THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY.
PEOPLE on both sides grow so zealously angry over the controversy in regard to National Service that we cannot do amiss if we remind our readers of some of the fundamental facts that will in the end govern and decide the problem. In the first place, this question is not going to he settled by Lord Northcliffe and the Times and Daily Mail, or even by the Spectator, the National Service League, or Lord Milner. Equally, it is not going to be settled by Dr. Clifford, the Daily News, and the Daily Chronicle, the Trade Union Congress, or the railway workers. It is going to be settled by the will of the majority of the British people. The will of any minority, however well organized, or however much inclined to usurp the functions of the majority and to use the language of autocracy, will not prevail. The minority may declare, as have some of the Trade Union leaders, that they are the People—though in reality they are only a twentieth part of the community—and have a right to say what shall and what shall not be done in this country. In the last resort they will find that nineteen-twentieths are stronger than one-twentieth. This country is a crowned democratic republic iu which " the People " means " the People," and not a junta of Jacobins who, because they are organized into Trade Guilds, can claim, like the haughtiest of aristocracies, the right to impose their will upon the mass of their fellow-countrymen. Still less are the newspapers—the town criers, or, if you will, the watchdogs, of the State—the State itself. In spite of the journalist's power of words, the question will not be settled by newspaper paragraphs or newspaper " leaders." It must, as we have said, be decided by the will of the majority. That is the first fundamental fact.
The next fundamental fact is that when the question has been decided and Britain has spoken, no man who desires to call himself a good citizen should attempt to resist the decision. The decision of a majority cannot, of course, make right wrong, nor can it be expected necessarily to carry intellectual conviction, nor, again, will those who object to the decision, whatever it may be, be precluded from trying at some future time to reconvert the nation. Since, however, we are at the greatest crisis in our history, and since unity of action is essential in order to achieve that victory for which we are striving, it is obvious that the minority must give way and loyally carry out the will of the majority, however distasteful it may be to them personally. If the State decides that it must have compulsory military service, just as it has decided that it must take some thirty-five per cent. of the incomes of the rich, there can he no tolerance of resistance to either decree. The man who conscientiously objects to high direct taxation will have to pay his taxes as promptly and as fully as the man who holds that direct taxation is the best form of raising money for the State. In the same way, the opponent of universal military service must loyally acquiesce in the decision of the country. Another fundamental fact too often ignored in this con- troversy is that, of the two and a half or three million or so of men who have in various forms given their services to the country, the vast majority, probably ninety per cent., are strongly in favour of universal and compulsory service. You cannot, of course, hold a referendum on such a matter among soldiers in arms, but if the voice of the host could be taken, it is certain that its decision would be virtually unanimous.. And not, remember, unanimous for an abstract proposition, but for applying the principle here and now with the utmost sternness. From speeches like that of Sir Thomas Whittaker in the House of Commons on Thursday week, one would imagine that the views of the citizen in arms are to have no consideration, and that the man who has volunteered and is ready to make the supreme sacrifice for his country is ipso facto stripped of any right to express an opinion on the question of National Service. This attitude is certainly a strange one. The supporters of the voluntary system tell us that the volunteer, as we admit is the fact, is the noblest and best of citizens because without waiting for compulsion he has willingly offered himself to the service of the country. He is the model citizen. Yet apparently the moment he has donned his khaki and made his sacrifice his opinions are to be ignored, and if lie expresses them lie is told in not too civil terms to mind his own business. His voice does not count for anything when compared with that of a Trade Union official. It is the man who stays at home who must decide the part we are to play in the war, and not the man who is risking all at the front. That, we venture to say, is not a proposition which will in the end be found satis- factory either by the nation or the Army. A fourth and last fundamental fact which we would ask people to remember is that the solution of the present con- troversy will not be reached either by calling people names or by attributing motives, and still less by wild talk on either side about plots and conspiracies and the like. The matter is far too big for any one man or group of men to bo able to hustle or cajole the Government or the nation into a change of policy. Again, all the talk about cabals in the Cabinet, disloyalty to colleagues, and so forth is equally wide of the mark. There are, of course, bona-fide differences of opinion in the nation, and probably also in the Cabinet ; but the fundamental fact remains that in the case of the vast majority on both sides there is an earnest and honest desire to do the best for the country, and to reach a decision which will lead us to victory and an end of the war.
We must now say a word as to the position of the Ministry. To Ministers responsible for the conduct of the war the question seems, we expect, very much simpler in its features, though not necessarily easier of solution, than it does to the general public. For Milliliters the essential point is to get the men. If they can get them ou the existing system, they will not risk a change. But the men must be got, and therefore if they cannot be got by the voluntary system, they will have to be got by the only way which remains open to us— by compulsion. In these circumstances it would be not unnatural if the Government were to say to both sides in the controversy : " We have decided that our best and safest plan will be to make one more trial of the voluntary system, and to see whether by making use of the National Register and a system of scientific recruit- ing we cannot get an extra half-million [or whatever the number may be] of men." If the Government were to work on this plan, their next step clearly • ought to be to make an appeal to the country as a whole to support them loyally in their effort to got through the war without infringing the voluntary principle. If they made such an appeal, we are perfectly sure that ninety-nine per cent. of those who, like ourselves, hold that compulsion is the fairer and more efficient way would do what most of us have been doing for the last year—make a supreme effort to get the men on the voluntary basis. But if the Govern- ment decided upon this course they must say so boldly and openly, and abandon all hesitations or tentative expedients. To begin with, they must use the National Register for a muster or enrolment of the nation ; they must get clearly earmarked and put apart all the men who are enlistable—i.e., available for military service and not wanted for some other purpose. This must be done, and we believe can be done, by granting certificates of exemption to persons who are wanted either for making munitions or for agricultural or similar purposes. When this is done, the nation will be mustered or " arrayed " for war. And here let us say that it is to be hoped that included in this array will be all persons over seventeen, not merely over nineteen, and all persons under the age of forty. Remember that this arraying of the nation does not neces- sarily lead to compulsion. Having put apart the people who could enlist and ought to enlist, the Government can then take them either by compulsion or by persuasion. If they decide to take them by persuasion, then the scientific way of doing so is to make a personal appeal to every enlistab!e man on the muster-roll, and to ask him to enlist or to state his reasons for not enlisting. Under a scientific system these appeals would continue till, as in a canvass for a political election, it was definitely known of every man whether he would or would not enlist voluntarily.
To stun up, the Register would be sifted until only enlistable men remained, and then those men would be individually and collectively asked to do their duty. When that had been done, with the aid, of course, of every social organization in the country—the Trade Union, the Friendly Society, the Church, and the Chapel—we should have finally and definitely ascertained the limits of the voluntary system. We should have squeezed the sponge dry. The result would tell us whether the next step- i.e., compulsion—was or was not necessary. We need hardly say that if a voluntary appeal were successful the great majority of what we may call peace-time corn- pulsionists would be perfectly satisfied. As sensible people, they would be only too glad to find that we had been able to " make good " without heat and friction.
It remains to point out that the Government might, without actually adopting compulsion wholesale, reinforce the -voluntary system by a half-measure of compulsion— might adopt the plan of Abraham Lincoln. After having enrolled the nation, they would draw up a quota for each registration district. If they wanted a million more men, and there were found to be four million enlistable men on the enrolment register, then in each district the quota would be one-fourth. The next step would be to say that if the district produced that quota voluntarily compulsion would not be resorted to. If, however, the district failed to pro- duce its quota, then a ballot must be taken of the whole of the persons on the register to decide who should make good the obligation of the district. No doubt we should find here, as the authorities did in the Northern States, that the existence of a quota acted as a great stimulus to local activity. In order to keep the Draft out of a State or district men made the very greatest efforts to reach the necessary quota. One word in conclusion. Let the Government remember that no sane compulsionist bite any desire to hamper them in their work. • Whatever decision they arrive at will be loyally accepted. If they decide to give the voluntary system one more honest trial, they will at once find that the whole nation will rally to that effort, and that those who think the voluntary system unfair and ineffective will support Lord Kitchener and the military authorities in rs great recruiting rally as whole-heartedly as will the enemies of compulsion. Indeed, we shall not be surprised if we find that what has happened in the past will happen in that event—namely, that the advocates of National Service will prove far more active agents of the voluntary system than those who do it lip-service. It may be an accident, but the present writer must confess that every conspicuously active non-professional recruiter with whom he has come in contact has been at heart an advocate of universal national service.
Previous page
