The Winslow mail., 1914-11-07
Copyright. 1914, by II. G. Wells.


paper IN a specially marked space the
name Of any of his Representatives that
he wished to recall A ruler was re
callable by as many votes as the quota
by which he had been elected and the
original members by as many votes in
any constituency as the returning quo
tas in the first election.
Upon these conditions the council
submitted itself very cheerfully to the
suffrageS of the world. None of its
members was recalled. and it's fifty
new associates, which included TWEEN
ty-seven which it had seen fit to rec
ommend, were Of an altogether too
miscellaneous quality to disturb the
broad trend of its policy. It's freedom
from rules or formalities prevented any
obstructive proceedings. and when one
Of the two newly arrived home rule
members for India sought for informa
ton how to bring in a bill they learned
simply that bills were not brought in
They asked for the speaker and were
privileged to hear much ripe wisdom
from the ex-king Egbert, who was now
consciously among the seniors of the
gathering. Thereafter they were baf
fed men.
But already by that time the work
of the council was drawing to an end
1t was concerned not so much for the
continuation Of it's constructions as for
the preservation of it's accomplished
work from the dramatic instincts of the
politician.
The life of the race becomes indeed
more and more Independent Of the for
NAL government. The council in its
opening phase was heroic in spirit A
dragon Staying body, it slashed out of
existence vast knotted tange of
obsolete ideas and clumsy and jealous
proprietorShips. 1t secured by a noble
system of institutional precautions,
freedom of inquiry, freedom of criti
ciSm, free communications, a common
basis of education and understanding
and freedom from economic oppres
sion. With that it's creative task was
accomplished. 1t became more and
more an established security and less
and less an active intervention. There
is nothing in our time to correspond
with the continual petty making and
entangling of laws in an atmosphere of
contention that is perhaps the most
perpleXing aspect of constitutional his
tory in the nineteenth century. In that
age they seem to have been perpetu
ally making laws when we should
alter regulations. The work Of change
which we delegate to these scientific
committees of specific general direc-
| ton which have the special knowledge
needed. and which are themselves
dominated by the broad intellectual
| process of the community. was in those
! days ineXtricably mixed up with legis-
| Iation. They fought over the details.
We should as soon think of fighting
over the arrangement of the parts of
machine. We know nowadays that
such things go on best within laws, as
| Ijfe goes on between earth and sky.
| And so it is that government gathers
now for day or so in each year un-
der the sunshine of Brissago when ST.
| BrunO's lilies are in flower and does
little more than bless the work of its
committees. And even these commit
tees are less originative and more ex-
| presSive of the general thought than
! they were at first. 1t becomes difficult
| to mark out the particular directive
personalities of the world. Continually
we are less personal. Every good
thought contributes now, and every
able brain falls within that informal
and dispersed kingship which gathers
together into one purpose the energies
of the race.
! 1t is doubtful if we shall ever see
! again a phase of human existence in
which "politics"-that is to say, parti
san interference With the ruling sani
ties of the world-will be the dominant
interest among serious men. We seem
to have entered upon an entirely new
phase in history, in which contention
as distinguished from rivalry has al
most abruptly ceased to be the usual
occupation and has become at most a
subdued and hidden and discredited
thing. Contentious professions cease
to be an honorable employment for
men. The peace between nations is
also a peace between individuals. We
live in a world that comes of age. Man
the warrior, man the lawyer and all
the pickering aspects Of life pass into
Obscurity; the grave dreamers, man
the curious learner and man the crea-