A Philosopher's Pastime
TT an archbishop had told me he was the .author of a " revue," if a stockbroker had announced that he Meant to publish an epic poem, I could not have been more surprised than I was to hear from Norman Angell some months ago that he had invented a card game.
1l have " known him, for twenty years. When I first made his acquaintance he wore a large red beard. He was manager of a Paris newspaper, and I supposed he was a Frenchman. I addressed him in what I believed to be French and have always been grateful to him " for the perfection of manners and tact which made him reply in the same language.
Sin& then our 'friendship has continued in all sorts of places and circumstances. I have crossed the Atlantic with 'hiin in -a nine-day boat and wished the voyage lOnger. We have tried to run a newspaper together— and haVe: remained friends. I thought I knew all his interests and avocations and I had never known him play a gar/ie of any kind. I can confess now that I did not think his card game was likely to be any good.
• Then one evening I went to his rooms to play it, still without anticipating much amusement. There was an editor there, a publisher, a young man doing well in boininion, a cleVer woman Who plays bridge constantly and. well, and one • or two more. We played Norman ganie and I missed my train. I meant to catch One at. 10.30. I stayed on playing till 11.30, had to walk iroin the station at one o'cloek in the morning—and didn't in the least regret it.
We all agreed that it was a capital game, quite apart' from what it might teach one about money. It is called,'• by the way, " The Money Gaine." No doubt many People" when they se& or read about a book entitled - The Money Game* will imagine it must be a guide for. those desirous of getting rich quick. ' It is actually a description Of the game, with some chapters added on What may be learned froth it. In a pocket are contained Packs of cards and counters which take the form of miniature banknotes.
To enter upon an account of the 'game here would be .* The Money Ganse—Hoto to Play It. d new instrument of ecintomieducatioti." By Norman Angell. 7(Dent: '. 12s. 6(1.) • futile. To understand any game you must play it.
As Angell. says; if anyone tried to .learn. 'fidrea' book, he would find it as diffieult as algelnii. " Yet this , thing, so baffling AS a subject of abstract exposition, more baffling,''"fierhafos, than currency itself can, if another method is employed, become so easy of under- standing 'that a child can learn the thing in an hour."
This game can be learned by children, by anybody, in less than" that amount of time. You don't have to know a thing about the nature of money or the principles of economics. Indeed, I have no doubt that some will play it regularly without the least idea that the sailor who lands on a remote island with a lump of gold was invented for any purpose other than that of the enter- tainment to be derived from following his transactions and winning or losing money upon them. • Yet no one of ordinary intelligence could play 'it without learning something about the familiar pieces of metal which we keep in our pockets or our purses and call money. Few of us have any acquaintance with their origin or use, beyond knowing that they will buy us things we want and" that it is awkward to be without them. ' To that ignorance may be imputed many of the troubles of the world to-day, many of the misfortunes under which we suffer.
Inflation, deflation, the Gold Standard, credit, currency --=these are but words without meaning for the mass of us. Nor is there agreement concerning them among those Who claim to speak with authority baSed on knowledge. Even Norman Angell and Bernard Shaw get to logger; heads, it is amusing to notice, when the nature of credit is under discussion (p. 129). 'And Angell himself is surely open to criticism when he maintains that the building of battleships cannot relieve unemployment.
No doubt the expenditure of the taxpayers' money' on " consumable goods " would create more employment, but it would be hard to prove that for every shipwright or mechanic employed on a battleship some other man loses a job elsewhere. And when the European peoples are spoken of as " strangling 'themselVes in a net of tariff barriers," our expert surely 'overlooks the fact that " strangulation " is not at present so alarming " in Protectionist France, Belgium, or Germany as it is in Free Trade Britain.
That is not a plea for Protection here. Our difficulties are due to other causes than Free Trade. The prosperity of Protectionist States may • be attributable to reasons little connected with their fiscal system. What want to do is to point out "hocv complicated these matters are and how diffieult it is to arrive at a clear understanding'or make any general unqualified statement of them.
Therein lies the special value of Angell's game. It puts before us, not theories, " but facts ; it offers us a concrete case (romantic in its surroundings), instead of an abstract doctrine or policy. We may, as :I have said, use it -merely as a pastime. But,' if we have any brain- stuff in our skulls, it will set us thinking, and we shall, just for amusement and then for their own sake, ponder the problems which the Sailor's dealing with the Islanders suggests to us. So we shall grow in wisdom.
At all events, we shall be incapable of mixing up money with wealth or of saying, as a Dominion Cabinet Minister once did in Angel's hearing, that a way must be found to secure payment for his country's wheat in some other way than in goods ! HAMILTON FYFE.
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