South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-05-24
By G.. K. Chesterton,
the Famous English PubIIeIst.

raPURPOSBtC devote my rapidly approaching
dotage 10 the composition of a Primer OF
= Controversy for the use of Pacifsts, Jingoes.
Germans Materialists, Christian Scientists and
all others who stand IN need OF elementary
trafuingTsu5the matter. The science has some
points OF similarity TO the science of war. and
may possibly share a revival OF interest
There IS the difficulty OF deployment, or
bringing aII-the acss~.and arguments into line.
SO that they al tell at once. There is the
danger-of being cut OF from ones base. OF. in
other words, forgetting what one said at the
begdnning-and fiatly contradicting It at the END
IA manoeuvre much In favor among the Adj
vanoed. especially OF the feminineTariety. And
even the principle which makes General
svoid, when possible onrering battle with in
ferfcrsfos >esat any given spot and time what
ever mis- ulti1y~te reserve OF strength may bel
has itsparallsl in the art otcontroversy.
That paIsIlel might be stated thuss
'Never1 however strong you may consider your
sase-aeas ghole, go out of your way to challenge
a particular comparison with something that in
Itself Is stronger than you" The classic in.
stance was the strategic blunder OF the
Sufragsttes, in publicly comparing themselves
vithethings much more beautiful than them
selves: such as the English Prayer Book aud
che picturesin the National Gallery.
My friends or the Continental Times. the
American-German paper. need this advice very
badly. Their style. at the best, is horid; and
they suffer all the minor disadvantages at
tending those VINO write IN a language Iney
have never learned But they need not make
their deformed and overdressed English seem
more deformed and more overdressed by sharp
" comparing it with very fire piece of writ
80. h~ sIav,t ,H
its historical per.od) TO be both very English
and very restrained.
They publish a thing which they call "a New
Declaration OF Indep9 ndenee;" that is. they
offer It. not only as a pendant, but practically
as a sequel, to Jefersons famous document
The New Declaration begins like this: Seven
score years have elapsed since those great
words were forged that welded into nation
upon many fiery bsttlehelds. In that day the
strong voices OF strong men rang across the
world. their molten words famed with light
and their arms broke the visible chains of an
fntolerable bondage But now in the red reflex
Of the glare cast from the battlefeids OF
Europe. tie invisible manacles that have been
cunnlngly laid upon our freedom have become
sha-nefllly apparent They rattle in the ears
OF the world"
Wall. I suppose they would call It a matter OF
taste. But there have been people who wrote
rather differently so far as I vaguely remem-
her when. in the course Of human events,
II has been found necessary for one people to
sever the bonds that have hitherto bound 1t to
another. a decent respect for the opinion OF
nankind"- Some readers may know the
words better than / do: and 1t is for them to
estimate the parallel
For me when 1 recall them, however vague
". know in all my bones that the thing We
call stvle is not a flourish or a varnish; but Is
q thing virile and ut for men. style is in the
inside OF a man. and not on the outside. And
after al legitimate reactions and jokes about
cherry trees, the Revolution that made America
was thing in the grand style. American re-
belHon was more dignifed than German order.
The riot of Boston was more classical than
the repose of Berlin. The Americans dressed
up as Red Indians and threw tea about: but
decent respect for the opinion Of mankind pre-
vented them from writing about red rehexes
They did not load a great public document
with more metaphors than il could carry; and
they would have been puzzled 10 discover how
red reflex could have the effect OF rafting a
manacle even an invisible one. And the decent
respect 20 which have already referred would
have prevented them from Rgitating the ears
e tbs geElda win such stEnA IhA AAEA Il ne