20 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



the world safe for democracy." Like a flood the age- 

 old ideals burst forth once more with new expressions 

 of resolve. 



So to-day there is a widespread hope that a New Day 

 for mankind is about to dawn, yes, has dawned. Books 

 without end are already written on the text that a New 

 Day is upon us. Men are recasting their thinking, 

 seeking to discover what all this means for them and 

 for others. Groups of men and women are trying to 

 write down on paper statements that will express their 

 views of what gains we may make now that the war has 

 ended. 



Among all these efforts to express the real meaning 

 of the New Day, the one that has attracted most at- 

 tention is " the draft report on reconstruction," pre- 

 pared by members of the British Labor Party. While 

 radical in its spirit, it is notable alike for the breadth 

 and scope of its ideas, for the sweeping character of 

 its proposed methods, for the dignity and clearness of 

 its style, and for the prospective political influence of 

 its sponsors. The most significant words in this docu- 

 ment and among the most important words of recent 

 times are these: " We must ensure that what is pres- 

 ently to be built up is a new social order, based not on 

 fighting but on 'fraternity not on the competitive 

 struggle for the means of bare life, but on deliberately 

 planned cooperation in production and distribution for 

 the benefit of all who participate by hand or by brain 

 not on the utmost inequality of riches, but on a system- 

 atic approach towards a healthy equality of material 

 circumstances for every person born into the world 

 not on an enforced dominion over subject nations, sub- 

 ject races, subject colonies, subject classes, or a subject 

 sex, but in industry as well as in government, on that 



