Evening star., 1939-01-04

clothes. Get into shorts and do
some exercises And the people
cheered!"
Reverence Survives Belief.
Real belief in Christianity" said
Chiffan, may be at an ebb in the
world, Rud, but shockableness is
still high. Reverence is something
that survives belief. In these
northern countries particularly
You'd better be careful"
Il shall be careful" said Rud.
But Forli, mind you, wasn't
shocked -.
THE whole world" he said, "is
going radical again. Fundamentally,
In religion. In politics. In law
The common man has been trying to
get his radicalism said and done
plainly and clearly for $50 years.
Now we take it on. Our movement.
The new wave of attack"
And fill ditch in our turn" said
Irwell.
Maybe we've over the last ditch u
said Rud. There must be a last
oleSll SOIleWneTe
The Room of Memories.
1t seemed natural to Rud to take
the loyal cooperation of his COL
Leagues in the group as a matter of
course. He never felt in the slightest
degree beholden to them. He took
his leadership over them as con-
hdently as he had taken his bottle
from his nurse in his cradle. They
served the common man and gave
themselves without stint to the re-
lease of this common-sense world
state from all the foetal wrappings
that entangled it. What else could
they do? What else was there to
do? So why should the embodied
common man thank and flatter
them? He snatched their ideas out
of their mouths.
And they chanced to make a team
that could cooperate. They kept
together throughout 10 crucial years
IN human history He did little de-
lberately to hold them together
but his instinct was for manage
ment. His egotistical dominance.
his impartial acceptance of the role
OF the representative common man,
seemed to check the development of
1nternecine jealousies. During those
years remarkably little force was
wasted by the group in internal
friction. Day by day it grew. In
sensibly and yet rapidly it became
a factor, and ultimately a leading
factor, in world affairs. Even when
1t was already attracting public at
tention, its members still seemed for
a time mere incidental outsiders
adventuring into politics; COM
mentators rather than combatants.
1t was by insensible degrees that
they became a revolutionary force
OF the extremist efficiency. They did
not appear; they grew.
Differ in One Essential.
They differed in one essential
from the revolutionary groups from
which the earlier dictatorships. the
Russian and Italian, for example,
sprang. They had no conspira-
torlal past whatever, less even than
the Nazis. They were innocent of
the underground methods and free
from the tortuous mental habits of
the traditional 10Th century revolu-
tionists. And after Bohun's collapse
no trace was left of any of his Fas-
clst or Hitlerian plagiarisms. Shirts
salutes, symbols, banners were got rid
OF. He and his organization made
just their jumping-of board. They
had an auction of "unsold stock" in
aid OF the movement. Shirts" they
advertised, can be dyed any color
Zips not guaranteed" So far they
justified their claim to be a new
sort of revolutionary drive alto
gether They developed the op-
portunity given them by their pic
turesque capture of the Purple House
and the great fight in the Canton
Hall, with skill and vigor. 1t was
their first introduction to political
realities. They set about their busi-
ness with immense seriousness, and
they did not only a lot of hard work
but lot of very hard thinking
They tried over definitions and clas-
sifications and cleared them up:
they listed, they documented, they
mapped. They turned the drawing
room floor of number II into a per-
manent council chamber; they vetted
and incorporated newcomers; they
were wary of fresh blood, but not
jealous of it; they were too des-
perately anxious to succeed to waste
any possible cooperation. Bod
isham's growing conceptions of or
ganization, Chiffan's flow of shrewd
ideas and Steenhold's S ready welcome
and support for any entertaining
initiative pervaded the place from
the outset, and Rud went about
masterfully, convinced that he or.
ganized everything he learnt and
Endorsed.
Room Still Exists.
That room still exists for the curl
GUS to visit. 1t is exactly as they
left it when three years later they
transferred their headquarters te
the Sloten-the move was a tenn.
porary one. The chairs, the tables
and many of the earlier files and
charts are still there, but over it al
now is that faint, faded quality o1
things disued. No morning dust
ing, no sedulous cleaning can avert
that retrocession from reality. All
historical show places acquire that
progressive incredibility. It seems
little room to have sheltered sc
tremendous an initiative. The Gus.
todians of the place have added 9
collection of photographs of the
chief members of the group before
it moved to Holland. AS near al
possible they are early portraits
and each one stands in its frame al
the place where the original was
either known or supposed to have
sat. (There is no gavel. Rud al.
ways banged with his fist on the
table, There they talked out the
ultimate revolution and laid thu
foundations for the peace Of the