The Winslow mail., 1914-10-17

i've courts. within temples grown rich
ana ielsurely and amidst the gathering
medley of the seaport towns rose spec
ulation and philosophy and science and
the beginning of the new order that
mas at last established itself as human
life. Slowly at first as we traced II aud
then with an accommodating velocity
the new powers were fabricated. Man
as a whole did not seek them nor de-
sire them: they were thrust into his
hand. For a time men took up and
used these new things and the new
powers inadvertently as they came to
him. rocking nothing of the conse-
quences. For endless generations
change led him very gently But when
he had been led far enough change
qu1ckened the pace 1t was With a
series of shocks that he realized ut last
that he was living the old life less and
less and new life more and more
Already before the release Of atomic
energy the tensions between the old
way of living and the new were in
tense They were far intenser than
they had been even at the collapse of
the Roman imperial system. On the
one hand was the ancient life of the
family and the small community and
the petty industry; on the other was a
new life on larger scale with remoter
horizons and a strange sense of pur-
pose. Already it was growing clear
that men must live on one side or The
other. One could not have little trades
people and syndicated businesses in
the same market, sleeping carriers and
motor trolleys on the same road. bows
and arrows and aeroplane sharpshoot-
ers in the same army, or illiterate peas
ant industries and power driven fac
tories in the same world. And still
less was it possible that one could have
the ideas and ambitions and greed and
jealousy of peasants equipped with the
vast appliances of the new age. If
there had been no atomic bombs to
bring together most of the directing in
telligence of the world to that hasty
conference at .Brissago there would still
have been, extended over great areas
and a considerable space of time per-
hapS, a less formal conference of re-
sponsible and understanding people
upon the perplexities of this worldwide
opposition. If the work of HolSten
had been spread over centuries and i'm
parted to the world by imperceptible
degrees it would. nevertheless, have
made 1t necessary for men, to take
counsel upon and set plan for the
future. Indeed already there had been
accumulating for hundred years he-
fore the crisis literature of foresight;
there was a whole mass of .modern
state" scheming available for the con-
ference to go upon. These bombs did
but accentuate and dramatize an al
ready developing problem.
This assembly was no leap Of excep-
tional minds and superintelligencies
into the control of affairs. II was
teachable, its members trailed ideas
with them to the gathering, but these
were the consequences of the moral
shock" the bombs had given humanity,
and there is no reason for supposing
its individual personalities were greatly
above the average. 1t would be pos
error and inefficiency in it's proceedings
due to the forgetfulness, irritabiity OF
fatigue of It's members. 1t expert
mented considerably and blundered
often. Excepting Holster, whose gift
was highly specialized, it is question
able whether there was a single man
Of the first order Of human quality In
fear of itself and a consequent direct
ness that gave it a general distinction.
There was, of course, noble SIM
plicity about Leblanc, but even OF him
it may be asked whether he was not
rather good and honest minded than
in the fuller sense great.
The ex-king had wisdom and a GER
tain romantic dash, he was man
among thousands, even if he was not
a man among millions. but his memoirs
and, indeed, his decision to write
memoirs, give the quality of himself
and his associates. The book makes
admirable but astonishing reading.
Therein he takes the great work the
council was doing for granted. as
little child takes God 1t Is as If he
had no sense of it at all. He tells
amusing trivialties about his cousin
Wilhelm and his secretary. Firmin. he
pokes fun at the American president.
who was indeed rather Httle accident
of the political machine than repre-.
sentative American, and he gives a
long description of how he was lost for
three days in the mountains in the CON-
pany of the only japanese member. a
loss that seems to have caused no
serious interruption Of the work of the
council.
The Brissago conference has been
written about time after time as
though it were q gathering of the very
flower of humanity. Perched up there
by the freak or wisdom Of Leblanc. it
had a certain Olympian quality, and
the natural tendency Of the human
mind to elaborate such resemblance
would have us give its members the