Life — January 11, 1923 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JANUARY Il, 1923 . “While there is Life there’s Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 2097 London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. N a letter about the state of Europe an observer writes to Lire: “I cannot go all the way with France in these days. She has poor leaders. So have most nations to-day. What's the answer?” That is a pressing question. It is true that the leader- ship in the nations to-day is disap- pointing. Kemal seems a great figure of a sort; perhaps Mussolini is a great figure, though that is not deter- mined yet; the sinister Lenin is a great figure, but whether ultimately for good or bad is still mooted; but not of any of these is the leadership yet approved, though it may be feared. And in the other nations one looks in vain for master statesmen. In our own public life, who is there ac- tive that shows great power, dis- cernment, vision? We have some good men in public office, some very able and devoted men, but since Roosevelt died and Wilson broke down, affirmative, progressive lead- ership has sagged. There are good men in England, very good men, but Lloyd George is out, and judging by present appearances, is likely to stay out, his power to help the world being exhausted for the present. And in France it is as our corre- spondent says. And in Germany not any better. Here is the world in a very bad pickle and no heads of supermen rising above the crowd to help her out of it. What is the answer? It may be that there are great leaders coming who are not in sight yet. Or it may be that civilization is going to be saved this time not so much by great leadership of individuals as by the penetration of the minds of multi- tudes of men by ideas and beliefs 598 Madison Avenue, New York that presently will change the world and bring order out of chaos. That there are such ideas at work in the minds of the mass of men there is no doubt, but they do not yet domi- nate governments. The same class of minds still in great measure ex- ercize the governmental powers in the world that held them eight years ago. The powerful men of the old order have not yet been turned out. The significant thing about them is that their inadequacy is so widely realized. The job they face is too big for them, and everybody knows it, and knows it better and better and with more impatience every day. So the answer to our correspon- dent’s question is that the current world is wiser than its leadership— that its instincts beat the brains of its present rulers and that we may expect presently to see those instincts find expression in government. ENDING this consummation there is an unusual amount of political disorder; people pinched by the facts of current life, seeking remedies and disposed to try the quacks. We had a great lesson in the war in the process of organiza- tion and advertisement. They are now very generally understood and are used in forming bunches of peo- ple who think they have got an effec- tive idea, and run together to push it. The country is full of bunches and blocs, pushing and scheming towards the development of purposes that can be tried out in a presiden- tial election. The Republican party is full of mutineers. The Demo- cratic party escapes a like condition by being out of power. Voters mutiny against government, not aguinst an Opposition. The state of the Church is much the same. The great religious com- munity is full of seekers looking for light, persuaded that there is more for them in Christianity than the old Christian organizations can give them for the moment, and earnest and untrammelled in their search for what they want. The political voters say one to another—this gov- ernment we are getting is not good enough. It does not do its job either in the country or in the world. It restrains and restricts us too much, takes too much out of us and gives too little back. It runs to whims; to exploded policies, to timidities. We must make something better. The seekers in religion say the churches are zealous. They are do- ing the best they know how, but they are cramped by the conditions of their job. The ministers have to squabble about details of creeds; as to whether it is politic yet to ad- mit hypotheses that are generally accepted, or whether it is necessary to hang on for a while longer to obsolete formulas. Having only moderate command-of spiritual pow- ers, the churches spread themselves on organization and relief. They are going through a process of getting new light and it is hard on them. The encouraging thing about all this turmoil, political and religious, is that it is so general. We -seem all to be more or less conscious of it, more or less affected by it. There cannot be a new era without birth pangs, and it is with birth pangs that humanity is aching now, and not with the pains of an impending dissolution. So cheer up, and go along into the new year with what patience is necessary, but with large expecta- tions. The worst may still be to come, but beyond it is a better world E.S.M. comicbooks.com