The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1921-11-15
MEN, WOMEN
A N T H IN G S

There is great deal of talk about the
"Clean Slate" Some publicists and theorists
seem to think that because the nations were
plunged in war that cold things have passed
away" and all that we have to do will be to
just start anew. &
New worlds for old is catchy slogan, but
where is the go-between who can make the
swap? It's job too big for Mr.. Wells who,
from his later effusions, seems to think himself
able to inaugurate even the writing Of new
Bible, while incidentally rearranging the en-
tire world scheme.
But it will take more than the lighting of
little torches Of borrowed wisdom from those
who have lighted mankind's way down the CEN
turtles to tear up in day all the old paths and
make new ones overnight and any one trying
it will be found to be blind leader of the blind.
The fog is too thick to permit every lantern
holder to become guide. ses
There is mistiness about those who. are clam
oring for "Clean Slate" and so the would-be
iluminists merely spectres standing at the
crossroads dividing the ancient ways from the
modern arguing in an atmosphere of doubt and
uncertainty, much to the annoyance of those
whose feet are planted on solid ground and
being held up every minute to trade off the
tried ways for untried ones
No one doubts but that the upheaval of the
war was great, the extent of the catastrophe
may be as great as the fall of Babylon or Rome;
has been pointed out on the other hand as
comparatively small as the fall of Carthage and
Napoleon. But with wisdom, it is claimed, that
whatever it may be- it is foolish to imagine
that the continuity of life has been definitely
broken, as the roots of civilization are not so
easily plucked up, but will go on bearing fruit
long after the new order of prophets of the
new slate have been buried with their fathers.
The historian who ignores the past or pre-
tends that it is erased, is as futile as a human
being as is the ostrich which, hiding its head in
the sand, is silly as an animal. 1t is no easy
Inheritance, it refuses to be disposed of, but
has way of insisting that it be handed down
to the children of men. This was the dilemma
of certain statesmen at the peace conference
who, having a superficial belief that the SLATE
was clean" for them to write upon, but when
they began to write found that it was only
new chapter of a very old book.
The Hon. Oliver Brett well says "the idea
that the world was, or ever could be, school
boys slate washed clean for any fool to write
upon, might seem to have been exploded by
the committee of public safety during the
reign of terror But it was temptation TO
Karl Marx to maintain the existence of the
clean slate, and putting the blame upon Robes
pierre for what he wrote upon it, to cover it
with his own oracular conceptions. Despite
the French philosophers and social theorists
the world could not be made new even by revo-
luton. New ideas could be started, but to live
had to fight old ones. enE
Rousseau believed implicitly in the clean
slate, just as did his pupil, Karl Marx, just as
does Lenine, who has outdone ever Robespierre.
Socialism, like every other variety of static
state presupposes a clean slate, and clean
slate is only to be had by revolution, but I'M
fortunately the lurid light of communism lights
up the night with an unholy fear. This is why
take little stock in those who, in acamedic
circles, literary soirees or pink teas advocate
"clean slates,' for alas too often they are made
clean with bloody sponge.
With the French and Russian revolutions
fresh in mind, there is small wonder that stu
dents of the past look with fear upon the prop
uganda which seeks to set up socialist state
in the heart of Europe. Drunk with the glamor
of its own revolution, it will seek to impose
itself first on the continent, then in England
and finally, in America The bolsheviki have
never denied their ambition to overrun the
world. They are the "clean slaters' par ex-
cellence.