The Washington times., 1920-08-23

rather think it was a dinner; but
anyhow it was festival * II was
not a feast. Some of the most bril-
liant men of the age, such as II. q.
Wells and J. l. Garvin, made interest
ing and important speeches, and many
scientific aviators Iuminously discuss
ed the new science. Among their
graceful Fluctuations and grave and
quiet analyses a word was said. or
note was struck, which / myself can
never hear, in the most harmless
| after-dinner speech, without an i'm
pulse to jump up and scream and
smash the decanters and wreck the
| dinner table. | hear It again when so
! thoughtful a man as Garvin talks OF
aviation as altering all international
policy, especially in the relation or
England and America.
| For l not only resent the sugges-
ton that a machine can make Inc
bad. l resent almost equally even
the suggestion that machine can
make me good. 1t might be tho un-
fortunate fact that a GOODNESS had
| arisen between myself and Mr.. Fltzar-
| lington Blenkinsop, inhabitinE the
| suburban villa and garden next TO
| mine; and / might even be largely
to blame for II. But IL somebody told
me that a new kind of lawn mower
had Just been invented. of so cunning
structure that l should be forced TO
| become a bosom friend of Mr.. Blen-
kinsop, or even the bushes partner
Of Mr.. Blenkinsop, I should be very
much annoyed. l should be moved
to saw that IL that was the only way
of cutting my grass I would not cut
my grass, but continue to cut my
neighbor.
Or suppose the difference were even
less defensible; suppose a man had
suffered from a trifing shindy with
his wife. And suppose somebody told
him that the introduction of an en-
tirely new vacuum cleaner would
| compel him to a reconciliation with
his wife. 1t would be found, fancy,
that human nature abhoers that
vacuum.
Healthy human beings will not be
ordered about by bicycles and sewing
machines; and man will not be mad
good, let alone bad, by the things he
himself had made. l have OCCASION
ally dictated to a typewriter. but
will not be dictated to by type
| writer. Nor have l ever met type
| writer, however large and compll-
| Gated. who attempted to usurp such
position.
Yet this and nothing else is what
is implied in all such talk OF the
aeroplane annihilating distinctions as
well as distance; and an international
aviation abolishing nationalities. This
and nothing else Is really Implied IN
Mr.. Garvin's prediction that such aVl-
alton will almost necessitate an An
glo-American friendship. Incidentally
/ -. Y all To rNn a =
gestion even in the practical or ma
terialistic sense; and Mr.. Garvin's
phrase refuted Mr.. Garvin's argument
He suggested that international re-
lations must be different when men
could get from England to America
in a day. Well for a long time past
men could get from England TO france
| in n day. Men could get from the
coast OF England TO the coast OF
| France very quickly through nearly
all the ages during which those Two
| coasts were bristling with arms
, against each other. They could get
| there very quickly when Nelson went
down by that Burford inn to embark
for Trafalgar; they could get there
very quickly when Napoleon sat In MS
| tent in that Boulogne camp that hlled
England with the alarums OF inVa-
sion.
| Arc these the amiable and pacific
! relations which will unite England
and America, when Englishmen can
get to America in a day?
| The shortening OF the distance
seems quite as likely. so far as that
argument goes, to facilitate that end.
less guerilla warfare which ragged
| across the narrow seas In the Middle
Ages: when English invaders burned
] the crops in Brittany or French in