foundation of actual life, of practical capacity,
of honest and square living, and of mutual help instead
of mutual robbery, they will infallibly collapse, or
pass into strange and alien hands. Now is the
critical moment when with the enormous powers of production
which we wield it may be possible to make a new start,
and base the social life of the future on a generous
recognition of the fellowship of all. How many
times have the civilizations of the past, ignoring
this salvation, gone down into the gulf! Can
we find a better hope for our civilization to-day?
It is clear, I think, that any nation that wants to
stand the shock of events in the future, and to hold
its own in the vast flux of racial and political changes
which is coming on the world, will have to found its
life, not on theories and views, or on the shifting
sands of literature and fashion, but on the solid
rock of the real material capability of its
citizens, and on their willingness, their readiness
to help each other—their ingrained instinct
of mutual service. A conscript army, forced upon
us by a government and becoming inevitably a tool for
the use of a governing class, we do not want and we
will not have; but a nation of capable men and women,
who know what life is and are prepared to meet it
at all points—who will in many cases make
a free gift of their capital and land for such purposes
as I have just outlined—we must
have. Personally I would not even here—though
the need is a crying one—advocate downright
compulsion; but I would make these things a part of
the recognized system of education, with appropriate
regulations and the strongest recommendations and inducements
to every individual to fall in and co-operate with
them. Thus in time an urgent public opinion might
be formed which would brand as disgraceful the conduct
of any person who refused to qualify himself for useful
service, or who, when qualified, deliberately refused
to respond to the call for such service, if needed.
Under such conditions the question of military defence
would solve itself. Thousands and thousands of
men would of their own free choice at an early age
and during a certain period qualify themselves in
military matters; other thousands, men and women,
would qualify in nursing or ambulance work; other millions,
again, would be prepared to aid in transport work,
or in the production of food, clothing, shelter, and
the thousand and one necessaries of life. No
one would be called upon to do work which he had not
chosen, no one would be forced to take up an activity
which was hateful to him, yet all would feel that
what they could do and did do would be helpful to
the other ranks and ranges, and would be solidaire
with the rest of the nation. Such a nation would
be sane and prosperous in time of peace, and absolutely
safe and impregnable in the hour of danger.
HOW SHALL THE PLAGUE BE STAYED?
