die to preserve it, even although it is a +tyranny, a bad State. For what do they die unless the spirit in man has +some inner certitude that the divine event to which humanity tends is a +unity of its multitudinous life, and that a State--even a bad State-- +must be preserved by its citizens, because it is at least an attempt at +organic unity? It is a simulacrum of the ideal; it contains the germ +or possibility of that to which the spirit of man is traveling. It +disciplines the individual in service to that greater being in which it +will find its fulfillment, and a bad State is better than no State at +all. To be without a State is to prowl backwards from the divinity +before us to the beast behind us. + +The power the State exerts is a spiritual power, acting on or through +the will of man. The volunteer armies do not really march to die with +more readiness than the conscript armies. The sacrifice is not readily +explicable by material causes. There is no material reason why the +proletarian--who has no property to defend, who is more or less sure as +a skilled craftsman of employment under any ruler--should concern +himself whether his ruler be King, Kaiser, or President. But not one in +a hundred proletarians really thinks like that. It is not the hope of +personal profit works upon men to risk life. Let some exploiter of +industry desire to employ a thousand men at dangerous work, with the +risks of death or disablement equal to those of war; let it be known +that one in six will be killed and another be disabled, and what sum +will purchase the service of workers? They will risk life for the +State, though given a bare subsistence or a pay which they would +describe as inhuman if offered by one of the autocrats of industry. Men +working for the State will make the most extraordinary sacrifices; but +they stand stubbornly and sullenly as disturbers and blockers of all +industry which is run for private profit. Is it not clear of the two +policies for the State to adopt, to promote personal interests among its +citizens or to unite men for the general good, that the first path is +full of danger to the State, while through the other men will march +cheerfully, though it be to death, in defense of the State. Something, a +real life above the individual, acts through the national being, and +would almost suggest to us that Heaven cannot fully manifest its will to +humanity through the individual, but must utter itself through +multitudes. There must be an orchestration of humanity ere it can echo +divine melodies. In real truth we are all seeking in the majesties we +create for union with a greater Majesty. + +I wrote in an earlier page that the ancient conception of Nature as a +manifestation of spirit was incarnating anew in the minds of modern +thinkers; that Nature was no longer conceived of as material or static +in condition, but as force and continual motion; that they were trying +to identify human will with this arcane energy, and let the forces of +Nature manifest with more power in society. The real nature of these +energies manifesting in humanity I do not know, but they have been +hinted at in the Scriptures, the oracles of the Oversoul, which speak of +the whole creation laboring upwards and the entry of humanity into the +Divine Mind, and of the re-introcession of That Itself with all Its +myriad unity into Deity, so that God might be all in all. I believe +profoundly that men do not hold the ideas of liberty or solidarity, +which have moved them so powerfully, merely as phantasies which are +pleasant to the soul or make ease for the body; but because, whether +they struggle passionately for liberty or to achieve a solidarity, in +working for these two ideals, which seem in conflict, they are divinely +supported, in unison with the divine nature, and energies as real as +those the scientist studies--as electricity, as magnetism, heat or +light--do descend into the soul and reinforce it with elemental energy. +We are here for the purposes of soul, and there can be no purpose in +individualizing the soul if essential freedom is denied to it and there +is only a destiny. Wherever essential freedom, the right of the spirit +to choose its own heroes and its own ideals, is denied, nations rise in +rebellion. But the spirit in man is wrought in a likeness to Deity, +which is that harmony and unity of Being which upholds the universe; +and by the very nature of the spirit, while it asserts its freedom, its +impulses lead it to a harmony with all life, to a solidarity or +brotherhood with it. + +All these ideals of freedom, of brotherhood, of power, of justice, of +beauty, which have been at one time or another the fundamental idea in +civilizations, are heaven-born, and descended from the divine world, +incarnating first in the highest minds in each race, perceived by them +and transmitted to their fellow-citizens; and it is the emergence or +manifestation of one or other of these ideals in a group which is the +beginning of a nation; and the more strongly the ideal is held the more +powerful becomes the national being, because the synchronous vibration +of many minds in harmony brings about almost unconsciously a psychic +unity, a coalescing of the subconscious being of many. It is that inner +unity which constitutes the national being. + +The idea of the national being emerged at no recognizable point in our +history in Ireland. It is older than any name we know. It is not +earth-born, but the synthesis of many heroic and beautiful moments, and +these, it must be remembered, are divine in their origin. Every heroic +deed is an act of the spirit, and every perception of beauty is vision +with the divine eye, and not with the mortal sense. The spirit was +subtly intermingled with the shining of old romance, and it is no mere +phantasy which shows Ireland at its dawn in a misty light thronged with +divine figures, and beneath and nearer to us demi-gods and heroes fading +into recognizable men. The bards took cognizance only of the most +notable personalities who preceded them, and of these only the acts +which had a symbolic or spiritual significance; and these grew thrice +refined as generations of poets in enraptured musings along by the +mountains or in the woods brooded upon their heritage of story, until, +as it passed from age to age, the accumulated beauty grew greater than +the beauty of the hour. The dream began to enter into the children of +our race, and turn their thoughts from earth to that world in which it +had its inception. + +It was a common belief among the ancient peoples that each had a +national genius or deity who presided over them, in whose all-embracing +mind they were contained, and who was the shepherd of their destinies. +We can conceive of the national spirit in Ireland as first manifesting +itself through individual heroes or kings, and as the history of famous +warriors laid hold of the people, extending its influence until it +created therein the germs of a kindred nature. + +An aristocracy of lordly and chivalrous heroes is bound in time to +create a great democracy by the reflection of their character in the +mass, and the idea of the divine right of kings is succeeded by the idea +of the divine right of the people. If this sequence cannot be traced in +any one respect with historical regularity, it is because of the +complexity of national life, its varied needs, the vicissitudes of +history, and its infinite changes of sentiment. But the threads are all +taken up in the end; and ideals which were forgotten and absent from +the voices of men will be found, when recurred to, to have grown to a +rarer and more spiritual beauty in their quiet abode in the heart. The +seeds which were sown at the beginning of a race bear their flowers and +fruits towards its close, and already antique names begin to stir us +again with their power, and the antique ideals to reincarnate in us and +renew their dominion over us. + +They may not be recognized at first as a re-emergence of ancient moods. +The democratic economics of the ancient clans have vanished almost out +of memory, but the mood in which they were established reappears in +those who would create a communal or co-operative life in the nation +into which those ancient clans long since have melted. The instinct in +the clans to waive aside the weak and to seek for an aristocratic and +powerful character in their leaders reappears in the rising generation, +who turn from the utterer of platitudes to men of real intellect and +strong will. The object of democratic organization is to bring out the +aristocratic character in leadership, the vivid original personalities +who act and think from their own will and their own centres, who bring +down fire from the heaven of their spirits and quicken and vivify the +mass, and make democracies also to be great and fearless and free. A +nation is dead where men acknowledge only conventions. We must find out +truth for ourselves, becoming first initiates and finally masters in the +guild of life. The intellect of Ireland is in chains where it ought to +be free, and we have individualism in our economics which ought to be +co-ordinated and sternly disciplined out of the iniquity of free +profiteering. To quicken the intellect and imagination of Ireland, to +co-ordinate our economic life for the general good, should be the +objects of national policy, and will subserve the evolutionary purpose. +The free imagination and the aspiring mind alone climb into the higher +spheres and deflect for us the ethereal currents. It is the multitude +of aristocratic thinkers who give glory to a people and make them of +service to other nations, and it is by the character of the social order +and the quality of brotherhood in it our civilization will endure. +Without love we are nothing. + + + + + +XX. + + + +I beseech audience from the churches for these thoughts on our Irish +polity, and would recall to them their early history, how when the fiery +spirit of their Lord first manifested on earth, life, near to It, +reflected It as in a glowing glass, and impulses of true living arose. +Material possessions were held in common. There was no fierce talk of +Thine and Mine. His ancient law counseled poverty to the spirit, lest +the gates of Paradise should grow narrow before it like the eye of a +needle. I believe the fading hold the heavens have over the world is +due to the neglect of the economic basis of spiritual life. What +profound spiritual life can there be when the social order almost forces +men to battle with each other for the means of existence? I know well +that no political mechanics, nothing which is an economic device only, +will of themselves be able to affect the transfiguration of society and +bring it under the dominion of the spirit. For that, a far higher +quality of thought and action than is here indicated is necessary. The +economist can provide the daily bread, but that bread of the coming day +which Christ wished his followers to aspire to must come otherwise. +That should be the labor of the poets, artists, musicians, and of the +heroic and aristocratic characters who provide by their life an image to +which life can be modeled. Therefore I beseech audience not only of the +churches, but of the poets, writers, and thinkers of Ireland for their +aid in this labor. They alone can create in wide commonalty the ideals +which can dominate society. It is the work of the artist to create for +us images of desirable life, to manifest to us the ideal humanity, and +to prefigure that vaster entity which I have called the national being. +I said in an earlier page that part of the failure of Ireland must be +laid to the poets who had dropped out of the divine procession and sang +a solitary song; to the writers who had turned from contemplating the +great to the portrayal of the little in human nature. I know how +difficult it is to constrain the spirit, and how futile it is to ask +artists or poets to create what they are not inspired to create. But we +can ask all men--artists, poets, litterateurs, and scientists--to be +citizens, and if they realize imaginatively the spiritual conception of +the State, we may assume that this imaginative realization of the State +will influence the labors of the mind, and what is done will, +consciously or unconsciously, have reference to that collective being +which must dominate society more and more, which will dominate it as a +tyranny if we fail in our labors, or liberate and make more majestical +the spirit of man if we imagine rightly. All greatness is brought about +by a conspiracy of the imagination and the will. Our literature +certainly manifests beauty, but not greatness or majesty, for majesty +only arises where there is an orchestration of humanity by some mighty +conductor; and as a people we shall never manifest the highest +qualities in literature or life until we are under the dominion of one, +at least, of the great fundamental ideas which have been the inspiration +of races. Our feebleness arises from our economic individualism. We +continually neutralize each other's efforts. Yet there is no less power +in humanity today than there ever was. We see now clearly what untamed +elemental fires lay underneath the seeming placidity of the world. +There was a feeling in society that, just as the earth itself had +settled down to be a habitable globe, and was forgetting its ancient +ferocities of earthquake that opened up gulfs between land and land and +rended sea from sea, so, too, humanity was losing those wilder energies +we surmised in the cave-dweller or the hunters of mastodon, mammoth, and +cave-tiger. But it was all a dream--a dream, we suspect, about the +earth as well as about humanity. While we indulged in these pleasing +speculations on society, the scientists of our generation were placing +beyond question or argument the doctrine of the indestructibility of +energy and matter and we may be sure that while there is immortal life +there must be immortal energies as its companions through time, and they +will never be less powerful than they are today or were in the morning +of the world. There will be no weakening of that mighty God-begotten +brotherhood of elemental powers; and, while we cannot hope that by the +wastage of time these powers will be feebler, we may hope that by an +understanding of them we may get mastery over them. The wild elephant +of the woods, with a greater strength than man's, has yet been trained +to be his servant, and that arcane power we call electricity, which, if +it shoots out of its channel, shrivels up the body of man, is now our +servant. So we may hope, too, that the elemental energies in humanity +itself, which break out in wars and Armageddons, will come under +control. We should not hope that man will ever be a less powerful +being. To hope that would be to wish for his degradation. We should +wish him to become ever more and more powerful by understanding himself, +and by the unity of the spiritual faculties and the elemental energies +in him into one harmonious whole. At present he is feeble because he +is, to use the scriptural illustration, a house divided against itself. + +Our feebleness is due to the conflict of powers in us and our conflict +with each other. Get the two mightiest bulls in a herd, put them +opposing each other in a narrow passage, and they, being of equal +strength, will reduce each other to feebleness. Neither will make +headway. Let them unite together in their charge, and what will oppose +them? Men at conflict in their own hearts, opposing each other in the +world, reduce themselves and each other to wretchedness. The race which +could eliminate the factors which promote internal conflict in society +and could organize human energies in harmony, would be powerful beyond +our wildest dreams. Every now and then in world-history we come across +instances of what organized humanity could accomplish. There are +fragments of an architecture so majestic that they awe us as the high +rocks of nature do, and they seem almost like portions of nature itself, +and truly they are so, being portions of nature remade by man, who is +also a nature energy of divine origin. Europe by its conflicts today is +reducing itself to barbarism and powerlessness, and these conflicts +arose out of the internal conflicts in society, for individuals and +nations act outside themselves as they act inside themselves. The +problem for Europe is to create a harmonious life, and it is the problem +for us in Ireland, and we will have to work this out for ourselves. The +creation of a harmonious life among a people must come from within. It +can never come by the imposition of an external law imposed by another +people: Never did master and slave work in true unison, no matter how +benevolent the master or how yielding the slave, for there is in every +man, no matter what his condition, a spark of divine life, and it will +always be ready to stir him out of subjection, as the fires of +earthquake lie below the cultivated plain. Man is a creature who has +free will, and it is by self-devised and self-checked efforts he will +attain his full human stature. So the problem of creating an organic +life in Ireland, a harmony of our people, a union of their efforts for +the common good and for the manifestation of whatever beauty, majesty, +and spirituality is in us, must be one we ourselves must solve for +ourselves. + +To be indifferent to the possibilities of human life, to ignore the +problem, is to turn our back on heaven, which fashioned the spirit of +man in its image. If the spirit of man has likeness to Deity, it means +that if it manifests itself fully in the world, the world too becomes a +shadowy likeness of the heavens, and our civilizations will make a +harmony with the diviner spheres. We give still a service of lip belief +to the Scriptures, yet active faith we have not. But they are true, +yesterday, today, and for ever; and we have still the root of the +matter in us, for when any one utters out of profound conviction his +faith, there are always multitudes ready to respond. What really +prevents an organic unity in Ireland is the economic individualism of +our lives. The science of economics deals with the efforts of men to +mine out of nature the food, minerals, and materials necessary to +preserve life. There is nothing more certain than that where men work +alone or only with the aid of their families they are little higher than +the animals. When they tend to unite civilization begins. Then arise +the towers, the temples, the cities, the achievements of the architect +and engineer. The earth is tapped of its arcane energies, the very air +yields to us its mysterious powers. We control the etheric waves and +send the message of our deeds across the ocean. Yet in the midst of +these vast external manifestations of power, multitudes of men and women +live in squalor, isolated in their labors, living in the slums of +cities; and this, if we examine it, comes about because the +organization of human energies into a harmonious unity is not complete. +There is really no lack of food, clothing, building material, land. +Nature has provided bountifully for more myriads than we are likely to +see peopling the earth. But people compete with each other and +undersell each other, and those who labor are mulcted of their due, and +instead of turning to the earth--the inexhaustible mother--and working +unitedly for the common weal, they continue that fierce competition and +stultify each other's efforts and reduce each other to wretchedness. +Humanity is a house divided against itself. Those who feel this to be +true must gather round any movement which gives a hope for the future, +which indicates a policy by which the organic unity of society in +Ireland might be attained, and our people work harmoniously to make +beauty and health prevail in our civilization. What each gives up to +society in the making of a civilization he gets back a thousandfold. +Now, the co-operative movement alone of all movements in Ireland has +aspired to make an economic solidarity in Ireland. Whatever the aims of +other movements may be--and many of them have high ideals and are +necessary for the spiritual and intellectual development of our people-- +there is none of them which has for aim the unity of economic life. +They all leave untouched this problem--how are we to organize society so +that people will not be in conflict with each other, will not nullify +each other's efforts, but all will conspire together for unity, so that +none shall be forgotten or oppressed or left out of our brotherhood? +The policy I put forward is incomplete and imperfect, and it must +necessarily be so, being mainly the work of one mind, and to complete it +and perfect it there must be many minds and many workers fired by the +ideal. But I have indicated in some completeness how the rural +population could be co-operatively organized, federated together, and +how the urban population could be organized and brought into a harmony +of economic purpose with the folk of the country. Within the limits of +object these suggestions amount to a policy for the nation. + +If the tragic condition of the world leaves us unstirred, if we draw no +lessons from it, if there is no fiery stirring of will in Ireland to +make it a better place to live in, then indeed we may lose hope for our +country. Let us remember the most scornful condemnation in Scripture +was not given to the evil but to the indifferent: "Because thou art +neither hot nor cold I will spew thee out of my mouth." Let us not be +the Laodiceans of Europe, listless and indifferent to human needs, +swallowing our whisky and our porter, stupefying our souls, while our +poor are sweated; letting the children of our cities die with more +carelessness about life than the people of any other European country, +with sectarian organization's crawling in secrecy like poisonous +serpents through the undergrowth of swamps and forests. The co- +operative movement is at least open and ideal in its aims and objects. +It is national and not sectional. It seeks the triumph of no section +but the unity of our people, where unity alone is possible. Our +intransigents and extremists of all parties are not hurt or wounded by +their adhesion to the co-operative ideal. We may make up our minds that +the stubborn Irish temperament will never be overcome, but it may be +won, and the movement which invites all parties and creeds into its +ranks and gives them the largest opportunities of working together and +understanding each other, gives also the largest hope of the gradual +melting of old bitterness into a common tolerance where what is best +essentially wins; for all true triumphs are triumphs not of force, but +the conquest by a superior beauty of what is less beautiful. We should +aim at a society where people will be at harmony in their economic life, +will readily listen to different opinions from their own, will not turn +sour faces on those who do not think as they do, but will, by reason and +sympathy, comprehend each other and come at last, through sympathy and +affection, to a balancing of their diversities, as in that multitudinous +diversity, which is the universe, powers and dominions and elements are +balanced, and are guided harmoniously by the Shepherd of the Ages. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's National Being, by (A.E.)George William Russell + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATIONAL BEING *** + +This file should be named irpol10.txt or irpol10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, irpol11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, irpol10a.txt + +Produced by Jake Jaqua + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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