Review of Ketieus, iOiSjOS. 



Leading Articles. 



2b7 



THE REVOLUTION OF THE TWENTIETH 

 CENTURY. 



By W. T. Stead. 



In the Independent Review, Mr. W. T. Stead, 

 writing under the above title, says, "' The French 

 Revokition dominated the nineteenth century ; will 

 the Russian Revolution dominate the twentieth ?" 

 He advances manv reasons for believing that it will 

 make itself felt over the whole world. The world 

 is much smaller now than in 1789, and the Russians 

 are four times as numerous as were the French. He 

 says : — 



•'THE SUFFERER BAFFLES THE SLAYER." 



The first, the deepest, and the most far-reaching lesson of 

 the Russian revolution has lieen the demonstration of the 

 impotence of military force against the passive resistance 

 of an unarmed people. This doctrine, which the Quakers 

 have often preached, has at last found its way into the 

 <'onsciousne88 of mankind. At a moment when militarism 

 had reached its apogee, and when it was being accepted 

 as an axiom that machine guns had rendered insurrection 

 imiiossible, there has suddenly emerged a demonstration of 

 the new resource of the insurgeiit, a resource against 

 which machine ginis and high explosives are powerless. 

 The full significance of this supreme might of simple, pas- 

 sive suffering has not yet dawned upon the world. But 

 even the most sceptical cannot ignore the tremendous en- 

 gine which the Russian strikers have brought into opera- 

 tion against the Autocracy. 



Germany in Europe, Japan in Asia, may seem to 

 have demonstrated the irresistible might of discip- 

 lined force : — 



But as the apotheosis of material brute strength which 

 took place in the Roman Empire at the beginning of our 

 era was followed by the preaching of the Christian faith. 

 30 the supreme triumph of militarism in Manchuria, and. 

 the dominance of the mailed fist in Europe, have been fol- 

 lowed by the discovery of the latent potency of the Chris- 

 tian docti'ine of non-resistance. 



THE HUNGER STRIKE. 



Mr. Stead traces the beginning of the modern 

 political strike to the discovery by prisoners in 

 Russian gaols that they could bring their gaolers to 

 reason by a hunger .strike. The persistent refusal 

 of half a dozen brave women to take food led to 

 the abolition of the ill-famed Kara political prison. 

 Of the revolutionary significance of this invention 

 of the unarmed multitude, Mr. Stead says: — 



The substitution of Suffering for Force, as the final deter- 

 mining factor in this world's affairs, is eauivalent t-o a sub- 

 version of the whole foundation on which States are con- 

 stituted to-day. 



He expects that results will not be long in ap- 

 pearing. In India, for example, the boycott of 

 British goods is a symptom : — 



In a world in which the sword has hitherto been relied 

 nr»on to open fresh markets it is a somewliat bewildering 

 ■discovery that the markets may be rendered valueless by a 

 simple boycott which transfers all the business to our 

 competitors. 



EFFECT ON WOMEN'S MOVEMENT. 



The Russian revolution, which everywhere proclaims the 

 equal rights of men and women to all political privileges, 

 "has done much more than assert the right of Woman to 

 ■citizenship. For, by the blow which it has administered 

 to the dominance of Force, it has opened the door for the 

 ■emancipation of Woman. The Maariificat may once more 

 "be uplifted from the grateful heart of the womanhood of 

 the world, when it is seen that the sceptre so long wielded 



by Force is to pass to the hands of Suffering. ^\ oman is 

 not so strong as Man in fighting force. She is immeasur- 

 ublv bis .superior in the capacity to suffer. The boycott 

 and the strike, the new weapons of the weak, can be 

 wielded as effectively by women as by men. To secure the 

 enfranchisement of their sex, it will not be necessary to go 

 on the barricades, or to shoot down the garrison of the 

 fortress of male monopoly. "No vote, no dinner! No 

 citizenship, no service." 



POSSIBLE POLITICAL STRIKE AT HOME. 

 Speculation is already rife as to whether the resistance 

 of the House of Lords to measures of Radical reform might 

 not be more easily overcome by a simultaneous railway 

 strike than by any other means. The Irish who. twenty 

 five years ago, invented the boycott, may take a hint from 

 Russia, and use a political strike as a means of compelling 

 a reluctant Government to concede them gome Rule. In the 

 UniLed States it is possible that a solution of the threaten- 

 ing diificnlty of multi-millionairism may be found on some- 

 what similar lines. 



The strike against military ser%-ice long advocated 

 by Count Tolstoy is, in 'Mr. Stead's judgment, 

 likely to spread far and wide throughout Russia, 

 and from Russia outwards. 



WORLD-WIDE RESULTS. 



Another result of the Russian Revolutiori will be 

 the stimulus it will give to the Reds all over the 

 world. It has brought the demand for manhood 

 suffrage to thr front with a rush in Prussia, Austria, 

 Saxony and Hangar}'. Mr. Stead recalls that thirty 

 years ago he ventured the prediction that Moscow- 

 was destined to be the revolutionary storm-centre 

 of Europe. What makes Moscow so dangerous is 

 that the Russians are the only nation of practical 

 Socialists in the world. The Russian peasants are 

 certain to obtain an increase of land, and this trans- 

 fer of property will be an object-lesson to the masses 

 throughout Europe. 



Among other results, Mr. Stead mentions the 

 stimulus to the formation of similar States on the 

 basis of nationality. " Few things are more evanes- 

 cent than Empire's, few things are more indestruc- 

 tible than nationalities." Asia for the Asiatics and 

 the Pacific for Japan are corollaries of the efface- 

 ment of Russia, " the alarming significance of which 

 Americans and Australians will be the first to dis- 

 cover." Another result is the Kaiser's supremacy in 

 Europe. But for the fact that his fleet is a hostage 

 in the hands of Great Britain, the Kaiser would be 

 practically Dictator of the Continent. 



Mr. Stead says that of course it is possible that 

 revolutionary excesses may arise which will create 

 a wave of Conservative reaction round the world. 

 If Russia emerges from her blood bath purified and 

 sobered, and renounces militarism and Protection, 

 " the world may witness a scene of recuperation and 

 development such as may parallel the industrial 

 progre.ss of the United States after the great Civil 

 War." 



With the January issue Tcmph Bar begins a new 

 series, and the price of the magazine has been re- 

 duced to sixpence. "It contains an interesting article 

 on Sea Songs. 



