Evening star., 1939-04-16


Up to this point, indeed. Mr.. Wells
has supplied his readers with but
one thread of suspense. That is in
the platform with which he has en-
doWed his horrid little hero. For,
though he spares no pains to make
Rud himself contemplate, he still
puts into Rud's mouth plans for a
genuine vast reform, based on en-
lightened humanitarian principles.
Rud calls himself 1.-The Common
Man; Rud stands for the overthrow
of all exploiters; Rud is the final
world incarnation of all revolutions
and rebellions which have ever been
fought for the masses of the people
and against the privileged few. And
Rud is sincere, too. Once in power
he organizes a world society in
which exploitation is Zone under
stands) completely eliminated. A
reader cannot but wonder, as he
goes along, why such noble aspi-
rations and deeds must be given
such hateful exponent. But the
device is good one technically, for
at least, it does keep one from going
completely to sleep.
Victorious at last, however, Rud
goes the way of all preceding con-
querers. He accepts the title of
World Trustee" and has it for his
duty to be the embodiment of hu-
manity for the common worship.
His planetary state is a success, but
he Is not; he cannot live in peace;
he must have struggle to excite him.
And Sc he turns on his friends,
suspects them, executes them, or
ganizes secret police. authorizes exc
cution without trial, gets down to
composing daily prescription list
and finally goes in for anti-Semit-
Ism. Everything apparently is about
to go to pot when Science intervenes
in the person of Rud's physician.
This man. a lifelong friend, quietly
murders the Trustee. Death COM
pletes his enshrinement; he is en-
balmed and set up in public square
for all the worshiping world to see,
and the state which he has made,
now under the direction of men who
do not want personal power the
scientists goes joyfully forward.
So, Mr. H. G. Wells seems to tell us,
dictator might have uses-if he
were big enough, mad enough and
wicked enough to destroy on a great
scale and accommodating enough to
die soon.
Personality Is Composite.
The personality of Rud himself
is apparently composite of those
of q number of heads of govern
ments. There is great deal of Hit
Ter in him-his anti-social tendency,
his excitability and egotism. There
is also some Lenin this is chiefly
evident in Rud's political views.
There is some Mussolini, too-Rud,
in his power, elects to live on q
balcony and early in his career
cultivates the practice of glaring
opponents down. And there may
even be some Roosevelt, for the
phrase. the Common Man." is not
without its suggestibility, nor is the
Rudian invitation, issued to the
world at large, to communicate its
personal worries directly to the
head of the state with the prom
ise that the head will give such
troubles his instant and yearning
attention. But the character is not
q caricature any more than the
novel is satire. Mr.. Wells is in an
earnest mood again, and he tackles
the little matter of reorganizing the
world with all his customary depres-
sing determination.
Alas, that Anatole France did
not live to see these relationships!
What a novel on human folly we
might have had then! A thing to
stand beside the great works of all
the sad wise testers of all man S
history, the truth tellers, the time
less artists. Mr.. Wells has done
laboriously; he has meant extremely
well. But his work is only a COM
pilation of recipes and sort Of
cosmic cook book. Determinedly he
goes on trying to cure humanity of
being human. But France would
have shown it a picture Of itself,
and that might be much more salu-
tory.