The Days of a Man 1899 



as the square of the distance increases. For which 

 reason, imperialism, benevolent or otherwise, can 

 be only a temporary device at the best, involving 

 dangers to the ruling nation as well as to the people 

 ruled. 



Mob and During the Boer War, hysteria and intolerance 

 b . erd . raged in Britain to a degree almost incredible, those 



instincts 111 r i *i- i 



who dared to tavor moderation or conciliation being 

 virtually ostracized. Threats of violence were com- 

 mon and physical attacks not infrequent. Even 

 David Lloyd George had once to flee for his life, 

 disguised as a policeman. 1 The general situation 

 at that time is realistically portrayed in "The Mob" 

 by John Galsworthy. This forceful drama deals 

 with the fate of a statesman who stands out against 

 precipitate war. Meanwhile his constituents first, 



1 Referring backward to the Boer War, Mark Twain, through the lips of his 

 "Mysterious Stranger," expressed himself as follows: "There never has been 

 a just one [war], never an honorable one on the part of the instigator of the 

 war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change in so many 

 as half a dozen instances. The loud little handful as usual will shout for 

 war. The pulpit will warily and cautiously object at first; the great, 

 big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why 

 there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, 'It is unjust and 

 dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it.' Then the handful will shout 

 louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war 

 with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and will be applauded; 

 but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the 

 anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity. Before long you will see 

 this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech 

 strangled by hordes of furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with 

 those stoned speakers as earlier but do not dare to say so. And now, 

 the whole nation pulpit and all will take up the war-cry, and shout itself 

 hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently 

 such mouths will cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, put- 

 ting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of 

 these; and he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will 

 thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self- 

 deception." 



