^5/7 .Hi )5/7 Hi Ml Copy Vol. 19 December 21, 1918 No. 22 BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY An Address By PROFESSOR LYNN HAROLD HOUGH PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Northwestern University Building CHICAGO <\$^t Siiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiii iiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinriiirriiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirriiiinriiiiiiMiiftiiillminiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiinri The Lindgren Foundation of Northwestern University The address here published was delivered before the Chicago Association of Commerce on "British Day," December 7, 1918, by Professor Lynn Harold Hough, who was sent to Great Britain by North- western University on a speaking tour to interpret to the British people American ideals and purposes in the war. This is the first message of Professor Hough to America as a result of his visit to Britain. The Lindgren Foundation of Northwestern Uni- versity was established in 1909 by Mr. John R. Lindgren, then a trustee of the university, who do- nated $25,000 to the institution for the "promotion of international peace and furtherance of interde- nominational harmony and the intimate unity of Christendom." The purposes of the Foundation are accomplished through conferences, public lec- tures, and competitive studies in colleges and sec- ondary schools. In response to many requests and because it is felt that the aims of the Foundation will be fur- thered thereby, this address is published in this form. -iniiMNnniinniiiiUJiiii'jniiiiininnniiiiniMiirMiininjiiMiiuiniiininiiiiuiiMiMuniniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiilliiiiiiiiiiniiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiHiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiTl "BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY" By Professor Lynn Harold Hough During" the earlier part of our participation in this war, most of us were so busy being conscious of the contribution America must make that we thought of scarcely anything else. Perhaps for the time being it was allowable, as we mobilized the physical, moral and spiritual resources of the United States ; as we thought of what we must give and of what we must do, perhaps it was allowable that for the time we should forget, at least, that for the time we should cease to emphasize the immortal sacrifice of France, the audacious, splen- did daring of Italy, the organized and completely masterful defiance of Great Britain to the foe. Perhaps it was well that just at that time this nation, which had been a series of multitudinous fragments, unorganized into cohesive unity, should have such a compelling sense of the new oneness it had attained, of that spiritual consciousness of American solidarity, that that one experience should fill its mind. Perhaps it is not strange that at that time the fathers who were seeing their sons cross the sea should be busy thinking of that and saying to themselves : "Our hands and our boy's hands are joined in a grip unbroken, Though they fight in far stern lands, 'mid tragedies unspoken." Perhaps it was natural that they should be so busy with that thought of giving, that they should forget to think of other lands. Perhaps it was natural for the American mother sitting, in her home and thinking of her boy in France, to say to herself, "Your eyes are shining in my heart tonight ; Are they shining bright in France? Your face is glowing with courageous light ; Is it strong and firm in France? I sit lonely in a still, dark night, But I fight with you in France." Perhaps it was natural that she should be so busy then with the gift of her own son that she would not be busy thinking of the con- tribution of other lands. But now we have come to the moment of quiet getting ot perspec- tive after peace has come, and now we have a right to forget even that glorious and noble self-consciousness of a great people girding themselves for a mighty task. We have a right to look out and see what we have owed, what we do owe to the other nations participat- ing- with us*and before us in this war. 4 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY BULLETIN Today we are to think about the contribution of Great Britain, and I am very glad that the chairman struck the note which I want to be my note, of a serious consideration of some things Americans have been all too likely to forget, for I am not here this afternoon to attempt any verbal gymnastics, or any tortuous phrases, which by their unusual depth and skill will tickle your fancy or touch your imagination. I am not here to attempt any flights of vivid and emo- tional oratory, which by the mere sweeping movement of their dyna- mic force shall set your hearts beating faster. The thing I would like to do this afternoon is to consider very frankly some of those things which are basal for a true understanding of what Great Brit- ain has done, and for a true understanding of the place Britain and America are to take together in coming days. The first contribution which Great Britain made to the victory was the contribution of the character of the British empire. There has been a very subtle and a very deadly propaganda in America which had as its objective making us misunderstand the British Empire, and there is inside the United States a certain type of man who insists that, if he will have to give up loving Germany, he at least will hate Great Britain until he dies. Now, sometimes that man is a man of sincerity, who does not understand the facts. It is very important, because of insidious remarks which he is making and the intellectual confusion which he is disseminating, that we should face the facts. Now, the fundamental thing we need to understand is that the British Empire is in the profoundest sense a democracy, and that as a democracy it went into the war ; that Great Britain is not a mon- archy in any sense which defeats or antagonizes the profoundest ends of democracy. King George is the symbol of the national solidarity, he is the human flag of Great Britain. Now, we would die for our flag, but nobody ever thought of giving the flag the right to vote. We would not allow anybody to insult our flag, but nobody ever supposed that the flag could draft a constitution. We love our flag, but the flag is the symbol of the nation's solidarity, and that, and no more, glorious- ly vivified in splendid human manhood, is King George. Then we need to understand that the history of the British Em- pire, certainly since the eighteenth century, has been a history con- stantly approximating an understanding of the position of people in various parts of the empire, and giving them the fullest self-govern- ment as rapidly as they were capable of functioning in that regard. I don't need to tell you Canadian friends who are here this after- noon that the dominion of Canada has not paid one cent of taxation "BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY" 5 to the imperial treasury of Great Britain since it has existed as a dominion. The dominion of Canada represents something profoundly signi- ficant when you think of men who have been telling us that the Brit- ish Empire is an instrument of tyranny. Now, imagine that great dominion not paying one cent taxation to the treasury of Great Britain during its history, and not coerced to send one soldier to this great war ! And when you face a fact like that, you begin to under- stand what is the genius of Great Britain. When you look at South Africa, and think of that great South African group of states, with a situation that would parallel, what it would have meant' for us if Robert E. Lee had been president of the United States within ten years of the close of the civil war, you begin to understand the largeness and the generosity of the govern- mental methods of the British Empire. And when you see the fash- ion in which South Africa stoodi loyal at the moment of fullest op- portunity to secure revenge, if revenge were desired after the South African war, you begin to understand that there is some quality in the British Empire which captures the afifection even of people who have been lately foes. Now, there have been some people who are willing to admit this sort of thing, who have tried to insist that after" all Great Britain in its interior activity is not democratic. Now, of course, the truth is that Great Britain is more democratic, politically, than the United States of America. There are two points at which Great Britain is more democratic than the United States. I say this not to praise Great Britain and not to condemn the United States, because, as I shall show in a moment, I think perhaps there is something to be said for our method. But if by democracy you mean the speed with which people real- ize their will, just observe this : You can have a piece of legislation passed by congress, by the senate and signed by the president, and then a tiny group of men in Washington, in the name of a clause in our written constitution, can nullify the will of the people as ex- pressed in legislation all down the years, unless we go through the slow and laborious and difficult process of amending the constitu- tion. And there is no power which can defeat the final action of the parliament of Great Britain. Of course, sometimes when people get their way too quickly they get their mood instead of their will, so perhaps we are for- tunate; but at least it is clear that an empire constructed in that fashion is tremendously democratic. Now, it is also true that if Great Britain were to become sud- denly impatient with Lloyd George's leadership, it would be possible 6 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY BULLETIN to have a vote of want of confidence in the house of commons ; it would be possible, if he thought after the vote of confidence that the country would back him, to appeal to it, and in a very few weeks the country would have pronounced for or against the administra- tion. We are helpless until the end of four years after we elect a president. Now, again, there may be something to be said for that helpless- ness. It may give the administration fuller opportunity. There may be times when Mr. Lloyd George would be perfectly willing to labor under the burden that our president carries at that particular point. But however that may be, those two points taken right out of the contemporary situation of the British government illustrate the fashion in which the will of the people is secured more immedi- ately in Great Britain than in the United States. So that if by de- mocracy you mean the speed with which the people realize their will, Great Britain is at present politically more democratic than is the United States of America. There are some people who have admitted all that, and who then state, "After all, Great Britain is the great economic danger of the world." And there were some people in the earlier vocal days of the pro-German group in America who insisted after all Germany went into the war fighting for commercial breathing room. Now, that sounded awfully impressive until some of us began to investi- gate a little, and we discovered that in the summer of 1914, in spite of the intolerable menace of the British navy, in the summer of 1914 Germany was underselling Great Britain in the city of London in certain staple products. And we discovered that before 1914, in the statistical reports of particular colonies of the British empire, this year and that year, that Germany sold more materials to a British colony than did the mother country. Now, if anybody knows what under heaven the British navy was doing in the way of stifling the commercial life of Germany when Germany was underselling Britain in British colonies, I am per- fectly willing to be enlightened. Well, I think perhaps I have said enough to indicate what I mean when I say that the first great con- tribution of Great Britain to victory was the character of Great Britain. Of course, somebody here is saying "Ireland" under his breath. Well, I will say "Ireland" out loud, and I will deal with that prob- lem in just a few sentences and pass it by. The problem in Ireland has not been for a number of years the problem of what the British government was willing to give. The problem has been the problem of what Ireland was willing to receive. I think that one epigram goes to the very heart of the situation. The whole assumption of "BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY" 7 the people who want the United States to interfere in that problem is an assumption that Ireland is suffering because of something the British government will not give, when the poor, nervous British government would give almost anything if the united Ireland would only take it. When I was in Ireland a few weeks ago, before the war had come to an end, getting better things to eat there than I could get anywhere in England, because Ireland was ignoring the food regu- lations, with Sinn Feiners treasonably practicing the manual of arms, watching that island almost plunging into a kind of anarchy because of the patient, grandmotherly attitude of the British government, it seemed to me that at last the particular type of wrong Ireland is crying out about today would perish in the laughter of the nations. Now, there is no doubt in the world that in the past Ireland suffered wrong and grave wrong, but the nineteenth century saw the end of any technically or really large wrong suffered on the part of Ireland, and today the problem is a problem of an Ireland incapable of mak- ing up its mind, and not the problem of a Great Britain unready to give it what it really desires. It would be perfectly possible for me to go on and talk about the crown colonies and other things, and perfectly possible to deal with every one of those things, at least to my own satisfaction, in respect of the profound idealism of the British empire. Of course, as Prof. Wrong, of Toronto university, is fond of saying, there is really no such thing as the British empire. There is the British common- wealth, which is a great organism of free peoples, and of people under tutelage in process of becoming free. Now, the genius of that empire is obvious and we need to see it. A nation living by formal logic would treat with everybody and for everybody in a mathematical way all at once, but Britain, with the true psychology of common sense, treats every group according to the pedagogy re- quired by its own state of development. The truth of the matter is that one of the differences structurally between Germany and Great Britain is at this point. Suppose I characterize France and Germany and Great Britain from the standpoint of this analysis. France represents idealism and mathematical logic, and the reason France had so much trouble a little while ago was because when a Frenchman makes up his mind, he is so gloriously loyal he wants to do everything after breakfast the first morning, and not wait. France is idealism plus mathe- matical logic. And Germany since 1870 has been unethically efficient, with a mathematical logic, so that the difference between Germany and France was that France harnessed its logic to ideal- 8 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY BULLETIN ism, and Germany harnessed its logic to efficiency. And Great Brit- ain is idealism harnessed to common sense. That, of course, is the reason why the typical British man in the ruling class is so often inconsistent, and so gloriously successful with his inconsistency, for he has a perfect way of doing the thing which mathematically is the wrong thing, but psychologically is the right thing. And really, the hope of the world is in combining idealism and shrewd practical strategy after some such fashion, as it has been done in the British empire. And so I say, concluding my first point, that the first great contribution of Great Britain to victory was the character of the British empire itself. Now I come to a thing regarding which I must speak in a more personal and intimate way. The second contribution of Great Brit- ain was its gift of sacrifice and heroic courage during four years of war. On September the first of this year, when I stood on the deck of the Carmania, and we steamed out of New York harbor, and we could see a few other transport ships, somebody said, "We are ship- ping forty thousand American boys over to the other side" ; and as the bands played, "We Are Coming Over", and the thrill of the crusade of America into the old world's conflict swept over and over and over me, again and again, it seemed to me that that was typically the supremest thing in American life. A little later I was able to see, as I went over the statistics, that America had in Europe about two million fighting men ; that Amer- ica had training in America about a million more. Suppose that every one of the two million American boys who crossed over to Europe, and every one of the one million in training in America, had either been killed or had died of disease or been wounded or been incapacitated through disease, every one of them, that would have represented a smaller casualty list than that of the British empire. And yet, there were cynical Americans, who a little earlier were saying that Britain was ready to fight out this war to the last French- man. What a small sacrifice in numbers ours has been, though the sacrifice, of course, of any life is priceless ; and when I attempt to visualize that 3,048,000 casualty list, it staggers my imagination. Well, I had some help on the other side in making it real. One day I was in the National Liberal club, talking to a couple of English public men. One of them, as we sat there, took out of his pocket a little photograph of the son of his who had gone over to France to fight and had not come back. Again and again I was entertained over week ends in English homes, with that rare and exquisitely gracious hospitality which England knows so well how to give, and which has been given with such ample generosity to the Americans in the recent days, — every time almost before the week end was over, "BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY" 9 I would be taken into some room ; perhaps there would be a medal, perhaps one or two photographs, and then I would hear the story of this boy who had gone to France and would not come back. Alaybe there was the prize that he had won in one of England's great uni- versities. Maybe there was a letter from some great teacher with a great reputation, saying that this boy had it in him to become a scholar whose name would have been known all over the world. Why, when I think of the mental and moral and spiritual power poured out in this rare gift of young English manhood, it seems as if the mother of the nations must weep with an undying sorrow at such a sacrifice. That has been Great Britain's terrible contribution to victory. On the day when King George was going to St. Paul's for the thanksgiving service after the conclusion of the armistice, I was in the office of a great London weekly on Fleet street, chat- ting with my friend the editor. We stood, one at each of the two windows of that particular office, as the king and queen drove down Fleet street amid the cheering of the people on each side; and as they passed, I turned to my friend. There Avas a light in his eye, and his face glowed. Then in a moment the light darkened, and a look of unutterable sadness came upon his face, and he said, "Well, you know, my friend, after all this is a very hard day for me. That boy of mine who died in France would be nineteen today if he were alive." And so joy and sorrow, the gladness of victory and the pain of renunciation, met in that day. What has been the price ? I was in the office of a well-known public man in London. He motioned me quietly to watch his typewriter, and I looked over and noticed in a moment that the man who was his secretary was absolutely blind. He had learned to operate the machine, and he was doing eflfective, careful work as the secretary of this English public man. And I sat there in the chair for a moment beside this man, with his fingers moving easily upon the machine, and I tried to think and feel my way through that one man's gift of sight for liberty ; oh, the unut- terable pang and tragedy that that man must bear there, and that ever men must have their eyes torn out to make the world a world fit to live in. And those are the gifts that many a man of Britain has made, three million of them and more on this great casualty list, with such an enthusiasm and such a dauntless purpose. One night I was riding in a railroad train from Southampton to London, and for a good part of the way I was alone in the compart- ment with a very wonderful young British aviator, and as he told me of all that he had gone through and suffered, and of his eager- ness to go back to flying again, the passion, the quiet power, the 10 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY BULLETI^ devotions, the energy of that man filled me with a sort of enthusi- asm as deep as the very sources of human inspiration. Well, I tried at last to say the thing before I left England, to say it in some way which I could leave behind with a friend of mine who was an editor of one of the weeklies, and it came out something like this : SEEING ENGLAND I. On a train for London bound, While the wheels moved round and round, Gliding swiftly on the rails. Whispering untranslated tales Of men traveling up and down. Of the vast mysterious town, I beheld a lad's bright face, With its haunting fresh young grace, With its joy of unused power. With youth's happy, magic dower. As if God had smiled with joy, Giving to the world this boy. Now his face was set for France, And his eyes flashed like a lance, Eager, dauntless, strong and bright. Ready for the last hard fight, I saw the hope of England. II. On a dull, gray winter's day, When cold winds went forth to play. When the streets were dark and chill, And life lost its quickening thrill, I beheld a man's hard face. Like a runner in a race, Rigid, tense, and sternly strong. For endurance hard and long. There was heartbreak in his eyes, And a cruel pained surprise. At life's tragic tides of grief, Wave on wave without relief. Yet his purpose as a fire, Leaping, flaming ever higher. Through his solid self-control. Pierced its way into my soul. I saw the strength of England. IIL By a dim lamp's flickering light On a London street at night. While the war, a huge black cloud, Wrapped the city like a shroud, I beheld a woman's face, Stern and sad, yet full of grace. In her deep and tragic eyes I saw sorrows' mysteries. Yet beneath the poignant pain I could feel a sense of gain, "BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY" 11 As if she had power to see High things hidden far from me. Though grief left its bitter trace, There was splendor in her face. By the trembling yellow light, In the shadows of the night, I saw the soul of England. And so that inexpressible, intangible, invisible spiritual vitality, that is England's second gift to victory. So patient, so uncomplain- ing, with such quiet dignity, with such insistence that Britain must carry on whatever came, a sort of an incarnate spiritualist granite of the lions on Trafalgar square, with a human heart beating in them; that is England. You must understand that that gift of character, that gift of an invisible and priceless strength of purpose, that gift of vision, that gift of commitment, that is the fight which has made these four years immortal. I sat one night in one of the colleges of Oxford, beside the wife of the principal of that particular college ; as the fire was glowing in front of us, we talked along quietly until at last, somehow, there was produced just that atmosphere where it was possible to talk simply and really, and she told me the story of that son of hers who had given his life in France, and at the same time absolutely unable to know even where he rests, and of the fashion in which she had tried to get one fact and one detail after another to piece together the story of the last heroic hour. And as I sat there in that principal's residence in Oxford, with the light playing about that beautiful room, and looked into the face of that mother, with the serenity of those who have suffered for a cause which has dignified their sor- row, and the patience of those who have translated unutterable pain into mental and spiritual power, I felt like taking off my sandals because I, too, was in the presence of the bush which was burning and not consumed ; I, too, was standing upon holy ground. Now, ladies and gentlemen, the thing that must not happen is for any of the superficial or temperamental differences on the day of adjustment to hide from our eyes the moral or spiritual splendor of these last four years. Of course we are going to have differences. We are going to have them honestly; we are going to have them frankly, but they are going to be the differences of right and noble men who understand each other and believe in each other, so that deeper than all the difference there is a unity of common under- standing and of common devotion. Now, what about the future? I really wonder how many of you have ever seen this dream of the British and American life, solidi- fied with all the fine idealism of France added, with all the splendor 12 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY BULLETIN of a developed Italy, at last with all the gift of a new Russia, and some day, please God, with the addition of a regenerated Germany, — I wonder if you have seen what that can mean for the world ; and I pause a moment on that regenerated Germany because as long as the heart of your foe is unconquered, there is a danger left which menaces your own life, and Germany itself must be made over spir- itually as well as defeated from a miUtary standpoint before the world is profoundly safe. Have you thought of how Britain and America, the great English speaking peoples, are to move forward in this new day? I think something of it came to me in the most dramatic experience, perhaps, I had while on the other side, when I flew over London in one of the big Handley-Page war planes. There were eight of us that afternoon left the field at Herndon, going aboult eighty miles an hour, went up and circled round and round over London half a mile up in the air, and then came back. It was a curious experience. In the first place, those Handley-Page machines are so big. I had a feeling as we went back and forth over the field that the ma- chine could not possibly lift, that it was a great fairy story that any machine had lifted, that it would simply move back and forth over the ground, and when finally the thing actually lifted in the air, I had the supremest physical sensation I ever had in my life. I will say that for just superb physical enjoyment I have never known any- thing like it. And as we moved up over the city and circled about it, a number of things came to me, and that night when I could not sleep at all, when all during the hours of the night I was going over that experience again, I tried to put in copy some words which would show the spiritual meaning of that flight to me : FLYING OVER LONDON ("Written October 2, after a flight over London in a British warplane.) The mighty whirling horses of the car Plunged madly through the highways of the sky, Like homesick meteors from some far star, Scorning the world and its low destiny, Whom some kind god had given wings to fly Back to their planet's distant mystery. The winds reached out great leaping arms of power Strong in their ancient heritage of might. But bent like abject slaves that shake and cower In sudden shattering and unmanly fright When there uncoils in hissing serpent's spite The menace of the lash above their fearful sight. The earth sends forth its clutching hands of force Which held men chained below in all the years. The car climbs upward in its regal course Among high-flying birds its only peers. It has subdued all crouching human fears "BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY" 13 It has fulfilled the daring dreams of seers. Widespread below are towns and fields of green On to the edges of the purple sea. And there in clear distinctness sharply seen Is London in her queenly majesty. Her spires and palaces and homes you see, The heart of a great empire strong and free. The silver ribbon of the sparkling Thames Winds through the city on its shining way. The sunlight glistens as a million gems Send from their facets each a glittering ray. And by the river in the distance there St. Paul's cathedral summons men to prayer. We circle grandly o'er the ancient town. We taste the triumphs of audacious flight. Then strangely presses that most cruel crown Whose thorns draw blood in many a far-flung fight. For all the world, a tragic, broken star. Is held in the remorseless clutches of the war. But upward, upward, moves our certain way And upward, upward, is the world's bold flight. Up from the cruelties of this dread day, Up from the heartbreaks of this bitter night; Up to the highways of the common good. Up to the radiant heights of brotherhood. That is the story of the future to be wrought out by the Hberty loving peoples of the world, and my last word, the inevitable last word, is this : Anybody can be a cynic, anybody can doubt. It takes a hero to believe. And civilization survives, carried forward on the wings of the dauntless faith of the world's dreamers. Now, are we going to settle down into the dull lethargy of heavy and uninspired commonplaceness of those incapable of dreaming great dreams? Are we going to settle down into the confusing and disabling incapacity of those who have lost the soul of splendor out of their lives, or are we going to prove that the least we can do to deserve these immortal boys who have gone to the heights on a chariot of sacrificial fire, is to believe with a new dauntlessness, to serve with a new devotion, to love with a new devotion, and to give ourselves for the making of a better world ; and standing as we stand at the parting of the ways, shall we see Britain, not that Brit- ain whose lion's tail some of us liked to twist when we were study- ing ancient school books, biit that other Britain of our more ade- quate understanding and our more complete investigation, that Brit- ain whose garments have been soiled sometimes, but which has always risen with a new idealism in its eyes, that Britain whose hands have been torn by battle, but always battled towards some- thing better, that Britain which sometimes having a superficial cyni- cism always cherishes an undying idealism at its heart ? I wonder if you know that little allegory written by Maarten Maartens, the Dutch author, who says, "Once there was a satirist. 14 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY BULLETIN and he said so many sarcastic things that his friends killed him, and then they stood around him and looked at him, and said, 'This man just treated the world like a football, he always kicked it' And the dead man opened his left eye : 'Yes,' he said. 'I did kick the world, but I always kicked it toward the goal.' " After all, the best thing I can say for Britain is that even when Great Britain has gone upon the football field to kick the world, somehow it has turned out that the world has been kicked toward the goal. And so, together the master of the idealism of a great common- wealth and the dreaming, dauntless exponent of a new world's eager hope will go out upon the highway of that nobler future which is to be, and together, please God, will make the world a good world for little children to live in, a good world for babies and mothers who hold the babies in their arms, a good world for com- mon men and common women and little peoples, a good world with the mighty solidarity of the imperishable consecration of the Eng- lish speaking world to liberty and democracy, holding steady and true all the mighty engineery of the life on this planet ; together then, Britain and America, together today, together in all the glad tomorrows that are to be. FINIS Northwestern University Evanston — Chicago