The Washington herald., 1916-08-03
SEEN AND HEARD
BY GEORGE MINER

New York, August 2.-Among the distin'
guished educators from all over the world who
have gathered at Columbia University in con-
nection with the summer school there, at which
10000 students are in attendance, is Sir Gilbert
Murray, professor of Greek at the University OF
Oxford
Sir Gilbert is in this country at present to
conduct a conference on the classics. For all
that his thoughts and interests are not entirely
engrossed by the dead languages. He lives in
the present quite as much as in the past. Natur-
ally, he is deeply interested in the war, as he is
listed in the war Office as Sergt. G. G. A. Murray,
No. I73, First Battalion Oxford Volunteer Regi-
ment.
He is also interested in socialism and is
making study of its progress, although he as
serts that he is not an out-ard-out Socialist him
self.
"A Socialist wrote to me yesterday, he said,
asking for an opinion the prospect of Social
ism in England. | replied that in England today
we have, Tor the moment at least, achieved
Socialism not merely in the aspect that the gov
ernment has taken the railroads. factories
and food supplies, but that in larger way, as
united and harmonious people, we have achieved
that comparative spirit of Socialism which sinks
all individual and class feeling distrust and diff
ferences into the whole of the common end
Rich and poor, employer and workman, con-
servative and liberal. really standing shoulder
to shoulder, ready to face death to avert an evil
which each considers worse than death.
Il noted this at the very outset of the war,
when with countless others, my wife offered our
l. INa .JoI fr1r
The men that came to us thus as convaleseents
were mostly privates, men who had left their
labor in the factories, the fields and the mines
when the call came.
"The in which these men spoke OF
their officers. that note of profound admiration
which they had for those who, while being their
officers, of another social class, opened my
eyes to the great social forces set in motion by
the war.
'1n the speech of these working people there
was not a trace of the distrust and bitterness
which would have marked it before the war.
Devotion to cause had brought them together.
The change had not been done in the attitude
of the lower classes, but had been accomplished
only because that of their officers had altered.
The has had the effect Of working the social
classes of England from their extremes to the
center
vi course, all these Sociallstc features may
not remain in full effect after the war; although
once thing is accomplished it is very difficult
to undo it, especially in political matters. But
one thing is sure-socia questions in the future
will be much easier to handle for vast mutual
sympathy and understanding have come to all
the people and there will be less pickering over
details and minor matters.
"The has purified all classes OF much of
the spite and distrust which so hampered social
progress previously
Before the war, ! should never have dreamed
of starting casual conversation with stranger
on bus or tram We surely would have
become involved in useless dispute over a
religious political matter which would have
benefited neither of US.
To-day such conversations are the usual thing
and between men of all sorts. There is but one
topic-the war-and there is but one mind for
all men in England upon it.
This change. this breaking down of old
barriers, may have a most tremendous effect
when the war is We must be prepared
for good deal of Socialism then, for we shall
have much less money to spend and the burden
OF taxato will be very heavy"