New-York tribune., 1919-03-22
Remaking the World
According to the Designs of Mr..
Bertrand Russell

PROPOSED ROADS TO FREEDOM. BY Bertrand
Russell. l2mo. ID. xviii 2lS Henry Holt & Co
A pathetic and engaging figure is Mr.
Bertrand Russell in his new book. 1t
is beautiful mind that he brings to
his task Of examining the three roads
to freedom offered the world by the
radicals Of the last century-Socialism
Anarchism, Syndicalism. A philosopher
and mathematician is Mr.. Russell in
the ultimate essence of his mind, and
recollection goes back to his best Of es-
says on his pet subject, wherein he ex-
plains what the mystery of mysteries,
pure mathematics, is: Mathematics
may be defined as the subject in which
we never know what we are talking
about nor whether what we are saying
is true"
The definition transfers perfectly to
Mr.. Russell in his search for what Mr..
Don Marquis has elsewhere pursued in
not unsimilar fashion under the head
of "rhe Perfect State' Of reality, of
hard; hard rows of dull facts, of human
beings as they really are happy and
sorrowful, dying and hating, friendly
and loyal; above all else, he has no
sense whatever. 1t is a world of pure
assumption and hypothesis in which
Mr. Russel's mind roves. In the first
sentence of his introduction he speaks
Oh the destructive and cruel chaos in
which mankind has hitherto existed"
and starting with this simple little
axiom he naturally has no difficulty
IN proving that the perfect state is
much nearer than the milky way and
well worth drawing down upon earth.
The metaphor of his title Mr.. Rus
sell quickly abandons. For his solution
of the worlds problem consists in tax
ing little something from Socialism,
Anarchlsm and Syndicalism, all quite
inconsistent, and building therefrom a
perfect whole. You cannot we'll travel
three roads at once, yet that is ex-
actly what he proposes If it is not
lrreverent, it might be fair to say that
Mr.: Russell mixes his perfect state as
# it were salad dressing, the oil of
State Socialism, the vinegar of Syndi-
calism and dash of Anarchistic red
pepper for seasoning.
1t is the problem of Pygmalion and
his Galatea. that such creators of
new world face. Mr.. Russell brings to
his task rarely good mind and
vast effort to be fair. If it were pos
sible for the world to grow save by
slow evolution, if it were conceivable
that logician's brain could sit down
and plot out by rule and reason a
NiiOily iicW anu dIJlHCldl universe tnat
would really work, Mr.. Russell could
undoubtedly achieve the task. The
pathos is that, like far lesser minds
he actually believes he has done ex-
actly this. More, in a moment of frank
confession, he reveals the fact that in
his conception the millennium itself
barely slipped through our fingers in
the climax of the great war:
t., Those who ,as Is common in the English speak
Ing world) reject revolution as method, and
praise the gradual .piecemcal development which
I'VE arc told) constitutes solid progress overlook
the effect Of dramatic events in changing the rec
ora and the beliefs OF whole populations. simul-
taneous revolution In Germany and Russia would
no doubt have had such an effect and would
have made the creation OF world possible
hero and now
Dis alter visum: tho millennium Ia not for our
time The great moment has passed. and for
inspire u.s. not tho immediate brcathcas looking
for tho deiVcrance
We wonder il ever the faulty of
the logician's mind dealing with the
practical world was more grievously