The Winslow mail., 1914-10-24

thSdI luIOuSuOut tle WOfiu OF the
modern system" in agriculture. sys
tenn that should give the full advan-
tages of IA civilized life to every agri-
cultural worker, and this replacement
has been going on right up to the pres
ent day. The central idea of the mod
ern system is the substitution of cult
vating guilds for the individual cult
vator and for cottage and village life
together. These guilds are associations
OF men and women who take over
areas of arabic or pasture land ana
make themselves responsible for a GER
tam average produce. They are bottles
small enough. as a rule, to he run on a
strictly democratic basis and large
enough to supply all the labor except
Tor certain assistance from towns
people during the harvest. needed uIon
the land farmed. They have watchers
bungalows or chalets on the ground
cultivated, but the ease and costleSs
ness of modern locomotion enable
them to maintain a group of residences
IN the nearest town with common
dining room and clubhouse and usually
also guild house in the national or
provincial capital
Already this system has abolished
distinctively rustic population
throughout vast areas of the Old world
where it has prevailed immemorially.
That shy, unstimulated life of the lone
ly hOvel, the narrow scandals and net
ty spites and prosecutions of the small
village, that boarding, half inanimnte
existence away from books, thought or
social participation, and in constant
contact with cattle, pigs and poultry,
is very rapidly passing away out of
human experience. In little while it
will be gone altogether In the nine
teenth century it had already ceased TO
be necessary human state. and only
the absence of any collective intplli-
gence and an imagined need for tough
and unintelligent soldiers and for
prolific class at low level, prevented
it's systematic replacement at that
time
And while this settlement of the
country was in progress the urban
camps of the first phase of the councils
activities were rapidly developing, part
ly through the inherent forces of the
situation and partly through the coun-
ellis direction, into modern type Of
town.
1t is characteristic of the manner in
which large enterprises forced them
selves upon the Brissago council. that
it was not until the end of the first
year of their administration and then
only with extreme reluctance. that they
would take up the manifest need for IL
lingua franca for the world They seem
to have given little attention to the
various theoretical universal languages
which were proposed to them They
wished to give as little trouble to hasty
and simple people as possible. and the
worldwide distribution Of English gave
them a bias for it from the beginning.
The extreme simplicity of its grammar
was also in its favor
1t was not without some sacrif es
that the English speaking peoples ware
permitted the satisfaction of hearing
their speech used universally. The
language was Shorn of number Of
grammatical peculiarities-the distinc-
tive forms for the Subiunctive mood.
for example-and most of its irregular
pluralS were abolished Its spelling
was systematiZed and adapted to the
vowel sounds in use upon the continent
of Europe. and process of incorporate
inc fOrpiOn nouns and vpIbS optnp1nut,-
ed that speedily reached enormous pro-
portions Within ten years from the
establishment of the world republic
the new English dictionary had Swell-
ed to include vocabulary Of 2J0.0nD
words, and a man of 1900 would hnve
III ordinary newspaper. On the other
hand the men of the new time conId
still appreciate the older English liter
ature. Certain minor acts of uniforn-
ity accompanied this larger one. The
idea of a common understanding and
general simplification of intercourse
once it was accepted led very natural
ly to the universal establishment of the
metric system of weights and meas
ures and to the disappearance of the
various makeshift calendars that had
hitherto confused chronology. The
year was divided into thirteen months
of four weeks each. and New Years
day and Leap Years day were made
holidays and did not count at all in
the ordinary week. So the weeks and
the months were brought into CORE
spondence. And, moreover, as the king
put it to Firmin it was decided to mail
down Easter" In these matters, as in
so many matters, the new civilization
came as a simplication of ancient
complications. The history of the cal
endar throughout the world is a his
tory of inadequate adjustment. of 1T
tempts to fix seedtime and midwinter.
that go back into the very beginning
of human society. and this final recti-
fication had a symbolic value quite be-
yond its practical convenience. But
the council would have no rash nor
harsh Innovations no strange names