i6 
Land & Water 
June 20, 19 1 8 
An English Prophet and Seer 
MR. BLATCHFOKD has a position in th(? 
propaganda work done on behalf of this 
country which is quite different from that of 
any other man. He owes it to three 
things, which are not found combined in 
any other man. The first is that he was for jrears — and still 
is — a very important exponent of popular demands, and 
these in the concrete and uncompromising form wliich they 
have taken in industrial countries and which is called Collec- 
tivism. There are other men who have risen to a similar 
eminence in the e.xposition of these demands, but there is 
not one who has commanded the same wide publicity. With 
the book Merry England as a foundation between twenty 
and thirty years ago, circulating I know not how many 
hundred thousand copies, and witii the position of The 
Clarion through so many 
years of active Sociahst 
preaching, Mr. Blatchford 
took — and rightly took — a 
place which no one else could 
claim in the movement. 
Next, [Mr. Blatchford 
foresaw and insisted upon 
the probability of war be- 
tween Great Britain and 
Germany. JHe foresaw it, 
And insisted upon it at a 
time when comparatively 
few men did so, and hardly 
any of those who did so, 
did so intelligently. As a 
matter of fact, the war 
between the two countries 
has come in a very dif- 
ferent form from what was 
•xpected by anyone. It 
«ame by a side-wind, as it 
were, through the determina- 
tion ultimately come to by 
the British Cabinet to enter 
what was already a Con- 
tinental struggle. It is now 
— and, indeecl, has long been 
— a war of the whole world, 
and I not a duel between 
Germany and England at 
all. None the less, the inci- 
dents of a struggle between 
the two countries are as 
nuidi present as though 
they two alone were engaged, 
and it is just as much a 
question of life and death 
for England as it would be 
if she were single-handed on 
the one side and the Prussianised German Empire single- 
handed on the other. 
Mr. Blatchford insisted upon the danger at a time when it 
seemed fantastic to most men. He did more than insist ; 
he actually prophesied, and he prophesied rightly. This 
combination of popular exposition and politics with so 
singular a s«nse for foreign affairs, and this combination of 
pubhc patriotism with what has been thought an inter- 
national social theory is sufficiently remarkable. But one 
must add to it the third point, which makes it unique, and 
that is Mr. Blatchford's power of expression, or, as critics 
call it, " style. "\ 
It was remarked by all those who happen to recognise 
the wide djfierence between strong and weak writing, from 
the first moment i Mr. Blatchford struck the public ear, 
that he possessed in a supreme ^ degree the two virtues of 
style which are to have something to say and to be able to 
say it. The object of prose- writing is to express oneself, 
and if it be true that few have something to say, it is also 
true that of those only a very small number can say it in 
the clearest, most conclusive, and most economical way. 
Mr. Blatchford's writing has been alive with this power of 
exposition for something like a generation. He is in the 
tradition of Cobbett. 
Now, in connection with his book* upon the German 
♦ " General von Sneak." By Robert Blatchford. Hodder and 
Stoaghton. 2s. 6d. 
spirit and the nature of the war which lies before us, this 
gift is of the utmost value. But we have to make a rather 
difficult intellectual thesis which, as we do not enjoy Mr. 
Blatchford's terseness of expression, we arc afraid, may !«• 
put forward a little confusedly. 
The thesis is this : That which is most difficult effectively 
to emphasise is the thing most widely bid nominally known. 
It may be diffic^^lt to convince people of some novel truth 
hitherto unfamiliar to them, but to make them ahve to 
truths the names or labels of which are familiar to them, to 
" rub in the obvious," is far more difficult still. We know not 
why this is, but it is so in all human controversy. It is 
partly that things well known come to fatigue the mind so 
that it grows callous to them ; partly, perhaps, it ha.s a 
more subtle cause : the difficulty of throwing into relief 
that which is part and parcel 
Mr. Robert Blatchford 
of ordinary diction or even 
experience. But, at any 
rate,. the difficulty is there. 
When, some years ago, efforts 
were made to interest Free 
Trade audiences in the 
North of England with the 
economic theory of Protec- 
tion and the arguments in 
its favour, it was found easy 
enough. The idea was new, 
or, at any rate, fresh to the 
minds receiving it ; curiosity 
was awakened ; the logical 
train , of argument was in- 
teresting to follow. But go 
before the same audience 
and insist upon the conse- 
quences of an ill-distribution 
of wealth, and you will get 
nothing like thesameinterest, ■ 
unless you have very excep- 
tional powers indeed. The 
ill-distribution of wealth 
stares them in the face ; it 
is a thing taken for granted ; 
it comes into almost every 
experience of reahties whicli 
these people have, and it is 
very difficult indeed — for 
most people impossible-^to 
take a thing thus known and 
present it with the force of 
a novel thing. 
Now, • in- keeping alive 
before the public the nature 
of the present struggle, of 
the consequences of defeat, 
of the necessity for victory, 
a difficulty precisely of this kind, and it is "a 
ippalling in its magnitude, and still more 
there is 
difficulty 
appalling in its practical consequences, in this late stage 
of the war as we approach the end of its fourth year. 
It is no good merely recapitulating to your audience the 
known facts that the Prussian murders the innocent, robs 
and defiles, cheats, boasts, lies, and whenever he can destroys. 
They know all that. They have been singularly used to it. 
They are taking it for granted. If anything, there is a danger 
of reactiim against such repetition. 
What is perhaps worse, there is certainly a tendency to 
accept each new break-down in civilisation as normal. That, 
by the way, is what has always happened in history when a 
civilisation went to pieces. Does anyone remember now the 
horror that ran through all the West in April, 1915, when 
the Prussians first used poison gas ? Turn to a file of old 
newspapers of that date, and then read the account of any 
action to-day wherein gas always plays a part. 
Now, Mr. Blatchford has succeeded where almost every 
one else would have failed in putting into a strong light, and 
therefore making live again, all those emotions which we 
ought to keep at the highest pitch of keenness as an incentive 
to that victory without which Europe will perish. That is 
the note throughout this book, and it is much the most 
remarkable. We do not, know what steps the authorities 
are takmg in supporting the book. There are tons of official 
propagandist hterature no part of which could compfue for 
popular effect with these pages. 
