New-York tribune., 1918-07-01

HNE comes home from Kuss and
sees life here as in haze. 1t is
difficult to piece things together in
ones mind, the contrast is so extraordi
nary. Which is real--what We saw in Rus
sia or what we see here? One is confront
ed with two incompatible realities, perhaps
with tumble of incompatible realities. 1t
is hard to relate things, to get true
perspective, to look around steadily on the
world again. And it is really very diff
cult to explain in England what we saw
and lived through in Russia
There we saw social structure torn up
by the roots. Here we the old order,
the old standards-m modified, it is true,
adapted to the conditions of the war, grad
ually changing, but still firm and powerful.
There we saw human nature turned upside
down and inside out. We saw the collec-
tive mind plunging into the strangest ad
ventures, unrestrained by convention
tradition or by any ordinary considera-
tions of prudence. We saw the inner
workings of government; saw children
playing in the market place with the
ancient secrets of power. There were great
emotions. There was deep and singing
Joy, and a bitter despair, and anger and
contempt and reverence, and, besides and
apart from that, the sheer and constant
fun of it all.
Then one comes back to England, where
everything is SO simple and orderly and
clear. My friend remarks that the grounds
of the golf club are badly kept because it
is so hard to get gardeners now. I am
startled It had seemed to me marvel
that golf club should exist at all, and the
grounds had seemed to me almost oppres-
sively spick-and-span. England is still
England, and, looking at steady, deter
mined England, one feels in way abashed
that one had lived through all that in Rus
sia, as though one had committed an indis-
cretion. That is why it is so difficult to
speak of Russia in England now. The
range of perception is so different. The
standard Of Judgment is adapted to an or
des of things that seems fundamentally
stable. This war has shocked England.
brought startling revelations and deep PAIN
But it has not yet thrown all values into
the melting pot.
W. oAO uSAAo%A@Io, yes, we huOW WudC
that means when we talk English or Amer
ican. We know the ground we stand on.
We know more or less where we are going
We can foresee opportunities and dangers
and devise, within certain limits, facilities
and checks. There on our own ground the
principle allows a clear perspective,
within which we can REASON. Democracy
in England has its definite connotations. 1t
has background of tradition 1t is prod
uct of slow, historical development; it is
full of the inconsistencies of real life It
carries with it certain rough ready
checks in the shape of habits, conventions,
prejudices, which constantly give the re-
former some clear and concrete object of
attack. In England the phases Of democ-
racy are, first and foremost, questions of
British political development. Democracy
is understood here in the British sense. In
America the coloring is slightly different,
but there, too, in England, the demo-
cratic principle is ultimately traceable to
the Puritan conscience; in both countries
it rests on common Anglo Saxon basis of
tradition and sentiment. 1t has rts own
particular moral atmosphere.