The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-07

changed the aristocrat or radically
affected the three middle classes-that
upper, middle and lower-which even
the democracy of war, where Death
the Democrat is king, has been
powerless to obliterate. have had
close opportunity of seeing the work.
ing OF the after the war aristocratic
mind. I find that, with certain splen-
did exceptions. the aristocrat has for
gotten nothing and learned nothing.
Inc middle class man is also, !
rear, more or less unchanged. And vet
there Is a change. It is the appear-
ance for the first time In English mid
die class life of what the poet called
divine discomfort"
"a Temporary Gentleman"
There is play in London called "A
temporary Gentleman" featuring a
before the war clerk at 81 a week
rising to a First Lieutenancy and
gentlemanhood." When, the war
over. he is asked to go back to the
~ and his stool he says, I'm damned
II will"
England to-day Is filed with dis
contented middle class clerks and
commercial travellers, who. having
risen to be Lieutenants, Captains or
Majors, are damned IL they will"
There Is policeman doing traffic duty
In central London who is a Colonel.
and know personally a young $40 a
week clerk who has risen from the
ranks to the glory of Brigadier Gen
eral. who during the war has had the
lives OF thousands of men in his hands.
me man who asks him to get back to
his bank stool Is looking for a thick
ear.
To what this middle class discomfort
will lead it is difficult to say. Some
think the 81 a weekers will gradually
fall back into the old slough of
despond. Others that they will kick.
l am one of the others.
l believe the war Is going to force
these young, tame middle class men
out into middle class trades unionism.
perhaps in some cases into the Labor
Party, which for the first time has
widened its constitution to include
workers with BRAIN" and in the
ranks of which even baronets and
yet 1t was only five short years ago
when the bank clerks refused to Join
the Clerks Union because a bank
clerk was more of a gent" than "a
common Clerk
But in nothing is the metamorphosis
OF the Englishman since the war be-
ing shown SO much as in the daily
strike. The new strike, which LITERAL
ly comes each day, indicates not only
spirit of dissatisfaction but a
"Jumpiness" which contrasts strangely
with organized labor's ordered pro-
tests of before the war. Men strike
to-day sometimes with an object
often without. Sometimes they know
why they strike-sometimes they
dont-generally in defiance of their
own leaders The hall mark of the
1914 worker was his respect for his
leaders and for constitutional action.
The hall mark OF the 1919 striker is
his contempt for leaders and pre-
ference for direct action"
This change in the human factor
has manifested itself in two other
ways, apparently antagonistic.
The war has given new impulse to
religion, which in 1914 seemed to be
dying. 1t is not that II Is driving
people back into the strongholds Of
orthodoxy-but it has meant the tear
ing of the wells between the two
worlds-created, If you will, the con-
sciousness of the immaterial 1t has
brought a new seriousness and a new
realization.
Most significant is the constant dis
cussion of psychic phenomena" and
the rising of a great Spiritualist
Church under the leadership Of lead
ing scientists and leading authors like
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Whether
such a church is in itself good or bad
is not here the question.
On the other hand, the reactions
from the war have made the English
man feverish for pleasure. Every one
grumbles' at the high prices. Many
look hungry. But it is difficult to get
seat at a picture palace. The cricket
grounds are packed at any hour of the
day you visit them. The music halls
and theatres are gorged. The Eng
lishman has become Europe's Lover Of
Life.
But all this is not to say that we
are seeing the rebirth of nation. The
Englishman is old material upon
which to work. The centuries have
moulded him into certain set forms.
But what we are seeing is, the chang
ing of such forms in certain classes or
strata Just as during the last few
years We have seen a tendency
throughout Europe for people to d.
vide themselves by classes rather than
by nation, leading to Glass Standard
cation" so we are seeing the accentu-
alton Of this process in England. 1t is
the working class which is in the
throes of disintegration.
The twentieth century does not hold
more interesting secret than the
working out of the results OF the new
human factor and its reaction upon
America,