instincts 



The Days of a Man [11899 



as the square of the distance increases. For which 

 reason, imperiaUsm, 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 Duting the Boer War, hysteria and intolerance 

 h"^. raged in Britain to a degree almost incredible, those 



who dared to favor 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.^ 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, 



* 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 bono rable 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." 



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