THE WORLD'S UNREST.
'THE civilized world is suffering from a malady of 1 the spirit as great as, nay greater than, the physical ills of short food, insufficient houses, high prices and low
production. The cause of this spiritual malady, which, unless cured, will continue to increase the physical malady, is of vital importance to all of us.. Therefore those are public
benefactors who are determined to get to the root of the evil, not fearing the bigot's curse, the worldling's smile, or the shivering fears of those who are ruled by panic and would rather live in a fools' paradise than face disagreeable facts. Just as there are plenty of men who will do any- thing rather than honestly take stock of their physical condition, so there are nations who will avoid, if possible, submitting their political status to a searching diagnosis. The Morning Post, greatly to its honour, realizes that the function of the newspaper is that of the watchdog. If not, what is the journalist but the parasite, the sycophant or the prostitute—a creature aiming to amuse, to flatter or to enflame ?
The Morning Post in a series of articles published during the summer, and now reproduced in book form (The Course of World Unrest ; London : Grant Richards ; 10s. 6d. net), declared its belief that the cause of the world's unrest is a great conspiracy, the purpose of which is the destruction of the British Empire. Though we are not prepared to say that this diagnosis is correct, or, again, that the conspiracy to which the Morning Post draws attention is sufficiently important, even if it does exist, to have produced the results attributed to it, we are quite sure that the Morning Post did not harm but good in draw- ing attention to this strange, confusing and difficult matter. The evidence that the paper brings to support its plea of conspiracy is clearly of enough substance and of enough importance to justify its action. There may be other explanations than those which the Morning Post adopts, but no one can say that the thing is a mere mare's nest from which men ought to turn with amusement or disgust and refuse even examination. On the contrary, we hold that a case for inquiry has been made out, and we most sincerely wish that some body of the nature of a Royal Commission could be appointed to inquire into the whole subject. The reference to the Commission might be something of this kind.
To inquire :— 1. Whether a world-wide revolutionary conspiracy exists or has existed in recent years.
2. Whether, if its existence is proved, its objects are merely vaguely subversive, and, however mistaken, are inspired by the general desire to free and benefit mankind, or whether they are destructive, anti- democratic and tyrannical. 3. Whether it is true, as alleged, that the leaders of this world-wide conspiracy are as a rule Jews. 1. Whether the object of those Jews who join the conspiracy is the destruction of the Christian religion, as well as of political revolution.
6. Whether the mass of Jews—i.e., those who maintain their racial and religious exclusiveness--sympathize with and protect the Jewish conspirators, and do so not so much because they agree with them as because they are Jews.
If we could have more light on this whole matter it would be an enormous benefit. Such an inquiry would be a great relief if, as we personally feel it would, it excul- pated the great body of the Jewish people and race.On the other hand, if it upheld in any way the contentions of those who envisage a world-wide anti-Christian plot, we should be warned and should be able to take the proper means to prevent what, after all, would be the greatest of disasters—an attempt to retaliate by a new persecution of the Jews. We say this because we are certain that if there is a Jewish plot it is largely the result of the persecution to which the Jews, possibly through their own fault, have been exposed for over 2,000 years. The question whether the Jews have invited persecution, and have done things to justify it, does not, in our opinion, concern us. There is no question that persecution, whether justified or not, invariably demoralizes the persecutors. We have got to stop persecuting the Jews, and, what is more, we have got to protect them whether it was we or they who began the "skin game," and whether they or their enemies have behaved with the greater wickedness.
But though "no persecution " is an essential condition, we shall be justified in moving with great caution in our admission of the Jews to the fullest rank of citizenship— if indeed the Jews can be shown to be anti-social, i.e., unwilling to let the non-Jewish races and religions develop on their own lines, but instead anxious by subtle means to interfere with or even subvert them. Such an intent would provide good reason for not allowing, or at any rate not encouraging, Jews to take part in the work of governance till they had adopted a sounder policy and dropped any attempt to convert or constrain the world by secret methods. Such cryptic policy must not, however, be made an excuse for retaliations in kind upon the Jews, else the evil would never end but only grow more intense. No doubt we shall be told that there are very great objections to the sort of inquiry we have suggested, and that it would be a very cruel and anarchic act to establish a " fishing " inquiry into the political doings of the Jews all over the world. Obviously such dangers and difficulties exist. That we do not deny for a moment. But even if it could be shown, which we do not admit, that no Govern- ment could safely or wisely appoint a commission of inquiry, might it not be possible for our Government to ask some sensible man (we suggest Lord Sumner by way of example) to make them a report upon the whole question, and then to publish that report We are not going to attempt to give judgment for or against the existence of a world-wide conspiracy. All we can do is to restate certain convictions whioh we have formed for what they are worth. We believe that for the past 180 years there has been throughout the world some- thing which might reasonably be called a revolutionary conspiracy. The original object was per se sound and reasonable. It was the securing of freedom and justice, both spiritual and physical, for the mass.of mankind. This movement, whether of Freemasons or Illuminati, was produced by that hardening and intensifying of the power of government which was the special mark of the seven- teenth century. Up till that time, though there had been plenty of tyranny and oppression in the world, it was of a personal kind. During the seventeenth century, how- ever, there grew up that terrible officialism which made despotism and tyranny ten theme more efficient and therefore ten times more oppressive. Bureaucracy, the new autocrat, was impersonal, and therefore could not be got rid of by the dagger or the pistol. Abstractions borrowed largely from the Roman Law made a new religion—that of Etatisme. Passive obedience became the greatest of virtues, and resistance to the State or to the Law the greatest of crimes. The King or Prince, i.e., the wielder of Sovereignty, became almost a God, or at any rate a vice-regent of God in whose hands was clenched a semi-divine authority. No doubt the new state-craft brought law and order in its train. The squalid anarchy of the Middle Ages yielded to the elaborate political machinery of Louis XIV. and his German, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Italian imitators. But though this was a relief to the toiling millions, the oppression of individuals, of the men who did not fit into the State system, and of those who would not take their lives or their religion in official packets, was terrible beyond words. In England, happily, Etatisme could not destroy our liberties, but in France the land was spiritually wasted by the horrible system which made resistance to the State the unforgivable offence and justified every mocking stab of Voltaire or every poisonous sob of Rousseau.
What wonder if in a world so poisoned there grew up a vast conspiracy of destruction? Can we wonder also that a set of people oppressed like the Jews, though for different reasons, took the lead in the Secret Societies, and that just before the French Revolution the world showed its malaise in an eruption of spiritual boils, car- buncles and abscesses—those many-headed conspiracies which St. Just found to be the cause causans of the Revolu- tion? When the French Revolution failed, the new tyranny of Napoleon, which eclipsed in evil and efficiency the sullen tyrannies of Louis XIV. and his successors, revived the old world-wide revolutionary
conspiracy. The Seraitically-lea Revolutions of 1848 wer hardly less wild and leas malignant than that of 1789 Though much progress was made along the road of freedon in the years between 1848 and the present day, there sti] remained in many European countries systems of govern ment which excused if indeed they did not justify scheme for their destruction. There was in them no machine! for determining peacefully the will of the majority. Un fortunately, too, it is one of the evils of persecution am despotism that the corpses of those destroyed continue b poison the ground. Conspiracies go on long after thei justification has ceased. That is, we believe, what i happening at the present day.
Revolutionary conspiracy exists, but the fact that and conspiracy was once justified must not prevent us fron first understanding and then dealing drastically with wha remains of it. We must not allow ourselves to b■ poisoned by the waste products generated in the bodj by a disease which has burnt itself out. The origina conspiracy grew up in order to prevent minority rule Now the machinery made for this good purpose h actually being used by a set of criminal lunatics to establish a new system of minority rule even moil detestable than that of the despots of the seventeentl century. What is wanted as a cure is the establishmeni and development of pure democracy. As fate will have it however, a very large part of mankind do not want tin trouble of governing themselves. They would much rathei leave themselves in the hands of self-appointed rulers Such bad patriots must be made to understand that it ii not only shameful but highly dangerous to yearn for rub by other people, and that whether they like it or not they must help to rule themselves. If the docile and slavishly inclined people of the German Empire had not refused tr learn this lesson there would have been no world war, no famine, no despair !
That we shall ever entirely extinguish World-wide Conspiracies is very doubtful. Men love secrets for thei, own sake, and, therefore, in effect love conspiracies, for these are the natural children of secrecy. But though we cannot hope to prevent conspiracies altogether, and though we should only encourage their growth by coercion, just as hedge is encouraged by being cut baok, we can and ought largely to destroy the desire for conspiracies by making them ridiculous. This, once more, we can do not by punishment so much as by education and by exposing them to the searchlight of public opinion. When Secret Societies are discovered, the first impulse of the policeman is to put his finger upon his lips and to await developments. A far better way is to publish everything that is known about them as soon as it is known, using, of course, all lawful methods of condign punishment against those who commit actual crimes. In a word, we must never conspire against conspiracy. Instead we must drag the conspirators into the open, tear off their ugly masks, and show the world how ridiculous as well as how evil and dangerous are such pests of society. Freedom, spiritual and physical, we must have, but we will have it by the will of the people, by the straight vote of the majority, and not by the dagger, the bomb and the secret oath.
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