The Washington herald., 1921-01-23
Family Ties as
Communist Basis
Hinder Quoted by H. G..
Wells Clues Suggestion
b., For Experiment

some length by Mr. Wells in the first
volume OF his Outline of History" on the
family communion that has obtained in
India for many generations. And what
he quotes stands out in strange contract
to that which has happened to family life
IN the Western world, particularly in
America.
The youth or maid, in America, prob
ably could have no greater horror in pros
pect than that of being forced to live with
his or her relatives for the remainder of
his or her days There is always regret,
of course, when the young adult leaves the
family seat,
You can always call on your mother
and me" says the fond father to his de-
parting offspring. And he may hope, Sc
cretly, that the offspring may be obliged
to come home-because he can't get a job
or something of the sort: And almost
every youth is encouraged by the feeling
that he is insured against economic want
by the old folks at home, but he has a
strong disinclination to call upon them or
to going back to them as anything but a
success, or at least in the position of one
who is getting laong splendidly"
"All able-bodied members must contrib
ute their labor and earning" says Mr..
Basu, in discussing the joint-family sys-
tenn prevailing in India, whether of per-
sonal skill or agriculture and trade, to the
common stock; weaker members, widows,
orphans and destitute relations, all must be
maintained and supported; sons, nephews,
brothers, cousins, all must be treated equal
lxy =
break up the family"
How delightfully."- naive!" you can al
most hear Miss Young America exclaim.
Fancy me being pals with my frumpy
upstate cousins, Misses Flossie and Ara
minta Jenkins! I'd give that system just
one week-end's duration"
Such is the result Of being reared in a
land of liberty.
Offhand, one might suggest that enthu-
sasts over the idea of communism might
take the family tie as basis for such
social experiments in this country. For
instance, the Esstmans Q am not sure
that Max Eastman is a believer in COM.
munism, but just for instance) might start
it off. There probaly is goodly number
of Eastmans. Perhaps there is farmer,
blacksmith, grocer, chemist, a phys-
clan, a miller, a carpenter, a teacher, a
printer-or several of each-together with
a number who perhaps could perform Or
dinary tasks.
They, by few months of preparation,
probaly could arrange their affairs in such
a manner as to enable them togo West
or somewhere and establish an Eastman
familycommunity.
All that is required is singleness Of
purpose and general agreement among
the various members of the family to sub
init to the authority of the head of the
family. There is no law, that we know
of, that would pretvent such an under
taking
One might argue that this arrangement
would work admirably. One might insist
that it is a corking suggestion, and even
urge that it be attempted, strictly along
Hindu lines. But somehow one feels that
it will not be acted upon-that it wouldn't
work
One who has FIVE aunts and has seen
them at family reunion has reasons-he
may not desire to give them in detail, but
he has them-to believe that it would not
work.
There have been many rvfews of the
Wells opus in American publications Life,
for instance, had what struck the writer as
being very stupid one, few days ago.
One wonders, when one has reached page
2Io of the first volume If these reviewers
can have read, carefully enough to have
equipped them to write an authoritative
opinion, the full 48 pages of the first vol
ume md the equally large second volume.
Up to page 2Io one is impressed with
the cleverness of Mr.. Wells and his COL
laborators in making use of the criticisms
and suggestions that came as the result of
first publishing the Outline serially. I'm
doubtedly it attracted very serious atten-
ton from many eminent authorities. It is
apparent that these criticisms and sugges-
tions were used to good advantage in re-
vising. the work for book form.
Also Cup to page 21o) one is profoundly
impressed by the tremendous task under
taken by Mr.. Wells and hnished-no mat
ter what mistakes, if any, the great British
writer may have made in his conclusions.
1t is easy to understand how a reviewer
might very we'll hesitate and consider care
fully before he ventured to criticise ad-
verse the work as whole-much easier, in
fact than IN ,,oderst,nd hon, e A.