The Days of a Man 1910 



to war and the removal of standing incentives. Nor- 

 man Angell the pacifist now being far better known 

 throughout the world than Ralph Lane the journal- 

 ist, he legally adopted the nom de plume. 

 Sometime To go back several years, at the time of the publi- 

 cation of "The Optical Illusion," Lane, though living 

 in Paris, was still a citizen of California, to which 

 state he had come in the 'go's, presumably in search 

 of health. He then took charge of the Rose Ranch, an 

 oasis in a desert of the Tehachapi devoted to cattle 

 and turkeys. Later, in San Francisco, he served on 

 the staff of one of the dailies, after which he went to 

 Paris as editor of a journal which was soon suspended, 

 leaving him more or less stranded until Harmsworth 

 chose him for the Daily Mail. 



His varied experience in all three countries, com- 

 bined with his reaction against the Spanish and Boer 

 wars, and the "affaire Dreyfus" now determined his 

 Clear-cut future career. In 1899 he published in London a 

 analysis trencn ant book entitled "Patriotism under Three 

 Flags," an analysis of the vulgar display of intoler- 

 ance under the guise of "patriotism" shown alike 

 in the United States, Great Britain, and France. 

 The work met with scant favor and light sales; it was 

 in fact virtually forgotten until the approaching crisis 

 forced to the front the same ideas which he more 

 constructively embodied in "The Great Illusion." 

 From "Patriotism under Three Flags" I quote 

 this characteristic passage: 



Captain Mahan's reference to "the moral elevation which 

 comes to every citizen in the membership of a great empire" is 

 not an illusion. It is a somewhat impudent fabrication brought 

 forward for the purpose of confusing plain issues and giving to 

 irrational and mischievous emotions something of the sanction 



C 320 3 



